I’m a Holy Knight, but I Contracted with an Evil God - Chapter 25

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 25.
No—it was not a wound.
It was a Mark, meticulously etched by some sharp instrument.
‘This is the exact same pattern I saw in Elderit.’
There was no mistaking it.
The grotesque half-corpse Leon had discovered in the Abandoned Sanctuary of Elderit.
The Mark inscribed on Ilbar bore the identical design to the one carved into that half-corpse.
“What’s the matter?”
Sirent pushed past Leon, who had gone rigid, and examined Ilbar’s body.
Soon Sirent, too, seemed to have discovered what Leon had found, and he froze in place.
Yet what Sirent had grasped carried a slightly different meaning than what Leon had understood.
“This is the Mark of a Live Sacrifice…….”
“You know what it is?”
It was unexpected.
Sirent knew the identity of a Mark that Leon himself had failed to uncover even after a year of investigation?
“It’s a custom of a minority tribe found in the Eastern Nibia region. Since I’m from around there, I recognize it.”
“The Eastern region—is that not the area where the Church of the Three Divine Beings has the least influence across the continent?”
“Right. That’s why all manner of folk beliefs run rampant there.”
A Mark used in the folk beliefs of the Eastern region?
Only then did Leon understand why, despite a year of effort, he had found nothing about this.
There was no way the Church’s archive would house materials on folk beliefs that were practically heresy!
“How much do you know about it?”
“I don’t know exactly. Just things I overheard the adults whispering about when I was a child.”
Sirent’s face bore an unmistakable expression of distaste as he spoke.
Like someone recalling something deeply unwelcome.
“All I know is that in the Nibian region, the custom of Live Sacrifice is fairly common…… This Mark is a brand marking such a sacrifice.”
“A Live Sacrifice…….”
At Sirent’s answer, Leon’s eyes darkened.
Live Sacrifice was the method most frequently seen among heretics who venerated an Evil God.
If this Mark found on the half-corpse of Elderit and the two bodies before him marked them as Live Sacrifices, did that mean the forces behind both incidents were worshippers of an Evil God?
‘No. The scale is far too large for that.’
Heresy was grounds for summary execution.
So Evil God worshippers, whether from fear of that consequence or otherwise, typically conducted their affairs with death-like secrecy, or at most caused disruptions no greater than street thuggery.
Could such people have penetrated the Church of the Three Divine Beings’ surveillance network and carried out experiments of this nature?
Moreover, the Church of Light hadn’t even touched the classified materials in Archive Section Two.
Nothing added up.
‘This is not the work of simple Evil God worshippers. These are far larger and more organized players.’
And then there was the half-corpse that had been in the Abandoned Sanctuary.
They had even expended Sacred Energy to make proper use of that sacrifice.
It lay well beyond the scope of what simple worshippers could accomplish.
It was at that moment Leon’s thoughts reached this far.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
The thunder of hoofbeats shook the very earth beneath him.
When he turned, he could see dozens of torches cutting through the darkness in the distance, bearing down upon them.
The main force had arrived.
“I distinctly told you to avoid combat.”
The moment Aila spotted Leon upon reaching the scene, those were her opening words.
Her tone was sharp, yet Leon did not avert his gaze from her.
“I was told that Count Ilseran’s personal soldiers heard screams around noon yesterday. Given such urgency, I judged that time was of the essence.”
“Around noon—isn’t that nearly a day after the disappearance? After such time has passed, it would have been the wiser judgment to abandon hope.”
“I was taught that if even a thread of hope remains, one must not abandon it.”
Leon did not yield an inch.
He felt no sense of wrongdoing.
It was true, as Aila said, that Leon had already arrived too late.
But had Leon heeded her words and avoided combat, waiting for the main force to arrive?
The Contaminated Being clutched only the two bodies to itself, paying no attention to the other corpses.
It would likely have consumed every last drop of blood from those two.
Had Leon waited for the main force, the two bodies would not have remained intact.
They might have been left as nothing but fragments, like the others.
“At least we were able to recover the remains intact.”
At Leon’s firm answer, Aila’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Yet no further reproach followed.
After all, thanks to Leon’s judgment, they had managed to bring their comrade’s body into the Church’s care rather than into the belly of a Contaminated Being.
“……You’ve done well.”
Aila spoke tersely, her gaze shifting past Leon’s shoulder.
Behind him lay scattered remains of the Contaminated Being, its form beginning to collapse.
“You defeated it? I find that hard to believe. A creature that even Sepian fell to—you?”
The sharp interrogation resumed.
There was admiration mixed in, certainly, but not simple praise.
The fact that a mere candidate had single-handedly vanquished a Contaminated Being powerful enough to annihilate an elite advance guard—it bordered on the objectively impossible.
Yet Leon showed no confusion, offering an answer he had prepared in advance.
“I was fortunate. The creature was already grievously wounded by Sepian—that’s all.”
Leon pointed to the hole torn through the creature’s lower abdomen.
Typically, that was where a Contaminated Being’s core resided.
“Its heart was torn out. Because Sepian staked his life to destroy its core, my finishing blow could land true.”
It was not a lie.
Without Sepian’s desperate struggle, Leon too would have wasted time targeting the core first.
Of course, had Leon not been present, they would never have found the true vital point—the Conduit—and even after the core shattered, faced with a creature still moving, Sepian would have panicked and been overwhelmed.
Which was precisely Sepian’s fate, was it not.
But this truth was his alone to keep.
He could not answer honestly to the question “How did you know?”
“Yes. It was only possible because Sepian gave his all until the very end.”
Aila stared at Leon for a moment, then nodded slowly.
She turned to direct the cleanup effort.
The main force Aila had brought, accounting for the threat of an elite knight’s disappearance, numbered few but moved with practiced efficiency.
Though their purpose had changed from the original mission, they now worked to recover the Contaminated Being’s remains and the two bodies, and despite Aila’s lack of detailed orders, they processed everything swiftly and methodically.
Dozens of soldiers moved in perfect coordination, clearing away the debris, and the surroundings were quickly put in order.
And when the clearing revealed the bare ground beneath the creature’s massive bulk, every face except Leon’s drained of color.
“What in the world…….”
What lay there was no mere mark of battle, but clear and deliberate malice.
A vast crimson sigil etched upon the exposed earth.
Drawn in blood, it matched precisely the Brand that had been carved into Ilbar’s and Sepian’s chests.
Recognizing this, Leon’s eyes narrowed once more.
‘It’s the same method as the Abandoned Sanctuary, isn’t it?’
【That time? Similar, yes. The form of the sigil used, and all.】
‘Right. The corpse at the Abandoned Sanctuary was a key to break the seal on the Contaminated Source, but this time—what was it used for?’
【It appears to have been used to strengthen the predator. What you faced was a far more powerful and unusual mutation than its original form.】
Living sacrifice and flowing blood. And that grotesque existence sustained only by Sacred Energy clinging desperately to life.
If the corpses at the Abandoned Sanctuary had been sacrifices to unseal the Contaminated Source, then the two who fell here were a kind of catalyst to birth this mutation.
The method was identical.
Binding those who should be dead so they cannot fully die, draining their life force and Sacred Energy to use.
The meaning was unmistakable.
A great altar deliberately constructed to artificially create a Contaminated Being far exceeding the normal, powerful enough to annihilate an elite knight’s squad.
Aila had evidently reached the same conclusion.
“Messenger! Contact headquarters at once!”
Her urgent shout carried fury.
Her eyes blazed red with murderous intent toward those who had wrought this atrocity.
“Call a Holy Magic Scholar, an investigator, and a priest capable of magical decryption—prioritize them!”
Aila had clearly arrived at the same realization as Leon.
That the Contaminated Being before them was no ordinary creature, but an artificial creation.
And that this incident was far more than a simple disappearance.
Yet Leon harbored no intention of laying bare everything to Aila.
No matter how genuine her anger was, she was not someone with whom he could share what he knew.
It was a painful conclusion reached after a year of searching through every accessible record, including the archive.
An enemy within always wears the most trusted face.
For now, he could trust no one.
‘I need certainty.’
Leon turned toward the Contaminated Being’s remains, using the chaos as cover.
Where the creature’s head had burst apart, half-buried in mud and gleaming faintly—a Crimson Red Crystal.
It was what had made this thing a mutation instead of an ordinary predator.
Leon bent naturally, as if lending a hand to those around him.
In that fleeting instant when his fingers brushed past, the fragment vanished cleanly into his sleeve.
【So you mean to keep it for yourself?】
‘If I hand it over to the Church, it becomes worthless the moment that rat gets its paws on it.’
Over the past year, rifling through the archives had revealed to him how much material had been deliberately concealed.
It was clear this incident would unfold in precisely the same way.
【Even with the Commander watching? So you can’t trust the Commander either?】
At Ecrije’s words, Leon turned his gaze toward Aila.
She was making swift, precise judgments—orchestrating everything with flawless efficiency.
By no measure did she look like a ‘rat.’
And yet.
‘If the rat were the type to show its hand, it could never have hidden this long in the first place.’
The rat Leon sought would be cunning, secretive.
Whether it was clever, he couldn’t say.
‘Whether or not Aila is the rat, if it’s someone other than the Commander—someone capable at least of clouding the Commander’s judgment—then this makes sense.’
Anything else defied logic.
One year since Leon’s return.
The events surrounding the deaths of Ilbar and Sepian—before Leon’s return—had likely remained buried all along.
That would explain why Leon remembered this incident as nothing more than the ‘disappearance of the sole heir to Count Ilseran.’
Leon straightened, and his eyes followed Ilbar’s corpse as it was borne away on a stretcher into the distance.
The death of his classmate—a perfect model of what a righteous Holy Knight should be.
And the dogs who had conducted experiments using that death.
This time, he would not let it unfold as they wished.
Continued in the next episode ▶
A Holy Knight who made a contract with an Evil God
Author
Lam Dat
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publications
Contact
[email protected]
Publication Date
March 27, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260227066
※ This e-book is protected by copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and distribution are prohibited. Violations may result in criminal and civil liability.
※ Pentagram awaits your precious manuscript.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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