“I, who serve Zeyaom, cannot be wrong. That child, a demon, is using trickery to offer himself and bring calamity upon us…”
Denying reality, the high priestess was branding Abrisius as a demon.
Lightly ignoring her as she stubbornly clung to meaningless obstinacy, Abrisius naturally changed back to his original appearance.
And he shouted toward the people who were still looking at him with disbelieving faces.
“I am the youngest and most precious life in this city, and of divine bloodline. I match Zeyaom’s revelation exactly. After my body is offered as a sacrifice, it will reach the Divine Realm where the gods reside. I will go there and tell the gods. To stop this calamity.”
Wetting his lips with saliva, he shouted before the people, cleverly mixing truth and facts.
Abrisius, a complete child of a god, had a superior bloodline compared to Cairens, who was a demigod.
However, even Abrisius himself didn’t know if his soul would truly go to the Divine Realm after death.
When humans die, they head underground to the world of the dead. The original work described it that way, so it must be true. However, there wasn’t even a brief mention in the original work about what happens to gods when they die.
This was purely a lie fabricated by Abrisius.
‘Since a god is being offered, I might really ascend to the Divine Realm.’
Of course, the possibility of Henelion accepting the soul of the Dark Divine Race was low. Perhaps unlike humans, that soul itself could be annihilated.
“So Cairens… is not a sacrifice.”
Even accepting all such worst-case scenarios, Abrisius wanted to prevent Cairens’s death.
“No. That can’t be. It’s not you.”
Cairens, shocked from behind, shook his head. Faced with the situation where his friend might die in his place, he couldn’t think straight. Abrisius looked at him silently. A face tangled with guilt and shock. Still, it looked more vibrant than the expression resigned to death.
“I’m not dying in your place.”
Because he was someone who felt guilt more strongly even in a situation where he could avoid death, Abrisius couldn’t completely hate Cairens.
“This was just the predetermined future.”
“But, but…”
“You don’t think I’m a less precious existence than you, do you?”
Eventually Cairens lowered his head. Wiping away the tears faintly pooling in his eyes, Abrisius smiled bitterly.
“Still, thank you until the end. For trying to protect me.”
With all his heart, he gave thanks to Cairens. Having poured out all his feelings like this, he felt quite relieved. Though he had pretended to be composed all along, the unavoidable fear felt like it was subsiding a little.
“So offer me. If I head to the Divine Realm, your calamity will end!”
At Abrisius’s cry, people murmured.
They were agreeing with Abrisius’s words, saying the friendship between the two that couldn’t be watched without tears and that the true savior who would resolve this calamity had come.
Though one person couldn’t do so.
“No!”
The high priestess still refused to admit she was wrong and denied this entire situation.
“Do not be deceived by that child’s honeyed words! All of this is the trick of that evil one!”
Despite her appeal, no one listened to her words.
The other priests, who had already been questioning her actions, saw the existence of the sacrifice who had come of his own accord and now finally admitted that her words were truly wrong, not stepping forward rashly.
The same was true for the people who had watched this entire scene. They realized this entire situation was a shameless play committed unilaterally by the high priestess using the miracle caused by the beggar boy.
“Damn it!”
As all the hot arrows of criticism turned toward her, she backed away like a cornered rat.
No matter how much she racked her brain, she couldn’t see a way out of this situation.
“Why? My judgment wasn’t wrong! I served Zeyaom! Borrowing that lowly brat’s body, that he appeared was all to give me a revelation!”
Though she shouted before the crowd denying all truth until the very end, the response was cold.
Now no one took her words seriously. Rather, the more the high priestess struggled desperately, the more her dignity only fell.
“That woman has completely lost her mind.”
A man who couldn’t watch anymore muttered quietly from below.
As if that became the starting point, criticism and curses flew from here and there.
“There’s a limit to shamelessness.”
“Tsk tsk, she’s definitely crazy. Since she didn’t receive the revelation herself, she must have done this out of fear for her position.”
“How dare you carelessly defile the god’s name! And you call yourself a high priestess?”
“Aren’t those guys over there all in it together too!?”
Some spouted speculative remarks misinterpreting her actions and the reason for causing this incident, while others began gossiping about whether she was suitable for her current position.
They even threw sharp criticism at the high priests of other temples who had helped perform this ritual.
“Ahem, that’s enough. What exactly do you think you’re doing with this? Do you think you can cover the sky with your palm?”
“We simply believed your words from the beginning… To betray us like this!”
“Do you not fear heaven! Can you still call yourself one who serves the great World Tree?”
Eventually, the high priests of other temples who felt the arrows of criticism flying even toward them shifted all responsibility to Zeyaom’s high priestess, as if they had nothing to do with this incident.
“How dare… How dare!”
When was it that they followed her words out of fear of being criticized as incompetent? She trembled with rage at them for switching sides now.
She couldn’t hold out any longer.
“Then why exactly did Zeyaom give me such a revelation? I… only did as he said. This revelation itself was his permission to offer Cairens!”
Eventually, she swept up all her anger and made excuses as if bringing in and blaming the World Tree Zeyaom who would be in the sky above.
No, from the beginning, she had followed his will.
And she had merely been obstructed from that great and noble will.
“Yes, this is all because of you.”
Her venomous eyes, having lost their way, turned toward Abrisius.
The moment their gazes met, Abrisius’s body trembled at the chilling sensation on the back of his neck.
“You said you wanted to be offered to the gods that badly?”
As if she had lost her mind, she drew the dagger at her waist with a smile on her lips. It was a sacred object imbued with Zeyaom’s sap used only when performing rituals like today.
“If that’s your wish, I’ll grant it right now.”
With the remaining hand not holding the dagger, she lightly grasped the back of Abrisius’s neck and slammed him down onto the platform, pinning him there.
At the strong impact that felt like his neck bones were being crushed, Abrisius’s body trembled.
“Kehe-!”
“Look at you squirming just like an insect.”
Watching Abrisius like that, she didn’t hide her mockery. Rather, as if enjoying his pain even more, she put more strength into the hand gripping the back of his neck.
“Stop it-!”
“You’re no longer needed, so get lost!”
Cairens, who had been watching, tried to stop her but it was useless. Having already lost her reason, she didn’t even maintain appearances but rather struck young Cairens with her elbow and threw him to the floor.
“Ah-!”
“Cairens!”
Eventually, Cairens, whose body was thrown onto the hard stone floor, groaned and collapsed on the spot. Seeing that, the king and princess were startled and simultaneously called out to him, jumping up from their seats.
Whether the impact of hitting the floor when thrown was great, Cairens couldn’t get up from his spot and only let out groans. However, his gaze was directed toward Abrisius and the high priestess on the platform.
“Ugh, kek, kehe!”
“Die and go to the god’s side! Try to stop this calamity yourself as you said!”
Shouting and cackling like a crazed executioner, she checked people’s gazes.
The contempt toward her remained, but they were holding their breath watching the calamity that would end with that child’s death.
“Now disappear.”
With those words, the sharp dagger was aimed at Abrisius’s neck. At the eerie sensation of the sharp blade lightly touching the back of his neck, Abrisius held his breath with his eyes tightly closed.
He might really die now.
“Seianes…”
At the very moment he whispered that name, recalling the one he missed most at the last.
“My child. You were here.”
A group of dazzling lights hotly colored the air, and Seianes revealed himself above the void.
His voice toward Abrisius was still warm, but his gaze toward the high priestess gripping the back of his neck was frighteningly cold.
“Get away from my child.”
The voice of the ruler who governed all these lands spread beyond the central altar and across Atlante’s earth.
At the chilling sensation that made her knees tingle, the hand of the high priestess gripping the back of Abrisius’s neck began to tremble.
