Ch.109109. Hymn of the Lambs

Heinrich, no, the being now known as Laplace, clashed with Amon.

Of course, even Laplace was powerless before the snail eye drops.

However, unlike Heinrich, Laplace was a robot.

[Humans repeat the same mistakes. But you shouldn’t expect that from me.]

There might be occasional malfunctions, but he doesn’t make mistakes.

That’s why an endless competition with Amon was inevitable.

Laplace continued the competition with Amon in an almost testing tone.

In that seemingly endless competition, Amon slowly began adapting to the Divine Power contained in the bullets.

‘As always.’

Calmly.

And when the adaptation was complete, he moistened his dry lips and began an incantation for the first time in a while.

<Lord, the water fills my soul!>

The incantation that had blinded the muscular American who used to ride a motorcycle.

Laplace might not know the effect of the incantation, but he had information that Amon’s incantations were dangerous.

The problem was that he also had information that Amon used incantations as traps.

‘Is it a feint?’

The psychological warfare that had trapped a demon on the outskirts of the Vatican.

The demon, wary of Amon’s incantation, had desperately tried to interrupt it, and consequently fell into a trap.

Laplace, who had observed that scene through CCTV, faced two choices.

Not interrupting the incantation wasn’t an option.

Either interrupt with full force, or interrupt cautiously with the trap in mind.

‘Does a human have the means to neutralize me?’

Like he did with the demon, does Amon have such a card?

‘EMP won’t work.’

Since he had completely taken over consciousness, EMP was meaningless.

There didn’t seem to be any other means to neutralize Laplace either.

After a second of deliberation, Laplace decided.

Interrupt with full force.

In terms of risk, letting the incantation complete was much higher.

In the calculated futures, there was no danger except in the future where Amon completed his incantation.

But upon discovering that bullets no longer affected Amon, Laplace realized his misconception.

‘It wasn’t psychological warfare, but coercion.’

Whether it was bewilderment or an error, Laplace showed an uncharacteristic emotion.

Seeing that expression, Amon raised the corner of his mouth.

‘With enough time, I can defeat anyone.’

Force a stalemate with the power of the snail eye drops,

Maintain a prolonged battle with the power of recovery,

And finally, secure complete immunity to the opponent’s abilities with the power of adaptation.

Unless it’s an overwhelming force like a nuclear bomb, Amon can secure time to adapt against any opponent.

This was the ultimate shield Amon had perfected.

‘There’s a reason I stopped searching for essences.’

As the saying goes, too much of a good thing is bad. Once his defense was perfected, there was no need to seek more essences.

And finally, he fills the lacking firepower with baptismal incantations.

[Salvum de impius palude (Save from the swamp of evil)]

Laplace’s eyes and ears were blinded.

Being an AI, he didn’t completely lose consciousness, but it didn’t matter much.

Amon grabbed the back of Heinrich’s neck, made the sign of the cross, and thrust his sword in.

With a feeling of something breaking, Heinrich’s breath completely stopped.

‘Is it over…’

Amon finally caught his breath.

He returned his sword and intended to rejoin Kathy and Sonia.

But all of this was Laplace’s trap.

Bang!

Amon clutched his shoulder.

‘I’ve been had properly.’

He turned his head to look at Heinrich.

But Heinrich was still collapsed.

Bang!

Another gunshot rang out.

Amon was able to react to this attack.

And when he turned his gaze to the source of the gunshot,

[You won’t call me a coward, human.]

Laplace’s voice emanated from the throats of people other than Heinrich.

A Holy Knight from the Decadents was sniping at Amon from a block away.

Not just that knight, but numerous Holy Knights simultaneously looked at Amon, channeling Laplace’s voice.

‘All these people are Laplace?’

It’s not impossible.

To him, humans are probably just easily controlled puppets.

Seeing the Holy Knights surrounding him, Amon’s first thought wasn’t that he’d been deceived or that it was cowardly.

‘Kathy, Sonia!’

He had left the people driven mad by Laplace to the two of them.

The fact that the Holy Knights were participating in the battle had clear implications.

“Kathy, Sonia, respond!”

Forgetting that he was in battle, Amon urgently called for her.

Sonia’s strained response came through the radio.

[I’m… fine.]

“No, you’re not!”

Just from her voice, he could tell she was lying.

[Sorry. I’ve put most of them to sleep with my ability, but it’s still tough.]

“What about Kathy?!”

[…]

“Why aren’t you answering?”

[I don’t know either! We got separated! There are too many—Ah!]

Sonia responded with a shout, indicating she was in combat.

“Sonia… Ugh!”

Amon had no luxury to worry.

He let out a groan and resumed his battle with the Laplaces.

The combat ability of an individual Holy Knight Laplace was insignificant compared to Heinrich Laplace.

The more he controlled, the lower the quality of each one.

The sheer number was a threat in itself, but given enough time, he could adapt to the newly participating Holy Knights as well.

But,

‘Time… I don’t have time…’

He was worried about Kathy’s condition right now.

Worry led to impatience, and impatience led to mistakes.

‘Oops!’

Just as Heinrich had done before, Amon completely lost his right arm.

Clang.

A sword rolled on the ground.

Fortunately, it wasn’t severed.

But it was so mangled that it would be more of a hindrance than useless in this battle.

Amon left his limp arm and continued the battle with his remaining arm.

‘I can’t kill them.’

Unlike Heinrich, the Holy Knights were innocent victims.

He had to be careful even when swinging his sword.

‘Even I think this is foolish.’

To indulge in such luxury when his life is at stake.

But this was a battle of beliefs against beliefs.

Even if he won, killing these people to survive would be equivalent to losing in terms of belief.

Amon gave a bitter smile as he knocked out an approaching Holy Knight.

As the battle dragged on, Amon also realized the limitations of the snail eye drops.

‘With so many opponents, there are too many variables.’

The snail eye drops are specialized for one-on-one combat.

When trying to see choices against multiple opponents, there were so many variables that it gave him a headache.

Nevertheless, Amon continued the battle, believing in mental recovery through his healing ability.

But eventually, due to extreme fatigue, his eyes began to close slowly.

‘Should I stop using the snail eye drops?’

It felt like he would fall asleep from brain capacity overload.

But just before the effect of the eye drops wore off, Amon opened the lid again.

‘It’s not like I haven’t stayed up a night or two before.’

Amon desperately applied the eye drops.

He barely kept his drowsy eyes open and swung his sword in a half-asleep state.

‘Sonia…’

‘Kathy…’

Thinking of the two, Amon struggled to the end.

At that moment, a Holy Knight’s spear aimed for his heart.

Amon mechanically deflected it and tried to deal with the Holy Knight.

But just before Amon’s sword reached the Holy Knight, the knight suddenly fainted.

“Huh?”

Amon barely stopped his sword.

Looking closely, the fainted Holy Knight had a red thread around his neck.

‘Red thread?’

Amon felt a sense of déjà vu from that thread.

He turned his head to look in the direction the thread came from.

And Amon couldn’t help but smile broadly.

“See, I told you, didn’t I?”

Amon spoke affectionately with a voice that clearly showed fatigue.

Kathy, with a red halo on her head, replied to those words.

“Did you wait long? Thank you.”

*

Rewinding time a bit.

Kathy, who left to face the Cyberpsycho group at Amon’s request.

She faced the crazed individuals, using her abilities to the fullest after a long time.

“Yeah, I’m not useless.”

Her precognition had been sealed when facing political battles with Cardinals, or combat with Laplace or demons.

But there were no restrictions on using her abilities against people who had gone mad.

“Ah, this feels good.”

Kathy savored the feeling of liberation as she struck the back of a Holy Knight’s head with her spear.

Sonia, who had joined, also spread her wings and sent people to dreamland.

By the time their suppression count reached three digits, her spear momentarily stopped.

Though she tried to appear cheerful, she was bothered by what Amon had said before they separated.

– “Your value isn’t in that. The Kathy I liked was a woman who was confident even without precognition.”

“Liked.”

What did that word imply?

Then what about now?

Kathy tried to shake off the negative thoughts and refocused on the battle.

But right after that, the Holy Knights’ movements suddenly changed.

They collectively transformed from Cyberpsycho patients to people whose bodies had been taken over by Laplace.

‘Now of all times?’

There was no time to think.

Kathy began responding to the approaching Laplace group.

But her precognition didn’t work on people whose consciousness had been taken over by Laplace.

More precisely, like with the Cardinal, hundreds of futures seemed to change rapidly.

She now understood the meaning.

‘Futures that change in response.’

Kathy’s precognition allows her to glimpse possibilities in relationships with people.

In other words, choices that neither the other person nor she can think of aren’t visible.

But Laplace AI is a being that transcends humans.

Because he can calculate numerous futures based on Kathy’s actions, it appears as if the future is changing in real-time.

In the midst of the many overlapping precognitions, she sometimes managed to win.

But most of the time, it was her defeat, and in those moments, Sonia saved her from crisis.

As this situation repeated several times, Kathy’s confidence began to wane.

Meanwhile, Kathy got separated from Sonia.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t focused.

She kept Sonia in her sight and remained vigilant.

It was just that Laplace, realizing Kathy was a weak point, separated the two.

Surrounding Kathy, who was separated from Sonia, the Laplaces said,

[Humans die too easily. I wonder about you.]

“Think I’ll go down easily?”

[Well. Your mother moved as I expected.]

“You bastard…!”

Kathy, who barely calmed herself, began to face the Laplaces.

But frustratingly, she was no match for them.

‘As I thought, I…’

Was it wrong to go with her friends?

In the future, Amon and Sonia will face demon-like beings.

And every time, Kathy would be useless.

‘Of course, my role as the nest is enough.’

She might be fulfilling her role by supporting from behind with equipment and legal issues.

But she wanted to walk alongside her friends.

Even if she lacked the ability, and even if someone might mock her audacity, she wanted to be an equal companion to the two.

Tears welled up in frustration.

That’s when it happened.

[Kathy… I believe in you…]

Amon’s voice, sounding somewhat drowsy, came through the radio.

It was close to sleep-talking and didn’t seem particularly meaningful.

But that casually uttered phrase gave her an unparalleled sense of fulfillment.

Because it was proof that even in his drowsy state, he genuinely believed in her.

At that moment, she recalled Amon’s words once more.

– “A woman who was confident even without precognition.”

Recalling those words, Kathy lightly bit her lip and stood up.

Standing tall with her chest out, gripping her spear firmly,

‘Back to basics.’

She doesn’t rely on precognition.

Precognition is just a tool.

She turned off her focus on the red threads of fate and concentrated on the present.

She occasionally referred to the threads she saw, but didn’t depend on them.

Ironically, the more she did this, the threads gradually became more vivid,

‘Huh?’

At some point, the threads she could only see began to be tangible.