Chapter 216: Miracle
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 216: Miracle
Why? Why has no one come to save him?
Have they already been discovered and fled?
No, that cannot be. There was no sign of that.
Then they were never coming from the start... but why? Why?
Ah... I have been foolish, O Saint.
To think I had forgotten your teachings once again.
Please, forgive me.
To save you—that mission was bestowed upon me.
Thank you for granting me such glory.
Now, I shall offer my prayer.
*
Maria cast off her robe.
Beneath the fabric, a woman dressed in a nun’s habit was revealed.
With a deep scar running across her right eye, she began to walk forward with slow, deliberate steps.
Startled by her sheer presence, the crowd instinctively parted, carving a path toward the execution platform.
"It's a fugitive!" one of the Holy Knights shouted.
"She is a sinner! Execute her on the spot!" the Commander of the Holy Knights bellowed from atop the platform.
The knights rushed toward Maria, brandishing their various weapons.
Maria continued her slow march toward the platform.
A blade pierced her abdomen. Blood welled up and surged from the wound.
Her steady progress toward the platform faltered for a moment.
But only for a moment.
Maria looked down at the blade buried in her gut, gripped the weapon, and pulled it straight out.
The place where she had been stabbed was perfectly smooth.
"Wh-what...?"
His legs giving out at the horrific sight, the Holy Knight collapsed to the ground.
Another knight thrust a spear into her back.
The tip of the long spear passed through her body and struck the floor; blood bubbled up in Maria’s throat.
But that, too, was only for a moment.
Maria raised her arm and struck the shaft of the spear, snapping it in two.
The puncture wound was perfectly smooth.
"How can this be!"
The knight holding the broken spear muttered in sheer disbelief.
Spears, swords, and arrows rained down upon her.
Even as her body was sliced, pierced, and hacked, she did not stop her advance toward the platform.
It was a gruesome spectacle of spraying blood and flying flesh, yet Maria’s body returned to its pristine state as if nothing had happened.
As she moved toward the platform, she continued to offer a prayer to someone.
Step by step.
Maria advanced toward the Saint.
"What are you all doing?!"
At the Commander’s roar from atop the platform, the Holy Knights—who had been shrinking away from Maria—snapped back to their senses.
They leveled their weapons once more, preparing to lunge at her.
Thump.
Maria stomped her foot down hard.
The ground shook with a thunderous boom, and the people standing in the square lost their balance and tumbled over.
"Sa... Saniso... It is the miracle of Saniso..."
The words popped out from somewhere within the crowd.
The contagion of words was faster than one might think; the murmurs of the crowd, now huddled on the ground, grew louder.
"It is Saniso! Saniso has manifested!"
Saint Saniso—the holy man who had decapitated three hundred foes single-handedly.
The square fell into an uproar at the sight of what looked like his second coming.
"Look at her body. There isn't a single scratch! It is the miracle of Elnea!"
Saint Elnea—the holy woman who was said to have spent a week inside a pit of fire to prove her faith.
As the people witnessed the miracles of the scriptures with their own eyes, the whispers intensified.
While the people recited the various miracles of the Bible, Maria reached the execution platform.
"Y-you wretch!"
The Commander of the Holy Knights charged at Maria as she looked up at him, swinging his sword downward.
But his blade never reached her.
Maria’s palm caught his face and slammed him into the floor of the platform.
"Gah!"
The back of his head collided with the wooden planks, and the Commander let out a scream.
His vision was pitch black, for Maria’s hand remained clamped over his face.
"Sinner, do you know your crimes?"
At Maria’s question, the Commander thrashed his body.
Like an insect pinned under a finger, he could not move an inch despite struggling with all his might.
At his sacrilegious resistance, the strength in Maria’s grip tightened.
"Ggh... Aaaagh...!"
The pressure on his face, the sensation of bones twisting and snapping—he forgot all dignity and shrieked.
His scream did not last long.
—Crack.
With the sound of shifting bone, his face was reduced to a pulp.
Maria shook her hand clean and stood up.
Blood and fluids scattered through the air.
Seeing the Commander’s gruesome end, the remaining members of the Order on the platform all turned tail and fled.
Maria did not bother to chase them. The Saint had instructed her to do something else.
She reached out toward the Saint’s head, which lay upon the floor.
Carefully, and with great affection, she slowly lifted it up.
Cradling the face that had its eyes closed in peace against her chest, Maria let out a smile of relief.
She turned back toward the square.
The members of the Order who hadn't managed to flee and the spectators who had come to watch the execution were all prostrate on the ground.
"O blind ones, who cannot believe without seeing," Maria cried out as if scolding them.
"Repent for your sins."
"When that day comes soon, I shall come to judge you. Therefore, repent."
Having finished her piece, Maria slowly descended from the platform.
Then, as if nothing had happened, she walked slowly out of the square.
There was no one who could stop her.