Became an Apostle of an Ancient God

Chapter 22

While they were locked in a fierce melee, constantly measuring each other's reach, the first to make a move was the Commander.

"[Blink.]"

Flash! The Commander's body briefly shone, and with a short chant, he teleported right in front of Iron Mask. It was known that the Apostles of Light had rites that could shorten the distance.

Iron Mask immediately launched a counterattack. From his arm, darkened by shadow, he created a kite shield and deflected the Commander's sharp thrust as he blocked it.

At the same time, as the Commander lost his balance and began to fall sideways, Iron Mask gripped his spear in reverse and thrust. However, the rite was activated just in time to narrowly intervene.

"[Guiding Missile.]"

The moment he heard the chant, Iron Mask clicked his tongue.

The Shadow mask was the one he favored most, with excellent versatility and balance. But it had one flaw—it was poorly matched against Followers of Serre, who primarily used Light-based rites.

Especially in the case of [Guiding Missile], the compatibility was particularly bad.

This rite had an automatic tracking function toward the enemy, forcing defense over evasion. Even if he managed to block it, the searing pain would inevitably overwhelm him.

As three missiles of light shot out from the tip of the sword, Iron Mask quickly widened the distance and spun his spear in his right hand to deflect the light missiles.

The moment he distanced himself for defense, the Commander didn't miss his chance. He extended his left hand and conjured a magical bow made of light.

"[Bow of Light.]"

He infused Divine Power into the bowstring, converting it into light to fire. It lacked homing ability, but dodging arrows while counterattacking was difficult. Besides, another [Guiding Missile] could be launched at any moment.

In that case.

"I guess I have no choice."

Iron Mask hurled the shadow spear in his right hand with all his might at the Commander.

With a vicious tearing sound, the spear flew like a cannonball and struck the ground, cracking the earth and kicking up a cloud of dust.

"You bastard. What are you..."

"If that's how you want to play, then I have my own way too."

Bringing his right hand to his mask, Iron Mask murmured softly.

Undead type?

No, if he's an Apostle of Light, there's a high chance he knows both [Turn Shadow] and [Turn Undead]. He didn't want to borrow the power of undead-type monsters only to get exorcised.

Demon type?

Like the undead, demon-type monsters were weak against rites with the prefix 'Holy.' Again, he'd be fighting with a disadvantage.

'In that case... it's time to test the one I got recently.'

"All humans originate from beasts."

The moment Iron Mask muttered this, his body was covered in black fur. His physique transformed from human to beast, resembling that of an ape.

But something was different from an ape. Sharp claws extended from his hands and feet, and his snout resembled that of a wolf, not a monkey.

Beneath the iron mask, which had shifted from a shadow mask to a wolf-shaped one, Iron Mask growled and stared down his opponent.

"A w... werewolf...!"

"Grrrr... Round two."

Flash! Leaping swiftly on all fours, Iron Mask dodged the raining light arrows and charged at the Commander.

"Ugh! Get lost, you demon! [Holy Barrier]!"

As the distance finally closed, the Commander drew his sword and prepared a rite of protection, but it wasn't enough to stop the hunting instinct engraved into the werewolf's body.

"Huh?"

Crack.

By the time the searing pain hit, it was already too late.

Having unleashed the power of the werewolf through the mask, Iron Mask vanished momentarily from the Commander's sight with supernatural agility. In the blink of an eye, he reappeared behind the Commander.

With savage brutality, Iron Mask bit into the back of the Commander's neck with the werewolf's jaws.

"Agh. Guh. Aaaaah!!!"

It's possible to deploy [Holy Barrier] in an all-directional spread.

But in a life-or-death moment, when a beast is charging at you, deploying an omnidirectional protection rite in the blink of an eye is difficult even for a priest of cosmic rank.

Even if one succeeded in deploying it, the strength of the protection would naturally be weaker.

So usually, most priests focus their Divine Power on the area they expect to be attacked to strengthen protection and reduce casting time.

In other words, places not expected to be attacked won't receive the protection's blessing.

Just like now.

"Grrrrrr...! Raaaagh!!!"

Crunch, crack.

With the jaw strength of the werewolf, Iron Mask bit through and broke the Commander's neck entirely, then used his right hand to rip off the armor and his left to pierce the man's heart.

"Guh. Urgh. Uuuugh..."

"To lose your life over a fleeting mistake. Got any last words? I'll hear them."

"..."

The Commander, slowly collapsing into a pool of blood, reached out and glared at Iron Mask.

"May Anatolia be cursed."

"Not even worth hearing."

Slash!

Pulling his left hand from the Commander's body, Iron Mask returned to his human form and shook off the blood.

Looking around, he saw that the survivors, terrified by the death of the Sun-level priest Commander, were slowly backing away.

"If you don't want to die, get out of my sight now."

At Iron Mask's fierce shout, even the last shred of fighting spirit vanished from the guards, and they all fled immediately.

And then.

"So it's you. The one they call the mercenary of Anatolia."

From behind Iron Mask, a nun emerged with a mist of black smoke swirling around her.

Iron Mask immediately considered using monster power by placing his right hand on the mask, but the nun quickly dispersed the black fog and revealed her face.

"Relax. I'm not your enemy. At least not right now."

As she removed her hood, her flowing black hair cascaded down her shoulders like a waterfall.

Was she using a rite to disguise her voice? The voice he had just heard had been male, but the revealed face of the nun was unmistakably female.

"So you're the additional reinforcements our guys mentioned."

Iron Mask had been constantly thinking of ways to escape the prison without Haru's help, and in the meantime, he managed to secretly overhear some of the prisoners who had been here before him.

Those people, like Anatolia, came from Tenebris—a country that had also vanished under Lusis—and had deliberately gotten captured.

They revealed they intended to rescue the Heretics defined by Lusis, including those from Tenebris who were held in the Hall of Atonement, and to destroy the Hall itself.

They even said that soon, a top-tier assassin and a priest with near-cosmic rank abilities would come to the Hall, release the prisoners, and attempt a rebellion against Luther.

"So it was true. An assassin from Tenebris is coming."

"Thanks to that, my workload got lighter. You did the jailbreak work for me."

"If you're going to thank someone, don't thank me—thank my little friend who's still trapped in the Rear side. Without them, escape would've been impossible. Save them while you're at it, along with your people."

"Of course. I'll do that. We don't have much time. Let's hurry."

The assassin from Tenebris pulled the hood back over her head and asked,

"I'm Hannah. And you?"

"I've got Amnesia, so I don't know my name. For now, my friend calls me Iron Mask."

"Alias? Hmph. Well, whatever. Your reputation is already quite famous outside Anatolia anyway."

As they neared the 2nd Church, a firefly—one Iron Mask had been waiting for—began to circle around him. Following the glowing firefly into the church, they found trembling common believers inside, clearly terrified.

Naturally, Iron Mask had no intention of killing them. Hannah didn't seem to have any such intention either, at least not yet.

"There was a report that a passage to the Rear side of the Hall exists somewhere near the 2nd Church, but we don't know its exact location."

Hannah said this as she looked around at the believers.

"Maybe we can get something out of these guys by interrogating them?"

"Forget it. They're just ordinary civilians."

"You're mistaken, Iron Mask."

Hannah glared at him with cold eyes.

"In our war, civilians don't exist. Anyone who believes in Serre is an enemy. If they persecuted us, then we have equal rights to respond in kind, don't we?"

"The reason I said forget it—"

Iron Mask pointed to the firefly perched on his fingertip.

"There's no need to torture civilians. This firefly will guide us to the path."

Iron Mask released the firefly once more. Scattering violet light as it flitted about, the firefly descended the stairs leading to the church's basement.

As they went down, a dusty storage room came into view. It was filled with old relics like a disused statue of Serre and worn-out sacred paintings.

The firefly finally landed atop the statue of Serre and emitted a twinkling light.

"Strange."

At Iron Mask's words, Hannah asked with a puzzled look.

"What is?"

"This room is covered in dust, but no one's even sneezing."

He, who was fiddling with the statue of Serre where the firefly had perched, carefully reached out his hand to the symbol of light that Serre was holding.

At that moment, the scenery of the underground storage changed in an instant.

In an instant, all the dust covering the storage disappeared.

The dust that had enveloped the room vanished, and the statue of Serre emitted a bright light as it slowly moved. Where the statue had retreated, there was a staircase leading deeper underground than this place.

"...Indeed. A makeshift sanctuary. I was fooled. Let's go, Iron Mask. We have no time. The dogs of Lusis, who noticed our intrusion, will come rushing in."

Iron Mask, who sent the somewhat impatient Hannah ahead, cautiously explored the surroundings and descended the stairs.

Towards the rear side that the Hall of Atonement had been hiding.