Chapter 353 – The War (1)

“Please let me live.”

“I said it before, I have no intention of killing you.”

Jormungand sat next to Jamie on the cliff, eating jerky.

“I didn’t think you would go that far.”

“I heard the story of how you met him.”

“At first, I just thought of him as a test subject and took him in. But as time went on, it came to the point where he was no longer a test subject.”

“Because you are someone faithful to your feelings.”

“Lord, you made me that way.”

At that, Jamie smiled and bit off a jerky slightly.

The two of them didn’t say anything for a while and looked at the dawn in the distance.

The long night ended with the sun rising.

Looking at the half-risen sun, Jormungand opened her mouth.

“The Lord disappeared, and I wandered for a long time.”

“Uh.”

“I pretended to be strong for Behemoth, but it was hard.”

Jamie just listened to her.

“The 12 Gods—they relentlessly pursued us. I think it was a constant fight. It wasn’t just once or twice that I almost died, and at the same time, Trika had disappeared, and I couldn’t find him, and the other families were gone.”

The forces of the 12 Gods were persistently pursuing those who had lost their Lord, and there were far too many deaths. These people were targeted to be eliminated.

Diablo disappeared, and Jormungand, who became their leader, did try to control them, but it wasn’t an easy thing.

Eventually, everyone scattered.

Jormungand fled and ran with the hope that one day her Lord would come.

But no matter how many years she waited, the one she was waiting for didn’t show a sign of returning, and the world turned to worship the 12 Gods.

Jormungand could guess what had happened to her Lord.

“It was from then. It wasn’t about choosing the right means and methods anymore.”

Jormungand was born with a snake’s cool-headedness and amazing intellect.

She was cruel when she wanted to be, but she never meant to cross the line because it was her Lord’s order.

“I am sure.”

Jamie shook his head.

Crossing the line for him was enough. He never wanted her to extend it for too long and make her familiar with those terrible things.

“But that was only possible with the Lord by my side.”

To Jormungand, Jamie was everything in the world.

How would a person who lost everything manage to change?

As soon as she realized that her Lord was in serious trouble, she began to do anything she could.

She didn’t even hesitate to touch the most forbidden magics to find her Lord, and she did everything she could to find a way to defeat the 12 Gods.

And it wasn’t an easy thing.

She had endured it for so long, experiencing so many world resets, but it was difficult to find any answers through it.

“It happened one day when I was spending such meaningless time.”

Jormungand lived in madness with each day. And to her, all humans were enemies who had betrayed her Lord, and she had never shown mercy to them.

It was to the point where she improved her Lord’s black magic and turned it into something more horrifying.

Black magic was improved and enhanced to create a change in the shadows, and she began to start dark magic schools, which soon spread all throughout the world.

“I didn’t care what others did with what I thought. In the first place, that wasn’t a very important thing on my mind.”

Jormungand had no choice but to do that to find her Lord, and Jamie sighed.

He didn’t know that she was the origin of the black magic schools that spread all throughout the world.

All of this was his karma.

He didn’t say anything and continued to listen to her.

“And then one day when I was studying…”

It was the time when she was studying the connection between the body and the soul after finding a large number of dead bodies.

An unknown voice began to speak.

“At first, I thought it was the voice of the spirits of the corpses, but it turned out to be something entirely different.”

Finding the source of the voice wasn’t easy either.

But she found it and learned that the voice she heard was of the victims in the world reset.

The ones who died.

They were those who hated the 12 Gods.

With the reset, the hatred accumulated over time and remained extremely powerful.

“At first, I didn’t like it.”

They were just things filled with hatred that were too strong for her to get rid of, so she couldn’t do anything with her power.

However, leaving it alone was tough since they constantly talked to her and interfered with her work.

She was in the middle of studying when she decided to get rid of them because she hated them.

But then she came across a book called The Structure of Holy Power.

And she roughly knew it, but it felt interesting as this was in-depth knowledge about it.

And she had this sudden realization.

“In that book was a gamble I took.”

The proposition of holy power came from faith.

Believers sent their blind faith to the God they believed in, and the God would supply holy power back.

So, what was this blind faith?

Numerous beliefs existed in the world, and there were numerous people who received them and stood on top.

None of them turned into Gods. However, there were those who wielded similar powers.

They were the ones with several subordinates risking their lives.

Their powers were roughly the same as holy power.

Here Jormungand thought,

‘Blind faith in madness.’

In order for it to be replaced with holy power, such madness must be huge.

The kind of belief didn’t matter.

Whether it was made with good intentions, bad or was under a contract.

“And I had so many things to give it.”

Countless grudges harboring hatred beyond madness for the 12 Gods.

Jormungand made a contract with them.

She said she would kill the 12 Gods if they supplied her with the anger they had toward them.

It was an obvious thing, yet it wasn’t easy.

It was almost impossible to unite all the grudge thoughts into one. So another huge amount of time passed.

“I continued to get stuck on this path. While I contemplated whether it would be impossible to replace faith with anger for holy power, I came to this conclusion—a way to unify the soul by adding up the grudges into one body. The theory was perfect, and I had to experiment with it, but it was impossible to hold grudges with the normal human body.”

She tried to use the bodies of the other races because they were stronger but they exploded to death.

“And then I met Prometheus.”

After talking with him, she realized that he would be the perfect one. But her original idea wasn’t that perfect.

“Once again, I fell into researching things.”

It must have been a hellish time for Prometheus, but he had endured all of the experiments for the sake of his goal of killing the 12 Gods.

After numerous experiments, she realized that the originally black mana was specialized at holding grudges and made Prometheus into his current form.

“It was easy after that. Gradually, we rose, and the 13th holy power was created.”

It was a darker and more terrible power to wield compared to the other Gods, but that didn’t matter.

“It is the power I got from my Lord. If I get reprimanded in the process, I will accept it sweetly. If you say you will take my strength away, then fine. I can give it to you with a happy heart now. So…”

Jormungand looked at the sun and said,

“Please don’t disappear from now on.”

Jamie couldn’t breathe.

Because of him, she ended up doing a lot of things she shouldn’t have done.

If it was because of her greed, he would have punished her, but he knew she was doing it for his sake.

It was madness.

Jormungand’s every action was tinged with madness when it came to her Lord because he was her world.

And then her whole world suddenly disappeared. Besides, there was nothing to control her, and it was natural for her to run rampant.

“I am sorry.”

It was the same with Behemoth and Trika.

Everyone had suffered due to that. Not just that, many had sacrificed their lives after Diablo vanished.

The difference between himself and the 12 Gods was the number of lives sacrificed.

What kind of savior and last guardian was he?

‘But….’

He had come all this way.

He felt sorry for the innocent people who had been swept away by his actions, but they had already reached this point.

Therefore, it was only right that he would apologize to them once the 12 Gods were taken down.

Otherwise, the deaths of those who have been sacrificed would be meaningless.

“Get up now.”

“Lord.”

“How can you be punished? When the fight is over, and if we are still alive by then….”

Jamie looked at the dawn and continued,

“..we can accept the punishment we deserve.”

“… Yes.”

Now was the time to focus on what was in front of them.

Then, just in time, a call came.

[Diablo…. No, Jamie Welton.]

The holy power of Jamie felt drawn as the voice of the Goddess could be heard.

[I need your help.]

“The Chimera Legion of Zenith has joined!”

“A huge portal has been created on the left! The cavalry of the Lily Church is charging over the flanks!

“Soldiers with an odd great sword on their right arms have appeared! The damage to our allies is serious!”

“We need to retreat!”

Ricky gnashed his teeth at the bad news which kept coming in from everywhere. The situation of the war was not tense until yesterday.

However, in about an hour, everything had gone terribly wrong.

This was expected.

Two churches joined forces on the enemy side, and Pyro was alone on their side.

There was no way the balance of power was right. Yet they endured because Zenith, their God, didn’t affect the battlefield.

‘Has Zenith intervened?’

Secret troops that were hidden within the Zenith church were appearing one after another.

He didn’t know where such monsters were kept hidden, but in this state, they were retreating.

‘Other countries are not in a condition to help.’

At least the master-level warriors in the Seldam Kingdom were active on the battlefield.

“You bugs… I will destroy you all.”

The Flame Emperor, Count Simon, hurled lava at the enemy troops.

“Linmel, you foolish old man, I will do your share.”

1st elder Offen Ginger manipulated the airflow and used the lightning around.

“You who destroy the peace of the world… can never be forgiven, especially if the lives of poor people have been sacrificed.”

Siegfried, who recovered with Ricky’s help, couldn’t hold back his anger and controlled the space to rush at the enemies.

“Shit. You said that it was because of Seldam that you were like this? I will kill you all!”

Gastol, one of the Five Sword Masters of Seldam, mercilessly wielded his twin swords in aura.

In addition to that, the Masters from the north, who were dispatched and joined forces with them, were holding the defense line.

But everything had a limit.

“Brother.”

Saint Anna, who was sitting next to Ricky, looked anxious.

With the holy power of a saint within her eyes, she could feel how the battle was happening.

“At this rate, we will get pushed back.”

They had to choose, and Ricky held the sword that was next to him.

And told the aide,

“Inform the Pope.”

“Apostle! No!”

The aide, who understood Ricky’s intentions, tried to stop him, but the man had already made up his mind.

“I will head to the battlefield. If we lose this place, we do not have any future.”

“… I understand.”

The aide sighed, lowering his head, and Ricky looked at Anna.

“Anna. You should head to the main church too.”

“But brother…”

“It is fine. Besides, if I turn away from the soldiers who are fighting hard, then I cannot be called an Apostle. I will be trash.”

And it was unacceptable for him to abandon the position and run away from the role that the Goddess had given him.

If he was an Apostle, he had to fight by their side and maybe die when needed.

“If I die, please look after all this…”

“Brother!”

Ricky smiled at her and left her.

“… please come back to me all well.”

Ann prayed earnestly for her brother, who stepped onto the battlefield.