Chapter 406: The Battlefield
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 406: The Battlefield
The wailing of an infant echoed through the heavens.
Black rain fell upon the earth, drifting down like the pale ink strokes of a wash painting.
Yet, in this Supreme Place—constructed by generations of Popes and built upon the foundation of an ever-perfecting Sanctuary—such rain did not seem particularly eerie.
On the contrary, it teemed with life.
As the droplets hit the steel ground, silvery-white vegetation sprouted and unfurled from the twisted crevices, rapidly growing dense.
Then, as if the growth of a fruit tree had been accelerated ten-thousand-fold, the lush vegetation transformed into towering trees within a few short breaths.
The trees bore plump fruit. The fruit ripened and fell.
It seemed like a natural cycle.
However, the fallen fruit did not continue to follow nature’s path by rotting into nourishment for new life. Instead, the cycle broke at this point, and the fruit began to writhe and contort.
Beneath the blood-red rinds, eerie living things shifted incessantly, their hideous silhouettes bulging against the skin.
These were no fruits—these were the placentas of monsters!
Squelch—
Sharp claws tore through the placentas as countless monsters were born into the world, crying out.
It was difficult to describe their appearance. They had human faces, serpentine scales, and the limbs of wild beasts... as if various creatures had been haphazardly stitched together.
But even those recognizable parts soon became indistinguishable amidst the horrific aberrations.
Everything was growing frantically—a twisted, malformed expansion. The wailing monsters and the proliferating vegetation spread like a bacterial carpet, surging toward the living beings they craved.
Then, they were met with an incredibly friendly and enthusiastic welcome... of heavy artillery!
"Fire! Fire!"
Knight Captain Kans, mounted upon a massive steel horse, swung his chainsword, cleaving a charging monster in two. He roared at the top of his lungs, the veins on his forehead bulging like a nest of vipers.
"Second Captain! Where the hell are your new-model magic cannons?!"
"Coming, coming!"
No further orders or prompting were needed. The war machines from the Temple of Mechanism were already primed. The muzzles glowed cherry-red from the heat as they unleashed the Destruction Rainbow Light!
The prismatic beams swept across the field, instantly tearing several clear paths through the overwhelming swarm of monsters.
Countless creatures were reduced to ash within the rainbow light, but the near-infinitely multiplying monsters continued to wail, and the distorted vegetation continued to grow wild. They seemed to have no concept of pain. However, the brief collapse caused by the bombardment was enough to give these elite knights a chance to counterattack!
"Form ranks!"
"Prepare Holy Light Formations!"
"Listen up! We must utterly annihilate these remnants of the Evil God! Do not let them pollute the Goddess’s Sanctuary! This is the Goddess’s divine decree!"
"For the Goddess!!"
Blood and fire instantly swept across the entire battlefield.
Captain Kans tightened his grip on the reins. His steel warhorse neighed, venting scalding steam as it fearlessly collided with a massive monster, while Kans drove his giant chainsword deep into the creature’s torso.
"Roar!"
The wailing turned into a pained howl. The monster’s malformed flesh split open, revealing a hideous maw of fangs and bone that snapped viciously at Kans.
This particular monster stood out even among the horde; it was more than twice the size of the others and had even devoured its own kind during its charge.
But Kans remained undaunted. The chainsword whirred at high speed, quickly grinding the monster into flying bits of gristle.
The foul-smelling gore splattered across his cold profile, but his expression didn't flicker.
"Ah!"
Suddenly, a knight behind Kans screamed. He tore off his visor, revealing a deformed tumor growing on half of his face. The tumor writhed, sprouting slender tentacles that lashed out at the knight beside him.
"Contamination!"
Kans’s deputy cried out, his longsword flashing as he deftly excised the aberration from the knight’s face.
The deputy signaled for subordinates to treat the wounded man, only to realize they had long since lost contact with the Holy Light units. The other knights’ Holy Light had already been exhausted during their frantic charge.
"Knight Captain."
Hearing his subordinate’s anxious voice, Kans looked up and scanned the surroundings. His gaze darkened.
Blade-light clashed with claws; blood and meat flew everywhere. This place had turned into a meat-grinder of a living hell.
Yet, within this hell, the silver torrent of knights acted like a spear, stubbornly boring into the sea of blood.
Captain Kans was the tip of that spear. Under his lead, the unit had torn through a massive number of monsters, pushing deep into the fray.
But now, it seemed they had gone... a bit too deep.
Like an island in the middle of the ocean, they were at risk of being swallowed by the giant waves at any moment.
What to do...
Advance or retreat?
As Captain Kans deliberated, the image of a certain figure that always set his heart ablaze surfaced in his mind. He gritted his teeth and, ignoring his exhausted subordinates, gripped his chainsword once more.
Just as he was about to point his blade forward, he heard a sudden cry of surprise:
"Holy Light!"
A gentle rain of light descended from the sky, and a sacred aura permeated the air, instantly purging all impurity.
The monsters shrieked and fled; the infinitely proliferating malformed plants began to rot away.
The corruption was being cleared at a visible rate. The knights, who had been at their wits' end, erupted in unimaginable joy, raising their arms and cheering in unison:
"It’s the Saintess’s Holy Light Art! Her Highness the Saintess has arrived!"
In the entire Church, there were only a handful of people capable of casting such a large-scale Holy Light spell in an instant. Based on the assigned sectors, the only one who could spare the effort to reinforce them was the Saintess herself, who had been holding the front line from the very beginning!
Her Highness the Saintess had actually intervened personally!
Every knight instinctively looked up, eagerly awaiting the Saintess’s arrival. Even Kans’s eyes burned with fervor!
But... what fell from the sky next wasn't the Saintess. It was...
What the hell was that?
The thing that slammed down from the sky like a meteorite appeared to be a harmless, pink bear. From its appearance alone, the pink teddy was actually somewhat cute. If placed in an amusement park, children would surely love it.
However...
As it landed, it happened to crush several monsters to death.
"Dammit, that dead bitch... she actually set me up and dropped me in a place like this. I’m gonna get her back for this sooner or later!"
"And these disgusting, horseless freaks... I just had my fur groomed not long ago..."
The cute pink bear wiggled its butt as it pulled its oversized head out of the ground. Ignoring the blood and bits of flesh stuck to its body, it stood before the stunned knights and... first unleashed a fluent "family bucket" of profanities. Then, a hairy hand—unmistakably belonging to a middle-aged man—poked out from the cute bear’s mouth.
The adorable mascot had instantly transformed into something out of a gore-filled horror movie for perverted old men.
"Hmm? There are still people alive?"
The pink bear scratched its butt and scanned the area. When its eyes landed on Kans, they visibly brightened.
He slapped the hand he’d just used to scratch his ass onto Kans’s shoulder. With his other hand, he pulled out two crumpled cigars, enthusiastically stuffing one into Kans’s mouth. Ignoring the monster guts smeared on it, he gave a suggestive wink.
"Brother, you got a light? Lend me a light."
"..."