The barrier shattered and the tentacles rushed in, as if they had been waiting for that exact moment.
“Run!!”
“There is nowhere to run. Everyone’s struck!!”
Unlike how it let the priest go untouched prior, the tentacles blocked every alley. The remaining tentacles moved swiftly towards the people who were searching for an escape.
A thin tentacle pierced a middle-aged man’s heart.
“Khkh..?!”
The middle-aged corpse, deprived of its life force, was tossed high into the sky.
“Honey!”
The dead man’s wife blanched and ran toward her husband, who had been thrown away. Chuk! She was lashed off by tentacles that swung like whips, pinning her to a building.
No, for the lifeless and crushed form was now just a splash of raw meat.
“Ah…”
Ophelia looked at the hunk of meat with quivering eyes. That woman was the lady who had earlier shed tears, thanking her for saving their lives when Ophelia had saved her.
“Kyaaaaaaaaa!!”
Hearing a scream, Ophelia jolted her head around.
A young woman who was flailed by her arms and legs let out her scream. Slowly the tentacles tore at the skin of her stomach. Flick! The woman’s blood flicked on Ophelia’s face.
Ophelia didn’t hastily wipe it off.
She put her hands together and prayed fervently.
“Ah… Goddess. O Goddess Iris. Please forgive me. Please forgive me for being stupid, dull and foolish. I will accept my sins. They are not guilty of anything. Please have mercy…”
“Ugh, aaaa!! Run away!”
“Please…”
“Dad! Daddy!!!!!
“Please…”
Despite her earnest prayers, the Goddess did not respond.
Something did interrupt her prayers though — screams.
A young man who was being dragged across the floor by tentacles.
As he met Ophelia’s eyes, he cried out to her in terror.
“Saintess! Help!”
Ophelia raised her body. She stumbled forward and brandished her mace from her waist.
Pak.
The mace slammed down on the tentacles, which held the young man, impotently.
She raised the mace and pummeled again.
Pak! Pak! Pak! Pak! Pak! Pak!
The force swinging the mace gradually increased.
She hollered, striking her mace as if she were mincing meat.
“Leave him! Let go!!”
Ophelia did her best.
Sadly, it had little effect. The flesh which the mace had dented remained such for a while, and then filled up again.
“Saintess?! What are you doing? Divine power! Please use your divine power!”
“…”
She could no longer use divine power.
She couldn’t bear to say that, so she struck harder with her mace.
The young man made out a part desperate and part puzzled expression.
“Saintess? Can’t you hear me? Holy Maiden!? Holy lady… You son of a bitch! Divine power! Use your divine power—”
The young man was tossed aside.
He sailed swiftly and disappeared from Ophelia’s sight in an instant. The only thing left in place was a long bloodstain left by the young man’s clutching palm.
As she stared, blankly, someone shouted.
“Saintess! Help me!!”
Ophelia came to her senses and turned her head in the direction of the voice. The moment her eyes met the woman who had asked for her help, thick tentacles blew away the woman’s upper body.
“Ah…”
“Saintess! Here!!”
She turned her head.
An old man who called for help was crushed by the tentacles.
“O Saintess, please!”
The man had a hole in his stomach.
“Saint… help me…”
A woman sagged down.
The building collapsed and covered the woman.
Tang!
The mace fell to the floor.
Ophelia’s lips trembled.
“Sorry…”
People were dying.
“Sorry…”
These were the people who had been living their lives like normal people hours ago.
“Sorry…”
They were the ones who had once bowed their heads to her, thanking her for saving their lives.
The parents who paid their gratitude.
They were…
Crying, shouting, screaming for help.
But Ophelia… she couldn’t help.
Because she was no longer a candidate for Sainthood.
She was just a woman with slightly higher muscle strength.
She could do nothing but watch people die horribly right in front of her eyes.
Ophelia flopped down on her knees.
She closed her eyes and put her hands over her ears.
“Sorry. It’s my fault. It’s all because of me. Sorry, sorry.”
She should have been patient.
She should have endured.
She shouldn’t have complained.
She shouldn’t have doubted.
Had it been…
Had it been so, none of this would have happened.
It was all her fault.
Really… sorry.
She was sorry… Her heart seeked forgiveness…
– You can’t run away.
Ophelia was overcome with pain that seemed to set her eyes on fire.
“Kyaaaaaa!!”
Unable to overcome the excruciating pain, Ophelia slammed her head on the floor.
– Open your eyes. Don’t run away from your exploits.
“No, no! I don’t want to!”
Ophelia scratched the floor with her fingers, trying to contain her pain. However, the pain gradually got worse. It was agony should have left her unconscious, but she could not pass out.
In the end, Ophelia failed in her resistance.
She opened her eyes and was able to run away from the burning pain.
Instead, she had to hear the screams and the sight of people dying en masse. However, the aspect of the scream was different from before.
They no longer asked Ophelia for help.
They uttered words of resentment and curses at her, and some did not stop there.
“This bitch! Why did you remove the barrier!!”
A man kicked Ophelia with a face full of rage. She fell to the floor and he began to trample her.
Not knowing when he would be killed by the tentacles, he didn’t care and assaulted her.
Then a strange thing happened.
The tentacles were leaving out the man who assaulted Ophelia.
The people who noticed that fact gathered around Ophelia. They started beating her like the first man.
They kicked her in the face and stomach, and trampled on her hips and sides.
The tentacles did not touch them, and confirming that the hypothesis was real, they began to channel their resentment into violence.
“Why! Why didn’t you save my son!”
“You said you were a Saintess Candidate! Why can’t the glorious Saintess maintain a single barrier?!”
“I recognize her from the time she went around bare-chested. Are you actually not a whore, but a Saintess Candidate!?”
Ophelia repeated the same whenever that happened.
“Sorry…”
“Sorry…”
“It’s my fault…”
“Sorry…”
A blood vessel burst and a liquid mixed with her blood and tears flowed down her cheeks.
Gradually.
Slowly.
Ophelia was breaking from within, and was about to be broken completely.
“What kind of insane shit these crazy bastards are pulling? Hey! You guys, get.. Huh? Ophelia?”
An inaudible voice hit her ears.
At the same time, the beating also stopped.
Ophelia slowly raised the arm that covered her face. She could see the red-haired handsome man looking at her with a bewildered expression.
“He.. Hero..?”
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