Chapter 38: Priest of disease

*Thud*

Hans' huge sword fell to the ground with a thud. His hand, numb from the poison, could no longer maintain its grip and had ended up dropping the weapon.

10 seconds. Although Hans had the power of a warrior of the 3rd realm, his body was not able to withstand the poison that took only 10 seconds to spread throughout his body and take his life. The poison that affected the mercenary contained magical energy so it was much more lethal than ordinary poisons.

In the first 5 seconds that the poison entered his bloodstream, the mercenary's senses became weaker and his surroundings became more confused. His vision became blurred and dim, his heartbeat slowed and the muscles in his limbs were paralyzed. 3 seconds later, the poison had corroded Hans' internal energy and destroyed his dantian.

In his last seconds of life, all Hans could see was Edwin shouting something he didn't understand and how wizards and soldiers on the wall were being slaughtered by the horde of monsters. Finally, the mercenary closed his eyelids and stopped breathing.

In that instant, Hans' corpse was dragged and lifted from the ground as if it were a sack of potatoes. Two huge black pincers came out of the darkness, closing over the lifeless body of the mercenary, grabbing him by the chest and hip.

*Crack Snap!*

The pincers began to exert pressure, twisting and snapping Hans' corpse like a twig.

*CRUNCH!*

Finally, under the force exerted by the pincers, the mercenary's body split in two. All his blood and internal organs fell on the burnt wheat fields. Then, the pincers that still held the two halves of the corpse, began to retreat into the darkness, heading towards the mouth of the creature.

*Munch Crunch Munch*

In that instant, a shiver ran down Edwin's spine. The mercenary leader had finally recognized the monster that was still eating Hans' corpse.

The creature was a huge black scorpion over 2 meters (6ft) tall and 6 meters (20ft) long. At the tip of its tail, which was as long as its body, was a large stinger from which a purple venom was dripping. The entire body of the monster was covered with long black spikes. In addition, the creature had eight tentacles protruding from behind its head.

"A Sanacran scorpion! In the name of the forest god, what the hell is a creature from the central areas doing here?" shouted Edwin.

The Sanacran scorpion was a beast of the fourth realm that was only found in the deeper areas of the Ranemal jungle and was very difficult to kill. Not only did the creature possess a sting with deadly venom, but its body was protected by a powerful spiny armor and retractable tentacles with which it could kill a man with a single blow.

If that wasn't enough, the creature also had multiple magical abilities, including the ability to create energy projectiles whose power was comparable to that of a 3rd level spell. In terms of power, the Sanacran Scorpion was one rank above the Horned Basilisk.

Edwin's brain was working at full speed as he tried to figure out how they could get out of this situation alive. Killing a Sanacran Scorpion required the combined strength of several elite-ranked mercenaries or, at the very least, a Master-ranked mercenary.

"My divine protection! AAGH!"

"Not my spell of... KEAAAGH!"

"NO! Rahiel's Blessing! why...? AAAAhh!"

In that moment, the screams of the men being slaughtered by the monsters reached Edwin's ears. When the mercenary turned around, he saw that the elite knights of the forest church had lost the golden aurora that covered their bodies. For some reason, the divine spell that enhanced their combat abilities had stopped working.

'If the knights' divine spell has stopped working, it means something has happened to Catalin! What the hell is going on? ' Thought Edwin. After all, the mercenary leader had been worried for some time.

The first thing Edwin had noticed was that all the beasts in the horde were insects, arachnids, or arthropod monsters. In the two hours since the attack had begun Edwin had not seen a single amphibious or reptilian monster.

Moreover, during the early stages of the attack, only 10% of the monsters belonged to the 2nd and 3rd realms, all the rest were from the 1st realm. But now that ratio had been reversed. It was as if the monsters had first sent the weaker ones as cannon fodder to deplete the city's defenses and then annihilate them with their main force.

On top of that, there was the collapse of the protection array, the cancellation of the divine spell, and the appearance of the Sanacran Scorpion. All this couldn't be a coincidence.

*Weng Weng*

Suddenly, the air began to tremble and the surrounding energy became distorted. Everyone on the battlefield felt these changes along with a shiver running down their backs. Edwin immediately turned his head towards the giant Scorpion.

*Weng Weng*

The space around the creature's mouth began to distort, forming a sphere of energy that grew to the size of a beach ball.

"OH, SH*T!" Edwin reacted and immediately jumped to the side, evading the trajectory of the energy sphere.

*BOOM*

The energy sphere continued its trajectory for another 100 meters (109 yards) until it finally collided with a house. A split second later, the energy sphere exploded, destroying the house and creating a small mushroom cloud in the process. When the smoke from the explosion cleared, there was a large smoking crater 10 meters (32 feet) in diameter and 4 meters (13 feet) deep where the energy sphere had impacted.

"Everyone, retreat to the wall!!" shouted Edwin. Despite the situation, the mercenary leader didn't lose his composure and started giving orders. As strange as the situation was, he had no time to think about it. The only thing that mattered was to concentrate on the enemy in front of him.

After telling the others to stand down, Edwin pulled out a small vial he had strapped to his belt. He uncapped the vial and drank the silver liquid it contained.

What Edwin had just drunk was a medium-grade physical enhancement potion, brewed with holy magic. The potion could increase all physical abilities and the user's healing capabilities by 30% for 25 minutes.

Unlike elixirs and potions brewed by conventional alchemy, the sacred potions of the churches were brewed from the use of divine energy. Many of these potions had far superior effects to conventional elixirs and were also the reason the churches were the greatest superpowers in the world.

But they were also incredibly expensive. Just the small vial Edwin had consumed cost over 100 gold raels. Still, one had to admit that its effects were truly impressive.

A few seconds after Edwin drank the potion, his body was enveloped in a silvery light. His muscles tripled in size and his wounds began to heal at an abnormally fast rate.

Once his body felt the effects of the potion, Edwin took his red battle-ax and charged straight at the giant scorpion.

****

[Sanctuary of the Church of the Forest. 25th Street of the technical district. 7 minutes after the collapse of the protective array].

The forest church sanctuary was a huge two-story white stone building with a pair of towers and was very similar in style to the Christian churches. It had a huge reinforced steel double door and large stained glass windows in the front of the building.

Behind the sanctuary doors was a hallway leading to a semicircular room and in the center was an apple tree whose branches reached to the ceiling. The hall was surrounded by beautiful white marble pillars covered with vines and flowers. The pillars were the supports for the balconies on the second floor, also covered with vines.

At the end of the hall was the altar where the priest on duty gave his routine sermon and blessed his followers with the fruit of the tree containing the blessing of the forest god.

Although the church had sent most of its knights and wizards to help with the city's defenses, there were still 50 knights and 6 wizards from the first realm guarding the sanctuary. In addition, Catalin had also stayed there. But not because she was a coward.

Shortly after the attack began, Catalin had used a special spell to strengthen 300 elite knights to help with the wall's defenses. Although it had a wide range, the spell required deep concentration and an enormous amount of energy.

Fortunately, Catalin had a high-Tier magic item that increased the spell's power and reduced its energy cost. But despite all this, the pressure the spell placed on Catalin was overwhelming, so if anything interrupted her state of concentration, all her effort would go down the toilet.

But the church had made a big mistake.

When the attack began, the church had let some faithful believers take refuge inside the sanctuary and pray to their god in this time of need. After all, at those times the sanctuary was much safer than the streets of the city.

But, when the city's protective array fell, the forest god's sanctuary went from a haven to a chaotic slaughterhouse.

5 minutes before the array collapsed, 9 of the refugees started to suffer terrible headaches and began to writhe on the ground.

A few seconds later, their skin was covered with black scales, their muscles swelled and their bodies grew to 2.5(8.2ft) meters. Finally, their heads exploded and dozens of worms over a meter long (3.2ft) began to burst from their necks.

The creatures soon began to dismember and mutilate the rest of the people. Ten minutes later, the entire floor of the sanctuary was covered with the corpses, blood, guts, and gray matter of refugees, wizards, and knights.

Of course, thanks to the combined effort of the knights and wizards of the church, 8 of the 9 creatures had died and the last remaining one was missing an arm. However, all the effort of knights and wizards was in vain, as the last creature had achieved its goal.

The highest representative of the church in the city, Catalin Jevana Rostass, was sitting at the base of the sanctuary tree. Unfortunately, one of the creatures had pierced her abdomen with one of its worms, interrupting her spell and leaving her on the verge of death.

"Hahaha... This is AN amazing scene! The GREAT FOREST CHURCH, reduced TO this deplorable state! Well, though I would have preferred to use a MORE... practical method to do this. Like spreading a plague of flesh-eating locusts throughout the city and watching them devour the citizens. Ooh, just thinking about it makes me horny! But HEY, one HAS to WORK with what's at HAND, don't you THINK, your HOLINESS? " Said the creature worms at the same time. Their voices were high-pitched and low at the same time.

Catalin looked up and faced the foul creature in front of her. "You... Cough... You're f**king insane."

"I know, isn't it GREAT?!" Replied the creature as it walked around the tree " Well, YOU say this IS insanity. But actually, I think YOU'RE missing MY point of view. It's NOT that I'm insane. Everything I DO is just a product of MY devotion to my GODDESS. We're NOT so different ON that point."

"Cough... That we are not so different? Don't make me laugh. I am a faithful servant of Rahiel and was recognized by him. But you're just another demented bastard in the bunch. Your goddess even gave you her divine blessing, didn't she?"

*BAM! THUD! *

The creature's fist slammed into the shrine tree, splitting the trunk in two and sending it crashing down with a thud.

"Don't you dare compare ME to a pusillanimous FANATIC from the pile!! I am A PRIEST OF DISEASE, chosen by the PLAGUE LORDS themselves to please the Meiragas' will!" Shouted the creature angrily. "When I AM done with this TASK, my GODDESS will recognize ME, then I will ascend to HIGH PRIEST and then to CARDINAL. Then I will become one of the chosen ones and then I will be able to see the DAWN of a NEW world!"

"Cough... That new world you speak of will never come, and even if it did, you'll never be able to see it! Do you think the forest church will stand idly by after this?" replied Catalin in a proud tone. Even if this bastard was strong, he could not stand against the full power of the forest church.

"Oh, I'm COUNTING on it." The creature leaned over and looked Catalin straight in the eye. "Do YOU really think it's JUST ME and a small faction doing this? The Church of the Deadly Plagues and the other four great Dark Churches have received a DIVINE message. A GREAT WAR is about to begin. And I intend to do my part." The creature raised its claws and pointed directly at Catalin's face. "To tell you the truth, I would have liked to have kept you as a test subject... BUT orders are orders. Any LAST words, your HOLINESS?" the creature asked in a mocking tone.

Catalin did not say a single word. Even being so close to death, she felt no fear, did not shed a single tear, and did not beg for her life. She was not going to give this bastard that satisfaction. She was going to stand proud to the end. She simply closed her eyes and waited for the goddess of death to take her to Yhalene, so that her soul could go towards the cycle of reincarnation.

"She will say nothing. But I'm sure your next words will be "Huh! Who said...?" " Said a female voice coming from somewhere.

"Huh! WHO said...?"

*Woosh, Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash!*

Before the worms could finish speaking, a shadow appeared behind the creature and made a series of slashes, so fast that they were imperceptible to the normal human eye. 3 seconds later, the creature's body was sliced into dozens of chunks of flesh and collapsed to the ground.

When Catalin finally opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a figure wrapped in a black cloak and the dismembered body of the creature on the ground.

****

The paragraphs in this chapter in which the creature speaks have been intentionally written to represent its distorted voice.