Chapter 2

Awakening

It had been an endless darkness.

Michael couldn't move his body, as though he had been tightly bound.

Not only that, when he tried to scream, he couldn't even hear his own voice, as though his ears had been plugged.

Strangely enough, however, it wasn't uncomfortable.

On the contrary, it felt cozy.

Unlike his relaxed body, Michael's mind was anything but peaceful.

This time too... I failed.

For an unimaginably long time, Michael had been pursuing a single goal.

Under the guidance of Saint Helena, he had been given a mission to kill demons and save the world from destruction.

Unfortunately, there was one major problem.

Not once, from the very beginning, had Michael ever truly succeeded.

Those fucking demons.

Why do they keep getting more cunning every time?

Every time he failed, Michael gained something.

Information.

Experience.

Knowledge.

He learned.

He improved.

He became stronger.

And yet, every time, the result was the same.

The faint truth that the world had been saved through Helena's sacrifice...

And the lies that covered that truth, rewriting history into something entirely different.

Even so, Michael continued challenging his fate again and again.

What's this now?

As Michael followed the flow of his thoughts, an image suddenly appeared before his eyes.

A man with a sharp jawline.

A straight, well-shaped nose.

Eyes that somehow resembled both a puppy and a wolf.

His appearance was unusual, but he had yellow-toned skin and a perfectly proportioned body.

That's obviously me.

Standing across from him was a tall man with an honest and dependable face.

And this guy... who was he again?

As the figures of the two men became clearer, the scene began to move.

"Michael, how in the world have you managed to keep your sanity?"

Thousands of years of failure had passed.

It would have been perfectly normal for an ordinary person to lose his mind under such circumstances.

But Michael had been too busy analyzing his failures to pay attention to his own mental state.

Only much later did he finally realize the answer.

Now that I think about it, there's nothing complicated about it.

I just want to lessen Helena's suffering.

That was all.

Helena.

It was simple.

Yet for Michael, nothing could have been stronger.

Others might have found it strange, but that single desire had been the driving force that allowed Michael to stand back up no matter how many times he failed.

Wait.

Then... what exactly is Lady Helena to me?

For the first time, that thought crossed Michael's mind.

He had already killed hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of demons.

Yet he had never seriously questioned the nature of his feelings toward Helena.

It wasn't merely loyalty.

Respect? Reverence? Trust? Gratitude? Hmm...

As Michael tried to give the feeling a name...

Drip.

Something cold landed on his forehead.

At the same time, the image of the two men disappeared.

It almost felt as though someone had deliberately interrupted him, warning him not to think any further.

Right.

No. That's enough. Let's think about something else.

Realizing how dangerous that train of thought was becoming, Michael pushed it out of his mind.

If this was supposed to be nothing more than a lucid dream, he had already indulged in it too much.

Pointless thoughts would only interfere with what came next.

Before Lady Helena wakes up, I should at least prepare...

Drip.

Another cold drop touched his forehead.

Only then did Michael realize what it was.

Water.

He frowned.

Why is water dripping on me?

Boom...

A distant noise disturbed his sleep.

Warm light slowly pressed against Michael's closed eyelids, almost like morning sunlight.

There was only one problem.

BOOM!

That was definitely not a normal sound.

Ha... fuck.

It's only been one damn day.

You insane bastards.

The place where Michael had fallen asleep was the ruined monastery at Lourdes.

By now, the Battle of Lourdes should already have been buried beneath fabricated history.

Which meant the only ones capable of causing this kind of chaos were demons or the worshippers of demons who served them.

Helena's sacrifice should have driven the demons away for a time.

It was far too early for them to return.

That left only one possibility.

The worshippers of demons.

I haven't even recovered Lady Helena's remains yet...

The moment that thought crossed his mind, Michael's eyes snapped open.

Even if Michael himself could not be harmed by the white flames, he would never allow anyone to touch Helena's remains.

If necessary, he would beat every last one of them into the ground.

A church...?

Instead of the ruined monastery Michael remembered, an unfamiliar sight filled his vision.

The first things he noticed were a statue of the Virgin Mary and a massive cross.

Their positions seemed strangely deliberate, almost as if they had been placed there to protect Michael.

Then he looked down.

A coffin?

Michael was lying inside an open wooden coffin.

Fortunately, it was much larger than an ordinary coffin, so climbing out of it wasn't difficult.

Michael sat up and frowned.

Perhaps because he had only just awakened, his vision was still blurry.

What kind of bastard puts a living person inside a coffin?

No matter how hard he thought about it, nobody came to mind.

If worshippers of demons had found him, they would have tried to kill him.

As for those who had followed Michael at Lourdes...

They had already fulfilled their duty.

"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."

Michael suddenly heard a language he had never encountered before.

At the same time, sacred light emerged from the rosary ring on his hand.

The light traveled up his arm and entered his ear.

Lady Helena's blessing activated?

That means I'm in another country.

But how is that possible?

There had been a time when Michael traveled across the world in order to save it.

Naturally, language had been a serious problem.

To prevent communication difficulties, Helena had given Michael a blessed rosary.

Thanks to its power, he could understand and speak foreign languages without having to learn each one individually.

But if the blessing had activated now...

That meant Michael was somewhere far from France.

What the hell happened in a single night?

Confused, Michael thought back to the prayer he had just heard.

It was a protective prayer he recognized.

Then his gaze fell on an empty cup lying nearby.

It looked ancient.

But Michael recognized it immediately.

A holy relic.

The Cup of Fulfillment.

Throughout history, there had been countless saints.

Objects once possessed by those saints and imbued with unique powers were known as holy relics.

Among them, the Cup of Fulfillment possessed two abilities.

Protection and curse breaking.

It could be used to protect something.

Or...

It could break a seal.

If they used this thing, then whatever happened here must have been extremely serious...

Michael looked back at the coffin he had just climbed out of.

Its interior was wet, as if water had been poured over it.

Haah.

So that's why water kept dripping on me.

Michael let out a sigh.

The falling drops.

The opened coffin.

The Cup of Fulfillment.

Everything pointed toward one unpleasant conclusion Michael desperately did not want to accept.

So there's a possibility they broke a seal and woke me up.

Hmm.

Michael had thought he had simply fallen asleep.

Apparently, that wasn't the case.

He had been sealed.

No wonder the lucid dream had felt far too vivid to be an ordinary dream.

After reaching that conclusion, Michael finally began paying proper attention to his surroundings.

"Grrrrrrr..."

The first thing he heard was the harsh growl of something that sounded like a wild beast.

Michael turned toward the sound.

Then he stared.

Did some insane god recreate Heaven and Earth while I was asleep?

A group of people stood nearby.

Their clothing resembled that of the clergy Michael remembered, although the style was noticeably different.

And standing opposite them...

Were humans possessed by demons.

Demons never appeared immediately after Helena's sacrifice.

But if I was sealed, then no wonder years have passed.

I just hope I haven't awakened too late.

Michael only hoped there was still enough time to prepare for the next apocalypse.

The people dressed like priests were most likely the ones who had awakened him.

But Michael had no intention of getting dragged into whatever they were planning.

Those things are lower-rank or middle-rank demons at best.

If priests can't deal with them, they should take off their robes.

And I have no intention of being dragged around by someone else.

Without making a sound, Michael climbed completely out of the coffin and began searching for an exit.

Behind the coffin stood the enormous cross.

Beyond it were rows of pews and windows filled with sacred images.

Michael slowly looked around the church.

Then...

"Grrrr! Give me the remains!"

Whoosh!

One of the possessed humans suddenly charged at the priests.

Moving like a wild animal, it lunged toward them.

"Because the Lord is my God, He shall deliver me!"

The priests began reciting a prayer.

Sacred energy rippled around them like a heat haze.

The familiar sensation immediately drew Michael's attention.

Ahura.

Prayer was the most common method used by followers of Catholicism to gather sacred energy.

By praying, humans accumulated divine energy.

The power that allowed them to perform miracles by controlling that energy was called Ahura.

Prayer helped gather Ahura and made the divine energy easier to manipulate.

Put simply, prayer created a pathway through which Ahura could flow.

But this is far too weak.

There's nowhere near enough Ahura.

Slash!

"Urgh!"

Exactly as Michael expected, the demon's sharp claws shattered the Ahura barrier.

With their stable flow of Ahura forcibly broken, the priests could no longer maintain themselves.

Several collapsed to the floor.

Others staggered backward helplessly.

It's over.

How far did the standard fall while I was gone?

Deciding there was nothing more worth seeing, Michael began turning away.

Unless they were Helena or comrades Michael himself had trained, he had little interest in ordinary humans.

"Cough! It's not over yet!"

"I, Sia, child of God, offer this prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel."

"Protect us in battle against evil..."

Huh?

A female priest?

The voice was soft and unmistakably feminine.

As far as Michael remembered, the stubbornly conservative religious world only permitted women to become nuns.

Yet among the priests who had already begun losing hope, one woman continued praying.

Her eyes had not given up.

"Help us against the schemes of the Devil."

The barrier forming in front of her contained even less Ahura than those created by the priests who had already collapsed.

There was no reason to expect such a weak barrier to accomplish anything.

And yet...

Michael couldn't take his eyes off her.

Thump.

Thump.

His heart suddenly began pounding violently.

Other people might not have recognized her.

But there was one appearance Michael could never forget.

Lady Helena?

It was Helena.

The same Helena Michael had seen just before falling asleep.

"Keh-heh! Is that pathetic barrier really the best you can do? It's worse than an insect!"

As the demon mocked her, Sia, the priest standing alone before it, clenched her teeth.

The Ahura gathering around Sia was impure and poorly refined.

Worse, the amount she had managed to gather into her barrier was pitifully small.

Her prayer was incomplete.

It was obvious how weak she was.

No matter what happens, we have to protect this place!

There was a reason Sia and the other priests had desperately tried to stop the demons from entering.

This church contained the remains of a saint.

If those remains fell into the hands of demons, no one knew what kind of disaster might follow.

They absolutely had to protect them.

Even if they get past me, the Cup of Fulfillment should buy us some time.

Using the holy relic known as the Cup of Fulfillment, Sia had placed a protective barrier around the coffin so no one could touch it.

However, the barrier could only protect the coffin.

It couldn't destroy the demons attacking them.

"Stop resisting and give me the remains!"

Tired of Sia's stubborn resistance, the demon swung its claws again.

"I beg you to pray that the Lord may command the Devil!"

Sia finished her prayer and braced herself.

Then...

BAM!

"Kyaaah!"

A powerful impact suddenly struck her.

Sia cried out as she was sent flying across the floor.

At that exact moment, Michael appeared behind her.

He frowned deeply and glared down at Sia with obvious displeasure.

"Fuck. You scared the hell out of me."

"I thought you were Lady Helena."

Pale skin like white jade, seemingly untouched by sunlight.

Eyes that glittered as though they contained the Milky Way.

Curly hair that reached her chest.

Sia was unquestionably beautiful.

But now that Michael could see her up close, he realized the truth immediately.

She wasn't Helena.

Her presence.

Her appearance.

The feeling she gave off.

None of it truly belonged to Helena.

Well, even if Lady Helena reincarnated, she would've been born with a different appearance anyway.

Helena, who had sacrificed herself in France, had probably already reincarnated into another body, just as she had many times before.

Maybe my eyesight got worse after being sealed for so long.

Michael paused.

No.

Even then, mistaking some random woman for Lady Helena...

Reflecting on his mistake, Michael blinked several times.

Then he turned toward the demon.

And moved.

In the blink of an eye, Michael crossed the distance between them and grabbed the possessed man's face with one hand.

"Mmph! Mmph!"

The demon poured demonic energy into its claws and slashed at Michael.

Michael spread Ahura throughout his body.

The demonic energy was repelled instantly.

"What a load of bullshit."

Michael scratched his head with his free hand.

Somehow, he had ended up saving Sia and dealing with this demon himself.

"I really don't like getting dragged into annoying situations like this..."

He paused.

Then his expression changed.

"But even if it's been a while, I should still do what needs to be done, right?"

Ahura began flowing from Michael's back.

It traveled down his arm and gathered in the hand gripping the demon's face.

Michael looked down at Sia, who was still lying on the floor.

"A priest who can't even control Ahura properly?"

"The world really has gone to hell."

Then, almost as if he were demonstrating the basics to a junior, Michael allowed Ahura to gather in his hand.

White flames began to rise.

"Watch carefully."

"You don't simply pull Ahura out."

"Its purpose changes depending on how you control it."

The white flames grew brighter.

"Like this."

Michael spoke the name of the technique.

"Igniculus."

The white flame that purified all calamity and evil...

Had returned to the world.