As Azadin began the consecration, a terrifying chill suddenly burst forth from the corpse.
"Ugh!"
Antler-like horns erupted from the corpse's head. In an instant, the body transformed into a Wendigo, and as it opened its mouth, a biting cold surged toward Azadin.
While Azadin, startled, blocked the chill with the edge of his cloak, the victim of the human sacrifice, now transformed into a Wendigo, tried to gore him with its horns.
But—
Thud!
Azadin lightly kicked upward, sending the Wendigo soaring into the air.
"I underestimated you."
Holding a funeral for a man already offered as a sacrifice to a Wendigo—thus severing the sacrificial state—was no different from snatching meat from the jaws of a beast.
Even a pet dog might bite if you try to take food from its mouth. Let alone this creature—an existence so fearsome even the Kurt Divine Clan could not destroy it, only seal it away.
The transformed sacrifice struck the ceiling and was caught in the hanging icicles.
In that moment, other Wendigos swarmed Azadin. The Wererats, apostles of Mezeri, and the Spider-Men, apostles of Arthra, had also mutated into Wendigos and blocked Azadin's path. Taking advantage of the gap they created, the sacrificial Wendigo fled.
"Running away?"
Azadin drew his bow and nocked an arrow. A spider-shaped Wendigo lunged to ensnare him with its legs, but Azadin, even with the bow strung, dodged the attack and loosed an arrow through the opening.
With a sharp whistle slicing the air, the arrow struck the fleeing sacrifice.
But Wendigos are undead. Unlike slashing or bludgeoning, stabbing with arrows causes little real damage.
And that was something Azadin knew very well.
— Boom!
Suddenly, the arrow exploded in a blinding flash. Azadin had wrapped a copy of the Book of the Divine King around the arrow and fired it.
"What kind of reckless…!"
Zebeck groaned as he witnessed it.
Azadin had previously used a copy of the Book of the Divine King in an arrow against Judge Zekt, but this was the first time Zebeck had seen it with his own eyes.
As a holy knight, he nearly fainted seeing the Book of the Divine King—a treasure of the King's Church and the sacred covenant of the Divine Kings—used in such a brutal way.
"Kyeeeek!"
"Grahhh!"
Whether the book-infused arrow was effective or not, the Wendigos began to scream in unison.
"Scott! Clear the way!"
"Got it, captain!"
Scott, the orc necromancer, formed a hand seal and spread his legs, bracing his stance.
Shadows extended from beneath his feet and struck the Wendigos. The ones felled by blades rose once more under his control and attacked the others.
"This is utter chaos!"
Zebeck, feeling his path as a holy knight growing ever more tangled, swung his sword to cut down the Wendigos not under Scott's control, grumbling all the while.
"If one is unashamed before their conscience, then even if they are stained by disgrace, they are still a fine knight!"
Brand, the Brass Knight, joined the fray with gleeful energy, smashing Wendigos with his halberd by Zebeck's side.
"I wish I could say I'm unashamed. But my conscience nags at me."
Ishmael, standing beside the lamenting Zebeck, was secretly flustered.
'A holy knight, a necromancer, a senile old man, and a herald. What a bizarre team… and yet it works so well.'
Ishmael shot arrows into the Wendigos' knees, slowing their movement, while Zebeck and Brand charged in hand-to-hand and cleared a path.
Azadin slid through the opening they created and caught up with the escaped sacrifice. The Wendigo, with an arrow wrapped in a page from the Book of the Divine King stuck in its body, struggled to pull it out. But each time, pure white light pulsed from the arrow—from the Book—purifying the creature.
Azadin kicked Wendigo's leg, forcing it to its knees, pulled another copy of the Book of the Divine King from his coat, and placed it on the creature's forehead.
As the page glowed, the Wendigo's antlers were severed.
"Nice!"
"Try consecrating it again!"
Spurred by Ishmael's shout, Azadin began the consecration once more. But just then, a thunderous roar shook the heavens and the earth.
"Ooooooooh!"
It was not the lesser Wendigos here—it was the main body of the Wendigo, wandering beyond, through the mists and unreality, that let out the cry.
At that moment, antlers sprouted again from the sacrifice. The brilliant light of the Book of the Divine King tried to dispel the wicked power, but dark energy and an overwhelming chill erupted endlessly from the center of the sacrificial body.
"Gah! What the—!"
Even with full cold-weather gear, frost began to form on Azadin's body. He took out all the copies of the Book of the Divine King he had and pressed them against the sacrifice as he consecrated it. But even he could feel it now.
'Even the power of the Archangel of the Trinity and the light of the Knights of Salvation is waning.'
Just as the King's Church and the Yaegas Divine Clan had fallen into corruption and were losing their strength… so too were the Knights of Salvation, now mere merchants, losing their holy power. As the era of Jupiter approached, all sources of white magic were weakening—and the Knights of Salvation were no exception.
From a young age, Azadin had read the books of the Knights of Salvation and held faith in the angels. He had always looked upon them favorably, but he was no blind fool.
'It's not like I had any eyes left to blind.'
Azadin felt it clearly now—that the Knights of Salvation were corrupted, their reputation in tatters, and that true devotion, virtue, and passion had become the laughingstock of the age… and that the power of angelic faith was fading.
***
Among the angels venerated by the Knights of Salvation, the Archangels of the Trinity were originally infinite beings of the heavens.
But upon witnessing humanity suffering under the reapers of the Nether, and being treated like livestock by followers of the Kurt Divine Clan, they took on material flesh and descended as incarnations to this world. Temporarily, they allied with the Kurt Divine Clan to help drive out the reapers of the Nether.
But the Kurt Divine Clan, conserving their strength, simply waited for the Archangels of the Trinity to exhaust their power.
Though they were aware of this, the Archangels of the Trinity spared no effort, fighting until they were utterly spent. In the end, they transcended again in a fortress on the Hubris Continent, declaring:
Those who uphold the virtues of wisdom, courage, and mercy shall be granted the power of white magic. To those who truly seek the good, we shall always answer.
Leaving behind that promise, the Archangels transcended once more, and their bodies turned to stone, sinking beneath the old city of the Hubris Continent.
Gathering to protect that ancient city and fortress, to uphold the teachings and virtues of the Archangels of the Trinity—that was the origin of the Knights of Salvation.
But now, among the Knights of Salvation, the only ones who can still wield white magic are those somehow connected to the Yaegas Divine Clan… and there is no one left who upholds virtue to manifest its power.
Just as the descendants of the Yaegas Divine Clan, the kings, and the nobles betrayed the light of the king's virtue and fell into corruption, so too did the Knights of Salvation betray their virtues and succumb to decay.
As a result, the Archangels of the Trinity lost their power, and prayers and petitions to them went unanswered.
But what does that matter? How could one blame the angels who, having expended all their strength, could no longer offer aid?
The Archangels of the Trinity had already fought for humanity until the very end, so despairing over their silence in response to pleas for salvation was not the right attitude.
The true stance of angelic faith is—
"O Archangels of the Trinity, hear my resolve."
Azadin held onto the sacrificial corpse, now surging once more with the power of darkness, and called upon the angels.
"When I was at my lowest and in the greatest pain, it was your stories that saved me. Having already been saved, my faith cannot betray me. I only fear that I might betray my faith!"
Azadin lifted his gaze to the sky.
"And so, I make my vow! I will—"
At that moment, the flickering light of the Book of the Divine King suddenly shone with a blinding radiance—
And pure white wings of light enveloped Azadin.
The howls of the roaring Wendigo abruptly turned into screams, and the surrounding Wendigos collapsed one by one, reverting to ordinary corpses.
Even the antlers that had grown on the sacrifice Azadin was holding, the thick wire-like fur that had burst from its skin—everything vanished, leaving behind nothing but the pitiful remains of an unfortunate victim.
"T-The Wendigo disappeared?"
Zebeck was dumbfounded as he watched the scene unfold before his eyes.
"A miracle!"
Brand voiced what Zebeck was thinking.
No one in the Knights of Salvation had received a response from the angels in recent times. And yet here and now, Azadin, a herald, the soulless heretic, had astonishingly gained their favor.
"A… a miracle?"
Even seeing it with his own eyes, Zebeck could not believe it.
It made no sense, no matter how he thought about it. Could the Book of the Divine King have caused some sort of resonance? Azadin had already used a considerable number of Books of the Divine King to draw out white magic.
But—
'No, that's not it. Even while acknowledging him, I subconsciously looked down on him. Just because he is of the Herald Clan, I assumed his faith and belief were inferior to mine. But to think… I would bear witness to a soulless heretic becoming a saint of miracles?!'
If he told anyone about this, they would call him a madman.
"My gods. Captain, what the hell did you do?"
The moment the angel's wings manifested before Azadin, Scott felt his necromantic control over his minions completely dissipate, leaving him bewildered.
Such a pure, divine, and overwhelmingly powerful force—it was undoubtedly something that could only be called a miracle.
People would likely be moved. After all, this was proof that a great being who looked upon them favorably truly existed.
But Scott remained rational.
"Making a promise to angels is more dangerous than a deal with the devil. Humans are fools who assume that just because angels are good, they'll be lenient in their reckoning, but magic is always merciless. Magic and miracles—those are collectors far crueler than any usurer."
He had realized that the miracle Azadin had invoked had come at the cost of an immense pact.
"I don't care. Right now, I'm just glad we stopped the Wendigo."
"Captain, what did you offer? What kind of promise did you make?"
"Even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me. More importantly… hmm."
Even as he shivered from the cold, Azadin took off his cloak and wrapped it around the body of the victim.
"Let's return to the surface."
The one at the center of the miracle, Azadin, remained unbothered as he calmly retrieved the copies of the Book of the Divine King and hoisted Wendigo's sacrifice onto his back.
"A miracle… Incredible. So angelic faith is something that truly has substance. And to think that…"
Ishmael felt something indescribable.
Was what had just unfolded merely an illusion created by the white magic of the Book of the Divine King, or was it truly a miracle of angelic faith?
If it was the latter, then Azadin deserved to be recognized as a saint of the Knights of Salvation.
But for a herald, a so-called soulless heretic, and not just any herald, but the Eyeless Azadin, scorned even among the Aragasa, to become the living proof and very subject of a miracle—how could such a thing be?