The Regressed Sword Demon Is a Catastrophe-Class Inquisitor - Chapter 69

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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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Chapter 69. Just Watch.

Arvin ventured deep into the Village alongside his mercenaries.
Every dwelling lay in ruins, fresh blood still seeping into the earth, and flames of destruction rose from scattered locations.

‘It’s identical to five years ago.’

Though the sight differed from before, I could perceive it through other senses.
The metallic scent of blood piercing my nostrils. The roar of burning flames. The chilling sensation against my skin.
Everything aligned perfectly with five years past—when Gluttony devoured the Village and my Parents.

‘From that moment, I became a Holy Knight and prepared meticulously to capture Gluttony.’

I rebuilt the Village and, under the guise of reformation, imprisoned criminals within its walls.
Consequently, the world came to know me as the Merciful Holy Knight.
Of course, some remained defiant to the end, incapable of redemption. Those wretches were transferred to the Papal See to face punishment befitting their sins.

‘Now everyone will know the truth.’

That I was no Merciful Holy Knight, but one who had mocked criminals for years.
Yet it mattered not. Even if I faced condemnation for this, so long as I could exact vengeance upon Gluttony for stealing my Parents and Village.

“Arvin….”

A voice called from ahead. I recognized who it was immediately.
I could sense the presence of others as white lines drawn upon black canvas.
It was Silte—a lowly member of the Evil Book Society and a criminal who had inflicted harm upon others.

Schwick!

Without hesitation, I severed Silte’s neck with my blade of shimmering white light.
The figure then flowed like black liquid before vaporizing entirely.
A fragment of Gluttony—a counterfeit mimicking its prey. Being blind, my heightened senses detected the deception instantly.
The mercenaries questioned me.

“Arvin, what was that…?”
“A fragment of Gluttony. As I mentioned, it mimics those it has consumed.”

Arvin spoke.

“There are likely almost no survivors. Gluttony leaves no living witnesses in its wake. So if any residents approach, remain vigilant.”
“Yes!”

This village had roughly 300 residents. Every single one was a criminal Arvin had brought in.
Arvin hadn’t personally cut them down, but in truth, it amounted to the same thing—he had killed them.

‘But they should have been executed long ago anyway.’

And so Arvin continued forward without hesitation.
Along the way, I encountered fragments of Gluttony. Some wore the guise of residents, while others lunged at me directly, wearing the skins of villagers like masks.
Having already steeled my resolve, I cut through them swiftly.

“Please… spare me….”
– Arvin, have you eaten yet?

A loan shark who operated on a grand scale.

“Arvin, there’s a monster over there….”
– The flowers blooming in that forest were quite beautiful.

Filth that trafficked people from the Slums.

“Die!!!”
– Arvin, I’ve brought back a wild boar!

A murderer who had killed several people for his own greed.
So they deserved death. In fact, they should be grateful to me.
Weren’t they the very ones who should have faced judgment beneath God’s blade long ago?
Yet thanks to me, they had prolonged their wretched lives for years, and had even played a role in summoning the Five Great Calamities.

‘So I cast aside all doubt. Now is the time to focus solely on capturing Gluttony.’

I pushed off the ground without stopping. Unable to see anything, I could concentrate on only one objective.

“Found it.”

At that moment, a grotesque sound pierced the air, and murderous intent crashed down upon us like a tidal wave.
From the ground, a tentacle—as if woven from black cells—erupted skyward, its razor-sharp teeth snapping wide as it lunged toward the mercenaries.

Slash!

Arvin darted forward with lightning speed, his pristine white blade cleaving through the creature.
But the assault was far from over.

“Gahhhhh!”

From the opposite side, something similar erupted, swallowing three mercenaries whole in a single, horrifying gulp.
They fixed their gaze forward, tension etched into every line of their faces.
The black mass that had burst from the ground moments before was flowing toward a single point.
It writhed and coalesced, swelling into a mass the size of a house.
Its form resembled nothing but congealed filth—pitch black and grotesque—yet scattered across its surface were countless small mouths, with one enormous maw embedded at its center.

“Gluttony….”

As Arvin muttered the name, lines etched themselves across Gluttony’s body, and enormous eyes materialized.
The size differed from five years ago, but these were the same eyes—the same gaze he had confronted back then.

‘It has grown far stronger than it was five years ago.’

The oppressive pressure suffocating the very air made Arvin grit his teeth.
It meant the creature had devoured countless lives in the intervening years. No wonder both the Theocracy and the Empire had failed in their attempts to subjugate Gluttony.

‘But I am not the helpless boy I was five years ago.’

The Goddess had bestowed upon me divine power, transforming me into a Holy Knight, and I had accumulated strength with singular purpose—to slay Gluttony.
This time, I would cut this abomination down.

“I shall handle Gluttony. You mercenaries must withdraw. Instead, search the other areas and confirm whether any survivors remain.”

Even renowned mercenaries would struggle against Gluttony.
And these mercenaries had been hastily summoned at the Papal See’s behest.
They would fall in moments before such a creature.

“…Understood. Please be careful.”

The mercenaries, knowing this truth, nodded without further objection.
Honestly, they too had thought it worth attempting after witnessing Gluttony’s fragmented form.
But the moment they faced Gluttony, they understood. This was a calamity incomparable to any ordinary demon.

“….”

After they departed, Arvin fixed his gaze upon Gluttony.
Gluttony, in turn, made no move to stop the mercenaries—his eyes remained locked upon Arvin.
Gluttony’s massive maw stirred.

“I’ve been searching for you. All the inhabitants of this place remember you well.”

It seemed Gluttony could absorb the memories of those he consumed, making them his own.
A sudden curiosity seized Arvin, and he asked.

“How did they remember me?”
“Each in their own way. Some doubted you, yet came to follow you sincerely. Others believed in you, but grew resentful upon discovering your deception. And some distrusted you from beginning to end, plotting their escape from this place.”

Gluttony’s voice was grotesque, like fingernails scraping against an eardrum.

“But there was one thing they all shared. Every last one perceived you as an extraordinary force.”

Gluttony’s massive jaws twisted into a hideous grin.

“That’s why I sought you out. And you’re a Holy Knight, no less? I’m curious what divine power tastes like.”

Arvin curled his lips and leveled his blade, wreathed in holy light, toward Gluttony.

“If you desire it, I’ll feed you your fill.”
“Now that’s something to look forward to.”

Gluttony’s writhing form tilted its head as it spoke.

“But I’m certain I’ve heard the name Arvin somewhere before. This village too seems oddly familiar.”
“….”
“Hmm….”

Gluttony, who had been studying Arvin with one eye, suddenly recalled something and spoke.

“Ah! So you’re that boy! The one hiding in the Wardrobe while your Parents were being devoured!”
“….”
“Haha! So that’s why you created this Village! To take revenge for that day!”

Arvin suppressed the surging emotions and answered with composure.

“I’m relieved you still remember.”
“How could I forget! That day was one of the rare moments when my endless hunger fell asleep!”

Gluttony’s massive form writhed with delight.

“Even when I consume humans and monsters with vast magical power, my hunger is scarcely sated. With each passing moment, that void only grows deeper.”
“….”
“But when I glimpsed your eyes through the cracks of that Wardrobe that day, for the first time, that hunger was truly satisfied.”

Gluttony spoke through its maw lined with razor-sharp teeth.

“That day, I understood! All this time, I had merely mistaken the hunger within my soul for simple hunger!”
“….”
“Thanks to this Village you prepared, I’ve sated my hunger to some degree, but the void within my soul remains unfilled.”

Gluttony’s bloodshot eyes fixed upon Arvin.

“Come now, open those eyes and show me that gaze from that day.”
“Silence….”
“Just as when your Parents were devoured before your very eyes!”
“Shut your mouth!”

Arvin burst forward, his rage unleashed.
Gluttony shot awl-shaped cells from its body to intercept him.
But Arvin twisted his body nimbly to evade, then brought his blade down in a sweeping arc.

“Oho, so you’ve grown since five years ago.”

Gluttony uttered a low murmur of admiration at Arvin’s agility.

“But that’s all you have!”

From Gluttony’s massive form, countless cells extended outward like tentacles.
At their tips were mouths, which drove downward as if to devour Arvin’s flesh.

Whoosh—

Arvin stood motionless and exhaled a deep breath.
White lines lashed chaotically across the black canvas. Perceiving their speed and trajectory, Arvin swung his blade.

Shing-shing-shing!

The tentacles cascading like rain scattered before reaching Arvin, severed with each stroke of his sword. The paths opened wherever he drew his blade.
In an instant, Arvin neutralized Gluttony’s assault and rolled forward.

Thwack!

As Arvin brought his blade down before him, Gluttony leaped backward to evade.
But the moment his sword withdrew, Arvin surged forward again, slashing relentlessly.

Whoosh!

With nowhere left to retreat, Gluttony fired a single tentacle from its body.
Yet Arvin paid it no mind and continued drawing his blade in succession.
It was not a threatening attack, so he chose not to dodge—instead, he aimed to wound Gluttony.

“Arvin.”

Then a voice emanated from the small mouth at the tentacle’s tip.
Arvin’s movements froze. It was a timbre he could not forget, no matter how many years had passed.
This affectionate voice calling his name—it was his mother’s.

Boom!

A massive tentacle erupted from Gluttony’s body, striking Arvin’s abdomen with tremendous force. Caught off guard, he could not evade.

“Cough!”

Arvin was sent flying backward, spitting up a mouthful of blood. His silver armor was dented.

“Haha! Still yearning for them, I see!”
“….”
“If you truly wish it, I shall grant you a special meeting.”

Black cells separated from Gluttony writhed and began to take shape into something.
Arvin, reading their essence, opened his mouth slightly.

“Mother, Father….”

Arvin’s Parents approached their son slowly, speaking thus.

“Still living so shamelessly, are you?”
“Does it feel good to live at the cost of our lives?”

Arvin bit his lips.
He already knew they were fake. This was merely a facade Gluttony had created to shake his heart.

“A pathetic wretch who could do nothing while his parents were devoured.”
“A coward who merely trembled in the Wardrobe.”

Yet their words were true.
Arvin had survived only at the cost of his parents’ lives. Had Gluttony not fortunately departed that day, he too would have perished there.
Would it have been easier, less painful, had he died alongside them that day?

“Come with us. Into his belly.”
“We shall live together there forever. Just as we did on that peaceful day.”

They whispered, now within arm’s reach.
Arvin gripped his sword with fierce determination.

‘No. That is not true.’

Holy power blazed brilliantly from his blade. He rose to his feet and swung his sword without hesitation.

Slash!

The body of the mass, which had opened its mouth wide to swallow Arvin whole, was severed in two. What lay scattered on the ground slowly vaporized.

‘This is not a projection of my parents’ memories.’

Before losing his sight, Arvin saw it all with perfect clarity.
When Gluttony left without opening the wardrobe, Arvin’s parents smiled with relief at the sight.

‘My mother and father wanted me to live. They were willing to sacrifice their own lives for it.’

That’s why they hid me in the wardrobe, and never once cast their eyes toward it—not even in that moment when their bodies were being devoured by Gluttony.
Arvin spoke to Gluttony with a growl in his voice.

“Stop mocking my parents.”

Gluttony’s expression shifted with surprise.

“Hmm, that’s unexpected. Is it because you cannot see that you can say such things?”
“….”
“But it’s laughable coming from you.”

Arvin’s brow furrowed.

“What do you mean by that?”
“You detained criminals in this village under the guise of reformation—to capture me. Three hundred of them, no less.”

Countless fragments separated from Gluttony’s body. They began to take on the forms of the village residents.

“You smiled falsely at them and showed them hollow compassion. As a result, they clung to vain hope and died by my hand.”
“….”
“Is that not mockery of them? It seems you’re far worse than I am, wouldn’t you say?”

Arvin gripped his sword with trembling hands and faced them. More precisely, he read their forms and heard their voices.

“Lord Arvin, why did you use us as bait?”
“You said you’d set us free someday if we repented!”
“If this was your plan, why not just kill us from the start? Why give us false hope!”
“Did it amuse you? Watching us play in the palm of your hand?”
“In the end, we’re just trash not even worth recycling.”
“Ha! That’s true enough! For such a noble Holy Knight, this is only natural treatment!”

They were criminals who should have died long ago anyway. Trash that had wounded others. So this was a fitting punishment.
Yet no matter how many times I told myself this, the guilt that remained like a scar refused to fade.

“Arvin! Why didn’t you come to save us immediately?”
“If it were you, you could have saved at least one more person!”
“In the end, were we nothing but abandoned pawns?”

Though my eyes could not see, their anguished voices reached me with crystalline clarity—like the guilt I had buried all this time.

Clang—

The sword slipped from Arvin’s grasp and clattered across the floor. His trembling bare hands flew to his ears, pressing hard against them.

“Arvin!”
“Say something to us!”

I could not bear to hear them any longer—their voices, and the hypocrisy I had so desperately ignored within myself.
Was this truly the right way to pursue vengeance?
Even if they were criminals, was it right for me, a Holy Knight, to mock fellow human beings?
Surely among them were those whose crimes deserved extenuating circumstances?

“Pathetic.”

A low, measured voice cut through the darkness. It was not one of the villagers. Arvin remembered every single one of their voices.

Boom—

A blade of blazing flame descended from the heavens, crashing down upon the floor. The spectral forms wearing the villagers’ faces were swept away in its wake.
Someone landed lightly before Arvin—a man with a broad, clean-cut face and an aura as heavy and immovable as a pillar.
Arvin lowered his hands from his ears and spoke the man’s name.

“Kael Inquisitor….”

Kael turned to face Arvin, his voice cutting like ice.

“You closed your eyes because you feared to see the world as it truly is, and you have kept your ears sealed all this time to avoid hearing the voice of your own guilt.”

Kael glanced at Arvin’s sword lying on the floor.

“And now you would abandon even your thirst for vengeance?”
“….”
“Bear the weight of your choices. That is why you stand here.”

As Arvin shook his head, tears streamed from his eyes. He answered in a trembling voice.

“I’m sorry…. I can’t do this anymore, Interrogator….”

I clicked my tongue softly.
Had Arvin possessed stronger resolve from the beginning, he would never have been killed by Gluttony in his past life.

“Then just watch from there.”

I fixed my gaze on Gluttony and slowly lowered my stance. It was a thrust that seemed to pierce through everything.
For some reason, my voice from our first meeting overlapped with the present moment.

– I came to help you.

“Unlike you, I’m someone who keeps his promises.”

Gooooooo!

A vast aura surged forth from me. It was a sacred power that erased the eerie killing intent that had permeated the surroundings.

‘Holy power.’

Arvin’s mouth fell open in a daze.
Because his eyes could not see, he could perceive the opponent’s aura with even greater precision.
So even when we first met, he could sense that the aura emanating from me was different from that of others.
But he had thought it was merely because I was strong, never realizing I actually possessed holy power rather than magical force.

‘How could a Heretic Inquisitor possess such a thing….’

The reason didn’t matter.
All that occupied his mind now was that holy power was surging from me as if to devour Gluttony itself.

Crackle, crackle, crackle!!

As the flames on my blade converged at the tip to form a small orb, a sound like space itself was twisting echoed through the air.
Then came the resonance of the trembling ground, and an immense heat seared across the skin.

‘…I want to see.’

It was what I instinctively desired.
Arvin had always been afraid to take in the world with both eyes. After his parents’ death, a world stained with vengeance could never be beautiful.
But was it curiosity about Kael, or perhaps the inexplicable sense of security from his sacred power?
I couldn’t say for certain, but I felt that if I missed this sight, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

“….”

I slowly opened my eyes, which had been shut for so long.
Normally, I should have seen nothing. After all, I had lost my sight when I gained sacred power.
But just as the world peers through a crack in the wardrobe, intense light began to seep through the narrow gap between my eyelids.

Grrrrrrgh!

Colors layered themselves over my world of black canvas.
Kael’s silhouette in a black priest’s robe. A crimson bead formed at the tip of a pristine blade. And Gluttony standing in that direction.
In the next moment, Kael unleashed calamity upon Gluttony—the very creature that had shattered my world five years ago.

Point Burst.

Kwaaaaaaaaaang!

With a tremendous roar, my vision flooded with crimson.
Gluttony’s eyes widened as it lashed out with its tentacles, but the scorching flames erupting from Kael’s blade consumed them in an instant.
The colossal inferno did not stop there, rapidly reaching Gluttony and painting a red line across the twilight sky.
Witnessing that overwhelming spectacle, I found myself thinking without restraint.

‘…It’s beautiful.’

This world I had seen for the first time in five years could be so radiant.

(To be continued in the next chapter)

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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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