When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 57



Only Noblemtl

◈57. New Summon Skill

“You just took out your sword, right? But it sounds different from the sword you usually use. It’s heavier.”

As soon as I took out the weapon I had used before, the sword “The Last Conscience of the Fallen Pope”, Baekmae noticed the difference.

Instead of losing his eyesight, his hearing seems to have developed quite keenly.

Since I had no intention of hiding it, I answered calmly.

“Yes, that’s not the weapon that Black Moon used. This is the sword I used. The thin sword that Black Moon originally used would be more suitable for swinging with Black Moon’s strength, but now I have to embed the sword in the stone floor―”

After cutting off his words, he stuck his sword into the floor.

The skill seal has also already been released as the previous bindings were released.

For that reason, the skill was activated without any problems, and soon black darkness spread out from the point where the sword was inserted.

This is the skill “Dog Eclipse (L)”.

It was a skill that filled a 5m radius around the point where the sword was stuck with black darkness.

“ah……?”

A voice full of such wonder came from Baekmae.

It seemed like he felt that I had cast a skill.

“The ability you just used… was it a solar eclipse?”

“Yeah. You know?”

After hearing my answer, Baekmae was silent for a moment.

Then, soon, as if he had met a poor pedestrian, his eyes drooped.

“You sure are sick. Poor thing… … ”

It was no wonder she questioned my mental health.

The skill I just used, ‘Total Eclipse’, darkened the surroundings as if the sun was covered by the moon… in other words, it was an ‘area skill’.

Since this skill was intended to attack while the enemy was trapped in the darkness and confused, it was of no use to Baekmae who had lost his eyesight.

Since she is blind, she cannot see her surroundings regardless of whether it is bright or dark.

You’ll probably think that you wasted your strength on a useless skill when you could’ve squeezed out all your strength to unleash your ultimate attack.

but…….

“My mind is clearer than ever. The skill I just used wasn’t a waste of energy.”

I said that and smiled.

Perhaps because of my confident attitude, Baekmae’s voice soon became faintly wary.

“… … Hmm. What are you planning? As far as I know, this technique only has the effect of darkening the surroundings.”

A situation where one is out of breath due to exhaustion of vitality.

Still, I showed my last bit of kindness and explained to her.

“If you use a solar eclipse, as you said, the surroundings become dark. The area inside a certain area becomes completely black. But the area outside that area remains bright, right?”

“… … .”

“That’s why, when you look at it from the outside, it looks like an overturned black bowl.”

“… … !!”

It seemed as if Baekmae had finally realized why I had used this skill.

He explained it more clearly, as if hammering nails into her as she turned pale.

“Radius of 5m… Oh, they don’t use the metric system here? Anyway, if a huge black bowl suddenly appears, it would be really noticeable, right?”

“you…….”

“As soon as they saw it from the outside, everyone realized, ‘Oh, that’s where Black Moon used his solar eclipse skill. He’s either cutting down enemies inside that black bowl… or he’s sending us a signal to request help.’”

I put the Sword of Conscience back into my inventory.

Now my battle was over.

All I had to do was hide, survive, and wait.

One of those damn fast guys just watched the distress signal I just sent.

“Are you here?”

I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw Bliss peeking out from behind the wall that had suddenly opened.

As expected, the popping out was filthy fast.

I unlocked the dog eclipse skill so that the guy could easily subdue Baekmae.

Bliss then took out a glowing item from her inventory to brighten up her surroundings even more.

Meanwhile, Baek-mae noticed Bliss’ appearance and asked him.

“… … Why are you walking around okay? You must be… … .”

I answered Baek-mae’s question in a bewildered manner instead of Bliss.

“By now, I think he would have caught a hungry cat and escaped. Even though he looks like that, he’s quite a fighter. He didn’t back down when we fought each other.”

“A cat… That’s a god. A hungry winter tiger is not something that can be called a cat―”

As Baekmae continued speaking, Bliss threw something on the floor.

It was the severed head of a tiger that had been hunted in a slaughterhouse.

A single severed head is better than a hundred long, detailed words.

“… … .”

Baekmae, who had been silent as if speechless, suddenly took something out of her bosom.

Since the Black Moon was also an object, I could quickly recognize its identity.

“smoke shell……!?”

He must have judged that it would be impossible to deal with Bliss alone without losing any life from the Life Drain skill.

Baekmae tried to light a smoke grenade to escape.

It wasn’t my screams or Bliss’s attacks that stopped her.

“Baekmaeya.”

The faint call of the celestial officer was heard from the passageway that Bliss had dug through.

Baekmae stopped his hand at that.

It wasn’t just Baekmae.

When the messenger appeared, everyone stopped. They were silent. It was as if time itself had stopped.

In the meantime, the seon-gwan took a look at Baekmae―

“… … .”

Then he looked at me silently.

A hundred needles that could not be pulled out of the arm―

Scratches and bruises here and there―

And the clothes that got dirty from rolling around on the dirt floor… … .

The seon-gwan’s gaze carefully examined all of my things.

And with that, she seemed to have the whole situation figured out.

When she looked at me, her eyes would droop as if she felt sorry, but when she looked at Baekmae, her expression hardened and became heavy.

“I committed an irreversible act while I was sleeping.”

“… … I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Do you really intend to hold on to me like this?”

The officer took a wad of papers out of his bosom and scattered them on the floor.

The documents recorded that the deceased had visited Baekmaedang a month ago.

It seemed that Bliss had shown those materials to me before bringing the messenger here.

If the officer had checked the information and seen my condition, he would have already figured out the entire situation.

“Surrender. The Baekmaedang children who attacked the outsiders under your orders have all done the same. They have already confessed everything you have done.”

“Okay… hundred… …?”

The seon-gwan nodded to Baek-mae, who was stammering and asking questions.

Then he gave orders to the two believers who followed him.

“Bring it.”

The believers who heard the order disappeared into the back of the passage for a moment, and soon brought in two hostages who were tied up tightly.

Judging from the hostages’ clothing, they seemed to be Baekmae Party members who had been subdued during the attack on the guild.

Baekmae screamed as he recognized their identity through their presence.

“How could you… … !”

“I’m sorry, Baekmae. Many children were killed and injured while attacking the outsiders. Then, other believers, including the Heukwol Party, joined the outsiders’ forces, and in the end, this is how it ended up… … .”

“In order to prevent greater sacrifice, we have decided to surrender. Your Majesty Baek… please make the right choice.”

Even if the captain brought the prisoners and showed them to them, it was of no use.

Baekmae looked like she couldn’t accept the current situation.

“That… that can’t be… … .”

That was the face of a person who saw his long-planned revenge fall apart in an instant.

Her face was dizzy, as if she didn’t know whether she should be angry or despair before that.

She screamed through her lips that were bloodshot from being chewed and beaten.

“No… this is not it!!”

With a scream, a cloud of white herbal smoke rose from beneath her feet.

It was the “Noble Sacrifice” skill that was filled with the emotions of pain she had squeezed out, making it even more powerful.

“Stay away from the smoke! It’s a skill that absorbs life force!”

As soon as I figured out the identity of the skill, I shouted at the seon-gwan and Bliss, but it was too late.

The skill cast by someone who has spent his entire life seeking revenge was so powerful that it enveloped all of us in a haze, leaving no room to dodge.

At that point, I was wondering whether I should kill Baekmae now, or take the purple medicine that the sleep demons gave me, explaining that it was an emergency escape route.

Bliss seemed to have chosen the former and took out her weapon.

But before swinging that blade―

“I will do it.”

As the officer spoke, he pressed down on the handle of Bliss’ weapon with the end of his fan.

Then he asked me.

“Before the Black Moon, you were a god-worshiper like me, right?”

“… … ? Yes, that’s right.”

Although I felt puzzled by the sudden question, I added an explanation.

“To be precise, he was an apostle of God, called the Pope.”

“Was there also a supernatural power like mine that could bring God to this land, even if only for a moment?”

“… … !”

A skill that brings in gods.

I was startled and then answered.

“That’s… I don’t know. A lot of my skills have been obscured by karma.”

“Hmm.”

“But I think there might have been a skill like that among those hidden skills. Since he was an apostle of God like you, his skills would probably be similar to yours.”

If Nickelus really has that skill, wouldn’t he be able to use it soon?

Since your Karma Points have recovered quite a bit, one or two skills that were locked should have been unlocked by now.

I was curious, but it was still difficult to confirm.

Since I was in the Black Moon, I couldn’t open Nickelus’ information window.

At that point, I cleared my mind of distracting thoughts and opened my mouth to the monk.

“But the reason you’re asking about that skill is… … .”

“As one who serves the spirit, I would like to use my powers to bring him here for a moment.”

Even after saying such surprising things, the seon-gwan continued to speak calmly.

“If you have similar skills to me, watch what I do from now on. And make sure to engrave the power and danger of this ability into your mind. This is one of the rewards I give you.”

As if sensing that something unusual was about to happen, Bliss and Baekmae slowly stepped back.

I too felt the crisis, though in a slightly more intuitive way than they did.

※warning※

※warning※

※warning※

A warning sound rang in my head so loud that I couldn’t help but feel danger.

At the same time, ※WARNING※ messages flashed one after another before my eyes.

It was something I had never experienced before.

But what surprised me most wasn’t the flashy warning text, but what was actually written beneath it.

※warning※

Character “Seon-Gwan” used the summoning skill “Gangsinmu (L)” within a 3m radius.

A being with a rank of 1 is summoned to the area for 5 minutes.

My fingertips naturally became numb due to intense emotions such as anticipation and fear.

Grade 1. It was another expression for ‘god’ in the world of the Extinct.

‘First-class… Is this what it means to be a god?’

According to the classification of the Book of Extinction, human beings are classified into three classes.

Spirits and divine beings were of the second class, and those called gods were of the first class.

In terms of numbers, there is only a two-level difference between 3rd and 1st grade.

But now that the skill of the celestial officer has been activated and the being called God has appeared here in person―

‘It’s completely different… … . Something completely different from humans is coming.’

The vast difference in class was etched into my bones, to the point where I felt like my life was in danger.

This is the summoning skill of the seon-gwan, Gangsinmu (降神巫).

It was the power of the skill that allowed an apostle of God to summon God using his own body as a medium.

【⑈⑈⑉⑆⑈⑉】

Suddenly a strange sound came out of the messenger’s lips.

It was not a human language.

It seemed like a more fundamental form of communication, not refined by language.

When I heard that, her feelings and intentions seemed to be directly penetrated into my mind.

“Sen, Sen-kwan… … ?”

Baekmae groped and called the messenger.

Even though they must have known that a completely different being was already dwelling within the Seon-gwan’s body, they still called him ‘Seon-gwan’.

As if I didn’t want to accept the fact that the one who was angry at me was not a human but a god.

The spirit spoke to the white plum.

【⑉⑈⑉⑉⑈】

First of all, he scolded me like that―

【⑈⑆⑉⑈⑈⑉⑆⑉】

So it was like that, and finally―

【⑉⑉】

… was sentenced.

This was the final sentence the spirit gave to Baekmae.

Unlike the other words that came before, the final verdict was simple in meaning and could be expressed in human language.

When translated into human language, its meaning was ‘death penalty’.

“Wait, wait… … !”

Baekmae, who felt ominous, waved his hands and took a step back, but it was meaningless.

With a single gesture from the spirit, the smoke that had been scattered by the white plum blossoms slowly moved.

The smoke soon condensed into one point and took the shape of a sharp awl, which soon pierced Baekmae’s body.

“… … !!”

Baekmae fell to the ground without even being able to scream.

It was such a futile ending compared to the bitter resentment she harbored.

Was that why the spirit didn’t kill her immediately?

For a few minutes, Baekmae was still breathing, as if he had been stabbed in the vital spot to keep him alive and breathing.

The spirit said something to me without finishing killing Baekmae like that.

【⑈⑆⑉⑈⑈⑉⑆⑉】

It was still not a human language.

But still, the meaning was clearly conveyed to me, as if it was engraved directly into my head.

And the moment I understood the meaning―

“ah.”

… and I started to let out a faint sigh.