Chapter 1

Chapter 001. Prologue

[The characters, organizations, locations, events, history, and other elements appearing in this work are fictional. They have no relation to reality.]

33 AD.

Humanity faced the threat of extinction at the hands of demons, but was saved by the cross of Jesus.

330 AD.

Ignorant humanity placed its faith in a new savior and once again faced the end of the world, but was saved through the sacrifice of Saint Helena.

621 AD.

Having gained enlightenment, humanity took up weapons and fought against the demons.

Humanity despaired before the overwhelming power of the demons and once again stood on the brink of destruction, but was saved by a single woman.

845 AD.

Humanity discovered ways to fight against demons and confronted them with priests and knightly orders.

However, internal conflict among humans pushed the world toward destruction once again.

And once again, humanity was saved by a single woman.

……

1770 AD.

Humanity once again stood on the brink of extinction.

Perhaps it was because they had been saved by others too many times.

As time passed, humanity grew lazy.

They gave up trying to overcome their hardships with their own strength.

Soldiers who should have taken up weapons against demons were dragged into civil wars.

Priests who should have exorcised demons spilled their blood in religious conflicts.

Knights who were supposed to protect the people had become little more than decorations standing behind nobles.

Even so, there were still those who held onto their convictions.

They had not given up.

Because they believed in the one who led them from the very front….

Lourdes.

A small village nestled in the Pyrenees Mountains of southwestern France.

It was already past noon, yet instead of shining brightly, the sky had turned crimson in broad daylight, as if announcing the end of the world.

At the center of the village, a man who appeared to be the commander of a knightly order stood with the Gave de Pau River behind him.

He commanded fewer than five hundred knights and priests in total.

“Do not let them cross the river!”

They fought desperately against the demons.

Even in the face of hundreds, thousands—perhaps even millions—of demons, they refused to retreat.

Their pride would not allow them to surrender even a single step.

They would never allow the demons to cross the river.

The sounds of swords and gunfire covered the battlefield, while the prayers of priests echoed through the chaos.

Slash!

Bang! Bang!

Holy power surged through the swords and guns of the knights clad in silver armor.

Their sword strikes tore demons apart.

Their bullets punched holes through demonic chests.

“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

The priests made the sign of the cross and recited their prayers.

Flames erupted across the battlefield.

Demons screamed as they burned away and were purified.

More demons appeared behind them.

And yet, the morale of the humans showed no sign of breaking.

Fwoooosh!

Just as the battlefront began to collapse, someone charged forward.

White flames erupted like a storm among the demons.

“Kyaaaaagh!”

“Keeeek!”

An empty space appeared where the demons had vanished.

At its center stood a man dressed like a priest, holding a sword wrapped in blazing white fire.

The sight of him slaughtering demons alone at the very front was overwhelming.

Even so, the relentless demons continued throwing themselves at him.

Some managed to wound him before collapsing.

Sizzle….

But their desperate efforts were meaningless.

The man casually brushed at the wounds the demons had inflicted.

White flames rose from his body.

In an instant, even the traces of those wounds disappeared.

The white fire surrounding him was clearly far more than ordinary power.

As if to prove that fact, the people called out to him.

“Oh! Apostle of God!”

The Apostle of God.

The enemy of demons.

Mikael.

Every time Mikael swung his flames, dozens of demons were purified.

When a demonic beast charged toward him, he smashed it into the ground with a single fist wrapped in white fire.

When enormous demons appeared—creatures that ordinary knights could never hope to defeat—he burned them away with a single burst of flame.

And that was not all.

“I-I can't believe it! My injured arm is healing!”

“The bleeding… the bleeding stopped!”

For allies wounded during battle, Mikael's flames became a powerful medicine.

His army refused to fall.

They refused to weaken.

It was an army that could practically be called invincible.

But even with all of that—

There were simply too many enemies.

And they were far too cunning.

BOOOOM!

An explosion suddenly erupted from the monastery behind the humans.

Startled, everyone turned around.

A storm of ash scattered through the air.

As the ash slowly drifted downward, the demons appeared even more vicious beneath it.

Their faces were filled with joy.

As though they had been waiting for this exact moment.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Aaaagh!”

A sudden barrage of gunfire came from behind.

Caught completely off guard, the humans could barely resist.

One after another, they collapsed.

“Mikael! We're being ambushed—!”

As everyone fell into confusion, the knight commander immediately searched for Mikael, their leader.

But—

“Wait.”

Mikael was already standing in front of him with his sword raised.

Fwoosh.

White flames rose from the handle gripped in both his hands.

They quickly swallowed the entire blade.

“I'm leaving this place to you.”

Mikael handed the white-hot sword to the knight commander.

Then he rushed toward the monastery.

White flames far stronger than before erupted from his entire body.

Any demon that tried to block his path immediately burst into flames and was purified the moment it touched him.

The knight commander watched him leave.

Then, quietly, he whispered to himself.

“Go. We are knights who exist for you. Wherever you go is where we shall follow.”

He raised the white-burning sword high into the air.

His eyes shone more brightly than they ever had in his entire life.

“All units! This is a holy war!”

“Stop the filth trying to hold back the Apostle!”

“Die with smiles on your faces!”

“Kill even one more of them, and let us enjoy a feast together in Heaven!”

Having made his decision, the knight commander gripped Mikael's sword with both hands and charged into the front line Mikael had abandoned.

The battlefront was already collapsing.

Death stood right before every single one of them.

Even so, everyone roared in response to their commander's words and charged forward.

Mikael passed them by.

He bit his lip hard.

“Commander… I'm sorr—cough!”

Perhaps he had pushed himself too hard in his urgency.

Blood spilled from the corner of Mikael's mouth.

He wiped it away with one hand.

Then he launched himself forward and smashed through the collapsing entrance of the monastery.

BOOOOM!

Mikael pushed aside the rubble and quickly looked around, searching for someone.

Then his gaze suddenly froze.

His pupils widened.

Stab.

Right before his eyes, a sword had pierced deeply into the chest of a woman wearing a nun's habit.

Her entire body trembled from the pain.

Yet her hands remained clasped in prayer.

Blood flowed from her chest.

Blood spilled from her mouth.

But she refused to break her posture.

“Stop wasting time! Hurry up and die so you can become the sacrifice!”

The attacker pulled his sword out.

He adjusted his stance, preparing to cut off the woman's head.

“Helena!”

Mikael moved faster than the attacker's sword.

He closed the distance in an instant, knocked the blade aside, and engulfed the attacker in white flames.

The same flames that had swept away thousands of demons covered the man's entire body.

But—

“They were right! The white flames really can't kill me!”

For some reason, the attacker stepped safely out of the fire.

“With this, I'll finally be able to become one of their servants—”

He never finished his sentence.

As though divine punishment had descended upon him, a massive pile of stone fell from the ceiling and crushed him perfectly.

A thin stream of blood flowed out from beneath the rubble.

These bastards again.

Mikael was certain.

Demons fed upon human desire.

And humans consumed by their desires became worshippers who willingly followed demons.

The world had already begun moving exactly as those creatures wanted.

“Cough!”

Helena's body tilted to the side.

It seemed she could no longer endure.

Mikael hurriedly caught her.

He poured healing energy into her body.

But instead of healing her, the energy simply scattered uselessly into the air.

“No! You can't! It isn't over yet!”

Helena had given up this life as well.

Ever since her first sacrifice in 330 AD, Helena had repeatedly reincarnated.

Whenever the world faced destruction, she sacrificed herself.

Then she was born again.

Again and again.

She endured pain so many times that even counting them had become meaningless.

And every time, she saved the world.

That was the life of Helena.

A saint.

A woman born beneath a cursed fate.

“I'm sorry, Mikael.”

Helena gave him a pale smile from within his arms.

Her expression showed that she had already accepted everything.

Mikael knew exactly what that apology meant.

“Why are you the one being sacrificed again?!”

He knew there was no other way.

He knew the situation could not be solved without Helena's sacrifice.

Even so, he had tried desperately to prevent it.

Mikael had taken up the sword because he believed that if he could stop the world's destruction, Helena's suffering would finally end.

But even that had not been enough.

To hunt the demons, he had even driven three crosses into his own back.

“This happened because I failed!”

“If someone deserves punishment, it should be me! Why do you have to suffer instead?!”

Helena's body slowly began crumbling like grains of sand.

Mikael cried as he watched.

The ashes left behind by the flames mixed with the sand that had once been Helena, scattering through the air.

“Then just let this damned world end!”

“There is no reason to save ignorant humans who are fooled by a few pretty words!”

He was tired of experiencing this despair.

He did not want to lose Helena again because of his own failure.

Mikael finally released all the resentment he had kept buried inside himself.

“No, Mikael. This isn't your fault.”

“And it isn't their fault either.”

By now, Helena's left arm had already disappeared.

With her remaining hand, she gently wiped away Mikael's tears.

“So please… don't hate people too much.”

Her palm slowly faded.

Then it disappeared.

Mikael said nothing.

It was like reading a book that returned to the first page no matter how many pages he turned.

Only one sentence continued repeating inside his mind.

Once again, the world was saved through the sacrifice of a single woman.

I was ignorant.

He had thought he had handled this life quite skillfully.

To avoid attracting the attention of demons, he had lived publicly as a member of the lower class.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, he slowly raised an elite army.

He had also carefully watched those in power, always wary that one of them might be tempted by the whispers of demons.

And even that wasn't enough.

No matter how cautious he was, it was simply too easy for demons to secretly create worshippers among humans.

Humans could not escape desire.

And wherever desire existed, demons would exist as well.

It was as if humanity had already been trapped inside a carefully woven net.

“I'm done with this shit.”

He had spilled far too much blood to reach this place.

He could no longer sense any surviving humans nearby.

The screams of demons were gone.

The shouts of battle were gone as well.

Helena had sacrificed herself.

Humanity's sins had been forgiven.

Though they'll probably start piling them up again from today.

Humans were weak.

They were beings who could easily lose their true selves over the smallest desires.

Right now, Mikael needed someone to blame.

But who?

Weak humans?

The demons who preyed upon them?

It all felt meaningless.

If anything, there was someone else he hated far more.

“Fuck. I know you're listening.”

Mikael stared at the empty ceiling.

“God, Jesus, Virgin Mary, Father, Son, Holy Spirit—whatever the hell you want to call yourselves.”

“Enough already.”

God.

The existence that had forced him to live a life filled with curses and trials for hundreds—thousands—of years.

Mikael shouted toward the empty ceiling.

“I said I'm done with this shit!”

“Just let it end!”

“The world? Destroy it if you want!”

“So please… stop making Helena suffer….”

Pieces of rubble fell from the ceiling.

A rock struck Mikael on the head.

It took less than five seconds for the torn flesh to completely heal.

But during those five seconds, Mikael's mind went blank.

Light descended from the heavens.

Warm.

Intense.

The light wrapped around his body.

― …המשאלה שלך תתגשם.

It was a language he could not understand.

And yet, somehow, Mikael understood its meaning.

Your wish shall be granted.

“You're doing whatever you want again.”

“In the end, you're telling me to start over, aren't you?”

Mikael was furious that he would once again have to move according to God's will.

Yet at the same time, he understood.

There was no way the being above could fail to hear him.

Even so, Mikael muttered quietly.

“You fucking bastard of a god.”

Thud.

He collapsed to the floor.

His face was covered in dust.

The wounds inside his body had somehow already healed.

But there was nothing he could do about the exhaustion in his mind.

He simply wanted to lie there and slowly die.

He had lived for far too long.

Wouldn't it be fine if I died now?

That thought crossed his mind.

But there was still one enormous unresolved problem.

I just want to let everything go and sleep forever.

When he opened his eyes again, he would have to start from the beginning.

He would have to adjust his methods to the development of the new era.

He would have to raise another army.

Still—

Starting tomorrow, maybe I should stop worrying so much about what other people think.

Instead of carefully solving one problem after another, perhaps it would be better to simply go wild and force his way forward.

To be honest, there was no reason for him to care about human society anymore.

“I'll just sleep like this for a little while.”

Dust mixed with the warm wind, making his nose sting.

But—

It wasn't a bad place to fall asleep.