Ch.104104. The Cry of the Lambs

Amon swung his sword.

But the old man easily dodged it.

From a distance, Sonia provided covering fire, but the mecha-crocodile leaped up to block the bullets.

“I’ll join in!”

With a loud cry, Kathy joined the battle.

Not knowing the old man was a demon, only aware that he was Amon’s enemy, she used her ability out of habit.

The old man merely sneered at her attempt.

“Future sight? Such a basic technique.”

He mixed in a light feint to bait her movement, then kicked her away.

After mockingly watching her fly far away, the old man refocused on Amon.

“You’re much weaker than I expected.”

Despite the two penalties of being in the Vatican and using an avatar, the demon maintained the upper hand against Amon.

But Amon wasn’t anxious.

He knew better than anyone that his strength was his calmness(?).

“Die!!!”

He seemed a bit heated, but at least he considered himself calm.

The old man blocked Amon’s sword with his arm, smirking.

“A machine?”

Metal appeared instead of flesh beneath the old man’s torn sleeve.

“Is there any reason a demon shouldn’t get implants?”

This old man was different from other demons.

He used human methods without hesitation when needed, not just Mystic Power.

Besides the alloy arm, crocodile scales and magical engravings were visible on the old man’s neck.

“Tsk.”

Amon clicked his tongue and distanced himself from the old man.

The old man extended his steel arm, aiming at Amon.

His arm opened up and fired a small grenade.

Amon glanced behind at civilians who hadn’t evacuated yet, then slashed at the projectile.

After rolling on the ground from the explosion, Amon approached the old man again.

This time, the old man drew a blade from his knee, aiming for Amon’s chest.

As the blade grazed his chest, a chilling sensation ran down Amon’s spine for the first time in a while.

“Amon!”

Sonia shouted.

But she wasn’t in a comfortable position either.

The mecha-crocodile had caught her gun in its mouth and wouldn’t let go.

When the crocodile spun the gun with a crocodile hurricane, she had no choice but to release it.

“Kuh!”

She let out a groan and immediately spread her wings.

With a halo above her head, healing feathers scattered from the sky.

The old man’s eyelids drooped slightly. The mecha-crocodile also began to close its eyes drowsily.

“Hmm… I’m getting sleepy.”

With a faint smile, the old man stretched lazily.

Amon didn’t miss the opportunity and aimed for his heart.

But the old man easily caught the sword with his hand and said,

“Human technology is truly convenient.”

Then he broke the sword.

Procedures that could turn ordinary humans into monsters.

What would happen if a demon underwent such procedures?

What Amon had once worried about had become reality.

The old man turned his gaze from Amon to Sonia.

“I feel good, but if I sleep now, I won’t be able to sleep at night.”

The old man signaled to his pet crocodile.

The crocodile leaped toward Sonia who was floating high in the sky.

Sonia barely avoided the crocodile’s bite, but couldn’t dodge the blade that came from its tail.

“Ugh!”

The nun let out a small groan and lowered her altitude.

While the two were fighting hard, Kathy, who had been knocked down, got up.

She manipulated her spear to target the old man’s back.

At that moment, the old man’s mocking voice reached her ear.

“Know your place, human girl.”

The old man easily dodged the spear.

The spear missed him and headed toward Amon’s neck on the opposite side.

She hurriedly tried to pull back the spear, but—

“You folks don’t deal with hackers much, do you? Well, I suppose not.”

With those words, control of the spear briefly passed to the old man.

Clang!

The spear targeted Amon’s body with much sharper force than when she used it.

Kathy hastily regained control, but the moment she let her guard down, control passed back to the old man.

“Now I have one more weapon to use. Thank you, miss.”

Kathy couldn’t refute his mockery.

The old man continued to push them back.

Not only did he use Kathy’s spear, but he also hacked passing vehicles to threaten them,

pulled out unexpected Cyberware from various parts of his body,

and even fired shadowless magic spells with magical engravings, making him like an impregnable fortress.

In this critical moment, Amon made a gamble.

[Lord, behold me.]

The old man wouldn’t leave Amon alone.

“I don’t underestimate you. I can clearly see you’re trying to use your finishing move, so why would I just stand by and watch?”

“I know, you fool.”

“?!”

Amon showed a combative smile.

As if this was his plan all along.

“You know, I noticed you’ve been avoiding entering the Vatican’s boundary.”

“?!”

Having closed the distance to interrupt Amon’s incantation, the old man couldn’t prevent Amon from grabbing him.

He drew a blade from his knee, but Amon moved behind him and twisted his arm.

“You should go sightseeing at least once!”

Amon pushed the old man toward the Vatican.

As they got closer, the old man’s resistance gradually weakened.

Eventually, when his resistance completely disappeared, the old man smiled bitterly and said,

“This round is yours. Though it’s just an avatar, your method was excellent.”

“Why are you talking like it’s over?”

“Aren’t you trying to kill my avatar anyway? By the way, torture is useless. Obviously, pain doesn’t—ARGH!”

The old man screamed, forgetting his dignity due to the pain running through his spine.

“Pain? How?”

The old man looked into Amon’s eyes.

His left eye was one the old man recognized.

“Saan…! Why?!”

Instead of answering, Amon pressed firmly on the cracked part of the old man’s soul.

When he channeled Divine Power just below the knee, there was a violent reaction.

“Saan’s…! Why does a monster like that have his eye in you!!”

The old man screamed without being able to resist properly.

While torturing the old man, Amon sighed with disappointment.

‘As I thought, his lifespan isn’t decreasing.’

He had attacked the weakness Saan had told him about, but the lifespan didn’t decrease.

‘So attacking an avatar only causes pain.’

Amid his disappointment, Amon diligently tortured the old man.

He forced him to kneel on a bench and pressed down with an iron mace like performing an arm lock.

Pouring Divine Power was an added bonus.

“Enough!”

With a scream, the old man cut off the connection with his main body.

“Ah, he ran away.”

Amon stood up with disappointment, dusting himself off.

Even though it was just an avatar, obtaining a demon’s head was a bonus.

“It’s all over.”

He headed toward Sonia, who was still fighting the crocodile.

By the time he arrived, she had already put a wind hole in the crocodile’s head.

“This wasn’t just a mechanical crocodile, but a real one with implants.”

Sonia, collapsed haphazardly on the ground, pointed at the deactivated crocodile.

Blood, not fuel, was dripping from the crocodile’s head.

Amon asked with disgust:

“How did he control it?”

“Who knows? I’m guessing he inserted some kind of chip in its brain?”

“Next time, we should bring an EMP.”

“I agree. Who would have thought a demon would use implants?”

The two headed toward Kathy while making idle conversation.

Sonia embraced Kathy, who was crouched down looking dejected.

“Why are you so down?”

“I was useless again today…”

“No, you weren’t. You help us so much usually.”

“Hmm…”

Kathy buried her face in Sonia’s chest.

Sonia embraced Kathy’s sulking with overwhelming maternal love(?).

Amon had a very, very brief thought of envy, but,

– “I’ll do the same for you later.”

When Sonia mouthed those words, he immediately stopped that train of thought.

The three cleaned up the scene and headed to the cathedral.

At the cathedral where the vote was taking place, white smoke was rising.

“Looks like it’s over.”

Regardless of the voting results, they had at least secured evidence of demon worship.

Even if The Decadents were elected, they could invalidate it.

Therefore, Amon’s group waited for the voting to end with a relaxed attitude.

(The demon’s head was wrapped in a bundle beside them.)

When the conference room door finally opened, the result was quite different from what they expected.

“The Secularists cardinals collectively developed Cyberpsycho symptoms and attacked other cardinals.”

“What?”

“Accordingly, we will temporarily suspend the conclave and resume it again in two weeks.”

Hearing the announcement from the exhausted holy knight, the citizens were too stunned to say anything.

As soon as the announcement ended, Amon hurriedly went to find Heinrich.

“I’m Cardinal Heinrich’s bodyguard!”

Amon pushed past the holy knights’ blockade and headed to the conference room.

The closer he got to the conference room, the stronger the bloody scent became.

And when he saw inside, the scene he had feared most unfolded.

The bodies of dead cardinals, and the conference hall stained with blood.

And…

“Haha… You’ve come?”

Cardinal Heinrich, receiving emergency treatment for his missing right arm and right leg, let out a dry laugh.

“It seems we were too naive in our thinking.”

Next to Heinrich receiving treatment, the representative cardinal of The Moderates wore a grim expression.

“Cardinal Heinrich… I won’t forget your grace.”

“Not at all. We are all brothers, aren’t we?”

“Without you, many cardinals would have died.”

“Someone would have done it.”

Heinrich turned his gaze from the moderate cardinal to Amon and said:

“If it were you, brother, you would have done the same.”

At those words, Amon nodded with a hardened expression.

But somehow, a corner of his heart ached.