I Became the Priest of Blasphemy of the Outer Gods

Chapter 79. Funeral (3)

With cries steeped in despair, desolation, and grief, the flames burned even brighter.

“It’s hot. This fire that consumes even myself. It feels like hell is incinerating me.”

It was an excruciating pain. Yet, Bahda continued the funeral without any indication of distress.

As time passed and the meditation was drawing to an end, a memory surfaced—something forgotten. Just a brief moment before Tuatem brought forth a new miracle into this world. What Tuatem… what I…

* * *

“Ugh… Ughh!”

The moment I opened my eyes, I vomited. The floor turned red. Blood flowed from my eyes, nose, and mouth.

『That reaction.』

A calm voice. No, it wasn’t calm. It was as if everything had been burned away, leaving nothing but ashes without will or emotion.

『You’ve glimpsed the fleeting moment recalled from a distant future.』

I hastily gulped down the sedatives. Despite the discomfort of my stomach being full of liquid, I kept swallowing. Eldritch restrained me when I attempted to consume the entire bottle.

“Get a hold of yourself! Just what did you see? What is it you experienced through that bizarre method?!”

I remembered Tuatem’s grief and agony, which ultimately transformed into hatred.

Tuatem got lost in those feelings when the miracle was born, believing it was voided by performing the funeral.

It was a mistake.

The truth was simply forgotten. The mind collapsed, unable to endure.

“It saw you. Something beyond this world, a being no creature can perceive no matter what they attempt. It saw you for a fleeting instant…”

A realistically incomprehensible event. The 『Eternal Blaze』 merely glanced at Tuatem from such a far distance.

A common person would not notice being observed by an Outer God, yet Tuatem, as an enlightened priest empowered by such force, was forcibly made aware of that gaze.

『The memory faded, and only after about 300 years did it return faintly. Only then did the full truth reveal itself. While conducting funerals for those forcibly exposed to its scripture and receiving the mistaken adoration of a saint. The dreadful reality came to light.』

Tuatem hadn’t held on—he never did. he merely failed to die.

『Did your curious talent reveal even that? The truth you perceived yourself.』

“At that moment, you succumbed to despair. Terrified of becoming an unquenchable flame like them, your fear and madness manifested a miracle.”

I recalled his emotions at the time. An intense hatred and madness that compelled him to cry out, transforming all he previously viewed with compassion and pity into objects he desired only to incinerate.

“Even those he once viewed with love and compassion, he wished to obliterate with madness fueled by 『Eternal Blaze』. He deemed it just reached over them.”

Such detestable, godlike beings wouldn’t react to ordinary prayers. Madness was their language; it was natural. Tuatem realized this much later. The truth was different.

『Reflecting on it, I realized that my emotions and aspiration stirred violently, serving as the catalyst.』

Although Tuatem’s feelings had changed, he most strongly wished for one thing at that moment. And an Outer God responded to it.

Yet, it found no interest or value in it—just a glance. Still, that brief connection drove Tuatem mad, serving as the key that realized a new miracle.

『It was like making a noise and a bug briefly looking towards the bushes. Isn’t that amusing?』

There was a tinge of regret in the tone. The unwanted worship by an Outer God had brought a lifetime of agony. Thought it possessed great talent and considered it a blessing, that wasn’t the real case.

“Don’t worry about it.”

I coughed and stood up.

“You protected yourself in a hopeless situation. Your life, though filled with pain and trials, was truly remarkable.”

『A kind consolation. Yet, knowing more about myself, honestly speaking, such words bring no comfort now. All I seek is peace.』

In the mercilessly searing flames, Tuatem’s eyes seemed to lock onto mine. Though his face had melted beyond recognition, the feeling was mutual as I met his gaze.

『Can you accomplish this? I have committed the disgraceful act of even training an apprentice for it. Yet over the long years… no one succeeded. They only burned in front of me.』

“I have already identified and understood the ‘miracle’. I can do it.”

I caught my breath, and both Eldritch and Tuatem looked surprised.

『To say you have identified and understood a miracle… What a peculiar statement. It seems you, too, are destined for a woeful fate.』

“What do you mean by that?”

『This is not something for me to tell you now. If someday you realize it’s not an illusion, reflect deeply on what the problem might be.』

Though cryptic, I couldn’t discern any major issue just yet.

‘Did I say something strange? Why should identifying and understanding a miracle be problematic? Wasn’t that what the meditation was for?’

Upon further reflection…

… I still couldn’t find a significant problem.

Thinking it wasn’t something to concern myself with immediately, I decided to put the issue aside for now.

“Then, I will begin. If I fail and turn into a monster… please grant me peace.”

『I shall. It is regretful that offering such a promise is all I can do for you, who came seeking me.』

I shook my head and opened the ‘scripture’.

The nightmarish experiences of Tuatem came to mind.

The hellish scenes of many suffering horrific side effects.

‘No surprise. I’ve always known that I walk the perilous edge of such dangerous madness. That I might helplessly fall.’

I steadied my breath.

“Eldritch, leave this cave. Take the ship and sail as far out to sea as you can.”

“Yes, Lord Ethnos.”

And once more, I looked at Tuatem.

“Your parents’ names were Nephret Peret and Mehen Peret.”

『Were they so… such names. I do not remember. Nothing stirs any more interest like crumbling ashes.』

I gently closed my eyes in response to Tuatem’s bitter musings.

What needed recalling was the singular resolve Tuatem had ignited.

Burning everything.

However, the true effect of the miracle he failed to recognize was…

‘To seize and devour, turning into a more potent flame that scorches opponents.’

Those who attempted the miracle before him did not notice this.

Thus, unable to overcome Tuatem, they merely burned away.

‘I might not withstand it either.’

Receiving the transformation blessing from the might allow endurance.

However, then the Awakening Ritual couldn’t be performed properly.

‘I’ve already experienced it through meditation. If it’s the pain resurfacing, I can endure it.’

Finally, I spoke.

“Burn.”

The moment I started reciting the prayer, flames danced from my breath.

An unimaginable pain began, as my internal organs heated up.

It felt like my eyeballs might explode under the pressure, and my mind boiled over, quite literally.

The brain cooked as it heated.

However, though these flames would cause bodily disintegration and bring pain, they would not bring death.

“Just burn.”

My skin cracked and flames erupted.

My breathing was no longer human; it became the crackling of fire.

As my skin melted and charred, I felt myself becoming flame.

“As even fire with greed…”

This fire devoured other flames and siphoned life.

No matter if one became an eternal, suffering, immortal monster.

Consuming everything to scorch, even living flame itself…

“Burn it away! 〈Funeral of Living Flame〉!”

What was happening to my form?

I could no longer see ahead.

My entire body burned, and each moment of agony felt like eternity.

『The flame… I can feel it.』

My fire blazed even more brilliantly and grandly.

It began to slowly engulf the eternal flame of Tuatem, which once seemed it would burn forever.

Yet the opposing flame also tried to engulf mine, to burn ever brighter.

The fierce red flames burned voraciously, each trying to consume the other.

“They incinerate. They burn even more. The only hope a flame harbors is to burn. Hence, I too must lay down everything else and simply wish to become a flame that burns!”

No matter how powerful Tuatem’s flames were, Tuatem himself fervently resisted and feared becoming fire.

And he wished for death.

I burned to ignite.

Tuatem burned to incinerate himself.

This difference in will split the direction in which the flames aimed to blaze.

“Burn, burn. Burn it all.”

… What am I burning?

Gradually, thoughts of anything other than burning ceased to come to my mind. It seemed as if I was forgetting everything else.

“What I want to burn is…”

I thought of Tuatem.

I wanted to burn his sorrow, toyed with by Gods. I thought of the corpses filling the island. I wanted to burn their curses. And then I thought of myself.

“What constitutes this flame, what it’s burning is…”

My life, my pain, my…

“Conviction.”

The fire roared.

Even as the cave began to collapse, unable to withstand the heat, even the soil and rock turned to mere ashes in my flames.

“Burn it all. Blaze! Blaze!”

For the entire island to catch fire. For this island to become Tuatem’s funeral pyre!

“Finally… he burns away.”

Both Tuatem’s flame and body slowly faded away. Engulfed in my blaze, he was incinerated along with this island.

“At last, he escapes the flames, no longer engulfed in this fire…”

Tuatem’s final flame blazed in rapture, and I burned it down, leaving nothing of him but ashes.

“Now, I can shed the tears I could not on that day. Mother… Father…”

The pile of corpses roared in flames. All the undying were embraced by the flames and met a jubilant death. I alone danced as flame at the center of it all.

Till there was nothing left but a charred blackness. Till the ashes of all flew freely.

* * *

In the midst of the distant sea.

Eldritch was horrified by the rising flames.

Too much.

Those flames absolutely could not be produced by someone at merely the 3rd level of the Awakening Ritual.

“… Elise.”

A long time ago.

During a time when he, treated worse than bugs at sea, had to eavesdrop on as much as possible and gather information to seize any opportunity.

He had once heard that someone who did not serve a God and yet intended to use their power would eventually emerge, and that lacking a God to serve would, in turn, make this person the object of intrigue and greed.

“No wonder even the Outer Gods coveted this. Eager to make such a one their priest, or even their avatar…”

Previously, he thought it was quite powerful, yet inadequate compared to the benefits received.

However, recently, what Eldritch saw in Ethnos’s growth was bizarre to an extreme.

At present, an entire island was being consumed by fire.

“That grand pile of corpses…”

Vanished, burning with jubilation. The corpses that constituted the mound were incinerated within the dancing flames without leaving even ashes behind.

Eldritch looked up at the sky shrouded in black smoke.

“Indeed…”

Starlight pierced through the black smoke.

The Outer Gods watched him. Silently, from beyond the universe.

Not the burning island, nor the death of the Transcendental Priest… They were merely gazing at Ethnos.

It was midday, but the smoke veiled the sky, and countless stars twinkled brightly.