The Church and the Witch – Part 01
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Translator: Kell
Interlude: Memories of Paradise
Sweat soaked Corruption’s cassock. Pressing her pounding chest, she drew a deep and long breath. Her head throbbed from tension. With Picus in hand, she should have the overwhelming advantage, but she couldn’t shake off the unpleasant feeling in her gut.
After annihilating the witches, Corruption searched for the Grimoire of Zero in the temple, when a voice spoke to her.
You have been chosen to assist Cestum.
She called herself Sanare. She was eerie, with no physical body. Letting out a maniacal laughter, she nestled to the adjudicator.
If you cooperate with us, you will be able to do whatever you want. Your position in the Church will also be guaranteed. Once the Church is gone, we will welcome you as one of us.
It was not a bad deal. She’d had enough of the Church’s constant reprimands to “mend her ways,” and Sanare’s offer was exciting and appealing.
What really fascinated her though was the witch named Zero. Burning such a beautiful woman for the Church’s authority was too boorish.
She must be buried alive. Her beauty must be preserved for eternity.
Just like her beautiful mother, who died young. Even her manner of death was elegant.
Lying in the magnificent hearse and wearing the best dress, buried in countless flowers, her figure was purer than any ceremony that the young Corruption had ever seen.
“She’s sleeping,” her father said. “Your mother is only sleeping, dreaming about you inside the grave.”
I see, she thought to herself. Since that day, the image of her beautiful mother stayed in her mind, never changing.
Her father, on the other hand, became decrepit and hideous. He fell ill, and passed away in a corrupted state.
After her father’s funeral, she longed to see beautiful funerals again. Every time she saw a beautiful woman walking down the street, she was overcome with the desire to save them. From old age. From sickness. From all kinds of pain.
She believed that if God gave her a mission, it was to liberate them. While she despised the Church, she never doubted the beautiful goddess.
The corrupted people of the Church could no longer hear the voice of God. To destroy them, she had to survive first.
Not wanting to miss even the smallest movement, Corruption kept her gaze fixed at the temple’s door. A rotating grip sent bullets into the magazine of the Picus. If the rotation speed was too fast or too slow, the weapon would not operate well.
Don’t panic, she told herself. The enemy should be the one panicking, not you. She set fire to the temple. They should be flushed out in no time.
Only she had the keys to the witch’s cell and shackle. Without them, they could not free her.
As long as the witch and the Grimoire of Zero were secure, as long she killed the priest, she could come up with plenty of excuses to the Church.
There was movement. A black mass jumped out at her, and Corruption fired by reflex.
A white figure bolted out of the temple. A loud explosion echoed, and a cloud of dust rose in the darkness of the night.
“Shit. Explosives!”
The explosion whipped up dust from the dry, sun-baked ground. Given the darkness surrounding the area, lighting a bonfire wouldn’t be enough to regain visibility.
But that didn’t matter to her.
“You’re wasting your energy, Secrecy! Die! Die! Die!”
Frantically spinning the grip, Corruption fired balls of lead into the cloud of dust. The barrel heated up, warming her cold body.
The Picus differed from conventional cannons in that it chould change targets with ease. You could move the barrel while firing continuously, sweeping a wide area.
The recoil was pleasing. The sound rocking her eardrums made her lose herself in the moment.
“What are you shooting at, Corruption? Can’t you see me?”
Yet her ears caught the voice clearly. It sounded like it was coming from a different place than where she was concentrating her fire at. Impossible, she thought, as she corrected her aim.
She spotted a white figure in the corner of her eye. Wasn’t it a white thing that jumped out of the temple earlier, she wondered. But Secrecy was supposed to be wearing a black cassock.
So what was that white thing just now?
A strangely familiar burst ripped the air. Then with a metallic clank, the Picus suddenly stopped.
“What the—”
“It worked, priest! Now go!”
Corruption saw a familiar large shovel, its sharp tip wedged firmly into the Picus’s rotating part, preventing it from operating. A chain extended from the tip, and at the end of it, a white Beastfallen missing an arm was down on his knees.
That freakin’ beast! He picked up my shovel and used it against me!
Corruption snapped. Pulling out the tip of the shovel with all her might, she set her aim on the footsteps approaching at a high speed.
“No, you don’t!” Corruption rotated the grip once more. But no bullet came out. “What?! Why?!”
By the time she noticed that the barrel was red hot from the rapid firing, it was already too late.
I should cool it down. Wait, I gotta remove the jammed bullet first. There’s no time for either.
Corruption’s wide-open eyes reflected the black-cloaked adjudicator, raising his scythe, his eyes filled with contempt.
You never looked at me. Not even once.
“You only look at me like that when it’s time to kill me?”
The blade came down, and fresh blood splattered. She thought he would cut off her head, but Secrecy’s scythe sliced through her belly.
Corruption fell off the wagon and rolled on the ground. She sensed a chill around her neck. When she touched it, she felt a string.
Secrecy could end her life with a flick of his little finger.
“The Grimoire of Zero and the keys to Zero’s cell.”
It wasn’t a question, but an order.
Even from afar, I could tell that the battle had ended.
I gotta say though, running at full speed while bleeding profusely was demanding. Right after I gave the signal to the priest, I thought I fainted for a few seconds.
“We gambled and won.” Laughing, I stood up, leaning on the shovel’s grip.
First we split up and had Corruption fire the Picus rapidly, raising the barrel’s temperature to its limit. Next I hurled the shovel into the weapon to cause it to malfunction.
The Picus’s bullets were made of lead. The priest believed that they would melt inside the hot barrel, and if it stopped firing, the bullets would get jammed. Personally I just wanted to split up and charge straight to her, but it worked out fine.
Dragging my heavy body, I approached the priest and Corruption.
“The grimoire and the key?” Corruption gave a weak laugh. “I seem to have misplaced them. If I’m gonna die anyway, I’d rather take my secrets to the grave.”
“Don’t you want to die peacefully?” the priest asked.
“I’d rather annoy you.” She wheezed.
“I won’t be annoyed. Just a little inconvenienced, perhaps.”
“You’re so cold.” Frowning, she coughed. “Then how about this? I’ll give you the grimoire and the key if you kiss me.”
His expression still, the priest bent down. A moment later, he pulled away. “Will that do?” he asked.
Corruption looked up at the priest, mouth agape, and gave a pained smile. “You’re a nasty man. Do you want that book so badly?”
“It’s a dangerous book that has the power to destroy the world. We can’t let it fall in the wrong hands.”
“It’s not here. I ordered my dogs to take it away. I wonder what they’ll do with it when they find out I’m dead. They’ll probably sell it.” She laughed, then choked on her own blood.
“What about the key?” the priest asked, looking down on her.
“It’s here…” She touched her belly overflowing with blood. “I swallowed it. I planned to throw it back up. Now you’ll have to find it inside my corpse.”
“Very well.” The priest nodded. “I now formally strip you of your sin of Corruption, and take back your life. Farewell, Crescencia.”
For a moment, Corruption’s eyes widened. Slowly, her gaze went to the priest’s face, and she let out a soft sigh of relief.
“You remembered my name,” she whispered. Then her head plopped quietly.
The joy on her face made me uncomfortable.
The priest thrust his hand into the woman’s belly, fumbled around a little, then pulled out a small bunch of keys. There were two of them, one to the prison cell and one to the shackles. He tossed them to me without a word.
Silently, I caught it. Before I dove straight back into the burning temple, flames billowing out its windows, I glanced back at the priest.
With his head down, I couldn’t make out his expression, and his lips didn’t seem to be moving. But it looked to me as if he was regretting something, and I was sure it wasn’t just my imagination.
Weaving through the flames fueled by alcohol and oil, I returned to Zero’s cell with the key, where I was greeted by Zero’s nonchalant voice.
“That was faster than expected,” she said. She didn’t seem to doubt my safety in the slightest.
The cell door opened easily, and for the first time in a while, I was face to face with Zero and my other arm.
“Did you actually think I would take ten years? Unfortunately, I’m more hasty than Thirteenth.”
I thrust the key into the shackles on her feet and turned it, and it came off with a heavy thud. But that wasn’t enough to free Zero. The chain was connected to the shackles on her arms.
I took the same key and inserted it into the arm shackles as well. At that moment, I felt an unpleasant sensation.
The key would not go deep enough. I changed the angle, pulled it back out and reinserted it, but the result was the same.
Shit.
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