Time Healer Ceres

While High Priest Byron was still looking bewildered, Hera brushed the dust off her clothes and rose to her feet. Then she strode toward him.

Flinch!

The moment she approached, High Priest Byron instinctively took a step back.

What was that?

Even he was startled by his own reaction. He had stepped back before he could think. As soon as their eyes met, a chill ran through him.

Was she always this intimidating?

Something was wrong. As Byron swallowed nervously, Hera took another step toward him.

“Are you the one who made my Sooty cry?”

“...W-What?”

“Are you also the one who hurt my Kai?”

“What are you talking abo—”

He never finished. The woman standing before him suddenly changed.

“Y-You!”

His eyes widened.

Why is she here?

“I have a lot to ask you.”

With a smirk, the woman stepped even closer to High Priest Byron.

It was Ceres.

***

“What about that woman?”

“She’s safe, just as you asked.”

Ceres nodded at Cheion, the current Master of the Magic Tower.

“Are you really going in there yourself?”

“Yeah.”

“But it’s dangerous.”

“That’s why I’m going. Who else would I send?”

“Couldn’t you just tell my brother everything...?”

Ceres had decided to deal with the corrupted Holy Spring by going in herself, straight to the people she suspected.

And to get close to them without arousing suspicion, she needed Cheion’s help.

“Here. This is what you asked for.”

“Thanks.”

This was what she had come for.

“Just put it on your hand. I’ve already stored that woman’s image in it.”

It was a magic item that could change its wearer’s appearance. Ceres had told Cheion everything and asked for his help.

The woman whose appearance she had taken was named Hera.

“I believe in Him!”

“Why?”

“My child and I were chosen by Him! We’ll soon live happily under His protection!”

“......”

“Get out. Right now!”

At first, Ceres tried to persuade her. But the woman was convinced that her seven-year-old son had already been chosen, and that she would soon live happily under His protection with her child. There was no point in talking to her any further.

Thwack!

“Ugh!”

In the end, Ceres knocked the woman unconscious with a light blow and left her with Cheion. Hera was now under the Magic Tower’s protection.

Though “in captivity” might be more accurate.

Still, she couldn’t send a woman into danger when she knew what awaited her, could she?

I hope the child is safe, though.

But she doubted it. If what Ersi had said was true, no one who had entered that place had ever come back out.

Would the woman still hold on to her faith if she saw what had happened to the child? Ceres clicked her tongue. This was why cults were scary.

“Are you really going to be okay on your own? You should just let me come with you...”

“I’m not alone.”

“Huh?”

“I asked for another ring, remember?”

***

“There are bodies over there.”

“—! What are you talking about?!”

A priest who had been standing quietly beside High Priest Byron, barely making his presence known, slipped over to Ceres.

The sight made High Priest Byron cry out in alarm. But once again, he couldn’t finish what he was saying.

“...Who....”

The priest’s face had changed into that of a complete stranger before his very eyes.

“Bodies?”

“Yes, over there. Seven of them.”

Even when the High Priest murmured in shock, the man answered only Ceres’s question. It was Ben, a member of the Sky guild.

“...Me?”

“Yeah.”

“Why me?”

“Who else would do it?”

“...You said this was dangerous and wouldn’t let anyone else come along.”

“Exactly. That’s why you have to go.”

“......”

In the end, Ben did as Ceres asked. Using the information Ersi had given him, he kept an eye on a priest before taking his place.

Tap.

Ceres headed toward the place Ben had pointed out...

“.......”

Bodies lay sprawled in a shadowed corner behind a pillar.

They were completely shriveled, reduced to nothing but skin and bones. Every last drop of moisture had been drained from their bodies, leaving their skin stretched tight over their skeletons. Ceres couldn’t say a word for a long moment.

Most of the bodies were small. They belonged to children, some of them not even ten years old.

“...Were they used as sacrifices?”

The mad b*stards.

Ceres turned around.

Flinch.

High Priest Byron, who had been watching her the entire time, stiffened again. As she strode toward him, he barely managed to suppress the urge to step back.

“They were killed alive.”

A low voice escaped Ceres as she stopped right in front of the High Priest. There wasn’t a single wound on any of the bodies lying there. Nor did they appear to have died from poison.

They died while they were still alive.

They must have felt every drop of blood being drained from their bodies. They couldn’t even die properly until every last bit of their life force were sucked away.

“Seize this woman! No, kill her! The power of the Tamer Relic is gone!”

At High Priest Byron’s shout, the priests standing to the side simultaneously drew the swords they had concealed beneath their robes.

“Looks like you haven’t heard the rumors yet.”

Seeing this, Ceres opened her subspace and drew her black sword.

“That I’m pretty good with a sword.”

Whoosh!

Crash!

“Urgh!”

The four priests who lunged at Ceres went flying at the swing of her sword.

Ceres could hardly believe it. How little did they think of her to come at her with skills like that?

Of course, that level of skill would’ve been enough to frighten the women and children they had dragged here.

Grab.

“......?”

Ceres was about to approach the High Priest when she stopped. Several hands were clinging to her legs.

“P-Please, don’t get in the way.”

They were children. The other woman with them also clutched Ceres’s clothes, her eyes filled with fear.

“L-Lord Herchaos chose us...”

“Ben.”

Thwack!

Thud... thud.

At Ceres’s command, the people clinging to her quickly collapsed one after another. Ben had knocked them unconscious with light strikes.

Ceres never intended to reason with them. Didn’t she already learn her lesson from Hera?

I’d have better luck talking to a wall.

What was the point of arguing with people who had been practically brainwashed? It would only leave her hoarse.

Do they even realize?

That they would end up just like those corpses? Her eyes fell on the small bodies again. They were so withered that they looked like mummies...

“Damn it!”

High Priest Byron grabbed the nearest child and pulled him into his arms. Then he pressed his sword against the child’s throat.

“Don’t come any closer!”

“......”

...What a piece of work.

“Do whatever you want.”

“W-What?”

“What do you think you’ll accomplish by grabbing a child I don’t even know? Do I look that kind to you? Do you really think I’m going to feel some pathetic sense of guilt?”

If the child dies, that’s your fault, not mine.

Slide.

“So do whatever you want.”

“If... if you come any closer, I really will kill...”

“I said do whatever you want.”

“Y-You...!”

Whoosh!

Thwack!

“Gah!”

When Ceres drew closer, High Priest Byron finally swung his sword at the child. But her kick sent him flying, and before he knew it, the child was in Ceres’s arms.

Slide.

“Eek!”

After setting the child down, Ceres stepped right up to High Priest Byron, who was sitting on the floor.

Grab.

“Urgh!”

She grabbed him by the hair and leaned close to his ear. Then she whispered in a low voice.

“There’s a name people used to call me a long time ago.”

Byron’s body trembled at the murderous aura radiating from Ceres.

“It’s a name I earned after doing this in front of a crowd.”

Demon...

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