Chapter 72
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
Chapter 72: The Clean-up (2)
***
After obtaining Miya, the first thing Damien did was to remove the traces.
It was good to defeat the Corpseplay with dark magic, but there were too many traces left. It was clear that it would be a lot of trouble if seen by the Church.
First, Damien gathered all the flesh golems in one place.
The flesh golems pierced by the spear made of dark magic were rotting due to the curse.
First, he burned all the flesh golems and then used dark magic to cause explosions in various parts of the cave.
If the Church asked about the low number of Flesh Golems, he planned to say that the Corpseplay had caused them to self-destruct. Next, Damien uses aura in the form of spears and pierced holes in various parts of the cave.
There were traces of piercing left on the bodies of flesh golems, including the Corpseplay by the chains of darkness. It was a trick to hide it.
If asked about the wound in the church, he planned to say that it was a wound caused by this technique.
After adding a few more tricks and marks, he went outside.
***
Inside the cave.
Agnes, who had taken refuge in a safe place, first healed Margata.
The wound on her abdomen was already serious, but it became even worse due to the rush during the escape.
Not only the skin and muscles of the abdomen were completely crushed, but also all the internal organs were destroyed.
After sprinkling a healing potion on Margata’s wound, Agnes used her divine power to heal the wound.
After receiving the Holy stigma, Agnes’s divine power increased significantly in both quantity and quality. Thanks to this, even wounds as severe as Margata’s could be treated.
“Agnes, thank you.”
Margata said with a relieved face. Agnes let out a sigh of relief.
“Margata! Are you okay?”
Gamal asked in an urgent tone. Margata smiled and said.
“Gamal, you look really funny right now.”
“Even though someone is worried… Seeing you saying such foolish things makes it seem like you’re okay.”
Gamal’s expression softened. Seeing that Margata was safe, Gamal felt relieved.
“Miss, please have this.”
Dionysius handed Agnes water and food. Agnes expressed her gratitude and ate the food.
Meanwhile, she continued to look somewhere. It was towards the area where the Corpseplay was.
“Miss, is Corpseplay bothering you?”
At Dionysius’s question, Agnes shook her head.
“I was thinking about Damien instead of the Corpseplay.”
As soon as Damien’s name was mentioned, Dionysius’s expression darkened.
“Miss, don’t worry too much. If it’s Sir Damien, he will be fine. Even if it’s a Corpseplay, it’s difficult to deal with a knight of the middle class.”
Dionysius said in a strong tone.
“Margata has also recovered, so let’s go help Sir Damien quickly!”
Dionysius clenched his fist and shouted. But there was not a single person who supported his words.
“Um… Did I make a mistake?”
Dionysius asked in a puzzled voice. Then Gamal let out a deep sigh and said.
“Dionysius, Sir Damien might… have died by now.”
“What? But…”
“You need not voice it. Sir Damien is a middle-class knight and may very well be on the cusp of ascending to the ranks of the High Class.”
Gamal had seen Damien fight.
His skills were by no means that of an ordinary knight of the middle class.
The end of the middle class.
It was clear that he was on the verge of reaching the level of a high-class knight.
“But the Corpseplay… The power that guy prepared was not something that Sir Damien alone could handle.”
Dionysius’s encounter with the Corpseplay was extremely short. Therefore, he did not realize how fearful the Corpseplay was.
But Gamal, a second-grade paladin was different.
The moment he faced the Corpseplay he realized it immediately. The huge amount of dark mana that the Corpseplay and the flesh golems possessed.
“The Corpseplay… Even if we get involved, we can’t guarantee victory.”
“There’s no way… Sir Gamal, you and Lady Margata are second-grade paladins. Miss Agnes also obtained holy stigma…”
“The four of us have suffered severe injuries and have also consumed a lot of divine power. Especially Margata, it’s amazing that she’s still alive.”
There was a limit to the injuries that could be healed with divine power.
The more severe the injury, the less perfect it could be healed. Even if it seemed completely healed on the outside, if it moved even slightly violently, the wound would open again.
That was the case with Margata and Gamal. Right now, the two of them were not in a situation where they could fight properly.
“Sir Damien probably knew that fact well. So he probably stayed behind and evacuated us.”
Gamal clenched his fist. His frustration was evident.
“Darn it, to be saved by Sir Damien and not be able to do anything to help him.”
Margata grabbed Gamal’s hand tightly. But Gamal’s expression did not loosen.
“I agree with Gamal’s words. We need to quickly leave the dungeon and inform the Church about the Corpseplay. If we leave the Corpseplay alone like this, he will be a big problem in the future.”
Margata looked at her companions and said.
“We can’t waste the time that Sir Damien bought for us.”
The group was enveloped in a heavy silence.
Then, a presence was felt in the darkness. The group stood up and stared into the darkness.
Someone walked out of the darkness. At the sight of that someone, Agnes couldn’t help but cry out in surprise.
“Damien?”
The appearance of someone they thought was dead shocked not only Agnes but also the other three.
“Oh, I found you. Fortunately, you didn’t go far.”
As Damien approached, the four of them stepped back.
“Is it really Sir Damien?”
Could it be that the Corpseplay killed Damien and now they’re being deceived by that corpse?
Instead of answering, Damien drew his holy sword. The holy power of the sword flowed into Damien’s body.
No undead in this world could absorb divine power and remain unscathed. It meant that it was not a joke of the Corpseplay, but Damien himself.
“Damien!”
Agnes rushed forward and hugged Damien’s neck.
Damien looked at Agnes with a surprised expression. Agnes hugged Damien tightly, not knowing anything.
“How on earth are you alive?”
“It’s unbelievable! Did you escape from the Corpseplay?”
“Damien! I believed in you!”
The other three also approached Damien in surprise.
Only then did Agnes let go of Damien and ask.
“What happened to the Corpseplay?”
In response to Agnes’s question, Damien pointed to the back.
“Go and see for yourself.”
***
When the group arrived at the place where the Corpseplay was and were at a loss for words.
The Corpseplay was dead, riddled with holes all over its body.
“Wow! The Corpseplay is dead! Sir Damien killed the Corpseplay!”
Dionysius shouted with joy, looking at Margata and Gamal.
“Unbelievable….”
“This is….”
Margata and Gamal were shocked.
They had felt endless despair from the Corpseplay. They had thought they couldn’t win no matter what they did.
The Corpseplay, which had been like that, was now a pitiful corpse lying on the ground.
“Damien? How did you kill the Corpseplay? It would have been difficult to deal with just the flesh golems.”
“So I dealt with the flesh golems first, then aimed for the Corpseplay.”
Margata could only laugh bitterly.
The vulnerability of a dark mage who employs undead in battle lies in the mage’s own frailty and susceptibility. Margata knew that fact.
But knowing and executing were worlds apart.
The Corpseplay was too difficult to approach because he was thoroughly protected by the flesh golems.
“Amazing…. Truly amazing….”
But they had no choice but to believe. The evidence was right in front of them.
“….”
Agnes had been staring at the corpse of the Corpseplay since they entered this place.
There was intense fear in the face of the Corpseplay, as if he had seen something before he died.
The enemy they had harbored so much animosity towards was now dead. Amidst the relief, however, was a sense of regret for not being able to take the revenge themselves, accompanied by a myriad of other emotions.
“How did the Corpseplay die?”
“He writhed in agony, pleading for his life, only to fall silent as his breath ceased. It was a gruesome death.”
“Even this madman is afraid of death.”
Agnes sighed heavily.
“Where is my brother… no, where are the flesh golems that the Corpseplay was controlling?”
Damien pointed somewhere. The remaining flesh golems were neatly gathered in one place.
Agnes walked over there. Among the flesh golems, she saw her brother’s face.
Agnes stared at the flesh golem as if she were nailed to the spot.
“Agnes….”
Margata looked at Agnes with a worried expression.
“I’m fine.”
Agnes said in a calm voice.
“That’s not my brother. My brother died a long time ago. That’s just an undead made using my brother’s body.”
Contrary to her words, she couldn’t take her eyes off her brother’s face.
“….Damien, what are you going to do with those flesh golems?”
Margata asked Damien.
Damien had defeated the Corpseplay alone. He had the right to dispose of everything here.
“I plan to leave them all to the Church.”
Damien didn’t have much to gain from the remaining flesh golems. There was a good chance they would just be an unnecessary burden and since it was a matter involving the Church, it was better to leave it to them.
In fact, he thought it would be better to give anything to the Church to curry favor with them.
“Agnes, the Church will analyze these flesh golems thoroughly. They’ll probably dissect them muscle by muscle.”
Dark mages with talents like the Corpseplay were rare.
Analyzing these flesh golems would be a great help when dealing with other flesh golems in the future.
“After that, the flesh golems will probably be preserved forever within the church.”
Agnes looked back at Margata. Her pupils were shaking slightly.
“But at this moment, we are the only ones present here. If one or two flesh golems disappear, no one will know. Doesn’t everyone think that way?”
Margata looked at the group. Everyone nodded.
“Agnes, do as you wish.”
At Margata’s words, Agnes slowly embraced her brother’s flesh golem with both hands.
A blue flame rose from Agnes’s body. The blue flame began to burn the flesh golem.
Agnes didn’t let go until the flesh golem was completely reduced to ashes.
***
After that, they continued to search around the dungeon and rescued the survivors.
More than half of the soldiers died and even the paladins suffered heavy casualties.
‘Still, it’s much better than the previous life.’
In the previous life, the crusade was annihilated. The Corpseplay survived and rose in power.
But this time was different. More than half of the crusade survived and the Corpseplay died.
‘The greatest gain is that Agnes managed to survive.’
Agnes obtained the holy stigma.
It meant that she was a talent favored by the god. Therefore, paladins with holy stigma had all reached the master class.
‘I gained quite a lot too.’
First, I got the flesh golem Miya, and I even got a magic tool that could store undead.
After clearing the dungeon, they sent a messenger to the church to report the situation.
The church was also eagerly awaiting the results of the crusade.
Not long after sending the messenger, the church sent an investigation team.
“What on earth is this?”
“They set up such a trap inside the mountain?”
The investigation team was shocked as soon as they entered the dungeon.
After digging through the inside of the mountain, there was a trap that would cause the crusade to fall.
No one in their right mind could have come up with such a trap, let alone executed it.
“Is this the flesh golem? It’s surprisingly well-made and detailed.”
“I know the Corpseplay as a high-level dark mage… Is it possible to create such high-quality flesh golems at the level of a high-ranking dark mage?”
Then the investigation team couldn’t help but be amazed at the flesh golems.
“Are you Damien?”
A middle-aged man in a monk’s robe looked at Damien.
“I am Borromeo, who has been appointed as the leader of overall investigation team.”
“Nice to meet you. I am Damien Haksen.”
Damien shook hands with Borromeo.
“I have a few questions. According to the report, it is estimated that there are many more flesh golems than the number of flesh golems present here. But when I arrived, it seemed that the number was insufficient.”
“Some of them were self-destructed by the Corpseplay. Those pits over there are the traces.”
Damien pointed to the deep pits.
The members of the investigation team looked down at the pits and were amazed again.
“Wow… this is not a normal scale.”
“To avoid an explosion of this size in the middle of a battle.”
Borromeo coughed. The members of the investigation team shut their mouths.
“I saw the report that you were hiding your original abilities… Why is that?”
“There’s no great reason. I just thought people would be annoying if they knew I was a middle-class.”
Damien shrugged and said.
With that, Borromeo recalled the information about Damien.
He rose to the low class shortly after practicing the sword. For that alone, people praised him, calling him a genius.
In the meantime, if it is revealed that he is not a low-class but a middle-class? The whole world would be turned upside down.
“Last question. It is written in the report that you killed the Corpseplay killed alone. How on earth was that possible?”
“I killed the Corpseplayy by taking advantage of the gaps while dealing with the flesh golems.”
“You killed him by all yourself?”
Damien unsheathed his holy sword and swung it with force, causing the Aura to shot like spears, puncturing dozens of holes in the wall.
“Like this.”
Both Borromeo and the investigation team lost their words and stared at the wall.
Damien had used it casually, but the speed, range, and power of the technique were extraordinary.
“The wounds on the Corpseplay’s body are the same. It seems that the mystery is solved now.”
Borromeo took a deep breath and exhaled.
“Thank you Sir Damien for helping the crusade to kill the Corpseplayy and for helping and saving the precious talents of the church. Thank you very much.”
Especially Agnes, a 3rd-grade knight who participated in this crusade, received a holy stigma.
A paladin with a holy stigma without exception, reached the level of a master, so the Church almost lost its future master class.
“The Church has owed you an unimaginable debt. We promise to repay you properly.”
It was the moment Damien had been waiting for.
However, Borromeo went beyond simply promising repayment and showed even greater favor.
“If you have anything else you want separately, please let me know. I’ll try my best to accommodate you as much as possible.”
At Borromeo’s words, Damien hesitated for a moment.
In fact, Damien had always had a reward in mind. But it was questionable whether the Church would accept it.
“Please allow me to choose items directly from the Church’s treasury.”
Borromeo’s pupils widened at Damien’s request.
Treasury.
It was a place where treasures collected from all over the continent since the establishment of the Church were piled up.
Due to its importance and symbolism, even a 1st-grade paladin of the Church could not use it casually.
“Treasury… Treasury… It’s truly a difficult request.”
Borromeo closed his eyes tightly and fell into thought.
“The Holiness has entrusted me with all the negotiations for this incident. So I can answer you here.”
Borromeo spoke with an unwavering voice.
“I will grant your request. I hope you will visit the church in the near future.”
***
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
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