A Visit (3)
A clash between Heinrich, who had come as a guest, and Walter, a holy warrior belonging to the Order of Quilladia.
However, fortunately for someone, that assault… no, that fight was forced to come to an end before long.
“Brother Heinrich, please calm down for now…”
“Stop! That’s enough! Get away from each other!”
“Stop! Direct armed conflicts are prohibited within the Pantheon unless they are formal duels!”
It had not happened in some deserted place to begin with, but right out in the open, in front of the committee hall.
Verbal quarrels born of disputes were not all that rare here, but it was a different story when they crossed the line and escalated into a fight.
The time Heinrich had to act before interference arrived was only a brief moment.
But that short span was more than enough to engrave manners into his opponent’s body.
As a result, even though there had been an incident serious enough for one man to lose consciousness and be carried away in haste, no one took issue with the act itself.
They merely cast surprised glances at the fact that Heinrich, who had become famous solely for his enormous divine power, could overwhelm a master-class holy warrior with pure martial might as well.
Given the location, it had become known to everyone that Walter had not only picked the fight first, but had also struck first.
“Did you hear? They say the Order of Quilladia caused trouble again.”
“Again? They don’t ever get tired of it, do they? How are those scoundrels any different from evil god worshippers…”
“For now, they are cooperating with the Pantheon’s will. If we cast them out for no good reason and they join Pandemonium, it’ll only become more troublesome.”
“An enemy within is always more dangerous than an enemy without. Well, they also say to keep your enemies closer. It might be less risky to keep them somewhere within sight and manage them.”
“They did cross the line quite a bit this time, though. We’ll have to wait and see what decision the committee makes.”
There were not a few orders interested in Heinrich’s visit, so the news spread quickly.
The Pantheon was an alliance whose motto was to embrace all gods, unless they were evil gods of a level that made coexistence truly impossible.
Though the Order of Quilladia outwardly claimed to be neutral, its disposition was clearly tilted toward evil, so everyone’s reaction to this news was that they had expected as much.
“Now then, how will they come out?”
Still, since an incident had indeed occurred, the promised meeting with the operating committee members had no choice but to be postponed.
Left alone in the lodging provided for guests, Heinrich gazed out the window and quietly fell into thought.
‘No matter how I think about it, it’s unnatural. As expected, it feels like someone was pulling strings from behind the scenes.’
Even stripping away all context, that much was clear.
It was one thing for him to approach Jason, with whom there had been bad blood from the start, and pick a fight. But for him to pick a fight with Heinrich, a guest standing beside him, as well—it could only feel out of place.
‘Jason was only an excuse. I should assume I was the objective from the beginning.’
Perhaps even his meeting with Walter at that place had not been accidental.
He had likely waited there with intent and disguised it as a chance encounter.
‘Why? Why target me?’
All sorts of thoughts flashed through his mind.
The problem was not that there was no reason, but that there were too many.
A check on Heinrich, who was certain to become a variable in the fierce power struggles between factions.
The schemes of the remnants of the Buncheon Society still left inside the Pantheon even after the Scribe had been cut away.
Even a sense of mission born from some religious set of values.
Despite its name, the Pantheon, this place was not only a gathering of faith, but a den of demons where greed, ambition, and conviction swirled together. No cause would have been strange here.
‘I can’t be dragged around by someone’s intentions while knowing nothing. First, I need to distinguish friend from foe, and above all, grasp the situation here.’
His own response this time had been part of that effort.
Since he had overturned the board to this extent, the one behind it would have no choice but to make some kind of move.
On top of that, he had bought time to gather internal information, so there was no reason not to do it.
‘Yes, exactly. It definitely wasn’t because I lost my temper over muscle loss.’
No matter how insulted he had been, Heinrich, who belonged more or less among the ranks of men of character, would not resort to violence so easily over something so minor, would he?
…There had been a little, a very little, personal feeling mixed in, but he absolutely had not done it solely out of ill will.
Just as Heinrich finished rationalizing as usual—
Knock, knock—
A sound came from his door.
It seemed the personnel he had been waiting for had finally arrived.
Without hesitation, he flung the door wide open, and…
“Ooh! This ecstatic aura, this overwhelming divine power! You truly are the Saint!”
“Ah—O Supreme God. To think I would see the Saint from this close… and here on Earth, no less…”
Seeing the group of priests pour out praises the moment they saw his face, he habitually let a smile rest on his lips.
The familiar divine power emanating from their bodies.
Upon encountering an energy of the same kind as his own, he felt an instinctive satisfaction.
‘Priests of the Church of the Supreme God, from Auterica, just like me.’
This was the Pantheon, where religions from all sorts of dimensions gathered in one place.
Though Auterica was considered a relatively new dimension, it would not be all that surprising for priests of the Church of the Supreme God to be here.
“We have no time, so let us quickly get to the main point.”
Once Heinrich had brought them all into the room and opened his mouth, those who had been bustling about reverently straightened their postures.
Not a single person here had met him in person before, but none of them doubted for a moment that Heinrich was the Saint of the Church of the Supreme God.
The enormous divine power they felt from him was, in and of itself, no different from proof of identity.
‘It would be best to first turn those who are firmly on my side into proper forces.’
And the Saint of the Church of the Supreme God.
The apostle chosen by the Supreme God.
The angel who acted in God’s stead and spread His miracles upon the earth—
Fwoosh—
Gladly became the conduit connecting the Lord to His servants.
“Great Blessing: Wings of Radiance” spread wide along with a dazzling light.
At that moment, the restrictions the priests had been forced to endure after crossing dimensions began to vanish without a trace through the relay that was an angel.
“Ah, how can this be? It’s a miracle! My divine power…!”
“O Supreme God! A connection that had once grown hazy has become clear again! How can such a thing happen on Earth…!”
“Could that form be… an angel…?”
The priests’ output and recovery of divine power, along with all their other abilities, had returned to the prime they had enjoyed in the other world.
The miracle manifested right before their eyes was more than enough to make their faith, which had dulled somewhat, blaze up once again.
Unlike other gods, He possessed the majesty to exert His power even beyond dimensions.
How, in such a situation, could they harbor doubt toward the greatness of God?
“Everyone, please pay attention.”
The solemn voice that rang out in that situation was no different from a divine message.
“This world is now in crisis. And to resolve that crisis, your help is needed.”
The priests, immersed in emotion, all prostrated themselves on the floor at once.
In the eyes of these religious people who had already witnessed a miracle, not the slightest hesitation remained.
Only the quietly blazing flames of fanaticism burned within them.
And so, the fanatics who had received several instructions from Heinrich quietly scattered throughout the Pantheon.
***
‘This is troublesome.’
The person sitting alone in the darkness quietly let out a sigh.
It was only natural, as the plan he had painstakingly prepared was on the verge of being discarded before it had even begun.
‘That fool. To think he couldn’t even do something that simple properly.’
Then, thinking of the main culprit who had ruined the matter, he quietly ground his teeth.
It would have been fine whether he insulted the other party and got hit first, or made him avoid the place altogether.
A linked operation to tarnish the target and lower his credibility had already been prepared with various scenarios in mind.
‘And yet, of all things…’
Despite all the repeated warnings and cautions, he had struck first, been countered, and then carried away.
He had never even considered such a situation, so absurd that he could not even laugh.
Because the man had been convenient to use until now, he had occasionally tossed him bait and made use of him, but judging by what he had done this time, it seemed he was due to be replaced.
‘Tsk. If the Scribe were still here, we could have handled things more reliably.’
In truth, there were excuses for the clumsy handling of matters now.
The Scribe, Adeline Schneider, the North American branch head of the Buncheon Society.
She had been the commander who oversaw everything occurring on the North American continent while directly directing operations within the Pantheon.
Since she had, in fact, become a branch head more for her peculiarity as the Society Leader’s apostle and her ability to weave schemes than for her martial force, her sudden absence had inevitably not been completely replaced even now, after quite some time had passed.
‘I am merely a dagger in the dark. I cannot step forward forever. For that, I must place a replacement in the vacant seat of the Twelve-Member Committee as quickly as possible…’
A new North American branch head had taken office through the Buncheon Society executive meeting held not long ago, but given the nature of the Pantheon, it was not easy for an outsider who was not a priest to intervene.
In effect, he, who had been second-in-command regarding the Pantheon, had become the senior-most person.
‘Heinrich, the Saint from another world… He is dangerous. If we leave him be like this, he may try to seize the Scribe’s vacant position and exert influence over the Pantheon.’
The situation had changed from when the Scribe had first discovered his existence and tried to draw him in.
At that time, not only had they not known he was an enemy, but above all, she herself had still been alive.
Fortunately, he was not the only one who did not welcome Heinrich, so it had not been all that difficult to scheme.
Wasn’t politics precisely the thing where people pretended to be genteel on the surface while using any means necessary for their own gain?
‘And in any organization, once you are at the top, you naturally become a politician.’
Priests were no exception to that.
Though it was called a religious alliance, when examined closely, each was merely an individual organization.
‘We absolutely cannot give up the Pantheon. Think how long we have devoted effort to this place.’
Countless orders that had crossed over from numerous dimensions, and the overwhelming, diverse types of divine power that originated from them.
Divine power, which could be called the most special among supernatural abilities, had pooled in one place for a long time.
That alone made San Francisco no different from the most special location on Earth.
Yes, to put it simply…
This place was the land most suitable for a new supernatural ability to sprout.
‘Fortunately, the Society is also actively supporting us, so we should be able to manage somehow. For now, I need to do something about that Saint…’
Just as he was immersed in such thoughts—
His head abruptly snapped to the side.
He felt someone’s gaze from beyond the curtained window.
He carefully rose from his seat and pulled back the curtain.
In any case, he had not been doing anything particularly suspicious, so there was nothing for him to feel guilty about.
And immediately after he glanced toward the source of that gaze beyond the curtain—
His expression twitched faintly, then returned to normal.
‘…That is certainly.’
It was a person he had already learned about through thorough investigation.
Ordinarily, there would have been no need to pay much attention to him, but in the current situation, he was a being with a background that could not help but draw notice.
‘A priest from Auterica.’
Was it a coincidence?
For a priest from the same church as Saint Heinrich to be wandering around like that, right when Heinrich had visited…
‘Ominous.’
He briefly watched the priest’s back as it slowly moved away, then looked up at the sky.
As though that had been his intention from the start.
The next day.
Immediately after a disciplinary measure was decided for Walter, the holy warrior of the Order of Quilladia who had violated the Pantheon’s rules.
The once-postponed discussion between Heinrich and the Pantheon took place.
***
“Damn it, my head hurts so much I feel like I’m going to die.”
Andrew Weaver, sitting in a plush armchair, sank deep into it and let out a sigh.
After using his ability all night long because of the sudden order that had come down, his throbbing headache was so bad that he felt feverish.
‘At this rate, I really am going to die from overwork.’
This mission had been especially difficult compared to usual.
And no wonder…
“America, out of the blue?”
The location of the current observation target was San Francisco, in the United States—a place nearly on the opposite side of the Earth.
Naturally, the farther away one tried to look from one’s current location, the more power it consumed.
And on top of that, the place was no ordinary location, but practically the Holy Land of the Pantheon...
‘I have no idea how they managed to win over the clergy.’
It probably would have been absolutely impossible without collaborators actively cooperating from the inside.
No, in the first place, without the special “medium” distributed to them, his gaze likely wouldn’t have reached that far at all.
After all, he truly knew nothing about the Pantheon.
“Ugh, is the Immortal King really trying to conquer Earth or something?”
Considering the connection between the one who had given him the order and the target of the investigation, he couldn’t help but think that.
“Phew, well, I suppose it has nothing to do with me now.”
In any case, bound by contract as he was, he couldn’t run away.
If there was one thing he wished for, it was that Korea, at least, would remain as peaceful as it was now.
Thanks to the magic tools, there was no language problem, and since he was being paid handsomely, there was nowhere quite as nice to live as this place.
‘Ah, and a long vacation too.’
Thinking about a vacation somehow made him feel energized.
Andrew, recalling a small wish that would never come true, tapped on the keyboard to transmit the information he had gathered, then closed his eyes again and resumed his work.
‘If I make a contribution this time, maybe I really can get a long vacation.’
At the same time.
There were more than just one or two people moving with the same objective as Andrew.
All manner of abilities—fate manipulation, clairvoyance, astrology, and more—were being attempted toward a single goal, and the information collected in that way was all transmitted to one place, slowly beginning to take on a certain form.
And at last.
“...Found it.”
In the middle of a data center packed with countless machines.
Within a space where a sweltering heat could be felt despite the high-output cooling system running at full power, a low voice rang out.
While verifying countless pieces of information within the electronic data they had breached thanks to the cooperation of someone inside using hacking tools, they had been able to confirm a suspicious access point in one of them.
Hesperon, lying inside the special capsule Howard had made, approached it for a more detailed check.
“...What is this?”
At that moment.
A thread of doubt slipped from his mouth.
“Hm? Could this be...?”
***
Beep beep beep—
An alarm suddenly blared.
“Huh? What’s this? How did they get this far?”
At that, a middle-aged man in a shabby lab coat glanced at the monitor and tilted his head.
But only for a moment.
Soon, his face filled with delight, as though he had just met an old friend.
“Aha! So this friend must be that friend, then?”
The man excitedly abandoned the work he had been doing and approached the monitor.
“Woo-hoo! We finally meet—! The hacker of Masquerade!”
The Doctor smiled brightly.