Wasn’t This a Night Game

If Not For You b*stard

{These are the tenets of your faith, decreed by Amael, Slayer of Evil. Engrave them upon your flesh, and remember:

One. You exist to destroy Evil. If even the smallest wickedness festers near you, show no mercy.

Two. You walk through darkness for the sake of the Light. Though your bodies are in shadow, your souls must shine.

Three. Question any suspected soul, hound them until the truth is torn out. For the followers of wicked gods and demons are deceitful, adept at hiding themselves.

Four. Should you spill the blood of the innocent through error, do not hesitate. It is more beneficial to the world to spill one innocent’s blood and slay ten who are wicked.

Five. My chosen are simple and stark. Those who endure agonizing curses and overcome them are loved by me, and I shall bestow my stigmata upon them. When you see my chosen, be loyal and obey.

Six. Those with many eyes upon their flesh are harbingers of calamity. Execute them on sight. Again I say, fear not the spilling of innocent blood.

Seven. Those consumed by darkness, not just in body but in mind, are more loathsome than anything else. Never forget the wrongs they have committed.

Offer the blood and entrails of the wicked as sacrifice unto me. I shall consume it gladly, for I am one who revels in the destruction of evil.}

The Chosen of an Evil God. Unbelievable.

The shard of the Evil God had shattered.

But why, in all hells, *why* had it shattered?

It fled Iomene’s body, burrowed into the saint’s, and… simply vanished.

Spewing forth every soul and mind it had just devoured, ones not even half-digested yet.

That alone was a devastating shock, but even more so was the Chosen’s current location.

Naturally, the Chosen had been waiting at the shard’s very side to attend to it, never imagining it would be conceived and broken apart in less than five minutes.

And so, right now…

“Savior! Eleos!”

“Eleos!”

The Seeker was first in line to witness the crowd’s cries, just a short distance from the Saint.

Cold sweat bloomed on his skin.

He’d spent a fortune in vengeful thoughts needed for the Miracle of Concealment, all to shatter the various defenses set up in the detached palace.

The Miracle of Concealment was severely weakened.

If the overflowing priests, mages, and knights around him were to discover him, everything would be over.

Careful not to be noticed by the shouting masses, the Seeker began to slowly back away.

“Kyahhh!”

Just then, Princess Iomene, cradled in the Emperor’s arms, abruptly turned her gaze towards the Seeker and spat out a sharp hiss.

“You!! You!! Bad! Bad!! Hate!!”

The shard of the Evil God had burst, and her soul seemed to have returned to its original state, but after over sixteen years of torment and solitary existence, Iomene’s speech was still halting.

But though her words were clumsy…

The look in her eyes was unprecedentedly ferocious.

The Seeker felt his heart plummet at the sight of her eyes.

There were those who, despite harboring a potent and agonizing curse for a long time, sometimes overcame it thanks to a human’s desperate will to survive and the addition of miracles.

And the souls of such beings became immune to all existing demons, hellish black magic, and the Evil God’s miracles and curses.

And the being before him…

Iomene was a being who had held the source of an unprecedentedly powerful curse within her for nineteen years, only to ultimately revive.

Even a thorough search through human history would likely find no human with greater resistance to curses, black magic, and the Evil God’s miracles.

Naturally, the resistance was strong, so the concealment miracle draped on the Chosen’s body must have been pierced through with ease.

‘What a goddamn mess!!’

Cold sweat blooms on the Chosen’s skin.

But the Chosen desperately feigned composure.

Iomene, having endured torture for ages, her words and expressions were still terribly clumsy.

What good were the ramblings of a broken mind to anyone listening?

If they could just be smoothed over, there was a chance to escape this situation.

“Your Imperial Highness. What is the matter?”

Bewildered eyes.

A startled face.

A face that knew nothing.

Emilie, a maid who’d worked in the Imperial Palace for eleven years, put on a performance of flawless acting as she answered.

*

The shard of the Evil God shattered, Iomene floating in the air, began to fall, so I hurriedly caught her and brought her back to the ground.

It was fine, healing her wounds and the wings that sprouted from her body.

But when people started yelling about Eleos or whatever, tears streaming down their faces, only then did my situation really sink in.

My skip-hell cheat code was gone.

I mean, it was a fragment of an Evil God!!

Wasn’t it supposed to be something fucking amazing?

Why did it break and go to hell!!

Why are you doing this to me, really?

Okay, so I admit my powers are ugly and base, but I only ever used them for good!!

Made the church people rich, treated the slum folks for free, eh?!

Never once used my abilities with wicked intent!!

So why am I going to hell! Why!!

Despair.

Frustration.

Sadness.

Tears leak out, one after the other.

My tears make the people chant the word Eleos with even more fervor.

Are they mocking me.

Thought I was going back to Korea, so I got up to all sorts of things, how am I supposed to fix this.

No way!!

Logically speaking, just now that pitch-black curse thing was super focused on me, how is it possible my soul isn’t shattered?

Even if the positive thoughts surrounding me are strong, for something that black, uh? Swarming all over the place, how is my soul still intact!?

Digging under an abandoned factory and finding an elixir, how does that make sense?

Me…

Me being a saint, how does that make sense?

Just go away.

I want to be alone.

Closing my eyes, choked with sobs, I suddenly hear Iomene’s sharp, cat-like voice cut through the air.

She’s pointing a finger at a dignified maid, maybe in her thirties.

“You! Bad!! Bad!!”

Iomene snarls, shouting, flailing her arms and legs.

The Emperor quickly steps in front of her.

“Looks like there are still after-effects.”

“Priest! Call the priests here! Iomene must be healed!”

At that, Iomene’s face screws up with frustration, she yells.

“That!! Bad!! Bad!! No! No!”

She throws off the arms of the Emperor and Empress trying to calm her, still screaming. But the Emperor only looks at her with pity, it seems.

“My daughter… yes. I understand. You can resent, and resent me as much as you want. I’m sorry, so, so sorry.”

The Emperor embraces Iomene.

The maid glances at the princess with something like pity, then turns away. Iomene swings her arms towards her.

“No!! No!! Bad! Bad!! Don’t go! Bad!!”

Watching Iomene yell at the maid, a look of stifled frustration on her face… it hits me, just like that.

Bad. Don’t go.

And there’s bloodstains on the maid’s clothes.

Could it be the maid’s hurt?

In all that chaos, she could have gotten hurt.

Seeing Iomeane raising such a ruckus, yelling like that, looked like she was hurt bad.

“Hold up there!”

The way to be forgiven by the Goddess, passed down by Old Man Yodel.

Escape your wrongs, don’t repeat them, and build up good deeds to move forward, wasn’t that it?

Since my cheat code had been shattered, and my plan to escape Korea ruined, there was no choice but to go back to the regular way, even if the success rate was low.

While I can still heal people with game skills, I gotta rack up even one more good deed.

Soon I’ll be ghosting and disappearing completely, so I won’t even be able to use my skills.

That’s how I can avoid going to hell.

Thinking about it makes me boil over again.

No!!

Why me, really!!

Why do I have to go to hell! Why!!

What wrong did I even do! Why!!

Seething with rage inside, I started striding towards the maid.

Guess my face was showing a bit of anger, with my heart burning with rage and frustration.

The maid’s face is pale.

Ah.

Was I making too fierce a face at a wounded person?

I need to soften my expression.

Maybe even give her a smile…

“This, this cur of grace!!”

The maid just flatlines, outta nowhere.

Her hand flies out, twitching, and something like black fog smothers my vision.

What the hell? Why’s it suddenly like this?!

“Kyahhh!!”

And almost at the same moment my vision blanks out…

Iomene’s hiss tears through the air, and a pillar of blinding light slams down in front of me.

Not just any light pillar.

A light pillar branded with the symbol of the White Order.

And that pillar is falling, spot on, onto the maid who just went apeshit.

I stumble back, stunned, and look at Iomene, she’s in the Emperor’s arms, her hand raised, pointing at the sky.

And on the back of her hand…

Hold on.

Isn’t that the Dullanier crest?

Why is the White Order’s symbol glowing on Iomene’s hand?

“aaah!! aaah!! You, you fucking moron b*tch!!”

The maid, being fried in real-time by the light pillar, ain’t doing too good.

Her appearance is changing.

From woman to man.

From young to old.

Her appearance wasn’t the only thing transforming, her very build kept shifting too.

It was like a real-time metamorphosis, a bizarre magic show turning her into someone else entirely, and she writhed like an ant under a magnifying glass.

The maid’s uniform, unable to withstand the endless transformation, tore and peeled away.

And when her naked form beneath was revealed to the world, everyone held their breath.

Beautiful?

Nah.

Disgusting.

“E-, eyes!!”

“Sweet God!! What *is* that?!”

Hundreds of eyeballs sprouted densely across the maid’s body, blinking grotesquely.

A hundred times more repulsive than Erpa’s pre-healed left face.

Fucking hell, even *I*, a monster girl enthusiast, can’t stomach this horror show, can I?

The maids and butlers working in the palace recoiled in horror, and the Royal Guard surged forward to protect the Royal Family.

And the priests and paladins, as one, wreathed themselves in miracles and drew their swords.

“A Calamity!! The Calamity as it was written!!”

“The one with a Thousand Faces!”

Above the trembling voices, a scream from a priest of the White Order pierced everyone’s ears.

“The Chosen of an Evil God!!”

“Hurry!! Focus divine power into the pillar of light!! Burn her alive!!”

The people of the White Order reacted instantly, focusing their divine power together into the pillar of light falling from the heavens.

The maid, she couldn’t hold out against that act, not anymore.

No.

The Chosen of the Evil God began to burn.

“Krrrgghh!!”

A tortured scream ripped from the Chosen’s mouth.

And finally, her body gave way, dissolving into a handful of bloody sludge, not even a bone fragment remaining.

Before melting into that bloody sludge, with a hand that was almost just pulped flesh, she pointed at me, leaving behind a resentful word.

“Grace-whore Chosen!!…If it weren’t for you….”

That was the end of it.

The pillar of light vanished, and there was no Chosen left.

Me?

I blankly watched the whole spectacle unfold.

What the hell is even going on?

“Dulanearsh!”

“Evil-Slayer!”

“The one who overcame the curse!”

“The God of Evil-Slaying has bestowed a Saintess upon the Order!”

The priests and paladins of the White Order surged toward Iomene, prostrating themselves before her.

Iomene, whatever she thought of it, broke free from the Emperor’s embrace and began to run towards me.

“Saint-nim!!”

And at that very instant, from far off, Erpha could be seen sprinting towards me too.

Seeing her, a sudden gloom descended.

A woman who loves me.

But a woman I must push away because of my tragic fate.

I even planted a kiss on her thinking I was going back to Korea!!

What am I supposed to do now!!

I can’t bring myself to laugh lightheartedly.

Nor can I cry. And while I stood there, offering Erpha an awkward, strained smile…

“I love it!!”

Iomene pounces on me.

“I love it!! Love it!!”

She smashes her face against mine, rubbing it all over. Her face is alight with a dazzling smile.

“The Saint of Healing and the Saintess of Annihilation have been granted to humanity!! Revere them!!”

The white-robed priests and holy knights of the Order come swarming, falling prostrate around us.

Everyone was looking on at the scene, clearly delighted.

Everyone, that is, except one.

Erpha, who had stopped dead in her tracks, staring at Iomene clinging to me.