Inside the church, candle flames flickered unsteadily.
The believers huddled together around the central altar, murmuring prayers in a desperate attempt to use their faith to hold back the encroaching darkness.
"Has the darkness really come? Do you think the Divine Emissary and the Bishop are okay?"
"The Bishop has led us in resisting the darkness for so many years. How could anything happen to her?"
"Yeah, exactly. And now we have the Divine Emissary too. They'll definitely destroy the witch."
"..."
Just as the crowd was whispering among themselves—
"Creak—"
The repaired main doors scraped open slowly.
The believers whipped their heads around in panic.
A man in a dark-red trench coat stepped inside. Underneath, he wore a black suit vest with the collar slightly open.
"It's the Divine Emissary!"
"The Emissary has returned!"
The believers let out a collective sigh of relief, faces lighting up with joy.
In this monster-filled darkness, the fact that the Emissary came back completely unharmed proved just how powerful he was.
Then they looked behind him and confusion spread across their faces.
"Um, Divine Emissary… where is the Bishop?"
"Yeah, where did the Bishop go? Didn't she go to guide you?"
Soren stood at the entrance, scanning the gathered believers with satisfaction.
Good. Everyone's here. Saves me the trouble of hunting down stragglers later.
He walked to the center of the altar. Hearing their questions, he put on a sorrowful expression and spoke in a low, grave tone:
"I have some unfortunate news to share with everyone."
"The Bishop, in order to save all of you and to calm the witch's rage, made the heroic decision to perish together with the witch."
Soren drew an awkward cross over his chest and sighed. "She died for you all."
"What?!"
"The Bishop… is dead?"
The believers looked like they'd been struck by lightning. Some began sobbing, others muttered eulogies, but most just stood there in disbelief.
Underneath the wave of grief, a quiet thread of excitement began to spread.
Since the Bishop had sacrificed herself with the witch… didn't that mean…
"And I am here to fulfill the promise I made," Soren continued at the perfect moment, confirming their suspicions. "I will take you all away from this cursed place."
The grief vanished instantly, replaced by pure joy.
Anyone could be Bishop. But everyone only had one life!
"Thank you, Divine Emissary!"
"Praise the Lord! We're finally saved!"
At that moment, an older believer with some status stepped forward. He pointed at the still pitch-black sky outside the windows and voiced his doubt:
"Divine Emissary, if the witch is truly dead, why hasn't the darkness disappeared? And how exactly will you lead us out of here?"
Soren gave the man an approving glance.
Good question. How am I supposed to keep bullshitting if you don't ask?
He cleared his throat, spread his arms wide as if embracing the entire church, and declared loudly:
"Because this won't be an ordinary departure!"
"God has seen how this church has resisted the darkness for so many years and has given me a sacred mission."
"Today, I shall lead this entire church in ascending to the Divine Kingdom! You will all be freed forever from the troubles, diseases, and sufferings of the mortal world!"
"Ascend… to the Divine Kingdom?"
Fanatical ecstasy exploded across the believers' faces. This was way more tempting than simply escaping!
Before Soren could continue, a surge of pitch-black power erupted from within him.
Instead of bringing light, this force radiated a suffocating chill and venomous malice.
The darkness coalesced in front of him, forming a smaller human silhouette—
A blue dress. A pale face. Empty black eyes.
The smiles on the believers' faces froze solid. Their pupils contracted violently.
Wasn't that the witch they had burned at the stake decades ago?!
"No… didn't you say the witch was already dead?!"
"Divine Emissary? What is the meaning of this?!"
"Traitor! You're the devil's accomplice!"
Dark Alessa glanced back at Soren behind her, a puzzled look on her face.
Even with her immense power, her childlike mind had trouble understanding this man's twisted sense of humor.
Still… she really liked this method.
"Feel the pain," Alessa whispered.
Decades of accumulated hatred exploded in an instant. The ground in the center of the church shattered with a boom, revealing the hell below.
BOOM—
Scorching hellfire erupted from the depths.
Countless rusty iron wires shot up from the sea of flames like venomous snakes dancing wildly in the air.
Lifted by these barbed wires, a rusty hospital bed slowly rose into the air above the church.
"Run! Run for your lives!!"
"The door! Open the door! Damn it!"
The believers screamed, shoving and trampling each other as they surged toward the main doors.
Schlick—
A single iron wire instantly pierced through several believers' chests, hoisting their bodies into the air.
Then the second, the third…
Blood rained down.
The people closest to the door finally yanked it open—only to be greeted by pure darkness.
And a massive rusty blade.
One believer was sliced clean in half, blood spraying everywhere.
"AAAAAHHH!!!"
Screams, the sound of blades cutting flesh, and the roar of flames blended together into a hellish symphony.
In the middle of this blood rain, Dark Alessa smiled like an innocent sprite, dancing gracefully.
She moved like a conductor, spinning and waving her arms. Every gesture brought new death.
Meanwhile, Soren had already retreated to a high platform in the corner. He stood with his arms crossed, watching the whole thing like it was some unrelated opera performance.
At his feet lay an old woman with disheveled hair.
"Alessa… what have you done?"
The old woman lifted her head, looking at her daughter lying on the burning bed high above, then painfully lowered it again.
"Why… why won't she take my life?"
Soren curled his lip.
This was Alessa's birth mother, Dahlia.
A woman both hateful and pitiable.
As a member of the church, she had broken the rules by giving birth to Alessa out of wedlock. She claimed to love her daughter but refused to reveal the father's identity, forcing Alessa to bear the stigma of being a bastard and suffer endless abuse.
The church hated her impurity. Alessa resented her weakness and cowardice.
For someone like her, staying alive was the greatest punishment.
Soren couldn't be bothered to deal with her. His eyes stayed on the iron-wire flowers blooming in the distance as he thought:
Flowers that bloom for revenge… pretty artistic. Of course, it'd look better without all the corpses hanging on them.
...
Some time later, the Otherworld had vanished.
The church looked like it had been freshly repainted with red paint.
Walls, floor, even the paintings on the altar were covered in blood. The air was thick with a nauseating metallic stench.
Dismembered body parts littered the ground.
Dahlia, unable to endure watching the believers being slaughtered by her own daughter, completely broke down. She staggered out of the church and disappeared into the fog.
Soren jumped down from the platform, stepping through the dark pools of blood, and looked at Alessa. "How about it? Feeling better now?"
Alessa's blue dress was spotless, not a single drop of blood on it.
The terrifying burn scars on her face had also faded as her resentment dissipated, revealing smooth, pale skin once more.
At least on the surface, this massacre looked more like something Soren had done. The black-haired girl appeared like an innocent angel.
She looked around at the carnage and gave a small nod.
"Alright then. Time to keep your end of the bargain. Send me to that man's version of Silent Hill."
Alessa stood motionless. She simply stared at him in silence.
Soren raised an eyebrow. "You're not thinking of backing out, are you? It's not a good look for a kid to break a promise."