I Became the Apostle of an Evil God Chapter 32

Orma stared blankly at Van, unable to hide his bewilderment.

No, how? Leaving aside how on earth he had calmed Banan down, what was with that oddly triumphant look on his face? Looking at him standing there with an almost proud demeanor, Orma hesitated for a moment before carefully opening his mouth.

“…Are you insane?”

He was completely fearless. No, Orma already knew he lacked fear, but the problem was that his apostle was so utterly devoid of it that it was a real issue. Blocking Banan’s waterspouts with his own body… well, since Van was needlessly overprotective of him, Orma could let that slide. It was extremely annoying how he stood there soaking wet with a bright smile as if proud he hadn’t let a single drop of water touch his god, but with a grand show of tolerance, Orma could find it rather admirable.

But to step that close to a god who had lost her mind was beyond courage—it was sheer recklessness. Was it because he could keep resurrecting despite being a mere human, making him unafraid of death? Even so, he seemed perfectly capable of feeling pain….

Because Van’s attitude was so nonchalant, Orma couldn’t tell what on earth he was thinking. Yet, whether he knew Orma’s complicated feelings or not, Van merely grumbled in a small voice.

“Instead of a compliment, your first words are asking if I’m insane. I’m hurt. Well, at least it’s a relief I didn’t actually offer up the ring, isn’t it? I only faked it.”

“….”

Or would it have been right to return it to Banan after all? Van looked slightly embarrassed as he showed his hand, which now held the ring back in its proper place, and stole a glance at him to gauge his reaction, but Orma shook his head.

“Who said anything about that? …Forget it, just set her down now.”

“Set her down… Ah, do you mean Lady Banan? I can’t just yet. The moment she leaves my side, she’ll probably regain consciousness. I think I’ll only feel relieved after we get outside and move her to a safe place.”

As if a god could actually sleep, Banan was quietly cradled in Van’s arms with both eyes tightly shut. When Van adjusted his hold on Banan, stood up, and took a step back, Orma’s expression turned peculiar.

Just who was he holding and whom was he guarding against? How infuriating…. Staring back and forth between Banan and Van with eyes blazing as if sparks could fly out at any second, Orma ultimately clamped his mouth shut and whipped his head away.

By now, reactions of this caliber from his god just felt like an adorable pout to Van. Thinking to himself that his god was simply finding everything in the world displeasing again, he quietly and gently coaxed him.

“Lord Orma, I know you feel uncomfortable around Lady Banan, but given the circumstances right now….”

“Be quiet.”

Yes, sir.

The spine-chillingly low voice made Van shut his mouth instantly. It was a voice packed so tightly with emotion that one could feel he was thoroughly vexed. Still, he supposed he should consider himself lucky that he hadn’t been told to shut up completely.

As he rolled his eyes and made contact with Jaena, who was flashing an awkward smile, the sound of flapping wings suddenly echoed from somewhere. The faint noise gradually grew louder, establishing a massive presence as if a whole flock were rushing closer.

Just as Van turned his head toward the source of the sound, dim clusters of light flew out from somewhere in that pitch-black darkness, brushing past his face.

“Oh! Th-These birds… aren’t they the birds from earlier?”

Summoned by Orma, the black birds overflowing with sunlight had sliced through the wind to appear in the underground waterway. Even though the underground waterway was massive—easily the size of an Earth stadium—the gloomy, unpleasantly dark space began to brighten like dawn the moment the birds appeared.

Finding the spectacle wondrous, Jaena skipped around with sparkling eyes, but Orma didn’t even grant him a glance and simply waved his hand lightly. At that single gesture, the birds began to shed their shadows like a layer of skin, letting them drop. Thud. The shadows fell as lightly as feathers.

The shadows, which looked like opaque, faint light at a glance, created a golden radiance the moment they hit the water and sank to the bottom.

The light, which refused to extinguish even upon touching the water, kept twinkling until it reached deep into the waterway, which was so dark it looked like pitch-black water. The shadows that landed on the blue tears instantly sparked small fires and began to burn.

Van stared blankly at the sight, but the moment smoke started to rise, he snapped out of it and whipped his head toward Jaena.

“…Mr. Jaena, hold your breath and cover your mouth so you don’t inhale the smoke.”

“Eh, eh?”

“There’s no way the smoke produced by burning blue tears is good for a human body.”

“But what about you, Sir Van?”

“Why even ask? This guy will just say he’s fine again.”

At Orma’s grumble, Van let out a troubled smile. Since his hands were tied holding Banan, he had been planning to just hold his breath—and his thoughts had been read perfectly.

The more familiar Van became with Orma, the better Orma came to know Van as well. Orma, who had an uncanny ability to see right through how this guy would fuss over others while treating his own body like something disposable, strode over. His handsome face was stiff as if he were angry, but it was a familiar expression to Van.

He’s probably about to tell me to drop Banan or whatever and cover my own nose and mouth….

“Turn your head.”

“Pardon? Why my head… Mmph!”

You should have turned it when I told you to. Muttering those words, Orma forced Van’s head to turn and covered his nose and mouth with his large hand.

However, despite how brashly he had acted, his grip was meticulously adjusted to leave a tiny gap at the tip of his nose so he could breathe. Thanks to that consideration, Van’s shallow breaths filled Orma’s palm, and Orma’s eyes locked with those of his apostle, who was staring up at him with wide, startled eyes.

If I don’t go this far, he won’t give a damn about his own body. Of course, Orma also knew that the reason Van acted this way was because he could always resurrect and come back to life. After all, he already had a track record of taking Van’s life twice.

Even so, seeing his apostle throw his body into danger without a shred of fear in those clear, sky-blue eyes made Orma both like and dislike him. Sometimes he wondered if Van did this on purpose just to get his attention. If that were the case, he should just ignore him, yet he always found himself intervening anyway, just like right now.

While Orma kept Van’s face covered and stared at him for a long moment, the surroundings gradually began to grow acrid with smoke billowing from the raging flames. The birds that had shed their shadows chirped as if they had completed the mission bestowed by their god and immediately departed, leaving the underground waterway a chaotic space filled entirely with water and fire.

In the midst of it all, fortunately, not a single flame touched the core of the waterway.

When Jaena shuffled over, grabbed Orma’s trousers, and sent him an imploring look that clearly meant ‘I can’t take this anymore!’, Orma finally tore his gaze away from Van.

“This should be enough.”

At that single word, the shadows that had been submerged deep within the water filling the waterway began to swim back toward the surface. Purifying all the water in the waterway with the abundant sunlight they carried, the shadows emerging onto the land for their final task were still glowing just as they had earlier.

Those shadows floated up into the air, clustering together and gradually growing in size. Once they turned into a massive, black entity, they put out the flames by unleashing a downpour of black rain in all directions, exactly like a water balloon bursting.

Flowers melting away in the roaring flames, and a darker, black rain pouring down through the acrid smoke… it was a truly bizarre sight. At a glance, it looked monstrous, as if a calamity were unfolding, but in reality, wasn’t it stopping that very calamity? If someone who didn’t know the context saw this, they could easily misunderstand and think Orma was trying to destroy the world.

[Your god suppresses the calamity and heals the world….

Current Status: Apostle of ‘Orma’ / Faith: 35 (Someone has recognized the miracle performed by your god.)

Faith Level: 2

Faith Gauge: 1/12

▷ Witnessed a Divine Authority +1]

An alert popped up indicating his Faith had risen in the meantime, but Van didn’t have the time to check it thoroughly right now and organize his thoughts.

This was because the moment Orma made the black rain fall, he pulled his hand away from Van’s face and snatched Jaena by the scruff of his neck, lifting him up. After that, even though the area had grown dim from the extinguished smoke and fire, he started walking back the way they came without a moment’s hesitation. Van, who had been standing there awkwardly, hurriedly followed behind only after those golden eyes darted back to glare at him as if telling him to hurry up.

“…P-Phew….”

“What are you doing? You can breathe now.”

“Puhah! You should have told me sooner! But Lord Orma! That black rain just now was incredibly cool!”

“….”

“How do you do that? Is that a divine authority too? Oh, and another thing I’m curious about is that thing you mentioned earlier about being able to live forever….”

As Jaena’s chatter kicked off, Orma closed his mouth with a thoroughly fed-up expression. Regretting that he had told him he could breathe, he barely suppressed the urge to hurl Jaena into the waterway and started walking rapidly. He did occasionally turn around to check if Van was following properly behind him, but Van, seemingly not finding it a chore at all, was simply walking at his pace while holding Banan tightly so as not to drop her.

Seeing that sight made another sudden surge of irritation flare up, forcing him to turn his head forward again… and when he grew dizzy from Jaena’s loud chatter, he would turn his head back again to check on Van. After repeating that a few times, the end of the waterway finally came into view. The moment Orma saw the sunlight filtering in from outside, he dropped Jaena as if tossing him aside and turned his body completely toward Van.

He was just about to tell him to throw that bothersome god away, but what he saw was Banan, staring with clear, alert eyes as she whispered something to Van.