WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 89: Creation of the Heretic (2)

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I ordered Buzzbuzz, the Cerberus water deer, and Oink Oink, the bulked-up boar, to chase after Kohaku.

"This way! This way! Follow me!"

Kohaku led the composite beasts waiting around the edge of the prayer center to its annex.

The Eden Prayer Center's annex stood on the opposite side of the grounds.

It was so secluded that no sound would carry, no matter what happened there.

"What are they doing here?"

I inspected the annex through my synchronized view with Buzzbuzz.

There weren't many, but there were guards.

While Gugu and Jjaekjjaeki drew their attention, the Hybrid Beasts quietly approached the wall.

"Hey! What the hell? Why are there so many pigeons?"

"Have all these birds gone crazy? Huh? Wh-what is that?!"

The guards were subdued in an instant. As I watched the Hybrid Beasts drag them away, I picked out the next targets.

The guards here weren't much of a professional outfit.

They were cultists handed guns and told to patrol.

With Gugu's legion sharing location data like a map hack, taking them down without being noticed wasn't difficult.

After securing the annex buildings, the Hybrid Beasts followed Kohaku farther inside.

"What the hell is this place?"

Below the annex was an empty cavern where an underground parking lot or utilities should have been.

Farther in, I spotted something like a tunnel...

I was starting to understand what this place was for.

They must be keeping kidnapped people here.

Wae! Wae!

"Wh-what? Why is there an animal in here... Aaah?!"

We ran into a cultist dressed head to toe in white. Caught off guard by WaeWae appearing out of nowhere, they backed away and fell flat on their ass.

Waaaaaaaaa!

WaeWae charged in on its own, clamped down on the cultist, and began shaking them around.

"Urk! Urk! Aah! Ugh!"

That cultist wasn't alone.

Others crawled out at the commotion, only to find WaeWae and Quackquack waiting for them.

"A-a yōkai?!"

"Quaaaaack!"

A brawl broke out.

Well, calling it a brawl was generous. It was more like a one-sided beating.

"Take them out!"

Kohaku skillfully led the Hybrid Beasts as they subdued the Eden Salvation Church believers underground.

They knew about yōkai, and they knew about this suspicious place. They clearly weren't ordinary people.

Now was the best time, while everyone was busy with the service.

"Okay. Found Gagaram. Why the hell is he tied up here?"

Just as I was about to watch a little longer, an Eden deacon approached me.

"Brother Jinwoo. Please come with us for a moment."

"Is something wrong?"

"The Cult Leader has prepared a special seat for you."

A special seat?

That made me nervous, but I couldn't exactly back out now.

I followed the deacon along the wall of the darkened chapel.

Red lights flickered over the packed chapel, drawing my eyes toward the central platform.

It was the smell.

A dried, unpleasant stench drifted from somewhere.

Because of Kim Gicheol?

No, it was different from the musty stink unique to wicked beings.

When I reached the central platform, Kim Gicheol rose from the chair where he had been resting while everyone prayed.

"Oh, brother. Welcome. What do you think of our prayer center?"

The congregation's loud prayers made it hard to hear each other, so I raised my voice.

"Yeah, everyone's passionate. It's been a while since I've been to a prayer center."

"Haha, they're all sincere in their devotion to God the Father."

Kim Gicheol led me up onto the platform.

I could feel the believers subtly turning their attention toward me.

"But why am I..."

"You said you had many concerns about your spiritual sight, didn't you?"

"...Yes."

I'd only acted that way to get invited to their headquarters and avoid suspicion.

"It must have been quite frightening. Everything you see must look sinister."

"Uh... yeah."

Evil spirits still swarmed around Kim Gicheol.

Every evil spirit gathered in this chapel was probably one of his familiars.

"But don't be too deceived by appearances. God Himself values what is within, and these beings exist to lead us toward salvation and immortality."

Hm, I agreed with that.

Judging someone by their appearance alone was racist prejudice.

That much, I could get behind.

"I, too, was born with my spiritual sight open, just like you. Once, I suffered as I looked upon the wicked things of this world."

"..."

Someone born with spiritual abilities.

That alone meant Kim Gicheol was an exceptionally powerful sorcerer.

I wondered what method he used.

Eden Salvation Church was an even more cultish heretical sect than I'd expected.

Everyone who fell into that cult called him Jesus of the Second Coming. The reason he had even evaded government pursuit was because of the fanatical protection offered by his believers.

Team Leader Kang Gihan had said it when I received the request from the Mystic Association.

Whatever a Black Knot sorcerer did, it would be enough to call it a miracle.

"Watch closely. Today, I will show you a new path to God."

"...All right."

I sat beside Kim Gicheol in one of the chairs on the platform.

In an ordinary church, seats like these were for the pastor, associate pastor, and elders.

What the hell was he planning to show me by putting me here?

Soon, the lights came on, and the prayer time naturally came to an end.

Standing on the platform, Kim Gicheol spread both arms wide.

"My gathered brothers and sisters, today is the day the gates of Eden open."

"Oh, a miracle..."

"Another miracle...!"

The believers' eyes all turned toward one place.

Behind the platform, a boy in ceremonial robes emerged, supported by two deacons.

His eyes were covered with a blindfold marked with some kind of suspicious pattern.

There were faint trails of moisture around his mouth. Was he... drugged?

"God commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac to Him."

Abraham and Isaac.

Kim Gicheol brought up a familiar story and continued.

"Abraham agonized and hesitated. Isaac was the legitimate eldest son he had with his lawful wife Sarah in their old age."

Isaac was a blessed child whose birth had been foretold by an angel.

Abraham and Sarah had been unable to have a son for a long time. At Sarah's suggestion, Abraham took a concubine and had Ishmael, yet the two of them still longed for a legitimate heir.

Sarah was old when an angel, who had come as Abraham's guest, prophesied that she would bear a son. She finally gave birth, so it went without saying how dearly they cherished Isaac.

Though Ishmael was the eldest son through a concubine, Abraham had even sent him away for Isaac's inheritance.

How much anguish must Abraham have felt when God ordered him to offer such a son as a burnt offering?

"Yet Abraham decided to offer Isaac as a burnt offering, following God's command. He remained sincerely faithful until it was revealed to be God's test."

As Kim Gicheol spoke of the Bible story, he brought the boy onto the platform.

Fuck, so that dried fishy smell came from an altar for burnt offerings?

"Brother Yun Seongho. Please come up."

A middle-aged man stepped forward. He helped a woman up with him, but she didn't look well.

She seemed seriously ill, and even walking beside Yun Seongho appeared difficult for her.

"Brother Yun Seongho's wife, Sister Kim Mi-ae, has suffered from a rare disease for a long time. But today, our brother's faith will be tested."

What did that mean?

A nameless anxiety washed over me.

Then the blindfolded boy climbed onto the altar.

Suddenly, I saw something like a faint tattoo on the back of his neck.

No, it wasn't only there. Layer upon layer of dark red markings, like bruises, had been tattooed behind his ears and on his wrists too.

Like incantations written on yellow talisman paper.

"Because Abraham offered what he loved most, God counted his faith as righteousness."

A deacon approached Yun Seongho.

They pulled something from their clothes and handed it to him.

A sharp dagger.

"Uh..."

"Today, our brother will also prove his righteousness before God, just as Abraham did!"

"Amen!!"

The chapel shook with fanatical cries.

At the same time, I saw the evil spirits begin to move.

They approached Yun Seongho and his wife, staring at their son lying on the altar as if they wanted to lick him.

The black masses began writhing wildly.

【They're here.】

【They're here.】

【Finally.】

【I'm hungry.】

【Let's eat.】

Hundreds.

No.

Too many evil spirits to count poured down from the ceiling.

They circled over the boy's head, flicking out their tongues.

One look at their ravenous eyes told me everything.

They wanted the boy's flesh and soul.

The instant Yun Seongho stabbed his son, the evil spirits would do something.

【Pastooor──】

I suddenly remembered one of the evil spirits calling Kim Gicheol Pastor.

No way?

Then why was he showing this to me?

He knew I could see souls, didn't he?

"Now, don't be afraid."

Kim Gicheol gently pushed Yun Seongho's back, then glanced at me.

He still wore the same benevolent expression.

The fact that he could make that face while urging a father to stab his own son to death gave me chills.

"The Lord is waiting."

Only then did I realize Kim Gicheol's intention.

I had two choices.

Ignore it and let it happen.

If I were some outsider who had simply wandered into the prayer center, that would be the realistic option.

Try to stop it.

Even that wouldn't mean much. Stopping a father who had come here willing to stab his own son wouldn't change anything.

But what if I had the power to stop it?

"Fuck. This totally ruins everything."

It was a trap.

Still, there was no way I could stand by while a life was extinguished right in front of me.

"To hell with it!"

I rushed in and kicked the man who was about to stab his son.

It was a clean flying kick. The man fell backward and rolled across the platform.

"Ugh!"

He probably got hurt, but serves the bastard right for trying to kill his own kid.

What mattered was what came next.

"Brother, why would you do such a thing?"

"You know exactly why! Gari!"

At that moment, a massive mouth crashed down through the prayer center's ceiling.

The people in the chapel panicked, but Kim Gicheol alone smiled faintly and stared straight at Gari.

"As expected."

Like he'd been waiting for this.

"I knew you'd respond this way."

"You knew?"

I narrowed my eyes at Kim Gicheol.

"Ever since we first met at the church... you've looked like you were constantly holding something back."

"..."

"Aren't you sensitive to smells?"

Had I let it show?

I must have frowned without realizing it.

"Spiritual scent. It's rare to find someone this sensitive."

As his gaze swept through the air, all the evil spirits grinned.

【That's right.】

【We told him.】

【That you could see us.】

【That you kept holding back.】

"It's hard not to show it when this place reeks like fucking shit."

"Just as I thought!"

Kim Gicheol's smile slowly twisted.

The benevolent pastor's face peeled away, revealing his true nature, soaked in madness.

"Compared to low-quality souls, someone born with spiritual abilities makes such a nourishing sacrifice. Ah, brother, you'll become a very powerful soul."

"You sound pretty confident. Not many people can talk like that after seeing Gari's face."

Chomp chomp?!

"Hehe... so what? You're alone. This is where my legion awaits!"

A cold gust swept through the chapel.

The evil spirits hanging from the ceiling rained down, and more entered through the doors the fleeing believers had opened.

A legion.

It definitely deserved to be called one.

I thought I understood Eden Salvation Church's human sacrifices now.

Kim Gicheol must have created countless resentful sacrificial victims through human offerings.

Souls murdered by their fathers, mothers, and families would naturally have become evil spirits.

With this many evil spirits and such powerful spiritual force, he could have easily pulled off scams disguised as miracles.

"Alone? Who says I'm alone?"

"What?"

"I'm confident in my numbers too."

I immediately whistled.

I'd kept one side of my vision synchronized this whole time.

Except for the rescued Gagaram, and Eom Honggeun and his group, who had somehow been subdued.

I called in my legion, which had been lying in wait around the prayer center.

Rumbleeeee!

The vibration of beasts kicking off the ground at once shook the chapel like an earthquake.

It was enough to make the believers who had opened the doors and tried to flee turn back inside.

"Aaah! What is that?!"

"Monsters! It's monsteeers!!"

Then a horde of materialized beasts and birds poured into the chapel.

My legion, created through Marchosias and Decarabia's power.

"My lord! This lowly one has arrived!!"

【Po...!】

Kohaku arrived alongside Eight-Foot Sister and Gagaram.

Good. Everyone who could come was here.

"...!"

The legion that had gathered in an instant faced off against the evil spirit legion.

Even compared to the evil spirit legion approaching several thousand strong, my forces were no joke.

Actually.

Waaaaaaaa!

Quaaaaack!

Our side was way more intimidating to look at.

"Kyaaaaaah!"

"Monsters! Monsteeers!"

"Cult Leader! Please defeat these monsters!"

Why did I suddenly feel like the villain here?

Damn heretics.

Footnotes:

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