What do you know

What do you know

It seemed the Heaven God Cult was planning to use those deployed here as disposable pawns.

Or perhaps they had decided that sacrificing all of them was acceptable as long as the objective was achieved.

Seemingly meaningless corpses were scattered everywhere.

As I was passing by these things and moving forward.

I gripped my mace tightly when I noticed a particularly large concentration of Heaven God Cult members in one room.

‘It seems Delia is in there.’

Since the only reason for the Heaven God Cult to attack the Herdi family would be Delia, they would have to concentrate their forces in one place.

Making this judgment, I asked Luna for confirmation.

Luna nodded and told me I was correct.

[She’s definitely trapped in there!]

Now that I had confirmation, all that was left was to take action.

I decided to rescue Delia first, then save the others, as I manifested lightning.

Normally, as it’s a magic used for restraining, I often used it lightly as a deterrent.

‘But with magic penetration now.’

Its power had become too strong to be called a simple deterrent.

‘Moreover, the level of the enemies doesn’t seem that high.’

Lightning imbued with magic penetration would probably be able to take them all out in one shot.

Thinking it fortunate that the enemy was gathered in one place, I manifested lightning, which was less powerful than a point explosion.

– Kwaaaaang!

A blue lightning bolt strikes the center, shattering everything around it.

As I watch the entire second floor of the mansion collapse and swallow up all the surrounding enemies, I spoke to Luna.

“Raise the dead ones and make them attack the Heaven God Cult members.”

[Got it! I’ll try to raise as many as I can!]

While using Luna to keep the enemies approaching from behind in check,

I quickly moved towards Delia’s room, which was now unguarded.

As I entered, what I saw was

A man who looked about as strong as the holy knight I had seen before, rushing towards Delia.

Seeing this, I felt a surge of anger and threw my mace at him, activating a space compression spell to show I wouldn’t kill him normally.

Usually, when you throw a mace, it follows a parabolic trajectory.

But since space compression magic compresses the distance of space itself,

The moment it left my hand, the mace was embedded in the man’s head.

– Crunch!

With the sound of a skull caving in, the man’s body floated and slammed into the wall.

As I was feeling somewhat satisfied with the unexpectedly powerful effect,

I heard a voice calling me from the side.

“… Deren?”

How difficult must it have been for her to call me normally instead of her usual “Deren-Deren”?

Realizing this, I slowly approached Delia.

Delia looks at me with a strange expression and says.

“H-How did you get here…”

It seems she never imagined I would come to help.

I thought about saying something to Delia, but right now saving the people of the Herdi family was more urgent.

I decided to postpone our conversation for now.

“Luna, follow Delia and protect her.”

[But I don’t wanna be apart from Master!]

“I’ll pet you well afterwards depending on how well you do, so go quickly.”

[You’ll pet me? Hmm… okay, I’ll do it!]

Thinking how easy it is to manipulate her in many ways, I left Luna with Delia.

I picked up my mace again and continued speaking.

“I’ll go rescue the others then. You wait in a safe place.”

“…Okay.”

Delia nods her head while looking at me with a complicated expression, seemingly unsure of what to say in this situation.

I looked at Delia for a moment before quickly turning around and heading inside.

*

‘I should just follow the direction the Heaven God Cult members are heading.’

Usually, their main targets are likely to be in the direction the enemies are advancing.

Judging that following their trail would lead me to the right destination.

I struck lightning into the back of the heads of those blocking my way.

“I-It’s a heretic!”

“Aaaaargh!”

The moment I used magic, the surroundings became extremely noisy, and those in front of me showed hostility towards me.

When I used lightning, it became quiet again, and I could see them falling into a deep sleep.

I cast lightning once more towards the enemies who had become eternally silent, then quickly moved forward.

After advancing for a while, I saw the banquet hall I had seen before.

True to the characteristics of the Herdi family, there were lavish decorations, but all these decorations were either broken or covered in blood, evoking quite a grotesque feeling.

‘Seeing a place with pleasant memories transformed like this is quite disturbing.’

As I was feeling considerably unpleasant and finishing off those nearby,

An unpleasant voice, like metal scraping, came from inside.

“… Heretic.”

An eerie voice.

Thinking it was surprising that a person could make such a voice, I looked inside.

I saw a giant monster with human body parts crudely attached.

‘… What should I call that?’

How should one describe something with 12 arms, 6 faces, and about 30 legs?

As I was frowning at the sight of this monster that looked like a real-life implementation of angels or demons imagined by people of the past,

A person wearing pure white cult robes slowly walked up to me and spoke.

“Those who fail to adapt end up changing like that.”

I was so displeased by the mere act of being spoken to that I wanted to kill him right away.

But since it was a good opportunity to gather information, I decided to listen for now and turned my gaze.

‘Judging by the fact that he can talk about this without any problem, he seems to be quite high-ranking.’

So I stayed quiet, intending to extract as much information as possible.

He speaks to me with his arms crossed.

“Of course, you’ll die soon, but you should feel quite grateful that you can help the Heaven God with minimal pain.”

As I always feel.

Those demon bastards talk as if sacrificing themselves to the Heaven God… no, the Demon God, is a noble and natural thing.

I was thinking that I found that tone of speech somehow irritating when he continued speaking.

“I’ve talked too much. To summarize, it’s this. Stop this heretic behavior and come over to our side.”

Just as I realized this was a story I didn’t even need to hear and was about to unleash lightning.

He smiles and continues talking to me.

“Think carefully. If you kick away this opportunity, the Heaven God Cult will attack everyone around you.”

“……”

“And inevitably, the next target will likely be your fiancée.”

By fiancée, does he mean Sien?

As I lowered my expression at those words, he chuckled and said.

“You may not know this, but the scale of the Heaven God Cult is beyond imagination. So you should know that even if we repeat this kind of thing over and over again, it doesn’t really affect us much.”

Just like they did to Rumi, he declares that if I don’t join the Heaven God Cult, they will torment me forever.

As I silently meet his eyes at those words, he taps the floor with the staff he’s holding and continues speaking.

“Well… if you really don’t want to join, there’s also the option of just handing over Rumi. If you just hand her over, we promise not to touch you, your fiancée, or that youngster from the Inspection Department.”

Realizing that a good opportunity to gather information had come, I quickly said.

“Rumi? Why are you all so obsessed with Rumi?”

“Obsession… From your perspective, it might seem like simple obsession.”

He intentionally avoids answering by deflecting, seemingly unwilling to share information with me.

Realizing that asking further would be meaningless, I calmly opened my mouth.

“… Then let’s move on.”

At my words about moving on, he looked at me with an unexpected expression.

Then, with a satisfied look, he spoke to me.

“It seems you’ve learned something from seeing the failure! This too is the grace of the Heaven God…!”

As he was speaking, I interrupted him mid-sentence and said.

“Point explosion.”

At those words, he seemed to sense something was wrong, his eyes widening as he prepared to counter my magic.

However, the magic penetration mixed in the point explosion ignored his magic and pierced through all magical defenses, embedding itself in his head.

How should I describe this?

The sound of a bomb exploding inside a watermelon?

I frowned as I watched blue blood burst out in all directions with a crushing sound.

‘I’ll need to wash thoroughly later.’

Thinking how unpleasant it was, I shook the blood off the back of my hand.

‘Fortunate that he let his guard down.’

Judging by his reaction speed, if he hadn’t been caught off guard, it would have been troublesome in many ways.

As I looked down at the guy who had turned into a blue slime, using magic to put him into a glass bottle.

“Kwaaaaargh!”

The nearby monster started running towards me with a terrifying roar.