To the Altar – Part 02
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Translator: Kell
News of my banishment for stealing a horse spread throughout the town overnight.
“No, no, no! You can’t take him! I won’t let you!”
A furious Lily was standing in front of the prison, not letting anyone near. She wasn’t told about the plan.
“This is your problem, priest,” Gouda said sharply. “It’s your fault for not explaining things to her beforehand.”
The priest was flabbergasted. “She would’ve been against it anyway.”
Put it bluntly, there was a ninety percent chance that I would die. Telling Lily everything would not have mattered. She would do anything to stop me from going.
“He’s not a bad person! He helped me! He made me yummy food!”
“Mercenary wished for this himself. For the record, I stopped him too. With everything I had.”
He did. He flew on a dragon to chase after me and then beat me to a pulp.
But Lily didn’t care. “No! I’m not going to Wenias, then! Never!”
“Lily!”
“I don’t care if you get mad! I’m not at fault. You are! Everyone’s to blame except him, so why are you treating him like this?! He’s not going anywhere!” She clung to the prison door.
“What do we do? Use force?”
“There’s no other choice. We can’t afford to waste time.”
“It’ll come back to bite you later.”
“I’m used to it.”
With a swing of his staff, the priest made his invisible, ultra-thin strings slither in the wind. Lily fell over as if something was pulling her. Before she could say anything, she was dragged along the floor and pulled to her feet in front of the priest.
In the meantime, Gouda quickly opened the door, took me out and tied me up behind my back. When the dumbfounded Lily realized she had moved away from the cell, she began squirming about.
“Nooooo! Big brother is coming with us! Please! I know you want him to come with us! You don’t want him to die!”
“So you want me to decide for him?” the priest said coldly. Lily fell silent. When no response came from her, the priest continued. “You get to decide how to live your own life, not someone else. Mercenary chose to pursue Zero, even at the cost of his own life. It should ring a bell to you.”
In the Sea of Paradise, in the town of Lutra, Lily’s parents were taken by an adjudicator from Dea Ignis. She rescued me, knowing full well of the danger, and charged into the adjudicator’s base. After the incident, she followed us on our journey to gain the power to protect her parents. Finally she hitched a ride from Wenias to here.
Lily wriggled in the snow, clutching her head and moaning as she battled her own mind.
“I can handle this, Dragon Slayer King. Take Mercenary to town. After that, fly him to the Altar.”
“I feel like the bad guy.”
“You’ll receive cheers in town.”
“That’s just worse.” Frowning, Gouda put me on the dragon’s back.
The dragon spread its wings wide, and after picking up a little momentum, flew away. The wind rumbled past my ears as the ground became more and more distant. Like the priest said, as soon as we circled above town, the people gathered in the square started cheering.
“Banish him! Banish the horse thief!”
“Kill the witch’s friend!”
“Foul beast! Enemy of the Church!”
“Let the demons devour him! Divine judgement upon him!”
Gouda breathed out a long sigh. “We’ve explained it again and again that being a former Beastfallen and working for a witch has nothing to do with this banishment, but here we are.”
They could try their best to save my honor, but it would still end up like this.
I wasn’t a bad guy for stealing a horse. I stole a horse because I was a bad guy. I could only imagine how much the priest, Gouda, and Gemma—those who traveled with me from Wenias—wanted to avoid that assumption.
Banishing a Beastfallen who worked for a witch was the worst possible way to start a peaceful coexistence. It wasn’t just a simple banishment either; it was trial by ordeal. Although for those who assumed I wouldn’t make it back didn’t see the difference.
If I could speak, I would apologize, but it would only sound creepy coming from a demon.
Then again, the priest was a manipulative son of a bitch. He could smooth things over. I wouldn’t have to worry about a thing.
Gouda circled over the square several times, flying low once before gaining altitude again. The cheers quickly faded away, the town shrinking to the size of a pebble.
Man, dragons are fast. We should make it to the Altar in no time at all.
As the dragon set a course for the Altar and exited the woods, a wide frozen sea came into view. The moment the dragon showed, the horde of demons on standby began to move. Those that could fly surrounded the dragon, while those that couldn’t raced across the icy sea in droves.
“This is a nightmare,” Gouda mumbled.
I agree.
To a devout Church follower, being in the middle of a horde of demons was exactly that—a nightmare. On top of that, more demons waited for us ahead, probably numbering the same as our army.
The Altar on Generos was surrounded by all sorts of demon-possessed Beastfallen, some capable of flight. There were also a bunch of bizarre-looking creatures prowling about—fish with bladed fins gliding through the icy water, mysterious spheres with spikes all over their body, rolling around. Overall, they were crazier than the ones in the woods.
“You sure we can get past those things?!” Gouda yelled over the wind. “How the hell did Zero get through them?!”
The Nameless Demon King did not answer. Instead he stood on the dragon’s back, arms outstretched in front of him.
“Lower.”
Cursing, Gouda followed his order and lowered their altitude, just right above the icy surface of the sea. The Demon King raised his hands overhead, and waves rose. Ripples coming from both sides collided to form high waves, rising up into the sky, crackling.
Waves of ice swept away the demons, swallowed them, creating a gaping ice passage that led straight to the Altar.
“If you’re gonna cause a cataclysm, tell me beforehand!” Gouda yelled.
“Dragon, fire.”
Before Gouda could say any more, the ice passage began to collapse. Demons protecting the Altar were trying to destroy the path. The dragon pulled its head back and spewed fire at the crumbling ice, evaporating it in an instant and turning the place white with vapor.
Gouda was taken aback. “Can demons talk to dragons?!”
“Of course.”
“You gotta tell me that too!”
As we approached the island of Generos, and the Altar at its center was within sight, the demon made the acrobatic move of jumping off the dragon’s back and hanging onto its legs.
Hey, that’s my body right there. Is this safe? When he created the ice wave earlier, it looked like part of my body froze. Whatever. What’s done is done.
The demon chuckled. Wait, he laughs too? The Director cackled a lot too, so I supposed it was not unusual that the Demon King himself laughed as well.
All of a sudden, the dragon let out a deafening shriek, shaking the very air.
“What the hell?! What’s the matter, Heath?! Calm down!”
The dragon lurched and changed course, crashing into the ice wall.
“Grab the dragon’s horn!” the demon said.
Gouda didn’t bother asking why. He immediately jumped on the dragon’s neck and grabbed the two horns extending from its head. The creature showed a momentary reluctance, but when it saw that it was Gouda who was holding its horns, it suddenly became calm and resumed flying straight.
“Wh-What happened?!”
“A dragon’s horn governs its extraordinary senses. When it is grasped, its senses are dulled, relieving pain.”
“So when they saw that they couldn’t take us down physically, they messed with his senses instead.”
It was probably like feeling better after covering your ears to block out some maddening noise.
“But looks like we came out on top. We’re entering the Altar’s airspace!”
As we closed in on the island, the dragon increased its altitude. Right before we entered the warding, the Nameless Demon King let go of the dragon’s leg and plummeted onto the ground.
I didn’t have time to properly land, but it didn’t hurt as much as I expected. Seconds later and the dragon became a small speck in the sky. I watched it fly away.
“Oh, I can talk.”
And move. As expected, the Demon King could not appear because of the warding.
I lifted my body up and blinked. “Grass?”
We were surrounded by the frozen sea just now. I surveyed my surroundings once more. All green. Fruits hung from lush trees, and insects darted among flowers and plants.
At the center of the island stood a small cathedral, with a desolate field next to it.
Outside of the warding, the sea was frozen, monsters stalked every corner, and demons were killing each other, but inside it was calm and peaceful.
“So Zero’s here, huh?”
Oddly enough, I felt relief. I had imagined a much more tragic scene.
I still hadn’t completely grasped the situation yet, but seeing the place so serene made me feel just a little better.
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