"It ran away...?"
Kaiser wondered as the creature actually moved away from him instead of chasing like before.
The creature swung its large tendrils and swept away all the surrounding buildings, destroying and ravaging the entire Tomavel, which was three times its size.
'—No, it's looking for easier prey.'
The creature did not run away without reason. Kaiser was too strong and could not be fought head on like Knight Cines just before. Because of that, the creature went after easier targets like ordinary humans. And humans are abundant around it.
The civilians of Tomavel were no match for the creature, and they were caught by it without much effort.
Children, elders, even babies—Kaiser frowned, his Hi burning and even causing him to glow in the middle of the dark night amid the chaos. And even then, the creature didn't charge toward Kaiser like before. The creature is smart and knows which prey and which the opponent.
The creature was not strong enough to match him, but it's still a threat for a town who has lost its head and shield.
'I can kill it as it is busy hunting for prey.'
Kaiser vanished from where he stood, leaving cracks in the ground that marked where he had once been.
In a single blink of an eye, all the remaining tendrils were severed cleanly by Kaiser.
The remaining mass of abomination trying to flee. A mouth like construction formed by the abomination. It howled, right the moment before it exploded into fragments of meat under sword thrust filled with aura.
Just to be safe, Kaiser spread Sol-yure's darkness to devour the abomination's fragments.
It was over.
Kaiser sighed his breath. His eyes cover the whole area. Nothing remains and is completely safe for now.
"The remaining humans are staying inside their houses, cowering in despair, without any thought to—"
"Sol, focus on the problem here." Kaiser cut off the words of the Sacred Beast, who had returned to his human form and was standing behind him.
"Alright." Sol-yure stopped himself. He did not know the reason why Kaiser stopped him from talking, but he was sure the reason behind it had a considerable effect on Kaiser.
"Y–you—!! That Wandering Knight?!"
Kaiser turned toward the source of the voice. A familiar man, drenched and dirty, but with no injuries at all.
The Butler, who was the Baroness's lover, gritted his teeth and looked at Kaiser with deep hatred.
"Stopping the Almighty while He is hungry and thirsty, you will be cursed by Him!!" The man shouted.
"... I see, so that's the reason you're still alive," Kaiser replied. Just by listening, Kaiser more or less understood who did this. And maybe the same person who dirtied his sword with blood.
"Sol, we'll capture him and pry open his head."
"Alright."
In second, shadows enveloped him and trapped Butler in a cocoon before even reacting, shaping him like a mummy standing upright and rigid under the rain, leaving only his mouth open for answers during interrogation.
The Butler didn't move or say anything. His will is gone under Sol-yure's illusion.
"Ask him as much as you want, Warrior, but all his answers are limited to what he knows," Sol-yure said, receiving a nod from Kaiser.
"What is that thing actually?" Kaiser began to ask.
"Our Lord, the Great Fomorach." The Butler answered flatly.
"... a divine being it seems?" Kaiser frowned, then remembered Sol-yure's words from a few minutes ago. "If there is a bit of divinity, then, was that creature earlier some sort of manifestation of it?"
"Indeed. The Almighty left their blessing upon this world as an entry point so that they could return to the world of mortal beings."
"A god wants to return to a lower dimension?" Sol-yure raised his voice.
Kaiser turned toward the Sacred Beast. "Can you explain more specifically, Sol?"
"Gods are beings originating from a higher realm. Being in the mortal world will disrupt the order, which can create chaos and destruction in the mortal world. Even we, the Sacred Beasts, are no longer capable of using as much power as before due to being affected by the rules of the mortal world."
Gods were beings from a higher dimension than mortal creatures with physical bodies like humans and the like.
If a god originating from a higher dimension were to enter this world without following its rules, both the god and the world would suffer immense damage, and this would create chaos on an even larger scale.
"Wait—" And this caused Kaiser to find a plot hole. "Then, how did that 'age of gods' come about if gods couldn't enter the mortal world in the first place?"
The age of gods, the era when the gods still roamed the mortal world. It was during this era that the Transcendents first appeared and attempted to challenge the gods, whether to free humanity or to become the strongest in the world.
"Who said the rules were there from the beginning?" Sol-yure countered.
"What do you mean by that?"
"That rule only appeared after the world felt that divine interference in the world was enough, so the world created a clear boundary," Sol-yure continued.
"... So that's how it is..."
Kaiser's mind remembers when the abomination appeared. "Divinity... huh," he muttered.
If that was the price of bearing divinity, then he would rather never touch that realm at all.
Kaiser turned toward the still-bound Butler. "Who are you?"
"We are the servants of the Almighty Foulest Chaos, Ahriman."
"... Ahriman...?"
Kaiser frowned. Not only because he met a cult, but also because the name of the cult itself.
"Where have I heard that name before?"
Unfortunately, Kaiser found not a single piece of information related to that name. For the time being, he would let it aside until he remembered.
"What about your base? Your people? And how strong is this Ahriman?"
Even under the barrage of questions, the Butler still answered flatly and in an organized manner.
"We have our holy land."
"We have many personnel, but I do not know how many," the Butler continued.
"I once heard a rumor that we have members at the Grand Knight level. I do not know how many. The relic of the Almighty that I summoned here in Tomavel was at the Grand Knight level and could reach Hero level of strength, if it had succeeded in devouring Knight Cines and all the residents of Tomavel, including myself."
Kaiser was thankful that he had killed the creature immediately and had not spent more time.
"Where is your holy land?"
"I don't know. I never go there."
"Then, how do you know where to go for the next meeting?"
"After every meeting, we determine the location through a letter delivered by a messenger. Since I was going to sacrifice myself for the success of the Tomavel mission, it seems I will not be receiving the next message."
'Makes sense,' Kaiser thought. It seemed that all of this had come to a temporary dead end until Kaiser was lucky enough, or unlucky enough, to encounter a member of Ahriman.
After draining all the information, including Ahriman's habits and methods of operation, Kaiser killed the Butler and ended the biggest threat of Tomavel. For this one, Sol-yure didn't want to devour the corpse, so he buried the Butler right down there.
When Kaiser was done, the rain had stopped, and morning would arrive in just a few hours.
Kaiser turned around and walked away.
As far as his eyes could see, there were no intact buildings left inside Tomavel, nor were there any intact people.
All along the way, Kaiser passed incomplete human corpses. Some had lost arms and legs, while others were left with only arms and legs.
From the elderly to newborn babies, no life remained near the center of the incident. Even if there were, it was only a matter of time before they died. Wounds that were too fatal would not give Kaiser enough time to evacuate them. One thing he could do is end their suffering faster.
"...." Kaiser passed through the chaos while looking on with pity.
Even when the Ahriman cult's plan failed, casualties were inevitable. Kaiser could only hope that they could return to life as before in the future.
A moment later, his feet stopped, and his eyes were drawn in a certain direction to his right, behind the rubble.
"A living human. The life energy is also still very strong," Kaiser whispered. He wasted no time and approached the source of life he had seen earlier.
This was the strongest source of life energy compared to the others in that place.
When he reached the intended spot, the ruins of a building blocked access to the human who was still alive.
"Sol, help me!"
With ease, Kaiser lifted the wood and moved it to an open space. At that moment, an object rolled and bumped into his foot.
His eyes widened as he looked at the object.
"..."
Kaiser was speechless.
It had only just been born into the world, yet it had already returned to heaven...
Kaiser stopped his hands. He turned to Sol-yure.
"I'll leave the rest to you for now... there's something I need to do."
Kaiser shifted his full attention away from the living creature buried under the rubble to the small head beneath his foot.
Kaiser picked up a random rag around and wrapped it.
His hands dug into the rocky ground.
He placed the baby's head down and buried it in the earth.
"... May you find happiness and be reborn in a peaceful world." Kaiser muttered.
This was the first time he had seen a tragedy with this many victims with his own eyes.
"Warrior." Sol-yure's voice came from behind.
Kaiser turned around.
"There are two children still alive along with one dead adult," Sol-yure explained.
Kaiser stood up and looked at the spot where Sol-yure had dug in his place.
Two small children and one adult. They were all very familiar to him and Sol-yure.
"He is the counter clerk from the inn we stayed at before, Johan."
Sol-yure gave a nod.
"She is Alicent, the little girl who disguised herself as a boy. And the other one is the kid who tried to steal my money on the street."
Truly, a crazy coincidence that they were all people Kaiser had met before. Perhaps, even fate.
Unfortunately, the counter clerk could not be saved, but the two small children who were with him still could. From the looks of it, the counter clerk had protected the two of them from the rubble.
The younger one was fine because he was protected by two people. His body is small enough to be covered by an adult, but the older one was severely injured on the leg.
Kaiser was not sure if she could still be saved with current era's medicine.
'Perhaps a temple could help… I hope the next city has one.'
For now, he can only ask help from Sol-yure to disinfect and cover the girl's leg.
"Can you help me and wrap her legs with darkness? It'll be even better if you can clean it from dirt."
"Sounds easy enough."
In seconds darkness shrouded the girl's leg like a bandage.
"Then, what will you do with them, Warrior?" Sol-yure asked.
"Save them, at least, heal them physically."
That was what Kaiser could do now.
"We are going to the village on the west of Tomavel and rest there."
It was the closest village compared to other villages around Tomavel.