Chapter 506: The Executioner Chosen by God
The Ultras Continent – Eastern Region.
...
Somewhere deep inland, hundreds of kilometers from the coast...
A certain squad was locked in battle against enemy forces.
This marked the fourteenth day since the second phase of the war began.
Frey Starlight and his comrades had pushed far forward... but with every terrifying advance he made,
Their numbers shrank drastically.
From a thousand men, only a few dozen remained.
The reckless decisions of their commander .. his strange, relentless choices ..
Had driven many to flee, and most were already dead from the previous clashes.
Now, Frey and the remnants of his unit were deep in enemy territory.
They were under constant attack, day and night.
From the front, the back, the right, the left...
The brutality of the Ultras hunted them endlessly from all directions.
Frey Starlight was a true monster.
Despite their unfavorable situation, he slaughtered every enemy in the end—no matter how many.
By the time each battle ended, not a single Ultra survived .. this was an undeniable truth.
But even with his overwhelming strength, he was still only one man.
He couldn’t stop everything alone.
Many soldiers would often die before Frey could even reach them with his blade.
Even the strongest individuals in their unit couldn’t always save them in time.
After every fight, Frey would order the burial of every fallen comrade.
The process often took a long time, as their bodies were mixed with those of the enemy ..making the task exhausting and undesirable.
Yet Frey did it himself .. so no one else could object.
Once they were done, they’d rest for just one night ..before marching again under their commander’s orders.
This cycle repeated again and again...
To the point that some began to lose themselves, trying desperately to keep up with his relentless momentum.
Too much blood...
That’s what the Saint Candidate, Uriel Platini, thought as she witnessed it all with her clear blue eyes.
At the end of yet another brutal battle
.one that claimed the lives of many ..
Uriel wandered among the corpses, after healing all those who remained alive.
In that field of death and blood... she often had to choke back the nausea rising in her chest.
She wasn’t accustomed to scenes like these... Even though she had somewhat expected them, reality and imagination were never the same.
Uriel would always walk among the corpses at the end of every battle, making herself a witness to all that had happened.
That was her way of adapting .. to move forward as if nothing had occurred.
Like Frey. Like Sansa. And like the others from the mad squad who followed them.
They could kill without blinking. Continue without their hearts flinching.
But no matter how hard she tried... Uriel couldn’t do the same.
Realizing this was only the beginning made it even worse.
"What exactly are you trying to prove here... Frey?"
Where was he leading them?
Uriel Platini... she was the girl chosen to be the next Saintess.
She came to the war following in the footsteps of her predecessor—the current Saintess, Eurasha.
Then, when the time came, Uriel escaped... following Frey.
She had already known, vaguely, that he would make such a move.
That’s why she came with him.
"With you... I felt like I could run away. Run away from them."
But now, she found herself trapped in this land of blood and death...
It felt like she’d escaped one dark fate, only to fall into something even darker.
There, among the corpses, Uriel drowned in her thoughts... clutching tightly at her sleeves, trying to suppress the growing pain that had been getting worse lately...
Completely lost in her own world, she was finally pulled back to reality when she heard a voice nearby ..
"O Hollow One before all creation,
Grant me silence, and drench me in forgetfulness.
Let my shadow consume me,
And let my eyes see nothing but the end."
Someone was reciting a prayer... a kind Uriel was quite familiar with—one only uttered by the devout of the Church.
Unknowingly, her feet moved her toward the source.
The man reciting it... was someone she had seen quite a lot in the past few days.
A man with terrifying features that set him apart from other humans.
She had never seen a man with such an absurd amount of muscle...
Standing well over two meters tall, shirtless with a torso covered in scars, he sat quietly reciting prayers in front of both allies’ and enemies’ corpses.
Uriel recognized him as one of the Eight Strangers who followed Frey—the heretic, Grim.
Grim noticed her presence and paused his prayers to greet her.
"Ah... Saintess Platini. What an honor."
He said it with a repulsive smile that sent chills down her spine.
"The sun will soon set, and with it, the souls of these poor souls will fade. Some will find paradise... others, torment. Saintess Platini, let us pray for them together."
He smiled as he invited her, but Uriel couldn’t say anything. Her tongue failed her.
Still, for some reason, she never felt comfortable around this man.
Grim, the heretic... a former servant of the Church ..specifically the Inquisition Division.
He had been excommunicated long ago and was banned from ever entering the Holy Island again after causing a massacre that left dozens dead.
Among his victims were reportedly children... not even ten years old.
Children, men, women .. all slaughtered brutally.
When asked about his motives later, he claimed he was merely following the orders of his so-called god... the Lord of Light.
He was labeled insane, sentenced to death multiple times... but always managed to escape.
And somehow... now he stood at the vanguard of the war.
"What’s wrong, Saintess Platini?" Grim asked.
Uriel answered with a faint smile.
"Forgive me, I was lost in thought for a moment."
Sitting beside him, she began reciting her own prayers, prompting Grim to smile even wider and join in.
It didn’t take long, but by the time they were done, night had already fallen.
As Uriel caught her breath, she found her gaze drifting to Grim, who remained in deep prayer...
For a moment, he looked like a devout believer.
But she couldn’t help remembering the truth... the truth of the monster who crushed enemies’ skulls with his bare hands throughout the past days.
Grim the Heretic ..renowned for his physical strength and iron-crushing grip.
He never lost his smile, even when splattering brains.
In terms of body count, Grim had killed more enemies than anyone else, second only to Frey Starlight.
But what set his victims apart... was the horrific state he left them in.
He seemed like a beast who genuinely enjoyed blood and slaughter.
And that same beast now sat beside her, praying for the souls of his victims.
That man... was anything but normal.
Once he finished, he stood as well.
"Thank you, Saintess Platini. Let us continue purging this world of evil and follow in the footsteps of the hero, Frey Starlight."
"Ah... of course," Uriel smiled, giving a slight nod. But she couldn’t ignore a certain detail.
"Perhaps I misheard... but did you just say ’the hero Frey Starlight’?"
The word "hero" could be interpreted and used in many different ways. Anyone in this world could be called one.
What Grim had said wasn’t necessarily strange.
But... for the followers of the Church specifically, that word held a very particular meaning.
It wasn’t used lightly—it referred to only one person: the Promised Hero, the one chosen by the Lord of Light.
For a devout servant of the Church to use it to describe Frey... was unthinkable.
Grim, with his eyes still closed and that ominous smile on his face, turned back toward Uriel.
"Is Frey Starlight not a hero of this world?"
"Excuse me?" Uriel asked, puzzled. But Grim continued:
"The Lord of Light is the one who grants us humans our blessings and grace. He guides us. He gives us strength to carry on.
Frey Starlight was born with immense gifts ..power beyond comprehension. And that power could only come from the Lord of Light himself."
"Heroes aren’t always radiant... Sometimes, they’re born in the dark."
Grim spoke with absolute conviction
.. entranced by the man he followed.
"He is the executioner placed upon this earth by our Lord to sever the necks of all heretics. Even if he denies it, Frey Starlight is one of the Lord’s chosen heroes... a true one, who delivers justice through blood and fire."
Grim was entirely captivated by the portrait of carnage Frey had painted.
He truly believed that such overwhelming power couldn’t have emerged from nothing .. that it was a divine gift from his so-called god.
That was why... Grim had chosen to follow Frey .. because to him, Frey was the true executioner.
Uriel listened to this madness in silence, only further confirming the twisted nature of the squad that followed Frey.
The man himself never believed in the Lord of Light, not even once ..yet Grim insisted he was one of the Lord’s heroes.
Grim wasn’t a devout believer. He was simply a lunatic .. one who delighted in death and bloodshed.
A beast who justified his atrocities in the name of the god he claimed to follow.
Standing beside such filth, remembering the vision she once saw in the past...
Uriel couldn’t help but wonder—what kind of future awaited them?
And what exactly was Frey Starlight trying to reach?
For now... he continued to walk ahead.
Slowly, quietly, he followed a path that led him toward an entirely different breed of monsters.