Chapter 315 - The Great Expedition (17)

Palo’s plan was simple.

Once he had slapped the Saint’s face into an unrecognizable bloody mess, he would then proceed to rape her slowly so that Arthus could get a good look at her.

Of course, he wouldn’t do that because of any sexual desires. Having become a Chimera, Palo no longer had basic human needs, such as rest, food, and sexual release.

Thus, his aim was to completely break the Saint’s spirit.

Palo heard a loud sound as he slapped the Saint for the first time. He also saw blood splatter in the direction the Saint’s head had turned following the slap, but...

“Huh?”

Palo realized that the tips of his fingers were tingling. Finding this strange, he stretched out his hand to see what was causing this sensation.

After checking his hand, Palo’s eyes grew wide in disbelief.

His hand was mangled as though someone had crushed it repeatedly with a wooden stick.

Drip... Drip...

Blood was dripping down his forearm.

Palo couldn’t believe his eyes.

“My hand... is wounded?”

He had been the one hitting the Saint, so why was his hand injured and not her face?

His palm was still tingling.

Palo’s gaze naturally traveled to the Saint’s face, and just then...

“Damn it...!”

Boom!

An enormous explosion erupted in front of Palo, who was still close to the Saint. It was so powerful that it could’ve been mistaken for a wizard’s fire spell.

A cloud of dust rose in the air.

Palo wasn’t the only one caught in the explosion. The thousands of blind believers who were convulsing on the ground from Logger’s attack had been reduced to ash by the destructive force.

Thud!

The charred remains of the blind believers fell to the ground akin to volcanic ash.

Palo quickly tried to clear the dust so he could assess the situation, but as he tried to do so, an incredible amount of golden light shone through the dust.

It was as though the sun itself stood in the cloud of dust. However, the source of the light was none other than Saint Irenae.

“How did you...?”

Palo had received quite a bit of damage from the previous explosion. His tidy clothes were now tattered, and the entire front part of his body bore gruesome wounds, similar to the scars of burn victims.

“Argh...!”

Palo hastily tried to heal himself.

Regeneration was one of the Chimera’s unique traits, but only the apostles could quickly heal any wounds and regenerate completely as though they hadn’t suffered any damage to begin with.

However, a burning pain shot through Palo’s wounded areas when he tried to heal himself.

“Aghhh!”

The pain was so excruciating that he almost passed out. In any case, it did cause him to fall on his knees.

“What is this...? All of a sudden...?”

Palo was baffled, unable to understand why this was happening to him. He had never experienced something like this before, which made this all the more confusing.

At that moment, Saint Irenae, who had been watching him suffer, spoke to him in a voice that seemed to echo from a cave, but was very clear and pure.

- You have done something very foolish, Palo.

“How...?”

Irenae rebuked Palo in a calm voice.

Palo was deeply confused by Irenae’s behavior, which was very different from before.

- My name is Irene. I am the goddess of the Church of Peace that this child worships.

“I-Irene...?”

For a moment, Palo couldn't believe his ears.

Irene—she had a similar name to the Saint, but her divine presence was from an entirely different realm. After all, she was a deity.

The goddess of love and peace, the deity most of Eurasia had believed in, had manifested in Irenae’s body and stood before Palo.

“Shit!”

Thud!

Palo was the most clever apostle, so he quickly managed to think of something in this situation. He slammed his hands on the ground, causing dust to billow, and jumped back, distancing himself from the Saint, or rather, the goddess.

He then proceeded to forcefully heal his wounds through the pain.

“Aahhh!”

An intense wave of pain washed over him; it was the kind of pain that made burning pain feel like nothing.

However, Palo had to endure it. He had to quickly regenerate himself and come up with a way to deal with this absurd situation.

‘I must not let Sir Arthus down!’

He had not expected the manifestation of Goddess Irene at all. Despite his meticulous planning, this he had not foreseen.

Just like all the other apostles, Palo had transformed as many people as possible into blind believers in order for Arthus to gain more divine power. However, during that process, he had also been concerned with the destruction of the Church of Peace, which almost the entire continent worshiped.

By this point, more than half of the continent’s population had been turned into blind believers, so the fact that the goddess had descended now made no sense to Palo.

“Aghh!”

With one last agonized grunt, Palo had healed and fully regenerated himself. Now, all that was left was to do something about that goddess.

However...

Clink!

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

Numerous beams of golden light flew through the cloud of dust that Palo had kicked up, piercing him all over.

“Aagh!

Cough

!”

The beams of golden light were like spears with no end. They flew at an incredible speed through the dust, hitting every inch of Palo’s body, including his vital organs.

Even after piercing him, the light spears didn’t fade. In fact, they hardened and became tangible, making Palo look like a mouse stuck on a cactus.

“H-hr...?!”

The light spears had also pierced Palo’s mouth and vocal chords, rendering him unable to speak. Lying pitifully on a bed of spears, Palo could only move his eyeballs furiously. He was lucky that the spears had at least missed his eyes.

Whoosh-!

A wave of golden light swept away all the remaining dust, revealing the Saint floating in the air.

She finally opened her eyes, which had been shut tightly all this time. Her eyes were shining with the same kind of golden light that radiated from the rest of her body.

The goddess had completely descended upon the Saint.

Soon, Irene quickly approached Palo and looked down on him in his sorry state, her expression blank.

- You’re too greedy, Janus.

Palo hadn’t misheard it. The goddess had clearly said ‘Janus’.

After saying that, Irene shifted her gaze ever so slightly, and this time she looked Palo in the eye.

But surprisingly, she comforted him.

“You’re also just a poor soul. I understand you, Palo.”

“...”

Following her words of consolation, Palo’s black pupils faded. Then, he went limp and slumped downward like the carcass of a dead beast, the beams of light still protruding from him.

Then, the goddess raised her right hand, or rather the Saint’s, and slowly moved her fingers as though she were stroking the head of a beast, unleashing her divine power.

Shhh...

Her motion was followed by the sound of leaves rustling in the wind.

Along with that sound, all the blind believers, along with Logger, Ananda, and Palo, were turned into ash, and the wind gently swept them away.

The golden light reminiscent of a sunset also faded away.

The Saint slowly descended and returned to the ground.

Whoosh!

Everyone had been carried away by the wind, not a single trace of them remaining; only the Saint was left in this desolate northern land.

She fell unconscious on the frozen ground.

Flash!

Just then, a familiar light flashed nearby.

The one who emerged from the light was none other than Linky Black, one of the Seven Sages.

“S-Saint!”

Seeing the Saint unconscious on the ground, Linky rushed over to pick her up and teleported again.

***

“Who’s left now?”

Lunda was the one who had humiliated Valhald in the Highlander region.

Zion was the one who had killed all the mercenaries in Faesiling and humiliated Allen.

The expedition team had just eliminated them.

They were dead for good.

The expedition team had burnt their bodies to ash so that they wouldn’t be able to come back to life with black magic, like Ayla had done.

Of course, this was all possible thanks to the power of the Log Stones and Henry, who had joined the rest of his allies after defeating Dracan.

Shortly after Zion fell, Linky Black appeared in the air with the Saint.

Seeing them, Henry asked, “What about the others?”

“The only Log Stone I was assigned was the Saint’s, so I only went after her.”

“Is that so?”

Everyone had received their own unique Log Stone, which meant that each Sage was in charge of one specific person.

There were still a few Sages who hadn’t returned yet, so they decided to stay put and wait for them for the time being.

Since they had just killed Zion, they figured that there were only a few apostles left.

However, much to everyone’s surprise, the rest of the Sages returned with empty hands.

Seeing them like this, Henry frowned and asked, “What’s going on? Why have you all returned by yourselves?”

“Um, that’s...”

Four Sages had just returned, Stan being among them. On behalf of all of them, he reluctantly said, “The Log Stones... have disappeared.”

“...What?”

“We’re telling the truth. Some of the Log Stones have disappeared. And...”

Stan looked at Henry before continuing. He fidgeted and hesitated, seemingly unable to speak.

Frustrated, Henry urged Stan to answer.

“Don’t stall and just say it!”

“The coordinates of two Log Stones are pointing to Lizark Hill!”

“What?”

At that, surprise downed on everyone's faces. In fact, they weren’t surprised, but shocked.

Henry hurriedly took the Log Stones from Stan and checked the coordinates himself. He was dumbfounded.

“Damn it...!”

The two Log Stones were indeed showing the coordinates of Lizark Hill, just like Stan had said.

“What the hell...?!”

The inscriptions on the Log Stones were still glowing.

Their owners were none other than Kington and Ronan.