"Run!"
As soon as Basilio saw the surging red waves, he shouted. And then boldly turned around and took off running without hesitation, didn't he?
Seeing this, Delford followed Basilio in escape, though he was dumbfounded.
"Aren't you going to fight anymore?"
"Can't you see that thing is seriously charging at us right now? The reason I maintained the upper hand was because that guy was a split body and I used tricks by exploiting the fact that he used similar power."
The difference in weight class was enormous to begin with. Although he somehow overcame this with technique and succeeded in completely demoralizing the opponent by maintaining the early momentum, he ultimately couldn't deliver a knockout.
From that moment, it naturally became Zaxilos' turn to attack. The moment Zaxilos decided to get serious, defeat on this side was predetermined.
In that case, it was right to choose flight to buy as much time as possible. There was no reason to risk their lives fighting that guy.
"With just the two of us, stalling for time is all we can do. It would be right to somehow rendezvous with the others."
Basilio looked back. He saw red torrents surging toward them. Though it looked like liquid, that was actually a mass of red flesh that changed shape in real time.At the front of the torrent, all kinds of mouths and eyes kept appearing and disappearing repeatedly. Sometimes twisted human forms would emerge and then sink back down. Sounds that could be screams or cheers accompanied it.
He didn't even want to imagine what would happen if they were swallowed up in that.
"I say, do you smell any people nearby?"
"Still nothing. Rather, the terrible stench approaching from behind is only getting thicker."
"Tsk. This is troublesome."
No sooner had those words ended than Delford shouted.
"Right flank!"
Delford gave the warning, and Basilio immediately moved. The red shapes he had prepared in advance danced in the air, targeting the right wall. It was just an ordinary flesh wall that happened to be closed. But as soon as he fired the shapes, the wall swelled up and a massive lump of flesh burst out from there.
This was definitely Zaxilos' doing to block their escape route.
-Pop pop pop pong!
The lumps of flesh burst like balloons against the red shapes, clearing a path. Even that tried to wriggle and regenerate, so the two quickly passed through the hole they had made.
Thanks to Delford's warning, they were able to attack without the slightest delay and barely escape. If their response had been even slightly delayed, they would have been blocked by the flesh wall and caught by the torrent pursuing from behind.
"Sneaky little rats."
-Crunch!
The torrent swallowed the flesh wall and grew even larger. And from atop the torrent, Zaxilos, transformed into a red mannequin, emerged with only his upper body and fiercely pursued them.
"I absolutely will not let you escape."
No matter how excellent their fleeing skills were, no matter how much he tried to chase them, they wouldn't easily give up distance. So he created obstacles in between, but their instincts were so sharp that they would bypass them without difficulty, breaking through before he could even finish creating the obstacles.
Zaxilos glared at the werewolf in a gentleman's suit running alongside Basilio.
No matter how he looked at it, that mongrel was the first to notice whenever he was about to do something.
He felt irritated and wanted to kill him immediately, but when he saw such outstanding abilities, he became greedy in a different sense.
What if he swallowed that thing and made it into a believer?
When he had once turned Sabrina, who had considerable skill but was aged, into a believer, how excellent were the abilities she had displayed?
So at this moment, if he made those who grasped this golden, dazzling moment into believers, they might transform into even more outstanding beings.
Those who entered here were all precious resources. So he had to capture them with minimal loss, except for just one person.
As if reading Zaxilos' intent, the interior of Trinity Building shook greatly once.
"Damn it. What the hell is this now?"
Krollakia, who had been running at high speed while carrying Senaka on her back, grimaced at the even fiercer offensive from the enemies. Even now, Senaka was turning the guys who kept chasing them into ice chunks, but the frequency had clearly decreased compared to before.
It was closer to the enemies not charging recklessly rather than their numbers decreasing. So what were they doing? They were hunting by deliberately driving them somewhere.
She had deliberately changed direction to escape this and even broke through the enemies' encirclement in reverse, but the double and triple layered encirclement didn't disappear easily.
Most of all, from a little while ago, a massive presence that made his scales tingle had been slowly approaching while targeting them.
"Sister. It seems like a troublesome guy has followed us."
Senaka looked back with eyes asking if that was really true.
"My scales are telling me so."
Senaka nodded. As if to say she would believe her if she said so.
"It seems like running away any further is impossible, and we'll probably have to fight. Is that okay?"
Instead of answering, Senaka got down from Krollakia’s body. She frowned at the unpleasant texture of the flesh chunks on the floor, but the change was so minimal that someone who didn't know would think she was expressionless.
"Hmm. Are you no longer going to flee?"
Perhaps knowing that they were no longer struggling, the opponent who had been hiding appeared. The guy had the form of a benevolent old man. The reason this was called a form was simple. Because he knew that wasn't its true appearance.
"Tsk. Something rather troublesome has come."
Krollakia analyzed the intensity of his tingling scales and tried to gauge the opponent's strength. No matter how he looked at it, this was a different class from the corrupted beings he had defeated so far.
It wasn't a special corrupted being or a high priest either. That meant it was at least bishop level.
"Hey. If I kill you here, this troublesome chase will become a bit more relaxed, right?"
"Hmm? Heh heh heh. You're going to kill me? Me, who has received His grace and become immortal?"
"Immortal my ass. Just coming here, how many of those great immortals have died already."
Krollakia deliberately teased with a blatant tone to provoke the opponent. Actually, it wasn't wrong either. He had seen with his own two eyes a self-proclaimed bishop get cut down and disappear under Osian's sword.
It was true that they had excellent regenerative abilities and absurd vitality. But those guys were definitely not immortal.
Whether pointing out this fact was unpleasant, the bishop frowned his previously benevolent smiling face.
"Tch. If it weren't for the Cardinal's words, even if I tore you into a thousand pieces right now, this anger wouldn't be relieved."
"Oh really?"
Krollakia smiled. Simultaneously, with a freezing sound, the bishop's body was instantly covered in ice. The bishop glared at Senaka with wide eyes. He had realized that this freezing phenomenon was her doing.
-Heh heh.
And the bishop grinned wickedly.
"Interesting."
His skin glowed red hot. Hot heat rising like a mirage along his skin collided with Senaka's ice, creating steam.
-Boom!
With a roar, a heat wave swept through the area in concentric circles.
Senaka's expression hardened, and Krollakia stepped back one step.
At the center of that heat, the bishop, who had finished his transformation, stared at them. He had grown larger than before and had become considerably muscular. His limbs had grown abnormally large and sharp protrusions jutted out along his curved back.
A tail extended long downward and the head area resembled that of a reptile. However, the skin was in the form of muscle fiber without scales, and flickering yellow eyes were scattered all over his body.
"Kuhaha. Did you think you could do something to me with such lukewarm ice?"
Every time his triple-layered snout laughed, it spat out sparks containing hot heat.
This was a new characteristic that the corrupted beings they had fought so far hadn't shown.
Looking at it, very hot heat seemed to be raging inside his body.
Krollakia thought this was troublesome. Of all things, a guy who could be called their natural enemy had appeared.
'I hope the others are safe.'
Contrary to Krollakia's wishes, similar situations were unfolding everywhere.
"What are you?"
Kudan, who had been smashing corrupted beings left and right with his fists, asked as he looked at the massive bulk blocking his path. He boasted considerable size due to his ogre blood, but the opponent was even larger.
The guy was more than twice as tall as Kudan. Roughly estimating, his height was about 7 meters. And his entire body was covered with sharp red protrusions like rocks. He looked like a living rocky mountain. However, befitting a follower of the Red Eternity, that hard body resembled someone's bones.
The guy with his massive upper body and two arms supporting his body like pillars against the ground smiled with a generous human face that didn't match his huge bulk.
"I heard there was a guy running wild like a brute, relying only on his strength. I thought I'd try fighting him once."
Kudan didn't answer. Instead, he clenched his fists and took a stance to enter combat.
"Lady Plimene. Their resistance is fierce."
"This way."
Plimene realized they had finally reached close to the commander. The place that had been flesh corridors until then suddenly widened greatly.
And what greeted them was a new environment in the form of a three-dimensional maze. Everywhere, bundles of sticky tentacles intertwined connecting all directions, or wide membrane-like things formed walls or structures.
From places with holes like Emmental cheese, sounds of corrupted beings could be heard. It looked like a maze made of mucous membranes and simultaneously like a spawning ground.
Just from the changed scenery, they could tell that the commander was here.
"The path looks complex. It seems difficult for everyone to enter."
Destroying all of this while advancing was also a method. But if they did that, the supplies they had prepared would run out. As long as they didn't know when and where new enemies might appear, stockpiling was essential. Now that external support was cut off, they had to respond as efficiently as possible with what they had.
"Reconnaissance team. It's your turn."
The reconnaissance team stepped forward. They used the mechanical clockwork devices they had to send them inside the holes in the nest.
Just as they were trying to assess a certain distance, communications began cutting out everywhere.
"Communication was lost after going about 50 meters. Even though we moved as carefully as possible and it still cut out, this seems to be the maximum range we can survey."
Since machines had limitations, they moved to the next method.
The black mages stepped forward. They used bird bones and had to fly them up like drones.
Rapidly flying birds explored the surroundings. But the black mages' expressions weren't very good either.
"Communications were lost everywhere. It seems traps are installed inside. Ones that react to the slightest movement."
Nearly 50 bone birds had flown out, but only 3 returned.
Even using necromancy familiars, grasping the situation wasn't easy.
But sending people would only increase unnecessary casualties.
In the end, Plimene had no choice but to ask someone else for help.
"It's your turn. Maia."
The moment he called the name Maia, a fairy appeared from Plimene's inner pocket with a ‘pororong’ sound. She was a very small girl with beautiful fairy wings.
"Sigh. I don't want to move carelessly in a place like this, but the contract is what it is, so it can't be helped. I was hoping there wouldn't be a chance for me to step forward."
Though she looked like a fairy on the outside, she was actually a witch. Another name for her, who belonged to the Witch Tea Party, was Thumbelina.
When Maia fluttered her wings, pure white light powder scattered and headed toward the holes in the nest.
Maia closed her eyes and concentrated on the situation. Perhaps because she was examining every corner of the dirty, foul-smelling, and disgusting nest, her tiny face periodically wrinkled.
Eventually, Maia opened her eyes that had been closed. She could see it. Deep inside, a giant mass similar to a brain pulsating like a heart.
"It's there. The center of the nest."
"Isn't it running away?"
"No. It can't run away. It seemed to be one body with that nest. All the other paths are traps. The real route is that one."
Maia pointed to one that looked no different from the other holes. Plimene nodded.
"Prepare yourselves. We're going in immediately."
That's when it happened.
"That won't work."
Everyone reacted sensitively to someone's voice echoing through the entire space and raised their weapons.
"This guy is something I put quite a bit of my best effort into making, you see. So I can't let you kill him arbitrarily. Please understand."
"Who are you! Show yourself!"
"Hmm. Well, it's not proper etiquette to have a conversation while hidden like this, so gladly."
At that moment, yellow eyes emerged from various spots on the giant nest's membrane. Their number far exceeded a thousand and their sizes were all different.
The flickering eyes all stared at Plimene and the city government people at once.
"Nice to meet you. I'm called Bishop Fedilac."
Seeing this, the city government people unconsciously stepped back. It couldn't be helped when eyes suddenly sprouted all over this massive space.
"To think so many believer candidates would come visit. The Cardinal will be pleased too."
Plimene belatedly realized that this space itself was that monster.