Chapter: 78
79. Praise the Black Saint! (5)
After the Saint departed, a chilling silence blanketed the front of the temple.
It had been quite some time since He left, yet everyone remained in a daze, unable to gather their thoughts.
And honestly, weirdly enough, it wasn’t surprising.
Everyone present had pledged their loyalty to Him.
They had directly encountered that magnificent being, after all.
To top it off, He had come to judge their horrifying behaviors.
If anyone could keep their sanity intact after that, well, that would be the strange part.
But… Dominic managed to take a deep breath and compose himself somehow.
There were things he had to understand.
The final words the Saint had uttered.
Their true sins, which they were utterly oblivious to.
And when they faced that, they would finally understand the judgment the Saint had pronounced against them.
No matter how complicated his feelings might be, he couldn’t just ignore the will of the gods.
The Saint had spoken; Dominic had no choice but to act on it.
There was no way He would leave such words without a reason.
Dominic stood up.
‘True sin.’
The real sin that angered the divine.
The truth that still eluded them.
How could he confront that?
Where was he supposed to go to realize it?
It was blatantly obvious.
Cardinal Dominic glanced again at the temple’s entrance.
The gruesome scene visible through the open door.
Those corpses were undoubtedly the marks of divine wrath. But then there was a bizarre point.
The punishment was not the same for those in this place and for those in the temple.
But God is fair.
There could be no doubt about that.
So why was there such a difference?
There could be only one reason.
The weight of the sin was different.
There had to be something that set apart those here from those in the temple.
What could that be?
What kind of difference existed?
What in the world had occurred there?
He didn’t know yet…
But at the very least, it was clear what needed to be done now.
He began to help those who still hadn’t regained their senses to their feet and walked out.
Towards the temple, drenched in blood and flesh.
*
The organs of a person sprawled out.
Karon’s corpse should also be somewhere here, but identifying it was now impossible.
Shattered body pieces.
There was no longer any form of humanity left there.
The archbishop next to him couldn’t hold back and began to retch.
Thinking about it, it wasn’t unreasonable.
He often encountered severely injured individuals while working as a cleric.
But how many times had he seen a scene this horrific?
Conflicts between underground organizations.
Dominic, who had become somewhat accustomed to assisting in the slums while in the royal capital, could barely withstand it himself.
A feeling of rage emerged.
This was a result that could only come about from a profound anger towards the enemy.
If the goal was to simply kill the opponent, then this kind of corpse wouldn’t appear.
Such outcomes could only manifest when the goal was to inflict pain upon the adversary.
…But this was an act of divine punishment.
Not some personal vendetta.
And a just God wouldn’t rage without cause.
Thus, this horrific scene told one thing.
That the sins committed by these people were atrocious enough to enrage the benevolent God.
‘What in the world did you do, Cardinal Karon…?’
The more he surveyed the surroundings, the more the ominous foreboding grew.
He felt an overwhelming certainty that heinous acts had occurred here.
The most distinguished cardinal of the Holy Church.
Karon, who was also called the most beloved man of God, what had he been hiding?
“Th-there’s something suspicious over here!”
A voice could be heard from afar.
Looking toward it, he saw a door.
It was a door hidden by sophisticated illusion magic, but for some reason, it was ajar.
Dominic and everyone stood before it. A staircase leading deep below was visible beyond the door.
This had to be a passage leading underground from the temple.
However, nobody dared to step forward first.
Neither the discoverer of the door nor any of those who had arrived here before Dominic. They all merely gazed mutely at the stairs.
The reason was simple.
They all understood.
That the sin the Saint had mentioned awaited them right past this door.
But…
Dominic stepped forward without hesitation.
He had no choice but to move.
No matter how afraid he was.
No matter how much he didn’t want to confront it.
‘Because I swore.’
He would follow the will of God.
Even if God may not want such an unholy human anymore, nevertheless.
He couldn’t repeat the same mistakes.
Thus, they headed towards the temple’s underground.
*
After descending the stairs for a while, they arrived at a place.
This place was outrageously peculiar.
Initially, Dominic thought.
This had to be a storage area.
After all, the temple was like the heart of the Holy Church. Naturally, there had to be a storeroom for valuable items.
This area, hidden away earlier, was likely used to keep sacred relics.
But that was only half the truth.
“Th-this can’t be! This shouldn’t be happening….”
The elderly cardinal in charge of the republic staggered.
Which wasn’t strange at all.
The Well of Miracles.
It had been created by the First Saint, who sacrificed herself.
And before other saints passed away, they also immersed themselves there to gather strength; it was a sacred relic that was like the Holy Church itself.
“If one can save people even in death, what greater happiness could there ever be?”
The quote from the First Saint was inscribed there… not a drop of holy blood remained.
The Well of Miracles had run dry.
The noble will of the saints, who wished to sacrifice for the future, had also vanished.
And that wasn’t all.
Relics like the Storage of Stars.
The Hand of Grace.
The Seal of Radiance.
All treasures of the Holy Church that had etched their names into history lay scattered over the desiccated well.
None of it exuded any divine power anymore.
Not just the Well of Miracles, but every sacred relic owned by the church had lost its strength.
In that dreadful situation.
The elderly cardinal with white hair shouted loudly.
“Karon couldn’t control his greed and committed this atrocity!”
Claiming Karon had used all of those sacred relics unilaterally.
Karon had long been famous for his tremendous divine power.
It was undoubtedly true that his divine power had secretly siphoned from the sacred relics.
He had rendered the sacrifices made by the saintly ladies a waste.
It was no wonder that God was enraged.
Yet… why did it seem wrong somehow?
A thought crept in that he was missing something important.
As if entranced, Dominic moved past the well and advanced forward.
[Special Education Room]
Before long, a door with that inscription appeared.
Dominic opened the door, pondering what purpose this space might serve.
A space even stranger than the previous one greeted him.
A vast room designed to accommodate many visitors.
It resembled a theater used for performances.
But what was on the platform was a torture device.
Once used for interrogating heretics hundreds of years ago, it had been banned due to its brutality.
Why, then?
A sense of ominous foreboding washed over him.
A very strong sense of dread.
Dominic placed his hand on the ground and began to weave a spell.
Due to the effects of the Saint’s descent, the memories engraved upon the land in the temple had been disordered.
But fortunately, it was intact here, likely due to the distance.
Soon, the events that had transpired here unfolded before Dominic’s eyes.
In the empty space, the phantoms of children appeared. All the kids were gazing at the platform.
And on the platform… stood a child.
No more than seven years old at best.
And the little one was… forcefully dragged into that device by Cardinal Karon.
The child cried out for mercy.
Yet, no one paid heed to the pleas for life.
Cardinal Karon spoke.
This was punishment for daring to attempt an escape.
If you wish to cleanse your sins, pray to God.
He’d let the child who’d received the stigmata go last time, so you too have hope.
If you gain God’s love and receive the stigmata, you would be allowed to escape from here.
Saying that, Cardinal Karon smiled.
Blood and flesh spattered about.
The child’s limbs were torn apart.
Yet, there was no solace granted.
By divine power, the child’s body returned to its original form.
Again… and again.
Each time, the child cried out.
“Please, save me!”
Dominic now understood.
He had no choice but to understand.
This was the sin spoken of by God.
A sin far too heavy, one that should never be forgiven.
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.