Chapter 173

“It was at that exact moment. My roommate suddenly claimed that the tentacle I had raised all this time was actually his younger sister! I was furious and dumbfounded, but the adoption papers clearly bore his thumbprint. In the end, I had no choice but to raise my hand against my companion, who was like a brother to me. Before the axe could sever my neck…”

“Ahem. Respectable Judge… no, Vice-Chairman. Time seems to be getting a bit tight.”

Patel’s final statement dragged on for a full thirty minutes.

The witch transcribing the minutes had to duck in and out of the Trade Association five times just to buy more parchment, and the interior of the assembly hall had quietly transformed into a sleeping quarters.

Karzos, who had been focusing intently in case there was any crucial information in his words, had also reached the absolute limit of his patience.

The demons, untroubled by time, naturally valued procedure and formality, but they could no longer endure his pathetic, drawn-out display.

“The fire is going to die out first at this rate. Let us proceed with the execution.”

“…Would that be alright, Chairwoman?”

“Yeah. I think we’ve listened enough, so you can send him off.”

“Wait a moment! I haven’t even opened the first page of my vast life story yet!”

“Shut your mouth, you lowly bastard!”

Karzos stepped closer to Patel, who was writhing while bound to the cross.

Then, placing a hand on his mask—which was heavily patched up with white tape—he spoke.

“I am going to see that shameless face right before you die with my own eyes. That way, even if you are resurrected, you won’t be able to hide away like a rat.”

“Aren’t you the one hiding away like a rat?”

The Black Shadow Society, which had suffered catastrophic damage at the hands of the Blade King and the White Lotus Union, was barely maintaining its existence near the Black Sea.

Even if Furcas were resurrected, reclaiming the continent would be no easy feat, so the Seat of Silence was staking the very survival of its faction on this Walpurgis Night.

“Your subordinates are the only pitiful ones here. Choosing a guy like you as a leader, only to get thoroughly thrashed in some random place. I forgot about it last time, but didn’t you get beaten up by the Apostle of the Outer God too?”

“Grrr, you bastard…!”

When the event that served as the opening signal for the Black Shadow Society’s downfall at the Thirteen Palaces of the Void was brought up, the skin on Karzos’s face twisted ruthlessly.

He tried to rip Patel’s mask off, but it wouldn’t detach easily, as if it had been stuck on with some kind of industrial adhesive.

Even while Karzos shook it with force, the man’s mouth refused to stay shut.

Unlike moments ago, Karzos grew flustered by an attitude that showed absolutely no fear of death.

“Have you ever thought about who will be left by your side in the end if you keep slipping away like that by sacrificing your comrades?”

“A guy who was begging for his life just a moment ago sure talks big! And that was a calamity! Put you in front of the Apostle of the Outer God, and you’re a bastard who wouldn’t even dare mutter the glib words you’re spouting right now…!”

“I can assure you that isn’t the case.”

“What?”

“Because even though the person you all clamor is on par with the Apostle of the Outer God is standing right next to me, I am not trembling in the slightest.”

Karzos’s head snapped to the side.

Where his gaze landed, the black mage Patel had brought along was bound.

Seeing a faint light diffusing from behind her back, he cried out with a pale face.

“Y-You crazy bastard, don’t tell me…!”

“See you next time, Karzos. Assuming both of us can make it out of here alive, that is.”

No sooner had those words left my mouth than a brilliant white flash swallowed the assembly hall.

The demons, who were not in a spiritual body state, shrieked the moment the light touched them and dove beneath the seats for cover.

Taking advantage of the opening, I shoved Karzos away and brought out my Tentacle of Transparency to undo my restraints.

Soon after, seeing her floating in the air with her wings unfurled, someone muttered.

“The Saint of…”

“Salvation…?”

And at that exact moment, the magic sword was held in her hand.

The instant the Outer God of Judgment hurled a phrase at everyone looking up at her.

『Face judgment?』

“Aaaah!! It’s the Saint of Salvation!!”

“Run! She has come to judge us!!!!”

The assembly hall degenerated into literal pandemonium.

“Somebody open the door!”

“Move! I’m first!!”

“Oh, almighty Hooves of the Statue, protect us…!”

“The Hooves of the Statue isn’t here! Didn’t you see earlier!?”

At the appearance of the Saint of Salvation, every single demon fell into a panic and attempted to flee.

However, because the fire of the fallen was still burning, there was absolutely no way for them, who were not spiritual bodies, to escape outside.

The mere three entrances located in the circular assembly room were far too small to let so many individuals out quickly.

The demons were utterly losing their minds.

Yet, that was not true for everyone.

There were those who did not recklessly step forward because they knew her grand reputation, but they did not show their backs either.

They were the high-ranking demons, including Kravec and the chairwoman.

Of course, Moon Ah-rin was strictly a Middle Level Awakened.

Her wings possessed the power to purify malice, but naturally, it wasn’t to the extent of erasing the individuals gathered here.

The visual impact was simply spectacular.

Even so, both Trishy and Kravec seemed flustered by the fact that she had entered so easily without even being detected by them.

“Are you the Saint of Salvation? To think you could overwhelm so many demons simply by revealing your true form.”

“Indeed, she is a woman who fully lives up to the title of humanity’s final bastion.”

“N-No. I’m just…”

“Furthermore, the sword held in her hand is an object possessing an immense power that rivals the legacy of an Archduke…”

“Have you come this time to completely annihilate our existence from this land!”

“I-It’s nothing like that. Because of that masked man over there, somehow things just…”

『Face judgment!!』

“Eek! The sword is moving on its own!!”

As the Outer God of Judgment went wild with excitement and shouted toward the void, even the two demons couldn’t easily approach.

The usual composure had vanished from the face of Trishy, the master of the witches and an Archduke presumed to rank at least within the top ten.

As the master of this Council, she could have sent everyone outside at any moment, but she chose not to.

The reason was to gauge the power Moon Ah-rin possessed… but the more she looked, the more impossible her identity seemed to pin down.

“You look relaxed despite holding an exceptionally dangerous item.”

“Is that not the very object the chairwoman wished to acquire last night?”

“Correct. But because the Outer God of Judgment controls the mind of the wielder, I targeted the Yellow Magic Tower. Besides… can you feel it, Kravec?”

“Yes. Even though she is right before my eyes, I cannot gauge her strength at all. All I can sense is a level of mana equivalent to a rank-2 monster. It is as if I am looking at a mirage.”

“That is precisely an existence with power comparable to the Apostle of the Outer God. If we hadn’t tied her to the cross, we would have been ambushed before we could even perceive it.”

The reason she wasn’t affected by the magic sword was simply because she was nice to a fault.

The reason they couldn’t gauge her realm was because her realm was far too low, but the two of them failed to notice that fact entirely.

While everyone’s attention was focused on Moon Ah-rin, another anomaly occurred.

A brief gust of wind blew, and Kravec’s posture tilted.

“Ugh, this is!?”

He looked down at his right hand in sheer disbelief.

The staff he had been leaning on just a moment ago had vanished in the blink of an eye.

The culprit was none other than Ha Yeri, who was sporting a shallow smirk right next to me.

Staring at the transparent witch’s orb held in her hand, she spoke to me.

“Well done, Hayan. You followed my instructions perfectly despite the desperate situation.”

“What exactly did you tell me to do?”

“Abandon your comrades. And didn’t I tell you to distract them because I could seize the orb using my ability?”

Her ability was Minor Justice.

It was a versatile power that could be utilized in various ways, such as lie detection and physical enhancement, but its core principle was “tilting the scales of justice by assessing the gap between oneself and the opponent.”

The ability, which allowed the side with a higher sense of justice to exert more power, strictly required a target.

Ha Yeri pointed at Kravec while steadying her trembling legs.

“That person has probably never felt a single shred of gratitude for the fact that his height is superior to others. That is why he set up the stairs and the height of the podium purely for his own convenience.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes! Without even realizing that for someone else, that is an insurmountable wall!!”

“…”

A lifelong complex about her height was more than enough to generate a speed that Kravec couldn’t possibly perceive.

Whether that desperation could truly be called a sense of justice was questionable, but since it might increase her disability rating, I refrained from pointing it out.

“At any rate, well done. It would have been even better if you had gone so far as to abandon us, but thanks to you, we’ve been freed. Now, if I just smash this…”

“Wait a moment.”

I stepped in to stop Ha Yeri, who was about to destroy the crystal ball.

Smashing this wouldn’t make the Council disappear anyway.

It would merely mean Walpurgis Night would end and no more Archdukes could be summoned, but it didn’t mean we could escape from here safely.

Of course, from Ha Yeri’s perspective, she was probably expecting Moon Ah-rin to finish off all the demons gathered here, but…

『Hayan? I did everything you told me to do, so what do I do now!?』

『Those people—no, those demons—are gradually building up their mana!』

『You have a plan, right? Right? You aren’t thinking of abandoning me and running away this time too, are you?』

『Say something! At this rate, I’m really going to, um, have an accident…!!!』

In a moment, it would be impossible for her—who was right on the verge of losing her human dignity amidst extreme tension and fear—to overcome this situation.

The standoff did not last long.

Pushing through the fleeing steps and the wary strides, someone stepped forward, and as expected, it was Flauros.

With fire gripped in her fist, she wore a belligerent smile.

“Move. Don’t just stand there staring blankly.”

“Your Grace the Archduke of Flames?”

“I anticipated you wouldn’t be caught quietly, but as expected, Patel, you keep me entertained to the very end. Thanks to you, my blood boils every single day since I crossed over to this place.”

Whether the opponent was the Apostle of the Outer God or the Saint of Salvation, she never backed down from a fight against a strong opponent, only burning hotter.

As she took a step forward, the flames blazed violently, and Moon Ah-rin’s shriek echoed through the Channel.

“Don’t let the fire die down, Chairwoman. It would be far too boring to end it here.”

She’s really going to turn into a roasted chicken at this rate.

I quickly snatched the crystal ball from Ha Yeri and adjusted the position of the mirror.

As I rapidly flipped through the terrains of the Demon Realm, the background unfolding in the sky shifted multiple times per second, bringing a wave of dizziness just from looking up.

However, Mala-nim was not here.

“This is a malignant power I intended to use on that bastard after fully absorbing the blood of an Outer God. Test whether you can deflect it with that sword.”

“Ah, aaaah…!”

I lifted the orb as high as possible.

With that, the view spun around to face the sky of the Demon Realm.

A reversed Outer God was embedded in a black universe that looked as though it were burning.

As I gradually shifted the focus toward that spot, the thing I wanted began to come into view.

Around the completely shattered fragments of the Outer Gods, there was a black hole absorbing the light they had scattered.

A massive tentacle was protruding from the hole, moving sluggishly.

I raised the output of the mirror to its absolute maximum, illuminating the inside of that hole in even greater detail.

“Found you.”

『…?!』

And finally, I discovered those nostalgic violet eyes.