Chapter 55
Chapter 55
Saint, You’re So Vulgar! – Chapter 55
That single line froze everyone around them.
But even in the midst of it, one person moved without losing their cool composure.
"Could be true."
"What do you...?"
Schwick!
"Gaaahhh!!!"
Versia drove her dagger straight into the heretic's forehead.
The enemies jolted at the sudden ambush.
"B-block her!"
"Kill her!"
The startled heretics charged at Versia all at once.
In that moment, Asher snapped to his senses and rushed toward the enemies targeting her back.
Krunch!
He twisted the neck.
Blood sprayed out as the dagger lodged in the prayer bead was yanked free.
He then leaped up to clear Versia's blind spots.
No words were needed; their movements synced perfectly. It was possible only because the teacher and student knew each other's bodies inside out.
Asher, drenched in blood and scanning the surroundings with cold eyes, was a chilling sight.
The witch's eyes went wide, her mouth hanging open.
Then she burst out laughing. "Pfft!"
"Oh! So you've got some bite after all? Is that why you rolled in here?"
She stepped forward.
A sinister aura poured from her body.
Purple-black mist began filling the space.
Asher sensed danger in it.
A curse.
"Saint...!"
"I know."
Versia swung her arm.
Divine power scattered, manifesting the combat prayer.
Reverse wind prayerthe winds twisted, pushing the mist away. The surrounding heretics took the curse instead.
Cold sweat trickled down Asher's back.
Kraka-kaka!
The heretics' bodies warped, transforming into merfolk.
These were different from the ones outside.
Some were closer to crustaceans than fish, others to mollusks.
Especially the one who seemed like a heretic officerit turned into some tentacled monster.
Asher's expression hardened.
It wasn't just about the enemy forces getting stronger.
"Aw, dodging? How lame."
Kraka-kaka!
The mutated merfolk melted down, turning into whips that coiled around the witch's body.
Danger.
The thought surged just as
Splaaash!!!
The whip lashed toward Versia.
She barely dodged, but the spot it hit melted away like a mountain had been gouged out.
The witch's fighting style was revealed.
Hybrid type.
She combined curses with physical force.
If he had to compare, it was like Versia using Asher's bodysame category.
Well-balanced, but clear weaknesses.
Both physical and magic had limits, so overwhelm with specialization and sheer power.
But that was for original bodies.
Right now, they were outmatched even in size.
Hybrids were specialized for crushing multiple weaker foes to begin with.
No answer in sight.
Find a way. Or at least buy time.
Outside would sort itself out anyway.
Hold out until Melburn arrived, and victory was theirs.
Asher ignited a talisman with a whoosh.
Swiftness, lightness, piercing, and sharpness.
"I'll keep her pinned!"
Thwack!
He hurled a throwing dagger, twisting the path of another incoming whip.
Versia charged the witch on that opening.
Round two began.
Kaboom!
Every moment was hair-raising.
Asher moved with near-divine precision, his focus pushed to the limit.
At least his body still had flexibility. Lucky.
He'd just twisted his waist to dodge a wedge-shaped tentacle.
Sizzle!
Part of his clothes melted.
Asher bit his lip and cinched his waist tight.
"Oh my, I wasn't trying to strip you."
But her expression said otherwise.
"I hate girls like you who play innocent. Acting all high and mighty when you're nothing specialit's fucking pathetic."
"Vulgar...!"
"Look forward to it."
Siiiizzle!
Acidic fluid dripped from the tentacle, eating into the floor.
The witch grinned grotesquely.
"I'll just turn you into a fish with one bite. Then a livestock breeder laying eggs. You know? One of my curses wrecks the pleasure center. You'll get so blissed out laying eggs... eventually, you'll beg me to let you do it."
The witch's gaze shifted to Versia.
"You can watch with me. I'll treat you nice?"
But those words never reached Versia.
In the brief lull, she'd secretly woven an advanced prayer.
By the time the witch noticed, it was too late.
Light gathered at her fingertip, forming a spear that shot out.
Pwaaang!
"Kgh...?!"
The witch blocked with a tentacle, but Versia was already in her face.
"Don't touch other people's stuff, you slut."
She thrust into the solar plexus. A sword layered with multiple prayers.
The enemy's carelessness and Versia's judgment combined for a lethal blow.
But
"You rotten...!"
Wrong opponent.
A powerhouse that could rival a 1st Class Knight at full strength.
That was the artificial witch breed.
Kaaaaboom!
Exploding curses formed a shield, blocking the blade.
Versia's breath caught.
As her eyes widened in shock, a bone blade protruded from the witch's forearm.
In the slowing world, Versia clearly saw the blade aimed at her heart.
Asher's heart sank.
Even so, his body moved steadily, pulling her away from the witch.
Thud!
The ground crumbled.
The witch unleashed curses in earnest.
Purple-black mists formed patterns, dozens of curses activating at once.
Asher hugged Versia tight.
Not something to use lightly, but better than doing nothing.
"Pardon me!!!"
Kiiiiing!
A halo appeared above his head.
What he'd woven was Glass Prayer.
Uncontrolled, immense divine power warped the space around him and Versia in a roughly five-meter radius.
Kraka-boom!!!
Normally, even scholars could only twist a palm-sized area with it, but this output turned it into a proper barrier.
But great power brings great backlash.
There was a reason this prayer, which interfered with space, never became mainstream.
"Cough...!"
"Knight!"
Asher felt his brain burning.
The prayer forced the brain to calculate the coordinate system of that space.
With such a wide range, the computational backlash was inevitable.
And for Asher, whose prayer completion far exceeded norms, it hit even harder.
Drip
Nosebleed. Burst blood vessels in his whites.
His whole body trembled.
Bearing it, he refracted the barrage of curses and whips.
"How long do you think you can hold out?!"
The witch's assault grew fiercer.
Her divine power seemed infiniteno drop in output.
When was the last time he'd felt this overwhelming powerlessness?
"Knight! Snap out of it!"
Versia shouted shrilly for once, casting a healing prayer.
Asher panted heavily, hugging her tighter.
And whispered softly.
With a crooked smile.
"...Good."
"Huh...?"
The moment a dazed question slipped from Versia's lips, the ceiling caved in.
A storm raged.
Kaboom!
"Ngh...?!"
A green light in human forma spirit. Melburn.
At that instant, Asher's prayer unraveled.
* * *
The witch Mira ground her teeth.
An unexpected reinforcement.
Not a holy knight?!
She'd assumed the blue-haired woman who entered with the 1st Class Knight was his aide.
Made senseshe'd just been slashing away, syncing with the man.
The tidal wave? She thought it was the storm knight's doing.
But seeing that output and prayer form, Mira realized.
Saintess!
The worst of them: "God's Favorite."
Twisting space itself into a barrierimpossible without her.
Situation worsening.
She'd planned to toy with them lightly, but this changed everything.
Mira went all out.
The raging storm, and far off, the saintess smiling at impending victory.
She unleashed an ability she'd held back.
"Don't make me laugh!!!"
Craaaack!
Space split behind Mira.
Beyond it, a purple-black cosmos loomed.
From within emerged the hand of Ashanta, god of the heretics.
A hand infused with ten thousand curses formed a mudra.
Then, space drowned in curses.
Shaaaa!
"Ha, hahahaha!!!"
Mira laughed like a madwoman.
Her bloodshot eyes glared as she spat the curse words.
"Die! Regret being alive! All of you, fall into the abyss!!!"
Words are the medium.
Malice shapes the curse.
The caster just pays the price.
Cracklethe vital energy Mira absorbed was paid to Ashanta's hand.
She shed her false form, reverting to her hideous old crone self.
"You think this ends me? I can start over! I win!"
She'd reclaim the energy after killing them.
Eternal youth and life.
With Ashanta's hand, Mira could have it anytime.
Melburn's face hardened.
Blade-like storm gathered in his grip.
The moment curse met storm
"This is real bullshit."
Judith appeared, exhaling cigarette smoke.