I Became the Priest of Blasphemy of the Outer Gods

Chapter 89: The Gray Calamity

The forced sacrifices offered to the blasphemous relic cried out in deep resentment, their blood weeping bitterly.

Half of Wave Reach was covered with red veins, and the contours of the sacrificed faces appeared, screaming, then vanished repeatedly.

『Oh, noble relic swallowed by the child who died first within her mother’s womb.』

Pleroma plummeted to the ground but quickly shot up into the air again by spreading webs.

『I am the one who devoured parents, mingled with siblings and became nothing.』

Waves of blue light flowed from within Pleroma.

『With the power of the ‘Thread of Subspace’, I wish to cover this place and make it a sanctuary!』

The Chalice of the Red Ceremony and the Thread of Subspace.

The powers of these two relics clashed. The sanctuary created by Pleroma with the relic turned into a web where countless lives were intertwined and perished. The collision of the sanctuaries caused the surrounding to shake violently.

『Fortune’s Blessing.』

Clank.

The number 17 glowed in green on the back of my hand.

Crack.

I grabbed my spine and pulled it out in one go. Along with it came all the nerves and blood vessels of my body, including dozens of spears embedded within.

『Baptismal Blessing.』

When the spine and the spears were blessed, they intertwined and began to twist into a strange form. Pleroma did not simply watch this happen.

Crack!

With her massive size, it crushed me and sank her fangs in, melting bones and flesh, causing organs to burst.

Yet the spine transformed and finally took on the form of a sharp four-edged sword.

When I stabbed this sword into Pleroma and pulled, an enormous number of cross spears burst from her body.

This four-edged sword, formed by the fusion of my spine and the spears, was a kind of relic.

When the sword extended like a whip, and the bones separated, any separation in the joints was considered an injury, and cross spears shot forth from each joint.

『Ha! You created a relic even though you don’t believe in Gods?』

Pleroma, undeterred by the cross spears penetrating from within her head, raised her legs.

『〈Thread of Solitude〉.』

Black venom gathered between the legs and spewed out webs. The strands sliced through my body instantly. Steeped in deadly poison, the severed parts emitted smoke as they melted away.

『〈Rupture’s Thread〉.』

Originally, with the sanctuary’s power, the fragments should have regenerated immediately, but the areas trapped by the Rupture’s Thread were irreversibly fragmented.

Screech!

Meanwhile, countless black spiders rushed towards me. They seemed innumerable as they charged down the thread-created legs of Pleroma.

『〈Storm of Living Flames〉.』

I unleashed a gigantic storm of fire capable of consuming an entire city. The fiery storm moved as if it were alive, turning billions of spiders into ashes in an instant.

『〈Binding Net〉.』

Yet, Pleroma was unaffected by the flames. Webs ensnared the storm. The fire storm struggled against it, but the webs eventually pulled it beyond the night sky.

『Now, calmly allow yourself to be consumed by me!』

Pleroma’s spider mouth opened, revealing hundreds of venomous fangs.

『You’re too greedy.』

I distanced myself and swung the four-edged sword like a whip.

Slash!

The sword’s joints separated, cross spears shooting out and devastating the front, grinding all remaining spiders.

However, Pleroma did not easily concede. From beneath her shadow, hundreds of massive cocoons dispatched binding threads.

The four-edged sword was ensnared and failed to reach Pleroma, and just halted there.

『Embroidery of Calamity.』

Complex patterns of spider webs formed behind Pleroma. Just gazing at them conveyed a menacing aura. A miracle inducing all sorts of status effects such as petrification, illusions, madness, and increased mana consumption.

『Blessing of Purity.』

However, a red hue repelled that ominous energy. Due to this blessing, no curses or statuses could affect me today.

『Dreamlike Starlight.』

The stars in the sky shimmered with eerie light. Hallucinations appeared before Pleroma; illusions of her parents and caretakers that appeared identical to reality.

『You have bad taste!』

But from Pleroma’s body, a blue light emitted.

『I wish to see all through the ‘Eyes of Countless Spiders’!』

With the new relic’s power, countless glowing eyes appeared in the air. These spider eyes pierced through the illusion.

Pleroma charged forward. I swung the Gluttony flame, but all strikes were countered by the relic observing everything.

Trying to cleave Pleroma with a massive arm proved futile; it unleashed a massive number of threads that shackled my arm mid-air.

Crunch!

Half of my already battered torso was swallowed by Pleroma. As Pleroma tried to continue feeding by tearing at limbs, however…

『Blessing of Transition.』

My form dissipated into a blood mist. Thinking it had secured her victory, Pleroma was caught off guard and tensed her senses, discovering me having relocated to another place.

『It’s not just you who can wield the miracle of ‘Atlach Nacha.’』

Upon hearing an Outer God’s true name, Pleroma’s ears bled, but I remained unharmed.

The elevated blessing had brought me close to the 5th realm, and additionally, the Golden Blood Elixir shielded my mind.

On the spiders’ sanctuary, I connected their threads to my body, and the webs pierced into my torn vessels. Through these threads, I absorbed the lives and mana of many captive sacrifices.

『You’re spoiled, daring to steal from others! What a bad habit!』

Pleroma’s red eyes gleamed sharply. Spanning dimensions, a web appeared across space before me.

『Dimensional Rift.』

With the immense power of an Outer God, part of my body vanished completely. The web spanning dimensions fragmented and severed my body, leaving parts of me dispersed across another. Blasted into bits across dimensions, I could no longer sustain my body with the absent parts.

『Haah…』

The strain of the miracle seemingly wore on Pleroma, a haggard sound escaping it, yet following that, her eight legs strummed the webs.

Thwack!

Spiders began bursting out from within me.

『Finally!』

As Pleroma lunged with lifted foreleg…

『To eat you!』

With the ground-shaking impact, my body became a pulp. All organs were crushed, leaving merely a mashed clump of blood.

And just as Pleroma’s mouth came to devour that lump…

『… What?』

It abruptly halted.

『Why are you still alive?』
『Khh… Hahaha!』

Pleroma’s body ruptured, unleashing cross spears. As fragmented flesh separated, the Gluttony flamed freed the sword from the tangled webs.

『Without bones or organs… absolutely nothing left…』

Pleroma staggered, attempting to revive on the spiders’ sanctuary.

『How are you still alive!?』
『Now, I am a monster like you!』

I declared.

Organs or bones were unnecessary for me. I reconstituted my body using the Blessing of Transformation, bones exposed and nearly fleshless in a pitiable state.

『Don’t be ridiculous! Even formless residues die when they’re like that!』

Once again, Pleroma thrust her legs skyward. Though half torn, they coiled web around a falling meteor.

『… It doesn’t matter. You can’t kill me anyway. How long do you think you can endure unswallowed in that state?』

Pleroma sneered, licking her lips. her body, fast regenerated by the sanctuary, was still…

『You’re slowing because you’re exhausted. Simply… you lack the power to digest that much energy.』

Far slower than before.

『I awaited this moment.』

I picked up the chalice. The sanctuary of the Chalice of the Red Ceremony vanished, and the four-edged sword formed from the spine also disappeared.

『Recollecting the seven blessings.』

Blood gathered in the chalice. Then, as if reacting in unison, a red star in the sky cast a bright light over the night.

『Recreating the Blessing of the Heavens.』

For a brief period of about five minutes, it can recreate the blessings granted by the heavens at birth.

The blessings conferred by the heavens at birth are referred to as the Blessing of the Heavens by the people here.

The blessings conferred by the heavens at birth are referred to as the Blessing of the Heavens by the people here. And I…

『I shall recreate 〈Transcendence〉.』

They call it a trait.

Fwoosh!

Red starlight cascaded upon me.

‘Pleroma Freurutus.’

Born in secret machinations and created to usher in a new era, the Apostle of Spiders.

I had long waited, knowing her limits and the instant she would be at her weakest.

This very moment, to wield the deadliest miracle of an Outer God as I know it.

『〈Spiral of the White Night〉.』

The sky brightened.

Without a sun, the sky filled with pure white light. Stars danced and moved in this luminous white nighttime sky.

『—–!』

While Pleroma’s mouth opened, no sound escaped.

As stars spun rapidly, incomprehensible rings of two colors formed. Pleroma’s shape distorted within the soundless world.

The form gradually twisted into a bizarre gray vortex with all surrounding spaces.

At the climax of countless spirals twisting to extremity…

『Kyaaaah!!』

The world regained color and sound.

Pleroma’s body twisted beyond recognition. Better off were the human parts of the body.

A result of her desperate struggle to escape the vortex-forming body. But only the head remained intact.

『E… Ethnos…』

I crawled toward Pleroma, and Gluttony extended its tendrils to her.

Then…

Crunch!

Pleroma was consumed.

The more I devoured, the more Gluttony and my body began to recuperate with that energy.

『Hah, who would have thought to be devoured rather than to eat!』

Pleroma muttered.

『It’s all meaningless now…』

A gradually fading laugh.

『You would have been happier being consumed,』 was Pleroma’s last remark before the area was filled only with the repulsive noise of ravenous feasting.

“A fight among Outer Gods’ priests, why did it have to be at Wave Reach…?”

About a week later…

People who had lost their homes fell into despair.

Wave Reach, once a great city, had turned into an abyss, never to be tread upon again. Rumor had it that priests of two Outer Gods clashed over territorial claims.

“Lord… Ethnos…”

The place that had been Wave Reach turned into gray land filled with inexplicable spirals, incomprehensible and unexplainable.

The weak became mad and perished just by gazing upon it. Eldritch heard people call Ethnos, who had caused this disaster, by this name,
“The Gray Calamity.”

However, shortly thereafter, a few began to call him by another name,
“The Red Saint.”

TL’s Corner:
Praise the Red Saint!!!