In the Name of the Saint (1)

Alebiang’s advice was wrong.

The kingdom was a nation that had flourished based on sorcery, and Damian, who was the last king of that kingdom, was an excellent sorcerer.

Alebiang had said that because he was a sorcerer, his physical strength was negligible, but her advice was wrong.

Damian had just taken sharp blade-like weapons head-on.

But blunt weapons like the morning star were a different story, weren’t they?

So Damian was nimbly dodging Scarlet’s incoming morning star and Alec’s iron hammer.

“Why are you not affected by the sorcery power?”

“Do you think we’d tell you that?!”

Despite Alec’s response, Damian didn’t seem particularly flustered.

Rather, it was Alec who was flustered.

According to Alebiang’s advice, Damian should have had almost no physical strength.

One specialized in sorcery — one who had reached the extreme of sorcery and finally become a demon with a human body.

However, now, even as Scarlet and Alec were attacking simultaneously, Damian wasn’t flustered at all and was rather pushing the two back.

How could there be no martial arts in the kingly arts of becoming a ruler?

Damian had learned and mastered various weapons and even unarmed combat techniques.

Damian, who had been a genius sorcerer to the point where “excellent” was an insufficient descriptor, was also a king skilled in physical prowess performed with his own body like this.

“For two warriors to be unable to handle just one of me, isn’t it truly shameful?”

His deep navy tailcoat fluttered with every move he made.

Every single body movement was incredibly graceful, and his dignified actions and measured movements were exasperating even to Alec.

‘Alebiang…!’

Grinding his teeth with a creaking sound was all he could do.

He deflects the hammer Alec swung aiming for his side lightly with just the back of his hand, bending its trajectory.

Then he flicks away Scarlet’s morning star coming down aimed at his upper left, and instead places his palm on her now exposed abdomen with a thud, making Scarlet stumble back several steps.

It had been like this the whole time.

Even while dealing with Alec and Scarlet, Damian seemed rather relaxed, and there was no urgency in his movements as he frequently glanced back to see what the black giant was doing.

“Still, you two are better than that fellow calling himself a Hero. Thanks to that one being devoured, my underling seems satisfied too. But—”

Damian’s gaze turned towards the black giant.

The golden curtain that Bigrind was spreading out was holding firm against the black giant’s attacks, protecting the people gathered beneath it even against the black giant that had defeated even Berbaria.

“It’s getting tiresome now. The desire to taste that Saint’s blood, and her flesh, has become uncontrollable for a while now.”

“What are you—!”

Alec’s words were cut off before he could finish.

With a bang! sound, Alec and Scarlet barely blocked the black storm that burst forth from Damian with their shields, but unable to withstand the air pressure, they were pushed back several steps.

The form of the black giant disappeared, and even Damian’s form vanished.

Where Damian had been standing was not Damian, but a black beast boasting a physique twice that of Alec.

Short legs.

Arms twice as long as those legs.

Standing on two legs and supporting itself with long fists on the ground, it was truly beast-like in appearance.

Wings covered in pitch-black skin.

Long, thick horns protruding from the head area.

It was literally the appearance of a demon — just like that itself.

“The fooling around is over. Even I, who have lived this long, long time, want to see its end.”

Damian, now in the form of a black beast, spoke while moving his maw.

Every time he spoke, black smoke billowed up from that maw.

Flap… Flap—

With a rough flapping sound, Damian suddenly flew up.

As his form soared high into the sky, and the moment they felt the surrounding air being sucked towards Damian with a whoosh—

Yona rushed in between Alec and Scarlet.

“Big——!! The curtain, expand the curtain to the maximum——!!”

Yona spewed out demonic energy and created a curtain.

An opaque curtain covered in dark red energy burst forth with Yona as its center, simultaneously enveloping Alec and Scarlet, and just as the golden curtain that Bigrind had been emitting intensified its radiance even more.

Damian’s chest, high up in the sky, swelled greatly.

It seemed as if even the air had stopped for a moment, and at that very instant—

Damian’s maw opened wide, and dark red flames erupted from it, covering the entire domain.

An acrid smell permeated the air.

Sounds of burning came from all around as if everything had caught fire, and Bigrind barely opened her eyes at the tickling smell in her nose.

Pain as if her entire body was being torn apart.

The golden radiance that had been protecting her and the others had disappeared somewhere, and when Bigrind came to her senses and got up, the surroundings were in complete chaos.

And in the middle of it all stood the demon — Damian.

Damian, in the form of that black beast, was standing alone proudly, looking around disdainfully.

‘How did this…’

With Yona’s shout, Bigrind had spewed out all the holy power she could muster to create a curtain.

She had resisted and resisted against the intense force striking down on that curtain, but eventually lost consciousness.

And when she opened her eyes, this was the state of things.

Yona’s form could be seen in the distance.

Yona’s form, sprawled on the ground like a black rose.

That white hair, and the chest moving up and down with each breath, indicated that she was still alive, but that was all. And beside her, two knights lying collapsed — Alec and Scarlet.

Bigrind slowly raised her body, supporting herself with her arms.

Each time she did so, severe pain pressed down on her body, but she couldn’t just stay like this.

Looking around, the situation wasn’t much different.

The miserable groans of those who were injured.

Those who weren’t moving, possibly dead.

Bigrind barely raising herself up in the midst of all this.

“Well. Still, a Saint is a Saint indeed.”

A deep, low voice.

The black beast — Damian slowly approached Bigrind.

“—Am I your objective?”

Bigrind’s voice was tinged with resignation.

She could barely hold herself up, but her eyes were resolute.

“That is so. Saint, I shall take your blood and flesh and finally obtain death.”

“—Then why inflict such terrible pain on them…”

“Isn’t death that comes after pain salvation? I have given them salvation. You too are a being who will give me death. Aren’t you the Saint who will grant me death after giving me endless pain?”

“You’re insane. Truly insane.”

Insane.

Truly gone mad.

At Bigrind’s words, Damian chuckled softly with a clicking sound of his tongue.

“How could I not be insane? One who has lived such a long time couldn’t possibly be in their right mind. Come now, there’s no time to waste on more words. Beautiful Saint, give me death. At the end of the pain that burns this body, give me eternal rest. Give me death.”

The black beast slowly approached Bigrind.

Death, give me death.

But that death would surely include Bigrind’s death as well.

‘—Celestial God.’

Bigrind’s last remaining move.

But given that the Celestial God hadn’t shown himself until now, it’s uncertain whether He would respond to this move either.

“—Your most beloved daughter calls for you here. Please answer from your holy mountain. Hear the voice of this daughter calling your name with a choked throat, and reveal yourself here to alleviate the hardship befalling me.”

Prayer words mumbled from Bigrind’s lips.

Bigrind drew the ceremonial silver dagger that had been stuck in her veil, hesitated a little, but it was only for a moment—

She plunged that dagger deep into the inside of her left wrist.

Blood immediately overflowed.

The embedded dagger didn’t stop there but cut Bigrind’s wrist again, drawing a long, long wound towards the inside of her elbow.

Blood flows.

The Saint’s blood flowed down, soaking her saint’s robe thoroughly, and even that not being enough, the Saint’s blood flowed onto the ground.

Bigrind bit her lip to hold back a scream from the maddening pain and agony,

and without realizing her lip was splitting, the dagger didn’t stop and continued to cut her flesh, making blood flow.

It is the Saint’s life, and also its source, and also its symbol.

After that Saint’s blood flowed and flowed, that redness burst into a golden light.

It was a dazzling radiance.

The Saint’s final incantation, staking her own life.

That was the Sacred Place (聖所) Incantation.

Countless golden-shimmering feathers fluttered down from the sky like snow.

Each time those feathers touched the ground, traces of sorcery power were erased, and Damian, who had been watching this scene blankly, looked around as if flustered.

As the feathers fluttered, the black curtain covering the sky slowly began to lift.

The brilliance shining down like sunlight burning away darkness began to cover the ground, and Damian, unable to maintain his beast form, returned to human form.

Thud…

The Hero, Ludvik, who had been absorbed by the black giant.

Perhaps he was released again as soon as Damian returned to human form, he was lying unconscious on the ground at some point.

A golden radiance so dazzling it seemed not of this world.

The golden radiance that burns away darkness crosses this entirely black sky, driving away the darkness.

The blue sky slowly revealing itself.

In that sky, a massive door appeared.

Without any decorations, a pair of huge stone doors formed an arch.

Incredibly massive stone pillars firmly guarded the sides of the door, and the arched stone doors slowly descended to the ground.

“Ah, ah…”

Black, dead blood gushed out over Bigrind’s lips.

Her final, desperate move that she could make now.

What she had barely been able to summon by devoting all her strength,

And even then, she couldn’t be sure if it would succeed—

The “Gate of Heaven” revealed itself on earth.