“So, Solan?”
At Ban’s response, Winod’s face turned pale. He wondered if Ban knew something and was saying that.
He narrowed his eyes and looked at Ban, trying to read his intentions, but he still wore a calm expression with only a faint smile.
Despite it being the dead of winter, the days grew longer to the point of gradually encroaching upon the domain of night. Rivers that should have been frozen were drying up, and the sky boasted air hotter and drier than summer.
Even the trees that had barely managed to survive through the strange seasonal changes withered and twisted, and strangely, the sun seemed to draw a little closer with each passing day.
Everyone hid inside buildings with bodies reduced to nothing but bones like dried-up branches, barely holding on with food that could fit in one hand, counting down the days until night came and they could finally breathe.
Anyone who happened to be exposed to sunlight for too long would fall ill and eventually meet their death.
If this wasn’t a calamity, then what could it be called? And in the midst of all this, how could one not regard as the hope found in prophecies someone who trained outside using their body as if nothing was wrong?
Ban saw right through Winod’s feelings. Priest Winod in the game was such an easy-to-read, flat character.
Mm, even now, if he were to guess what he was thinking……
‘How much does he know? Who told him? Is he really the savior from the prophecy? No, he’s too calm even now…… There must be something. Then should I play dumb? Right, that bastard Solan must have blabbed everywhere before meeting the High Priest. Ban must know that and is just teasing.’
“Ahem, hmm. That bastard Solan must have boasted everywhere in his excitement. Solan merely met the High Priest and received a secret mission, he’s not truly a messenger of God or anything……”
How could he not stray from expectations even once? Ban was disappointed inwardly and hesitated for a moment. Should he pretend not to know as he always had, or now, slowly……
“Well, Priest Winod. Who do you think is the messenger of God after Solan?”
“What?”
“Greg? He’s too noisy, so the Evil God might kill him right away before he can even get a word out. Then Delun? Excuse me, he was Priest Barwin’s precious hidden son, wasn’t he? But surely not Tisi? That weak and timid child would be lucky not to faint the moment he sets foot in hell.”
“You……”
“How about me instead?”
Winod’s eyes widened as he looked Ban up and down. Though there had been something vaguely observant about his attitude and something enigmatic about him, he had been someone who soon complied, lowering his pretty sky-blue eyes and quietly following along.
Whether he was revealing his true feelings now or had been hiding his schemes for a long time, Winod, who had much to be wary of, burst out in anger first.
“Wh-what nonsense are you spouting?”
“Didn’t you ask me first if I was a messenger of God? I’m the quiet type so I won’t be too bothersome, and since I’m an orphan, I could disappear without a trace and there’d be no complications. I’m not timid like Tisi, nor do I have a personality that shows it. So I’m more curious. Why don’t you designate me as the ‘messenger of God’?”
“……”
Winod’s shocked face looking at him as if he’d seen a ghost was amusing. Strange. He thought he’d analyzed himself objectively, neither elevating nor putting himself down too much.
Ban still wore a smile on his lips as he slowly tilted his head and pressed once more to finally get the answer he wanted.
“It seems Priest Winod shares the same thoughts as me, so would it be safe to say that I’ve been decided as the next messenger of God?”
“……Since when, and how much do you know? Who told you? Hm?”
“No, I knew from the beginning.”
“The beginning?”
“Yes, from the moment I was first born, everything.”
Perhaps that’s a condition for being an apostle, who knows? Ban gently curved his eyes, greeted the dazed Winod with proper courtesy, then left first.
Though it could be seen as acting mischievously by knowing a bit about future events through the game, well, it’s still better than being suddenly reincarnated into another world just for playing a game.
Ban comforted himself that way and moved with light steps to wash off his sweat-soaked body. And not long after, as he had expected, Ban was selected as the next ‘messenger of God’ and the ‘sacrifice’ to draw out the Evil God Orma.
* * *
The entrance to hell was located deep inside the temple where Ban had been taken in and raised. The priests claimed that they were merely gatekeepers, sealing the entrance to hell under the sacred name of Serka.
Words warning that the Evil God could crawl up to the surface at any time had been passed down, and while it wasn’t completely wrong for the priests to believe so.
‘Hmm, if he wanted to come out, he could have done so at any time. Why didn’t he?’
In fact, that was what Ban had been curious about all along. As if the priests actually knew how to seal the entrance to hell. They might believe they were blocking it, but it probably had no effect.
Moreover, since Orma was an existence with one foot in the domain of God, to some extent he must have been stuck in hell of his own volition.
However, Orma’s appearance revealed in the game’s final chapter wasn’t very normal. The body of a human tormented by madness broke beyond control and healed, broke and healed again repeatedly, and in the end Orma’s mind finally crumbled.
And yet, persistently, frustratingly, it bothered him that it seemed like Orma had locked himself there.
……Bothered? Mm, right. Until now he hadn’t known how to define this feeling, but the expression ‘bothered’ seemed to fit perfectly.
“……Ahem. Ban, it’s ahead.”
At the words calling him with a cough, Ban awoke from his thoughts. Before Ban’s eyes spread a scene so shabby that he naturally thought, ‘This is the entrance to hell?’ In the complete darkness, he could see a space split open as if a hole had been punched through the air.
Though he knew it through the game’s description, the actual sight was even more seriously pathetic. He felt strongly convinced that Orma could tear through this gap and come out at any time.
‘……So with this much, he’s definitely not coming out on purpose.’
At Ban’s slightly distorted face, Winod hastily patted his back lightly, thinking he might be trembling with fear or regretting it belatedly. It was an action meant as encouragement in Winod’s own way, but Ban just glanced at Winod with eyes faintly tinged with contempt and headed toward the entrance to hell without responding.
Whether Winod was grinding his teeth behind him calling him impudent or not, Ban walked with large strides without a moment’s hesitation.
I’ll be back, I’ll do my best as a messenger of God…… It was behavior on a different dimension from the sacrifices who had greeted them with special determination until now. Ban left the dumbfounded priests behind and jumped straight into hell without hesitation.
The moment he stepped in, his body fell endlessly downward. Perhaps because he knew what kind of place hell was, Ban felt more daunted and afraid about how to persuade Orma, who had crawled into and stuck himself in such a place of his own accord, than the fear of falling into an abyss where nothing could be seen.
Even Ban was physically experiencing that this world was gradually heading toward destruction. It was quite ironic that the only being who could stop that calamity was Orma, who had become an Evil God.
Anyway, wasn’t it already unfair to suddenly be reincarnated into the world inside a game while playing it, but wouldn’t it be even more unfair to die unable to prevent the calamity despite knowing the future?
So…… just what words should he use to persuade Orma?
Prostrating himself flat right away to explain the situation and beg for help was something countless messengers of God offered as sacrifices must have tried. He was certain that orthodox methods wouldn’t work, but the problem was that Ban himself wasn’t particularly eloquent either.
It was so daunting that he wondered if he should spout some bullshit like a man who slips next to a woman he likes in a club hazy with cigarette smoke and winks with a mischievous smile saying, ‘It’s boring here, right? Want to leave together?’
……No, first he needed to confirm if Orma was sane enough to hold a conversation. There was no way the mental state of someone aged in such a place for a long time could be normal.
Ban, who had been falling endlessly downward, realized at some point that he was standing still. Looking around, seeing that all sides were a quiet and dark void of nothingness, it seemed he had properly reached hell.
All he could see was black so jet-black that if you picked it with an eyedropper it would show #000000. Ban carefully steadied his breathing and concentrated on whether he could hear even a faint presence.
“……”
Mm, not at all. Though he stood still and wandered about for quite a while, perhaps hell was larger than expected as no sounds could be heard. Then I’ll have to go looking myself……
Ban walked in an arbitrary direction. From below he felt a strange sensation of not knowing if he was properly stepping on ground, and the top that seemed blocked like a ceiling felt suffocating as if he were trapped in a narrow closet.
Just being in hell for a very brief moment already brought an unpleasant feeling washing over him. To think he crawled into such a place on his own and stayed stuck here quietly. The intuition that the current Orma would not be in his right mind pressed down heavily on Ban.
“……Heu.”
Then from somewhere, a faint small breath could be heard. Ban immediately drew his sword from the scabbard hanging at his waist and turned his head in the direction the sound came from. However, as if he’d heard an auditory hallucination, that thin breath soon cut off and all sides fell silent again.
Nevertheless, Ban didn’t let down his guard and continued to glare at the direction the sound had come from. Though it was still dark and nothing could be seen, there was definitely something beyond there. As if that thought wasn’t wrong, soon something cut through the air and flew at a speed that couldn’t be followed with the eyes……
“Kuk……!”
It pierced near Ban’s chest. With a *thwack*, what had flown like light penetrated his body without hesitation. Pain dizzying enough to cloud his vision overwhelmed Ban.
The moment he realized that its identity was Orma’s weapon, a golden spear, system messages flashed in succession.
[A new God list has been unlocked!]
[……You have died!]
It tactlessly announced Ban’s death.
