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Two hours have passed since the mysterious girl entered the village.
And Peter’s eyes, who had been watching her, were now stained with astonishment.
Two hours. Not enough time for one individual to destroy an entire village.
And yet the girl who visited the village alone made it possible.
The reason was simple.
She was a monster, far beyond the human category.
“Oh, God, oooh
”
Blood. The thick scent of blood tickled Peter’s nose.
Peter raised his hand to cover his mouth at the smell of blood piercing his nose .
He felt a headache at the screams in his ears.
The village, in Peter’s eyes, was the opposite of what it had been before, a place of peace and tranquility.
Thump. Thump, thump.
Thin raindrops falling from the sky begin to wet the scream-filled earth.
Still, the screams of people show no signs of fading.
This was because there was so much life that had withered in the here and now.
“It looks like it’s almost over. There is no need to worry too much.”
The girl said as she looked at Peter, looking indifferent.
The thick book the girl was holding was spread out, held by shadows.
Those who were fleeing to survive were also being pulled back into the middle of the village by the shadows.
The village reflected in Peter’s eyes was a hell.
It had become a horrible place that should not exist, where no one was allowed to survive.
“Why, why did you do this
?”
Peter, who had been looking around, spoke in a trembling voice.
The boundary between life and death was decided in an instant.
It was simply the difference between the answers.
Peter accepted the girl’s words without knowing anything about it, and simply rejected the rest without being understood.
And then hell unfolded.
As for Peter, there was a lot he didn’t understand.
The girl came to the village, the whole reason the village turned out like this.
When the girl heard Peter’s question, she simply replied with a smile that seemed more genuine than anyone else’s in the world.
“Because the Great One wants it that way.”
“Eh
?”
“Taking what you have created with your own hands and putting it back into your own bosom again. What problems do you have with that process?”
Because he created it, he is going to keep it in his own hands.
It was insane thinking just hearing about it.
Peter could not understand how anyone could think so lightly of human life for just such a reason .
The God he thought of was not such a being.
Nor did he want to believe that such a being was the God who created him.
Peter pointed at the girl in front of him and shouted.
“Mi, oh You
! You’re damned crazy!”
“Is that what you think?”
“
”
“Still, if it’s only for him, it might not be so bad.”
The girl’s steps headed towards the middle of the village.
There, all kinds of phrases and pictures created by the shadow hand were displayed.
Unreadable. Impossible even to understand.
Still, I could see with certainty that the girl in front of me was going to do something.
Something that no sane person would even attempt.
“-”
The girl standing in front of the altar created by the painting, raised her hand.
The pages of a thick book were turned and red letters floated above the open pages.
The girl who gently stroked the book with her fingertips, inhaled.
A gentle voice with a faint breath.
What came out of the girl’s mouth was a conscious incantation on a transcendent being.
“-Life. Stack the stairs.”
The voice sounded beautiful, as if reciting a poem.
But its content is the opposite of that.
The content of the words forces us to die a fleeting death for the sake of a great being, while disrespecting the value of life that looks up to the heavens.
Yet, only to the God who judges them, she offers unending words of praise.
“One path is towards glory.”
“One path is towards death.”
The girl’s footsteps paced around the altar of death.
With each step of her leisurely stride, the piles of life were enveloped in divine light.
The girl in front of me is inhuman.
And the being she was praying to was a being located much further away than that.
Peter, who was looking at the altar created by the girl, began to feel a chill coming from his body.
“-Awe. Worship it. Make offerings.”
Flesh shivers. Chills in the flesh watching the ritual .
But I cannot take my eyes off the malevolent altar.
The short but meaningful prayer has almost reached its end.
The girl returns to her original position to finish.
With that, a final prayer flowed from the girl’s mouth.
“- Sing the hymn of life.”
The moment the offering ceremony ended with the girl’s prayer.
Peter saw huge eyes from the dark sky .
A glimpse of something immeasurable and incomprehensible.
Those huge eyes looked at Peter, looked at the girl in front of him, and looked at the altar where the final offering was placed.
And immediately afterwards, a strong radiance flashed.
When the light that had robbed Peter’s vision disappeared, there was nothing left in the middle of the altar.
Even the trace of a human presence in the place disappeared completely.
That was the end of the offering ceremony.
“Ahhhhh
”
An exclamation flowed naturally from Peter’s mouth as he watched the ceremony.
The other party is a being of a different status from a mere human being.
There is no point in resisting. Just facing them will determine your fate.
Whether or not he wanted the sight in front of him was of little importance.
It was an existence that anyone could only marvel at the moment they saw it.
While Peter gazed at the altar where the villagers had disappeared with blank eyes, the girl who had finished the ritual approached Peter still holding the book in her arms.
“How does it feel to have a glimpse of the Great One?”
She still looks as pure and smiling as ever.
Peter’s fist tightened as he faced the girl.
Peter, who had been watching the ceremony, realized that he was no longer feeling alright.
He was now enveloped in fear.
Facing a being he was not even allowed to see, he shuddered at the mere sight of its presence.
“Ho-how
”
“How?”
“You, you, what the hell are you
?”
Peter, in a cold sweat, questioned her identity.
The girl’s eyes were full of interest at Peter’s question.
The girl, tapping the cover of the book she was holding, opened her mouth.
“Hmm, you mean me?”
“
Yes.”
A question of identity.
The girl’s answer to this was simple.
“Apostle, Euthenia High Lost.”
A hand reached out from the shadows and stopped in front of Peter.
Dark fingers pressed down on Peter’s forehead .
However, the shadow’s hand did not crush Peter, but a light knock.
After finishing her mean prank, the hand went back into the shadow of Euthenia again.
“The first bell in honour of the Great One.”
* * * * *
“What? Why are so many coming in?”
Smartphone screen showing Euthenia’s appearance.
I have been following the conversation from the moment Euthenia entered town, all the way up to now.
Until the first time Euthenia hunted the characters, I just thought about the characters auto-hunting on my behalf.
However, I couldn’t help but be surprised when I saw the message that came to me immediately after the offering ceremony was over.
The offerings made by Euthenia had brought in huge amounts of karma for me.
– [Apostle – Euthenia High Lost] has made an offering to you.
– Offerings made to you – 43.
– The effect of  is activated.
– Your karma has increased by 86 in proportion to the number of offerings made to you.
The number of characters offered to me by Euthenia is 43.
I was sure of this because I listened to the number of villagers from a character called Peter, and also because this is what was mentioned in the system message.
But the karma figure I earned was a whopping 86.
Compared to the karma I had simply earned when I hunted alone, I earned twice as much.
I couldn’t believe that I got twice as much when I hunted the same number of characters.
It was a scaling factor that was beyond the scope.
“So when a character makes an offering, you get twice as much? Wow
”
When Euthenia made an offering, it generated twice as much efficiency as I could move.
“I still don’t know whether this is thanks to the effect on the Balance of Karma, or because Euthenia is my apostle.
But one thing was certain: it was unconditionally more efficient than me hunting directly.
I didn’t realize that if you develop your character, you can level up in a more efficient way.
It seems that this game was not classified as an idle type for nothing.
“It would be better to leave it for a while.”
Of course, taking into account the speed of the character’s movement, there may be cases where my intervention would be more efficient.
Nevertheless, I saw the possibility of a neglectful Euthenia.
The number of apostles I can raise is not one.
If I continue to increase the number of apostles while collecting karma, my level will increase faster.
Perhaps, in some cases, characters who were not apostles could also make offerings.
As I drew up such a hopeful training plan in my mind, Euthenia, who had finished the ritual, looked at the sky and said.
– “I tried very hard to work accordingly, but did you like it?”
Did I like the experience?
That was a silly question.
Who would not be pleased to receive an experience that reaches twice as much?
For me now, Euthenia was like a precious limb.
I took a baguette from my inventory and threw it into Euthenia.
“Great, Euthenia. I knew you were my character of choice.”
If you have made an offering, it is only natural that you should give a reward for it.
The baguette I gave to Euthenia was an expression of such reciprocation.
Upon receiving the bread, Euthenia bowed her head and bit into it.
She still looked well fed on the baguette.
However, you cannot simply settle for repaying a character who has earned 86 karma by doing this much for you.
I brought my finger close to the screen with the intention of patting Euthenia’s head.
As my finger grazed past the top of her head, I heard Euthenia’s scream from the speech bubble.
– “Arhg!”
Euthenia fell to the floor after my pat down.
Apparently, the touch hurt more than I thought.
I felt somewhat embarrassed looking at her, and I hastily turned off my smartphone screen.
I felt like hiding somewhere for a while.