novelraw Chapter 58 : Apostle ‘Gravedigger of the Gray Tomb’ (3)
Chapter 58 : Apostle ‘Gravedigger of the Gray Tomb’ (3)
Chapter 58: Apostle ‘Gravedigger of the Gray Tomb’ (3)
The thing the Saintess had taken out was one of the Vatican’s sacred relics.
‘Abraham’s Branch’.
It activated when a certain amount of sacrifice had been accumulated. Its effect was….
“Soul Domination….”
Kang Yohan muttered.
They were not the only ones who had been stalling for time.
The Saintess had also been waiting until the conditions for the sacred relic to activate were met.
She had planned to make them believe she would hunt the Gravedigger together, accept a temporary alliance, and then plunge a dagger in at the end.
‘So she didn’t care about using her followers as scapegoats. Well, they probably didn’t even know the activation conditions for the sacred relic.’
Paladins and priests who had exhausted their divine power had collapsed. Nearly ten of them had been nobly sacrificed.
That should have been more than enough to trigger the sacred relic.
“…I thought so from the start, but you really are an interesting person. Very few inside the order even know about this.”
The Saintess possessed a ludicrous effect that could subjugate monsters of sanctified rank similar to herself.
But because it could easily let the user be consumed by darkness, the Vatican had banned its use.
And yet she had brought it.
Thinking it over again, the woman truly was out of her mind.
“So cutting off the arm with the guillotine wasn’t a mistake but intentional.”
Kang Yohan replayed the earlier events in his head.
Somehow he had missed the perfect timing to finish it off even though it had been handed to him on a platter.
He should have suspected something the moment a veteran who had cut more than a thousand necks made such a mistake.
“If the Gravedigger died, it would be useless.”
That made sense.
But—
“If word got out that a Saintess used such a monster, it would tarnish that splendid reputation. Do you think you could handle that?”
She already had one dark past. Make it two?
He could not guarantee how big the shockwave would be.
One thing was certain: if they escaped here alive, he would be the first to leave a nasty comment on the scandal article.
He would even make alt accounts to hit ‘like’.
“It’s fine. If it’s to stop a greater darkness, people will understand using a small darkness.”
“That ‘greater darkness’—are you talking about that earlier baby Saintess video?”
“…….”
The Saintess did not answer.
Right. That hit the mark.
Of course—one would risk their life to stop something like that.
One must not corner a rat too far.
If he had known, he would have made the evidence video a little less humiliating.
Of course, regretting it now was far too late.
“Kihihih….”
The Gravedigger’s pupils narrowed.
The rampaging ferocity vanished. Instead, as if entranced, it waited calmly for orders.
The clamor of monsters frantically battering the sacred barrier from outside had already disappeared.
There was no longer any need to break the barrier.
Damn. This was creepy.
“Ugh…haha. Hmm. Aren’t we screwed?”
“Dealing with just one of those was a pain. Now we have to handle all of them at once?”
Ragnar Lodbrok and Lagertha swallowed dryly.
Park Juhee was frantically repairing her bowstring, which seemed to have snapped while shooting arrows.
“They have blasphemed the gods. I have several things to interrogate them about, so kill everyone except that man. Oh, and make sure to retrieve their phones.”
The Saintess smiled faintly.
Papatt!
The Gravedigger charged, swinging its scythe.
“The Saintess has subjugated the darkness!”
“The light that rose in the east shall drive away the darkness of the west!”
Paladins and priests gathered their divine power.
“Everyone, follow me to the rear door!”
Kang Yohan shouted.
At the same time, everyone hurled their bodies to survive.
Kwah-dang!
U-dang-tang!
They toppled desks and kicked away chairs.
Without looking back, they ran straight for the exit.
Kang Yohan’s gaze moved swiftly.
‘Fence of the Saint was exceptionally resilient against external attacks, but conversely vulnerable to attacks from the inside.’
He had to find the place where the flow of divine power was subtly askew.
Between the third and fifth windows.
[Lv1 ’Blood ‘Fire Ball’ is activated!]
Kwaaang!
A window shattered and the corridor was revealed.
Quick. They had to hurry.
Buuoong!
A gigantic scythe flying from behind triggered ‘Frozen Armor’.
An ice armor that increased physical and magical defense by +10 each appeared.
Kwak-kwak-ang!
The ice armor shattered into dozens of pieces.
The scythe’s skewed trajectory embedded it into the wall right beside them.
That had been close.
“Kihihih!”
The raven-helmed skull with razor teeth clacked up and down.
Black mucus dripped as the Gravedigger, starved for blood, stared at its prey.
Tukwaang!
Kang Yohan’s sword struck the lower part of the helm.
The Gravedigger’s head snapped back.
“Don’t just stand there—get out!”
“Eeeek!”
Having confirmed Go Hanil had finally left, Kang Yohan leapt outside without hesitation.
“Saintess. They got out.”
“It’s fine. Even if they run, they’re still in the palm of my hand.”
Patsuts.
Golden spheres gathered above the Saintess’s head.
A long-range execution instrument that covered the whole hospital began to form.
“Pursue them with the Gravedigger. I will stay here and cut off the heretics’ breath at once.”
A warm smile bloomed at the Saintess’s lips as before.
Tadadadada!
“Kieee!”
Blade spiders that ran along the walls spit stingers.
“Flesh. Just one bite. Kihihi, just one bite.”
A One-Bite Bug spat saliva and trailed close behind.
“Pa—patient. The leg. I must cut the leg. If you leave it, you’ll die. You’ll die. Amputate. I must amputate? Hihihi!”
Quack doctors and nurses leapt from corners wielding enormous shears.
Kwak-kwak!
A bloody, fishy stench rose from scissors embedded in cement.
[Lv1 ‘Holy Arrow’ is activated!]
[Lv1 ‘Purifying Flame’ is activated!]
Of course, attacks from paladins and priests continued without pause.
Puh-puh-puh-pung!
Kwaaang!
A blinding white flame soared up.
“See? I told you not to mess with that crazy woman!”
Lagertha shouted as she flicked the flames from her hair.
Mm.
Well. He partly agreed.
He had expected the madness to be less intense since it was still the early stages.
Who would have thought she would even use Abraham’s Branch?
The Saintess already had a tendency to fall into the corruption route at the slightest trigger, and this time, Yohan thought, there might be another horrifying calamity in the making.
[The condition for resolving the Great Omen has been fulfilled.]
Fortunately, at least his stats hadn’t been erased from the fight with the Gravedigger.
[You have survived the first day. Within the second day, fight an opponent with a sanctity level of 2 or higher.]
Of course, that only meant he had bought a little more time.
“Kuhaha! So! What will you do now? Hide-and-seek is fun, but you can’t play it forever!”
Well, that was true.
Since they were clearly after him, there was no way they would just let him walk out of the hospital.
Not that he planned to leave anyway—his goal had been to capture the Gravedigger from the start.
“We’ll go to the fifth floor of the main building.”
The longer they wasted time, the more stamina they lost.
It was better to find a place suited for battle and prepare for a counterattack.
Besides, by now, the Saintess would be preparing her “sniping” attack, and to block that fatal strike, he needed to make his own preparations.
“Hah… hah… W-what’s on that floor?”
Park Juhee asked.
They had run for barely five minutes, and she was already out of breath.
“The Gravedigger’s original nest is there.”
Because of the Saintess, the Gravedigger had built a new nest elsewhere.
Which meant—
The original nest was now an empty house with no owner.
“I get what you’re thinking, but is that even possible? To control a lair, you have to meet some special conditions. My sorcery alone can’t handle that.”
“There’s nothing special to prepare. All you need is fresh mana.”
In the Gravedigger’s case, it had extracted mana from corpses and sacrifices to maintain its nest.
In other words, if they created and supplied optimized mana, they could exert dominance over the lair as well.
“How do you plan to get mana? We don’t have any sacrifices or corpses.”
At Lagertha’s question, Yohan glanced back.
Park Juhee, unable to shoot arrows because her bowstring had snapped.
And Go Hanil, who had been acting as their porter despite having no luggage.
Two fresh, energetic humans, moving their limbs tirelessly.
Let’s see.
Taking about half should be fine.
Yeah. People don’t die that easily.
“Hey. What on earth are you thinking?”
Yohan didn’t bother answering.
“Heh.”
He simply smiled mysteriously and kept running hard.
And so, the chase continued between pursuers and pursued.
Ragnar Lodbrok stood at the central staircase leading up to the fifth floor.
“Hurraaah!”
Kwaang! Kwaang!
He repeatedly unleashed ‘Double Strike’ toward the stairs.
Having received the ‘Primitive Blessing’ on his own, each blow packed tremendous force.
Once. Twice. Thrice.
Cracks split through the staircase until it completely collapsed.
An enormous amount of debris poured down, and acrid smoke filled the air.
“Keugh! Damn brute…!”
“Find another way up, now!”
There was too much wreckage to break through.
The paladins and priests turned back down the stairs.
＊
Tok… tok….
The black mucus had nearly dried.
The mana around was no different from the rest of the ward.
No, it was even starting to decay bit by bit.
Abandoned nests usually went through this process.
“Huff… huff… damn it, I’m too old for this crap.”
“A-are we there?”
At least they’d arrived safely.
Still, something felt off—the Gravedigger, which had been pursuing them, hadn’t shown up for quite some time.
The paladins might have turned back, but the Gravedigger wouldn’t just vanish because a staircase had collapsed.
‘We have to hurry.’
Yohan immediately approached the center of the nest.
There, a pool of blue liquid used to extract mana was gathered.
Half-submerged corpses of various monsters floated within.
They must have been left there until they rotted completely.
These creatures really didn’t know the meaning of cherishing their own.
“All right. You two, soak your feet in there for a bit. It’s warm. You’ll feel weak, but you won’t die. Just make sure it’s only up to your ankles.”
If it reached past their calves, things could get dangerous.
“I-I fixed my bowstring! I can shoot now!”
Park Juhee showed her perfectly repaired bow.
She had twisted the peculiar string back together with impressive craftsmanship.
Her handiwork was extraordinary—but providing mana was far more useful than shooting a few arrows.
In the end, Go Hanil and Park Juhee, faces pale as sheets, dipped their feet into the pool writhing with corpses.
It looked quite warm.
Add some hot spring eggs and iced sikhye, and it would almost be perfect.
Hmm.
Still, two people didn’t seem enough.
The nest was larger than expected and required more mana to activate.
No helping it.
Yohan pulled out one of his summoned creatures from subspace.
“Heh. So my great power is needed once again. Speak. Whose manners shall I correct this time?”
“Hehe! Sambok likes things that taste overlappingly delicious!”
“…I have a bad feeling about this. Yeah.”
Sambokie approached with a bright, innocent grin.
And so,
Following the two soaking their feet, a dog joined the steamy pool.
[Mana is being absorbed!]
[Charge Rate: 78%]
[‘Nest’ is being activated!]
It took less than 30 seconds for the nest to awaken after absorbing mana.
The speed was astonishingly fast.
Even with Sambokie added, this was beyond belief….
Gulp-gulp!
Black mucus began secreting again as the surrounding barriers and defenses reactivated.
This would be enough to hold out against the paladins for a while.
But then—
Something surged out from within the oozing slime.
“Kieee….”
Four arms.
Each holding a scythe.
The original master of this lair, who had been unseen until now.
It was the ‘Gravedigger of the Gray Tomb’.
＊＊＊
The seminar room, now empty after all the paladins and priests had left.
Someone approached the Saintess, who stood alone, chanting her sacred lance.
Sasasak.
A small summoned creature in the shape of a spider.
“Hello? Sorry to interrupt while you’re so busy, but could you spare a moment? Ah, before that, let me introduce myself….”
A white spider with red eyes spoke calmly.
“Well… what an unexpected visitor.”
“Wow. I’m honored—the great Saintess knows who I am?”
“Of course.”
A spark of interest bloomed in the Saintess’s eyes.
How could she not know?
A first-class criminal wanted across countless nations and factions, including the Hestia Empire.
‘Reina Blades.’
A woman known for her control over spiders, and her mastery in espionage, assassination, and information manipulation—that was all the world knew about her.
Even that much, only a handful of people were aware of.
“So, what brings the world’s fugitive to me? You don’t look like someone coming for confession.”
At the Saintess’s question, Reina whispered coldly.
“I want to make a deal.”
Carrying a sweet bait—one that could never be refused.