Chapter 89
Chapter 89
Saint, You’re So Vulgar! – Chapter 89
Halia noticed the anomaly at a time that was neither too late nor too early.
She had entered through one of the four passageways leading into the inner castle. She found one of the concubines' annexes and realized the moment she stepped inside that its occupant was a witch.
Crack. She snapped her neck.
What followed was much like what had happened to Asher.
As someone with plenty of combat experience, she couldn't help thinking, upon seeing the witch flop to the ground so easily, That was too straightforward.
And that sense of wrongness turned out to be spot on. The moment she scowled and turned around, the supposedly dead witch sprang up and lunged at her.
Only then did Halia mutter, Of course, and snap her neck again.
There was no need to go into detail about the process of crumpling a person like paper.
What mattered was what came next.
This can't be the end of it.
Halia thought as she incinerated the witch's body.
And she was right.
It was right around the time Halia finished the assassination and was about to slip out of the annex.
Rumble...!
A sinister energy swept through the entire inner castle amid the vibrations.
And that's when reactions from witchesuntil then hiddenbegan popping up everywhere.
Halia let out a hollow chuckle.
What kind of witch den is this?
The whole city of Baern had long been overrun by witches.
Judging by the number of presences she sensed, all the concubines she'd been looking for must have been witches.
Some of them had been in Baern for as long as ten years. How had they all turned out to be witches?
The question arose, and Halia came up with an answer that was little more than a hunch.
She figured she'd find out for sure when she confronted them directly, so she sprang into action.
Boom!
Diego appeared. His body was splattered in blood.
"A few heretics showed up right as the witches revealed themselves."
"What were they disguised as?"
"Scattered among the servants and guards."
"Hmm, I see."
Thud. Diego opened the massive coffin slung over his back.
Inside was a gigantic hammerHalia's weapon, said to be the most vicious on the continent.
Halia gripped it.
The weapon was bigger than she was, but she swung it as lightly as if it were a tree branch.
"Where are the others?"
"Sir Trevion is surrounded, but he's handling the enemies without issue. The Saintess and the crown prince... they're together. But they aren't moving, so they might have been captured."
"Tch. You think she'd let herself get caught that easily? Tell me their position."
"Northeast. About 37 degrees right on the horizontal axis, 7 degrees up on the vertical. Right in the city."
"Got it."
And that was that.
Halia crouched low, gripping the hammer with both hands. Rumble. Divine power flared around her like flames.
She adjusted her body to the angle Diego had given her.
Then she charged, swinging the hammer.
Craaaash!!!
And this was the result.
Everything along Halia's path was quite literally erased.
Diego's aim had been dead-on; the only casualty on that trajectory was a single witch.
In Halia's line of sight were Versia, tied up and dazed; the struggling Gester; and the witch, half her head blown off.
"Your head's half gonecouldn't you at least pretend to wobble?"
The witch irritably replied to Halia's mocking laugh.
[I went to the trouble of preparing this body, and now it's ruined.]
One thing was clear.
A fake.
Even if not witches, plenty of heretics used such puppets. They kept their true bodies elsewhere and manipulated flesh like marionettes.
Blood and entrails from the puppet's severed section soaked the floor. The witch sighed, then began crumbling away bit by bit.
[Well, I wasn't planning to use this body anymore anyway. It was quite the entertaining diversion.]
The witch waved her hand. Halia could feel the soul departing the body. But apparently, she had no intention of leaving with any grace.
Kyaaaah!
[Let the festival begin.]
The moment the witch collapsed with a thud, screams echoed throughout the city.
Amid the chaos, Diego freed the bound group.
He said,
"It looks like they've controlled the entire city for a long time. There are humans corrupted by the witches' divine power, going berserk all over the place."
"What are they doing?"
"Slaughtering civilians and mercenaries."
"What about the guards? The Lion Corps, was it?"
"They're not stepping up. Mercenaries from the other Big Tens have drawn their swords instead."
"Trying to scatter our attention, huh."
First, they needed to assess the full situation.
Halia went to Gester. He recounted everything he knew and what he'd overheard in his last conversation.
But that wasn't the end of it.
Having blown away an entire building, the sky was now visible as if they were outdoors.
Halia spotted stars blazing red in the night sky. Some kind of barrier must have been cast over the city or the whole desert.
Sure enough, she sensed heretic divinity emanating from those stars.
Rumble. The vibrations continued. Halia immediately grasped their source.
And not just hereveryone realized what was causing them.
"S-Sandworm! It's sandworms!!!"
Sandworms, the scourge of the desert, were marching on the city.
These were incomparably massive compared to any she'd hunted before.
One section of the walls crumbled, and sandworms poured into the city beyond.
Halia stroked her chin.
Seeing all this, it was clear they were dealing with an enemy worthy of being the mastermind behind artificial witches.
After a decade-long plot, they'd only just uncovered it.
It didn't sit well with her.
But this wasn't the time to dwell on such feelings.
The witches had vanished. Only the seeds they'd sown were sprouting, stirring up chaos.
Track them through Diego? No, that would leave her unable to monitor the variables popping up across the city.
"You, follow me. Let's quash the chaos in the city center first."
She said to Gester. He looked ready to chase the witch right then, but he abandoned the idea at her words.
"Don't you need to protect the king?"
"...!"
Gester had a father who was withering away like a corpse.
After switching his allegiance with the blue sword, they'd housed him in the mercenary guild building, improving his situation somewhat. But in this chaos, they had to consider the risk of him getting hurt.
Gester bit his lip hard and nodded.
Next, Versia.
Irritation crossed Halia's face.
Versia's expression was terrible.
"You okay?"
She still looked dazed.
Fortunately, it didn't seem like she'd been traumatized by the kidnapping.
Versia bit her lip and murmured lowly.
"...Yeah. Track her. I guess I need to track her."
"To be precise, Asher will be the one doing the tracking."
No one in the entire church matched Asher Trevion when it came to hunting down prey.
He might be slower at finding them than Diego, but once he did, it was checkmate.
Halia peered through Versia's hair and saw her eyes gleaming.
Not knowing Asher was inside her, Halia took it for wounded pride at having been caught.
"Leave it to me."
"Good. He's here anyway."
She had been sensing something ferocious approaching through her spiritual senses.
Right then.
Thud!
Asher burst in through a shattered wall.
The urgency on his face melted into relief the moment he spotted Versia.
"No time for more talk. We'll head out first."
With that, Halia headed for the city center.
* * *
Versia watched Halia, Gester, and Diego leave the moment she arrived.
She rushed to Asher and grabbed his arm.
"You okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine."
He said as much, but he didn't look fine.
He seemed shaken.
Regret washed over her.
They should have stuck together from the start.
Splitting into four because there were four passageways had been a mistake.
From right after discovering and killing the witch to breaking through the encirclement and now...
She'd been sick with worry that something might happen to Asher trapped inside her body.
He didn't seem physically hurt, which was a relief, but it didn't erase her fears.
Asher staggered as he stood.
Even so, he was trying to head somewhere, and his movements felt like those of a madman.
This wouldn't do. They hadn't even discussed what to do next, but one thing was certain.
Versia tightened her grip on his arm.
What could she do?
She knew she shouldn't, but she pulled him into an embrace anyway.
"...!"
Asher jolted.
His breath hitched for a moment.
Versia said it playfully on purpose.
"Sorry if I turned you on."
"Th-this is...!"
She released him from her arms.
His face was a little flushed. He was breathing hard.
But the dangerous air from before was gone.
Versia smiled, a mix of worry and relief, and asked,
"Better now? Can you talk to me?"
Asher's eyes flickered at the question.