I Became the Apostle of an Evil God Chapter 29

Jaena shuddered at the temperature, which had grown so chilly that it was hard to tell when the heat had ever encroached upon the land. Even looking at it herself, it was difficult to say that she had truly served Orma as a god until now. But this moment….

“Aren’t you coming?”

“D-Did you hear that, Mr. Van? Those birds just mimicked Sir Orma’s voice.”

The awe that surged at this moment of directly experiencing a god’s authority was, in the end, unavoidable for a human. The birds completely blanketing the sky and the shadow they created presented a bizarre spectacle.

Of course, since Orma was the final boss in the game, Van knew that he had never properly used his divine power until now, but even so, this type of power was something he was seeing for the first time. Only after raising his head to look around and spotting Orma staring at him with a crooked stance did Van snap out of it.

“You are capable of this kind of power too, sir….”

“….”

Judging by how Orma narrowed his eyes and kept his mouth tightly shut, he didn’t seem to want to talk much about his power as a god. Van let out an awkward smile, glanced at the birds that were staring intently at him with unfocused golden eyes, and opened his status window. He had a feeling that there might be a change in his faith level or piety.

[Current Status: Apostle of ‘Orma’ / Piety: 27 (Your god has temporarily utilized his authority.) Faith Level: 2 Faith Gauge: 1/12 ▷ Witnessed a god’s authority +1]

Sure enough, his piety, which had been a mere 8, had shot up to 27. The faith gauge had also gone up, albeit by 1.

Until now, Van had understood piety as a numerical representation of his and Jaena’s faith in Orma. Passionately believing in and following Orma—who cursed everything to die whenever he got the chance or maintained a bystander’s attitude of ‘what does it matter to me whether the world goes to ruin or not’—well, honestly, even Van thought it was difficult. However, seeing his piety rise so explosively just from the fact that he witnessed Orma directly wielding his authority….

‘Mass-producing believers and maximizing piety might not be that difficult after all.’

As a Korean gamer for whom ‘optimization’ was naturally a given no matter what game he played, Van briefly found himself thinking about how he could raise piety in the easiest and fastest way. Still, if a level existed and there was a means to become a bit more comfortable and stronger, wasn’t it only natural to obsess over it?

“I don’t know what you’re thinking about so hard, but guide the way quickly. Using this power feels unpleasant.”

“Yes, sir.”

Van moved his steps, tracing the location of the underground waterway entrance he had seen in the game from memory. Because all kinds of moss and plants and animals transformed bizarrely under the influence of the Blue Tears were blocking the entrance to the sanctuary building, they had to detour like this….

At the end of this path lay an intersection connecting the underground waterway to the city’s other waterways. In the game, the stone wall had collapsed due to lack of maintenance for a long time, exposing this intersection well, but at this point, the still intact stone wall was hiding and concealing the intersection. Van slowly drew his sword from its sheath and began to cleave the gap between the stones.

“M-Mr. Van?”

“Ah, I’m sorry. It will be done shortly.”

Van was also a mere human compared to the god Orma, but due to the system’s influence, he possessed a body that distantly surpassed the limits of an ordinary human. Therefore, cutting through the stone with a sword to make a path was not a very difficult task. Ah, and that included controlling his strength so that only a space leading to the underground waterway was created without completely collapsing the stone wall.

“Eek!”

“I’m sorry. Did the water splash on you?”

“I dodged it, so it’s fine, man! By the way… how on earth did you come to know this path, Mr. Van?”

Wouldn’t it be strange to say how he came to know it? Anyone could see he had just carved it out with brute force.

Orma looked at Van and Jaena with an indifferent face, then snatched the scruff of Jaena’s neck and lifted her up. Rather than having her hold onto Van and whimper about water splashing or falling over, he figured it would be better to just carry her himself.

“O-Oh, Orma…. You mustn’t drop me!”

“When you say it like that, it makes me want to let go. Splash, right over there….”

“Ack! Aaack! Mr. Van! Mr. Van!”

Good grief, did she not know that screaming like that made him want to hurl her right into that black water puddle shrouded in darkness this instant? Clicking his tongue, Orma lifted the thrashing Jaena a bit higher.

Meanwhile, Van took the lead and strode boldly through the pitch-black path without a hint of fear. One guy is excessively fearful, and the other guy is excessively fearless.

Orma shook his head, then snapped the fingers of his free hand that wasn’t holding Jaena, summoning one of the birds that blanketed the sky. The black bird, its golden eyes glittering as it harbored his power, held in its beak a Vanellas that had been playing in a corner of the sanctuary garden.

As the softly luminescent Vanellas subtly lit up the underground waterway, Van, who was walking ahead, relied on that faint light to guide their direction.

“I believe it is this way.”

“Do you have a map or something? How do you know it so well?”

“Didn’t we come here yesterday?”

What does coming here yesterday have to do with navigating like this? It was absurd, but through his travel experiences so far, Orma had realized that Van was utterly talentless at explaining things.

Moreover, because Van would completely clam up about things like the reason he resurrected or how he thoroughly knew the attack patterns of enemies he was seeing for the first time, even though Van was always polite, devoted, and caring toward him, Orma could never know the things Van didn’t answer.

Perhaps this was one of those things too…. Well, he didn’t particularly like him having secrets from him, but strangely, he wasn’t very angry. It might be because, unlike the Herna of old, Van didn’t seem to have any intention of deceiving him.

“By the way, are the birds covering the sky meant to block out the sunlight?”

“There’s that, and also to make them harbor plenty of sunlight like that one. Once we’re completely inside, I’ll call all those birds down and use that sunlight to burn away those dreadful flowers.”

Ah, was that the method he mentioned last night? Van’s eyes shone as he looked back and forth between Orma and the bird flying a step ahead as if guiding the way.

“…What?”

“Because you look cool, sir.”

He had been about to say he finally looked like a god, but hurriedly changed his words. However, Orma scowled and turned his head as if he were hearing the most bizarre thing. Still, judging by the way the corners of his lips twitched, he didn’t seem to entirely hate Van’s praise.

“Ahem, I think I’ve also come to believe that Sir Orma really is a god, man.”

“Don’t believe it before I throw you.”

“Che, how can I not believe it after seeing that? By the way, was the waterway always this deep…?”

“Indeed. It feels like it’s about time we reach the central area.”

Van replied, staring near the wall of the waterway where his gaze landed, which was glittering from receiving the soft light emitted by the Vanellas. Is this moisture? Of course, since the city filled with water in just a day, it wouldn’t be strange if a few drops splashed while water was being channeled out from here, but wasn’t it quite drenched to be considered just a slight splash?

Van’s mind busy ran with various speculations at the marks, which looked as if someone had thrown a boulder of immense size. At that exact moment, the view ahead of them finally opened up, and the central area where the core of the waterway rested revealed itself.

“…Don’t. So that… won’t… I’ll give you….”

A faint voice was heard. At the female voice presumed to be Banan’s, Jaena gasped in surprise and covered her mouth with both hands. Her rapidly moving yellow eyes seemed to ask, ‘What on earth is happening?’, causing Van to grow tense as well.

Only Orma, without any change in his expression, extended his left hand that wasn’t holding Jaena, recalling the bird that had been lighting the path ahead to perch on the back of his arm.

“Our… good… dream. Rock-a-bye….”

The voice filtering through belonged solely to Banan. She sang a lullaby sluggishly as if putting someone to sleep, but that only amplified the unease. Who on earth was she putting to sleep all by herself in this pitch-black underground waterway? Just imagining it painted a bizarre picture, making them swallow hard.

Van was the first to carefully move his steps. The closer he got, splash, splash… a sound like something in the waterway swimming with a heavy body could be heard.

Strange, there’s no way something should be living in the waterway. Even if that truly were a fish, it was a problem. After all, the reason Banan had confined the water to the underground waterway all this time was out of concern that the water contaminated by the seeds of disaster might affect the humans or other living creatures outside. Then… what on earth is that? Where did it come from?

As Van carefully walked forward, Orma slowly followed behind him.

Because he had unleashed his divine authority, the freezing chill and smell were less prominent than before, but they had no choice but to notice that there was something under that water that had fallen under its influence.

Right at that moment, as Orma kept watch vigilantly in case that thing tried to pounce on Van, the walking Van came to a halt. The instant the halting Orma raised his head, his eyes locked with Banan, who was holding the round, massive core of the waterway in her outstretched arms, gently caressing it and cradling it like a baby.

“Rock-a-bye… my baby….”

“….”

“Do not worry. This time, so that it will absolutely not hurt… I will protect you….”

Banan’s eyes flashed gold as she faced the enemies threatening her baby. Soon, something that had been swimming freely through the black water like an ocean cut through the current and leapt high, revealing its form.

Though it possessed a bloated body from receiving a mass of Banan’s life force and a twisted appearance from the influence of the Blue Tears, it was unmistakably the Vanellas—the mystical fish flower that used to swim beautifully through the sky.

The Vanellas, having received its deity’s command, lunged toward the intruders threatening the ‘baby,’ snapping open a mouth packed tight with sharp teeth.