Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

“That’s Archbishop Boldre. On top of being an archbishop he is also a heretic inquisitor. His combat power is one of the best in the church. And he’s crazy, you see.”

“It’s embarrassing to tell you as one of them, but most of Ezekium’s high-ranking officials are just like him. That’s why there’s rumors that they were involved in the apocalypse.”

Margretha and Tibris who came to Ilsan said so.

AFter listening to them, I organized the personnel and sent many of them back to the shelter. The only people who I let to stay were me and Da-jeong as well as the two otherworlder

“So… there are dozens of zealots here ready to torture or kill us who they deemed as heretics, right?” Da-jeong, who heard the story, summarized it.

“You’re right.”

“And they are completely unaffected by the shackles of the battlefield? Why in the world do they have so many good items?”

“Uh… I guess I need to explain a little about that. The reason they could escape from the shackles of the battlefield was due to an ether force field. Which means, there must be wizards in their ranks.”

In other words, if only the wizard was removed, they would fall into the abyss. I quickly scanned the area to find the wizard but couldn’t find him in the end. Instead, I was spooked by Boldre’s monstrous stats.

“He is really crazy. He has 85 strength. Is he really human?”

“Woah. How about his other stats?”

I wrote down Boldre’s status window on a piece of paper and showed it to them. Instantly, their mouth drop to the ground

“Strange. Why did he still have Giudecca’s protection? Didn’t you put Giudecca in an inactive state?”

“I found that strange as well. It makes me suspect there’s another Giudecca out there.”

“Could it be something like they are separated twins?”

Da-jeong’s imagination was commendable, but… no, there is no possibility for it to be true. Rather than that, I was more concerned because of the composition of troops which mainly consist of priests.

When I asked the two strangers, Margretha was embarrassed.

“It must be because the church is a very rigid group. It means that they didn’t want to concede the first portal to the other world to someone else.”

“The first portal to another world? So you’re saying that they want to take credit for what is going to happen here?”

“Even though they are accusing you guys of being heretics… In their eyes, Tibris and I were both apostates.”

“For your information, punishment for apostasy is harsher than punishment for heretics. For us, the death penalty is confirmed.” Tibris chuckled as he said that.

His words also mean that even if they want to return, they wouldn’t be able to do so. Well, since it also means that they definitely become people of our side, I feel much more at ease.

By the way, when a commotion like this occured, a quest was also bound to appear.

I then told people what happened in the Great Labyrinth.

“Hey. I don’t understand the part about making a murderer by returning a grenade or anything using a dimension hole. Wasn’t the murderer system not applicable to quest targets?”

“It indeed does not apply. However, between us and the Japanese. It happened among the Japanese.”

“Ah… that’s what happens… Anyway, it’s such a perverted system. What reward did you get?”

I placed two scrolls on Da-jeong’s palm which made her excited.

“Can I use it? Really?”

“Use it. Among us, you are the weakest. There has to be some balance between us.”

Even Geom-in was about to catch up to her. She really needs those ogres sooner rather than later.

“As expected, my husband is the only one who thinks about me.” Da-jeong’s eyes reddened. But before long, she tore the two scrolls.

By the way, among the things I looted from the Mage Tower, there’s a scroll book… There’s also the strange egg. Guess I would have to look at it later.

“Now that I think about it, we are really in a crisis. Judging by the Archbishop’s speech earlier, it looks like they had secured a few heretics… They’re probably trying to find out where we are.”

“Since it was them we are talking about, expecting them to not torture those survivors was ridiculous notion, right?”

“Well, in their doctrine, anything can be done to heretics…”

“I guess they have figured out the location of the shelter by now. Do you think they are going to make an advance base?”

Margretha shook her head at my question.

“As I said before, the Church of Giudecca has no intention of sharing its achievements in the other world with the Knights or the Magic Tower. They will probably try to deal with it by themselves. I think the first thing they will do is… Walk of atonement.”

“Walk of Atonement?”

“In that walk, they will hang the heretics they captured on the expedition on poles.”

“… Even so, it would be difficult to occupy all of Korea.”

“They will revise the goal realistically. They will be content with occupying our shelter. Instead, there is a high probability that they will kill all the heretics they found.”

“You said earlier that, that bastard called Boldre or whatever was a convert, aren’t you?”

“The converting process is accompanied by torture. It is a difficult process for many to endure. And even if they die in the process of torture, they will be treated as a martyr and counted as a convert…”

“For your reference, there is a high possibility that there will be an appeasement policy after that in order to keep the numbers of population.”

“For sex, huh? They want to accept young women into the Order as a pleasure provider.”

Tibris nodded her head with difficulty.

“You got it right. A nun, even though they had some title, was nothing but a pleasure provider. Even the battle nuns who underwent enhancement procedures are, in the end, just a plaything for the pope and the master of magic tower.”

For some reason, the way Da-jeong looked at me turned weird.

“You can’t just surrender to them just because you want to start a harem.” She warned me.

“Did you hear what you just said? Does that even make sense?”

“I mean, Giudecca wanted you, did he not? I just thought that the church would also want you.”

“Because of that pure blood or something?”

Margretha swallowed her saliva.

“Certainly… you showed off an amazing Ether Blade. If the church sees you, there is a very high possibility that they will rush to secure you.”

What a pain in the ass… However, if I think about it differently, it could also be used as an excellent bait. Although I don’t want to appeal to Boldre about my value.

At that moment, Tibris opened his mouth.

“I have something to suggest. In war, it is often said that cutting off the enemy’s supply route is always a good move, right? I think our priority will be to kill the wizard who opened the gate.”

“Those wizards would be senior or junior to Tibris, right? Is that okay with you?”

He smiled shyly and scratched her head.

“Actually, I’m a loner… and the magic tower is quite large. No one know everyone.”

That’s the case, huh?

While we discussed how to kill the wizard, it became noisy outside.

“Th-the walk has begun. It’s a lot faster than I thought.”

“I guess they have no reason to delay it.”

“Ah, is that a person hanging from a pole?”

It seems that Da-jeong still had the Griffon’s Eye skill. She shook her head, saying the guy had been tortured pretty badly. I was a little annoyed by their show, but getting angry here wouldn’t solve anything.

I organized my thoughts. They’re here on Earth, but the system didn’t apply to them since they spread an ether force field around them. In other words, the method I used against the Japanese wouldn’t work against them. If I mobilize heavy weapons and attack them from a distance, only us would become a murderer. That’s also not an option.

Pardon scroll wasn’t common enough. But it is not too much to use at least one of them.

But when the church troops die, I bet that another gate would immediately…

As Tibris said, we must eliminate the wizard first. But before that, we have to rescue the people tied to the pole.

“Let’s do this.”

People’s eyes lit up.

.
.
.

Dozens of people marched at Ilsan Lake Park. All of them were wearing a loose white clothes and hoods, which made them a hot topic. After learning about their identity, a lot of people express their astonishment in the auction house.

-They came from another world? Aren’t we usually the ones who come there?
-Bro, I think you have read fantasy novels a little bit too much.
-I mean, the world we currently live in is a fantasy itself…
-They are currently marching towards Jayu highway. They are also killing all the monsters that attack them. Isn’t that place an uncleared battlefield?
-That’s right. They don’t seem to be affected by the battlefield.
-Wow, what a joke…
-Did you guys see that? The bodies of the women walking at the forefront are no joke.
-They are wearing something similar to a white priest’s uniform, but it has a side slit.

-Bro! Can’t you see the people hanging in front? Why are you talking about the women when there’s our people suffering there?
-I don’t think people who talk about the side slit reflect on themselves are human.
-I heard about the Church of Giudecca in Ezekium… They are the owner of the dungeons we enter.
-Owner is a bit too much. To be precise, they only occupy part of the land. A country called Ezekium.
-But why is there something called the Church of Giudecca? Wasn’t Giudecca the Demon King trapped in the Great Labyrinth?
-I think we should ask the Korea Shelter about that.

Soo-yeon, who was monitoring the situation in the shelter, quickly gathered opinions and posted a comment. The contents were as follows:

-The group that is currently causing a commotion is the Church of Giudecca of the Ezekium Empire.
-Their goal is to catch and kill everyone who they deemed as heretics.
-Never come into contact with them. If you fall for their sweet words, you will only die after torture.
-Currently, Korean shelters are discussing ways to respond to them.

Despite the explanation, some doubts still remained in the head of the survivors.

How could the Church of Giudecca cross the dimension and come here? And what is the salvation they are talking about?

Various opinions were raised at the auction house.

-They came here to catch the two otherworlder.
-There’s otherworlder in Korea Shelter, right? Those two.
-Why did they suddenly come after not showing up until now? I bet they are here to catch the traitor. If we hand over the two, they might return to their world.
-Bro, that is a very naive idea. The two aliens are just an excuse. In fact they came to kill us.
-But why do the nuns wear nothing but a loose cloth?
-If you trust Giudecca, you can have sex with those nuns…
-Hey you assholes, don’t be fooled.
-These bastards haven’t learned anything from the Redneck case before.

The case they refer to was an incident in which ghouls appeared around the Redneck residence in Gangdong-gu and seduced survivors. Most of those who were swept away by their most primal desires died despite the warning.

-Do you really need to eat poop to know that it’s poop?
-It’s an intelligence problem.
-I don’t know how they lived until now with that intelligence.

As the criticism intensified, those who had been humiliated were furious. In fact, they had no desire to surrender to the church.

How can they trust people they had never seen before in Apocalypse? Moreover they were not even from Earth but people from other worlds. One wrong gesture could cause their wrist to fly.

While the auction house was in chaos, it was Seongho and Margretha who rode the hornbill to stop the march.

“Stop! Stop!”

The priests in the front row stopped, and Archbishop Boldre broke through the crowd.

“I never thought I would meet you two here.”

“Archbishop Boldre… Long time no see.”

Margretha’s greeting brought a smile to Boldre’s face. It even made him look like a very benevolent person for a moment.

He rolled up his sleeves, “Sir Pistel. The Pope wants to hear the details. Also, the leader of the Transcendental Knights is waiting for you. Please return to the church with us.”

“I can’t do that. Because…” Margretha drew her sword and Seongho answered.

“Because you are our enemies.”

Boldre’s gaze moved to Seongho.

“You are an interesting brother. You seemed to be the same person as the man who stole from the Magic Tower the other day.”

“I steal nothing. I just transfer the item’s ownership.”

For a moment, Boldre and Margretha were dumbfounded.

“Haha, you are an interesting person. However, it is clear that they are grinding their teeth because of you. From what I can see, you seem to have very good qualities…”

Boldre’s gaze became hot. He had the ability to feel the ether of a target. Now, in his eyes, he could see the pure ether inside of Seongho. Its purity was so pure. It was something he had never seen before.

Boldre’s thin tongue licked his lips.

“Giudecca’s daughters, forward.” He said towards his back.

Priests who had put many survivors into conflict came forward. They seduced Seongho with coquettish gazes and gestures. But there was something they overlooked.

Seongho hated Giudecca. Not too long ago, he had a fight with Giudecca’s children, so in his eyes, the gestures of the priests were disgusting.

Margretha glanced over and was relieved to see his eyes burning. At least he wasn’t a man to fall for the enemy.

Boldre stretched out his long arm and held out his hand.

“You obviously made a big mistake. However, our church is merciful. If you take my hand now, this Boldre will speak well to the Pope. Please open your eyes to Giudecca’s love.”

“…If I go there, will those women become mine too?”

“Do whatever you want.”

“Then, I will do so.”

A look of doubt appeared in Boldre’s eyes. And a boom was heard from above.

Da-jeong, who was riding on the back of a gryphon, fired an anti-tank missile. The aim was not precise, but it had no problem hitting the front row of the walk of atonement.

Boldre’s eyes saw the flying warhead and it exploded.

Boom-!!

Dozens of bodies were blown away by the power which was strong enough to destroy a third-generation tank in one blow. The impact also rolled over to Margretha and Seongho, who were nearby. Margretha slammed her Titan Shield to the ground in order to block the impact. Meanwhile, Seongho rolled over like crazy, before suddenly standing up.

“Mmmmm…” Margretha groaned.

“No adversity of fate can stand in my way!”

Boldre didn’t die. Seongho quickly fed Margretta a potion and supported her.

“Get up quickly and save the people.”

“Ah, got it.”

“My enemy, be afraid! Crawl on the floor and regret it! Your destination is the abyss!”

As the debris and dust settled, the figure of Boldre stood tall. Even at first glance, it was clear he had become something different from before.

Margretha came to her senses and rescued the people tied to the poles and put them on the two hornbills

“Go!” The hornbills got hit on the buttocks and started running wildly. Their destination was Korea Shelter.

“This body! I have worn Giudecca’s protection!” Boldre declared proudly.

“So noisy.” Da-jeong fired a gun while riding on the gryphon, and two hooded wizards let out a frustrated moan and collapsed.

Thanks to the fight, Jayu highway quickly became a mess.

At that moment, Seongho finished his Abomination transformation.

Kuooooohhh-!!

Before the roar could spread far, a massive, massive body attacked Boldre. The two crushed the priests and destroyed the ranks as they rolled over.

At that moment, a quest notification window popped up in Margretha’s field of vision. Since it had been a while since she arrived in Seoul, she too had been affected by the system.

「Challenge Quest: Suppression of Fanatics
Description: Kill Giudecca’s zealot Boldre and his 45 followers
Deadline: 24 hours
Reward: 3 Crime Pardon Scrool, 1 Elixir, 1 Curse Removing Scroll」

Curse removing scroll?

Suspicion flashed in Margretha’s eyes.