Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: The Executioner (1)
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Lincoln couldn't comprehend the situation.
He had clearly warped to the laboratory. He had seen Riki's despairing expression. If he had just turned his head a little more, Riki would have spotted him.
What kind of face would he have made? How much anguish would he have felt? Perhaps, like Sinno, he might have glimpsed hope at first.
But he hadn't seen it.
His face twisted like a demon's.
"Which bastard—!"
Holy power exploded in response to his rage.
Pure white light engulfed the bishop's chamber.
Yet the light didn't persist to the end.
A single strand of darkness sliced across the blinding world.
"Pigs shouldn't talk like humans."
He seized the thick, fleshy snout.
Lincoln saw purple-glowing eyes emerging through the light.
Everything else was pitch black.
This was the one. The wicked black human who had shattered his ecstasy.
He gripped the slender wrist clutching his mouth. The light had begun from there.
"Insolent fool!"
Vast holy power surged from his obese body.
Jamie grimaced at the divine force shoving him back.
'Even a pig is still a bishop.'
Despite his looks, Lincoln was a genuine bishop.
The divinity of high-ranking clergy wielded power that could never be dismissed lightly.
For a Black Sorcerer, it was akin to a horrific calamity.
The issue was that Jamie's black magic differed greatly from the conventional sort.
"Useless."
The light was being devoured by the darkness.
Lincoln couldn't believe it.
This was the divinity he had honed over long years. It couldn't sink so easily before something like that.
"So it's you! You're the one who took down the Chimera Paladin!"
He hadn't even considered it might be a Black Sorcerer.
For such a monstrous existence to dare obstruct the greater good.
Impossible.
"Go rot in the sewers, wasting your pointless time, you worthless trash."
Heavy holy power poured from Lincoln's hand.
"Think scum like you can do anything?!"
Zenith was the god of war and peace.
His followers inherently wielded powers specialized for battle.
A sacred battlefield unfurled within the bishop's chamber.
Here, Zenith's priests gained tremendous strength. Even in a standard sanctuary cast by an ordinary priest, a mere punch multiplied several times in power. A Battle Sanctuary from a bishop, however...
He could shatter boulders with ease.
"I'll rip your limbs off and hang you in the square, you vile abomination!"
"Haha."
Jamie laughed at Lincoln's threat.
Battle Sanctuary. A perilous divine spell, to be sure.
It symbolized Zenith's power as well. Which made it meaningless.
Anyone else would be in dire straits, but the opponent was unfortunately Jamie.
"I know every power of Zenith."
"What?"
Jamie raised his right hand.
Tens of thousands of years, at minimum. Their divine spells had evolved since his time. He knew them all. From the day he began reading books, he had scoured every divine magic of the twelve denominations without fail.
There might be a few he didn't know.
But had they changed much? No.
Tens of thousands of years had passed, yet their techniques remained largely the same. Just minor tweaks.
"You've grown too complacent in your peace."
"What nonsense is this?!"
"Tens of thousands of years. Despite that span, you haven't changed much."
"Sudden drivel..."
"That's why you'll fall to me in the end. Zenith."
"How dare a filthy Black Sorcerer invoke a god's name!"
Rage-filled, Lincoln launched himself forward.
For all his bulky frame, he moved with squirrel-like agility.
Jamie's lip curled.
"You're first."
Snap—
Jamie flicked his fingers.
Lincoln swung his clenched, plump fist with full force.
That instant.
The power surging through his flesh vanished like a lie.
'What?!'
Within his Battle Sanctuary, he gained tenfold normal strength. Even Expert knights couldn't match him in raw power.
Yet that mighty force was fading.
And that wasn't all.
"Th-the sanctuary."
His reckless high leap sent his body plummeting.
He tried to land safely, but he was an old pig with scant battle experience.
Crash—!
"Oof!"
Legs-first, yet he couldn't control his mass and tumbled across the floor.
What in the world?
His body throbbed, but no time for tears. He bolted up, scanning around.
His eyes bulged.
"No, impossible."
"Why impossible?"
The sanctuary crumbled.
Precisely, darkness gnawed at the luminous domain.
The 12 Gods' divinity was a Black Sorcerer's natural bane. Dispelling a Battle Sanctuary with such power was inconceivable.
An inexplicable scene.
As Lincoln's mind reeled in chaos, Jamie spoke.
"You didn't come utterly unprepared, did you?"
"Urgh. I am Lincoln, bishop of Zenith Church! No worm of a Black Sorcerer can converse with me... Ack!"
Boom!
Lincoln's hulking form smashed into the wall.
"You lot can't do a thing without your Battle Sanctuary. Deal with that, and you're harmless."
"D-don't mock me!"
"Time to talk."
As Jamie approached, reeking of baleful dark energy, Lincoln twisted his massive bulk desperately.
"R-release me! No one outside?!"
"If they heard, they'd be here already."
"You... Think I'll talk? Kill me, I won't..."
"You're mistaken."
"About what?"
"I don't need your okay."
Black mana seeped from Jamie's hand clamping his face.
Lincoln instinctively knew his intent.
"D-don't!"
"Let's peek inside your brain. No pain."
"Don't!!!"
Jamie grinned, seizing his head.
Memories flooded in like a torrent.
"Preparations are complete."
"What preparations!"
Slap!
The priest who fetched Riki snapped sideways.
Horn-like hair spiked sharply on both sides.
The doctor's face twisted in fury as he clutched the priest's throat.
"Gah!"
"Your master's not here! Your master!"
"Th-that..."
"Lincoln. That trash scum!"
The doctor hurled the priest aside.
Crashing amid shattered equipment. The priest lay unconscious, head lolled back.
Incredible strength from such a diminutive frame.
He tsked, pacing the lab in frenzy.
"What happened? Why delay my experiment? Infuriating!"
He booted the trash can viciously.
Bang— it burst apart.
Rubbing his hooked nose, the doctor muttered.
"Lincoln, you dog. If not here in ten minutes, you're dead."
Usually composed, disruptions unleashed his bottled madness.
"Cough, cough."
The priest stirred arduously.
The doctor stomped over, yanking him up by the hair brutishly.
"Urk!"
"Hey."
"F-forgive..."
"Beg me? Beg your master. When's he coming? Suicidal?"
"I-I'll fetch him."
"With what skill? Think your piddling power handles the warp device?"
"I'll manage. Spare me..."
"Hah!"
Hand raised to decapitate, reason barely held him back. Zenith Church was prime business. No ruining it over mania.
Tsking, he released the hair. The priest bowed frantically in thanks.
Watching, he pondered.
'Kill him, contract breaks?'
On reflection, one peon priest? Hardly.
Anger swelled, irritation boiled. Needed to kill to vent.
He was the experiment's core. Without him, nothing. They bent to him.
Thwack—!
No holding back.
Priest crumpled, neckless.
The doctor chuckled, relieved.
"Heh. Material it is."
Hoisting the headless corpse—residual divinity extractable for minor aid.
"Honor to join your 'greater good.'"
Headless, dead before words—unheard.
Yet he flung jests at the body ceaselessly.
Then.
"What?"
Several presences from above.
All alien.
His eyes swiveled grotesquely apart.
Anger and ire reignited; he bellowed.
"Lincoln!! Trash!! What kind of job is this!!"
Intruders.
"Over there."
"Looks like it."
Ras responded to the Shadow Knight.
Forest-center abandoned building. Reeking of death aura.
"Revolting."
Shadow Knights sensed death qi; as Pyro Paladin, Ras smelled nauseating filth.
"Inside."
Ras and Shadow Knights entered warily.
Thorough search.
Long derelict—no passage traces.
"Nothing."
"Uninhabited for ages."
Ras furrowed brow at reports.
"Only this spot."
Footprints expected at least.
No traces?
'Wrong lead?'
Hours wasted—no.
Then.
"This way!"
Unreporting Shadow Knight yelled urgently.
Rush over—he ear-to-floor.
"What?"
"Wind."
"Wind?!"
No basement door presumed complete.
"Hidden door."
"Search."
Ras, knights hunted the concealed passage. Had to be here.
How long?
Ras before bookshelf. Secrets often bookshelf-hid. One book suspiciously pristine.
"Clean."
Dusty shelf overall.
This book dirty, yet cleaner.
Finger-tug book.
Clunk—
Mechanism whirred; shelf slid left.
Shadow Knights neared.
"Prepare."
Ras unsheathed sword.
Blade gleamed white divinity.
Knights drew, auras flared.
Door agape—downward stone stairs. Step forward—
Swoosh—!!
Clang!!
Ras's sword sparked amid whoosh.
Kieeeek!
Giant mantis leg lunged from dark at group.
Ras gritted, parried blade-leg.
Knights chained strikes; clangs resounded.
One hurled magic scroll airward.
Flames lit stairs.
Revealed: indescribably grotesque monster.
Thus named by folk.
"Chimera."
Mantis-lion chimera guarded basement maw.
"I... so, the archbishop wants, to, do."
Jamie gazed at Bishop Lincoln, tears-snot-drool streaming.
Wall-slumped, limp; glazed dead eyes, quivers heralding collapse.
"So."
Jamie squatted eye-level.
Lincoln's unfocused gaze missed him.
"Zenith demands strong army ceaselessly via oracles. Means irrelevant. Right?"
"Y-yes."
"Then head to count's estate now. Spill all you know. Excise me entirely."
"Un-der-stood."
"Insurance."
Hand atop Lincoln's head.
Crackle—shuddered lightning-struck.
"Go."
"...Yes."
Brainwashing intensified.
Lincoln's mind: sole command—confess all to count.
"Now."
Jamie face-touched.
Features warped to familiar guise.
Grinning, donned bishop robes procured prior.
"Shall we?"
Lincoln-morphed Jamie warped forth.