Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 824

824. Surely, You Can’t Revive the Dead

The two patients, previously still, simultaneously opened their mouths and lunged. Their cries were animalistic.

Rembrary swiftly ducked to avoid the attack, moving inside and activating his halo.

The patients, about to pounce again, collapsed and retreated to the wall.

“Are these people cursed? Or are these monsters imitating people?” Rembrary asked, looking at the two writhing against the walls. No one answered.

They couldn’t even open their eyes properly due to the halo’s light. Realizing he didn’t need an answer, Rembrary slowly approached.

However, after only two steps, the window burst open, and someone jumped in from behind with a sword. Rembrary dodged again and dashed forward.

One of the patients, stumbling from the halo’s effect, was accidentally struck by the sword instead of Rembrary and screamed.

“Aaaagh!”

The homeowner, who had jumped in with the sword, also screamed. The paladins waiting outside hurriedly opened the door, which slammed against the wall.

“Duck!” A paladin pushed Rembrary’s head down and slashed at the monster with his sword.

Rembrary ducked, but the doorway was too narrow for two people. As the paladin and Rembrary stumbled, one of the monsters broke free from the halo’s influence and latched onto the paladin’s upper body.

The paladin crashed into the wall. The homeowner readjusted his grip on the sword and charged at Rembrary again.

Rembrary slipped out the door, dodging the sword. Another paladin swung his sword at the homeowner.

The homeowner staggered and leaned against the wall. The paladin cursed. The room was too small to swing a longsword comfortably.

Meanwhile, the monster was biting the head of the first paladin.

The paladin struggled, but the monster wouldn’t let go. Rembrary activated his halo again. However, the homeowner, blinded by the light, flailed around with his sword, endangering the paladins.

When the halo was turned off, the monster that had come out of the room was cowering in the corner, but the monster still attached to the paladin’s head remained.

‘The homeowner is gone.’ Rembrary looked around. The homeowner who had been there before the halo was activated was nowhere to be seen. He must have used his knowledge of the surroundings to hide.

In the meantime, the paladin slashed at the monster cowering in the corner.

“Over here!” The paladin trapped in the room shouted, and the paladin who had slashed the monster ran towards him.

The other paladin approached to finish off the wounded monster.

At that moment, the homeowner, hiding under the table, raised his sword, aiming for the paladin’s back.

Rembrary desperately grabbed the first thing he could find and struck the homeowner with it, infusing it with divine power.

The homeowner’s sword narrowly missed the paladin’s back. A sound like cloth tearing was heard, and the homeowner collapsed. The sword grazed the paladin’s shoulder and fell.

“What was that?” The paladin pushed the homeowner away and stood up, his eyes widening as he looked at Rembrary. “Did you do that? With that… shoe?”

“Yes.” Rembrary put the shoe down and walked behind the homeowner, looking down at him. The homeowner seemed completely unconscious.

“No, how did you do that?” The paladin asked, examining his back. Rembrary tapped the paladin’s back.

The pain vanished instantly, and the paladin reached back to touch the area. Only the clothes were cut; there was no injury.

“I didn’t think just hitting him would knock him out, so I infused it with divine power.”

“Infusing it with divine power… it usually doesn’t work on ordinary people.” The paladin kicked the unconscious homeowner to check his condition and frowned. He was a nasty fellow who had attacked people after asking for treatment, but he wasn’t a monster.

“Can’t we talk about this later?!” A shout came from inside. The paladin, realizing the situation, rushed back into the room.

Instead of following, Rembrary looked back and forth between the unconscious homeowner and the shoe.

‘Redrin, if you hit someone with divine power, will they be punished? Redrin, is this divine punishment?’

Redrin tilted his head.

[What do you think, Lumena? Should we consider that divine punishment?]

[It’s just violence infused with divine power.] Lumena scoffed. Redrin avoided answering, looked down at the child with a satisfied expression, then cleared his throat and dispersed the clouds. This was not the time.

[Lumena, I need to talk to Camuel and Iira as well. This isn’t good.]

* * *

Cherub crouched on the cliff, waiting. The wind howled even in the Demon World.

The reddish-brown dust storms occasionally swept past, making it difficult to open his eyes, but Cherub remained almost motionless.

Then, as a winged monster passed below, Cherub quickly ran and jumped onto it.

The monster screeched like a bat and writhed. Cherub grabbed its neck and forced it to look up at the sky. He had to ride the monster over the dust waterfall somehow.

However, the monster quickly flew towards the cliff, crashing into the wall with Cherub on its back.

Cherub held on with all his might, but he couldn’t muster his full strength due to his injured shoulder.

After hitting the wall twice, Cherub fell, and the monster fled. Cherub checked to see if the glass ornament was intact and then staggered back to the cliff.

But there was a silver-haired person standing there who hadn’t been there before. They looked human, except for the jet-black wings on their back.

Cherub reached for the spear on his back. Could he fight in his injured state?

“Why is Rembrary’s friend here?” Unexpectedly, Rembrary’s name came from the silver-haired person’s mouth. Hearing a familiar name made Cherub even more tense.

“Who are you?” Knowing the apprentice priest’s name meant that the opponent was no ordinary monster roaming the Demon World.

“I am…” The silver-haired person trailed off, then smiled strangely. “Rembrary’s acquaintance.”

“Who are you?”

“Want a ride?” The silver-haired person proudly spread their wings. Cherub looked back and forth between the distant dust waterfall and the silver-haired demon. He realized who the person was. A demon.

“Why should I trust a demon?” Cherub asked cautiously, and the demon’s lips twisted further upward.

“The choice is yours. I have nothing to lose whether you trust me or not.”

Cherub looked alternately at the dust waterfall and the silver-haired demon.

* * *

Sediter gripped the wall and carefully climbed the tower, where little light penetrated.

The bell tower stairs were steep, and a single misstep could send him tumbling down.

[It’s a human.] [A human is climbing up.] [Pull him down.] [He smells bad.] [Why is he here?]

Whether it was a hallucination or not, the whispering voices were unsettling. Sediter wasn’t afraid of monsters, but he was afraid of ghosts.

Sediter prayed to Redrin in a small voice as he climbed. Fortunately, it worked.

Unlike the lower floors, the upper floors had a little sunlight, which helped Sediter shake off his fear.

Finally, Sediter reached the area where the clock was hung and stopped. If he climbed further, he would reach the bells, but there was no need to go that far.

Sediter stepped off the stairs and crawled through the narrow passage to reach the clock. Crawling on all fours, Sediter stopped right behind the clock.

“Just as I thought.” Sediter muttered, picking up the severed hand behind the clock. There was no need to search; it was just lying there.

‘I suspected it when they locked the door, but the bell tower caretaker is involved. If he was trying to repair the clock, there’s no way he wouldn’t have found this. Did he use this to cast the curse?’

He should take it down and discuss it with the paladins. Turning around, Sediter saw someone’s legs standing right behind him.

Considering the width of the passage, it was impossible. Before Sediter could lift his head, the legs kicked him straight on.

“!”

* * *

“I think Sir Edan is right. Black mages are involved in the illness spreading in this village,” Rembrary muttered as he returned to the village center. The parents of the homeowner who had turned into a monster returned to their human forms after Rembrary released the curse with his divine power.

It was a situation where a black mage was one hundred percent involved.

The paladin, dragging the tightly bound criminal, asked, “Sir Edan isn’t really a heretic, is he? That Inquisitor [an official of the church who investigates heresy] who acted like he knew you as soon as you got here?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s who said the illness and the black mage were related?”

“Yes. He said he could tell just by looking at the illness, right?” Rembrary’s voice suddenly rose at the end.

‘Why is he like that?’ The paladins turned their heads in the direction Rembrary was staring blankly.

Their mouths also dropped open. Someone suddenly fell from the bell tower.

Before they could even think, Rembrary shot out.

“Rembrary!” The paladins called out and ran after him.

“Rembrary! Don’t run!” Rembrary didn’t stop, even when the paladins called out.

But even though they ran hard, when they arrived near the bell tower, people were already gathered in front of the tower, forming a wall.

It was because the house where the monster had appeared was in such a remote location.

“These people are no help at all.” The paladin muttered and said to Rembrary, “Rembrary, you should step back for now… Rembrary?”

The paladin couldn’t finish his sentence and looked around. Rembrary, who had been running with him, was nowhere to be seen.

“He went inside.” Someone quietly informed him, and the paladin jumped up.

Someone had fallen from a high place, so there must be a terrible sight. Why did he go in there!

“Excuse me. I’m sorry. Please excuse me.” The paladin was flustered but pushed through the crowd, asking for their understanding.

Barely pushing through, the paladin found Rembrary at the very front. The child, who had somehow managed to get in here alone, was crouching in front of someone lying on the ground.

“That person?” The paladins recognized the dead man as the Inquisitor who had greeted Rembrary.

One of the paladins knelt and placed his hand on the Inquisitor’s neck. After checking his pulse, the paladin shook his head and said to Rembrary, “He’s already dead. Get up.”

As soon as those words were finished, one of the gathered people immediately continued, “Little priest. He probably died instantly. I’m the bell tower caretaker, so I was in front the whole time. He suddenly fell and hasn’t moved since.”

Rembrary kept looking down at Sediter, then turned to the bell tower caretaker and asked, “How long has it been since Sir Edan fell?”

“Hasn’t it been about the time it takes for water to start boiling over a strong flame?” The bell tower caretaker said sadly, then remembered that Rembrary was a healing priest and added, “He’s already dead, so it’s no use even if you heal him, priest.”

“I think it’ll be okay if it’s about that long.” However, Rembrary immediately reached out to Sediter’s neck.

At the words ‘I think it’ll be okay,’ the bell tower caretaker’s spine tingled. Could it be? No way?