Hero's Coffin Chapter 54

Chapter 54

Seeing Harenir approaching with light at his back, the priest gritted its teeth and fled. Realizing it had no chance of winning, it tried to hide, but swish! A beam of light flew and pierced its leg. Argh, a painful scream erupted.

But even in that state, the priest crawled, stretching out its arm. The gesture of trying to grasp the staff it had just dropped on the ground was desperate. It was closer to an action of protecting a very precious treasure rather than simply attempting to counterattack.

Crunch, Harenir stepped on that hand and asked monotonously.

"What's in that staff?"

[As if I'd tell the likes of you... Aaaagh!]

The moment he tilted his head slightly, light beams poured down and pierced the priest. The priest was barely avoiding a fatal wound by being in Harenir's shadow. As if being penetrated by the opposing energy caused great pain, the priest writhed but kept its mouth tightly shut to the end.

At that resolute appearance, Harenir made a "Hmm" sound and shrugged.

"I guess quite a lot of power gathered to awaken Dedium is contained in it."

[Y-you! If you already knew...!]

"Of course I know, since I saw it. I just wanted to watch you struggle."

He had been closely observing the ritual. So he must have seen the hearts placed on the altar decomposing and being sucked into the crystal embedded in the center of the staff when the priest raised the round wooden staff high while chanting. It had passed too quickly to catch, but looking back, there had been such a scene.

Watching the priest desperately reaching for the staff, Harenir seemed to have gauged how much power had been gathered in it. If it could endure even while being pierced by light, then probably...

"If I just destroy that staff now, Dedium's revival will be greatly delayed."

The priest's third eye trembled, filled with shock and humiliation.

[Kuurgh, you won't dare touch that...!]

"Do I need to touch it myself?"

Harenir smiled. What approached the staff, from which black energy was seeping out, was the pure white sword. Piarus, the holy sword that exerted stronger power against unrighteous things.

Sizzle—

As the holy sword gently touched the staff, a burning sound was heard. It seemed to be absorbing quite a lot of Harenir's energy too, as he slightly furrowed his brow, while the priest screamed and struggled violently.

[It can't be, it can't! You, vicious bastard like your mother! I'll surely tear your mother to pieces and shove her in front of your eyes...!]

"Ah."

Harenir let out a short sigh and plunged the sword in. The veins that stood out on the back of his hand showed how much force he had exerted in an instant. Crack! The staff shattered completely. Instead of revealing his anger by raging like the priest, he smiled gently.

"Thank you for your help."

Harenir turned his back on the dazed priest. Instantly, five or six light bars pierced the priest's body. The struggling creature's movements gradually subsided.

The sight of Harenir walking steadily with the wasteland strewn with Dium corpses as a backdrop was truly worthy of being called a holy painting. The sun that had risen in the middle of the night shone brilliantly above him. As the corpses exposed to the purifying light slowly faded away, it looked as if unrighteous things disappeared with each of his steps.

Mela softly marveled at the awe-inspiring sight, and Kalterik burst into cheers. His voice was incredibly loud, as if he alone was trying to be Harenir's million-strong army of believers. All signs of fatigue from earlier were gone as he cheered wildly with an overwhelmed face.

At that noisy sound, Noi woke up.

"Huh...? W-what's going on...?"

At first, he was startled by the undead in front of him, but then as he looked around, his mouth slowly opened. Seeing the collapsed altar and the Dium corpses piled there, the crack in the sky, and the small sun floating in the air, his eyes widened as if he had pieced together the situation.

Fortunately, Noi didn't seem to care that he was covered in dirt, and immediately got up and ran to where the knights were. Waaah! A clear cheer followed excitedly.

Just then, Mela also returned to her human form. Her horns slowly shrank and disappeared, and her eyes returned to normal. Had her faith surged upon witnessing the sacred scene, or had her loyalty towards Harenir increased even more, giving her the will not to be a burden to him?

Whatever it was, he had been inwardly burdened by her state, so he swallowed a sigh of relief. Everything seemed to have been resolved well.

"The crack isn't disappearing..."

However, the black crack that had split the sky still remained. Would it close naturally as time passed? And for now, the cliff he had to descend was more daunting than that. It might be faster to just roll down.

As he was grumbling internally and moving, suddenly the ground rumbled. Because of that, he slipped on the ground and almost rolled. He didn't even have the presence of mind to curse the terrible game for listening to the user's opinion only at times like this. Because he instinctively felt where this vibration originated from.

It was a vibration from the crack in the sky.

The pitch-black crack slowly shrank, but that dark energy was flowing into the priest. As if trying to utilize the energy that had opened the crack one last time.

[We cannot, let you, go to our god...!]

The priest raised its head abruptly and stretched out its hand towards Harenir. Harenir reflexively raised his arm to block the black energy shooting towards him, but swish! The energy spread like ink.

In an instant, it spread along his arm, and then complex Dium language appeared on his skin. Ugh, as if it was accompanied by pain, Harenir slightly furrowed his brow. But when he took a long deep breath, golden light swirled around him and the letters disappeared.

"This kind of thing won't work..."

[Kuhehe... Is that so? That is a curse we carefully crafted for you... Didn't we say we knew you would interfere...]

The priest sneered, panting. As if determined to say this even as it was dying, it glared at Harenir with eyes lined with black blood vessels and snarled.

[Your arrogance, will, kill you...]

With those final words, thud, the priest's head hit the ground. As if it had used all its strength, it didn't move at all, and then its body itself began to fade away. Now, like the other Dium, its corpse was also purified and disappeared.

However, even after the priest's corpse had completely disappeared, the black markings that had appeared on Harenir's arm remained. They disappeared when he took a deep breath, but reappeared after just a few seconds.

"Why, why isn't it disappearing...?"

Kalterik asked with a worried face, while Mela and Noi closely examined Harenir's wound. Noi placed his hand on the arm, saying he would try to read the energy, and closed his eyes. Green light flickered around him. As he tried to use energy while already exhausted, cold sweat quickly beaded on his forehead.

However, as if shocked by the energy he gradually read, Noi was astonished. His voice trembled.

"I-I'm not sure exactly, but it seems to be accompanied by a curse of mental confusion. Since Haren's self-healing ability regenerates cells, it seems to make even this curse recognize itself as 'self'. So when Haren uses his regeneration ability, the curse seems to regenerate along with it..."

"What?! Can't it be removed?!"

"How could that be..."

It seemed the Dium had seriously guarded against the purification ability the hero was said to have been bestowed. To prepare such a delicate curse to stop the hero coming to eliminate the Encroachment Zone.

Kalterik and Mela were greatly shocked. Kalterik rambled incoherently, saying there couldn't be a curse the hero couldn't remove, and Mela sighed heavily in astonishment. He also looked at Harenir in bewilderment. He had thought he would never see him succumb to anything...

"It's alright."

Just then, Harenir shook his head. He loosened the robe he had fixed over his shoulder, naturally covering his arm.

"It will disappear with time. I'm just a little tired now, so I must have fallen for the confusion. There's no need to worry."

"But..."

"With God's grace with me, how could I possibly fall to the Dium's sorcery?"

Harenir smiled as if painted. His voice was very calm, and there was no awkwardness in his actions, so his companions were confused. Though the content of the curse seemed serious, the person in question was so nonchalant that they looked troubled. He spoke gently again.

"The curse is just a slight sting, so really, don't worry about it. Surely you don't distrust me?"

"N-no! Of course not!"

As soon as those words fell, his companions were startled. They shook their heads hurriedly as if nothing could be more impossible than distrusting the hero, and then exchanged glances. It was a look filled with the belief that he would be fine because he was the hero of the Holy Empire and the son loved by God.

Still inwardly uneasy, Noi urged, "If it hurts at all, you must tell us," and Kalterik and Mela quickly agreed. Harenir nodded, maintaining his beautiful smile.

"You've all worked hard, so let's go back now."

His final glance towards him was probably a greeting containing the 'acknowledgment' he had hoped for. He stared blankly at Harenir's back before shrugging. Well, he's the protagonist, so he should be fine.

***

A few hours later.

They returned to the campsite and took time to settle in. They decided to leave when day broke tomorrow, so everyone agreed to tidy up their bodies that had been messed up by the battle and rest. They could wipe off blood and dust with cloth dampened by water skins that Noi had taken out of his magic bag and distributed.

In fact, he thought he might have suffered less than before since he hadn't directly confronted the Dium this time, but he was sufficiently tired from seeing many shocking scenes and doing unnecessary mountain climbing. As soon as he lay down on the floor, drowsiness came. The abandoned village had many empty stone houses, so it was relatively comfortable with everyone using separate spaces.

He looked up at the peacefully shining desert night sky through the window anew before slowly closing his eyes. Now that they had dealt with two Encroachment Zones, the quest progress was already 50%. If they kept going at this rate, would it be soon...

–Meow. Meooow.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, En meowed beside him. He had seen it going out the window a few minutes ago, but since it always moved as it pleased, he hadn't paid attention. But now En had come right next to him and meowed. It persisted even when he ignored it.

Ugh, what is it. As he lifted his heavy eyelids, he found the cat's paw right in front of his eyes. It was a paw that had stopped mid-air as if about to pounce on him. Were you trying to hit me? He was about to ask incredulously, but his gaze was drawn to what was floating in the air instead.

He didn't know how long it had been there, but a blue status window was emitting light.

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Go to Harenir.

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...I don't want to.