"Grrrrk..."
Even with a spear through his heart, the priest of the Church of Morte didn't collapse right away.
Of course—this wasn't your average cultist. The priest was heavily imbued with the Serpent's Blessing.
'Tough bastard.'
But even so, beneath all that divine empowerment, he was still—technically—human.
Sure, a priest of the Church of Morte barely qualified as such anymore, but the principle held.
Crunch—
CRRRRCHH!
I twisted the Spear of Ankelenth still lodged in his heart.
The priest shrieked in agony as ether surged along the shaft of the spear, raging inside his body.
[Kiihehe...]
[More, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more—]
[Kahahaha! Kihihit!]
The ether—usually calm—was violently thrashing now.
A testament to how deeply the priest had earned its wrath.
'Can't say I'm surprised.'
The Church of Morte was infamous for its cruelty. No wonder the ether loathed them.
"Bearer of evil, unbeliever!"
Apparently, the ether wasn't the only one enraged. The other two priests charged at me.
["Master!"]
The priest I'd skewered was still breathing.
I would've liked to finish him off before turning to the others, but I didn't have that luxury.
'Tch.'
I grabbed the spear still impaling him and drove it straight into the ground.
"GAAH!"
No matter how powerful the Serpent's Blessing was, he wasn't going anywhere like that.
Tzzzzch, tzzzzz—!
Meanwhile, one of the other priests came flying at me, sparks flaring from his fingertips.
'Lightning Blessing.'
KRRAAAK-BOOM!
A bolt of lightning struck down.
Thanks to Esther's quick reflexes, an ether barrier flared up just in time to block most of it—but not all.
My muscles buzzed with lingering voltage.
["What the hell…?!"]
'It's not over yet.'
["Huh?"]
Right on cue, the second strike followed.
"Janus!"
At my call, Janus's bone tendrils sprang up in front of me, forming a shield.
CRRCK!
BOOM! CRACK!
Lightning slammed against the bony barricade, residual currents seeping through.
"Ghh…!"
My limbs trembled from the surge.
If my body had been any weaker, I might've been electrocuted right then and there.
'That Lightning Blessing...'
Priests with it were rare, which meant this guy was likely a high-level bishop candidate.
An unintentional big catch.
Of course, no matter how "big," he wasn't impossible to kill.
'Taking him out recklessly might complicate things, though…'
Still, I wasn't about to stop now.
I steadied my grip on the Ark-34 Automatic Conversion Rifle.
Click-click—
The Ark-34's Railgun mode shifted into its thunder discharge configuration—a modification made possible by Maybell Pilgrim, using the Thunderstruck Branch.
A niche mode, but invaluable in situations like this.
Clack—
I squeezed the trigger.
A bolt of thunder arced from the rifle's muzzle and collided with the priest's own lightning blast.
BOOM—!
CRACKLE-KRACK!
Thunder roared as lightning clashed mid-air.
The sheer energy was numbing, even at a distance—but far better than taking it full-on.
As our powers reached a stalemate...
"Cursed unbeliever!"
The third priest charged in, releasing a poisonous mist from his palm.
Blessing of Toxic Fog.
A wide-area attack with almost no effective defense. Normally, deadly.
But…
'Not after fighting that rotting freak Opacum.'
I'd developed a powerful resistance to poisons—and the reinforced serum only made it stronger.
So, the mist was worthless against me.
"Get lost."
I didn't even need to lift a finger—Janus's tendrils burst from my back and tore into the priest.
THUD!
THUK-THUK!
[KREEE!]
"Guaaaagh!"
Unlike his peers, this one had no defensive blessings.
Janus tore through him like paper.
"KYAAAH!"
With its current power, Janus could easily overwhelm someone of priest level—even without using a big move.
Dozens of bone tendrils skewered him without mercy.
And just like that—he dropped.
[KREEK!]
While Janus finished him off, I focused on the last one: the priest with the Lightning Blessing.
The other two—Iron Scales and Toxic Fog—were dealt with.
Now, only one remained.
BZZZ—CRK!
Sparks erupted from all around us.
But the battle remained deadlocked.
'Impressive…'
The Ark-34 in Thunder Rifle mode was no joke. Yet the priest didn't falter.
Despite the immense stamina drain of the Lightning Blessing, he wasn't even flagging.
'He must have another regenerative blessing besides the Serpent's.'
Which meant I'd been right—this guy wasn't just a bishop candidate, but a strong one.
'Hmph…'
Originally, I planned to kill him here.
But now, I saw another use for him.
'This should be enough.'
I began to slowly decrease the Ark-34's output—on purpose.
Almost immediately, the balance of power tipped.
His lightning surged toward me.
["M-Master!"]
Esther tried to throw up another barrier—but it was too late.
KRKRKRKA-BOOM!
The blast hit hard.
Janus braced, lessening the impact, but the smell of burnt skin still rose from my body.
"…Tch."
["A-Are you okay?!"]
"I'm fine."
I was still tingling, but it wasn't enough to put me down.
Besides, it was all part of the plan.
["Wait, where'd he—"]
"He ran."
["What?!"]
Cultists weren't idiots.
Even if he'd landed a hit, the priest must've sensed he couldn't win.
["Then what do we do?"]
"What else? We chase him."
More accurately—I'd let him go for that very reason.
The Church of Morte had countless outposts, and their locations constantly shifted.
Even I couldn't know where they all were at any given moment.
If it had been a regular priest, letting him go would've gained me nothing.
But a bishop candidate?
He was valuable.
He almost certainly had intel on upper-tier outposts.
'Of course, if I'm wrong… I'll kill him then.'
As expected, the priest fled without looking back—tail between his legs.
'No need to rush.'
If I chased now, he might catch on and go to ground.
'Can't let that happen.'
So, I held back.
Besides, a perfect excuse not to follow was already forming.
"Un… believer…"
"…must be… punished."
From the rubble, surviving cultists began to rise—those who'd been knocked out or hidden till now.
'Wasn't planning to let them go anyway.'
I directed Janus to shadow the fleeing priest via Horus, then turned to face the oncoming cultists.
"Ki-ll… him…"
From their movements, they seemed like common cultists—those with only the Serpent's Blessing.
Even so, surviving that bombardment meant they were tenacious as hell.
'Persistent bastards.'
I switched the Ark-34 to shotgun mode and fired.
BOOM!
KRRAK-BOOM!
The A-985 Explosive Rounds detonated, blasting their heads apart before they could even activate the Serpent's Blessing.
I didn't stop.
While firing wildly, I stomped on any cultist that got close.
WHRRRRN!
The repulsor jets in my combat greaves ignited—splattering a cultist's skull beneath my boot.
The movement would've knocked me over—if not for the flight-assist stabilizer.
KA-BOOOM!
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
Each blast from the Ark-34 Automatic Conversion Rifle sent another shockwave tearing through the battlefield.
* * *
At last, the battle—long or short, depending on perspective—came to an end.
All that remained were collapsed rock formations and chunks of flesh that used to be cultists.
The Church of Morte's presence here had been wiped out.
I made sure of that.
I took a swig from my canteen of Lifewater and dabbed the rest on my minor wounds.
Fsshh…
'That should do it.'
The injuries were shallow.
My condition was nearly back to normal.
'Alright… time to begin the real hunt.'
I'd given the runaway enough of a head start.
Now… it was time to chase.