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This was a small church at the foot of the World Tree. It was an abandoned church, strangely desolate and lacking in visits, despite the main temple being next to it. However, although few, there were human presences there today. However, even those presences were not in a place exposed to the public.

“If it’s here, no sound will leak outside no matter how much noise we make.”
“Sorry about this, Ashella. I have given you quite some trouble.”
“What are you saying now? As if I would turn down a request from you. And I’m not exactly unrelated, either.”

They were in a hidden room in the church’s basement. In that place, there were Cortina, Lyell, Maria, and Ashella, as well as two prisoners. One of them had lost his limbs and sanity, while another had his nose broken and bent to the side.

Both of them were in hideous shapes, but the one with the broken nose… Scudo, still had it better. Lyell pulled Scudo up and quickly fixed him on the restraining table.

“Oh, you’re surprisingly used to this, Dear.”
“Well, I am an experienced warrior. I have experienced this kind of prisoner treatment many times.”
“I see, I’m glad to hear it wasn’t your hobby or something.”
“Oh come on?!”

Ashella observed Maria and Lyell’s exchange with a smile. A sign of her close friend Maria being intimate was healing her heart. But frankly speaking, this place was not suitable for such a thing.

The scenery emerging from the darkness from the torchlight could be summed up with the word bizarre. It was a 10 square meter stone basement. There was a giant magic circle drawn in the entire room, with the restraining table set up in the middle. The magic circle itself was drawn in such detail it was on another level compared to the transportation circles, making it clear that it was a complex spell.

“W-What do you plan to do with me…”

Leaving the two’s heartwarming exchange aside, Scudo’s state of mind could not be any more different, being restrained to the table.

People referred to as the Six Heroes and the supreme leader of the world’s ruling religion. What did such people plan to do with them, who attempted assassination, by isolating them from the public eyes like this?

That was a needless question… It would be to question, no, torture them. Even if he knew that, he could not help but ask anyway. That showed how scared he was.

“You should know that much even without asking, right?”
“Let’s see. To be precise, torture… No, we will show you hell beyond even that. If you don’t want that, spit out the information about your headquarters.”
“Headquarters? Not Kufar’s location?”

Scudo was made to faint by Nicole and taken here, so he did not know that Cortina had crushed Kufar. She decided to finally tell him that.

“If you’re talking about Kufar, I already defeated him. Once I knew he was a Slime, there were many ways to deal with him.”
“Huh, Slime?”

Scudo, however, was not aware of Kufar’s true identity. He opened his eyes wide from Cortina’s words.

“Oh, you didn’t know? I’m not lying. What’s the point of telling you such a lie.”
“N-No way… Then, then our ideals…”
“Sorry, but I can only say that you were being manipulated.”
“No, that’s a lie! We were working to improve the half-demon standing—”
“Again, too bad for you. But I have no time to hear your opinions. Spit out the location.”
“Screw you! Like hell I will! You’re lying, you have to be! It’s all to get the information out of me!”

He abandoned any logic he had and merely ranted and raved. He suddenly remembered the sudden increase in failures of the summoning rituals. And the comrades that disappeared due to that. He then realized that every single one of those rituals happened with Kufar being present, and finally arrived at the truth. But he just could not accept it.

“You don’t have to believe it. We’ll just keep going until you do.”
“By the way, the magic circle drawn here is actually the banned one, you know?”
“What?!”

Scudo’s mind was on the verge of going insane and reacted to the word banned.

One thing the World Tree Religion prohibited the most was to disturb the reincarnation cycle of the souls. That originated from their doctrines that everything in the world was born from the World Tree and would return to it, and the cycle repeated.

The magic circle drawn here must have been…

“It can’t be… Resurrection?!”
“Correct. Being the Pope, I understand the formula and can use it as well. I will have you taste the punishment for laying your hands on Maria’s child.”
“That’s b̲u̲l̲l̲s̲h̲i̲t̲—!”
“It’s the truth. I mean, if I didn’t know what a real one was, how could I tell it apart from a fake one? We of the World Tree Religion have to know the genuine Resurrection spell in order to regulate it. And we also have to be able to use it.”
“Even I didn’t know about it, though.”
“Of course you didn’t. This truth is only passed down to the Pope and selected cardinals.”

Ashella brushed aside Maria’s objection. The two had faint smiles, but their eyes remained cold.

There certainly existed pain crueler than death. However, you still would die at the end. Here, however, that logic did not work. Even if he actually died, this pope would mercilessly resurrect him. She said so herself.

“Oh, even if you go mad, I’ll properly fix you with the Sanity spell too, okay?”
“Eek?!”

Maria smiled with a saint-like smile. Lyell next to her wordlessly pulled out his sword. Being tied to the restraining table, Scudo had no way of avoiding that sword. He no longer had any other choice but to spill out everything he knew.

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