Lucifer, Who Guides Evil – 2

Upon hearing those words, Floretta instinctively rose. Her wavy blonde hair and her body, clad in holy vestments, vanished, leaving a golden afterimage, then immediately reappeared before Stella.

“Again… please say it again. What did you say?”

Stella repeated her previous words without missing a single one. Floretta’s green eyes flickered. It was the exact opposite of Stella’s green eyes, which showed not the slightest tremor.

She already knew that the Honored Guest-nim was alive. Since the Sun and the Moon had confirmed their survival, she had not the slightest intention of doubting it.

However, knowing where they were and how to get there was an entirely different matter. For the gods had maintained only silence, no matter how much she yearned for an answer.

“His Holiness the Pope will have to look into the details himself. It’s not something I can judge. You can’t interrogate someone who hasn’t even been confirmed as a heretic just because their soul’s purity isn’t certain, can you?”

“Did you confirm any traces of divine power?”

“Yes. We confirmed that traces of divine power remain on her body. It’s literally just a trace, so it’s very faint. And traces of demonic energy were also found… but it would be better for His Holiness the Pope to hear about that directly rather than from me. This is the first time I’ve seen someone with traces of demonic energy pass the heresy discernment.”

“I understand. Where should I go?”

“You should go to the basement of the Inquisition Office.”

The moment Stella answered, Floretta’s body vanished. The next instant, the Pope of the Sun arrived in the basement of the Inquisition Office. Her golden high heels stepped on the icy cold marble floor.

In the basement of the Inquisition Office, where everything visible was adorned with pure silver and marble, making it feel like frozen ground, the brilliant golden light of the Sun bloomed profusely.

Click-clack, as the sound of high heels echoed and a warm aura overflowed, the battle nuns, who had been standing with serious expressions surrounding a chair, turned their heads one by one. Selene was the last.

“Your Holiness the Pope of the Sun.”

Starting with Selene, who knelt on one knee to greet Floretta, the rest of the battle nuns followed suit. The only ones who weren’t bowing their heads were Floretta, the Pope, and that Holy Knight.

Selene, raising her head, cleared the way to the side. A woman was sitting directly in front. She had long brown ponytail hair, bronze skin, and was wearing a yellow bikini.

“I greet Your Holiness the Pope of the Sun.”

The woman with bronze skin and a yellow bikini, Margarita, stood up and paid her respects. It had been 400 years since she last saw a Pope, so she had forgotten all the etiquette, making her posture very stiff.

“Is that the Holy Knight’s attire?”

“Yes. Though it’s a bit old.”

Margarita tugged at the bikini’s strap. It was extremely tattered. It was on the verge of snapping with just a slight touch. It was beyond simply being described as old.

It was the garment female Holy Knights wore under their armor. That was the true identity of the yellow bikini. The color changed every 10 years, and yellow was included in that rotation.

Floretta briefly calculated the cycle of that attire in her head. It had been about 400 years. It seemed she wasn’t wearing that outfit carelessly.

Nevertheless, Stella hadn’t mentioned the clothes, probably because if one put their mind to it, they could easily imitate such a flimsy piece of cloth.

“Stay still, former Holy Knight. There is something to verify.”

Golden divine power enveloped Margarita. But Margarita neither writhed in pain from the light nor struggled to escape it. She calmly entrusted her body to the light that surrounded her.

It was proof that her soul was not yet corrupted. Floretta smiled faintly.

“Your soul is uncorrupted. You have done a truly excellent job, Holy Knight.”

“That’s a relief. Hearing it directly from His Holiness the Pope makes me feel at ease.”

Margarita let out a sigh of relief. This meant that if the corruption of her body was healed, she could function perfectly. And that also meant she didn’t have to die.

After all, with consistent faith and belief, the corruption of the body could be healed at any time.

The atmosphere around them softened considerably. They had been on guard, just in case, because they felt a demonic presence, but now there was no need for that.

“Now, please begin your explanation. You said you know how to reach the Honored Guest-nim.”

“Honored Guest-nim…? Ah, you must mean Delta. Honored Guest-nim, no wonder his divine power was so brilliant. What do you mean he’s from the Empire? Anyone could tell he was from the Holy Nation.”

Margarita, who had just slightly increased Floretta’s favorability with her grumbling, though she herself didn’t know it, began her explanation.

First, she recounted how she had gone into the Holy War 400 years ago, failed, survived alone, and was trapped in hell, and how she had sustained herself by eating the corpses of demons in hell.

In truth, the intermediate process was hardly an explanation. It was just enduring by eating corpses alone, building a house, and then cowering in fear inside it. These three were the extent of it.

“…I endured like that for several hundred years, and then one day, a black-haired man and a black-haired woman with a holy sword suddenly came to my house. The man said his name was Delta, and the woman with the holy sword introduced herself as Kaikilia, the Emperor of the Empire.”

A glance. Having said this much, Margarita observed the Pope’s expression. Honestly, she herself thought it was an absurd story.

“What happened next?”

But Floretta was composed. Not the slightest hint of doubt showed on her face.

Confirming that the Pope trusted her explanation, Margarita recounted everything else, concluding at the point where the two of them completed the transfer device and sent Margarita back first.

“Thank you, O Sun…”

As soon as the explanation ended, tears streamed down Floretta’s eyes. It was gratitude to the gods for bestowing such grace, and relief that the Honored Guest-nim was still carrying out their work.

Seeing the Pope weeping, Margarita was startled, wondering if something was wrong, but Selene and the battle nuns remained composed. A bit awkward, Margarita sat back down.

However, there was one fact Margarita hadn’t mentioned until the end. That was the fact that the Emperor of the Empire and Delta were lovers.

What reason was there to expose someone else’s love life? Seeing how they were hugging and caressing each other, it seemed they were dating because they liked each other, and it was not something for others to meddle in.

“…Sister Margarita, was it?”

Having finished crying, Floretta wiped her tears with her sleeve and met Margarita’s gaze.

“Your faith in God, surely the Sun and the Moon will be pleased. I, Floretta Evangelina, Pope of the Sun, guarantee that fact. You have returned well to God’s embrace, my child.”

Her head bowed deeply. It was an act of the Pope bowing her head to a mere Holy Knight, but no one was surprised. For this was the right thing to do.

This was someone who had been trapped in hell for a staggering 400 years.

It wouldn’t have been strange if she had lost her faith and fallen into corruption or been offered to demons long ago, yet maintaining the purity of her soul was, in itself, an enormous feat.

“Uh… thank you for the compliment?”

Margarita was also composed, but her reason for being so was slightly different.

Even if she was 360 degrees insane and appeared normal on the outside, Margarita was fundamentally far from sane. It wasn’t that she wasn’t surprised; she *couldn’t* be surprised.

“Lastly, you said you know how to go to hell, didn’t you?”

Having finished her greeting, Floretta raised her head, her eyes shining. This was the main point.

Margarita, thinking, “Finally,” explained with even more passion than before. It was partly because she wanted to help her benefactors, those two, and partly because she wanted revenge on hell.

Although she had miserably failed when she invaded, it would surely be possible now, after Delta and Kaikilia had practically turned hell upside down.

Floretta, who had been listening intently to Margarita’s explanation, looked at Selene with calm eyes once the explanation was over.

“Inquisitor.”

“Yes, Your Holiness. Please speak.”

“Could you please summon the Pope of the Moon?”

Asking for the Pope of the Moon instead of Sister Seraphica. That meant a conversation was needed between the Pope of the Sun and the Pope of the Moon, not between sisters.

Selene answered without a word.

“I will obey.”

“And, gather all battle nuns and Holy Knights. This is also an order given as the Pope of the Sun.”

A holy relic appeared in Floretta’s hand. A small sun, shining between four pairs of wings, brightly illuminated the entire basement. Margarita let out a small gasp of admiration, “Oh.”

“From now on, I officially declare a Holy War.”

“…I don’t understand any of it.”

Lucifer stood in place with both arms wide open, like a prophet spreading the law. He still showed no sign of attacking me.

“If you mean the true god, are you talking about that dragon?”

-Do not call upon him in vain.

‘We can finally communicate.’

Until now, he had been unilaterally rambling, but now he was listening to my words and even getting angry. Still, he didn’t seem like the type to completely ignore me and just ramble on.

“What do you mean ‘call upon irreverently’? I don’t even know his name yet.”

Even in the game, he was only ever called the Devourer of Worlds from beginning to end, with no other information whatsoever.

-Then I shall tell you. Consider it the first step towards true faith.

“What?”

I was momentarily flustered, thinking, “He’s telling me that easily?” Then, the part of his head that would be a mouth on a human split wide open.

From within, a grotesque tree root shot out of his mouth, wriggling like an earthworm.

-His name is…

As the tree root squirmed and formed a sound, an enormous gust of wind burst forth.

“Ugh?!”

My body, directly caught by the wind, floated into the air and was pushed back a considerable distance.

I slammed the Wingless Nightmare into the ground. I barely managed to stop myself just before my heels were pushed off the edge of the cliff. I finally let out a sigh of relief and raised my head.

Near Lucifer, space was distorting and tearing apart, turning black, then mixing with normal space and disappearing again-it was utter chaos.

His mouth closed, and the tree roots re-entangled, making the mouth-like opening completely vanish. His voice resonated flatly.

-Do you understand?

“Not at all.”

What kind of demon uses Dragon Language? I grumbled and walked back towards the island’s interior.

They said Dragon Language was such a concept. That the laws and truths of the world were contained within the words themselves. That’s why you had to use Dragon Language when fighting the Devourer of Worlds boss later.

Logically, if movements weren’t restricted using Dragon Language, there would be no reason for a dragon to bother coming down to the ground and wrestling with humans.

Because one breath attack from the air would be the end of it.

If one wasn’t enough, they could just keep firing until they died.

‘Was it said that the stronger the power contained in Dragon Language, the higher its tier?’

If space could be torn and twisted just by speaking a name, it was clear what tier the Devourer of Worlds was.

-You must have heard the myths of the outside world.

Even though he had extended the courtesy of telling me his name, I still showed no sign of moving, so Lucifer’s voice resonated again. I seemed to be quite desirable to him.

Though I wasn’t sure if that was the will of the Devourer of Worlds or that guy’s arbitrary decision.

“Myths of the outside world?”

-Excuses like ‘I haven’t heard of them’ will not suffice, O one protected by the false god. You must surely know the story that the false god is rejecting the salvation of the true god.

“……”

As I pondered what that meant, I realized it was about the Holy Nation’s historical records. The story that the Holy Nation’s god was preventing the invasion of the Devourer of Worlds.

For a moment, I was confused by the unnecessarily religious terms.

“Yeah. I’ve heard of it.”

I had heard of it, but not ‘in this world’. I saw it when I looked through documents in the game.

Could it be that he mistook me for someone from the Holy Nation and assumed that, as a Holy Nation citizen, I would naturally have read my country’s history books?

-That myth, with one exception, is all lies.

“That means one part is true, then. What is that one part?”

It was a bit unexpected. I thought he would just say it was all an outright lie.

-That the false god and the true god clashed.

‘…Huh?’

The true god he was talking about would naturally be the Devourer of Worlds, and the false gods would be the Sun and the Moon. Was that guy a dragon powerful enough to directly confront the Creator God?

And the protagonist of BDC 4 defeated such a being in one go?

‘What kind of monster is he?’

It was a game I played, but seriously, what kind of guy was he?

While I seriously tried to gauge the power of BDC 4’s protagonist, Lucifer began to ramble again.

-The false god lost everything except for two worlds. One of those remaining worlds has already returned to primordial nothingness.

‘…Primordial nothingness?’

That setting sounded familiar. What was it? My memory was hazy. Was it a setting from BDC 3?

-Salvation is inevitable. The false god only repeated fleeing. Many worlds have already found salvation. Now, only one remains.

From this point on, it was a story I had never heard before. I focused intently. It might all be a lie meant to deceive me, but I could judge that after hearing everything.

-A mere human cannot reject a god. O one protected by the false god. You too, open your eyes. Cast off your shackles and face the truth.

“……”

-Take the hand extended to you. Do not miss the opportunity to serve the true god. For salvation is imminent in the world, and only one darkness shall exist.

“…Just one question. What exactly is that salvation?”

To my question, Lucifer answered as if it were obvious.

-Everything becoming extinct. Nothing remaining. All existence, including believers, fusing into one within the embrace of the true god. That is salvation.

“Isn’t this guy crazy?”

Yep, definitely a cult.

I aimed the Wingless Nightmare. Lucifer’s pupils, seeing the blade aimed at him, rolled counter-clockwise.

-I will take that as a rejection of salvation.

“Salvation, my ass. You’re just telling me to die. Am I crazy enough to follow someone like that?”

In truth, even if my values were normal, I wouldn’t have accepted it, but hearing those words made me even more unwilling. Following and believing in him would only mean death, wouldn’t it?

As soon as I flatly refused, tree roots intertwined from his right hand, beginning to form a long spear.

-It’s regrettable. Why do you reject the salvation of the true god?

“Who is true and who is false is for me to judge, not you. And if that’s salvation, I can give it to you right now, how about it?”

-Then die, cursing your own ignorance.

A spear, its length comparable to a pike, was aimed at me. Despite being ridiculously long, it was a spear with a thick handle, like a cone.

He kicked off the ground.