Chapter 136

“Ugh… guh… kuh… huff, huff.”

“Cough, cough…”

The believers coughed up black smoke as they lay twitching on the ground.

They had been hit directly by the Absolute who was the right hand of the Lightning God.

Letip.

Nevertheless, the only reason they were still alive was because Letip had perfect control of his power.

However, he hadn’t held back out of mercy or sympathy.

“Who the hell are you?!”

“What the hell did you do to us?”

Some of the believers, who hadn’t been hit directly by the lightning, stared at him with wary gazes.

Letip grinned and snapped his finger.

Crackle!

This action caused lightning to ‘shoot’ out of his fingers. In other words, the lightning simply appeared out of thin air.

The bolt of lightning swept forward in a straight line, easily cutting those believers in half.

In an instant, the believers died without even knowing what happened.

“Huh…?”

One of the survivors muttered dumbly.

This couldn’t be helped. After all, this was the first time he’d seen humans being killed as easily as bugs.

More importantly, their deaths had been completely silent. It had happened so quickly that they didn’t even get the chance to kick up a fuss or scream.

“I-, it’s a Demon!”

“Run away!” (TL: At least they’re running now…)

As if they had seen the God of Death himself, the believers all screamed and fled, their actions creating a lot of noise.

And, unfortunately for them, the thing Letip disliked the most was noise.

Crackle!

A bolt of blue lightning shot out from Letip’s forehead before spreading out in every direction. With a soft buzzing sound, it pierced the bodies of all the escaping believers.

In an instant, a heavy silence seemed to fall upon the area.

“Now, it’s a bit quieter.”

Letip smiled contentedly before turning to Arid once again.

“Hi, there.”

Arid stared at Letip with a blank expression on his face.

Ironically, the only person who had survived the catastrophe was Arid, who had been the target of malicious violence not so long before.

“What did you do…?”

“It’s much easier to have a conversation when the place is quiet, so I cleaned up the area a little. Or would you rather move somewhere else entirely, Communicator?”

“Communicator…”

It was the first time he’d ever heard of such a title.

Letip didn’t seem particularly interested in Arid’s reaction. He simply stroked his chin before nodding.

“Hmmm, your condition isn’t the best… but at least you’re still alive. That should be good enough. It’s not like I’ll need you for long.”

“Huh…?”

Arid wasn’t sure what was going on, but his body suddenly floated into the air.

Wary of this strange person, he struggled helplessly in the air.

“W-, what do you intend to do?”

“Nothing much. I just need to take you with me.”

“Need to…? Sh-, shouldn’t you explain yourself first?”

“That’s fine. It’s not like telling you will change anything.”

“…”

For the first time in his life, Arid felt genuine fear.

This was truly a strange phenomenon.

Letip’s attitude has always been calm, gentle. His voice was soft, and a friendly smile always hung from his lips.

Nevertheless, Arid was deathly afraid of this man in front of him.

He struggled more desperately, but his actions were meaningless. It was as if he was bound by some kind of invisible rope.

‘S-, someone… Anyone…’

Help me.

Just as that thought appeared in his mind…

“Stop.”

“…”

Letip turned his head and looked behind him.

There, he saw a man and a woman staring at him.

It was a heavily injured old man and a woman with a cold expression.

“Ah…”

Arid’s gaze turned to the old man.

Then, his eyes widened in surprise.

“G-, Grandfather.”

“Bishop Slei.”

Letip, on the other hand, displayed an expression of interest. He turned his body completely to face him.

“I really enjoy watching your religious play. It’s very fun and interesting. Only someone who has a good grasp of the dark side of humans could create such an elaborate play…”

‘…he knows me.’

This fact weighed heavily on Slei’s heart.

He had used all of the remaining Brilliance in his body to heal his legs. In truth, even standing was an extremely difficult task for him at that moment.

Nevertheless, Slei remained standing.

His eyes turned to Arid, his only grandson.

…The miracle child who had been born with the power of Brilliance.

At that moment, he couldn’t even make eye contact with this child.

Slei’s gaze returned to Letip.

“May I ask what you intend to do with that child?”

“That’s not something you need to know.”

“…Then I’ll change my question. After your ‘task’, what will you do to Arid?”

This was a question formed by Slei’s age and experience.

He knew that Letip would probably not lie to him. After all, there was no need for him to do that. For him, the majority of humans, including Slei, was no different from the dust floating in the air.

‘Absolute.’

This man was also an Absolute.

Just facing him right now was enough to cause his entire body to be drenched in cold sweat. He wanted nothing more than to run away from this place as fast as he could.

But Slei suppressed that desire with superhuman patience.

For now, at least.

He didn’t want to show such a disgraceful and ugly appearance. At least not right now.

“There are many ways to dispose of a tool after it has served its purpose.”

Letip smiled before pointing towards Arid.

“Is that why you’re standing in front of me right now? Because you’re anxious I’ll damage or break your precious tool?”

Arid’s eyes clouded over at that remark. Then he slowly lowered his head.

Slei bit his lip at the sight.

He had never seen his grandson make that kind of expression before.

‘No.’

He had…

He must have seen it dozens, no, hundreds of times before.

And yet, Slei had turned a blind eye to it every single time, ignoring the hurt and torment he begot to his own flesh and blood.

“That’s not it.”

Arid wasn’t a tool.

He might have thought so not so long ago, but no more.

“He is my grandson.”

There wasn’t a need for another reason.

The realisation of that simple fact was more than enough.

Even after suffering more than he ever had in his life today, it was only after seeing Arid getting unfairly attacked as a result of his actions that he was able to realise this.

Slei stared fiercely at Letip and took a firm step forward.

“I’m standing in front of you to save my grandson.”

“…”

Arid lifted his head and looked at Slei in disbelief.

Slei wished he could know what he was thinking at that moment. He wanted to ask.

There were a lot of things he wanted to say, a lot he wanted to apologise for.

But maybe…

“How touching. Your love towards your flesh and blood seems to have awoken.”

The touching reunion that Slei hoped for might never happen.

“However, it seems that you misunderstood what I meant when I asked you why you were standing in front of me, so I’ll rephrase.”

Crackle.

Sparks bounced off of Letip’s body.

He slowly raised a finger.

“Why are you, a mortal whom I can crush and kill without even trying, standing in front of me?”