Chapter 196

Chapter 196: Berserker-Style Fighter

Vanna did not actually recognize right away what the figure that suddenly appeared in front of her was. The figure’s whole body was hidden under a long black coat and a big black umbrella, and her own mind had just taken a brief shock from suddenly peering beyond the Veil, so she had lost her usual sharpness for a moment.

But when the monster opened its mouth and let out a hoarse, low noise, when its foul, blasphemous breath spilled out, and when, as it raised its hand, the twisted outline shaped by corruption showed itself, she recognized it.

It was a heretic, a heretic of the Sun.

That made things simple—Vanna liked simple things.

The heavy alloy greatsword howled as it cut through the air, and the holy consecrated lantern drove away the foulness around her. Vanna leaped high, her figure like a huge wave. When she came down, that strike carried the full force of a crashing wave—tons of seawater seemed to gather into that one sword. The umbrella-holding heretic of the Sun clearly had not expected her to be so decisive and lost the chance to dodge. It could only raise the black umbrella in a hurry to block.

Then, like a small boat broken by a huge wave, both it and the umbrella were split cleanly in two.

The spawn remnant, cut in half, flew off into the distance, filthy, blasphemous flesh splashing all along the way. The large umbrella made of tough alloy was also cut into two halves and fell to the ground with a clash of metal. Tiny blue sparks kept jumping from the broken ribs and handle, and shards of crystal burst from its frame, the faint glow inside them quickly fading away.

Vanna stepped forward and crushed the scattered parts under her boot, but her eyes were already on the pieces of flesh she had cut apart not far away. They were writhing and knitting back together at a shocking speed. In no time, that tall, thin figure in the long black coat appeared again in the sea of fire. This time, without the black umbrella to cover it, the ugly true face of that blasphemous thing showed clearly in Vanna’s sight.

Its head was like a flower of flesh opening in bloom, and its body was made of countless twisted, coiled tentacles. Right now that flower of flesh was letting out an angry, shrill scream. The sound was enough to knock an ordinary person out on the spot, but it only made Vanna smile a little.

Regeneration did not mean invincibility. This thing was weakened, and after losing the protection of that strange black umbrella, it looked to be in great pain.

The young Inquisitor casually hooked the consecrated lantern back at her waist and shifted her grip on the sword. Holding it with both hands, she strode toward the monster. But then, suddenly, the corner of her eye caught a brief distortion in the flames beside a bookshelf.

Years of battle experience and sharp danger sense made her stop at once and turn around. The next second, a coiled tentacle shot out of the warped flames. A piece of steel plate, glowing red from the heat, was wrapped up by that tentacle and hurled at her like a cannon shell!

At the same time, the heretic of the Sun that had just finished regenerating suddenly turned into a black blur and rushed in from the side to ambush her. In a flash of light and shadow it crossed the distance to within a few meters of Vanna. Two long whips of flesh snapped out from its hands, lashing toward Vanna’s neck and back at the same time.

Vanna clicked her tongue, twisted her body, and swung up the sword. She simply threw the greatsword like a huge spear straight at the ambushing heretic of the Sun. The greatsword was heavy and fast. With a boom it smashed the attacker away and nailed it to the wall more than ten meters away. At the same time, the red-hot steel plate flew up in front of Vanna. She raised a hand to block. The glowing steel stopped as if it had hit a mountain. Where her fingers gripped it, steam hissed up from steel and flesh, and the metal visibly warped and curled under her grip.

“So it really is you lot causing trouble.” Vanna seemed not to feel any pain at all. She casually tore the steel plate in half and threw it aside. Then she beckoned behind her. The greatsword that had pinned the enemy to the wall was pulled by an invisible force and flew straight back into its master’s hand, dragging along the writhing, howling remnant of the Sunspawn.

Vanna flicked her right hand and tossed the monster impaled on the sword to the ground. Without even looking back, she left the quickly regenerating monster there and walked forward, leaving only one sentence behind: “You go ahead and finish regenerating here. I’ll go purify your friends.”

The mass of writhing flesh that had been pierced by the greatsword and had lost the shelter of the black umbrella let out a frenzied roar, as if spewing blasphemous, furious Subspace curses. But Vanna had already done the math on this thing’s regeneration speed. She knew that, after taking a heavy blow and losing the umbrella’s protection, its recovery had slowed a lot. So she paid it no mind and strode toward the burning bookshelf not far away. Another figure had stepped out of the flames there—the second heretic of the Sun.

This was the one that had thrown the steel plate just now.

Looking at the Inquisitor who was striding toward it, the tall, gaunt shadow let out a chain of low, muffled whispers and roars. As its disgusting, sticky limbs writhed, tentacles stretched out from inside its “coat.”

“Fear, anger, confusion… looks like you have emotional reactions too. You aren’t just a bunch of ‘split-off bodies’ without complete minds, like many people think.” Vanna walked forward, watching for more ambushers as she spoke in a calm voice. She was not someone who liked to talk a lot, but against the mad, blasphemous whispers of monsters like this, the rational words of a cleric were also an effective weapon. “Remnants of the Sunspawn… Since you are here, that means at least one Sunspawn body is also hiding nearby. Where is it? Deep in the sea of fire? Outside the Cathedral? Or…”

At that moment, the monster attacked. A shadowy lash sprang up beside it and whipped hard toward Vanna’s neck.

Vanna turned her body slightly and casually caught the tough, bone-spurred tentacle in one hand. Her wrist gave a sharp, sudden twist.

“…in that great fire in 1889? Or in that little Cathedral back in 1885?”

The tentacle in Vanna’s hand burst into a cloud of blood. That exploding blood mist then rushed back along the tentacle toward the monster not far away. Only when the whole tentacle and a third of the monster’s body suddenly exploded did the shock finally fade. In the next second, Vanna had already charged behind the monster. Her greatsword rose high, then swept sideways like a club and smashed into the monster’s side.

With a loud bang, the monster’s howl stopped at once. It flew off like a lump of filthy meat and landed in the distance, right next to the first Sunspawn remnant.

At that moment, the first remnant was just about done regenerating. In the writhing flesh you could already vaguely see the tall, thin shape, and the “black coat” it had mimicked into being, which was really some kind of protective shell.

Vanna walked up to the two attackers and looked down at the two monsters.

“Even though I don’t know how the Black Sun can meddle in the corruption of history, and I don’t know what surprises the ‘true body’ behind you has prepared for me, there is one thing that must be right.

“I’m going to fight you here to the very end and see if you are really endless or not. Either I kill my way out of here, or… I prove my loyalty and true faith to the Goddess.”

The greatsword rose, and then…

…came a long series of careful cuts.

Vanna’s thinking was very simple. The spawn of the Sun had powerful regeneration, but no matter how strong the healing, it was not invincibility. As long as their recovery cost them something, then dealing with them was not a problem.

Finely chopping them into mince would do. If that still did not work… then chop them twice.

…

Shirley opened her eyes and saw a ceiling she still was not very familiar with, and the sunlight pouring in through the nearby window.

The bed under her body was very soft and comfortable. The blanket over her carried a fresh, dry smell. In the shantytown, it was hard to find that kind of dryness. The oldest pipes and blocked sewers all gathered in those filthy alleys, and the air there was always damp and stinking. Even if you dried a blanket in the air for three days, all you did was let the sewer stench soak deep into the cloth and cotton.

Shirley lay there quietly. The comfort was almost too much, and she did not even want to roll over. But in the end she pushed herself up with her hands and looked around.

Nina was no longer in the room, and judging from the sunlight outside the window… it was probably already close to noon.

“Dog…” Shirley called softly. “How long did I sleep?”

Dog’s voice rang in her mind at once: “It’s at least half past ten now, maybe eleven. Yesterday you finished eating, took a bath, and then fell right onto the bed and passed out. You’ve been out for at least twelve hours… which is normal. You burned a lot of energy.”

Shirley was still a little groggy. The things that had happened yesterday drifted through her mind like a dream. It took her a long time to sort out her memories and decide which parts had really happened and which were strange scenes from her sleep.

Then she lifted her head and looked toward the corner of the room.

A simple little chest was sitting there quietly.

Ah. That was everything from the past ten-plus years… everything she and Dog owned.

“We really… moved here.” Shirley muttered to herself. “Dog, it feels like a dream.”

“Stop saying that. I’m already nervous enough as it is. Mr. Duncan is in the kitchen cooking. I really don’t even dare to imagine what we’re going to see on the table in a while…”

“Dog, why do you have such a big problem with the food here? You’ve gone on about this more than once…”

“Ugh, just don’t ask…”

Listening to Dog’s complaints, Shirley suddenly laughed.

The sunlight today was really nice.