Chapter 68: Where does divine power come from?

“The fallen angels aren’t weak, but in the end, they can’t beat me, a devotee of the Kanora Church.”

“Wow, everything’s getting smashed.”

“These are the crying angels. They say ‘Mom, I’m scared!’ but honestly, they’re not scary at all.”

Once they’re broken, they’re nothing but stones.

“Well, normally, they’d be scary. These angels aren’t your usual monsters. It’s only because you’re strong enough that you can break them.”

“Turns out, I can.”

Just swinging my mace around, they all eventually die.

“Is it that you’re strong, or are the angels weak?”

“By the standards of that other world, the angels aren’t weak. They may be low-level, but they serve directly under the Four Heavenly Kings.”

It’s said these statues slaughtered tens of thousands when used for defense.

“Ahhhhh!”

Crack!

Of course, in front of me, they die the moment they scream.

I grabbed the head of the angel screaming behind me and threw it away.

“Still, the problem is that they’re a nuisance.”

It’s not a good idea to use an area-of-effect spell again.

What if one of the Four Heavenly Kings really shows up?

“I’ll just send a clone to check.”

“Oh, finally something useful.”

If Jeon Tae-yeon’s clones distract them, I can destroy the statues and be done with it.

“By the way, what about the Path of Trials? You know something, don’t you?”

“Probably, the Beast King will appear.”

“The Four Heavenly Kings?”

Based on the Path of Trials I’ve experienced in that other world, that’s likely correct.

“Yes. The Beast King is one of the Four Heavenly Kings, but as you might guess, he’s the king of the beastmen.”

“The king of the beastmen?”

“Yes. Unlike here, there are no pattern monsters on that side; it’s just a pure strength battle.”

“Sounds perfect for a Battle Mage.”

Exactly.

That’s why I sent a Battle Mage there.

The beastman is called the Lion King Farus, a lion-type beastman.

He’s one of the Four Heavenly Kings in the Demon King’s army, but due to his massive physique and great strength, even human women are attracted to him.

He literally has a huge muscular body, a lion’s tail, and a lion’s face.

With a single punch, he can disintegrate a human down to their cellular level.

“Yes, on the other hand, here we only deal with sneaky monsters, so people like me and Young girl, who’s the master of tricks, are a better fit.”

There’s a limit to what I can do with just my mace.

Young girl’s tricks will be quite helpful.

“Wait, does that mean there’s also a Four Heavenly King here?”

“The head angel here is one of the Four Heavenly Kings.”

I think he was called the Fallen Angel Camuel.

When I joined the hero’s party, Camuel was an angel on the hero’s side, but he fell because of me.

“What’s that weird-looking flower? Wait, is it a tentacle monster?”

As we passed through a long corridor, we entered a dome-like circular space.

Not far from us was a strange mass of wings.

It looked like a giant hole wrapped in wings.

It seemed like a huge clump of wings.

If you tore off all the angels’ wings and mashed them together, they’d probably look like that.

Now that I think about it, I remember seeing something like that when I searched the internet about real angels.

“The true form of an angel.”

“The true form of an angel?”

“Yeah, if you look up real angels, they’re depicted like that.”

“Ah, was that real?”

I shook my head.

“That, in my view, is one of the angels from the other world who mutated into a monster after attaching itself to the Demon King.”

“If it’s an aerial unit, won’t it be hard for us to deal with?”

If it were a regular aerial unit, sure.

I might’ve needed to bring a succubus.

But that’s an angel we don’t have to worry about.

It’s just a floating mass of wings in the sky.

“Graaaaah!”

Pew pew pew.

It shoots strange lasers.

The laser fired from the hole at the center of the wing mass melts everything it touches.

At first glance, it looks incredibly dangerous.

“Isn’t that thing dangerous?”

“It has a main body.”

The problem is that it has a weak point.

I pointed at an old man among the angel statues with my finger.

A shriveled-up old man, black like a withered tree.

He was in a praying pose that gave off an eerie vibe.

“Don’t tell me it’s that weird old man?”

“Yes. That old man statue is the main body.”

“That’s the main body.”

That mummy-like old man, who looks so weak that even a child could take him down if they attacked.

“That old man?”

The skinny old man.

At first glance, he looks like a praying statue, but in reality, it’s completely different.

He was a human forcibly turned into an angel, a foolish person who believed in the Demon King’s fake religion.

When humans are transformed into angels, their bodies turn into statues, and their spirits become the winged angels flying around.

“Grarrr.”

The floating winged masses in the sky, while pretending not to care, are actually very aware that I’m watching the old man.

So, as long as we’re near the old man, they can’t shoot their lasers.

“That’s why they’re protecting him like that.”

Their acting is spot on.

They move around pretending to be independent entities, but at the center of it all is always that old man statue. It’s utterly despicable.

“Normally, people wouldn’t think of that as the main body, right?”

It’s because he’s an old man.

“Yeah. Usually, they hide in such ambiguous ways. Even if you see him, no one would assume that old man is the main body.”

Who would think that the shriveled old man standing in a corner like a withered tree branch is the main body?

“Do we have to eliminate the main body, or is there another way to take them down?”

“That’s not the only way.”

We can gather holy power and throw it at them.

With the strong holy power gathered during a Holy

Crash!

I shaped it into a spear and shot down the angel mass.

“Screeeeeech!”

When the angel mass floating in the air died, one of the old men, looking like a withered tree, screamed in pain and died.

That’s what you get for not having a pure heart.

“Hey, wait. Do that again.”

“Huh?”

For some reason, Young girl spoke excitedly.

What does she want me to do?

“Saint, do it again. You know, the thing where you gather light and throw it.”

Feeling annoyed, but since she asked, I decided to try it one more time.

I gathered the light into a spear again and threw it during a Holy Crash.

Another angel mass was pierced and fell to the ground.

“Screeeeeech!”

“Ohhhhh.”

“Why?”

Was it because I threw it well?

Well, I am good at throwing things.

“The thing about holy power… it’s like a ‘mommy pouch.’ Does that mean the ‘mommy pouch’ is also a holy power container?”

“I think I understand why you’re so strong.”

What on earth are they talking about?

“It’s a shame. If only that belonged to me.”

“What nonsense are you all spouting?”

Pixie was blushing, and Jeon Tae-yeon wasn’t even worth commenting on.

Why are they acting like this?

“Never mind. It’s nothing.”

“If we keep talking, we might get killed by a mommy pouch.”

Wait a minute.

They’re looking at my chest right now.

When I first created the spear of light, I gathered the holy power by placing my hands near my chest.

Ah, I see.

They think the holy power comes from my chest.

Well, it’s not completely wrong.

Technically, I pull the power from inside my body.

It just happens to be practical to pull it up to my chest.

“Are you all focusing on my chest? Do you want to get hit for real?”

Whack!

“Kyaaaa!”

I hit Jeon Tae-yeon.

How can these women have such filthy mouths?

Pixie, I can forgive a hundred times since she’s a little person and went through a gender change, but Jeon Tae-yeon is another story.

“Isn’t it too much to say that while hitting me?”

“If Pixie used a disguise ring and was in adult form, I would’ve hit her too.”

Should I just hit her again?

Whack!

Annoyed, I smacked her head as hard as I could.

“You already hit me!”

“Anyway, don’t call other people’s chests weird things like ‘mommy pouch’ or ‘holy power pouch.’”

Stop treating someone’s chest like a weird container.

“Of course, considering the characteristics of a female body, it’s not entirely wrong.”

“So, uh, how about… ‘Milk Dispenser’?”

“Where do you live? Show yourself immediately.”

I took a stance, ready to swing my mace.

“I’m sorry.”

“So, does that mean holy power doesn’t come from your chest?”

“Location-wise, it’s just convenient to pull it out from there. What, should I pull it from my stomach instead? That would look weird, wouldn’t it?”

It only makes sense for it to seem like it comes from the chest—it’s more saintly that way.

What do these people even think a saint is?

“Ah, I guess that makes sense.”

I think I need to say something here.

“I don’t know how the two of you think about saints, but the idea that holy power comes from a saint’s chest is a rumor in that other world, and it’s never been proven. Some people have this image of saints being easy to corrupt and sexualize, but that’s completely wrong. I suppose it’s because saints are seen as pure and noble, and if they fall, it’s arousing to some people. But a saint is not that kind of being.”

They completely see saints as symbols of corruption.

If they want to control their lust, they should stick to fiction.

What do they think real saints are?

“When I look at you, it does seem like you’re corrupt.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. It’s a completely different thing. In my case, the Kanora religion itself is already a bit… odd.”

—Odd, you say?

Of course, while I sometimes curse the goddess who gave me this body, I’m also grateful to her.

“Even if a saint were to fall, who says it always has to be in a sexual way?”

“Isn’t it the universal rule that if someone with a holy and noble image falls, it’s always sexual?”

That may be the universal rule, but it’s not the Kanora rule.

I knocked Young girl on the head.

“You really need to distinguish between reality and fiction. In my case, it may look like corruption, but that’s just because I live life my own way. If I were truly corrupt, I wouldn’t even be able to use holy power, right? So, what I’m saying is that you can’t just compare the corrupted saint trope from stories to me.”

“Isn’t this all too vague?”

“Exactly. Especially since you’re basically walking around half-naked.”

I cracked the old man’s head nearby and responded.

“That’s the goddess’s taste.”

“If the goddess is a pervert, aren’t you enjoying it too?”

“Don’t you like it when your woman dresses up nicely?”

I’m not some extreme conservative.

I like it when my woman dresses attractively.

Of course, I don’t want her being ogled like a side dish or treated as an object.

Still, no matter what I wear, this body is bound to stir up excitement in men.

“Saying you’re your own woman… that’s some advanced-level narcissism.”

“But honestly, if I had a body like that, I’d probably stare at myself in the mirror all day too.”

See, Jeon Tae-yeon knows a thing or two.

“I don’t care anymore. Want to fight? Come at me if you’re mad.”

“No, no, I’m not gonna fight. I’m sorry.”

“So, where does the holy power actually come from?”

Even if you ask where it really comes from, I can’t answer that.

This is top-secret information.