Chapter 690: Procession

A crumbled, ruined convent.

On its debris, over a hundred surviving nuns knelt, hands clasped together as they responded.

“We, we believe…”

The entity that promised glory and grace smiled, and the nuns stood up all at once.

The nuns grasped their heads with their praying hands.

Sssshh… Crack!!

And they pulled them off.

Their own heads, with their own hands.

Without uttering a single scream.

But that was not the end.

Despite losing their heads, the nuns did not collapse as they should have. Instead, they kept standing on their feet.

Then, as if nothing had happened, the headless bodies moved, beginning to groom the heads they had just pulled off.

Pook! Ssssh… Crack!

Click. Clack.

They cleaned the eyes with their fingers and opened the mouths… The scene resembled someone preparing a fish. And in the process, red blood stained the nuns’ hands.

The blood was so thick and sticky it appeared almost black.

The blood that had dripped from their hands suddenly crystallized, turning into long rods. They used these rods to hoist their groomed heads high into the air.

The heads swayed, dangling in the air.

Soon, light filled those heads, illuminating the surrounding darkness.

Like lanterns dispelling the darkness.

The headless nuns, holding the lanterns made of their own heads, silently stood behind a woman on a camel.

Some of them, instead of using their heads as lanterns, transformed them into bells and stood in front of the woman on the camel, ringing the bells made from their heads.

Deng… Deng…

The clear, resonant bell chimes echoed.

With each chime, the swarms of frogs, lice, and flies that had engulfed the Holy Capital split like the Red Sea.

This opened the largest boulevard from the convent to the Holy Emperor’s Palace.

Deng… Deng…

The headless nun rang her bell, clearing the path forward. The woman on the camel, leading the nuns holding the lanterns, illuminated the Holy Capital as she advanced.

The scene resembled a royal procession.

A procession so dignified and authoritative that no one could stop it, or even dare to try.

At that moment, a Holy Knight shouted towards the procession.

“Answer me!”

It was Templar Joanna, who had lost her Holy Power.

“What does it mean? Why would he want this?… Does he wish for his own death?”

Joanna’s shout brought the procession to a halt, and the woman on the camel turned her gaze to Joanna.

[You are asking what you already know.]

The worst answer Joanna feared was given.

The one she hoped, despite knowing deep down.

Knowing it was useless, Joanna still moved to try and stop the woman on the camel.

No one knew better than her that it was futile, but she couldn’t stand idly by.

After all, wouldn’t that be too sorrowful?

Just as Joanna, who had lost her Holy Knight powers, was about to take a suicidal action, Kevin grabbed her shoulder and shook his head.

His expression was filled with strong determination.

Joanna hesitated and then collapsed, while the woman on the camel, smiling, continued forward.

Deng…

Deng…

The bells kept ringing.

As the ringing bells faded into the distance, Joanna asked from where she had collapsed.

“Why… did you stop me?”

Joanna knew. She understood how foolish and selfish her question was.

If Kevin hadn’t stopped her, she would’ve lost only her own life. Kevin had saved her.

Yet, Joanna demanded an answer from him, the one who had saved her life.

She couldn’t help it. She couldn’t bear her own powerlessness.

She should have sent Oliver away. She should’ve rejected his request for prayers.

Just as she was about to break down and cry from her self-reproach, Kevin spoke.

“Something similar happened before.”

“…What?”

“In Ravely, the Capital of Gallos, when Xenon fought the Flesh Cook. Back then, I tried to help Oliver with my comrades but was blocked by Puppet. He wanted us to leave without aiding Xenon.”

“What did you do?”

“We complied. There was nothing we could do at the time. We weren’t strong enough to defeat or avoid Puppet. So, we decided to do what we could instead.”

“…I see.”

“Some called me too pragmatic. Maybe they were right. But it doesn’t matter. No matter how we feel, we can’t do what we can’t. So we do what we can. No matter how frustrating or unfair, that’s reality.”

“What can we do now…?”

“We can rescue the Dark Priests buried under the ruins.”

Kevin, with the Warlock’s Eye, pointed to an area amidst the debris.

“At least, let’s start by saving them. Maybe then we’ll find another way. What will you do? Will you stay here in despair, or will you try to do something?”

Kevin asked, and after a brief pause, Joanna stood up.

***

Deng…

Deng…

Deng…

On the wide streets of the Holy Capital’s residential area, teeming with frogs, lice, and flies.

From afar, the sound of bells could be heard.

The sound seemed to strike directly at one’s consciousness.

Deng…

Deng…

Hearing the bells, citizens of the Holy Capital who had fainted from the swarms of frogs and flies began waking up, one by one, and stepped outside.

Among the citizens were ordinary people who served the capital’s workforce, as well as aristocrats who had come from foreign nations to raise their children as high priests.

Despite the Pater Church’s usual emphasis on love and equality, these two groups, who lived in the same residential areas, were discreetly divided.

The difference was evident in whether they had servants, their clothing, and their jewelry—like an invisible wall.

Yet now, ironically, that invisible wall had crumbled.

The water had turned to blood.

The land was filled with frogs.

Lice sprouted from everywhere.

Flies descended from the sky.

And the severe illnesses and infections that came with the flies.

Before these catastrophes, people became truly equal.

They realized this through the faint lights glowing in the distance.

Lights?

As light returned to the disaster-darkened city, people simultaneously turned their eyes toward the source.

And they realized two things.

The frogs, flies, and lice that threatened their lives had vanished.

Deng…

Deng…

And someone was approaching.

The gradually nearing bells and lights were proof.

The people who had narrowly escaped death stared at the approaching sound and light as if in a daze, soon able to see it clearly.

A massive procession was approaching, and in the middle of it, there was something colossal.

The backlighting from the lanterns obscured the view, but it looked like a woman riding a four-legged beast.

A woman wearing a crown.

But it couldn’t possibly be a real woman. It was enormous, as if made from dozens of people, and the aura was something far from human.

Then, what on earth could it be?

The answer quickly came.

While they pondered, the procession moved closer to the point where it was visible to the naked eye.

“Gasp…!”

Everyone who saw the sight gasped.

A procession of headless nuns followed by a woman on a camel.

They were overwhelmed by the surreal and blasphemous presence.

These entities marched boldly down the central boulevard of the Holy Capital, the heart of the Pater Church.

Deng…

Deng…

Even now, they continued.

As they witnessed the overturning of common sense, a terror greater than the plague began to spread throughout the Holy Capital.

Even without any explicit threats or suffering, every person in the capital felt fear.

A paralyzing fear, a despair that they had no means of escaping, yet also a desperate urge to flee.

The answer was simpler than expected.

“A divine apostle…”

Someone whispered quietly.

“An apostle who has vanquished the plague…!”

Whether it was intuition or inference, someone recognized the woman on the camel as the one who had banished the disasters from the Holy Capital.

Then, some people began to kneel and bow their heads.

The easiest way to escape from fear was to submit to it.

Surprisingly, even though no one had explained this to them, everyone understood and made the same choice.

Rather than face the unknown fear, they chose to kneel and bow.

From the capital’s workers to the aristocrats who came to raise their children as high priests—everyone.

“What are you all doing?!”

One person shouted from the crowd.

A priest with crimson-trimmed robes—a Dark Priest.

He was the one who, while everyone was in chaos from the six disasters, led his subordinates down to the residential area.

He had come here for one reason.

To save the people who had fallen into confusion amid the waves of disasters.

Though he had been powerless against the endless onslaught, now he could at least stop those driven by fear from bowing to the devil.

“Stand up, all of you! How can you call that thing a divine apostle?!”

Despite feeling the same fear as everyone else, the Dark Priest shouted at the people to stand up for committing blasphemy.

What divine apostle would manifest in the flesh of humans?

The Dark Priest, who had devoted his life to the Church, instinctively cried out, needing to stop the tragic events unfolding before him.

He knew with every fiber of his being that everyone’s faith was being tested.

It wasn’t about success or failure. Something much more fundamental was at stake.

Responding to his call, Holy Knights and servants afflicted with boils began to gather, blocking the boulevard to stop the nuns’ procession.

No one would simply allow these blasphemous entities to reach the Holy Emperor’s Palace—where the God resides.

[Do you believe in God?]

The woman on the camel halted the procession and asked.

She directed her question at the Dark Priest, who was willing to risk his life to stop her.

The Dark Priest shouted in response.

“Do not test my faith, demon!”

He staked all his faith on those words.

But the entity before him only smiled kindly, despite his hostility.

[Then would you kindly step aside? I am here on His command.]

“How dare you…! Do not speak of God with that blasphemous mouth…!”

[Shall I show you proof?]

As the woman on the camel spoke, she looked at the people bowing to her.

At that moment, they stood up and began trembling slightly. Their chests bulged outward as their bodies turned inside-out, forming new figures.

They became entities resembling knights made of blood, guts, and flesh.

The Dark Priest and Holy Knights, who had been blocking the demon with the power of faith, watched in horror as these beings took form using the bowing people as offerings.

It didn’t take long for these knight-like beings to prove themselves as true knights.

Ssssh…!

The yellow light that suffused their swords was Holy Power, an ability bestowed by God.

The woman on the camel asked.

[Do you still believe in Him?]

The Dark Priest involuntarily answered with his fractured voice.

“…No.”

Sincerely.