The Price of Conviction
Killian. With his thick beard and rugged, masculine appearance, I’d expected him to be a man of iron-clad resolve... but he turned out to be far more cunning and sharp-witted than he looked. True to his nature as a hunter who adapts to the situation, his brain worked much faster than Dante’s, that religious zealot. Seeing Roy get absolutely dismantled, he must have realized there was no hope and tucked his tail between his legs immediately. In my eyes, Killian was a master of survival. Dante, however, was a master of being a moron.
“W-what! You!! Killian!! This is a clear act of betrayal!!!”
Dante, with his bobbed hair, whipped his head around, spitting as he shouted at Killian in disbelief. He looked like a hero witnessing his own brother deserting to join the Demon King’s army.
“Sorry, but screw you, Dante. I don’t want to be forced to endure that kind of torture. I was neutral, not belonging to anyone from the start. I’m sorry to the brothers back at the Manma-jeon, but... rather than breaking under torture, I’d rather go the easy way. Come on, brand me, Cultist.”
Killian thrust his head forward, practically goading me to mark him. I’d never seen anyone like this. He wasn’t even a harem member, yet he was volunteering to become a slave. ‘I thought Killian’s combat power looked lackluster, so I was planning to torture him a bit and throw him to Kashnakas as feed...’
Excellent. Killian was more than qualified to be my slave, not just a sacrifice. I especially liked his decisiveness—the way he could discard his convictions the moment his life was on the line—and his naked, unashamed desire to survive.
“K-Killian!!! You dog!!! No!! Once you fall, you can never return to this path!!”
Just then, Dante squirmed and wedged his body between Killian and me. I felt a powerful, unstoppable will radiating from him. If Killian’s merit was his good judgment, I wanted to give Dante credit for this reckless, indomitable spirit. It was a skill in itself to be so stubbornly pigheaded that you’d keep pushing even when you might be tortured to death. Truth be told, his ability to hold out against Mer and Henry was so impressive that my own desire to make him an ally had led me to overlook his behavior. If he hadn’t proven his worth, I would have flayed him alive and tossed him to Kashnakas without a second thought... but sorry, Kashnakas, I need to make this guy an ally to bolster my forces.
As I thought this, Dante was pouring his heart out, trying to convince Killian.
“Hey!! Killian!! Look me in the eye!! You don’t actually intend to become a Nihilist, do you!!! Do you even know what lies at the end of that road!! Do you think you’ll be safe after ignoring the prophecy handed down by the Prophet!!!”
“Whether I’ll be safe or not, I don’t know. And more than anything, I’m actually suspicious of the ‘Prophet’s’ prophecy that you guys keep talking about. It’s not like the Prophet saw the ending himself... Whether we maintain the world until the fire goes out or destroy it beforehand... doesn’t anyone in this universe know what the right answer is?”
“The Prophet’s revelation is justice!! That is the answer, what else could it be!! Everything the Evil Gods say is a lie!! Don’t be fooled by their wicked words!! Killian!!”
“No, I think the very act of labeling the Evil Gods as ‘evil’ just because they want to destroy the universe is... problematic. And aren’t the Evil Gods actually more merciful to their followers? It’s pure laissez-faire—no strict doctrines, just do as you please. If anything, I think the Evil Gods are the most tolerant of human freedom...”
“You rotten heretic!!! Infidel!!! To defend the trash of the Manma-jeon!! You were a fallen wretch all along!!!! Die!!! Killian!!! Just die!!! Die, I say!!! Die, all of you!! You sons of bitches!!!! Repent in death!!! Return to the Manshin-jeon in death!!!”
“No, I told you, I was neutral from the start... Besides, you’re loud, Dante. Just accept it. And you’re acting like this even though you’ve already lost... it’s a bit pathetic.”
“Kuaaaagh!!! Never!! Absolutely not!!! I will fight back!!!”
“And you’re doing that... even without arms and legs...”
Killian looked at the heated Dante with a bored expression and turned his gaze away. He seemed to realize that talking any longer was pointless; Dante was half-brainwashed by his religion and incapable of objective judgment.
‘But what is this “Nihilism” and “destruction of the universe” nonsense? And who is this Prophet... There are too many loose ends... It’s giving me a headache.’
Actually, I was more curious about the causal link between the destruction of the universe and the mass slaughter of Earthlings. Yes, that was my biggest question. I didn’t want to think about macro-level, headache-inducing concepts like the end of the universe; I just couldn’t understand why Earth was chosen as the stage and why nearly eight billion people had to be wiped out.
‘A few theories come to mind...’
Maybe Earth was just a game board for the gods to decide who holds the decision-making power. With eight billion people, they could just kill a bunch to make zombies, ramp up the difficulty, and hold a battle royale until only one remained...
‘Wait, is this... close to the truth?’
The current situation seems to point that way... but I still don’t know. Regardless, my life only started to turn around and I finally got women in my life after the world began to end, so I have no complaints. Isn’t life a success once you reach double digits in the number of women you can sleep with? Plus, I have triple digits in slaves who don’t complain... Yes, let’s stop chasing pointless mysteries and just do my job. If the Evil Gods are going to destroy the universe or whatever, I’ll just beg them to delay it until I die. They’re gods, surely they can do at least that much.
I shook my head to clear the stray thoughts and pressed my thumbprint onto Killian’s forehead.
The target's soul has been bound to the Apostle.
As soon as Killian became my slave, Dante started screaming like a madman.
“Kyaaaa!!! To enslave a sentient being without a second thought!! Such barbaric, giant-like behavior!!! Humans must be free!!”
Coming from Dante, who seemed the least free of all, trapped in a twisted religious worldview, his words were ironic. His shouting was filled with the morality and ethics that barely remained in this current world. Perhaps that’s why he was so damn loud.
More than anything, Dante hadn’t seen my base yet, so he seemed to be under a misunderstanding... My slaves actually rejoice in becoming slaves, saying their quality of life has improved compared to before. I almost want to conduct a survey. I’ve already offered up all the disobedient, troublesome ones, I’ve healed the disabled, and as long as they do their work, I don’t touch them. On top of that, I’m the one out there hitting the black markets, diving into every event, and working my fingers to the bone to keep the base fed, yet he talks as if I’m some kind of ultimate villain.
This won’t do. Seeing him maintain that level of mental fortitude while missing his arms and legs, it’s clear that physical pain alone won’t break him. I need to shatter Dante’s mind.
I stepped in front of Dante and used Chaos Observation, consuming the karma I’d gathered from human sacrifices. I hadn’t wanted to use this for torture because if used incorrectly, it turns the target into a vegetable... but for someone with such superior mental strength, I had no choice.
-Wooooong...-
A small gate connected to chaos formed in my hand, and colors that defied description erupted from my palm. I tried to refrain from using this skill because I felt like my own mind would go haywire if I used it too much, but to break a superhuman who had half-transcended humanity, it was necessary.
“Now, look inside.”
“W-wait... wait, this... what is this light... this... light is... strange... color...”
The moment Dante perceived the light, he tried to close his eyes to avoid it, but he had already been exposed, and he began to sink into the mysterious hues. I quickly shouted at the others to close their eyes. This was harmful radiation that wasn’t good for anyone to see... I hoped Cheshire or Mer, who were nearby, hadn’t been exposed.
Soon, Dante was consumed by the light of chaos that shattered his mind and stirred his subconscious, and he began to be slowly ‘enlightened.’
“Ugh...”
Dante was exposed to the light for only 40 seconds. Any longer and he would have gone completely insane, so I quickly deactivated the skill.
“You saw it?”
“Haa... th-that just now...”
“If you keep resisting, I’ll toss you in there. You probably won’t die a peaceful death. No, you might not be able to die at all. I don’t know what it’s like inside... but maybe you’d be happy. What do you want to do? Want to go in? Want to meet Lord Kashnakas?”
To my menacing question of whether he wanted to be an individual before God, Dante couldn’t say a word.
“Th-this is madness... something like that... shouldn’t exist...”
Eventually, Dante squeezed his eyes shut and bowed his head. Then, less than a minute later, he said in a voice that was being crushed.
“Su-surrender... I surrender... I don’t want to go into a place like that...”
And just like that, I was able to make Dante my slave as well. I couldn’t fix his misguided ideology, but at least for now, he had submitted to me. It seemed his spirit had been broken not by pain, but by the place called chaos itself. Honestly, even to me, an Apostle of an Evil God, that light was enough to make one’s mind go strange.
It took less than five minutes to enslave both of them. Since I’d finished relatively quickly, I bound Roy, whom I’d left alone for a moment, and headed for the base.
For the record, what Indikron wants is a ‘high-end dish’ made with care. Therefore, I shouldn’t simply collapse Roy’s mind with the Chaos Observation skill like fast food. I need to break him by hand and plunge him into despair. Moreover, since I can’t enslave him immediately, I’ll quickly reunite him with his sister to break his spirit before offering him to Indikron.
After that... I’ll check the swords Nick dropped, bring Aran to heel, and then go raid the place where Nick’s subordinates are holed up. Naturally, the center of the Hwangban has been pushed back. I can’t just ignore the enemies while they’re alive and breathing. You can’t do other things with enemies at your back. You have to wipe them out completely when you have the chance. If you dilly-dally, you never know when you’ll get stabbed in the back.
‘Nick’s base... they said there were thousands... how delicious will that be?’
It’s a chance to forcibly recruit a massive number of Americans all at once. Since there are thousands, maybe I should hold a large-scale purge? If I offer up all the ones who resist as sacrifices, I wonder if Kashnakas would be satisfied.