Episode 304 War Maniac Era (6) As
the prophet Rune faced persecution head-on and walked to the execution site, his disciples wept and clung to him.
Then the Prophet Loon said: ‘You will all forsake me, as it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered’.
At this time, a young apostle who would later become the pope stepped forward and said, ‘Even if everyone abandons the Prophet, I alone will never abandon the Prophet’.
Prophet Rune said, ‘Listen to me. Before the first rooster crows this morning, you will deny me three times.’
Soon after, the prophet Lun was brutally executed, and the giggling gangsters approached and asked the young apostle. ‘Are you the one who used to go with that criminal?’
Then the young apostle denied it, saying, ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
Afterwards, a waitress who passed by said, ‘This is a person who always begged sinners for instruction and volunteered to be an errand boy!’ let’s say
The young apostle said, ‘I don’t know the man. I can swear,’ he denied.
After a while, numerous executioners came and threatened the young apostle. ‘I can tell just by listening to your words. Aren’t you one of the sinners too!’.
Then, the young apostle swore that if he lied, he would be punished by heaven, and said, ‘I don’t know’.
Just then the first rooster crowed.
-『Gospel of the Rune』 26:69-75-
* * *
“Oh my God.”
Bikir clicked his tongue once.
Then, holding the hand of Pope Nabokov I, he quickly fell back.
Then Nabokov covered his mouth with his hand and blushed.
“Oh hey old man~ I’m a nun~ I can’t do it!”
“…”
Bikir sighed lightly.
I couldn’t count on it when I was sober, but now I couldn’t expect help from the pope because my judgment was clouded by dementia.
In the first place, she wasn’t destined to get caught up in this situation.
‘I’ll have to evacuate to a safe place somehow.’
at that time.
Seeing the face of Pope Nabokov I, Winston’s expression changed strangely.
Surprisingly, he seemed to retain some degree of sanity even now as a demon.
“The Pope. I don’t think she knows. Which one is closer to the devil, the devil or the human?”
“…”
Winston said again when Vikir was silent.
“Quo Vadis, a religious chant, are the descendants of ‘Three Times of Denying God.
It must mean the rune, a prophet who disappeared after being persecuted a long time ago.
Winston grinned.
“There was a time when I valued humanity more than anyone else. At that time, I also deeply sympathized with the doctrine of Quo Vadis.”
At the same time, the unicorn Amdusias tugged at the reins around Winston’s neck, his dark mane flying.
In the process of demonic erosion of the human spirit, the fragments of memories that have been cut off create countless sparks.
Vikir witnessed some of the fragments with her own eyes.
……In the fragments of memories. The little boy was crying.
Parents who built a decent wealth by selling beans.
However, a famine struck and the parents, unable to watch the neighbors starve, opened a charity sharing event by unpacking all the beans in the warehouse and making a large tofu.
By the commandment that it is the teaching of God.
And the crowd, like a swarm of flies, did not abide by the rule of one per person.
Cutting in line, lying, stealing, intimidating, violence… Moreover, later, he took the tofu with a club.
After being robbed so much, in the end, tofu was not enough, so a huge number of mobs arrived late and stood up, clamoring, ‘Why don’t you give it to me?’
However, it wasn’t that those who received the tofu came forward to give it to them instead.
‘When did I get the tofu?’ ‘Oh, who gave you the tofu? There was a person like that, I was very grateful.” It was fortunate that there were no complaints such as ‘Is this just it?’, ‘It’s a pity that there are few beans in it’, and ‘I don’t want to eat it even for free’.
And my parents died when they were crushed by a fence that could not withstand the weight of the sudden crowd.
‘What is God?’
……For the first time at that time, the boy thought deeply about what was called “God’s teaching.”
And I heard a voice coming from within.
[Deny God. deny the human Deny yourself.]
A voice recommending three denials. It came with the sound of a chicken crowing at dawn.
So the boy grew up and became a young man.
The young man who distrusted humans built a wall with the world in his heart.
The first to break down that wall was a beautiful girl he met at school.
Being with her, the young man felt that the frozen wound deep in his heart was healed.
The humanity and faith that had been forgotten were also revived.
The parents’ idea that human beings are basically good coincided with the loved one’s idea.
The young man also naturally came to think so.
In such a situation, as a middle-aged man, he suffered an unexpected big accident.
A serious wound obtained during the suppression of the rebels. In order to heal the aftereffects of it, he went to recuperation after a long time.
To the estate of the hometown where my parents died.
While crossing the sea on a boat with her now partner, a strong wind and a storm came and the boat was in danger of capsizing.
Even though the ship was heavy and everything inside was thrown into the sea, the ship continued to sink.
In response, the sailors tried to throw some of the living people into the sea.
They looked at him and at her.
When he was in conflict about what to do, she quickly shouted first.
‘Throw this man, not me! I can’t even resist because it hurts!’
And he was thrown into the sea by the sailors. I couldn’t even resist because my health had deteriorated to the point where I couldn’t control myself over the past few decades.
He thought as he sank beneath the black water.
‘What is a human being?’
What makes a human give up being human? No, are humans human in the first place? How much of a gap is there between the defining human being and the actual human being?
And when it landed at the bottom of the sea. He could hear once again the voice he had heard as a child.
[Deny God. deny the human Deny yourself.]
A voice recommending three denials. It came with a second denial.
I didn’t hear the first chicken crow, but it was a time that wouldn’t be strange if I heard it.
Then when he opened his eyes he was lying in the sand. while recovering well from his injuries.
If you think about it, when he was a boy, he was also put on a fence with his parents, and it was the moment when the question of how he was able to survive was resolved.
He returned to the academy, where he spent half his life, leading his body back to normal.
A lot has changed. body, mind and environment.
He adapted to reality with a calm mind. Belief in God and love for humans were all left in doubt, but I had to live on.
……and. Finally he saw a hole in his heart.
A delinquent who has been supported and embraced since childhood.
A descendant of a Class 1 war criminal who was said to have been born crookedly.
He believed he could rehabilitate this child.
It was done according to the teachings of God, according to the parents’ belief that human beings are good, and according to the pride I feel when I see my child grow up.
And as time passed, he thought, whose heart was pierced by the hand of a grown child right now.
‘What am I?’
A lantern flashes in front of your eyes. Memories of the past flow quickly as if riding on the back of a unicorn.
What have I been doing so far? Was it to no avail after all?
Who am I and where am I going?
He also felt a deep sense of self-doubt.
[Deny God. deny the human Deny yourself.]
A voice recommending three denials. The moment you hear it for the third time. He closed his eyes.
The dichotomy between demons and humans was no longer important to him.
.
.
[Humans blame the devil for the ugliest parts of themselves. What a shameless species.]
Amdusias pulled the reins and moved Winston’s body.
Winston, too, lifted up his devilishly contorted face, as if he had decided to no longer be bound by the notion of being human.
But Bikir was still unconcerned.
“I am not interested in the value judgment between good and evil between demons and humans.”
[…]
“Whether human nature is bad or good, I am human. And most of the things I want to protect are in that camp. That’s all.”
There is no good or evil in war.
It’s just a tangled whirlpool of big and small interests.
An old soldier who had been on the battlefield for decades knew this very well.
At those words, Amdusias raised the corners of his mouth.
[So is he. There was a long futile debate. Stop dying.]
Again, a huge horseshoe flew towards Bikir.
The moment Bikir is about to pull out Dekaravia.
…kwak!
There was a white barrier blocking Amdusias’ hooves.
A ray of altruism shines brightly in the midst of complex interests.
A white shield that functions purely for the sake of others.
“Ban-nim!”
There was only one person who could call the night hound by that name.
Dolores. She appeared with a courageous expression and blocked Amdusias’ attack.
Kwak! Woo support!
The surrounding terrain twists violently once more.
Then a clamor came from behind Bikir.
“Oops, what’s so thumping! The old man is deafening!”
“Huh!? Pope! Why are you in such a place…?”
Dolores was stunned to see Nabokov behind Vikir and raised her holy shield even larger.
however.
[It’s useless.]
After Amdusias lifted the horn, it still pierced Dolores’ holy shield.
A power on a different level from that of Dantalian or Belial. It far surpassed Dolores’ divine power.
‘……Keugh! Again.’
Dolores was pushed back and gritted her teeth.
No matter how much I renewed my mindset and never neglected training, in the end it was the same when facing a mighty evil in front of me.
There is a limit to human time, and the scope of being strong is also clear.
Powerful enemies will continue to pop up on the thorny pilgrimage path that the hounds of night walk, so it is fortunate that at this level, they do not hold back his ankles, let alone become a shield in front of him.
Dolores was frustrated with herself for feeling powerless at every critical moment.
Right then.
A fluttering-
black bloody cloak obscures her vision.
“……!”
The hound of the night had come in front of Dolores and covered her eyes.
“……don’t stop.”
At that moment, my heart was beating so loudly that I couldn’t hear his voice properly.
“yes?”
Dolores asked in a trembling voice, and the Night Hound spoke again in a low voice.
“Don’t look.”
A sharp voice, as if on alert.
Dolores had a hunch.
That there was something in front of my eyes that I shouldn’t have seen.
