Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 595

◈ 595. An Unkillable Face

It was during a peaceful meeting.

“What will you do if Aquari’s child turns out to be your biological child?”

At Iira’s question, everyone looked at Kamuel, who flinched and snapped irritably.

“That can’t be!”

“Still, there’s always a ‘what if.’ What if it does happen?”

Again, everyone stared at Kamuel, who slammed the table with his fist, looking displeased, but eventually answered.

“What else? I’d have to cheer him on. Just because that child isn’t Margata’s doesn’t mean he’s not my child.”

After speaking, Kamuel seemed even more annoyed and glared at Aquari, asking,

“What about you? What will you do if it becomes certain that your child is a fake? Isn’t it the same for you?”

“I suppose so.”

Aquari muttered bitterly.

“You all have no discernment.”

Redrin scoffed and reached for Lumena’s teacup to take a sip, but Lumena smacked his hand with a teaspoon, causing him to withdraw.

After that, the gods were discussing the demons.

“Aquari, Aquari!”

Aize rushed in, calling for Aquari urgently.

The angel, who usually seemed like a walking harp melody—to the point where Kamuel was always amazed and urged him to get angry—had a pale, frozen expression for once.

“What is it?”

Sensing that something was amiss from the expression, Aquari asked with a bad feeling.

“What’s wrong?”

Aize’s eyes landed on Redrin. Redrin frowned. Aize looked back at Aquari and said with difficulty,

“Redrin’s child… has been poisoned.”

The moment those words were spoken, Redrin, who had been nonchalantly observing the situation with his arm propped up, froze with a chilling expression.

Before Aquari could say anything to Redrin, Redrin kicked Aquari in the blink of an eye.

“Redrin!”

“Stop him!”

Iira and Lumena grabbed Redrin simultaneously, but Redrin was the best fighter among the gods.

Redrin threw them both aside and grabbed Aquari by the collar again, while Lumena and Iira grabbed Redrin from both sides and pulled him back.

“Redrin, listen first!”

“Listen to what happened before you get angry!”

Redrin twisted his arms a few times, then sat roughly on a chair, glaring at the two gods.

It hadn’t been many months since he had been appointed as high priest, but even so, this was something to be furious about.

Aize shook his head.

“I don’t know. Other than the news that he was found poisoned…”

“I’ll ask. Calm down.”

Aquari spoke to Redrin and then called his own high priest.

Kamuel, who had also been watching the situation, called his own high priest as well.

Redrin shook off Lumena and Iira’s arms and sat roughly on the chair, glaring at the two gods.

Two days ago, Redrin’s high priest had said that he had been attacked by the northern high priest’s allied forces due to a misunderstanding with the western high priest, but the misunderstanding had now been resolved, and the three high priests had decided to meet.

But suddenly, when he heard that his own high priest had died, Redrin’s first reaction was to lash out at the west, who had initially attacked his high priest.

Aquari glanced at Redrin and quickly waited for Memia to answer.

[Yes, High Priest.]

Finally, Memia answered, and Aquari quickly asked,

“The southern high priest is dead. What happened?”

[I don’t know. He seemed fine when we parted ways yesterday. He went back safely. But suddenly, news came that he was dead…]

“You’re not involved in this, are you?”

[Of course not. I want to clear my name of being a black priest more than anyone else through bloodline verification [a magical process to prove lineage]. I have no reason to kill him.]

“……”

[And if I had killed him, why would I have poisoned him? It’s clear that someone deliberately poisoned him to frame me.]

Kamuel’s high priest was also urgently defending himself to Kamuel in a resentful voice.

[I was worried about what would happen if the bloodline verification results changed things, but we had a good talk yesterday and I pulled myself together. Why would I assassinate the southern high priest? The southern high priest is the child of Redrin, who is close to Kamuel.]

“So, he was safe until the meeting ended, right?”

[Yes. Besides, if I were to kill him, there are many faster and better ways, so why would I bother with poison?]

Kamuel and Aquari finished talking with their respective high priests and looked at Redrin.

Redrin was still grinding his teeth, glaring at them.

“Who is it? Which one of you killed my child?”

When Redrin asked, Aquari and Kamuel answered simultaneously.

“It’s Kamuel’s child.”

“It’s Aquari’s child.”

Aquari and Kamuel looked at each other and soon protested to each other.

“What are you talking about? Why would my child kill Redrin’s child? He was about to clear his name!”

“Isn’t poison your high priest’s specialty?”

“My child isn’t stupid. If he was going to kill him, he wouldn’t have used poison. Your child killed him and deliberately disguised it as poison!”

“Weren’t you aiming for that?”

While they were glaring at Aquari and Kamuel fighting, Redrin stood up again.

“I’ll manifest [descend to the mortal realm in a physical form]. I’ll manifest and kill you both. That would be fair, wouldn’t it?”

As Redrin tried to go to the mortal realm, Iira and Lumena grabbed him again and stopped him.

Redrin was a powerful god, so if Redrin manifested and went down, the damage to the mortal realm would be significant. They had to stop Redrin from going.

In the meantime, as Aquari and Kamuel continued to fight, Redrin later threw a chair and shouted.

“I’m going to kill all four of your former and current high priests.”

* * *

Redrin raged fiercely, and the gods barely managed to calm him down.

It would have been fine if they were just stopping him, but they couldn’t take their eyes off him because Redrin was trying to manifest in the mortal realm with the slightest carelessness.

Aquari and Kamuel watched Redrin raging and Lumena and Iira trying to stop him, and they both had headaches from the troublesome situation.

Then, just as Aquari was about to assess the situation, Memia didn’t answer no matter how many times he called.

He wondered what she was doing that she wasn’t answering, but Memia belatedly spoke to him.

[Aquari…]

Aquari frowned at the weaker-than-usual voice.

“Memia?”

When Aquari called Memia seriously, Redrin also stopped raging for a moment, and the other gods looked at Aquari.

“Memia?”

Aquari looked at somewhere in the air again and called Memia.

[Aquari…]

Memia’s voice was heard again and then cut off.

“Memia. Memia?”

Aquari called repeatedly, but there was no answer. Aquari called other high-ranking priests, but none of them knew the situation.

At that moment, Aize rushed in again and shouted.

“Aquari, Aquari! Memia is said to be dead!”

Aquari repeatedly called Memia and then froze.

Iira muttered, “What to do,” and Lumena also clicked her tongue. Redrin frowned, wondering what was going on, and asked.

“Why did she die again?”

Aize didn’t know that far. After asking around, the gods learned the situation.

When the southern high priest was murdered, the southern paladins were furious and actually joined the northern high priest’s side.

The southern high priest’s side seemed convinced that the western high priest was the culprit.

The western high priest’s side had to face other paladins in a 2:1 situation.

However, the western paladins didn’t like Memia in the first place, so they didn’t fight enthusiastically even while facing them.

On the other hand, the northern paladins were full of loyalty to Memira, and the southern paladins were excited and full of anger over the fact that the high priest, who had been gone for over 10 years, had been murdered.

The paladins who were supposed to protect the western high priest abandoned Memia and left, and Memia was shocked and killed.

While Aquari was blankly listening to this, Kamuel clicked his tongue and said to Redrin.

“Still, my child avenged your child.”

“Don’t act familiar.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Redrin punched Kamuel again, and Lumena and Iira hurriedly grabbed Redrin again.

“Your Memia killed my child. I’m going to kill that Memira child too. Don’t think you can get away with this.”

Kamuel put his hand on his cheek, where he had been hit, and shouted angrily.

“If it’s this side, it’s this side! If it’s that side, it’s that side! Blame just one! Who are you blaming anyway!”

“Who am I blaming? Memia, who half-killed my child in the first place. Memia, who killed him again even though he was injured and still tried to mediate. Both of them.”

While the gods were fighting again, Aquari, who had been blankly standing there, disappeared.

The gods stopped fighting when a gust of wind suddenly blew next to them. Aquari was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, the mortal realm shook greatly, and natural disasters occurred in the western continent.

While they were stopping Redrin’s manifestation, Aquari had manifested.

Lumena waved her hand, causing the scene around Aquari to appear on the table [a magical viewing device].

“Oh dear.”

Iira clicked her tongue.

Aquari was a powerful god. Moreover, because he had manifested in a hurry without controlling his power, the range of damage was very large.

Aquari, who had descended to the mortal realm, blew away those surrounding the dead high priest’s body and hugged Memia’s corpse.

“Memia. Memia.”

He was going crazy when he realized that the voice calling him was Memia’s last call as she was dying.

Redrin, who had only had his high priest for a few months, was so angry, but Aquari had been watching Memia since he was a baby, or rather, since she was in the womb.

Aquari’s heart felt like it was tearing apart.

Belatedly, the gods realized their mistake, but every time Aquari cried and grieved, the natural disasters around him became more severe.

“Aquari. Stop it.”

Iira hurriedly tried to stop him, but Aquari couldn’t calm his excitement.

“Aquari. That’s your territory. It’s a place where people believe in you! The other children are your children too!”

Lumena also joined in to stop him, but Aquari gnashed his teeth and became more ferocious.

[If everyone is my child, then the other children are trash who killed their siblings.]

“Aquari!”

Iira shouted urgently, but the western territory began to collapse little by little due to the natural disasters caused by Aquari.

“Memira. Get out of there.”

In the midst of this, Kamuel shouted urgently, afraid that Aquari would kill his high priest.

However, this sound rather stimulated Aquari.

Having forgotten about Memira due to grief and betrayal, Aquari now remembered Memira upon hearing Kamuel’s voice.

Aquari hugged Memia’s corpse and immediately appeared where Memira was.

Memira was hurriedly running across the field with the paladins when a large god appeared, holding Memia as if she were a doll, causing her to stop abruptly.

“It’s the god of the black priest…!”

“It’s the Demon King!”

The paladins murmured in fear. Memira also looked at Aquari in surprise.

“Damn it!”

Kamuel gnashed his teeth.

“Aquari! Don’t touch my child!”

At this rate, Kamuel seemed like he would manifest as well, so Lumena and Iira grabbed Kamuel this time and stopped him.

If two gods went down to the mortal realm, the world would be devastated. They had to stop them.

“……”

However, Aquari couldn’t kill Memira.

Aquari’s hand grabbed Memira’s body as if to kill her, but Aquari looked at Memira’s terrified expression and eventually had to lower his hand.

To kill her, Memira looked too much like Aquari’s child, like a twin.