The Priest of Corruption

Firm.

A chubby man ran from the fire. The lord of the burning Kelton, Stren Plkor, ran non-stop, even as his lungs burned. His body felt heavier today. He had some deep regrets about not exercising regularly, but what could he do? It was too late to regret after something happened.

Everything exploded from within the city. After Ensis Baltas’ illegitimate son, Carmen Baltas had set out to request assistance leading the four priests, the monsters attacked. Stren Plkor thought they would be able to stop the offensive, and there were a few good reasons behind that judgment. High walls, enough soldiers and food stockpiled, enemies without weapons to attack their barriers.

It was a fight that couldn’t be lost unless they opened the gates and engaged their enemies in the streets. But the monsters came out from inside the town, and Kelton was filled with the screams of its citizens.

“Pant, pant.”

He could reach the secret passage underground if he ran a little further. It was common sense for a wise lord to make one or two secret passages just in case. While his vassals sacrificed their lives to earn him time, he had to survive to avenge them.

However, Stren Plkor’s firm resolve wasn’t fulfilled. A dark shadow rose and grabbed his ankle. Stren Plkor lost his balance, hit the ground rolling, and slammed into a wall.

“Aaahh!”

Three people walked slowly out of the alleyway by the burning mansion. The purple-eyed beauty in the lead frowned down at Stren Plkor.

“Haah, this pig bastard runs pretty fast despite his looks. Oh, so should I call him a pig-rabbit?”

As the man behind her gestured, the shadow holding Stren’s ankle disappeared.

“Enough with the bullshit. What is the status of the incarnation?”

The blonde woman standing silently in the back answered.

“It’s very unstable because of the sudden change. As you know, extracting divinity from life isn’t an easy task. Besides, the preparations weren’t quite finished yet, and someone had lost the rats who escaped from the castle, so I had to start reassessing the plan. The chances of success have grown slimmer.”

The blonde woman’s rebuke was directed to the woman with shining violet eyes. The woman with violet eyes frowned.

“Do you think I lost them because I wanted to? Huh? I tried fucking hard! Those two fucking muscle pigs from the Restoration and the Reformation Church fanatic gave away their lives. Still, that bitch, Layla, didn’t even send a single spider. Imagine if she had! I would’ve caught even the last one with the bow!”

The flame flickered. The blonde woman slowly blinked.

“By the way, Layla isn’t coming.”

“It’s not the first time spider-loving bitch glued herself to a spider. She must be fucking the spiders!”

Crack.

The man stepped on the fallen lord’s neck and crushed it.

“Enough. Nothing good will come from fighting with each other. Besides, since one of the rats escaped, the fanatics will flock like ants here. You didn’t forget how many years we’ve been working on this, right?”

The woman with violet eyes glanced at the man.

“Do you think I haven’t been impatient during these three years? And why do you keep acting like the leader? Hey, he’s even moodier today. Didn’t you fucking suck him last night? It’s been a while since you two got together, and I don’t have a fucking man, so I’m always sleeping alone, but still, I have to hear from you bastards getting at it every night! Really! Talking shit just because I let one rat escape! I don’t even want to live anymore!”

The flame flickered. The blonde woman didn’t bother to hide her loathing anymore. Although she was forced to cooperate because of orders from her church, this frivolous, filthy-mouthed bitch had a knack for always pissing her off.

Make way for a madman and a bull. Reflecting on that, the blonde woman suppressed her anger.

“I’m going to adjust the status of the incarnation, and it will be completed soon.”

“That’s made with the lives of the people in this city, but you act like it couldn’t be made without you, huh?”

The flame flickered. The man sighed deeply and wiped his face.

“Stop. Please stop, Parna. I will hold Layla responsible for letting one escape, so can’t you please stop?”

The woman with violet eyes smirked.

“Then I can shut up whenever….”

Again the flame flickered, and the fire vomited something out.

Whaaaaaaang!

The sound of screeching metal assailed their ears. A flaming assassin leaped from the fire and cut the man’s body in half with a rotating saw blade. Parna, the woman with violet eyes, was left stunned with wide-open eyes.

“W-What the…?!”

Whaaaaaaaaaang!

The saw didn’t stop, cutting the man in half lengthwise and, once done, moved onto the blonde woman standing next to him. Pieces of intestine and blood splashed onto Parna’s face.

Marnak, waiting for his opportunity, endured the pain of burning alive with a wide smile.

“It makes a lot of sense for Mother to say that it’s cheating to kill the third person without asking anything. But you know, these guys deal with divinity. That means there’s a possibility that they could leave a scar on your son’s body. Mother wouldn’t want me to get hurt while trying to interrogate someone, right?”

Parna couldn’t quite understand what the man in front of her was talking about. Whatever it was, she only knew she was fucked. So, she started using her head. She needed a way to survive this self-talking mad killer, and she couldn’t die here.

The man took a bowl out of the air and poured water over himself. When the flames were finally extinguished, all of his body hair was burned off, revealing a bald head. Marnak stroked his head. In one day, he could return to his original, full-haired self. Still, Marnak’s heart ached slightly at the immediate emptiness.

“Mother, I want to avoid hiding in the fire again. This is so painful and empty.”

The man’s self-talk was never-ending. Parna gulped and slowly opened her mouth as politely as possible.

“H-Hey?”

“Ah.”

As if he had forgotten about her, Marnak exclaimed with a smile, revealing a row of white teeth.

“Why have you sieged Kelton?”

*

“…And that’s it.”

“Really? That’s huge.”

Luckily, when I asked the question, the woman, who introduced herself as Parna, spat out everything she knew as if she had been waiting for someone to ask.

The story was simpler than I thought. Their purpose was to sacrifice all the humans in this city to create an incarnation, a moving mass of divinity. They worked in hiding in this city for three years for that plan. Originally, five more days of preparation were needed to create the perfect incarnation. Still, the operation was rushed because they had lost Carmen.

I was so glad that Carmen managed to get out.

Once I put Parna behind me, I harvested the corpses of the man and woman I killed. The man was worth three and a half fingers, and the woman was worth three.

[Divinity: 7582]

I put the unlimited refill washbasin into one of the two compartments in my inventory and returned it to Parna. She looked stunned.

“W-What the hell did you just do?”

“What do you mean? I took their lives and gave them to my Mother.”

“That easy?! It is common sense that a complex process is required to convert life into divinity!”

I grinned and brought the Butcher’s blade to Parna’s throat.

“You’re talking a lot all of a sudden. If you ask, do I have to give you an answer as to how or why? Guide me to the place where the monster called incarnation is.”

She glanced at the Butcher’s blade, the saws still coated in blood, then swallowed.

“O-Okay…”

I followed Parna, picked up the Froststeel sword I tossed aside before I hid, and strapped it to my waist. Even my priest’s uniform was slowly regaining its shape, and my hair needed a little more time.

The incarnation was being made in the center of the city. A gigantic mass of flesh covered in red blood clots squirmed and emitted divinity.

I clapped.

“It’s greater than I thought.”

Parna looked at the chunk of flesh with pride.

“Of course. We’ve been here for three years working on this.”

I started the Butcher, not caring whether she was proud or not.

Whaaaang!

“Y-You! What the hell are you doing?!”

Raising the Butcher, I smiled brightly.

“What do you mean? I’m trying to kill the monster that grew up eating innocent people before it wakes up.”

There was no way this unexpected monster couldn’t be unrelated to the main quest. I decided that it would be better to slow down the progress of the main quest as much as possible, even if it meant killing this monster. All I needed was enough time to acquire more power.

“D-Don’t do it! You can’t do that!”

I ignored Parna and struck down. As the Butcher ground through the incarnation, bright red blood splashed on my face.

Whooop.

Something popped out of the lump of flesh and pierced my shoulder. I stepped back. Blood wouldn’t stop flowing from the wound. Damn it. The attack had divinity.

Parna clasped her head and screamed.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!!! The monster woke up in an unstable state because you threatened his life! We can’t even communicate with him like this!”

A huge chunk of the flesh cracked open, and something of a barely human shape came out. The skin where a mouth was supposed to be split apart, and a sharp scream echoed through Kelton.

“It huuuuuuuuuuurts!!!”

An ominous divinity flowed from the body of the imperfect incarnation born from consuming a city. This was really getting troublesome. My shoulder still hadn’t stopped bleeding.

‘Kill!!!’

Mother’s urgent cry had two meanings. First was the fact that there was one of the eleven holy relics I was looking for in that incarnation’s body. Next was her warning to run away immediately because she didn’t need such a thing.

“Thank you for your concern.”

“What?! When did I…?”

Cut.

Parna’s head rolled to the floor. I brushed off the bloody Froststeel and harvested her corpse.

[Divinity: 8582]

‘Kill!!!’

She warned me again to run away immediately. I answered my Mother by heating the Froststeel sword in a nearby fire and scorching the hole in my shoulder.

“Today, I will awaken a new power and offer Mother the relic that resides inside that fleshy monster.”

The bright red flesh monster’s forehead cracked, and a single eye popped out and looked straight at me. The monster, finally able to see, opened its mouth again.

“It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It huuuuuuurts!!!”

There was no time to answer him. Divinity, which I accepted to my limit, penetrated into the Corruption Arts and amplified my body’s abilities.

And I ran away from the square, through the burning buildings of Kelton in search of corpses.

‘Kill!!!’

That one’s done, and that one was still fine. I approached it quickly, touched his hand, and muttered.

“Mother, stop being angry and take it.”

The corpse rotted and spat out one point of divinity.

[Divinity: 8583]

“It huuuuuuuuurts!”

A horrifying scream approached. The Incarnation, returning to its senses, was chasing after me with all its might. This was a chase where the outcome depended on whether I could awaken a new power without being caught.

I searched for more corpses.

“If we leave such a monster alive, surely many people will die, right? Besides, the relic in that monster’s body should be harvested when there is such an opportunity.”

‘Kill!!!’

She rebuked me for being too reckless. I was happy with her concern.

“Mother. I’ll try hard once, and if I don’t feel it’ll work, I’ll run away. So please stop being angry. Now is the time for us to join forces.”

‘Kill…’

Along with the lamentation that I was unbelievable, she told me to do whatever I wanted. I chuckled.

“I’ll show you a great fight. I hope you enjoy watching it from my pocket.”