Cough—!
Eleanor who had collapsed stood up while coughing.
“Seriously, I almost died.”
The shaman’s curse of “Two Blades, Three Warriors”.
The swords wielded by the three phantom warriors had passed through Eleanor’s neck, heart, and abdomen, but they didn’t possess physical force.
Instead, the powerful curse paralyzed her bodily functions.
Her breathing had stopped, her heartbeat had slowed, and the searing pain in her abdomen had paralyzed her brain.
“Haa…”
Even so, the reason Eleanor had rushed forward was entirely because of her staff—
“……”
—And because of the mysterious mage, Jun.
At the very moment she was struck by the curse, Eleanor recalled the advice Jun had given her in the past.
– Let me explain it simply. This staff has the property of [Transformation]. It draws in external energy and transforms it into another form of power.
If what he said was true, then perhaps even the crone’s energy could be converted into divine power.
– At least as far as I know, that staff has no limit to the energy it can absorb.
That’s what the mage had said.
That the staff had no limits when it came to absorbing energy.
If it could also freely accept different types of energy—
Then her plan might not be entirely impossible.
So, she converted it.
The energy of the old crone into divine power.
On top of that, she squeezed out every drop of divine power she originally possessed and completed a divine spell.
[Sphere of Light]
A sphere of holy light formed before Eleanor.
It was the same purification sphere she had once used in the Black Forest.
And that wasn’t the end.
Eleanor absorbed the summoned purification sphere into her staff.
And then, she transformed it once again.
The power that once felt like gentle sunlight. She turned it into the blazing rays of a scorching sun.
It lit up the darkness.
***
His strength began to scatter.
In the face of that divine power that was blazing like the sun in the desert, the strength he had accumulated through countless acts of slaughter melted away like snow.
The Butcher Monk lowered his head and looked at his hands. His skin which was once blood-red was gradually returning to a normal color.
In the meantime, Bern moved swiftly.
Unlike before when he had only blocked with his shield, he now swung his huge battle hammer.
Boom!
A thunderous crash rang out. So loud, one would wonder if such a sound could really come from a human arm.
At the same time—
Crunch!
The Butcher Monk’s arm was torn open and blood splattered everywhere.
“Urgh—!”
The Butcher Monk staggered back in haste before glancing down at one of his arms.
He had managed to protect his right arm, but his left, which had taken a direct hit from the battle hammer, had bone protruding through torn flesh.
Still, for a level 7 body, a wound like this would heal quickly.
The real issue was how to carry on the battle from this point onward.
“Well, this is something.”
He had confidently claimed he could buy time, and now look at him.
The Butcher Monk was already wondering what he would say to the old crone later.
“It can’t be helped. I’ll leave the cleanup to you.”
The Butcher Monk had no intention of admitting defeat just yet.
With a more serious expression than before, he looked at Bern and the companions standing behind him.
“May I ask your name?”
“Bern.”
“Bern… I shall remember that name.”
At that moment, the Butcher Monk’s energy shifted.
There was a risk of going berserk, but it was better than letting the entire plan fall apart.
The Butcher Monk prepared to release every restriction he had placed on [Blood Mountain Reincarnation]—
“Kyaaaaaaaaah—!”
—only for the moment to be shattered.
A scream echoed. It came from the old crone who had been thrown out of the Forest of Life and Death.
***
Shamanism was difficult to evade unless you had divine power. Once activated, its destructive power was immense.
But by that same measure, the aftermath of failure was just as great.
Even if a typical curse was reflected back, it was dangerous without thorough preparation.
But if a huge spell like the Forest of Life and Death was forcibly destroyed…?
The old crone was a meticulous shaman, but she hadn’t prepared for the aftermath of the Forest of Life and Death being destroyed.
That was how confident she had been. At least when it came to that spell.
But perfection didn’t exist.
Now, it was time to pay the price for letting her guard down.
“Benefactor!”
Sensing that something was seriously wrong with the old shaman, the Butcher Monk rushed to her side.
“Damn it.”
The old shaman had lost consciousness.
The plan to unleash [Blood Mountain Reincarnation] and go berserk had fallen apart from the start.
If no one was around to handle him in a berserk state, he too could end up losing his life in vain.
But that wasn’t the only problem.
An overwhelming surge of vengeful spirits burst forth from her body.
“How many people has she killed…!”
From a distance, Bern clenched his teeth as he watched.
The sheer number of spirits was so overwhelming that even Bern found it hard to approach.
The spirits drifted through the underground like lost children without a destination. Until they spotted the old crone.
[…….]
As if time had stopped, the hundreds—no, thousands—of spirits froze in unison and turned their gaze toward the old shaman.
“……”
And then, the spirits recognized the one responsible for imprisoning them.
[Kyaaaaaaaaah――!!]
Thousands of spirits let out a piercing wail.
The air was saturated with such intense resentment that an ordinary person’s heart would have stopped instantly.
Bern raised his shield and unleashed divine power to protect the group, while the Butcher Monk frowned as he stared at the spirits.
Thousands of spirits charged at the old crone all at once.
If left like that, her soul would undoubtedly be torn to shreds without a trace.
“Benefactor. Know that you owe me for this.”
The Butcher Monk stepped in to block the spirits.
After all, the old shaman was someone the Heavenly Church would need in the future.
“Hoo…”
Even Eleanor had cut off her divine power now, in order not to provoke the waves of resentment.
The Butcher Monk once again stabilized the energy of Blood Mountain Reincarnation.
For a technique like Blood Mountain Reincarnation, which grew stronger by accumulating acts of slaughter, such resentful thoughts were nothing more than a light meal.
The problem is there’s just too many of them.
The Butcher Monk had no intention of absorbing all those resentful spirits at once.
Even in perfect condition, it would have been questionable, and now one of his arms was crippled.
He intended to leave just enough for the soul of the old crone to avoid being completely destroyed.
He would think about the consequences later.
Without pushing it to the point of losing control, he pushed Blood Mountain Reincarnation to its limit and clenched his right fist tightly.
Over his fist which was now turned blood-red, the energy of slaughter surged and swirled.
That outstretched fist then made contact with the wave of resentment.
“What monstrous mental strength…”
Watching the scene, Bern let out a quiet exclamation.
Was it even possible to withstand such a wave of resentment with nothing but a single fist?
Even Bern couldn’t say for certain whether he could hold back such a force himself.
That wall of spirit alone must have reached the threshold of Level 8.
And the old crone who harbored such an overwhelming mass of resentment left even him speechless.
Mage… how did you ever manage to defeat such a monster?
Bern tightened his grip on his shield and battle hammer as he glanced at Jun, who still hadn’t come to his senses.
Even for the Butcher Monk, digesting all of that resentment at once would be near impossible.
Surely, he would have to absorb some and spit out the rest.
“…Sharp of you to notice.”
At last, having absorbed more than half the wave of resentment, the Butcher Monk turned his head toward Bern with his eyes closed.
He too had clearly overexerted himself. His remaining arm was shaking uncontrollably.
At any moment, the mass of resentment he had taken in looked ready to burst out.
Still, it didn’t matter.
“It’s not perfect, but most of what I had to do here is done.”
Asura Salvarta.
He regretted not being able to take that foreign vessel with him.
Still, as long as it was alive, there would be another chance.
For now, escape was the priority.
“Benefactors, wait your turn. Your opponent lies elsewhere.”
The resentful thoughts absorbed into his fist began to rage out of control as the Butcher Monk took a proper combat stance.
The moment his fist shot forward—
The thoughts he had restrained with [Blood Mountain Reincarnation] exploded all at once.
In an instant, he redirected the thoughts’ target and turned them toward the living. That was Bern and his companions.
Having expelled all the lingering thoughts, the Butcher Monk then slung the collapsed body of the old crone over his shoulder.
“You bastard!”
Bern gritted his teeth but was too occupied fending off the mass of thoughts that had reached him.
Eleanor joined in, once again summoning the [Spear of Light].
Together, the two of them were purifying the thoughts effectively. But the true menace behind the incident, the Butcher Monk, had already passed them by and was heading to the surface.
Just as the outside world was beginning to come into view for him—
“Honestly, can’t even get a moment to rest.”
A voice rang out from the distance. It was the dying mage.
[Flare]
A beam of light grazed the Butcher Monk’s shoulder as it flew past.
A black mark appeared on the old crone’s forehead immediately afterward.
***
Even if the Butcher Monk was an exceptional Level 7 user, he had no means of reviving a corpse whose head had been pierced and whose body was melting from the inside out in a defenseless state.
“…A hollow end, indeed, Benefactor.”
The old crone who melted away in blazing red flames had now turned to nothing more than a handful of ash. The Butcher Monk let out a sigh.
“I don’t know if that revenge will ever come to pass, but I’ll at least make the effort.”
They hadn’t been close enough for him to warrant exacting vengeance on her behalf.
But because of this incident, the moment of rebirth he had longed for had become even more distant.
Killing those enemies had now become the Butcher Monk’s new goal.
He gazed up at the crimson-tinted moon, then vanished without a trace.
***
“Kh—ghak!”
Black, clotted blood burst from Jun’s mouth.
“Senior!”
Aiden who had been lending his shoulder to support Jun looked at him in shock.
His veins had turned a deep crimson, glowing with heat so intense that just touching him was enough to feel it.
Jun’s body had already entered an overheat state.
“What a crazy guy!”
Eleanor, realizing who Jun’s opponent must have been, immediately shouted at Aiden to lay Jun down.
“Y-Yes!”
Aiden hurriedly laid Jun down, and Eleanor summoned her divine power.
“Wait.”
At that moment, Bern pulled something out from inside his armor.
In a glass vial that radiated an extraordinary divine power at a glance, a liquid no larger than a pinky nail shimmered with a dazzling golden light.
“Old man?”
“Feed him this and treat him.”
“This is…”
“I’ll explain later. Just give it to him now.”
“R-Right.”
Eleanor who was overwhelmed for a moment by the sheer divine power emanating from it quickly followed Bern’s instruction and brought the liquid to Jun’s lips.
As she did, the divine power infused in the liquid flowed into Jun’s mouth on its own.
Jun’s face which had remained unconscious until then immediately relaxed.
“That’s a relief.”
Eleanor then activated her divine power again, spreading the energy that had entered Jun throughout his entire body and cooling down the overheated magic circuits that had been glowing red.
“Cough—!”
About five minutes later, Jun opened his eyes.
“He’s awake. Are you alright, mage?”
“Ugh… What kind of disaster was that…”
Jun barely opened his eyes and looked around.
They were still in the underground altar.
As he came to his senses and began groping the floor to push himself up—
“Senior, your body is still…”
“It’s fine… Ngh!”
His body felt strangely refreshed, but only for a moment.
Because he had forced the magic, a dull pain spread near his heart.
Eleanor’s divine power hadn’t reached as far as his magic circle.
“Listen to your companion, mage. Now is the time to rest.”
“Not… yet.”
At Jun’s words, Bern tilted his head in confusion.
The most immediate threat, the Butcher Monk, had vanished, and the Old Crone had also been struck by the final spell Jun had cast.
Her head had been pierced while she was already down. There was no way she could have survived.
But Jun shook his head.
“The Old Crone, that damned shaman, kugh… left behind a spell.”
Jun’s eyes pointed to the lingering traces of the spell flowing above the altar.
Though it was invisible to others, Jun could still see the shaman’s magic heading toward the surface.
“That has to be stopped too… before it’s really over.”
“So there’s still something left.”
“Aiden, help me up.”
“…Understood, Senior.”
Though he wanted nothing more than to let Jun rest, Aiden wasn’t naive.
The fact that Jun insisted so strongly meant there was still something that needed to be resolved.
Once above ground, Jun turned his gaze to the five towering pillars that reached high into the sky.
“The Old Crone. Under normal circumstances, she wasn’t someone who should’ve died by my hand.”
Even though Jun had the [Mana Body], the Old Crone was a level 6 shaman who had been on the verge of reaching level 7.
And yet, she had been unable to wield her power properly. Excessively so.
Jun could vaguely guess the reason.
On the surface, and more specifically, at the pillars where five named undead had been sealed, the shaman had done something. She tampered with them.
That was why she hadn’t been able to use her full strength.
Only by dealing with that as well could they truly put an end to the crisis that had unfolded in Silent City.
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