Cecilia's Madness

After making all the necessary preparations, Ansu decisively activated [Simulation].

Darkness gradually engulfed his vision, and the countdown in ornate lettering appeared before him once more...

[Future: 10 hours later]

[Light Calendar, April 18, 625, 04:05]

[Simulation starting...]

He opened his eyes again.

The surroundings had changed dramatically. Ansu found himself in an unfamiliar, dilapidated wooden shack. The air was cold and damp, and he could hear the sound of waves crashing nearby.

He looked out the window. The sun hadn't risen yet, and a thick fog hung over the coast, blurring everything from view.

How did I end up by the sea?

Benalu City was a port city. He was probably in the outskirts, far from the commercial harbor. The air was thick with the smell of fish. Maybe he was near a fishing village or a dock...

Ansu carefully observed his surroundings. Along with the fishy smell, he could also detect...

A faint scent of blood.

He hurried to the window and noticed signs of a battle around the shack. A little farther away, several bodies dressed in white robes lay on the ground...

This...

There was no need to think too hard. As expected, something had gone wrong again...

Wait! Ansu suddenly remembered something and quickly pulled the notebook from his pocket.

He flipped to the page where he'd been taking notes. When he saw the lines of unfamiliar writing, his expression froze.

What the hell is this? I wrote this?

Besides the few lines of Chinese he'd written at the beginning, the rest of the page was covered in strange, twisted blocky symbols, like gibberish generated by an AI...

It looked just like the language of the Old Gods. He couldn't understand a single word!

Damn! Had his attempt to exploit a system loophole failed?

But that didn't make sense. The system had said this was the most advanced simulation engine, capable of perfectly simulating the future. His past actions should have affected what happened in the future...

For example, if he was drinking milk before starting the simulation, then after it began, that milk should either be in his stomach or have been spat out. It should still exist in some form...

But as he pondered this, something incredible happened.

As Ansu kept rereading the lines of blocky writing, the strange "Old God script" gradually began to look clearer to him. The simulation system was slowly correcting the "changes" he should have caused.

Vague memories of the events described in each entry came back to him, one after another.

That's right...

These were still his memories. It seemed the system could be trusted after all.

Ansu breathed a sigh of relief. Taking advantage of the calm, he read the twisted writing as it became easier to understand and quickly pieced together his recollections.

"About an hour later, I followed Freya to the Holy Dome Cathedral. To avoid drawing attention, I wore a plain clerical robe and disguised myself as a member of the clergy."

"The three candidates for pope Freya mentioned—Paul, Leonard, and Bishop Terry—were all there. Freya held a secret meeting with them."

"I couldn't find out what they discussed, but they must have had a heated argument. Bishop Terry stormed out."

Ansu could vaguely picture the three bishops arguing. The turn of events had caught him off guard. Freya had been so sure everything would go smoothly, but the three men couldn't even agree with one another.

"Bishop Paul, a good man, and the hot-tempered Bishop Terry seem to have a serious disagreement. Like Freya, Paul believes I'm the Chosen One. He told me the Church would stand firmly behind me. Bishop Terry thinks I'm an impostor, a blasphemer and user of witchcraft, and that I should be locked up and sent to the Inquisition immediately."

"Only after the other bishop, Leonard, stepped in to mediate did the two finally stop arguing."

"Little Freya seemed surprised things had gone this way and felt very apologetic toward me. She said that no matter what happened, she would stand by my side."

At this point in his recollections, Ansu didn't know what to say about Freya. The little Saintess had made everything sound far too simple.

Wherever there were people, there was politics. When a "Chosen One" appeared—someone who stood above the entire Church, second only to a god—who would the faithful obey: the pope, the bishops, or the Chosen One? There was a lot more to this than met the eye.

The original page was full, so Ansu turned to the next one.

"Mr. Paul quietly told me that he and Bishop Terry had irreconcilable differences in their beliefs. He told me not to worry and promised he would do everything in his power to protect the Chosen One."

"Bishop Terry was much more hostile toward me. I'd already warned them that a cult was planning to carry out an evil sacrificial ritual at the academy, but he still didn't believe me. He thought I was an impostor spreading rumors."

"He believed that after the last purge, the surviving heretic rats were under control and could never pull off something like that at the academy. He was utterly convinced."

Ansu's expression gradually turned suspicious.

Something about this was strange. From where he stood, cultists seemed to be everywhere, yet Terry, a high-ranking member of the Church, was turning a blind eye and pretending otherwise. Did he really not know, or was he pretending?

"Freya seemed puzzled by the way I kept taking notes in my notebook. I couldn't make it too obvious, so after that I could only write things down briefly."

"Bishop Paul didn't really believe the cultists could pull off anything that big, either. I told him and Freya about Cecilia, and at last Bishop Paul believed me. Freya told me not to worry. With the Church's help, even the Ash Witch wouldn't be able to hurt me."

The notes that followed were extremely disjointed and brief, clearly written in a hurry.

"I stayed at the Cathedral until dawn."

"Before I left, Bishop Terry came to speak with me alone. Freya was very nervous."

"Bishop Terry actually guessed that I was trapped in the Echo of Truth Cult? He wanted to learn about that infamous cult and told me to share everything I knew with him."

"He used this to threaten me, and promised he wouldn't bother me again after this."

"I casually told him a few unimportant things. Bishop Terry didn't seem satisfied, but he had no choice but to let me leave."

Thinking back on it, Ansu felt there was something very wrong with Bishop Terry...

As he pondered, he turned to the next page.

To his surprise, the detailed notes abruptly ended. On the next page, there was only one sentence, written in a hurried scrawl...

"Holy shit! Cecilia's attacking!"

"..."

Ansu silently closed the notebook and put it back in the system inventory.

With that Witch beside him, there was no way he could keep taking notes. At the same time, he finally understood what had happened to the bodies outside...

Ansu left the dilapidated shack. The fog had lifted somewhat, and now that he could see farther, he spotted an abandoned fishing port in the distance.

He started walking toward it. More and more bodies lay scattered around him.

Most of the clergy members' bodies were mutilated. Even an entire clump of trees had been stained scarlet...

How many people had she killed...

Suddenly, Ansu felt a magic aura of almost violent intensity drawing near.

"An! Su!"

Cecilia's low, utterly cold voice came from behind him.

Ansu spun around.

Cecilia had clearly been through a difficult battle. She was covered in blood, her body riddled with wounds of all sizes. One on her shoulder was so deep that bone showed.

Black, corrupt magic kept spreading from her. Her demonic features were unmistakable, and her terrifying blood-red eyes were fixed on him.

"I thought the Church had caught you."

"Heh..."

Ansu had never seen Cecilia wear an expression like this. Her whole body trembled, as if she were suppressing an overwhelming rage.

The black aura of corruption grew heavier by the second. Black cracks gradually appeared across her skin, making her look like a white porcelain vase on the verge of shattering.

It was a sign of Magic Power backlash.

Even Ansu, with the physique of a Chosen One, was being severely affected.

The aura of corrupt magic left him frozen. His mind shuddered with fear, and he even began to see Cecilia as some indescribable monstrosity...

"You betrayed me! You betrayed me!"

Cecilia's face twisted as she angrily demanded, "You promised... You promised you'd never betray me! But you still did it! Why? Why did you side with the Church?"

"I..." Ansu couldn't face Cecilia in such a fury. He didn't even know how to explain himself.

"Is it because of her? Is it because of her?" Cecilia suddenly lifted a dark object from behind her and threw it at Ansu's feet.

A pungent smell of blood filled the air. When Ansu saw the round object rolling toward his feet, his pupils constricted.

It was a human head.

Saintess Freya's head.

Her bloodshot eyes were fixed on him, filled with despair and resentment.

Even the most rational person couldn't stay calm after seeing a beautiful girl they'd just been chatting and laughing with reduced to this—a bloodied head, casually tossed onto the ground.

Ansu covered his mouth, suddenly feeling like he was going to retch.

The nauseating sight made his stomach turn, and Cecilia's madness filled him with instinctive fear and revulsion.

When Cecilia saw Ansu's legs give way and his whole body tremble uncontrollably, she finally smiled.

She began to laugh, her smile twisted.