Chapter 55 : What a Mess

It was a single sentence that froze everyone around.

Yet, amidst the chaos, there was one person who moved without losing their cold composure.

“It might be true.”

“What do you mea—”

Squelch!

“Aaaagh!!!”

Bersia pierced the cultist’s forehead with a dagger.

The sudden attack caused the enemies to stir.

“S-Stop them!”

“Kill them!”

Startled cultists charged at Bersia all at once.

In that instant, Usher came to his senses and lunged at an enemy targeting Bersia from behind.

Crunch!

He twisted a neck.

The dagger lodged in the cultist’s throat was pulled free, causing a fountain of blood to erupt.

Immediately, he leaped to cover Bersia’s blind spots.

Their movements synchronized perfectly without words—it was possible because the teacher and student knew each other’s bodies well.

Usher, drenched in blood, scanned the surroundings with chilling eyes, his presence terrifying.

The witch’s eyes widened, and she burst into laughter.

“Ah! You’ve got some fire in you, huh? Is that why you survived so long?”

She stepped forward.

A dark aura began to ooze from her body.

A murky violet mist began to fill the space.

Usher felt an impending sense of crisis.

It was a curse.

“…!”

“I know.”

Bersia swung her arm.

Holy energy scattered, and a combat prayer manifested.

A counter-wind prayer—warping the direction of the air and dispersing the mist.

The surrounding cultists ended up absorbing the curse instead.

Cold sweat dripped down Usher’s back.

Crack!

The cultists’ bodies began to twist and morph into aquatic monstrosities.

They were different from the fishmen outside.

Some resembled crustaceans more than fish, others looked like mollusks.

One figure, who seemed to be a cult leader, transformed into a tentacled monstrosity.

Usher’s expression hardened.

This wasn’t just a matter of stronger enemies.

“Oh, come on, why are you dodging?”

Crack!

The mutated fishmen melted and transformed into whips that coiled around the witch’s body.

Danger.

The thought surfaced in Usher’s mind.

Slaaash!!!

The whip lashed towards Bersia.

She barely dodged, but where the whip struck, the ground melted away as if acid had been poured over it.

The witch’s combat method became clear.

A hybrid type.

A combination of curses and physical power.

If compared, Bersia using Usher’s body was a similar type.

Balanced, yet with clear weaknesses.

Both physical and magical power had their limits, so overwhelming force could exploit their flaws.

But that was assuming they were on equal footing.

Right now, the enemy had the upper hand in sheer power.

Hybrid types excelled at subduing multiple weaker opponents.

No obvious solution presented itself.

“I need to find a way—or at least buy time.”

The outside would be resolved eventually.

If they could just hold on until Melvin arrived, victory would be within reach.

Usher burned a talisman.

Agility, lightness, piercing, and foresight.

“I’ll keep her in check!”

Thunk!

He threw a dagger, twisting the path of the incoming whip.

Bersia seized the opening and charged at the witch.

Thus began the second clash.

Boom!

Every moment was a series of narrow escapes and sharp tension.

Usher pushed his concentration to the limit, his movements almost supernatural.

Perhaps his flexible body was his saving grace.

As he twisted his waist to dodge an oncoming tentacle—

Sizzle!

Part of his clothing melted.

Usher gritted his teeth and tightened his belt around his waist.

“Oh my, I wasn’t trying to undress you.”

Yet her expression clearly showed her intentions.

“I hate people who pretend to be all innocent like you. Acting so high and mighty—it’s absolutely insufferable.”

“Vulgar…!”

“Look forward to what’s next.”

Sssssss!

The acidic liquid dripping from the tentacles melted the floor.

The witch spoke with a grotesque smile.

“I’ll turn just your organs into fish. Then, I’ll make you a breeding animal. Did you know? One of my curses can destroy your pleasure center. Every time you lay an egg, you’ll feel so happy that eventually, you’ll beg me to let you lay more.”

The witch’s gaze shifted to Bersia.

“And you, let’s enjoy watching together. I’ll treat you well, okay?”

But her words never reached Bersia.

During a brief lull, Bersia had secretly completed an advanced prayer.

By the time the witch noticed, it was already too late.

A cluster of light gathered at Bersia’s fingertip, forming into a spear before being launched.

Fwoooosh─!

“Khh…?!“

The witch blocked it with her tentacles, but Bersia was already right in front of her.

“You shouldn’t touch other people’s belongings. Filthy wench.”

The blade stabbed into the witch’s solar plexus, coated in multiple layers of prayer.

It was the result of Bersia’s sharp judgment and her enemy’s carelessness, and it was a strike that should have been fatal.

However—

“Rotten wretch…!”

The opponent was not ordinary.

The strength of an artificial witch could rival even a top-grade knight at full power.

Boom!

The exploding curse formed a protective shield, blocking the sword.

Bersia’s breath caught in her throat.

Her eyes went wide with shock as a blade-like bone emerged from the witch’s forearm.

In a world that seemed to slow down to a near standstill, Bersia could see the bone blade heading straight for her heart.

Usher felt his heart drop into his stomach.

But even amidst the chaos, his body moved precisely, pulling her away from the witch.

Thud!

The ground shattered beneath them.

The witch began to unleash her curses in earnest.

Dark purple mists twisted into patterns, and dozens of curses activated simultaneously.

Usher held Bersia tightly.

It was something he should never have done, but it was still better than doing nothing.

“Excuse me!!!”

Vrrrrrr!

A halo rose above his head.

What he had woven together was the Prayer of Glass.

Unfathomable divine power, outside normal control, twisted the space within a five-meter radius around Usher and Bersia.

Kaboom!!!

Originally, even scholars could barely distort a palm-sized area of space with this prayer, but this output allowed it to be used like a shield.

However, great power always comes with recoil.

There was a clear reason why this prayer, despite its ability to interfere with space, had not become mainstream.

“Cough…!”

“Sir Knight!”

Usher felt his brain burning.

The prayer forcibly made his brain calculate the coordinates that constituted that space.

With such a wide range, the recoil on his computational ability was inevitably extreme.

The backlash was even worse for Usher, whose prayer mastery had long surpassed conventional boundaries.

Drip-

A nosebleed ran down his face. Blood vessels in the whites of his eyes burst.

His entire body trembled violently.

Even so, he endured, refracting the curses and whips raining down like bombardments.

“How long do you think you can hold out?!”

The witch’s assault grew even fiercer.

It felt as though her divine power was infinite, showing no sign of diminishing output.

When was the last time he felt such overwhelming helplessness?

“Sir Knight! Stay with me!”

Bersia shouted in an unusually high-pitched voice as she performed a healing prayer.

Usher gasped heavily and pulled her even closer into his arms.

Then, he whispered softly, with a crooked smile.

“It’s done.”

“W-What…?”

Bersia’s stunned question barely left her lips before the ceiling collapsed.

And a storm raged through.

Kwaaaang─!

“Urgh…?!“

A green spirit in human form—Melvin—had appeared.

At that moment, Usher’s prayer unraveled.

The witch, Mira, grit her teeth furiously.

An unexpected obstacle.

“He’s not a Holy Knight?!”

She had assumed the sky-blue-haired woman accompanying the top-grade knight was his subordinate.

After all, Bersia had spent the entire time wielding a sword and assisting the man.

The tidal wave? The storm? She had thought it was the work of a knight who manipulated such powers.

But after witnessing the output and the form of the prayer, Mira realized the truth.

“A Saintess!”

Not just any saint, but the most fearsome one—the ‘Favor of God.’

Distorting space itself to form a barrier was something only she could achieve.

The situation had worsened.

She had intended to toy with them lightly, but with Bersia’s involvement, the story had changed.

At that moment, Mira unleashed her full power.

A storm raged, and in the distance, the saint smiled, certain of victory.

Realizing the shift in tides, Mira used a power she had yet to reveal.

“Don’t make me laugh!!!”

Sssshhhh—!

Space tore open behind Mira.

Beyond the rift lay a dark purple void.

Emerging from it was the hand of Ashanta, the heretic god.

A hand infused with ten thousand curses formed a seal.

Space itself became stained with curses.

Saaaaaa!

“H-Hahahaha!!!”

Mira laughed like a madwoman.

Her bloodshot eyes glared at them as she uttered words of curse.

“Die! Regret being alive! Fall into the abyss!!!”

Language became the medium.

Malice became the form of the curse.

As long as the caster paid an appropriate price, the ritual could be completed.

Crackle. Mira absorbed the energy and offered it to Ashanta’s hand.

She began shedding her false facade, reverting to a hideous old hag.

“Did you think it would end here? I can start again! Victory is mine!”

She could always reclaim vitality after killing them.

Eternal youth and life.

With Ashanta’s hand, Mira could seize them anytime.

Melvin’s expression hardened.

In his grasp, a storm sharp as a blade began to form.

At that moment, curses and storms collided.

“What a mess.”

Judith appeared, exhaling cigarette smoke.