A Dark Fantasy Spy

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Lucia calmly announced the commencement of the Grand Exorcism.

Her voice, devoid of any tremor, seemed almost detached.

“In the name of our merciful and gracious Lord, we pray to you, the Parent of all creation.”

Her small prayer echoed through the vast cavern.

“Watch over your servant, protect us from all evil, persecution, and intimidation that come from wickedness, and shield us from the curses and malice directed at your servant.”

Lucia prayed earnestly, appealing to the one above from the lowest place bathed in faint starlight.

Her eyes were closed, yet her voice continued without even the slightest quiver.

“Please, do not lead us into temptation. But…”

In the darkest hour.

In the cavern, where the northern winds whirled and darkness thickened.

“Deliver us from evil.”

As Lucia finished her prayer, she opened her eyes. A pair of blue pupils began to shine with a peculiar glimmer.

Lucia spoke.

“You have already been exposed.”

The saint decreed.

“Prepare to return to hell.”

—

Episode 12 – The Mightiest Magician

Lucia spread her palm and covered the Inquisitor’s forehead. In a low voice, she warned him,

“Come out of there while I’m still speaking nicely. And return to where you came from.”

The Inquisitor bared his teeth and shook his head.

His teeth, drenched in an unknown liquid, glistened under the faint starlight.

Intense movements began.

“Graaaah!”

The Inquisitor writhed as if possessed and struggled against his bindings.

The restraints clutching his hands and feet twisted mercilessly, tangling him like a patient afflicted with seizures, jerking his body entirely. The immense force generated from the Inquisitor was so tremendous it made my upper body rise.

Yet, despite his animalistic thrashing, he could not break free from the restraints.

Lucia maintained her weight on the fiercely resisting Inquisitor, pressing him down.

“Resistance is futile. Now that your existence has been exposed, there is only one path left for you.”

The Inquisitor’s mouth dropped open. He seemed ready to bite Lucia.

Saliva-glazed, sharp teeth descended upon her, yet Lucia did not flinch at all.

She threw aside the holy book she held and pulled back a raised fist.

– Slam!

It crashed into the Inquisitor’s face.

Lucia, with her fist wrapped in cloth containing the Talisman, delivered a powerful blow to his visage.

The impact resounded like a watermelon bursting, and the Inquisitor’s head hit the ground with a thud.

Witnessing that, I gasped in shock and shouted,

“What are you doing?!”

“I’ve subdued him. There’s no need to worry; he won’t die.”

Even after punching the Inquisitor’s face, Lucia maintained her confident demeanor.

True to her word, the groggy Inquisitor let out a feeble gasp as his head was slammed against the ground.

Assuredly, had he been an ordinary man, he wouldn’t have regained consciousness so quickly. The Inquisitor’s condition was far better than I had anticipated.

Lucia withdrew her fist and picked up the holy book, clearing her throat.

“An ordinary method cannot drive out or kill a demon. It’s only thanks to this that we have a chance.”

Lucia gestured towards the cloth wrapping her fist.

The silk made from silkworms fed on mulberry leaves blessed by priests. Even ordinary parishes treat such items with great reverence.

Perhaps he was dazed for a moment, but the Inquisitor moaned as he shook his head violently. I hastily sat next to him and pressed his head down with my hands.

“Please hold him down. He’ll keep resisting, so be cautious not to get hurt.”

“How long must I keep him down?”

“Until the ritual is complete. Until I say it’s okay for you to let him go.”

With that request, Lucia checked the state of the Inquisitor and opened the holy book.

– Flick!

Pages fluttered past in an instant.

With a swift gesture, Lucia flipped through dozens, no, hundreds of pages, scanning the verses.

“The wicked shall fall into the traps they lay with their own hands. The wicked shall be returned to hell. Even if the wicked join hands, they shall not escape punishment, but the righteous shall be saved.”

After reciting the verses, Lucia closed her eyes. In an exceptionally solemn voice, she spoke.

“I ask in the name of the Almighty Lord. What is your true identity?”

“Identity?”

A smile curved at the corners of the Inquisitor’s lips, one that was ominously unsettling.

“You curious one, who believes in concepts as gods.”

“You have been exposed.”

The cold blue eyes now turned towards the pinned Inquisitor.

“Neither cunning serpents nor wicked scorpions can harm humans any longer. Release Inquisitor Agato and come forth.”

The Inquisitor raised his head defiantly.

“Do you truly believe what you worship is a god?”

His hair was soaked in crimson liquid. Blood streamed from his cracked skull, soaking him beneath, mingling with the muck below.

As he tilted his head, his hair hung in various directions, giving off a foul odor.

“You little…!”

I leaned my weight onto the Inquisitor’s head forcefully. Even with an adult male pressing him down, his head showed no signs of touching the ground.

Despite pushing with all my strength, he resisted solely with the power of his neck. No, he was even glaring at Lucia.

The Inquisitor, pinned to the floor, glared at Lucia with murderous intent.

“No.”

The Inquisitor smirked mockingly.

“You just need something to believe in. You think there’s a paradise where you wish to go? Give up hope, young cleric.”

Even amid the blasphemies and accusations hurled at her, Lucia did not retort.

Ignoring the mocking grin of the Inquisitor, she removed the flask of holy water from her side.

Pop! The sound of the cork removing echoed like champagne being uncorked. The unflavored holy water had no particularly dramatic effect, but the Inquisitor glared at both Lucia and the flask with trembling eyes.

Lucia blocked the opening of the holy water flask with her finger and flipped it upside down.

Holy water dripped due to gravity, and Lucia brought the soaked finger to the Inquisitor’s forehead, tracing a small cross.

As she did so, the Inquisitor raised his chin and strained his voice.

“Young daughter, you are no threat to me. Just live as if you haven’t seen me. Like other humans do!”

“…….”

Lucia gazed at the Inquisitor with an expressionless face.

Without saying a word, she shifted her gaze towards me and softly began to speak.

“Don’t worry. Let me handle the exorcism ritual, and please continue holding Inquisitor Agato.”

I nodded while pressing the Inquisitor’s head down.

“…Understood.”

Perhaps satisfied with my response, Lucia smiled gently.

After tracing a cross on the Inquisitor’s forehead, she closed her eyes again, drew a holy sign, and began to hum the melody of a hymn as she reached into her sleeve.

Eventually, when her hand emerged from the sleeve, a long string with a small golden cross attached to it appeared with the sound of clashing beads.

A rosary made from olive wood, and a Roman cross.

It was right after that the Inquisitor’s eyes widened in alarm.

“…!”

The Inquisitor lifted his chin and opened his eyes wide. His jaw clenched so tightly it looked like it might spasm.

The Inquisitor ground his molars while lifting his head as if his chin might touch the ground. The skin around his neck stretched taut, causing the wrinkles to disappear.

Lucia brought the Roman cross closer to the Inquisitor’s forehead. The Inquisitor then twisted his head with immense strength, resisting like he had never done before.

Just when I thought it seemed like he was desperately trying to avoid the cross.

“Johannes!”

A final scream erupted from the Inquisitor’s lips.

“Counterpart! The hunter who made the stars fall! Accursed priest!”

The Inquisitor shouted incomprehensible words, raging like he was hurling insults at a mortal enemy.

Seeing this, Lucia responded in a calm tone.

“I see you know it well. It’s a cross borrowed from the high priest with great difficulty.”

“You rotten scum! You wouldn’t dare hang me upside down from the bell tower and saw through me!”

The Inquisitor cursed as if he were a person set ablaze.

Lucia held him firm above as I pressed down with my knee, weighting his head and shoulders forcefully.

Like a bull hit by a matador’s sword, he thrashingly resisted.

Then, the moment the Roman cross made contact with his forehead.

“Huff!”

A gasp followed, and silence loomed. In the moment where he struggled against the ground, pushing his chest skyward, his movements suddenly halted.

Lucia pressed the pure gold Roman cross against the Inquisitor’s forehead and quietly closed her eyes, starting to hum a hymn.

Suddenly, smoke began rising as if flesh were being burnt with a branding iron. A rancid smell wafted through the air as the skin began to sear.

With his head thrown back, the Inquisitor’s lips parted, allowing a hideous scream to escape.

– ■■■■■■■!!!

A horrendous shriek beyond words.

The Inquisitor’s scream resonated, shaking the cavern, echoing into the sky.

“F* this!!”

The Inquisitor screamed with a voice full of evil intent.

His pupils turned pitch black. As if ink were seeping into the whites of his eyes, his eyes colored black in an instant.

Black veins bulged along his temples, rising ominously.

The Inquisitor—eyes painted black, unleashed a torrent of curses at Lucia.

“Fing b*!!”

Once his mouth opened, it would not stop.

The floodgate had burst; the Inquisitor spat vile words, spewing forth vile curses.

It began to rain curses in Kien, directed at Lucia.

“You’re just like that bastard! Claiming to save humans while taking their lives! This one is on you!”

Curses in Kien poured forth, and when Lucia showed no reaction, the Inquisitor lashed out with heightened frenzy.

This time in Patalia.

“You think I’m going to leave here because of this? You foolish girl. You’ve lived your life in a convent, so there’s nothing in that head of yours.”

“…….”

“No matter how much you struggle, nothing will change. It’s all in vain!”

The stream of curses did not stop there.

Beginning with Kien and Patalia, the curses connected to Abas, Roche, the common Mauritania language, and even languages from the East and incomprehensible archaic tongues came forth in a diverse array of tongues.

The Inquisitor let loose curses in a cocktail of languages.

At times, spiteful and venomous insults poured out, and at other times, lewd comments spilling out of his lips.

“If you help those poor humans, do you think your sins will vanish? No. You’re not doing it out of altruism; you do it to lessen your sins. You know damn well what others are whispering behind your back, yet you drag them into your ridiculous farce!”

“I’ll rip off your breasts and turn your lungs into stones! The first child you bear will never see the light, and the second child won’t live past five! I will make sure of that!”

“I’ll gouge out your eyes and cut off your tongue, making you live without the help of those pathetic humans you so cherish. You’ll crawl on the ground like a dog for the rest of your life!”

The Inquisitor vomited his pent-up rage in an evil voice.

“You f*ing monk! How dare you insult me, a mere bug! You think you can’t kill me by doing this! I will tear this piece of meat to shreds and feed it to the vultures!”

“…….”

Thud! I slammed the Inquisitor’s head down to the ground. But his eyes shimmered with a despicable venom.

As the darkness seeped into his pupils, they took in the sight of Lucia praying.

“When I regain my power, I will surely rip your limbs apart and scatter them across the rivers and fields. It will happen before long. Guaranteed!”

Words I could neither comprehend nor wished to understand.

Each time he opened his mouth, it felt as if his voice would change and his demeanor flip. Sometimes he spoke with a child’s voice, an elder’s voice, even a woman’s voice.

Could this person truly be human? Even a madman could appear sane next to the Inquisitor.

I pressed down hard against his writhing body and bitterly cursed.

“What kind of nonsense are you talking about?!”

With eyes dripping with malice and a voice drenched in evil, the Inquisitor condemned Lucia. But she remained unfazed, acting as though she did not hear his words at all.

“Protect us amid this struggle. Even during the darkest of paths, we believe you are with us.”

“You’re talking nonsense!”

With a mocking sneer, his laughter sliced through her prayers.

Lucia opened her eyes, their calmness contrasting sharply with the Inquisitor’s mocking tone.

“You can pray day in and day out. Do you think that being heard and accepted by that person is possible?”

Her shadowy gaze fixated on Lucia.

“Even if you manage to drive me out, I shall wait for your death. And when you die and fall to hell, I’ll return to this land holding your head. I have witnessed the rise and fall of all empires on this land. Waiting for your corpse to decay will be a mere trifle.”

“…….”

“Thus, stop your futile struggles, young daughter.”

The Inquisitor grinned.

“Just like your parents did.”

The sound of prayer had long since ceased. The blackened pupils and glistening teeth glittered beneath the fallen starlight.

“…….”

Lucia slowly reached out with her eyes closed.

And then—

Thud!

She slammed his head into the ground.

With that powerful impact, the stone bricks cracked.

As her grip covered his eyes and forehead, his expression was obscured, yet surely, the corner of his mouth was rising.

Having released her hands from the Inquisitor’s gruesome grin, Lucia stood up and dusted herself off.

“I have bought us some time.”

As she shook her hands, wisps of white light scattered through the air. In that brief moment, it seemed she had invoked sanctity.

“Please continue holding him down as you are now. Until I return.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to retrieve tools for the ceremony. It won’t take long.”

One minute.

Her index finger stretched high.

“Just hold on for exactly one minute. We will be safe while I step away.”

I nodded in response.

“Thank you. I shall count on you.”

Lucia bowed her head and walked toward the remnants of the battle.

As I pressed down on the Inquisitor’s head, he appeared surprisingly calm compared to earlier when he thrashed like a bull. Had Lucia truly done something to him?

Even as I sat beside him, he gave me no glance whatsoever.

The Inquisitor, while watching Lucia retreat, smirked slyly, then suddenly broke into a wide grin.

“It’s you. The one I saw in that town. You were probably with the Inquisition officers, right?”

“…….”

“Hehe.”

Unlike when he was furtively suppressing his laughter while looking at Lucia, he couldn’t hold back his smile in front of me.

“I sense an unusual aura. What is it? Where did you come from?”

His grin spread widely.

It was as if he had seen some incredibly rare and wondrous object. The Inquisitor beamed with delight.

I tried hard to ignore his chatter. I shut my ears and closed my eyes.

However, my sense of smell wasn’t so easily controlled. With every word he uttered, a vile odor coiled around my nose and clawed at my nasal passages.

Just as I was trying to divert my mind elsewhere with closed eyes, the sweet, mocking laughter came from right beside me.

“How long do you think you can keep living like this? Surely you don’t expect you can deceive everyone around and enjoy a long life?”

I opened my eyes and looked at him.

His grotesque black eyes sparkled like a void.

For a moment, I stared blankly at him.

His lips curled into a smile, revealing gleaming teeth.

“Let me tell you something.”

“Don’t listen to him.”

The firm voice pierced my eardrums, snapping me back to reality. With it, my mind cleared.

Lucia had appeared by my side, looking at me. She held a small bucket with both hands.

She had returned even before a minute had passed, as promised.

“It’s merely a fairy tale invented to lure people in. There’s no need to pay attention to it.”

“…Is that so?”

Lucia dismissed the Inquisitor’s mockery and prepared to continue the exorcism.

Grasping the end of the violet robe around her neck, Lucia took a seat beside me and blindfolded the Inquisitor with the robe.

– Clatter.

The bucket was set down, creating a distinct sound of metal clanging. I noticed that inside the bucket was a long stick.

Lucia grasped the stick and explained,

“It’s a watering can.”

“…A watering can?”

“Yes.”

Then she swung it.

“That’s how you use it.”

Splash! The holy water splattered across the Inquisitor’s face.

With the sudden baptism of holy water, he shrieked.

Lucia chanted her prayers, dousing the Inquisitor repeatedly with holy water, and each time, his screams grew sharper.

“Guahhh!!”

“Cast all evil into the ever-burning pit of fire, that they may harm neither me nor all creatures of the world.”

A bizarre symphony of prayers intertwined with screams stretched long. For a moment, the Inquisitor quieted before once more flailing.

The torrent of curses towards Lucia resumed.

“I’ll tear you apart! Do you really think I’ll suffer in the flames and sulfur?!”

“…….”

He tirelessly hurled attacks at Lucia, with bribery and threats.

However, Lucia didn’t react even slightly to his words. As she ignored him further, the severity of his words intensified, yet still failed to provoke her.

Finally, unable to control himself, he banged his head against the ground and screamed wildly.

“Kaaahhh!!”

His form was unmistakably far from sane.

Vicious curses and venomous insults poured from his mouth, dripping with dark red moisture. The ground trembled beneath him as he screamed “Stop! Stop!” With every note of his cries, blood gushed forth like a volcano.

The veins on his neck had spread to his cheeks and forehead. They bulged so much it seemed they might burst at any moment, and the convulsions in his limbs grew increasingly violent.

In his final convulsions, Lucia described him like this.

“A beast will thrash when cornered.”

“But this seems a bit much!”

“Let’s calm him down first.”

Lucia threw a punch. The sound of breaking cartilage echoed as the ground cracked beneath us.

After raining down the blows, he finally kept his mouth shut, if only for a brief moment.

However, the instant she splashed holy water or thrust the Roman cross near him, it was as if he had ignited once more.

Of course, the stream of profanities did not cease. And I wasn’t the sole listener to this.

“Leave the Empire at once!”

I found myself echoing his situation.

“You can’t do anything here. You are as useless as cosmic dust, and there’s no reason for you to exist or stay!”

“…….”

“If your life is worth anything, leave this place before a new dawn comes.”

Whether he truly understood something or was simply throwing out words, he fixated his animus on me, as it seemed difficult to face Lucia.

At this point, I no longer needed to witness the spectacle. This creature writhing before me was far from human.

The demon screamed.

“You will lose your home, your homeland, and your family. It will all burn away. You are destined to kill not only yourself but all those around you.”

“…….”

“So if you wish to live, if you wish to save others, then leave. And never return.”

Though I had covered my eyes with the robe, I could still feel the demon’s gaze fixated on me.

Pressing down hard on its head, I tried to block out its voice, yet it was futile. But at least I could maintain my sanity thanks to Lucia’s support.

Lucia placed her hand over mine and, with a soft voice, spoke.

“Do not waver; it’s all fabricated lies. Do not be swayed by the falsehoods uttered before your demise.”

“…Lies?”

A grin spread across the demon’s lips.

“I commend your skills. You are impressive, yet you are lacking in perception, young cleric.”

“…….”

The demon occupying the Inquisitor’s body released the tension in its limbs.

“Give up.”

Beneath the robe, blackened teeth showed.

“Here, there is no light.”

“…….”

With an air of comfort, the demon slumped down as if laying on a bed, humorously grinning.

The odd sight made Lucia furrow her brows for the first time. She peeled back the robe blocking his eyes and gazed directly into the pitch-black eyes.

“…What’s your game?”

The demon laughed.

A full, unreserved laugh.

“See for yourself.”

At that moment.

Boom!

A cataclysmic sound like collapsing earth echoed.

Lucia and I turned our heads simultaneously toward the source of the noise, and upon confirming the origin, we were struck with terror.

“What the….”

The ground was caving in.

The stone bricks that dominated the cavern wobbled as they rose and fell rhythmically.

It seemed something was about to erupt from beneath the earth.

Grasping the situation, I tugged at Lucia’s wrist and pulled her behind me.

“It’s dangerous. Step back!”

“Wait a minute…!”

We stood transfixed, gazing at the heaving ground.

The demon smiled broadly, remarking,

“You should have fled instead of fighting me.”

That was the end of its words.

The ground surged upwards as bricks and soil cascaded down, burying all sound.

Thick dust filled the air alongside menacing debris pouring down from above.

Underneath the fallen starlight in the collapsing cavern.

Dozens of glowing red eyes flickered in the darkness.