Chapter 286: Tough Guys (8)

The blinding light faded, and I swung my mace in the empty air as I backed away. AA narrowly dodged my mace and grabbed my shoulder. I barely managed to calm my emotions and looked at her. AA spoke while catching her breath.

"Calm down. Sir Priest."

"Ah, yes."

I quickly snapped out of it, embarrassed by the fact that I had panicked alone. Looking at my surroundings, nothing had changed. The library was still a library, and the bookshelf AA had cut down a moment ago was still sprawling on the floor.

"What about Evangeline?"

"I don't know."

"Fuck, I got scared for nothing. Eve..."

I tilted my head and looked behind me. There was no one behind me. Neither Eve, who should have been laughing and teasing me, nor Elsi, who would have indifferently scolded me, were there. I couldn't help but panic. I froze in the exact posture I had when I was about to shamelessly make a joke, only my eyes moving busily. Were they playing a prank? Were they hiding behind the collapsed bookshelf? Without realizing it, I entered the secret passage again and scanned my surroundings. But no one was hiding there. Did they leave first in that split second? As I hastily tried to leave, AA grabbed my hand.

"Sir Priest! Calm down. They probably just moved to another place. Spatial movement. You know, right?"

"...I guess so?"

My pounding heart quickly calmed down. I felt like a fool for panicking. Holding tightly onto AA's hand, I nodded my head.

"...Right. If she had such a special move, she would have just killed us all. But, what is her purpose? Why did she go out of her way to show her face and separate us like this?"

"Couldn't defeating us individually be her purpose?"

That felt a bit strange to be the case. In that case, shouldn't she have left the relatively weaker Eve and Elsi here? What was this?

"...Let's go quickly."

"They will be fine. Both Ms. Eve and Ms. Elsi are competent individuals."

"I was never anxious."

I resolutely cut off AA's worry and took a step forward. It seemed like AA was trying to say something to me from behind, but I decided not to pay it any mind. Because right now, I was extremely annoyed.

"Who the hell...!"

As soon as we went outside, followers of the Church of Love who hadn't yet gone to support the fortress area discovered us. Before the man standing in the vanguard could throw a question at me, I crushed his head. The mace smashed his hard head, ringing a satisfying Clang! sound through the corridor. I kicked away the man who fell to his knees in a convulsion, grabbed the collar of another follower who hadn't reacted yet, and threw him at another one.

"Uwaaaaagh!"

With two people laid out on the floor, I began pounding them with my mace as if tenderizing tonkatsu.

"Eok! Agh! Aaagh! Urk...! Gurgle...! Urgh...!"

The followers of the Church of Love, who were going berserk while letting out strange screams, died foaming at the mouth. I ruthlessly pounded them to the point where their flesh became like tender tteokgalbi. After I pounded them for a long while, AA grabbed my arm and stopped me.

"Sir Priest. Calm down! Okay?"

"Ah, yes. I am calming down."

I caught my breath and looked at my surroundings. If there was one fortunate thing, was it that AA and Eve each had a map? We directed our steps toward the continuously stretching corridor. The believers who opened their doors and popped out without knowing why became our prey and were miserably dismantled on the floor.

****

"Fuck, what is this..."

As soon as the light shone, Eve hastily rolled her body and pulled far back. Or so she thought. That was why when she first raised her head, she figured she had rolled too far and fallen back into the secret passage. But no matter how much she walked forward, she couldn't see the library, and the walls of the corridor were incredibly gloomy, crusted with dried bloodstains.

This was a different place. Neither AA, Elsi, nor Lucius were in this place right now.

"Fuck, the groom is okay, right?"

Eve lightly bit her fingernail and looked at her surroundings. It had been a long time since she felt such anxiety. Not since Lucius had grabbed Cellu's collar and threatened to kill her had her body trembled like this. Eve barely snapped out of it and looked at her surroundings.

The bloodstains stuck to the walls and an indescribably awful and bizarre stench spread throughout the entire corridor. It felt as if she had been dropped right in the middle of a pigpen. Eve drew her sword and carefully took a step forward.

There were several rooms in the wide corridor, and a quick glance inside them revealed they were full of paper documents. Most of them were documents where stories about demons were written like ghost stories. The documents recording which demon carried out what cruel actions and where, gave off the feeling of cover letters written by demons to get a job in hell.

"How terrible."

After skimming through a few, Eve opened the room door and stepped back out. There wasn't a single window in the corridor, but lanterns made of magic were shining brightly at regular intervals, so it wasn't that dark. Just looking at this, Eve could tell it was a fact that this place was a space currently in use. A space covered in bloodstains and full of stories about demons; just from this alone, the Church of Love was not a normal group.

While Eve was clicking her tongue and walking forward, a parishioner of the Church of Love, who was walking out carrying a bunch of documents, stared at her with a flustered expression. Because of the pile of documents in his hands, he couldn't easily escape, and he wasn't a human with enough guts to immediately scream upon discovering Eve. All he could do upon seeing Eve was shout like a fool like this.

"Uh."

There was no next time. It was because Eve cut his neck off as soon as she saw the follower of the Church of Love. The wicked man moving the documents had his head severed with that exact "Uh" expression, facing the ceiling with a bewildered gaze. Eve shook the blood off onto the floor and continued her steps.

The atmosphere was awful, but the inside was relatively peaceful. The followers of the Church of Love that Eve encountered were mostly aspiring researchers who had built a wall between themselves and combat. Every single one of them had skinny faces and wore glasses, or walked around slouching. When they met Eve, far from putting up a proper response, they were busy offering their necks to her while letting out an "Uh" sound. How many had she killed like that? Eve slowly began to feel disgusted by the one-sided murder spree.

Looking back, the headless corpses were each spurting blood like the Trevi Fountain, their limbs flailing. The corpses collapsed at regular intervals looked like some kind of avant-garde art. Eve wiped her sword again and looked ahead.

"Gwoooooooh.....!"

Someone was letting out a moaning sound. At the same time, the sound of the doors in the corridor slowly locking could be heard from afar. Eve furrowed her eyes and faced the front. Something was approaching, and its form was extremely bizarre. It showed movements like a giant ball with limbs attached to it being dragged along.

"What is that?"

[Mermaid hybrid! Why do you resist us! Surrender!]

And a booming voice that echoed through the entire corridor was heard. Eve felt like she knew who the owner of the voice was. A voice with massive vocal resonance characteristic of a swindler. The owner of this voice was definitely the Head of the Church of the Church of Love. Eve swung her sword through the empty air and spoke.

"Fuck off, idiot."

[Aaah! O mermaid! If you surrender, I will grant you the title of Holy Knight of the Church of Love! And I shall place mermaids at the highest seat of the kingdom we will newly establish, making them a race revered by everyone!]

"My mother would have loved to hear that."

The image of Cellu smiling and joking around surfaced in Eve's mind. If it were Cellu, she would have listened to the Head of the Church's words just now and said this.

"Heh, Eve. Should we just surrender?"

And then she would have looked at Eve and grinned. Then Eve would have definitely said this.

"Mother. You shouldn't believe such idiotic nonsense. Humans are all swindlers except for my groom."

Eve muttered like that and swung her sword once in the empty air. From afar, a black mass was rolling over while letting out a bizarre voice. An immense sense of intimidation and an unpleasant stench swept through the entire corridor. Someone who had closed their door shouted from beyond the bars attached to it.

"The Sisters are coming! The Sisters are coming!"

"Everyone hide! Everyone hide!"

[Aaaaagh! O mermaid! Surrender at once! Because if you die, the Demon King will be sad!]

Eve was appalled by the Head of the Church's absurd statement and shouted. In the distance, the monster was gradually taking form as it approached.

"What are you talking about, fuck! Why would the Demon King be sad if I die? The only one who'd be sad is your whore mother who birthed a brat like you. I saw your mother burning in hell, screaming insults at you, you know?"

[Wh-What?? Revoke that at once! Do not hurl insults at my mother! My mother was always proud of me!]

"Fuck off, idiot! I saw your mother in hell not too long ago, and she had like 300 men next to her! Since your mother is a whore, they didn't know which fucking husband spawned you, so Satan dragged them all in!"

[Uwaaaaaah! Kill her! Kill her! My great masterpiece! Sisters! Kill that foul-mouthed mermaid at once! Even the Demon King will understand if I explain the insult I've received!]

"Gwoooooooh!"

The monster named "Sisters" finally revealed its appearance. Eve twisted the corners of her mouth at its bizarre appearance and spat out a curse. It had an appearance far too bizarre to simply be called a monster.

Two faces were attached separately to a damp body that looked like a meatball. Limbs were jutting out in different directions like tentacles, swaying limply, and there seemed to be no strength in them at all. However, as if the body itself was packed with muscle, its torso was crawling and moving on its own.

They stared at Eve and screamed.

"Uwaaaa..... Uwaaaaa.....!"

"What are you saying, fuck, you look fucking awful and can't even speak properly. Did someone cut out your tongues?"

"Uwaaaaaaagh!!"

Did Eve's words hit the mark? The Sisters began going berserk, letting out strange screams. The pile of flesh filling the corridor pounced on Eve. Eve swung her sword widely and sliced off a chunk of flesh. When the sword lodged into its body, the Sisters let out an even more agonizing scream and backed her into a corner.

"Uwaaaaaaagh! Uwu-ugh! Uwu-ughhh!"

"Fuck, what are you saying!"

Eve was startled and backed away a little. Gripping her sword tightly, she glared at the monster. The monster was glaring at Eve as well.