Chapter 489 ·Evil God (惡神) (6)

Thud.

Zayd’s severed head fell to the ground.

His eyes remained wide open as if he could not accept his own death.

Il-mok reached toward the spears scattered across the ground and selected the one that appeared to be in the best condition by using Telekinesis.

With the spear in hand, he drove the spearhead straight into Zayd’s severed neck and hoisted it for everyone to see.

In truth, Il-mok didn't even know Zayd was the supreme commander of the enemy’s forces.

But judging by the man’s skill, he was clearly someone important.

As it turned out, his hunch was spot on.

“The A-Amir...”

Hassan had been exchanging blows with Jin Hayeon when he caught sight of Zayd’s head hanging from the spear.

He faltered despite himself.

Jin Hayeon was not so slow-witted as to miss even that tiny opening.

Tap.

With a light sound, Jin Hayeon’s left hand seized the back of Hassan’s spear hand.

A terrifying current of frigid Yin Qi flowed through the hand gripping the spear, and Hassan’s right hand froze around the shaft in an instant.

“Guh.”

Hassan belatedly regained his senses and hurriedly swung his spear. But the sensation in his most dominant hand had dulled, making his movements heavy and sluggish.

Whoosh.

Jin Hayeon dodged several of Hassan’s attacks in succession before closing the distance and slipping deep into his guard.

Thud!

With a dull impact, her right palm struck Hassan in the chest.

“Ghk...”

Hassan hurriedly channeled his aether and successfully prevented his heart from stopping outright. Even so, the blow had inflicted severe internal injuries, and he vomited blood with a choked groan.

He continued to swing his spear as though resisting to the very end, but the cold that had penetrated his entire body had slowed his movements to a crawl.

Thud!

Jin Hayeon’s second palm struck Hassan once again.

At last, he reached his limit and froze to death where he stood.

“T-The Amir has fallen...”

"Run! Get out of here!!"

While Jin Hayeon was finishing off her opponent, a shockwave of despair was tearing through the battlefield.

“Spare me!”

“Move! Get out of my way!!”

The imperial soldiers at the front desperately tried to get as far away from Il-mok as possible, but the rear was packed with soldiers as well.

Crunch.

As they shoved against one another, those who lost their footing were trampled to death under the footsteps of their own comrades.

Some were even killed by the weapons of soldiers who got blinded by panic and swung them at their own comrades.

Il-mok couldn't understand their language, but he hardly needed words to recognize the terror in their eyes.

"Open the gates!! It is time to counterattack!!"

Il-mok infused his shout with internal energy and the gates in Andkhoy’s sturdy walls opened with a harsh grinding sound.

The remaining soldiers of Hong had been waiting for this chance and poured out all at once.

“HELL YEAH!!!”

“The Envoy of God watches over us!!”

“The Heavenly Demon descends!!”

“Ten Thousand Demons Obey!!”

Emboldened by the sight of the enemy scattering in fear, the Divine Cult’s own zealots began to rampage on the battlefield.

“Drive out the unbelievers!!”

Some soldiers were actually screaming to drive the Muslims out of their own Muslim territory. It’s certainly brain-dead logic, but they have no room for logic since the thing was thrown out of the city wall by fanaticism and zealotry.

Like the Sacred Flame symbolizing the advance of the Divine Cult, the Hong Dynasty’s soldiers came at the Khalas Empire’s soldiers with unstoppable strides.

And with their faith now shattered by fear, the Khalas Empire’s soldiers were swept away like small fishes in the tsunami of fire,

* * *

An hour rolled by.

As the sun dipped beneath the horizon, the battle was finally concluded.

“YEAAAAHHH!!!”

The soldiers of Hong reveled in their victory, each of them raising a triumphant cry.

To be fair, the actual battle had been over for a while. 

The remaining hour had been spent doing little more than chasing down and killing the routed soldiers.

They’d managed to deal with most of the fleeing remnants and only let a few lucky hundreds slip out alive.

Considering that an army of seventy thousand had marched upon them, the state of the Khalas Empire’s forces was pitiful.

Il-mok surveyed the battlefield as soldiers all around him leaped for joy and sang hymns.

“How severe are our losses?”

Jong-ri Chu answered his question.

“If we include the dead and those too far gone to save, the number appears to be around one thousand. There are approximately three thousand lightly wounded.”

Il-mok swept his gaze across the battlefield with a heavy expression.

Corpses filled the area in every direction, but few of them actually belonged to Hong Dynasty’s soldiers stationed outside the walls.

Most of the dead and critically wounded had fallen during the earlier siege. Once the battle’s outcome had been decided, what followed had been closer to a one-sided massacre than a battle.

Winning a 40,000 versus 70,000 matchup this decisively was practically unheard of, but Il-mok couldn't brush off the sting of losing his own men.

Still, the war wasn't over, and he didn't have the luxury of standing around and mourning for those men.

“Sort the wounded and give priority to their treatment. Pick out a rotation for the night watch just to be safe. Everyone not on guard duty needs to start cleaning up the field immediately. Gather and burn the corpses before nightfall, and recover any military supplies that remain in usable condition.”

As Il-mok issued his orders in succession, Jong-ri Chu and the others nearby relayed them to the soldiers.

The troops who had been celebrating their victory soon began moving busily.

The wounded and those assigned to the night watch returned inside the walls. The rest spread throughout the battlefield and began clearing it.

They gathered the bodies into piles and set them ablaze. They also collected the weapons scattered across the ground and any armor worn by the dead that remained intact.

Their bodies were exhausted from the battle, but they overcame their fatigue by singing a work song together.

"I've got peace~ like a river~"

Obviously, the work song they were singing was a hymn.

Meanwhile, the woman named Sadif who had been waiting inside the walls in terror carefully peeked out of her front door with her child in tow.

She had realized that the atmosphere had completely changed.

For hours, it had been nothing but endless explosions nd screams. But a few minutes ago, an oddly peaceful mood had settled over the city.

The most obvious change was the singing echoing through the streets.

She couldn't understand a word of it, but the whole mood had shifted.

Before, it sounded less like music and more like rabid animals screaming for blood. Now, however, there was something strangely relaxed about them.

As Sadif stepped outside while watching her surroundings carefully, she was met with the sight of soldiers covered from head to toe in blood.

They were the wounded and the men who had returned early to take up the night watch.

As she observed them with eyes full of fear, Sadif’s gaze met that of a man who seemed familiar and yet unfamiliar.

It was James, the foreign-looking man.

He waved at her in greeting. “Hahaha. There is no need to worry. The battle is over. It was a great victory! We have repelled all the enemies."

Only after hearing the joy in his voice did Sadif let out a sigh of relief.

With her nerves finally settling down, the strangely peaceful singing drifting from the distance caught her ear.

"Um... excuse me. Do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Hahaha! Ask whatever you like!"

Sadif cautiously questioned the broadly smiling James. "What does that song mean? The one they keep singing?"

James willingly translated the meaning of the hymn they were singing.

“Hmm... Then what about those words I kept hearing earlier? The slogans that your comrades always shouted?”

It seemed that the Muslim woman was taking an interest in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

James smiled broadly and immediately kicked into missionary mode.

“Hahaha. They mean that the Demon of Heaven shall descend upon this world, and all evils shall submit to him.”

“T-The Demon of Heaven?”

The explanation was so unexpected that something else suddenly came to mind.

While screams and explosions had been raging outside, she had repeatedly heard strange words carried over the walls.

“I kept hearing strange things from beyond the walls. Something about an ‘Evil God’ and the ‘Evil God’s avatar.’ D-Does that mean you're worshipping an actual Evil God?”

Sadif had been able to ask James this because of his appearance.

He was clearly one of Hong’s people, but it was equally clear at a glance that he was a foreigner. She did not think he would harm her merely for asking such a question.

Seeing the misunderstanding on the woman’s face, James gave her a warm smile as if he could see why and how she had reached such a conclusion.

“Ah... There is no need to worry. Hahaha. The enemy only called him that because they were terrified after witnessing the Grand Preceptor’s valor.”

“I-I see.”

“The avatar of the Evil God is His Majesty the Holy Emperor. The Grand Preceptor is not the Evil God’s avatar.”

"I'm sorry, what?"

And thus, the misunderstanding grew deeper.

* * *

The following morning, Il-mok left the residence and stepped out into the streets of Andkhoy.

He’d handed down one last order the night before getting to sleep.

And that was to go get some sleep and begin repairing the city walls the next morning.

Although they had achieved a great victory, the fighting had been fierce during the early stages of the battle, and the walls had sustained considerable damage.

Wandering over to check on the progress, he found the able-bodied soldiers already hard at work.

“I’ve got peace like a river~”

As always, they sang hymns while they worked. But right next to the Hong soldiers, the local residents of Andkhoy were pitching in too. 

Since ordinary civilians could assist with repairing the walls, Il-mok had requested their cooperation.

And for some reason, they had joined the work with remarkable enthusiasm.

As Il-mok looked over the bustling construction site, his ears picked up a very peculiar word floating through the crowd.

The locals were shooting him side-eyes and aggressively whispering to each other. They were quite far away, and their voices were so quiet that an ordinary person could never have heard them. But then again, Il-mok's hearing was miles beyond normal.

Since he didn't speak a word of their language, he almost brushed it off. But then he heard something that bothered him.

And the fact that he had the distinct impression that they were pointing at him.

‘Wait a second. I definitely heard that exact same word flying around the battlefield yesterday.’

Finally caving to his curiosity, Il-mok tapped Jong-ri Chu for a translation.

Jong-ri Chu answered in amusement. “Ah. It means the avatar of the Evil God. Come to think of it, the enemy kept calling you the avatar of the Evil God yesterday, Grand Preceptor.”

“Ah...”

Il-mok nodded in understanding, but then frowned in confusion.

It made sense for the enemy to have called him that. They were practically wetting themselves in fear.

“But why are the residents here also afraid of me and calling me the avatar of the Evil God?”

“I do not know that myself, but if we translate the name of our Divine Cult literally into their language, it does roughly mean the same thing, does it not?”

“...”

Okay, he had a point.

If you just looked at the name Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, anybody in their right mind would think they were a den of lunatics worshipping an evil god.

‘Yeah, okay, we are literally a cult. Well, technically.’

Il-mok found the explanation somewhat convincing, but he could not simply leave the matter alone.

“Ahem. That may be what the name means when translated literally, but if we just let them keep misunderstanding us, it's going to cause a massive headache later."

With that, Il-mok summoned several people.

Among them were Jong-ri Chu, James, Ohalak, and others who could speak the local language.

Il-mok gave them several instructions, then gathered the residents of Andkhoy together.

The locals all looked like they were marching to the gallows.

"W-What if they're going to use us for a sacrifice?!"

"S-Should we make a break for it while we still can?!"

While they whispered anxiously among themselves, Jong-ri Chu climbed onto a platform and began to speak.

“Thank you for gathering here. It seems there have been some minor misunderstandings going around, so we thought we'd bring you all together to clear the confusion."

After that, Jong-ri Chu began his speech.

"It occurs to me that we've been staying here for a while, but we never formally introduced ourselves! We are believers who follow the doctrines of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. Which means, yes, we are a religion that worships the Demon of the Sky."

“Allah protect us!”

The residents recoiled in terror, prompting Jong-ri Chu to wave his hands quickly.

“However! The Heavenly Demon is not an actual demon! The name refers to a being who destroys all evil!”

After years of running a massive merchant guild across the Western Regions and the Central Plains, Jong-ri Chu had a silver tongue that could sell ice to an Eskimo.

"Now, I know what you're thinking! Why call such a great being the Heavenly Demon? Because evildoers cannot be reasoned with! Think of the imperial army that attacked this city yesterday. Do you honestly think we could have just politely asked them to go home and they’ll do so?!"

As Jong-ri Chu suddenly pointed to a nearby man and asked the question, the man flinched and hurriedly shook his head.

“N-No.”

“Exactly! Evildoers are impossible to reform from the very beginning. The only language they understand is a fist to the face! That's right! The Heavenly Demon is a savior who crushes all the world's evil through martial might! He achieves true justice using the very act the world calls demonic! And since his might reached the heavens, hence why we call him the Heavenly Demon!”

Right there, in the middle of Andkhoy, Jong-ri Chu’s passionate preaching echoed through the air.

And thus began the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s first missionary work in the land of Muslims.