"Give me three minutes to deal with them," Loserine said flatly.
Kurose Akira stared at her helmet. Although he couldn't see her expression, he could almost picture it in his mind.
Why does this feel like some overpowered veteran carrying a bunch of newbies…?
Wait.Am I the newbie?
Well… that checks out. He was only eighteen, while Loserine had already been in her twenties before becoming undead.
While Akira was lost in thought, Loserine had already raised her longsword and charged straight toward the enemy guild.
"Kill that knight!"
The opposing guild's leader wasted no words and immediately ordered his five adventurers to attack Loserine.
Watching all his guild members move in unison, Pastor Twerd curled his lips into a cold smile.
So what if that female knight was strong?
They had the numbers—and their levels were higher.
However, before Twerd could even finish that thought, the Oathbound Sword in Loserine's hand had already pierced straight through the heart of one of the opposing guild members.
In the blink of an eye, the adventurer turned into a lifeless corpse, collapsing into a pool of blood.
The sheer speed and decisiveness of the kill left everyone present utterly stunned.
What the hell…?One hit—instant kill?!
"All of you, together! Go all out! Don't give her any openings!"
The enemy guild leader panicked at last, desperately commanding his members to throw everything they had at Loserine.
But in the face of absolute power, their resistance was as fragile as thin ice.
Loserine's figure danced beneath the moonlight like a phantom. The six blue-luminescent wings behind her granted her speed far beyond that of ordinary beings.
In just a few heartbeats, another enemy adventurer fell beneath her Oathbound Sword.
Level 20+ adventurers—in front of Loserine, they were nothing more than vegetables on a chopping board.
"ROAR!"
The highest-level member of the opposing guild let out a thunderous howl and raised his massive battle axe, hacking viciously toward Loserine.
"A level 25+ beastman warrior?"
Akira instantly judged his level. This beastman was at least level 25—his combat power likely even surpassed Pastor Twerd's.
But—
Slash—slash—slash!
In an instant, swordlight as brilliant as moonbeams flashed through the night.
After only a brief exchange of blows, the beastman's limbs were cleanly severed. The blade pierced his heart, and his massive body crashed into the blood-soaked ground.
"Anur!"
"How is this possible?!"
The opposing guild leader's face twisted with rage and despair. The strongest adventurer in his guild—defeated so easily?
"It's over…"
At the same moment, despair surfaced on Pastor Twerd's face as well. The fear of death spread through his heart like poison. Even in his worst nightmares, he had never imagined the enemy he provoked would be this terrifying.
"Three minutes. Right on time."
Loserine neatly sheathed the Oathbound Sword and returned to Akira's side.
She always kept her word—three minutes meant exactly three minutes, not a second more.
"Good work," Akira said with an approving nod. He was extremely satisfied with the performance of his guild's strongest combatant.
Looks like the Flamefall Idith had given him could be kept for now. That was basically a free elite-quality item—massive profit.
Akira looked toward the opposing guild leader from a distance. Terror and fury were written all over the man's face.
Six carefully cultivated adventurers—wiped out in an instant.
For a player, that kind of loss was no different from falling straight into hell.
But Akira felt not even a trace of sympathy for this beast.
He walked up to the man and asked coldly,"Those women—were they all harmed by you?"
"Bastard!" the man roared at Akira, eyes blazing. "Do you have any idea how much money I spent raising those adventurers? That was everything I had! And you destroyed it all!"
In that moment, he had lost everything.
Then, suddenly, he revealed a sinister smile.
"What? You want to play hero for those women?"
"This is just a game. As a player, I can do whatever I want—who are you to tell me otherwise? This world works like that! As long as you have power, you can do whatever you want! You just haven't seen real hell yet! When I was doing quests, I saw things far worse than this!"
"Alice."
Akira ignored the man's rant entirely and calmly called out her name.
He had decided to let Alice deal with him.
"Understood!"
Alice's pitch-black giant scissors materialized instantly in midair, locking onto the opposing guild leader.
"Kill me? Don't make me laugh!"
The guild leader immediately activated a teleportation array, trying to flee back to his guild base. According to the game's rules, players could only log out while inside their guild—so he had to return first.
Of course, there were only two other ways to leave the game:player death, or being forcibly logged out by the system due to a detected addiction state.
In other words, no one could truly be trapped in this world forever.
However, before the teleportation array could fully activate, Loserine appeared behind him like a ghost and kicked him flying.
His body rolled several times across the ground before coming to a stop.
Just as he struggled to get up and continue escaping, Alice's massive scissors descended mercilessly.
"AAAAAAAH—!"
A soul-rending scream tore from the guild leader's throat, echoing through the pitch-black night.
Fortunately, it didn't wake anyone—
because Akira had already turned the volume down in advance.
Cough.Well… technically, Ivsha had used magic to construct a sound barrier, ensuring the screams wouldn't spread.
"I snip—snip—snip!"
Alice remotely controlled the Soul Cutter, repeatedly slicing through the guild leader's soul. Each cut was accompanied by a shrill scream, wave after wave, crashing through the night like a storm and sending chills down the spine.
But what terrified the guild leader even more was this—
Despite the unbearable agony tearing at his soul, his body remained completely unharmed.
In other words—his HP wasn't decreasing at all.
"Why?! Why am I not dead?! What did you do to me?! Why isn't my health dropping?!"
He screamed in disbelief, utterly unable to comprehend why he was still alive after suffering such torment.
The pain was so intense that his eyes were bloodshot and veins bulged across his body—yet the system still hadn't displayed the Player Death notification.
Why?
The reason was simple.
The physical body has limits.The soul does too—but its threshold is far higher.
Which meant that when a player died from soul-based attacks, the pain they endured was vastly more intense than any physical death.
"Alice. Cut his soul into pieces," Akira ordered without mercy.
"Yes, Master!"
Amid one final cascade of piercing screams, the player's soul finally shattered under the unbearable agony, and he died—dropping a pile of trash-tier equipment.
Even so, Akira felt this punishment was still far from sufficient.
Of course, Akira had never considered himself a paragon of justice—nor did he believe himself to be kind.
He had simply happened to stand on the side of justice this time.
And he intended to give his client a proper answer.
"Next…"
Akira's gaze shifted to Pastor Twerd, who lay on the ground, barely alive.
The guild leader had already paid the price for his crimes—with soul-torment and the destruction of his guild. The other members had been mercilessly executed by Loserine.
So naturally—
this still-living pastor would bear the rest of the sins.
"Talk."
Akira grabbed Twerd by the hair and demanded harshly,"Where are the missing women? And everything you've done—confess it all!"
...
The next day.
Pastor Twerd was nailed in front of the Church of Light, barely clinging to life, put on display for public condemnation before being dragged to the execution grounds and hanged.
The enforcement knights successfully rescued the abducted women. They had been hidden in the cellar of a manor owned by Twerd.
Naturally, Akira didn't witness any of this firsthand.
After interrogating Twerd, he had been utterly exhausted and logged out to sleep.
When he logged back in after school and returned to Blue Moon City, all that remained was a cold corpse—and the townspeople who had once trusted Pastor Twerd throwing rotten eggs at it.
But Akira hadn't come to Blue Moon City to admire Twerd's miserable end.
His goal was the secret chamber beneath the statue of the God of Light.
During the interrogation, Twerd had confessed that a secret was hidden beneath the statue. As for how Akira had extracted that information—
his methods had been exceptionally cruel.
Soon, Akira entered the Church of Light. With the enforcement knights having sealed off the area, the place was completely deserted.
He led Loserine and Ivsha into the hidden passage beneath the statue and all the way into the secret chamber.
The room was filled with signs of an earlier search by the enforcement knights. Unfortunately, Twerd had already cleaned away all traces of his crimes.
As for the secret hidden here—it could only be opened with the sacred magic of the Church of Light. Naturally, the enforcement knights had been unable to uncover it.
"Uh…"
Akira flipped through the blue-grade grimoire he had obtained earlier from Pastor House, attempting to chant the incantation to unlock the secret.
However—
for someone who had only just begun learning magic, this was… difficult.
"Whatever. I'll just try."
"Makabaka~"
Akira recited the spell exactly as written.
He had fully expected to fail—
but in the next instant, a golden magic circle suddenly appeared before his eyes.
"Oh? It worked?"
Akira blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected to succeed on his first attempt.
Beside him, Loserine also showed a rare hint of astonishment.
Is he… a genius?
Only Ivsha gazed at him with eyes full of admiration.
As expected of someone who wields the Holy Light…
When the golden magic circle fully stabilized, a wooden box materialized out of thin air on the floor of the chamber.
Akira stepped forward, picked up the box, and gently opened it.
Inside—
was a painting.
The woman in the painting was breathtakingly beautiful. A strip of white gauze lightly covered her eyes, giving her an air of mystery tinged with irresistible allure. Her snow-white hair cascaded like a waterfall, soft and flowing, resting gently on her shoulders.
She wore a golden ceremonial gown, exquisitely tailored, its lines smooth and elegant, perfectly accentuating her graceful figure. Jewels embedded along the hem shimmered like stars scattered across the night sky, making it impossible to look at her directly.
Upon her head rested a crown—an unmistakable symbol of power and authority.
"Who is this…?"
Akira examined the painting in confusion, feeling oddly speechless.
Why would Pastor Twerd hide something like this?
Though… her beauty truly rivaled even Idith's.
As his doubts deepened, a system message popped into view.
[Portrait of the Saintess (Epic): No effect.][Can grant ultra-rare trait "Saintess"! (Guild level too low. Cannot be summoned at the current stage!)]
"Saintess?! Ultra-rare trait?!"
Akira's heart shook violently.
..
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