Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Sweeping Out the Defectors (1)

That night.

After checking the time, I cast ‘Reptile Ignorance,’ left the dormitory, and headed to the place where I had agreed to meet Lucia. 

Lucia, who had arrived first, was waiting at the appointed location.

Her expression was still dry and emotionless, but killing intent flashed in her eyes.

“You crazy bastard…….”

“Starting with curses the moment you see my face is a little much.”

I replied irritably, but I did feel guilty, so I did not say much more.

Lucia must have heard something about the note one way or another.

“Does it look like I wouldn’t? What were you thinking, telling a lie like that?”

“Tsk, how was I supposed to know those kids would be that serious about romance gossip?”

I had thought it would be buried somehow and intended to gloss over it lightly, but it seemed I had underestimated far too much how much these damn teenagers loved “other people’s romance stories.”

In less than a day, the story about the note I had given Lucia had quietly spread among the students of Saengterminum.

The students from the same department did not say anything openly either, but… the looks they gave us were quite piercing in their own subtle way.

“Well, thanks to that, the kids stopped suspecting us even more, so it turned out fine. What about you, Senior? Did you keep your mouth shut when the kids in your department kept asking questions?”

“I did not know what I was supposed to say…….”

“See? If you had kept dodging the subject, the kids in your department would have hounded you and me somehow to find out. It is better than having your origin exposed, is it not?”

Was it because I had spent so long on battlefields where a single wrong choice could be directly tied to death? 

The way young students thought did not quite line up with the way I, who had rolled through war, saw things.

“Enough. Let’s do what we came here to do.”

After answering roughly, I looked ahead. 

Lucia still seemed uneasy, but soon turned her head forward, following my gaze.

After all, neither she nor I had met to make idle conversation.

Splash… splat…….

The stone floor Lucia and I were walking on was damp, and household sewage with a musty stench flowed on both sides.

Sewers ran along both sides, while a path had been made in the middle so people could pass through.

This place was an underground waterway on the outskirts of Saengterminum, located quite far from the Valak Order’s headquarters at the center of Saengterminum.

“…It is here.”

The place where Lucia stopped did not seem very different from any other underground waterway at a glance.

Except for the fact that a red membrane covered the entire passage.

“Can you see it too?”

“Yes. Well, I can see it clearly.”

This was a membrane invisible to ordinary eyes. 

It was a kind of barrier that only contractors who had made contracts with Valak could see.

“So… the defectors put up barriers like this and hole up inside them?”

“Yes.”

“A demon’s authority really is impressive. They can put up a barrier this large and still avoid being discovered.”

When Lucia reached out toward the red membrane, a violet light rose, and a hole large enough for one person to pass through opened in the barrier.

She had temporarily neutralized the barrier through her ability as the Cult Leader.

“Aron, may I ask one favor of you……?”

After hesitating for a moment, Lucia continued.

“Even if you see the defectors inside, please do not attack them immediately.”

“Why?”

“Those people… even if they left the Order, they might return if we can still communicate with them.”

“Ah, is that so?”

I nearly frowned.

It had been the same in the previous round, and this girl had not changed in this round either.

She could not boldly cut away what had to be cut away.

“Do as you like.”

After that curt answer, Lucia and I stepped through the hole.

Whoosh…….

The air was chilly, and a thick red mist had settled over the area.

Even the light from the luminescent stones installed at regular intervals along the waterway had weakened, leaving nothing but pitch-black darkness on the far side of the channel.

However, since we had already entered the barrier, the defectors must have noticed Lucia’s and my intrusion.

It was no different from walking openly into a trap, but… in order to eliminate the defectors, there was no other way except to enter the barrier ourselves.

Had we walked inward together for about twenty minutes?

Splash- squelch- splat-

The sound of footsteps came from the darkness in multiple directions at once, and several people began to reveal themselves.

“…They came from behind too.”

The defectors jumped out one after another from the small tunnels located throughout the waterway.

Ten in front and ten behind, twenty in total.

As I had seen in the Artificial Rift, these bastards were defectors who had made contracts with Valak but did not follow Valak’s will.

“Wow……. The corruption has progressed quite a lot, has it not?”

Every last one of them had bloodshot red eyes, and black veins were visible beneath their skin.

On top of that, Demonic Aura seeped out from their bodies.

They had not had Lucia manage their madness for a long time, so it was their own fault.

“Grrrk……. Hk…….”

“Oh……. Cult… Leader… Krrk…….”

“My lord… how long… hk…….”

They could not even use language properly, and their words came mixed with a phlegmy sound that did not belong to humans.

Even so, Lucia spoke to the defectors without wavering.

“You all… do you recognize who I am?”

Good grief.

I sighed inwardly.

Did she really think communication with them would be possible?

They had already crossed the line long ago.

“Who… are……. Krrrk…….”

“Dangerous… no……. Not… one of us?”

Communication itself could not be established.

Their minds had been broken to such an extent that it would not be strange to call them Corrupted Bodies.

They were now monsters wearing human skin.

At least their survival instincts had remained, which was why they had put up a barrier and hidden where others would not see them.

To those bastards, we were now intruders who had entered their nest, nothing more and nothing less.

“Dan… ger…….”

“Kill… them… them!”

Woooooo…….

The defectors’ Demonic Aura rose thickly from their bodies.

It was unmistakable killing intent.

“Is this not enough conversation?”

“…Yes. It is.”

Lucia let out a low note of bitterness.

Crack, crack, crack!

Then she raised ‘Full-Body Demonic Armament’ across her entire body and prepared for combat.

Woooong.

I also activated my Sacred Mark and gathered Holy Power in my heart.

“Should we each take the front and back?”

“We should.”

There were two of us, and twenty of them.

It was clear a one-versus-many battle would take place.

Since nimble movement would be more important than physical strength, I drew the Mid-Rank Holy Magic I had recently memorized onto my body.

Auto-Casting.

Grace of Agility.

Whooong…….

Along with an uplifting sensation that made my body feel much lighter, the defectors charged from both sides.

They were fast.

Their basic physical abilities had far surpassed the level of ordinary people.

It was because parts of their bodies had been transformed closer to demons due to corruption.

Their bodies had long since become similar to a state of wearing ‘Demonic Armament.’

They were on a different level from the defector bastards I had seen in the Artificial Rift.

“Then I will take the front…….”

“Wait.”

I stopped Lucia as she was about to run straight ahead and stretched both arms forward and backward.

When dealing with bastards whose corruption had progressed that far and whose numbers were this large, charging honestly was troublesome. 

It was better to introduce some sort of variable first.

For example, taking away their sight.

I opened both hands.

Faa…….

A dazzlingly white light shone from both hands.

It was bright, but since it was Elementary Holy Magic, its range was narrow.

However, because it was Elementary Holy Magic, it did not consume much Holy Power, and the calculations were not too burdensome either.

In other words.

“Come at me, you bastards.”

Papapapap!

Curling the corner of my mouth into a sneer, I drew the same formula in large quantities over both hands.

Holy Light, consecutive casting.

The many Holy Lights cast densely in midair intertwined with one another and expanded their area.

Now, the radiance of the Holy Light no longer remained only on my palms.

The entire waterway stretching along my arms was within the effective range of Holy Light.

Faaaaaaa……!

The chain of bursting white light brightly illuminated the dark waterway.

Throb…….

“Tsk.”

Less than a second after casting it, I felt pain in my heart and immediately canceled the spell.

Even so, it had landed effectively.

Kyaaaaaaaak!

All the defectors who had entered the light’s range let out screams of pain and clutched at their eyes.

“Kya! The effect is amazing.”

This was not light made of mana, but light made of Holy Power. 

To these bastards, who had been corrupted by Demonic Aura, it would feel as though their eyes were not merely blinded, but burning away.

Since it was Holy Magic with no destructive power at all, they would recover in less than five seconds, but.

There was no way I would wait for that.

I summoned Holy Light Daggers and gripped them in both hands.

Lucia and I briefly exchanged glances.

Bang! 

Papak!

Then, without anyone needing to say anything, we kicked off the ground in opposite directions.

Lucia went forward.

I went backward.

Just like that, I stretched both arms forward and threw Holy Light Daggers at the foreheads of the two bastards at the very front.

Ping!

The two defectors, who had flinched after sensing the sound, turned their heads and avoided the daggers by a hair’s breadth. 

The daggers only thinly grazed their cheeks before embedding themselves in the wall beside them.

“Huh, they dodged that?”

Their reflexes had risen considerably due to corruption.

They were this mobile even though their eyes had not recovered yet. 

They were certainly troublesome.

Even so, it had still landed effectively.

““Gaaaaaah!””

The two defectors clutched their faces with their arms and let out shrill screams.

Golden light flickered from the wounds that had grazed their cheeks and began eating into their skin.

The Holy Power that had come into contact with Demonic Aura had revealed its true nature.

Two Holy Light Daggers, resummoned.

After slipping between the two defectors flailing from the surging pain, I cut through the vital points on their necks at the same time.

Pshaaaaak!

With that, eight were left.

Crack!

“……!”

Instinctively sensing something ominous, I ducked the moment I heard the sound.

A long black spike brushed past my hair and stabbed into the floor at a diagonal angle.

If I had not been under the effect of ‘Grace of Agility,’ my movement would have been delayed, and my head would have been pierced clean through.

“Krrrk… hk…….”

When I looked in the direction it had flown from, a defector standing farther back than the others, who had condensed Demonic Aura and fired it at me, gnashed his teeth.

Seeing that his eyes were half-open, it seemed he had recovered at least somewhat.

The concentration of Demonic Aura writhing from his body was thicker than anyone else’s here.

“…What?”

A chill ran down my spine, unlike me.

Was it because I had nearly died? 

There was no way. 

An attack as simple as that, whose trajectory I could see, could be avoided easily with a body under the effect of ‘Grace of Agility.’

However.

‘Was there… a bastard who could shoot Demonic Aura here?’

When I had eliminated the defectors in the underground waterway in the previous round, had there been a bastard who condensed Demonic Aura and fired it like that?

It had been ten years ago, so I could not remember clearly.

‘Well, it is trivial.’

Slice!

After cutting down the unpleasant spike embedded beside me with a Holy Light Dagger, I immediately threw two of them straight ahead.

This time, it was not a straight trajectory.

Whirrrr!

The two daggers, which I had deliberately given a spin, rotated in midair and headed toward the defector shrouded in thick Demonic Aura.

“Kraaaaa!”

After confirming that the defector had noticed the attack and was stretching both arms out while shaping Demonic Aura, I immediately pulled my right arm back.

Holy Light Spear, Single Forging.

Then, putting my waist and the centrifugal force of my arm behind it.

Paaaang!

I threw the spear.

Kakang!

At the same moment the Holy Light Spear left my hand, the two Holy Light Daggers I had just thrown were deflected by the Demonic Aura the defector had shaped.

“Krrrk?”

However, thanks to that, the defector was a beat late in noticing the Holy Light Spear.

“Kiya.”

Crack!

Before the defector, who had sensed the abnormality, could shape more Demonic Aura, the Holy Light Spear pierced straight through his chest.

A time-lag attack.

It worked easily because his reason had been destroyed. 

These bastards had a strong tendency to act only according to the attacks rushing in right before their eyes.

The troublesome bastard was gone.

Grip.

Now it was your turn.

After tightly gripping the Holy Light Daggers I had summoned into both hands once again, I sprang toward the defectors.