Chapter 693: A Different Faith

“......The god we worshiped.”

“Is losing...... to our brothers and the Legion.”

As the believers abandoned their faith, the System’s power weakened.

And Lee Haein began recklessly drawing upon the already-weakened System’s power.

—No.

The believers saw that weakened appearance and abandoned their faith.

Then the Legion soldiers pressed even harder against the weakened System.

And the other believers who witnessed that scene abandoned their faith as well......

As time passed, the speed at which that bastard’s power disappeared only grew steeper and steeper.

And at some point.

The sight before my eyes changed slightly.

‘......I can see it.’

The streams of energy connected to its body.

Thin lines that had originally been hidden by its power.

The believers’ faiths that stretched toward that bastard and granted it power.

‘They’re disappearing.’

One after another, they vanished.

And eventually—

—No......!!!

The final strand of faith connected to it.

Even the faith of the last person who could not abandon belief until the very end snapped apart and disappeared.

‘If it can no longer borrow power from the believers...... then all that remains is the flesh it originally latched onto.’

Even that alone was certainly powerful.

Against the believers from the early days of the apocalypse, that alone would have been enough to be worshiped as a godlike existence.

But.

KUUUUUUUUUNG.......

The current Legion and Church.

It was nowhere near enough to defeat us.

‘......That was its true level from the very beginning.’

That bastard had never possessed the qualifications to call itself a god.

It had merely been bluffing while stealing the power of others.

That alone could no longer stand against us.

—Why....... Why......!

It swung its flesh with all its might,

but the Legion soldiers broke through its defenses and closed in on it.

Watching the approaching enemies, it screamed.

—I promised I would become your god. Why!!!

And.

As I approached it, I thought:

‘To it, humans were nothing more than tools for gathering power.’

Even its talk of becoming a god for us—

was not for humanity’s sake, but merely to obtain power for itself.

An existence that would cast aside even the believers who trusted and followed it without hesitation,

the moment they outlived their usefulness or ceased benefiting it.

If that was the kind of existence it truly was—

“Don’t need it.”

I swung my blade toward the black leech.

“From now on, we’ll handle our own problems ourselves.”

Slice—

The sensation of cutting through it.

The leech that had hidden within this land since ancient times while pretending to be a god.

[You have acquired experience.]

That was the end of the ‘System.’

***

Slice—

My blade cut through the leech.

An existence that had led such an enormous force and wielded overwhelming power.

Yet for the true body of such an existence, the flesh cut apart so easily it almost felt anticlimactic, offering no resistance whatsoever.

It made clear just how lowly its true nature had been.

Kuuung.......

The gigantic flesh that had rampaged wildly fell to the ground.

Shushushuk.......

Then gathered together in one place.

Now that the [System] controlling that power had vanished, the flesh was returning to its original form.

And.

The small altar where I had seen that corpse before.

What remained upon it—

“So it really was a tiny fragment.”

Was truly nothing more than a small piece of meat barely the size of a finger joint.

There was no sign of the sacred-looking figure I had seen before.

That too had likely been something the System created to decorate itself.

An illusion shaping itself into whatever form each observer imagined a god should possess......

‘......Then what was the corpse I saw?’

Unlike the others, who had seen forms resembling well-known divine beings,

the corpse I saw had taken the shape of someone extraordinarily beautiful—

but far removed from the image of an ordinary god.

A sudden question formed in my mind, but.

“......It really.”

“It’s really gone.”

Unfortunately,

there was no time to dwell on it.

When I turned my gaze,

I saw the Legion soldiers finally catching their breath after victory.

Humans and monsters alike, sorting through the wounded after the exhausting battle.

And beyond them—

“......It’s really dead.”

“So even the part about a god being able to resurrect after death was also...... a lie.......”

The believers who had worshiped it.

The existence that turned out to be nothing but lies.

I saw the believers [N O V E L I G H T] collapse into despair after witnessing the System’s death.

‘Just because they abandoned their faith...... doesn’t mean they’re in good condition.’

Believers with fanatical faith who normally would have clung to that belief no matter what they witnessed.

They had merely realized that what they believed in was false and abandoned that faith.

They had not cast it aside without regret.

If anything, it was the exact opposite.

“What are we...... supposed to do now.......”

The faith they had depended upon had been denied in an instant.

And so they sat collapsed in despair with their heads lowered.

Only Lee Haein and the few believers who had personally fought against the System alongside her were somehow managing to stand firm.

But even they were surely experiencing extremely complicated emotions.

“Sergeant Shin.”

As I watched them,

several soldiers approached me and spoke.

“What are you planning to do about those believers?”

“......Hmm.”

“We defeated the monster hiding behind the believers, and now that Sergeant Shin has returned to us, the Church itself is no longer an overwhelming threat, but.......”

Even so.

The believers’ numbers were massive, and the Church itself remained enormous.

Just because the Legion could defeat them did not mean they were a force that could simply be ignored.

It would be nice if things could proceed simply—

like us winning and them being absorbed into us.

But.

“These are the same people who fought a war against us. It won’t be easy to erase those feelings.”

From the beginning,

absorbing a hostile force had never been an easy matter.

Regardless of the System’s downfall, the resentment would likely remain among the members.

Not only within the Church, but among the Legion soldiers as well.

And besides.

“More than anything...... they’re far too different and too large to absorb that easily.”

They were not merely an organization united by profit.

They were a religious organization.

A group whose very nature was fundamentally alien.

Even if their faith had collapsed now,

the rules that united and maintained them had been rooted in religious doctrine.

Accepting such a foreign organization into the Legion, which functioned as a military force, would not be easy.

‘But turning former enemies into allies wouldn’t be easy either.’

I quietly turned my head toward Lee Haein.

“......Hic.”

“......Brothers. Please do not cry. We did the right thing. We broke free from the existence that deceived us and reclaimed our freedom.”

“But, sister.......”

The believers crying.

And Lee Haein trying desperately to remain steadfast before them.

“.......”

They had resisted the System after hearing my persuasion.

But it did not seem as though they had thought about what came afterward.

Even Lee Haein herself, their leader, looked unable to grasp how they were supposed to move forward from here.

She stood there blankly, clenching her fists tightly.

No.

It was not that she did not know what would happen.

She simply did not know how to overcome it.

Many of the believers’ gazes turned toward me.

‘Their fate will be decided by my decision.’

As I continued struggling with that thought—

“Well then.......”

One of the people listening nearby.

Corporal Seo Suhyeok approached me and said:

“I believe the correct choice would be to imprison them all as prisoners and criminals.”

***

“I believe the correct choice would be to imprison them all as prisoners and criminals.”

“What?”

Corporal Seo Suhyeok’s proposal.

At those words—

Flinch.

The believers standing relatively nearby visibly stiffened.

They had probably expected something like this to some extent, but it certainly was not what they wanted to hear.

“Isn’t that perfectly reasonable? They were an enemy force that fought a war against us to begin with. Isn’t it normal for the defeated side to become prisoners after losing a war?”

However.

Even though Corporal Seo Suhyeok had clearly noticed their reaction, he continued speaking without concern.

“We imprison them all for now, then hold military trials according to what activities they participated in within the Church. Afterward, among those with lesser crimes, we accept some into the Legion if they express willingness to cooperate.”

“Those with lesser crimes....... And if their crimes are severe, or they refuse to cooperate with the Legion?”

“In that case.”

He slightly turned his head,

then whispered quietly so others could not hear.

“We can subjugate them using Sergeant Shin’s cooking.”

“.......”

At those words,

I frowned slightly.

‘......That method.’

Maybe back in the early days of awakening.

But the current me understood exactly how grave a sin it was to interfere with another person’s mind.

It was a method I wanted to avoid whenever possible......

but at the same time,

it was also the most rational solution for this situation.

“But.......”

At that moment.

The production squad leader listening nearby.

Lee Sanga carefully opened her mouth.

“Wouldn’t treating them as criminals be going a little too far?”

“Too far? It’s common for defeated soldiers to become prisoners of war. I’d say not executing them is already a fairly lenient outcome.”

“But in a way, they’re victims too.”

Lee Sanga muttered softly.

The figure within the diary she had seen.

That person had originally been nothing more than an ordinary individual.

“They only fought because they were deceived by that leech, and in the end they even fought alongside us. So treating them as criminals feels a little too harsh.......”

People who had merely become fanatics after being deceived by that System’s lies.

They too were victims.

“But there’s no better solution, is there? If we absorb a force that large as it is, there’s no telling what problems will arise inside the Legion.......”

The problem was that Corporal Seo Suhyeok’s proposal was perfectly logical as well.

If we showed too much consideration simply because they were victims, then eventually the existing Legion would suffer for it.

In the end—

‘The choice is mine.’

People who had suddenly lost the single most important value in their lives.

Do we imprison them as criminals and push them even further into despair—

or show them mercy,

while accepting the potential internal problems that may arise within the Legion later......?

“......No.”

I could not bring myself to make a decision.

But when I thought about it carefully—

“There isn’t necessarily no better solution.”

“Pardon?”

With those words, I began walking.

I could feel the gazes of everyone turning toward me.

Not only the Legion soldiers, but the Church believers as well.

Ignoring those gazes behind me,

I arrived at the place I intended to reach.

Before me stood the massive altar.

Upon it rested the tiny fragment of flesh and the giant leech corpse collapsed nearby.

In the end.

The reason they were difficult to accept into the Legion was because their structure differed too greatly from the Legion’s.

But...... that might not necessarily be a disadvantage.

‘We call them different...... but ultimately, the real issue is that they’re a religious organization.’

In other words.

They had already proven that they possessed loyalty deep enough to do absolutely anything related to the faith they believed in.

“......Not exactly a method I like.”

If that was the case, then couldn’t I simply make use of that?

‘People whose faith was denied.’

Then—

‘All we need to do...... is give them a different faith.’

Smack!

My dagger drove toward the fragment of flesh.