Chapter 44. Corruption vs. Indomitable
Clatter, clatter.
The sound echoed loudly throughout the church.
The Forgotten Corrupted Ascetic walked around the church chapel with burning chains wrapped around his ankles.
He slowly wandered through the chapel that had once been filled with worshippers, occasionally sinking into memories from the past.
Before he became a demon, before he was given the name Ascetic, he was simply an ordinary priest named Shurishhi.
He was not especially devout, nor did he have any special beliefs.
He was just an ordinary man who could be found anywhere, living as a priest because he believed in God a little more than other people.
About fifteen years ago, a woman wearing a black dress, before she was called the Witch of Corruption, once came to him with a group of monsters.
They said they needed a priest who could use the power of God and asked him for help without giving him any proper explanation.
At first, he could not trust a woman who had come leading monsters, so he naturally refused and clearly told them that he had no divine power.
The villagers were afraid that the monsters might overthrow the village after discovering that he had nothing they wanted, so they even tried to force the former priest to sacrifice himself.
But the ordinary man did not possess that much spirit of sacrifice.
“Who says you can’t? We’ve chosen you. Do it.”
It was an unreasonable and absurd command.
Everyone in the village, including him, tilted their heads in confusion at her words.
It was true that, as a priest, he knew more about divine power than anyone else.
But no matter how much he thought about it, he could not understand why he was valuable enough for her to speak to him like that.
However, the witch's group helped him obtain divine power.
They even helped with the affairs of the village, showing a side completely different from what they had shown when they first appeared.
They were already a group that had gained some fame, though they were not yet called witches.
Yet they were completely different from the rumors people had heard about them.
Because of that, the hearts of the villagers, including his own, slowly began to change.
And eventually, by some miracle, he became able to use divine power.
That day, a great feast was held.
“Those days were really wonderful.”
For the next five years, until the day ten years ago when he decided to stop his activities, he traveled the world with the witch.
There were many dangerous moments, but he saw many things, learned many things, and experienced many things.
After their journey ended, he had become much stronger.
For the time being, he intended to remain in the village and spend his days helping the villagers until his friends resumed their activities.
But the world did not leave him alone.
“A heretic who caused chaos throughout the world alongside the Witch of Corruption... That was the crime I was accused of. I don't remember committing any real crime, but apparently, that was what they said.”
He remembered everything he had learned and experienced during his travels and vowed that he would never yield.
But as time passed, that determination slowly became dull.
Then, by pure coincidence, he heard from another person who had been unjustly captured like himself that his village had been branded as heretical and every villager had been burned at the stake.
In the end, his heart finally broke.
Inside the dark underground prison, where all kinds of negative emotions swirled around, his broken body was slowly being stained by corruption.
“I didn't like it. I was clearly serving God, and my faith in God was actually growing stronger. Yet they called it corruption. I thought the fault must belong to the people who imprisoned and tortured me while enjoying themselves.”
So the first thing he did was kill them.
He killed them first, then tried to destroy the religion they believed in and turn everything they believed in to ashes.
Those people believed in the wrong god anyway.
They were heretics.
They were like tumors in the world.
Those people who caused death simply by being alive and created suffering from doubt and distrust were demons.
“Then, by coincidence... truly by coincidence, I met an old friend. She had become much stronger than when we parted. Considering her usual personality—or rather, the personalities of the badgers protecting her—I definitely should have died.”
But he did not die.
Instead, she gave him a chance, showed him mercy, and offered him words of comfort.
Only afterward did he realize it.
Under the excuse of punishing the evil of the world, he himself had become exactly like those demons.
“So I bound the chain she gave me around myself. The chain of the person she loved, waited for, and resented more than anyone.”
It was a chain containing a powerful indomitable force.
His body melted under the heat of the burning chain and became a horrible sight.
Yet his realization only grew stronger.
“The power of corruption did not disappear. No, I don't think of this power as corruption. I think of it as truth. And to seek that truth, I am waiting here in this underground place.”
In front of him stood a fifteen-member raid party.
Outside the church were priests who continuously interfered with his magic, along with the Great Hero of the Empire of Majesty who protected them.
A monster worthy of being called the strongest stood there.
“You talk too much.”
“You weren't really listening, were you? I said exactly what happened.”
“You’re consistent, so I can trust you?”
“Yes, of course.”
Compared to that monster, the man standing directly in front of him was merely the owner of the chain wrapped around his ankle.
In that sense, Shurishhi was actually grateful.
Just as his old friend had told him, this man was a reckless thug who rushed headlong into whatever he decided to do, made unreasonable requests of others, only pretended to listen when conversations became too long, and could not remember names longer than three syllables.
“Still, you keep your promises... I envy you. To have that person's trust to such an extent.”
“I envy you too. Why are you getting to do something I haven't even done yet? It's annoying.”
Had he actually been listening?
Ingwang had listened to Shurishhi, the corrupted one, with an uninterested expression the entire time.
Because of that, Shurishhi had assumed that he was not listening at all.
For Ingwang, this was an unexpected variable.
Instead of fighting Inbang first, the situation had immediately led into a boss battle.
He had no idea how or when the conversation would end, or what kind of attack would come next.
So he had remained completely alert and had no choice but to listen, even though he did not want to.
“Still, I am a little surprised. I never imagined you would bring the Great Hero to such a shabby place.”
The Great Hero was a monster beyond the common sense of the world.
As far as the world knew, there were only seven chosen geniuses like them.
And among those seven, the one standing here was the strongest Great Hero.
Even Shurishhi, before being weakened by the chains of indomitable power, would not have been able to touch him with even a fingertip.
He had never imagined that someone would bring such a Great Hero just to fight him.
He certainly would not have expected someone of the Great Hero's position to be called out for such a trivial matter.
“I got lucky. Apparently, he happened to be there on the day I went to ask him for help. They say heroes are all too kind-hearted and can't stand injustice when they see it.”
“They're exhausting people... Well, fine. Shall we begin?”
The beginning was much more sudden than he expected.
Ingwang used the Shadow Movement skill he had kept hidden until now.
He connected the chain around Shurishhi's ankle to his own chain and attempted to drag him into the shadows.
He still had another trick hidden?
Was he hiding it because he couldn't guarantee victory yet?
What a frightening man.
However, that was all.
Although the ankle attached to the chain was certainly a vulnerable point, Shurishhi was not so weak that Ingwang, who was considerably weaker than him, could simply drag him away.
Instead, he stretched his chained foot forward and pulled Ingwang toward himself.
Then, while Ingwang's stance was briefly broken, Shurishhi charged toward the other members of the raid party.
Boom!
“Hooh.”
Ingwang endured it.
Even while half of his body was embedded in the shadow he had created, Ingwang managed to block the corrupted man's charge once.
Since Shurishhi could no longer suddenly appear using a movement skill, there would be no sudden attacks from him for the time being.
Knowing this, the raid party all charged toward the corrupted man at once.
How foolish.
None of them except him should be able to resist my power.
But they surely know that.
The corrupted man hurriedly summoned Inbang.
Inbang, whose wings had been torn off and who had grown even stronger afterward, collided with the raid party.
That gave the corrupted man another opportunity to use a skill.
“First, ‘Hymn of Falling In.’”
The organ, which had made no sound until then, suddenly began playing on its own.
At the same time, horrifyingly distorted singing voices erupted from all the golden ornaments hanging on the walls.
It was a song filled with the power of corruption, a voice capable of shaking the human heart.
With this skill, even the people outside the church would undoubtedly be contaminated by the power of corruption.
Furthermore, the purer a person was, the deeper the power of corruption dragged them into darkness.
A Great Hero, someone who observed the justice he believed in more purely than anyone else, should have had his mind shaken in a short amount of time.
He isn't even moving.
Perhaps he really was the strongest for a reason.
The song should have echoed in his ears again and again, disturbing his mind.
Yet the Great Hero showed not even the slightest change in expression.
The first person to react was Ingwang.
Recognizing the nature of the song, he urgently inhaled deeply to protect the people outside the church.
“Where do you think you're going! ‘Everyone! Stay! Focus!!!’”
Ingwang's shout echoed so loudly that the chapel itself seemed to shake.
Back when he had fought monsters in the sewers, he had wandered around shouting at the top of his lungs to keep his wavering mind together.
That habit had eventually become a skill.
If the corrupted man knew the story behind it, he would have been dumbfounded and furious.
But he did not know the circumstances.
And after seeing that Ingwang had already hidden another skill, the corrupted man became even more cautious.
Another skill I don't know.
Just how many things is he hiding?
Did he learn it recently?
But it seems far too familiar for that.
I need to be careful.
That caution created a tiny opening in the corrupted man's concentration, which had been focused on Ingwang.
The raid party did not miss it.
Repeated weakening magic from the priests outside the church struck him one after another.
His defensive magic was stripped away, causing the corrupted man to stagger.
The raid members stared at him with shining eyes.
Six people were being held by Inbang.
