A sword wound diagonally splitting from shoulder to thigh. Black fluid flowed freely, staining his shadow an even darker color.
"Gr, grrrgh...!"
Even for a monster who could casually regenerate limb injuries, this severe wound seemed too much to ignore. Ganagl clutched his chest, his crushed eyeballs trembling narrowly.
Why make such a fuss over that much? It didn't even reach your brain.
"It huuurts!"
"That's good to hear!"
As Ganagl screamed and retreated, I kicked off the ground to chase him and swung my sword upward. The longsword infused with charging momentum shot up like lightning.
"Lord Ganagl!"
One of the Deep Sea Church bishops stretched his arm toward us and shouted. The abyss's magical power bestowed by Ganagl rippled at his fingertips.
The next moment, with a soft thunk, my sword targeting Ganagl was caught by monster teeth that appeared in mid-air. It was the Maw of the Servant cast by the bishop.
Unpleasant tentacle masses immediately wrapped up along the blade to my arm.
The thick tentacles were slick and wet with saliva, and the pressure squeezing my arm was as unyielding as being caught in a gorilla's grip.
So this is what they meant by binding effect. Without the gauntlet, my bones might have cracked.
"Ngh...! Lord Ganagl, now's the time!"
The Deep Sea Church bishop who had caught my sword with magic shouted while staggering and gripping his forearm.
"You, well done!"
Ganagl dripped saliva as he gave a disgusting smile.
As he extended his left arm toward me, small flesh masses burst out like shotgun pellets.
Whoosh!
Flesh Seed, magic that summons poison-filled tentacles where the flesh embeds. A hit to bare skin could mean instant death from tentacles growing inside the body.
"This much...!"
I pulled my sword free from the Maw of the Servant with Iron Arm's power and turned toward the flesh seed pellets.
The flesh masses approached right before my eyes. My body sensed the threat and activated 'Ice Heart' to accelerate thought speed.
To consider all possible responses in the blink of an eye.
Dodge sideways?
Rejected. Can dodge the pellets but not the tentacles sprouting from seeds embedded in the ground.
Use Holy Barrier?
No, wasting it would leave no way to block Call of the Abyss.
Deflect with the sword?
All of them? Such skill is only possible for Mother.
Jumping to dodge would leave no way to avoid follow-up attacks, and relying on the armor's defensive formula wasn't possible as it was still recharging from the earlier spear throw.
Then, the remaining option was...
Flutter!
The cloak thrown off with lightning-quick movement. The feathered cloak swung like a matador's cape wrapped around the flesh seeds like a bundle.
Just before the flesh seeds could pierce and tear through the cloak, I spun widely and threw that bundle to the side.
The cloak flying in an arc was torn to shreds in mid-air, and the black tentacles that burst out only thrashed at empty air before disappearing.
"Blocking Flesh Seeds like that? Just what is this woman...!"
The bishop, astonished at that sight, stretched his right arm toward me again.
Unlike before, his left arm was gone below the elbow.
An assassin had seized the opening when he was focused on binding me with magic, cutting off that arm before retreating.
Had he learned nothing from losing an arm like that? The bishop tried to target me with magic once again.
Was an arm or two nothing if it meant saving their church leader? True to being a cult fanatic, what impressive loyalty.
Though that loyalty would never be rewarded.
"Yes, help me once more!"
Ganagl, who had safely gained distance thanks to the bishop's help.
He summoned four maws in mid-air to block Friede who was charging low like a wolf, while simultaneously stretching out his right arm to grab the bishop who had helped him.
"Where do you think-!"
I tried to charge forward to stop this, but three Maws of the Servant had already spread around me as well.
Though they were all the same type of magic, to deploy seven maws simultaneously... it was a feat nearly impossible even by Abyss Priest standards.
Woong...
This was made possible by his trait <Added Brains>.
Ganagl could awaken others' brains stored in his belly as auxiliary brains, allowing him to manifest magic simultaneously equal to the number of brains he had devoured.
Though those awakened brains would dissolve before long, requiring new brains as replacement - that was the drawback.
At first he hadn't bothered using his trait as he underestimated us... but after receiving that severe wound splitting his chest.
He must have realized that if he kept saving power for fighting Heid, he might lose his head here rather than to Heid.
It would have been nice if he'd kept underestimating us. What a shame.
"Tch...!"
Anyway, even I couldn't charge through while ignoring all this.
So I clicked my tongue and changed direction to avoid one mass of tentacles, then rolled on the ground to let another mass pass over my head.
Whoosh!
The last mass I met head-on, springing up to deflect it with my sword.
Perhaps because he was releasing seven spells simultaneously, the individual power of each tentacle was somewhat weaker than before.
Though even weakened, they weren't down to one-seventh strength, so they were still plenty threatening.
Crack! Crackle!
My upper body shook slightly with each tentacle cut.
Force that would have pushed back my past self without Iron Arm. However, now I could take this level of power head-on even without Iron Arm.
I should be grateful for all that special training.
Remembering those exhaustingly painful training sessions anew, I chopped through the mass of tentacles spewed from the Maw of the Servant like clearing brush.
And while Friede and I were stopped dealing with the tentacles, Ganagl firmly grabbed his intended target, the bishop, with his stretched right arm.
It was already too late to stop it, so we could only watch.
"Eh, eek!?"
The bishop jumped in shock at the tentacles wrapping around his entire body and looked at Ganagl with trembling shoulders. Clear fear and revulsion showed in his wide-open eyes.
Though his loyalty was enough to sacrifice an arm without hesitation to save the church leader, perhaps he wasn't prepared to offer more than that?
However, it was already too late to escape.
『Burnt Offering of Al'Pathan』
The moment Ganagl muttered the quiet prayer. The tips of tentacles wrapping the bishop's body opened like leech mouths and attached to his skin.
It looked like dozens of rubber hoses connected to his skin.
And then.
"Ga, Ganagralrghaaaak!"
The bishop who had turned deathly pale and tried desperately to stop Ganagl writhed and screamed without finishing his words.
Under the tattered robe. His once-sturdy body trembled and rapidly withered. Until only bones and skin remained, all blood and flesh stolen away.
"Grrrk..."
By the time the bishop who had transformed into a mummy in an instant dropped his head and perished, the sword wound that had split Ganagl's upper body had completely vanished.
Magic that offers allies' blood and flesh as sacrifice to heal oneself.
That magic was the fundamental reason why to subjugate Ganagl, you had to either kill him in one strike or completely eliminate his subordinates.
Because as long as Deep Sea Church believers remained, Ganagl could heal his wounds again and again by sacrificing them.
And not just healing wounds, but also easily replenishing brains consumed by activating <Added Brains> using the believers' brains.
"Groooo... Ia, Ia, Al'Pathan..."
Still... the fact that he showed that magic meant he too was feeling considerable crisis.
From Ganagl's perspective, he had revealed his carefully saved trump card. If he thought he could win without using it, he wouldn't have even considered casting it.
That's the kind of magic Burnt Offering of Al'Pathan was.
"Hy, hyaaak! Bishop, Bishop Hamith was devoured!"
"Church Leader, what are you doing...!"
The cultists' morale plummeted the moment they saw that magic.
"Run, we must run...!"
It was only natural. What kind of person would bare their chest asking to be eaten when their superior was declaring he'd use them as potions?
Though cultists and sacrifices were inseparable like female knights and orcs, that was only when they were the ones offering the sacrifices.
Even cultists who loved sacrifices enough to routinely gut others as offerings rarely wanted to become sacrifices themselves.
Unless they were lunatics brainwashed to the bone who saw it as a glorious sacrifice, for ordinary cultists, Ganagl was more frightening than us or the assassins.
At least we wouldn't eat them alive.
Fear and unrest spread like a contagion through the cultists' formation, now reduced to under twenty while fighting Argentir's assassins.