Suicide Before Defeating the Final Boss – 123
EP.123 Play Part 4
Jeong-hyeon couldn't help but laugh as he watched the blue blood gush from the Pope. After all, it was artificial blood that he had created.
"Wow, it's really pouring out."
He marveled at Shin Si-ah's magic, which made blue blood spurt out when the holy sword pierced the Pope's body. He recalled how difficult it had been to create because it only activated under specific conditions for certain people.
Jeong-hyeon shouted loudly, "The Pope is a demon...?"
The truth didn't matter much. What was important was how provocative and ground-shaking it could be. He swallowed his laughter as he watched all of this being recorded on the "Magic Stone." It was obvious what would happen to the church after this incident.
"This, this is...!"
The Pope, bewildered by the blue blood flowing from her body, tried to cover it with her hands, denying it. But because she tried to hide it, the blue blood splattered everywhere, revealing itself in all directions.
Jeong-hyeon watched the blue blood splatter more as she tried to cover it and laughed inwardly for a while. Then, for dramatic effect, he grimaced as if disgusted and shouted.
"... A filthy demon. To think you've been deceiving us all this time!"
"This is a misunderstanding...!"
"Misunderstanding? Your blood is so damn blue, what kind of misunderstanding is that?"
He deliberately raised his voice passionately to solidify the situation. The Pope, with a face full of confusion, looked around and hesitated. Then, as if regaining her composure, she spoke calmly.
"... All of this is a trial from the goddess, a fabricated event... Everyone, calm down and think. Between a hero you've never seen before and me, who has led you all this time, whose trustworthiness is higher?"
Certainly, it wasn't a wrong statement. No matter how much Jeong-hyeon wielded the holy sword, to them, he was just a stranger they'd never seen before. Whether he was a hero or not, he was just an unfamiliar outsider with no trustworthiness.
'Normally, such words would sway the atmosphere towards the Pope.'
However, due to the Pope's recent actions, instead of the public opinion swaying towards her, suspicion only grew.
"Are you really the Pope? According to the scriptures, the Pope would never abandon the believers... Didn't you order the killing of innocent people?"
"Now that I think about it, the new paladin was strange too. How is that a paladin? It's a monster."
"I still remember the kids crying and begging for their lives... Were those young kids really heretics?"
Listening to the voices full of doubt from all around, Jeong-hyeon realized one thing he had previously overlooked.
'The holy knights here are younger than I thought.'
There was only one elderly knight, and the rest appeared to be in their late teens to early twenties. Although divine power was an innate talent, swordsmanship and experience couldn't be ignored. Typically, the direct holy knights following the Pope were said to be composed of those in their thirties.
'Seeing that they're composed of much younger ones...'
It seemed that due to the aftermath of the "terror incident" he had previously caused, the original holy knight order had been wiped out and replaced with new recruits.
'That's why my agitation worked more easily.'
If they were proper holy knights, no matter how much he stirred things up, they might have harbored doubts but wouldn't have voiced them. Seeing them speak out one by one, he thought to himself that they were indeed young and smirked.
'Then there's only one thing to do... a witch trial.'
Jeong-hyeon slowly walked forward to deal with the Pope, the leader and the mastermind behind the church.
***
The Pope bit her lip as she saw everyone except the paladin looking at her with grim expressions. Such a situation should never have been allowed, but everything had gotten tangled because the so-called hero had uttered lies.
'Ah, the goddess is indifferent too. I don't know how to resolve this.'
Broadcasting all of this through the Magic Stone had been a mistake. If nothing had been recorded, there might have been a way to handle it. But with everything being documented, there were no options left.
'So, what should I do?'
Her first thought was to use the paladin for a massacre, but doing so would prevent any future plans, so it was not an option. The next thought was to prove that all of this was fake.
'But the blue blood left too strong an impression...'
Even if she tried to prove it now, it seemed unlikely to change much.
'Then what to do... Ah.'
While pondering, a good idea suddenly came to her.
'Come to think of it, there's no need to explain, is there?'
Without needing to explain, she could just admit to being a demon and spin the narrative that the real Pope had been kidnapped. That might make everything okay.
'What I need now is a bit of time and a means to nullify.'
Fortunately, she had a way to nullify and buy some time, so she decided to execute it, maintaining a somewhat calm expression as she spoke.
"You caught me."
With that brief statement, everyone froze. They hadn't expected the highest leader of the church to admit to being a demon. She looked at them and then at the Magic Stone recording the scene, shouting as loudly as possible.
"I am Duke Pamur, a demon duke who kidnapped your Pope. As you suspected, I have been manipulating and scheming everything in place of the real Pope."
With this statement, all the evil deeds and mistakes she had committed would be transferred to Pamur. The Pope continued speaking, believing that the goddess never gave trials that couldn't be resolved.
"I wondered when I'd be caught... It turns out it was now. Humans are really slow-witted, aren't they, Paladin?"
"Kieeeek!"
Due to her appearance, her words gained more credibility. Just as she was thinking that the goddess was always on her side, Jeong-hyeon slowly approached, seemingly to retrieve the holy sword, and asked a question.
"Doing something interesting, aren't you?"
"Interesting? It was a necessary choice to destroy the human world."
"Oh, so that's the setup?"
Without responding, the Pope just smiled. Jeong-hyeon glanced at the holy knights, then smiled brightly and spoke.
"So, in short... you're saying it's okay to kill you since you're a demon, right?"
"Yes. If you can kill me, that is."
The hero, ignorant of his own limits, declared he would kill her and approached. 'Honestly, it's laughable,' the Pope thought.
Heroes were traditionally merciful beings. No matter how much they shouted about killing, it was obvious they wouldn't actually do it.
'And above all...'
Given that the hero relied on the holy sword to fight, as long as she didn’t return the sword, he would surely fall weakly. If she could just keep the holy sword well, they would surely win.
'So, give this holy sword to the paladin. Block all potential problems at the source.'
Once she led this battle to victory, everything would return to normal. With that decision made, she pulled out the holy sword embedded in her shoulder, handed it to the paladin, and spoke.
"Ugh... Paladin... Use this sword to kill the hero."
Though pain surged, she quickly used healing magic to calm it and took a deep breath. Now, everything would return to normal. Watching the paladin wield the holy sword with a monstrous cry, she cast all sorts of buffs to ensure the hero was completely slaughtered, believing everything was over.
***
Jeong-hyeon chuckled as he watched the paladin in front of him go berserk.
'Now, let's see how to deal with this.'
Having withstood the Sanctuary Declaration, ordinary methods wouldn't work. And since they had taken his sword, cutting with sword energy was impossible.
'Then there's only one thing to do.'
Punching. Yes, directly beating him up.
'Well, to be honest... I'm doing it because I want to feel the satisfaction.'
Regardless of the reason, the impact would surely be memorable. 'Anyway, the torture and witch trial are for the Pope.'
For now, he decided to beat up that bizarre paladin for his own satisfaction and smiled.
'Then, what I need to do is...'
First, gather divine power. He gathered divine power in one hand, amassing a massive amount in one place. It was almost laughable to call it "gathered," given its sheer size, but the aftermath of gathering it was no laughing matter.
The holy knights around him muttered in fear, their voices trembling.
"Is that... even possible?"
"Goddess... It's the descent of the goddess."
"We're all going to die..."
The sound of everything around him breaking and scattering filled the air. He looked around at the strong wind generated just by gathering divine power and spoke to the paladin and the Pope.
"Pope! The divine power bomb you created is coming back to you!"
Quoting a famous line from a game, Jeong-hyeon shot the divine power gathered in his hand at the paladin. This must be what a pinpoint explosion was like. He watched as the pure white divine power obliterated everything in front of it and spoke.
"Oh... right. I was going to punch him."
With a sigh of regret mixed with lament, he reflected a bit.