CHAPTER 177

-Even when crossing through the dark valley, I am not afraid because I know He guides me.

Each person's voice was different, but they memorized one prayer.

There was an aroma faintly spreading along with the prayer recited by the priests of the Orthodox Church.

Despite only one incense stick being lit, the smoke it produced was thick, still lingering around the bed where Vlad and Jean lay.

As if pushing away the fog surrounding them.

"······!"

At that moment, Günter, who had been reciting the prayer for a while, opened his eyes wide.

'This is...!'

An indescribable sense of foreboding.

His hairs had suddenly risen on the back of his hand as he held them tightly for the prayer.

It was a warning from the instincts honed throughout his life.

"······Commander!"

Cutting through the orderly prayer, Günter's adjutant approached and spoke softly.

"Things seem uneasy outside. It seems you should come out immediately."

"······."

The adjutant, who always dealt with situations calmly, was now trembling at the end of his words.

It was the kind of reaction as if he had seen something unbearable.

"······Understood."

The only person who heard the adjutant's report with composure was not just Günter.

Yustia, who was praying by his side, looked at Günter, who was about to stand up, with a puzzled expression.

"Do it in my place. The only one who can do it instead of me right now is you."

There was a starlight that followed Vlad to Jean's dream.

It was a guiding light to not lose the way, an indispensable string, but now that starlight was shaking slightly.

The fog in the city of Mosiam was thickening.

With small shadows suddenly pouring out from inside the carriage the woman was riding in.

-Go find it. To your home.

The children who leaped out of the carriage were delighted to be reunited with Mosiam after a long time.

This was their hometown, and also the place they had missed.

※※※※

Kwoooong-!

"Ugh!"

Vlad staggered suddenly at the unexpected vibration.

"What's happening?"

[Something has descended.]

Quijano, leaning against the door of the chapel, began to click his tongue as he observed the falling dust particles.

"What do you mean, descended?"

[You saw it earlier, didn't you? The tree floating in the air.]

Jean's dream was slowly being encroached upon, and above it, the tree of defying the natural order, the source of the curse, floated.

And the branches of the tree, all upside down, gradually reached Jean's dream.

"You said we had three days!"

[Things in this world don't always go as planned.]

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

Vlad wanted to voice his frustration at the sudden worsening situation, but he had to grit his teeth again at the reverberation felt from behind.

"How many are inside, damn it!"

[The physical count doesn't matter much.]

It sounded like hail pounding down.

Countless small palm prints continued to pound on the door of the chapel.

To come out, or to capture the two.

"If I step out of here, I'll make sure to kill the bastard who created this curse."

[······Anger can sometimes be a great motivation.]

Even if he wasn't skilled in curses, Vlad could tell.

The children must have died as loud as the sound of palms reaching my ears.

Feeling each vibration spreading from his back, Vlad's gaze grew more ferocious.

[First of all, the deacon you are looking for was not there. So where could he be?]

"······."

But burning rage may only be effective depending on the timing.

At Quijano's question, which touched the essence of the situation, Vlad quickly turned his head and scanned the surroundings.

However, unlike the first floor or the basement, Vlad, who had never been to other parts of the church, couldn't rightly say where.

[The deacon named Jean right now is too terrified. If you were that child, where would you go?]

Quijano already knew who to look for, but right now, Vlad was the one connected to Jean.

In order to find the young deacon in the dream without a path, he had to recall the connecting thread.

"······If it were me, it would be Lord Andrea."

[Good.]

And Vlad remembered well why he was standing here.

In Jean's twisted dream, there will be only one person who is where he should be.

"But I don't know where he might be..."

[Since you've already recalled it, the rest will be revealed by the deacon's dream.]

"Me?"

Quijano's fingertip was pointing at Vlad's chest.

"Huh?"

Looking down along Quijano's finger, there was something faintly glowing on Vlad's chest.

[Vlad of Shoara. Follow your name.]

A precious name given by a true priest and witnessed by a young deacon.

In this place where everything was twisting, Vlad's badge of identity was shining brightly.

It was a name he had kept deep in his heart as something precious.

※※※※

"Bring out all the torches! We must drive out the fog!"

With a booming voice echoing through the mist, the church of Mosiam began to shine as if ablaze.

Within the torches burning larger than usual, divinity poured by the priests' chanting had taken root.

'This damned...!'

Günter, the commander of the Holy Knights, one of the only two knights from the Northern Orthodox Church, found himself facing a wave of malice he had never experienced in his lifetime.

-Dad, mom! I'm here!

-Open the door! Mom! It's me!

There were dark shadows wandering in the thick fog.

They were small and faint, but had enough energy to knock on the door, and they stayed in the doorway following their memories from when they were alive.

Waiting for their parents to open the door.

Hoping for someone to hug them while they were curled up.

"Pure malice... these damned children."

Though unseen, their voices were audible.

The sound of parents rushing to open the door at the sound of their children's voices.

As each door opened, the lights shining through the fog began to fade one by one.

"At last, you've come out."

With a fierce expression, Günter, who had his left eye closed, saw a bizarre figure emerging from beyond the mist.

It was a tree split exactly in half.

A upside-down tree, defying all laws of this world.

Just like in Jean's dream, the tip of the tree's branches slowly began to fall below the city.

As the branches, supposed to reach the sky, began to sink down to the ground, the laughter of the children, finally finding their parents, began to spread.

※※※※

As time passed, Jean's dream, twisting more and more, began to disrupt the tranquility of the church of Varna.

Chandeliers supposed to hang from the ceiling were rising from the floor, and the stairs that should have quietly clung to the walls were wriggling like living snakes.

"I think I'm going to be sick!"

[Physical sensations mean nothing, remember!]

Vlad had never experienced seasickness even in the sea storm, but the staircase that wriggled like a snake's back was an exception.

Even Quijano, who claimed physical sensations were irrelevant, seemed to wobble as much as Vlad amidst the twisting shapes.

"How many floors do we have to climb up?!"

[Don't shout! It hurts my head!]

Following the golden thread indicated by the I'D badge in his hand, Vlad and Quijano could only leap down from the stairs when they spotted a corridor ahead.

"Wow... damn."

[....I must be getting old. It wasn't like this in my prime.]

Vlad, who was shaking his head, lowered his gaze and looked down at the first floor where he had been just a moment ago.

Although he had clearly climbed the stairs for a long time, he was close enough to see the children looking up at him from below.

"Ugh."

Vlad swallowed the sour liquid that had risen in his throat and looked at the hallway in front of him.

"Well, this place seems intact."

[It hasn't decayed yet.]

But as Quijano spoke, ominous black cracks began to form on the walls of the hallway.

"..."

[...]

The two looked at each other with pale blue complexions and, without even thinking about who would go first, started running towards the direction indicated by the golden thread.

"Your damned tongue, seriously!"

[······The moment I spoke was just unfortunate.]

Crackle!

The cracks in the wall widened dramatically, almost as if the wall itself was gaping open.

Nestled within the dark cracks were the branches that had penetrated into Jean's dream.

From the branches that descended from the sky, peculiar leaves began to sprout.

[There! Look!]

As the cracks were spreading, a small door started to become visible ahead of them.

On the golden thread leading to the door, a signboard with the name "Priest Andrea" was written.

"If this door doesn't open again…!"

Vlad, remembering what happened in the basement, hurriedly closed his left eye.

As Vlad's world spun from Jean's dream, the cracks following behind began to slow down.

[Hold on!]

However, this time was different.

The door in the basement had blocked Jean's fear.

-Come in!

But the door in front of them now belonged to a true priest.

As the small door opened, there stood an old priest in a white robe, gesturing for Vlad to enter as usual.

"Ugh!"

At the end of the hallway, a golden and white figure began rushing towards the small door that the priest had opened.

Though the black cracks trailing behind desperately reached out their branches, they ultimately failed to grasp anything significant.

As the golden figure entered first and the white one followed as if protecting, the old priest calmly closed the small door behind them.

Kwaaang!

The shock was so great that it was difficult for the small door to withstand it.

But as Quijano had mentioned, physical things were utterly useless inside this space.

-It's okay. It's all right.

The memory of Andrea embracing the trembling Jean.

It was small but sturdy, guarding the last bastion that the young deacon had.

It was such a warmth that even the black cracks that crashed like waves could not easily break it.

-You've come this far.

Vlad, who had slipped in and was still sprawled on the floor, saw Andrea smiling at him.

Wearing a white robe instead of the bishop's attire, he looked just like the one who had shared a white loaf of bread with him on a cold winter day.

"I told you I'd protect you."

Andrea laughed at Vlad's reply.

Behind him, Jean could be seen holding on to the pure white robe.

For some reason, the young deacon seemed a little more mature, but he smiled faintly as he looked at the knight who had returned for his sake.

Finally, they found him.

The young deacon, whom he has to protect.

The knight who returned to the dream for young Jean, who had potential, was smiling faintly.

※※※※

Corpses scattered throughout the gates of Mosiam.

On the sharply cleaved bodies, as if they would join together at any moment, the squirming innards were still visible.

A man stood quietly before such corpses, bowing his head.

There was not even a single drop of blood flowing on the tip of the sword, which contained skill rather than swordsmanship.

".....There is a dragon."

There are things to kill ahead.

"And there are spirits….."

There are things to protect beside.

The man who seemed lost in the fog began to walk slowly as he saw the lights of the church burning brightly in front of him.

And knights began to follow him.

Headless knights.

A woman with hair that started out green but ended up black was looking at them and clenching her hands as if praying.

"If there's unfinished business, you must return."

The man with white hair and the headless knights walked the reversed path like trees floating in the fog.

To finish what was left unfinished, or to correct something you regret.

"You all deserve to go back."

The woman, hearing the sounds of children playing throughout the city, smiled.

A city full of fog where pure beings free from life and death, pain and agony, run around freely.

She had dreamt of such a world until now.

Not a village that blazed like a matchstick under the will of God.

[T/L: You can read more chapters and support me here: - https://ko-fi.com/revengerscans ]