The Serpent Church (12)
The Serpent Church (12)
What is an inquisitor?
Those who reject the Church. Those who broke doctrine and fled. Those who threaten the Church and seek to destroy it.
Radatok called all of them heretics. There were many who became enemies of the Church, and most of them fell beneath Radatok's sword.
Radatok had seen all manner of things. He had even seen fellow believers fall to corruption after succumbing to the whispers of demons.
Blood stained Radatok's hands.
Blood he could neither wash away nor turn his eyes from. Blood that forced him to scourge himself in anguish.
But today, at least, Radatok's hands bore no blood. What clung to them was only the fluid of monsters.
Merely filthy blood, carrying no weight, no depth of sin.
Radatok cast aside all those complicated memories of the past. He swung his weapon toward the battlefield.
A sword in hand.
Sacred Power coursing through the body.
Radatok wreathed himself in flames. For today, all his past anguish held no sway.
Ra stood before him.
Radatok gazed upon the god's tireless flame and reached a hand toward her.
What his hand touched was a boy far younger than himself—a small apostle who seized the battlefield with tireless courage and devout faith.
Radatok shouted, unable to contain the boiling force in his voice. Casting aside his usual solemnity, he threw himself into the 'holy war.'
"For Raaaaaaaaaa!!"
His voice cracked. His body, pushed to its limit, shuddered as if it might collapse at any moment.
But Radatok advanced. Trampled the parasites and stepped forward. Crushed every charging creature, bathed in blood and flesh.
The stench clung to his whole body. But it meant nothing. Radatok was genuinely laughing.
When was the last time he had thrown himself into battle this recklessly?!
Having a clear task was a good thing. Even with his body at its limit, even when he felt ready to collapse at any moment, he could keep moving forward.
The god they trusted and relied upon was right beside them. They could burn even the last firewood to prove their faith.
O Ra.
Watch over me.
Let not your apostle fall before me!
. . .
The Serpent Church was a cold place. Isabella remembered its beginning.
The moment she was picked up by a nameless priest. But that beginning was no salvation at all.
Rather, it was the start of hell.
The Serpent Church was always short on people. So they took in orphans with nowhere to go and forcibly made them believers. Branded them against their will and imposed the duties of the faithful upon them.
Those things were far too cruel for a mere child to endure. Most of each day spent starving, most of each day spent laboring, most of each day stained with pain.
Isabella sometimes wondered.
What would have happened if she hadn't had talent?
Wouldn't she have ended up like the other children who had died in agony?
Naga.
What could she possibly be thinking, leaving a church like this alone?
"...Ahh."
But Isabella set that question aside for today. She worked the tip of her blade into a thick carapace.
Fluid splattered. Her body was soiled, but Isabella felt light. Beside her stood a child who possessed talent yet had made contact with a god she had never once met.
A strange child.
A priest of the Sun God who did not oppose the Serpent Church.
He was advancing. He wavered but did not stop; he faltered but held firm.
At the edge of the blazing flames, an unfamiliar shadow was mingled. Everyone else missed it, but Isabella, who had honed shadow Holy Arts to the extreme, knew what it was.
Naga.
Naga stood behind him.
Isabella felt emotion surge up. At first it was bewilderment. But it soon turned to rapture.
Naga had never once answered Isabella's questions. But when she reached the very brink of death, the goddess was answering at last, through another.
It was salvation.
A single ray of light granted to one who had fallen into hell.
"For Nagaaaaaaaaa!!!!"
Her god was helping her survive. Isabella witnessed the miracle and reached out to seize it.
She supported the back of the collapsing boy. Stood beside him and took a step together.
He will not fall.
I will offer myself so that child does not fall.
Even if it should be my own end, that alone is the greatest courtesy I can offer Naga!
. . .
Ah, fuck!
There's a shitload of them, seriously!
"Ah, dammit!"
I drove off the damn parasites in one sweep. Sacred Power regenerated quickly, but my stamina didn't. That was what was holding me back.
I needed to rest. But I'd missed the timing to rest over and over.
Holy war.
Bad word choice. The moment I said 'holy war,' the Serpent Church and the Sun God Church alike lost their damn minds.
"For Ra!"
"For Naga!"
"Stop with the 'for'! Let's rest and go!"
They'd lost it so completely they couldn't hear me anymore. I tried to stop several times, but that damn Radatok and Isabella kept shoving me forward.
"Brother! We shall never fall!"
"Don't worry, Zahard! If anyone's going to fall before you, it'll be me!"
"No, seriously! You're allowed to fall!"
I had no choice but to force my way through. I pushed onward somehow, parasite blood splashing across my neck as they poured down on me.
The one fortunate thing was that the path inside Vagueness's body was exactly as I remembered.
I trampled the parasites, crushed the writhing walls of charging flesh, and advanced until the first gate appeared.
A pool of blood.
Inside it, wriggling tubifex worms gathered into a colony. A mass of tubifex worms taking the shape of a giant hand...
"Get lost!"
No time to wait! If I wait, I'll collapse from exhaustion!
"Explode!!!"
Crash!
I smashed it immediately. Sent Sacred Flame flying and blew away the entire colony.
Fwoosh!
I trampled the acrid stench and advanced at once. Screw the mid-boss! A little shit weak to fire dares to act up!
Having chosen a forced breakthrough, I had nothing left to fear. I burned everything and trampled it all. I ground my teeth while watching my level and skill proficiency climb rapidly.
Like hell I'll ever fight with inquisitors and the Serpent Church again!
"Multiple parasites ahead...!"
KABOOOOOM!
"Mutated armored insect on the right...!"
KABOOOOOOOM!!
"...Monstrous organism detec..."
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!
Amid the barrage of Sacred Flames exploding one after another, the inquisitors cheered!
"Ah, fuck!"
"As expected of the Apostle of Ra!"
"Let's burn it all! Brother!"
"All of you shut up!"
My eyes are closing.
No.
If I close my eyes, I'm actually dead!
I ground my teeth and advanced. I somehow conserved what little stamina I had left. There really wasn't much remaining now.
Right in front of me.
I mercilessly tore through the wall of flesh. I broke through another wall that looked, at a glance, exactly like all the others.
Thump.
A heavy heartbeat. I stepped into a quiet space completely unlike anything before.
Behind me, I heard the parasites stop. As they swiftly withdrew with a slithering sound, people voiced their confusion.
"Could it be over...?"
"Is the Snow Demon dead?"
As if.
This is the real finale.
I took one step forward. But the next moment, my vision plummeted.
Everything went black in an instant. When I opened my eyes again, Isabella and Radatok were shielding me.
"Brother! Are you all right?!"
"Zahard? Are you okay?"
I'm not okay.
And it's because of you two.
I stood up. There was no time to rest quietly. The parasites withdrawing meant the boss fight had already begun. If I delayed, I'd lose even the time to prepare.
"Big Sis. Pull the Serpent Church back."
"Why?"
"A revelation came down."
"A revelation?!"
Isabella's eyes went wide. Radatok asked urgently.
"Wh-what did she say?! Brother?!"
"She told me to subjugate that demon. But apparently it won't be easy."
Radatok raised his head. He stared at the enormous mass of flesh pulsing rhythmically.
"...Wouldn't it be enough to deal with that thing that looks like a heart?"
"That's why she went so far as to give me a revelation, isn't it?"
I quickly took command.
"The inquisitors take the vanguard. Okay? Just push through with sheer force. No matter how many troops there are."
"Couldn't we just burst the heart..."
"Impossible. As long as the guardian exists, that thing can't be broken. Can't you see it's covered in some weird black membrane? You can't kill a demon easily."
I glanced back at Isabella.
"Soon, among the demons that pour out, there'll be some especially tough ones. The Serpent Church handles only those. The rest can be left to the inquisitors."
"What do they look like?"
"You'll know when you see them. They're fucking huge. They'll be at least twice as big as the others, so you'll recognize them at a glance."
The wall of flesh shuddered violently. I lowered my voice.
"If none of you wants to die, stay sharp from here on. Everything up to now was nothing but child's play."
A droning sound rang out. The great heartbeat stopped.
[Vagueness gazes directly at you.]
The heart opened.
Above it, dozens of enormous eyes opened at once.
Eyeballs rolling every which way. One of them stared straight at me. Then the rest of the pupils immediately fixed on me as well.
The stopped sound began to echo again. The once-regular sound collapsed, and an irregular pounding began to fill the vast plaza of blood.
"Ah... ahh..."
At the grotesque sight, the serpent believers trembled.
"A, a demon."
"A real demon."
"The Snow Demon!"
"We're going to die."
"We're all going to die."
"O god."
"O god."
I let my sword hang low and forced my eyes to stay open.
I need to hurry up and grow older. Maybe it's because I'm still stuck in a kid's body. Fuck, I'm sleepy.
[Vagueness summons its guardian.]
[The ancient heart fills with yearning.]
[May the appetite that knows no end devour even itself.]
[The slumbering Snow Demon Vagueness fully awakens.]
"Radatok. Big Sis Isabella. I'm leaving command to you."
"What do you intend to do, Brother?"
"If I stay here too, who's going to catch the thing that's about to pop out?"
I raised my sword and lifted my gaze toward the writhing heart.
The eyes split apart. Countless fragments of flesh broke away from the heart. The flesh that fell amid the irregular pounding twisted and changed form.
"...A demon."
A serpent believer muttered. But unfortunately, that thing isn't a demon.
Heartworm. Right. The strongest of all the parasites Vagueness possesses.
Rip.
Tear.
A single enormous eye was torn away. From the falling flesh, a massive arm crawled out with a thud.
Six legs soaked in blood. Compared to its abnormally long legs, its body was absurdly short, and it rotated with a crunching sound. It gleamed in the mucus, then stood upright.
Even among the countless masses of flesh, it stood out.
Big.
Too big.
It was so overwhelmingly huge that people simply stared up at it. Unable to pay attention to the other falling parasites, they blankly traced their gaze over the giant red monster again and again.
Vagueness's guardian.
The final boss of this subjugation operation.
"...Grasshopper."
I spat on the ground.
"Bring it!"