Chapter 126

“Try molding it properly. You saw how Digestion did it last time.”

『Fear not?』

“No, don’t give me two noses. I told you—two eyes, one mouth, and one nose!”

『Not!』

The same conversation.

The same situation.

However, the shape of the face I was trying to change was different this time.

After returning the horn to Velada and re-awakening her as the Special-Class monster Veladatrix, I was preparing to head toward Dongjak-gu, where the Yellow Tower stood. As the Apostle of the Outer God, I had to appear on the battlefield to put an end to this long fight.

The objective was to recover the Star Scars held by both Chairwoman Trishy and her true self, the “Hand,” which currently clutched the Outer God of Salvation.

The fact that I could bring all these rapidly shifting variables together was thanks to my meticulous planning—maintaining three separate identities despite countless hardships and annoyances.

It certainly wasn’t because I enjoyed playing dress-up with masks.

Anyway, the plan was to set aside Patel’s swirl mask and disguise myself as the final persona, the Apostle of the Outer God, but things weren’t going smoothly.

The problem arose from an unexpected place: Mala-nim. To her mind, the existence of individual humans was so faint that she simply could not remember the specific appearance of the “Publicly Known Apostle” that I had created with Seol Si-heon’s help back during the conquest of the Thirteen Palaces of the Void.

『Not, not…』

“No, the eyes need to be a bit smaller! Just wait a second. I’ll draw it for you.”

In a desperate attempt to help Mala-nim understand, I used the tablet function built into my smartwatch to show her what the Apostle looked like. However, as I’d mentioned back at Yoo Se-byeol’s mansion, I had never drawn a thing in my life. The example I provided only served to confuse her further.

『Fear not?』

“Ack! Why are you putting a tentacle where the eye socket should be?!”

『Not!』

By the time the area above my neck looked less like a face and more like the founding work of an avant-garde art movement blending still life with abstraction, I sensed a familiar mana nearby. I immediately shoved Mala-nim back into my sleeve.

Approaching me while expertly dodging the mines I’d buried near the station to prevent orphans from committing train robberies was the Nightmare Demon, Norkel.

“So this is where you were, sir.”

“Norkel?”

“You really should answer urgent messages. Since we Nightmare Demons are technically under Patel-nim’s command, we need permission before we can withdraw…”

She was looking down—half-checking for mines under her feet and half-checking her newly acquired smartwatch. When she looked up and saw my face, her thought process came to a dead halt.

My first thought was that I was screwed.

The “artwork” Mala-nim had been working on—which looked nothing like the Apostle—had been cleared away. Right now, I wasn’t wearing a mask at all; I was in my original form.

My bare, unmasked face—Hayan’s face—was completely exposed. To make matters worse, I was still holding Patel’s mask in my hand.

If Norkel had ever met the unmasked Patel before, or if she had seen me on the news acting as a member of the Special Unit, my secret would be out instantly. Judging by her reaction, which was the polar opposite of her usual apathy, one of those two possibilities seemed highly likely.

I was tense, ready to pull out the Tentacle of Suggestion at a moment’s notice.

But then, Norkel did something unexpected.

She raised her smartwatch to the level of my neck and pressed the shutter button.

Click!

As the sound faded, a heavy silence hung in the air.

“Whoa… Patel-nim.”

“Huh?”

“Whoa, wow, wow… Since you always wear a mask, I thought you were ugl—no, scratch that. I thought you were barely human, but you’re actually quite confident in your looks, aren’t you?”

What kind of utter nonsense was she spouting in the middle of such a critical situation? For a Nightmare Demon—a race supposedly renowned for beauty—she seemed to have no aesthetic sense whatsoever.

Norkel seemed genuinely startled, stumbling backward so much she nearly stepped on a mine. I grabbed her arm to steady her and spoke quietly.

“Could you… delete that?”

“A-absolutely not…! It would be such a waste to delete this…”

“I’m asking you. The burden of showing my face in public is too great.”

“Fine…”

When I requested it again, she surprisingly complied. She did stare at me intensely, as if trying to engrave my face into her memory since she couldn’t keep the photo, but it seemed the danger of being exposed had passed for now.

“You said you’re here for withdrawal orders? You may go. We’ve followed the Council’s demands sufficiently by this point.”

“Yes, y-yes.”

“Tell the witches to stop attacking the towers and return as well. Even though they are the Chairperson’s followers, it seems I hold the command for this battle for now.”

“I understand… sir.”

Sir? Her way of speaking had turned strange, too.

Anyway, while I hadn’t participated in direct combat, I had been too busy running around to properly lead the demons of the Seat of Flame. Better late than never, I informed Norkel and Rubietta that they could leave the battlefield with their respective forces.

Normally, given Norkel’s extreme hatred for overtime, she would have vanished the moment I finished speaking with a quick “I’m off, then~.”

But for some reason, she didn’t leave. She stayed right by my side.

“Is there something else you need to ask?”

“No…”

Then why aren’t you going? I can’t head over there if she’s here. I started walking along the tracks to put some distance between us, but she began to creep along behind me.

“Ex-excuse me…!”

“Hey, listen.”

“I-I’m sorry!”

“No, it’s fine. If you have something to say, just say it. What is it?”

When I asked, her pink pupils darted back and forth before she suddenly pointed toward the sky.

“The, the weather is quite nice, isn’t it…! Haha.”

Does that look nice to you?

In the sky, a battle was unfolding that could only be described as a clash of myths.

Trishy’s ‘Hand’ was gradually dragging the ‘Eye’ of the Outer God of Salvation down toward the earth. At the center of the eyeball, pierced by countless crosses, remained the wound inflicted by the Sword Immortal’s strike back in the Thirteen Palaces of the Void.

Monsters drenched in the blood falling to the ground began to transform into servants of the Outer God of Salvation, descending into a frenzied madness. Just as it had been in the Thirteen Palaces, Awakened of Middle Level or lower began to suffer symptoms of nausea, disorientation, and mental paralysis just by looking up at the sky.

Thrust into this hell, the Special Unit had only one goal:

To sever every single finger of the Chairperson’s hand.

This was the ‘Strategy’ to defeat the unknown Archduke, obtained by Commander-in-Chief Seona through an Oath with the Outer God of Revelation.

Four fingers—excluding the thumb—were gripping the Outer God. If those could be severed before the massive entities reached the ground, everyone would survive.

While other units fought on the ground, the members of Division 1 launched their assault.

Snap!!

The Word-Spirit of Noh Yeon-hwa, screaming at the top of her lungs while suspended in the air, echoed all the way to the station. With a sickening crack, the pinky finger was bent backward. Immediately after, Kang Nabi caught her as she fell toward the ground, coughing up blood.

Seizing the opening, Kang Cho-won leapt from a building, targeting the Archduke’s ring finger. As his spear, imbued with the power of lightning, tore through the tendons, dozens of lightning bolts struck from the darkened sky, charring the finger black.

Despite this, two fingers still clutched the Outer God.

As time ran out, Seona stepped forward. The moment she quietly uttered the name ‘Ucidium,’ Mala-nim wriggled inside my sleeve.

『Fear not!』

『Judgment?』

No sooner had Mala-nim spoken than the witch’s laughter echoing from the firmament turned into a scream. The middle finger, which had been gripping the Outer God most firmly, was forced upright by some mysterious gravitational pull. Veins and tendons burst as it resisted, but the finger was finally forced straight, and soon its very texture began to change—turning into the same yellow brick as the crumbling Yellow Tower.

—…Cough!

—Commander-in-Chief!

The Oath she had struck with the Outer God of Judgment. Though the price she paid remained unknown, Seona immediately lost consciousness and collapsed. Even after pouring in the entire strength of the Archduke Extermination Unit, the one remaining finger continued to drag the Outer God of Salvation downward.

As the Outer God reached the surface, the crosses embedded in its eyelids began to fall to the earth one by one. Realizing this was tantamount to the Archduke’s manifestation, I immediately prepared a Spatial Shift.

“It’s time for me to go. I’ll see you at the next Council.”

“W-where are you going? I’ll come with—”

“You should return to your comrades now. I don’t wish to see you get hurt.”

“…Yes.”

Using my wits to shake off Norkel, I moved to the peak of the Yellow Tower. The heat of the battlefield where the Outer God and the Archduke were entangled was so intense it felt like a meteor impact.

As expected, the Special Unit’s power is still insufficient.

“Mala-nim.”

『Fear not!』

I requested a Star Scar from Mala-nim to use the Abyssal Tentacle. Thanks to the efforts of the others, I only needed to force back that one final finger. I had to use another Star Scar since I’d returned the horn to Velada, but it would be a profitable trade if I could seize what the Chairperson and the Outer God of Salvation possessed.

Just as I received Mala-nim’s permission and prepared to summon a single-digit tentacle—

A familiar flame erupted from the ground a step ahead of me.

“Huh?”

『Fear?』

“No, I’m not afraid… it’s Flauros.”

Immediately after the Magic Tower was attacked.

She, who was said to have vanished from Ground Zero, appeared in the heart of the battlefield. Clad in her ever-beautiful incarnation of flames, Flauros tilted her head back and looked up. Her gaze wasn’t directed toward the Yellow Tower where I, the Apostle of the Outer God, stood—but toward the Outer God of Salvation.

—Truly, it is so. A substance that grants immense mana and power simply because one has made it their own, without conditions or precepts.

—I was skeptical, but seeing the foot that fell upon the chapel, it seems Velada’s words were true after all.

Through her words, I realized Flauros’s goal. She had seen the existence of the Star Scar with her own eyes and intended to take it.

—Yet, such immense power cannot come without a price. In this case, it is no different from harboring a poison that leads all living things toward death.

The Archduke and the Outer God. Everyone who knew their value was rushing in to claim the Star Scar, but there was one fatal toxicity. A being that would hunt the possessor to the ends of the earth and lead them to death, even across dimensions.

Because the Apostle of the Outer God existed.

—Had I known, perhaps I shouldn’t have handed it over even in the Sea of Decay. Well, no matter. What is his is mine, and he is mine as well.

However, the fact that having a Star Scar meant I would come looking for her was welcome news to Flauros. Gathering her strength to fight the Apostle of the Outer God once more was exactly what she wanted.

—You want help? I intended to give it regardless.

She began to concentrate all her flames into one hand. Though her full power hadn’t recovered yet and she couldn’t perfectly manifest her true body, this was enough.

As Flauros thrust her fist forward, a massive pillar of fire incinerated the Archduke’s final finger that was clutching the Outer God.