Chapter 98, Church of the Flame (2)
It looked like the park around the fountain had been completely remodeled, because there was now a huge structure resembling an altar that hadn't been there before.
I didn't know what color it had originally been, but because of the Cloak of Erebus, the altar was currently dyed gray.
An old man who had been worshiping the purple flames burning atop it opened his mouth wide.
“O Flame who burns all creation! Please use even this old body of Kim Yeongcheol as firewood and burn ever brighter!”
When he shouted, the other believers repeated after him.
It seemed that old man was something like the leader of the people gathered here.
But as I looked at him, I couldn't shake the feeling that he was familiar.
His face was so familiar that I didn't even need to search through my memories one by one before someone similar immediately came to mind.
One of the residents I had last encountered before leaving the apartment complex, the man who had fallen into fanaticism and founded a religion.
The face of that nameless old man and the face of the man standing on the altar now, Kim Yeongcheol, looked extremely similar.
No.
They weren't merely similar.
They were exactly the same.
It wasn't only his face.
Even the crazed atmosphere of a fanatic willing to offer himself as a sacrifice for his faith was identical.
“No way.”
The old man who, before I left, had founded a religion worshiping me and gathered three thousand believers.
And this old man named Kim Yeongcheol, who now commanded five thousand believers while worshiping something called the Flame.
The thought that they might be the same person entered my mind.
And when the old man suddenly raised both hands, that possibility turned into certainty.
Fwoosh...
The old man, who had been bowing before the flames, slowly lifted his head and raised both hands.
When I saw the faint purple light glowing from his palms, I left my companions behind and walked forward.
The area around the altar was packed with thousands of believers, making it feel as though dozens of walls had been stacked together.
As I slowly pushed through the crowd and approached the altar, I felt something indescribable rising inside me.
What was I supposed to call this?
This hot sensation I had felt in my chest from the moment the old man spoke the name of the Flame.
It felt closer to energy than emotion.
Closer to something tangible than something intangible.
Something difficult to define stirred and pulsed inside my chest.
I wondered if this was how people who possessed mana or internal energy felt when sensing their own power.
But it didn't seem like mana, internal energy, or divine power either.
Perhaps because there was so little of it, it was difficult even to perceive.
Unable to define whatever existed inside my chest, I eventually reached the foot of the altar where the old man stood.
The old man had already stopped his worship and was staring at me as I approached.
His pupils shrank into tiny points, then widened like full moons.
His eyes completely filled with my figure.
The version of me reflected in them wavered.
A single tear rolled down the old man's face and fell to the ground.
“...O Flame. Great Flame. We have been waiting for you.”
He bowed his head and lowered his body as far as possible.
He prostrated himself before me in the lowest posture a human could take.
The other believers, seeing him, slowly followed.
Every single person present did the same.
The sight of more than five thousand people gathered around the fountain they had turned into an altar lowering themselves at once was difficult to describe with a word as simple as spectacular.
Standing at the center of it all, I asked the old man lying prostrate before me.
“Before I left this place, you told me you'd founded a religion, didn't you?”
“Yes, that is correct. The memory of the immeasurable grace with which the Flame personally bestowed upon us the honored name, Church of the Flame, still remains within this humble man's heart.”
“...Are all these people believers of the Church of the Flame?”
“No. There are another three hundred novice believers who are not yet in a position to come here.”
“So altogether, there are more than 6,200 of you.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
I was so shocked that I forgot to even tell the old man to stand up.
I looked around.
More than five thousand believers still had their heads lowered.
What was even more surprising was that not a single one of them seemed to have bowed merely because they had been swept up by the atmosphere.
Every one of them was bowing to me of their own will.
I could sense fanaticism from each of them.
It wasn't as intense as the old man's, but the nature of it was very similar.
How is this even possible?
Before I could ask, the old man took out a round, bead-like object and offered it to me.
It was too large to simply call a bead.
Calling it an orb seemed more appropriate.
I instinctively took it and examined it.
The distinctive atmosphere of a Mystery flowed from it.
[Scq898, Thousand Bodies, One Will]
[A thousand bodies, one will.
The more people there are, the more different personalities and thoughts they naturally possess.
However, this orb guides their thoughts and personalities toward a single, greatest will.
As time passes, they will sincerely become influenced by that will.]
When I checked it with Lucy, it turned out to be a mind-control-type Mystery.
I didn't know how the old man had obtained it, but it looked perfectly specialized for creating and leading a religion.
Its characteristics were quite similar to the statue-shaped Mystery the Order had once left inside the apartment complex.
