Chapter 79: Evil-Knight of Affection

Pink iridescent light flickered, the gradually fading Magic Particles turning into starry specks, dimming in the air.

Ingram shifted his gaze away from the two people in the woodland ahead, held under 【Human Hold】.

Without the physical enhancement granted by a Professional Level, if one failed to resist the erosion of magical power from the very start, it would be nearly impossible to break free in a short time afterward.

Paying no heed to the fresh blood and bits of flesh staining his fingertips.

He bent down, cupped the Shou Mu Ren's head in both hands, and placed it squarely atop the skeleton, in the position of the skull.

The old man was no necromancer, and the Ritual book he had given him contained no spells whatsoever.

An ordinary person, dead from a single hammer blow.

Only the guards escorting him along had taken a little more effort.

Still, compared to himself, who was close to taking up a post, there was quite a gap.

Two strikes, or three?

It hardly mattered.

"Huff…"

A breeze stirred the fallen leaves.

The flesh and blood on the Shou Mu Ren's skull melted and dissolved like mud and water.

The bones trembled, as if some invisible force was brewing and gathering above the sigil array, trying to make the bones within piece themselves together.

"Not so fast."

The Sheriff murmured.

The hand dripping with blood had already gripped the iron handle of the Prism Hammer at his waist.

Thud-squelch—

Metal whistled through the air.

Flesh mingled with bone, splattering like fruit juice under the hammer's blow.

Tim, who had already fully turned undead and lost consciousness, fell backward onto the ground.

Above his shoulders, nothing remained.

The Sheriff's expression remained calm, a hint of disgust even lurking deep in his eyes.

Treating the safety of his family and his own future as stakes, recklessly placed on the other end of the scale.

Ignoring the foreseeable enormous risk, walking willingly into the whirlpool of danger for that pitiful shred of luck in his heart.

Not worth sympathizing with.

Just thinking that he was breathing the same air as such a person made him feel sick.

"I hope in Mengzhong City, there will be fewer people like this."

On his palm, radiant golden Holy Light surged forth.

"Pfft!"

Fingers wrapped in sacred radiance, under the effect of Sun Divine Power, corroded the flesh already thoroughly rotted by undead aura.

Without hesitation, he drove them into the corpse's spine.

The thick, sturdy muscles of his forearm suddenly tensed,

And he yanked hard!

"Squelch!"

The teeth-grating, sluggish sound of flesh separating from bone echoed through the woods.

A few drops of blood spattered onto Ingram's handsome, sculpted, pale face.

In his right hand, Tim's entire spine.

The cheek's surface itched slightly as blood slid down; he instinctively wiped it with his free left hand, only to stain half his face red.

He paid it no mind.

Once more he bent down, and in accordance with the human body's structure, set the vertebrae upright in the very center of the skeleton.

Nearly complete.

The flowing wind stirring in the air suddenly intensified, and along with it, the pale white bones lying on the ground began to tremble violently as well.

"Just a little more."

Ingram straightened up, but the corner of his eye inadvertently caught sight of the skeleton's right hand—markedly slenderer than a normal person's, two sizes smaller.

Just one step away from the plan's success, scattered thoughts mingled with fragmented images surfaced in his mind.

A trash-strewn alley, a burly, towering figure deliberately knocking the down-and-out drunkard in front of him to the ground, leaving a few pages of a leather book on the ground;

The lamp lit in an inn room, a man in a Sheriff's uniform hurrying along with guards, while in the shadows by the roadside, a humanoid silhouette exuding undead aura writhed;

A vast, gloomy cemetery, a blond-haired man gently placing a leather-bound book and a Bone Whistle on the steps before the door of a small cabin…

And that night of howling rain and thunder, standing before a patched, shabby tent, gripping a cold Single-handed Hammer—himself.

"Joey…"

Ingram's gaze suddenly paused.

On the face that had shown no ripple since moments ago, a complex expression abruptly surfaced.

It was quickly suppressed.

He could clearly recall, when he had torn the ragged cloth at the tent's entrance, the other's terrified, bloodless face, and even the thin, small body trembling from the cold.

"Lord, forgive me."

He had acted cleanly; the other should not have felt much pain.

"I hope in your next life, you can be born into a good family."

"Don't be like this life, where even filling your stomach is a problem."

"Don't be like me…"

Composed of bones from different human bodies, the twisted, deformed skeleton shuddered violently.

Ingram straightened up and walked toward the edge of the woods, toward the small figure wrapped in that pink glow.

A Halfling — and a heretic.

The pages he had torn out of the leather-bound book clearly recorded:

The more devout a heretic's faith, the better the Ritual's effect.

When he had first run into this shorty two days ago, he hadn't taken it to heart, nor counted the other as a target.

After all, judging by how Halflings got along with their deities, "devout" was hardly the word for it.

But he hadn't expected the other to actually worship Xing Yun Nv Shen "Tymora" — and judging by the scene his informant in Man Dai Jin had described, this one was clearly no ordinary believer.

"Then there's no helping it."

He drew the Dagger from his waist, raised it slightly, and aimed at the soft, fragile neck.

The bones were complete; the Ritual's final step was to fill the runes on the array with a heretic's blood.

When that was done, the plan he had been preparing for so long would finally be complete.

【Divine Smite】, 【Divine Sense】, and 【Swarm Infestation】 — discovered two years ago beneath that cultist's bed.

Three combat arts and skills, plus the final step:

"Devise a necromantic Sacrificial Ritual, and personally slay the summoned creature."

And he would be able to obtain a Professional Level, truly becoming a Professional.

Becoming one of the Paladin class's variants —

— 【Knight of Abhorrence】

To tell the truth, he didn't actually know all that much about this class itself.

If the Priest at the Church hadn't, after he handed in 【Swarm Infestation】, generously told him some information about the "Knight of Abhorrence,"

He wouldn't even have heard of this Paladin variant before.

And even after learning the path to advancement from the other's mouth, Ingram had originally had no intention of taking the class.

After all, compared with the "Paladin" — whose advancement path was clear and whose utility was extremely broad — the "Knight of Abhorrence" didn't have such an easy path to find.

Until that night, when the Priest made him a promise concerning "Mengzhong City."

As long as he successfully took the class, he could receive a letter of introduction from the other and go take a post in Mengzhong City.

And Mengzhong City was, on the whole of Aifala Dalu, almost the place closest to the "Master."

How could he possibly refuse.

The palm felt the cool touch peculiar to metal; he gripped the Dagger tightly, the short blade slicing toward the Halfling's neck.

And just at that moment, from beside him, there suddenly came a faint but distinct sound.

His gaze turned —

And he saw, on the other side, the black-haired youth likewise pinned in place by 【Human Hold】.

The body wrapped in pink light seemed…

To be trembling slightly.

(End of chapter)