A white-haired man used his hand to cover the scary wound on his shoulder. Red blood had stained all over his white robe, dyeing a sense of hurtful beauty on his angelic figure. However, the man’s steps had never faltered. His green eyes bore no anguish feeling because of the severe physical pain, as they only focused on the road ahead.
Even the dark could not stop him.
Raphael slipped behind a seemingly deserted storehouse, where his subordinates were waiting for him. A priestess of Peace temple, who was supporting her fainted peer, looked at him in fright. In her mind, Raphael Ascian was the strongest person that she had ever known, but even he was injured this much after confronting that War priestess…
The Peace priestess gulped.
“Master!” – Another Peace priest called.
He quickly used his healing ability on Raphael’s shoulder. A holy golden light emitted from the priest’s hands shining on the bloody injury, but it did not change a bit.
“This…” – The priest flinched.
He could clearly see what was happening on Raphael’s shoulder. His collar bone was broken, while the flesh was turning black and rotting away because of a strange power digging in his shoulder like a terrifying earthworm. In the middle of rotted flesh, Raphael’s lighting power was fighting back that ominous black worm.
The Peace priest furrowed his eyebrows. If this was some kind of power associated with death, the power of Peace God should be able to push it back. As he was thinking, the priest increased the intensity of light from his hands.
Yet after a while, the irksome worm was barely affected.
“Enough.” – Raphael said. “Stand back.”
Following his command, the Peace priests quickly stepped back.
The Saint looked at his dirty wound. Flashes of lightning instantly gathered at his uninjured hand, the man mercilessly attacked his own shoulder.
Slash! Slash! Slash! Only when the sound and smell of electricity burning human’s meat reigned, did the vicious black power start to distort and slowly disappear.
Raphael frowned, but it was more likely because of annoyance rather than pain. His face had the expression of a person who had just smacked a bug with his bare hand. When the black power was completely annihilated from Raphael’s body, the Saint told his underlings:
“Find me something to stop the bleeding.”
“Y… Yes sir!”
The Peace priests were flustered at the sight of their master’s decisiveness. They hurriedly bandaged Raphael’s shoulder with normal medical herbs. The Saint averted his gaze from the messy wound.
That woman’s emotionless face appeared in his mind again.
“How venomous…” – He murmured.
That cold and silent darkness resembled a cobra’s fang, stabbing violently and never letting go. It was strongly opposed to his light element, as if once their powers met, they would not stop tearing down each other until the demise of one side.
It would be troublesome if she was going to be his enemy.
Nonetheless, obstacles were inevitable in a big plan. He just needed to find a way to conquer them. The Saint blinked.
‘But why does that darkness feel so familiar… like I have seen it somewhere…’
‘Cold… hollow… violent…’
He gradually sank into his own thoughts, unaware of how other priests looked at him.
His subordinates did not know what their master was thinking.
Raphael’s appearance might be deceptive. His clear eyes were like a pellucid pond exposing all the greenery at its shallow bottom, deluding people into thinking they saw all of his character thus taking him lightly. However, it was just an illusive sense of depth. Under the camouflage of a harmless person hid an unfathomable mind, which was still unreachable to the people knowing him for five years.
The Peace priests finished treating Raphael’s wound. They draped over his shoulder a new robe.
“Master, your next order?”
Raphael glanced at the fainted priest. Contemplation turned his face solemn.
“Stay silent for tonight. I’ll go alone.”
“What? But it’s dangerous when your arm is…”
“I won’t repeat.”
The Peace priestess tried to protest, but Raphael only callously said three words before he turned back and disappeared in a flash of light, letting no one have a chance to argue against his will.
__
Eithne sat behind a large tree trunk, hugging her injured leg. The dark power was released to surround her hideout, blending with the real atmosphere so no one could realize the abnormality. After the bomb went out, the Imperial troops came to investigate the scene, but Eithne did not want to get caught meddling with the terrorism within the palace, so she crawled behind the tree to hide from troublesome Queen’s people. Using the darkness to cover herself, nobody saw or heard anything from the War priestess. The knights just walked past her as if she was invisible.
Who knew what they would do with her once they found out she got involved? It would just draw unnecessary attention.
Besides, Eithne did not want to disclose the truth about the culprit to everyone too early, since she was not ready to be a full-fledged enemy of Raphael yet. Also, Eithne actually needed his help for her own survival...
However, the problem might be that Raphael already considered the War priestess as an obstacle to exterminate.
“I was too rash…”
She planned to acquire Raphael’s weakness secretly, but she had been arrogant and threatened him too soon, leading to Raphael’s fierce response. And now, with a large ruckus and injury on her body which was unable to be covered, how should she face Hesata and the High Priest?
‘Potion, the cheating trick of God, is completely useless in the fight between priests… Haizz…’
Her calf was still bleeding while scattered white electric currents were running on her flesh. The priestess poured all the potion that she carried but to no avail.
‘Damn it. When Rigel was almost dead, I had no potion… And now I have them, those expensive potions are useless…’
Eithne leaned on the tree trunk, looking up at the night sky while the palace’s guards stomped pass without noticing her sitting there. Their torches’ flames oddly never lit up that spot.
Amidst the chaos, the ignored priestess was lost in her train of thoughts.
Living quietly was somehow hard for her in Eithne Noceur’s body. It used to be easy in her previous life. The mortal’s world was once so distant, and she would have been submerged in the dream of eternity alone inside the cage that she built to avoid all contact. She would lie on the bed all day, reading fantasy comics and novels. Although she hated to return to that life, she started to miss that small and cramped bedroom.
At least, it was safe back then. And she did not need to engage with anyone.
Rumble… Rumble…
Flashes of lightning rummaged the heavy clouds, constantly shooting across the vast space of the night sky. As lightning moved closer to Eithne’s place, the sky became brighter and brighter. The thunder’s grumbles reached her ears.
It looked as if her unnatural darkness was abhorrent to the Gods, so they sent down those petrifying lights to destroy the devilish shadow lurking around their beloved children.
Between the boundary of the sky and the earth, the trees shook their crowns strongly below the thunderstorm of salvation coming near while holding their trunks still to cover the ground’s withdrawing darkness. Eithne’s heart shivered. It was human’s nature to be afraid of nature's thunderous strength.
The priestess took out the magic messenger device.
“Hesata, open the window for me.”
The sky cried and shed heavy tears of rain.
In a luxurious guest room prepared for the royal advisor to stay overnight, Hesata, with a stiff face, opened the window. Behind him was a senior man whose hair had turned completely white in his sixtieth year, who drank warm tea while his fingers were knocking on the table. The High Priest glanced at his watch after he took a couple sips of tea, like he was patiently waiting for someone.
Hesata’s scalp had a tingling sensation. He remembered that about ten minutes ago, Demir Noceur caught him reading Eithne’s message. The High Priest had appeared behind him like a ghost, and Hesata did not expect Eithne’s message to be something ‘supposed to be done in secret’, so he was caught off-guard. Demir told him just did what Eithne had said, but the man would also be waiting.
Hesata could not refuse.
The red-haired priest wiped the cold sweat running down his nose, peeking out the window.
The yellowish light from the room shone a square area on the ground outside, catching a glimpse of countless raindrops falling through. Hesata was on the second floor, so he could see the view of the palace, where the Imperial guards were in chaos because of the second explosion. Distraught nobles ran out of their rooms and discussed loudly about the audacity of the terrorist, which could be heard from outside the room of Demir Noceur.
“How dare they?”
“What a terrible night!”
“Tsk! The guards dug up all my personal luggage!”
“The Queen is being too slow. She hasn’t caught the culprit yet!”
“What’s the point of locking us up in the palace? What an imbecile woman.”
“She should step down and give up the throne!”
“Hmph! Outsider who doesn’t carry the royal blood shouldn’t rule Lumovas.”
Some factions opposing the Queen took this opportunity to criticize the impotence of her people for letting the culprit escape. However, it stopped at the level of talking. Under the Queen’s command, the nobles must stay in the palace until they were proved to have no relation with the bombing culprit. Despite the dissatisfaction, they were not powerful enough to go against the Imperial troops of the Queen, so while they apparently obeyed, the nobles tried to snitch on her to the one of the Imperial Court’s Head, Demir Noceur.
Demir Noceur was politically influential enough to threaten the current ruler of Lumovas. Everyone wanted to have a chance to speak with him personally, but the man refused to open the door to greet them. Even so, the nobles still gathered outside his room, since they felt more at ease staying close to the strongest man in the empire while the dangerous terrorist was still in the palace.
After a few minutes, a figure revealed herself from the building’s shadow. Her hair had the same color with the warm light from the room, but it was wet and messy in the rain.
She seemed confused because of the window’s position at first, but after seeing the redhead Hesata, she kicked the wall to jump up to the second floor’s window easily. Grabbing the window’s sill, Eithne climbed in and saw the most unwanted person to be there.
“What the fu…. High Priest.”
Coarse word almost escaped her mouth. Luckily, the priestess held herself down timely. Eithne bowed her head to the High Priest while she secretly threw a questioning look at Hesata. The guy then faked coughing and glared back.
‘This fella…Tsk.’
Eithne suddenly regretted not jumping back out the window.
Demir Noceur crossed his legs. The situation somehow resembled a parent having been waiting for their wild child to come home at a late hour. If he held a broom or a slipper in his hand, Eithne would seriously believe that she was going to get an ass-whooping.
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“I see you found a way back without getting noticed.” – Demir unconcernedly said.
Eithne slightly raised her head. The High Priest looked at her soaked outfit. There was a faint smell of blood mixed in the moisture scent from the heavy rain. The High Priest’s voice seemingly grew colder.
“Whatever you did out there, did you erase all the traces?” – He asked.
Eithne did not expect Demir Noceur would be asking something like that.
“Yes I did.”
Not a single spark of light reflected back from her dark eyes, she stared at him through the gaps on her wet fringe that almost flattened on her forehead. Maybe it was because of the injury on her leg and the rain that wore her down, Eithne was exhausted. She was not even in a mood to fret over Demir Noceur’s opinion on her now.
Whatever his intention… ‘Tsk. I’m tired. Let’s put up no more shit today.’
Suddenly, the fear of losing her life to his hand subdued gradually. The original Eithne Noceur had not done anything wrong and so did her. There should be no reason for Demir to kill her, why should she be afraid of the forecasted future of the comic?
After all, the future already changed with her presence as Eithne Noceur.
‘I won’t die that easily.’
Like a beast finally woke up, the darkness in her eyes circled and withdrew. The priestess returned to her normal state.
“High Priest. I believe I’ve encountered the culprit of the bombing incident.”
Before Demir Noceur had a chance to investigate her, Eithne decided to be proactive. She told everything to Demir and Hesata, except Raphael’s identity which was replaced by a mysterious man wearing a blank white mask. She described the culprit’s power as ‘holy power’ since the healing potion did not work, even showing her injury as evidence.
“Then, the priests of the Peace temple are suspected.”
After hearing what Eithne said, Demir knocked his fingers on the table. The man’s eyes were gleaming with amethyst light, scanning every single change of her expression. Eithne calmly stared back. She could feel the Chaos power examining her to see if she told the truth. It reminded Eithne of the day when the High Priest used his power on her for the first time and completely knocked her down. It was scary, however, the fear was just like a quivering worm in the vast emptiness of her heart, which Eithne was no longer paying much attention to.
The High Priest slightly raised his eyebrows. His Chaos divine power was able to interfere in the target’s mind regardless of their state. He found nothing unusual of Eithne, but it was not because she seemed normal. It was because Demir sensed nothing from her.
Not a single trace of mind signal, as if his power had just entered a boundless and hollow abyss…
“Ha…” – Demir slightly smirked.
It seemed the kid had grown up enough to resist back.
“You may go to rest. We will depart to go back to the temple tomorrow.” – He said.
“Don’t we need to report to her Majesty, sir?” – Hesata asked.
The High Priest picked up his teacup again. The bright purple light of Chaos in his eyes had not withdrawn, instead, it was swirling faster.
“Don’t worry. This incident is just her Majesty’s prank.” – He said, unconcernedly. “We don’t need to stay here and suffer from her mischief.”
“Her Majesty’s prank???”
Both Eithne and Hesata shouted in surprise. Then they looked at each other’s horrified faces.
“Then… that person who fought with me before is also one of the Queen’s people?” – Eithne asked.
“Maybe.” – Demir sipped the tea.
What????
Hey hey… What a joke. Raphael Ascian might be the Queen’s underling? Unbelievable.
But… but what kind of Queen played such an evil prank on her citizens? Although nobody died, the impact of the explosion was seriously dangerous.
Eithne frowned. ‘Wait… could it be that in the future of the comic, the villain Raphael Ascian appears because the Queen wants to avenge the main characters who took her throne? Since Raphael is likely on the Queen’s side.’
“I haven’t told you because I just found out about it a moment ago.” – The High Priest continued. “She nagged me about my people interrupting her plan.”
Eithne wiped the sweat on her forehead. She was not sure how to react to this situation. Should she be happy since Raphael was not a real threat to Lumovas’s royalty, or should she worry because she had disturbed the Queen?
But even so, Raphael sure was fast. He already contacted the Queen to tell the High Priest even before Eithne arrived here. Could it be that she had not wounded him enough?
“But why did Her Majesty do this?”
Hesata was still in shock. Bombing was not a joke!
But the High Priest did not seem to be unsettled. His bright eyes looked out the window in the direction of the main castle in the palace, as if he was observing what the ruler of Lumovas was scheming in her room.
“Who knows? She might want a more festive atmosphere on her birthday.”
__
When Hesata finally dragged Eithne out of the room to get treatment for her calf, Demir Noceur let out a sigh.
It had been ten years since the day he picked those orphans up and raised them in the temple of War. They somehow kept the title of ‘Troublemakers of the War temple’ for all these years. Even the Vice High Priestess, who used to be their nanny when they first arrived at the temple, had given up babysitting and always nagged at Demir to punish them. However, they were the only children who had the guts to continue to misbehave after receiving punishment. No matter if it was cleaning, hard training or spanking, as long as it would not cost their life, they would keep finding a way to stir things up.
Especially Eithne, the one whose face rarely expressed strong emotion, yet she made everybody worry the most...
Demir remembered after a few months since the day that little girl joined the temple, he was still working as the Imperial Military General who led the continental war. On the day when the Sun completely hid behind dark clouds, he was lying silently waiting for his death. The troops were ambushed by suicidal resistance fighters, and he had been badly injured since previous battles. The resistance force from other kingdoms also had priests carrying the holy power of their God. They were determined to kill the General, even if it would take their own life.
If it had not been for his subordinates risking themselves to save him, Demir might have lost his life on the battlefield without a chance to see the children for the last time.
The red-haired brat and blonde-haired girl cried their guts out next to his bed.
The old man smirked. Back then, he used to think that they were so noisy that he would rather die sooner than hearing their weep. The Vice High Priestess had to bring them away so he could rest.
However, when Demir opened his eyes again, awaiting him was not death but a blood-soaked figure of a small girl lying coldly next to his bed, while he had been healed enough to live on.
Needless to say, Demir was scared the crap out of him.
He begged the god of War to save her. When the Noceur beast's divine power entered her body, Eithne woke up, but she had forgotten about that day.
God told him to keep silent about this incident.
'Fate will rewind.', the mighty god's prophecy imprinted on every inch of his mind.
As a result, only the High Priest, very close subordinates such as the Vice High Priestess and other faction chiefs knew about this.
Demir Noceur leaned back on the sofa, looking up at the ceiling.
The image of the ten-year-old girl drenched in blood had been engraved in his heart deeply. She had been the one impulsively throwing away her life like that, to trade for someone else’s life.
"Oh Great Lord, that child is showing some dangerous signs again..."
__
“Hey, look at this.”
Hesata touched the white electric current with his finger. Instantly, several strands of his red hair stood up.
Eithne smacked his hand.
“Stop messing around. Are you really here to help me?”
She concentrated the dark power to isolate the electricity on her calf. Dark threads spread out to wrap up the white light like a cocoon, revealing her burnt flesh. Hesata clicked his tongue.
“No wonder I smell roasted meat.”
He helped her clean the wound by damp cloth, then he wrapped her leg up with a lot of bandages. So many layers of bandages made her calf look like a huge salami now.
"Why did you bandage my leg so much ??" - Eithne protested.
"So that you can't run away causing trouble. Heh, you can hug your leg like a pillow too."
"What??"
"Just lying still you smelly roasted duck."
Eithne raised the middle finger at Hesata's face, but he just smirked. He then tightened the bandage, making Eithne gritted her teeth because of pain.
“This punk…” - Eithne scoffed.
She looked in her hand.
An orb of black threads enclosing the white power was floating above her palm. It strangely emitted a gentle warmth, reminding her of the desk lamp that she put in her previous life's bedroom. Even when the white power was covered by the black thread, its bright halo still escaped and lightened up Eithne’s face.
It was hard to believe that such a destructive power could be this wonderfully beautiful.
‘I don’t want to let it go… ‘
Eithne bitterly smiled. Ironically, she found serenity in her enemy’s power.
However, the light soon faded away in the dark orb.
“…”
Hesata tilted his head.
“Is this the power of that person who injured you?”
Eithne nodded.
“Hmm… May I borrow it?” – He asked.
Eithne transferred the orb to Hesata’s hand. The red-haired priest observed it for a while, right before the white light completely disappeared, a crimson fire appeared and gobbled up the dark threads outside. When the fire reached the dimming light, they mixed in and brightened up at a scary speed.
A red lightning cut the air before it exploded.
Flash! BANG!
“Shit!”
Grey smoke flew up. Now Hesata’s hair at his front head all stood up. Eithne frowned. Her hair was also so charged up that it became frizzy.
“Why you little…”
“If you told me that Saint Raphael beat you up, I’ll believe it.” - Hesata said with his mouth twitching.
Eithne flinched inside.
"How would you be so sure that's him?"
The guy wiped his hair down.
“Currently the priests of Peace are the most suspected to have fought with you. I heard about Saint Raphael’s holy power before. It’s said to be quite shining like that power.” – He said.
“But can I ask the reason why you made it explode?”
“Oh… heh heh, I just want to do a little experiment~”
“…”
Eithne raised her middle finger to Hesata’s face again. He brushed it off and stood up.
“Alright, alright. I’ll go to sleep now. You should go to sleep too. We will need to attend one last event before we can head home.”
Hesata picked up the bowl of candies on the table nearby and placed it in Eithne’s lab.
“If you can’t sleep. Eat this and you’ll faint.”
Eithne looked at the candy’s flavor, it was peach.
“Goodnight.”
Hesata left the room.
Eithne sighed.
It looked like she could not hide the fact that Raphael attacked her for long. Hesata and the High Priest might have guessed it was him already, so what should she do to establish a connection with Raphael?
‘I’m clueless about my future plan.’
She switched off the mana stone lamp on the table, lied down on the bed and closed her eyes.
Eithne started to think about the possibility of Raphael being the Queen’s underling. The comic actually had not finished, so she was not sure if there would be someone else scheming behind Raphael Ascian.
Honestly, she knew Raphael was the endgame’s villain because of spoiler comments under each chapter. They said the original novel of this adaptation comic had Raphael play the role of the boss antagonist that the main characters had to defeat.
The problem was that she could not find the original novel anywhere on the internet, so the spoilers had not been proved to be true. However, the current timeline was ten years earlier than the comic’s plot so things likely changed later on. Therefore, the spoilers were not necessarily wrong.
In case the spoilers were misleading and potential plot twist said Raphael was actually a hero… Eithne did not think so. From head to toe of that guy, he was shining in a ‘villain’ aura.
“Urgh. Whatever… I’ll sleep.”
Slowly, her mind drifted away in a dream.
She saw herself go back to her old bedroom again, reading the comic on her phone again to kill some time.
The comic’s title was ‘I don’t want to be a Saint’. There were two new chapters.
She clicked on the web’s link to open the new chapter.
The heroine Noori Gynren, a beautiful maiden who had beautiful pink hair and pale blue eyes, started her day with sweet cakes and cute magic creatures. There seemed to be nothing special, until a mysterious hand covered Noori’s mouth and dragged her away.
Noori lost consciousness. Everything sank in darkness.
When she opened her eyes again, the heroine was dazzled by the abductor’s handsome appearance. It was a man whose hair was as white as snow and whose eyes were as clear as green lakes. He had a similar face with Raphael.
However, Eithne suddenly felt like that person was not him.
‘Fake!’ – She shouted.
But the comic went on as if it meant to repute her statement. The abductor introduced himself as Raphael Ascian and said something to the heroine who was tied up on the floor. He facepalmed and laughed maniacally…
The scene was a total disappointment to Eithne.
His appearance, his actions... nothing was the same as she remembered. He was not as stunning as her impression of him. His green eyes… once touched her heart, they were shimmering during the afternoon when they first talked to each other. She clearly remembered they were still lively even in the dark.
Yet, those eyes were dull and boring in the comic’s page.
His actions, she did not know him well, but the temperament of Raphael Ascian that she personally experienced would never show such prematurely demented act.
‘It’s driving me crazy!’
She was angered because of how they turned her favorite character into a mess. Although he almost killed her, she still wanted to keep the character original. Eithne did not want to admit that she weirdly became that person's admirer, but her perfectionism did not accept this failed version of Raphael Ascian.
She turned off the phone and threw it aside on the bed.
Maybe she had expected too much... maybe that was the truth but she stubbornly refused...
But she felt like the character Raphael just died in her heart.
'Horrendous!'
She wanted to wake up, yet she was unable to escape this dream no matter how hard she tried to move her body again.
Somehow, this dream felt so nightmarish.
‘Urgh…’
‘Wake up!’