Faith vs. Conviction (4)
An explosion rocked the waiting room at Daegu Stadium.
The ground trembled, and the lights hanging from the ceiling swayed violently.
Jeong Myeong-su, the cult leader of Cheonyang-ji, sprang to his feet.
"W-what the hell!"
The anxiety he had been nursing all this time had finally taken physical form.
An earthquake?
The monitor mounted on the wall showed the view outside.
A red star with what looked like twenty-four horns burst into view.
Looking closer, I could see the elders collapsed in pools of blood.
Jeong Myeong-su understood at once.
That wasn't some kind of performance.
The twenty-four elders who formed the backbone of Cheonyang-ji had been wiped out.
"Damn it!"
A shriek, thin and torn raw, rang out beyond the door.
The grand assembly was held only once a year.
The event that served as Cheonyang-ji's lifeline had turned into a disaster the moment it began.
The elders too... Who the hell...? Who did this?!
On the stage, I could see blackened hands and feet scattered across the floor.
That's... Heukgui Sayusang?
It was the ultimate assassination weapon, capable of picking out a single target in the middle of a crowd and killing only that person.
...Why bother?
Jeong Myeong-su wondered why the enemy had used Heukgui Sayusang in the first place.
The one who had come after him was powerful enough to kill the Apostles.
If they had bothered with an assassination tool at all, then...
...it was fair to read this as a direct challenge to me.
The veiled figure was openly provoking Jeong Myeong-su.
His face flushed a livid red, as though it might split open.
"Y-you bastard!"
Just as he feared, a voice crackled through his earpiece.
"You're next, cult leader."
The only people connected to the radio were the Second Apostle through the Sixth Apostle.
And the twenty-four elders.
Since the elders had been annihilated, that left only...
Jeong Myeong-su snapped his head around.
His eyes met Simon's, the Second Apostle assigned to guard him in the waiting room.
Simon was wearing an earpiece too.
She must have heard that voice too.
It wasn't Simon. That voice...
For some reason, it sounded familiar.
No way?
Leaving Simon aside, the remaining Apostles were the Third through Sixth.
Andrew, Philip, Paul, and Jude.
The four Apostles currently guarding the east, west, south, and north.
So the traitor really was inside after all? ...We already investigated every Apostle once. Then is there a third party?
As his thoughts tangled into a knot, Simon spoke beside him.
"You need to get out of here, cult leader."
When an emergency broke out on-site, the proper response was immediate evacuation.
Even if the other Apostles stayed behind to fight the terrorists, the Apostle assigned to protect the cult leader would flee with him.
That was the rule laid down by the First Apostle, Yohan.
Simon, who had inherited Yohan's authority, was responsible for the cult leader's safety.
"Cult leader. Hurry!"
Jeong Myeong-su hesitated.
"......"
Normally, he would have run.
Jeong Myeong-su was an elite magician who handled dark sorcery and the cult leader of Cheonyang-ji, but nothing more.
He wasn't the sort who enjoyed battle.
But then—
"You little shit."
Jeong Myeong-su was sick to death of the unknown enemy who had kept slipping away from direct confrontation until now.
He didn't want to feel that blood-draining, miserable dread anymore.
"We're going outside."
"Cult leader, that's not allowed. By the rules..."
"Shut up! This time, I'm going to kill that bastard myself. You come with me!"
Jeong Myeong-su snarled and shoved the door open.
Simon, following behind him, let one corner of her mouth lift.
Then she changed frequencies and sent out a transmission.
"Bait has exited. Switch to Plan B."
I got a message from Simon.
If the cult leader fled, the plan was to pursue him and strike together with Simon.
If it's Plan B...
Someone appeared below the stadium.
It was a short man wearing a crown.
The way he dragged a gaudy robe across the ground looked bizarre beyond words.
The raccoon's come out of its den.
Jeong Myeong-su climbed onto the blood-soaked stage.
The believers sitting in the stands began pointing at him and murmuring.
"I-it's the cult leader!"
"Cult leader! What is going on?"
"...An accident?"
Most of them were ordinary people.
No matter how tightly they were bound together by false faith, the sight of mass murder unfolding before their eyes was enough to send anyone into a panic.
The cult leader paid no attention to the terrified believers.
He simply picked up the microphone lying on the floor.
"You little bastard! Come out! I know you're hiding here, so get the hell out here right now!!!"
The persuasive, charismatic cult leader was nowhere to be seen.
The short man hopped up and down like a jackass as he shouted at the stands.
"Who are you telling to come out?"
"Shouldn't we... run?"
"Hey, move it! Don't shove!"
There were a hundred thousand of them.
If they all started moving at once without any control, disaster was inevitable.
I hid myself in the middle of the chaos.
At this rate, the cult leader would never find me.
"Okay. So that's how you want to play."
Jeong Myeong-su lifted one hand.
Then he muttered something under his breath, gathered mana, and flicked his hand hard to the side.
With the sound of an explosive detonation, a massive pillar of flame surged up in the east.
Smoke rose, and the stands exploded into pandemonium.
Thousands of believers who had been fine a second ago were reduced to ash.
My eyes flew open.
Fire Ball!
It was only a basic spell that launched a ball of fire, but as its level rose, its power increased dramatically.
"Aaaagh!!!"
A shrill female scream rang out.
People were thrashing everywhere.
"S-save us!!!"
The believers who had packed the place shoulder to shoulder scattered like an ant swarm.
The cult leader raised both hands.
"Not so fast!"
A thin veil descended, centered on the stadium roof.
A wall made of mana.
A Barrier.
It was normally a defensive technique, but this time its purpose was different.
"Nobody gets out without my permission!"
The mana spread over the ground in a semicircle, making the whole place look like a prison.
At that instant, a forgotten trauma came back to me.
My grandmother's funeral home.
My little brother's death...
The people gathered in the stadium might have been trapped in a cult, but they were still someone's father, someone's mother, someone's son, someone's daughter.
"Guh!"
I spat the rising nausea out of my mouth.
The sight of a murderer butchering innocent people without even blinking sent rage boiling through me.
That insane bastard.
...I will never forgive him.
I couldn't let my emotions run wild.
I forced myself back to calm and cooled my head.
He put a Barrier over the entire stadium.
By that measure alone, he was clearly a mage on par with an S-class hunter.
Down below.
I could see Simon standing beneath the stage.
Watching her, I fell into thought.
Once, I had asked Simon a question.
Between me and the cult leader.
If we fought one-on-one, who would win?
"One hundred percent. The cult leader wins."
She hadn't been trying to provoke me.
"Yohan isn't under the cult leader for no reason. In a sword fight, Yohan would be overwhelming. But."
Simon had said,
"If the cult leader gets serious and uses magic, nobody can beat him."
There were always matchups.
Assuming equal skill...
For those who prized combat power, raw physical force, magic was an unbearable nuisance.
Magic couldn't be cut down.
It couldn't be blocked by direct force.
Jeong Myeong-su screamed at the top of his lungs.
"So you're going to keep hiding like a rat? Fine. Let's see how long you can last."
He launched another Fire Ball.
The round mass of flame bombed the west side.
A huge explosion thundered out.
The entire earth seemed to tremble.
The heat rolling over the crowd was so intense it could melt plastic chairs to nothing.
The air thickened with the sharp stench of something burning.
It's bones and flesh.
The terrified believers shuddered.
"P-please, save us!"
They shoved one another, hurled curses, and trampled over anyone who fell to the ground.
Believers wearing light green masks were tangled together in utter disorder.
Everyone was struggling with everything they had to survive, but there was no exit leading outside.
By then, around two thousand people had already been killed or injured.
Jeong Myeong-su, who reveled in slaughter, strolled across the stage as if he had all the time in the world.
"I'll keep killing until you come out. Every last one of you!!!"
If this got out, Jeong Myeong-su wouldn't get away clean, no matter who he was.
Had he completely lost his mind?
Or...
Was he throwing out bait to drag me into the open?
Plan B had been Simon's idea.
"Hide and endure as long as you can until the cult leader's mana runs out. That's the only way to raise your odds even a little against him."
The plan had changed.
I didn't want to call myself a hero at the cost of innocent lives.
A true hero was someone who...
I took a purple mask from inside my coat and pulled it over my face.
Then I told Simon,
"Switch to Plan C."
Simon tilted her head.
There had never been a Plan C to begin with.
Either the two of us would chase Jeong Myeong-su as he ran, or we would hide among the believers inside the stadium, provoke the cult leader, and force him to lose his reason.
I didn't think the cult leader would go this far with brute force.
Simon tightened her grip on her scabbard.
In a crisis where nothing could be predicted even a step ahead—
Jeong Myeong-su threw another Fire Ball.
"Kuhahaha!!!"
That made three.
Simon felt dizzy staring at the scene of slaughter.
She frowned and muttered,
"I can't take any more of this either."
Simon quickly leaped onto the stage and moved for Jeong Myeong-su's back.
She intended to use his blind spot to deal a fatal wound.
Die!
In the blink of an eye, Simon charged the cult leader.
Clang!
But her sharp blade never even reached him.
Double Barrier?
Jeong Myeong-su turned his head.
When he saw Simon with a sword leveled at him, his face twisted into something grotesque.
"Simon. You bitch. So you were the rat?"
Red flames surged in Jeong Myeong-su's hand.
"Ghk!"
Simon blocked the incoming fireball with her sword, but the impact sent her flying off the stage.
Jeong Myeong-su shrieked,
"All Apostles, listen! Kill that bitch now!!!"
The hundred Apostles stationed below the stage obeyed their cult leader without hesitation.
All one hundred of those fighters drew their blades and rushed Simon.
Clang-clang-clang!!!
Simon, who had risen back to her feet, thrust her sword out in a cross.
In an instant, four men nearby collapsed, bleeding.
Jeong Myeong-su clicked his tongue.
"Tch!"
Simon was the only Apostle among them who had been taught Ganro-ryu's secret techniques directly by Yohan.
By contrast...
The hundred Apostles hired with money were no better than a ragtag mob.
She was not an easy opponent to kill.
"Useless trash."
Jeong Myeong-su adjusted his earpiece.
"East, west, south, north! Apostles, listen to me! Simon is a traitor. Go and bring her back now!"
Andrew, Philip, Paul, and Jude.
If the four Apostles mounted a full assault, even Simon would be forced onto the defensive.
- Understood, cult leader.
- Tch. Got i...!
The radio reception was poor.
Believers were trying to flee the stadium.
Simon was fighting one against many beneath the stage.
It was a storm of chaos.
Jeong Myeong-su glared at Simon.
In the middle of her frantic movement, the mask Simon had been wearing came loose.
Golden hair whipped through the wind.
That damned bitch! So in the end, you're stabbing me in the back!
He had already known Simon was a woman.
He had also known she was beautiful.
Yohan had feelings for her, so he'd let it slide.
"Cut off an arm, a leg, whatever it takes! Bring her back alive!"
A dark lust stirred inside Jeong Myeong-su.
"I'll add her to my collection and keep torturing her until the day she dies. Heh heh!"
Thick saliva dripped from the corners of his mouth as he smiled that hideous smile.
In this moment, as his lust surged, he was moving purely on instinct.
Hm?
The cult leader's gaze shifted.
Philip and Paul were leaping down to the stage below.
They were the fourth and fifth Apostles.
But the one he needed most right now was the powerful Third Apostle.
Where's Andrew?
The chaos was too thick to find him at a glance.
And then—
Among the endless green tide surging like a swarm of locusts...
A single purple point came into view.
A color that stood in sharp contrast to the green.
It was a man wearing a purple mask.
The masked intruder seized Andrew from behind.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, he drew a knife across Andrew's throat.
- Gkh!
Andrew collapsed to the floor.
The masked man kicked off the ground.
I didn't know what kind of magic he had used, but he rode the air with tremendous leg strength.
Spinning once in midair, the place he landed was none other than...
The symbol of Cheonyang-ji.
The skull-topped cross.
He was a tall man with especially well-developed thighs.
Balanced atop the cross, the masked man struck a strikingly unusual pose.
"I'll give you one warning."
Finishing what looked like a superhero landing, the man said,
"I'm going to rip off your tiny, cute little dick."