Chapter 229: Traitor (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 229: Traitor (4)
Yu Hana was shopping with Ha Sion.
It was a weekend morning.
The sunlight was strong.
The two were walking through a department store, browsing for clothes.
“……Are you really the only one left?”
Sion looked at Yu Hana with a slight smirk, her tone teasing.
“Could you… not put it like that?”
Yu Hana shot Sion a glare.
In truth, she had simply been observing the situation with a composed mind.
Clinging to him and desperately sating her carnal desires would have been disrespectful to Hae-in.
Absolutely.
It wasn't that she was passed over or didn't have a chance. Not at all.
She was just respecting Hae-in’s freedom.
That was how Yu Hana defended herself.
Sion snorted at her excuse and muttered, “Hae-in likes rabbits.”
“……What are you talking about?”
“If you don’t know, then never mind.”
Sion smiled, recalling the memory of that night.
In any case, the two of them were here to shop.
The main purpose was to pick out clothes for Yu Hana.
After much deliberation, Yu Hana picked up a dress from a hanger.
“……How’s this?”
What she held out was a dress that blatantly revealed every curve of her body.
“Good.”
She’s got taste.
Sion gave her a thumbs-up.
It was a famous style, the kind of chic look popular with the young women of the new city districts.
It was an outfit Hae-in was bound to love.
With a satisfied expression, Yu Hana took the dress and headed for a luxurious fitting room in the corner.
Click.
Rustle, rustle….
She looked at her reflection in the mirror, clad only in her underwear, and nodded.
A dress that revealed all the lines of her body…
And a good body to go with it.
‘It’ll look good.’
After putting on the dress, Yu Hana threw the door wide open.
“Hey, how do I look?” Yu Hana asked, lifting her chin and feigning nonchalance.
Ha Sion, arms crossed, scanned her from head to toe.
‘Crazy bitch.’
Her face was so demure… but her clothes were a whole different story.
In fact, you could barely call it cloth… it was so thin that it clung tightly to her body.
“…Hmm.”
Sion pretended to be in serious thought, dragging out the silence…
Then she slowly opened her mouth.
“Good.”
Only then did Yu Hana flash a relieved smile.
They paid for the dress and left the store, shopping bag in hand.
“Mmm-hmm~”
Yu Hana hummed, clearly in a good mood.
Outside the department store, the weekend crowd was thick.
The streets were perfect for a peaceful morning…
Just then.
Beep-beep-beep.
The watches on Sion’s and Yu Hana’s wrists chimed.
They stopped walking and checked the screens.
“……Huh?”
Sion’s eyes wavered.
“……”
Yu Hana also furrowed her brow.
“The main gate… is closed.”
The gate of Arcadia, which was never supposed to close.
It was now closed.
There was only one reason for it to close.
“Cheon Yeo-wool has started something,” Yu Hana muttered quietly.
Sion nodded, her eyes turning sharp.
“A-rin said she’s on her way. We should… go, too.”
They couldn’t enter directly.
A Heretic Judgment had to be resolved internally by the Cult.
Interfering was taboo.
In principle, they were supposed to just watch, no matter what happened inside.
But.
Who made that taboo?
They would respect it, to a point.
But if the worst-case scenario came to pass, they would intervene.
“If there’s a problem…” Yu Hana said softly.
“Then we go in,” Sion replied firmly.
They nodded to each other.
And then.
Fwip!
The two figures abruptly vanished.
*
Squelch!
A fountain of blood erupted from a crushed head.
The crimson spray stained the marble floor red.
The man had died without even managing a scream.
Yet no one who witnessed the scene could move.
Cheon Yeo-wool’s Holy Method held them fast.
‘When did she master a Holy Method of this level…?!’
He was one of Seong Young-il’s dogs, so to speak.
He had prided himself on mastering intermediate-to-advanced Holy Methods. He tried to summon his mana to resist… but he couldn’t even twitch a finger.
Cheon Yeo-wool looked at them and yawned, as if bored.
“Haaah…”
She covered her mouth elegantly and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.
“Where are the Crusaders?”
The Hero’s personal guard. In terms of pure combat ability, they were the only elite force within the Cult considered to be on par with the Paladins.
Cheon Yeo-wool asked the captain of the Paladins.
“…They should be here soon, no?” Sophia replied, casually shaking the blood and brain matter from her giant mace.
“Yes, I suppose so.”
Cheon Yeo-wool nodded and looked up at the high ceiling of the lobby.
Her Cult was located in the center of the city.
The grounds were vast enough to rival a large park.
They had to be… breathing somewhere within this massive compound.
The men before her were sacrificial pawns.
Just pawns to buy time for the Crusaders to get into formation.
“…But what is the meaning of this sudden action?”
The leader of the Paladins.
Sophia asked Cheon Yeo-wool in a low voice.
They acted without question; if the Saintess gave an order, they carried it out. That was the Valkyries’ reason for being.
She could always ask for the reason later…
But the main gate was closed. She couldn’t help but be curious.
“A Heretic Judgment. We must wipe them all out.”
Sophia’s eyes widened.
The reason Cheon Yeo-wool had acted so suddenly was simple.
A purge. An act of rooting out traitors should never be done with mercy or warning.
The more sudden, the more threatening. The faster, the more fatal.
It was only natural. Why give them time after you’ve already identified them all?
Give them time, and the rats will dig holes, burn evidence, and plot their escape.
Those who have sinned deserve to be disposed of on the spot, without a moment to make excuses.
“…Who are the targets?” Sophia asked in a low voice.
She needed a way to distinguish friend from foe.
Tap, tap.
Cheon Yeo-wool lightly tapped her left breast with her index finger.
Engraved on her Saintess vestments was the sigil of the moonlight.
It was the symbol of the Saintess, a mark permitted only to those who swore absolute loyalty to her.
That same moon was emblazoned upon the silver armor of the Valkyries, including Sophia.
In contrast, however.
On the chests of the men trembling before them…
Was the emblem of a blazing sun.
How arrogant.
It was the symbol of the faction that followed the Hero, Yohan.
“Anyone bearing that emblem and holding a weapon—do not leave a single one alive. Kill them all.”
Sophia nodded.
“However, those who are unarmed or have surrendered… for now, capture them alive. Throw them in the underground prison.”
“You are merciful.”
It was unlikely that every member of the Cult had consented to this.
The low-ranking priests and nuns had probably just followed orders from above, with no idea what was happening.
“Simple. I like it.”
Sophia smiled a grim, satisfied smile and put on her helmet.
Whoooosh….
A white aura began to gather around her.
“I’m letting go now, okay?” Cheon Yeo-wool said, waving the hand she had kept extended into the air.
The moment she dropped her hand, the restraints would be released, and the dogs before them would lunge as if their leashes had been cut.
“As you wish.”
As Sophia replied, Cheon Yeo-wool turned her head without a second thought.
“You…! Whore!!!”
The moment they were freed, the dogs let out hate-filled screams and, as if they had been waiting, charged at Cheon Yeo-wool in unison.
However.
THUD—!
A dull, heavy sound echoed once.
They didn’t take a single step.
They couldn’t even scream.
Without making the slightest sound, they became one with the ground right where they stood.
Dozens of men were instantly flattened, smeared across the marble floor.
“Sanctuary,” Sophia uttered under her breath.
A holy domain.
They had been crushed by a hammer of light.
“Let’s begin.”
Cheon Yeo-wool’s personal attendant brought something wrapped in silk with trembling hands.
She bowed reverently and placed the object on the crown of Cheon Yeo-wool’s head.
The Tiara of Ariel.
Jewels were embedded among platinum filigree.
It was a gift Jung Hae-in had once given her… a holy relic more precious to her than her own life.
It didn't matter that she had already absorbed all the ancient holy power it once contained.
What mattered, in the end, was the symbol.
A symbol of who the true master of this Cult was.
“Let’s finish this quickly.”
She adjusted the tiara and gave a cold command.
Taking the lead, she strode across the lobby toward the rear gate, which opened onto the Arcadia grounds.
Creeeak….
The massive door opened.
But standing before it was Gale, one of the leaders of the Crusaders.
“……Saintess, you are crossing a line.”
He stood with his knights, blocking Cheon Yeo-wool’s path.
Sophia flinched at their murderous aura and readjusted her grip on her mace, but…
Ssk.
Cheon Yeo-wool raised a hand to stop her.
She stared at her former subordinate with indifferent eyes.
“Gale.”
Gale had once been a holy knight who served Cheon Yeo-wool.
But he had turned his back on the light, betraying her in pursuit of power.
Cheon Yeo-wool’s eyes turned a deep blue.
“I’ll give you one last chance. Move.”
“……You are straying from the path, Saintess.”
Gale drew his sword with a sneer.
“It would be more accurate to say you don’t know your place.”
The sharp, gleaming tip of his blade was pointed at the woman he once served as his master.
“Why would a mere Saintess like you think you could defeat me, a Crusader? You’re just a girl who offers prayers…”
He smiled arrogantly and unleashed the mana he had been concealing.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-chak!
“Holy Cage.”
Golden mana erupted from around Gale, forming bars like a cage.
Space distorted, creating an absolute domain that no one but the two of them could enter.
Not the Valkyries outside, nor his own men.
A perfect, sealed room.
Gale’s expression instantly turned sinister.
“I have always coveted you. You.”
His gaze slid slimily over Cheon Yeo-wool’s neck and chest.
He never had any faith to begin with.
He had chosen the Hero simply for the sake of breaking a noble being.
“……”
Cheon Yeo-wool looked at Gale with eyes full of pity.
He was beneath even her anger.
“Fine.”
Cheon Yeo-wool’s reply was short.
BOOM!
Gale kicked off the ground. Drawing a golden arc, he charged forward ferociously.
“Go to hell.”
Cheon Yeo-wool did not evade.
She simply reached out her hand toward the approaching moth, drawn to a flame.
*
“What…?”
Bishop Seong Young-il dropped the cross he was holding at the sudden, disastrous news.
He was currently in the Hero’s residence, located in the deepest part of the Arcadia grounds.
“A Heretic… Judgment…?”
The gate… was closed?
His lips, pale and blue, trembled.
“It’s over…”
She was not a woman who acted without proof.
Which meant… she knew everything.
How?
There was nowhere to run.
He knew it without even looking out the window.
“……Where is the Hero?”
Clutching at straws, Seong Young-il asked the priest standing beside him, who was trembling uncontrollably.
“……H-He’s been in the next room… for a little while now… but his condition…”
“Aaaaaaaahhh!!!”
Just then, a monstrous scream tore through the wall.
It seemed he, too, had just received the news.
He had told him yesterday.
The grand proposal for the greater good.
The Hero… Yohan had agreed to the proposal.
All preparations were complete.
How could this…
His pact with the Evil God was set for this evening.
If only they had a little more time, just a little more.
“The Crusaders?”
Seong Young-il clutched his throbbing head and asked, his eyes bloodshot.
“They are being assembled urgently! As soon as they are armed…”
“Is Jaden there?”
“All forces are on standby.”
“……”
If that was the case, there was only one way.
Stop the Heretic Judgment.
And, in turn, strike down the Saintess.
History, after all, is written by the victors.
The Saintess closing the gate herself was, in a way, a boon. It allowed them to use their own military force without outside interference.
All they had to do was face her head-on, kill her, and claim victory.
Gale, one of the Crusaders’ finest, was waiting at the gate.
His unique Holy Method was the Cage.
He could single out the Saintess and lock her in a one-on-one fight.
There was no way Cheon Yeo-wool could win. He was one of the Cult’s strongest assets, after all.
So, if he could just buy a little time… against the Paladins.
If they could regroup their forces and attack in concert, they had a good chance of winning.
“Order Jaden to prepare at once…”
BANG!
“Bishop!!!”
“What in God’s name!!”
As someone burst through the office door, the on-edge Seong Young-il roared.
But the priest who had opened the door paid no mind to decorum.
His face was deathly pale as he spat out the unbelievable news.
“Sir Gale, who was guarding the gate…”
No way.
“Was… defeated by the Saintess… and is… d-dead…”
“What…?”
Not by the Paladins.
He was killed by Cheon Yeo-wool?
How in the world could a Saintess kill a Crusader?
Just then.
Shhh-CRASH!!
The office window shattered, sending shards flying in all directions.
And along with the glass fragments, a heavy, wet object flew in and landed at Seong Young-il’s feet.
Thump, roll, roll….
“!”
Seong Young-il held his breath and watched the thing roll across the floor.
It continued to roll until it hit his shoe with a soft thud and stopped.
A face frozen in terror.
“……Dammit.”
As if it had been ripped off by a giant’s hand.
It was Gale’s head, brutally torn from his body and dangling.
The shield that was supposed to buy them time had been shattered long ago.
“Aaaaaaaahhh!!!”
Seong Young-il.
He screamed like a madman.
And then.
It was then.
“You seem to be in trouble.”
The priest, who had been trembling in fear just a moment ago, lifted his head and whispered in a strangely sultry, cloying voice.
“…What?”
Seong Young-il thought the priest had gone mad.
Had the fear eaten away at his brain?
However, the eyes of the priest he faced were no longer human.
They were black and murky.
A deep darkness coiled within his pupils.
“My, what a state you’re in…”
Seong Young-il felt a chill crawl up his spine.
The oppressive aura… emanating from the priest’s body.
This was no mere human.
“……Apostle.”
“Mhm, you called me, didn’t you? Did you prepare a vessel?”
The aura was disgustingly foul, a sticky malevolence.
This was, without a doubt, Aria.
A heretic among heretics. The Evil God’s… Saintess.
“You’re fucked, aren’t you?” Aria asked with a grin.
“……”
“I’ll help you.”
“!”
Seong Young-il’s eyes widened.
It was a rope lowered into the depths of hell.
Whether it was a sturdy one, he couldn’t be sure.
“In return, you’ll swear an oath, won’t you?”
Crr-ack… ack….
No sooner had she finished speaking than the priest’s body split in two.
And from between the halves.
A beautiful woman, not wearing a single thread of clothing, shed the body like a husk and revealed her seductive form.
Seong Young-il met Aria’s red, murky eyes head-on.
“……”
The moment he looked into those eyes, what little will he had left melted away.
He fell to his knees with a thud.
And pressed his forehead to the floor.
“Yes, good boy.”
Aria giggled, stroking his head with a blood-stained hand.
The sticky blood from her hand trickled through his hair and down his face.
It was the Evil God’s Baptism.
Watching him, she smiled a bewitching, satisfied smile.
“Now… offer it all up, will you?”
She whispered sweetly, and at the same time, flicked her hand.
And then.
“Gyaaaaaaaahk!!”
“Kuaaaargh!! Hero!!”
The shouts of those waiting outside the building could be heard.
Crr-unch!
Crr-aaack!!
The sound of bones twisting and muscles tearing.
And then.
“Guwaaaaaaaaaaaaaahk!!”
From the room right next door.
A grotesque scream erupted.
“Your bodies, your minds, everything… to the Evil God.”
Aria savored the horrific screams and whispered to the trembling Seong Young-il.