Orna City
"Pope, they've been discovered and are currently being hunted down."
In a luxurious manor, a middle-aged man sat sunbathing by the pool. This manor looked completely out of place in the city, which had been at war for twelve years. People were inclined to build discreet and sturdy houses, not luxurious villas and manors for leisure like this one.
The person reporting to him was a woman, the very same one who had stood on a high floor observing the army as they transported supplies earlier.
"Pope... aren't you angry?"
"Angry? Why should I be angry? Toriel, do you know what's over there? Humanity's most powerful armed forces, along with Sasha Camberial, one of the strongest reformers today. It was only a matter of time before they were exposed."
The woman named Toriel was frightened upon hearing Sasha's name, simply because Sasha's combat power was overwhelmingly strong, even more so than the doom cult. Because of her protection, Rorgh City had stood tall and never fallen.
"I'm just a little annoyed. I thought it would take at least a week for them to be discovered."
"Garfield over there deserves to be punished," Toriel said sternly.
"Fine, just let him operate freely there."
The Pope got up and went inside the house, with the woman respectfully following him. The two went down to a basement with a long corridor. On both sides of the corridor were cages. Each cage held a doom. When they saw the Pope and Toriel approaching, they let out loud roars, their four flower-like mouths agape. But the two had long grown accustomed to the sight. They walked straight to the room at the end of the corridor.
The room was almost empty, with only an oil painting hanging on the wall. It depicted a terrifying scarlet shadow, with suction cups like roots spreading across the dark ground. Above the sky and below the ground were countless other red shadows. The horrifying and eerie scene in the painting could give an ordinary person goosebumps.
"Revered Doom Lord."
The Pope and the woman both knelt, their expressions respectful. Many people misunderstood the beliefs of the doom cult. Its followers did not worship the doom species, but only the Doom Lord.
The reason why followers would prostrate themselves before dooms and feed them was because the cult believed that the Doom Lord was a "god" and the other dooms were "god's" incarnations. The "god" would know of their reverence through these incarnations.
After the worship ceremony, the Pope and Toriel walked out of the basement. As they walked, the Pope suddenly spoke.
"All the previous popes were fools. Except for the very first pope, who had some skill, most had too low a vision or too small a scope. Don't you agree, Toriel?"
"Yes, Pope, you are the greatest person in the history of the doom cult."
In the past, the doom cult, while no match for human forces, was not so weak that it had to hide and only operate at frontline 17.
The reason was that the cult's first pope had caused a sub-city to collapse, leading to the tragic deaths of 2 million people. This sparked the most horrifying hunt by humanity against the fanatics of the doom cult. The blood of a city and 2 million people had completely ignited their fury. It was once recorded that in Lysandra, five popes were executed on the spot in just three days.
During that period, the doom cult went through at least twenty popes before successfully fleeing to frontline 17 and hiding there.
Noid woke up with a lifeless expression, only showing exhaustion and dejection.
The coffee shop had been closed for three days, but he didn't care. He took some food out of the refrigerator for breakfast. The cold bread was stuffed directly into his mouth. The taste didn't matter to him.
This blow was even more terrible than the death of his parents. This time, he had truly made an effort to save someone important to him. It was as if fate was toying with Noid; all he saved was a cold, soulless body.
Noid returned to his old, sloppy lifestyle, just waiting to die. He really wanted to go back to how things were before, but the moment he cried and hugged the corpses of Jack and his parents, who had pushed him into a lifeboat, felt like a curse, causing him excruciating pain.
He unconsciously went to the common room they both shared: two mattresses, various belongings scattered around, and the familiar mini-kitchen. He looked over at the storage area and found a small box of books had appeared there at some point.
Curiosity, combined with his idleness, led Noid to explore what was inside the box.
He didn't really like reading, so all the books were ones Jack had stored there. He recognized that most of the books in the box were about the superhero in armor that the boy had brought home before. Although the comics were very old, Jack had carefully preserved them and even numbered them for easy organization.
Noid had only read the first volume with the boy and then stopped. He didn't know Jack had collected so many.
He hesitated for a moment, then decided to open one and start reading.
The content of the volume after the first was still about the daily battles between monsters and the hero. But the content about the battles with monsters became less, and the comic focused more on the protagonist himself.
The main character once had a younger sister, and flashbacks appeared. The first time the protagonist transformed into a hero was to save his sister from a monster's claws. Unfortunately, the girl did not survive in the end.
"I don't have happiness..."
Noid's chest trembled as he recalled the words the hero in armor said at the end of the first volume. His eyes widened, looking like a madman as he read the comic nonstop. At some point, the image of the protagonist in the comic overlapped with his own memories. Noid was no longer reading a comic book. He was searching, searching for an answer.
"... but I will protect the happiness of others."
Why?
Noid was full of confusion. He couldn't understand why that person would risk his life to save people. Why try so hard? Was the main character a saint?
But the deeper he delved, Noid realized that from the very beginning, there were no saints in the series. The protagonist didn't have a grand sense of righteousness or heroic ideals. He was just a brother in pain from losing his closest relative, a brother who became a hero to fight for his family.
After his sister died, the protagonist used his power to take revenge on the monsters. But at some point, he could no longer ignore the pleas of innocent people. He saved others without expecting anything in return, only wishing that no one else would have to suffer like he did. But the hero didn't just kill monsters; the protagonist let a brutal scientist who experimented on people be avenged by his own "products."
He fought for his family, fought for revenge, and finally, he fought for happiness. And when he was about to be arrested by the army, many citizens came out to protect him. They protected the man they had previously doubted and seen as a monster, to the protagonist's own astonishment.
The final battle took place between the king of monsters and the hero. The hero transformed into his strongest form and had a fierce and tragic battle with the monster king. The monster king was annihilated, and the hero, tragically victorious, finally passed out in the rubble.
In the end, the citizens erected a statue of the hero, always in his armor and with his face never shown, in the middle of the city to remember him. What was originally a hidden face born of hatred and sorrow eventually became a symbol of hope. The final page of the comic was an image of the young man standing in front of a tombstone, leaving a letter there before getting on a motorcycle and driving towards the horizon.