Chapter 100
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: Arrogance and Dogmatism
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People gripped by fear usually show two reactions.
1. Escapism from reality.
2. Increased aggression.
Faced with death closing in before his eyes, Do-heon—one of the Three Great Lions of the Bloodless Victory Unit—revealed his aggression.
He could feel the enemy's overwhelming strength through his skin. He instinctively knew there was no chance of victory.
Yet the monk Do-heon raised his voice even higher.
He trusted the realm he had achieved. He trusted his indestructible Vajra body.
The arrogant monk could not admit his own defeat.
"Prepare? I've already done plenty of that! Come on! I'll tear you in half and kill you!"
A frightened dog barks the loudest.
Do-heon raised his voice and boosted his momentum.
He knew that the moment he tucked his tail, he'd be dragged to the slaughterhouse.
He chose to fight to the death.
He vowed to take at least one of the Fixer's arms with him.
It was that kind of determination. The courage to never submit.
"That lunatic. So you chose to fight..."
Father Baor, lost in escapism, snapped back to reality at Do-heon's shout.
His right hand was already ruined. With his remaining left hand, he began a simplified mass, layering blessings upon his own body.
His mangled right hand healed rapidly, and his fear subsided a little.
"Daniel! Get a grip! Your wound is already healed! We have to fight! That's the only way we'll survive!"
Father Baor encouraged Daniel while thinking to himself.
If Do-heon, Daniel, and that guide shaman fought fiercely, maybe he could escape this place alive.
Such shallow hope was what moved Father Baor.
The monster effortlessly dodged bullets fired in a surprise attack from 10 meters away, but surely it wasn't a flawless, perfect being without any openings.
Even anomalies died from holy bullets all the time, yet the opponent had seen them coming and evaded.
Father Baor unconsciously realized he could never win in reaction speed, but he refused to accept it.
Surely an opportunity would arise. But it would be disadvantageous alone.
A situation where everyone had to cooperate. That was the only way to even slightly increase their chances of survival.
Baor roused Pastor Daniel, who had been writhing in pain from his severed arm. He shouted that they had to fight together and boosted morale.
What was approaching was a human sorcerer on par with a disaster-grade anomaly.
To escape Fixer Lee Do-hyun, they all had to stand and fight.
"B-but my arm's gone... H-how... am I supposed to fight..."
Even as curses poured from his mouth, Daniel pulled a cross and Bible from his bosom.
With his one remaining arm, he gripped the cross tightly, placed the Bible on the ground, and began reciting prayers.
Daniel erected a barrier around himself, then continuously invoked blessings toward the others to grant them protection.
The arrogant monk realized his own shortcomings and proposed cooperation. The dogmatic priest also chose to fight together. And even the pastor, who had always just been led along, now voluntarily used blessings.
The three became one to confront the approaching death.
In the depths of the back world, the Trinity was completed.
The minimum personnel to capture the Fixer had gathered.
Hope was born...
Bang-!
With the sound of a balloon popping, Do-heon's chest exploded outward.
The monk's body, who had been at the forefront to seize the Fixer, floated up and was sent flying several meters.
It was the moment their hope was shattered.
"..."
"...Wh-what... is that..."
Do-heon's body, boasted as indestructible Vajra, was half-destroyed by a single punch.
Under the Fixer's attack, Do-heon rolled nearly 10 meters without resistance before crashing into a pile of rocks, and the Fixer instantly closed the distance to stand right in front of his nose.
"Vajra indestructible, right? Is that pathetic thing really Vajra? It's way different from what I know."
The Fixer wasn't deliberately mocking Do-heon.
It was pure bewilderment. An expression that couldn't comprehend calling such a tofu-like body "Vajra."
The Fixer's expression shattered the arrogant monk's pride.
"Kuhuk..."
Do-heon vomited blood.
The Fixer did not finish the opponent in one go.
A clean death would be no different from mercy for them.
What was needed now was the enemies' despair and frustration.
Thoroughly breaking and grinding them down was all.
The Fixer eased the power in his fist.
Just in case he didn't kill the opponent in one blow.
What was needed was pain enough to break their will.
"...You crazy bastard... Are you... even human...?"
Do-heon spat blood as he reset his dislocated shoulder.
Looking down at his exploded chest made his mind go blank.
It was a body that no blade, let alone ordinary blunt weapon, could scratch.
Even bullets hadn't caused pain.
Despair and frustration welled up in Do-heon's heart once more.
A fight only works when levels are somewhat matched.
This wasn't a fight—it was a one-sided slaughter.
"What's wrong? Scared? Why keep pulling your body back? You know you can't escape, but your body moves on instinct?"
The Fixer wounded Do-heon's pride further as he pulled prayer beads from his pocket.
108 beads imbued with Woo-hyeon Monk's Buddhist power.
He wrapped the beads around his hand like brass knuckles.
The beads, which had exorcised the demon Andromalius, were now imbued with even stronger Buddhist power.
The perfect weapon to wreck a fake monk.
"..."
Do-heon sensed the aura of one who had submitted to the Buddha emanating from the Fixer's body.
Such a person wielding Buddhist power?
Do-heon's hands trembled, and his legs felt like they would give out.
He had lived as a predator always looking down on others.
The moment he faced a true apex predator, Do-heon's body naturally recalled the behaviors of a weakling he had forgotten.
'Am I... scared... cowering like a dog...? Me?'
Do-heon, who had lived rampaging like a thug, felt unbearable self-loathing for cowering even for a moment.
He couldn't accept it. To be killed by such an absurd existence.
He still had a grand, unfulfilled purpose.
Finding Dalma, who might be wandering the depths.
Then shoving the Fixer in Dalma's place and liberating the founder of the Bloodless Victory Unit's practices. That grand goal.
Do-heon went mad. Or perhaps he had been mad from the beginning.
The moment he seriously believed Dalma was in the depths, he hadn't been in his right mind.
"For the world's stability! For future peace! Surrender quietly, Fixer!"
Losing his reason, Do-heon charged at the Fixer.
Even after witnessing the opponent's power firsthand, he rushed forward undaunted to clash.
In truth, it was hard to call it true courage or sacrifice for a greater cause.
His charge was a form of suicide.
In extreme fear, like giving up life voluntarily, he charged at the Fixer with death in mind.
Literally, it was like begging to stop the torment and just kill him.
Perhaps it was a plea to end it because he could no longer face the terror.
"Giving up already? Your body is weaker than tofu, and your will is even softer. A waste of the Vajra name."
The Fixer sighed as he watched Do-heon charge.
When even cooperating with comrades wasn't enough, daring to flee into death.
"Pathetic worm."
The Fixer seized the head of the reasonless charging Do-heon.
Boom-!
The mere collision of the two shook the depths.
Having caught the fallen monk with one left hand, the Fixer slammed his right fist down hard on Do-heon's shoulder, who looked up at him with dazed eyes.
"Kaa-!"
The shoulder struck by the beaded hand.
Flesh peeled away like it had been sliced by a chisel, and Do-heon dropped to one knee.
A steel body. He had called himself Vajra because even bullets bounced off.
The faith Do-heon had in himself was completely shattered today.
The monk, who had wielded power fearlessly with his ironclad muscles filling his body, had finally met his match today.
"Wa-wait. Aaa-!"
The Fixer began beating Do-heon "just short of killing him."
With Do-heon's head firmly gripped in his left hand, he mercilessly pounded his upper body, then stomped and destroyed his lower body with kicks...
So he could never rise again.
Not just his body, but his will as well.
The process of dragging the monk, bundled tightly with self-esteem, down to rock bottom.
"To think I tried to fight... that thing... I must be insane."
Father Baor backed away.
If he went now, it wouldn't just be Do-heon—he'd die too.
Father Baor fled from the Fixer.
He planned to leap into the depths alone and hide.
He didn't know if he could survive the depths alone, but wasn't jumping into the depths better odds than fighting the Fixer?
"Kuh... Pl-please... just let me pass..."
However, the threshold guardian did not allow Father Baor to escape this place unscathed.
Eve, who had approached before he knew it, blocked his path so he could go no further.
She hadn't laid a hand on him because he was the Fixer's prey. But she revealed her intent to kill if he crossed the line here.
"You damn anomaly bitch... Get out of the way..!"
Father Baor shouted at Eve but couldn't bring himself to get any closer.
Behind him was a human no different from a disaster-grade anomaly, and right in front was a real disaster-grade anomaly.
Father Baor felt his crotch grow wet.
His bladder had loosened from the extreme terror.
"..."
Eve silently raised her arm and pointed a finger toward Father Baor's back.
The meaning was clear: return to that spot.
You can't escape from here, and there's no intention of letting you.
It was an order to quietly return to your position and wait for your next turn.
Under the monster's command, tantamount to a death sentence, Father Baor teared up and had to return to the spot where the Fixer and Do-heon were.
There was surely the calculation that begging a fellow human would work better than pleading with an anomaly.
"Wh-where did he go..."
But as he approached the scene again, the Fixer who had been beating Do-heon had vanished in an instant.
Father Baor looked around frantically, searching for traces of the Fixer.
Then the guide shaman came into Father Baor's view.
"Black Dan! Why aren't you helping us!"
"..."
The shaman stood with arms crossed, not intervening in the fight.
He shook his head and said,
"I only guided you here. I'm an outsider with no ties to your sects. I have no intention of joining your holy war. I don't even have a religion—why would I provoke the Fixer further?"
"What...?"
"I was just paid to show the way. I have no reason or obligation to help you. So fight it out yourselves. Your request was clearly just to guide you to the depths."
Baor's momentum deflated at the shaman's brazen attitude.
With life and death in the Fixer's hands, how could he spectate so calmly?
In a situation where it was uncertain if the Fixer would spare them, the guide shaman had outright abandoned the fight.
"Ugh?!"
The moment Father Baor tried to say something to the shaman, he sensed a presence from the left and hurriedly tried to dodge the attack—but the Fixer's leg struck first.
Father Baor felt the sensation of his body floating up.
He had prided himself on a sturdy body, if not quite Vajra indestructible.
Yet he realized all his ribs had cracked or broken starting from his left arm.
Daniel's healing spells had barely clung to his life, but he had no strength left to rise.
The end was approaching.
"You haven't died yet, have you? It'd be troublesome if you died so soon."
"Don't... treat people... like... toys... Just... kill me quick... You could have...! Why...!"
"Father Baor. Are you begging for mercy from me now? Already pleading for a quick death. How pathetic."
"You damn monster bastard. What's the difference... between you and the devil...? Toying with us... enjoying it... That's not the act of a righteous man..! You're Satan in disguise... playing with humans for fun under the guise of the Second Coming of Jesus..!"
At Father Baor's outburst, the Fixer looked down at the trembling man and shook his head.
"Sorry if you thought I was righteous, but I'm not fighting for 'good' or 'justice' right now."
"What...?"
"I'm just working to complete a request."
A certain girl's request, hoping the sinners would receive punishment fitting their crimes.
The Fixer was thoroughly breaking his enemies to fulfill that request.
He was not a hero.
His essence was that of a Fixer.
Thus, he focused solely on solving the given problem.
There was no room for good, justice, greater causes, or beliefs in his actions.
"From the start, where is any 'good' or 'justice' in a holy war? If you truly believed in Jesus. If you really believed in God. Then you should have loved your neighbor. Treated everyone without discrimination. You who discriminated against and massacred mixed-bloods, packaging it as a holy war—how dare you invoke 'good'?"
"..."
"An easy death would be mercy for you. There's no mercy in a holy war. So don't beg for mercy from me."
The Fixer tucked the beaded knuckles into his pocket, then drew a new tool from an inner coat pocket.
It was an extremely worn cross.
The "proof of faith" obtained from removing a demon.
As he gripped the cross to make the unbeliever repent through pain, fire ignited in the Fixer's hand.
It was a more intense blaze than usual.
As if the cross was rejecting the current Fixer.
As if screaming at him to repent.
Yet the Fixer felt no pain.
"That's..."
"Father Baor. Do you believe in God?"
"..."
"Do you believe in Jesus? In God?"
"I, I..."
"Yes, you believe in God. In whatever form. Right?"
Father Baor nodded, overwhelmed by the flames rising from the Fixer's hand.
He believed in God.
He believed in Yahweh from the Bible.
He believed in Jesus's miracles.
He believed in the Virgin Mary's compassion and mercy.
Father Baor was a fanatic believer in God.
And so he had tried to impregnate a pure virgin's body with evil.
He had sought to voluntarily birth an artificial Antichrist, kill it at birth to bring peace.
And elevate the priest who slew the Antichrist to "Saint," making the Oath Brotherhood supreme on this earth.
A stubbornly dogmatic method. That was the Oath Brotherhood's "Saint Resurrection" plan.
And now, the plan devised by the Oath Brotherhood had ended in perfect failure.
By an unbeliever who did not believe in God.
"This cross does not burn the bodies of those who believe in God."
"Then you..."
"I don't believe in God. I don't believe in Jesus or God. That's why it's burning my hand."
"..."
Baor realized it.
Why the Fixer was burning his own body.
"If you truly believe in God, this cross won't ignite your body directly. Whether you're evil or not. However, it can transfer the flames burning me to you."
The brotherhood priest, who under God's tacit approval had stubbornly sought their own salvation, felt fear at the coming retribution.
"Wa-wait... I-I surrender. I'll be your prisoner..! Aren't you curious about the Brotherhood's location? The archbishop's information? I'll tell you everything! Please... please... extinguish... those flames..."
The once arrogant Baor begged the Fixer with tears.
He slammed his head on the ground, pleading for mercy.
He knew that if those flames transferred to him,
they wouldn't extinguish.
He understood he'd suffer the agony of burning without dying.
Why the Fixer hadn't first taken down Daniel, who was using healing spells—Baor finally realized it now.
"I don't need the information you know. I'll find them myself and wipe them out one by one. And didn't I tell you before? Are you prepared? I am. I don't know if hell will accept me, but I'm ready to fall into it. You didn't start this fight without resolve to die, did you?"
The Fixer placed his hand on the head of Father Baor, who bowed low begging for his life.
Like forgiving a sinner who had realized their sin and sought repentance.
Like a priest baptizing the poor with a hand dipped in holy water.
The Fixer transferred the flames from his hand to Father Baor's head.
"A, aa! Aaaaa! Nooo! Aaaaa!"
The flames began incinerating the fallen priest's entire body.
At the same time, the fire that had been burning the Fixer's hand went out.
The proof of faith quieted down in satisfaction, and only the whimpering of the utterly ruined monk and the screams of the arrogant priest thrashing in burning agony echoed faintly into the distance.
He had taught the difference in power to the arrogant monk who feared nothing and proclaimed himself the greatest.
And he had lit the flames of true purification upon the dogmatic priest who chased vain ideals and piled up sins.
Now the Fixer headed toward the ignorant pastor, who had trapped himself in false faith.
To deliver punishment fitting his sins.