A Dark Fantasy Spy

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The gaze of the Inquisitor descends upon me. It’s a chilling stare.

“What’s in your pocket?”

“……. ”

I have no more words, no excuses left.

The operation has been revealed. The Inquisitor has caught on.

Just as that thought crossed my mind, I had already drawn my pistol.

Pointing the muzzle at the Inquisitor’s abdomen, I pulled the trigger.

—

Episode 12 – The Strongest Magician of All Time

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The suppressed gunshot echoed off the low hill. The heated shell casings flew up, rolling over the snowy ground, while the smoke belatedly emerged from the end of the silencer.

Though shot in the abdomen, the Inquisitor was still alive.

Even a robust man would scream when hit by a bullet, but this guy showed no signs of pain whatsoever.

The Inquisitor, having fallen into the snow, tried to rise again, and I quickly twisted my wrist, aiming and unloading my pistol in a barrage toward him.

-ㅡ! ㅡ!

The sight of him getting hit was vividly clear.

The fired bullets pierced straight through his chest and shoulder blade, and as he touched the ground, he face-planted back into the snow.

Yet, he was still breathing.

Without even the slightest hint of pain.

“Damn…!”

As I pulled the trigger again, the suppressed gunfire erupted.

In the blink of an eye, I unleashed a flurry of bullets until the magazine was empty, turning swiftly to replace it from my pocket and racking the slide.

In my life, I had never seen anyone get back up after being shot, aside from those on drugs. But this guy wasn’t high, yet he stood tall even after taking over ten bullets.

This was not normal. A regular person would be immobilized as soon as bullets start embedding themselves in their body, unable to perceive the divine power of the amulet.

In other words, this guy was anything but ordinary.

Or perhaps he wasn’t human at all.

Honestly, both explanations sounded like nonsense, but I couldn’t make sense of this guy with my common sense. It meant he was not someone I could deal with.

The moment I realized that, I was already frantically running for my life.

“Damn…! This godforsaken world…!”

Cursing wouldn’t change anything, but I couldn’t bear it without letting out a few expletives. I dashed through the snow, sinking with each step, like a madman.

One person followed me.

Feeling the presence behind me, I glanced back and had no choice but to curse.

It was the Inquisitor.

“That bastard!”

He was pursuing me without a hitch. With one hand holding a staff and a knapsack on his back, he was running despite being shot.

To slow him down even a little, I reached back and fired a few rounds randomly.

But without even aiming, the bullets didn’t hit him, nor did they slow him down.

However, I managed to buy enough time to escape clumsily.

That time was enough for the Inquisition Officers who sensed something amiss to arrive on the scene.

“Heretic!”

The booming voice cut through the howling wind and reached me as a flash erupted at the edge of my vision.

“Who do you think you are to act so brazenly here!”

“Step aside!”

Two Inquisition Officers blocked the way in front of the pursuing Inquisitor.

They were Inquisition Officers disguised as civil servants who had entered the village.

As the Officers faced off against the Inquisitor, another shouted at me while I was still sprinting through the snow with my pistol drawn. He pulled out a holy scripture and shouted.

“Priest Rebecca is calling for reinforcements! We will handle this; you go!”

Things were spiraling quickly, but I could only point my pistol at the Inquisitor.

He was someone who was immune to bullets. That much had to be conveyed.

Even through the pain that felt like my lungs were bursting, I shouted as loudly as I could at the Inquisition Officers.

“That guy doesn’t take bullets!”

The Inquisition Officer gripping the silver dagger began reciting a prayer.

“The words of the Lord are like a sword; you shall wield the sword of the Spirit.”

Faith expressed in words becomes enshrined in the blade.

Like the sword of a Knight, the Inquisition Officer’s dagger glimmered with a pure white light like dew. The moment he did, the Inquisitor, who had been pursuing silently, finally showed a reaction.

“… Inquisitor!”

The silver dagger shining with a comet-like trail of white light was swung toward him. The dagger, cutting through the void and the horse’s midsection, sliced toward the Inquisitor’s neck.

The Inquisitor, who had been rushing with intense vigor, blocked the blade swung by the Officer.

He raised his arm to protect his neck and head, but had to sacrifice his left arm to shield his vital areas.

As the silver dagger passed, a deep scar was etched into his body. The blade imbued with divine power sliced through soft flesh, and droplets of blood splattered along its path.

In that moment, for the first time, a dying groan escaped his lips.

“Gurk…!”

The Inquisitor, gritting his teeth in pain, clutched his torn brown tunic and took a step back.

With a swift flick of his wrist, the Inquisition Officer spun the dagger, preparing for another attack, while the other, still holding the scripture wide open, gripped a thin page and shouted.

“Get going! We need to move the amulet!”

“……. ”

The moment he said the word “amulet,” the Inquisitor’s gaze snapped around.

With eyes wide open, he glared at me with a look as if he was ready to tear a human apart.

That unnervingly monstrous stare left me paralyzed, unable to move. It was as if something was pressing down on my shoulders, immobilizing my legs.

Just as the Inquisitor, fired up with a fierce spirit, charged forward, the other Inquisition Officer gritted his teeth and tore the page in two.

That was the moment when a magnificent light illuminated the Gloomy Sky, dispersing the shadows across the snowy expanse.

“Die, heretic!”

The white light soared like an arrow.

The light, springing forth from the scripture, split into numerous streams, defying gravity as they soared into the air, only to shift direction and rush down to the ground.

For a moment, I was spellbound by the sight, akin to a rain of arrows showering down.

The white light crashing down to the ground collided with the earth, stirring up a snowstorm.

In an instant, my body swayed.

“Gurk…!”

It was an immense shock.

I had witnessed the battles of Knights wielding divine power, but I had never seen an Inquisitorial battle. Though I had encountered them through documents while working in the Information Agency, I never imagined it would be this intense.

With such a level of power, even someone as resilient as steel who could take bullets would surely struggle to find their corpse after such an assault.

The firepower was comparable to the military magic used in the army. How could it come from merely tearing a piece of paper?

The Inquisition Officer, with the scripture now firmly held in both hands, stared into the hazy dust as if checking to see if the heretic had been slain in the recent attack.

The Inquisition Officer wielding the dagger sheltered his companion with his body, seemingly unwilling to budge until the swirling snow and dust settled.

“…….”

Clutching my pistol, I held my breath, watching both their reactions. Since the moment the Inquisition Officer’s attack had struck, the oppressive weight pressing down on me seemed to disappear.

Yet, my body was still far from moving easily.

While the two Inquisition Officers waited for the dust to settle, I forced my body to twist, straining to move my legs.

At that moment, the Inquisition Officer peering through the haze widened his eyes in shock.

The first to react was the one with the scripture.

“Damn it…!”

In a flurry, the Inquisition Officer began flipping through the pages of the scripture, almost burying his face into it. Even from a distance, I could sense his hurried movements were filled with urgency.

Next, the dagger-wielding Inquisition Officer, who had been watching the front, showed signs of alarm. Suddenly stepping back, he crouched low as if confronting a threatening beast, extending the dagger forward.

In the moment I was struggling to escape and bewildered by the unfolding situation.

“……!”

Piercing through the swirling snow and dust, a long sword rushed in.

The Inquisition Officer, on alert, hurriedly attempted to defend himself, but the blade slicked past him smoothly.

Next, the Inquisition Officer flipping through the scripture attempted to tear a page, but the glowing blade rushed toward him just when the paper was about to rip halfway.

Without hesitation, the long sword glided past the bodies of the Inquisition Officers like a flowing river, like a gust of wind. Warm liquid splattered on their faces the moment the dagger-wielding Officer collapsed, and the scripture-flipping Officer’s body fell apart.

The dagger and scripture, lacking their light, tumbled in the mud, still dripping warm blood down their face, but I was still unable to turn around and flee or even wipe the blood away.

To be honest, I didn’t fully understand how such a thing could happen.

How did that guy survive that attack?

How could he mutilate both Inquisition Officers at once?

How could the smell of decaying corpses waft from a living person?

And why couldn’t I even move my body?

One thing was certain.

That guy had survived the assault and killed both Inquisition Officers, and my legs were still completely unresponsive, all within what felt like less than two minutes.

And two minutes is far too little time for Priest Rebecca and the Inquisition Officers’ reinforcements to arrive.

As that realization settled in, I saw the Inquisitor approaching calmly, covered in dust.

“… Hah.”

Seeing his legs glancing at me from the corner of my vision, with my head bowed, I let out a deep sigh.

“What a shitty world.”