༺ Infiltration (3) ༻
The castle was quiet, as if it hadn’t noticed the commotion outside.
Or perhaps it had noticed but chose to ignore it.
The interior of the castle presented a scene that could only give rise to such thoughts.
[Ah… The end of false freedom!]
The chant Vera had already heard from the outside was being shouted by robed figures.
In front of them, naked human bodies were strewn about like lumps of meat.
‘Human sacrifice…’
It was indeed a human sacrifice, one that used living humans.
‘Did they paralyze them? Or did they use anesthesia?’
They were limp and sprawled out, but a closer look revealed their pupils still reacting.
Some were looking around, and others had tears streaming down their faces.
Vera instantly realized what they were trying to do.
‘Fire.’
Behind the one performing the ritual was another man holding a large torch.
On the humans’ necks were prominently engraved inverted crosses.
It was a burning ceremony.
Vera pondered.
‘…Should I step in?’
Should I intervene here?
Is it right to ignore this horrific scene and head deeper into the castle?
His hesitation had one reason.
He knew that the souls forming this castle were the very spirits of the victims strewn about.
And as much as he knew that this was not entirely an illusion, he knew that they were about to be sacrificed.
His hesitation didn’t last long.
Annoyed, Vera drew his Holy Sword once again.
Then, he enveloped himself with divinity and charged forward.
Swish—
There was a sharp, slicing sound.
They didn’t have the time to react.
Vera’s sword was faster than the perception of the dozens of robed figures.
Pwaaaah—!
The figures burst into chunks of flesh, and blood splattered in all directions.
It began to fall upon Vera and the human’s bodies.
Ignoring the thudding sounds, Vera shook off the blood on his Holy Sword and approached the naked humans.
At a glance, they looked like corpses strewn about the altar. But up close, signs of life were still apparent.
It was all too vivid.
Their shaking locked onto Vera.
Their gazes were filled with desperation, as if they had found salvation.
Vera invoked his divinity, covering their bodies and casting detoxification spells one by one.
The change occurred around the time he finished the fifth spell.
“Uh…”
A groan escaped from the lips of a young man who had been at the bottom.
That was the start.
One by one, the people began to make noise, and then they began to shiver.
Those who had regained control of their bodies began to pull themselves out of their entanglements.
Everyone was in tears.
Naked, they approached Vera.
“A… Apostle…”
The people who had crawled towards Vera knelt before him, their hands clasped together.
They were beyond feeling shame for their disheveled state. They simply appeared to be praying for the salvation that had come to them.
Cries and joy echoed in the hall.
Vera exhaled and asked them.
“How did you end up being captured?”
Their condition was serious.
Beyond physical paralysis, their souls had been deeply corroded by corruption.
It was clear that if left untreated, they would collapse and die without being able to do anything.
Vera wanted to gather more information, and the first to respond was the young man who had been the first to groan moments earlier.
“They- they came, those corrupted perpetrators. They burned down our village and brought us here…”
“Calm down. The threats outside have been dealt with, and I am here to protect this place. Can you tell me slowly?”
It seemed his mental state wasn’t great either.
When Vera gently poured his divinity into the young man, the inverted cross on his neck blazed in resistance.
“Kugh…”
“Hold on. Fortunately, the level of corruption is not that high, so it can be purified soon.”
It was only a low-grade corruption, different from the one by the lake.
Vera increased the intensity of his divinity, and the inverted cross faded.
Color returned to the young man’s face, and the others looked up with eyes full of longing.
“Me, me too…!”
“Heal me first! Heal me first!”
Thud—!
Vera stomped his foot.
And the resonance silenced everyone in the hall.
Vera put his index finger to his lips and spoke softly.
“Please keep quiet, since it’s not safe yet. Also, I’d like to hear what happened before proceeding with the treatments. Will you wait?” ”
There were no objections.
It was to be expected.
Already weakened, they couldn’t muster the energy to oppose the strong Vera. More than that, it was instinctive for them not to rebel against their only hope for salvation.
Vera surveyed the silent room, knelt in front of the young man again, and asked.
“First, let’s hear your name. Who are you and where are you from?”
“I’m Golgo, from Kenin.”
“Good. Golgo from Kenin, can you tell me how you ended up here and what is happening inside?”
Vera’s hand pointed to the massive door at the end of the hall.
It was an entrance that led deeper inside.
Golgo swallowed hard at the sight, then nodded his head.
“It was a sudden invasion. The confrontation between the Consul Taurus and Alaysia shook the mountain lakes.”
Vera’s eyebrows furrowed.
‘So they’re from the Age of Gods, after all.’
He was able to glean vital information even from this brief exchange.
Kenin, Consul Taurus, mountain lakes.
Kenin and the mountain lakes were names he recognized from the Age of Gods, and Taurus was one of the servants of Terdan, who no longer existed.
The fact that Taurus was in a confrontation with Alaysia suggested that it was during the end of the Age of Gods.
While Vera was organizing this information, Golgo continued to speak.
“We are refugees from the outskirts of Kenin. We fled from the unrest in the mountains, thinking this war would not last long and decided to just hold it out…”
Fear crossed Golgo’s face as he recalled the terror of the past.
The words that followed were spoken with a trembling voice.
“…Th-the ones who invaded our village were brandished with an inverted cross. They were all monsters, crawling on red arms. Yes, yes… they are those over there.”
Golgo’s finger pointed in the direction where Vera had cut down the corpses.
“They are the corrupted followers of Alaysia. They defeated our defenses and kidnapped us.”
Murmurs arose from the people.
Their heads turned towards the opposite direction of the inner wall.
Vera observed their collective reactions and asked with a serious face.
“What is inside?”
“I… I do not know.”
“Huh?”
“We do not know for sure. Those of us who were kidnapped were always inside that prison, and all we know is that there are screams and the smell of blood coming from there.”
Golgo’s head dropped.
He bowed to Vera as if to apologize and spoke.
“It was suffocating. At some point, inverted crosses appeared on our throats, and we lost control of our bodies. Yet we still heard screams, the opening and closing of iron bars, allowing us to indirectly know that people kept being taken somewhere from this prison.”
“Human sacrifices. You’re saying this has been happening regularly?”
“It cannot only be this. Surely, there are others who are taken deeper… We could feel it! When they go up, the sound comes from the right side of the prison corridor, and when they go down, the sound comes from the left.”
Vera stood still.
‘Is there a pattern?’
An assumption came to his mind.
Perhaps the human sacrifices were not just an act of blasphemy but a ritual carried out systematically, bundling different age groups from various places.
The evidence was overwhelming.
One more confirmation would decisively establish the cause.
“…By any chance, were those going downwards the elderly or children?”
Everyone present here was a young man or woman.
Wasn’t that strange?
The apostates would not have kidnapped only young people, yet, strangely enough, only young men and women were here.
Golgo nodded his head.
“Yes, you’re right! I don’t know about the children, but those who were going deeper inside were definitely the elderly!”
Vera frowned’.
‘It’s a ritual.’
This human sacrifice clearly had a purpose other than mere blasphemy.
Something came to his mind.
‘Flesh.’
The flesh that makes up this very castle in the real world, and the aura of death and corruption that flooded the entire space.
Could this ritual be for creating that?
Vera nodded, affirming his emerging theory.
“Thank you for the information. All of you…”
He was about to tell them that he would cleanse the corruption so they could escape, but his mouth shut.
‘…Where to?’
Where could these people run to?
This is a dimension where souls are imprisoned.
A dimension that sees one’s essence.
In other words, no matter how much they tried to escape, these people were the flesh on the walls, and the dead did not belong in the world of the living.
There was no salvation for their souls even if they left this castle.
‘They haven’t noticed.’
They hadn’t realized that they were dead, and were acting as if they were still living in that time.
Golgo tilted his head at Vera, who suddenly became quiet.
“Apostle…?”
Vera felt his heart sink.
“…Yes.”
“Where should we go? Oh, if it’s not rude to ask, can we borrow a little land near Elia? We won’t step foot in the kingdom! We just don’t have a place to go back to anymore…”
Expectant eyes pierced through Vera.
Vera began to hesitate, unsure of what to do.
‘How…’
What should I do?
How can I tell them the truth?
As he hesitated, a woman stood up.
“Please take me inside!”
She was a woman with straw-colored, tangled hair.
Her face was gaunt and freckled, just like the other people here.
She spoke again.
“My sister is in there! She’s only nine years old… we’ve been separated since we arrived here.”
With weak steps, the woman approached Vera.
“…I-I have to find her. I have to leave with her.”
She grabbed Vera’s arm.
Desperation filled her brown eyes.
As Vera’s expression crumpled, more people slowly began to stand.
“I have to find my mother…”
“My son…”
“My grandfather…!”
Their eyes were filled with the same desperation.
It was an unforeseen situation, but it also provided him an opportunity for a delay.
Vera exhaled and steeled himself.
‘…Entering inside is the priority.’
Although it was important to deal with these people, pondering here wasn’t going to solve anything.
This place was a dimension of imprisoned souls.
There had to be a mechanism somewhere in this castle to release their souls.
“Yes, I will head further inside. Golgo, can you take these people and hide until their remaining family members are found?”
A slight hesitation crossed Golgo’s face.
He looked like he wanted to run away.
However, he eventually agreed.
“Where should we hide?”
Golgo looked at Vera.
Vera thought for a moment before pointing outside the castle.
“Once you go out that door and turn left, you’ll find where I defeated the apostates. There’s a large tent there. I’ve checked inside and it’s safe, so please have everyone wait there.”
Golgo nodded and stood up, followed by those without families inside.
Vera confirmed this and spoke to those heading inside.
“First, put on the robes that those apostates are wearing.”
“What…?”
“Shouldn’t you at least cover your bodies?”
They flinched.
It was only then that they began to feel ashamed, and they began to cover themselves.
Vera casually rummaged through a nearby corpse and took off its robe.
He put it on himself.
“We’re going to infiltrate it.”
The robe was wide enough to fit over his armor.
After completely covering his Holy Sword, Vera spoke to the others.
“We’re going to impersonate the apostates from now on, so follow along. The end of false freedom.”
This strategy, though rational, made the survivors uneasy.
There was no other reason.
‘…An Apostle?’
He was still an Apostle of God.
The irony of someone like him encouraging blasphemy caused them discomfort.
Of course, Vera couldn’t understand it.
He tilted his head and spoke again.
“Why are you not saying it?”
He was not a very religious man to begin with, so he didn’t even realize that there was something wrong with his behavior.
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