Chapter "386"

"Y-you......"

Plimene's voice trembled. The reason why Basilio had desperately hidden his identity by wearing a mask was finally revealed.

"Hahaha. I knew it."

Archbishop Philis laughed as if delighted while looking at Basilio's appearance.

"I wondered how you survived that ritual, but brother, you became a lich. That makes perfect sense."

A lich is a being where mages who feared death chose immortal life by turning themselves into undead. That meant they had abandoned all pride as humans and became monsters pursuing life.

Basilio looked back at Phillis with red light flickering in his hollow eye sockets.

Maia and Delford could only watch that sight.

Of all things, a lich. No matter how much Tirna respected those with ability, a lich was strictly different.

Liches were classified as monsters that must be killed regardless of reason. Because becoming a lich itself meant they had already committed inhumane acts.

Basilio also knew this, which is why he hid his identity until the very end.

He didn't become a lich of his own will. Basilio didn't commit any inhumane experiments. The reason he became a lich was because he was caught up in the Eternal Church ritual.

He was a mage, caught up in the ritual and exposed to the power of Red Eternity.

To survive within it, he conversely used the power of 'life' governed by Red Eternity, and the aftermath remained in his body, causing him to naturally resurrect as a lich after death. Regardless of his own will.

It was merely the result of coincidence upon coincidence. But even if he explained such reasons, people wouldn't understand or believe it.

"Must be frustrating. It's not like you wanted this to happen. Right, if we're being strict about it, it's because of me. But let's think positively. Thanks to it, you survived and became stronger, didn't you?"

Basilio wasn't just any lich, but actually became a lich imbued with the power of an outer god.

Outer Lich. An entity that had never existed in all the history of this world, completed through the mixing of an outer god's power and a mage's obsession - a mutant individual.

"Why, such......"

Plimene couldn't finish her words and bit her lips and Basilio looked at Plimene.

"Plimene. I am......"

As he opened his mouth, Plimene's body flinched and trembled. It was an instinctive rejection. Because he was a lich who had abandoned humanity, and simultaneously because of the lich's characteristic aura full of death, even if she tried to suppress it, her instincts rejected it.

"......"

At Plimene's reaction, Basilio's eye light trembled finely like a candle before the wind. He wanted to tell her not to be afraid, that it was okay because he wouldn't harm her.

Plimene also belatedly realized her mistake and tried to say something, but then witch Maia stepped between them first, blocking their way.

"Step back."

"......"

At Maia's gaze filled with disgust and hostility, Basilio slowly stepped back.

Right. He deserved such evaluation. Unable to keep promises, letting his master die, and barely prolonging life with an outer god's power.

What face did he have to hope for understanding?

From the beginning, he hadn't hoped for such things. The purpose for barely prolonging life for over decades even after becoming a lich was only one thing.

"Phillis. I will kill you here."

Revenge against the Eternal Church. And beyond that, even the death of Red Eternity, which could be called the root of all troubles. That's why he had come this far.

"It would be too disappointing if you still think of me as the old me, but brother, even if you've grasped the same eternal power as me, the total amount of power is strictly higher on my side."

It had to be so. Originally, Phillis was supposed to end up as just a devotee of Red Eternity in the ritual, but unintentionally gained much more power.

It happened when all the high priests who were leading the ritual at the time died except for Fedilac. Five high priests were caught up in the ritual storm caused by Julius and turned to powder, and only Fedilac, the current bishop, survived.

Even he had turned into a lump of flesh from the ritual's aftermath and was living assimilated into part of this Trinity Building.

Then where did most of the power they possessed go? Right to Phillis.

Originally, he should have been just an appropriate devotee, at best stopping at priest level even with good luck. In the ritual, he absorbed the power of several high priests, and simultaneously received the gaze of Red Eternity who showed interest in this ritual, grasping enormous power.

He was the youngest and most inexperienced among the Eternal Church archbishops, but at the same time, he was also the most powerful archbishop.

'Even that wasn't his full power.'

Delford could tell. Though Phillis had shown overwhelming majesty, he still wasn't giving his 'all.' Rather, compared to Zaxilos who had briefly shown sincerity against Osian, Phillis was no different from an existence whose potential surpassed the current cardinal.

'It can't be helped.'

Delford gathered his recovered body and stood beside Basilio.

"I'll fight with you."

"If you stay with a lich like me, you won't see anything good."

"What's wrong with being a lich? I'm a werewolf. Whether lich or werewolf, to those bastards we're just monsters anyway."

Delford glanced sideways at Maia and Plimene.

"I don't care about such things. Even if we're monsters, our hearts aren't. If you think you have self-respect, isn't that enough?"

"Huh. Well now."

Basilio let out a hollow laugh as if incredulous. But it wasn't an unpleasant thing to hear. Rather, it provided no small comfort to his troubled heart.

Basilio reached out toward his hat that had fallen after being swept away by the shockwave. He grasped the hat that flew to him on its own and put it on his head.

With those words, red energy rose like a heat haze from Basilio's entire body. The red energy that squirmed and took shape floated in the air and transformed into various forms of weapons.

-Creak!

Delford grabbed and tore off the brass mask covering his mouth. His pupils turned red and the black fur all over his body stood on end as his bulk began to swell to twice its size.

Thanks to his clothing having special functions, it stretched without tearing despite his enlarged bulk, but the speed at which his bulk expanded was so fast that even the special clothing couldn't endure and was about to burst.

His claws and toenails grew longer than before, his snout protruded long, and his teeth became sharp.

From the distant ancient times, descendant of the fierce wolf Vinegand that was said to have devoured gods. Delford Vinegandsohn. At this moment, he released the reins of wildness he had been holding to defeat the enemy before his eyes.

-Grrrrowl!

His usual gentlemanly speech disappeared, and only the low sound of a beast scratching its throat echoed.

-Awoooooooo!!

A roar burst forth from the deepest pit in the world, compressing all the world's ferocity.

"Haha. Finally it's getting interesting."

Phillis smiled brightly facing such a scene. As if he wasn't considering his own death at all, rather he was enjoying it.

"With this much, I can properly test how much power I have."

An ancient fierce wolf and an outer lich. This was more than enough.

As Delford charged on all fours, weapons drew countless red lines in the air and rushed toward Phillis.

"Plimene! Move quickly! We need to get as far away from here as possible!"

Maia pulled Plimene along. Plimene ran following Maia's wing beats, but her head was dizzy and she couldn't run properly.

'What am I doing?'

Her brother, whom she thought was dead, was alive. But that wasn't something to be happy about at all. Her brother had accepted an outer god's power and become a fallen one. And more shocking was that he had made such a choice of his own will.

Moreover, Basilio, no, Julius had tried to save Phillis and was instead caught up in it and suffered terrible things.

'I......'

Plimene collapsed on the spot. Maia was about to urge her to get up quickly, but didn't have the leisure.

-Flash!

From beyond the flesh passage where they thought they had gotten far enough, a sharp slash flew along with a flickering flash.

Maia gritted her teeth and had to summon blue swallows around her to block the slash.

"What kind of power......!"

Maia was startled to see her beloved swallow familiars being torn to shreds. This slash was definitely the Wolf Fang Slash that Delford had used. However, it was much larger and more violent than when she had seen it before.

"It's not even aimed at us, and just the power scattered from the battle's aftermath has this much force."

What kind of battle was happening beyond that passage? If she hadn't quickly left the spot sensing something ominous, even she, a witch, might have been caught up in it.

-Creak. Crrreak.

As if sensing the presence here, corrupted beings began to reveal themselves from various parts of the passage. Mixing humans and insects, or writhing with tentacles, or grotesque forms with bones protruding through skin.

Grotesque and terrible monsters discovered prey and rushed over eagerly.

"Oh really!"

Maia sent her remaining swallows in all directions, struggling to protect Plimene, who collapsed in place, unable to do anything.

She recalled how she had treated Basilio over the years.

The first time she encountered him was quite long ago. Basilio, a fixer who appeared in public hiding his identity with a mask, had been around for nearly 20 years.

And then, Plimene, who was rising as a civil servant, was able to meet Basilio.

Though Basilio tried hard to hide it, Plimene could tell the moment she faced him that he resembled Julius. No, that he was Julius himself.

There was no way she wouldn't know. Though he was trying hard to pretend not to know, to act like he wasn't, she could tell just by looking. So while she was happy that he was alive, she was also angry.

Where did you leave Phillis and you're alive? If you were alive, why didn't you come find me? Do you know how hard it was for me that day?

If he had apologized to her saying he was sorry, she might have forgiven him. But Julius treated her like a stranger until the very end. Even when she gave signals several times, he would ignore them.

So Plimene also treated him coldly.

They had come too far to return to the past. That innocent girl from before had grown too old.

So Plimene pushed Julius away, showing thorns that she no longer wanted to be with him.

Even so, Julius would come to see her with a good-natured smile, with a brazen face, as if something was so good about it.

Every time she saw that behavior, something boiled up inside her.

Why do you smile like that? I was hurt for all those long years because of you. How can you do that?

Because she had loved him, the shock of betrayal was even greater. Plimene had lived really harshly to rise to this position as a woman. Because only such poison remained, Plimene was especially cruel to Julius.

The stronger her hatred for him became, somewhere in her consciousness came the question of whether that was really good. It was her youthful self from the distant past when she loved a man.

Plimene deliberately ignored that question.

'Actually, I knew. That he wasn't the kind of person to do that without reason.'

Tears flowed down Plimene's cheeks. That day, after her brother died, she thought she had shed all the tears she would shed in her lifetime. She had resolved never to cry again, to live proudly so others wouldn't pity her.

She definitely had.

"I......"

She didn't know how much Julius had suffered. She didn't know why he had to wear a mask, why he had to hide his identity. That he had been fighting desperately in places she didn't know. That he hadn't forgotten her in all those years.

"Plimene!"

Maia shouted. The corrupted beings rushing in at Phillis' call couldn't be blocked by Maia alone, no matter how skilled she was.

Several corrupted beings broke through Maia's solid defense and rushed toward Plimene.

Just as those sharp hands of corruption were about to touch her body.

Pure white starlight shot long through the air.

The corrupted beings touched by the light vanished without a trace. Some corrupted beings with large chunks of flesh carved out melted and collapsed. The corrupted beings that had feared nothing in the world stopped all at once.

It was because of the presence that had appeared before Plimene at some point.

'The outer god's corrupted beings are... afraid?'

Maia couldn't believe the current situation at all. Regardless, the knight clad in pure white armor asked the collapsed Plimene.

"Where is Basilio?"