Hahoe Mask (3)
“Hmm?”
Archbishop Latius, who had been concentrating, suddenly raised his head and looked around.
He had sensed some faint presence…
“Archbishop? Is something wrong?”
The holy knight standing guard beside him asked cautiously.
Apparently, he had not noticed anything unusual.
“No, nothing. Let us continue.”
He was in the middle of something important.
He had to maintain a large-scale concealment sacred art until the combat unit that would fight the descendant of the Immortal King approached him.
He also had to prepare for the possibility that the bastard might escape by teleportation.
There was no room to let himself be distracted by anything else.
The encirclement was perfect, and they had prepared for teleportation as well.
Now, if only the surprise attack succeeded, their chances of victory would increase even further.
***
Even after receiving information from his familiars, he could not determine the identity of his opponent.
That was only natural, since he could not see him.
The trigger, “when encountering a human,” seemed to have been activated simply by the animals’ instincts.
Because their opponent was human.
‘They can conceal every person approaching from all directions? And hide their presence so completely that they do not even get caught by detection magic?’
His opponent had prepared thoroughly to capture him.
‘Who are they? Brokoslack? Or the Oath of Defying Heaven? How did they find out I was here?’
It was urgent that he understand the situation.
In truth, if he made up his mind, he could reverse-summon himself and disappear at any time, but simply avoiding the problem would not solve anything.
‘I need to find out who pinpointed my location and how they did it. Only by knowing the cause can I prepare against it.’
He had been lucky enough to notice them first this time, but if he were interrupted while handling something important in another situation, things could become even more troublesome.
‘Prepare myself, buy some time, and gather information about them.’
He hurried back into the cave.
It was not particularly deep, but since the entrance was limited, it was still better than being ambushed without warning from all directions.
And after a very brief while—
Krrrzzzt—
All kinds of barriers that had been set up around the area shattered in an instant.
At the same time, he sensed the presences of those who had thrown off their concealment.
‘Huh? This presence…?’
A force so hot that it felt not merely burning, but stinging.
A power antithetical to Hans’s dark mana.
‘They’re neither dark mages nor vampires. Could this be divine power?’
Click, clack.
While he was still flustered, knights clad in pure-white armor entered through the cave entrance.
“We have finally caught your trail. Hans, descendant of the Immortal King! You will run no farther!”
The middle-aged knight at the very front shouted as he pointed his sword at me.
‘That emblem… The Church of the High God? Are they the church’s holy knights?’
It was the emblem Heinz II had learned about during his education with the clan.
He had been warned to be careful because the church’s divine power was antithetical to his own.
In particular, the presence emanating from the holy knight at the front was no weaker than that of the true-blood vampire he had encountered not long ago.
Considering the antagonistic nature of their powers, he would be an even more troublesome opponent.
[Minions of the church? How did you find out where I was?]
With that one question, I obtained useful information from the very beginning.
The church had continuously pursued me, targeting me for possessing the Immortal King’s power, and had investigated me so thoroughly that they even knew my name.
I needed to stall for as long as possible and gather more information.
“No evil can escape the gaze of the High God!”
But the knight at the front drew a sword of light and charged at me without hesitation.
Unfortunately, it seemed he had no intention of continuing the conversation.
‘Tch. Since things have come to this, I might as well collect some combat data on fighting divine power.’
***
Kuwaaang!
Amid a thunderous explosion, the archlich Hans burst out from the rubble of the collapsed cave.
Fwoosh—!
A paladin radiating pure-white energy immediately emerged after him and attacked.
The antithetical divine power was more troublesome than he had expected.
‘Guh, this old man really won’t stop chasing me!’
The cave was on the verge of collapsing from the aftereffects of their battle, but the paladin stuck to him without letting up for even an instant.
The other holy knights who had withdrawn from the cave had already surrounded the area on all sides, while beyond them, soldiers and priests bearing the emblem of the Church of the High God had formed another encirclement.
Hymns rang out from every direction, and the sacred light illuminating the area burned away the dark mana wrapped around his body.
The holy knights, strengthened by all kinds of beneficial sacred arts, pressed forward while radiating a dawn-like glow from their entire bodies.
Waves of light that beautifully embroidered the surroundings.
The sight of the flow of divine power filling every direction and converging toward a single goal was almost awe-inspiring.
It would have been even better if that goal had not been to annihilate him at the center.
‘They really came fully prepared! What did I even do to them?’
All Hans had done so far was punish bad people.
He had merely done the work they should have been doing themselves, and this was how they treated him…!
He protested on those grounds, but the answer he received was firm.
“No being can fully accept the power of the Immortal King. The moment one accepts that power, the mind begins to be corrupted and the soul begins to fall! And you will lead the continent to ruin!”
A voice filled with unwavering conviction and faith.
“Wicked dark mage who has laid hands upon forbidden power! If you truly still possess a human heart, surrender peacefully and accept purification! We will grant you a tranquil rest!”
Considering what had happened when he absorbed the power of the fragments, it was understandable that they saw him that way.
But how could he prove that he was the exception here?
[Whew, it cannot be helped. I will withdraw for now.]
He could gradually feel his body creaking.
Powerful dark mana continued to flow from his heart, but his skill at handling it was still too poor to perfectly resist the divine power.
Since the power had been acquired so suddenly, he needed more time to use it efficiently.
‘Still, if I went all out, I am confident I could inflict critical damage on them…’
He still had many cards he had yet to reveal.
If he summoned an undead army to buy time, then dealt with the soldiers and priests who had surrounded the area and were constructing a massive sacred formation…
The damage he suffered in the process could be endured to some extent through the synergy between the endlessly supplied dark mana and 「Immortality」.
‘No. It would be better to let this go. It would be a waste to expend my strength on such a meaningless fight.’
Besides, it bothered him that the church’s forces were not actually bad people.
They had come into conflict because of their different positions, but were they not people who had gathered for a noble conviction?
Since he, too, operated according to the principle of punishing only the wicked, he felt reluctant to harm them recklessly.
Even if he could slaughter them all here, the enraged church would only become more active in pursuing him.
They were, after all, unquestionably one of the greatest powers on the continent.
There was nothing more to gain from fighting.
He had gained experience with divine power and realized his own shortcomings. That was sufficient for now.
“Do you think you can escape!”
Fwoosh—
Perhaps they had noticed his intentions.
Sacred light began at one side, spreading from the bodies of those forming the encirclement until it filled the entire space.
‘What kind of sacred art is this now?’
It did not seem to be the kind that restricted his power.
It felt a little unpleasant, but he could ignore something of this level without difficulty.
[I see. Distortion and severance. A sacred art meant to hinder escape. I wondered why someone with an aura comparable to the paladin had been standing still instead of joining the battle.]
He had realized long ago that there was another person whose presence rivaled the paladin’s.
He had remained wary throughout the fight, unsure when that person would intervene, but it seemed they had been preparing to prevent his escape.
Taking advantage of the lull in the battle, I looked around.
The paladin and holy knights surrounding him.
The priests and combat soldiers encircling the area.
‘How terrifying. If I had not been an avatar, I would not have been able to escape so easily.’
The Church of the High God, whose divine power grew stronger according to its faith in the god.
And on top of that, they seemed to possess ways of tracking demons.
‘They are going to keep hounding me from now on… I need to come up with a countermeasure.’
Both Hans and Heinz II were targets of their extermination efforts.
Now that he understood the situation, he needed to respond.
Of course, for now…
[I see. You went to considerable trouble to capture me.]
“Have you finally decided to accept purification peacefully?”
[As if.]
When I lightly shrugged, they tensed again and readjusted their grips on their weapons.
[I understand that there is no room for dialogue when our positions are so diametrically opposed. But there is nothing more to gain from continuing to fight here.]
“……”
They looked at him as if to say, So what are you suggesting?
Seeing them like that, he felt amused and tossed out one last remark.
[Heh heh heh… This is where we part. If you can catch me, then go ahead and try. Minions of the church.]
“Ha! You think you can get out of—”
I did not wait to hear him finish.
‘Dismiss summon.’
I had already obtained everything I needed.
***
“Hmm, this has become troublesome. There are too many enemies now, aren’t there?”
The Oath of Defying Heaven, an underground faction, and Brokoslack, a vampire clan.
Unlike them, the Church of the High God was unquestionably one of the greatest powers on the continent.
They did not force their faith upon others, nor did they oppress the smaller denominations.
Nevertheless, they were practically a unified religion, with temples throughout the entire world.
‘Even if you combined all the other religions, they wouldn’t amount to even half of a quarter of the Church of the High God’s strength.’
And such a power had singled out Hans as a target and was even operating troops against him.
“…Could it be that the reason my karma has been so favorable all this time was…”
Only now could I understand.
Without realizing it, I had been drawing aggro across the entire continent.
“Let’s think about that later. For now, there’s a problem that needs to be dealt with first.”
In an instant, darkness spread across the floor, and Hans slowly rose from it.
[Heh heh heh… The time has come to show the results of all my research.]
It was time to demonstrate the finally completed ‘Infectious Familiar Magic Final Version_Revised_Second Pass_FINAL (3)_Really the Last.’
‘And if I use the research results I gained this time to strengthen my concealment magic, it should also help hide Hans’s presence.’
This had been a productive experience in many ways.
***
Hans went around the city, implanting familiar magic in one or two of the animals he saw at regular intervals.
Once their numbers increased through the infectious effect, he would have to adjust their population periodically.
It was while he was busily making his rounds that—
Bzzzt—
The first signal arrived sooner than expected.
It was information sent by a stray cat some distance away.
[“P-please save me! Is anyone there?! Somebody, please help me!”]
A woman’s voice, filled with terror.
I immediately teleported into the darkness where the cat was.
“Heh heh heh, scream louder. Do you really think anyone can hear you like that?”
“Wh-why isn’t anyone coming? Somebody save me! P-please report this!”
“Mmm~ What a lovely, desperate scream.”
The scene I arrived at looked like something from a thriller movie.
In an empty park, a woman lay collapsed on the ground, sobbing, while a single madman stood before her with a dagger in one hand and a recorder in the other.
“Hmm, that’ll do. The recording came out nicely. This should make it into the top three of my collection.”
“Somebody help! Please! Aaaah—!”
“Heh heh heh, scream as much as you like. No one outside will hear a thing.”
The man approached with the knife in his hand, while the woman shrieked as though she were about to have a fit.
No matter how one looked at it, this was the moment just before a murder.
‘Just as that fellow said, there is indeed a strange veil spread around the area. Is this his ability?’
A force surrounding the area with the murderer at its center.
It not only blocked sound, but also prevented those outside from observing what was happening within and made them instinctively reluctant to approach.
The cat that had sent me the signal must have been inside the area from the beginning, so it had not been affected.
‘An interesting ability. But judging by the way he talks, this isn’t his first time doing something like this.’
There was nothing more to see.
I slowly appeared behind the man.
“Ah— A, ah? Aah…”
The woman’s gaze happened to meet mine, and she froze in the middle of her scream.
‘Even though I concealed my presence as much as possible, she still reacted like that…’
But she was an ordinary person, so there was nothing to be done.
I immediately reached out and put the woman to sleep.
“What?! Who are you? How did you get—get here?”
The murderer, who had only belatedly noticed my presence, turned around and thrust a dagger at me—then stopped short.
I casually extended a hand and used magic.
Shrrrk—
A black shadow surged up from beneath the ground, binding his entire body and sealing his mouth shut.
“Mmff! Mmph—!”
[Still, just to be sure, I’ll go through one final verification procedure. No answer is necessary. This body will handle it on its own.]
I extended a hand clad in a black leather glove and seized his head.
Then I used the necromantic spell, ‘The Dead Man’s Last Words.’
[“Please, save me··· urk!”]
[“Ah··· Mister, please···.”]
[“Kyaaaah—!”]
The final words left behind by the victims he had sacrificed played back for me.
There had been more than one or two of them.
There was a chance this situation was some kind of surprise event or hidden-camera prank, so I had checked just in case. But as expected, it was exactly what it appeared to be.
[There’s no need to say anything more. You are sentenced to death.]
A serial killer. A pleasure killer at that.
Such a person deserved no mercy.
“Mmff! Mmph!”
He began twisting and struggling with his entire body.
His eyes, dyed with madness, glared at me.
He was probably asking what gave me the right to judge him.
‘Who cares?’
I poured dark magic through the hand gripping his head.
“Gghh··· urk!”
The eyes glaring at me rolled back, and his whole body convulsed as blood flowed from his seven orifices.
Blood bubbles dripped from the corners of his mouth, which was sealed shut by the shadow.
‘A peaceful death would be a luxury for someone like him. I happen to need some undead to use on Earth, so I’ll make you into something useful.’
Once dark magic had permeated every last one of his cells, his body, which had been twitching and convulsing, went limp.
The floor was already soaked through with the blood he had spilled.
[Arise. You shall become my servant and pay for your sins for all eternity.]
When I used black magic on the corpse, it jerked once more and began to move.
Twitch, twitch···
[Kehehehe···]
A gloomy laugh, a face twisted by agony, blood endlessly dripping from the seven orifices, and pale skin devoid of even a trace of color.
It was a Ghast, an intermediate-to-high-grade undead I had learned about through 「Forbidden Knowledge」.
It required a fairly high-level sacrifice, and its method of creation was so cruel that I had never expected to make one like this···.
[It may be an appropriate punishment. And it will be useful, too.]
Considering I was doing volunteer work, this much should be acceptable.
I stored the Ghast in subspace and examined the fallen woman.
‘It would be best to provide a little after-service.’
A smartphone, which she appeared to have dropped while resisting, lay rolling on one side.
I picked it up, called 119, and placed it on the floor along with the items the murderer had been carrying.
Then, after pondering for a moment, I used dark magic to write words in the pool of blood covering the floor.
—Execution complete
Beside it, I drew a crude picture of a Haehotal grinning awkwardly.
‘I’m taking the corpse with me, so I should at least let them know this much.’
It wouldn’t do to waste police resources trying to catch someone who was already dead.
I nodded and concealed myself within the shadows.
Then, after confirming a short while later that the sound of sirens was drawing near, I left the scene.
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