Chapter 577 The Village Of The Holy Where Evil Breeds (IV)

The changes in my Versatile Weapon are only a few that I already expected. But a 500 stat addition to all parameters is still something that is pretty big so I am not complaining.

The biggest change of the Versatile Weapon is none other than the new skill, [Mammon's Curse] which I remembered to be the skill that is named as [Avarice] that was exclusive to the Greed Sin. After the Weapon of Greed is devoured, the incomplete skill, [Avarice] has finally evolved into its new and complete form, [Mammon's Curse].

The effects of the old skill only involve taking permanent stats of the enemy and converting them to temporary stats of the user which will disappear if the duration of the skill is over.

But that changed after I let the Versatile Weapon devour the Weapon of Greed. Instead of disappearing, I can keep the stats to permanently increase my overall stats. The only downside to this is that I can only use it once every month. However, this is big stuff that is beneficial to me.

Not only does it increase my stats in the process but this will also lessen my reliance on the Versatile Weapon for the stats. With my unreliable leveling speed, it may take me some time to level up so it would be indeed the best to have this.

Additionally, the skill also increases my passive money gained from monsters killed meaning, if I received 2 bronze and 2 gold in a single kill, I will instead gain 4 bronze and 4 gold though that is my basic calculations on how much I will earn. Since the skill didn't specify the percentage of how much of an additional will be added to my meager gains though I assume it will double. There is also a chance that it will be just random, though whatever it is, the result is a big plus for me.

Since I don't have any weapon equipped right now, I equipped the Versatile Weapon again which allowed me to regain all of the stats that the weapon provides but this time, with increased numbers.

I resumed control of the second deployed Shikigami I summoned earlier and rushed back to the church before any of the cult members can properly escape after the first explosion. When my shikigami arrived in the village, the angels that were dancing earlier are all running away from the church. Although I can see the church releasing smoke, I can sense that there are no flames burning inside which means the explosion only caused a destructive blast but did not give the burning effect that I expected. It seems the church has applied flame resistance to the surroundings causing the flames from the explosion to not spread further.

Even so, I still let the Shikigami enter the church as I have yet to confirm the fate of the sacrifice. However, when I arrived, he has already died. Although he didn't die from getting caught by the blast of my shikigami, he died when he succumbed to his wounds. I inspected his body in case there are any signs of him turning into an undead but thankfully, there are no signs of necrosis happening on his body.

Still, it was kinda sad that I didn't get to save him but his death is already inevitable with his wings gone. It's only a matter of time for him and he just succumbed to it much earlier. I transformed the Shikigami into a bigger shikigami and destroyed the chains that are tying his dead body. At least, his body would be free from the restraints that are tying him up on the altar.

After checking the dead angel, I went to the necromancer who got caught by the explosion. Since he was the main target of the explosion and he was caught off guard, he was badly injured as a result. He is groaning in agony after that explosion and he is suffering large wounds on his body. Despite that, I doubt he will die just because of that compared to the angel that is chained up. Not only does a necromancer has the ability to recover quickly when there are corpses nearby and since there is one near him, it only takes a matter of time before he can recover again.

I turned to look at the mass of flesh that was dividing earlier. I have blown quite a large part of it and some parts of it have been burned from the explosion but it didn't get blown off completely. It is still pulsing which means it is still alive or moving if it wasn't alive, whatever its state it was in.

My main priority here is to get rid of the priest immediately. Removing him as soon as possible will be the best solution as that will cripple the cult effectively.

"You f*cking intruder... you ruined the ritual!" The necromancer is trying his best to stand back up. I controlled the shikigami and took a step at his hands that is trying to reach out on his Necronomicon. Then, by adding a little force, I pressed down his arm a little more and...

SQUISH

CRACK!

SPLAT!

The crunchy noise of his bone, breaking to pieces is a bit satisfying to hear though it got immediately replaced with his screams. I repeated again to his other arm and like before, the same crunchy sound can be heard from doing so, and yet his screams overshadowed those crunchy sounds.

"You will pay for everything!"

As he screamed those words, a purple magic circle appeared, signifying that he is invoking the spell of a ritual of some sort.

"F*CK!"

I tried to cancel his skill by attacking him but the moment I do, I got repelled by some sort of barrier, and my shikigami was sent flying. As I try to get close to him, he laughed as the energy from his spell slowly consumes him. A few seconds later, he exploded but instead of his flesh scattering all over the place, he morphed into something. Also, I noticed that the light in his body is also scattering around.

That's when something clicked on me. This light was the light that we saw in the past timeline. The light signifies the beginning of the disaster and the outbreak of monsters starting here in this village. So this light came from this necromancer. So that also means I provoked and unleashed the scourge before it should have happened.

My skill is once again ready to be deployed so this time, I summoned another one and let the shikigami I have deployed on the church, try to fight in a battle. I have yet to see it in combat so this is a good chance to see it in action.

As the light disappears, the monster that resembles an ant appeared, With the robe, the necromancer was wearing before draping over the ant-like monster, it is clear that he morphed into this monstrosity. However, monstrosity or not doesn't matter. I need to kill it.

,m The moment I wanted to attack the ant monster, the shikigami responded, removing its stealth and converting its stance to offensive mode. I tried thinking about what to do using it and the shikigami also responded and attacked. Thankfully, I don't need to control it manually as it can do just fine. But I can do it if I want to do so efficiently. However, I still have no confidence in controlling it which is why I decided to let the AI do its wonders and see how it fares against the ant monster.

The shikigami swiftly attacked the ant monster by changing its arms into a sharp blade. I know it is a paper manifesting as a familiar but since it can harden itself, the blade it made on its hands is still close enough to be a real blade as it can still cut something.

It is clear that the ant monster didn't like the presence of the shikigami as it immediately screamed and rushed towards my shikigami. Likewise, the latter also attacked and the two clashed together. The blade of my shikigami pierced through the neck of the ant while the ant's mandibles chewed through my shikigami's body. The shikigami did its best and repeatedly stab its neck. But the ant also won't just go down that easily. It continues to chew on my shikigami until I am seeing a large tear on its body.

The ant monster is about to die, but so my shikigami is also not doing well too. One more struggle and my shikigami's body will be gone.

"Thank you second shikigami for your job. Now, time to make the sacrifice. [Shikigami Explosion]!"

As the Ant Monster continues to chew, the shikigami's body glows, and heat envelopes its body. The shikigami stabbed the ant monster one more time to the neck, ensuring that the monster won't escape before the explosion commence, burning the two together into flames.