How the Cult Saves the World

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Kess finished packing his belongings and left the house.

The village was quiet in the early dawn. It was like the eye of a storm, silent.

Kess walked along the peaceful street. Then, he found a figure sitting under the sunstone.

"Kess, where are you going at this hour?"

Under the sunstone, his gray hair shone faintly.

"Elder..."

Kess, who did not expect to meet him, clenched his fists nervously.

"Where are you going out so late?"

The elder scanned Kess with a serious eye and Kess answered firmly.

"I have to see it for myself. The power of the Kyros Faith."

"Are you saying you will betray Lord Diego?"

"Betrayal... If that's how you feel, elder, then maybe it is. But I... I want a god who cares for us, rather than a god who ignores us in danger."

The elder had no answer to Kess' words. The elder closed his eyes deeply once and opened them again.

"I see. If that's what you want, go ahead. You will have to bear the regret as well."

"Thank you, elder."

Kess bowed to the elder and moved his feet.

He had probably lost a lot of distance from the people of the Kyros Faith by now, but Kess was not afraid.

'Maybe it's dangerous.'

He might lose his life. But, it was better to try something than being trapped here and waiting to die.

A small spark of hope lit up inside Kess.

Kess headed for the gate he always guarded. As he was about to open the door...

He felt a gaze staring at him. He broke out in a cold sweat for some reason.

Kess cautiously lifted his head.

Then he saw yellow eyes.

"...!"

Kess couldn't even breathe.

The yellow eyes staring at him were not just one pair.

Yellow eyes surrounded the entire village.

Kess unknowingly backed away.

'It's okay. There's the sunstone.'

They were beings that couldn't even enter the village as long as there was a sunstone.

So it should be fine.

But then, the darkwolves moved. Two darkwolves that had been glaring at Kess split to either side, and something appeared between them.

It was a giant darkwolf that he had never seen near the village before.

Darkwolf leader.

The darkwolf leader slowly approached and stopped in front of the fence.

Kess, who had been backing away gradually, fell over without realizing it.

'It's okay, it'll be okay.'

Although the darkwolf leader had a black bead on his forehead unlike the other dark wolves, Kess comforted himself that it would be okay.Follow current novels at novelhall.com)

Grrr---

But when the darkwolf leader lowly growled, Kess felt an indescribable fear.

Soon after, something began to emerge from the black bead on the dark wolf leader's forehead.

It was black mist.

The black mist moved like a living thing and entered the village.

"Eek...!"

Kess closed his eyes in fear that it would catch him. But the black mist was heading for the center of the village.

The black mist didn't attack him, Kess realized and quickly opened his eyes to check where it was heading.

The black mist touched the sunstone.

'What is that...?'

Below it was an elder who was no less surprised than Kess. Neither Kess nor the elder realized what the black mist was doing.

And then.

Crack---

The sunstone began to crack.

The darkwolf's hideout was a small clearing near the only cave in the Cartel Forest.

He arrived at the hideout faster than expected. But for some reason, he saw nothing.

-My child, are you sure this is the darkwolf's hideout?

'Yes. It is.'

-Then why is there nothing?

How should I know?

"Master, are you sure this is it? Could they be in that cave?"

Alphius asked softly. I shook my head.

"No. Darkwolves don't live in caves."

Khalid clapped his hands and seemed happy.

Yeah. I forgot about this.

Khalid wasn't an ordinary psycho. He was the craziest among Diego's apostles, a lunatic.

He didn't hesitate to stain his hands with blood, and at the same time, he loved beautiful things the most.

He didn't care if the beautiful being was an enemy or an ally, a woman or a man.

He just liked anything beautiful. He was a beauty-crazy guy.

"Hmm, it's a pity that my dogs died... But killing you would be much more regrettable. I'll let you go this time."

Should I be grateful for this?

"But I'm only letting you go. The others..."

Khalid scanned my companions with an evaluative eye.

"Some of them seem okay... Hmm."

Khalid made a dissatisfied expression.

Damn it, we're all going to die at this rate.

Even in HSAW, Terdius struggled against Khalid. And that was in the mid-late part of the original.

That means Terdius faced Khalid after he got stronger.

Come to think of it, Khalid liked Terdius' beauty in the original as well.

'No, that's not important right now.'

I rolled my eyes and glared at him.

Sure enough. There was a gold bracelet on Khalid's wrist. That meant his power was slightly reduced from the original... But if Kyros was right, he was still not someone we could beat.

The moment we fight, we'll all die here.

'Damn it... Why did I have to get involved with Khalid here?'

I opened my mouth with difficulty as I watched him grow colder.

"That won't do."

Then Khalid's gaze fixed on me.

"Hooh, your voice is pretty good too. You're to my liking in many ways. But why won't it do?"

"Yes. It won't d--- Ack!"

In an instant, Khalid grabbed my neck with his hand. It was so hard to breathe that I couldn't even swallow saliva.

"Master!!"

"This bastard!!"

-My child!

The kids and Zain were surprised and ran toward me.

But at that moment, Khalid spread a red barrier around me and him.

I felt a deep dark energy from the barrier. The kids and Zain, even Cyril, tried to break through the barrier with their attacks. The barrier seemed alive and tentacles sprang out and blocked their attacks. Zain and Cyril were hit by the attacks and fell back. The kids were also fighting back, but they were busy blocking the tentacles' attacks. And it seemed to have soundproofing as well because I couldn't hear anything around me.

"Cough, ugh!"

I looked around while trying to shake off Khalid's hand, but his hand wouldn't budge.

-You snake bastard! How dare you!

Kyros shouted something, but that didn't reach me either.

It was then.

Flash---

A white light burst out of my body. For a moment, Khalid's brow furrowed.

"Ugh! This power...!"

Khalid let go of me in pain and backed away.

"Huff, cough!"

I collapsed on the ground and gasped for breath. I coughed and gagged, and it was hard to regain my senses.

'This, crazy bastard.'

-My child! Are you okay? I squeezed out all my strength, but pushing him away was the limit. I'm sorry.

Kyros has helped me.

'Thank you. Thank you, Kyros.'

I wiped the saliva from my mouth and got up. I glared at him.

"You, that power... What are you doing? This is interesting."

He seemed to be in pain just a moment ago...

Thanks to Kyros' power that pushed Khalid away for a moment, the barrier that was attacking my companions stopped moving.

My companions glared at Khalid as if they wanted to kill him, and continued to attack as if they wanted to break the barrier.

'Thank you, guys.'

I feel like crying.

On the other hand, Khalid looked at me with interest in his eyes.

I wanted to kill this guy, but I couldn't show any unnecessary reaction here.

If I provoke this guy, he'll be more annoying later.

"What's your name?"

"Leviathan."

"...Your name is not so good."

This bastard?