Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~

Together with his friends, Allen had exterminated the monsters attacking Niel.

The largest part of the enemies are monsters that looked like Undead wearing clothes, which were called Pagan Worshippers by the Grimoire.

If more monsters approached the city after that, the Ogre Kings and Troll Kings under the control of Insect A summons would deal with them.

The dozens of minions had been stationed all around the city on regular intervals, ready to attack if an enemy showed up.

To help the people who had been attacked by the monsters, Allen sent support-type summons into the city.

At the same time, Merus continued investigating what had happened in Theomenia.

Allen's group rode on Bird B summons and headed into the crowd that had gathered on the city's broken gate.

Merle returned Tam-Tam into the Magic Board, and went together with Allen.

"It seems they're done cleaning up."

"Yeah, and they're already talking too."

Kiel was talking with the priests, gathering them.

His face was completely drained of color, looking ghastly.

He was probably feeling guilty, knowing what he had done by killing the Pagan Worshippers.

And he was afraid of what he would need to do moving forward.

Allen's group landed amongst the crowd, multiple eyes turning to them in surprise.

Just moments before they were under attack by hordes of monsters, and now mysterious people arrived on summoned Bird B's.

But most of the people were looking at Kiel, so there was not much fuss about Allen.

They all looked at Kiel like they were looking at some celebrity or rarely seen personage.

(Oh right, I think the followers of Elmea believe the healing skills of monks are miracles of God to save humanity.)

Allen recalled his religion classes in the Academy.

Healing people to spare them from suffering, that was the basis of Elmea's religion.

Because of that, any child born with healing abilities gets invited to join the church of Elmea, being called miracle children.

They would all undergo an Appraisal Ceremony at the same age as Allen did, and if they had a Monk Talent, they would be accepted into the church.

"Master Kiel, who are these people?"

One of the priests pointed at us while talking to Kiel.

(They're calling him master, the Saint of Gold.)

Since Kiel had saved the city when it was about to fall, those religious people would definitely consider his existence a miracle from Elmea.

Allen and Ciel looked at him with teasing stares because of the way he was addressed, and he just glared back at them.

"They're all members of the same party as me. The guy in black hair is Allen, our Party Leader."

"Allen? The S Rank Adventurer?"

(Oh? They know about me? Hm?)

At least one of the priests had heard of Allen, the adventurer who achieved rank S just around ten days before.

"Wait, could it be that you were the one who sent that distress message?"

"Yes. I'm Nicolai, a priest here. Did you all come here because of that message?"

(I see, so he's a priest familiar with operating a communication magic device. That's how he was able to send out that message.)

Only someone with access to a device like that would have heard the news about Allen's S Rank so quickly.

But the priest Nicolai was still struggling to believe it.

The message had been sent out the day before at noon.

It would take at least five days to travel there from another continent, even when using the fastest Magic Ship.

Realistically it would take even longer to prepare for such a trip, not to mention that the government would be slow to decide on helping after hearing such a bizarre story.

He had thought his message would be fruitless.

It was hard to believe, but he had seen Kiel's Purification Magic first-hand, and that was a miracle itself.

After observing the enemy, Kiel had decided there were no monsters that could attack from a distance, so he equipped two rings that increased his Intelligence by 5000, which empowered his Purification Magic all the more.

Thanks to that he could Purify the monsters the instant they stepped inside the city.

Nicolai had no choice but to believe it was all true. That Allen, the only S Rank Adventurer in twenty years, who was also known by the title of The First Summoner, had gotten there impossibly quickly together with his party.

Tam-Tam had also remained a considerable distance away from the walls.

"Yes, that's why we came here. Could you tell us in a bit more detail exactly what happened?"

Allen asked the question that kept eating at his mind.

He was talking to the man who had fled the Holy Capital Theomenia, before sending out a message from Niel. Allen wanted to know everything Nicolai had seen.

As it was, he did not know what had happened, or where he should go next.

"T-that might take a bit, so let's go somewhere we can sit."

"No, we don't have enough time. I don't believe this is the only city under attack. We want to leave as soon as we know what's going on, so could we talk here?"

Allen did not believe this was something that could be talked about leisurely while drinking tea and snacking.

The destruction brought forth by the monsters was still ongoing, so he needed to know what was happening, and where to go next.

"I-I see. Everything I said in my message from yesterday is true."

Prefacing with that, he related what happened when everything started.

Some of the other priests around had escaped from Theomenia with Nicolai, adding a few details as well.

Three days before, exactly at noon, the founder of the Evil Cult Gushara Serbilor was set to be executed.

The location was Theomenia's central square, and so far it was exactly what Allen had heard before.

That day, the central square had been overrun by believers of the Evil Cult.

"Did they want to stop the execution?"

"Precisely. We wanted everyone in the Holy Land to know what the Cult Leader Gushara had done, and what his acts had caused, but that was the result."

The Evil Cult Leader Gushara had committed atrocious crimes one after another for many decades, so to tell everyone who knew of him, including his followers, that he was going to get burned at the stake, messengers were sent everywhere in the Holy Land.

Not all cities had magic communication devices at their disposal, so it took time to spread the news.

As a result, the execution date had been delayed for more than a month.

Once the day of the actual execution arrived, an enormous crowd of cultists came to Theomenia, even from neighboring countries. All in an attempt to stop the execution.

The central square was rather large, but there were so many cultists they had to build barricades to stop them, and troops of Holy Soldiers were dispatched to deal with the situation.

The Cult Leader was already tied to a cross, and when the straw and wood at his feet was about to be set on fire, he shouted loudly.

'I've become one with God. I'll be reborn through the flames!!'

And the fire was set. The Cult Leader Gushara was engulfed in flames as his followers cried in dismay.

But something unusual happened.

The flames covering his body grew extremely tall at an unnatural rate.

The flames began taking the shape of a giant, and then there was another loud shout.

'I've been reborn. My faithful followers, I award you the power of salvation.'

Saying that, the enormous flames in humanoid shape turned to a pillar of fire.

There was a large crowd that was caught up in the fire, and the priests and soldiers ran away.

Because they wanted to make an example out of Gushara's execution, they had lured them in. But that backfired as more than a million cultists gathered in Theomenia.

Nicolai desperately ran into that group and towards the gates trying to escape, and that was the last time anyone saw Gushara.

Somehow he managed to get outside of Theomania, but by then there were already monsters similar to Undeads chasing after him from the city.

Trolls and Ogres were already amongst them as well, so anyone who made it out continued running in fear.

Those who were too weak to run, were probably caught quickly and killed by the monsters.

"I see, I understand now. Thanks for telling me."

The priest looked terrified and mortified recalling his experience, and Allen thanked him.

(I guess it's safe to assume the Cult Leader turned all the cultists into Pagan Worshippers then. Does that mean some of them somehow turned into Trolls and Ogres as well? Or is there some other force at play here that we don't know of?)

"What should we do, Allen?"

"Let's see... I think going to Theomenia should be our final objective, but only after we rescue everyone we can. There's still something else I want to check though."

"Hm?"

There was a chance that Theomenia held all the answers.

But saving anyone in danger was important as well.

Allen still had something else he wanted to do though.

(I need to figure out the condition for the cultists to be turned into Pagan Worshippers.)

Allen believed it was imperative to know what made cultists become Pagan Worshippers.

"Excuse me, are there any believers of the Evil Cult around here!!"

Allen asked loudly into the crowd looking at them.

Since he had asked the priest to tell his story in that place, a large crowd of curious people had gathered around them to listen.

"It-It's not called Evil Cult!!"

A young woman in her twenties, holding a baby, shouted back.

"Hm? And who are you?"

"I'm a believer of Gushara's Sacred Teachings."

Allen and the priest Nicolai exchanged glances, wondering what she meant.

"The Cult Leader called his own ideas, Gushara's Sacred Teachings."

In response, the believer of Gushara's Sacred Teachings explained further.