Information War (3)
Angel (天使).
An agent of faith who descends to earth in place of a god, who finds it difficult to project power directly into the lower world, and performs miracles.
‘Huh, an angel?’
‘So he wasn’t human from the start. I wondered if that might be the case...’
The Pantheon executive committee members gathered in the conference hall struggled to compose themselves as they looked at the transcendent figure radiating an overwhelming presence right before their eyes.
Words spoken by such a being carried a persuasive power stronger than anything else.
Of course, there was no law saying an angel could not lie, but was this not a place governed by the rule the chairman had unfolded, one that compelled only the truth?
‘He didn’t forcibly ignore my ability with sheer power. That man definitely spoke only the truth.’
The chairman could instinctively tell that much.
And above all, as priests who served gods and as individuals counted among the strongest in all of Pantheon, they knew very well what that angel who had just revealed his identity had done.
‘A sacred oath staked on his own faith.’
They had witnessed that moment with their own eyes, so there was simply no way they could refuse to believe it.
If what he had said moments ago had been a lie, that angel would have lost all his divine power and fallen on the spot.
Naturally, the situation had no choice but to flow in a direction different from its original purpose.
From a place meant to interrogate suspicious behavior that had violated the rules, to a strategy meeting led by the very person under suspicion.
‘They’re more obedient than I expected. As expected, this method works best on priests.’
Heinrich gave a small nod as he looked at the executive committee members listening intently to him.
No matter how different the gods they served might be, they too were seekers walking the path of faith.
There were not many who could remain defiant in front of a god’s messenger.
‘...Though not all priests have that kind of disposition.’
Was that not exactly what the beings currently under discussion demonstrated?
Pandemonium.
They were generally called “followers of evil gods,” but it was not a place made up solely of those who served ominous gods seeking simple destruction.
There were also fanatics armed with extreme ideology, self-righteous and arrogant, believing that only their faith was “real” and that all others were nothing but heresy.
Those who insisted that the world must be purified through holy war were also one axis that made up Pandemonium.
‘That’s also why those bastards can’t easily unite and exist as cells. If they meet, they won’t be able to tolerate each other and will start fighting.’
Because they could not gather together like that, Pandemonium had long since degenerated into a convenient hunting dog that the Beoncheonhoe could handle however it wished.
Compared to them, Pantheon was positively civilized.
After all, its shared fundamental rules began with acknowledging and accepting other denominations as equal existences.
‘In a way, the current situation could be seen as an outcome that was already foreseen. Since they lowered the barrier to entry for the sake of inclusivity, it’s only natural that all kinds of loopholes would appear.’
Fortunately, their reach had not extended to the Committee of Twelve, which could be called Pantheon’s leadership.
No... to be precise, a being called the Scribe had climbed to that position, but after being dealt with by his hand, she had naturally lost her influence.
If she had still held her seat, things would not have gone this smoothly.
‘As expected, people ought to live virtuously.’
Heinrich smiled in satisfaction.
As he watched the executive committee members converse with grave expressions before him.
***
Immediately after the meeting with Pantheon’s leadership, which had lasted several hours, ended.
“Ah! Brother Heinrich! It took longer than I expected. Well, did you finish your business smoothly?”
The one who greeted Heinrich as he stepped out of the committee hall was Priest Jason, who had continuously supported this trip to Pantheon.
Since Heinrich, who had not yet formally joined Pantheon, had certain limits in moving about alone, Jason, who had been with him the longest, had volunteered to guide him.
“There was a minor misunderstanding, you see. It has all been resolved now.”
Heinrich, a gentle smile on his lips, nodded as if it were nothing important.
Then he glanced at Jason and opened his mouth.
“Come to think of it, Priest Jason, you said you were from the Tamaria dimension, did you not?”
“That’s right. I believe I only mentioned it in passing, yet you remembered.”
As the two walked while conversing, passersby glanced at them.
To be precise, they were looking at Heinrich, with his silver hair and golden eyes.
Because he had appeared in such a noisy fashion, they could not help but become conscious of his existence without realizing it.
“I heard that religious wars are fierce there. That two major denominations are at each other’s throats, locked in a tense standoff without yielding even an inch.”
“That is correct. A holy war is underway between our Rassus Order and the followers who serve the evil god Luceni.”
“Could those followers of the evil god have come to Earth as well...?”
“Whew, yes. They now belong to Pandemonium. To think they fell for an evil god’s temptation and still haven’t come to their senses even after returning to Earth. How lamentable is that?”
Priest Jason clenched both fists in indignation.
As though he truly pitied the circumstances of those who devoted their bodies and souls to an evil god.
“...I think so as well. After surviving all sorts of hardships and making it this far with such difficulty, they don’t even realize they’re being used and are dancing like puppets.”
The two men sighed at the same time.
Though the targets they referred to differed slightly, the meaning behind their words was not very different.
“But why do you ask all of a sudden?”
“Ah, it is nothing much.”
As they continued talking and walking.
Several people waiting in front of the lodging assigned to Heinrich came into view.
“I just... wish they would stop bothering us and disappear already.”
Priests from Auterica who had moved busily after receiving his orders.
Heinrich looked at them with sunken eyes and continued in a low voice.
“Those followers of evil gods.”
Then he stopped walking and showed Jason a bright smile.
“And even the bastards pulling the strings behind them.”
It was a smile that somehow looked chilling, as though personal emotion had seeped into it.
***
A few days later.
On a day when a calm like the eve of a storm was passing by.
“Wait! What is the meaning of this! I am Sandro of the Fisker Order! Do you think our order will stand by if you do this?!”
It began suddenly.
Without any particular warning, a storm that shook all of Pantheon swept in all at once.
“Sandro Fermi. You are suspected of having communicated with Pandemonium multiple times, beginning with the murder of Rabin William three years ago.”
“...What kind of bullshit is that? You’re suddenly framing me like this? There’s no way I would have killed him, he was my friend! ...Oho? I get it. You bastards intend to use me as an excuse to stamp out our order!”
“There is no use playing innocent. We have already secured the evidence and finished verifying it. Must I list every priest murdered because of the information you sold all this time?”
“...Trying to mock me with lies won’t work! You filthy bastards! Dogs of the committee who only care about filling your own bellies!”
Naturally, not a single person admitted to the charges obediently.
Instead, they brazenly raised their voices, claiming that Pantheon’s executive committee was attempting to tame the affiliated orders.
But such resistance did not last very long.
“......”
Because before evidence they could not possibly escape or deny, there was nothing they could do except exercise their right to remain silent.
Once the situation reached that point, even the orders backing them could do nothing.
It was not for nothing that the executive committee members had remained silent until now even after hearing Heinrich’s story.
They had not stopped at cross-verifying the information on the defectors they had been given; they had also succeeded in uncovering additional crimes.
For the sake of security, they had even gone through the trouble of personally running around with only an extremely small number of people they could truly trust.
“After how devotedly I served the order all this time! You’re going to abandon me over something this trivial?!”
“Damn it, how did they notice? I cleaned up everything perfectly.”
“This is hopeless. Scatter immediately, break away, and rendezvous at Point B!”
As a result.
They were able to achieve the success of arresting not only those who had directly exchanged communications with Pandemonium, but also a large number of those who had used them to satisfy their own greed.
Since it was an operation on which the entire committee had staked its life and death, there was not the slightest obstruction in its progress.
‘Indeed... To be honest, they had seemed rather sloppy until now.’
When they remained motionless like a lazy lion, it had been hard to feel it, but once they made up their minds and began moving in earnest, they displayed their qualities as a global organization without reservation.
It had not even been that long, yet the sight of them adding further investigation to somewhat hole-ridden information and creating a more perfect snare was enough to draw admiration.
‘Since something like this happened, I can expect a more active self-purification process from now on. That alone should greatly reduce the number of people being played by the Beoncheonhoe.’
What was somewhat unexpected as he watched this incident unfold was the fact that those who had sympathized with Pandemonium did not necessarily have some grand reason.
Of course, there were cases where people acted out of their own convictions, believing that side would be more helpful to their order, but that was not all.
‘They must have targeted even those aspects when they dug into this side from the start.’
Envy, jealousy, desire, wealth and honor, organizational interests, and so on.
Though they were priests in name, they were also human, and they had been all too easily manipulated by such schemes.
The biggest reason that was possible was that this matter had nothing to do with their faith.
Sympathizing with Pandemonium did not mean losing their faith, nor did it mean violating the teachings of their order.
To begin with, their doctrines contained no such content.
Being hostile to the external enemy called Pandemonium within the fence called Pantheon was merely an agreement made among the humans of Earth; it had nothing to do with the otherworldly gods they believed in.
The same was true from the gods’ perspective.
After all, even the distinction between good gods and evil gods had been made by humans according to their own standards.
Most gods simply granted appropriate divine power to those who believed in them.
In particular, many of those involved in this incident were discovered in orders positioned somewhere between good gods and evil gods.
Among them were even those who had stepped forward truly out of conviction that it was for the sake of their order.
The so-called hardliners found in any organization.
Fanatics who could not accept that, on the limited stage called Pantheon, their order had been pushed out of the mainstream factions and reduced to one among countless ordinary orders, and had resolved to use any means necessary to revive it.
“It has been a while.”
“Kgh, Heinrich...!”
For example, like Walter, the holy warrior of the Quilladia Order.
“I ought to thank you. If not for our first meeting back then, I would never have sensed that something was strange.”
“Wh-what are you talking about...?”
Walter frowned and let out a questioning sound, but Heinrich had no intention of kindly answering him.
He had come here only to confirm the traces that should have remained from Walter being used by someone.
‘...As expected.’
And as Heinrich stared fixedly into the other man’s eyes, he finally found the trace he had wanted deep within them.
An extremely faint trace, so minute that even he would not have noticed it had he not harbored suspicion and observed carefully.
If he had not obtained decisive information through Doctor, and if he had not gained certainty through subsequent verification by his subordinates, he would never have noticed it to the end.
“I asked what you’re talking about!”
Perhaps Walter felt some kind of pressure from the sight of Heinrich silently gazing at him.
Walter, seemingly losing his self-control and growing agitated, charged fiercely, but after having already been beaten to his heart’s content once, there was no way he could do anything now.
“Kuhak!”
Heinrich looked down indifferently at Walter as he collapsed to the ground and writhed, then immediately turned away.
There was no need for him to do anything more here.
Even if he did not lift a hand, Pantheon’s enforcement unit, which was currently on its way here, would take care of the aftermath.
“...Whew, then let’s see your face soon.”
Platinum divine power blazed up from his entire body.
Then, as he expanded his senses to the utmost, one presence was caught.
In this Pantheon, where all sorts of divine powers continuously swirled about, distinguishing a single presence was close to impossible, but to him, even such a difficulty was merely something that required quite a bit of attention.
His body shot swiftly forward.
***
Loud noise came from far away.
At that, Priest Jason, who had been walking busily, frowned.
“Huh, what on earth is going on?”
The entire Pantheon had fallen into confusion because of the sudden incident.
Of course, since Pantheon was strictly an alliance, it prioritized moderate measures such as requests for cooperation rather than recklessly using force, but that alone was enough to give each order a headache.
With the evidence so clear, they could not simply shield their own people no matter what.
“Tsk, tsk. Not a single day passes peacefully. There is not even enough time to devote one’s body and mind wholly to God.”
Jason clicked his tongue as he stroked his short beard.
Then he shook his head and continued walking, passing through the dark corridor.
Whatever was happening outside had nothing in particular to do with him.
He only had to continue his life of faith as he always had.
While he shut out the affairs of the outside world and thought only of what he had to do.
At the end of the corridor, he encountered an unexpected person.
“Priest Jason.”
“Why, if it isn’t Brother Heinrich? What brings you to a place like this?”
His eyes widened as he looked at the other man.
A man whose face seemed to shine with light... no, who was actually emitting a halo and exuding a mystique as though he were not of this world.
“I came to meet you.”
Heinrich slowly opened his mouth.
In a voice that contained none of his previous gentleness, a voice clearly tinged with cold.
“Joker.”
A pawn of the Beoncheonhoe who had infiltrated Pantheon, deceived everyone from beginning to end, and woven dark schemes.
And at the same time, a follower of an evil god from Pandemonium.
“......”
Joker met Heinrich’s gaze with a face stripped of expression.