"Did I... did I really die?"
"Waaahhh—"
Right before Linsey, the believer who had still been fighting a second ago began clutching his head and sobbing.
The pitch-black darkness, along with the powerful source essence crashing toward him, compounded the psychological pressure.
It pushed this mere fourth-rank believer's mind close to collapse.
As for the air of fearless resolve he had shown just moments ago, when he had been ready to perish alongside his enemy, it vanished without a trace when death truly stood before him.
"..."
Linsey could neither laugh nor cry at the sight.
He had originally intended to use some attacks from the emotion series to put pressure on the man, but now it seemed they would be unnecessary.
"Still, this is a good thing."
"If he were truly unafraid of death, interrogating him would have been troublesome."
Linsey grumbled inwardly.
Then he pinned the believer against the cave wall, applying particular pressure to his left chest as though he intended to nail the man's heart directly into the stone.
"Now, confess your sins."
"..."
"I... I have no sins!"
Linsey's question stirred the believer's emotions.
He shouted, then began explaining himself in grief and indignation:
"How... how could I possibly be guilty? My daughter, my wife—they, they all died outside the city. Only I survived by sheer luck and made it inside. But now I can only live like this—not quite human, not quite ghost—taking relief rations and living like a corpse."
"None of this was my fault. I didn't kill them."
"It was this world!"
"The City of Law! The Righteous Walkers! It was because those people could never decide on a king to rule the world that the war continued, that my family and my life were all destroyed!"
"Was I wrong?"
"I'm only