355. Crush the Mad Cult! 10

 

* * *

 

“RAAAAAAAAAAH!!”

 

Emi’s war cry echoed through the Second Plaza, where the sound of the ‘Ability Sealing Bell’ had stopped!

With her war cry and the terrifying 【Intimidation】 overflowing from her body, making the cobblestones, walls, and even the space itself tremble and creak… she leaped towards Death Pope!

 

“Mmm…!!”

 

Of course, she’s currently under the influence of Death Pope’s special ability, 【Trials and Tribulations】.

To be more precise, she’s being subjected to a pressure that would have crushed an ordinary person to death.

But despite that, with 【Body Strengthening】 now available, her movements are incredibly fast!

Instantly closing the distance with Death Pope, Emi unleashed a simple right punch.

A single blow, swung straight towards Death Pope’s stomach.

But if he takes that hit, he’ll die!

 

“Nuuooooh, ooooh!!”

 

Instinctively convinced of that, Death Pope hurriedly opened the magic book ‘Steel Face’ and used its back to block Emi’s right fist.

And then, he was blown away.

 

“…?”

 

Emi felt a sense of dissonance from the impact of hitting Death Pope and stopped, instead of pursuing him.

He felt too light.

That’s what she felt.

And her sense was correct.

By making his body extremely light using his special ability 【Trials and Tribulations】, Death Pope had minimized the damage and used the force of Emi’s punch to be blown away, successfully creating distance.

 

“Hmph! Hmph! Hmph!”

 

And at the same time, he fired the handgun ‘Ghost Rate’ in rapid succession.

Aiming for Emi’s face.

The bullets flew straight ahead.

Actually, both this handgun and the bullets themselves are magic tools with magical mechanisms.

The bullets are unaffected by 【Trials and Tribulations】 and simply fly straight ahead.

 

“…………”

 

But the opponent is Emi.

The girl who even when 【Body Strengthening】 was sealed, only said ‘ouch’ when shot with a gun.

For her now, gunshots are nothing more than the equivalent of a brat throwing acorns at her.

She casually brushed away the incoming bullets with a wave of her arm.

That’s all it takes to deal with gunshots.

For Emi, gunshots are nothing more than a distraction.

But.

They are a distraction!

Using that moment when Emi swung her arm and blocked the bullets!

Death Pope charged towards her again, closing the distance!

 

“!!”

 

“Witness… the power of faith!!”

 

And then, with all his might, Death Pope swung down the corner of ‘Steel Face’, his bible, aiming for Emi’s shoulder!

A large amount of mana has been poured into the magic book, increasing its hardness!

Furthermore, it’s being swung by a first-class body, enhanced with full-powered 【Body Strengthening】!

On top of that, gravity manipulation from 【Trials and Tribulations】 is also added!

In other words, its power is tremendous!

 

 

DOGOOOOOOOOOON!!

 

 

Emi, who took the full brunt of that blow, was slammed face-first onto the cobblestones, creating a crater with a deafening roar, embedded in its center!

 

“And feel… the weight of faith!!”

 

But Death Pope didn’t stop his assault!

This time, he jumped high into the air… and then, using 【Trials and Tribulations】 to increase his own weight, he stomped down hard on Emi!

 

“AAAAAGGGH!!”

 

Even Emi couldn’t help but scream from the force of that blow!

Her small body sank further into the ground, and the crater widened!

 

“Hmph!”

 

As a finishing blow, Death Pope stomped on Emi’s body hard once again, and then leaped out of the crater.

After moving away a bit, he turned to face the crater, once again holding ‘Steel Face’ and ‘Ghost Rate’ at the ready.

 

“…………”

 

Silence filled the Second Plaza.

There’s no wind, and because it’s in the city, no insects could be heard.

And from the bottom of the crater, he couldn’t hear even a breath, let alone a rustle.

Even with Death Pope’s superhuman hearing.

She’s probably dead.

But Death Pope was not a fool who would act carelessly based on such wishful thinking.

He slowly approached the crater, deliberately making his footsteps loud.

In the center of that crater is the hole where Emi is buried, and the darkness of the night obscured the view of what’s inside the hole from afar.

And then, when he got close enough to the crater.

Death Pope quietly picked up a stone… and threw it towards the hole.

 

Click, click, click…

 

The stone Death Pope threw rolled down the slope of the bowl-shaped crater towards the hole in the center, making a light sound.

And then.

Towards the rolling stone.

To be precise… towards the existence approaching the hole, making a sound.

From inside the hole.

Several intimidating, jet-black tentacles shot out… and attacked!!

 

ZUGAGAGAGA!!

 

The tentacles wildly stabbed the ground around where the stone rolled, attacking indiscriminately.

In other words, if Death Pope had carelessly approached the hole to confirm Emi’s death… his body would have been pierced by those tentacles and turned into a sieve.

 

Now, the tentacles that had been wildly stabbing the ground for a while seemed to have realized that there was no sensation of skewering and killing a human.

They stopped attacking the ground, writhed creepily, and then…

 

Zaan, zaan!

 

With such a sound, only two of them forcefully stabbed the ground.

And using those two as support, the owner of the tentacles crawled out of the hole.

The owner of the tentacles.

Needless to say, it’s Emi.

Emi, using the two tentacles stabbed into the ground as support, floated into the air.

Extending from her shoulders were a total of ten 【Black Tentacles】, including the two stabbed into the ground.

All of them were writhing creepily.

The sight of Emi dangling precariously in the center made the scene all the more grotesque for Death Pope.

 

“…………”

 

But Death Pope didn’t possess the kind of fragility that would make him cower in fear at the sight of such an Emi.

Calmly, calmly.

He assessed the enemy’s condition.

…Emi is clearly gravely injured.

It seems Death Pope’s previous attack had connected.

But, however.

What resided in her pitch-black eyes was still.

…Fighting spirit!!

It wasn’t her intimidating appearance.

But her fighting spirit that truly made Death Pope tremble in fear!

But Death Pope, forcing himself to suppress his trembling and wiping away the cold sweat, thought calmly.

Despite her bizarre appearance with those terrifying tentacles exposed, there’s no doubt that Emi is gravely injured.

Then.

Now is the best chance to defeat her.

He has no choice but to fight.

She cruelly slaughtered his comrades.

She killed all the believers except for him.

He can’t forgive her.

He can’t let her live.

 

“…Exterminate her!!”

 

Muttering that shortly.

Death Pope started running towards the tentacle monster!