How the Cult Saves the World

Chapter 25

"Well, anyway."

Khalid lifted the corner of his mouth and reached out to me. Then he lifted my chin with his long, clawed fingers.

He examined me carefully.

"Hmm, the more I look at you, the more I like you."

He smiled wickedly and let me go.

"...But why are you here in a place like this?"

I asked Khalid, looking him straight in the eye. He wouldn't kill me anyway, so I wanted to satisfy my curiosity. He may have choked me, but I knew he wouldn't kill someone he admitted was beautiful.

"I just came for a walk."

He lied.

"Did you release the darkwolves?"

"No? Why would I?"

What does that mean? You said there were four of them.

"I did give them a gift, though."

"...A gift?"

"Yeah."

Khalid just smirked.

"Then do you know that there are believers of Diego Faith living in this forest?"

"Of course."

Khalid grinned, showing his teeth.

This bastard, he doesn't care if the believers die or not. He had the same personality as the player of HSAW.

"By the way, I think I saw the leader of the darkwolves heading to the village."

"...!"

Gift, leader, village... Don't tell me!

Khalid released the barrier as if he read my expression.

As soon as he did, the kids, Zain, and even Cyril who appeared with a thick staff ran towards Khalid.

"Die, you pervert!"

Zain was especially furious. I quickly raised my hand to stop them.

"Wait! There's something more urgent than him."

They all stopped at my command. But they still glared at Khalid with murderous eyes.

"Master!!"

"Ma, master! Are you okay?"

"Master, are you okay?"

"Hic, master."

The group that gathered around me all had worried faces. Especially Cyril, who was about to cry.

"I'm fine, hurry to the village!"

As soon as I moved, they followed me. They still looked angry, but they quietly followed me.

There was no point in fighting Khalid here anyway. He had suppressed us easily while wearing gold. If we were stubborn, we would lose our heads.

"See you later."

I saw Khalid waving his hand at me, but I quickly turned away from him.

That trash bastard!

"Master! Are you really okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Kyros helped me."

I tried to smile at them, who were worried.

-That son of a bitch who won't even feel good if I chew him up.

Kyros was still furious. Of course, I agreed with him completely.

"But master, why are we going back to the village because of what that pervert said?"

Zain asked as he stuck to my side.

"I think he sent the leader of the darkwolves to the village."

It made sense that the leader of the darkwolves had bypassed us and headed to the village if Khalid was involved.

"Geez, that perverted bastard would do something like that."

Was it lucky that he let me go?

"Master, who is that strange man?"

Alphius gritted his teeth and asked. Zain answered before me.

"He is Diego Faith's fifth apostle, Khalid. He is also known as the madman. He has no hesitation in killing his own followers."

That's why Khalid had bracelets on both wrists that restrained his power. They were gold from Diego.

"Then will he follow us? He looks like he wants to kill us..."

Cyril looked scared. I shook my head.

"Don't worry. He won't follow us."

He said see you later, so he won't bother us for now.

"Let's speed up."

I moved faster.

Cartel Village, under the sunstone.

The villagers who had been asleep were all gathered in one place because of the dark wolves that surrounded the village.

Crack---

The sunstone that had started to crack was about to break. It still maintained its light for now, but it didn't seem to last long.

The people gathered under the sunstone shivered as they looked at it. The darkwolves surrounding the village seemed to mock them as they waited.

"Oh no, this is divine punishment."

The elder who was with the villagers muttered.

"Diego has punished us for accepting others..."

It was a small mutter, but everyone heard it clearly since they were all together.

The villagers wavered. And, so did Kess.

"Punishment..."

Kess looked at the sky. The dark sky was like his heart.

'Is this really punishment? Is this our sin?'

And finally, the sunstone lost its light.

Kess closed his eyes tightly.

'God...'

Awooo~!

The howl of the darkwolves was heard. Then the sound of the beasts running followed.

'Please save us.'

At the last moment, Kess prayed to Kyros, not Diego.

Did his wish come true?

Squeak!

The darkwolf that was running fiercely towards the villagers screamed.

Kess opened his eyes without knowing. He saw the darkwolf that was running in front of him fall to the ground.

An arrow had pierced through the body of the darkwolf.

That was not the end.

A boy with a small body flew from a distance. The boy's sword pierced through another darkwolf in one stroke.

But there were still more darkwolves left.

Flash!

Before the darkwolves could attack the villagers, a huge barrier enveloped them.

A boy with the same face as the sword-wielding boy emitted a pure white light and annihilated the darkwolves.

Next to the boy was the Leader of Kyros Faith who swung a mace at the darkwolves, along with the appearance of Cyril, who followed behind.

The target of the darkwolves had changed from the villagers to them.

Kess collapsed on his knees, losing strength in his legs.

'Ah. When God abandoned us, the true God came to save us.'

A tear fell from Kess' eye.

Meanwhile, Revelof swung his mace. Hard.

There were about twenty darkwolves that surrounded the village.

But thanks to everyone's hard work, the number of darkwolves decreased quickly.

Chester cut down the last remaining darkwolf, leaving only one left.

"That's the 'leader'."

Only the darkwolf leader was left.

Revelof, Alphius, Chester, Zain, and Cyril, all stood with their backs to the villagers. They looked like they were trying to protect them, and the villagers felt relieved.

The darkwolf leader walked quietly and stood in front of Revelof.

A short distance of less than a few meters. Revelof opened his mouth quietly.

"Alphy, protect the villagers. Brother Cyril, check if anyone is injured."

The two stepped back at Revelof's words.

"And Zain, cover us from behind."

"Yes, sir."

"Chester, you know what to do, right?"

Chester, who was left next to Revelof, nodded.

The two faced the darkwolf leader. Chester stood a few steps ahead of Revelof to protect him.

Revelof observed the darkwolf leader. It was much larger than the normal darkwolves.

'It's a monster.'

At that moment, Revelof's eyes widened slightly.

'That's...!'

It was because of the black bead embedded in the forehead of the darkwolf leader.

'Black Arc. Why is that here, now?'

Revelof swallowed a curse.

'It's something you can't see in this neighborhood...'

Black Arc. It was an essence that contained the power of the evil god. It increased the potential of the host by at least five times, but at the same time, it burned their life force. It was a demon's gem.

But, it wasn't time for it to appear yet.

Just like Khalid, it was something that could only be seen after at least the middle part of the novel.

'Could it be...'

Revelof recalled what Khalid had said earlier.

'Was that the gift he gave to the wolves?'

Revelof bit his lip. That was why Khalid had let him go easily.

"Damn it."

The difficulty that was already hard enough became unbearable.

"Chester, we have to destroy the bead on his forehead. Can you do it?"

"Yes, master!"

"I trust you."

Revelof's words became a signal and Chester ran towards the darkwolf.

Revelof's lips curled up coldly.

'Giving time to transform is only possible in comics, you bastard.'

Clang---

The darkwolf leader lifted its front paw and blocked Chester's sword using the Black Arc that contained the power of the evil god.

'Of course, it's fake.'

Even if the Black Arc was a fake, it still had considerable power in itself.

'Fakes can only withdraw five times their original power, and they have a high risk.'

Fake Black Arc only lasted for a few hours at most from the moment they were implanted in the body. When the effect ended, the Black Arc would disappear and the user would become extremely weak from the backlash.

If the Black Arc was destroyed before the effect ended, the user would also disappear.

Clang~! Clang---!

Chester and the darkwolf leader clashed repeatedly.

Revelof couldn't exactly gauge Chester's strength right now.

'But he's an S-class, so he should be stronger than the darkwolf leader.'

Even if the wolf had a fake Black Arc and was able to withstand fire.

Whizz--- Flash-!

Zain's arrows didn't pierce through the darkwolf leader, but they helped narrow its range of movement.

Just then, the darkwolf leader dodged an arrow from Zain and staggered on one leg.

Chester didn't miss that opportunity.

Flash!

Chester's sword cut through one leg of the dark wolf.

That was when it happened.

Awooo---!

The black mist started to blow out from the darkwolf leader. The mist quickly enveloped the darkwolf leader, and Chester, who didn't know what it was, had no choice but to take a step back.

Revelof also couldn't figure out what the black mist was. The black mist quickly covered the darkwolf leader, and its appearance became invisible.

"What is that..."

Revelof narrowed his eyes as he looked into the mist.

Inside it, the shape of the darkwolf leader was changing.

With a sound like bones breaking, the four legs of the darkwolf leader turned into two legs.

The darkwolf leader stood up. Like a human being.

"Wha, what is that...!"

Chester and others were shocked by the black mist as well.

Then, Revelof shouted.

"Zain, shoot!!"

Zain came to his senses at the urgent voice and started shooting arrows.

Revelof's lips twisted bitterly.

'That's one of those things you should never say in a fight.'

At the same time,

Kraaaak---!

With a fierce roar, the black mist cleared completely.

And what appeared was a complete werewolf, pulling out the arrows stuck in his body and walking out.

"Shit, is this the second phase?"

Revelof bit his lip.

"Puhaha!"

Cartel Forest, on a tall tree a little distanced from Cartel Village.

Khalid was sitting on a thick branch where he could see the whole view of Cartel Village.

"Oh, this is fun."

The darkwolf leader had just transformed into a human with the power of the Black Arc.

"Well, it's still just a half-human half-beast with low intelligence."

But, it was very fun. Especially the change of expression from the guy he had marked.

Khalid's eyes turned cold as he looked at Leviathan.

"Come out."

Then, a man appeared on the branch opposite to Khalid.

"What are you doing here, fifth apostle?"

Terdius spoke coldly to Khalid with his sharp eyes. Khalid chuckled.

"I came for a walk and found something interesting."

"You came for a walk all the way to this countryside. And, with a Black Arc."

Terdius' indifferent eyes became colder.

"Relax. I was just curious about the power of the new product. I saw some wolves in this forest and came to see them, but those people were killing them. So, I gave the darkwolves a gift, poor wolves."

Khalid shrugged his shoulders, but Terdius' expression didn't soften.

"You could have done the experiment at the headquarters. Besides, these villagers are Diego's followers."

"Since when did you care about the followers?"

Khalid mocked Terdius openly.

Terdius closed his mouth, and Khalid added.

"That's why I hate you. You have such a pretty face, but your roots are rotten."

Khalid laughed and turned his eyes away from Terdius.

His eyes were on Leviathan. Terdius also followed Khalid's gaze to Leviathan.

Then Khalid licked his lips with his tongue and said lewdly.

"I like that guy."