SWNOVELXO Chapter 102
A bishop wearing a red mask.
He had long awaited this moment.
After violating six virgins through six rituals, he was ready to take the hellish energy from the six corpses he had conceived.
“Finally, this moment has come!”
The bishop, filled with emotion, grinned wickedly, his groin stiffened.
By killing the sixth virgin and conceiving the demonic energy within her corpse, he would complete the final process needed to transcend into a ‘Grand Archbishop.’
He would be reborn as a true demon from a half-human, half-horse form.
“I evolve!”
It was a glorious day.
Finally, he would shed the shell of humanity and be reborn as a transcendent being known as ‘devil.’
The face of the bishop behind the mask was overflowing with joy, even shedding tears.
“Such nostalgia.”
The bishop looked around at the thousands of followers surrounding him.
When the first ritual was performed, only a few dozen participants had been present, but now, thousands of followers were intoxicated by his mana, chanting incantations.
His efforts were finally being rewarded.
“It wasn’t easy.”
But the pain endured to reach this point was immense.
Hadn’t he killed his own kin to become a bishop?
Even now, thinking about how he had displayed his brother’s headless corpse on the altar for three days of offerings still felt like tremendous psychological abuse and torment.
To kill a brother with whom he had shared all those years of hardship in such a manner…
It was a crime he never would have committed as his original self.
“Sacrifices must accompany evolution.”
Yet he had endured those hardships and finally become a bishop.
Liberated from the incurable illness tightening around him, he had been granted the right to become the new human race: a demon.
“It’s time to ascend!”
Since becoming a bishop, the remnants of guilt he had were cleanly wiped away.
He had committed all sorts of evils without restraint, abusing the innocent, spreading false information, and ruining the lives of his subjects.
And now he had come to the point where he could kill a beautiful virgin, adored by many, without hesitation, joyfully violating her corpse.
He had abandoned his humanity.
“Puhukuh… Kekkekuh…”
Perhaps that was why laughter burst forth involuntarily.
In the basement of the altar lay five corpses of virgins murdered by him.
Each one was headless and swollen like a pregnant woman.
They were conceiving demonic energy through the rituals.
“How satisfying. Such a beautiful woman has fallen to become a tool for my evolution!”
The pleasure derived from corrupting the most valuable and beautiful into something grotesque.
The bishop was intoxicated with the sadistic nature, the most fundamental aspect of being a demon.
Even now, a thrilling ecstasy flowed through his body from this sense of superiority and betrayal, and just imagining reaching the next stage of cannibalism made his brain tingle with excitement.
He wanted to quickly become a Grand Archbishop and evolve to become a representative by devouring hundreds of humans.
“Come forth, beautiful child!”
He gazed madly at the virgin ascending to the altar, muttering phrases in demonic tongue.
With his body rigid, he scrutinized the woman’s face with bloodshot eyes.
She was the most beautiful woman among all the virgins he had ever violated.
“Hurry… Hurry…!!”
How thrilling it would be.
To chop off the face of such a beautiful woman, grasp her body as blood gushes like a fountain while he indulges in her.
The bishop gasped in anticipation for that beautiful moment.
Finally, as the woman stood before him, he raised his hand to strike her neck.
But then.
“Up close, you look smaller.”
“…?”
A deep male voice flowed from the beautiful woman’s lips.
Momentarily amazed, he tilted his head, checking the woman’s face again.
“Disgusting, let’s just cut it off.”
-Swoosh!
Suddenly, with the woman’s words, something sharp pierced through him.
Fwoosh! A fountain of blood erupted as his lower half fell to the floor.
“Ahh—!!!”
The body part that fell to the ground began to shrivel.
***
Disgusting demon spawn.
And the unforgivable bishop bastard who abandoned his humanity to cling to the demons.
“Ahh—!!!”
I severed the thread of that sin.
His pitiful body fell to the floor.
Even just that relief gave me a taste of the pent-up rage easing off.
-Swoosh!
But that didn’t mean the incident was over.
As soon as that part was severed, seeing him quickly transforming into a demon, I needed to act swiftly.
“Khuhhh!”
So I jabbed the plasma blade, which had just cut off his lower half, straight into his abdomen.
He spat black blood, grimacing in agony.
“What the hell are you!!!!”
Yet, as expected from a bishop, his recovery was astonishingly fast.
Before long, he completely transformed into a demon and swung his sharpened hand at me.
-Swish!
So I stepped back and threw a smoke grenade.
The dense smoke spread in all directions, completely obscuring the bishop’s vision.
I promptly pulled various parts of the suit from my inventory.
Each part found its place on my body, linking together organically to gradually complete the suit.
-Ki—i—iing! Bam!
During that time, I fired a repulsor beam at him as he charged toward me.
With each hit of the repulsor beam against his body, the black figure within the smoky haze was pushed back bit by bit.
“Khahhh!!!”
But he was a bishop-level half-human, half-horse with thousands of followers.
Even if he was half-human, he was stronger than low-ranked demons.
Since the Demon Church is a direct line imbued with the rank of the Grand Duke, his standing was incomparable to ordinary demons.
“You were a man!! You’ll die!”
He lunged at me, recovering in an instant even after being struck by my repulsor beam.
His enraged red eyes blazed and abruptly closed the distance within the smoky haze.
-Charlk! Clank!
But just then, my suit was finally completed.
As the helmet enveloped my face, red lights flickered, steam burst forth.
In that moment, his sharpened hand plunged into my chest.
-Hwooosh!
In response, I mirrored his actions.
I swung my fist toward his hand.
At that moment, his hand and my fist collided in mid-air, creating waves of pressure.
Dust from the altar spread in all directions, and a violent sound of something cracking echoed.
“This is titanium alloy, you bastard.”
As expected, the result was my overwhelming victory.
The notion that a delicate blade made of frail bones and muscles could pierce titanium alloy was laughable.
While he screamed, clutching his mangled hand, I readied my web shooter and fired continuously at him.
In an instant, he became a cocoon.
“Khuuhh! I’ll kill you! I swear… I will…!”
His feeble old man’s body transformed into bulging muscles.
Yet even after his body turned demon, he was still caught in my genetically modified web.
The wounds from when he was human remained, affecting him even in his demon form.
“I’d prefer to chop off his head right away but…”
However, I didn’t opt for the instant kill.
Because if I killed him immediately, the demonic energy within him would disperse among the other followers when he died.
“I have to squeeze him to death for now.”
So I needed to exhaust the demonic energy accumulated within him in this fight.
That was the safest and cleanest approach.
“Heheh! I don’t know what you are, but you’ve chosen the wrong opponent! Did you think my power was only this much?”
At that moment.
As he struggled against my genetically modified webs, he suddenly twisted his lips devilishly.
Then he mumbled in demonic tongue, beginning to chant a spell.
He aimed to absorb the power of his followers.
-Crunch… Crunch…
His body started to grow larger.
The more followers around him, the stronger he became, which meant when dealing with a bishop-level opponent, you had to face him one-on-one as much as possible.
A bishop who had absorbed all the strength of his followers had specs capable of killing even a top-tier sword user.
“…?”
However, the confident smile he wore while absorbing power suddenly crinkled into a frown.
Something was wrong.
“I can see right through you.”
The source of his power.
That was the number of followers connected to him.
However, I had drawn half of those followers to my side through Grig, and they were currently popping off CS rounds.
To liberate the followers trapped in collective hypnosis, cutting off the energy supplied to the bishop.
“Kuhh! Cough! Cough! Cough!”
As a result, the bishop hadn’t managed to absorb mana as initially planned.
With followers struggling on the ground, crying and begging, what spirit could he possibly have to absorb mana with?
“I’ll be back, so just wait.”
Now his only option was to absorb the hellish energy lurking beneath.
Although he wouldn’t rise to Grand Archbishop by absorbing imperfect hellish energy, he would have to aim for the underground energy to escape this situation.
Since he couldn’t win against me without the power of his followers, he would inevitably have to absorb the hellish energy he had painstakingly nurtured.
-Creating sound…
So I left him, following the bishop’s screams, and descended into the basement.
In the basement lay five headless corpses, filled with hellish energy.
I immediately grabbed the handle of the crucible, stabbing it into the swollen abdomen of one corpse.
As the hellish energy was absorbed by the crucible, the violated corpse began to regain its original form.
The abnormally swollen belly returned to normal.
-Swish!
Having fully reclaimed the hellish energy, I ripped the canvas in the basement to cover the corpse.
The violated deceased would punish the bishop before being put to rest correctly.
-Fwoosh!
Finally, I unleashed the hellish energy based on the half-human forms.
The hellish energy, shaped like a straight sword, burst forth from the crucible’s handle.
I finally held the completed crucible, emerging from the basement back to the altar.
On the altar, the being replenished with the remaining strength of the followers had finally torn through the webs and was free.
“Th-that, that’s…”
Yet the eyes of the being looking at me trembled slightly.
They instinctively recognized the destructive power of the crucible.
“You won’t die easy. I’ll tear you apart slowly.”