The game difficulty has gone insane.
“Why did things end up like this?!”
MacKill, the Black Cult’s diocesan head, couldn’t hide his panic at the unexpected situation.
The mission he had received was simple.
Kill the Saint of the Mineth Church.
For that purpose, the cult headquarters had supplied materials to summon a messenger of the god, along with hundreds of explosives.
—Sister, they told you to use that. You know how to use it, right? I don’t even need to explain.
The Prophet merely entrusted the delivered items to him and silently observed how they would be used.
—Please entrust it to me, O Prophet who walks the great pilgrimage. I will bring the judgment of the god Kalungod upon those foolish hypocrites and the woman they worship!
MacKill did everything he could.
He dug tunnels beneath the underground cavern where the Saint would hold a secret meeting, and together with the believers he led, he performed a great ritual there for half a day.
In case the ritual was interrupted midway or the messengers of Kalungod failed, he even prepared explosives.
‘This is a situation that cannot fail!’
Things proceeded according to plan.
Thanks to sacrificing dozens of pure, clean living offerings, the ritual to summon the god’s messenger succeeded smoothly.
The Saint who was expected to come arrived at the planned time without any issues, and even the enlightened ones who agreed to help the great god’s plan were seated in place.
However, the moment the plan began, everything went wrong in an instant.
The attempt by the enlightened ones to kill the Saint failed meaninglessly because of a gray-haired boy.
Up to that point, it was fine.
Because the messengers of Kalungod they had prepared for half a day had successfully descended.
But—
—Prophet!
—An unidentified skeleton monster is approaching this place and slaughtering all the brothers and sisters it sees!
A monster had secretly dug a tunnel from outside the village and suddenly entered, carrying out a massacre.
—Prophet, what… should we do?
—What else? Whether human or monster, anyone who interferes with the god’s plan deserves death. Hehehe… I was bored anyway. This works out well!
With those words, the Prophet lifted the axe strapped to his back and left to deal with the monster.
—Diocesan Head, the Prophet has left his seat. But just in case…
—Brother, the god’s messengers have descended here. What is there to doubt?
Up until then, he still thought everything was fine.
The Prophet and they themselves were merely insurance to handle the worst-case scenario.
From the moment two messengers of the god descended, the chance of the Mineth Church’s hypocrites returning alive was extremely low.
But that was a miscalculation.
Crack—
KWAaaaang—!
The judgment that should have ended long ago continued for over ten minutes, and then suddenly the ceiling of the tunnel collapsed, and the god’s messengers fell down from above.
It was impossible.
It was hard to believe that the transcendent beings sent by the god Kalungod could be knocked down by a mere group of human hypocrites.
—Welcome.
But the appearance of that same gray-haired boy foretold an even greater shock.
The boy looked down at the fallen god’s messengers with a sly smile.
A smile as if he were the one who had created all of these unbelievable circumstances.
A chilling fear ran through MacKill at that arrogant smile, as if the boy were saying that he stood above even the will of the great god Kalungod.
—From now on, I’m sending you two back to hell with this.
In the boy’s hand was an object identical to the explosives they had prepared.
With a smile that mocked not only the god’s messengers, but even the god who sent them down, the boy dropped the explosive below.
The falling explosive pulsed like a heart before detonating.
KWAaang—
Kwagagagagang—!
The explosives they had prepared there triggered a chain explosion.
The resulting blast swallowed the god’s messengers, MacKill, and all the believers who followed him.
MacKill’s vision turned white.
Using a rare-grade explosive, Dark Matter, is very simple.
While touching the Dark Matter, you just inject power into it—whether holy power or demonic power.
Dark Matter is pure darkness that belongs to none of the powers in this world.
That is why it ignores all forms of defense that exist in the world and creates such a beautiful explosion.
‘The visuals are insane.’
The explosion continued upward, from below all the way to the ceiling of the cavern where the secret meeting had been held.
Was this what it felt like to see a supernova explode from as close as possible?
Watching that artistic explosion, which seemed to announce both the end of the event and the Lunatic trial, Glen stood together with the Saint’s group, who had taken refuge near the cavern entrance.
“…What kind of situation is this?”
“That explosion just now…”
“Saint, are you all right?”
The Saint’s group showed various reactions as they struggled to calm their confusion.
Fortunately, there were no casualties.
The spies, Ducan and Clodia, had been caught in the explosion, so survival would be unlikely.
“D-do you think they’re dead? Those monsters?”
“Sir Glen would know, wouldn’t he?”
At the words of a noble young lady, all eyes turned to Glen.
“They’re dead.”
Dark Matter is an explosive powerful enough to turn an ordinary 5-star knight into a rag with just one hit.
And the number of Dark Matter explosives that detonated just now reached into the hundreds.
Even a rough calculation in his head produced an enormous damage value, and since that damage ignored defense, even demons close to 9-star wouldn’t be able to survive.
‘But…’
A strange light passed through Glen’s eyes.
His expression, as if he had finally relaxed, quickly stiffened.
‘There’s no system message…?!’
The two demons should have been annihilated by that explosion, and the Lunatic trial should have been cleared.
“Ha… fuck… I’ll correct that. Everyone… don’t relax.”
A killing intent flickered in his gray eyes.
There was only one thing implied by the absence of a clear message.
It wasn’t over.
Sure enough—
Ego Imperditus.
Just as the explosion was about to subside,
a demon’s incomprehensible voice echoed in his head.
And from the center of the explosion, Lathero raised its body.
Osidere. Par sadun!
Though its voice sounded somewhat exhausted, the fact that it was still alive threw the Saint’s group into panic.
“Gah… is it really a demon!”
“Everyone, get behind me!”
“Don’t panic! Prepare for battle!”
“Prepare for battle!”
Suppressing the chaos, the knights raised their swords and the priests gathered their holy power.
They responded quickly and in good order, but Glen’s expression only grew more serious.
‘This is fucked…’
Dark Matter had been the best move Glen could make in this situation.
That was why he had poured everything he had into it.
“Sir Glen! I know this is difficult, but could you please take the front line once more?”
“No… I don’t think I can.”
“…What? What do you mean…?”
Bishop Roderick’s pupils shook.
He had noticed that the pressure surrounding Glen had clearly diminished compared to before.
