Ch.9393. The Sin of Sloth

Sonia pulled the trigger.

Even while firing the rifle in bursts, her aim remained steady.

As her Divine Power absorbed the gun’s recoil, the essence applied to her bracelet restored her Divine Power.

She converted the restored Divine Power into magic and unleashed it like bullets.

Again and again, over and over.

But all these attacks couldn’t even graze Orobas’s body.

Precognition and teleportation.

Against this combination of abilities, all of Sonia’s attacks were useless.

“Purrr! You’re not a prophet, so of course your attacks won’t reach me!”

Somehow his polite speech made her even more furious.

Sonia gritted her teeth and pulled the trigger.

But nothing changed no matter what she did.

Finally, she decided to use her last resort.

Just like when she killed the pink-haired demon, she took out her shotgun and injected an ampoule into her leg.

Flash.

Her vision flickered once and the world slowed down.

Her body accelerated, bringing her closer to Orobas.

But—

“No matter how fast you are, it’s meaningless if I can see you coming!”

Orobas dodged the barrel with ease, toying with her.

His mockery continued until the drug’s effects wore off.

And when they did, Sonia clutched her head in pain and fell to her knees.

“Ugh.”

As if he’d been waiting for this moment, Orobas knocked away her shotgun.

Then he easily subdued her as she struggled through her headache.

“We can’t have you getting hurt, now can we?”

“Aaaagh!”

Subdued, Sonia let out an uncharacteristic scream and thrashed about.

It wasn’t from pain or fear, but from rage.

This was behavior unimaginable from the usual Sonia.

But Orobas understood her condition.

“I see the disillusionment hasn’t fully left you yet.”

Orobas wiggled his finger to activate a spell. Black chains followed his finger and bound her.

Her eyes widened as she felt the power of the chains restraining her.

‘I know this magic.’

Though different in color, it was clearly Divine Power magic.

Since she knew how to use this magic herself, she tried to break the restraint.

But she couldn’t undo it. She quickly realized why.

‘This is… from the Vatican…’

“You’ve noticed, haven’t you?”

At that moment, Orobas addressed her with a relaxed attitude.

She stopped thinking and pressed her lips together, as if reluctant to speak.

She wasn’t good at psychological warfare like Kathy, nor was she good at controlling her expressions.

Therefore, silence was the best she could do.

But Orobas snorted derisively and explained:

“You know what this is. The Collar of Sloth. The magic the Vatican used to control Astaroth.”

“…”

Orobas brought over a suitable rock and sat on it like a chair.

Sonia looked at Orobas’s muzzle. Despite becoming a horse-headed being, his mustache remained intact.

Orobas stroked his mustache and began to speak.

“Now, let me ask you. What is your relationship with Astaroth?”

“…”

“Don’t tell me you’re still keeping quiet because you think there’s hope for you? It’s completely meaningless! Wouldn’t it be so much better if we all just took it easy?”

“…”

“Sigh…”

Orobas pressed his forehead and shook his head.

“Don’t you understand? You’re all just playing on the board I’ve set up! What variables do you think you can create when you’re separated from the prophet?”

“…”

“Oh, could it be that you think the prophet will come rescue you? How foolish. How many precognition-immune prophets do you think I’ve dealt with? Avoiding him isn’t even difficult.”

“…”

“Really, you’re slow to give up.”

Sonia continued to remain silent. Orobas turned his back on her in exasperation.

“Why do all humans refuse to open their mouths like you? If you keep this up…”

Then turning back around, he thrust his monocled eye at her and said:

“I might start to get excited…!”

“!?”

Suddenly Orobas’s attitude changed completely.

Sonia sensed he was about to do something and tried to distance herself.

But the chains binding her didn’t allow any movement.

As she couldn’t resist, Orobas thrust his red eyes at her and said:

“You don’t know about my power, do you? If you did, you wouldn’t be acting like this.”

Orobas moved away from her again.

“Fine. Keep silent. You can curse me, you can lie. But none of your actions will mean anything.”

Orobas spread his arms and exclaimed:

“Let me introduce myself once more. I am the great nobleman of hell and the seeker of truth who sees all pasts, Orobas!”

“!!!”

Sonia’s lips trembled. Her breath escaped between her teeth as if trying to say something.

But she couldn’t think of any words and could only gape.

If he truly could see into the past, then anything she said would be meaningless.

Orobas watched her reaction with pleasure.

“Yes, that’s the reaction! That’s what I wanted to see! The expression humans make when they realize all their struggling has been meaningless!”

Orobas burst into maniacal laughter.

“Well? Will you still search for your Goddess in this situation?”

“Shut up.”

“If you will, please do find her. For as long as possible. That way you too—”

*Inhale* *Exhale*

“Will understand a little of the despair I experienced.”

With those words, Orobas removed his glasses.

Sonia couldn’t tear her gaze from his eyes.

When his blood-red pupils gradually expanded to fill his eyes completely,

She found herself back in the past.

To shortly before she and Amon graduated from the orphanage and left.

***

It was a few days before she and Amon were to leave for California.

After Amon had dealt with the Higgjen Group, the two had truly become free.

Because of this, they were busy preparing for their move.

Suddenly, the Mother Superior called for them.

Amon and Sonia tilted their heads in confusion as they headed to the Mother Superior’s room.

When they arrived, the Mother Superior was waiting for them along with the squint-eyed nun.

“Sit down.”

Sensing the unusual atmosphere, the two carefully took their seats.

The Mother Superior pursed her lips, then as if having made a decision, she spoke.

“I’m sorry. I’ve done something terrible.”

At the Mother Superior’s sudden bow, Amon and Sonia exchanged glances between her crown and eyes, not understanding what was happening.

Eventually, the Mother Superior revealed an uncomfortable truth to them.

“Actually, I’ve known about your Divine Power since long ago.”

The Mother Superior apologized for deliberately hiding their talents.

Up to this point, Amon and Sonia accepted the apology without much concern.

After all, compared to the kindness of providing shelter and food, it wasn’t really something to apologize for.

However, what the Mother Superior truly wanted to apologize for was something else.

“I’m sorry, Amon. I’ve done something unforgivable to you. Actually… I was planning to use you as a sacrifice to save Sonia.”

“?!”

At the Mother Superior’s bombshell statement, Amon returned the juice he was drinking back to his cup.

Amon wiped his mouth with a tissue, unable to hide his bewilderment.

Meanwhile, Sonia’s gaze toward the Mother Superior grew sharp.

In response to her eyes demanding an explanation, the Mother Superior painfully parted her lips.

“This will be a rather long story.”

With a deep sigh, the Mother Superior took the story back to the past.

The story went back several decades from that time.

“I was a member of the Vatican’s Archangel Squad.”

Archangel.

The Vatican’s weapons, created by selecting promising children with Divine Power and subjecting them to countless training sessions, education, and procedures from a young age.

While it sounded inhumane and illegal from the description, surprisingly, the Archangel program was openly known to society.

It was even so popular that there was a long line of applicants.

The Mother Superior, though an orphan, caught the eye of an archbishop and received the Archangel training, eventually succeeding in becoming an official Archangel.

Right after becoming an Archangel, the Mother Superior was immersed in happiness.

“At that time, I thought the Vatican was always right.”

To her, who had suddenly gone from being an orphan to an Archangel candidate, all of the Vatican’s actions seemed grateful.

Therefore, she absorbed all the content taught in the Archangel training course without resistance, and her state was almost indistinguishable from being brainwashed.

Of course, she occasionally had doubts about whether this was right.

But she rationalized that the lesser evil was better than the worst evil, and faithfully carried out the orders of the Vatican superiors.

The superiors considered her very desirable for abandoning thought and following orders only.

Thanks to this, she was quickly appointed as an official Archangel, the youngest among the candidates.

Until then, she was happy. And she believed without doubt that she would continue to be happy.

But she overlooked one fact.

“As you carry out operations as an Archangel, you face various situations.”

An Archangel is a soldier.

And like any soldier, she had to face numerous moral dilemmas and traumas.

The weight of life, which she didn’t have to be responsible for as a candidate, she had to decide directly from the time she became an official Archangel.

Some died by her decisions, and some died by her mistakes.

Guilt and responsibility weighed her down.

The more operations she carried out, the more devastated she became.

By that time, she was well aware of the corruption of the upper echelons.

She also learned that although she thought she was justice, she was merely a vanguard of corruption.

But knowing didn’t mean she could change anything, and only a sense of helplessness dominated her.

Eventually, she gave up thinking amid numerous dilemmas, contradictions, and helplessness.

She decided to leave complex thoughts to the superiors and focus only on her duties as an Archangel.

Many victims were created in the process, but she rationalized it as being for the Vatican and silently pulled the trigger.

Then one day.

Following the orders of her superiors, she raided a heretic gathering place as usual.

But that day was different from usual.

The heretics had targeted her from the beginning. She fell into their trap and was kidnapped by them.

– “Purr. This looks like it will make a good vessel. Astaroth. You will be satisfied.”

That was the last voice the Mother Superior heard with her own consciousness.

And when the Mother Superior regained consciousness,

there was an inverted pentagram carved into her thigh, and the voice was no longer hers.

She immediately realized that her body had been taken.

“Demons can’t have physical bodies in this world. That’s why they have to steal people’s bodies.”

Demons demand vessels that match their rank.

And the higher the demon, the more powerful the body they need.

The reason the heretics targeted the Mother Superior was because they wanted a body that matched the rank of the high demon Astaroth.

And the name of the high demon who took her body was…

“Astaroth.”

The demon of sloth.

*

After that day, Astaroth used the Mother Superior’s body to burn countless cities and corrupt countless people.

“I wanted to scream for it to stop, but even my voice wasn’t mine anymore.”

The Mother Superior could only watch all of this with a clear mind.

The Archangel became a Fallen Angel, and the Vatican declared her a heretic.

Watching all of this, the Mother Superior gave up once again.

Since there was nothing she could do anyway, she gave up.

That was always all she could do.

Then one day, Astaroth, who had been continuing her evil deeds, was captured by the Vatican.

The Mother Superior expected the Vatican to purify Astaroth.

But even the Vatican couldn’t purify Astaroth, and eventually, discussions about her disposition went back and forth.

By the time those words were going back and forth, she was exhausted with everything.

Working for the corrupt Vatican, being manipulated by a demon.

She was tired of everything. So the Mother Superior gave up.

– “Yes, this is enough.”

Muttering such words, she waited for execution.

But the Vatican’s disposition was completely different from what she thought.

– <Put a collar on the demon Astaroth and make her attack the city.>

“?!”

The Mother Superior was shocked.

The Vatican was in a more corrupt state than she could imagine.

– <If a demon rampages in the city, people will inevitably seek God. Now is the opportunity to raise the Vatican’s prestige.>

They intended to use Astaroth to stage a false flag operation.

Send Astaroth to areas hostile to the Vatican and then belatedly send Archangels.

This way, the Vatican could smoothly expand its influence.

They immediately put it into action.

The Mother Superior’s body now moved at the Vatican’s will, burning cities.

The Mother Superior couldn’t do anything this time either.

After expanding their influence to some extent, the Vatican wanted to execute her when they were about to be caught.

– <Criminal! Astaroth! For child rape and…>

Even pinning crimes she didn’t commit on her.

She was thus sentenced to be burned at the stake, bearing all the Vatican’s sins and being pointed at as the worst witch.

But a wandering priest saved her.

That wandering priest was a famous exorcist who traveled around the world saving people.

Hearing about her, he switched her out and rescued her from the execution site.

Not only that, but he also succeeded in separating Astaroth from her.

– “I’m sorry about your leg. I had to cut out the pentagram to remove the demon.”

The priest cut off her leg to separate the demon and sealed it in his own arm.

Having saved her, the wandering priest was about to leave her without any lingering attachment.

At that moment, the Mother Superior grabbed the hem of the priest’s pants.

– “What am I supposed to do now…? Please tell me…”

She no longer knew what was what.

Without orders, she no longer had confidence to do anything.

The priest looked down at her, broken beyond repair, with sad eyes.

In the end, he ordered her to save herself.

“First, change your name and face.”

Following his orders, she changed her face.

She cut her snow-white straight hair short and dyed it black.

She deliberately changed her beautiful appearance, which had turned everyone’s heads, to be rugged, and dyed her golden eyes brown.

The priest then ordered her:

“Atone for the sins you’ve committed.”

Although there was room for debate whether they were sins she committed, the priest made her atone by raising children in an orphanage.

He did this because he knew she would go mad with guilt otherwise.

She followed the priest’s words, built an orphanage, and continued her atonement as the Mother Superior.

Thanks to the priest’s orders, the Mother Superior gradually regained her vitality.

The priest continued his work as an exorcist wandering the world and occasionally came to see her.

Somehow, the two fell in love, and a sinful couple of a priest and a nun was born.

*

Having heard the story up to this point, Amon and Sonia could guess what would follow.

“Don’t tell me…”

Receiving Amon’s murmur, the Mother Superior painfully parted her lips.

“Sonia… is my daughter.”

Splash.

Amon returned all the juice he was drinking to the cup.