Chapter 21. Hagenti (6)
At that moment, a wave of white light powerful enough to overturn the world swallowed the refining room.
None of them were even able to react.
The light had arrived without a sound, and just as silently, it vanished.
Then—
A pillar of White Flame rose high enough to seem as though it would pierce the sky.
“W-what was that just now?”
Startled by the sudden phenomenon, Sia asked Valefor.
“Mikael did it. Squeak.”
Judging by the pillar of White Flame, Valefor was certain it was Mikael’s doing.
Even knowing that, however, Valefor still looked uneasy.
Was Hagenti purified? No. I can’t be sure yet. Squeak.
If Mikael’s technique had actually purified Hagenti, the believers should have shown some kind of reaction.
Ever since their god had descended, they should have been able to faintly sense his presence.
“Squeak… Still, nothing changes! Squeak!”
The more Valefor spoke, the more it felt like aura was tearing through his insides.
He was barely holding himself together.
“Are you really okay?”
Sia herself was so low on aura that her vision must have been going hollow, yet she was still worrying about someone else.
“Of course I am, squeak! Worry about yourself! Squeak!”
To keep Sia from discovering that he was a demon, Valefor tried his best to act as though nothing was wrong.
Chomp!
Valefor bit down on the arm of a believer who had forced his way through the barrier.
“You damn rat!”
Thinking Valefor was just some fearless rodent, the believer wildly swung his arm, trying to shake him off.
Then—
“Huh?”
Valefor’s fur suddenly stood on end.
He felt the same reaction from the believer whose arm he was biting.
Goosebumps.
The believers froze.
Then they turned their heads behind them.
Their gazes all gathered toward the place where Mikael and Hagenti had been fighting.
“F-F-Father!! My connection to Father is gone!!”
“NOOOOOOO!”
The believers who had been forcing their way toward the barrier suddenly began screaming.
“No! No!”
“Uwaaaaah!”
Some denied reality.
Others burst into tears.
It was the reaction Valefor had been waiting for.
Their despair could only mean one thing.
Valefor released the believer and jumped down before rushing over to Sia.
“Looks like Mikael did it. Squeak.”
“Hagenti was purified, right?”
“Squeak… I don’t know. But I can tell he’s no longer able to connect to these guys. Squeak!”
There was still demonic energy lingering from the plaza, so it was too early to say Hagenti had truly been purified.
Still, Valefor could tell that Mikael had landed a devastating attack.
Now they only needed to deal with the believers.
Like lambs who had lost their god and fallen into corruption, the believers mistakenly believed they had lost their Father.
And now they found themselves a new purpose.
“Revenge! Let’s take revenge!”
Someone among the believers stirred them up.
“Let’s at least kill these intruders and honor Father’s spirit!”
“Who knows? Maybe if the god is moved by our devotion, he’ll return to us!”
“That’s right! Let’s do it!”
More and more believers began agreeing with the instigator.
Their depressed atmosphere quickly turned hostile.
Of course, Hagenti hadn’t actually been purified.
But the believers, blinded by rage, didn’t know that.
Just as they were about to launch another attack—
BOOOOM!
A heavy impact rang out from the back of their formation, followed by a rough voice.
“—Judge every last one of these heretics!”
“T-this voice…?”
Around the time Sia and Valefor obtained the seedling—
RUMBLE!
Hagenti trembled with rage.
“That bastard Valefor! He dares go after the seedling?!”
Mikael had no idea what the seedling was, but he could tell that Sia and Valefor had managed to screw Hagenti over somehow.
Thanks to them, Hagenti’s attention had been divided.
What the hell did they do, anyway?
Mikael could feel an enormous amount of aura slowly pouring out from the monastery.
If an object was releasing that much power, there was no way Hagenti could ignore it.
Suddenly, Taedeung’s mention of a tree and Hagenti’s mention of a seedling overlapped in Mikael’s mind.
Was that what they used to create the barrier?
Whether it was some device that converted aura into demonic energy, or perhaps the reverse, didn’t matter.
What matters is that bastard is pissed.
Apparently no believer had contacted him yet, because Hagenti’s mood gradually settled.
Mikael couldn’t have been happier about it.
He desperately wanted to mock him and rub salt into the wound, but—
“Cough, cough.”
His body wouldn’t allow it.
His insides twisted, and blood flowed back up every time he coughed.
Mikael could feel the aura and the Egg of Blessing violently struggling against each other inside his chest.
“Haaah. I wanted to experiment more thoroughly, but I suppose it can’t be helped.”
Apparently the seedling was more important to Hagenti than Mikael.
Ignoring him, Hagenti turned toward the monastery.
An unexpected opportunity had appeared.
Mikael couldn’t let it slip away.
The remaining aura is the power currently fighting against the egg…
If he squeezed out all of that power, he would be able to use one technique.
Just once.
But he had no idea what would happen afterward.
The worst-case scenario was that the demon hatching inside his body would seize control of him completely.
And even then, Mikael had no guarantee that this technique could defeat Hagenti.
I can’t even use it openly.
If Hagenti saw it coming, there was no doubt he would block it.
Then Mikael simply had to make it as small as possible.
Just like how he had planted a White Flame bomb inside his own arm before.
The moment I use it, I’ll probably pass out at the very least.
Even so, if he did nothing, everything would proceed exactly as Hagenti wanted.
Mikael raised an arm and aimed it at Hagenti’s back.
Then, little by little, he compressed the aura that had been suppressing the Egg of Blessing into the tip of his finger.
“Idiot… Cough. Ptooey. Serves you right.”
After spitting out blood, Mikael grinned like a mischievous child.
Snap.
Shhk!
“Ghk!”
Without even turning around, Hagenti snapped his fingers.
A spike burst out of the ground, pierced straight through Mikael’s stomach, and sank back beneath the earth.
“You’re practically dead already. You should just stay still…”
Ever since realizing Valefor was after the seedling, Hagenti had become far more irritable.
Having pushed Mikael aside for the moment, he was transforming his body into that of a four-legged beast so he could reach the seedling faster.
Because of that, he failed to notice what Mikael was really doing.
Fine. I’ll stay still after this one.
When a small amount of aura gathered at the tip of Mikael’s finger—
Fwoosh.
A tiny White Flame, no larger than a candle flame, appeared.
It drifted freely like a will-o’-the-wisp before attaching itself to Hagenti.
It looked small and pathetic.
But compressed within that flame was the strongest technique Mikael could currently use.
“So get lost already. Harmonía [Harmonia].”
The flame reached its destination.
There was no sound.
No destruction.
Not until Hagenti, irritated, began gathering demonic energy.
