Chapter 1172: Wicked Saintess?

「Hehehehe! Black Lightning Princess! I want you!」

『WHAAAAT?!』

H-H-H-He wants F-F-Fran?!

Y-You fucking lolicon! How dare you!

Fran is super cute, so I can understand if someone falls for her! In fact, I doubt the sanity of anyone who doesn’t fall in love at first sight! Perhaps he awakened to this fetish after seeing Fran up close!

But I’ll never allow this to happen! If you want Fran, you’ll have to take her over my dead body! Err, I mean I’m not giving Fran to some perverted fiend from the enemy country! You’re literally the worst of the worst!

「?」

「You’re the Saintess, the Wicked Saintess with a connection to the Evil God! Now I understand why Avenger went crazy! No, he was never crazy, he was right! You are truly our Saintess! Hehehehehehe!」

First “priestess” and now “saintess”!?

Well, at least his “want” didn’t have any romantic meaning.

Wicked Saintess… Sounds a bit contradictory. Either way, he must have gotten lured in by my evil energy.

Sorry Fran! I’m drawing all sorts of weirdos to you!

「What do you want from me?」

「Hehehe! Deliver my prayers to the Evil God!」

「?」

「Turn me down if you dare, but I’ll just take you by force and make you obey! Your power to devour relics is quite rare as well! I can make good use of that too!」

He’s fully aware of my cannibalize ability! If he knows, then so does the rest of Raydoss. What a pain!

「EVIL GOD! GRANT ME EVEN MORE POWER!!!」

As soon as Onslaught shouted the words, his body began to expand.

The robe he was wearing tore apart from the inside as he swelled up like a balloon. I thought he would turn into something more like a giant humanoid, but what appeared was a massive, eyeless mass with countless tentacles.

Kinda like Backb*ard without the eye.

Along with this transformation, his evil energy surged to more than twice its previous level. Did he really receive power from the Evil God? I posed the question to the Evil God Fragment, and I got a panicked response denying it. Kinda like a “No, not me”.

I don’t fully understand what it’s trying to say, but it was definitely a denial. That means there might be other fragments of the Evil God in this region.

It’s also possible he achieved a connection to the Evil God in the divine realm like Linford, but I didn’t see any traces of a ritual here.

「Hehehe! All I need to care about is your survival! Time to tear off your limbs and drag you away!」

Onslaught’s face appeared on the tip of one of the tentacles. Fricking creepy! That’s going to show up in my dreams!

『We can’t fight here. Let’s lure him away.』

（Nn.）

「Woof!」

There were still several soldiers engaged with the evil shadows. Fighting here would result in many casualties.

We attempted to lead Onslaught outside of camp, but…

「Hehehe! I ain’t gonna move! We’re fighting here and now! If you want to run away, just be my guest! I’ll eat these side dishes before the main course!」

「No!」

「Grrrr!」

Despite looking completely insane, Onslaught’s reasoning was sound. He promptly began slaughtering the surrounding soldiers rather than chasing Fran.

Multiple tentacles shot out to wrap around nearby soldiers, crushing them to death before we could respond.

「Everyone, run!」

『This isn’t going to work. Everyone is panicking after getting ambushed by these shades.』

He did all of this to disorient the soldiers and keep them pinned in camp, knowing that Fran can’t get serious with allied soldiers nearby.

Very annoying, but this was probably the most effective way to limit Fran’s potential.

（Master! Let’s get the people around us to safety first!）

『Roger. Fran, you try to grab Onslaught’s attention! Meanwhile, Urushi can get the soldiers out of here by force!』

「Woof!」

Urushi and I invoked magic to destroy the shades, as Fran struck back at Onslaught.

「Haah!」

「Gyaaah! Hehehe! Damn, that stings! I never thought I’d feel so much pain after obtaining the body of a fiend! As expected from our Saintess!」

「Shut up!」

「Hehehehe!」

Each of Fran’s strikes carried the divine attribute. Onslaught certainly winced in pain, but I sensed no reduction in the evil energy within him.

I know it’s working, just the sheer amount of evil energy he had made it seem like a drop in the bucket.

「Come on! Is that all you got?! All these small fry will die if you can’t save them!」

「Then how about this!」

「Gyaaah!」

Fran invoked purification magic, which is especially effective on fiends when infused with divine energy. While the damage might be lower than a physical strike, it affected a wide area, causing Onslaught’s tentacles to momentarily freeze.

This bought some time for Urushi and me to forcibly evacuate the soldiers. Urushi grabbed their collars and dragged everyone, while I guided them all into my Dimension Gate.

I had to use telepathy to call out to them, but in this situation, they should think of it as their comrades shouting from a distance.

They seem to be getting used to escaping, as their retreat became very swift with our support.

「Not bad, Saintess! I’m looking forward to the tears when I finally break you!」

『Did you just say you’ll make Fran cry!? Enough with this crap! You’re dead!』

（Master, calm down.）