Glenn grimaced as Mana swirled around him, ready to shoot out in various shapes and forms. Abbot Hank, in all of his, revived glory, was laughing his head off, mocking the ridiculous fate that brought him against Glenn once again.

"I don't see your Black Heir friend, nor the Red Witch to help you," Abbot Hank suddenly frowned, "...What is this band of sheep? Followers of a fake God," he spat. Glenn pressed his lips together, and without warning, used Earthquake on the Abbot's foothold. The monster, since it was what it was, fell in a rift Glenn crafted. Glenn dashed forward as he amplified the Mana he was sending in the Earthquake, making tons of dirt and stone crumble on top of Abbot Hank's head. A laugh came out of the rift, loud and evil, but Glenn ignored it. Instead, he pulled out a large chunk of rock out of the ground, and threw it in the sky with Gravity Manipulation, without forgetting the quick Sun's Touch. The flaming chunk of stone flew away, ready to fall at a moment's notice.

The young man carefully looked at the collapsed rift, when a hand dug out of the ground. Without a second of hesitation, Glenn ordered the Shooting Star to fall on his enemy and promptly backed off. He glanced at his surroundings and watched the monsters Abbot Hank previously summoned try to breach the shield of light, without success. Some of them did run away in the Northern Town, to hunt the civilians who weren't in a safe place yet. Glenn bit down on his lip until he saw Milena jump from roof to roof, killing the amalgams with her illusion powers.

'It's reassuring to know that she'll take care of most of the grunts. But, on the other hand...' He watched in expectation as the Shooting Star touched the ground, exploding in a massive, red ball of flames. He used the Saturn Rings to catch the projectiles aimed at him and sighed. Through the black smoke and flames, a huge shadow was shedding its clerical robe away as it laughed even wider than it did before.

"...That means I'm alone to fight this monstrosity," Glenn muttered in realization. He pulled out Pebble out of its breast pocket and clenched it with his left hand while readying his sword in the other. Abbot Hank paused as if he heard what Glenn whispered, and sneered.

"Well, afraid to go alone against me, Savior? Do not worry, for I shall bring you to my Lord and make you strong enough to defeat an army of my humble selves!"

Glenn applied Sun's Touch to Pebble, carefully watching Abbot Hank slowly make his way through the smoke. The rock glowed with a fiery hue as it floated above the young man's palm, charged with destructive power.

"Very tempting of an offer!" Glenn smirked as he shouted back at the laughing shadow in the smoke, "...But I'd rather learn your secret to immortality!"

The Abbot's pale face appeared in the smoke, honestly puzzled.

"Wait, would you just follow me if I told you the secret to my revival?" He couldn't help but ask with slight disbelief. Glenn glanced at his surroundings and the shield of light, hiding the floating, fiery Pebble behind his back.

"I mean, why not? Immortality is a tempting thing after all," Glenn shrugged dismissively, ready to use Shooting Star at a moment's notice. Abbot Hank seemed to ponder for an instant, before grinning a wide gentle smile.

"Well, in reality, I simply didn't die. You just need to be close enough to the Lord, and a respectable amount of sacrifices, and He'll put some safeguards on your soul. Counter-measures to death, if you prefer," He explained in a composed tone, in contrast with the horror he exuded. Glenn's eyes widened slightly, unable to believe that the crazy cultist just revealed the secret. So, Epinos would just take the soul and keep it for later use when a cultist died?

Wasn't that a little too powerful? No, there had to be drawbacks...Sacrifices were the obvious ones...

'Insanity might also be a side effect from the resurrection, from how this Abbot behaves, but I think it's a question for later. It looks like he caught on the deadly attack you're spinning in your back, Glenn,' Diamanes warned while theorizing about the resurrection's drawbacks. Abbot Hank's smile disappeared as the entity spoke its thought, and he stepped forward heavily, making the floor tremble. His book opened right in the middle, a tortured, translucid face coming out of it.

"I see. Your disrespect has been noted, 3333, but since you're the Savior, I'll pardon you," Abbot Hank stated graciously as he yanked the translucid face out of the book, "...I'll just take half of your limbs as a lesson."

Glenn sneered and shot Pebble with as much speed as he could muster using Gravity Manipulation. "You fucking psycho. Eat my ass instead!" The searing red pebble left a red trail of burning embers behind it as it pierced straight through the Abbot's throat and came out from the other side.

"Glurk! You—" Abbot Hank tried to speak but only coughed some dark blood, his throat bleeding abundantly. Glenn smiled and readied his spells.

"I guess I finally found a way to shut you up..." The face Abbot Hank pulled out suddenly shrieked, before dashing toward Glenn like some ghostly missile. Instinctively, the young man tried to step out of the screaming projectile's way, but it tracked him without stopping. Glenn grimaced and cut at the projectile with his sword, expecting it to be a little useless but relying on the Saturn Rings to defend him.

But surprisingly, the shrieking soul, since it was probably a soul, was sundered in two and pulled into the sword.

"Oh, yes, I confirm, that thing was a soul. Well, more like a "bunch of tortured souls meshed together in some morbid ways", but still soul-material." Nelg confirmed with a happily surprised tone. Free food was always welcome, it seemed.

"Sacrile—cough, what did—cough—" Abbot Hank was staring at the sword with wide, completely black eyes as more blood gouged out of his throat. Only now Glenn was noticing the lack of pupils and iris, the eyes wholly filled with this malevolent dark ink. And even though there were no iris or pupils to try and gauge the emotions in the Abbot's eyes, Glenn could almost swear that the monster was...scared. His eyes were glued to the sword, and he had taken a step back, almost ready to run away.

Scared of his sword.

Scared to death of his sword. Nelg nervously chuckled.

Glenn paused and also looked at Nelg, before grinning widely, any tension or stress from fighting this seemingly unkillable enemy disappearing.

"Well, well, well," Glenn spoke loudly, stepping toward the Abbot fearlessly, swinging his sword around like a toy. The Abbot tore out another soul from his book, shaping it into another projectile, blood flowing out of his mouth as he kept it open wide.

"Are my eyes messing with me, or..." Glenn pointed the sword at the Abbot, infusing his Mana in the weapon and awakening it to its slender form. The Abbot's eyes widened even more, a thing which Glenn would have never believed possible. He screamed in a bloody gargle and threw the soul at Glenn before ripping his clothes away and hurriedly shoving his cursed book into his chest.

"No, no, no!"

Glenn drew a short breath and sliced straight through the incoming soul, Nelg swallowing it like the treat that it was. The young man dashed forward, grimacing when he saw wings made entirely out of fingers burst out of Abbot Hank's back.

"Second phase already?" joked Nelg, too satisfied with the steady streams of souls to worry. Glenn smacked his lips and jumped in the air, throwing Nelg at the Abbot's face. Terrified, the latter rolled out of the way, his massive stature ridiculously jumping around to avoid the flying sword. Still floating above his enemy, Glenn joined both hands together as he summoned both a Blackhole and the power of Nitrogen, combining them into a powerful Nitrogen Lance. The spell's strength should have gotten better since the last fight with the Abbot, and, Glenn had to admit, this spell was one of his favorites.

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Abbot Hank shrieked and ripped a chunk of his throat away, getting rid of the still-burning wound Pebble had inflicted on him. His throat quickly grew back and he used it to shout at Glenn once again, his eyes still glued to the sword.

"Get—Get this thing away from me!" He yelled in horror, jumping out of the sword's way as he summoned more souls from his book. He sent them in Nelg's way in a pitiful attempt to stop the weapon from touching him, but the sword devoured each of his attacks with voracity. The Abbot regained a bit of clarity and changed his tactic, summoning a thick swarm of dark vines to trap the sword, wrapping around the hilt and the blade tightly.

"Hey, no, this is fucking weird!" Nelg yelled in Glenn's mind. The latter ignored him and finally shot the spell he had been preparing. A large, white laser of pure, devastating cold pierced through the air, hitting the Abbot dead in the center. Abbot Hank desperately used both of his finger-wings to block the attack, hiding behind them. A large cloud of white steam blocked Glenn's vision, but the young man didn't let that disturb him. Instead, he called upon the next most powerful spell he had, Solar Flare, and shot it at the Abbot's position. The wide ray of blinding fire shot through the cold and made the air hiss with burning steam while completely reducing everything in its wake to ashes.

Glenn slightly lost control of his Gravity Manipulation due to the heavy Mana expenditure and fell to the ground, managing to catch himself at the last second. He took a second to breathe and walked to Nelg, pulling the sword out of the vines and restraining it.

"How—This, strength!" A hallowed voice came from behind Glenn, struggling to articulate. The young man turned around, his sword gleaming with a threatening hue. The Abbot was stumbling through the smoke, his right arm and shoulder gone, burned away. His face was molten, his jaws revealed and hanging loosely. One of his black eyes was hanging out, rolling on a burned cheek. Both of the Abbot's wings had disappeared, and the book encased in his chest looked like it had seen better days.

All in all, a pretty satisfying result in Glenn's opinion.

"You—" Abbot Hank hissed as sooty tears pearled down from his remaining eye, "—You really have been sent by Him! The True Savior! The True Heir to Epinos!"

Glenn grimaced.

"I did all this to you, and you still call me your Savior?" The young man paused as he noticed a huge chunk of the Abbot's head missing, "Ah, your brain is leaking out. My bad."

The Abbot proceeded forward without care, reaching for Glenn with a molten, smoking hand. Glenn looked at him approach slowly, and when in range, cut away the Abbot's remaining arm. The cultist's trance was suddenly disturbed and he gazed upon the weapon Glenn was holding, his terror coming back with full force. He fell back, trembling, but Glenn couldn't care less.

"Any last words before I send your soul to oblivion?" Glenn asked as he held his sword with both hands. The Abbot opened his mouth, gargling in a disturbingly weird mix of fear, and adoration, and enjoyed pain.

"I—!" Glenn's sword pierced through the Abbot's throat.

"Just kidding, I don't fucking care about a lowlife like you," Glenn coldly spat, before twisting his sword and ripping the Abbot's head away. The body fell on the floor as the head rolled a bit further away, the Abbot's expression permanently stuck in this disturbing position of fear and adoration. Glenn sighed and took a step back, glancing at his surroundings. Creatures coming straight from the worst of nightmares were spawning non-stop with the Abbot's presence, but now that he was gone, the Paladins and Priests of Onnea were finally able to push them back. The Church was half demolished, covered in gore and monstrous corpses, but it still stood tall.

Well, half as tall as before, but still tall. Seeing that the Church would be able to take care of themselves, Glenn directed his attention back to the Abbot's body.

"...So, how do I make sure you're not coming back to haunt me again?" Glenn questioned silently, blood dripping from his sword. The fight had been so easy he almost had a hard time believing it. But strangely, the Abbot didn't seem to have grown much stronger since their last encounter, but he...Glenn looked at his hands, contemplating his strength for a moment. He had needed no one's help to kill this fucker. No assistance whatsoever, only his own power, with his weapons and spells. No assistance, nothing.

All him.

He did get stronger. But as he looked at the devastation caused by the Abbot's summons, he knew it wasn't enough. He wanted to be so strong, killing fuckers like Hank would be as easy as slapping a mosquito away.

In any case, Glenn had to admit it. He was growing up and was becoming stronger than the usual guy. Strong enough to stand on his own.

He still had a long way to go if he wanted to have the strength to also make sure his friends wouldn't get hurt because of him, but still.

He was strong.

'Yes, yes, you're strong. Get over the damned introspection and let's get rid of the cultist while we can,' Diamanes spoke disgruntedly, making his host chuckle. The young man looked at the Abbot's corpse and flinched. The headless body had moved. Glenn squinted and looked at the corpse with closer look, and almost jumped back when he saw the book in the Abbot's chest trying to dig its way out of the flesh.

"Oh, so it's the book then?" Nelg spoke in realization. Glenn grinned and placed the tip of his sword on the book. The book suddenly stopped moving, waiting for its fate. Glenn, out of morbid curiosity, took his sword away and observed the book moving. Almost shyly, the cover opened and flipped to the last page of the book. Glenn drew a deep breath and felt his heart stop. On the book's last page, hidden in the writings of blood and flesh, and in the old antic paper, was an eye. An eye he couldn't even describe for it wasn't something human senses were capable of comprehending.

An eye so ancient, so malevolent just seeing it made Glenn want to slit his own throat. As soon as he realized this, he hurriedly pushed his blade away, feeling his throat bleed from the self-inflicted wound.

"Hah." An ancient, extinct voice came from the book. Hearing it, Glenn's eardrums burst with blood and he fell to his knees, visions of millennia of suffering appearing in his eyes. A torture, inflicted on others as well as oneself, a universal pain, revered as such by the whole world, and priceless. The pain of losing a limb, of losing a close one, of losing the war. The pain of betrayal, the pain of a blade twisted in a wound, the pain of being skinned alive. The pain of rape, of a lover's hand, or the beast eating through your insides. A pain that had to be shared, because it was the only truth, the only way to be Pardoned.

The True Pain of the True Lord.

"Glenn!" "Glenn!"

Two voices, not his, called to him desperately, pulling him out of the filthy rabbit hole he fell in, pushing away the visions of horror. In a moment of clarity, Glenn seized his sword and plunged it into the book, pushing as hard as he could on the hilt with both of his hands. He coughed out blood as he watched The Eye bleed black blood on the dirty pages. The Eye writhed, probably screaming in pain, but Glenn couldn't hear it. He grinned out of spite as rage filled his heart, and flipped the damned book off, cursing without hearing, his eardrums still ruptured.

"Next time, send a stronger clown, fucker!"

And on those words, he blacked—

Glenn's eyes which were closing themselves suddenly shot back open, bloodshot. The young man roared in pain as he forced himself up, gathering as much Mana as he could, and shot a Solar Flare at the Cursed Book. He screamed with pain as the fire burned, slowly but surely consuming the book, transforming it to ashes. His Imoogi suit caught on fire, as did his hair, but both held on. Ashes of the book flew away, a testament to the power Glenn had used with Solar Flare. But even when that happened, the young man wasn't done. He used Overload to push beyond the boundaries of his Mana reserves, already emptied, and summoned a Blackhole, catching the last bits of the book and its ashes to send them to the void, as they deserved.

His ears were ringing, his sight was blurry, and darkness threatened to pull him away at a moment's notice, but Glenn had to destroy this book. The Blackhole finally disappeared, and with it, any traces of the Cursed Book of Doloratrox. Glenn dismissed his sword and stumbled toward the shield of light, walking past bloody corpses of monsters and humans alike. His boots were soaked in blood, making each of his steps even heavier than they already were.

He effortlessly passed through the shield, falling into the arms of someone, he couldn't tell who. The pain was ringing through his whole body, tempting him to lose unconsciousness, to fall asleep, but Glenn couldn't, for he was still seeing these things, the Legacy of Epinos. A bright golden light was shone upon him and Glenn felt all his worries, all his fears disappear away like a bad dream. The ringing in his ears softened and disappeared as someone worked on his busted eardrums. The blurriness in his eyes soon followed, treated away by probably a priest. Many voices were shouting at him, outside, and inside, but Glenn could barely hear anything.

All of his senses were muffled, inciting him to lose consciousness, to push the issue to solve on other people, for later. To flee the pain, the discomfort.

But Glenn couldn't, for he didn't want to meet another god in his dreams. And right now, he was sure he would be meeting one if he slept.

And so he held on.

And so his senses came back.

And so the horror went away.

"...I'm going to kill Milena for waking me up today..." Glenn muttered as multiple voices assaulted him from all sides.

It seems like this wasn't the end of his problems.

Well, of course, it wasn't.

That Eye was that of a God, wasn't it?