Ch.136Proxy War (4)

The meeting between the mental parasite and Nastion took place secretly, yet swiftly. They could instantly discern each other’s true nature at a glance.

Their conference and negotiations weren’t conducted through physical language. They simply opened their minds and communicated through mental imagery.

They exchanged necessary information, calculated what each wanted, and repeatedly assessed each other’s abilities. Despite these repeated exploratory exchanges, the time that passed in the material world was less than a moment—such was the efficient time perception of beings created to manipulate the mind.

The first question the mental parasite posed was about the detailed composition of Arguirion. For Nastion, who served Arguirion to bring about their cause, this was an unavoidably sensitive question.

The parasite revealed its mind, stating, “I have no ulterior motives; I merely wish to verify the rumors about the Divine Name Order and Arguirion joining forces.”

Nastion couldn’t guess why the Divine Name Order had suddenly emerged as a topic of conversation.

However, Nastion knew that the parasite’s kind had been at odds with the Divine Name Order since ancient times. A rational inference naturally followed: if Arguirion was allied with the Divine Name Order, the parasite would be reluctant to join forces with them.

“No. That’s merely an excuse the Ten Towers spread to cover up their failure.”

“I thought as much. What’s your actual relationship with the Divine Name Order?”

“Those magicians claim to be enlightened yet fear what they cannot understand. The superstition followers exist outside the magicians’ understanding, so they merely use their name to intimidate magical society—they’re nothing but tools.”

The parasite was satisfied with this answer. What Nastion said aligned with how its kind had traditionally dealt with the Order. Whether as tools for fables or propaganda, it made no difference.

“You must wonder why I brought this up. The adversary that Arguirion speaks of, the one I faced…”

‘Is related to the Divine Name Order? That can’t be right.’

This was puzzling for Nastion, knowing that the Divine Name Order had declined significantly over the past century due to the Ten Towers’ consistent suppression.

According to Haltos and other Arguirion executives, one of the two adversaries was a monster created by the White Light. Though treated as an illegitimate child by the Ten Towers, it was fundamentally their creation.

Given the nature of those belonging to the Divine Name Order, they could never accept such a being—its very existence was blasphemy. Would an Order priest really have such a being as a comrade?

“…because it is a demigod.”

Nastion was bewildered. The parasite had been sealed away for a long time—had it gone mad?

No. Mental parasites inherently possessed minds that didn’t deteriorate with the passage of time. These beings, implanted with thorough self-sacrifice to become cornerstones for the future, wouldn’t easily succumb to madness.

“I sensed a power within him that I couldn’t comprehend. A power inexplicable by battle aura, magical force, or even elemental incarnation. An irrational ability that reaps fruit without seeds. Such power I’ve only witnessed in the divinity of the Twelve Great Gods.”

‘Is it really insane?’

If the Divine Name Order had a demigod, they wouldn’t have continued such a miserable struggle. They would have unleashed the power of their lineage’s divine source to fight against the Ten Towers.

However, the mental parasite was the only surviving witness who had faced “something presumed to be the adversary” and preserved its memories intact. Nastion had no choice but to take its testimony seriously.

“…Very well. Let’s say this Ortes you speak of is a demigod. How do you plan to deal with him?”

“Even if he’s not a true demigod, he’s certainly a comparable threat. I’ve heard that your Arguirion has prepared for rebellion and seized the Ten Towers’ armory. Then surely you can obtain a magical core that can become my physical vessel?”

There were many means to contain a mental parasite besides a magical core. By applying the technology that created silver worms or Drachma, it wouldn’t be difficult to create a framework for the parasite to attempt incarnation.

‘Complete the incarnation and strike with overwhelming power the opponent wouldn’t expect…’

This aligned with Haltos’s strategy for dealing with the adversary, Ortes. Deploy a fatal move that Ortes could never anticipate, so that even if they lost on multiple fronts, they could claim a decisive victory and cut off his lifeline.

For Arguirion, artifacts or magical cores powerful enough to create a false god represented a massive expenditure.

But if this Ortes was even half as dangerous as Haltos feared, dealing with him now was the right move. Hadn’t that half-crazed mental parasite also judged Ortes to be a demigod-level threat?

Nastion promptly promised to procure an item with sufficient magical capacity for the mental parasite to inhabit.

One hour later.

Priests of the Divine Name Order, led by the priests of Agrotera, the hunting goddess, began finding and killing the mental parasite’s physical vessels.

***

‘What on earth is happening…?’

As soon as the attack began, Nastion concealed himself in the shadow of one of the priests.

The mental parasite’s decision was equally swift. This body was just one of many, after all. It detonated the magical power accumulated in its body, engulfing the surroundings. Thus ended the Divine Name Order’s first hunt.

Nastion didn’t immediately flee from shadow to shadow to escape the enemy group because he needed to discover why the Order had tracked them down.

Listening to the priests’ conversations, he learned this wasn’t a hunt undertaken solely by the Agrotera Order. At minimum, six or more orders had collaborated to hunt the mental parasite.

‘How could this happen!’

Nastion’s shock was understandable. As is human nature, when crisis approaches, one instinctively prioritizes self-preservation.

The twelve orders comprising the Divine Name Order were no different. With survival at stake, it seemed impossible that an alliance could form so quickly for one order’s crisis.

The authority capable of enabling such an alliance was limited.

‘Could it be?’

Could it really be a demigod?

In this era, thousands of years after the mythical age had ended?

Nastion watched the hunters’ movements from within the shadows. Since the hunters believed their prey was only the parasite, he was confident he wouldn’t be targeted by their sacred tracking.

Moreover, based on what Nastion knew about the Divine Name Order’s actual state, they shouldn’t be able to use sacred arts consecutively. It was evident that as their decline accelerated, the divine power they received from the gods had dimmed.

But this wasn’t the case.

The priests of Teleia, queen of gods and guardian of households, stepped forward to create protective barriers around the priests—to prevent magicians from detecting the flow of divine power. Within the barrier, the hunting god’s priests began using sacred tracking to pursue their prey.

The mental parasite used its own magic to interfere with the tracking, so it couldn’t succeed immediately. However, the priests continued using sacred arts regardless of divine power consumption.

This was a sight impossible to witness during a period of depleting divine power. Witnessing this near-wasteful explosive consumption, Nastion was struck by a chilling intuition.

Such abuse of divine power would be impossible for priests without a new source of divine power.

And since ancient times, demigods had served as powerful mediators between gods and humans, positioned between the two.

‘Truly?’

Truly a demigod?

Regardless of Nastion’s fear, the Order’s hunters began their pursuit. At this rate, the parasite might truly die if it ran out of bodies to possess.

He needed to hide the parasite somehow. An incarnated false god was essential to counter Ortes, the demigod.

‘If there’s any consolation…’

Perhaps it was that he had implanted a silver worm in the Bacchus Order’s bishop. Having induced his rampage, the Bacchus Order must be devastated by now. Having uprooted an order fundamentally capable of dealing with the mental parasite provided some leeway.

Unless the demigod himself came out to face the parasite, there was still time.

***

“Hiya. This is convenient.”

I can see the busy movement of the Divine Name Order priests. So this is why people set up auto-hunting.

Right. The Demon King has been auto-hunting for thousands of years, so they can’t call us cowards for doing a little auto-hunting ourselves.

I asked Knemon for understanding and assigned Demos as his guard. We’ll have many dealings with the Ten Towers in the future, so it would be good for them to get closer.

Having temporarily set aside his guard duties, Kine was receiving crash courses in sacred arts usage from the veteran priest-gamers, being treated like a priest-newbie.

Even though Carisia was adept at ability operation, her specialty was magic.

Kine, baptized by the veterans, would become a trump card against the parasite.