“I’m perfectly happy to continue this until you understand.”
Veil let out a grunt of pain as countless beams of light battered and pierced through her. More and more of the shadows fell away with each strike, and blood danced through the air. The saint was torturing her to death—there was no other word for it. The hall resounded with piercing cries, somewhere between agony and madness. Finally, the light gathered to form a giant figure, swatting the killer away to roll across the floor.
The saint was surrounded by innumerable motes of warm light. It was as though all the vast legions of the Gods stood at her side to guard her.
“Are you satisfied yet?” she asked disinterestedly.
The killer tried to get up, but her uncooperative body immediately crumpled back to the ground.
“You are not to blame,” the saint said. “I see your will and your wishes quite clearly. Your heart carries no wrong. But for now, please...”
Her outstretched fingertips beckoned the killer to submission.
“Please, take my hand.”
“Ngh... Ha... Ha ha—!”
Laughter came spilling out of the shadow’s mouth. She kept laughing, louder and louder.
“That’s what I’m talking about! Now you feel like a proper demon! Now I’m really pissed!”
The saint sighed. “So be it.”
She turned to me. “Sister Alicia. Could I ask you to dispose of this woman? As a bride of the Gods, please deliver their justice to this fool who defies the Holy Church.”
There was no threat in the saint’s voice. She continued speaking in the calm tones of someone making an ordinary request.
“Killing is your job, is it not?”
How dare you say that to me with his blood on your hands, Nevissa Vernalia!
“You’re right. It is. Killing is my job, not yours.”
My actual mission was to investigate or capture the assassin and to guard Her Sagacity. If Veil Croitzen was the culprit behind the serial killings within the Church, then the case was closed. The Holy Saint had defeated the villain by her own hand. All I needed to do now was drag the killer before the Inquisition and let her face the Gods’ judgment. My job would be done, and I could relax.
But...
“I am a bride of the Gods!”
I’d lived my life upholding the Gods’ teachings and obeying their laws. I’d stained my hands with blood time and time again in order to go on living. My path, my justice, lay in obeying the Church. That was how I had to live.
But—!
“I owe you no obedience!”
I enveloped the blood-covered assassin in the healing light of prayer.
The Deathwatcher wasn’t looking good. It was hard to tell with the shadows covering her, but it looked like she’d torn every muscle and broken every bone in her body. I had no idea how she was even still alive. We talked about people’s lives hanging by a thread, but hers was hanging by nothing but a shadow.
“You intend to let her go?” the saint asked.
“No, I simply won’t allow you to kill her,” I replied. “I still have plenty of questions for her!”
I genuinely did have a lot I needed to ask her about the demonic infiltration of the Church, as well as the real identities of the people she’d murdered. She was much too valuable to kill here and now.
“What becomes of this woman’s life is subject to my judgment as an inquisitor,” I continued. “Even if you were truly a saint, this is not for the Gods to decide!”
I’d staked my position. No matter what, I refuse to recognize your authority.
But amid the silence, the saint simply gazed back at me. She displayed no emotion, made no rebuttal.
“I see,” she said. “So you reject me as well...”
The bells chimed sadly, echoing through the dark of the night.
“We truly did lose someone quite precious to both of us, didn’t we?”
A growl of rage rose up from inside me. Operating on pure reflex, letting my anger carry me, I lunged at the saint. Out of force of habit, I activated my Physical Boost skill; my head was still clear enough to remember that, at least. But she effortlessly halted my reckless suicidal charge, summoning golden chains to wrap around my body.
The saint stood there in the dim light, unreachably distant, her gaze overflowing with sadness and pity.
“I wish he could have stayed with us as well...” With an air of heartfelt sincerity, she turned back to the coffin and softly laid a hand upon it. “But he refused to accept that.”
“How can you say that, after what you did to him?!”
That wasn’t the way a man like him should have died. Even as a Church enforcer, I could say with conviction that it wasn’t a death fit for any human being. But she’d...
“To the very last, I tried to prevail upon him to understand. But he rejected my wishes. He saw me as a hateful thing, and he sought to destroy me... Even at the cost of his own life.” The saint’s words were tinged with bitterness. “He willingly sacrificed himself for what he believed in. I couldn’t be so cruel as to erase that deed.”
I... I don’t understand. What the hell is she saying?
“He tried to fight her, right at the end. Blew himself up to try and take her with him.”
I turned to see Veil Croitzen spitting out an explanation with a hateful grimace as she got to her feet.
“He... He what?”
“Made me feel like shit just watching. Her Saintness over there didn’t take him seriously one bit, not from the start. But don’t let her fool you! No matter what bullshit she spouts, she’s still stealing all those brats’ pasts and treating them like pets!”
Still unsteady on her feet, she stepped over to me and gripped the golden chains binding me, tearing them to pieces as she vented her frustration.
“We can’t let her live...” she said. “These bastards shouldn’t exist! They’re monsters! We’ve gotta kill them before they get us! They’ve all gotta die!!!”