The Priest of Corruption - Chapter 32

New weapon?

As the trumpet for the dead sounded, the resurrected ones gradually accelerated.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Every mouth on the ragged giant’s body roared. They began to writhe and fight against the crawling dead.

Bang!

The giant’s fist swept away a group of the dead. The space created was constantly flooded with new dead. Even the shattered and crushed corpses began to crawl back toward the fray.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

We stood at a distance and watched. Dachia glanced at us and spoke carefully.

“It looks like it needs a final blow. Should I try it with magic?”

Carmen glanced between Sajita and me, then replied with an awkward smile.

“I guess that’s a bit…”

Sajita quietly nodded, and I helped Carmen before the princess could screw up.

“You have to be patient. Princess. As I’ve said, an ally’s uncontrollable magic is more dangerous than the enemy’s sharpest spear.”

An ally’s mistake was too scary. The quality required for wizards who dealt with powerful mana that distorted natural phenomena wasn’t the output of magical power; it was accuracy. A good wizard must be able to precisely control their power down to the finest level of detail. No matter how powerful magic was, its usefulness converged to zero when it swept away allies.

In that respect, Dachia’s magic had a very large margin of error, which meant that if she tried to do something, the dead people would be swept away, not the giant. It was perfectly appropriate for the saying, ‘if you let a fool hold his tongue, he will pass for a sage.’

Dachia blushed slightly.

“I-I don’t think it would be that much. The target is that big. At that size…”

“At that size, you’ll have to use a lot of magical power to inflict significant damage, and the margin of error will be even bigger. If you want to blow up that giant within the city, I’d like to tell you that there are still living people here, so be patient.”

She gave me a coy look.

“Okay. Got it. I won’t use magic. But aren’t you being too straightforward?”

“We have to be clear about battle-related things. Giving a warning after they’ve been hurt doesn’t mean anything, and warnings are meant to happen beforehand.”

“You’re sharp like a knife.”

“I must be.”

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

The ragged giant tried to knock down the dead by trampling and crushing them, but the waves continued to gnaw at its body. But, as Dachia said, it certainly didn’t seem like the Trumpeter of Rest had any powerful means of attack to finish the fight. Clearly, victory would be the trumpeter’s, but it would take some time to get there.

Should I help? If I took out the Giant of Corruption, the time to defeat the ragged giant would be greatly reduced, but unless I was crazy, I’d never take out Mother’s power in front of a priest. Thanks to this, I couldn’t even use the Corruption Arts. So, was it best to just watch?

At that moment, the Trumpeter of Rest put the trumpet away and slowly walked toward us.

Dachia asked cautiously.

“It seems he’s coming to us, right?”

“It seems so, but…”

The Trumpeter of Rest walked fast, approached us, and spoke in a muffled voice.

“Is anyone out of you four confident in their movement?”

Movement? What was he talking about all of a sudden? The group’s eyes turned to me, and those gazes meant it would be better for the priest to talk to him. And the white mask of the Trumpeter of Rest seemed to be facing me.

I replied with a smile.

“For what reason?”

A hand, covered in a black glove, protruded through the loose black clothes. As his fingers lightly traced the air, the space before us distorted, and a spear made of bone popped out, and he held it out to me.

“I want someone with good movement skills to stab the giant’s heart with this. This spear will tell you where the heart is.”

Spear? If it was a spear, Sajita was the best suited to the task.

‘Kill!’

When I accidentally accepted the spear, Mother quickly shouted at me to ask for a sword.

“Isn’t there a sword shape available?”

The pure white mask with no eye holes stared at me. Once again, the black gloves drew in the air, and a sword made of pure white bones fell into my hands. Oh, he could make several of these, not just one?

Promising that I would get a room and give Mother’s hand a serious massage after all this was over, I asked the priest.

“Um…if you could make more, could you make two swords and a barrel of arrows?”

The Trumpeter of Rest was silent. When the ragged giant’s roar sounded again, he spoke.

“Just ask me all at once.”

Fortunately, he was a generous guy. I got another two swords from him and a barrel of bone arrows and gave them to the party. Sajita grabbed the bone spear and swung it around, smiling happily.

“It’s pretty good.”

Dachia grabbed a sword and slashed through the air several times before bursting with admiration.

“It’s very light.”

While Carmen examined the bone arrows and sword, I looked at the one I held. The blade was so sharp and light that one couldn’t even think of it as bone. I was a little worried about the strength, but since the Trumpeter of Rest created the weapons with his own power, they must be strong.

The Bone Sword was subtly imbued with the divinity of the Trumpeter of Rest, and it was likely that it would be fatal to the giant. It was a pretty good weapon.

“If you want to help, I’ll give you those weapons.”

We exchanged glances, then nodded. Weapons of this kind were never easy to get.

“We’ll help. But…”

Bang!

The ragged giant was still running wild. We needed to climb that body and drive this weapon into its heart? It was a story that could only be possible for a mythical hero or a game protagonist. Whether the Trumpeter of Rest understood the meaning of my gaze or not, he decided to say a bit more.

“I’m going to stop the giant’s movement for a while. You should take that chance and drive your weapons deep into the giant’s heart, and arrows are too short for that length.”

Before Carmen could even speak, the Trumpeter of Rest spoke first, as if he didn’t want to speak twice. Carmen looked disappointed and stepped back.

“Will you do it?”

In the end, it seemed that it would be up to Sajita and me to pierce it directly, but when I looked at Sajita, he nodded heavily. Great. Then I should try it.

“We’ll do it.”

Hearing my answer, the Trumpeter of Rest took out the white trumpet and blew it toward the ragged giant. Simultaneously with that silent performance, the situation changed. The bodies of the dead, which surrounded the raged giant, melted and mingled with each other. The hardened blood and flesh of the dead were crushed and mixed again to become an ominous liquid, enveloping the giant.

The ominous liquid climbed up the giant’s body and kept it in place. Suddenly, the monster screamed.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

Melting the body and solidifying it? Wasn’t this worse than devouring the corpses to make a giant? As the four of us, having the same thought, looked at the Trumpeter of Rest, he continued indifferently.

“Run.”

We obeyed. The raging giant’s struggles were getting worse and worse. If we left it like this, it would surely break free soon. We ran toward the giant’s upper body, running up the slope of the dead.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

Dachia laughed and shouted.

“You can’t move anything, so you’re making a bunch of noise!”

Crash.

Before Dachia’s shout could finish, the giant’s right hand broke through. As I glanced at her, Dachia quickly covered her mouth and lowered her head.

“Marnak! I’ll deal with that hand!”

Carmen shouted loudly and let go of the bowstring. An arrow cut through the air like a light beam, piercing the tattered giant’s head. The giant reacted violently.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

From the mouths of all the corpses came a sharp scream different from before. Dachia took advantage of that and sprinted away. The sword she wielded left a deep wound in the ragged giant’s left arm, still trapped within the solid coating.

The giant let out another shriek.

“I’ll check the giant from below with Carmen!”

Sajita and I nodded and ran toward the giant’s back.

Bang!

The ragged giant’s thick right hand swept around it. However, since its lower body was fixed, the area that the right hand could reach was obvious, and no one in my party would get hit by such an obvious attack. As Sajita and I stepped on the giant’s back and ran toward its heart, Mother whispered to me.

‘Kill!’

The giant’s head. Some divinity was gathered in the middle of that huge head. Mother told me to secretly take the holy lump, and she thought it would be useful. If so, I should take care of it.

“Sajita!”

“Yes!”

“Do you think you can pierce the heart alone? I’ll distract his head!”

After checking the location of the heart indicated by the weapon, he nodded.

“Yes.”

Each corpse that made up the giant’s back reached out and grabbed at us, but we trampled them down and continued climbing. I tensed my legs, crushing them down. I left Sajita behind and climbed the giant’s body until I finally reached his head.

The tattered giant’s face somehow resembled Lieberkel’s. It was perfect. This time, I’d be able to smash that head with these two hands.

“Kyaaaaaaah!!!”

The huge face roared as it raised its hand to swat me away.

Bang!

I sprinted to dodge the giant’s hand. I gripped the bone sword in reverse. I wouldn’t pierce it; I would slice it.

Lieberkel’s face approached rapidly. In fact, even if the Trumpeter of Rest didn’t ask for help, I was going to fight this monster. Because this former wizard, the enemy of my benefactor Sanctus, was meant to be killed by me.

Crash.

The sword made of bones pierced the giant’s crown.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Listening to his screams, I felt my old grudges fade slightly.

“This is for the body scrubber you killed! Your garbage!”

Without hesitation, I lowered the sword. While unidentified chunks of meat rained down, a red marble with a strong divinity rolled at my feet.

‘Kill!’

Mother shouted to catch my attention, and I quickly reached out and tucked the marble into my pocket. At the same time, the giant’s body began to disintegrate. It seemed Sajita succeeded in inserting the spear into the giant’s heart.

Bang!

Dachia and Carmen quickly ran over to me when I landed.

“You’re not hurt, right?”

I nodded to answer Dachia’s question.

“Where is Sajita?”

“I’m here.”

He smiled as he lifted the spear to create a space for himself under the sloughing flesh.

“This one is pretty sharp.”

At that moment, the Trumpeter of Rest slowly walked through the dead. He was looking right at me.

The white mask said to me.

“Follow me. Only you.”