Chapter 67

Chapter 67, The Order (12)

After being freed from Agape, Eriel had a completely different atmosphere.

The expression that had once been filled with almost excessive benevolence had lost its warmth and softness.

Now, only the mysterious and sacred atmosphere unique to an angel remained.

Her eyes had also settled, making her expression look cold depending on how you saw it.

The corners of her mouth, which had always been raised, were now straight.

It was an expression closer to coldness than warmth.

The difference from the cozy Eriel I had known before was enormous.

Just as I started thinking she felt unfamiliar, Eriel noticed me entering the cathedral and the corners of her mouth curved upward.

Her eyes, which had been cold like a lake covered in thin ice, melted in an instant.

The strangely emotionless look on her face filled with life again.

She had merely smiled, yet the cold impression completely disappeared and reminded me once more of the warm Eriel from before.

“Thank you. Really, really... thank you.”

She stood from where she had been sitting and approached me.

As she did, she kept saying the same thing.

Thank you.

Eriel's voice trembled with overwhelming emotion and gratitude as she barely managed to continue speaking.

I silently patted her.

At the same time, I realized that another journey had come to an end.

“Ugh...”

No.

Not completely.

We had slaughtered more than a thousand followers of the Order's Asian branch and freed Eriel from captivity.

Now there was only one thing left.

Cardinal Delta, the man overseeing the Order's Asian branch.

The one who had infected Eriel with Agape and tried to brainwash and use my companions.

Once he died, this journey would truly be over.

“Eriel. Would you like to take revenge yourself?”

I pulled Delta up from where he had been lying restrained on the floor.

He groaned as I lifted him by the collar.

Eriel only seemed to notice Delta properly then, and her expression stiffened slightly.

Hatred appeared in her eyes.

From her perspective, Delta was practically her mortal enemy.

Since Eriel was the one who had suffered the most because of him, I intended to leave Delta's fate to her.

At my question, she nodded.

With a determined look, she thanked me once more and took a step toward Delta.

Delta tried to retreat, but his hands and feet were tied.

He couldn't move.

Eriel took another step closer.

The distance between them continued shrinking.

“...H, haha. Eriel. Seeing you from this angle feels a little unfamiliar. Yes, I admit I've gone too far over the years. I'm sorry.”

“...”

“Why don't we calm down a little and talk this out? I still haven't forgotten the grace Eriel has shown our Order for two hundred years...”

Eventually, she stopped directly in front of Delta.

Her hand rose high into the air, then immediately dropped toward his face.

Thump!

Her small white fist struck Delta in the face.

Delta let out a short groan and flinched, shrinking his body as he braced himself for the violence that would follow.

That was as far as Eriel went.

“I... think I'll stop here.”

“...Do you want me to spare Delta?”

I asked Eriel after she ended her revenge with only one punch to the face.

Compared to everything she had suffered, it was an incredibly minor act of revenge.

For a moment, I wondered whether the effects of Agape still remained.

But she shook her head.

“No. Delta deserves to die, and he should die. But...”

“You feel burdened by the idea of killing him with your own hands.”

“Yes...”

“Understood.”

I told her I would kill Delta instead.

She thanked me and stepped back.

Delta screamed for his life, but his fate had already been decided.

It was time for him to die.

Behind me, Hwa-ryeon and Arlin approached while offering suggestions.

“How about cutting him down with a sword?”

“Burning him with lightning doesn't seem bad either.”

One suggestion came from each side.

I shook my head and took out Fragment of Faith.

Then I slashed across Delta's chest.

The place where the sword passed remained completely unharmed, without even the smallest cut.

But Delta lost consciousness.

His eyes were still open, but there was no life in them.

He continued breathing, but his body didn't move.

His heart continued beating, but there was no vitality.

If I had to describe him, he looked like a living corpse.

“...What did you do?”

“I only cut his mind. Delta's body is still alive, but his mind is dead.”

As I finished speaking, I poured flames over him.

Delta's body turned into ash without resistance and scattered into nature.

I had cut his mind with Fragment of Faith as a precaution in case he possessed yet another resurrection-related Mystery.

His mind was completely destroyed.

Even if he somehow revived again, he would be nothing more than an unconscious vegetable.

“...It's over.”

Now that Delta was dead, the Inner World would soon collapse, and we would return to where we originally were.

I didn't know how much time remained until then.

But there should at least be enough time for a brief conversation.

I asked Eriel, who stood there calmly.

“What are you planning to do from now on?”

It was a question I had already asked once.

She had answered that she planned to hold funerals for the dead followers.

That had only been a little over ten minutes ago.

But during those ten minutes, she had completely changed.

I wanted to hear what she truly desired, free from Agape.

“I...”

Eriel began speaking slowly, then suddenly fell silent.

“...I...”

“You?”

“...”

“You still don't know yet?”

“...No.”

I sat down beside her and asked another question.

“Then is there anything you want to do?”

“Something I want to do...”

“Yes. For example, training to become stronger.”

The moment I said it, I realized my mistake.

She had once been a Cherub, a powerful stage directly below Seraph.

And then she had fallen all the way to Throne.

Delta and Agape were the reasons for that.

In a way, I had just poked at her wound.

I was about to apologize immediately, but Eriel spoke first.

She held deep emotion inside herself as she opened her lips.

What came out wasn't blame.

“There is... something I want to do.”

Eriel met my eyes.

“I want to help you, Yuhyeon.”

“...Me?”

“Yes. From now on, I want to live while helping Yuhyeon, the person who saved me. That's... what I want.”

“...Ah.”

Eriel smiled with her eyes as I let out a blank sound of surprise.

Pure white light flowed from her hand.

She gently brushed that hand across my cheek.

The divine power released from her followed her soft touch and seeped into every part of my body.

At first, I thought it was simple healing.

But judging from the way my body started heating up, that didn't seem to be the case.

Heat beyond simple warmth circulated through my body.

“What was that just now?”

“I used my divine power to strengthen your body. You could call it an angel's blessing. That's my first gift.”

I felt my body growing hotter and looked toward her wings.

The intensity of the light they carried seemed slightly weaker.

At a glance, she had clearly used a considerable amount of divine power.

I hurriedly handed her the divine power fragments I had obtained from killing Delta several times earlier.

She smiled and refused them.

She said she no longer had any attachment to training and told me to give them to Lee Yeonhee instead.

All I could do was thank her.

That alone was already more than enough of a gift.

Even judging purely with reason and ignoring my emotions, it was an overwhelmingly large reward.

But Eriel still seemed to think it wasn't enough.

After thinking for a while, she asked me.

“Yuhyeon. Do you have somewhere you normally stay?”

“...Yes.”

“Is that place safe?”

Safe?

I thought about the apartment for a moment and reached a conclusion.

It probably wasn't very safe.

We didn't have any defensive Mysteries.

There also wasn't some guardian protecting the inside of the house.

Before the apocalypse, it had been a safe apartment complex because the property value was high.

But after the apocalypse...

That was another question.

“I don't think it's particularly safe.”

“Then what about here?”

“What?”

“How about using this Inner World as your base?”

“Here?”

I thought about it for a moment.

The Inner World was almost perfectly suited to becoming a base.

Because of the nature of the Mystery, the chance of an unauthorized intruder appearing was basically zero percent.

And the fact that we could enter whenever we wanted, from wherever we wanted, was an enormous advantage.

If we could use this place as a base or home, it would be incredible.

It would be ridiculously good.

But...

Wasn't this place about to collapse?

This was Delta's Inner World.

Now that he was dead, this place should have already been doomed to collapse.

“It would be great if we could use this place as a base, but isn't it about to collapse?”

Eriel silently smiled at my words.

She waved her bare hand through the air without using divine power.

At the same moment, every building around us completely disappeared.

They vanished cleanly, as though erased with an eraser.

The small village that had contained more than ten buildings became an empty field in an instant.

It was a miracle that only the owner of the Inner World should have been capable of performing.

I stared at Eriel in shock.

She turned toward me and kindly answered the question that had only just appeared in my mind, before I could even say it aloud.

“Actually, this place was formed partly from my power. Delta was able to revive because he was forcibly drawing on my power as well. Maybe because of that, once Delta died, I became able to control this place.”

“...That's insane.”

“Then, Yuhyeon. How about living here together with me?”

Eriel, who had become the new owner of the Inner World, asked me that question.

I immediately nodded.

And just like that, my companions and I gained a new home.