Descent of the Saintess (2)
"Don't worry. I'll heal you again."
The saintess's lips moved. Heal? My brain couldn't keep up. Reality raced ahead first.
Woooong—. Between her two hands clasped together as if in prayer, a dazzling white light gathered once more. Pristine holiness. But to my eyes, it looked more horrifying than the scythe of the Grim Reaper.
Flash—! The beam of light shot toward Leon, who was on his knees, gurgling as his consciousness faded.
Sizzle!!
"Gasp!!!"
Leon’s eyes snapped open from the forced injection of life force. Bone sprouted from his mangled shoulder. Flesh followed. And right after that.
Sssss, crackle.
The regenerated flesh didn't stop. It kept swelling. Something writhed inside his shoulder. An organ.
"Hii, hiiiik!! S-stop!!"
Leon screamed as he looked down at his own body. His chest was ballooning like a balloon. His ribs snapped backward, unable to withstand the internal pressure.
"Uwaaaack!!"
A gush of blood and organ chunks spewed from his mouth.
"N-no..."
Those were his last words.
Boom—!!
A heavy, gruesome rupture far worse than a balloon popping. Leon's swollen upper body exploded outward, unable to contain the pressure.
Thud thud thud!! Tree leaves fell heavily.
The remains of what had been our comrade, Leon, until moments ago, soaked the forest floor as a red rain. It reeked. A thick, nauseating metallic stench mixed with the earthy smell of the woods.
"......"
"......"
We couldn't even breathe. Lina, Hans, Kai—none of us could move. Our souls seemed frozen before this death that defied all human logic.
I desperately wracked my brain. If I give in to fear, I'm dead. Analyze it.
Fuck... she's a demon. That's not human.
Was a demon wearing human skin? Or had she become a demon herself? Either way, the conclusion was the same.
That woman was a calamity.
Step, step.
In the silence, the saintess moved. She crouched before the blood-soaked mess of meat that Leon had become. Red clumps scattered on the ground. She stroked them. Like they were a cute little puppy.
"Now it's a bit..."
She looked up, her blood-splattered face beaming innocently.
"...cuter."
No one could speak.
She brushed off her knees and stood, as if nothing had happened.
Madness. Perfect madness, without even a hint of pure evil.
She licked the blood from her index finger. Lick.
Her gaze slowly swept over us, then stopped at one spot.
"Oh my."
Her lidded eyes fixed on Kai's shoulder. A tiny scratch from earlier, grazed by the Black Rabbit's claw.
"Poor little lamb."
She pointed at Kai. That horrific white light began to gather at her fingertip again.
"I'll heal you."
Heal. The word hammered into my ears like a death sentence.
"!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Kai's face went deathly pale. Frozen, not even able to think of running.
At this rate, Kai would end up like Leon. I screamed at the top of my lungs.
"Attack her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Thwack! Thud!
Before I finished, eerie rupture sounds rang out, and arrows buried deep into both of the saintess's eyes.
"Hah... hah..."
I whipped my head around. Lina stood there, bowstring released, panting heavily.
"Nice shot!!"
Kai flashed her a thumbs-up.
Arrows in both eyes. Deep enough to pierce the brain.
...It should have been over.
But.
"Oh dear, such naughty behavior..."
Blood streamed down her cheeks from the arrows in both eyes, yet her voice was utterly serene. No— she seemed delighted.
"But I love you all."
Ooooo—.
Like a heavenly choir in chorus, a holy and majestic resonance echoed through the forest.
⟨ DIVINE RESONANCE ⟩
At her words, a blinding white flash erupted from her entire body.
"Grk, no way!!"
Crunch, squelch.
A grotesque sound rang from within the holy light. Fresh flesh filled her eye sockets at terrifying speed, pushing out the embedded arrows.
Plop. Plop.
Bloodied arrows fell limply to the ground. Newly grown eyes rolled around, finding their place. Clear and transparent like a newborn's— all the more chilling— they gazed at us again.
And soon, her eyes closed once more.
"!!!!!"
"Don't stop! Keep attacking!!"
I bellowed. We couldn't give her a moment's gap.
Whoosh—!!
In that instant, Kai's form blurred and vanished like lightning. The assassin's signature stealth and acceleration. In the blink of an eye, he circled behind her, gripping his daggers in reverse grip.
"Dieeee!!"
Kai's twin blades crossed in an X.
Splurt—!!!
With a gruesome slicing sound, the saintess's head shot into the air. The rotating head thudded onto the ground with a wet splat, and blood fountained from the neck stump.
"Heh heh, haa... how's that!!"
Kai grinned savagely, breathing hard.
Head severed. No brain left to regenerate. This fight should be over.
But that moment.
Ooooo—.
The holy resonance sounded again. From the headless, staggering body, that accursed light burst forth once more.
"No way..."
The severed neck bubbled. Like boiling lava, red muscle fibers surged up from the stump.
Sizzle, crunch.
Muscles swelled. They twisted like threads, forming a neck. Then.
Click. Click. Click.
Cervical vertebrae stacked. Veins wove like spiderwebs, reconnecting blood vessels. A dangling jawbone formed, red tongue and white teeth piercing through the gums. Like fast-forwarding an anatomy model, nose and cheekbones covered the jaw. Eyeballs popped into sockets like corn kernels. Sizzle.
In mere seconds. Finally, pale skin blanketed the muscles, and the exact same face as the one rolling on the ground reformed there.
The new saintess head settled fully. She pointed at Kai's shoulder wound with her index finger— he still hadn't processed it— and said,
"Right there."
With her low voice, a pure white beam shot from her fingertip.
Woooong—!!
The moment the light touched.
The red line of the wound vanished whoosh.
A brief silence.
Then, something writhed beneath the skin.
"N-no!!"
Crunch! Boom!!
The shoulder muscles twisted grotesquely, ballooning like a balloon before bursting from the pressure.
"Gaaaahhh!!!"
Flesh sprayed. Bone fragments flew. Kai rolled on the ground. One arm dangled like a rag.
Pew pew pew pew!!
Arrows slammed into the saintess. Lina's hands moved too fast to see. But the saintess didn't flinch. Each wound wrapped in holy light, ejecting arrows and regenerating instantly.
She calmly took the arrow rain while approaching Kai, who writhed and crawled in agony.
"The healing isn't finished yet."
Her hand flashed again.
"N-no... stay back...!"
Kai's scream didn't last.
Boom—!!!
Another gruesome explosion rocked the forest. Like with Leon, Kai's body misted into red fog.
Blood splattered across her closed eyelids, trickling down her cheeks like bloody tears.
Drip drip drip.
Only the sound of red rain pattering on leaves filled the air.
"......"
"......"
Lina's trembling hands froze mid-air. The life drained rapidly from her eyes.
That was when it happened.
A heavy vibration shattered the despairing silence, rumbling through the air.
Woooong—!!
"Casting complete!! Everyone fall back!!"
I turned at the urgent shout. Senior Hans held his staff high. The mana gathered at its tip warped space itself, dangerously unstable.
"Fire Pillar—!!"
⟨ FIRE PILLAR ⟩
Whoosh—! The ground beneath the saintess glowed red, instantly etching complex geometric patterns. No time to dodge— instant-cast magic.
Boom—!!!
A massive fire pillar erupted from the earth, swallowing her. Intense heat reached even us. Scorching enough to reduce bones to ash, it blanketed the forest.
Roar—!!
Within the raging inferno, her form crumbled in real time.
"......!!"
Skin melted in the heat. Dripped like candle wax. Red muscles exposed. Bubbling black. Eyeballs vaporized. Black smoke rose from empty sockets. The smell of burning flesh. Like roasting meat.
Similar, but different. A smell that screamed she should be dead. Obliterated.
But.
Flaaash—.
A white light, fiercer and more eerie than the flames, poured down on her crown.
Sizzle, sizzzzle! Charred flesh sloughed off. New flesh sprouted in its place. Pale. Melted organs reknit. Burned bones refilled. White.
Flames tried to burn; light tried to restore. Destruction and regeneration in a bizarre minute-by-minute war.
"Uwaaaahhh!!"
Senior Hans screamed, veins bulging. He squeezed every drop of mana— no, life force— from his veins to sustain the pillar.
"Burn! Please! Faster than she can regenerate— burn to nothing!!"
I screamed too. Inside the pillar, she cycled from skeleton to beauty. Eyeballs melted. Regrew. Melted. Regrew.
But mana was finite. Her cursed regeneration infinite.
Drip.
Senior Hans's nose exploded in blood.
"Urk..."
As his mana bottomed out, the sky-piercing flames gradually died. The last embers faded, acrid smoke cleared, revealing...
"Ah..."
Thud.
Senior Hans collapsed to his knees, legs giving out. Futility. Overwhelming helplessness crashed over us.
His unfocused eyes stared blankly at the saintess.
Her black nun's habit fully incinerated, leaving her stark naked. But not a burn mark or scorch on her body. Like she'd just stepped from a bath, faint steam rose from her pale skin.
Nude in broad daylight. Normally, you'd look away or blush. But no lust stirred. Her face bore a benevolent, holy smile. Paired with this grotesquery, it evoked only primal terror, hacking at human instincts.
"How embarrassing..."
She murmured, stroking her smooth skin.
Her gaze slowly swept us, stopping at one spot.
"Right there."
A holy yet chilling voice.