Chapter 61: Anomaly (3)
Chapter 61: Anomaly (3)
Standing over two meters tall. Glistening black scales. Slit pupils.
I locked eyes with a mutant that looked like a half-breed between a human and a snake.
Strangely, its body was covered in messy tattoos of teeth marks.
The moment I saw those patterns—which looked as if a giant beast had taken a massive bite out of the creature—I felt a shock, like someone had slammed a hammer into the back of my head.
That’s the mark of Confused Unity, isn't it?
I had become their public enemy after killing Bishop Pietro, who was originally supposed to raid the entrance exam.
…Don't tell me they sharpened their blades this much just to get to me?
No. That’s probably being too self-conscious.
There’s a reason an Evil God is called an Evil God. They’re called that because their personalities and ways of thinking are absolute trash.
Naturally, I wasn't the only person they’d designated as a public enemy.
They were the type to throw a fit and label anyone who got in the way of their cult as a target, so surely…
“Sssss? Found you. Target.”
“Bring it! Everyone, battle stations!”
Helena leaned forward, ready to spring at any moment, while Vincent drew his sword and pointed it at the creature.
At that, the snake mutant tossed aside the student it had already caught and opened its mouth toward me.
Its lower jaw split sideways, just like a real snake's. Its mouth gaped open far beyond the limits of its joints, looking grotesque.
“Watch out, that thing spits poison!”
“I can tell that much just by looking at the complexions of those who fell! But poison isn't something you can just block by—”
Ptooey!
Before Vincent could even finish his sentence, a purple liquid shot out from the creature's wide-open maw. Somehow, the venom fanned out in mid-air, sweeping toward us in a wide arc.
However.
“Haah!”
“Hyaaaah!”
Helena lunged forward, drawing out her Holy Power, which possessed innate purifying properties.
Vincent threw himself to the side, rolling across the ground to evade.
And I…
Splash—
I just took it.
Instead, I quickly pulled a top-grade antidote potion from my inventory and drank it.
Poison damage is ultimately just DoT—damage over time. As long as you neutralize it quickly, you can just take it with your body.
The area where I was hit stung a bit, but I didn't feel any symptoms of poisoning. Even the stinging sensation was already fading.
“S-Sssss?”
The creature faltered, letting out a wheezing sound as if it hadn't expected me to react that way.
It quickly regained its senses and moved to spit venom again, but… Helena was a fraction faster.
“Did you never learn that you shouldn't spit on others?! Or did you simply have no parents to teach you?!”
Hurling insults at its lineage, Helena drove a body blow straight into the mutant’s gut.
Crunch!
“Sshhhheeeeeee!!”
The sound of hard scales shattering mixed with the creature's scream.
Vincent didn't miss the opening and charged in.
“Hup!”
Perhaps he still felt some aversion to direct decapitation, as his strike aimed for the creature's arm rather than a vital point.
Normally, that would have been a foolish move that wasted a golden opportunity… but this time, it saved Vincent’s life.
“Shaaaa!”
The mutant’s neck, which had bent like a bow from the body blow, snapped back with fluid flexibility, thrusting its massive maw toward Vincent.
“Eek!”
Vincent froze in terror at the sight of the creature's inner mouth, but fortunately, the mutant’s head only grazed past his ear.
If he had stood directly in front of it to aim for the head instead of the arm, he would have been swallowed whole.
The mutant lunged its head at the paralyzed Vincent again, but…
“Shut your trap! Can’t you smell the cultist stench coming from your mouth?!”
Helena toughly grabbed the creature's upper and lower jaws, forcing them to a halt.
The now one-armed mutant struggled desperately to shake Helena off, but what could it do with only one arm?
The Holy Power of Righteous Light, specialized for combat, was pushing Helena’s physical abilities to their absolute limit.
No matter how many times I saw it, the way those slender arms exerted such nonsensical, superhuman strength was nothing short of amazing.
Of course, being amazed didn't mean I’d stop my spell mid-cast.
“……Thus, that which is hard, sharp, and rotating is within my hand. Rock Blast!”
Through charge chanting, a chunk of rock—larger and sharper than usual—flew toward the mutant, spinning rapidly.
Whirrrrr… Boom!
With a sound like a water balloon bursting, the creature's long torso was severed.
The thing, now completely split into upper and lower halves, let out a weak hiss, but that only hastened its end.
Realizing the mutant was still alive, Helena finished it off.
She ripped the jaws she was holding apart, top from bottom, completely snuffing out the creature's life.
“Repent!”
Crack!
Ugh, terrifying.
Still, we managed to take down a cultist without a single person getting hurt.
To be honest, I’d been quite tense, so a sigh of relief escaped me involuntarily.
“Whew….”
My eyes then met those of a dazed, nameless student. Judging by the priest robes, he was likely from the Theology Department.
Seeing that priest, one of the members of the raided party, reminded me that I still had one more thing to do.
I pulled two more top-grade antidote potions from my inventory and walked toward him.
“Wheeze… wheeze….”
“Ugh….”
The two fallen students were breathing heavily, hovering on the brink of death due to severe poisoning… but as long as they weren't dead, it was fine.
I managed to pour the potions into their mouths, and before long, their complexions brightened significantly.
As expected, expensive potions are worth every penny. Money is always right.
Anyway, it would take a while for them to fully regain consciousness, but their lives were saved.
“T-Thank you. That poison was far beyond what my Holy Power could handle….”
“Don’t mention it. Just pay me back for the antidote potions later. More importantly, can you explain what happened here?”
“Ah. Yes. Well, while we were busy hunting Evil Rabbits….”
According to his story, they were ambushed in the middle of a fight.
Looking closely now, I didn't recognize any of their faces.
In other words, even though they were Class A students, they were extras who didn't play a significant role in H&A.
Since they were relatively less skilled and had to fight while poisoned, it was inevitable they’d end up on the verge of annihilation.
“So, you didn't notice any particular signs beforehand?”
“Pardon? Yes… we were so focused on the Evil Rabbits… I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. Nothing to be sorry about.”
I waved off his apologetic bow and stood up.
“Are we heading to the next location immediately, Brother Yandel?”
“I have something to check first.”
I rummaged through the mutant’s corpse. Although its torso had been severed by my magic and its head split by Helena’s hands, its original form was still somewhat intact.
I only needed to check three things.
The facial features. The state of the internal organs. And the location of the mark.
After roughly aligning the torn, dangling head and gathering the debris scattered on the ground, I was certain.
“It’s a clone… of Vomiting Edmerec.”
“Edmerec? Brother, are you referring to Archbishop Edmerec of Confused Unity?”
Helena’s eyes widened in surprise.
I nodded and gave her a plausible excuse.
“Yes. I had a bit of a run-in with him before. That’s how I know.”
Of course, I was talking about H&A, not real life… but technically, I wasn't lying.
Vomiting Edmerec.
He earned that name because he swallows all sorts of creatures whole, only to repeatedly vomit them back up because he can't digest them properly.
Some say it’s a curse he’s had since he was an ordinary human, while others say it was the price he paid for becoming a follower of Confused Unity….
Regardless, the important thing was that it wasn't ordinary vomiting.
Unlike Pietro, who was skipped before he could show off his abilities, every cultist of Bishop-class or higher has their own unique power.
In Edmerec’s case, it was clone creation.
However, being the power of an Evil God, the method of creating clones was incredibly grotesque.
He would swallow a suitable creature alive and then vomit it back up; the result was a clone that was a half-mixture of the original creature and Edmerec himself.
There was a reason he was nicknamed Vomiting Edmerec.
At any rate, this corpse possessed all the characteristics of one of Edmerec’s clones.
“First, look at the face. It’s not a Snake Beastman; it’s a chimera-like shape that mixes a regular snake with a human, right? That’s because it’s a blend of a snake and Edmerec’s own factors.”
“I see. Just looking at it, one can glimpse the twisted sensibilities of a cultist.”
“Next, the stomach. Edmerec always has to swallow things whole, so his internal organs have mutated uniquely. The small and large intestines have atrophied, while the stomach has become extremely developed to hold prey. It’s the same for his clones.”
“Huh… now that you mention it, you’re right. This looks more like a torn balloon than internal organs.”
Perhaps because it involved a high-ranking cultist official, Helena listened intently, reacting strongly to every word I said.
Her reactions were so good that I felt like telling her more… but we didn't have time for that now.
“Finally, the location of the mark. These things aren't independent entities; they’re Edmerec’s clones. That means their essence is the same.”
“…The mark of an Evil God is a trace of the channel connecting the god and the cultist. It makes sense that the mark would be in the same place on both the main body and the clones.”
She was a quick learner, likely due to her basic knowledge.
I gave the grave-looking Helena a thin smile and pulled a potion from my inventory.
“This is…?”
“An Odor Removal Potion. Edmerec creates clones that are half-himself and half-prey. Swallowing another human doesn't provide much of a difference, so unless it’s for infiltration, he swallows animals to create combat clones.”
“And most beasts have a keen sense of smell. I understand. Entrusting the command to you was indeed the right choice, Brother Yandel. I shall drink this gratefully.”
“Ah, you don’t drink that one; you spray it.”
“…….”
Helena’s face flushed with embarrassment.
To be fair, most potions are meant to be consumed. In fact, the Odor Removal Potion I used when I went through the dungeon with Carla was the drinkable kind.
However, after the 'womb filling' incident with Carla, I learned that the stomach has its limits, and I wasn't about to repeat the same mistake.
This was an arranged version I’d asked Fay to make, which worked even when sprayed.
The downside was that the duration was shorter since it wasn't ingested… but that could be solved by just dousing ourselves in it.
I tossed two potion bottles to Vincent, who was gagging in the corner after seeing the gruesome sight.
“You, spray two!”
“Guegh… why do I have to use two?”
Why? Because you smell like puke.