Ch.108108. The Screams of the Lambs

Amon’s sword created silver lines, and Heinrich’s bullets created gold lines.

The two fought, leaving traces of their divine power in the air.

As Kathy watched their battle anxiously,

BOOM!

The cathedral where Sonia had headed exploded.

“It’s a Cyberpsycho!!!!”

Countless madmen appeared not only in the Vatican but throughout Rome.

Heinrich’s Super AI was manipulating people’s nerves even while assisting in his battle.

“You said it was a degraded version!”

“This is what a degraded version does!”

Amon answered Kathy’s protest with a shout.

“At least only those with neural implants went mad!”

The originals were far more vicious.

They calmly committed incomprehensible acts: controlling people’s behavior through mobile phone electromagnetic waves, twisting magic circuits to cause magical overloads, and hacking genes.

By comparison, the degraded version seemed to only hack those who had received cyber implants.

As evidence, only the priests and holy knights of the Decadents, who were lenient toward cyber implants, were going mad.

However, the number of Decadents was not insignificant.

“Kathy! I’ll handle Heinrich! You take care of the others… ugh!”

That’s why Amon assigned Kathy to support the holy knights.

“Don’t worry about me!”

“…Alright!”

She barely managed to move away.

After sending Kathy off, Amon refocused on Heinrich.

‘The Divine Power that Mr. Heinrich wields is… penetration.’

He could tell from the way the bullets passed through without resistance.

His bullets had the power to simply pass through obstacles and embed themselves directly in their target.

‘Similar to Sonia yet different.’

Sonia could ignore recoil, allowing her to increase her rate of fire and power to ridiculous levels.

In terms of pure firepower, she was far more powerful.

In contrast, Heinrich’s bullets didn’t increase in power or improve accuracy, but they could consistently deal a fixed amount of damage.

This made them more effective against opponents with high and slow defenses.

‘But he’s easier to counter than Sonia.’

Due to her extreme power, Sonia’s bullet speed was difficult to block without prediction.

Heinrich’s bullets, however, traveled at normal speed.

With concentration, they could be dodged.

‘It’s fortunate he uses a pistol.’

Whether due to some limitation or other reason, he used only a pistol as his weapon.

Since he wasn’t spraying bullets, Amon could respond adequately.

In this way, Amon slowly analyzed the Cardinal.

As soon as Amon finished his analysis, he targeted the Cardinal’s weak point.

‘Reload time!’

The tiny gap created during reloading.

Aiming for that gap, he threw a dagger and approached him from a blind spot.

But…

‘He knew it was coming.’

Heinrich moved first, as if he had anticipated Amon’s actions.

After similar situations occurred several more times, Amon grew suspicious, and

CLANG!

When a bullet ricocheted, knocking over a flowerpot, which fell onto a fleeing car, causing the car to crash into Amon and explode,

his suspicion turned to certainty.

‘Is it Laplace’s AI?’

One of the four great AIs.

A monster that could predict the exact future by calculating even the movement of elements.

Unlike demons, it didn’t use Divine Power for foresight, so even Amon couldn’t counter it.

But by identifying Laplace, Amon deduced new information.

‘The other three aren’t here.’

Heinrich wasn’t receiving assistance from the other three AIs.

If the other AIs were present, they would have transcended living beings, manipulated perception, or brought an ice age to the city.

But he was just a slightly exceptional human, and even with a degraded version, he couldn’t control all four AIs simultaneously.

So he chose only one, and that was Laplace.

Of course, Heinrich’s choice was excellent.

While the performance of other degraded AIs was unknown, Laplace was at least the strongest among the four great AIs.

The ability to not just predict the future but determine it was virtually invincible.

However…

‘It still inherited the same weakness.’

Even this seemingly invincible AI had a fatal flaw.

If it had been a flawless AI without weaknesses, it wouldn’t have been sealed away in the first place.

‘It’s still passive.’

And this illegal copy of Laplace inherited the original’s weakness.

The passivity of prediction.

Foresight can interfere with others’ choices and guide their decisions,

but Laplace’s calculations follow the opponent’s choices as variables, making interference impossible.

A subtle difference, but with vastly different results.

Because…

‘It means I have the choice.’

Amon took out green eye drops from his pocket.

The nickname “snail droppings” briefly crossed his mind, but he bit his lip slightly and applied the eye drops.

Soon, the future unfolded before Amon’s eyes.

Not a future where Kathy sees victory or defeat,

but a future seen by the snail where he at least doesn’t lose.

And this ability was practically Laplace’s natural enemy.

‘You can’t hurt me anymore.’

If Amon chose a future where he wouldn’t lose, Laplace, calculating afterward, could at best calculate a future that ends in a draw.

But the same future is “at least” not losing for Amon, while for Laplace it’s “at best” not losing.

In other words, the longer the battle continued, the higher Amon’s chances of winning became.

And Heinrich was human, not a machine.

He would eventually make a mistake.

These two facts combined gave Amon confidence.

‘How ironic.’

He had declared Kathy’s family heretics and plotted against them.

But that had become a dagger that returned to Laplace.

‘Karma indeed.’

He swung his sword, displaying the eye of Saan on his left and the snail’s eye on his right.

Heinrich, sensing something was wrong, frowned.

“What… ugh, what did you do!”

“You have time to talk?!”

The initiative had completely shifted to Amon.

In the end, the right wrist that Amon had cut at the beginning became the decisive blow, and

“Checkmate, Mr. Heinrich.”

By completely taking his right arm, the advantage fully shifted to Amon.

Amon held his sword in reverse grip and urged surrender.

“I don’t want to kill you.”

It wasn’t out of affection.

The world was still unaware of Heinrich’s evil deeds.

If Heinrich died now, he would become a martyr, so it was necessary to bring him to trial.

Heinrich knew this well.

“I feel the same, Mr. Amon. However…”

In Heinrich’s eyes, flames of fighting spirit flickered.

“I’m sorry. I never knew that fighting for one’s beliefs… could be so fulfilling and enjoyable.”

“That’s not fulfillment. You’re intoxicated with blood.”

“Perhaps you’re right. But in my life, which had no meaning! For the first time! I’ve never felt such fullness!”

Amon closed his eyes tightly.

The flames in his eyes that Amon had thought were fighting spirit had already transformed into madness.

Heinrich, barely holding onto his sanity, was now trying to fulfill the final condition of Cyberpsycho.

“You mustn’t give up.”

Giving up.

Since the final stage of Cyberpsycho was completed by the patient’s self-abandonment,

“You mustn’t abandon moderation and restraint.”

Amon declared to the Cardinal who was muttering frantically.

“Fanaticism is just another form of corruption!”

But,

“Brother. No matter how I think about it, I believe how one lives has no meaning. What’s important is… how one dies.”

Heinrich, his remaining left arm trembling, pointed the gun under his chin.

“I must… make the Church of Goddess great again.”

“You mustn’t. You know it well. That’s neither martyrdom nor sacrifice. That’s corruption.”

“I know.”

Heinrich looked at Amon with infinite favor amidst the waves of fanaticism.

From that gaze, Amon realized his misunderstanding.

Heinrich wasn’t trying to become a martyr.

Since he had failed, Amon would succeed.

He wanted to elevate Amon to miracle status through his own death.

Amon recognized his intention and gritted his teeth to dissuade him, but,

“My entire life has been negated. If so, I’m content to become proof of a new miracle.”

“Don’t do it!!”

“If I can find meaning in my existence this way! If I can witness a new miracle with my own eyes! I’ll do it even if I become a monster…!”

“Stop…”

“Ameeeeen!”

BANG!

With a single gunshot, his neck jerked backward.

The bullet that seemed to have penetrated his head didn’t come out the other side.

Then his head began to vibrate strangely, and,

[I asked, didn’t I? If you were worthy to use me.]

His voice changed to something close to a mechanical sound, then,

[I’ve reached a conclusion. You were sufficiently interesting.]

He readjusted his grip on the gun, his eyes flashing with red light.

Amon was familiar with this phenomenon.

“Laplace…”

[This is that poor human’s last request. Whether you deserve it or not, human called Amon, I shall test you.]