Chapter 120: Demon and Deity (Part 2)
“What are you saying…?”
Aresta didn’t quite understand the girl’s words; he hardly processed them at all. His mind was solely focused on survival as he gritted his teeth and slowly crawled away from the demon. The sharp pain in his legs was starting to fade, and soon enough, he hoped he could stand again.
Behind him, the demon continued her soft, unsettling monologue.
“Greed, desire… and the fear of the unknown. Wanting to grasp everything in your hands… Deep within the hearts of humans lies a multitude of complex and shameful emotions. Even I’m not exempt from this, so I can somewhat understand the things the Church has done… at least to some extent.”
Scrape, scrape.
Her black-armored feet made contact with the ground, creating a sound that rang slightly gratingly in the air, and the noise trailed just behind Aresta.
The next moment, agony shot through his right leg.
“Ahhhhhh—!!”
A hoarse scream escaped his lips as a harpoon-like claw shot out from the tips of the girl’s nails, piercing through his calf. The pitch-black horn extended nearly two meters, nailing the young bishop’s right leg to the ground!
His body tensed painfully, and amid the shock, he frantically turned back to shout, “No, wait! I have no vendetta against you… I didn’t do those things! I’m just a clergy member, a d*mn clergy member! Silvya, you can’t do this to me! You just can’t!”
Aresta was losing it.
“I don’t deny the magnificent achievements the Church has built over a thousand years.”
However, the demon-like girl ignored his loud protests completely. “The existence of divine rights may actually be quite necessary for this world. Not long ago, I finally unraveled some of the perplexities that had vexed me for a long time… what could be called the truth… at least part of it. I understood what a deity is and realized the fundamental reasons behind the appearance of the Gate of Truth… After that, I found myself somewhat lost.”
With a pop, she withdrew the sharp talon from Aresta’s leg, the pitch-black spear disappearing back to her fingertips. The man, gripped by pain, hugged his leg and let out another wail as bl**d gushed from the wound.
“…I may have considered vanishing into obscurity.”
The girl remained unfazed by his cries, her cold eyes watching him as if he were nothing more than a weed or a long-dead corpse on the roadside.
“Once I return to the Western Continent, back to Shanter Castle… or to that little village in Silgaya where no one cares, I could choose to be an insignificant heretic. Not worrying about anything, living just like that, with just enough food when I’m hungry… it actually sounds pretty nice.”
“I know, I know where the headquarters of the Choir of Saints is! I can find out Michel’s schedule for you…” Bishop Aresta cried desperately. Understanding there was no escape, he embarrassingly scooted backward while pleading, “I know so much… uh… just let me go, I’ll be useful to you… I swear… I’ll be useful…”
“But you would never let me do that, would you?”
The girl continued her monologue, her expression unchanged. “I understand perfectly well that you people would never allow me to live freely. As soon as anyone from the Church’s upper echelons learns I’m still alive, they’ll know that I, their experiment, haven’t died yet, so…”
“No! No one, no one will know you’re still alive, I swear no one will know! I swear to the deity!!”
Aresta raised one hand wildly, his cries filled with despair as he suddenly understood why the girl wouldn’t leave any survivors. She worried that if she returned, she would immediately report her whereabouts to the Church, leading the Pope to discover her secret.
But the man didn’t dare swear an oath to a deity as he was truly only focused on one thing.
He just wanted to survive.
Unfortunately…
The girl had long stopped believing anyone.
She didn’t even show a flicker of interest in responding to him, continuing to speak as if Aresta’s fate was already sealed.
“I can roughly guess what you all plan to do next… Sweet talks are definitely off the table. Like you and those Church knights I killed, your first reaction upon seeing me is not negotiation or discussion, it’s violence, suppression—an absolute struggle for survival where you leave no room for me to breathe until I am once again reduced to your puppet… sigh.”
The demon girl wore a somewhat disdainful smile. “You so-called… truth-knowing folks are well aware that I can no longer willingly cooperate with the Church, so next, you’ll resort to more extreme measures against me. Like powerful divine relics, or traps crafted just for me. In short, you’ll try every possible method to force me to submit again to the Church, and not make any mistakes this time—that’s the only way you’ll be satisfied.”
“No! I promise you—”
Aresta was about to say something when the girl interrupted him, her tone dispassionate. “You don’t need to promise me anything; your oaths are worthless to me. From now on, I only care about actions. And your recent actions have already confirmed the Church’s current mindset… The truth is, your thoughts about me have never changed.”
“I—”
“You never once considered sitting down face-to-face with me for a serious discussion, to explain the Church’s real situation, to tell me what you truly need from me, to respect my will and let me make my own choice… If that were the case, I might be willing to sacrifice something for this world, because for me, there are important people—whether close or far away—who are still alive and well in this world.”
“Silvya…”
“But you never did that. You never even thought about it. Because for your upper echelons of the Church and Angel, I possess the power of the Abyss—I’m an uncontrollable threat. And you must avoid all uncontrollable threats. Like I said before, everything must be completely under the Church’s control… Only then can you feel secure.”
“You would never allow an uncontrollable entity like me the freedom of choice, especially since the conflict has escalated to this degree. A serious sit-down is out of the question.”
“If I d*e, that’s one thing. But if that b*stard Angel discovers I’m still alive, he will use everything in his power. He will force me again to submit, capturing me with some dirty tricks, erasing my memory, making me once again a test subject of the Church, a well-behaved tool…”
“Even if you guys realize it’s hard to counter me head-on now and you can’t deal with me, you would turn around and go after my friends and loved ones—those important to me. You would absolutely do that. I know Angel too well, and he knows exactly what my Achilles’ heel is… How could I let that happen?”
The girl paused for a moment.
Whether it was just Aresta’s imagination, he thought he caught a glimpse of sorrow in her cold gaze.
“But it will definitely happen, as long as I’m still alive. Don’t you agree?”
“……”
The young bishop suddenly didn’t know how to plead anymore.
Warm tears streamed down his face. He slowly closed his eyes, bracing himself for the approaching d*ath.
