Chapter 637
The veil hidden by distortion was lifted.
Simon had to face the hideous reality.
Pillars belonging to each department, where students earned points by throwing shuriken at them.
But in truth, human beings were bound to those pillars. Just like three-dimensional people distorted into two-dimensional paper, they were twisted and wrapped around the pillars, crying out in agony.
“Uwaaaaah!”
“Aaaaaaagh!”
Spectators, minions, necromancer agents, and seven people now dressed in clothes so unrecognizable that their original forms were gone.
They screamed, covered in blood, pierced by flying shuriken.
“......!”
Simon looked at the shuriken in his hand.
It was a crimson cross.
‘What is this.’
His vision turned red.
The giggling laughter of students about to throw shuriken echoed like banshee wails. Whenever a shuriken struck the end of a pillar, the audience erupted in cheers.
“Hit it properly!”
“Hit it!”
Kyararararara!
Kyararararak!
His ears buzzed, splitting with a terrible headache. Simon staggered, clutching his forehead.
Kyarararara!
“Hahahahaha!”
“Aaaaaaagh!”
“Hit it! Hit it!”
“Stop it! Kkkuuaaaagh!”
Laughter and screams overlapped in his ears.
“One more shot!”
Chwarurururuk!
Then, another crimson shuriken flew straight toward the pillar.
Simon’s eyes bloodshot in rage.
Without passing through reason, his body moved first. He leapt into the air and caught the flying shuriken with his bare hand.
His palm split open, blood spurting out.
But he bit his lip and clenched the shuriken with all his strength. The student from the Department of Katarology who had thrown it looked shocked.
“Hey, what’s your problem?”
Simon’s eyes rolled back.
“Stoooooop!”
Claaaang! Claaanng!
The world snapped back to its original state. At Simon’s thunderous cry, everyone in the arena, who had been moving nonstop, suddenly froze.
“What’s with him?”
“Is he crazy?”
The students shrugged it off. One male student stepped onto Darkness and leapt high, trying to stab the shuriken in his hand directly into the pillar.
“Hell yeah! One more point—!”
Thud!
Before he could, Simon’s body struck like lightning, his eyes glowing dark blue as he grabbed the boy’s head. When the boy looked up, he saw a black monster breathing over him.
Boooom!
Simon flung him straight into the pool, then stood in front of the pillar, raising both arms.
“Stop! Stop this now!”
But the students didn’t stop.
“What is this? Some new tactic?”
“Just ignore him and keep throwing!”
Crack!
Simon bit his lip until it bled.
[Stop it, I said!!]
His furious roar reverberated through the whole arena. And as if responding to his will, Deimos, his water summon, opened its jaws and fired a rolling sphere of water at the giant scoreboard.
<Current Cannon>
Kwooooooooom!
The massive scoreboard crackled and collapsed. Only then did the students gape at Simon.
“H-he destroyed school property?”
“He’s really insane!”
Murmur murmur murmur!
Finally, the referees and security staff rushed in.
“Student! What on earth are you doing?!”
Simon shouted at them,
“Stop this match immediately and get these people out of here!”
“What?”
“There’s a fanatic in this stadium!”
The security staff’s faces twisted into warped expressions.
“......A fanatic?”
“Sigh, this is Roke Island, student. Don’t spout nonsense—”
Unable to hold back his rage, Simon snapped around and shouted,
“Ever Kire!”
Claaanng! Claaanng!
At his cry, the pool water surged and rippled.
“Why are you doing this?! Come out now!”
“Student!”
The expressions of the security staff turned grim. The students were glaring at Simon as if he’d gone mad, and the spectators booed the sudden halt of the match.
Chak! Chak!
Magic circles unfurled at the fingertips of the guards.
“If you keep this up, even as Student Council President, we’ll have to drag you out by force.”
“Step forward.”
Panting, Simon shook his bangs back and glared at them.
Shhhh—
These were veterans of countless battles in their prime, but at that moment, the spirit of an eighteen-year-old boy made them flinch.
Flustered, they doubled down, pouring genuine curse effects into their spells beyond the usual suppression of a rowdy student.
“Hands up! Now!”
“Raise your hands!”
Simon gnashed his teeth.
The situation was spiraling.
‘I was too rash.’
His body had reacted instinctively to save the people bound to the pillars, but no one would suddenly believe him if he shouted the truth.
‘What’s the best way? How can I make them believe me and evacuate?’
His mind raced. Dozens of simulations ran in his head, but none of them provided a certain solution.
‘At this rate...!’
“We’ll subdue him.”
Just as the guards were about to release their curses—
BOOOOOOOM!
An explosion rang out from the empty spectator stands.
Simon, the guards, the students, and the audience all turned their heads at once. Blinding white explosions kept bursting forth.
“It’s a fanatic!”
A girl’s cry rang out.
Simon’s eyes widened.
‘Lete!’
“There really is a fanatic! Run!”
Her convincing cry, paired with the blasts everyone could see, sealed the deal.
Thunk.
One student dropped his shuriken with a blank face.
It was undeniable.
It was holiness.
“Haaah! Haaaah!”
“Kyyaaaaaaaa!”
“It’s really a fanatic!”
“Save us!”
“Don’t push me!!”
The stadium instantly plunged into chaos. Screaming spectators rushed for the exits.
Even the guards who had been aiming at Simon had no choice but to move to secure the crowd and search for the fanatic.
“Haaah...”
Simon felt his knees wobble and crouched onto the platform. Ahead, he spotted Lete, on tiptoe, signaling to him before running his way.
‘......That was the best possible choice, Lete.’
For her to cast holy magic herself and then scream that a fanatic had appeared, brilliant. And it made him grateful she trusted him.
Simon rose, eyes fixed on the front.
‘Somewhere in this stadium, Ever Kire is—’
[You won’t escape.]
Then.
[Blasphemers who defy the Goddess’ will.]
A woman’s voice echoed across the stadium.
Shhhhhh—
The water drained rapidly, Simon’s body lowering until he stood on the arena floor. The sky turned blood-red, clouds twisting into grotesque forms.
Thud!
Boom!
Every gate of the stadium slammed shut. The panicked audience hammered on the doors, shrieking in terror, but it was useless.
Simon stood grim-faced, eyes locked ahead.
Gurgle—
From the statue of Valkese in the center, where fresh water had once poured like a waterfall...
Blood tears began to gush from its eyes and mouth.
Rumble rumble rumble—
The crimson liquid drenched the statue like wine, pooling across the arena floor. Simon summoned Darkness, standing ready.
[So, there was an interloper.]
The voice reverberated.
[How did you know? Intriguing.]
Drip.
Drop.
The blood on the ground gathered into a living puddle.
And from within that puddle—
Gurgle gurgle gurgle—
Something rose.
“......!”
It was a crimson-painted cross.
The execution tool of the Holy Federation, used on heretical death row prisoners.
And on that cross, a woman was bound.
‘No way.’
She was hanging there of her own will, wrapping her body with horrific thorned vines.
[Aaah! Aaah!]
Naked, she writhed in pain as the thorns pierced her flesh. They dug so deep that bones and organs were exposed, blood gushing down in streams.
But before long, her wounds faintly closed and sealed. Yet the moment she moved again, the thorns cut into her, leaving new injuries.
[O Goddess!]
Though her wounds multiplied endlessly, she did not stop her self-inflicted torment.
Her eyes rolled back to show the whites, her tongue stiff and jutting toward the sky, and rivers of blood gushed from her body.
[O Goddess, please forgive the sins of this sinner!]
As if in ecstasy, her dazed eyes widened and she cried out with ragged breath.
[The sinner must be punished! The sinner must be punished! More! More pain!]
To the residents of the Dark Alliance—
Urk—
It was the most horrific sight of all.
“A-ahhh!”
A grotesquerie of the highest order.
Like a waking nightmare.
Some people gagged at the sight.
Even Simon struggled to remain sane. The spectacle felt like a direct assault upon the mind.
“Simon!”
Before he realized it, Lete had rushed to his side.
“Are you alright, sir?!”
“Yeah. But that...”
“Yes.”
Lete’s brows furrowed.
“That must be Ever Kire.”
A gaunt, hollow-cheeked face, ribs protruding—yet the black hair and chilling eyes he’d seen in photographs confirmed it was her.
Lete looked at the woman writhing on the cross with disgust.
“This is—! Even blasphemy has its limits!”
Simon nodded.
Her mental state was clearly nowhere near sane.
[It’s already far too late.]
Still writhing on the cross, Ever Kire’s hollow pupils turned toward Simon and Lete. Her lips stretched into an inhuman grin that split beyond the limits of flesh.
[The preparations are all complete.]
“Get out of here, student!”
At that moment, two security officers rushed into the arena and fired curses. But before their spells could even reach Ever Kire, something blocked them.
“......!”
“She’s bound, so how? What stopped it?”
Ever Kire let out a chilling laugh. Her long hair, like seaweed, swayed left and right, amplifying the terror.
[It’s time to rest now.]
Kiiiiiiiiiiiing!
Suddenly, countless formulas flared across the arena.
Simon sensed it at once. A vast-scale holy magic formula, using the entire stadium as its medium.
[Goodbye.]
Tick—
With the snap of something breaking, holy magic was unleashed.
The pupils of the security guards dimmed, and they collapsed as if hollowed out.
Even the students of Keyzen, rushing in to help, rolled their eyes white and crumpled face-first onto the floor.
Thud! Thud!
Spectators fleeing in the stands—
Crash!
Flop.
People pounding at the stadium doors, screaming to escape—
All of them lost consciousness.
[Excellent.]
Ever Kire laughed hideously, body shuddering. Each thorn that stabbed her brought more blood, yet she only grinned with grotesque satisfaction.
“......You.”
Her head, which had been bowed in so-called divine punishment and pain, lifted.
Simon, thought to be collapsed, was staggering to his feet.
“You alone I will never forgive.”
[Ohho.]
The fanatic nailed to the crimson cross tilted her head grotesquely.
[You’ve surprised me twice now. How are you still moving?]
“Looks like a formula that converts ambient mana into divine shock to knock out necromancers.”
Fwoosh!
Lete threw off her robe.
Now her entire body was clad in the pure white uniform of Efnelle.
“As if such a trick would work on him. Fanatic.”
[Saint of the Stars.]
The fanatic hanging on the cross cackled.
[Why does the Goddess’ closest daughter reject her will? All necromancers must be exterminated from this world. The ordinary folk who serve them as well. That is the Goddess’ divine will.]
Lete’s eyes hardened.
“Do not dare to define the will of Goddess however you please.”
[Huhuhu.]
Shaaaak!
The thorny vines binding Ever Kire to the cross unraveled. From a height equal to an eight-story building, she fell and slammed into the ground.
Something cracked and crunched.
But she rose again, her body twisting unnaturally.
[Efnelle is the one who twists the Goddess’ will.]
She spread her arms wide.
[I am the one truly chosen by the Goddess!]
Her body shone with pure white light, taking the form of vestments. Lete’s eyes widened in shock.
“How could you...!”
A mere fanatic—
Wearing the sacred garb permitted only to demi-goddess Saints.
[Shall I introduce someone?]
She grabbed her own abdomen with both hands and tore it open. A pitch-black space yawned inside, and from it a long hand reached out.
“That’s...!”
Simon, finally regaining clarity, opened his eyes wide.
As Ever Kire pulled the hand slightly out of her belly, faded golden hair tumbled forth. A face stitched at the eyes, covered in burn scars, emerged.
“The Saint of Harvest!”
Shock consumed Simon and Lete, while Ever Kire grinned, waving the limp hand toward them.
[Hellooo~ Hello~ It’s been so long. I am the Saint of Harvest...]
Claaaang!
On the right, Simon’s Bone Spear crashed. On the left, Lete’s La Escrime slammed against a divine barrier. Sparks flew in their eyes.
[Won’t even let me say hello, hmm.]
Ever Kire chuckled, then spread her arms.
[Then!]
Shhhhhaaaaaa!
Shhhhhhaaaaa!
Both Simon and Lete flinched as they looked down.
Wheat was sprouting at their feet. Not only the ground, but the walls and the spectator stands all bloomed with golden wheat.
[I, Ever Kire—the Goddess’ only servant, Her sole apostle, the Saint of Harvest!]
Her mouth split open monstrously.
[For you, I shall prepare the holy war!]
The festival of blasphemy and distortion had begun.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters
Very good story and translation but half the chapter aren't for free and it is wayyyy too expensive will it stat like tjis foreve or will it get free after some time