Chapter 35
Chapter 35: Revenge is a Hundredfold (4)
It is said that the bond between husband and wife transcends worlds.
In the form of past lives, reincarnation, and such, it was a staple subject consumed across many contents.
The ties between spouses that crossed centuries and worlds were all the more captivating.
And that saying was true.
"W-where am I?"
"Kyack! G-get away from me!!"
Yoon Tae-su and Lim Ji-young had Possessed into the same roof on the same day and hour.
At first, they were wary of each other, but as they noticed small habits one by one, they recognized each other's identities.
'A habit of wiping door handles with cloth. Could it be...?'
Lim Ji-young was a beautiful woman who had just come out of a Gangnam plastic surgery clinic with artificial features.
However, her current appearance was unmistakably that of a rural, rustic villager.
On top of that, even her gender had changed.
Yoon Tae-su was uncertain about it.
"Are you Yoon Tae-su?"
But Lim Ji-young was certain that the large black man was Yoon Tae-su.
From the way he discreetly hid a small knife at his waist, to his habitual gaze that carefully observed windows and doors—he was unmistakably her husband.
"Really Lim Ji-young?"
The two recognized each other.
Thanks to meeting each other—their cooperator and companion—it was easy for the two to accept the phenomenon of Possession.
"Let's give those barbarians a taste of full-deposit fraud."
They began by approaching the nobility.
Yoon Tae-su was a legendary swindler who had even fleeced the wife of a former Supreme Court judge in the past.
Stock fraud, deposit fraud, investment fraud—there was no scam he hadn't committed.
Coincidentally, the timing of when they two possessed was very good.
Just then, the Empire abolished the Immediate Execution Law for Possessors.
"They say luck comes when the time is right."
Moreover, the two met a noble person.
"Pleased to meet you. I am the HR Manager of the Black Mage Group."
He was an executive of an organization operated in a corporate structure like Earth.
He provided connections with a Marquis and helped the couple level up as Possessors.
"I've drawn magic circles, so use the Sustenanceskill in that village over there."
Could life really be this sweet?
Upon Changing Class to Black Mage, they acquired a skill called Pleasure of Murder.
This granted them a sensation like that of drugs.
As they felt ecstasy, their level rose, their stats strengthened, and their skill options multiplied.
"Life's really a honeypot here."
"Seems like we'll escape our fate in this place."
The couple, who had lived a difficult life as criminals, found a comfortable life in another world.
That their gender had changed and their appearance transformed was no problem at all.
With the Marquis backing them, the couple executed a full-deposit fraud in the vast domain called the Marquis' Territory.
They made an enormous amount of money.
"I wish I could help with the company's business."
However, was there anything free in this world?
The man called the HR Manager brought several Black Mages and requested assistance.
Real Black Mages living in the region, not Possessors.
"Payment will be delivered like this."
The couple, who had been inwardly tense about receiving something in return...
In the end, the HR Manager's proposal was exceedingly sweet.
"Would I ask unpaid when I'm part of the company? What I've done for you so far? Hehe, that was an investment."
[Guild Home Creation Ticket]
An impressive item that was said to have never been seen in physical form even in the Possessor community was offered as compensation.
Moreover, a cash item called Guild Home TransferTicket was even thrown in.
"You said it was a request, but it's so easy."
All they received just piled up.
Opening a Portal with the Black Mage skill and handing over the Guild HomeTransfer Ticket was all that was needed.
This was the life of Yoon Tae-su and Lim Ji-young couple after Possession.
And now.
"Kkhehehehehehe!!!"
Some crazy old man used the Guild Home Transfer Ticket and laughed for quite a while.
"Marquis, do you know his face?"
When Yoon Tae-su asked, the Marquis shook his head.
The burly man, the Marquis, had tears streaming down his face.
"A man crying like that?"
Pak!
Yoon Tae-su hit the Marquis' back of the head and then looked at Lim Ji-young.
"Let's kill him."
He had judged the old man as a variable.
"We can't kill him. He might be a company person."
However, the prudent Madam Lim Ji-young stopped Yoon Tae-su.
"...Hmm, you're right about that."
Having never suffered a loss from listening to his wife's words, Yoon Tae-su agreed.
The power felt from the old, chunky man was clearly Black Magic Power.
However, there wasn't a single wrinkle on his face.
It felt somewhat vague.
"Anyway, the company said they'd come when the Labyrinth resets, so why don't we lock him up?"
Planning to collect the Black Mages, the company was said to come on the sixth day of the week.
The two tried to move the old man to the underground prison.
That's when it happened.
"Hhehehehehehe!!!"
The old man's laughter grew louder.
So much so that it seemed to tear his vocal cords...
Chwaak!
Rather, it was a horrifying sound as if his throat were tearing.
Blood gushed from the old man's torn throat.
"Ah, what is this? Isn't it rather hot?"
Blood splattered on Lim Ji-young's arm, and smoke rose from her skin.
"In any case, those bastard local Black Mages have nasty magic, I'll give them that."
That's when it happened.
Suddenly, something felt strange.
"Is he dead?"
The old man, who had been laughing, had stopped breathing and didn't move an inch.
At his wife's words, Yoon Tae-su felt inexplicably unsettled and approached the old man's side.
Tok! Tok!
"He's gurgling, so he seems to still be alive?"
Then.
Kiiiiiing!
From the old man's mouth, a sharp, golden flash burst forth.
"Ah hot."
"Kyack!"
The light grew in size, and soon it filled the entire Guild Home.
The Marquis' castle was filled with a golden hue.
Then, a single word that shook all four directions came flying.
"The company remains."
A deep, heavy baritone.
And a terrifyingly heavy emotion contained within.
Such was the voice.
***
"Is it true that you proclaimed a Holy War in this place?"
Julius Astia, the Commander of the Holy War Knight Order, frowned.
As wind blew, the massive white Sacred Robes fluttered, and beneath them, muscles sculpted like marble were accentuated.
"I feel nothing!"
"The one who proclaimed it was Erik, the Director, you said?"
On a hill overlooking the castle of the Marquis' Territory, the flag of the AstiaReligious Order fluttered.
Below the sacred divine symbol, the Holy War Knight Order stood in formation like lost lambs, their eyes wide and unblinking.
They had lost their fighting spirit.
And for good reason.
"S-sir, Black Mages in our Marquis' Territory?"
A simple rural youth dressed in shabby leather armor was trembling.
The other soldiers around him were in the same state.
It was unmistakably a borderland domain, dressing village youths in armor and using them as patrol guards.
They had even bestowed blessings to prepare in case they were Possessors...
"Ah, this warmth."
"Thank you so much for granting us commoners such grace!"
"Lord Astia!"
All of them wept with gratitude.
Black Mages in a place with such pure rural youths?
In name they were called Marquis, but in truth it was just a rural domain with somewhat larger land.
"Commander, what will we do?"
At his aide's question, Holy War Knight Commander Julius gripped the bridge of his nose.
"Ruelle's disciple... I believed due to the Pope's bold declaration."
Ruelle Astia had proclaimed a Holy War before.
At the coordinates she had marked, a vast and barren land stretched out in desolation.
And she was laughing wildly in the middle of it.
"Wow, so all the Holy Knights actually gathered? You smell like sweat, so could you back off a bit?"
The reason for the Holy War she proclaimed, if expressed in a single word...
'Just curious' would be it.
"Like master, like disciple, they say."
Julius and his aide recalled Ruelle's prank.
'We'll have to teach her a proper lesson.'
Unlike her, Erik was still young.
So there would be an opportunity to correct him.
Thinking thus, the moment Julius was about to declare a retreat...
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Cracks began to form in the castle of the Marquis.
"What is that?"
"We've never seen such a phenomenon."
The castle was fine, but it was the space surrounding the castle itself that had developed cracks.
It was clearly an abnormal phenomenon.
"Everyone, draw your blades!"
Julius instinctively drew his sword.
The Holy Knights following suit did the same.
All adjusted their stances, preparing to charge.
"Choir, prepare!"
The choir calling upon God also raised their flags high to the heavens, creating a formation of joined hands.
The resonating song of God would drive away all evil.
Above the choir, a golden cross bloomed.
"If you don't wish to be charged with heresy, all of you surrender quietly."
The moment the Holy War Knight Order and choir entered battle formation, the Combat Priests subdued the Marquis' Territory's patrol soldiers.
They confined the innocent rural youths within a Sacred Barrier.
The youths, seized with terror, couldn't even let out a whimper.
Ahh!
Wind blew over the hill.
High reeds that reached the knees bent with the wind.
It stretched to the castle walls of the Marquis.
The sight of the wind striking the castle walls through nature was beautiful.
"Such disgusting Black Magic Power."
However, the energy seeping from those castle walls was unusual.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Massive cracks formed above the castle walls.
"Prepare to charge!!!"
From within, black smoke rose like a heat haze.
Black Magic Power.
Moreover, traces of Land of Death unfolded by at least five or more Black Mages.
"Charge!"
Julius, wielding an enormous shield and a longsword, charged forward.
Like a shot arrow, he rushed straight and swiftly toward the castle walls of the Marquis.
Behind him, numerous Holy Knights blazed with brilliant eyes.
They were precisely like starving beasts.
Holy War Knight Commander Julius at the front was by far the most ferocious among them.
"Purify evil with the blade!"
As Julius swung his sword toward the massive castle walls.
Bang!
A brilliant golden Sword Aurabloomed.
The massive castle walls built to block the madmen of the stateless zone and the ferocious monsters of the demon realm tore like tissue paper.
And.
"Divine Power?"
From the torn castle walls, Divine Power seeped out.
The interior was filled with golden light, visibility reduced to nearly '0'.
Julius's eyes filled with Divine Power. Then the reality inside the castle walls became clear.
"Commander, how is it inside?"
"That is an isolated world unto itself. It is the work of Black Mages or Possessors."
The Divine Power was merely energy seeping from within; the space itself was foreign.
Guild Home is an item that, like an Inventory, isolates designated buildings from the outside.
The place designated as Guild was precisely the castle of the Marquis.
The range extended to the inner and outer castle walls.
"Black Magic Power is leaking everywhere, so what is this Divine Power about?"
The old man sent by Erik had burned the interior of the Guildwith Divine Power ablaze.
Moreover, there was Julius' sword strike from outside.
The collision between inside and outside grew the castle walls' cracks uncontrollably.
"It seems Pilgrim Erik has done something."
Thud!
The isolated world collapsed.
The crude castle walls and beyond them, the castle of the Marquis.
The exterior remained the same.
"To destroy the very source..."
There was certainly change.
Even the eyes of ordinary Holy Knights could now clearly see the situation inside.
The state of the castle inside the collapsed walls.
To express this in a single phrase.
"It's hell itself made real."
***
[Achievement – Enemy of Ten Thousand Demons]
[Hunted 10,000 Black Mages.]
[Special-grade reward will be given.]
[Achievement - Possessor Hunter]
[Hunted 1,000 Possessors.]
[Special-grade reward will be given.]
[Achievement - Light Hidden in Darkness]
[Combined Black Magic and Divine Power to accomplish the impossible.]
[The Divine Edifice becomes clearer.]
With state window messages appearing endlessly, Erik's eyes widened.
"Ten thousand?"
Since he had been killing Black Mages from the age of five, a number like 10,000 wasn't necessarily impossible.
However...
From what Erik remembered, he had killed about 8,000 Black Mages.
So suddenly 2,000 more?
"That's abnormally high."
Possessors were the same.
Unlike Black Mages, he had never killed that many Possessors.
Which meant.
"That many were hiding in this domain?"
Hundreds of Possessors and thousands of Black Mages had concealed themselves under the Guildsystem.
Yet no information had leaked to the Community.
Erik's state window lacked the Community function, but Erik had always conducted inspections through his collaborators.
'There's no way Twin or Janson hid the information.'
They were reliable allies.
Anyway.
The Black Mage Hunter and Possessor Hunter achievements were simply numerous, but there was nothing incomprehensible about them.
The problem was.
"Divine Edifice?"
It was an achievement notification he had never seen before.
That Erik was seeing it for the first time meant he had never seen it in the game, nor had he heard of it from Possessors.
"Still, if it says 'Divine Edifice,' it must mean something good."
A smile played at Erik's lips.
He wanted to be overjoyed, but it wasn't yet the time.
Refugees suffering burns as if from Black Magic Power were surging toward him in droves.
"P-please save us!!"
"Kuaaaak!"
A catastrophe had befallen the vast domain of the Marquis.
The Holy War Knight Order and choir had to focus on suppressing remnant Black Mages and hordes of Possessors.
Helping the survivors was the task of Combat Priests or Ordinary Priests who had just received Divine Power.
"Come this way."
Priests unable to perform Healing Miracles tried to save survivors by distributing potions.
"This is bestowed freely by the Religious Order, so please don't worry and take it."
Priestess Elise held out a Recovery Potion to the wounded.
Then a large hand grasped her delicate wrist.
Elise turned her head and saw massive chest muscles.
She raised her head a bit more.
A golden-haired, incomparably handsome Holy Knight looked down at her.
'W-who is this person?'
Elise's heart raced.
As the giant Holy Knight drew out a crude iron shield and spoke.
"I am Pilgrim Erik."
Behind him, a sublime Divine Power rose.
Elise, intoxicated by the Divine Power, swayed and leaned her body toward Erik.
Erik turned his body away, dodging her.
Then he strode toward the wounded.
"Do you know why the Religious Order created a refugee shelter without HealingPriests?"
There was no answer, so Erik provided it instead.
"To catch cunning Possessors like you."