Ch.270Episode 12 – The Strongest Mage in History

Lucia announced the beginning of the exorcism in a calm tone.

Her voice, without a hint of trembling, seemed almost detached.

“In the name of the merciful and loving Lord. I pray to You, the Parent of all creation.”

The small prayer echoed throughout the vast cavern.

“Look upon Your servant and protect us from all evil and persecution and threats that come from evil, and protect us from the influence of evil, curses, or curses through the gaze of those with malice toward Your servant.”

Lucia prayed fervently. In the lowest place where faint starlight poured down, she appealed to the One who dwells in the highest place.

Her eyes were already closed, but her voice continuing the prayer showed not even the slightest tremor.

“Please, lead us not into temptation. But…”

The darkest hour.

In the cavern where the north wind raged and darkness hung thick.

“But deliver us from evil.”

Lucia opened her eyes after finishing her prayer. Her pair of blue eyes began to emit an unusual light.

Lucia spoke.

“You have already revealed your presence.”

The saint declared.

“Prepare to return to hell.”

Episode 12 – The Strongest Magician in History

Lucia spread her palm and covered the friar’s forehead. Then in a low voice, she warned him.

“Come out while I’m asking nicely. And return to where you came from.”

The friar bared his teeth and shook his head.

His teeth, drenched in what might be saliva, glistened under the faint starlight.

Violent movement began.

“Arrrgh!”

The friar twisted his entire body as if possessed, struggling to break free from his restraints.

The spiritual bands binding his limbs twisted and rubbed mercilessly, and his whole body jerked like a patient with convulsions. Tremendous force emanated from the friar’s body, enough to make my upper body pressing down on him shake.

However, despite his beast-like, frantic movements, he couldn’t break free from his restraints.

Lucia pinned down the fiercely resisting friar, pressing her weight down on him.

“Resistance is futile. Now that your presence has been revealed, there is only one path left for you.”

The friar’s mouth gaped wide open. He looked ready to bite Lucia.

Sharp teeth glistening with saliva lunged forward, but Lucia wasn’t fazed at all.

She threw away the holy book she was holding and pulled back her raised arm.

-Thwack!

Her fist struck the friar’s face.

With a cloth wrapped around her fist containing a talisman, Lucia struck the friar’s face with all her might.

The impact was so strong that it made a sound like a watermelon being split, and the friar’s head slammed into the ground.

Seeing this, I cried out in shock.

“What are you doing?!”

“I’m subduing him. Don’t worry, he won’t die.”

Despite punching the friar in the face, Lucia maintained a dignified attitude.

As she said, a faint groan escaped from the mouth of the friar whose head had been slammed into the ground.

Surely if he were an ordinary person, he would have been unconscious from a concussion. But the friar’s condition was much better than I expected.

Withdrawing her fist, Lucia picked up the holy book she had set aside and began to speak.

“Ordinary means cannot expel or kill a demon. It’s only effective because we have things like this.”

Lucia gestured with her eyes to the cloth wrapped around her fist.

Silk made by monks who harvested cocoons from silkworms that ate blessed mulberry leaves. Even in decent parishes, it was treasured and used sparingly.

The friar, momentarily stunned, groaned and shook his head wildly. I quickly sat down at his head and pressed it down with my hands.

“Hold him like that. He’ll continue to resist, so be careful not to get hurt.”

“How long do I need to hold him down?”

“Until the end of the ritual. Until I say it’s okay to let go.”

After making this request, Lucia checked the friar’s condition and opened the holy book she had taken out.

-Flip flip flip!

The pages turned instantly.

With a single gesture, Lucia flipped through dozens, no, hundreds of pages, and quickly scanned the verses written in the holy book.

“The wicked are caught in the work of their own hands. The wicked will be sent back to hell. Though the wicked join forces, they will not go unpunished, but the righteous will be saved.”

After reciting the verse, Lucia closed her eyes. Then in a most solemn voice, she opened her mouth.

“In the name of the Almighty Lord, I ask. What is your identity?”

“Identity?”

The friar’s lips curved into a smile. An eerily unsettling smile filled the cavern.

“For someone who believes in a concept as God, you have many questions.”

“You have revealed your presence.”

Cold blue eyes turned toward the friar who had been thrown to the ground.

“Neither the cunning serpent nor the wicked scorpion can harm humans anymore. Release Friar Agato and come out of there.”

The friar raised his head.

“Do you truly believe that what you worship is God?”

His hair was soaked with a dark red liquid. Blood flowing from his cracked skull and the filth on the ground had thoroughly drenched his head.

As he nodded, his hair swayed back and forth, emitting a foul odor.

“This bastard…!”

I pressed down on his head with all my weight. Despite being pressed down by an adult man, the friar’s head showed no sign of touching the ground.

Even as I applied so much force that my arms trembled, he resisted me with just the strength of his neck. No, beyond merely resisting, he even glared at Lucia.

The friar, thrown to the ground, glared at Lucia who was mounted on top of him as if he wanted to kill her.

“No.”

The friar sneered and grinned.

“You just need something to believe in. There is no paradise where you want to go. Abandon hope, young clergy.”

Despite the blasphemy and criticism directed at her, Lucia did not respond.

She removed the holy water bottle from her side without even glancing at the friar who was grinning.

Pop! A cheerful sound like opening champagne echoed as the cork was removed. The holy water was tasteless and odorless. There was no dramatic change, but the friar glanced at Lucia and the holy water with trembling eyes.

Lucia blocked the mouth of the holy water bottle with her finger and turned it upside down.

The holy water, drawn by gravity, wet her finger, and Lucia placed her finger with the holy water on the friar’s forehead and drew a small cross.

Then the friar lifted his chin and spoke with force.

“Young daughter. You pose no threat to me. Just pretend you didn’t see anything. Like other humans do!”

“……”

Lucia looked at the friar with an expressionless face.

After silently looking down at him, she shifted her gaze to me and began in a gentle voice.

“Don’t worry. Leave the exorcism to me, and please continue to hold down Friar Agato.”

I nodded while pressing down on the friar’s head.

“…Understood.”

Pleased with my answer, Lucia smiled slightly.

After drawing a cross on the friar’s forehead, she closed her eyes again, made the sign of the cross, and hummed the melody of a hymn while putting her hand into her sleeve.

When her hand emerged from her sleeve, with a clear sound like Go stones colliding, a long string with a small pure gold cross dangling from it appeared from her sleeve.

A rosary made of olive wood, and a Roman cross.

It was right after that when the friar’s eyes widened.

“…!”

The friar lifted his chin and widened his eyes. His chin lifted with such force that it seemed his head would touch the ground.

The friar, with his teeth clenched tightly, lifted his chin so much that his skin stretched taut, making the wrinkles on his neck disappear.

Lucia brought the Roman cross close to the friar’s forehead. Then the friar twisted his head violently, resisting in a way he hadn’t shown before.

It seemed as if he was trying to get away from the cross.

“John!”

A death cry-like scream burst from the friar’s mouth.

“Adversary! Star-dropping hunter! Abominable priest!”

The friar shouted incomprehensible words in rage. Like calling out the name of a mortal enemy.

Seeing this, Lucia responded in a plain tone.

“So you do know. This is the High Priest’s cross that I borrowed with difficulty.”

“That damned man! Even hanging him upside down from a bell tower and sawing him wouldn’t be enough for that bastard who dares…!”

The friar cursed and twisted his entire body like someone thrown into fire.

Lucia, mounted on top of him, subdued him with all her might, and I got up on my knees and pressed down on his head and shoulders with my weight.

Like a bull struck by a matador’s sword, he resisted fiercely.

Then, the Roman cross touched his forehead.

“…Huk!”

With the sound of a sharp intake of breath, silence fell. The movement of the one who had been resisting with all his might, pushing his chest up toward the sky with his waist and head pressed to the ground, stopped at that moment.

Lucia, who had placed the pure gold Roman cross on the friar’s forehead, quietly closed her eyes and began to hum a hymn.

Then smoke rose from his forehead as if flesh was being branded with a hot iron. The acrid smell of burning flesh wafted on the wind.

With his head tilted back forcefully, his lips parted wide beneath his bulging eyes, and a terrible scream erupted.

-■■■■■■■!!!

An indescribably horrific scream.

The friar’s scream shook the massive cavern and spread high into the sky.

“Holy shit!!”

The friar shouted in a possessed voice.

His pupils turned black. Like ink seeping into the whites of his eyes. His entire eyes rapidly turned black.

Black veins bulged and rose.

Literally with veins standing out on his neck, the friar hurled a barrage of curses at Lucia.

“Fucking bitch!!”

Once opened, his mouth did not stop.

Like a floodgate bursting open, the friar’s mouth spewed saliva as he uttered vulgar words.

The friar hurled curses at Lucia. The first words that sprang from his mouth were in Kienese.

“You’re just like him! Claiming to save humans while taking lives! This man’s death is on you!”

Curses in Kienese poured out at Lucia. When Lucia didn’t even flinch, the friar ranted again in an excited voice.

This time it was in Fatalian.

“Do you think I’ll leave here because of this! Stupid woman. You’ve lived in a convent all your life, so there’s nothing in your head.”

“……”

“No matter how hard you try, nothing will change. It’s all futile!”

The curses didn’t stop there.

Starting with Kienese and Fatalian, the languages composing the curses were diverse, including Abasian, Rochian, Common Moritarian, and even Eastern languages and ancient tongues that were impossible to interpret.

The friar mixed various languages as he hurled curses.

Sometimes harsh and vicious invectives poured out, and sometimes obscenities too embarrassing to even mention were uttered.

“Do you think helping those poor humans will erase your sins? No. You’re not purely wanting to help others, but doing these things to lessen your sins even a little. While knowing full well what others whisper behind your back. Don’t make me participate in that ridiculous clown act!”

“I will carve out your breasts and turn your lungs to stone! Your first child will never see the light of day, and your second child will die before reaching five years! I will make sure of it!”

“I’ll pluck out your eyes and cut off your tongue, making you unable to live without the help of humans that you so love. I’ll make you crawl on the ground like a dog for the rest of your life!”

The friar spewed out the anger boiling from deep within him in a voice filled with rage.

“Fucking worthless monk! How dare you, a worm, humiliate me! Do you think I can’t kill you just because I’m like this! I’ll tear this piece of meat to shreds and feed it to wild dogs!”

“……”

Thud! I pressed the friar’s head down to the ground. But his eyes still shone with terrible malice.

His blackening eyes captured the image of Lucia reciting prayers and twisted in rage.

“When I regain my strength, I will surely tear your limbs apart and scatter them in rivers and fields. It will happen soon. Definitely!”

These were words I could neither understand nor wanted to understand.

The language he used changed each time he opened his mouth. His voice also varied. The friar sometimes spoke in a child’s voice, an old man’s voice, and even a woman’s voice.

Is this really a person? Even a madman would seem normal compared to the friar right now.

I pressed down hard on the friar’s jerking body and cursed under my breath.

“What the hell are you babbling about…!”

The friar criticized Lucia with a gaze full of malice and a voice full of ill will. But Lucia acted as if she couldn’t hear any of it.

“Protect us who are in battle. Even in the moment when we walk the darkest path, we believe that You are with us.”

“What bullshit!”

With a cackling laugh, mocking criticism interrupted the flow of prayer.

Lucia opened her closed eyes. The mocking continued.

“Pray all you want. See if that character listens to your words.”

Lucia’s image was reflected in the blackened pupils.

“Even if you drive me out, I will wait for you to die. And when you fall into hell after death. I will return to this land with your head. I have watched all the moments when empires of this land rose and fell. I can certainly wait for your body to rot and decay.”

“……”

“So stop this futile act, young daughter.”

The friar grinned.

“Just as your mother and father did.”

The sound of prayer had already stopped. Black pupils and glistening teeth flashed under the fallen starlight.

“……”

Lucia closed her eyes and slowly reached out her hand.

And.

-Thud!

She slammed his head into the ground.

The stone bricks cracked from the strong impact.

Although his expression wasn’t visible because her hand covered his eyes and forehead, his mouth corners were clearly turned up.

Removing her hand from the one making a grotesque smile, Lucia got up from her seat and dismounted from him.

“I’ve bought us some time.”

As she shook her hand as if dusting it off, a pure white light scattered in the air. It seemed she had summoned holiness in that brief moment.

“Please continue to hold him down like this. Until the moment I return.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to find tools for the ritual. It won’t take long.”

One minute.

Her index finger extended.

“Please hold on for just one minute. It will be safe for me to leave my post until then.”

I nodded in response.

“Thank you. I’ll leave it to you then.”

Lucia bowed her head and walked toward the place where traces of battle remained.

I pressed my thumb on the Roman cross she had left behind, restraining the friar from getting up. Unlike when he was raging like a bull earlier, he was surprisingly docile. Did she really do something to him?

Even as I sat at his head, he didn’t even glance at me.

He grinned while watching Lucia walk away, then turned to glance at me.

Just then, the one who had been grinning suddenly started to smile broadly.

“It’s you. The one I saw in that village. You were with the inquisitors, weren’t you?”

“……”

“Hehe.”

Unlike when he seemed to be holding back laughter while looking at Lucia, he could hardly contain his laughter in front of me.

“I sense a peculiar energy. What is it? Where are you from?”

His mouth stretched to his ears.

As if seeing something truly fascinating and rare. He smiled broadly.

I tried hard not to listen to what he was babbling. So I closed my ears and eyes.

But I couldn’t control my sense of smell as I wished. Each time he opened his mouth, a disgusting stench wrapped around my nose and stirred my mucous membranes.

Just as I was closing my eyes and trying to divert my attention elsewhere.

I heard a snickering sound as if whispering right next to me.

“How long do you think you can live like this? Surely you don’t think you can deceive others’ eyes and ears and live a long life?”

I opened my eyes and looked at him.

Hideous black eyeballs gleamed like an abyss.

I stared at him blankly.

His mouth curved into a smile, revealing glistening teeth.

“Listen to me.”

“Don’t listen.”

A resolute voice pierced my eardrum. Suddenly my mind cleared.

Lucia was already standing beside me, looking at me. She was holding a small bucket with both hands.

She had returned even before the promised minute had passed.

“It’s just a fabricated story to lure people. There’s no need to pay attention to it.”

“…Is that so?”

Ignoring his mocking question, Lucia prepared to continue the exorcism.

Holding the end of the purple stole around her neck, Lucia sat down beside me and covered his eyes with the stole.

-Clank.

The bucket was set down with the distinctive sound of metal hitting metal. Now I noticed there was a long stick inside the bucket.

Lucia, holding that stick, said:

“It’s an aspergillum.”

“…An aspergillum?”

“Yes.”

And she swung it.

“This is how it’s used.”

Splash! As she swung the aspergillum, holy water was sprinkled on his face.

He screamed at the sudden baptism of holy water.

Lucia recited prayers and sprinkled holy water everywhere, and with each sprinkle, the screams became sharper.

“Aaaaargh!!”

“Cast all evils into the eternally burning pit so that they may no longer touch me and all creatures of the world.”

The bizarre duet of prayers and screams continued for a long time. The one who had been momentarily quiet began to struggle again, twisting his entire body.

And the invectives against Lucia also resumed.

“I’ll tear you to pieces! Do you think I, born of fire and sulfur, will suffer there, you foolish thing!”

“……”

He constantly attacked Lucia. Coaxing. Threatening.

But Lucia never responded to his words. As this continued, the level of his speech escalated, but this too failed to elicit a response from Lucia.

Whether out of frustration or unable to bear the pain, he banged his head on the floor and screamed.

“Aaaaargh!!”

His appearance was abnormal by anyone’s standards.

Dark red liquid dripped from the mouth that spewed thorny curses and invectives. Each time he banged the floor shouting ‘Stop! Stop!’, blood gushed like a volcano with a gurgling sound.

The veins standing out on his neck had now spread to his cheeks, forehead, face, and below. The bulging blood vessels looked like they might burst at any moment, and the convulsions in his limbs were getting worse.

A final struggle.

That’s how Lucia described his thrashing.

“Even beasts make one last struggle when cornered.”

“But this seems a bit much!”

“Let’s calm him down first.”

Lucia threw a punch. With a sound like a nose breaking, the floor cracked.

After striking him in the face like that, he would be quiet for a while.

But whenever she sprinkled holy water, presented the Roman cross, or recited prayers, he would rage as if nothing had happened.

Of course, the curses and invectives showed no sign of stopping. And Lucia wasn’t the only one hearing such things.

“Leave the Empire immediately!”

I was in a similar situation.

“There is nothing you can do here. You, more useless than cosmic dust, have no reason or need to be here!”

“……”

“If you value your life, leave this place before the new year comes.”

Whether he really knew something or was just making wild guesses, he persistently clung to me.

It seemed he was turning his arrows toward me since it was difficult to deal with Lucia.

By this point, there was nothing more to see. This creature raging before my eyes was definitely not human.

The demon shouted.

“You will have no home, no homeland, no family left. Everything will burn away. You are destined to kill not only yourself but also other humans around you.”

“……”

“So if you want to live. If you want to save others, leave now. And never return.”

Though his eyes were covered with the stole, I could feel his gaze on me.

I pressed down hard on his head, trying not to listen, but it was beyond my strength. But thanks to Lucia standing by my side, I could at least hold onto my sanity.

Lucia placed her hand on top of mine and spoke in a warm voice.

“Don’t waver. It’s just made-up talk. Don’t be deceived by the lies uttered just before being expelled.”

“…Lies?”

A smile appeared on the demon’s lips.

“I acknowledge your skill. You’re quite good, but you lack perception. Young clergy.”

“……”

The demon possessing the friar’s body relaxed his limbs.

“Give up.”

Under the stole.

Blackened teeth were revealed.

“There is no light here.”

“……”

He lay limp like someone lying in bed, in a comfortable position, and grinned.

Lucia frowned for the first time at that incongruous sight. She removed the stole covering his eyes and looked directly into his black pupils.

“…What are you plotting?”

The demon smiled.

A very broad smile.

“See for yourself.”

That’s when it happened.

-Rumble!

When the sound like a collapsing mound of earth was heard.

Both Lucia and I turned our heads toward the direction of the sound, and after identifying the source of the noise, we were shocked.

“What is this…?”

The floor was caving in.

The stone bricks occupying the cavern were repeatedly rising and sinking as if undulating.

As if something was about to burst out from underground.

Grasping the situation, I grabbed Lucia’s wrist and pulled her behind me.

“It’s dangerous. Step back.”

“Wait…!”

We stared at the cavern that was undulating, rising and sinking.

Watching this, the demon grinned and muttered.

“You should have run away instead of fighting me.”

That was the end of his words.

The floor surged up, bricks and earth collapsed, and all surrounding noise was buried.

Thick dust and threatening stone fragments falling from above.

In the cavern where fallen starlight poured.

Dozens of pairs of blood-red eyes flashed in the darkness.