Ch.22Report on the Fall of Innocence (9)

Kain rubbed his eyes. Lily slightly bowed her head; she too seemed to be experiencing eye pain.

“Now let us bless them.”

Haspel’s clear voice resonated throughout.

“To the god who died yet lives, who lives yet died, we beseech you. Melt away their false accusations with light. Compensate their suffering with light. Denounce their sorrows with light, and illuminate brightly the path they must follow with light. We pray. We pray. We pray.”

Small streams of light poured down from the glass ceiling. Father Haspel, the brothers, and the attendants brushed away the ash stuck to the patients’ heads and foreheads.

Cough.

The sound of coughing was heard. Those who had been devoutly focused on the mass frowned. But soon their frowns turned to surprise.

Cough. Cough. Hack!

The patients were coughing. Not just one or two. All fifty or so patients were coughing. It seemed to be more than just because of the ash. And they were,

“Uuuhrruuuah.”

“Aaahaahyeoeoeoe.”

Speaking. Awkward and difficult to hear, but they were clearly speaking.

“Eoyeoeoeo.”

Exclamations. Jubilation. Joy arose. Those standing beside the patients saw it. Those lying on the beds, as if they had a live red goldfish in their mouths, their bright red tongues dancing with joy.

“It’s a miracle…”

“Eoyeoeoeoeoeoe!”

The merciful God indeed did not overlook suffering.

The patients were still bound with iron chains. It was a measure to prevent them from falling if they nodded off.

That’s why the kind and good attendants and brothers thought that the patients’ rattling chains were due to their overwhelming joy, making them unable to control their bodies.

“Aaaaaaayaaaaaaaa.”

Clank, thud. The chains came undone one by one.

“A miracle! A miracle has occurred! God has revived their tongues, the blessing has opened their mouths!”

“Aiyaaaaaaaaa!”

The unworldly brothers excitedly chattered. The Inquisition’s attendants knelt and offered prayers.

The knights tried to move forward to see the miracle up close.

The light grew brighter and brighter. Now it stabbed at everyone’s eyes painfully.

Outside, the apprentice knights and attendants of the Mercy Knights were murmuring. They too seemed to want to see what was happening inside.

Only three people weren’t smiling. Kain. Lily. High Inquisitor Father Haspel.

Kain placed his hand on his forehead. He tried to look ahead, frowning.

Something was wrong. It was unsettling. The current situation, this unanalyzable situation, didn’t sit well with him at all.

That’s why Kain noticed Haspel’s panic. The Inquisitor, who had seemed so world-weary, was backing away.

Kain finally realized what had been so strange.

“Lily.”

“Yes.”

“There are no shadows.”

Kain and Lily looked at each other. Not a single shadow could be found on their faces. The same was true for everyone inside.

There were no shadows. Light mercilessly poured down from the floor, from the walls, from the ceiling. The only place where distinct shadows could be seen was

inside the gaping mouths of the patients.

Kain pulled at Lily’s collar. He quickly drew a symbol on the back of her hand.

‘Back away and wait for the right moment.’

It wasn’t an easy task. Even the people outside were pushing in, which meant that Kain and Lily were being pushed forward even while standing still.

“He has risen!”

Someone shouted. Everyone’s gaze turned to the center.

Under the ceiling of light, William, the Knight of Chastity and Archbishop, had risen.

His arms and legs were still crushed, his body twisted, and his broken neck seemed barely able to hold his head up properly.

Yet he stood on the bed as if he were ‘perfectly fine.’ When he opened his torn mouth, a flickering red tongue was clearly visible.

The Archbishop’s neck was twisted at an angle that would make it difficult for a normal person to even breathe, let alone speak, yet his tongue flickered.

“…Do not overlook the prosperity of the enemy.”

It sounded like the scream of an eagle struck by an arrow. Those who had been cheering felt a gash in their hearts.

“They have used vanity as their foothold, and when all things go their way, they will collapse on their own. Let their children become orphans who beg, and may no land shelter them for more than a day.”

The Archbishop didn’t move his jaw at all. Only his tongue was alive, flickering.

“Birds will fill their bellies with the flesh of those who enjoy collecting interest from others, and those who sin with paper, ink, and pen, their descendants will erase their names with paper, ink, and pen.

Behold the enemy’s child. The child firmly bound and dashed against the rock. As the enemy did to our children, so shall they suffer.”

“…Get out.”

Haspel’s eyes flashed.

“Get out! Get out of here now! Clear this place! We must clear this place!”

But Haspel’s cries weren’t heard even by those nearby. People simply couldn’t leave.

From the mouths of those lying on the beds, those who had been uttering incomprehensible words just moments ago, tongues suddenly protruded and danced.

“To those who curse others as easily as changing clothes, may curses settle in them like flesh and blood, and may the tongue of the one who speaks evil wither and block its owner’s throat!

May dead branches pierce the earth that starved trees to death by withholding nutrients!

May the withered tree rub its hands against the sky in supplication!

I offer my body, begging to burn the rebellious land!”

The tongues sang in chorus. These weren’t words coming from the patients’ throats. The tongues themselves. Those bright red, swollen tongues turning purple with rot, bitten by someone and dripping pitch-black, those tongues were speaking.

“Those who sin with their tongues! Cut off your tongues! It is better to receive salvation without a tongue than to go to hell with it!

Those who sin with their arms! Cut off your arms! It is better to receive salvation without arms than to go to hell with them!

Those who sin with their genitals! Cut off your genitals! It is better to receive salvation without genitals than to go to hell with them!”

“Tongues…!”

Abbot Bartolomeo’s scream-like cry echoed.

“Tongues are sprouting! Black tongues! Inside people!”

Tongues were growing. Like sprouting onions, they slowly sucked life from their hosts and grew upward, upward.

“Get out!”

The Inquisitor screamed.

“It’s fanaticism! A fanatic’s twisted prayer! Get away quickly! Hurry!”

The door slammed shut. The apprentice knights and attendants outside banged loudly on the door, but it wouldn’t open at all.

The tongues now grew faster than vines, faster than bamboo, faster than adolescent lust. Black tongues that shot up endlessly, tongues that had become stems, extended branches.

“Uuurp!”

The High Inquisitor’s entire body was bound by tongue stems. Countless black tongues licked the Inquisitor’s face, arms, and body.

Father Haspel struggled, but the tongues, as if unwilling to let him go, dragged him toward the wall, toward the wall.

The tongues, grown like ivy, climbed the wall upon reaching it. Fruits formed at the ends of the vines. Victims. The faces of patients. Human faces. Human tongues. Weeping tears of blood, they shouted.

“Run away!”

Only now could they freely say what they had wanted to say.

“Run away! Run away! Please! Please run away! It’s a fanatic, a fanatic has come! The fanatic will burn everyone!”

But the bodies that had lost their tongues and heads couldn’t do so.

Neither dead nor rotting, unable to walk or crawl, these lumps of bone and flesh fell from the patient beds onto the floor with a thud. Like maggots searching for rotten meat, they crawled across the floor.

One body touched an attendant’s foot. It devoured the attendant who couldn’t even make an “ugh” or “aah” sound. The legs protruding from the large throat flailed meaninglessly in the air, then trembled.

It wasn’t just one. All the bodies. All fifty bodies did the same.

Having eaten the brothers and attendants, they forcibly spread their victims’ legs. Like ants opening their mouths to tear at meat. Like everyone taking a piece of meat after raising a toast.

The Knight of Chastity smiled a fishy smile.

“Receive… the blessing.”

The bodies rushed forward.

“Knights! Draw swords! Destroy the evil!”

Commander Marco shouted. The Mercy Knights all drew their swords at once.

“Light!”

The holy knights shouted. In their hands, on their swords, brilliant light rippled. In an instant, the holy knights and knights formed a circular defensive formation.

However, the Knight of Chastity merely smiled.

“Light?”

The purest warrior in the world burst into laughter.

If the holy knights’ light was the brilliance of a newborn star, Archbishop William’s light was the death throes of a dying star.

The newly born pure light was devoured by the light that thrashed about, demanding more despite having already taken everything.

It was an eerie beam of light that blinded people. The blade of the dark night. The gleaming eyes of wild beasts. And so the warrior of light, one of the seven heroes who had overthrown the Demon King, declared:

“Kill them all. Embrace them all. Let them all be reborn within you. God will recognize His children.”

The holy knights’ light burned their masters. The knights couldn’t even scream once. The sacred passion within them, the pure faith, the vow to destroy evil and protect the weak, tore through the bodies of the Mercy Knights’ holy knights and burst forth.

Soon they became pillars. Sacred pillars of fire. The pillars of fire angrily heated the floor and ceiling. The ominous sound of overheated stones cracking and breaking reached everyone’s ears.

“Lord Aldric! Break through the door with your men! The main force will protect the knights of Herburg Castle!”

The ill-tempered red-haired knight clung to the door. Along with other knights, he used the church furniture like siege hammers to pound on the door. Outside, the sounds of attendants and apprentice knights struggling could be heard.

But it didn’t budge at all. The black tongues attached to the wall, the tongue stems, held the door and walls as if mocking and sneering.

They even stuck out their tongues and licked the faces of knights and attendants. Just as one would tease a prostitute, so did these tongues.

The main force that came with Knight Commander Marco cut down, sliced, and toppled the approaching lumps of flesh. But it was futile. The fallen pieces of flesh, like the patients before, congealed back together. Severed flesh reattached, and spilled blood returned to its body like a snake finding its burrow.

“What… what on earth…!”

Lily drew her sword. She intended to cut down the flesh lumps along with the Mercy Knights. It wasn’t a rational decision. It was the trained action of a knight who must defeat the enemy, drive away the disgusting thing. Her reason was paralyzed because she had never experienced such chaos before.

But Kain grabbed her arm.

“Lily. Put away your sword. We’re going to rescue the High Inquisitor.”

Unconsciously, Lily sheathed her sword. The confused eyes of Lily and Kain met. Kain’s pupils didn’t waver at all. Though he too trembled slightly at the confusing situation and his voice cracked, his hawk-like eyes remained resolute.

“There must be a reason why the Knight of Chastity is holding Father Haspel. We’ll go along the wall, avoiding those lumps. They seem unable to see ahead. The tongues are disgusting but don’t seem to cause much harm.”

Though it was terrible and repulsive, Lily observed the writhing tongues. Indeed, apart from licking faces and clothes with wet saliva, they didn’t do anything special.

“Let’s go. Without William noticing, quietly. Don’t draw your sword. Don’t scream.”

“Understood.”

Kain clutched his staff and pressed against the wall. The tongues immediately seeped into his collar. Though he shrank from the feeling like a swarm of rats crawling over his neck and back, he didn’t slow his pace.

Lily too managed not to scream. Her hand twitched as if wanting to draw her sword, but she endured. Just once, when a tongue leaf touched her cheek, she swung her arm roughly, but the tongue merely curled up as if amused.

Crack.

The Knight of Chastity forcibly turned his head. At an angle that seemed like it might fall off, he looked at Kain and Lily.

“Blessing…”

Just as his mouth was about to open.

“Main force!”

Commander Marco shouted.

“Lord Aldric, protect your men yourself! The main force will behead the Archbishop, charge, charge! The lumps can’t see ahead. Go around! Push them away with your bodies! Fighting them is futile!”

“Close ranks! Push them away in tight formation!”

The knights, who had been like fiercely swung swords, now bunched together like a solid anvil.

“Close ranks! Close ranks! Don’t fight! Push them away!”

Like an anvil slowly crossing a mud field, the knights advanced toward the Archbishop. The Knight of Chastity took his eyes off Kain and Lily and looked at the knights.

He blessed them.

“I shall curse you all with enough love to give you the blessing of eternal life with me, to be together until the end of the world.”

The lumps all leaped onto the knights at once.

Kain and Lily, now out of sight, ran toward the altar, toward the altar.