I Became the Moon Goddess' Apostle in a Dark Fantasy-Chapter 56: Crescent Cut

"What is that?"

The accursed took cover behind the falling debris, pushing itself with just its hands.

Weird bumps wiggled underneath the skin.

Black liquid spewed out of the accursed’s orifices like bullets, steaming hot.

And the body morphed to an unnatural degree.

The liquid melted or burned anything it touched, so it wasn’t the smartest choice to approach it right now.

"Don’t look if you don’t want to," Raven warned, expecting a completely disgusting makeover.

But nobody followed that advice.

"I can’t always be facing away, Dante," Zuri said, as she gagged at the scene.

Their bravado was just on the outside, but it was still something.

Janet was in the same boat.

It felt wrong just watching it.

It was as if something was trying to claw its way out of the skin.

Raven activated his [Trace Eyes] ability and looked at it.

And his eyes widened.

A realization hit him like a train.

"The monastery granny wasn’t turned into an accursed due to the influence." He mumbled, letting everyone hear what he was saying.

Zuri, who was the most knowledgeable there, looked at him with eyes full of suspicion, "Are you saying-"

Raven nodded.

"She deliberately made a deal with the accursed."

"And most likely, her target was the Church?" Carroll added.

Everyone else nodded, since this was the same conclusion they had reached.

It explained why an accursed was only targeting the people from the Church, and not harming the village.

"But why?" Everyone had the same question.

Everyone but Raven.

"More importantly," He put his perception forward, "I don’t think a high-level accursed has enough intelligence to form a pact with a human."

Janet’s legs gave up instantly, as she understood the meaning behind these words.

"Th- There’s a ranked accursed here?" She was stuttering like a broken machine.

But Zuri came to the rescue with her knowledge.

"I don’t think ranked accurseds have this kind of freedom here."

She paused for a bit and added, "Someone from the Church would have sensed the creature a long time ago."

Janet relaxed.

And so did the others.

They trusted Zuri’s knowledge.

"Guys," Pevon called out, "I think it’s time."

The liquid and steam spewing out were slowing down, and something else entirely was making it out of the mouth of the granny.

It was a black, gooey, and slimy tentacle at first, and then two more.

Ugh!

They winced at the sight.

What the fuck was that?

"Charge as soon as the thing comes out."

Everyone nodded.

"What even is that?" They wondered as the entire thing finally popped out.

But Raven could only think of one single thing.

’Davy Jones.’

It was a humanoid figure, with its face covered in black, slimy tentacles.

Even its legs were tentacles.

Regardless, he raised his hand, pointed his index finger at it, and suddenly, he noticed something.

A blue thread.

His [Trace Eyes] revealed a blue thread coming out of his index finger, and marking a diagonal through the accursed’s head.

And as his fingers moved to the center of its head, the thread tightened.

Could it be?

"The slippery bastard is running away," Pevon shouted, immediately launching himself towards it.

Zuri also launched a barrage of fireballs and arrows.

The thread got looser as the creature moved.

Raven suddenly had an idea for a risky experiment.

"Janet," He called her out with a calm tone, "Can you stun it for a second?"

"That’s exactly what I was planning to do." She commented as she released her debuffs on it.

Zwook!

It froze on its spot, and Raven lined up his shot at once.

His thread had tightened yet again.

And wasting no time, he launched his [Crescent Cut].

Swish!

The creature moved, dodging Pevon’s sword in the nick of time.

But suddenly,

Slice!

Despite moving in a zig-zag line, with a protective armor still on, the accursed was cleanly sliced in half.

It was as if a hot knife had dug through butter.

There was no resistance.

And the cut vanished as it finished its job.

The accursed was dead.

DAMN!

Raven gasped internally.

This was fucking crazy.

So, this is what it meant by ’whose trajectory is something the Trace could decide’.

It was like an extremely fast, efficient, armor-piercing slice that sought out its target at any cost.

It didn’t stop at anything.

Huh?

He suddenly felt his eyelids getting heavy.

As if he were losing control of his own body.

’Is it the price for this skill?’

"What was that?" The rest of the team exclaimed in unison.

A spell like that?

And the origin of this thing was...

"Dante?"

They looked back, their eyes begging for answers.

But what they came across was something unexpected.

It was Raven, who was falling at a rapid speed, his body going limp.

Janet, who was right next to him, caught his falling body.

The rest of them rushed towards him as well.

"Is he that tired?" Pevon rushed to him and asked.

Carroll added, "Might very well be."

"No," But Zuri shot them down.

Her voice told them it was more serious than that.

"His entire mana conduit seems empty."

"But that is not that uncommon?"

They had heard about people being drained of their mana in its entirety.

But Zuri and Janet, who were magicians, knew this better than them.

"I don’t know what happened here, but it seems like his body would take days to recover from this."

"Days of rest?"

Janet shook her head.

"Days of sleep."

They were surprised.

What even happened with him?

"P- Pevon," Raven barely mumbled under his breath, fading in and out of consciousness continuously.

"What is it, Raven?" He immediately approached him, his ears next to his mouth.

"T- That granny is..." He took a deep breath, "Still alive."

They nodded.

As horrifying as it was.

It was the truth.

"Go and i- in-interrogate her, and," His neck was bobbing up and down.

He was brute-forcing this conversation, but nobody interrupted exactly because of that.

"Put her out of her misery."

His head finally went down, and he fainted.

His last bit of energy was drained out.

Pevon froze. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

’Kill a person? Me?’

But he said, put her out of misery.

Which meant she was suffering horribly.

And someone had to do it.

He couldn’t force this upon anyone else.

’Ah, fuck you, Raven.’