The wail of an infant echoed through the heavens.
Black rain fell upon the earth, drifting and sprinkling down like strokes of light ink upon a painting.
Yet in this supreme sanctuary, built upon the ever-refined Sanctuary and personally built and perfected by successive Popes, such rain did not appear the least bit uncanny.
On the contrary, it was brimming with life.
As the strands of rain struck the steel ground, silvery-white vegetation instantly sprouted and unfurled from twisted cracks, then grew denser.
Next, as if the growth of fruit trees had been accelerated ten-thousandfold, in just a few breaths the dense vegetation became towering trees.
Lush fruit swelled upon the branches; the fruit ripened and fell to the ground.
As if it were the cycle of nature.
Yet the fallen fruit did not continue along nature’s path to rot into new nourishment; the chain broke here, and they began to writhe and twist.
Beneath the blood-colored rinds, bizarre living things squirmed, forcing out ferocious contours.
These were no fruit at all; they were... the placentas of monsters!
Rip—
Razor claws tore the placentas apart, and countless monsters wailed... as they were born into the world.
Their appearances defied easy description: human faces, serpents’ scales, beasts’ feet and limbs... as if many creatures had been haphazardly stitched together.
But even those similar parts soon became indistinguishable amid horrific distortions.
Everything was growing madly, swelling in twisted deformity; the wailing monsters and proliferating plants spread like a fungal mat, racing toward the living things they craved.
And what greeted them was a most cordial and enthusiastic... barrage of artillery!
"Open fire! Open fire!"
Mounted upon a steel warhorse, Knight-Commander Kans swung the chainsword in his hand, cleaving a charging monster in two as he bellowed, veins on his brow writhing like a nest of serpents.
"Second Captain, where the hell is your new-model magitek cannon?"
"Coming, coming."
Without further orders or urging, the war engines from the Sanctum of Artifice were already primed; blinding fire turned their muzzles red-hot, unleashing arcs of annihilating rainbow light!
The rainbow beams swept past, tearing several clear breaches through the monsters that blotted out the sky.
Innumerable monsters turned to ash within the rainbow light, yet the near-infinite horde kept wailing, the warped flora kept surging, as if they knew not what pain was; but the brief rout blasted open by the guns was enough to give these elite knights a chance to strike back!
"Form ranks!"
"Holy Light rites, prepare!"
"Everyone, hear me: the remnant spawn of the dark god must be annihilated to the last. Do not let them defile the Goddess’s sanctum. This is the Goddess’s divine decree!"
"For the Goddess!!"
Blood and fire swept the entire battlefield in an instant.
Knight-Commander Kans clenched the reins; the steel warhorse beneath him screamed, scalding steam venting as it fearlessly slammed into the hulking monster ahead, while he drove his massive chainsword savagely into the creature’s body.
"Roar!"
The wailing turned to a howl of pain; the monster’s misshapen flesh split open, and jaws made of fangs and bone snapped viciously at Kans.
This one was singular even among countless monsters, more than twice the size, and as it charged it even devoured its own kind!
But Kans stood unafraid; the chainsword in his hand spun at speed, quickly grinding the creature into flying shreds of meat.
The stench of blood and flesh splattered his cold profile without altering his expression in the slightest.
"Ah!"
Just then a knight behind Kans let out a shriek; ripping up his visor, he revealed a grotesque tumor bulging on half his cheek. It writhed, sprouting slender tentacles that actually lashed out to attack the knight beside him.
"Corruption!"
Kans’s lieutenant cried out, swung his longsword, and deftly gouged the aberration from the knight’s face.
He gestured for the men to treat the knight, only to realize they had already lost contact with the Holy Light rites unit—and the other knights’ Holy Light had been drained completely by their near-mad charge.
"Sir Knight-Commander."
Hearing his subordinate’s anxious voice, Kans lifted his head and looked around, his gaze involuntarily darkening.
Flashes of blades and raking claws collided, blood and flesh flew; this had become a hell on earth like a meat grinder.
Yet within this hell, the silver torrent was like a long spear, tenaciously gouging into the crimson sea.
Knight-Commander Kans was the spearhead of that spear; under his lead, the squad had torn through vast numbers of monsters and pushed ever deeper.
But now it seemed they had... gone a bit too deep.
Like an island in the ocean, at risk of being swallowed by waves at any moment.
What now...
Press on, or fall back.
As Knight-Commander Kans weighed the choice, a figure that set his heart ablaze surfaced in his mind. He grit his teeth and, heedless of his utterly exhausted men, tightened his grip on the chainsword once more.
Just as he was about to point his blade forward, he suddenly heard a cry:
"Holy Light!"
A gentle rain of light fell from the sky; a sacred aura spread, sweeping away all defilement in an instant.
The monsters roared and fled, and the endlessly proliferating grotesque plants fell into decay.
The aggression and the corruption were purged at a speed visible to the naked eye; the knights, nearly at the end of their rope, erupted in unimaginable elation and raised their arms to shout:
"This is the saintess’s Holy Light rite—Her Highness the saintess has arrived!"
Within the entire Church, those who could unleash so vast a Holy Light rite in an instant were few indeed; and judging by the assigned sectors, the only one who could have spared the time to aid them was Her Highness the saintess, who had held the foremost line from the very beginning!
Her Highness the saintess had personally taken the field!
All the knights instinctively looked up in anticipation of the saintess’s arrival; even Kans’s gaze burned with fervor!
But... what fell from the sky next was not Her Highness the saintess, but...
What the hell?
That thing came crashing down like a meteor, and seemed to be nothing more than a harmless pink bear. Judging by looks alone, the pink teddy was even a tiny bit cute—put it in some theme park and children would surely love it.
Except...
As it landed, it also happened to squash several monsters to death...
"Fuck, that bitch actually dumped me in a place like this. I’ll settle this score sooner or later!"
"And these goddamn disgusting things—I’d only just had my fur treated not long ago..."
The cute pink bear wiggled its butt as it pulled its massive bear head out of the ground. Ignoring the blood and meat clinging to its body, and under the knights’ stunned gazes... it first rattled off a fluent sampler platter of swear words, then a hairy hand—belonging to a middle-aged man—reached out from its cute ursine mouth.
The adorable theme-park teddy instantly turned into the kind of gory horror flick a sleazy middle-aged man would enjoy.
"Huh? There are actually living people?"
Pink Bear casually scratched his butt and swept his gaze around; when he saw Kans, his beady bear eyes clearly lit up.
He slapped the butt-scratching hand onto Kans’s shoulder, fished out two already wrinkled cigars, shoved one warmly between Kans’s lips—never mind the flecks of monster meat on it—and waggled his brows, saying:
"Brother, got a light? Lend me a light."
"..."
