Subscriber of the Gods Chapter 255 - Scenario (2)

“… Perfect mimicry?”

For a moment, Ethan frowned.

Perfect mimicry was magic that completely changed one’s appearance to a different form.

Unlike normal disguise magic, it left no traces of magic use, so perfect mimicry was considered a power beyond magic.

In fact, this perfect mimicry was close to the realm of impossibility.

‘I don’t know about magic, but there is one superhuman ability that has the same effect.’

A disguise ability so excellent that it’s called perfect.

Moreover, there’s an apostle of the Followers of the Moon here right now.

‘5th Apostle.’

Ethan had seen all the apostles except the top 3.

But even so, there was one apostle whose real face he didn’t know.

The 5th Apostle was the only one whose real face he hadn’t seen even after playing MePan many times.

‘The alias is Slime. A nickname given because they constantly change appearance like a slime.’

“I’ve heard of it. But I’ve heard that no one actually uses it. It’s such an ancient magic that it’s difficult to learn, and even if mastered, the duration is not very long, so it’s practically difficult to use.”

“That’s right. That perfect mimicry. It perfectly copies the face, voice, and even mana of the target, so it’s called perfect mimicry. But it’s known to be in the realm of impossibility. However… this incident is the work of someone using that perfect mimicry.”

“As Your Holiness said, perfect mimicry is in the realm of impossibility. So how can you be sure?”

The Pope stroked his chin at Ethan’s question.

“As you heard in the meeting, I said I sealed the rift after arriving in Watopia, right?”

The Pope tried to handle things quickly after arriving in Watopia. He thought there was no time to rest given how chaotic Watopia was upon arrival.

And not long after he started taking action in earnest, the Pope judged that this situation was not a natural phenomenon.

“I could make a definitive judgment after seeing Archelon, the guardian deity of this Watopia. He was resisting the force trying to dominate him somehow.”

Ethan remembered too.

Black aura with blue eyes.

Archelon had said that person was trying to destroy Watopia.

“However, we couldn’t find anyone matching those characteristics. And in the meantime, more rifts appeared.”

Watopia is a closed place, so it’s difficult to move to other places. Once you enter, you have to hide within Watopia to carry out your work.

The villain must surely be inside Watopia.

“These rifts keep opening even after being sealed once. Not only that, but rifts keep appearing. This means that someone is hiding within Watopia and causing trouble. The king of Watopia also knew this fact and issued a search order, but…”

Still, they couldn’t find the villain.

Rifts continue to open, and monsters from the deep sea are swarming outside Watopia.

“So I tried to seal Watopia itself using my power first. But just at that moment…”

At that timing, one new rift opened, and there were those who walked out of that rift.

They were the dwarves.

Sigma Roadhammer, the Great Hammer of Tartaros, and his guards.

“After Watopia, now Tartaros. The cities of the merfolk and dwarves have been connected. It felt like the villain of this incident was intentionally trying to divert attention.”

“It’s certainly strange.”

‘So that’s why.’

The Pope certainly thought that the villain was hiding within Watopia and continuously opening rifts.

But no matter how much they looked, there was no one suspicious.

“So you suspected perfect mimicry.”

“No. I couldn’t suspect carelessly. So I used my own method.”

The Pope said.

“I prayed. And received an oracle.”

The Pope has several special powers and authorities, one of which is the Goddess Prayer.

It’s praying to the Goddess to request information and truth about the current situation, and receiving the answer as an oracle.

“The content of the oracle given by the Goddess was the four letters of ‘perfect mimicry’.”

The Pope said that and made a shushing gesture.

The surroundings had become quiet.

‘He’s completely blocking with mana.’

Now only he and the Pope could hear this conversation.

‘A barrier mixed with holy power, impressive.’

“We haven’t found the villain yet. But if we can definitely find out their identity, we’ll be able to resolve this situation. However, if it’s a perfect mimicry that even my senses can’t detect, it’s also dangerous to rashly expose the villain.”

Ethan nodded.

‘Perfect mimicry. The one who planned this incident is the 5th Apostle.’

The identity of the villain was certain.

But one big problem remained: they couldn’t know what form the 5th Apostle had disguised as.

‘If the Pope couldn’t find them, it would be difficult for me to find them too.’

But once found, dealing with them would be simple.

‘It would be difficult if I were alone, but there’s the Pope and the King of Watopia.’

Plus, there’s Sigma Roadhammer, the king of the dwarves.

‘There are plenty of strong people.’

Finding the 5th Apostle was the priority for now.

“Come closer, Ethan. The talk got long, but we should do what needs to be done first.”

The Pope smiled kindly.

Then he held out a pale yellow orb he had created to Ethan.

“Please.”

The Pope had already decided to burn his life to heal Ethan. Then there was no reason to feel burdened.

‘Just do as much as you received.’

He said to do good, so live doing good.

‘I’m already living like that anyway.’

Ethan recalled when he obtained the Descendant of Moonforce job.

During the recapture of Reichardt, he saw citizens screaming in the fire pit.

It was already a past that couldn’t be undone. It was something he could have just passed by. Even if he saved them, it wouldn’t bring back those who had already died.

Nevertheless, Ethan reached out to them.

‘Now I don’t have to hesitate anymore.’

Because he had a definite reason.

Shaaaa-

A warm energy entered Ethan’s body. That energy slowly adhered to the Extinction near his heart.

The Pope had suddenly taken up his staff and struck Ethan’s heart strongly.

Thwack-!

It was such a strong blow that the sound of wind could be heard, but Ethan felt no pain at all. Ethan’s defense didn’t activate because it wasn’t an attack in the first place.

‘…Oh.’

Ethan looked over his body with a surprised expression.

“Phew…”

The Pope, who had sweat dripping down his forehead, wiped his forehead with his sleeve.

“I’m a bit tired. This concludes the treatment I can do. Others may not notice much, but Ethan, as the person himself, will definitely feel it.”

He looked quite exhausted, but the Pope soon regained his characteristic composure.

“And.”

Treating Extinction even a little was just the Pope’s consideration. The reason Ethan came to Watopia to find the Pope was different.

“You said you wanted to know where the Saintess is now, right?”

The Emperor is not in a position to freely summon the Saintess.

But the Pope is different.

Within the Holylight Order, the Pope holds an absolute position.

Even if the Saintess receives equal treatment to the Pope, she is clearly below the Pope in rank.

“Unfortunately, the Saintess is doing a very important task now, Ethan. She won’t return to the Holy Empire for quite a long time, so if you want to meet the Saintess, you’ll have to go to the Demon Empire.”

It was the same as what Regia had said.

‘An important mission, huh.’

Since the Demon Empire is an enemy state of the Holy Empire, it’s a place where religious influence is quite low.

The Demon Empire is a country that follows the logic of the strong, where you can do anything if you’re strong.

‘It’s quite a dangerous place, so I wasn’t thinking of going there for now. But it can’t be helped.’

If you have to go to a dangerous place, you just need to raise your level enough not to fall into crisis.

‘Or.’

Become a person of the Demon Empire.

As Ethan nodded, the Pope added a warning with a serious expression.

“Ethan, perfect mimicry is a very frightening power. So don’t trust me. I’m real now, but next time there’s a possibility you’ll meet a fake with my appearance.”

***

After the Pope left.

Ethan immediately checked his body condition.

‘Amazing.’

The Pope’s authority was certainly amazing.

He made Extinction take a step back at the cost of a life full of holy power.

‘The mana road has widened a bit more. It’s very slight, but this much means I can accumulate more mana.’

Moreover, his previously hazy mind was in a slightly clearer state.

“He said living doing good is the price. He could have asked me to help Watopia in return for the treatment.”

It was treatment at the cost of his own life force.

Even if he had said he would treat Ethan after everything was over, Ethan wouldn’t have minded.

But the Pope treated Ethan without asking for anything in return. He didn’t even set the condition that Ethan must help Watopia after the treatment.

“So saints really do exist.”

Who wouldn’t call Pope Frederick a saint?

“I should definitely earn my keep.”

Of course, as much as he received.

***

Returning to his room, Ethan summoned Lyuka.

“Kyung!”

Summoned Lyuka looked at Ethan and cried out loudly once more.

“As expected of my spirit, you can immediately see my body condition.”

Ethan wanted to check if he could accumulate more mana in his body through Lyuka.

Escaping from the influence of Extinction and accumulating mana itself became directly linked to Ethan’s strength.

‘The more mana I accumulate, the stronger I become.’

Shaaaa-

Lyuka climbed onto Ethan’s shoulder and rubbed her head against Ethan’s cheek.

Then Lyuka’s mana began to flow directly into Ethan.

Lyuka could give Ethan quite a lot of mana. As long as Ethan’s body could handle it, it could give as much as possible.

‘I’m not using Lyuka’s power properly.’

But it’s also true that in the current situation, he’s using Lyuka’s power as efficiently as possible.

‘Still, if it wasn’t for Lyuka, there were several times I would have died.’

Shaaaa-!

“Done.”

A tiny bit more mana had accumulated than before.

As the Pope said, Ethan could definitely feel his body condition improving, at least for himself.

“Good.”

It was important to progress like this little by little. Even if it was just a little improvement, he could grow accordingly as much as possible.

Smiling, Ethan patted Lyuka’s head and sat down. Now that he had accumulated more mana, he needed to organize the complex current situation.

‘Originally, I should have left at this point.’

The reason Ethan came here was to check if he could meet the Saintess right away through the Pope.

He had achieved his goal and even received some treatment for Extinction, so there was no reason to stay in Watopia any longer.

‘But the Pope gave me a reason to stay.’

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason.

The perfect mimicry the Pope mentioned kept catching Ethan’s attention.

‘The 5th Apostle has a strength that’s on a different dimension from the apostles I’ve faced so far.’

And that ability was also amazing.

Perfect mimicry.

‘If I deal with the 5th Apostle, I might be able to use the perfect mimicry myself.’

Even Ethan, who roughly knows the faces of all the apostles, doesn’t know the 5th Apostle’s real face.

In other words, it meant that very few people know the 5th Apostle’s real face.

‘Maybe no one knows.’

If even the apostles and believers of the Dawn Council don’t know the 5th Apostle’s real face.

‘It means that if I go right now in this form and claim to be the 5th Apostle, it might work.’

All I need is a definite proof. The 5th Apostle’s green pearl. With just that, identity verification is possible.

‘Of course, things won’t go exactly as I think.’

“But opportunities to use it will definitely arise.”

Having made up his mind, Ethan first recalled the information about the 5th Apostle.

‘The perfect disguise that guy has. Plus, like the other apostle guys, he has a cruel nature.’

He’s the kind of guy who wouldn’t bat an eye even if he killed everyone in Watopia if things go wrong.

‘He’s already killed many merfolk by causing rifts.’

On top of that, he’s trying to snatch the holy relic by connecting a rift to Tartaros as well.

‘But was there really a need to connect the two cities?’

It’s something that could be done by securing Watopia’s holy relic and then securing Tartaros’s holy relic using the same method.

Ethan decided to change perspective and become the 5th Apostle.

He tried to think from the 5th Apostle’s standpoint about why the 5th Apostle is trying to progress things all at once.

If he were the 5th Apostle.

‘Of course I need to secure holy relics, but I also need to steadily secure souls to use as sacrifices. That’s why he’s opening rifts.’

Securing souls was the most important factor for the Dawn Council.

They create various artifacts and obtain superhuman abilities with the collected souls.

That’s not all. There are quite a lot of things that can be done by offering souls as sacrifices.

‘If monsters come out of the rifts, the merfolk will try to stop them, and naturally, there will be victims.’

If the number of victims increases, the next step is collection.

To collect souls, you need to be close. The 5th Apostle will surely secure souls from a nearby place.

Then, who should be disguised as to facilitate soul collection?

‘Huh?’

Ethan recalled a list of potential targets for perfect disguise in his mind and crossed them out one by one. And soon he paused at one name.

‘What if.’

What if he disguised as Sigma Roadhammer, the king of the dwarves who came to talk with the king of Watopia because of the rift that appeared in Tartaros.

‘Sigma is a respected king in Tartaros. If such a king… really if he dies in Watopia?’

The dwarves of Tartaros will carry out a blood revenge. Claiming that the king of Watopia trapped and killed their king.

‘Of course, Watopia would feel wronged. But will the dwarves of Tartaros listen to Watopia king’s defense?’

Would they calmly listen to that excuse when their king has died?

‘If the 5th Apostle who did the perfect disguise comes out and incites once more here.’

War between the two races would be inevitable.

The dwarves of Tartaros would cross the rift to come to Watopia.

And countless people would die in Watopia, which has become a battlefield.

Dwarves, merfolk.

Nobles, commoners.

Countless people would die regardless of race and status. And those souls would all become sacrifices for the Dawn Council.

‘It’s all just my imagination.’

There are some excessive speculations too. But if it’s an apostle he know.

‘They would have carried out the work separately. The fact that they didn’t means they’re drawing some big picture.’

It meant there was a definite scenario to realize this picture.

“I’ll have to check it out.”