The Priest of Corruption - Chapter 21

Reunion.

When the Pit of Corruption was released, I appeared back outside with the Incarnation’s corpse. I was lying among the burnt rubble. It seemed that the lord’s mansion had collapsed while we were inside.

A number came to mind as I lay on the floor, closed my eyes, and calmed myself.

[Divinity: 10001]

Since divinity was like a skill point to the Priests of Corruption, there were other uses besides obtaining new powers. I could also pay 10,000 divinity to strengthen an existing power. The most reasonable option would be to strengthen the Giant of Corruption that had suffered so much already or the Corruption Arts. Due to the nature of the ability, it wouldn’t be a problem to postpone strengthening the Pit of Corruption.

I felt really sorry for the Giant of Corruption, but I wasn’t going to choose the option of empowerment. I had a problem where I had to experiment after obtaining three powers.

The Priest of Corruption could equip three powers in the original game. No matter how many powers were obtained, the maximum they could use in battle was three. But did those restrictions still apply now that this world was my reality? I was curious to find out.

“Mother, I will offer this divinity. Give me a new power.”

[Divinity: 1]

The divinity I worked hard to gather disappeared, and a new power took hold. And I realized now that it had become a reality; there was no limit to the number of equipped slots. Just like I could wear multiple rings on one hand.

“But, Mother.”

‘Kill?’

“What do you mean with the power you gave me this time?”

‘Kill…?’

Mother answered that she didn’t know because the power wasn’t something she chose to give. Even though I was given the powers I strangely needed every time, I decided to trust Mother. It was too much for her to bother lying to me about something like this.

I quickly let go of those blasphemous thoughts.

“But isn’t this too much?”

‘Kill!’

I couldn’t be happier with Mother’s advice to not feel burdened and to use it as much as I wanted.

This new power, Curse of Corruption, was extremely close to evil. Unlike the previous powers, it wasn’t a power that could be used without cost. To cast a single curse, it took a hundred divinity. In addition, the target was limited to inanimate objects of a certain size or larger, such as rocks.

In this way, it could be seen as a useless power, but the true essence of the Curse of Corruption appeared from the moment the cursed target touched the earth. Placing an object cursed with corruption on the ground would set a curse that could envelop the entirety of a small city. This curse would cause all living things there to rot very slowly.

After the curse spread, all food would rot faster than usual, all living things would suffer without even knowing it, and the beasts that roamed the earth would become thin. Even plants would only bear half of their original fruit. In addition, there was a finishing stroke to this power.

Humans who died on the earth cursed with corruption would be harvested when they died, converted into divinity, and pulled into me. In other words, this was a way to constantly obtain divinity even if I did nothing. As it was such a terrifying power, there were also a lot of shortcomings.

First, if the curse medium was destroyed before it progressed too far, the curses would be released. Second, the cursed object constantly emanated the divinity of Corruption. This meant that if other priests came close to it, they would know the cause of all this was an evil god. Finally, there was an even bigger problem with these shortcomings.

I didn’t want to use this power.

Surely there must be a way to solve those shortcomings, but I didn’t even want to find such a solution. And to get divinity by making unrelated people wither and die…I didn’t want it.

“Mother, I’m sorry, but I don’t want to use this power.”

‘Kill!’

I smiled at my Mother’s reply to do whatever I wanted.

“But, can I ask you something?”

‘Kill…?’

“That dead Incarnation is still overflowing with the divinity of other gods. Can I have a way to get it? Isn’t it a bit wasteful to let it disappear like that?”

Mother’s hand crawled out of my pocket while I had no strength to move a single finger and turned into a girl again. Mother, dressed in a black dress with a green pattern, put her hand on the head of the Incarnation, frowned slightly, and struggled for a while. I grinned at the scene of Mother trying hard.

“Mother, you don’t have to work too hard on what doesn’t work. Just come back.”

Mother yelled at me, but she soon realized I couldn’t hear her voice and ran back over.

‘Kill!’

“You mean that you could do something if it were one, but it’s hard in its current state with the divinities of various gods mixed up?”

‘Kill.’

She stood up, telling me to wait, and then threw the Incarnation’s head away and walked off. As Mother disappeared from my view, a vague sense of insecurity needled at me. Should I just have taken care of it later? No, I should have taken care of it myself!

Self-doubt and loathing tied a noose around my neck…

‘Kill!’

Her cry awakened my mind once more. I managed to turn my head a little, and Mother reached out her hand to show me a bead split in half, and it was just a piece of the relic that had lost its power.

But why? Why was the holy object that sealed Mother’s divinity inside the Incarnation’s body? What if it wasn’t just a coincidence, but the holy relic of the Mother of Corruption was the medium used to create that monster?

It was complicated. But there was one more problem other than how jumbled my head felt. I was hit with so many divine attacks today that my body’s condition was reaching its limit. The consciousness I had been clinging to gradually faded.

‘Kill?!’

Mother’s bewildered voice called out through the dark.

“Hurry up, get back into my pocket…”

*

The feel of the soft bed greeted my back, and the sense of comfort created by the loose clothes told me to sleep more. Loose clothes? Not my uniform?!

“Gasp!”

“You’ve finally come to your senses!”

I jumped up and grabbed Carmen’s shoulder with a shout.

“My clothes! Where are my clothes?!”

“P-Please calm down for a moment, Priest Marnak.”

I couldn’t dare relax because I couldn’t feel Mother’s hand in my pocket.

“Where are my belongings? Right now…”

‘Kill!’

Mother’s voice came from the basket under the bed. I hurriedly stretched out my arm, picked the hand up from the basket, and hugged it.

“I got really scared that I had lost it.”

Carmen smiled.

“As expected, it’s something with a story. Others said it wasn’t something the priest would carry around and wanted to throw away, but I took it and put it there.”

‘Kill!’

I bowed deeply to Carmen as Mother mentioned she was almost cremated along with the other corpses.

“Thank you so much. I don’t know how to thank you enough.”

Carmen waved his hand as if I shouldn’t dare say such a thing.

“Thank you?! If it weren’t for the noble sacrifice of Priest Marnak, I would have died before we made it out of Kelton.”

As I calmed down a bit, I was able to slowly understand the situation around me.

“But where are we?”

“These are the barracks. We’re still in Kelton.”

Barracks?

“How many days have I been asleep?”

“Ten full days have passed since Kelton’s disaster.”

Ten days? Well, judging by the hustle and bustle of people coming through the barracks, it seemed that Kelton’s restoration was underway.

“At first, I was very worried that you wouldn’t wake up again, but fortunately, the Goddess of Maintenance took care of you, and your wounds healed quickly.”

I licked my lips a few times, then slowly opened my mouth to ask.

“Are there any survivors?”

Carmen’s smile faded.

“Only you were alive inside the walls of Kelton.”

It was as relieving as it was heartbreaking. If there were any living people, they would have witnessed the Giant of Corruption fighting the Incarnation, so it was right for me to eliminate as many witnesses as possible. At the same time, even though I tried so hard, I was sad that I couldn’t save anyone.

‘Kill!’

At Mother’s cry, saying, “That’s for the best,” I squeezed her palm and looked at Carmen.

‘K…i…l…l…’

“Then who’s in Kelton now?”

Carmen spread out his hands and counted them off one by one.

“The lords of the nearest city have dispatched troops for the reconstruction, and the relatives of the lord Stren Plkor also sent who they could to help…”

A man with a cane opened the door and stepped inside at that moment.

“I just heard the news that you’ve woken up.”

The demon lord of Guise, who walked with the click of his prosthetic leg, smiled at me for a second while Carmen glanced back.

“If someone has been starving for ten days, it is probably the right thing to eat first.”

Carmen looked at me as if he had forgotten all about that.

“I guess I’m really out of my mind. Priest Marnak seemed healthy, so I was mistaken. I’ll get someone to bring you something to eat.”

I slowly pushed myself up and put on my uniform.

“I’ll go eat. I’m a little curious about how Kelton looks right now.”

Carmen made eye contact with the demon lord, then smiled awkwardly at me.

“If you go out alone, it will be a little noisy. Will you be okay?”

“Well, I’m fine with that.”

The busy noises of construction made by the workers wouldn’t bother me.

But the moment I left the barracks with Carmen, I could sense that the noise he was talking about was different than I expected.

“The Evil God’s Great Enemy!”

Shouts sounded from the streets.

“The Evil God’s Great Enemy, Priest Marnak, has awakened!”

“The Evil God’s Great Enemy said he was hungry! Go and prepare the most delicious dishes!”

“I told you that he would surely wake up!”

I asked Carmen.

“What the hell is this?”

Carmen replied with a broad smile.

“I put a little effort into spreading your prestige.”

“I mean…”

I tried to say something, but my words were swallowed up by the following cheers.

“Whoooooaa!”

I was slightly dizzy from all the sound. And, well, because I was the priest of an evil god.

‘Kill!!!’

I pressed my Mother, jokingly shouting, ‘Marnak, the Evil God’s Great Enemy!’ and turned back into the barracks.

“I’ll just eat inside.”

Carmen smiled and nodded, so pure and full of joy at the spread of my fame.

“I thought you would.”

I shook my head as I stepped back inside. First the Demon Slayer, now I was the Evil God’s Great Enemy? It felt like I was only collecting some burdensome titles. Without knowing how I felt, a powerful shout rattled the windows.

“Long live the Evil God’s Great Enemy!”