Source of Authority
Source of Authority
In the dark underground, a ritual was in full swing.
Under the light of torches and candles, which were ambiguously bright and thus even more unpleasant, numerous sacrifices writhed.
"Descend!!"
The moment the high priest chanting the spell screamed, the sacrifices suddenly let out loud shrieks.
The sacrifices, which had been trembling, instantly exploded and dissolved into blood. The bright red blood, mixed with human entrails and chunks of flesh, gathered at the center of the altar where the ritual was being held, as if it were a living creature.
The pools of blood soon began to coagulate and started to take on a human form.
Bones were generated, upon which muscles and blood vessels were created, and organs slowly began to settle into place.
Before long, the blood had fully returned to the complete shape of a single human.
A woman with dozens of eyeballs attached to her body.
It was the Chosen of the Evil God.
She trembled slightly, then opened her eyes, and with that, she collapsed to the floor with a thud.
"O Chosen One!"
"The ritual was a success!!"
The Chosen One possessed multiple lives, but each time she died, her body had to be resurrected anew.
For this resurrection ritual, the priests of the Evil God Cult had consumed a massive amount of the resentment and sacrifices they had been stockpiling.
The damage was far too severe. For the time being, the Evil God Cult would probably have to quietly hide in the darkness and focus solely on recovery rather than making any moves.
Everyone was rejoicing, but the resurrected Chosen One did not look happy at all.
No.
Rather, she was deeply terrified.
The dozens of eyeballs attached to her body and face slowly turned to look at one corner.
One side of the altar.
A terrifyingly black form was slowly rising from the ground.
At the sight, the Chosen One trembled and then prostrated herself flat on the floor.
"Th-The Evil God!......."
"Prostrate yourselves!!"
The high priests, who confirmed the scene belatedly, also threw themselves flat on the floor and began to tremble.
The bizarre black form slowly approached its followers and then opened its mouth.
[You have disappointed me.]
It was a quiet shout.
The physical sound itself was clearly not loud, but the sensation that shook the soul caused everyone present to clutch their ears and collapse.
Only one person did not collapse.
It was only the Chosen One.
"Forgive me!!.......Please, forgive me!!"
The Chosen One gritted her teeth and endured, begging desperately.
At those words, the Evil God stopped shouting.
[I even bestowed a part of myself upon you. Yet, far from succeeding with it, you return having even expended one of the Chosen One's lives? I have never seen such an incompetent bastard.]
"We would have succeeded if it were not for that man. The Healing Saint."
The Chosen One trembled violently.
The name alone made her teeth chatter just imagining it.
The Healing Saint.
When they infiltrated a spy into the Sun Order at great sacrifice, he immediately caught them.
He obliterated the Fragment of the Evil God they had prepared and painstakingly worked on for a long time in an instant.
Everything they had prepared and toiled over for at least twenty years had all turned to foam and vanished in a single moment.
The amount of resentment consumed, the sacrifices, the time invested...
The damage was far too severe.
It was to the point that, for the time being, the Evil God Cult would probably have to quietly hide in the darkness and focus solely on recovery rather than making any moves.
[I do not want excuses.]
When the Evil God spat out a single cold word, the Chosen One immediately bowed her head.
"I am sorry. Please forgive me........"
[Refrain from moving for the time being. Any further losses must be prevented. Quietly gather your strength in the darkness.]
"I will do so."
[And I myself will eliminate the Healing Saint. Keep this in mind: he is extremely dangerous.]
At the Evil God's words, the Chosen One flinched.
The word 'dangerous' had come from the mouth of the Evil God.
Even during the Heavenly War 300 years ago, when he fought the renowned heroes, saints, and saintesses of the Pantheon, records of the Evil God using the word 'dangerous' were extremely rare.
"O Evil God. I dare to ask a question. What exactly is the identity of the Healing Saint? We could not grasp at all what kind of authority he possesses."
The chosen ones of each god had distinct characteristics.
The Chosen of the God of Evil Eradication had a clear authority, and so did the Chosen of the God of Prophecy.
However, the Goddess of Grace had never once granted a saint or saintess to humanity since the beginning of history.
Therefore, there was no way to figure out what kind of ability he possessed.
"In order to eliminate him in the future......your wisdom is absolutely essential. Please bestow knowledge upon your incompetent servants. What authority did the Goddess of Grace grant to her chosen one?"
When the Chosen One asked carefully, the Evil God suddenly burst into laughter.
[My Chosen One. You are misunderstanding something.]
"What do you......"
[It is not the Whore of Grace who sent that bastard down to the world.]
The Chosen One's eyes widened.
Hadn't everyone called him the Healing Saint and the Chosen of the Goddess of Grace?
Not sent by the goddess?
".......I do not understand."
[Bestowing a saint or saintess upon humanity is accompanied by an extremely severe consumption of power. I have seen many divinities who rashly bestowed a saint, only to lose their rank and eventually vanish.]
"Then wouldn't Lilia be even more likely to have sent a saint? She has never once bestowed a saint until now, so she must have been in a state where she had stockpiled a great deal of power. She bestowed an extremely powerful saint to interfere with us......is that not the case?"
[No. The Whore of Grace. That bitch does not have the strength for that. And that is because.......]
The Evil God chuckled and sneered.
[300 years ago. Excluding the bastards who lost their divinity and fell completely during the Heavenly War, that bitch was the most severely injured of all the gods in the Pantheon.]
***
The great war fought between the gods of Heaven, the demons of Hell, and the evil gods of the Abyss below them.
That was the Heavenly War.
In this massive war where demons and evil gods, who might as well be mortal enemies, very rarely joined forces to attack the Pantheon, the allied forces of the Evil Gods and demons held an absolute advantage, at least in the beginning.
Many of the gods of the Pantheon were gravely injured, and there were even a few bastards who completely lost their divinity and fell to the earth.
Because of this, several seats among the Pantheon, which served 24 gods, were still vacant.
And among the gods who did not fall after losing their divinity but still maintained their divinity in Heaven, the most severely injured of all was Lilia, the Goddess of Grace.
[That whore Lilia would be at her limit just barely sending down holy power to her followers. A saint? There is no way she has the strength left for that. Much less a saint possessing an authority capable of shattering my fragment in a single blow. If she had sent such a saint down to humanity, she would have lost her rank immediately and fallen to the earth.]
The Chosen One's eyes shook greatly.
Not someone sent by the goddess?
Then who exactly was that bastard everyone revered as the Saint of Grace?
Who on earth was he to appear before them as such a massive obstacle?
"Could it be that one of the chosen ones of the Pantheon's other gods is being mistaken for the Saint of Grace?"
[That is also impossible. The other gods are not in a normal state either. Think carefully about why saints, saintesses, and heroes have not been granted to humanity for 300 years.]
Except for gods like Dulanear of Evil Eradication or Lupiel of the Future, who had enough power to bestow saints, saintesses, or heroes and would send down chosen ones after assessing their qualifications, most gods used to make the person with the most outstanding faith their chosen one.
The fact that there had been no saints, saintesses, or heroes for 300 years meant that the other gods' conditions were better than Lilia's, but by no means normal.
"Then who on earth.......who on earth......."
A saint with the authority to annihilate a fragment of the Evil God at once.
But the conclusion was that he was not someone sent by the gods of the Pantheon.
The Chosen One, who had been thinking, stopped.
There was only one.
One possible hypothesis.
".......Could it be that the saint's authority comes from Hell?"
Hell.
The beings the Evil God loathed even more than the gods of the Pantheon in this world were the demons of Hell.
Why? Because 300 years ago, during the Heavenly War, the demons stabbed the Evil God in the back as if it were the most natural thing to do the moment victory seemed certain.
Internal strife broke out, and in the meantime, the gods of the Pantheon united and swept away the Evil God and the demons of Hell, and as a result, victory returned to the Pantheon.
Of course, it was a Pyrrhic victory.
Unlike the demons of Hell and the Evil God, who immediately pulled out when the situation seemed to turn unfavorable, the gods of the Pantheon had to expend a great deal of power on the aftermath to ensure the repercussions of the war did not flow down to the humans on earth.
Because of this, although victory belonged to the Pantheon, they were also the ones who suffered the greatest damage.
[Correct.]
At the Evil God's words, spoken while grinding his teeth, the Chosen One's face contorted in bewilderment.
"How.......no, how can a bastard possessing the power of Hell be revered as a saint? Could you have perhaps seen wrong?......"
[When a part of me was extinguished inside that bastard, I clearly saw the source of his authority seated deep within his soul. I did not see wrong or make a mistake. That bastard is unmistakably in possession of the power of Hell.]
The Evil God ground his teeth.
His fury filled the room, as if the mere thought made him want to vomit.
"What kind of authority on earth is it?"
[Throughout Hell and the Abyss, the greatest master of disguise and deception. A bastard capable of such perfect deception and disguise that he came and went through the Abyss and the Pantheon as if they were his own backyard.]
The Evil God spat out his words as if full of hatred.
[And the only vacancy among the current Seven Demon Kings of Hell.]
"It can't be.......it can't be."
There was only one being in Hell who met all those conditions.
The Chosen One uttered that name with a trembling voice.
"Lust."
One of the Seven Demon Kings.
"The Creator of Deception and Corruption."
The only Demon King to be destroyed during the Heavenly War.
"Asmodeus."
But soon, a question arose.
"O Evil God. But if the Saint Amael truly possesses the authority of Lust......why is the Pantheon still leaving him alone?"
Wasn't this the same as letting the Demon King of Lust run around shouting in their own inner chambers?
Especially considering that Dulanear, the God of Evil Eradication, whose eyes would roll back at the mere mention of demons and evil gods, was staying still—it made no sense, no matter how one thought about it.
At those words, the Evil God giggled.
[That Lust bastard's authority is very special. His authority perfectly projects the user's will. If he wants to mimic a demon, he becomes a demon; if he wants to mimic a god, it becomes a god's ability. During the Heavenly War, even the gods of the Pantheon and I were deceived by that authority.]
"If that is the case?......."
[When I entered that saint bastard's soul, I saw his inner self. He was a guy so naive and kind it was stupid. The authority of Lust is projecting that inner will exactly as it is. So, the gods of the Pantheon probably do not think his authority is evil.]
"Oh my god."
[Even I did not notice it at all until a part of me entered his soul and saw its essence. I am probably the only one throughout the Pantheon, Hell, and the Abyss who knows his identity.]
But a question still remained.
"Seeing him wield an authority that is not from the Pantheon, will the gods not suspect the source of that authority?"
[Are there not the divinities of the Pantheon who fell to the earth during the Heavenly War? It is highly likely they are under the misconception that one of those divinities was born by borrowing a human body. Furthermore, the gods are currently desperate for faith for the sake of their recovery. Is there any reason to doubt a bastard with benevolent abilities who is amplifying their faith?]
"If they are truly under such a misconception, why are the gods not trying to initiate a conversation with him? Wouldn't they try to clarify his identity through dialogue?"
[That is the beautiful part, my Chosen One.]
The Evil God's laughter reached its peak.
[Because the Celestial Realm was greatly damaged by the aftermath of the war, it has become almost impossible for the gods of the Pantheon to directly appear before humans and bestow divine speech. That bastard Lupiel occasionally bestows prophecies, but that is all. However, I am different. I can interfere in the Human Realm just fine. So, here is what I intend to do.]
The Evil God's voice was filled with delight at the mere thought.
[Hell is in the position of needing to retrieve the authority of that Lust bastard, and the Pantheon is in the position of needing to protect the Lust bastard. I plan to use that to instigate a fight between the Pantheon and Hell. If both sides destroy each other......could there be a more perfect victory than that?]