Merit Quest
Damn it. Past him and I’m almost outside…
In the game, a boss fight had been something I’d waited for with bated breath. The moment it became reality, the pressure was crushing. Every instinct screamed at me to run if I could.
I bit down hard on my lip and locked eyes with the man they called this temple’s overseer. The situation was anything but kind.
Granted, the Pantheon — that outrageously generous shop — had opened, and I’d stacked enough Merit that materials for talismans weren’t the problem. The problem was my spiritual power.
Crafting a talisman and firing it off both burned spiritual power. Sure, the Pantheon stocked elixirs and recovery items that could refill it, but with my pitiful Merit total, those were still pie in the sky — I couldn’t even see their names.
I’m short on spiritual power. What now?
I ran a quick tally of what I had left. After burning through Pasabu and Bongeumbu just to clear the corridor, I had maybe five talismans left that could land with real force. Against the trash guards in the dungeon, fine. Against a boss-tier enemy standing right in front of me, belching thick black demonic energy? With five talismans? Unknown.
I need time to think. Stall.
I shifted slightly to shield the trembling women at my back and forced a bold edge into my voice.
“W-wait!! Just one question! What’s the rush?”
At my cheeky shout, his gaze slid slowly toward me beneath the black-flame torches. Those crimson eyes dragged from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes, sticky and lingering, as if tasting me.
“Oh… surprising. When did merchandise of your grade get mixed in?”
His mouth twisted into a grotesque tear of a smile.
“Exquisite. In months… no, in my entire life, I have never seen a woman so flawlessly beautiful. Heh-heh-heh. I should have known from last night’s auspicious dreams. My master has truly blessed me.”
That slimy stare and that greasy voice made my gorge rise. Not because this body was female — even man to man, it was the kind of pervert monologue that made your blood boil.
I crushed the urge to charge him and crack his skull, and threw out my question instead.
“Let the other women go. What you need is premium stock like me, right?”
He stopped. One step at a time, the overseer had been closing in — and my words planted him still.
“…What do you mean by that?”
Hooked.
This was the world of Crimson Mirage, the game I’d poured thousands of hours into. Of course it came with a sprawling story and ironclad lore. The dark mages of this land hunted sacrifices for one reason only: to make the demons they served manifest more strongly in the mortal realm. And the sacrifices had to match their masters’ natures.
Followers of Mammon, demon of greed, craved the blood of the powerful and the rich. Followers of Asmodeus, demon of lust, held it as their highest virtue to take beautiful, pure women, corrupt them in pleasure, and offer them up.
The reason the dark mage had gone wary and asked again was simple: a slave girl dragged here as a sacrifice had just named the cult’s core purpose out loud.
I tilted my chin up and shot back.
“Exactly what I said. From the look of things, the demon you serve is Asmodeus of the Seven Deadly Sins, isn’t it? Offer up one perfect sacrifice like me, and you could walk into the rank of Executor tomorrow without breaking a sweat.”
His blood-red eyes narrowed to slits like a snake’s.
“You… little bitch. What are you? How do you know the cult’s doctrines?”
Good. Still on the hook.
On the Etheria continent, the dark mage cabals that followed the Seven Deadly Sins were branded as heretics of the worst kind and driven deep underground. An ordinary person wouldn’t know their hierarchy, much less a senior title like Executor. Of course he was interested.
“So let’s make a deal. Let everyone behind me go. Your goal is one proper sacrifice, isn’t it?”
That was when the women pressed tight against my back sucked in sharp breaths and burst into tears.
“S-Saintess…!!”
“N-no! You can’t sacrifice yourself to save worthless women like us!! You’re the one who has to get out of here!!”
“She’s right! We’ll draw his attention — please, Saintess, run… sob!”
I could have lost my mind.
When, exactly, had I volunteered to be a sacrifice?
I whipped around and scowled hard at them.
“You at least need to live — or do you all want to hold hands and die together? We take the option with the better odds!”
The Bongeumbu’s power kept him from hearing, but I clenched my teeth and whispered anyway.
“Listen carefully. The second you get a chance, you run outside without looking back. Report it to the city guard the moment you’re out! Who knows? Maybe I’ll still be standing by then.”
“B-but, Saintess—”
“I’m not a Saintess!! Worry about your own lives instead of mine!”
How could they be this dense?
Then the dark mage erupted into a grotesque peal of laughter.
“Keh! Kahahahaha! So you want to bargain with me?”
I turned back to him.
“That’s right. No reason I can’t.”
“Why should I? If I’m offering sacrifices, more is better, isn’t it?”
I crooked a corner of my mouth and played my trump card.
“I’ve already been branded as His sacrifice.”
“…What!?”
The easy confidence on the man’s face shattered in an instant.
I emptied every scrap of Crimson Mirage lore I had and bit down hard. At the apex of the Seven Deadly Sins, a supreme-grade sacrifice personally branded by a Great Demon Lord could be claimed only by that demon. Touch one first, and your soul would be torn apart while you still lived. Absolute taboo in their cult.
“You know about the brand? You… what in the hell… are you really?”
For the first time, genuine dismay threaded his voice. I didn’t miss the fine tremor in the hand that held his staff.
“None of your business. Send those women out safely, and I’ll come quietly.”
Even as I said it, my mind was spinning at full speed. The exchange had given me gold. When I’d deliberately dropped the word “Executor,” something had flickered in his eyes — which meant he wasn’t core leadership, not Executor-class. At best, the rank below: Preacher.
That put the odds of a five-talisman gamble within reach.
I changed the plan.
We fight.
Once the decision landed, I moved fast. I didn’t waste the seconds he spent reeling from my bluff. Both hands, hidden in my sleeves, were already working. I wrung out every last drop of spiritual power and secretly inked the two most destructive talismans I had left — a Blast-Sound Talisman and a Detonation Talisman.
Looking at the residue of power soaked into them, I had exactly one turn. After I threw these, my spiritual power would hit empty.
Then—
Ding—!
A flash of blue light streaked across my retinas, and a bright chime rang out.
Your noble spirit of self-sacrifice and your goodwill in seeking to save others have deeply moved the System!
Merit has increased.
Spiritual Power has increased. A portion of your expended spiritual power has been restored.
And that wasn’t all.
Quest:Rescue the Seven Hostages
Objective: Rescue the seven hostages and survive.
Reward: A vast quantity of Merit.
“…!”
A Merit Quest…?
I nearly choked. The system had just read my attempt to get the women out as saintly self-sacrifice. Perfect timing — spiritual power flooded back in like rain on drought-cracked earth. Not enough to flip the whole board, but enough insurance for one or two more moves.
I gestured to the women behind me and whispered low.
“Get ready. In a moment that wall over there is coming down. The second it breaks, you run like hell. Do not look back!”
They clapped hands over their mouths and nodded, faces streaked with tears.
My gaze snapped back to the dark mage ahead. He was still gripping his staff, sunk deep in troubled thought.
“…One more question. Do you serve some other true master? That knowledge… no ordinary person would have it. Which dark mage stands behind you?”
The exact instant he barked up the wrong tree and asked—
“The Jade Emperor, you bastard!! Hah!!”
I kicked off the ground and hurled the talismans clutched in both hands.
“Wh-what!?”
He flinched and started to raise his staff—
My Blast-Sound Talisman and Detonation Talisman streaked true: one to his feet, one to the outer wall of the dungeon behind me, and the last toward the ceiling.
I raised the index and middle fingers of both hands into a mudra and roared the detonation chant.
“Break!!!”
KRAAAAAAAAAAANG——!!!
BOOOOOOOM——!!!
An earsplitting blast tore through the sealed underground chamber in a chain of explosions. Blinding light and choking dust swallowed everything. The Detonation Talismans I’d thrown at floor and ceiling perfectly scrambled his vision; in that same beat, the linked Pasabu and Detonation Talisman on the outer wall smashed the thick stone to rubble.
Crash—!
Cold night air poured through the hole in the wall. An escape route.
“Now! Run!!!”
At my thunderclap of a shout, the seven women scrambled up like animals and sprinted full-tilt for the breach. As they fled, they cried out as one:
“Saintess!! Please — you have to be safe!!”
“We’ll bring the guard, no matter what!!”
I watched them vanish into the dark beyond the wall and allowed myself a thin smile.
The joy lasted about a second.
Rrrrrrrumble——!!!
“GRAAAAAAAAH!!! You filthy little bitch!! How dare you mock me!?!”
From inside the blast smoke, a storm of raw magic ripped the dust apart in a single sweep. At its center stood the dark mage, robe half-shredded, eyes blazing with crimson light. Black vengeful spirits howled and gathered around him. The purity of the demonic energy needled my skin like a thousand pins.
Insane… and this is only Preacher-class?
Watching it on a monitor and feeling that murderous demonic aura on your own skin were not even close to the same pressure.
“You!! You’re no branded sacrifice!!”
“Figured that out, did you?”
I crooked a bitter smile and hopped lightly onto a pile of shattered stone. I tore a long strip from the ragged hem of my robe and knotted it tight around my thigh, settling into a fighting stance.
Fear? Of course there was fear.
But a strange, rising exhilaration was flooding in with it — the same rush I’d felt in the game whenever I met a new boss.
“Keh-heh-heh-heh… Fine. Better this way, you wretched bitch!! You’ll neither die nor live — you’ll serve as my lust-toilet!! I’ll make you understand what a curse it is for the powerless to be born beautiful!! Kahahahaha!”
Fucking hell, the way he talked.
I fanned the last of my talismans sharp between my fingers and flung my declaration of war straight at him.
“Shut up and hand over the Merit, you mongrel spirit.”