Chapter 536

Didn’t you know?

The voice overlapped several times.

Leonard gazed at the pale red orb hanging on the horizon before the vast wilderness he had created. Beneath the sprawling greenery stained red, he saw the searing glow that heated the earth. A chill wind slipped between his forehead and the cuffs of his sleeves, yet he looked as though he had foreseen it all.

He could hear the screams of the people…

“Your Highness.”

“Your Highness!”

Leonard slowly closed and opened his eyes. His eyelashes scattered the light across his vision. He felt the deep, primal scent of earth and trees slowly seep further into his lungs.

Someone grabbed his shoulder.

“Crown Prince. The eastern part of Nuremberg is spreading! You must stop!”

Leonard looked down at the soldier clutching his collar.

He was becoming detached from reality. He was there, but he wasn’t.

He saw a blue circle floating in the air without touching anything, along with the glistening light in his eyes. Then he saw the flesh of his hands, pale as a corpse, and his dried lips.

“Your Highness, this is happening because of your Special Ability.”

The single sentence uttered by the terrified mage dropped an icy bead into the Crown Prince’s mind.

Leonard raised his head.

The grass growing between the buildings in central Nuremberg had turned the massive buildings that once stood over their foundations into enormous piles of rubble. Even as he realized his mistake, he remained perfectly calm and expressionless, as though practicing the utmost self-control. He saw that those buildings had previously been struck by vitriol.

Because he had turned everything back into nature, because vines, branches, and stems had formed layer upon layer over the grass growing along the streets, the return of nature had protected the world from the vitriol fired by the Bishop of Eichstätt.

Therefore, even in his right mind, Leonard would have continued doing the same.

Perhaps not to this extent—

The solid ground of a city shaped by centuries of maintenance was reduced in an instant to a mass of stones that could be kicked apart and scattered beneath one’s feet. The cracked earth was reinforced anew by the growing thickets.

This was the law of nature.

Nature did not allow anything that strayed too far from its design to remain for long.

Several of the mages under his command were evacuating the people.

Streetlamps, paved roads, shops, warp signs…

Everything was reduced to mere ruins beneath a growth of vegetation that would have taken decades at the very least if it had all occurred naturally.

He could no longer tell whether his vision had drifted away from his body, or his body had drifted away from his vision.

Leonard slowly changed his wand into a staff.

Then he struck the ground.

The leaves and tips of branches that had been there quickly shrank back into place, as though retracing the path along which they had grown, traveling backward across the time that had been pushed forward.

He strides forward in that state. The sound of everything moving backward would be more like the sound of sand and earth being deposited tens of thousands of years ago than marble slowly weathering away. The plants that had been given life through Leonard return once more along the path of their existence, back to where they came from.

He realizes it.

He was wrong. Leonard had done this.

The primitive greenery twists and disappears, leaving behind a remnant of the city center that had been destroyed in the aftermath of the aerial battle. Amid the desolation where the overgrowth has receded, its life subdued by a single act of will, he wonders if perhaps he is not suited to being a doctor after all.

He was not sad. He was even less happy.

With his emotions unable to sway his sense of self, he believed he could bring great benefit to many through combat magic, and that meant refusing to neglect the military strength of the nation. But unlike the vow he had made as a child, today he prayed that, as he had once been able to save his beloved friend in a time that had already disappeared, he could bring together every ounce of strength he possessed and restore even a single thread that could last for generations.

And today, standing in eastern Nuremberg, utterly destroyed by his own power, he thinks that he is facing his past self, having crossed paths with him.

As though the strength that had kept him standing were turning to ash and scattering into the wind, he feels himself standing at the very heart of a trial.

He raises his head and closes his eyes.

The child who once drank blood like this is the Christ of them all, and beneath the booming voice, he looks upon the suffering prepared for his friend.

Yet he still stands firmly on both feet, planted on the earth.

He does not stagger for even a moment.

Pleroma had dragged back into their fold the one who struggled to escape that fate.

By what right?

They had no right to do so.

Leonard remembers watching the blood gathering beneath his skin where the needle pierced it, watching the blood drawn from him enter another person’s mouth. Even today, he did not find it unpleasant. If anything, he was glad.

He was content knowing that his blood could prolong his friend’s life and make him stronger.

It was not some false satisfaction born from a personal pleasure whose source he did not even dare imagine, a source he could not possibly recall even if he tried to invent a reason for it. Nor was it the kind of false satisfaction born from the impulse to ease his friend’s guilt.

He was grateful that, despite the grief and storms shaking his friend inside and out, he could continue to rise without stopping.

Knowing how to rise in the end, even after collapsing and lying there for a long time, is worth more than simply enduring without ever falling apart.

The strength he radiates is proof that he is in the process of triumphing over the life that had done everything it could to bring him down.

And before any of those conditions are added, he is simply content in the knowledge that his friend is alive today, glad for it and grateful.

Whether he is Pleroma or not, at this point, nothing was more important than the person he was.

Yet as a friend, he asks.

Do you know him?

As Crown Prince, he demands once again.

You were angry just now. Every minute, every second, you must question yourself: were you truly pursuing the truth that would set us free, in a place where emotion could not sway your sense of self?

He feels the wind of the world stop moving.

He opens his eyes and watches history repeat itself. The outbreak of madness and faith is replayed here today as well, twisted out of shape.

Christ, cast down upon the earth, makes atonement for the descendants of Adam. His flesh, His breath, His blood, His purity—cast away in a manner that John’s baptism could not have foreseen that day, when sunlight passed through the grains of the river and streamed down over Christ’s head, yet had already been prepared for.

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 「Who do people say the Son of Man is?」

「Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.」

「But what about you? Who do you say I am?」

Simon Peter answered, 「You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.」

Jesus replied, 「Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.」

(TL/N: Matthew 16:13-17)

The Father reveals the Son of God to Pleroma. This is their propaganda today. Or a lie they genuinely believe to be the truth.

And so they gain legitimacy for their Church—「And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.¹」

Therefore, they had to become Peter.

We never saw Peter seek out Christ and nail Him to the cross.

Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 「Never, Lord!」 he said. 「This shall never happen to you!」

Jesus turned and said to Peter, 「Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns…」

(TL/N: Matthew 16:20-23)

To avoid becoming Satan, they push God away. Hurry and hang upon the cross and die. Set us free, and let us be with You in Your embrace.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, 「Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”」

(TL/N: Matthew 16:24-28)

Pleroma calls his friend the Messiah of this age of turmoil, without telling anyone what the manuscript of the Bible they discovered before the Dead Sea in the Ottoman Empire actually says, or whether it is accurate. Then what of Mikhail Ismailov?

They deceived us. They tested someone, and they are still doing so. We are being tested every moment—today, tomorrow, and from some unknowable point in the past all the way to the end. What do they want to accomplish by doing this?

Leonard felt the wind of the devastated city blowing straight toward him. He had reached his conclusion. The unmistakable purpose his friend must have arrived at as well.

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Leonard wanted to laugh. He had yielded his intuition to his duty for long enough. There was no need to question himself anymore. This was all injustice. And he could not yield even a single step to such injustice.

It was clear what he had to do now: launch himself from the ground.

But where?

6:17 PM.

Leonard had been aware all along that it had not been long since their words had ended.

The Bishop of Eichstätt was fast. He was moving quickly, covering everything around him in vitriol with the intention of destroying it all before his vitriol could be neutralized. With no divine power mage present, the choice to cover everything in plants prevented the vitriol from spreading beyond that area. Thanks to several mages under his command swiftly backing Leonard up, there were no unnecessary casualties.

As there should be.

Because he had no intention of letting this drag on for even one second longer.

There was no need to take it to 6:30. He would finish it by 6:24, within five minutes.

A voice came through.

— […There are more than ten personnel who are unable to continue.]

That was because of his Special Ability, which resembled that of his sibling, Sarah Hohenfels.

“Give me a situation report.”

— [Your Highness, the Bishop of Eichstätt is refusing to move east. The Special Ability you used behind us has reached as far north as here, making it difficult for our forces to move.]

“Very well.”

Leonard gripped the staff with both hands and slowly moved them toward either end. Brilliant blue mana surged along his hands.

“Evacuating people at this point would be inefficient. Put up barriers around the nearby buildings and tell me the estimated location of the bishop.”

— [He’s engaged with fifteen mages between the intersection of Ostandstrasse and the side road, and the river.]

Not far.

Leonard channeled mana into his legs and kicked off the ground.

Before thirty seconds had passed, he felt rain falling from the sky. Only then did he stop.

Leonard looked down at an Imperial Dailies that had flown to his feet before being pressed into the ground and reduced to pulp.

[[Breaking] Pleroma Claims Christ’s Presence: ‘Lukas Askanien Is Christ’]

He looked up again.

Light scattered beyond the intersection of the railway and the road. He gauged the speed and distance at which the light was catching up to him. Then he landed at the point where the light would reach next.

There stood a person in bishop’s robes, fluttering almost sanctimoniously in the wind.

He had the railway behind him and the river ahead.

The Bishop of Eichstätt had been cornered at the river.

The Bavarian Royal Army could not drive him any farther east.

The clergyman was smiling.

KABOOM—BANG—!

He spreads a hand and speaks amid the thunderous explosions crashing around him. That alone is enough for him to defend every mage of the Royal Army without having to advance or counterattack any further. Light passes through.

“You’re a person of strong resolve.”

He is right. Unnecessary humility would only be a lack of judgment, so Leonard readily acknowledges that the bishop has seen him correctly.

And you aren’t quite the same.

Leonard does not deal with people of weak character. Is the Bishop of Eichstätt a person of weak character? If he were, he would not be standing here. Leonard does not know how to deal with fragile people who break easily, but he does know how to soothe someone whose character is strong but whose resolve is fragile. After spending his entire life alongside a friend who had no choice but to live that way, how could he not?

Everyone was close to the heart. There was little difference between dulling a blade forged from grief and turning it toward something higher, and cutting off someone’s breath.

The Bishop of Eichstätt bends his knees as though bowing before him and speaks.

“My dear Crown Prince. Allow me to greet you as your longtime vassal.”

“…….”

“I have lived in Bavaria since the 14th century. In those days, our House of Hohenfels served the Wittelsbachs, who were Electors. And now, I find myself living in an age where those same Wittelsbachs have become kings instead of being wiped from the face of the earth. Here I stand before the youngest Wittelsbach, wondering how we are to kill one another.”

Leonard feels as though only the two of them remain in the world. His only objective is the Bishop of Eichstätt’s heart. Every sound around him fades into the distance.

He closes his eyes with his enemy before him, while his enemy calmly continues speaking. A notification sounds from the artifact beside Leonard’s ear. He turns it off. He can do this without instructions. In fact, they were only getting in the way.

“What do you think?”

“I’m truly glad to meet an old vassal.”

Leonard opens his eyes and raises a hand as he rushes toward him. He raises the earth’s arms toward the Bishop of Eichstätt, grasping him with thousands of fingers.

Only now do the screams and thunderous explosions draw close enough to reach his ears. Even the artifact beside his ear and the urgent voices of the mages nearby.

Yet the plants he controls are invisible. They do not even exist in reality.

The widened eyes of his subordinates, filled with confusion, flash past him. At the same moment, when the Bishop of Eichstätt’s eyes narrow and his body tilts, a greatsword made of mana appears in Leonard’s hand.

The Bishop’s eyes widen a moment too late.

The bishop stamps his foot into the ground, sending fragments flying in every direction, then takes a running leap backward. Leonard raises his hand and clenches his fist.

KRAAASH—

A wall of plants surges up from the river like waves rising beneath the northwest wind. The mana that had always been as calm and cool as the surface of the Baltic Sea takes on a different nature under his Special Ability. But because it rose from the river, it did not rise where the bishop stood.

The mages stared at Leonard in shock.

The Bishop of Eichstätt rushed at Leonard in that opening. Leonard looked toward the tall mansion standing by the river and raised his open hand.

KABOOOM—

The moment the wall slammed down onto the mansion by the river, the bishop who had been beside Leonard disappeared.

Leonard blocked the fragments of the castle flying toward him and ran in that direction. Then he approached the bishop, whom the mages under his command had pinned to the ground nearby.

“Young man, you’re mistaken.”

The real bishop spoke with his face pressed against the ground.

Leonard looked down at the elder with a young person’s face and stepped on his back. The bishop continued.

“When Christ becomes Christ, the Millennial Kingdom² will begin, and those of us who, like ourselves, knew His will beforehand and made Him become who He was meant to be will be treated as we deserve. No one knows whether that will be salvation or judgment. Nor do we do this out of arrogance, believing that we will be saved, or because we expect that we must be saved. We do this because we are clergy. But you?”

“…….”

“Do you really think you can still be saved after doing this?”

Leonard smiled.

He knew the bishop did not understand what he was saying. The bishop did not know what Leonard had already concluded in his heart long ago.

He drew his sword.

“No matter what humans do, they cannot defy fate. Everything will unfold according to Christ’s will, so what has made you this angry?”

KABOOM—

A deafening blast rang out as Leonard drove the sword down toward his heart.

The bishop no longer moved.

Blood slowly spread beneath him.

Returning to the earth.

Only silence remained.

Leonard touched the artifact.

“Your Majesty, this is the 2nd Royal Bavarian Infantry Regiment reporting. At 6:22 PM on April 15, we have killed the Bishop of Eichstätt.”

He did not say that he would wait for further orders.

Instead, he continued.

“Inform me of Nikolaus Ernst’s location.”

Translator Note

1. Matthew 16:18-19 ↩︎
2. The Millennial Kingdom is the literal one-thousand-year physical reign of Jesus Christ on earth. ↩︎