The Case of Being Reincarnated as a Heretic Mob Character in an Eroge Where Everyone is Extremely Determined - Chapter 19

Chapter 19: A Day in the Lives of Certain Heroes

The Aaros Temple Order is a cult that appeared out of nowhere several decades ago.

They are led by a man of completely unknown origin, Aaros Hawkeye, and they view the Kenneth Orthodox, who worship anyone other than Aaros, as their enemy.

The supreme leader of Holy Nation Geluid is Kenneth Orthodox Executive, and from the outset, preaching heresy in the heartland of Orthodoxy is nothing short of a hostile act.

Naturally, the Orthodox Church viewed the Aaros Temple Order as an adversary, but until Aaros and his followers committed clear acts of murder or abduction, the church limited its response to advising them to leave the country or disband.

However, the Orthodox Church was unaware that the cult harbored seven sorcerers.

This led to the first clash resulting in the annihilation of one of the Orthodox Executives.

A certain village was also massacred, and its women and children were abducted.

This incident marked a decisive turn in the conflict between the two religious orders.

Kenneth Orthodox issued an official statement to eliminate the Heretics, and news of this declaration spread beyond the nation’s borders.

Decades after that declaration, Celestia Hotthound, the seventh-ranked Orthodox Executive, found herself overwhelmed by the sudden appearance of hordes of magical beasts attacking simultaneously throughout the nation.

When not occupied with official duties, it is customary for Orthodox Executives to patrol the territories of Holy Nation Geluid.

With threats such as magical beasts, disasters, and not just the Aaros Temple Order, Executives scarcely had a moment’s rest.

“Magical beasts and Heretics appearing at the same time… and in various places across the country, no less.”

Upon hearing reports from the Executives and the pleas for help from those who came to the church, Celestia, clad in her monastic robes, took up arms and headed to the scene.

Other Executives were already dealing with the situation, and there were reports of a heretical Executive’s appearance, prompting all Executives except for the supreme leader to mobilize.

Celestia soared through the sky, riding the wind.

As she slaughtered the rampant demonic beasts, she was seized by an odd sense of unease.

(…What is this? I feel an odd sense of discomfort.)

What concerned her was that the appearances of the demonic beasts and the heretical Executive were concentrated from the north to the east of the country.

If any damage were to occur in the southwest area now, no one would be able to respond.

(Am I overthinking it? But they use cunning tactics. That’s why I must defeat the demonic beasts as quickly as possible.)

She shot through a giant spider with her wind-claw slashes and finished it off by sending pebbles flying through the wind.

More than two hundred demonic beasts remained. Each one was not a significant threat, but exterminating them all would simply take time. Since there was a village nearby, she couldn’t use large-scale magic that would affect a wide area.

As various thoughts raced through her mind, Celestia increased her pace in defeating the enemies.

At that moment, a familiar voice echoed in her mind.

“Celestia-chan, this is bad!! I’ve received information that the city of Metashim has been attacked!!”

The owner of the voice was Cress Walker, the third-ranked Executive.

A giant man who wielded the power of lightning, his combat abilities were among the top even within the orthodox ranks.

He was supposed to be exterminating magical beasts in the north—my earlier bad premonition had come true.

As Celestia responded to Cress’s voice, she continued to slaughter dozens of magical beasts.

“Is the attacking force made up of a horde of magical beasts? Dragons? …Or is it Heretics?”

“It’s Heretics! And not just any, but the Guru, the thorny woman, and a woman with monstrous strength!”

A woman with monstrous strength… Celestia recognized those words.

She was the detestable archenemy she had fought three times and let slip away three times—Joanne Sagamix, a well-known enemy Executive, had attacked the Metashim region.

Distracted for a moment by that name, Celestia received an attack on her upper arm from a magical beast.

It was not a problem as she could heal immediately, but the frustration built up as the beast, which would not die without a powerful blow, kept attacking.

“Who provided that information?”

“It’s from Ziata-chan’s summoned beast. It’s been taken down, and it seems like she’s out of commission.”

Ziata is a girl ranked fifth in the Executive hierarchy. Although she herself does not possess combat abilities, she can summon magical beasts using special magic.

She likely had a flying summoned beast patrol the Metashim region to gather information.

If Ziata is the source, then the information is reliable. Celestia casually swept away the magical beasts, annihilating the horde in just about thirty minutes.

“Have you informed the others about the attack?”

“I did! But, it looks like it’s just you and me Celestia-chan, who can head to the scene.”

“Understood. I can head to the Metashim region in about an hour, but what about you?”

“Ah, I’ll head out in an hour… no, make that fifty minutes. By then it might already be too late, damn it.”

With her silver hair streaming behind her, Celestia flew at full speed toward the Metashim region.

Cress, who wields lightning magic, is also capable of high-speed movement, but even he doesn’t possess the ability to teleport instantaneously.

There’s no doubt that he’s fast, but crossing the country to reach Metashim will take at least an hour at the very least.

She knew all too well how critical this one hour could be upon hearing the names of the three Executives who had attacked the city of Metashim.

In fact, since the assault on the Metashim region had begun, nearly three hours were about to pass, which meant that by the time they arrived, there would be a four-hour lag.

The attack was already complete, and the situation for the survivors in the city was desperate.

(The Guru Aaros, Executive Pork, and Joanne, whom I failed to finish off… These three have attacked the city of Metashim? This is the worst possible scenario…)

The full extent of Guru Aaros’s power is still unknown, but it’s said that he wields magic that sets him apart from the other Executives.

According to Cress, who has combat experience with Aaros, it seems that he uses magic related to ‘shadows’.

Although their status may have fallen, the other two besides Aaros are monsters that ordinary people cannot handle.

Pork wields an inexhaustible ability to control thorns, and there is the presence of a poison that manipulates corpses.

Then there’s Joanne’s monstrous regenerative powers and her unparalleled precision in throwing.

It is unlikely that there are many who could defeat them, other than the Orthodox Executives.

When Celestia recalls Joanne’s face, she is tormented by the memory of a vexing blunder.

(Ah… If only I had eliminated that man first at that time…! That woman would not have been able to come back to life—!!)

While flying at high speed through the night sky, Celestia recalls the name of a certain Heretic.

His name was, if she remembered correctly—

(…Oakley. It must have been something like that.)

She could not forget. During her duel with Joanne, he had interfered with a crossbow.

There is also a fact that he had revived Joanne, whom she had thought she had obliterated without leaving a single piece of flesh behind.

The Heretics who could conceive of hiding a piece of Joanne’s flesh to ensure it could be used as an emergency revival point… such thinking is far from sane.

Oakley’s existence had already been reported to the Executive Council, but who is this man who can possess a piece of an Executive’s flesh?

The lingering question smolders. There may be other troublesome individuals not yet grasped by Kenneth Orthodox besides Oakley.

This fact left a lingering unease in Celestia’s heart.

Oakley, likely the right-hand man of the heretic Joanne, must be in the city of Metashim by now, assisting Joanne.

Celestia muttered, ‘Oakley must be our top priority to eliminate.’

Of course, that’s an ideal scenario.

Attempting to kill Oakley would mean diverting attention from Joanne, which could expose her to a fatal vulnerability.

Conversely, even if she managed to kill Joanne, as long as Oakley possesses the flesh fragment, she could resurrect endlessly.

It’s a dilemma; if we stand one up, the other falls.

There’s no reason I would lose in a one-on-one with Oakley, but creating such a situation is nearly impossible.

The more I think about it, the more troublesome this man Oakley seems to be.

(After all, there might not even be a need for Oakley to be the one holding the flesh fragment. What ultimately becomes necessary is the extermination of the heretics… and also being vigilant of the flesh fragments other than the main body.)

Such troubling thoughts. Celestia shook them off.

After fifty minutes of continuous flight towards the Metashim region, the city finally came into view, with black smoke billowing up here and there.

Despite it being the middle of the night, the city was brightly lit, and there was no sign that the fires would cease.

As Celestia landed on the ground, she felt a crushing pain in her heart at the sight of the drastically changed cityscape.

If she kept flying, she would make an easy target for Joanne’s throws. Besides, with three Executives present, defeat was certain unless she at least regrouped with Cres.

On her way towards the city from the ground, the bushes behind her shook violently.

“Celestia, it’s me. Stop with the magic, will you?”

“…If you’re there, please say something. I thought you were a Heretic.”

Emerging from the darkness was the large man Cres, drenched in sweat like a waterfall.

Capable of high-speed movement when enveloped in lightning, it seemed he had run an extraordinarily long distance in his current state.

With this, two Orthodox Executives, Cress and Celestia, had now arrived on the outskirts of the Metashim region.

“Celestia-chan, are you ready? We’re approaching the city.”

Taking Cres’s words to heart, the two of them moved through the darkness. The roaring sound of flames from afar and the sky above the city, illuminated by fire, was as bright as day.

They wanted to hurry forward, but with the Guru Aaros ahead, they couldn’t afford to act recklessly.

As they emerged from the forest onto flat ground, they immediately noticed the poison thorns spread all over the area.

Realizing that this was one of Pork’s traps, Cress bit his lip and his expression turned grim.

“With the situation like this, the situation inside the outer walls seems hopeless…”

“Is this the time to be saying that? We’ll make our way through.”

“Wait. There’s someone over there.”

Cress noticed a small figure standing by the nearby river.

As Celestia turned to look, the distinctive stench of sewage hit her nose. It seemed there was an outlet to the sewer system close by.

Straining my eyes in the dark of night, I could make out a figure standing near the exit, small and seemingly childlike.

“Who’s there?”

As Cress muttered, the figure collapsed to the ground as if completely drained of strength.

Celestia, wrapped in a whirl of wind, descended gracefully near the figure—and there lay a young girl, her body covered in burns and smeared with soot.

“Cress, we have a survivor!”

“What?”

In a flurry, Celestia cradled the girl’s body and cast a healing spell.

Cress approached and his expression transformed into one of utter astonishment.

“I’ll kill them…”

The girl, with large tears streaming down her face, muttered, ‘I’ll kill them…’ over and over again like a broken toy.

It wouldn’t have been surprising if she were unconscious—or rather, it wouldn’t be strange if she were dead, considering the severe injuries she had sustained.

Yet, she was still conscious.

“Are there any survivors in the town—”

“Everyone… everyone was killed!! Mom and Dad too… they were eaten alive!!”

The girl screamed and thrashed around.

Celestia desperately tried to cover the girl’s mouth to muffle the screams.

There were no survivors.

Cress understood this as he heard her statement. Everyone else must have been killed or taken away.

In order to make a decision to either charge or retreat, he leaped towards the top of the outer wall. Despite being afflicted by the poison of Pork’s thorns, he managed to climb the wall.

What met his eyes was a hellish scene: the town ablaze, corpses strewn about, Heretics rampaging, and… the three executives who recognized Cress from far away.

An eerie masked man waved nonchalantly and, at the same time, vanished as if melting into the darkness.

“Shit!”

It was immediately clear there were no other survivors besides her, and it was impossible to reclaim this city.

“Celestia-chan, we need to retreat! We have to give up on this city for now!”

Having leaped from the outer wall, Cress started running, carrying Celestia and the girl.

Right after, the cult leader Aaros appeared at the spot where Cress had been standing and spotted the three of them dashing into the forest.

“W-Wait!! Nooo!!”

“Shut up, or you’ll bite your tongue!”

Cress, with lightning wrapped around his legs, dashed through the forest at an incredible speed.

The girl he held at his side had her screams muffled by Celestia.

Aaros was in pursuit.

Celestia used wind magic to conceal the three of them, and she continued to cast the spell until the masked man’s pursuit ceased.

After running for several minutes, it seemed that Aaros had given up, as his presence could no longer be felt anywhere.

As Cress gradually slowed down, he was panting heavily with a pale face.

“That was a close call, Celestia-chan.”

“Yeah, that’s true. From now on, that town will be under a spell of recognition inhibition, and various defensive measures will likely be implemented.”

“It’s going to take some time to get it back huh…”

The three individuals who had left the Metashim region arrived at the nearest town and immediately reported the fall of Metashim.

Celestia, who could do nothing to prevent it, was tormented by a sense of powerlessness as she caught a glimpse of the sole survivor out of the corner of her eye.

The girl, draped in Celestia’s cloak, kept muttering to herself while looking up at the sky where her homeland once was.

“I’ll kill them…”

…

(TL/N: The protagonist should be a guy since it’s eroge, but here they use girl (少女). Maybe it’s the childhood friend?)