A dark and damp prison inside a cave.
In that place where not a single ray of light reached, she was captured.
How many days had it been since that moment?
For days, she hadn’t seen sunlight, and all she had eaten were a few drops of water trickling down the cave walls.
Perhaps because of that, her once jewel-like blue hair and golden eyes had lost their luster and appeared dull.
“Please… let me go…”
“Food… someone please bring food…”
Hic… Hic…
Voices of despair filled the air.
Every time she heard those sounds, Eleor had no choice but to tightly shut her eyes.
Grahhhh!!
Whenever the scream echoed down the hallway, she had to cover her ears.
Countless people and monsters were captured, bound by wicked rituals, and sacrificed one by one to augment their power.
“O Goddess…”
A low groan escaped Eleor’s lips as she stared at the horrific scene.
Screams, pain, despair, anger.
This place was a collection of all the world’s evils.
“Please give me strength to not succumb to the darkness…”
Where exactly did it all go wrong?
Was it when she received the goddess’s revelation and headed here?
Or was it simply her recklessness in disregarding the Holy Knights’ warnings and stepping straight into the heretics’ stronghold?
No matter where it started to go wrong, one thing was certain: she was about to pay the price for her complacency.
Scrape…
With the sound of metal scraping, a beam of light seeped into the prison, causing the captives and monsters inside to begin howling.
Please, let it not be my turn.
It was a howl that seemed to plead just that.
Thud.
The sound of footsteps echoed in the prison, and a sigh of relief escaped from the cells the guard had just passed, while a groan came from those who hadn’t yet been attended to.
As the footsteps grew closer, Eleor’s complexion darkened more and more.
What’s going to happen now?
Not one of the Holy Knights taken before her had returned.
Were they trying to instill despair within a saint like herself? Or was it simply that the time had not yet come…?
Thud.
At that moment, the sound of footsteps stopped right in front of her cell.
Along with that, she felt an indescribable surge of despair washing over her.
No.
I don’t want to die used by these people, like they want.
With that thought, she prayed to the goddess.
Creaaak…
With a heavy metallic sound, the door opened, and a man in a black robe stepped inside.
The silent man pulled on the iron chain around her neck, causing her to cry out in pain as she rose from her spot.
Dragged by the collar, she walked out into the hallway.
Weakened, she stumbled several times, but each time the chain forced her to stand again.
As her vision blurred, she managed to reach a certain place.
“Oh my…”
What lay before her was a massive pool of blood.
And within it, a huge mass of magic power.
Bodies of humans and monsters were tangled together to form a gigantic mass, from which ominous purple light emanated.
It was the literal worst kind of desecration.
Ugh…
She no longer had anything left to vomit, but a wave of disgust surged from deep within her as she shivered.
Meanwhile, the guard dragged her in front of the huge mass and forced her to kneel.
With no strength to resist, she knelt before the giant hunk of flesh and slowly lifted her head.
What came into view was a man holding a bloodied execution sword.
A chilling gaze sparkled beneath the hood covering his face.
‘I don’t want to die.’
She thought that, but her body was already at its limit.
Even if they left her alone, in a matter of hours, she wouldn’t make it.
She understood this, but she still feared death.
‘Please, someone…!!’
As the executioner slowly raised his sword, she watched in desperation.
But no one answered her prayers.
“Oh…”
So this is how it ends.
If only I could see their faces one last time.
Friends with whom she could once laugh and chat sincerely in the temple, away from her mundane life.
The thought of never seeing those faces again felt like a tightening in her chest.
And then, as the executioner’s sword glimmered pale in the light emitting from the massive mass of flesh…
Puhk!!
“Cough!?”
With a gross sound, a death cry echoed, and the man lifting his sword toward Eleor fell, pierced by something.
“Enemy!! Intruder!!”
“Ahhh!?”
At the same time, the surroundings erupted into chaos, and the sounds of weapons clashing filled the air.
“What’s… happening…”
Perhaps it was the relief of being alive that caused her tension to dissipate.
Her eyelids grew heavy, and she collapsed to the ground.
As her breath quickened, her vision began to fade, and the last thing she saw before losing consciousness was…
‘Everyone… really… thank you… ㅇ…’
The faces of her friends she longed to see.
*
After Rudell and his companions returned to the temple looking for the missing Eleor, naturally, the temple was thrown into chaos.
News spread that the church’s saint almost became a sacrifice to the heretics, and the heretics, who had been inactive for three years, began stirring again.
The temple made every effort to conceal this situation, but as rumors tend to do, they spread like wildfire.
Perhaps because of that, even with the grand event of the Hero Selection Tournament approaching, the atmosphere in the Holy Kingdom was chaotic.
Then, a few days before the main match…
“We’re here.”
“Welcome, everyone.”
In a small garden arranged in the temple.
Rudell and his companions greeted Eleor, who was enjoying tea time there.
“I’m so glad to see you all again.”
“How’s your body? Don’t push yourself too hard.”
Rudell and his companions found her in a state that could be described as practically lifeless.
If her body hadn’t been blessed by the goddess, she would have surely been dead by now.
“You don’t have to worry. The Pope directly blessed me.”
But in this world, magic did exist.
A power that transcends cognition and laws through magic power.
Of those, the Pope’s blessing, which reached the pinnacle of divine power, could literally bring anyone back to life as long as they weren’t dead.
“That’s amazing… When I broke a bone before, it took over a week even with a priest.”
“Well, he is the Pope, so it makes sense, doesn’t it?”
Comparing a regular priest to the Pope was nonsense.
Responding to Leje’s comment like that, Rudell and his companions took their seats at the table.
“So, have you been taking the medicine I gave you?”
“Yes, I’ve been taking it. Thanks to you, I’ve been able to sleep quite well.”
“This is a gift. It’s an herb that helps calm the mind.”
“Thank you, Kurt.”
After exchanging brief greetings, the handmaids brought tea-filled cups and placed them on the table.
“So, what exactly happened?”
“Well…”
At Leje’s question, Eleor trailed off.
Perhaps it was a memory she didn’t want to recall.
Her hands trembled slightly.
“As you all heard, after learning of the church’s traces, I headed to the observation site with the Holy Knights.”
“Was it a trap?”
“Yes…”
With a sad expression, she nodded.
There were twenty Holy Knights that had accompanied her.
Not one of them survived.
That fact was surely weighing heavily on her conscience.
“After that, I was constantly subjected to their experiments.”
“Experiments…?”
“You must have seen that mass of flesh.”
The horrifying sight of monster and human bones and flesh twisted together into something indescribable shocked Rudell and his companions.
“From what I overheard, they seemed to be conducting experiments to contaminate the divine power.”
“Experiments to contaminate divine power?”
“Yes… for reasons unknown, they seemed to need my blood during that process.”
“Hmm…”
The contamination of divine power.
Lacking knowledge about divine power, Rudell could only let out a low groan at her words.
The missing saint, the Holy Kingdom, the contamination of divine power, and the Hero Selection Tournament…
He couldn’t reach any solid conclusions with just that for now.
“By the way… I heard there might be a traitor. It seems Rudellheit has been working hard again.”
“Hah, I’ve gotten used to it now.”
Rudell scratched his head sheepishly in response to her words.
Just then…
“Saintess.”
“What is it?”
“Um…”
The handmaid who approached her whispered something in her ear, and at the same time, Eleor’s expression stiffened.
“Please tell them I will go see them soon.”
“Understood, Saintess.”
The bowing handmaid stepped back, and with a short sigh, Eleor rose from her seat.
“It seems we’ve found the traitor.”
