I Became the Martial God's Youngest Disciple

Episode 306

—Kiyaaaaaaack!

The moment the legion commander's skull was shattered, a scream that was incomparable to anything before echoed throughout the cave.

The Dark Qi itself wasn't the problem, but the sound itself was terrible and grating. It was like elongated, invisible fingers scratching at the inside of my skull. However, I resisted the urge to tear my own eardrums and looked at Mir.

She had made her grand appearance, swung Mjolnir, and fallen unconscious as if it was her final blow. She was so high up that she would get hurt quite a bit if she hit the ground.

I had just thought that when Araxad ran out and caught the falling Mir.

At that moment, something small popped out from the shattered beast skull and instantly disappeared beyond the ceiling. It was so fast that I couldn't identify its shape despite seeing it with my own eyes.

"What was that just now?" Zach wondered in confusion.

Meanwhile, I quickly looked around. Everyone was a mess. Most of them looked like they would die at any moment, let alone being capable of moving. It was due to the thick Dark Qi and the brutal fight, so it couldn't be helped.

I swallowed down some curses and forced myself to my feet. My body had reached its limit and was screaming at me to rest.

Just do one more thing. It is really the last one. I comforted my battered body with words that liars often used.

Then I realized that there was one monster who wouldn't be defeated even in a situation like this. Strangely enough, she'd never been seen during the battle against the legion commander. There was no way she was dead, though.

I turned to Zach and asked, "Have you seen an inquisitor dressed as a nun?"

"Sister Razbet was taken below the ground. I don't know whether she is alive or dead."

At that moment, the ground suddenly burst up and Verita emerged from below a pile of dirt. Zach blinked in surprise at her sudden appearance. Verita was covered in blood, and I couldn't help thinking that she looked just like a ghost.

"Ah. Brother, you are safe as well." Verita smiled slightly when she saw me.

You're safe. It wasn't a strange thing to say after reuniting after a long time, but I could somehow feel a deep sense of relief in her voice. It was just a hunch, but did she know that I had been on the verge of death? Had she heard about my situation from one of the church members?

In any case, Verita looked unusually tired as she rose above the ground. Seeing her like this, I couldn't help thinking to myself, So even she sometimes gets tired.

I wondered, "What were you doing down there?"

"I fought against the priest and the undead."

That meant she must've heard about it from the priest.

"For how long?" I asked.

"Who knows? I'm not sure how long it was, but I would say I took down about a thousand corpses."

She wasn't the type to bluff about something like that, so I was forced to believe her.

Somehow, his actions were a bit stiff. Now that I thought about it, maybe part of the reason why I'd been able to hit the legion commander so many times was because he'd been diverting a lot of his focus trying to eliminate Verita underground.

In other words, Verita was invisibly the greatest contributor to the legion commander's defeat.

"The staff was his body. Mir smashed the skull. At that moment, I saw something pop out of it and go up to the ceiling. I don't know what it is, but I think I should kill it," I said.

"It is a parasitic demon. It probably doesn't have any power on its own, but it might cause trouble if it parasitizes the body of a surviving church member. We don't know what is waiting beyond that ceiling, so we should hurry," Verita explained.

At that moment, however, she suddenly collapsed to the ground.

"What's going on?" I exclaimed.

"Uh." Verita's blank expression changed and she frowned slightly. "I can't move my body."

She seemed to be the one who was the most surprised about her condition. It seemed like she was experiencing this for the first time in her life.

I watched Verita twisting her body with a blank expression. Suddenly, I looked at the blood covering her again. At first, I hadn't thought the blood belonged to her. There was simply too much. Even if some of it was hers, the majority had to come from the enemies she killed.

Then I thought about it. Verita's enemies had been undead. Corpses, especially rotting corpses, didn't bleed. There was no need to talk about skeletons.

That meant all this blood had indeed been shed by Verita.

"Why aren't you using divine power?" I asked.

Verita's regenerative power was monstrous. It was to a point where trolls looked cute in comparison. She could heal her body at an absurd rate. She'd even regenerated the eyeball she pulled out in an instant.

It was strange that someone like her would shed so much blood. Normally, the wound would've healed before blood could even flow. Could it be that she used too much divine power and it ran out?

"That..." Verita trailed off with a slightly embarrassed expression. As I quietly stared at her, she reluctantly started to speak. "My power..."

In the middle of speaking, Verita's head slowly drooped down.

"What? Hey. Veri, no, Sister Razbet?" I called out.

Soft breathing sounds were all I could hear in response.

Zach said, "She seems to have fainted."

I knew that too, I silently retorted to Zach, who was only watching the situation.

It was absurd, but Verita had fainted due to fatigue. It was a situation that naturally made me sigh. Even the somewhat reliable reinforcement was in such a state. That meant I had no more time to waste.

"Please look after Sister Razbet," I said.

"What are you going to do?"

"I'll track it down first."

"Can you climb up to the ceiling?" Zach asked since he knew that my body wasn't in good condition.

I laughed softly and used the power of Crowtaker. Flying was impossible since I had no internal energy left, but hovering was still possible.

"Be careful. You are the hero of this matter. I don't want to lose you in a place like this," Zach said.

"Of course. I value my life above everything else," I replied.

Zach burst out laughing. He seemed to have taken it as a joke. However, I was serious.

***

I stepped into the area beyond the ceiling and soon realized that this place was familiar to me. It was the place where I'd secretly watched the ritual with Ramon. In other words, it was where Ymir's heart used to be.

Here, I'd been swept away by that damn snowstorm and fallen into Ymir's stomach, resulting in Ramon's death. For me, it was an uncomfortable and annoying place.

The aftermath of the raging snowstorm remained scattered in many places. The ground was frozen solid like ice, and the corpses intended for the sacrifices were frozen as well. In the center of it, Ymir's heart was also frozen.

For now, I didn't feel any signs of life around me. However, the oddly tense atmosphere put me on edge.

Maybe the commander had hidden in one of these corpses. I was cautious of the corpses, especially the corpses of the church members, as I slowly advanced toward the heart.

Then a thought suddenly occurred to me. The heart.

The heart was the core of the body, a power source. It was the same reason why the church members had occupied this place and made it their altar. If they could take Ymir's heart as their own, they would be able to control the massive body of this frost giant as they pleased.

If that was the case, the situation was dangerous. I thought that the legion commander would likely be able to control Ymir at will if it parasitized the heart.

Of course, that wasn't its original objective. Ymir's body was meant to be sacrificed to the Golden Horn. However, what if the rampaging legion commander forcibly parasitized Ymir with a do-or-die mindset? Maybe it wouldn't be a complete assimilation, but just moving a body as huge as Ymir's would cause a disaster.

Or it might go berserk.

Then regardless of the priest's death, the annihilation of the church members, or the legion commander's demise, the church would still achieve their goal.

Perhaps due to those negative thoughts, my steps quickened. I narrowed the distance to the heart with my creaking body.

At that moment, something dark hit me from the right side. I reflexively drew the Seven Sins Sword and swung it. There was a strange sound and the thing hit by the sword fell to the ground.

The creature looked like a centipede. It had a long, slender body and an incredible number of legs. However, its face resembled a grotesquely distorted old man. Demon horns sprouted from its head, and to make matters worse, it had no eyeballs.

The demonic centipede clicked its teeth together. Its mouth was a terrible sight, seemingly embedded with hundreds of sharp things. The thought that it could tear into living flesh with those teeth, burrow inside, and take control of a body sent chills down my spine.

—You.

At this moment, the old man grinned slyly.

—You just got scared, didn't you?

"Shit," I cursed as I swung the Seven Sins Sword downward.

The centipede flipped onto its belly to avoid my attack. In that position, the hundreds of legs writhed. It wasn't a pleasant sight.

"Ugh. This form is a bit scary."

Once again, I heard the sound of teeth clicking together. I finally realized that it was the sound of this centipede's laughter.

I didn't want to hear it anymore, so I gripped the hilt with both hands and thrust downward. No matter whether he was a demon or a centipede, he would die if his head was pierced.

However, the centipede rolled around and dodged my attack with incredible agility.

—No way. Is the plan that was prepared for so long going to be thwarted?

—But it isn't too bad. This situation can still be reversed.

"How?"

—That...

Then the centipede appeared as if falling from the sky.

—It is yooooou!

I struck it again with the Seven Sins Sword. Instead of bouncing away, it wrapped tightly around my blade. Then it quickly clung to my arm like a snake slithering along a tree.

—You have a wonderful body! It will be perfect as my next host!

"You crazy bastard!" I cursed.

Was he planning to parasitize my body instead of Ymir's? Then, escaping through the ceiling was just a feint to lure me in.

A chill ran down my spine as I fiercely shook my arm. However, the hundreds of legs were hooked into my forearm like barbs and I couldn't shake him off.

—I will feast well!

With those chilling words, the centipede's teeth sank deep into my forearm.

Cough!

Suddenly, he coughed up blood and glared fiercely. It looked even stranger because he had no eyeballs.

In the meantime, I pulled out the Yin-Yang Dao with my left arm and stuck it into his forehead. With a terrible scream, the centipede fell off my arm and disappeared back into the darkness.

Voices echoed continuously from around me.

—What is this...?

—You still have this level of resistance.

—Yes... You are definitely worthy of the master's attention.

I thought it was amazing that such a talkative guy had remained silent for so long. Sure enough, keeping quiet was the best way to maintain authority.

I held the Yin-Yang Dao and Seven Sins Sword and looked around.

In any case, I had no way to attack while this guy was hiding in the darkness. It wasn't a situation where I could use my eyes of fire. It would be annoying if he took advantage of the darkness to run away.

However, I didn't think that would happen. If this demon was a parasite, he wouldn't be able to live long without a host. In the end, he would be forced to parasitize a host, and he had chosen me as his target.

Is this the final battle?

This was just right. I had no internal energy and my whole body wasn't listening to me, so I could have a good match with the weak main body of the legion commander.

Kekekeke!

Just then, a number of beings appeared from the ceiling, letting out creepy laughter. There was quite a variety of them. Some stood on two legs, some crawled on all fours, and some even had more than ten legs.

Still, they had two things in common. There was Dark Qi wrapped all over their body, and regardless of the number, they all had horns protruding from the head.

They're demons.

It was also a group of demons that was fairly intact. They weren't small fries either. Judging from the Dark Qi, most of them were intermediate demons. That meant even a B-class hero would have to risk their lives to face them.

It was absurd that there were so many still alive.

—The energy of struggle that you have gathered... I used it as an offering to summon these demons.

"What?"

—The energy you have worked so hard to gather... It is painful to use it to summon such lowly things. But it isn't a big deal. I will kill you first and...

I wanted to bluff, but words didn't easily come out of my mouth. Even I didn't have the strength left to fight against dozens of demons in my current state. At best, I could only take down two or three before dying alongside them.

"Hah..."

I couldn't believe I would die in a place like this. Still, I'd stopped the demon king's summoning, so could I say that the worst situation had been avoided?

Bullshit.

I smiled bitterly. Dying here wouldn't mean anything. Ramon hadn't sent me back to survive just for me to die somewhere else.

So, I would somehow survive. I would survive with the determination to push through. If I died, who knew what this damn thing would do with my corpse?

At the very least, that centipede bastard—

At that moment, I heard the sound of strange footsteps from somewhere. I wondered if that meant there were more of them.

Then from beyond the group of demons, I caught sight of a strange figure holding a parasol. He was out of place.

Step.

How could such a sound come from stepping on ice? The person with the parasol walked slowly like he was stepping through shadows, not ice.

The demons finally sensed something strange and turned back to look.

Then, an expressionless face appeared briefly from beneath the parasol like a full moon emerging from the night clouds. The man's face seemed covered by a white veil, creating a strange atmosphere.

"Hah..."

Was it a sense of relief or a sense of emptiness? An indeterminate sound leaked out of his throat.

Then I made eye contact with the man.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied.

"Araxad?"

"He is down below. He is with Mir and Sister Razbet."

"Ramon?"

I kept my mouth shut. I felt cowardly for avoiding answering, so I tried to speak again.

Meanwhile, the man had studied my expression and slowly nodded. "I see."

Click.

The parasol folded up, revealing the full appearance of the Corrupted clan's leader, Lanfero Nosferatu.

The man looked at the group of demons and closed his eyes briefly. Once he opened them again, his irises had turned a deep red as if filled with blood. His gloomy gaze swept over the battlefield.

—Vampire.

The centipede's voice echoed.

—An inferior race abandoned by demons... Your fangs won't reach us. You have chosen the wrong opponent to bare your teeth at.

The demons burst out laughing. Dark Qi exploded in all directions and an overwhelming pressure weighed down the area.

—Look at the being in front of you! I am the Third Horn of Kingarodtus, the one who will destroy the north! Surely you don't intend to face all these demons alone, do you?

"Really? I have one question."

Lanfero bared his teeth. His fangs that looked as if they were carved from moonlight had a pale glow, creating a strange impression. He sometimes looked like he was smiling, and other times like a beast growling.

"Don't demons have blood too?"