Villain Retirement

1034  Chapter 1034: D...D!?

"What… what is going on out there!?"

A loud voice bounced across the curved walls and brutalist ceilings of the church; not loud enough, however, to drown the screams coming from the outside, literally causing the colorful mosaic windows to bounce. The vibrating mosaic, almost a disco ball as it shone the colored rays of sun through the benches and aisle of the church. Despite this noise of colors and voices creating a chaotic hymn inside the halls of the church, however, kneeled a peaceful crimson paladin.

Perhaps praying? But it did not matter at all to those who saw her.

"Crimson Paladin!? What are you doing here!?"

A bishop and several priests stepped out of their prayers due to the commotion, only to see Angela just casually praying in front of the altar.

"Crimson Paladin!" The bishop screamed as he and his priests rushed toward Angela. But for Angela, the noises coming out of their mouths also did not matter at all, "You are not allowed here anymore! We have already heard of your betrayal!"

"Such heresy for you to think you could still pray here!"

"Go away, whore!"

The priests also joined in as they surrounded Angela, but Angela just remained kneeling with her hands clasped together. And despite all the trembling colors, her crimson remained completely unaffected.

"Are you not hearing us, Heretic!?"

As soon as the bishop stood in front of Angela and the cross, however, she started to stand up.

"What… what are you doing!?"

Ironically enough, when Angela did move, the bishop and the priests all became nervous. Fortunately for them, Angela still did not heed them any mind… except for the bishop, whose shoulder she grabbed,

"It… it won't go well for you if you hurt—"

Angela did not hurt the bishop at all, she just pushed him to the side before taking a step closer to the altar and kneeling once again; the sound of her armor hitting the marbled floor, causing the bishop and priests to slightly flinch. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

They all looked at each other for a few seconds, and once they finally realized that Angela had no intention of hurting any of them, they all rushed toward her and started pulling her away. Sadly for them, only one of them is a Super, and he is not even a strength-type.

And while these weak supposed holy men were trying their best to hinder Angela's prayer, the situation outside was getting a lot worse.

"Kill him!"

"Kill me? Are all of you sure about that decision, Knights?"

The knights were like ants, being blown away by a simple breath whenever they tried to even get close to Riley or the church building. And as soon as he was threatened with death, Riley began pulling the greatsword which was taller than even him from the ground he initially stabbed it through,

"Wait."

Riley then stretched his palm forward, and as he did so, the knights who were rushing toward him were once again blown away; this time farther than before as some of them even rolled violently across the ground, only stopping as their backs hit the fence separating their great church from the rest of the smaller ones.

This did not seem to faze them at all, however. As soon as they were able to gather and collect themselves, they all once again rushed toward Riley. Riley, on the other hand, was just walking from corner to corner of the church's wall, using Angela's greatsword to draw some sort of curve line that connected the two corners.

"Anyone who passes through this line with the intent of killing me will die," and once he was done, he returned to the front of the door. This time placing the greatsword in front of him but not stabbing it through the ground, "That will be your only warning."

"Don't be intimidated, just kill him!" But of course, zealots will be zealots and will. Only their words will stay between their ears, the words of others would just escape from one ear to the next — ironically enough, they only listen, but never actually truly understand.

But of course, one could not really blame them for their attempts to eradicate the heretic that dared sully the name of their church. It was just unfortunate that they did not know who this heretic truly was, and what he was actually capable of.

Or perhaps it wouldn't really matter if they knew, they would still give up their life for what they believe in — sad, brave, naive, and stupid at the same time.

"No one expects the inquisi—"

"!!!"

And true to his words, the very first knight who stepped beyond the line that Riley drew was suddenly torn into pieces. Sadly for the others who were too shocked to stop moving, they also stepped onto the line; their bodies, splitting into several.

Then, and only then, did the knights actually heed Riley's words as they stopped moving. Only when they watched their comrades' heads rolling on the ground and painting the marbled floor red did they stop moving and truly look at this long-white haired heretic's face…

…and what they saw caused them to almost drop to their butts there and then.

This was not the face of someone trying to protect an ideology, not the face of someone trying to protect his beliefs or his faith — and they would be right. Riley did not even care about Angela at all, and the wide smile that he could not help but contain seemed to be reflecting that.

"Is this it, then?" And as soon as Riley saw the knights hesitating, he let out a loud and very long sigh; enough for those who were outside the fences of the church to hear, "Is this what all of your faiths amount to? Just witnessing someone dying because of what they believe in, and now all of you are hesitating? Pathetic, truly pathetic."

Karina, who was watching the scene unfold from outside, could not help but just close her eyes as her father's true colors were once again out in the open, extremely and literally bright for everyone to see. She could probably try and stop this… but why?

What for, really?

While it is true that she did not want to see any unnecessary deaths, it was not like she could actually stop her father — there was also the fact that these people were already warned; most who died from her father were not warranted the same privilege.

The only thing she could really do was watch while shaking her head.

Surely, seeing this, his father's bandwagon fanatics would be turned off and walked away — or so she thought.

"Is it just me… or are there more of you?"

"Reporting!"

"What the—!!!"

Karina could not help but almost jump in fright as a woman suddenly kneeled in front of her.

"Permission to talk to Riley's daughter?" The woman only glanced at Karina for a millisecond before turning her head down.

"What…? Dude, what? Just talk to me?" Karina blinked a couple of times in disbelief.

"Thank you, our Lady of White," the woman then stood up before looking at all the people gathering around Angela's church, "As you can see, we have started spreading the word of our Lord throughout the city. And while most of them are just curious as to what was happening, some of them we have successfully converted.

"...Who even are you?" Karina's mouth could not even keep itself close as she continued to stare in disbelief at this woman.

"I apologize, I assigned myself to be a Cardinal since I am the first to join — after Pontiff Angela, of course."

"...How do you even know our names, or the fact that he's my fathe—you know what, I don't care," Karina's eyes just lost all interest as she quickly turned her focus back to her father… who was still trying to provoke the knights from attacking.

"I suppose…" Riley whispered and sighed in disappointment, "...This is all the god you are worshiping amounts to."

"You dare mock our lord!?"

Riley's last statement seemed to be the last straw, however, as the knights once again rushed toward Riley, causing the smile on his face to grow even wider. But alas, before any of them could actually die, however, a verdant silhouette suddenly emerged from above; his long silver cape, snapping in the air as he blocked all of the other knights with his exaggeratingly long lance which was probably 4 meters long.

"Halt!"

"Emerald Paladin!" The knights all bowed their heads before the Emerald Paladin's cape could even touch his back. The Emerald Paladin, however, completely ignored all of them as he just focused on Riley.

"You…" The Emerald Paladin took a step back as soon as he saw Riley's face, "...Where do I know you?"

"If you are not a variant of the one I have previously seen back on Earth," Riley tilted his head to the side, "Then I believe we have met once or twice, Emerald Paladin. You might know me as…

…Darkday."

"Da—Darkday!?"