Episode 189

1.

It was something that had never happened before in all of history.

People had begun to distrust the Temple.

How could that even be possible?

The Temple was the conduit through which they served their god.

It was the place where they heard the god's words and directly received the god's power, abilities, and salvation.

The priests of the Temple were the ones who physically wielded that divine power and bestowed the god's will upon the people.

How could anyone distrust such people?

It made no sense.

There were, of course, the occasional individuals who questioned the god's existence or denied it, seeking clear proof of whether the god truly existed.

However, no one had ever acknowledged the god's existence while denying the temple's existence.

And yet, that was exactly what had happened.

For the first time.

Not because of a handful of heretics or a kingdom with political motives, but because of the countless people who made up the continent.

"I heard the temple's actually corrupt."

"They say the god couldn't tolerate it anymore and sent a separate revelation to the saintess, telling her to found a new order."

"Come on, how could they make a new order when the Temple is the place that serves the god?"

"The Temple says the saintess has been tainted by evil and is just spouting nonsense."

"Funny thing is, the saintess's holy power is still the same as ever."

"That's true of the temple's priests too, though."

"If neither side has been abandoned by the god, then which one is right?"

They didn't have the internet, so information spread slowly, but the people of the continent weren't so foolish as to be incapable of basic judgment.

There were clear facts they could use to decide right and wrong.

Who was good and who was evil was, in truth, not that important.

For commoners, or for those below them who barely had any contact with civilization, there was only one thing that mattered.

"Didn't you see it? The temple's knights slaughtered helpless commoners."

"The Black Magic Cult was only trying to convey the god's will, but the Temple sent in large numbers of holy knights to crush them."

"It was a massacre."

Who was kind to 'me'?

The biggest reason the Temple had been able to maintain its presence as a religious organization on the continent was to gain recognition from countless kingdoms and even the Empire, and to establish itself as the official religion representing the god—

Was public sentiment.

The moment a religion lost the people's hearts, it could no longer sustain its power.

In that sense, the civilian massacre committed in the name of suppressing the Black Magic Cult had been a point of no return.

The Temple had to choose.

How would they correct the course of public opinion that had gone so far astray?

"In this land where darkness has descended, even the saintess now wears the mask of a god, pretending to be a saint while inciting the people, and the poor masses are being led astray. Therefore, I hereby proclaim a Holy War!"

The Pope made his decision.

This was not an incident they could explain away.

He knew very well that while you might soothe a heart that had turned away, you could never truly mend broken trust, so he made his proclamation.

They would go to war.

They would decide the victor through war and carve it into history.

The Temple was just.

Everything the Temple had done had been nothing more than punishing evil, and the countless people who had been slaughtered in the process were merely those who had already been corrupted by evil and were gnawing away at the continent.

That was the logic behind their choice.

An uproar of opposition erupted, and even within the Temple itself, there was dissent, but it did not matter.

This was the last path left to them.

If they did not even do this, the Temple would no longer be able to prove its qualifications as the god's representative.

It was not a question of whether their holy power remained or whether the god had abandoned them.

If they lost the people's prayers, their donations, and their political influence—

How could the Temple continue to exist?

Anyone who opposed the decision was branded a heretic and executed.

Even among the holy knights, many laid down their swords in the face of what was happening, but in the end, the Temple pushed forward.

They could do that because they were not alone.

"Did you hear? They say the Allied Forces are going to join the Holy War."

"The Allied Forces are joining a Holy War?"

"There's a lot of talk about it even inside the Temple, but it's been an open secret for a while that the Allied Forces and the Temple were working together."

"Then everything the imperial princess said was true?"

"They're basically admitting it. That's why they're starting a Holy War."

"Which means…"

"Watch your mouth. Don't even think about talking about this anywhere. The atmosphere's going to be way more brutal than when the Allied Forces went after the Empire. Whether you saw that massacre or not, if you see anyone in a priest's robes or armor, don't act like you know anything. Just cooperate. And remember one thing."

"What?"

"Until the Holy War ends—and even after it ends, if the Temple is still standing—the Temple is justice."

Another storm of blood began to sweep across the continent.

Nation against nation.

This was not the Empire versus the Allied Forces. This was a war of good versus evil, waged in the name of destroying evil itself, a conflict born from clashing beliefs.

* * *

"Kyuuuuuuuuuu!"

Hwangdo let out a delighted cry as he drank in the fresh, natural air.

"Pipe down, you little punk."

"Kyuu!"

Even as he shushed the creature, Kim Buja also drew in a deep breath.

He entered dungeons every single day, but this world felt completely different. If dungeons were like instanced zones, then this place was, quite literally, another reality.

For Buja, who lived between two worlds, one of them was choked with enough fine and ultrafine dust to kill a person. The clean air here felt all the more precious because of it.

'The Catastrophe should've just blown up every factory in the world.'

It wasn't for nothing that people said the appearance of dungeons had at least slowed the rotting Earth's pollution, giving it a chance to breathe. Human civilization had advanced in tandem with the dungeons, and that development had gone into overdrive. Now, aside from a few remote regions, it was hard to find anything that could truly be called "nature."

Things had gotten so bad that people even said things like:

"When you come out of a dungeon, make sure you bring a mask."

"One day, I'm going to wreck the source of this dust myself."

All for a breath of clean, crisp air.

Buja made that pointless vow and looked around at the mountains and wilderness, which felt oddly familiar.

"Is this the Forbidden Mountains again?"

"Kyuu?"

Not every mountain could be part of the Forbidden Mountains. The continent was vast, with plenty of mountains and numerous large ranges.

But he had a feeling.

It was a silent mountain range, a place saturated with the scent of the wild.

"Grrr…"

The faint cries of beasts echoed in the distance.

'What a pain…'

As always, Kim Buja was a little different during gold Missions than he was in his own world. The most important Legendary items couldn't be brought with him, except for the ones bound to his soul, which naturally created gaps in his stats. Despite his grumbling, the resulting drop in his specs left him feeling unavoidably on edge.

Even so, there was one reason he was more relaxed this time.

"Go take care of it."

"Kyuu!"

Hwangdo, though small, had gone through his first growth phase and was now with him.

Although Hwangdo's level was more or less the same as his, there was no contest when it came to pure physical condition. Buja had been forced to dump stat points into his attributes using money, while Hwangdo had been born with double the normal stats, all evenly distributed. The difference was immense.

"Rooaaar!"

No matter how forbidden the range was, not every monster in it was powerful. Most of the creatures wandering around were at the bottom of the food chain, and plenty of hunters could be seen hunting at the outer edges of the range.

Naturally, such monsters were no match for the newly grown Hwangdo. He tore into them savagely, and they died without even managing to resist.

When Hwangdo came trotting back, his mouth covered in blood but wearing the same innocent grin, Buja ruffled his head, then grimaced.

The reason had just dawned on him.

He finally understood the difference between the last gold Mission and this one.

'Where am I even supposed to go?'

When the saintess had been with him, she had pointed the way out.

But now, she was gone.

[Master of the Battlefield]

▶ Rank: Hidden

▶ Description: It is a Holy War! Prove your power on the battlefield.

▶ Reward: Tiered rewards based on the score of enemies killed.

▶ Time Limit: Before the Holy War ends.

[Good and Evil]

▶ Rank: Hidden

▶ Description: The line between good and evil is as thin as a sheet of paper. Win the War of Good and Evil and choose a side.

▶ Reward: Tiered rewards based on your choice.

He checked the Hidden Quests he had received upon entering the gold Mission, but even they offered no clues on how to escape the Forbidden Mountains.

'Seriously?'

No way, right?

He sat down to wait for a moment, but soon got back to his feet with a sigh. The tracking spell linked to the princess had long since expired, so that option was gone. No matter how hard he thought, there was only one answer.

"If I keep walking, I'll get out eventually. Let's go."

"Kyuu!"

He opened the gold Shop, bought a compass, and started walking due south without a plan. He could only hope that the method that had worked last time would work again.

And so began a grueling adventure through the Forbidden Mountains for a directionally challenged man with no map. This time, however, his path was lined with countless monsters who, having missed their chance last time, were now all too eager to welcome him.

2

He had thought he was only at the entrance, judging by the monsters he'd met and the relatively gentle terrain.

But after a week had passed, he realized how wrong he was.

"Hey, are you sure we're going the right way? I told you to lead us toward the smell of humans."

"Kyuu!"

He had definitely followed the compass south. When a valley, a mountain, or a cave blocked his path, he either went around or forced his way through, encountering countless monsters along the way. Among them were several so powerful that even Hwangdo struggled to handle them; in those moments, Buja had used gold to escape.

Even after running without rest for so long, there was still no end in sight.

This was the moment he finally understood why the people of the continent warned everyone against entering the Forbidden Mountains. It wasn't just the monsters. Once you were in, getting out was nearly impossible. There were no paths, and the terrain was brutal. If you could get lost on a maintained trail with a moment's carelessness, what chance did you have in a rugged maze made of hundreds of mountains?

'I want to go home.'

Why was he suddenly thinking of his mom?

It felt so unfair.

The war was only supposed to last ninety days, and he had already wasted seven of them just hiking. In a situation where every second counted, how was he supposed to win if he wasted time like this?

No, there was no guarantee it would end in seven days. He had no idea when he would get out of here. Would he even get to watch the war, let alone participate?

'Man, I'd even be happy to see the princess right now.'

She was the only person in this world he felt any real attachment to, the only one he could talk to. Where was she, and how was she doing? He wondered what had happened after he'd told her to travel with the saintess.

She was probably doing well. She had to be, for things to have escalated to a Holy War. That was only possible because they had ripped open wounds that the Temple could no longer patch up.

What kind of fight was she putting up?

"Kyuuuuuu!"

At that moment, Hwangdo let out a sharp, confident cry and thrust his head forward. His body was now the size of a mountain lion. Seeing that he wanted praise, Buja pushed his head away.

"What? Find the way first before you shove your head in my face."

"Kyuu!"

But Hwangdo didn't give up. And he had a reason.

"Huh?"

A group appeared in the distance.

They were people.

People, for the first time in a week.

And they were faces he recognized.

* * *

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