Ch.17057. At the Vatican (2)

I met eyes with Soso.

She couldn’t have mistaken the room, so she must have come to see me. But upon seeing me, she became flustered and couldn’t speak properly.

“Um… that… well… ah… you’re still awake…”

It was already 2 AM. Soso probably thought I’d be asleep.

“I can’t fall asleep yet. What’s up?”

“Well… that… just a moment… I was going to… look at your sleeping face… and leave right away…”

It seems Soso simply wanted to see my face.

I approached Soso as she stood there hesitating.

“Isn’t it better that I’m awake? Don’t just stand there, let’s sit over there.”

“Huh? Y-yeah…”

We sat side by side on the edge of the bed.

Soso seemed awkward, carefully placing both hands on her knees while cautiously watching my reaction.

“You don’t need to be so cautious. It’s not like you’ve committed a crime against me.”

“Crime… that’s…”

Her face turned gloomy. No, it darkened.

I could somewhat guess what Soso was feeling.

‘She feels sorry for me.’

On the transport to this place, Soso had heard everything about my remaining lifespan.

She had cried so much that she collapsed to the floor, completely devastated. Given how tender-hearted Soso was, she couldn’t have sorted out her feelings yet.

So when she glanced at me, her eyes began to redden again.

“Hic… hic…”

But Soso kept her mouth tightly shut. She was forcibly holding back the tears that threatened to fall.

She was probably trying not to cry because it might make me uncomfortable if she did. I felt sorry for her.

I raised one arm and embraced her shoulder.

“You don’t have to hold back. And if there’s anything you want to say, you can say it all.”

At those words, Soso finally couldn’t hold back anymore.

“Waaah… unh… hic…”

She fell into my arms and began to cry bitterly. I gently embraced her and patted her back.

‘At this rate… conversation will be impossible for now.’

It seemed better to let her cry to her heart’s content for a while. Soso burrowed deeper into my embrace.

I could feel her soft yet sensual upper body against mine.

We had already spent a night together. I knew exactly how she felt.

‘Right. There’s no need to be pretentious anymore.’

I had been confused for a long time.

Because of the guilt I carried after the tragedy at Ains, I couldn’t open my heart.

Guilt toward the victims. And guilt toward Yuri, Soso, and Arini who got caught up in that tragedy because of what I did.

‘And Soso…’

When I was at Ains, I didn’t realize that Soso liked me. No, actually I knew, but because I liked Yuri, I denied Soso’s feelings until the end and treated her only as a friend.

That guilt remained knotted inside me, unresolved even after spending the night with Soso in Busan.

But now I’ve sorted out all those feelings.

I formed a bond with Yuri, and opened my heart completely to Arini, conveying my true feelings.

‘Now to Soso as well…’

Even after the possession, I never thought of those three as merely characters in a novel.

If I’m alive, then the world I live in is reality. So all three of them were precious to me.

‘I don’t want to lose any of them.’

I have no memories from before the possession. So Soso was the closest friend I had in my life.

And Soso was a person full of charm as a woman, to the extent that it seemed a shame for her to remain just a friend.

If that weren’t the case, I would never have crossed the line with Soso, no matter what.

I lifted her face from my chest with my hand.

Though her face was a mess from all the tears, it was still beautiful as she looked at me.

Although her appearance had completely changed since Ains, the look in her eyes as she gazed at me hadn’t changed at all.

That gaze that always followed me. Now, I was grateful that Soso loved me.

“I love you.”

When I said that, Soso shed even more tears.

“W-what are you saying…”

Soso was flustered. But she didn’t leave my embrace.

“You… you like Yuri and Arini too… but me…”

“Yes, I like both of them too. I don’t intend to give up on anyone.”

“I knew it. You playboy…”

Soso’s expression turned sullen for a moment, but it wasn’t a look of dislike. I said to her:

“I’m still alive. There’s not much time left to love.”

I had already decided not to think too complicatedly.

Then I laid Soso down on the bed. She blushed as if embarrassed, but soon the two of us embraced each other roughly.

“Tonight, I’ll become like a blood demon too.”

Soso whispered in my ear.

I spent the remaining time before the operation began with Soso.

***

Soon it was 5 AM.

And the operation began without any signal.

5 AM was just a start time I had arbitrarily set.

I hadn’t told Commander Caruso specifically how Flame would move.

Since the communication lines had already been hacked.

‘Exchanging too much information would be dangerous.’

And there could already be spies mixed among the Crusaders.

So Flame’s group left the air force base very carefully.

“The Vatican and the Papal Palace are open to the public. It shouldn’t be difficult to find our way there.”

Yuri calmly told the group.

During this time, everyone had been emotionally shaken because of me.

But from now on, everyone agreed to focus on their duties as Eastern Sages. Everyone returned to their respective positions in Flame.

So Yuri reverted to her usual calm guild leader self and spoke formally to everyone.

Soon, the four people got into an old car abandoned at one corner of the air force base.

“Being this old, there’s no risk of hacking.”

Soso said. Arini searched the interior of the car with a holy spell to guard against any possible danger.

“There’s a listening device.”

It was a listening device with GPS functionality. I destroyed it completely.

“Commander Caruso told us about 10 cars we could use to prepare against spies… but the villains seem more meticulous than I thought. If it wasn’t just bad luck, they might have installed listening devices in all 10 cars.”

Everyone wore tense expressions.

It seemed that this Vatican occupation had been meticulously planned in advance.

“We definitely can’t let our guard down.”

Yuri started the car. The group hurriedly left the base.

Fortunately, I could see other reserve cars that Commander Caruso had arranged also moving simultaneously. The listening devices would still be in those cars.

‘That should be enough to distract the villains.’

Flame’s movements wouldn’t be immediately detected by the villains. I deliberately left the driving to Yuri.

‘I need to think. From now on, the most perfect operation…’

Unfortunately, there was no more original work information I could use. Having already defeated Amon, we had surpassed the timeline of the original work.

But a different approach was possible.

‘I already have other advance information.’

In another novel, in another regression cycle where I had no connection with these four. It’s true that Amon wasn’t defeated in that past either.

But I could think with a broader perspective than the current reality.

‘The Vatican. And if they directly targeted the Pope. It’s highly likely that the enemy’s leadership moved directly.’

It wasn’t the case in every cycle, but there had been several instances like now where the Vatican was attacked.

For demons, the White Cross Society was their greatest enemy. And the Vatican and Rome area was not purely Earth’s territory but fused with Ailetan.

Moreover, it was fused with the White Cross Society of Ailetan. A sacred place even there.

‘That’s why the divine power of Ayel and Arel coexist in the Vatican area.’

Originally, they were twin gods.

Although they owned separate worlds, Earth and Ailetan, the essence of their divine power was the same.

So it was natural for villains to target that holiest of holy places.

‘If they could corrupt the Pope. It would be the best way to demoralize humans more than any other act.’

So the villains who appeared in those memories were usually very high-ranked.

Especially if the current events were proceeding after defeating Amon, as they are now.

The villain currently occupying the Vatican was most likely one of the top executives of the Red Lake.

‘Then I shouldn’t trust anyone in the Papal Palace right now.’

Like the tricks of the Doubt Demon, we don’t know what methods the villains might use.

Now, the only people to trust in Rome were the members of Flame. As they approached the Vatican, explosions began to be heard.

“It seems the Crusaders’ battle has begun!”

Yuri hid the car in a dark alley. They had a small drone they had brought from Japan.

I carefully observed the battle between the villains and the Crusaders.

And I was busy thinking about the timing for Flame to rush into the Papal Palace.

***

Vatican City itself is an area much smaller than a village.

In reality, the Vatican consists only of a narrow area made up of a wide square, cathedral buildings, and the Papal Palace.

So the group divided into two teams to approach the area.

Soso and Arini. And Yuri and I would move separately and meet up at the Papal Palace.

Yuri and I were near the Vatican. There were several buildings around that provided sufficient cover.

The two were already hunters rated as SS-class. They carefully moved while concealing their presence almost to the point of invisibility.

“There’s a thick smell of blood around here.”

Yuri said in a small voice.

As Yuri said, fog and the smell of blood filled the surroundings. And occasionally there was an unpleasant smell of rotten eggs.

“There’s also a sulfur smell. Definitely traces of demons.”

Yuri nodded at my words. And as the two carefully stepped onto the road, they encountered corpses.

“That’s…”

Both stopped. And Yuri’s expression hardened.

They weren’t the type to be shocked just by seeing corpses. But the corpses before their eyes were damaged to a degree difficult to describe in words.

I carefully whispered to Yuri.

“Judging by the clothing, they’re priests of the Cross Society. And there are signs they were violated.”

“Then surely a demonized villain…”

I nodded.

It was a horrific scene, like looking at a crime scene committed by a sexual deviant.

The inability to suppress desires due to desire accidents is a typical characteristic of villains. And the current scene was deliberately desecrating the sanctity of the White Cross Society.

‘If it’s a demonized villain. This won’t be easy.’

That wasn’t all.

The Crusaders had entered about an hour ahead of our group. Their corpses were also in shambles like the priests earlier.

“Judging by the traces, it was a one-sided slaughter. A style that seems to enjoy massacre.”

The villain’s image was drawn from those corpses.

A pleasure killer who plays with humans like insects. It’s not surprising that villains commit cruel crimes.

However, at the same time, a sense of composure was felt in those traces.

The fatal wounds that led to death on the corpses. Those fatal wounds were excessively clean.

‘Desire is felt, but they’re fully controlling their power.’

That means they haven’t lost their reason to demons. Even the 4th Demon Gate Seomun-yeom lost his reason to Amon.

‘The enemy inside the Vatican might be a stronger opponent than imagined.’

It seemed the path to Epitheus would not be easy.

“Let’s hurry.”

The two quickly entered the central square of the Vatican. That square was also filled with corpses of Crusaders and priests.

Even the knights of the Templar Order seemed to have been defeated by the villains.

‘We need to be tense.’

The two arrived at the Papal Palace, where the Pope’s office was located, avoiding combat as much as possible. The central entrance seemed to be already under the villains’ control.

Yuri looked up at the building.

“Let’s enter through the wall.”

I nodded. I had seen Soso and Arini entering through that window.

The two climbed the wall and finally reached the fourth floor of the Papal Palace. They entered through the window.

“The Pope is safe!”

It seemed that Soso and Arini, who had arrived earlier, had already secured the Pope. But at that moment, I felt something was off.

‘No. It can’t be this easy.’

I hurriedly shouted to the two:

“Get away from him!”

At that moment, a terrible scream echoed through the Pope’s office.