Chapter 690 – 690. Divinity and Fall (1)
Marius, who managed to suppress the desire that was rising in his heart, headed straight for the temple main school as planned in advance.
The reason why he did not gather a large number of undead in one place and spread them all over the city of Erenium was to disperse the power of the paladins.
Marius’s steps toward the temple’s main school were erratic, unlike usual.
“Hmm…”
“Aagh!”
Using a total of five Death Knights summoned in advance, while arranging all the Paladins he encountered on the way, Marius felt that something of his plan had gone wrong.
“That’s strange.”
The existence of a strong barrier that he felt as the temple main school got closer was something that Marius hadn’t expected.
He must have summoned all the paladins and priests residing in the city to deal with the undead currently spreading throughout Erenium.
Of course, there would only be apprentice priests and paladins who were inexperienced in battle in the main school of the temple.
It is impossible for them alone to create such a powerful divine barrier.
In other words, it means that there are still priests of higher rank or higher who are capable enough to maintain this barrier.
“It’s difficult.”
I could intuitively know that that barrier was a barrier of a very high level, even if I didn’t have to get close to it.
Perhaps he could infiltrate into that barrier, and it would be impossible to break it.
If so, what should I do?
Marius was troubled.
“There is only one answer.”
You just have to make the opponent come out of that barrier.
Marius smiled as he thought of the means he had come up with and went straight into action.
“Turn off… Aaaaagh!”
The scream of a paladin pierced through the abdomen by the death knight’s blade fills the dark city.
The sharp pain that twists and stirs the blade sideways and crushes and rips through the entrails it penetrates is like a gigantic tidal wave that cannot be described in words.
But for the paladin, it might have been luck.
It was because the terrible morale that surrounded the blade was eating away at his body.
It may be fortunate in a sense that he is not aware of the fact that his body is gradually degenerating into the undead, a subhuman existence due to the intense pain that seems to have drained his mind.
“No. No.”
On the contrary, wouldn’t it be luck to forget the pain while trembling and struggling in fear of turning into the undead?
From the point of view of the paladin, both cases were terrible, but to Marius, who had a twisted way of thinking, it was accepted as a completely different meaning.
“Turn it off, aaaaagh!”
“Kuk-kuk.”
Marius stared at the paladin, who was contorted in pain and screaming in agony, and raised his hand.
According to the necromancer’s order, the Death Knight, who had been digging through the paladin’s abdomen with his sword, suddenly stopped.
Following the command of the owner who smiled and beckoned, the Death Knight carried out the order.
Holding the sword that had pierced his abdomen, he reached out and grabbed one arm of the paladin.
When he pulled with force, the paladin’s arm was ripped off too easily.
“Keuaaaaagh!”
The paladin, unable to resist, could only scream and complain of pain.
“Hey. Get your mind straight.”
Marius laughed and encouraged the paladin.
As if I don’t want to die easily like this.
The Death Knight then kicked the paladin’s leg.
Kwajik
The light of divinity dwelling in the armor gradually faded and lost its effectiveness.
He couldn’t protect the paladin from the Death Knight’s attack, and his leg broke into a deformed shape.
“Ah… !”
Is it because of exceeding the limit of pain that humans can handle, or is it because the vocal chords have been cracked by the already sustained scream?
The paladin could no longer scream.
Kwajik! Kwajik!
Next, he tore off all remaining legs and arms on the other side, and twisted the sword that had penetrated his abdomen, tearing the whole body apart, but the paladin did not scream any more.
“Hmm?”
Marius, who was puzzled by this, realized that the paladin had finally met a miserable death and made a sad face.
“This… Is he already dead I can’t help it.”
Marius was regretful for a while, and immediately searched for the next target.
In the capital of this Holy Nation, the number of paladins and priests who are currently fighting against the undead he has released is overflowing.
As it got closer to the temple’s main school, of course, the number of encounters with the temple’s forces increased.
“Oh, this can’t be… !”
“Why are you… !”
“No. No… !”
“Such a bastard!”
While playing with the soldiers of the temple he encountered, he did not end their lives right away.
The corpses of paladins and priests who died horribly were turned into undead, and they showed their faces to those who encountered them.
Just like an artist who shows off his own and sculpted works of art, paladins and priests who have seen the creatures he created called undead have shown a variety of reactions.
Declined into undead, they were comrades who had been together for the rest of their lives for some paladins, lovers who promised to be together for the rest of their lives to some priests, and bosses they respected for others, or juniors who believed in them and followed them.
It shows various emotions such as anger and despair, astonishment and sadness, and the emotions are harmonized and directly connected to one goal.
‘I have to kill this necromancer no matter what.’
This is a disaster.
There was no disagreement with that thought.
“Aaaaa!”
The paladin, who lost his reason in rage after witnessing his comrades degenerated into undead, screamed with passion and shouted at Marius.
“No! Stay in shape!”
The priest standing in the back row tried to stop the paladin who rushed in surprise, but it was already too late.
The paladin, who saw his comrade who had already turned into an undead, was so passionately excited that his usual cold-hearted judgment was impossible.
However, there was no way he could get past the Death Knights escorting Marius and swing a direct, direct attack towards Marius.
The five death knights created by Marius are the upper undead that he reborn as the souls of the strong warriors he acquired while destroying many countries with Raynon.
There was no way the attack would work that easily.
Kaaang!
The Death Knights obeying the command of their master, the necromancer, defended Marius admirably regardless of their will.
He blocked the paladin’s sword and gave it a chance.
“A pitiful thing.”
Squeak
The Paladin’s arms were cut off in vain by the Death Knight’s sword attack that penetrated the gap, and the Paladin, who lost his hand to hold the weapon, was pierced through his abdomen by another Death Knight’s stab.
“Hey! Whoops… !”
As her intestines were ripped apart, the paladin’s arm was ripped off with the fearsome grip of the Death Knight, pouring blood out of her mouth.
“Ah!”
Without immediately ending her life, she rips off parts of the paladin’s body one after another, inducing a scream that flows out of her mouth.
Fellow paladins and priests, who witnessed the spectacle of commanding and playing with the Death Knights up close like an orchestra playing screams, could not stand the rising feeling and vomited disgustingly.
“Ouch… !”
“Uweak!”
“Haha! Why are priests who worship God so weak-minded? Cheer up!”
Marius couldn’t stand the hell he had staged, and he laughed and ridiculed them as they showed the reaction he wanted.
The female priest in the back row endured her mounting disgust and glared at Marius with contempt.
“Why…”
“Huh?”
“Why are you doing such a terrible thing! As human beings… !”
It’s not enough to cut people’s bodies apart, tore them apart, and to enjoy the emotions of screams, pain, despair, and anger that arise in the process.
It was the owner of a twisted mindset that a female priest could neither sympathize with nor understand.
To the female priest, Marius is not human.
Something completely different, covered in human skin.
It was like the devil itself that sprouted in this world.
“Kuk-kuk. Why? Of course it’s fun!”
“…”
Fun.
“Listening to your screams! To see that face full of despair! I can feel it on my skin revealing those passionate emotions to me! Unbearably happy and joyful!”
“How…”
The female priest distorted her face at his incomprehensible sensibility.
“Cool… !”
Marius glanced at the Paladin who was pierced through the abdomen by the Death Knight’s sword and was coughing up blood.
His death was already predicted.
The reason why the paladin’s neck is not being torn out and given death is simply because of Marius’ little whim.
Soon, he smiled as if a good idea had popped into his head.
“Hey. You.”
“… You mean that?”
The female priest who had been pointed at by Marius trembled as she answered his call.
“Okay. From now on, I will make a groundbreaking proposal. If you accept my offer, I will cleanly defeat all the undead and leave the city.”
“… !”
The female priests and paladins, who could not understand what they were talking about, stiffened their bodies and stared at Marius.
Looking at the female priest who didn’t say anything, Marius recognized at once that she didn’t refuse and was worried.
Letting go of him who slaughtered countless humans right here and now is a disgraceful result of admitting his own incompetence as a believer of the goddess.
However, if the damage to the temple and civilians spreads further while continuing to confront the mighty undead army that they could not deal with on their own, it would be difficult as it is.
If you had to choose one of the two in the midst of your own honor and disgrace, and the unfathomable level of human casualties.
The female priest finished her troubles.
“What… Is that a suggestion?”
“Priest!”
Her paladins, who confirmed her female priest’s intention to accept her proposal from Marius, looked at her with startled expressions.
However, the female priest who had made up her mind waited for Marius’ answer in a cold sweat while being stared at by her paladins.
To make a deal with an enemy they need to deal with.
For the Paladins, it was a disgrace that could not be washed away.
“I will make a deal with evil… ! I would rather fight and die here!”
“Stop it!”
With her resolute expression, the female priest roared and restrained her paladin, who had prepared for her own death.
“Are you going to do more damage here? This fight is a battle that cannot be solved with your and me, no, our lives alone.”
If they lose here.
Is the necromancer going away?
Absolutely not.
Rather, like his colleagues who died first and became undead, he would slaughter many humans under the command of the necromancer with an ugly look.
Considering the damage suffered so far and the culprit behind this terrible disaster, it is a choice that can never be chosen.
However, considering the future damage, the judgment of the female priest who insisted only on reason excluding emotions could be said to be reasonable.
“… Keugh…”
Upon hearing the female priest’s decision, the Paladins couldn’t find words to refute and made faces of resentment.
The powerlessness of their powerlessness to deal with the disaster in front of them made their entire bodies tremble.
I am not afraid to lose my life in this fight.
However, as the female priest said, the Paladins thought about what happened after that.
Off, uh…
If she also dies and becomes undead, like her former colleagues who have been reduced to her ugly undead.
A future in which she will appear in front of her own friends, co-workers, family and lovers and take their lives herself.
Countless lives would be sacrificed in the process.
As the female priest said, the fight against the necromancer was not a problem that could be solved with her own death.
Haha! That’s great! Did you make a decision to accept a deal with me for the future of the living!”
When Marius heard the female priest’s decision to accept his offer, he made an admiring expression and applauded.
But the female priest could only be heard as vicious mockery, ridiculing her own choice as her priestess, as a priestess serving her goddess, against her convictions.
“… What is your offer?”
Marius giggled at the question of the female priest who held back his resentment.
“My suggestion is…”
