I Became the Apostle of an Evil God Chapter 45

My eyes stung so badly that tears and snot were streaming down my face. I knew I looked pathetically hideous, but if doing this could save my life, Jaena was willing to look a hundred times uglier.

Regrettably, Jaena’s desperate cries didn’t seem to reach Van and Orma, but the people who were dousing Jaena in oil flinched and reacted to his words.

“…Orma?”

“If it’s Orma, isn’t that the name of the evil god?”

“W-Who dares call upon an evil god so ominously?!”

Whoever they were, they became flustered the moment they heard the name ‘Orma.’ Then again, since they said they were killing him as a sacrifice for some mysterious ritual, the god they believed in was bound to be an evil god similar to Orma or some trash they worshiped as a deity. Quick-witted as always in tight spots, Jaena seized the moment and cried out Orma’s name once more.

“O-Oh Lord Orma! Save me! They dare try to kill your believer!”

Those words must have had some effect, as someone gasped in surprise. Even Jaena could feel the air turn freezing cold. They looked utterly at a loss, flustered as if they had just heard some profoundly insulting remark about their own parents.

“W-What should we do? That guy just called himself ‘Orma’s believer’…”

“How can a member of the beast-kin not serve Muhwi!”

“If this is the case, his value as a sacrifice…”

Jaena hastily strained his ears to focus on their whispered conversation. With his wits working at lightning speed only during times like this, Jaena vaguely realized that the condition for the sacrifice in their ritual was that it had to be a ‘believer of Muhwi.’

But it was strange—how could they be so sure Jaena was a believer of Muhwi just by looking at him? In the first place, after crossing over to this continent, most people Jaena encountered were surprised and unfamiliar with his very existence as a beast-kin. Even Van had looked surprised upon first seeing him. But for them to know that the ‘beast-kin’ were believers of ‘Muhwi’ meant that perhaps…

“Silence. He’s clearly talking nonsense. Believing in an evil god? There’s no way such an absurd thing could happen!”

“True, and he’s even the successor of the tiger tribe. There’s no way the successor of the tiger tribe wouldn’t believe in Muhwi.”

They even know that I’m the successor of the tiger tribe. They probably realized it after seeing the bracelet.

If that’s the case, there’s a high chance they are fellow beast-kin. To confirm the identity of the assailants, Jaena slowly began to squint his eyes open again. Because he was collapsed on the ground, his field of vision was low, but it was still much clearer than before.

But I definitely heard human voices…

Instead of two human legs, several smooth torsos and long tails appeared in front of him. The slithering tails were thin, and instead of soft human skin or fluffy animal fur, glossy scales intermittently reflected and glinted under the embers floating in the air.

With a blank face, Jaena slowly raised his head. What finally became visible through the acrid smoke was a tongue far too thin and long to belong to a human. The moment his eyes met vertical, slit pupils, Jaena screamed internally, wanting nothing more than to faint on the spot.

‘…S-Snake! It’s the snake tribe!’

Please spare my life, Lord Orma!

“…He’s being loud enough to wake the dead.”

Driving his horse forward, Orma scowled deeply and muttered in annoyance. At those words, Van, who had been looking around aimlessly, flinched in surprise, widened his eyes, and asked carefully.

“I apologize. Did I do something wrong? Was I grating on your nerves?”

“Ah, no, not you… That guy Jaena keeps whining and praying for me to save him.”

“Pardon? By any chance, can you hear Mr. Jaena’s prayers?”

“They’re completely useless.”

If he was going to pray, he might as well convey the exact details of where he was and what he was doing, but the entirety of the prayer reaching Orma was just a crying voice saying he was about to burn to death. He wouldn’t even mention the location or who had kidnapped him, just repeating that he didn’t want to die.

The only helpful part was that, just as Van had said based on the phrase ‘about to burn to death,’ their destination had become clearly fixed toward the area where the fire was constantly raging.

“Hmm… The distance is greater than I thought. But since we’ve gotten quite close, the burning smell has grown thick.”

Not only that, but the sky was covered in ash, making it dark and gloomy despite it being morning. If a fire of this scale had been sustained, it was only natural that nothing was left alive in the vicinity.

That was why there had been no entity to answer that they had seen Jaena when he touched them with his shadows. He would have burned to death a long time ago. Tucking away his thoughts, Orma clicked his tongue and led his horse faster than before toward the area where gray smoke was rising in the distance.

The surroundings were completely scorched, leaving only black burn marks, and as they drew closer, flames gradually began to come into view. The scene that unveiled itself was so harrowing that even Orma shook his head. As if his shadows had draped over the land, black, charred grass packed the fields like a dense forest.

The strange thing was that despite burning fiercely enough for the fire to last several days, some shapes still remained. The crimson sea of fire visible in the distance contrasted with the blackened fields, creating a horrific sight that looked exactly like the hell humans imagined.

However, even upon seeing this sight, Van didn’t look particularly surprised and simply scanned the surroundings slowly. Observing his calm demeanor, which seemed as though he had expected exactly this kind of appearance, Orma subconsciously stared intently at Van and asked.

“Seeing as you aren’t very surprised, I guess you expected it to be like this?”

“…Well, truth be told, I was surprised. But I didn’t foresee this horrific sight; I merely guessed that this place was originally called the ‘Black Field Wood.'”

“The Black Field Wood?”

Orma recalled Jaena mentioning some bizarre nonsense about the Curse of the Black Field Wood yesterday. Was that actually a real place?

“It’s a name given because black grass forms a field that looks exactly like a wood.”

“So right now, that’s not scorched from burning, but it’s originally black grass?”

“That is correct.”

The ‘Black Field Wood’ in the game wasn’t a mandatory location to visit in the story, but it was a place most users stopped by to acquire items related to Muhwi.

However, back then, the downfall had already arrived, so all the residents living here were dead, boasting a scenery even more bizarre and bleak than now. Burnt corpses scattered here and there, crows feeding on those corpses, and even the black field creating strange noises with the wind.

Leaving this place entirely enveloped in black, some whispered that it was a spot touched by Orma’s curse, but playing the game just a little bit revealed that this location had absolutely nothing to do with Orma.

“This is a place where members of the beast-kin, called the Sa tribe or the snake tribe, live in hiding.”

“There are beast-kin here, not near Yeoru?”

“Yes. It is passed down that the snake tribe was punished and exiled by the god Muhwi.”

“…What kind of wrongdoing did they commit for Muhwi to punish them?”

With a slightly displeased face, Orma fidgeted with the horse reins he was holding. Granted, while Muhwi was a god of strict personality, he clearly distinguished between reward and punishment and was a just god, so he wouldn’t have meted out punishment without a reason.

“I heard they stole the god’s fire.”

There are several similar myths on Earth about stealing a god’s fire and fleeing, only to be punished by that deity. Most notably, Prometheus in Greek mythology is that kind of story.

However, the problem was that Van had skimmed past this section, so he didn’t know the exact details.

If asked why he had just skipped over it even though it was an item somewhat helpful for clearing the mid-boss, it was simply because it had absolutely zero relation to the final boss, Orma.

Every time a new region was unlocked, Van logged into the game community in advance to gather rough information, solely focusing on following the main story. He meticulously carried out only the places he had to go or the quests he had to clear, and as for anything called a helpful item or reward outside of that, he only did what was related to Orma.

The Black Field Wood was the same. Seeing the name, he wondered if it was related to Orma and quickly scanned the community, then left a comment on a post where someone summarized the story: “Is this related to the final boss?” Fortunately, a reply came quickly.

[No, but do it. It helps with the mid-boss and the story is fun too lol]

Ah, it’s not related to Orma. Thinking it was unnecessary then, he simply left a message of gratitude.

[Thank you. Thanks to you, I will skip it and move on.]

Since such a reply was rarely left on a meticulously written story post with a recommendation, an additional, somewhat disgruntled comment from the original author was posted.

[Are you some kind of Orma-obsessed toxic fan or something?;]

It was a sarcastic remark, wondering if Van was trying to start a petty psychological war, but unfortunately, Van didn’t understand internet slang terms like “obsessed toxic fan.” Did it just mean he was obsessed with Orma? He roughly read the context and left a reply.

[Yes.]

After that, the notification that a comment had been left never rang again.