Chapter 20
He raised both hands high towards the sky and began to mutter something.
“What…”
Carried by the wind, a faint murmur like a prayer could be heard.
“O Nagini! Soak the earth with fresh blood… So descend upon me…”
Damn it.
Now I understand how things have turned out.
“…’Avatar of an Evil God’!”
I muttered like a groan.
Just as celestial gods can make guardian spirit contracts with earthly beings, evil gods can do the same.
The goal of evil gods is the extermination of humans. So, their purpose is to turn this earthly realm into a second Asura realm to expand their influence.
To contract with an evil god, one must offer other humans as a bribe.
So avatars of evil gods were no different from traitors to humanity who sacrificed others to survive themselves.
At that moment, the messenger, which had been quiet all along, rang in my head.
[(Messenger) Indra applauds your realization.]
[Now that there’s no longer any leakage of divine energy, you are free to send messages as you please.]
“Now this guy… No, never mind.”
‘View character information!’
[(Messenger) Viewing requested character information.
Character ‘Bang John’ is a contractor of ‘Hiranyakasipu’, a subordinate of the evil god ‘Mahabali’.
Ranked 2,911th in Asura Realm, C-rank estimation.]
‘What? He didn’t contract with the evil god, but with its subordinate?’
It’s a low-ranking evil god among low-ranking ones.
But even so, an evil god is an evil god. They’re beings of a different caliber from monsters, which are like tools of evil gods.
The reason John could drive away other monsters wasn’t because of a barrier or anything, but because he was an avatar of an evil god.
‘But this is a survivor camp, why has an avatar of an evil god invaded from the very beginning?’
I let my guard down because the novel didn’t describe this situation or the character ‘John’ at all.
“…Therefore, O Nagini. Come to this place!”
With John’s final cry, a huge altar rose up over the prison yard.
On the roughly carved stone altar, unknown characters were inscribed all over.
At the same time, the people who had been staring blankly at John began to walk onto the altar one by one of their own accord.
If John was an avatar of an evil god, this was clearly a summoning ritual to bring ‘subordinates of the evil god’ to earth.
“Damn it. No! Everyone, snap out of it!”
It was useless to try and grab the people rushing towards the altar.
They didn’t care if their clothes were torn. They didn’t even look at me.
As soon as people climbed onto the altar, they collapsed in a horrible state.
Blood flowing down the altar began to soak the ground.
Are they planning to sacrifice all the people here to the evil god like this…
Unable to bear the overflowing evil energy, Sehun clutched his head and slumped to the ground.
It was no wonder.
The scene unfolding before our eyes was truly like hell itself, or a scene of utter chaos.
Even I closed my eyes tightly, feeling dizzy as panic threatened to overtake me.
‘I’m a psychopath. I don’t have emotions. It’s okay. Calm down. Just calm down…’
“Noah!”
At that moment, I heard a familiar baritone voice calling my name.
Was it an auditory hallucination?
Had I momentarily lost my mind from the shock?
No, it wasn’t.
The man running towards me, pushing through the zombie-like crowd heading for the altar, was definitely Baek Yi-heon.
Why? Hadn’t he left?
But there was no time for a happy greeting.
“Baek Yi-heon-ssi! It’s that man!”
I shouted loudly towards him as he tried to stop people from climbing onto the altar.
“John! If we take down that man, all of this will stop!”
Baek Yi-heon is someone who acts for the greater good.
Without further hesitation, he sprang into the air with a push of his legs.
A faint blue energy enveloped his legs.
At the same time, he quickly climbed up to the high watchtower as if stepping on stairs, tapping on blue light, tap, tap.
“He’s already handling mana so delicately? Such talent…”
I muttered with a stunned face.
Bang John, who had been reciting an unknown prayer, noticed Baek Yi-heon leaping towards him.
He inhaled sharply with a frightened face and frantically waved his hand.
A black-light containing weak energy burst from his hand, but it disappeared with one swing of Baek Yi-heon’s mole claws.
“Wha… what are you! Are you human? Such abilities…”
As Baek Yi-heon, who quickly reached the top of the watchtower, swung his claws at him again, Bang John instinctively raised both arms to cover his face.
Slash—!
The claws hit his arms, and an ominous sound echoed through the air.
The “Giant Mole’s Claw” shattered.
Its debris scattered in the air like shards of glass.
Beneath the torn white robe, Bang John’s arms revealed thin gray armor.
“Ha, haha…! I, I thought I was going to die! What ‘they’ gave me is really useful…”
Thwack—!
As soon as he set foot on the watchtower, Baek Yi-heon swung his fist straight at Bang John’s face.
Judging by the lack of blue light, it seemed he threw a bare-fisted punch.
‘He’s quite hot-tempered after all…’
[(Messenger) Indra clicks his tongue, saying that Yaksha guy, despite all that training, still hasn’t fixed his old habits, even choosing an avatar that resembles him.]
“Wha, what are you doing! Don’t kill me, please!”
Bang John, fallen to the ground, shouted as he crawled frantically.
Though the distance made it hard to see inside his mouth, it seemed like half his teeth were knocked out with just one punch.
Although Baek Yi-heon might be naive, he doesn’t hesitate in the face of injustice.
Yaksha was also a god of war who possessed both mercy towards the weak and cruelty towards the wicked.
Moreover, this guy was an avatar of an evil god. He could no longer be considered human.
He approached Bang John, who was trembling and crawling on the floor, and drew the small dagger the man had on his waist.
“W-wait! What do you want? Money? Or power? If you just stop this ritual, I can do anything…”
Slash—.
There was no hesitation in his cold blade.
Ending his life in one swift strike, if anything, was quite fitting for a male lead.
Bang John’s white robe, now silent, was stained red with his own blood.
“Huh. It’s not… over yet, why?”
I shouted with a puzzled expression.
People with unfocused eyes were still jumping onto the altar.
“What’s going on? That man who was conducting the evil god summoning ritual is clearly dead!”
I quickly recalled the information I had read in the original work.
When the subject of the summoning ritual dies, the ceremony should stop as there’s no one left to receive the price.
Which means…
“Bang John, he wasn’t summoning an evil god he had contracted with?”
I shouted in bewilderment.
Wasn’t he gathering people in the prison as sacrifices to fulfill his own greed?
There’s no reason to do this for someone else!
“Noah.”
Baek Yi-heon, who had somehow approached and jumped down to my side, called my name.
“The man has certainly died. But why isn’t the ritual stopping?”
He was now relying on my decision.
Perhaps being from a military background, he seemed more accustomed to following orders than making judgments.
Under the moonlight, people who seemed to have lost their minds were collapsing one after another, creating a scene like hell on earth.
Amidst all this, I tried to maintain my composure and fell into thought.
‘Blood… blood is soaking the ground…’
If the goal was simply to sacrifice human lives like in ordinary rituals, there would be no need for such a complicated procedure.
There must have been spells that could take human lives instantly.
“…So, the key is this blood.”
They chose a method that could spill the most blood by sacrificing people on the altar.
Then perhaps… is it a method of summoning an evil god using ‘blood’ as a medium rather than ‘life’?
“Baek Yi-heon-ssi! We need to wash away the blood! From this altar and the ground!”
Baek Yi-heon looked perplexed at my shout.
“Suddenly? There’s no water around. Unless it rains…”
[(Messenger) Indra reminds you not to forget that he is the god who rules the sky, seizing the opportunity for a sales pitch.]
[He hurriedly brings out a contract and thrusts it at you, panting.]
At this urgent sales message coming in at such a critical moment, I slightly moved my lips.
“F*ck…”
✦
Thank you for reading! ♡
