Service

Service

Just as I was expressing my dissatisfaction, thinking that human bodies are too soft.

Luna, who had been shaking her head in my arms, pointed in one direction and spoke to me.

[Master! It seems the Heaven God Cult has discovered you. The ones who were hiding are gathering here!]

Seeing how she could instantly grasp the situation even while using invisibility magic.

I thought that this place was indeed their stronghold, and I continued speaking while twirling my mace.

“Then let’s start by killing all the ones rushing in.”

[Okay, got it. But I’m curious about something.]

“What is it?”

[If you’re going to smash everything anyway, why did you bother spying?]

At those words, I was about to say something, my lips twitching.

But regardless of my intentions, the outcome was no different from usual, so it became awkward to say anything.

‘Luna has become quite sharp.’

After pondering for a while, I decided to change the subject and deliberately brought up a different topic.

“By the way, how many people are gathering here?”

[About 30 people!]

30 people. Realizing it was fewer than I expected.

I could deduce that the Heaven God Cult didn’t yet know it was me who had infiltrated this place.

‘If they knew it was me and still only sent 30 people… they’d be fools not even worth paying attention to.’

Of course, there’s an assumption that the 30 people sent to me were extremely strong, which is why only 30 were sent.

In a situation where I had single-handedly dealt with not only a bishop but even an archbishop.

Knowing who I am, sending only that number didn’t make sense, so it wasn’t an assumption worth considering.

‘Then, what would be the best course of action?’

Now that I know they don’t know my identity, I want to exploit this as much as possible.

After pondering for a moment, I came up with quite an interesting idea and raised the corner of my mouth.

‘Shall I lay some bait?’

I thought of the unidentified human whose body had exploded earlier and smiled.

If this plan succeeds, it seems I could obtain some pretty good results.

So, with that thought in mind, I used the necromancer magic I had previously acquired to resurrect the human who had died earlier.

‘Then, turn back time.’

After restoring it to its normal form.

I asked Rumi to cast an even more enhanced invisibility spell on me and hid nearby.

‘There’s only one reason for going through this troublesome process.’

Those guys will surely deal with the human I resurrected.

And then, there’s a high probability they’ll return to ‘an important place in the cathedral’ to report this incident.

So I decided to follow them, using this opportunity, and held my breath for a moment.

*

“Experimental Illusion 927182 has been eliminated.”

After waiting for a while.

Snake-masked figures suddenly appeared from various places, quickly disposing of the one I had resurrected.

Someone starts reporting incomprehensible words to someone else.

‘They must be reporting to the higher-ups.’

As I watch them, I wait for a moment.

One of those who emerged grabbed the corpse and continued speaking.

“Then I’ll return this one to the laboratory.”

“Good work.”

With that dry exchange ending the conversation, he quickly moves away and gradually disappears from view.

After considering this for a moment, I decided to follow the one carrying the corpse and activated a space compression spell.

‘There must be something in the laboratory.’

Even if there isn’t, if I keep smashing things, some influential figures will surely appear.

Deciding to use that to start a snowball effect, I moved quickly.

*

‘No wonder Luna couldn’t find it.’

The entrance to the laboratory was a ‘large jar filled with corpses’ right next to the execution ground.

I chuckled as I watched him enter the jar full of corpses.

Then I sighed and looked at the piled-up corpses.

‘Who would have thought there’d be a door leading down under the jar.’

In addition to the illusion magic, they’ve created a visual that’s repulsive to even approach.

It seems they’ve blocked others from accessing it.

‘Moreover, executions are constantly being carried out nearby.’

There’s a trick to make people focus their attention elsewhere.

It seems they made it so that others couldn’t discover it.

Thinking I had found something quite interesting, I followed that guy inside and discovered something quite intriguing.

‘… So this is why they built it right next to the execution ground.’

At least thousands of ‘Seeds of Negativity.’

In other words, I chuckled as I saw monsters that grow by feeding on the negativity of Luna’s original form, placed in abundance.

‘It seems these guys weren’t meant for execution in the first place.’

The real purpose was not the execution, but ‘all the negative emotions that emerge during the process.’

Realizing this, I slowly looked around and spoke to Luna.

“Are you ready to feast?”

[Feast?!]

Luna smiled brightly at the thought of being able to eat to her heart’s content and nodded her head quickly.

I decided to first capture these guys with space expansion magic and went further inside.

‘Well then, let’s first confirm exactly what’s here.’

I smiled, deciding to feed all the Seeds of Negativity here to Luna once the situation assessment was complete.

‘No, maybe I should store them and throw them one by one when bored, like giving treats.’

After all, if she consumes so many Seeds of Negativity at once, there might be ‘side effects’.

The thought crossed my mind that it might be better to give them in portions to prevent this in advance.

‘So, instead of feeding her all of them, I’ll feed her an appropriate amount and save the rest for later.’

For now, I decided to assess the laboratory where thousands of demons were wandering around.

‘By the way, this place has a much stronger cathedral feel compared to the upper floor.’

The upper part felt like a false space, but this place feels like a true space.

I slowly crossed my arms while listening to the screams of humans coming from everywhere.

‘I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s like a zoo.’

A zoo where you can eat or cruelly play with the animals you’re watching.

Just as I was chuckling at the sight of flesh piled up so much that it could be described as heaped on the floor.

Suddenly, I realized one truth.

‘The reason why the Heaven God Cult has an excessive number of humans in their possession.’

Naturally, if so many people were killed or tortured, others would notice.

Yet the reason it wasn’t discovered.

I realized that there were only a few real ones from the beginning, and there were many fake ones that were made to look real.

‘So that’s why.’

I closed my eyes, thinking that I now understood why the places I had seen so far hadn’t noticed these incidents.

‘Infinite generation…’

Applying such a thing constantly would require enormous amounts of mana.

As I noticed that this was the reason they built near the magic academy, I was going deeper inside.

This time, some quite interesting things caught my eye.

‘Statues of bishops and archbishops, and demons paying respects in front of them.’

Thinking it was quite a funny scene, I wanted to teabag them right away to show that I had them.

‘But there’s more I want to explore.’

Just as I decided to be patient a little longer and cultivate my endurance.

A strong flow of magical energy was felt nearby, so I quickly hid.

‘It seems to be at least an Archbishop-level figure.’

Indeed, as expected from their stronghold, Archbishop-level demons suddenly appear.

Seeing an Archbishop walking around in pure white robes, I decided to follow him for now.

I moved my steps slowly, careful not to be detected.

I’m not sure where the destination is.

The Archbishop-level demon moves through narrow and winding alleyways.

After following for a while, what appeared was an excessively ornate temple.

‘A temple within a temple. It’s like a matryoshka doll.’

Thinking that this must be the center of the cathedral, I decided I had gathered enough information.

I decided it was time to take action, and stretched out my hand while shouting.

“Lightning Mare.”

At that moment, an overwhelming amount of mana rushed in.

It began to shoot exactly where I wanted.

Watching the temple built by the demons being destroyed without a trace, I slowly opened my mouth.

“It seems you’ve lost your way. Why don’t you come with me?”

At my words, the Archbishop in front of me looked at me with a somewhat dazed expression.

Looking at that expression of complete incomprehension, I.

Wiggled my finger, pointed at the mace, and spoke with the brightest smile I could muster.

“Your friends are here too. I can guarantee you’ll be quite satisfied if you follow me.”

If there’s a problem, it’s that I’m currently experimenting with solitude.

If others were to follow, it would lead to the bishops and archbishops devouring each other.

Like a volunteer reaching out to an orphaned child, I smiled gently and extended my hand to the archbishop.