The Demon-Possessed Book – 2

The search ended quite smoothly. I wonder if I took about 30 heads in total from the priests and holy knights, because I confirmed that both of the items I wanted had dropped. It took less time than I expected.

I picked it up and immediately headed to the place where the book was. Unlike what I had worried about, the dungeon’s scale was perfectly identical to the game, so finding the way was easy.

I ignored the occasional undead I saw along the way. Since I had secured the items, there was no need to bother with things like them.

‘Anyone can see it’s here.’

The entrance to the room where the demon slept was filled with holy-looking objects and densely inscribed prayers written in the Holy Kingdom’s script, even at a glance. Even those undead couldn’t get close to this place.

In fact, even without all this, if they had just locked the door, the demon would never have been able to break the seal on its own unless someone else entered, but those people didn’t know.

I walked around the room, searching for a collapsed pile of rocks. All other places were perfectly clean, but only one spot was collapsed, making it easy to identify.

I approached the pile of rocks and gruntingly rolled away the boulder that was placed at the very front. Then, a small hole, just big enough for a person to crawl through, was revealed.

I immediately crawled inside.

The passage was slightly shorter than my height, so my head quickly emerged outside. Just in case, I surveyed my surroundings before exiting. Relieved that there were no enemies, I stood up.

It was a space that felt gloomy and ominous. Should I say it felt like my strength was slowly leaking away?

In the game, no matter how long I stayed here, I didn’t get any debuffs or anything, so it was highly likely that it was just my imagination.

I looked around. The torches fixed to the walls had long since burned down to their handles, leaving only ash, and a rectangular altar was visible in the middle of the room.

The book I was looking for was placed on that altar.

‘Found it.’

This was the very book in which the demon was sealed. Its thickness was about one joint of my finger, and not only its cover but also the paper inside were all pitch-black.

I approached the altar and picked up the book without any hesitation. Since the demon was in such a weakened state, simply picking it up wouldn’t cause any harm.

Unknown characters were written in rows on the book’s cover. According to the lore, they were written in the demon’s language, but I didn’t particularly want to read them, so I just assumed something was written and moved on.

Instead, I took out the item from my waist pouch that I had waited for to drop while beating down the undead priests and holy knights.

This was the very piece of the demon’s flesh that was said to be scattered throughout the cave.

Its color was extremely crimson overall, and sometimes it even unpleasantly wriggled on its own. It felt similar to raw animal liver that I had seen on the internet once.

‘Raw liver doesn’t wriggle on its own, though.’

As I grumbled softly and placed a piece of the demon’s flesh against the book, the book slowly absorbed it. Should I say it was a process of the two combining and returning to their original form?

The second piece of flesh was the same. The book wriggled and absorbed the flesh I placed against it, and when the absorption was complete, it stopped moving. The color of its cover had become a little redder than before.

This was enough. I put the book away into the bag I had brought separately. Now, I just needed to get one more item before returning to the knight order, and then I’d be done.

‘I must have gained about 2 more levels, right?’

I briefly calculated the experience points I had gained so far. I probably would have gained enough experience just from the headless armored cavalry to level up about 2 more times.

If not, there’s always the option of returning to the knight order and then going out for a quick leveling session.

When coming out, I had to crawl through the gap in the same way. That door wasn’t originally made for entry and exit, so it didn’t have a handle.

As I stood up, the staggering undead looked at me with their rotten, mushy pupils. But they didn’t try to attack me like before.

It was because of the book I was holding.

All of them were resurrected as undead because they were possessed by pieces of the demon’s flesh, so naturally, they wouldn’t attack me, who was holding the book possessed by the demon itself.

And they couldn’t sense any strong divine power from me. They would probably just think I was a demon worshipper taking the book to break the seal.

I gazed idly at the undead gathered around me, then turned to the opposite path from the one I had come. In this situation, they were nothing more than punching bags, but I didn’t particularly want to take risks to fight them.

If I had bad luck, another piece of flesh might be absorbed by the book.

In a situation where I’m holding the book, even if I kill them, the flesh won’t drop as an item but will be absorbed directly into the book, so my plan could get completely messed up.

Moreover, before they dropped the flesh, they were guys who would revive no matter how many times you killed them, so their experience efficiency was terrible. Based on the first playthrough, I think the experience gained per kill was either 2 or 3.

Even at my pathetic level, killing them was a waste of time. There were plenty of more efficient leveling spots than this place.

‘It’s not worth it.’

The path wound on and on. There were quite a few undead along the way, but all of them just stared blankly at me and did nothing.

How much time had passed since I walked, unhesitatingly kicking aside the guys blocking my way, when I saw the end in the distance. It was a dead end.

‘A corpse… it’s here.’

In front of it, a dried-up skeleton lay dead, leaning against the wall. This was a person who had been one of the priests dispatched from the Holy Kingdom to this place in the past to subjugate the demon.

His attire was a bit more splendid, and unlike other priests, his corpse had remained dead without rising as an undead, so he was also a figure speculated among players to have been a very powerful priest.

I approached the skeleton and carefully searched its clothes. Something sharp was caught near its waist. I picked it up.

What I held in my hand was an ordinary-looking dagger.

A dagger forged with divine power, which remained sharp and completely unrusted despite the passage of a long time. In the game, it would probably have the modifier ‘blessed’ attached to it.

‘So I can pick it up after all. Even if I swing it now, it probably won’t show its true power.’

I carefully put it away in my possession. If the demon-possessed book was the key item for luring the lord, then this dagger was the key item for dealing with the lured lord.

There was nothing more for me to do here.

Just like when I came, I kicked aside the undead who were staring blankly at me and doing nothing, and after walking for a long time, I came out, and complete darkness had settled around me.

I raised my torch to illuminate my surroundings and approached where my horse was. The horse, which had been tied quietly to a tree, neighed when it saw me. I stroked its mane once, then untied my bag and fastened it to the saddle.

Now it was time to return to the knight order and kill that lord.

In a room decorated with all sorts of holy artifacts, a woman opened her eyes.

There was no light source to be found in the room, but the light of the full moon poured in from beyond the stained-glass window, which was made using an entire wall, brightly illuminating the room, so it wasn’t dark at all.

The woman, who had risen and approached the window, quietly clasped her hands in front of her chest. A divine power, colored with a mix of yellow and white, emerged in her clasped hands.

How much time had passed since that power appeared, when the door burst open. It was a woman with a beaming smile on her face.

“Why did you call me, Your Holiness the Pope?”

“The demon’s seal has been broken.”

“Oh my.”

The woman, hearing the words of the being she called Your Holiness the Pope, covered her mouth with her right hand as if surprised. But it was definitely not a genuine expression. It seemed she was merely feigning surprise.

“Where was the seal located? All those existing in our Holy Kingdom are strictly managed, so… it must be from the Empire, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Should I go catch the one who broke the seal? Or subjugate the demon?”

The being called Your Holiness the Pope shook their head slightly.

“There’s no need for you to do that. Because light exists there too.”

“Light, you say… Hmm, I don’t know. I don’t trust that woman.”

“She is a woman who wields a holy sword. Demons are no match for her. Please put your worries aside.”

“That might be true. Even if her personality is a bit messed up, she’s a holy sword wielder. So, if I’m not going to catch the one who broke the seal right now, nor subjugate the demon, then why did you call me?”

“I merely wished to convey the facts. It’s a fact I only realized now that the seal has been broken, but the demon’s power is greatly weakened. So much so that even our novice sisters could easily defeat that demon.”

“Even so, it’s meaningless to the people on the Empire’s side, isn’t it? Even if it’s weakened, if they don’t have faith, they can never kill a demon. It would be fortunate if they don’t end up empowering the demon by foolishly stepping forward.”

The Pope nodded. Her long, wavy golden hair, which reached the floor, created waves of gold.

“Then I’ll just tell the kids for now. That we won’t wage a holy war against the demon, but since there’s a possibility, they should train harder than usual. Is that enough?”

“Yes, that’s enough.”

The woman, who had turned around and was about to leave the room after hearing the Pope’s answer, let out an “Ah!” as if remembering something she had forgotten, and turned back.

“Your Holiness the Pope. May I ask just one more thing?”

“By all means.”

“If we were to depart to start a holy war later, what should we do about the one who broke the demon’s seal?”

Her green eyes narrowed. Those pupils shone with a very cruel emotion. A terrible sadism gleamed in her green pupils.

“Do as you wish. I will not interfere, Inquisitor.”

“Gladly.”

The woman called the Inquisitor smiled brightly, bowed her head slightly, and left the room. The Pope gazed idly at the closed door, then turned towards the stained-glass window.

“Your Holiness the Pope. Just one more thing.”

More precisely, they were about to turn. That is, if the Inquisitor from just now hadn’t suddenly opened the door and abruptly poked her head in.

Even though her frivolous attitude and tone, which made it hard to believe she was meeting the Pope, might have been irritating, the Pope gently opened their mouth with a calm and soft tone.

“Is there anything else you need?”

“Do I not need to tell the Pope of the Moon separately?”

Hearing that question, the Pope glanced at the full moon’s light shining through the stained-glass window.

“You don’t have to.”

A very round full moon was floating in the sky.

“Because it is the night of the rising full moon.”