I Became a Dark Knight in the Game

7 – Too Many Abysses (1)

It was Kriel who eventually silenced Orishin.

“Hey.”

[Kahahaha! Did you see? I have triumphed over that wicked witch─]

“It’s nothing to be happy about.”

[Huh?]

“It means that even as a saintess, she cannot purify your curse. Unless a grand ritual involving several priests is performed, you will live forever with the abyss clinging to you.”

[What? Wait. Is that… how it is?]

Orishin, lost in thought, fell silent for a while before disappearing into the horn of the bicon, screaming, ‘This wasn’t my fate!’

Kriel finally hoped to have a peaceful dinner, but he had to face Morgina, who did not hide her anger at all.

Holding his tray, Morgina plopped down right in front of Kriel and whispered in a very small voice.

“…It’s not that I lack skill.”

“I know.”

Kriel replied calmly. As far as he knew, Morgina was the most skilled priest. If she couldn’t do it, it must have been a curse that couldn’t be resolved on an individual level from the start.

“The curse must have been quite severe.”

“The intensity of the curse itself wasn’t that strong. The core is the problem.”

“The core?”

“The thing that forms the nucleus of the curse. Something that erodes the soul of that crazy horse-head. I tried using the blessing to purify the spirit several times, but the deepest root wouldn’t wash away.”

The explanation was that unless the core of the curse was washed away, corruption would proceed little by little. Kriel questioned.

“Wait. If it’s a structural problem, does that mean even a grand ritual wouldn’t work?”

“If you pour divine power like crazy, the result can’t be guaranteed…. But fundamentally, it’s impossible. Blessings borrow the providence of the gods, so a precise understanding of how that providence works is necessary.”

Morikina added a short anecdote. A person was afflicted with a terminal illness and received the blessing of healing several times, but the condition only improved slightly and the disease did not go away.

In fact, he was not sick but infected with a parasite.

“Well, the real cause varies between parasites and poison depending on the casebook, but that’s not important. The lesson is that without proper understanding, using blessings recklessly cannot provide a fundamental solution.”

Kriel held the horn of the Baikon and looked at it. If there was no way to solve the corruption, how should he handle this?

Suddenly, Orishin’s voice echoed in his head.

[Wait, hold on. We’ve grown fond of each other over these few days, you’re not going to ‘crack’ or ‘smash’ me here, right?]

Kriel did not respond. By the time he had heard Orishin’s variation of ‘please wait a moment, it’s difficult right now’ about eight times, Morikina, with a thoroughly annoyed expression, muttered.

“That sucker came all the way here, we can’t end it like this…”

“Hey. Give me that.”

“The horn?”

“Yeah. I’ll figure something out.”

[Wait! You’re thinking of handing me over to that thug! Kriel! Sir Knight!]

Orishin shouted passionately. The difference from the mental noise pollution just before was that this time, he was so urgent that he couldn’t use telepathy and shouted out loud.

“Orishin.”

[Are you going to spare me!]

“There is a saying that you get back what you give. You should have been more careful with your words.”

Kriel handed the horn to Morikina, ignoring Orishin’s screams. It wasn’t just to tease Orishin, but a preemptive measure to prevent corruption.

Morikina smiled fiercely.

*

It was three days and nights later when Kriel saw Morikina again. Unlike the always energetic or spirited Morikina, her hollow eyes were impressive.

“Take it.”

What Morikina threw was a dagger in a luxurious leather sheath. Both the hilt and the sheath were black, so from a distance, it might look like a black short stick.

Kriel drew the dagger. The sharply refined blade had a pale, bone-like color.

The bizarrely curved blade gleamed with a unique atmosphere, as if embodying the foam of waves or flames whenever it caught the light.

And at that moment, the now familiar chattering voice pierced his ears.

[A lot has happened. I’m really tired.]

“What is this?”

“A dagger made from that horn. The sheath has a silencing effect. That guy was really noisy.”

The horn of the Baikon was sharp enough to cut through plate armor. However, that sharpness was concentrated at the tip of the horn. It must have taken considerable effort to spread it across the entire blade like this.

“If you go around stabbing people with that, the corruption will be purified. Cleaning the root is impossible because that horse-head’s mind is rotten, but you can wash it away whenever it gets dirty.”

Morgina spoke nonchalantly, but the effort she put in was comparable to preparing for a grand festival at the temple.

Eve Kaha was the goddess who guided the fallen warriors. It was natural for her to have the characteristics of a war deity. Sometimes, the honorable battle itself became an offering dedicated to her.

Morgina used this to bless the battle fought with horned swords, elevating it to a ritual dedicated to Eve Kaha. As long as Kriel did not let go of the sword, there would be no sudden incidents of the horse’s eyes rolling back and charging at Kriel.

“Now, get ready.”

“Ready?”

“I told you. We have to meet the Priest-King in a few days. Are you going to enter wearing that heavy-looking armor? It’s a royal audience, after all.”

Kriel’s retort that a knight’s formal attire was armor became meaningless in front of the clothes Morgina presented.

The well-organized but not flashy uniform was black like Morgina’s clothes, resembling a raven. On the chest, there was an embroidery of a raven in red thread, making it easy to recognize it as the uniform of the Eve Kaha Order.

Seeing Kriel in the new attire, Morgina nodded with a satisfied expression.

“The clothes make the man. Let’s go.”

*

The Priest-King hated his position.

He should have realized something was wrong when there were no volunteers during the election. He thought it was the pinnacle of temple power, but it turned out to be the pinnacle of administrative work. This was a scam.

“Oh, gods of the Pantheon…”

Please shorten the term of the Priest-King. The Priest-King couldn’t bring himself to utter the rest. It wasn’t out of fear of blasphemy, but because there was no point in saying it.

“Your Holiness. The saints of various orders have arrived.”

The voice of the elderly priest delivering the news from outside the office. If he could trade positions with that priest, the Priest-King would give anything.

“Tell them to come in.”

The office door opened, and the saints slowly walked in. In the early days of his term, they were unfamiliar as they had all left the holy city of Temlis, but now, having met them several times, their faces were familiar.

‘Hmm?’

There was a stranger among the saints. The Priest-King had said, ‘You may bring a trusted companion to carry out the task together.’ Since it would be a secret mission, the number was limited to three in total.

Some of the saints had brought one or two holy knights from their respective orders, as per the Priest-King’s authority. All of them were people the Priest-King knew.

To be more precise, the Priest-King knew every priest who visited the holy city. As the supreme ruler of the Holy Kingdom, he presided over priest appointments and promotions, memorizing the faces of all the clergy he met.

However, the white-haired holy knight – identifiable by the emblem of the Eve Kaha Order – was a face he had never seen before.

“Morgina. Who is that?”

“Our order’s great warrior. Appointed just the other day.”

The Priest-King pondered for a moment before nodding. The authority to appoint great warriors was unique to each order. If it was a decision made at the level of the Eve Kaha Order, it was trustworthy.

“I believe you have all heard the situation briefly. An artifact from the Abyss has been discovered.”

“How many are there for you to call all of us?”

“There are many.”

“How much, then?”

The one urging for an answer was an old man, his body filled with well-trained muscles at a glance. He was a master of bare-handed combat, a martial artist. As the old martial artist repeatedly asked, the priest-king picked up the pouch on the table and turned it over.

With a clinking sound, pieces of metal fell layer by layer. When all the pieces of metal in the pouch had fallen, the priest-king untied the next pouch.

Next, and then the next. The pieces of metal piled up in heaps.

“All of this is the Wedge of the Abyss.”

“Such small fragments? Aren’t they too small to be relics?”

Just as the priest-king was about to explain, Morigina was seen pressing the shoulder of the great warrior with two fingers.

“…Yes, that’s right. They are all relics of the Abyss.”

Ho? The priest-king’s eyes sparkled with interest. Whoever he was, he seemed to have exceptional senses to be selected as the great warrior of the order.

“But they are not different relics. It seems like one relic has been divided into many─”

It was an astonishing perception. The priest-king clapped his hands.

“Damn, Morigina. Where did you find such a person! Like a human holy gate!”

Kriel, who had almost been expelled without even entering the holy city because of that holy gate, didn’t know what expression to make.