I Became the Priest of Blasphemy of the Outer Gods

Chapter 100. Rescue Operation (4)

Before departing on the voyage, I spent several hours dissecting and observing fish.

As a result, I was able to create gills on my side through transformation, allowing me to continue breathing even if I fell into the sea.

However, this alone was far from enough to face the newly appeared enemy.

‘Leviathan!’

This creature made an adult whale seem like a child when nearby due to its overwhelming size.

A monster with a body length reaching 60 meters.

While it generally resembled a whale, it was undeniably not a whale but a creature.

It was considered one of the most dangerous beings in the ocean and had high intelligence, making it impossible to view it as a mere beast.

‘Was the Kraken just used to delay the ship?!’

Leviathan was furiously charging towards the ship with its gigantic body.

I couldn’t allow that steel-covered massive body to crash into the ship.

I was about to use a miracle immediately, but the creature was not alone.

Swish-!

A Dweller approached so quickly that it felt like a torpedo flying in.

A primitive dagger, seemingly made of bone, slashed my belly.

I needed to heal the wound using transformation, but there was no time.

Crunch!

Another one pounced, biting into my shoulder.

‘You bastards!’

I slammed the spider leg down mercilessly onto the Dweller’s head, but the one armed with a dagger attacked again.

While dealing with two Dwellers using Gluttony, I felt a massive shockwave.

Boom!

I saw Leviathan collide with the ship.

The violent currents from the impact swept me away chaotically.

『Eldritch! Control the current!』
『I’m trying! But anymore…』

The following words were lost in terrifying pain.

The creature, impaled by the spider leg, frantically shoved its hand into my gills.

As the hand tore roughly inside me, blood streamed from my nose and mouth.

‘I can’t chant the prayer like this….’

With respiratory systems all malfunctioning, vision began to blur due to oxygen deprivation, though it might have been from excessive bleeding.

Being dragged into the depths, I vaguely saw the ship moving further and further away.

‘… However.’

I looked at my drooping, bitten-off arm.

‘Even if I am incapacitated… I won’t die anyway.’

They weren’t the only monsters.

I was also a monster.

Even if I became a helpless wreck, torn to shreds, I wouldn’t die.

Remembering that fact, I wrapped Gluttony around my arm and yanked it hard.

“Urgh!”

The remaining muscle fibers and veins snapped, and my dislocated arm was pulled free.

I stuffed that arm into the mouth of the Dweller that lunged at me with its dagger.

Smash!

The cross-shaped spikes erupted, shattering the creature’s skull.

‘Got one.’

There was no time to rest.

The creature, struggling to extract my organs, was pulling with its head pierced by a spider leg.

I grabbed the Dragontooth Spear and aimed at its head.

『Eldritch!』

As the spear glowed blue and I thrust it in, the Dweller was torn apart from the inside by the whirlpool the spear created.

‘Where are the others… Damn it.’

I had barely caught two.

I wondered where the rest were, only to find them chanting prayers a bit farther away.

『…〈Closure of the Black Tides〉.』

The moment I heard the name of the miracle used by the creature, an intense pressure was applied to my entire body.

The heavy water pressure felt from all directions made it difficult to even move a single finger.

Gluttony’s tentacles moved sluggishly at best.

While in that restrained state, another creature completed its prayer.

『〈Corrosion of the Corpse Coral〉.』

A maddening itchiness began across my body.

Something was forcing its way out through my narrow pores.

It was white coral.

Pale, dead coral began to grow from my body.

‘This is…’

The coral grew between the damaged gills, hindering their recovery.

Unable to breathe, my vision turned yellow, and I felt my entire body gradually cooling.

I couldn’t move, nor could I chant.

‘Gills require focused effort to make anew. At this rate, even if I make them again, the coral would render it useless.’

Being unable to breathe meant complete incapacitation.

If I were entirely enveloped by the coral, I would be offered to Cahon.

‘I never expected coral to grow, but I knew a similar situation would occur someday.’

Knowing I would one day have to fight Cahon in the ocean over the Dragon’s Gate, I had strategized in advance.

One of those strategies I learned by observing Pleroma and Levant.

Twitch.

Gluttony’s spider leg moved.

Since I was the target of the miracle, Gluttony seemed to be less affected.

I slid the spider leg into the pocket of subspace and retrieved a person-sized bundle of thread.

By imbuing miracles into a pre-made bundle of thread and using it later, this method wasn’t something I couldn’t do.

‘〈Embroidery of Calamity〉.’

The bundle of thread unfolded, creating intricate patterns.

One of the Dwellers approaching me convulsed upon seeing the web pattern.

Its sanity collapsing, and perhaps hallucinating, it began attacking the others wildly.

However, the rest seemed unphased and decided to launch additional attacks at me.

‘That’s not happening.’

Another bundle emerged from within my grasp.

A different miracle was imbued in this one, but something more crucial than the miracle itself lay inside.

‘〈Release of the Extreme Point〉.’

The tightly bundled thread expanded and spread out as if exploding.

In the deep and dark ocean, where there was nowhere for a spider web to catch, I spread a web.

The creatures flinched and backed off, and I seized this opportunity.

‘〈Release of the Extreme Point〉 isn’t just about spreading a spiderweb everywhere, it’s a miracle of unleashing something sealed.’

What had been inside that bundle was none other than the divine relic Pleroma possessed, the Thread of Subspace.

Thanks to partially absorbing Pleroma, I had no issues using this Thread of Subspace.

‘Now this place will become a sanctuary.’

Though I hadn’t vocalized it, the surrounding threads thickened as if responding to my will.

An underwater spiderweb hell unfolded in the middle of the ocean.

Compared to when Pleroma used it, the range was narrower, and the number of entrapped lives was fewer… but it didn’t matter.

The threads dug through the coral, connecting to my bloodstream.

‘Good. Restoration is happening properly.’

As life-force recovered, the coral began to fall away, and the Dwellers began chanting a new miracle.

But now I had recovered my gills.

『……〈Abyssal Whirlpool〉.』

“Silent ripples carry the fury of the absolute. Become a calamity with the waves of a flooding lake. 〈Deluge of Annihilation〉.”

The Dwellers’ miracle collided with my Outer Magic.

A whirlpool, as if drawn from the cold, dark depths of the sea, raged.

However, fresh water spread within the seawater.

A blue wave, capable of destroying entire civilizations, was summoned, swallowing and extinguishing the whirlpool from its origin in the depths.

『Eldritch, activate it.』

Gripping the blue-glowing spear.

“Wind that tears through souls, whirlabout. Let it nest in my steps as a storm. 〈Wind Blade’s Footstep〉.”

I surged forward, trailing a spray of seawater, attacking them.

Yet, they were far quicker than me.

Like shadows mocking my assault, two of them slipped past.

“Damn….”

Naturally, they hadn’t just passed by but had slashed with their daggers, causing blood to gush from me.

With finesse, they avoided the bones to only cut through flesh and muscle to prevent my cross-spike from emerging.

Yet it didn’t matter.

‘I was hoping you’d move to that position.’

I hadn’t been charging them but rather seizing the opportunity to get behind them.

As expected, even as I charged, they didn’t retreat and instead left mortal wounds with their daggers as they passed by but…

‘Yes, right there!’

I threw the spear.

While it passed between them, hitting them wasn’t the goal.

What I needed was the whirlpool stirred by the spear.

Swoosh…

The laughing creatures sensed something was amiss when they looked upon their bodies.

Their bodies were swelling as though rotten and decomposing like a submerged corpse.

The whirlpool created by the spear gathered the spreading blue water, pulling them into it.

The 〈Deluge of Annihilation〉 was an Outer God’s calamity emulated through Outer Magic, designed to eradicate a civilization.

When organisms contact this fresh water, they decay and decompose, vanishing like a corpse submerged in water.

Yet, despite parts of their bodies decaying and bursting apart, the remaining two Dwellers persistently attacked.

‘Incredibly persistent.’

I marveled at the relentless hunters and began chanting a prayer myself.

“O master dwelling in the depths of the murky abyss. By my blood….”

Rip!

Being bitten by a Dweller, my throat could no longer produce sound.

“…bestow the authority to engulf life in black corruption. 〈Corrosion of Black Blood〉.”

But creating a new mouth was no issue.

Upon completing the prayer with the mouth that sprouted in my palm, the Dweller gnawing on my neck stiffened entirely.

On its murky, dull-colored body emerged black veins.

My blood, altered by the miracle, was now a venomous substance that tainted all life with corruption.

Black blood vessels sprouted not only on the Dweller’s scales but even in its eyes, covering them entirely.

Motionless, it sank into the depths.

『〈Closure of the Black Tides〉.』

The remaining Dweller used a miracle to bind me again, halting my movement.

A miracle that left one utterly helpless once affected underwater.

However…

‘Do you think I’d fall for the same trick twice?’

With its mouth open and dagger poised, the Dweller charged at me.

I maneuvered Gluttony while glaring at the grotesque beast.

I pulled out a smaller ball of thread, just the size of a fist—a piece that, despite its size, carried a tremendously malicious miracle.

“〈Thread of Solitude〉.”

A pitch-black web unfurled before the creature.

Although it slowed, it was too late; the toxic thread had already touched its skin.

Despite being underwater, bubbles sprang up as its scales began dissolving in the venom.

The creature cried out bizarrely, thrashing violently, but the 〈Thread of Solitude〉 clung to it even more.

‘Your interference ends here.’

I aimed my spear at the creature thrashing within the spider web.

The spear glowed blue without command, and I hurled it towards the creature’s neck.

Even while melting and becoming poisoned by the 〈Thread of Solitude〉, the creature desperately tried to approach me.

‘Incredibly persistent… Let’s end this here.’

The spear pierced its neck, tearing away its scales.

A spray of blood mixed into the water as its flesh scattered everywhere.

Retrieving the spear, I looked upwards.

I could see the massive silhouette moving, causing shockwaves.

‘Only one left!’

It was the biggest and most dangerous of all.