Fated to Be Loved by Villains

The glorious ascension isn’t far off...

The Pope of the Holy Kingdom thought so as he gazed at the massive sphere flickering before his eyes.

“-Haaa.”

It had been a truly long and arduous journey.

His grand project, prepared over countless years, was now on the verge of completion.

“Finally...

“We pay homage. To the dawn of the new world.”

Gazing at the ‘sacred thing’ wriggling inside the sphere, he let out a faint smile.

Everything he did...

From the creation of Saintess Lucia and her sister, ‘Talisman’, to the creation of chimeras using humans as sacrifices, as well as various other ‘experiments’; these were the culmination of all the bioengineering know-hows he gained while raising those ‘things’. This was the fruit of the Holy Kingdom’s greatest project.

The fruit of that exact labor.

A vessel to house a Divine Being; the Holy Body, the Sacred Flesh.

But, it’s still not enough.

Though nearly complete, the ‘catalyst’ to put the final touch was not yet ready.

Fortunately, the ‘material’ for that was right in this vicinity.

The Homunculus sisters.

Yuria Greyhounter and Lucia Greyhounter.

There was a reason why he had left them alone until now, despite having been monitoring them for a while.

The more the power dwelling within them grew, the more it would enhance the completion of the Holy Body.

“...”

The pope recalled Dowd Campbell, who was surely near the Void Zone where he was currently situated, and let out a cold smile.

He snickered at the thought of how that fool thought that he had the upper hand in the situation, that he was navigating the current predicament well.

Not knowing that he had been dancing on his palm this whole time; he had brought all the necessary ‘materials’ here.

It wasn’t limited to just the Homunculus sisters, all the other Devil Vessels each had their own ‘use’ to some degree.

“So this is the god or whatever of that new world?”

“...”

At that moment, an unbearably nonchalant voice dropped beside him.

Despite being in the presence of such a glorious being, the voice only reacted this way. It grated on his nerves, but he decided not to show it.

After all, this woman had provided the greatest help in creating this Holy Body and setting up this trap.

“...Prophet.”

He called out to her in a murky voice, and the Prophet grinned as she looked around the sphere.

“So this is the ultimate weapon that’ll clean up the Material World entirely and let the things in the Astral Realm knead the world as they please, huh?”

“...Prophet.”

“Since I helped you make this thing, I should get my share of the reward now, don’t you think?”

“...”

The pope looked at her with displeasure, then clicked his tongue and threw something at her.

It was a sword. Not an ordinary sword, but a ‘special’ item he had requested from the angels of the Astral Realm.

The sword was made using a fragment of a star; it was completely identical to the ‘Holy Sword’ used by the Hero of the present age.

An item with attributes completely antithetical to ‘Devils’; their Achilles’ heel.

“Right, it wouldn’t be fun without this.”

“-Our cooperation ends here.”

“You’re talking as if you’re finally parting with someone you don’t like. I hate you even more than you hate me, you know?”

“...”

The Prophet said this as she fastened the sword to her waist.

Although it was the first time she had touched the sword, it clung to her as if she had wielded it all her life.

As she turned to leave, she suddenly turned her head as if she had remembered something.

“Ah, right, one piece of advice.”

“...Were we on such friendly terms to exchange such words?”

“Of course not. The more time you drag this out, the easier it is for me too.”

“...”

Seeing the pope letting out a frown, she continued with a snicker.

“Don’t let your guard down.”

“...”

“Use every means you can, throw everything you got at him starting now. If you slack off, you’ll die like an idiot. Understood?”

“...I’m already doing that.”

“Doesn’t look that way to me though.”

“...”

“The Holy Kingdom’s main forces are joining the fray way too slowly, the chimeras haven’t been deployed yet, and you aren’t even thinking about waking up and using this Holy Body.”

“...”

“It seems like all the people inside the Great Temple have already escaped. The Gray Vessel doesn’t seem to be running wild as much as expected either.”

Such things were all just trivial variables.

In the pope’s eyes, he found it incomprehensible how Dowd was wasting time on such things.

“Nonsense.”

He chuckled and gripped his wand.

“That guy, now that he’s come this far, is already prey caught in my trap.”

“Ah, I see. You’re fucked.”

“...What?”

“You already know that he isn’t someone who’ll go down so easily—Whatever, you know what?”

“What the hell are you trying to say—”

“You’re gonna fucking die, dumbass. You already lost.”

“...”

“Just wait and see, you’ll struggle pathetically and hideously, and in the end, you’ll meet a miserable end.”

“...”

“Aah~ I really am the only villain in the world who properly knows that man, huh~?”

“...If you’re done here, get out.”

The pope said, turning away from her as if he’d lost interest.

At this, the Prophet just shrugged and promptly turned to leave.

“...”

Some time passed after she left.

The pope sat with his chin in his hand, deep in thought.

Despite his earlier attitude, he seemed to be pondering deeply on what she had just said.

After thinking for a moment while standing there, he beckoned one of the attendants nearby with a gesture.

“Release the chimeras.”

At those words, the eyes of the attendant who had been waiting for his order widened.

The only ones around now were the Devil’s Vessels and Dowd Campbell leading them.

To use the chimeras, whose intended goal was to...

“B-But Your Holiness. W-We were supposed to deploy them later to subjugate the entire cont—”

The attendant didn’t even finish his words.

Because he sensed danger in the pope’s gaze.

“...I will carry it out.”

With those words, the attendant withdrew silently.

To unleash a calamity that would engulf the continent with his own hands.

●

Although Marquis Bogut was famous as a genius strategist, there was another field where his reputation was similarly high.

The Invincible Chess Knight. The one who had never lost.

His command of operations was, in some ways, very similar to that.

To him, a war was just a chessboard he could play with.

Information about the war situation was like the thing that helped him draw the chessboard more accurately.

Although, he didn’t know how he started to think that way. To him, he had been like this from birth, as if it was something that was engraved on his soul.

And now, his evaluation of the opponent was.

“Tsk, this guy’s no fun.”

“...”

“How can he play this badly? I could give up my knight and rook and still win.”

Bogut said nonchalantly as he organized and compressed the numerous data coming up before his eyes, skillfully issuing commands on the keypad in front of him.

Kasa Garda looked at him with a dumbfounded expression.

“...Not a ‘guy’, there should be multiple of them.”

“Pardon?”

“Who in the world commands a war alone? They must have their own command center over there too.”

At Kasa’s words, Bogut stared at the screen with a look of genuine incomprehension.

“...This is the level of multiple people working together?”

“...”

Yeah. If you say so, I guess that’s how it is.

Kasa thought this as she puffed on her pipe.

The other side was probably barking orders after orders with all their might, but they could only inflict minor injuries, rarely serious injuries, to this side. There were no fatalities this side suffered so far; an astonishing exchange ratio.

Of course, the allied forces Dowd had provided were incredibly strong, but even considering that, this punk’s command was almost divine. It was possible because he was deflecting all of the enemy’s schemes.

This time too, a new scheme from the opponent was about to fly in. Dozens of red dots were marked on the panel in front of them. It was a signal indicating enemy movement.

“—That’s not going to happen.”

Marquis Bogut grinned and raised his hand to quickly press the keypad this time too.

Or rather, he would have done so if he hadn’t realized that this wasn’t the movement of an ordinary ‘soldier’ that he had been facing up until now.

“...What’s this?”

Bogut muttered as he stared at the red dots on the screen.

Intuitively, he realized that something was off about these dots.

One became two.

Two became four. Four became eight. Eight became sixteen...

As the number of red dots on the screen gradually increased, the faces of everyone in the command and control room turned pale.

Anyone who wasn’t an idiot would immediately know what this meant.

“...These aren’t humans. We need to assess the situation with drones immediately!”

“What the fuck did those Holy Kingdom bastards create?!”

A living organism that could continuously increase its numbers on its own... I’ve never heard of such a thing.

We haven’t grasped individual combat capabilities yet, but this fact alone already makes them threatening enough.

“This might be a little difficult...”

He muttered as such while breaking out cold sweat.

Even without knowing the full extent of its capabilities, it was obvious that a living organism with an absurd ability to divide their bodies wouldn’t have any ordinary combat capabilities. It was clear that they had applied all sorts of enhancements on it.

If he were to respond the same way he had been doing until now, it was clear that they’d have to suffer significant losses.

—The countermeasure...

Right now, the Holy Kingdom’s forces were committed to guarding whatever ‘thing’ the pope was doing in the Void Zone. They were so committed that they’ve given up on the defense of their own country.

Although Dowd’s allied forces were managing to respond fairly well with minimal casualties so far, if something like this came out now, significant damage was bound to occur.

What should we do...?

The problem here was that, Dowd ordered him to ‘make the casualties as small as possible’.

Or rather, ‘make sure that no one dies’.

It was an impossible order to fulfill in such a situation.

While he was pondering...

“...Hmm?”

His sight had caught something passing by the edge of the screen.