#194

Callister, who had been listening quietly, suddenly chimed in.

“I think I can do that much!”

“…Do what?”

“Those things are still in a stupid state, knowing nothing. They have no memory of consuming a complete living being, and they have no self-awareness, so they’ll move exactly as I tell them. You need creatures that can repeat words they’ve heard, right?”

“Wait, if you touch that….”

The freeze will be lifted.

As soon as Callister plunged his finger into the stationary mass, they began to squirm as if pulsing.

“Fuck, that’s disgusting!”

Pandemonium let out a shriek.

I narrowed my eyes until my vision blurred, watching the process as the masses slowly split apart.

‘What are they turning into?’

They were too small to become humans.

The masses gradually shifted into elongated shapes, and soon, one end of each split into five strands.

“Right now, they are faithfully following the command to ‘mimic exactly what was consumed.’”

‘…That’s why they’re only left arms.’

The sight of hundreds of ‘arms’ piled up was beyond grotesque; it was surreal.

Callister picked up two arms and handed one to me.

“It seems inefficient to create vocal organs here…. I vaguely remember creating something like this when Francesco moved my body as he pleased.”

As Callister traced lines, cracks appeared on the arm.

The same thing happened to the arm I was holding, and to the arms piled up.

“Now, if I make an eardrum here….”

Squish.

His finger sank in as if poking through clay.

Looking closely into the hole created in the ‘arm’ in my hand, I could see a faint membrane.

“Whooo-.”

When Callister blew a breath into the palm of the ‘arm,’ the gaps opened all at once.

Whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo….

A strange sound, as if thousands of people were exhaling simultaneously, filled the space.

“There, it’s finished! If you whisper into this, every Host Tabernacle will repeat those words. At least until they get too hungry!”

‘…And when they get hungry?’

Do they turn back into maggots that try to gnaw on everything?

“Excellent. But for the arms we’ll use, can you remove the speakers—the mouths?”

“That’s easy.”

Crack.

Callister twisted the ‘arm’ and tore off the part attached below.

‘…I feel like I’ve lost something more important than my personal information.’

I should make sure not to get eaten next time.

Perhaps because it resembled a part of my own body, I couldn’t help but flinch.

Careful not to read the contents, I cut out the scrolls. After dividing one clause each, we agreed to enter separate rooms and continuously pronounce a single character at roughly 3-second intervals.

Carrying a six-minute hourglass, I entered a room, locked the door, and first tested whether the Blessing of Soundproofing was working properly.

“…Oh.”

I heard nothing other than my own slightly awkward voice.

I flipped the hourglass, counted to three in my head, and then pronounced the same character again.

Repeating a single character in an empty room brought all sorts of random thoughts to mind.

‘Will this actually work?’

Since Loclem’s Status Window doesn’t just pop up anywhere, there’s no way to know.

What if it’s only decreasing by 0.00001% right now?

“Oh.”

‘Even if this operation succeeds, the moment the emergency-whatever ends, Loclem will start sweeping up points again.’

From then on, I’ll truly be treated like a heretic bastard who needs to have his limbs torn off and burned.

That’s why I’ve been keeping a low profile until now.

“Oh.”

‘But fuck, Loclem is the one who crossed the line first.’

He didn’t just cross the line; he cut off my hand. How the hell am I supposed to cling to him?

“Oh.”

I would have been satisfied—well, not satisfied, but I would have lived quietly, grumbling only to myself, as long as I was provided with a place to sleep where I could stretch my legs and enough food to not starve.

Really.

“Oh.”

By the way, how can I check if this ‘Columba?’ is hungry?

Can I see it if I open the Status Window?

[‘Columba? (Contaminated Adult of Ledea)’]

[Health: 4,857,625 (-2,584)] [Mental Strength: N/A] [Intelligence: N/A] [Combat Power: 12] [Durability: 25] [Charm: -863] [Faith: N/A]

Status: [Slightly Hungry] [Confused]

Unique Trait: [Adult of Ledea]

Blessing: [Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme (Fabio)]

“…Oh?”

I found the answer to what I was curious about.

Combat power and durability—well, it’s a clone of me, so that makes sense.

‘What’s with the Health?’

Millions?

Is that even a possible unit?

He wouldn’t die even if he received Heavenly Punishment 100 times.

“Oh.”

‘…Exterminating bugs is no easy task.’

Indeed, even modern people armed with various chemical equipment often throw in the towel when waging war against insects.

“Oh.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean this ‘Adult of Ledea’ is invincible.

Rather, it has a very fatal weakness, making it easier to exterminate than a typical insect colony.

‘Because if you cast a curse, that curse is shared among all individuals.’

As long as the curse is maintained until they starve to death, they can be cleanly exterminated without a single one remaining.

“Oh.”

Coincidentally, the Talisman of Nellos, which can cast the Curse of Hunger, is buried and hidden beneath the Altar of the God of Abundance.

When afflicted by the Curse of Hunger, one loses their mind and starts putting anything into their mouth, and Health depletes at a rapid pace.

Based on the description, it sounds like a useful skill, but in reality, it’s a tragic talisman abandoned by users because the pattern of crazed biting is simply annoying.

“Oh.”

Come to think of it, now is the perfect timing for farming.

It’s practically as if there are no guards.

Actually, the reason you can obtain Sacred Relics by digging the ground or breaking walls in ‘Die Heretic!’ is that the Priests hid them there. Normally, they should have been kept in vaults.

If I use Telekinesis, I should be able to easily break through a vault.

‘Of course, if I do that, my sins will pile up immensely.’

It’s already too late to avoid committing sins.

“Oh.”

‘…Time is moving so damn slowly.’

Despite all these random thoughts, the sand hadn’t even halfway descended.

I opened Pandemonium’s Status Window, but the number of Heavenly Punishments was still nine.

‘Yep, I’m going to do this until it works.’

I can’t think of any other way.

I could kill Pandemonium with my own hands to collect the soul, but then those Heavenly Punishments would just transfer to me.

“Oh.”

‘But if you die from Heavenly Punishment, do you go to hell? Or do you resurrect in the Mother God faction?’

The moment that question occurred to me.

Suddenly, the ‘hand’ suffered a convulsion.

Startled, I threw it away.

“Hieeeek, fuck! What! No, Status Window!”

What is it? What’s the problem?

Did the research director’s isolation end?

But there was no change in the name section.

[[Health: 4,857,625 (-13,864)]]

‘…Didn’t the Health drop a lot?’

What? Is it being attacked?

I quickly searched for what had changed.

[Status Condition: [Curse of Hunger (Nellos)]]

“Fuck?”

Bl, ora, bl, o, bl, ra, o, bl, ra, bl-o, ra, o….

Thousands of mouths make sound simultaneously.

It is an unpleasant sound, as if the inside of the head is being gnawed.

‘So noisy….’

I cover my ears, but I still cannot block that unpleasant sound.

Once you perceive it, it bores into your mind.

‘Oblra, oblra, oblra, oblra, oblra….’

It feels as if insects are crawling inside the skull.

Just as I am about to scratch out the inside of my head, I stop my hand.

‘…Because I promised not to hurt you.’

With whom?

When did I make such a promise?

“…Fabio.”

The consciousness of ‘Athanas’ awakens.

The feeling of what had occupied the body was closer to being torn away than simply leaving.

An intuition that something was wrong tensed his entire body a beat faster than reason.

Everything was dark.

Athanas looked up at a sky where no stars were visible and desperately organized his thoughts.

‘What was I doing last?’

…The bell.

Yes, he decided to ring the bell.

If the Bell of Order rang, the wicked things would vanish on their own.

Having accepted Fabio’s suggestion….

‘…How many hours have passed since then?’

The Astrolabe had stopped.

No, it was completely broken.

‘Where is Fabio?’

There was no one atop the bell tower.

Only a few traces of battle remained.

Thump.

A sensation like his heart sinking flowed down his spine.

The noise filling his head no longer mattered.

While hurriedly climbing down the ladder, something light fell to the ground.

Only after stepping onto the floor did he realize what it was.

‘A hat?’

…It was the one Fabio had been wearing.

Did he put this on me?

As he gripped it tightly, the fur dug between his fingers.

‘Regression….’

No.

It is meaningless.

Even if he went back, he would only open his eyes again at this exact point in time.

Had he not experienced several times that using Regression after losing consciousness was useless?

“…Fabio.”

He couldn’t tell if the tingling sensation felt in a non-existent pinky finger belonged to Fabio or to himself.

The only action Athanas could take now was to head toward the location of the ‘reliquary.’

Athanas knew where that was.

‘The basement of the Main Hall.’

He didn’t bother calculating how much Health he needed to leave.

If he fell into danger because he couldn’t catch his breath, he could just turn back time.

Right now, he had to grasp the situation as quickly as possible.

As quickly as possible.

Thump, thump, thump.

His heart was beating as if it would burst.

That terrible sound grew louder as he approached the Main Hall.

But he didn’t even care anymore.

Countless arms rolling around.

Arms.

Fabio’s arms.

What had happened?

Even the delay spent ‘predicting’ had to be saved now.

Completely ignoring those grotesque things and the unpleasant noise, he headed toward the place where the signal rang.

Upon arriving, Athanas….

“…….”

…Picked up the ‘wedding gift’ stained dirty with ink.

The reliquary was crushed, as if someone had stepped on it.

The person who should have been wearing it was gone.

Nowhere to be found.