"The only salvation..." The priest heard those words through his haze and lifted his head as if with a final burst of strength.
"Yes, salvation!" Cheek affirmed.
After becoming a Beyonder, she had faced several crises of losing control, but each time she had come through safely thanks to this piece of cake and another item, the Dark Robe.
The feeling of having been to heaven and seen Dream, only to fall back to earth, was so powerful that it had left a profound impression on Cheek.
It was countless times more powerful than praying to any God—even more powerful than praying to the Angel of Dreams!
It was the power of true salvation, not the cold words recorded in the liturgy.
Those experiences of losing control had convinced her that the Angel who could give her these two things must be the salvation of this mad world!
The priest tilted his head back and struggled to open his eyes wide. Through the haze, she glimpsed the sick, possessive look on Cheek's face.
"You... You're committing blasphemy!" The priest's eyes flew wide.
"God saves mankind, so why can't He save me?!" Cheek's expression turned strange, then eased.
"We have faith in the Lord not to receive His favor. What we seek is peace within ourselves!" the priest shouted with his last strength.
"I can't find peace. I need Dream's salvation."
Cheek's expression grew pious, yet all the more perverse.
She carefully put away the cake in her hand, then looked indifferently at the priest and let his body bleed dry.
After quite some time, a fist-sized Beyonder characteristic appeared beside the priest's corpse.
"This was always a world where people devoured one another."
Cheek was only a Sequence 8, but she had a deep understanding of the nature of this