The Evil God Beyond the Smartphone - Chapter 19

– I used ‘Lightning Arrow’.

With the message notifying the use of the skill, the characters who were within range of the skill were stunned.

It is a skill with a whopping 30 damage and even a stun effect.

If  had to be used three times to defeat a character,  was enough to simply use it twice.

Furthermore,  does damage over a wide area.

It’s able to knock out characters at a faster than the  skill.

Having realized the power of the magic book given to me by Euthenia, I couldn’t help but marvel.

“How can a wide-range skill be so strong?”

Their range of damage is also completely compatible with .

Of course, it consumes more magic power than the skills I was already using, but even taking that into account, it was a performance worth mentioning.

It was a skill that could potentially be obtained by rolling a gacha ten times.

I never thought I would get such a tremendous skill for free.

I was moved by Euthenia, who had brought a harvest I had not expected.

“Oh, to cultivate a character with a taste like this.”

Baguette. Sponge cake. Hard black bread.

It was only recently that I had raised Euthenia by feeding her various breads that I got from the shop.

Euthenia brought me a magic book, not forgetting the grace she received from raising me.

How often did I call her rebel?

Even Euthenia, who demanded 7,000, won bread as if she had deposited it, did not forget the favor she had received from her master.

Seeing her show her respect, I felt like giving her a present.

“For now, I’ll have to deal with it from them and then I’ll think about it.”

Of course, before that, I had to finish up with the remaining characters in the village.

I continued to use my skills by hitting ‘Lightning Arrow’ repeatedly.

The vibrations that successively overflowed from my smartphone conveyed the intensified battlefield atmosphere.

With each throw of a Lightning Arrow spear, the characters gathered in piles in the village fell over.

It was the perfect skill to hunt the amassed characters.

– ‘Lightning Arrow’.

– ‘Lightning Arrow’.

– Karma has increased by 7.

.

.

.

– ‘Lightning Arrow’.

– Karma has increased by 5.

A number of messages surfaced in quick succession and a number of characters were reduced to karma.

The electrical charges lingering on the ground inflicted sustained damage on nearby characters.

Although the amount of damage was not enough to deal with the opponent completely, it was still an advantage to be able to inflict damage.

How many times did I threw down the ‘Lightning Arrow’?

Realizing that there were no characters left in village by now, I finally pulled my finger from the skill button.

“Phew… that’s nice and hot.”

The efficiency was incomparable to when I was hitting them one by one with .

The Magic power drain was several times greater now, so it couldn’t be used infinitely, but at this level, it was enough to wipe out one village or so.

For a while, I felt like I could enjoy the game with a refreshed mind.

After a satisfying hunt, I started looking for Euthenia across the screen.

I wanted to give something back to her for giving me the magic book as a gift.

“Since you gave me a gift… I should give you one thing in return, right?”

Euthenia unexpectedly sent me a gift.

It was a pleasant gift that made me feel good after last night’s exhaustion.

The item is well worth the cash comparison.

A character with so much love and affection deserves to be treated as such.

I moved the screen to find Euthenia locked away in the mountains somewhere.

Euthenia was sitting in a tent, sitting on a chair reading a book .

– “This magic… It’s mysterious.”

The gray-haired character is turning the pages one by one in a relaxed manner.

Judging by the unusual tools around her, it appeared that she was studying magic.

I opened my inventory to check the items for Euthenia, who was studying hard.

The aim was to find a suitable gift for her.

“I don’t have anything suitable in my inventory… It’s been a while since I’ve pulled gacha.”

Currently, the only items left in the inventory were a few iron swords.

That said, it is not possible to suddenly give an iron sword as a present to Euthenia, who is learning magic.

The only way left was to gacha.

Just the other day, I received my monthly salary in my bank account.

I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try gacha for the first time in a while, so I touched the shop button in the top right-hand corner.

– The  is currently under maintenance.

“…I guess I can only pat her head now…”

I then quickly U-turned my finger and touched Euthenia’s head.

If I couldn’t gacha, there was only petting left to give me.

Soooo. A quick pat on the head was all that was left for Euthenia to do.

To it, Euthenia who was reading a book, raised her head and looked up at the sky.

– “Um…?”

Thud.

After a pat to her, Euthenia was knocked down to the floor.

Unfortunately, it seemed that she was not yet used to being patted.

I watched the collapsed Euthenia for a while, then quickly threw the smartphone with the screen off onto the bed.

It was morning and I wasn’t feeling very good about it.

I should probably go into the bathroom, take a shower and get out.

* * * * * *

“Indeed… there’s a lot that’s fishy about it.”

Evan Alemia.

Inquisition officer from the Holy Land, Crossbridge, opened his mouth as he scanned the empty village.

The village in Evan’s line of sight was very quiet.

There were traces of what looked like dishes and laundry that people had used, but no actual people were visible anywhere in the village.

The attack would have left bloodstains, but all Evan could see were footprints and bizarre painting.

Bizarre painting

The only traces of the painting, which had half disappeared, were the only traces that caught Evan’s gaze at this point.

Haas, who was standing beside Evan, looking at the pattern on the floor, asked him, looking at his own brother.

“Can you tell what the painting is about, brother?”

“It’s a freshly painted pattern. There is probably only one possibility.”

“…”

“You can see a pattern that looks like a sculpture of an altar and ancient writing that surrounds it. Perhaps the nature of this painting is…”

An altar for performing rituals

Despite Evan’s slurring of the last word, Haas could not fail to understand its meaning.

Nowadays, there aren’t that many places left that use ancient letters.

At best, the letters were worthy of being handled by wizards exploring the six temples and ancient ruins of Crossbridge.

This is because the altar is a geometrically shaped form that has been stylized with such ancient script.

As it was not a style used in temples in the Holy Land, there was only one fact that Evan could deduce.

“…It’s an altar.”

“It’s also an altar prepared for an evil god.”

Heresy. Worshippers of evil gods who reject the rules of the Six Temples.

It was an altar they built to trade with the evil gods.

There were clear differences between the style of altar used for rituals in the Holy Land.

What would have been difficult for others to distinguish was clear to the eyes of Evan, the Inquisitor of the Holy Land.

While Evan was bent low, looking at the patterns on the floor, he gasped.

This was an altar where the ritual had already been performed once.

It looks like Evil God’s servants had succeeded in restoring the altar to perfection.

(The records concerning the altar of the Evil God were supposed to have been completely destroyed in an earlier war…)

The history of the fierce war flashed through Evan’s mind.

In the past, the Holy Land had fought against the cult of the Evil Gods while suffering enormous damage.

It was only possible because of the sacrifices of the heroes and deeds of paladins.

The appearance of an evil god who disturbs the world is always accompanied by the emergence of a chosen hero.

The common opinion in the Holy Land was that there was still time for the forces of the evil gods to move decisively, as the next generation of heroes had yet to emerge.

However, what now existed before Evan’s eyes was the altar of the Evil God, both in name and in reality.

An evil god already exerts a covert influence on this world.

What this meant was simple.

Soon a chosen hero would appear with the oracle in the six temples.

“You mentioned the Evil God?”

“Yes, I did. I am sure.”

“So all the speculation up to now has been true.”

“It will come to that. You spotted the signs of an evil god earlier than you thought.”

Haas’s complexion darkened when he heard Evan’s words.

It was a completely different story to vaguely guess the contents and to accept them as fact.

An evil god threatening the continent.

It was a very serious matter for Haas, who lost one of his men in order to collect the evidence.

“The news of an evil god’s appearance upon the continent means…”

“Soon a hero will appear. It’s going to be hectic in the Holy Land for a while.”

When the shadow of an evil god falls on this world, heroes inevitably emerge.

This was an immutable law that never changed.

The gods of the Six Temples would not sit by and watch their order breaking down.

Even if the order was slightly changed, what was to happen would always happen.

Especially if that opponent was an evil god aiming at this world.

Having found evidence of an evil god, it was Evan’s turn to report back to the Holy Land.

Evan fixed the sword on his waist and then gripped the reins of his horse, which he had tied nearby.

“Shall we go back to headquarters together? Once I’ve finished reporting to the branch commander, I’m going to bring my men with me for subjugation.”

“No, just hold off for the moment.”

“What…?”

“There’s a risk that it might provoke them unnecessarily and they might hide where we can’t find them.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t believe in Cloud’s war potential, brother?”

The Cloud is the executive body responsible for the security of the Empire.

When opinions of distrust of Cloud emerged within the Empire’s territory, Haas gave Evan a dissatisfied stare.

Evan, however, shook his head and denied Haas’ words.

“It is not that. Rather, I say that this situation could be an opportunity.”

“What do you mean by opportunity?”

“The enemy has not yet grown to its full potential. I’m talking about the fact that, once thorough preparations have been completed, it may be possible to defeat them without significant damage.”

He was able to successfully discover traces of the cult before the oracle.

In a way, this meant that the enemy’s forces had not yet taken proper root.

It is a cult of evil gods that has not yet fully grown.

If we were lucky, it was something we might be able to nip in the bud at once.

And as soon as the heroes emerged, they might succeed in defeating the cult.

And that required thorough preparation.

Very thorough preparation, never allowing for second chances.

“The Empire’s forces will work together to defeat them. When the time comes, you will be part of the battle.”

“Then… I will listen to the advice of you, brother.”

“Right. For the time being, focus only on finding out what the enemy is up to. This is a request I can only pass on to you, brother.”

“If that is the intention of you brother.”

After the conversation, Evan mounted his horse and took hold of the reins.

Now that he had discovered the traces of the evil god, Evan had a lot of work to do in the Holy Land.

Realizing that it would be hard to go on holiday for the time being, Evan signaled to the horse he was riding.