Chapter 43
After its birth.
The fragment instantly took over its host’s body.
The host's soul was pushed aside and cornered in an instant.
[Food!]
The fragment easily swallowed the host's soul that it had long been dwelling in whole.
But although it swallowed it, it wasn't in a state good for eating.
This was because the connection was unstable due to being hit with holy magic every week for 16 years.
If it had awakened after burrowing into the core of the soul with a strong connection, the soul should have been shattered and spread before it, easy to eat.
But because that wasn't the case, the swallowed host's soul was in such a perfect state that it was burdensome to digest.
But what could it do?
It had to eat first to be able to spew out curses with the resentment produced by digesting the soul.
After its first feeding, which was bloating and uncomfortable, the fragment checked its condition.
The condition was very miserable.
Not only was its structure seriously unstable because it couldn't properly settle in the soul due to being hit with holy magic for 16 years, but the power of the curses it could spew out wasn't perfect either because it was forcibly awakened before it was even completed.
But other than that, there were no problems at all.
Now it was fully awake and could wield the authority of curses granted to it like crazy.
[All. I'll eat all of it!!]
It could feel the countless souls and minds of humans scattered around.
The souls of parents who tortured their daughter while being crushed by guilt and frustration trying to save her.
The princess who tried to build happy memories while enduring pain and frustration to save her other half.
The cowards who ran away and quit their priesthood because their minds broke from torturing the young princess.
The wounded and broken spirits overflowing in this capital.
They were all its food.
The fragment wanted to eat all of them, and so it did.
It floated the host's body it had taken over in the air and fired curses as far as it could with all its might.
The curse seeped into human bodies and souls started to be eaten away.
The souls eaten away like that were directly transmitted to the fragment of the evil god, filling its stomach.
More souls.
More resentment created by digesting them.
And more curses through that resentment.
It was the moment the first step for this endless vicious cycle was taken.
"Quickly! Cast miracles to neutralize the curse!"
The fragment could see priests resisting it and trying somehow to slow down the curse, but all those efforts seemed foolish to the fragment.
The curses the fragment spread were different from ordinary curses.
The fragment's curses stimulated the soul.
It directly spread the fear that the soul had been shattered, and when that fear grew in the heart, it devoured that emotion and consumed the very existence of humans, a terrible curse.
The fragment of the evil god knew this very well because it was part of a god.
This shook the very existential foundation of humans, there were no mortals who could withstand it.
Saints. Holy women. Heroes.
It was the same for anyone with a noble and lofty mind and soul.
So the fragment of the evil god wasn't surprised at all when a man suddenly appeared before its eyes, walking on air.
Rather, it mocked him.
No human could be without the fear of their soul, the source of existence, being destroyed.
What a foolish guy to throw himself at the source of the curse.
If he wants to die, I should kill him.
Thinking that, the fragment of the evil god cast a curse, but the curse only swirled around the man's body and couldn't burrow into his soul.
Clearly, the soul was trembling and shaken by the curse, but regardless of how the soul was, the man was rushing towards it as if he didn't feel any fear at all.
The fragment was shocked.
Is that possible?
Is this even a possible thing?
If it's a living human, shouldn't they naturally be soaked in terrible fear when their very soul is shaken?
Isn't that common sense?
At the moment when the fragment was bewildered by this situation outside of common sense.
A belt struck the fragment's cheek hard.
And.
Pain beyond imagination came to the fragment.
***
I felt like my mind would fly away with anger.
I kept swinging the belt.
Both of the fragment's cheeks were completely swollen, and teeth burst out and flew through the air.
And that wasn’t all?
"These fucking wings, damn it!!"
I grabbed the wings grown on the fragment's back and started forcibly tearing off and bursting the feathers and eyeballs grown there.
[S-stop!!!! Stop!!!! Please!! Please!!!!!!]
The fragment screamed.
But I didn't stop.
"Fuck off, you son of a bitch!! You fucking bastard!! You feel it too!! You feel what Iomene felt too!!"
I grabbed the grown wings with both hands and delivered a knee kick.
With a crack, the wing bones broke and snapped off.
The fragment of the evil god couldn't even scream anymore.
I had heard experiences of people who had had kidney stones, and they say that when it really hurt, one couldn’t even scream.
It was probably in a similar state.
But this wasn't the end yet.
It was still far from over.
When I thought about what it did to Iomene, it was still far, far from over.
I looked at the feathers plucked from the wings, filling my hands.
The tips were pointed.
Good.
I approached Iomene's body, which was just whimpering without any reaction due to the pain.
After lifting her hand.
I brought the pointed part of the feather under her fingernail.
"Did you think it was over?"
The pointed part of the feather dug into the tender part under the fingernail.
Iomene's body jumped.
[Ahhh!! Ahhh!!!]
It tried to escape, but how could it escape when its soles were time-stopped along with space-time itself?
I punched the belly of the one trying to escape and continued the beating by swinging the belt powerfully enough to bruise its arms and legs.
It couldn't endure for long.
Whether it was a fragment of an evil god or whatever, it seemed it couldn't withstand such pain at 3000x sensitivity.
[Ahhhhh!!]
The fragment of the evil god spewed out an eerie scream and escaped from Iomene's body.
A terribly black lump escaped through Iomene's mouth to the outside.
[You!! Mine!!]
And then it flew towards me, screaming horribly.
I didn't resist.
I closed my eyes tightly and accepted the evil god's curse entering my body.
Right.
It's over now.
Whether it was because of the positive thoughts around my body or for some other reason, the curse didn't work.
Even the curses directly sprayed by the fragment of the evil god didn't work.
Then I just need to put the fragment of the evil god, the source of the curse, directly into my soul and burst it.
This will definitely send me to Korea.
I believed that without a doubt.
The fragment seeped into my body and disappeared.
Right.
Now it's over with this.
Goodbye.
Arcal Empire.
It was dirty meeting you.
Let’s never meet aga—
[No!! No!! Ahhhhh!! Ahhh!!]
Wait a minute.
Why is this bastard doing this?
Why is it screaming like this?
[You!! You!! Deceived!! Deceived!!]
The fragment of the evil god suddenly started screaming instead of trying to burrow into my soul.
[Why!! Why is that in your soul...! Ahhhhh!!]
"Wait!! No!!"
Regardless of my scream, with a shattering sound, the fragment of the evil god instantly broke apart.
And it shattered and disappeared futilely just like that.
Along with that, a brilliant light burst from my body.
The light soon changed into thousands of small fragments and quietly…
Started falling to the ground.
A fairytale-like and truly beautiful scene as if stars had shattered and were falling to the ground...
But what the fuck?!
My Korean reincarnation!?
My cheat key to skip going to hell?!
Weren't you supposed to burrow into my soul and make me your new host?
Why are you suddenly shattering and disappearing and shit!!
Why!?
***
When the curse burst out.
Every human in the capital felt that sensation.
Of course, Erpha felt that sensation too.
She, along with the mages and witches of the Magic Tower, started rushing urgently towards the imperial palace.
And there, Erpha witnessed it.
A woman with black wings shooting curses from her wings against the background of the morning sun rising in the distance.
And the figure of Saint Amael proudly walking on air toward such a woman.
"Amael!!"
Erpha reflexively drew her wand and was about to approach the saint, but a priest from the White Order nearby rushed to her.
"You mustn't approach!"
"Why! I have to save the Saint! I…!"
"If you approach the source of the curse, your soul will only be polluted and destroyed!! If you approach carelessly, you'll die! It can't be handled by ordinary methods!! For such a powerful source of curse, at least dozens of priests must use the miracle of destruction!"
Erpha felt an intense conflict at the priest's words.
She had to save the saint.
But there was nothing she could do.
"Can the Saint... survive?"
At her question, the priest from the White Order painfully lowered his head.
"It's too late. We must destroy the saint's soul and the soul of the being that became the host entirely with the miracle of destruction."
Erpha felt her blood run cold.
Saint Amael.
Her love.
Her everything.
How could she live without him?
Could she live in a world without him?
She wanted to shake off the priest and run to save the saint right now.
But she couldn't.
Because she remembered the words the saint had once said to her.
To care for herself more than him.
Come to think of it, it was a prophecy for this very moment.
The saint was a foreseer, so of course he must have known this moment would come.
Erpha clenched her fists so hard they might crumble.
She closed her eyes tightly.
With the belief that Goddess Lilia would never abandon her saint.
She turned her back on the saint dealing with the fragment of the evil god with that belief.
"What should I do!?"
"Please gather the people hit by the curse! I'll cast a miracle to dull the curse on their souls!"
"Please hurry!"
Instead of running to the saint, Erpha chose the path of saving people.
She frantically waved her wand, magically moving people who were struggling and suffering from being hit by the curse, and transferring them to the priests.
But no matter how much she tried and tried, the curses being spread only increased.
No magic.
No miracle.
Could prevent the curse from burrowing into people and eating away their souls.
All they could do was pour holy magic onto curses that had already burrowed in, trying to slow them down even a little.
"Please…! Please!"
She shed tears and moved as many people as possible far away from the source of the curse.
Nevertheless, as if mocking her pleas, the curse only continued to encroach on the capital.
At the moment when only a future remained where an enormous number of people would die with their souls eaten away if this continued.
"T-the curse…!"
"It's disappearing!"
The curses cast on the souls of countless people began to leave and return to their source.
Everyone raised their heads to look at the sky.
The saint and the source of the curse were fighting each other.
The fierce battle was clearly turning in the saint's favor for anyone to see.
Although it was too far to see properly, the screams spewed out by the source of the curse were clearly audible to everyone.
"T-the Saint?"
"Impossible!! Is he controlling such an intense curse?"
"Is that… Is that even a possible act!!"
Everyone was surprised.
And of course, Erpha was surprised too.
But that wasn't the end.
The next moment.
The source of the curse let out a terrible scream.
And a brilliant light burst from the saint's body.
The brilliant light, which momentarily overshadowed even the rising morning sun, soon changed into small sparkling fragments of light and slowly began to descend from the sky to the ground.
The lights, one by one.
Settled on the bodies of people who were wailing in pain from being hit by the curse.
And with that, the faces of people who had been in pain changed to peaceful expressions.
"They're fragments of souls devoured by the source of the curse," a priest from the White Order muttered blankly.
"It's a miracle."
"It's the saint's miracle."
"He… He saved us."
Everyone in the capital was looking up at this fantastical scene.
The morning sun, now fully emerged from the horizon, was brilliantly illuminating the capital.
In that terribly holy morning sunlight, the saint was standing on air, silently looking at the sky and shedding tears.
It was like a majestic scene from a myth that no one could deny.