You cunning little brat.

Creating an impure being from forged holiness…

It’s a very contradictory story, but if you know the principle, it’s not entirely impossible.

Divine power is originally a force that emphasizes ‘restoration’ rather than ‘regeneration’.

In other words, it can be expressed as ‘restoring based on records existing in objects’, and necromancy is a modification of divine power that doesn’t fully implement this process of following records, but makes it endlessly repeat only one moment.

Just as a halo with will is realized through prayer, it awakens a ‘will’ that mimics the subject’s past based on records left in the corpse.

“Generally, the most intense memory a dead person has would be regret. Especially survival instinct… Someone on the verge of death craves life more than anyone.”

I explained all of this directly to him through my mouth at this moment.

To prove that this result is not just a stroke of luck or a fluke, but an outcome achieved because I myself am knowledgeable about undead beings.

“So you’re probably feeling something like hunger towards me now. Your attachment to life has strengthened, but since your head is half gone, the means to express it outwardly is mostly occupied by hunger, which is the basic means of life activity.”

As I glared with half-closed eyes, the guy shrank back and moved his upper body backward.

Yet his feet moved slightly forward as if sliding.

Although he knows rationally that he shouldn’t approach, he’s preparing to rush at me, unable to shake off his instincts.

It’s amusing to think that even that is not his own will, but.

“…How does it feel? To fight using someone else’s lingering attachment as your driving force?”

Yes, these guys ultimately just collaborated with cultists, they can’t be called cultists themselves.

Not properly understanding the principles and limits of their own power, they probably rushed in relying only on corpseification even knowing I’m a cleric.

“Of course, it’s good that you can achieve what you want to achieve even like that. Given that you’re trying to carry out the enormous mission of revolution, you probably thought the power that strengthens in response to your own obsession would be a big help.”

But it’s too late to regret now.

I prepared to gradually close the distance with the opponent while making the light honing my fingertips even more vivid.

“But it’s unfortunate. Undead aren’t much of a threat to those who can handle divine power.”

Lingering attachment wishing to remain in the past forever.

The endless craving for the past derived from that, the immortal body that should be called eternal recurrence, is shattered by the power that should move towards the original future.

I was a body capable of that.

I, who maintain faith towards god while having experience stepping onto countless battlefields.

“Nonsense!!”

The leader shouting as if unable to accept that.

His feet exerting excessive force even dug up the roof he was stomping on, and eventually made his body into an afterimage.

-Boom! Whoosh!!!

The sound of air rushing from all directions, the sound of breaking air derived from additional leaps made to change direction in between.

Where he appeared at the end was my side…

-Boom!!!

No, above.

Right after colliding with the guard entrusted to reflexive reaction rather than reason, he rampaged roughly between the roofs, rushing in as if tracking my pushed back body.

“What does it matter that you’ve nullified the power of immortality.”

-Thud!!

At the moment when merciless pummeling using all limbs strikes various parts of my body, accumulating damage.

Even the guard using mana was difficult to withstand.

The mana responding to the will of a person crazed with lingering attachment and having lost rational judgment is rampaging very fiercely.

“Even so, in the end it just means you can land effective hits…! The fact that I’m stronger than you, overall I’m stronger, hasn’t changed…!!”

-Crack!

The moment the punch following that brushed past the forearm raised for the guard.

The wildly rampaging mana tore through clothes and even the skin underneath, starting to burst blood.

“Th-That’s right. You’ve made a mistake now. To ramble on so leisurely in front of me in such a situation…!!”

A smile deepening the moment I smelled the blood scent derived from that.

A chill ran down my spine the moment his dry, cracked teeth characteristic of a corpse were revealed.

“As long as your attacks don’t touch me. As long as they don’t touch me, that’s all… You’ve taught me…”

-Crackle!

Yes, a truly chilling sensation.

The sensation starting from my back vibrates mana as if connecting to will, and the cold derived from that created frost on my fingertips.

By the time the opponent noticed that, all the blood splattered on his body had already frozen.

-Crackle!!

Thorns of blood shooting forward along with mana output.

The moment those attacks pierced various parts of his body, the warmth of the pierced parts rapidly cooled and began to freeze.

The moment movements of various parts of the body became sluggish.

“Such a petty trick…”

-Boom!!

His body staggering from the low kick following right after.

My grasp was already directed towards where his head was tilting.

“My hand touched you.”

-Bang!!!!!

A mass of physical force gathered in my grasp.

As soon as it collided with his head, it exploded, making his upper body stagger, and a high kick swung to match that moment struck his neck hard.

After his body trying to bounce back staggering from the impact was dragged in front of me wrapped in bandages, my hand blade honed in flames left a large scar on his body.

“Kugh…”

-Bzzt!!

His face lowering while groaning like that struck my hand soaked in electric current.

Though he tried to reach out with a body without pain, even that attempt was withdrawn due to convulsions from the electric shock, pushing him back.

And to match that moment, the pebble grasped in my hand crumbled.

“I’ll return the favor for tearing my flesh.”

-Crack!!

The pile of crushed gravel spread like shotgun pellets, striking various parts of his body.

Even the guard using mana crumbled as he couldn’t maintain composure, allowing fragments to embed in his body.

The moment his whole body was torn to shreds.

The figure with rotten blood flowing from various parts looked extremely hideous and filthy, but even that was being restored by the power that repeats only one moment.

“Keh, uh… Kuuu…”

But even that will eventually reach its limit.

Because all the attacks inflicted so far were accompanied by divine power.

Normally, if it’s just a flash of the moment, it would be meaningless as there’s no time to heal, but it’s different for a body affected by necromancy.

As it’s not a proper power to begin with, it can only helplessly succumb to the power trying to correct it.

“Kuuu…!!”

It was instantaneous that the hardened blood falling from his body gradually took on a vivid color.

Eventually reaching the level of gushing out in a flood.

“Aaagh!!”

At that moment, his mouth opened and a scream burst out, but by then my fist was ready to strike his face.

-Thud!

His head being crushed as he falls from the building to the street.

As the vividly flowing blood soaks my bandaged hand, I removed the cigarette in my mouth and threw a joke at him.

“Stop screaming. You’ll wake up all the neighbors.”

Yes, it’s a pointless joke.

The buildings in this city are very well soundproofed, so unless you deliberately smash a building, there’s no way external noise would be heard inside.

In the middle of the night like now when people are starting to go to sleep, unless someone happens to look out the window while going to the bathroom, there’s no way the neighborhood would be disturbed by this level of street fight.

These guys probably knew that too, which is why they tried to cause trouble at this time.

The unfortunate thing was that I happened to decide to protect what they were targeting, and I happened to handle a power fatal to them.

“By the way, you guys are really stupid. Even if it was my daily routine to run around in my underwear on the battlefield, I still survived for 10 years, so shouldn’t you have been more cautious if you knew I had divine power?”

If they knew about me, they should have figured out that I’m a believer of Cleas.

Did they really rush in without realizing that divine power is the counter to necromancy?

“Impossible… nonsense…!!”

At that moment, the leader guy started rambling with his head stuck to the ground.

Even though his senses had all returned due to the corpseification being canceled by divine power, what was drawn in his eyes looking up at me was far from pain.

As if facing something unexpected…

“Seine, Bertayu… What the hell are you?”

No, an emotion close to fear felt when facing an ‘incomprehensible being’ beyond that.

“…You said it yourself, didn’t you? Do you need any more self-introduction than that?”

“Shut up!! This is a power created by followers serving none other than the greatest monarch in history!! A power that’s impossible to drive away without at least bishop-level divine power…!!”

Heh heh, bishop-level, he says.

You should know your limits when selling drugs.

It’s common in religious circles to worship real people as gods like Jesus, but the old emperor left this world only about 30 years ago at most.

From a religious perspective, boasting about a god who’s not even half a century old is worse than a baby’s recital.

“But what is this…”

Yet the guy was rambling incoherently while collapsed on the ground.

“The god this bitch serves should be from a sect with only 20 years of history, but with such insignificant divine power… What the hell is this, it wasn’t in the information, why…!!”

…This is getting annoying to listen to.

-Bang!!

After knocking him out by striking his head, I turned my back on where he had fallen and looked back at where I had passed.

Idiots everywhere groaning in pain regardless of their leader being taken down. It was quite a contrast to when they were rampaging without pain, as if on drugs, and half lost in reason.

Well, those intoxicated with past glory are usually like this.

So obsessed with seeing the big picture that they can’t see the wall right in front of them, only coming to their senses when their nose is broken…

But what’s more annoying is that these guys aren’t the end of those trying to cause trouble in this city.

“Seems like it blew up quite big, I wonder if it can be cleaned up.”

No matter how skilled at infiltration they are, judging from directly confronting them, I determined they weren’t capable of breaking through the city’s surveillance network.

To allow more than twenty such guys to gather in a civilian residential area, and moreover in an ‘important area’ where many religious people responsible for the city’s revival are stationed.

It could only be thought that things had blown up so big that they weren’t paying attention to this side.

“Not one group but an alliance…”

And the main axis of that is none other than the ‘Elder Fanatics’.

A group of fanatics who worship the old emperor as a god.

If the necromancy they handle is being used on all their collaborators, and they’re trying to cause problems by infiltrating various parts of this city for their respective purposes?

-Thud thud.

Amidst such ominous premonitions, presences felt from various parts of the alley.

I felt vigilant for a moment, but no hostility towards me was visible from them.

Where their attention was directed was the rebel remnants sprawled on roads everywhere…

A sardonic smile began to form on my lips as I realized their identity.

“…Fortunately, it seems the cleanup squad hasn’t been paralyzed.”

Well, when accidents happen, there are always people to clean them up.

They would have grasped the problems occurring in this city even before me.

“The cleanup was quite late.”

It didn’t take long to find the leader of the group. Cleaning up the fallen guys or erasing spilled blood with drugs, gathering debris from collapsed roads or roofs with mana…

Even amidst such busy movement at the scene, there was a ‘leader’ standing loftily among them.

“Don’t talk so nonchalantly, kid. No matter how late it is, do you think it’s easy to keep people’s attention away?”

A woman in leather clothes wearing a crow-shaped gas mask.

Her voice was quite sharp, but what I actually felt from it was an emotion close to joy.

“Kid, you say? I’ve grown quite old now too.”

Yes, I knew this person very well.

Though it’s been about 5 years since we last met, the crow-shaped gas mask hiding her face was like her trademark.

“You’ve aged as much as I have.”

“Yes, yes, I suppose it’s polite to treat you as an elder until the day you enter the grave.”

“…Looking at your sarcasm, it seems your personality hasn’t changed. You cunning little brat.”

“You’re the same as ever too.”

I snickered and reached out my hand towards her.

Without hesitation, my hand soaked in blood from the previous fight.

“It’s been a long time, Master. Have you been well?”

She boldly grasped even such a hand mixed with blood.

As if to show that she herself, as a doctor and mercenary, is a veteran who has bloodied her hands no less than I have.