The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 172

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 172

 

The Widow’s lips twisted. She shook her head as if she found it absurd.

 

“What kind of children’s game are you playing? Faith is not a joke. What would the Magic Tower do by taking a god away? Run experiments? Or perform primitive rituals like that Sorceress?”

 

Her voice dropped low and cold. It contained clear contempt.

 

“Do you think the Imperial Citizens will accept that? They’ll treat him as a ‘Monster’ instead of a ‘Savior.’ Why don’t you understand that your clumsy emotions will only ruin the god?”

 

The Widow paused for a moment and looked them over. What began as logical scolding soon turned into an anxious plea, as if frustrated.

 

“You’re not at an age where this Teacher, this Mother needs to step forward and explain everything one by one, are you? Hmm?”

 

Even with her persuasion, Celestia remained unshaken. She gripped her blood-stained staff tighter.

 

“We’re not trying to worship him as a god.”

 

“What?”

 

“We’re taking him as… ‘Family.'”

 

Celestia’s eyes gazed at the Widow without wavering.

 

“I don’t know about the system or management you’re talking about. But if he’s with family, his memories could return too.”

 

“Ha, now you’re even playing the emotion card… What good would it do if his human memories returned in this situation? You don’t understand the current situation at all, do you?”

 

For the first time, she raised her voice and shouted at them. Her eyes glittered behind the veil.

 

“Lumensia could attack in just one week! We need to make this half-god, this incomplete being able to use his power properly. But you want to throw away that opportunity just to restore some useless human memories?”

 

“Why do you keep dismissing human memories as useless? He could become even stronger precisely because he knows his human memories.”

 

“A god must be fair. Equally merciful and equally cruel to everyone. Have you seen a god with humanity? For a god, that’s like swimming with weights attached.”

 

“Without those weights, he would have become the same Monster as Lumensia long ago.”

 

The Widow’s eyebrows twitched at Celestia’s immediate response.

 

“What?”

 

Even though there was an expression behind the veil, everyone could tell she was displeased.

 

“A god who won’t cry for us or get angry for us… How would that be different from Lumensia? We didn’t come this far to create another tyrant.”

 

The Widow stared blankly at each of their faces.

 

The grimy Inquisitor screaming in defiance, and the Sorceress silently preparing curses despite having fainted once. The Mage who could barely stand on her own legs with her magic completely drained.

 

She felt an impenetrable wall of solid blind faith that logic could never break through.

 

“And though you might not know… the Ascetic has always wanted a family. What’s wrong with fulfilling that now?”

 

She let out a short breath as if deflated.

 

“What’s wrong with it? Are you seriously asking that?”

 

She decided that words wouldn’t work.

 

“…Right. I was asking too much. Stupid children only learn when they experience it with their bodies.”

 

Srrring.

 

From her ten fingertips, claws sprouted long like black blades.

 

“Now, children. Prepare for battle.”

 

Between the sharp blade-like claws, green light glittered from behind the pitch-black veil.

 

“It’s discipline time.”

 

Celestia instinctively readjusted her grip on her staff.

 

Even her killing intent was at a minimal level. No aura, no significant magic power – just an ordinary civilian.

 

No, maybe just a tiny bit more magic power than a civilian?

 

Her opponent was just a strategist-type woman who used her brain.

 

Just close-range attacks with hand blades, a claw-like fighting method.

 

No matter how depleted and exhausted I am, as a Mage, if I keep my distance I should be able to subdue her easily.

 

That’s what she judged.

 

It was a misjudgment that nearly became the last of her life.

 

Swish.

 

The Widow lightly waved her hand through the air. Without any killing intent or preparatory movement, it was an extremely leisurely and elegant gesture, as if shooing away an annoying fly.

 

“…Huh?”

 

Pshhhhhh—!

 

Red blood spurted like a fountain from below her collarbone.

 

“Celestia!”

 

If Yelena hadn’t screamed and instantly pushed her away, her head would have been severed.

 

It was a deep and terrible wound where solid bone was cut through and lung was exposed.

 

Celestia rolled on the ground. The navy blue Magic Tower Mage uniform she wore gradually darkened as it soaked with blood.

 

“Kuh, huk… Cough…”

 

Clots of blood poured from Celestia’s mouth. She couldn’t even scream.

 

Her vocal cords, trachea, and the blood vessels maintaining life were on the verge of being severed by a single gesture.

 

Thud.

 

The staff she had been holding lost its owner and rolled helplessly on the ground. That dry sound felt like it was striking Yelena’s heart.

 

“Damn it!”

 

Yelena bit her lip until it bled. She wanted to run over immediately, embrace the fallen Celestia, and stop the bleeding. But she was an Inquisitor who had survived countless battlefields.

 

‘Even if I hold her and cry now, we’ll all die anyway.’

 

There was nothing she, who couldn’t handle Divine Power, could do for Celestia with her throat half-severed. The moment she hesitated and wasted time, that monster-like Mother would slaughter even the remaining Kalebrin.

 

Then what I need to do now is clear. Transform grief into boiling killing intent. Instead of useless sentimentality, strike that woman’s neck with the weapon in my hands!

 

“Uaaahhh!”

 

Yelena, her eyes rolled back, roared like a beast and raised her halberd.

 

Killing intent filled the descending halberd blade. A fierce strike that could split rock aimed precisely at the Widow’s crown. An inescapable distance. An unblockable speed.

 

However.

 

Swoooosh…

 

Even though the halberd blade passed through and split the Widow’s head, there was no impact. Only an empty sensation, as if cutting through air, reached her fingertips.

 

“Huh…?”

 

What had been the Widow scattered into black mist, then flowed down Yelena’s halberd like a serpent and moved behind the dazed Ascetic.

 

“You shouldn’t give a Mage time to cast spells, and you shouldn’t give a warrior distance. Isn’t that basic among basics?”

 

A cold voice from behind. Instead of answering, Yelena swung her halberd. But the sharp spear blade only cut through black smoke, unable to catch anything substantial.

 

When did Mother learn to use such techniques? Since when?

 

Taking advantage of that confused moment, Kalebrin stubbornly continued chanting her curse.

 

“Let flesh rot and decay…”

 

The Widow’s form materialized again from within the mist. Her gaze was aimed precisely at Kalebrin.

 

The materialized claws dug toward the Sorceress’s carotid artery. An indefensible distance. It was an instant before the spell could be completed.

 

“Kuk.”

 

Yelena quickly blocked the attack aimed at Kalebrin with the broad face of her halberd.

 

Clang!

 

With the sound of metal clashing against metal, a large scratch was carved into the halberd’s surface.

 

Yelena shouted to the fallen Celestia to regain consciousness.

 

“Celestia! Are you okay?! Celestia!”

 

She frantically swung her halberd to deflect attacks aimed at Kalebrin, buying time for the curse to be cast.

 

A weakening curse completed from Kalebrin’s mouth and rushed toward the Widow.

 

Dark red waves enveloped the Widow’s body, but she only shrugged her shoulders once and seemed completely unaffected.

 

‘She’s immune to curses too…!’

 

“You even have time to talk to a corpse.”

 

Thwack!

 

“Kheuk!”

 

A kick materialized from the mist struck Yelena’s solar plexus. Her breath caught and her body was pushed back ungracefully. In that brief gap. With the obstacle gone, the Widow’s target became clear.

 

The red Sorceress chanting curses.

 

“To make someone shut up, pulling out their tongue is fastest.”

 

The Widow’s fingertips sharpened like awls and rushed toward Kalebrin’s mouth.

 

Yelena had been pushed far away, and Celestia was dying in a pool of blood. There was no one to block it.

 

At this rate, Kalebrin would die too.

 

She would have to helplessly watch family die before her eyes once again.

 

“No, no… No!”

 

Yelena let out a tearing scream as she pounded the floor. It was a shriek close to a beast’s howl, her reason paralyzed.

 

However, the widow didn’t even look at her. She simply held her fingernails against Kalebrin’s lips, mocking Yelena with the shadow behind her back.

 

“If you’re thinking of begging this mother again, you’d better wake up from that dream, daughter.”

 

That quiet voice wrapped around Yelena’s ankles. It was different from the overwhelming fear of ‘power’ she had felt when facing Lumensia.

 

This was a learned fear, carved deep into her bones. The helplessness of that day when she trembled locked in the closet as a child, breath choking and limbs growing cold.

 

‘I thought I had already overcome it.’

 

She had believed she escaped that terrible shadow by betraying her mother and pointing her halberd at her. But it wasn’t true. She was still just a small bird playing in the palm of the widow’s hand.

 

But.

 

“Uaaaah!”

 

Yelena gritted her teeth and swallowed her fear. What was more terrifying than trauma was the people behind her dying. She loaded all the remaining aura in her halberd and struck down toward her mother’s back.

 

Bang!

 

But this time too, it didn’t reach. Without even turning around, the widow blocked Yelena’s full power with just the rising black shadow.

 

“I really suffered having such a stupid daughter.”

 

With the widow’s sighing mockery, the shadow transformed like a whip and lashed at Yelena.

 

Thwack!

 

“Aaah!”

 

With the sound of ribs cracking, Yelena’s body rolled pathetically. The metallic taste of blood burst in her mouth. Every breath brought waves of pain as if broken bone fragments were piercing her lungs.

 

“Cough, hack…”

 

From her vision pressed against the floor, she could see the widow’s shoe heels clicking as they walked. Without even glancing at her fallen daughter, she was approaching only Kalebrin.

 

“Stupid thing.”

 

That single word from her mother pierced her heart deeper than the broken ribs. Words she had heard all her life. Words she had wanted to deny all her life.

 

‘…Yes, I am stupid.’

 

Yelena spat blood-mixed saliva onto the floor. Neither her halberd nor her full-power aura had reached. The learned fear still held her ankles, and her body was in ruins.

 

Rationally judging, it would be right to give up and stay prostrate to preserve at least her life.

 

But.

 

Thud.

 

Yelena gritted her teeth until her gums bled. That woman was trying to harm her family. She had killed Celestia, and now she was trying to kill Kalebrin too.

 

‘And you want me to give up here?’

 

Trauma? Fear? Such things didn’t matter anymore. What dominated her mind now was only boiling hatred and stubbornness.

 

‘Even if I die, I can’t just die like this.’

 

Yelena let go of her halberd. A weapon that no longer worked was just baggage. She crawled on all fours across the floor, crouching like a beast.

 

“Now to finish… hm?”

 

Just as the widow was about to kill Kalebrin, she slightly turned her head at the killing intent she felt from the floor.

 

“Still crawling around? Really persistent too. The judgment that I couldn’t kill you because you’re my daughter was a misjudgment.”

 

The widow flicked her finger as if annoyed. Her shadow once again became sharp thorns trying to pierce through Yelena’s shoulder.

 

Stab!

 

“Grgh!”

 

Her shoulder was pierced. But Yelena didn’t stop. Rather, using the pain as propulsion, she pushed the embedded shadow deeper into her bone and lunged forward.

 

“Uaaaaaaaah!”

 

Mist cannot stab a person.

 

She had been watching, but when attacking, it couldn’t evade like gas. In other words, to stab her, that shadow had to become hard like steel.

 

While stabbing now, even mother couldn’t escape.

 

Crack, squelch.

 

The shadow thorn embedded in her shoulder broke her collarbone and pierced so deep it came out her back. She skewered herself like a kebab and closed the distance with the widow.

 

“Mother taught me, didn’t she?”

 

Yelena swung her halberd with her good arm.

 

“Don’t allow distance!”

 

The halberd headed for the widow’s head.

 

An inescapable distance. The widow hastily twisted her body, but couldn’t avoid the halberd’s trajectory.

 

Slash!

 

With an eerie sound, the sharp metal dug into soft flesh.

 

As the axe blade split the collarbone in half and embedded deep into the lungs, black blood splattered across Yelena’s face.

 

*

 

While the widow and Yelena were having their mother-daughter fight.

 

Celestia held onto her fading consciousness and prayed with her last breath through trembling lips.

 

“Cough, hack… A-Ascetic… sir. Grant mercy…”

 

In Celestia’s eyes, the back of the god she believed in still reflected. Even at the moment death approached, her faithful belief remained unwavering.

 

“Fear too… sadness too… let them not harm us… grant peaceful rest…”

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