Corrupted Priest-Chapter 19

Resolution.

Through the flames, a portly man ran for his life.

Stren Flcor, the lord of the burning city of Kelton, didn't stop running even as his breath caught painfully in his throat. The weight that usually didn't bother him now felt unbearable. A deep regret—I should've exercised more—flooded his mind, but what could he do now? Regret always came too late.

Everything had started from within the city.

Shortly after Carmen Baltas, the illegitimate son of Enthis Baltas, left with four priests to request reinforcements, the assault by monsters and beasts began.

Stren Flcor had believed this wave could be fended off. And he had reasons to believe that.

High walls, well-rested soldiers, stockpiled provisions, and enemies with no siege weapons.

As long as no one foolishly opened the gates to invite the enemy into a street battle, it was a fight they couldn't lose.

But then the monsters came from inside. From inside the city.

With assaults from both within and without, Kelton became a city of screams. The cries of its people echoed everywhere as the city was engulfed in flames.

"Huff, huff..."

Just a little farther and he'd reach the secret underground passage. Any wise lord would have a few escape tunnels prepared for an emergency. With his retainers buying time with their lives, he had to survive—so he could avenge them.

But Stren Flcor's grim resolve never came to fruition.

A shadow rose and grabbed his ankle. He lost his balance, fell, and slammed into a wall.

"Gah!"

From beyond the blazing corridor, three figures emerged slowly. A beautiful woman with glowing violet eyes frowned and glared at him.

"Tch, this fat pig runs way faster than he looks. What is he, a pig-rabbit hybrid?"

At a gesture from a silent, stern-looking man, the shadow gripping Stren's ankle vanished.

"Enough nonsense. What's the status of the Avatar?"

The blonde woman who had been standing silently at the back replied.

"It's very unstable, since we had to start the process suddenly. As you know, extracting divinity from life is no easy task. And thanks to someone letting those rats escape from the castle, we had to start early—reducing the success rate even more."

Her eyes shifted toward the violet-eyed woman, full of reproach. The woman grimaced.

"You think I wanted to let them go? Huh?! I tried my damned best, okay? Those meathead zealots from the Restoration Sect held me off with their lives, and that bitch Layla didn't even send a single spider! If she'd sent even one, I'd have caught that little rat with the bow!"

The fire crackled.

The blonde woman blinked slowly, then spoke.

"Come to think of it, Layla still isn't here."

"When is that spider-loving bitch not glued to her creepy crawlers? Probably off licking and sucking each other again, ugh!"

Crunch.

The man who had crushed the fallen lord's neck beneath his foot spoke in a low voice.

"That's enough. There's nothing to gain from infighting. And now that a rat has escaped, the fanatics will swarm us like ants. Don't forget how many years we spent preparing this plan."

The violet-eyed woman sneered at him.

"You think I wasn't itching for three years too? But why are you always acting like the leader? Ugh. You're being extra annoying today—did she not suck you off last night or something? You two have been screwing around for a while now. Meanwhile, I've got no one, just rotting alone, and now the two of you who get to bang each other day and night are blaming me? What the hell! I didn't want to let the rat go, okay?! God, I'm so sick of this, I wanna die!"

The flames danced.

The blonde woman didn't bother to hide the disgust rising from deep inside her. She had no choice but to cooperate because of the cult's orders, but this vulgar, loudmouthed wench was revolting every time they met. Trash.

Avoid the shit, not because you fear it—but because it's shit. She repeated the phrase to herself, suppressing her rage.

"I'll go fine-tune the Avatar's condition."

"Tch, like the thing won't make itself by sucking the life outta the city even if you don't show up."

The flames flickered again.

The man let out a long sigh and ran a hand down his face.

"Enough. Please, Parna. We'll blame the escape on Layla, so can you just drop it?"

The violet-eyed woman grinned, baring her pearly white teeth.

"Well, if that's the case—"

Once more, the fire surged. And this time, it spat something out.

WRAAAAAAAAANG!

A piercing screech of metal, like claws raking against glass. A flaming intruder burst from the fire, a high-speed rotating sawblade sword in hand, and sliced the man clean in two.

Parna's eyes flew open in shock.

"Wh-What the fuck—?!"

WRAAAAAAAAANG!

The saw didn't stop. It immediately cut through the blonde woman next, severing her horizontally this time. Blood and guts splattered across Parna's face.

Through the flames, a man emerged, still ablaze, grinning with gleaming white teeth. Marnak.

"The Mother always said that killing the third without asking questions was the height of pettiness. A very wise view. But you see, these people wield divinity. That means there's a chance they could leave a mark on my body. I'm sure the Mother wouldn't want her son to get hurt just for the sake of a little interrogation, would she?"

Parna had no idea what this maniac was talking about. But one thing was crystal clear—she was absolutely fucked.

Her mind raced. She needed a way to survive this lunatic. She couldn't die here.

The man summoned a bowl from thin air and poured water over himself. When the flames finally went out, all the hair on his body had been burnt off, leaving him smooth and bare. Marnak ran a hand over his head.

The feel of prickly, burned stubble. It would only take a day for it to grow back to its former glory, but he still felt a pang of loss.

"Mother, I really would prefer not to hide in fire again. It's painful and... lonely."

He kept talking to himself, showing no sign of stopping. Parna swallowed hard and spoke in the most polite voice she could muster.

"Um... excuse me?"

"Ah."

As if he had just remembered her presence, Marnak looked up, smiling wide with those same white teeth. Then, he asked a single question:

"What's the purpose of your siege on Kelton?"

In the kindest voice imaginable.

"...I see."

"Is that so? That's incredible."

The woman who introduced herself as Parna fortunately began to spill everything she knew the moment I asked, as if she'd been waiting for the chance.

The story was simpler than I expected.

Their goal was to offer all the humans in this city as sacrifices to create an Avatar—a monstrous, moving lump of divine energy. They had been operating in secret for three years in this city to prepare for the plan. Ideally, they would've needed about five more days of groundwork to create a perfect Avatar, but losing Carmen forced them to rush the operation. That was the true story behind this incident.

Carmen managed to escape safely. That's a relief.

Leaving Parna behind, I first harvested the bodies of the man and woman I had killed. The man had three and a half fingers, and the woman had three-fingered hands. A total of two thousand divine energy seeped into my body.

[Divine Power: 7582]

I placed the bottomless washbasin into one of the two slots in my inventory, then turned back to Parna. She was staring at me with eyes full of horror.

"Wh-what... what did you just do?"

"What else? I claimed their lives and offered them to my mother."

"Without any kind of ritual?! It's common knowledge that converting life into divine energy requires a complex ritual process!!!"

I smiled softly and brought the Butcher's Edge to her neck.

"You've gotten quite chatty all of a sudden. If you ask, must I really explain everything in painstaking detail? Now, why don't you take me to where that so-called Avatar is?"

She glanced nervously at the blood-and-flesh-stained Butcher's Edge, swallowed hard, and replied.

"O-okay..."

Following behind Parna, I picked up the froststeel sword I had left lying on the ground earlier and strapped it to my waist. The priest's robes, blessed with Yuji's Grace, were slowly restoring themselves. My hair still needed a bit more time.

The place where the Avatar was being created was at the central plaza of the city. A massive, squirming mass of flesh tangled with crimson lumps continuously emitted divine power.

I couldn't help but marvel.

"It's even more impressive than I imagined."

Parna looked at the flesh mass with proud eyes.

"Of course. Why do you think we went through hell for three years? If it wasn't at least this much, that would've been more unbelievable."

Whether she was proud or not didn't concern me. I activated the Butcher's Edge.

WREEEEEEEEE!!!

"Y-you! What do you think you're doing?!"

Gripping the violently vibrating Butcher's Edge, I smiled again.

"What do you think? I'm going to kill this monster before it fully awakens, since it's grown fat on the blood and flesh of innocent people."

There's no way a creature like this wasn't related to the main quest. I figured that killing it now would be the best way to delay its progress. All I needed was more time to gather enough divine powers.

Because the more divine power I amassed, the stronger I would become.

"D-don't! You can't do that!!!"

Ignoring Parna's screams, I swung the Butcher's Edge down. The blade shredded the massive lump of flesh, and bright red blood and chunks of meat splattered across my face.

Squelch.

Something shot out from the crimson flesh and pierced through my shoulder. I quickly backed away.

The bleeding from the wound wouldn't stop.

Damn it. That attack was imbued with divine power. Parna clutched her head and screamed.

"Aaaaahhhh!!! Because you threatened it, the Avatar awakened in an unstable state! It won't even understand language now!!!"

The massive lump of flesh split open, and the red blood and meat twisted and churned until something barely resembling a human form emerged. The flesh at the spot where a mouth should be split open, letting out a piercing shriek that echoed through Kelton.

– It hurts!!!

The body of this imperfect Avatar, born from the sacrifice of an entire city, exuded an unending stream of ominous divine power.

Now this was troublesome. The bleeding from my shoulder still wouldn't stop.

"Kill!!!"

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My mother's urgent cry. It carried two meanings.

That inside this Avatar's body was one of the eleven holy relics I was searching for.

And that she didn't care about retrieving it right now—she wanted me to run.

"I appreciate the concern."

"What?! When did I ever care abo—"

Slice.

Parna's head rolled across the ground. I wiped the blood from my froststeel blade and harvested her corpse. Another thousand divine energy seeped into me.

[Divine Power: 8582]

"Kill!!!"

A clear warning not to talk back—just run. I heated the froststeel blade with a nearby flame and cauterized the wound in my shoulder as I replied to my mother.

"Today, I'll awaken a new divine power and offer the relic inside that lump of meat to you, Mother."

The crimson mass of flesh split at the forehead, revealing a single eye that stared straight at me. The monster, now fully visible, opened its mouth toward me.

– Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! Hurts! I HURT!!!

There was no room to answer.

The divine energy I had absorbed to the brink coursed through the Script of Decay, amplifying my physical capabilities to the limit.

And I bolted, fleeing the plaza.

I dashed through the burning city streets of Kelton, scanning my surroundings.

"Kill!!!"

That one's no good. That one's still usable. I rushed to it, touched it, and muttered,

"Mother. Please stop being angry and accept this."

The corpse decayed, releasing one divine energy.

[Divine Power: 8583]

– AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!

The chilling screams were drawing nearer. The awakened Avatar was chasing me at full speed.

This was a race. Whether I could awaken a new divine power before it caught me—or get caught and die trying.

I pushed myself off the ground and ran through the blazing city once more.

"If we let a monster like that live, surely many more will die. And I must retrieve the relic inside its body while I have the chance."

"Kill!!!"

A scolding filled with concern, warning me I was being reckless. I smiled, grateful for her worry.

"Mother. I'll give it my best shot. And if it really looks hopeless, I'll run. So please, calm your anger. This is the time for us to work together."

"Kill..."

A sigh of exasperation, followed by a reluctant acceptance: Fine, do as you will. The approval flowed into my heart. I chuckled.

"Then let's make it spectacular. Watch closely from my side, won't you?"