Ch.280Grown NPC. (6)

I thought the world had turned upside down.

“Huff! Huff! Huff! …I-Ira?! Grace?!! Gor?!!! Is everyone alright?!!!”

A giant colossus. The moment Ira’s attack—taking the exact same form as the man I missed so dearly—struck down the demon, I was completely caught in the aftermath blast as I was closest to it, and was thrown back to who knows where.

I need to tell her to adjust the power of that attack later! If we get caught up in something like that, we’re done for too! Of course, seeing Jack’s form made my heart race, but… how should I put it, the direction of my heart racing is different!!!

[Everyone is safe. I protected them.]

“Ah, Gor!”

“Peep!”

“Oh, sis!! I’m sorry!! I-I just thought about the strongest brother in the world when I used my [Skill]…!!!”

Gor was approaching me with Ira and Miss Grace in his arms, walking on his recovered legs. Miss Grace seemed to have fainted from the blast, covered in dust with her eyes closed, and flames were wrapped around her body.

Could that be spirit magic? Did Piyaki do that to protect Miss Grace? And seeing Ira in Gor’s arms, looking a bit tired and repeatedly apologizing to me, I smiled a bit bitterly and reached out to gently stroke her head.

“Ira. You did very well. There was no way I or Gor alone could have won anyway. But if you use that skill again, learn from this experience and either control its power or make sure to warn your allies to escape first.”

“Yes!! I’ll never make this mistake again!!”

I smiled contentedly as Ira shouted “Promise!” with a small puff from her nose at my advice, and then I immediately turned my gaze to Gor. So, what about that demon from earlier?

[I defeated it. Or I’d like to say that, but it’s baffling. Ira’s attack had a numerical value of 510,000. The creature’s HP was 150,000, but somehow it survived with a tiny bit of HP remaining.]

“…Where is it?”

A massive crater had formed in the area where the Church people had been stationed, as if a bomb had exploded, yet the demon was still alive. However, according to Gor, it seemed considerably weakened, and I could finish off the rest. With that in mind, I held my sword and asked Gor for the enemy’s location, but…

[…I don’t know. It’s definitely not near us, that’s for certain. Beyond that, I can’t properly detect its direction or distance.]

“Should we retreat then? There’s no guaranteed way to win even if we recover and fight again, right?”

“I-If I use that attack one more time…!!”

[I’m sorry, Ira. Your MP is currently at 0. You can’t activate the skill again right now. And don’t you feel heavy and have a headache? I told you MP is different from magical power, but for those who possess it, it’s still one of the elements that sustains your body.]

“Uh, yeah… I’m feeling a bit slee… yaaawn…”

Despite having just been in an intense battle, Ira started rubbing her eyes and yawning as if she couldn’t hold back anymore. Does that mean her MP is at 0, that she’s completely depleted her magical power? No, I think Gor just said something about MP being different from magical power. Should I ask Gor about it later?

[You can rest now if you’re tired. Thanks to you, the enemy is critically wounded, and Rei and I are unharmed. When you wake up, you’ll be on a soft bed.]

“…Mmm. But still…”

“Ira? If you don’t sleep now, you might not grow any taller. Besides, you fought really hard and well today. You can rest now, and no one will think you’re a child anymore.”

“Really?”

As she kept rubbing her eyes, seemingly reluctant to close her eyelids, I gently took her from Gor’s arms and held her in mine. She grabbed onto my chest and waited for my words with her eyes half-closed from drowsiness. Oh my, I said she’s not a child, but she’s so cute I want to nibble on her!!

“Of course. Rest easy today. All the things you did today, the battles you fought, and the brilliant strategy that saved people. Let’s talk about all of that tomorrow when we meet Ragni and Jack again. Okay?”

After listening to me until the end, Ira smiled drowsily and slowly dropped her face onto my chest, falling asleep. Phew! If she had insisted on continuing to fight in this state, I was planning to force her to sleep, but thankfully that wasn’t necessary.

[…She must be very tired. Her first skill, and such a powerful one that consumed over 2,000 MP down to zero, used without any practice.]

“You did well to develop Ira while using me as bait, didn’t you?”

[It was thanks to you keeping the demon occupied.]

I’m slightly surprised by her clean expression of gratitude, so different from how she had been snapping at me earlier. After handing the sleeping Ira back to Gor, I started moving forward with my sword drawn, remaining vigilant.

“Gor, you just said the enemy is critically wounded, but…”

[It is critical, but it still has about 2,000 HP left. Even if you and I face it now, we have no way to deal with it. Unless you can strike it 2,000 more times.]

From 150,000 down to 2,000, it’s certainly appropriate to call it critically wounded. But even landing that one attack earlier cost us Piyaki’s interference and the loss of one sword. Simply put, unless I have 2,000 more swords, I might lose this magic sword Jack bought me and be left without a means to fight back.

“Then it’s time to withdraw. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t completely eliminate the enemy, but…”

[Actually, I’m having some doubts about that part right now.]

I conveyed my intention to retreat to Gor, but as she followed behind me, she started talking about something else. Doubts? What do you mean?

[When I first came to the status screen, there were many Church priests here. But during the recent battle, I noticed the priests were nowhere to be seen.]

“Didn’t they all run away? Weren’t Ira and Grace chasing them off…?”

[No, you probably didn’t hear because you were busy facing the demon. Ira and Grace faced four priests, including their leader. The rest were gathered to deal with the diversion and fire that Piyaki started. But now…]

“They’ve all disappeared? Did they perhaps get caught in Ira’s attack?”

When I suggested the most likely possibility, Gor shook her head. Then what on earth…

-BOOM!!!

“Aaaah~! Fuuuuck~!! You really, REALLY went and did it, didn’t you!!!”

At the flash of light and a man’s voice erupting from the crater Ira had created, I was startled but immediately gripped my sword tighter. Was there another enemy besides the demon? But this voice doesn’t sound like a demon…

[A high priest. The leader of the priests who were here.]

As Gor coolly and quickly identified the owner of the voice and stepped back slightly to protect the two people, a figure emerged from the beam of light extending from the crater. Wait, is that…?

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!! I really thought I was going to die!! What kind of education do you barbarians receive?!! First a child tries to burn people alive, then just as I’m trying to recover, two giants appear and completely destroy our camp! And even worse!!!!”

The man who emerged from the pillar of light was in no way in a normal state. His face was blackened as if burned, just as he said, his hair completely gone leaving him bald, and his entire upper body covered with charred skin and blackened scraps of what appeared to be priestly robes. But what shocked me wasn’t his appearance, but what he held in his right hand…

“To reduce a demon that the Church has so preciously nurtured to this state!!! Fuuuck!!! I’m so angry I’m going crazy!!!”

As he thrust forward what remained of the demon—just its head and part of its shoulders—both Gor and I tensed up. That demon is still alive in that state? Wasn’t the core supposed to be near the heart? It’s not even a matter of the heart; there shouldn’t be any organs left at all!

“How do you plan to take responsibility for this?! Even if I take all your magical power, all those girls’ magical power too, I can’t escape being held accountable! Fuck, fuck!! This is so fucking shitty!!!”

[For a priest, your language is quite foul. Can’t you just summon another demon or something?]

Gor started provoking him first, and I prepared myself to cut his throat at any moment.

“Haaah??!! You stupid golem!!! Do you have any idea what kind of demon this is?!! A demon of the Hierarchy of Greed, and a precious one that’s been fed sacrifices for 10 years after being summoned! Do you even know how many sacrifices went into it?!!!”

[Why should I care about that? It’s just disgusting to hear.]

“You bitch!! It’s 200,000!!! A demon raised on 200,000 sacrifices, meant to become an artificial Seven Deadly Sin! Even those failed holy maidens were fed to it over 400 times, fuck!! And now it’s all wasted!!!”

When Gor deliberately turned her head away as if she didn’t want to hear it, the priest started ranting, provoked by her reaction. Wait, 200,000? Does he mean he fed 200,000 humans to it? Holy maidens? I knew the Church raised people called holy maidens, but they raised them to feed to demons? What is this disgusting talk about? Maybe I should just cut him down right now…!!!

[As you probably know, you need to wait.]

“……”

At Gor’s message, written at an angle invisible to the enemy, I took a deep breath and held back. There had been several opportunities to strike. But that demon in his hand still had 2,000 HP left, as she had said. If it started moving again in any way, we would be forced into a disadvantageous position like before. That’s why Gor continued to provoke him with her words, looking for an opportunity.

“…Sigh!!! Haaa. Fine, whatever. Even I, a seed of God, can’t undo what’s already happened.”

[You were throwing a fit just now, and suddenly you’re acting calm? Did your conscience get pulled out along with your burnt hair? Looking like that and claiming to be a seed of God, is the god you believe in bald too?]

“Ha, let’s stop this. Golem, whatever you are, I’ve noticed you’re deliberately stalling for time since the moment you first spoke to me.”

[Tch. I wish your awareness had flown away with your hair.]

Gor’s gaze, genuinely annoyed as she wrote the words, turned from him to me. That’s right, there’s no need to test him any further.

-Swoosh!!

“Atone for your sins in the afterlife.”

I activated [Swift Blade] and instantly closed the distance, pressing my blade against the burned priest’s neck. According to Gor, this man’s level was in the mid-150s. He had neither the ability nor reason to react. So, I sliced through the man’s neck and—

-CLANG!!!

“?!!”

“…You barbarians. Interrupting a person during a conversation, all of you are troublesome.”

My sword failed to cut through his neck, stopping as if it had hit steel. What kind of hardness is this…?!!

“There were a total of 60 battle priests here. And my holy law, chosen by God, is to ‘take’ holy power from those who possess it and make it my own.”

-Grab!!

“Ugh?!!”

The priest grabbed the sword that had failed to cut his neck with one hand. I was shocked and immediately tried to pull the sword back, but it wouldn’t budge against the man’s tremendous strength.

“And. Thanks to God’s favor, my holy law allows me to bestow the power I’ve taken upon others. Like this.”

Saying that, the priest began using holy power on the demon he was holding in his other hand. Wait, is he trying to heal a demon with holy power? How is that possible…?

[⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯?!!!!!]

Contrary to my expectation that the demon with only part of its upper body remaining would recover, the nearly-corpse demon began to howl in agony. What on earth is…?

“And, the being I bestow my power upon becomes like this.”

-CRACK!!!

[Hu, maaaan…!!! ……]

“…Huh?”

The demon into which the priest had been pouring holy power crumbled and disappeared. Did he kill it? What? What exactly did he do…?

-Flinch!!

“Gasp!!!”

“Oh?”

After returning my sword to its ring form since I couldn’t pull it back, I retreated with all my might, and I saw the priest’s arm extended toward me. That sensation just now…!!

[…He’s truly insane.]

“G-Gor. What exactly happened? What I just felt from that man…!!”

“Heh, unfortunately you’re a perceptive woman. If you had stayed still, you could have died peacefully without knowing anything.”

When I asked Gor, who had somehow approached behind me, she frowned slightly and told me what she had seen.

[He ate it. He absorbed the high-ranking demon containing the holy power he had bestowed, through his holy law itself.]

“T-Then, could it be…?”

Feeling ominous about Gor’s words, I asked with a slightly trembling voice, and Gor answered with a sigh so heavy it seemed like the ground would cave in.

[Holy Church High Priest (Absorbed Greed High Demon): Level 495]

[HP: 200,000]

[…In your master’s terms, phase two has begun.]

It seems we’re about to face what he would call a “bullshit boss” while he’s away.