WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Chapter 144: Shock and Awe (2)
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Falkenstein walked silently through the spacious area.
After falling into this anomalous space, he quickly grasped what was unusual about it.
"There are several demons that consecrate and twist space. This must be one of them."
There were no records on every one of the 72 Demons, but apart from a few, most had descended into this world at some point.
Whenever that happened, it was the Roman Catholic Church that defeated them and cast them back into Hell.
Its vaults held records accumulated over a long history of struggle.
"But for them to have made preparations on this scale. Have so many demons descended in the past twenty years?"
There were three ways for demons to descend.
The most common and easiest was possessing a human body.
This was the most frequent kind of demonic possession encountered during exorcisms.
Indeed, this was how Auns, Marchosias, and Martim, whom Yohan had faced, descended by borrowing human bodies.
The second was summoning an avatar.
This involved borrowing a demon's form from Hell through the energy of a special ley line, like a Ghost Vein, and a long offering ritual.
Decarabia was an example of this.
Lastly came spirit possession, in which the demon's true body descended.
The inverted pentagram summoning in Serbia was one example.
Compared to possessing a human body, the other methods took too long and drew too much attention.
That was why most demons sought to accumulate power by possessing people.
In fact, during the time Falkenstein and Pastor Kim were active, they had stopped such demonic possessions many times through exorcisms.
"I thought we'd stopped just about every demon... No, surprisingly, there were hardly any demons from the Lemegeton?"
The 72 Demons of the Lemegeton referred to the seventy-two demons commanded by King Solomon.
There were other demons as well.
The Seven Deadly Sins, the Calamities of the Apocalypse, and the host of fallen Grigori angels that the two of them had completely defeated in Ethiopia twenty-nine years ago.
Despite driving back countless evil breeds, they had barely seen any of the 72 Demons of the Lemegeton.
Which meant they had truly lurked in this world for a long, long time without revealing themselves.
They had always trembled in fear and hidden in silence.
They feared the humiliation of being reduced to slaves and commanded.
They feared the day when the king prepared by the Father would appear in this world once more.
That was likely why demon summonings had become especially frequent lately and were concentrated among the Lemegeton's demons.
They were rushing desperately to defeat the king who had finally appeared.
In that case, what Falkenstein had to do... and what Rome of this age, which upheld God's word, had to do was all the clearer.
"Long live the king."
Amen.
* * *
The monsters lurking in the village were not demons.
They did not dissolve in holy water, and people turned into monsters.
Then what category did these things belong to?
There was a simple way to find out.
"Rise."
【Screee!】
Souls slowly rose from the corpse of the strange creature.
Since it had been raised through the authority of Marchosias, the beast demon, the soul inhabiting the corpse had to be an animal.
And there was quite a variety.
"Dogs, cats, spiders, deer... There's everything."
I think I get it.
They must have fused and altered animals, then implanted them in human wombs.
Meeeeow~
Woof! Woof woof!
The souls that had been killed and tormented by demons were right before me.
Feeling sorry for the animal souls rubbing against me in gratitude, I stroked them.
Meeeeow~
Had they missed human touch?
I could feel that the animals' souls were not rejecting me.
I placed my palm against their spirit bodies and prayed.
"Since you have been anointed, you shall become vanguards who carry out Christ's will and justice."
Meeow?
The animals' souls merged into one.
Their bodies and legs fused, and their heads multiplied.
A dog's head, a cat's head, a deer's head, and a spider's head.
They had each had one head, but after discussing efficiency and reach, we settled on reinforcing the spider legs.
"Good! This is much better than before, right?"
【Screeeeech?!】
It was harmony on an entirely different level from the grotesque violation caused by demonic trickery.
Using the familiar contract that had naturally formed between us, I materialized its spirit body.
"You're blessed! Go!"
Then I tossed it outside without warning.
【Screeeech!?】
???
???
The villagers and monsters tilted their heads at the blessed four-headed beast that had suddenly been thrown at them.
It seemed they could not tell friend from foe.
"Bite them!"
【Screeeeech!】
But when the blessed Four-Headed Beast attacked, they seemed to realize that the Holy Four-Headed Beast was an enemy.
"S-stop it!"
The grandmother pointed at the Four-Headed Beast and belatedly gave the order to attack.
But before she could finish, her head vanished.
"Oops. Did I shoot too hard?"
It was because of the Gutenberg holy sword I had fired.
The grandmother, now headless, soon sprouted legs all over her body and transformed into a horrible beast.
"I'll free that soul!"
Auns's flames bloomed from my fingertips, and I pulled out a bottle of holy oil and threw it.
Crash!
The instant oil splashed from the shattered bottle, I fired Auns's flames.
Fwoosh!
Screeeeech!
Screeeech!
The flames spread in an instant, and the monsters scattered in panic.
Even amid that, the Four-Headed Beast devoured the surrounding monsters. The moment they were eaten by the Holy Four-Headed Beast, their souls merged into one.
Ah, this was purification of souls.
When a pure soul devoured suffering flesh and spirits, how could it not be called a divine beast?
"I free your souls! You shall return to the embrace of God the Father!"
Keeeeeeee!
I joined the battle, raised the souls of the burned animals again, and rebirthed them through Marchosias's authority.
There were birds among them too, but that was fine.
I also had Decarabia's authority over birds.
Every enemy I killed increased my allies.
"Since I can't use Spatial Leap anyway, I'm dumping all my spiritual power into this!"
The animals that had become allies grew wiser, more beautiful, and stronger through my spiritual power.
Soon, the evil beasts realized something.
At this rate, they were doomed to be eaten.
K-kreee!
The beasts fled. But I had no intention of letting them go.
Shhhhk!
The Gutenberg holy sword flew through the air on spiritual power.
Flames burned along the holy sword drenched in holy oil.
The Gutenberg holy sword scattered oil and sparks in every direction, forming a kind of fiery enclosure.
Flames filled every direction, blocking their escape and condemning them to burn to death.
Be eaten or burn to death.
Faced with those two choices, they continued to become offerings for the Four-Headed Beast.
"More! More! Eat more! Purify your suffering brethren! I'll give you the strength!"
The Four-Headed Beast was no longer a four-headed beast.
Each time it devoured the souls of suffering animals, it gained another head.
Its legs multiplied, and its body grew larger.
It did not matter if it grew too huge to move.
I just had to use my grace and God's blessing to alter it with sturdier legs.
Before long, it had become a beast with hundreds of heads, as large as a seven-story building.
Naming it the Beast of Judgment, I climbed onto its back and looked down over the foggy village.
"Good, I can finally see properly."
The village had become a sea of fire.
Screams poured from every house, and the despair and shrieks of evil beasts echoed throughout.
"The Lord said He would not judge with water, so in His name, I shall judge with fire! Wahahahahahaha!!"
Crazy bastard...
I thought I heard an irreverent voice somewhere, but it was probably my imagination.
It did not take long to clean up the whole village.
The Beast of Judgment had become the size of a building. Just crawling around, it devoured everything nearby.
"Man, I can't use this in South Korea."
If something like this went wild, it would tear up Seoul's expensive land.
In North Korea... honestly, I felt like dropping it on Pyongyang.
"All right, Judgment. Where are the rest?"
【Rooooar!】
"Good, good. I can see something tasty over there?"
My gaze turned toward Yongrim Missile Base.
Since I still could not see my companions amid all this chaos, this place might be some kind of separate dimension.
But I had a feeling that something would change if I went to that military base.
"Go, Beast of Judgment! Let us punish the demon's den!!"
【Awooooooo!!】
【Screeeeeeeeech!!】
Howls poured from hundreds of heads.
At the same time, the village was torn apart just by the beast's movements.
The military base was not far away.
At this size, the base would be able to spot it and respond.
Soon, return fire poured from the base.
"Oh, here it comes~"
The base responded with missiles and anti-aircraft guns.
Since this was a missile base in North Korea's interior, the weapons stationed there were probably surface-to-air missiles and air-defense equipment.
Even if war broke out and the South Korean military advanced, they would not drive tanks and armored vehicles all the way here. It was a realistic response.
Boom! Kaboom!
Several missiles struck the Beast of Judgment.
Its materialized body crumbled, and the Beast of Judgment let out a terrible cry, but it would not die instantly.
Unlike anti-tank or anti-ship missiles, these were meant to intercept relatively lightly armored fighter jets.
Their penetrating power was limited, and they relied more on widespread shrapnel than explosive force.
"That is not enough to stop God's beast!"
The anti-aircraft guns firing continuously did more damage instead.
As dozens of anti-aircraft guns opened fire, the beast's body gradually crumbled.
But even if its body crumbled, its soul would not.
"Go! Rise without end and devour the base!"
The souls separated from the crumbling body immediately became new, smaller beasts and charged toward the base.
"S-stop them!"
Rifle fire came from the guard posts too, but how could pea shooters hold back the ocean?
The Beast of Judgment was becoming smaller, but more numerous, until it finally overwhelmed the base.
By the time the anti-aircraft guns ran out of ammunition, I had reached Yongrim Missile Base without meeting any resistance.
"The Korean People's Army soldiers were the same, weren't they?"
After noticing that the souls of beasts were absorbed from the Korean People's Army corpses that had been eaten, I guessed it would be no different inside.
"Hey, these guys shut the gate."
The main gate of Yongrim Missile Base was tightly closed.
It seemed they had realized they could not stop us and locked the gate completely.
I tried pounding on it with the beasts, but it was military-grade armor. It did not look like it would break easily.
"Everyone, move back."
Thousands of beasts withdrew like an ebbing tide at my command.
"I do have something useful."
I was looking at the missiles that remained unfired.
They looked Soviet-made, with four surface-to-air missiles mounted on one vehicle.
But despite firing like crazy earlier, two had been left unfired. They had probably malfunctioned.
They were likely fifty-year-old missiles, so it could not be helped if they had failed to launch.
But that did not matter. What I was about to do was make them explode through pure physical impact.
"Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path. Darkness shall not overcome the light."
I took out holy water and splashed it over the missiles. Splaaash!
"Your word is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. Servants of darkness, in Christ's name, I declare that you shall bow before the explosion of judgment."
I pulled a missile toward me with spiritual power and aimed it at the main gate.
"And so! Just as shouts of praise to the Lord and the beating of drums brought down Jericho's walls, may the firebolt unleashed by the spear of flame bring down the enemy's fortress! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaamen!!"
Booom!
The missile pierced the main gate and exploded inside.
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