WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 90: Battle of the Black Crystals
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"Eom Honggeun! Eom Honggeun!"
"Kim... Gangwoo?"
Clutching his throbbing head, Eom Honggeun barely managed to get to his feet.
"I'm... still alive."
It wasn't just him. The subordinates who had raided the annex were all alive too, though their injuries varied.
They had been utterly overwhelmed.
"What happened? I heard a commotion and rushed over."
"You didn't see them?"
"Them...? You mean those Eden Salvation Church bastards?"
Kim Gangwoo had named the wrong target, and Eom Honggeun let out a hollow laugh.
The fact that Kim Gangwoo hadn't even spotted them meant they had subdued everyone and escaped in that short time.
"There were monsters. Monsters from Eden Salvation Church."
"Monsters?"
"Horrifying creatures. I've never seen anything so bizarre in my life."
That bad?
Kim Gangwoo didn't get along with Eom Honggeun, but he knew what the man was capable of.
He was a renowned freelancer, a sorcerer who had received an Azure Knot from the Association.
"What kind of monster was it for someone like you to get taken down without even putting up a fight?"
"...Even the Berserk Talisman, which is especially effective against unclean beings, did nothing to them. I spent a good amount of money making it, too."
The moment Eom Honggeun encountered them, he and his subordinates used the enchanted artifacts best suited for the situation.
They fought back with every talisman and enchanted artifact lethal to evil and unclean beings.
The basics of sorcery were to oppose spirits and monsters with forces that countered them.
It was a cunning, effective method available only to intelligent beings.
Otherwise, how could mere humans stand against great yōkai and demons?
Eom Honggeun had been certain the spells he used would deal devastating blows to those evil, bizarre beings.
Yet none of his attacks worked on the unclean monsters.
Not the Berserk Talisman that poured out consecrated light, not the secret mantra that crushed unclean beings, not even the barriers that kept them away.
Nothing worked against them.
There were two possible explanations.
Either the power hadn't truly countered them in the first place.
Or the enemy was simply too powerful.
'There's no way those things aren't evil. It wouldn't be strange if they were servants of demons.'
Which meant they were overwhelmingly powerful.
Powerful enough to chew up the very forces meant to counter them.
"We have to run. We can't handle this. Kim Gicheol... Kim Gicheol, who created monsters like that, isn't even a monster who can be classified as Black Knot level anymore."
"What are you saying...? Don't tell me he's Yellow Knot level?"
"And then some."
A realm of madness that cultivated bizarre beings capable of overcoming forces meant to counter them.
If something like that were possible, it could surpass even Black Knot level, the pinnacle of ordinary sorcerers.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him Yellow Knot level now, a rank granted only to representatives of lineages with special authority.
"Eom Honggeun! Where are you going?"
"I'm out. This... is way above our level."
As Eom Honggeun began to leave, his subordinates followed him out.
The other bounty hunters watching them hesitated.
KWA-A-A-A-A-ANG!!
But then.
"Boss! Look over there!"
"Fuck... what the hell is that now?"
The bounty hunters emerging from the annex stared blankly at the black energy surging from the main building.
The heat pouring off the rising flames scorched their faces.
"Fuck... this isn't our fight. Let's get out of here."
"Y-yes, Boss!"
Not a single hunter objected to Kim Gangwoo's conclusion.
* * *
Once the fight with Kim Gicheol began, the first thing I did was evacuate the ordinary believers.
While clashing with thousands of evil spirits, I deliberately left the entrance open.
Fortunately, most of the believers got out on their own.
The only people left in the chapel were Kim Gicheol's loyal subordinates.
They came at us with knives and guns, but I wasn't soft enough to spare people like that.
"Impressive. Sorcerers who can command a legion this large are rare."
Black energy stained the chapel floor.
The evil spirits hanging from the ceiling fell to the ground all at once and began to writhe.
Their limbs twisted.
Their necks spun all the way around.
Black smoke leaked from their torn mouths.
【I'm hungry.】
【Cult Leader, can we eat them?】
【Can we kill them?】
They were horribly warped evil spirits.
Spirits full of resentment, sacrificed by Kim Gicheol and twisted even in form.
"Now, take a look. This is faith."
Boom!
At that moment, the evil spirits' spiritual power exploded all at once.
It became a visible black wave crashing toward us, but Gari blocked it in front of me.
KWA-ANG!
I sheltered behind Gari, using Gari as a breakwater against the wave.
Still, even a pure explosion of spiritual power was terrifying when there were this many of them.
"Gari, don't just focus on protecting me. Go after Kim Gicheol. I'll manage somehow."
Clack! Clack!
At my words, Gari charged at Kim Gicheol.
I pulled out the Gutenberg Bible and recited a prayer.
"By the Lord's word, I draw the boundary. Let no unclean thing enter, and let none leave."
Holy paper fluttered out from the Gutenberg Bible and stuck to the chapel's windows and doors.
From now on, every evil spirit in this space was barred from entering or leaving without my consent.
"The Gutenberg Bible... Is there still an original copy left in Korea?"
Kim Gicheol sounded impressed as he sent evil spirits pouring at Gari.
But it was too early to be surprised.
"One-third shall bar evil from entering and leaving, one-third shall pursue and bind souls, and one-third shall become piercing swords."
Gutenberg holy paper poured out and latched onto the evil spirits.
If it could serve as a barrier that sealed off evil spirits, then it could also become shackles that bound the evil spirits themselves.
Each sheet wasn't particularly powerful, so it could only hold the evil spirits in place briefly.
Still, that was enough time for the Gutenberg holy swords to pierce them.
【Kyaak!】
【Gurk!】
【C-Cult Leader...!】
The evil spirits pierced by the holy swords began to vanish.
Hoping they had gone where they were meant to go after death, I continued directing the holy paper.
"How crude! Operating this much holy paper at once must be a waste of spiritual power!"
"I beat a six-hundred-year-old gumiho in a spiritual power contest."
"What?!"
The holy swords were also flying toward Kim Gicheol.
He defended against the incoming holy swords with the spiritual power pouring from the evil spirits.
I wasn't going to lose in a battle of numbers, but Kim Gicheol possessed more spiritual power than any human I'd faced so far.
No, more accurately, it wasn't Kim Gicheol's own spiritual power. He was forcibly drawing out the evil spirits' spiritual power.
"Gari, eat."
No matter how dense it was, spiritual power was useless before Gari.
"Urk!"
Despite the barrier resembling a storm of spiritual power, Gari tried to break through it with Gari's bare body.
Kim Gicheol recoiled in shock and poured out even more spiritual power.
"You're breaking through spiritual power this dense with your body?! What kind of monster are you raising?!"
"You bastard, you're a Christian heretic and you can't recognize an angel?"
"An angel?! That hideous thing?!"
Even a fake cult leader had prejudices about appearances, huh?
Crack!
Gari finally took a bite out of the storm of spiritual power and thrust Gari's jaws toward Kim Gicheol.
Four treasured swords and spears sprang out from Gari's mouth.
"...!"
Kim Gicheol spread a barrier of spiritual power, but the treasured swords and spears weren't something it could block.
"Keugh!"
Nice, his body got pierced.
As long as he was human, surviving that was impossible...
"Khehehe!"
【Cult Leader?】
【N-no! Cult Leader! Please! It hurts!】
【Save meee!】
When Kim Gicheol stretched out his hand toward the evil spirits, they were absorbed into him as if sucked into a black hole.
Then the absorbed evil spirits became Kim Gicheol's bones and flesh, restoring his body.
"What the hell is that? Is he a vampire?"
"Hehehe! I'd appreciate it if you didn't compare me to mosquitoes that suck the flesh and blood of humans. My Soul-Devouring Sorcery is undeniably a human power."
"You act exactly like a monster. Why are you so desperate to be considered human?"
"Your arrogance ends here!"
At that moment, one of the evil spirits dropped toward me.
Even though it had been pierced by a holy sword, it didn't slow down. Then I caught a very dangerous scent from it.
Whoosh!
The instant I dodged with a short-range spatial leap, the evil spirit exploded where I had been.
Bang!
It wasn't a physical explosion, but a spiritual one.
Even after leaping through space, I could feel its effects prickling across my skin.
That would've been dangerous if it had hit me directly.
"You're making evil spirits self-destruct?"
The evil spirits charged one after another.
The effects of spiritual explosions poured in from every direction.
I was dodging with spatial leaps, but I couldn't use them forever.
Since we were outside the sanctuary, I'd hit my limit first.
"Gari! I'm joining you!"
Clack! Clack!
I climbed onto Gari, who was still grappling with Kim Gicheol.
Kim Gicheol sneered at me.
"Do you think that monster can protect you?"
"Yeah, it's phase two."
"...?!"
At that moment, Gari's body began to transform.
The rings circling Gari changed into wheels, and Auns's authority created wheels of fire.
"This is!"
"Run him over!"
A wave of spiritual power?
It would be trampled beneath God's burning chariot.
A chariot's role was to break through.
And, at the same time, to trample and crush whatever it broke through.
In Chariot Mode, Gari focused solely on breaking through instead of devouring and began trampling Kim Gicheol's evil spirits.
KWA-A-A-A-A~!
On top of that, flames pouring from the wheels set the chapel ablaze.
The evil spirits engulfed in those flames burned even hotter, letting out cries of agony.
【H-hot!】
【Cult Leader! Cult Leadeeer!】
"You bastard! Do you think you can dodge with that huge body in such a cramped place?!"
Kim Gicheol sent dozens of evil spirits charging at once.
It looked like he was trying to stop the chariot through self-destruction, but not a chance.
Whoosh!
The next instant, Gari and I appeared at the chapel ceiling.
"You could leap with someone else as well?!"
"Run him over."
The burning wheels dropped from the air and slammed straight down on Kim Gicheol.
Spinning in place and scattering flames, the wheels were literally grinding through Kim Gicheol's curtain of spiritual power.
"Keuuugh!"
Kim Gicheol desperately squeezed spiritual power from the evil spirits.
Amazing.
He could withstand this.
Once you had thousands of evil spirits, I guess this kind of bullshit became possible.
"Kraaaah!"
Soon after, spiritual power squeezed out from hundreds of evil spirits pushed Gari back.
But there was no way this was over.
We just had to attack again.
Kim Gicheol, having gained some distance, prepared his killing move.
"I'll pour every evil spirit I've gathered onto you! Neither you nor that monster will survive!"
Just as Kim Gicheol was about to unleash every evil spirit at Gari, who had been knocked away.
"Hoo...!"
"...?!"
I had already leapt behind Kim Gicheol.
With the Gutenberg holy sword in hand.
"Black Knot? Nothing special."
"Y-you...?!"
The holy sword I swung pierced Kim Gicheol's chest.
"Keugh?!"
Kim Gicheol spat blood.
At the same time, I poured power into the holy sword as if pulling a trigger.
The authority of Auns, ranked fifty-eighth.
Flame magic.
"Kraaaaaagh!"
Surging flames burned Kim Gicheol's entire body.
* * *
Yun Seongho and the other believers of Eden Salvation Church began gathering in the chapel as the commotion died down.
Before they fled, all kinds of monsters had attacked the chapel, but the Cult Leader had fought against them.
The believers knew.
They knew how powerful the Cult Leader was.
He showed miracles to those who proved their faith.
So this time, too, he must have defeated the satanic devils with a miracle.
"C-Cult Leader..."
Yun Seongho set down his son and wife, whom he had been supporting, and headed toward the chapel.
His wife had cancer.
He had made her suffer all her life, and while desperately searching for a cure, he learned of the Salvation Church's miracles.
He hesitated when he heard that offering up sons and daughters there brought about all kinds of miracles, but he joined the church with the desperation of someone grasping at straws.
There, Yun Seongho had seen it.
He saw the Cult Leader perform miracles.
He saw someone heal his illness by stabbing his own son.
Wasn't that sacrificing his child in the end?
No. Like when Abraham had intended to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, the Cult Leader did not take the child who had been offered.
The offered son, who had clearly been stabbed with a dagger, came back completely unharmed and praised the Cult Leader.
The son became a fervent believer, as if he had become a different person, while the father cured of his illness wept and became even more zealous.
But.
Was that son... really his son?
He truly seemed like a different person...
No, this was a test.
His faith was being tested.
Only by strengthening his faith even more firmly could he receive the grace of a miracle.
Seeing how the unbeliever who had doubted until the end failed to make the offering made him even more certain.
Faith. That was what mattered.
Then why did he hear voices that seemed to cry out every night...?
"C-Cult Leader won, right?"
"..."
Even asking that was doubt and disbelief.
Trying to comfort himself with that thought, Yun Seongho entered the chapel.
What he saw there were the monsters that had attacked the chapel.
Beasts of chaos that could never be believed to be animals of this world.
The believers were horrified to see that they were still alive, but soon realized the beasts were sitting quietly.
As if reverently kneeling in prayer.
No, as if they were offering worship toward someone praying.
"Lord, merciful God of love, my God who opens the way and opens the door for those who are lost."
On the platform.
Beyond a charcoal-black mass burned to cinders, a young man knelt and prayed.
"Please watch over the souls who sinned unknowingly after being deceived by a false prophet. Look upon them, and take away their lingering regrets, pain, fear, and resentment."
Yun Seongho knew instinctively.
That young man was the one who caused all this.
He needed to rush in and prove his loyalty to the Cult Leader.
Yet, strangely enough.
"Lead them upon a peaceful path. Leave them only with the memories they loved, so that they may truly knock upon the door of God's kingdom."
He couldn't approach him.
The young man's halo was too dazzling, and Yun Seongho found himself kneeling without realizing it.
"May you find rest and peace in the Father's embrace."
Amen.
There was light.
Footnotes:
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