Chapter 188

**

At the same time, inside a monastery located on top of a hill outside the village of Rost .

The head of Goddess Gaia’s statue had been severed, while buckets of blood defiled the once-sacred interior of the monastery .

The zombies were staggering around on their feet, while other undead such as ghouls and dullahans were silently ‘guarding’ this monastery .

A monster wearing a priest’s garb was standing tall on top of the raised platform inside which was meant for one to preach the word of the gods .

This creature had thick arms and hands, while grey-coloured hide covered its entire maggot-like body . It did have a face, but its mouth resembled more like saw toothed wheels .

Even though the blood-creations of Vampires generally resembled humans outwardly, this rule didn’t apply to Progenitors and their exteriors .

The monstrous, bizarre exterior that had gone beyond the limitations of humanity – that was their true appearance .

This Progenitor Vampire was currently tearing into human flesh, greedily consuming it . The creature ripped open the victim’s abdomen to devour the internal organs found within, and once finished, it raised its head back up in satisfaction .

Baron Lava Labert . That was the name of this Progenitor Vampire, his peerage bestowed unto him by none other than the Vampire King .

“Aaah, so good . ”

The creature’s blood-stained mouth curled into a snicker . He picked up the leg of the dead zombie and tossed it to a distant corner .

When the corpse went flying in the air, the lycans being reared by Baron Lava Labert leapt up to bite into it .

The noises of flesh being ripped apart and bones being crushed rang out . Baron Lava grinned deeply in satisfaction once more .

He then turned his head to look to the front .

The villagers had been turned into zombies that wielded farming and woodcutting tools, as well as hunting bows . However, these creatures looked too sloppy and disorganised to be called an army .

‘But that doesn’t really matter . ’

Indeed, it didn’t matter . The number of undead Baron Lava could command was limited to begin with, anyway .

He had only one role to play here – slaughter the civilians and cultivate the army of undead . That was it .

For the successful invasion of the Theocratic Empire, Baron Lava Labert was tasked with making these sorts of preparations .

1

‘There’s no better place than a kingdom suffering from the chaos of war to create a sizeable combat force, now is there?’

Even though a village in the outskirts had vanished from the map, the kingdom of Lome didn’t seem to care . All he had to do now was to work together with the other Vampires and gradually take over this kingdom .

While he was thinking that, the monastery’s door opened and a lycan stepped inside before approaching him . The creature bowed its head and spoke up .

-M-my lord, Baron Lava . Intruders have appeared in the village!

Baron Lava’s eyes narrowed at the lycan’s report .

It was not that uncommon to see travellers or mercenaries stop by at the village . In fact, they were the perfect candidates for bolstering the number of the undead army, and also to serve as ‘feed’ for the undead as well .

However, such an occurrence wasn’t important enough to warrant a report every single time .

-M-monsters have shown up this time, my lord!

“Monsters?”

-It’s clerics . A group of clerics!

A group of clerics, was it?

The baron’s expression crumpled unsightly . Did those dirty and vulgar bastards really intrude upon his domain?

“How many are there?”

-Seven males, and a lone female, my lord .

Baron Lava narrowed his eyes again in contemplation .

Those were fresh meat . How delectable would their flesh taste like after he got his hands on them? More importantly, though, wasn’t the meat of a devout cleric renowned for its heaven-defying taste?

1

These types of clerics were often under the delusion that they were pure, uncorrupted beings . There were only a few things as entertaining as killing such idiots, defiling their souls and flesh before turning them into zombies .

Baron Lava grinned slyly .

Well, things were getting boring lately, anyways . Hunting down these clerics could prove to be an amusing distraction .

He asked the lycan, “Where are those humans right now?”

**

Barus had to doubt his own eyes .

When the musket was fired…

BOOM-!

…An explosion went off .

Along with the eye-searing light, the inn’s entrance exploded and the structure collapsed with a loud bang .

The intense winds slammed into the zombies everywhere and they collapsed powerlessly like some kind of spineless molluscs .

-Ku-ooooh!

The zombie warrior was the only one to withstand the impact force and remained standing on its feet . But just as its staggering body could take another step, its chest, abdominal region, and all four of its limbs simply exploded simultaneously .

The ear-ringing gunshot resounded out belatedly .

The upper and lower torsos of the zombie warrior turned into ashes and ceased to exist from this world . Only its head remained and rolled around on the ground, but it got crushed into nothingness by a merciless stomp of a foot .

“…What on earth is this?”

That zombie warrior’s huge figure had been vaporised as if it was nothing . But was that all? No, even the entrance of the inn had been blown apart!

‘What was that just now?! A musket? Did a musket really do that?!’

An item no better than some decorative ornament sought out by maniacal collectors was now unleashing the kind of power that should belong to a weapon of mass destruction .

Barus’s face hardened like rock as he stared into the dust cloud .

“Ah, hang on . ‘Amen’ is a word used back in my old place, isn’t it?”

1

Barus’s eyes could make out the silhouette of a single Priest within the fog of dust obscuring his vision .

The First Prince’s expression stiffened even further .

Amen?

He had never heard of such a word before . Even then, he instinctively understood that it was definitely not a word used to exalt Goddess Gaia within the Theocratic Empire .

“Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter in the end . Me being able to use divinity indicates that our goddess is quite happy with my word choice . ”

The boy Priest began making a distorted grin at the horde of undead before him . From the way his eyes gleamed dangerously, or the way he snickered insidiously like that, Barus got the impression that he was staring at an actual devil .

“Uwaaahk?!”

Barus hurriedly turned his head . His escorting knights had been struck by the flying debris of the destroyed inn and were currently writhing around in pain .

That boy, he didn’t seem to have thought about the potential damage to his allies .

“Look here, you…!” Barus roused up his courage and cried out, “Just what are you even…!”

“Relax . I don’t have a hobby of killing people for fun, you know? However…”

The boy Priest raised the lengthy barrel of the musket . Hot steam expelled from the muzzle as he took aim at his next target .

“…It looks like I’ve developed a hobby of hunting down the undead, instead . ”

Holy bullets indiscriminately exploded out from the muzzle . Along with a series of explosions, the bodies of the undead were penetrated clean through .

He began walking forward with purpose, and every time gunshots rang out, many walking corpses got vaporised out of existence .

The massacre was so one-sided that even Barus ended up thinking that the zombies flinched and froze up whenever the boy Priests raised his musket to take aim .

“Oh, Gaia…”

He offered another prayer containing his exaltation of the goddess .

“Grant this servant the holy bullets to pierce through the undead, and…”

[Skill, ‘Spread Shot’, has been granted . ]

“…And the power to heal your faithful flock . ”

1

[Skill, ‘Cure’ has been granted . ]

The boy suddenly raised his musket and fired the weapon into the empty sky . The holy bullet flew high up into the heavens above .

The zombies, frozen stiff until then, began moving again from that point onwards . Their jaws dropped open and they staggered closer with their flailing arms .

From every direction, hundreds of zombies pounced on this one extremely powerful cleric .

Barus shouted out, “You’re in danger!”

The boy Priest was defenceless right now . Even Barus’s escort knights were immobilised at the moment . No one could protect the boy .

“Look, miss! Your master is in danger! Why are you standing around in a daze and doing nothing?!”

Barus shouted at Charlotte, but she simply stared back at him before looking up at the sky . He chased after her gaze and looked up as well .

In the meantime, the corners of the boy Priest’s lips curled up . “I pray that the goddess’s grace be with you all . ”

1

In that very moment, holy bullets of light rained down from the sky .

The undead below were mercilessly pierced through .

Dozens, nay, hundreds of small but lethal bullets stormed the ground below and utterly massacred the undead . Their rotting flesh burned to ashes, while their defiled souls were purified away .

“Uwaaaahk?!”

The injured knights hurriedly shielded their heads . It was the same story for Barus as well . These projectiles were powerful enough to pierce through the undead, so if he tried to block them with his body, he too would end up like them as well .

It was right at that moment that a bullet pierced through him .

An explosion noise loudly resounded out, and a zombie nearby got vaporised into ashes and scattered away in the air .

The boy Priest slung the musket over his shoulder and leisurely walked forward .

“Uwaaaahk! I, I, I’m dying! I’m dying! It, it hit meeee!”

Barus cried out and hurriedly patted his body . However, he couldn’t find any wounds on him .

While panting laboriously, he quickly took a look at the knights around his vicinity . Even though they were still screaming, the pieces of wood stabbing them were being expelled out of their bodies, and their wounds were being healed at a visible rate without leaving behind a single scar .

Barus’s brows shot up high at this spectacle . “O-oh my god…”

He wasn’t a religious man and didn’t believe in the gods .

To be honest, he had always thought that the powers wielded by the clergymen were simply another way of utilising Mana found within mother nature, like how the knights wielded it .

But now, he had to revise his thoughts .

Gods did exist, and there were some people capable of carrying out their divine miracles .

1

One of them was…

“Barus Victoria . ”

Barus raised his gaze and stared at the smiling boy .

“How about we have a relaxed and amiable discussion from now on?”

…The Priest right before his eyes .

Fin .