Chapter 195
Chapter 195
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 195
Chapter Title: The First Apostle
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"Our land, you say?"
Solongos's question made Seong-un nod.
"Yeah."
"But... there's no change in the Faith stats."
"Ah, not yet. Hwikyung is still linked to the fake god. But..."
Seong-un's gaze turned to the screen.
The other players' eyes followed.
The being wearing a water buffalo skull approached Ramin, Hwikyung, and Juran.
The Hinterman spoke.
"Worship... me..."
"Hinterman."
Hwikyung knelt before the god.
Or rather, she tried to.
Ramin grabbed her waist as she lowered her body.
"What are you doing?"
"What are you doing? Let go."
"Just prove it, right?"
"Prove what?"
"That thing in front of us isn't a god."
Hwikyung froze as she tried to push Ramin away.
Before she could say anything, a gunshot rang out.
Bang!
Juran had fired at the Hinterman.
A clean bullet hole pierced its skull, but the Hinterman seemed unfazed.
"See? Nothing hap—"
Ramin snatched the gun from Juran as she approached.
"Mind if I borrow this?"
The Hinterman drew closer.
"You are unwise."
Ramin aimed not at its head but its body, squeezing the trigger repeatedly as he advanced.
The Hinterman didn't slow down at all.
"You hesitate. Wondering if I truly am a god."
"...If you were really Yacheon, why send us here?"
"Exactly as that child thought. To test you."
Ramin pulled the trigger again—click.
The magazine was empty.
'Doesn't work? ...No.'
Ramin heard the bullets thudding into the Hinterman's body after the shots.
'Not some untouchable great being. Just a tough bastard.'
The Hinterman spoke.
"It's not too late to beg forgiveness. I led you to misunderstand..."
Ramin was certain now.
He swung his sword.
Just before his blade struck, a tentacle shot from inside the Hinterman's robe, batting the sword away.
Ramin barely held on and retreated.
Sticky slime and tentacles clashed with a squelch.
The Hinterman's form was changing.
"Ah, so that's your true nature."
"No... my original form..."
"Trying to deceive us to the end, huh."
Dozens of tentacles writhed from within the Hinterman's robe.
Ramin quickly calculated in his head.
'This'll be tough to beat.'
He'd talked big, but whatever the Hinterman was, it was too much for a single mortal.
Ramin backed away cautiously and said to Juran,
"Can you carry her and run?"
Juran, who had been carving a magic circle into Hwikyung's collar with her knife, replied,
"Of course."
"Carry who and run? Me?"
Juran snapped her fingers. A small spark flared, and Hwikyung's collar snapped off, the chain clattering to the ground.
As Hwikyung hesitated, Juran turned her back.
Ramin shoved her onto Juran's back.
Hwikyung was piggybacked.
"Run on my signal."
"Got it."
"...Now!"
Tentacles shot from the ambling Hinterman.
Ramin severed the nearest one, letting two others pass.
But it was a feint. He spun, slicing the two heading for Hwikyung, dodged one swinging for his head, and rolled forward.
He glared as Juran carried Hwikyung and bolted down the tunnel.
'Letting them escape like that isn't enough.'
As the elf Aganin had said, fangs might be closing in from above.
'Can't kill it, but I have to shake it off...'
Tentacles surged.
Ramin realized his retreat was blocked; to evade, he'd have to dive deeper in.
"Yes, come to me."
Ramin said,
"Yeah. That's what I want too."
He leaped into the Hinterman's embrace, thrusting his hand into the root where the tentacles sprouted. Sticky slime and crushing pressure brought agony.
'High-viscosity fluid, flesh sealed tight... perfect conditions?'
Ramin channeled the Chosen One's power.
The tentacles that had reared to smash his back recoiled, straightened, then twisted the other way.
"Urk, uh, ugh!"
Ramin yanked his aching, cracked hand free.
'Maybe I can kill it like this...?'
As he raised his sword, a hand emerged from between the tentacles.
Ramin backflipped away.
"Uaaagh... ugh..."
The Hinterman groaned strangely, but the twisted tentacles recovered.
They were flushed red but seemed fully functional.
'All-out, could I kill it?'
Not certain.
But not impossible.
'If I stake my life...'
Using demonic power drained mental strength.
Grabbing the tentacles at the tips wouldn't reach the core.
He'd need to get close again and pour in everything.
But Ramin decided against it.
'Have to get Juran and Hwikyung out.'
Before the recovered tentacles engulfed him, he turned and sprinted after Juran.
By the time Ramin caught up, he saw Aganin and the laborers in the tunnel.
Ramin shouted,
"Run! Hurry!"
The elf Aganin looked puzzled but sensed something approaching from the tunnel Ramin had come from and yelled at the laborers,
"Everyone, run! ...Run...!"
Aganin ran up beside Ramin.
"What? What's going on?"
"The Hinterman's chasing us."
"What? Damn it."
Seeing Aganin's reaction, Ramin asked,
"You knew about the Hinterman?"
"Of course. You didn't?"
"Tell me more."
Aganin explained.
It had no clear form, but devout laborers sometimes got chances to meet the Hinterman directly.
The Hinterman Cult, faithful to it, had solidified around Hwikyung's memory-awakening and the tangible Hinterman.
Many believed Hwikyung's claim that the Hinterman was Yacheon in disguise.
They took it as Yacheon enduring in suffering, unable to help openly lest the Wrathful One discover.
'Wait, so not just Hwikyung—everyone here thinks the Hinterman is Yacheon?'
Before a new idea struck Ramin, a voice called out.
"Vampire over there!"
Fang agents blocked the tunnel ahead.
Ramin said to Aganin,
"Can you get those two out of here with you?"
"One entrance, but multiple paths to it—maybe we can slip by..."
"Do that. Lead every laborer you see and escape."
Aganin looked conflicted.
Leading laborers out wasn't easy.
Mine collapses had happened before; sequential cave-ins were possible, so evacuating everyone was prudent.
But as overseer, Aganin had lived well on criminal prestige.
If the lie was exposed, even his connections with managers and guards wouldn't save him. Better to confess now.
Aganin thought that, but different words came out.
"Alright, we'll do it."
Aganin ran to Juran, then veered into another tunnel.
'For now, I'm the most recognizable face to them, and they don't know I've contacted Hwikyung yet.'
So Ramin became the flashy decoy.
He charged the Fang agents.
Hours later, Ramin Lost World Mu-el climbed the wooden stairs of the vertical shaft.
He barely looked human.
Covered head to toe in blood and dust, only his wide white eyes stood out against the black.
Most of the blood was from Fang agents, guards, and occasional managers, but some wounds were his own.
The enemy had tried everything to pin him down; twice he'd nearly been caught by the Hinterman.
But with the Chosen One's power, his master's swordsmanship, and wisdom from nearly 120 years, he'd survived.
The sun rose in the east.
While most races felt day's end at sunset's tenderness, vampires felt it at dawn's rise—like watching the sun set, but ascending.
A helpless end to the day. That's what Ramin felt.
Someone clapped at the staggering Ramin.
"Impressive."
Ramin stabbed his longsword into the ground and leaned on it.
The Lizardman Fang agent Del, in a red mask, said,
"I suspected, but you actually made it out alive. Forty agents alone, guards several times that. Truly not human."
Ramin coughed dryly without replying.
Blood sprayed.
Behind Del, armed guards aimed rifles at Ramin; farther back stood captured Juran, Hwikyung, and other laborers.
Not just them.
With so many guards assembled, other laborers had been dragged in too.
Likely a lesson for would-be rebels.
Ramin said,
"Not going to kill me?"
Del replied,
"I could end you myself, but we should prove your god speaks through the Hinterman. Wait. It'll come up soon. Confirm with your own body that this is all just a coincidence testing the saintess."
Ramin glanced back.
The vertical shaft's black pit yawned.
Not close yet, but the Hinterman was ascending the shaft stairs.
Ramin had no strength left to respond.
Del muttered,
"Alma was worried... but it seems your god doesn't value you much."
Ramin had thought so too—until seconds ago.
Abandonment hurt enough already.
But no.
'...What?'
Yet ominous static made his hair stir.
No illusion.
Clear sensation.
Ramin looked up.
"That's not it."
"Not what?"
"Our god likes drama, just like you."
A blue butterfly fluttered between Ramin and Del.
Del didn't notice it and asked,
"What are you talking about?"
"That's why the actors 'suffer a bit' without care. But that one... seems to craft the finest plays."
With those words, a bolt of lightning struck down the vertical shaft.
Dazzling brilliance made Del, agents, and guards shield their eyes; laborers ducked in shock.
The bolt, without warning, ignited the wooden shaft stairs, sending black flames roaring up the pit.
And from those flames, something emerged.
At first, it looked like the Hinterman.
But no.
Through the flames stepped a Lizardman.
In golden armor, ignoring the blaze, he stood beside Ramin.
Then he addressed someone in the crowd.
"Long time no see, Autarch Saintess."
Hwikyung blinked at the Lizardman.
"...Rakrak?"
Del's eyes widened at the words.
Rakrak said,
"Yes. I am the first apostle of 'Hinterman Yacheon.' By Yacheon's will, I come to save you suffering ones."
The laborers murmured.
"Just as the saintess said."
"It really was him."
"The day has come at last."
"We've paid for our sins."
Del muttered,
"Impossible. The Hinterman is just... the Wrathful One's..."
"Don't you see?"
Rakrak raised his spear.
"I am the proof!"
Light flooded in.