Chapter 1

Prologue

[The characters, organizations, events, history, and other elements featured in this story are fictitious. They have no connection to reality.]

33 AD.

Humanity was threatened with extinction by demons, but survived thanks to the Cross of Jesus.

330 AD.

Naive humanity placed its hopes in a new savior and once again found itself on the brink of destruction.

But humanity survived through the sacrifice of Saint Helena.

621 AD.

Having learned from the past, humanity took up arms and fought against the demons.

However, faced with the overwhelming power of the demons, humanity was driven into despair and once again stood on the verge of extinction.

Once again, it was saved by a single woman.

845 AD.

Humanity discovered a way to fight the demons and began resisting them through priests and knightly orders.

However, conflicts within human society once again pushed the world toward destruction.

And once again, humanity survived because of a single woman.

******

1770 AD.

Humanity was once again threatened with extinction.

Perhaps humanity had been saved by others too many times.

As the years passed, people grew complacent.

They stopped trying to solve their own problems.

Soldiers who should have taken up their swords and guns against the demons became consumed by civil wars.

Priests who should have driven demons away from humanity became entangled in religious conflicts.

Knights who should have protected mankind became little more than decorations standing behind their noble patrons.

Even so, some people refused to abandon their principles.

They never stopped believing in the savior who had always stood at the very front.

Lourdes.

A small village in the Pyrenees Mountains of southwestern France.

It was already noon.

Yet instead of shining beneath the midday sun, the sky had been dyed a deep crimson.

At the center of the village, with the Gave de Pau River behind him, stood a man who appeared to be the commander of a knightly order.

Fewer than five hundred knights and priests remained under his command.

"Do not let them cross the river!"

They fought the demons desperately.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

Perhaps even millions.

No matter how many demons appeared before them, they refused to surrender.

They could not allow the demons to cross the Gave de Pau River.

The clash of swords and thunder of gunfire filled the battlefield alongside the prayers of priests.

Slash!

Bang! Bang!

Powerful holy magic surged through the swords and guns wielded by knights clad in silver armor.

Their blades tore demons apart.

Their bullets pierced demonic flesh.

"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen."

The priests made the sign of the cross and prayed.

Flames swept across the battlefield.

The demons screamed as their bodies burned and were purified.

Yet more demons immediately appeared behind them.

Even so, the morale of humanity's defenders showed no sign of breaking.

Fwoooosh!

Just as the battlefront was about to collapse, someone charged forward.

White flames erupted like a storm in the middle of the demonic horde.

"Kyaaaaagh!"

"Keeeek!"

In an instant, the demons that had occupied that area vanished.

Standing at the center of the empty space was a man dressed like a priest, a sword in his hand and blazing white flames surrounding his entire body.

The slaughter he unleashed upon the demons at the front was overwhelming.

Yet the merciless demons continued throwing themselves at him.

Some managed to wound him before dying.

Sizzle...

But even those desperate attacks were meaningless.

The man simply brushed aside the wounds the demons had inflicted.

White flames rose from his body.

Within moments, even the traces of his injuries disappeared.

The white flames surrounding him clearly possessed power far beyond ordinary holy magic.

The humans who witnessed it cried out.

"Oh! Apostle of God!"

Apostle of God.

Enemy of demons.

Michael.

Every time Michael swung his sword, white flames swept through the battlefield and purified dozens of demons.

When a demonic creature charged at him, he smashed it into the ground with a single fist wrapped in white fire.

When enormous demons appeared, monsters that ordinary knights could never hope to defeat, Michael purified them with a single eruption of white flames.

But that was not all.

"I-I can't believe it! My injured arm is healing!"

"The bleeding... The bleeding stopped!"

To those wounded in battle, Michael's white flames became powerful medicine.

His army would not fall.

His army would not weaken.

It was almost an invincible army.

And yet, even with such power...

There were simply too many enemies.

Worse still, the demons were far too cunning.

BOOOOM!

Without warning, an explosion erupted from the monastery behind the human forces.

Everyone turned around in shock.

A storm of ash burst into the air.

As the ash slowly began to fall, the demons beneath it became even more violent.

Joy filled their faces.

It was as though they had been waiting for this exact moment.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Aaaagh!"

Gunfire suddenly erupted from behind the human lines.

Caught completely off guard, the defenders barely had time to react.

One after another, they fell.

"Michael! We're being ambushed...!"

Amid the chaos, the knight commander immediately searched for Michael, the leader of their army.

But...

"Wait."

Michael was already standing in front of him, sword in hand.

Fwoosh.

White flames rose from the blade Michael held with both hands.

Within moments, they covered the entire sword.

"I'm leaving this place to you."

Michael handed the burning white sword to the knight commander.

Then he turned and rushed toward the monastery.

White flames stronger than before erupted from his entire body.

A demon attempted to block his path.

The instant it touched Michael, its entire body burst into flames and was purified.

The knight commander watched Michael leave.

Then he quietly murmured,

"Go. We are knights who exist for you. Wherever you go, we shall follow."

He raised Michael's white-burning sword high into the air.

His eyes shone brighter than ever before.

"All units! This is a holy war!"

"Stop the filth trying to hold back the Apostle!"

"Die with smiles on your faces!"

"Kill even one more of them, and let us feast together in Heaven!"

Having made his choice, the knight commander gripped Michael's sword with both hands and charged toward the front line Michael had abandoned.

The battlefront was already collapsing.

Death stood before every one of them.

Even so, the knights and priests answered their commander's cry and rushed forward.

Michael ran past them.

He bit his lip hard.

"Commander... I'm sorr... cough!"

Perhaps he had pushed himself too hard in his haste.

Blood trickled from the corner of Michael's mouth.

He wiped it away with one hand.

Then he charged forward and smashed through the collapsing entrance of the monastery.

BOOOOM!

Michael threw the debris aside and quickly searched the interior.

Then his gaze froze.

His pupils widened.

Stab.

Before his eyes, a sword had pierced the chest of a woman dressed as a nun.

Her entire body trembled from the pain.

Yet her hands remained clasped in prayer.

Blood flowed from her chest.

More spilled from her mouth.

But she refused to move from her position.

"Stop wasting time! Hurry up and die so you can become the sacrifice!"

The attacker pulled his sword from her body.

He adjusted his stance and prepared to decapitate her.

"Helena!"

Michael moved faster than the man's sword.

He rushed forward, blocked the attack, and engulfed the attacker in white flames.

The same white flames that had swept away thousands of demons completely surrounded the man's body.

But...

"They were right! The white flames really can't kill me!"

For some reason, the attacker stepped safely out of the flames.

"With this, I'll finally be able to become one of their servants..."

He never finished the sentence.

As though divine punishment had descended upon him, a massive chunk of stone broke loose from the ceiling.

CRASH!

It crushed him completely.

A thin stream of blood seeped out from beneath the rubble.

These bastards again.

Michael understood immediately.

Demons fed on human desire.

And humans consumed by those desires became worshippers of demons, willingly serving them.

The world had already begun moving exactly as the demons wanted.

"Cough!"

Helena's body suddenly leaned to the side.

She could no longer remain standing.

Michael caught her immediately.

He poured healing energy into her body.

But the healing energy simply scattered uselessly into the air.

"No! You can't! It isn't over yet!"

Helena had given up this life as well.

Ever since her first sacrifice in 330 AD, Saint Helena had reincarnated countless times.

Whenever the world was threatened with extinction, she sacrificed herself.

Then she was born again.

Again.

And again.

She had endured so much suffering that it could no longer be counted.

And every single time, she saved the world.

That was the life of Saint Helena.

A saint.

A woman born beneath a curse.

"I'm sorry, Michael."

Helena smiled weakly in his arms.

Her expression showed that she had already accepted everything.

Michael knew exactly what she meant by that apology.

"Why are you the one who has to be sacrificed again?!"

He knew there was no other way.

He knew this disaster could not be stopped without Helena's sacrifice.

Even so, he had desperately tried to prevent it.

Michael had taken up the sword because he believed that if he could stop the destruction of the world himself, Helena's suffering would finally end.

But it had not been enough.

To hunt demons, Michael had driven three crosses into his back.

"This happened because I failed!"

"If someone deserves punishment, it should be me! Why do you have to suffer instead?!"

Helena's body began crumbling like grains of sand.

Michael watched through tears.

The ashes left behind by the flames mixed with the sand that had once been Helena and scattered into the air.

"Then just let this cursed world end!"

"There is no reason to save ignorant humans who get fooled by a few pretty words!"

He was tired of this despair.

He did not want to lose Helena again because of his own failure.

Michael finally released all the resentment he had buried inside himself.

"No, Michael. This isn't your fault."

"And it isn't their fault, either."

Helena's left arm had already disappeared.

With her remaining right hand, she gently wiped the tears from Michael's face.

"So please... don't hate people too much."

Her palm slowly faded away.

Then it disappeared completely.

Michael said nothing.

It felt like reading a book that returned to the first page no matter how many pages he turned.

Only one sentence repeated endlessly in his mind.

Once again, the world had been saved through the sacrifice of a single woman.

I was ignorant.

Michael had believed he was handling this life well.

To avoid drawing the attention of demons, he openly lived as a member of the lower class.

But in secret, he raised an elite army.

At the same time, he carefully watched those in positions of power, always suspecting that one of them might become a worshipper of demons.

And even that had not been enough.

No matter how cautious he was, demons found it far too easy to create worshippers among humans in secret.

Humans could not escape their desires.

And wherever desire existed, demons followed.

It was as though humanity had already been trapped inside a carefully woven net.

"I'm done with this shit."

He had spilled too much blood to reach this point.

Michael could no longer sense any surviving humans nearby.

The cries of the demons were gone.

The sounds of battle had disappeared as well.

Helena had sacrificed herself.

Humanity's sins had been forgiven.

Though they would probably begin piling them up again starting today.

Humans were weak.

They were beings who could lose themselves over even the smallest desires.

Right now, Michael needed someone to blame.

But who?

The weak humans?

The demons that preyed upon them?

Everything felt meaningless.

In truth, there was someone else he hated even more.

"Fuck. I know you're listening."

Michael raised his head and stared at the empty ceiling.

"God, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit... whatever the hell you want to call yourselves."

"Enough already."

God.

The existence that had forced Michael to endure a cursed life filled with trials for hundreds... no, thousands of years.

Michael shouted at the empty ceiling.

"I said I'm done with this shit!"

"Just let it end!"

"The world? Destroy it if you want!"

"So please... stop making Helena suffer..."

Debris fell from the ceiling.

A stone struck Michael on the head.

Within five seconds, the torn flesh healed completely.

But during those five seconds, Michael's mind became completely blank.

Then light descended from Heaven.

Warm.

Powerful.

The light enveloped his entire body.

It was a language Michael could not understand.

And yet, somehow, he understood its meaning.

Your wish shall be granted.

"You're doing whatever you want again."

"In the end, you're telling me to start over, aren't you?"

Michael was furious that he would once again have to move according to God's will.

But at the same time, he understood.

There was no possibility that the existence above him had failed to hear his words.

Even so, Michael quietly muttered,

"You fucking bastard of a god."

Thud.

He collapsed onto the ground.

Dust covered his face.

The wounds across his body had somehow healed completely.

But nothing could heal the exhaustion buried deep inside his mind.

He simply wanted to lie there and slowly die.

He had lived for far too long.

Wouldn't it be fine if I died now?

The thought crossed his mind.

But there was still one enormous problem he had not resolved.

I just want to forget everything and sleep forever.

Tomorrow, when he opened his eyes again, he would have to start from the beginning.

He would have to adjust his tactics to the developments of a new era.

He would have to raise another army.

Still...

Starting tomorrow, maybe I should stop worrying about what other people think.

Instead of carefully solving one problem after another, perhaps it would be better to simply act recklessly and charge forward.

There was no real reason for him to care about human society anymore.

"I'll just sleep like this for a little while."

Dust mixed with the warm wind and stung his nose.

But...

It was not a bad place to fall asleep.