Chapter 111

— Is, is it starting?

The ground where the students stood vibrated lightly, and then an unusual sound began.

Soon, the vibration and sound grew noticeably louder.

Boom───!

In the middle of the ruins, a pure white light soared as if to pierce the sky.

Similar energy rose from each of the dolmens arranged in a circle.

— Oh, this is the holy power discharge!

— Marvellous!

The students watched the discharge with eyes full of awe.

“Everyone, check your simple incubators. Once it starts shaking, you must take the egg out.”

Roan instructed Hector and Sion on what to do while closely observing the state of the black mana wrapped around his body.

Once enough energy gathered, they had to take the egg out of the incubator.

The other friends also seemed very curious about how the divine beasts of the three would be born.

Rrrrrumble───

The discharge of the ruins’ holy power seemed likely to last for quite a long period.

If it weren’t for this much energy, Roan wouldn’t have thought of hatching the divine beast egg so quickly.

Shake— Shake—

“Oh, oh, u-uh! Roan! The incubator is shaking!”

“……Then take it out.”

Hector spoke while beating his chest in excitement like a barbarian.

Roan spoke in a lukewarm voice.

If it were any other divine beast egg, Roan would have been quite curious, but Hector’s egg was an exception.

Naturally, the other students, unaware of this, gathered in small groups at the news that a divine beast was hatching.

— They say a divine beast is hatching?

— Oh! What a joyous occasion.

Roan was already worried about the reactions a moment later.

Click—

In any case, Hector took the egg out of the simple incubator with trembling hands.

The three chains wrapped around the egg began to unravel one by one.

“Ohhh!”

“What kind of child will come out?”

Not only Hector but also his friends focused their eyes on the egg.

As soon as the chains were fully unraveled, the egg cracked.

C-Crack— Crack—

“Yes, I only need you! Hurry and be born!”

Propelled by Hector’s passionate cheer.

Pop—!

Finally, the divine beast was born from the egg!

“””…”””

However, the friends who checked the appearance of the newborn divine beast did not rejoice.

— A-Ack! It’s a monster!

— A disaster has hatched!

Rather, some students even tried to run away in extreme terror.

“Uwahak!”

…Even Hector was the same.

‘Special Divine Beast, Purgatory Penitent Beast.’

Roan watched the Purgatory Penitent Beast with a complicated feeling.

Normally, it was near impossible to know what kind of species would hatch from a divine beast egg.

But the case of obtaining a divine beast egg from Harden was slightly different.

The Purgatory Penitent Beast was a reincarnation into a divine beast of heinous criminals who repented at the threshold of the afterlife to pay for their crimes.

From an egg obtained from Harden, that Purgatory Penitent Beast was guaranteed to hatch.

“……Roan, I’m asking just in case, but is it okay for a divine beast to look like that?”

The characteristic, as in Demona’s reaction, was a horrific appearance that was hard to look at with open eyes.

First of all, the overall form of a severed human head floating around was grotesque to the extreme.

Furthermore, in the places where eyes should be, instead of eyes, a circled cross—the symbol of the Hiloa Church—was embedded.

Roan had also seen it a few times, but seeing it in reality was another matter, so he grit his teeth and answered.

“It’s a Purgatory Penitent Beast. …They originally look like that.”

“There are more of those terrible things?!”

Demona shouted in disbelief and gagged.

It was a perfectly natural reaction, not an exaggeration.

Sion seemed to know a bit about the Purgatory Penitent Beast and chimed in.

“I’ve heard of it… The Holy Spirit created it to save the souls of prisoners, right?”

“Indeed.”

Unlike other divine beasts, the Purgatory Penitent Beast was strictly a being inhabited by a human soul.

Realizing that it was unwelcome, not just by Demona, it shed a single tear of blood in sadness.

That sight was also extremely gross, but on the other hand, it elicited sympathy.

Demona, who had been gagging, also found the Purgatory Penitent Beast slightly pitiful and asked Roan.

“Now that I look closer, it’s a bit pitiful. Did Professor Eucherim steal its eyes too?”

…As indicated since Anne, Eucherim’s incarnation, Demona was treating Eucherim like some kind of eyeball thief.

“Demona, you shouldn’t doubt the professor like that. Would an angel do that?”

Rafia scolded Demona lightly.

Roan shook his head.

“It wasn’t Lord Eucherim.”

“””???”””

Which meant that although it wasn’t Eucherim, it was indeed the work of another angel.

The Purgatory Penitent Beast was, first of all, a heinous criminal who had returned after reaching the threshold of the afterlife.

There, they were stripped of both eyes by the Angel of Punishment as part of their penance, and had crosses embedded.

Meanwhile, Hector grit his teeth and called Roan.

“……Roan.”

“What is it?”

Hector was thinking roughly along these lines.

As long as he reached the destination, it didn’t matter which way he went!

“By any chance, the holy war—”

“Naturally, it’s a forbidden divine beast.”

“!!!”

But the problem was that he couldn’t reach the destination.

Roan glared at Hector as if he were talking utter nonsense.

The regulations of the Imperial Holy War Association weren’t lenient enough to allow a being who was a heinous criminal in their past life to participate.

Furthermore, there was an even bigger problem.

Fwoosh—

“””???!?!!!!?!?!”””

The students around were simultaneously shocked by the aura felt from the Purgatory Penitent Beast.

“Black mana?”

“…It must be a soul that was a black mage in its past life.”

Being past-life heinous criminals, Purgatory Penitent Beasts used heretical holy power or black mana with a high probability.

Since Harden created them, a certain level of usage was naturally permitted.

…Though if one used it openly in a place like a temple, they would be arrested.

The purpose of raising a Purgatory Penitent Beast was to perfectly control that naturally emitted forbidden power and have them pay for their soul’s sins.

Once the purpose was achieved, the Purgatory Penitent Beast achieved nirvana and disappeared.

Thus, they were usually taken by monastery fundamentalists as a form of penance.

Or inquisitors also raised them to pay for the sin of inevitably inflicting pain on others.

Well, Hector was also of inquisitor blood, so people who didn’t know the circumstances would view it similarly.

In any case, the Purgatory Penitent Beast had no choice but to be a forbidden divine beast in the Holy War League.

“That’s why I tried to stop you from receiving the divine beast egg from the Principal, didn’t I?”

“Such…!”

Hector glared at Roan with an expression where absurdity and grievance were mixed like a chaotic mess.

He certainly warned him, but he should have told him that a fellow like this would come out!

Roan only shrugged his shoulders.

While everyone was completely dazed by the shocking appearance of the Purgatory Penitent Beast.

Shake— Shake—

Sion’s incubator also began to shake slightly.

“M-Mine is shaking too!”

Sion carefully set down the incubator and took the egg out.

Not long after, the shell of Sion’s egg cracked, and a baby divine beast revealed its form.

A cat with beautiful vermillion fur on its body, while its four legs had black fur but mysteriously had a blurry form.

Although it was newborn, because divine beasts and spirit beasts grew to some extent inside the egg before hatching, the cat could already stand properly on its four legs.

Mewww—

“Cute!”

Sion and Rafia were utterly helpless in front of the faintly crying baby kitten.

Seeing how the tips of Riel’s fingers trembled, she also seemed to find it extremely cute.

— Oh, that is a divine beast!

— A celebration, indeed!

Other students also nodded satisfactorily and congratulated her, as if the world was finally functioning properly now.

Like this, the birth of a divine beast was something everyone should celebrate.

Sion, Rafia, and Riel simultaneously looked at Roan.

It meant they wanted him to present the name of this cute creature right away.

‘…I feel like I’ve actually become an encyclopedia.’

Just like that encyclopedia in Earth animations that rattled off information whenever a monster appeared.

In any case, since Roan knew the identity of the cat, there was nothing to feel particularly aggrieved about.

“Sunset Shadow. It’s a good divine beast.”

Although the types of divine beasts Sion could obtain were quite numerous, Sunset Shadow was among the top ranks.

As an agility-type assassin divine beast, it excellently compensated for the areas Sion lacked in combat.

It also possessed an appearance that ranked among the absolute cutest, spanning both divine and spirit beasts.

Hector, who was staring at Sion’s Sunset Shadow with disbelieving eyes, chimed in again.

“R-Roan, by any chance, of course I absolutely don’t wish for it, but is the Saintess candidate’s divine beast also forbid—”

“Sunset Shadow can naturally participate in the holy war.”

Naturally, Roan cut his words off immediately.

In the first place, it was strange for a divine beast to be unable to do a holy war.

“Waaaahhh!”

Hector ultimately couldn’t hold it in and sat on the ground, starting to wail loudly.

Following the Thousand-Eyed Pitted Serpent, even the Purgatory Penitent Beast.

Why was it that every egg he obtained only yielded creatures that couldn’t participate in the holy war?

As Hector wept loudly like that, the Purgatory Penitent Beast also floated around Hector, shedding streams of tears of blood.

‘Well, at least Purgatory Penitent Beasts have had their personalities reformed to be good.’

The souls of heinous criminals who were severely dealt with while going to the threshold of the afterlife were purity itself, only using forbidden powers a bit well.

In the first place, even if it was forbidden power, that was only the standard of the Holy Empire, and not forbidden by the providence of the universe.

‘The problem is that the jerks who use it are loose-screwed.’

In any case, the Purgatory Penitent Beast would cry along if its owner cried like that, and try to save them if the owner fell into danger.

…Except for its appearance, it was a loyal divine beast.

Hector and the Purgatory Penitent Beast wailing in grievance even while watching the holy scene of the ruins’ holy power discharge.

The friends watching tried to comfort him out of sympathy.

“Hector, don’t be too disheartened. Next time…”

“That’s right. You can just get another divine beast egg.”

“Roan’s divine beast will definitely be a forbidden divine beast! Eong-eongi, you think so too, don’t you?!”

“””…”””

However, at Hector’s subsequent words, even the little sympathy they had vanished cleanly.

It was a remark too narrow-minded and petty to comfort him after hearing it.

“””He deserves to suffer a bit more at that rate!”””

Just like that, even his friends completely turned their backs on Hector.

Meanwhile, from the eyes of the Purgatory Penitent Beast, not tears of blood like before, but uncharacteristically clear tears were flowing.

Demona asked Roan.

“Roan, that thing is shedding something weird?”

Roan was about to tell her that such things originally flowed from its eyes, but stopped.

“A Purgatory Penitent Beast sheds ordinary tears like that when it witnesses sin.”

“…”

Not to mention Demona, the friends who heard Roan’s words wore dumbfounded expressions.

‘By the way, Eong-eongi… isn’t that too cute of a name for that visual?’

Of course, Roan, who knew Hector’s true nature, was just minorly surprised by the name he had given the Purgatory Penitent Beast.

Hummmm—

The discharge of holy power, which seemed like it would continue endlessly, gradually weakened.

“Is Darc’s divine beast not ready yet?”

“Indeed.”

Roan nodded at the questioning inquiry of Sion, who was holding Sunset Shadow preciously in her arms.

In fact, it was slightly unexpected for him too.

‘I thought it would hatch easily, though?’

He hadn’t thought that while the other two divine beasts had hatched long ago, no signal would come yet.

Shhhhuuuu—

Finally, the pillars of holy power rising from the dolmens extinguished one by one.

Even the pillar discharged from the center of the ruins gradually faded and eventually began to flicker.

‘…It can’t be an unfertilized egg, right?’

Roan glared at his simple incubator with slightly suspicious eyes.

If the divine beast egg had heard it, it would have been so hurt that it might have stopped trying to hatch.

Hummm— Hummm—

Immediately, the two authorities that read Roan’s thoughts made a fuss.

Isn’t saying such a thing to a child too harsh!

Retract it! Right now!