I Became the Heavenly Demon of the Academy

Stella (4)

“The dogs of the Imperial Secret Service sniffed it. Archbishop Porchern has already died. The materials needed for the ceremony were also taken away.”

On top of the steel armor, a man wearing a gray hood that covered his eyes continued to report while prostrate.

“Imperial secret intelligence department. I’ve been hearing a lot about it lately. After all, they were only active within the Empire. I can’t even interfere with the Holy Kingdom.”

Cardinal Richelieu glared straight ahead with cold eyes. Even if the Archbishopric of Pochern was discovered, the materials were sufficient. The empire at war wouldn’t be able to hold the castle accountable for something like that, and the schedule of the ceremony was progressing one by one. Clearly there was no problem.

As it must have been, a mysterious feeling of uneasiness sprouted from within Cardinal Richelieu. I was reluctant to ignore it because it was a trivial feeling, so I finally decided.

“I will speed up the ceremony.”

Since the preparations had already been made, Cardinal Richelieu decided to speed up the ceremony.

* * *

Consciousness flickers.

While following Cardinal Richelieu, something unexpectedly struck his body.

– ‘If you sigh, everything will be over, Stella.’

He didn’t even hold a holy sword, his level was higher than Stella’s, and, crucially, he never expected that Cardinal Richelieu would do such a thing.

Unable to resist, Stella was subdued.

The sparsely connected memories were like the result of a dream.

Consciousness. ingredient. Consciousness. ingredient.

Words heard over and over again.

The nail driven into her chest brought Stella close to suspended animation, suppressing her holy power. Strangely, the nail was completely driven in, but there was no blood or wound. I didn’t even feel the pain. As if it were a spiritual thing.

The holy relic was obvious enough to give a compulsory effect to Stella, a warrior who was basically resistant.

What the hell are you trying to do? Stella pondered as she floated in the dark, faint consciousness. Was questioning itself a sin? So will you be punished?

thud.

The body was moving somewhere. In the sparse fragments of memory, I felt my body sink deeper and deeper into the abyss.

Cardinal Richelieu expected Stella to lose consciousness completely.

Stella’s strong body and will overcame the restrictions imposed by the relic and maintained her spirit, albeit shallowly.

And that was bad luck for Stella.

After passing through the darkness that lasted for a while, I could feel the blindingly bright light through my closed eyelids.

– ‘The altar is ready.’

With Stella’s body lying somewhere, an additional cross was raised above her chest.

At the same time, the pressure generated all over Stella’s body, and she was firmly fixed on the altar.

– ‘Prepare the ingredients. As soon as the preparations are complete, the ceremony will begin.’

Consciousness. ingredient.

Suddenly, fear crept in. I felt like I realized something I shouldn’t have realized. Struggled alone in frustration, but Stella couldn’t even move a single fingertip.

– ‘Your Highness Cardinal, is there any reason why you chose this place as a place for ceremonies? Of course, in this ominous… territory.’

As the ‘ingredients’ were being prepared, I heard Cardinal Richelieu and someone conversing.

– ‘It’s ominous… I guess you don’t know why the Edessa territory became like this.’

– ‘yes? Wasn’t it destroyed in an instant?’

– ‘right. In the past, the Holy Kingdom tried to descend an angel.’

– ‘no way….’

– ‘okay. I tried to make an angel descend by using the entire city population as material, but it failed miserably. It wasn’t an angel who descended. The monsters in the canal are traces of that. Except for a few safe routes, this place is hard to even enter because of the monsters.’

The city of Edessa, which was destroyed in an instant. I’ve never heard of Stella. All citizens of the city are ingredients. Ingredients Stella has been hearing all this time. When I realized it, the nail in my chest was clamping down on my breath.

– ‘There must have been a reason why it couldn’t be left in history…’

– ‘Thanks to that, the remnants of the Seongbeopjin that were spread all over the city were of great help to this ceremony. Those monsters will also be a natural barrier.’

I have to stop. Such a terrible thing should not be perpetrated. How can people who believe in God do this?

Tboob. Tboob.

Cardinal Richelieu approached the altar where Stella lay.

– ‘You grew up wonderfully, Stella.’

He spoke in a cunning voice like a snake, and stroked Stella’s forehead with a soft hand, as if loving.

Feeling like she was going to get sick, Stella wanted to grab the hand that was stroking her forehead and smash it to pieces.

As if being held tightly in a huge grip, the whole body was restrained, and not a single hair could move according to its will.

– ‘Your Highness, the ingredients are ready.’

– ‘Start the ritual.’

God, please. stop.

Repeatedly repeating in my heart, I prayed to the unanswered God.

But, as usual, God did not answer Stella’s prayers.

squeak. Took.

A creepy cutting sound. The dull sound of something falling to the ground. Light bloody smell.

Most of the five senses were blocked, but because of that, her hearing became more sensitive than before, so Stella naturally pictured the situation around her in her head.

The brilliant light that I felt even outside my eyelids became stronger every moment.

I could feel the immense holy power pushing through my body and changing the structure of my entire body.

The sound of the priests reciting spells hit the walls of the underground cavity and echoed in all directions.

As I forcibly extracted my holy power, I created a terrible chord mixed with the silent screams of countless people.

The ritual of merging a hero and a saint was never simple.

pain.

A terrible pain in which bones and muscles are separated and jumbled together.

A soreness like sprinkling salt on the skin layer by layer.

A chilling sensation as if the raw flesh were being sliced open and the blood vessels were ripped out one by one.

This was an unbearable pain even for Stella, who was accustomed to asceticism.

The physical pain was nothing to Stella.

I tried to force myself up, but it was impossible to open even one eyelid. The result of desperately giving strength.

The blood vessels in her eyes burst, and bloody tears ran down her eyes and dripped drop by drop onto the beautiful altar where Stella was lying.

stop. please. stop.

This was something that should never have been done.

I prayed, despaired, and screamed until my breath stopped.

As usual, God didn’t give Stella an answer.

* * *

“So, if I tell him, you’ll understand?”

Nod.

Noah nodded his little head cautiously.

One tiny sparrow.

It was an animal that was attached to me as a communication network.

“Can I get in touch with this?”

No matter how I looked at it, it just looked like a cute little bird.

Unable to lift his eyes of suspicion, Noah shook his head once.

The sparrow flapped its wings and assumed a posture that seemed to have something to say to anyone.

The appearance was ridiculous, but it was strange to understand what he was trying to say. In this world where proper communication has not developed, it was not bad to have this instant means of contact.

“Then, let’s split up and investigate, and if we find any traces, let’s get in touch.”

“All right.”

Nod.

The Bishopric of Edessa is now an unsightly territory full of ruins, but in the past, it is said that there was a huge city that would be regrettable if it was the second in the Holy Kingdom.

It’s not exactly recorded in the history books, but it’s because people almost left after the city was destroyed in an instant for some reason.

It is treated as an abandoned territory even in the Holy Land, which is only needlessly wide. It seemed suitable for doing something secret like that.

Starting from the outskirts of the territory, it circled all the way through the air. Beyond the area where people live, they entered a dreary city that was in ruins before they knew it.

There were only wild rats between the collapsed buildings, and no presence was felt.

After flying shallowly over the city and scanning it, no singularities were found on the ground.

If that’s the case, if something is going on in this city, it’s probably not on the ground.

widely.

Landing in the center of the city, I maximized my senses to detect the surroundings.

kung-

A faint vibration from the floor. If it wasn’t on the ground, it had to be underground. A city of this size was likely to have a large underground facility.

Follow the waterway to find the entrance to the underground facility. The entrance to a huge underground waterway that a few people can easily enter.

The unmanaged waterway was full of moss, and the infinite darkness that led inward was reminiscent of an abyss.

Since it was a stately state, there was no limit to the five senses in this level of darkness, but in harmony with the panoramic view of the ruined city, a terrible gloomy feeling was felt.

Tboob. Tboob.

I walked slowly through a space filled with dust and stale air mixed with the cold wind blowing from inside.

The solid sewer made of stone remained intact even after a long time, and the deeper you enter, the more complicated the inside is like a maze.

Kieh-!

A fishy, sour stench and screams.

And in these subterranean channels, of course, there were monsters.

Grotesque walking corpses covered in gooey slime, flesh mixed with something, began to poke their heads out of the water.

Pajijik-!

I didn’t even have to fight hard. When he swung the Black Lightning once, the lightning rushed along the surface of the water and burned the water demons at once.

The light of the black lightning flashing in the dark was quite spectacular.

When I expanded my senses, the number of monsters was far beyond the normal level.

It was as if the people who lived in this gigantic city would become that number if they were transformed into monsters.

Is the vibrating sound simply because of the monster?

Or is someone actually working on it?

It was still impossible to judge, so I quickly explored the inside while burning the passing monsters.

After going into a fairly deep place, at some point, I saw ancient characters that I had never seen before engraved on the stone of the outer wall of the gloomy sewer.

As we went inside, all sorts of pictures were added to the densely packed letters.

Kugu Palace-

At first it was just a weak vibration, but suddenly it became a huge roar.

At the same time, a huge energy was generated that seemed to cover the entire underground area, and it was sensed that it was flowing to one place.

Following the flowing energy, ancient letters written on the wall and paintings of angels also began to glow softly.

As I moved my steps without hesitation along the path where energy poured out like a flood, the road gradually widened.

At the end of the passage we finally reached, we saw light leaking out.

It was the correct answer.

“Noah, I found a place that is believed to be the location of the ritual. I’ll jump in first in a minute.”

The sparrow, which had been hiding in my arms for a while, poked out its head, probably because the atmosphere inside was frightened by the eerie underground water.

It fluttered its wings like a salute and left.

After passing through the passage, there was a wide hemispherical space spreading out below.

In addition, there were not one or two entrance roads, but one wall was filled with entrances similar to the one I came out of.

It is so huge that it is hard to believe that it is underground.

Looking at the stone on the wall covered with old moss, it didn’t seem like a place made just for this job. It seems to be an ancient ruin.

In the wide hemispherical space below, dozens of knights in armor and gray hoods covering their eyes were staring at the doorway without moving.

Although the average level was considerably higher than that of ordinary knights.

thud!

There was no meaning.

Landing, knocking down everyone at once, and even dealing with those guarding the aisle one by one.

I faced a magnificent underground space like a cathedral.

The ceiling was illuminated with colorful pictures of angels, mysterious patterns, and ancient words written in harmony.

The walls were also full of stuff like that.

Under the sight that seems sacred and holy at first glance.

In the center was an altar with Stella lying on it.

Around the altar, the ‘materials’ and those who conduct the ceremony are in harmony.

It created a landscape that resembled a road to hell.