Even Green was surprised about this.
Originally, he thought that there were only a few traitors, in addition to perhaps one or two corrupt bishops at most, never did he think that even someone like Kunier would be a traitor.
During this occasion, among the Sun Shadow church's ritual group for Gods' Offering Day, aside from the Pope himself, only a few member knights and some priests with firm beliefs weren't actually traitors or spies, but none of them belonged to the upper brass.
It seemed like the Sun Shadow church truly should change its name.
"Why…!?" it wasn't just the Pope's body that hurt, but his heart as well.
…
"There's a common Law in this multi-dimensional universe: If someone acts too perfect, as long as they aren't a Saint, they must have ulterior motives. Ever since the start of this novel, Kunier had been described as perfect every time he showed up, so it made less sense for him to not be a traitor" standing next to Chromie with his arm wrapped around his shoulder, Killer J gave a highly opportune comment.
Chromie massaged his forehead a little bit. Ever since he returned from the desert, he hadn't been able to shake off this self-proclaimed '21st-century neo-genius Killer J'. Without any warning, this guy would consistently appear out of nowhere next to him, then say a bunch of nonsensical things.
And yet, he hadn't shown any malice or hostility towards Chromie at all. While Chromie had sacrificed parts of himself over and over, gave up on the love of his life, became a traitor of humanity and a spy within the church, there was no denying that he was a 'good person' at heart.
He hunted evil cultists and mercilessly killed anyone who held hostility towards him, he would also struggle for the sake of his survival, but he wouldn't arbitrarily kill someone who held nothing against him. While Killer J was indeed annoying to be around, you could even think of him as interesting if you got used to it.
There were a total of three reasons why the Church fell into this current situation where everyone suddenly turned out to be a traitor. The first was naturally the fact that the Church was never clean in the first place, with plenty of internal issues that couldn't be resolved.
The second was the fact that their God, Eternal Heat, didn't really care about the existence of the Church. For him personally, the Church was an entity that made no difference whether or not it existed. Otherwise, with his dignity as a God and if he had the patience, he could radiate his Pathway every once in the while, fully infecting his worshipers with his Pathway and ensuring that traitors would never be able to exist.
The third was that after Eternal Heat had the absolute advantage, the other Righteous Gods all turned their spears towards him. While they wouldn't make Eternal Heat pay some sort of great price by attacking his Church, it was still good to bother him with the act.
And so, this led to the terribly sorrowful circumstances of the entire upper brass betraying the Church aside from the Pope.
As Kunier held the Decanter of God's Offering in his hand, a thick aura of 'Life' radiated from his body to replace the extreme heat aura from before. This conversion was extremely natural and smooth, causing the intricate Decanter of God's Offering in his hand to begin glowing incandescent with heat, almost like Kunier was holding a hot iron ingot in his hand.
Kunier was the perfect human created by Mequik through her Tree of Life's structure. His form of life was perfect to the point of being a work of art, from his soul to his body, allowing Kunier to reach the pinnacle of human talents. No matter what he learnt, he would still be able to quickly develop it to the limit of human capabilities.
Be it swordsmanship, morals, or faith, as long as a goal was set within his life structure, he would definitely be able to achieve it; like for example, 'fully commit yourself to worshipping Eternal Heat'. However, when the goal was changed, then the perfect human who was affected by his life structure would also change.
In the end, even the perfect human was still only a human. Kunier's mind could not surpass his body, so he fell under the manipulation of his own form.
"Why did you do that, Kunier!?" Chromie stood blocking Kunier's way. Their personal relationship was quite good, in the past, it was Kunier who helped Chromie find the whereabouts of Olga's soul. They had discussed a lot of topics, so Chromie understood what kind of person Kunier was, which made it even more unbelievable that Kunier would do something like this.
Kunier raised the scorching Decanter of God's Offering into the air, showing the souls flowing like a liquid within.
"Like them, like me" Kunier looked up at Chromie, his handsome face of almost perfection flashing the perfect smile. The corners of his eyes were red, but he didn't shed a drop of tear, as that was something that the perfect body would not allow: "And like you"
"Our souls have never been free, Chromie"
Kunier looked like he was about to confess something, or rather, to emotionally state something, but ended up saying only that.
"Limited by bloodline connections of family, limited by the morals of society, limited by the desires of the body, limited by one's own lifespan. You and I are the same, Chromie" Kunier's voice was completely normal, but for some reason, Chromie seemed to hear Kunier sobbing among his words.
"It was already impossible for me to escape these shackles since long ago!"
After saying that, Kunier's body abruptly underwent drastic changes. His body first bulked up considerably, then grew even larger at a visible pace. The skin at his shoulder was ripped open as a large head grew from it, followed by even more heads that rapidly grew all over Kunier's body.
The Decanter of God's Offering in his hand had also been grabbed and taken into his body by several heads.
In no time at all, a monster with over a hundred heads appeared in front of everyone. Some of the priests and knights whose beliefs had just collapsed as well as a portion of Awakened Wicked Souls suddenly stared blankly at the monster when they saw it, then began walking towards it.
They were seeing themselves in that monster. That familiar or even superior life structure attracted them, causing them to subconsciously approach, then become one with the monster.
The 100-headed beast, a war unit and weapon created by Life Bearer Mequik, was capable of growing to become a powerful third stage of release entity within a short amount of time. While it lacked the Seed of Truth, it contained Mequik's complete Tree of Life structure, which granted it a supernatural sense of attraction to the majority of living beings, as well as capable of acting as a medium for Mequik's descent.
During the Mana Banquet half a month ago, one of these creatures had also appeared, and Kunier had now displayed the process of this monster's creation within a short time period.
"We can't let him rampage, otherwise, it will be impossible to take back the Decanter of God's Offering" Green landed next to Chromie and pierced through a black bottle with his sword while chanting an incantation. The black liquid within the bottle swiftly attached itself onto the sword.
At the same time, a large amount of black fog appeared from his body, all of which were mana that had been drawn from sinful monsters and allowed a Night Watcher to perform their magic.
"I understand!" Chromie was surprised for only a brief moment before he quickly replied, then prepared to attack the 100-headed beast.
While both he and Green were traitors, before it was time to turn their heels, they naturally had to do their jobs properly.
…
Within a dark space, Negary asked the God who appeared as a halo that gave off what seemed like eternal heat next to him.
〖 What are you going to do if the Decanter of God's Offering is actually lost? 〗
「 One thing about human souls is that there are plenty of them 」
Above the Moon Tree world, the sun that shined upon all existence seemed to have gotten a bit warmer.
