I Quit Being a Priest

Many people mistakenly think that holy power only has the ability to heal others.
Unexpectedly, holy power shows quite good ability when sealing the movements of others as well.
Just like now. Golden light clusters extending from the large rune covering the ground sealed the movements of those standing on it.
His subordinates who were behind me and watching me from the roof fell to the ground and had their movements restricted.
Now there was only one person on this ground who could still move at all.
Was this insufficient for the one who considered himself a leader? While his subordinates fainted from the holy power, Dialo was still maintaining consciousness.
“Such a cheap trick…”
Dialo tried to swing his sword to cut away the holy power binding his body, but he couldn’t.
The bondage of holy power, especially the bondage drawn by my spell formula, wasn’t something that could be easily broken.
“The subject is Creation.”
The holy power floating in the air took shape in the form of dozens of golden swords.
Those swords were directed at Dialo’s flesh. While I wasn’t accustomed to committing murder, the sin of disgracing the messengers of the Sun God was severe.
I felt no guilt in taking life. This must be God’s will.
“Don’t get cocky!”
Just before dozens of swords made of holy power were about to pierce his body, something happened.
His right arm took on a strange form.
-Slash.
Dialo’s blade, which had managed to cut through the bondage made of holy power, pulsed with a dark red color and devoured all the swords flying toward him.
After a wave passed by, the one standing on the massive holy power rune was Dialo. The restraints connected to him had long since disappeared.
I narrowed my brow. It wasn’t just due to the trivial emotion arising from the holy power restraint being broken.
Because Dialo’s arm was too grotesque to be called human.
If I had to express it in words, it was closer to disgust.
“You…”
Dialo’s right arm, which had swollen up in a bizarre form, and his sword, which had received mana accordingly, swelled up greatly.
Human experimentation. The most serious sin among the taboos strictly forbidden by the Order of the Sun God.
The crazy bastard who had conducted experiments on the human body was right in front of me.
And the faint but distinctly perceptible holy power from his right arm.
Though mixed with something else, darkened and fragmented in form, it was unmistakably holy power.
He had infused holy power, which has the authority to construct, to strengthen his arm.
I had no way of knowing how human experimentation was conducted, but I couldn’t help but know what the main ingredient of that was.
The body of one who possesses holy power. In other words, it was the remnant of a terrible alchemy that used humans as ingredients.
“The body of one who possesses holy power has no waste from head to toe. Especially you, you’re the masterpiece among them.”
“Right… I suppose so.”
I drew upon the holy power remaining within my body.
But.
It was insufficient.
The holy power was insufficient to engrave circuits, and the circuits were too short to draw a spell formula.
Because I had used most of it to construct this body. From the moment I came here, my holy power was already less than 20% of what I usually had.
Then.
“Spell Decomposition.”
The spell formula laid on the ground decomposes. The circuits scattered in the air are fragmented.
And I raised my staff toward the substance that remained as pure holy power.
And.
I reassembled the fragmented circuits and reconstructed the decomposed spell formula into a new one.
Dozens of small spell formulas formed a rune and aimed at Dialo.
In such a situation, I pointed my staff at Dialo and said.
“…Come on then, you idiot.”

There was no more holy power left in my body. The only thing I could do was reuse the holy power I had used to engrave spell formulas in this fight.
However.
It’s not that I didn’t have any hidden cards.
-Bang!
Dialo, whose volume had swollen further after touching the taboo, leaped toward me with a heavy sound.
The light of holy power floating in the air wraps around my body and enhances my physical abilities.
By maximizing natural healing abilities, the body is strengthened, and even with this frail body, I gain strength comparable to a superhuman.
-Boom!!!
With a heavy collision sound, the wooden staff and the greatly swollen iron sword clashed.
For a moment, an enormous weight was transmitted to both hands, but if I was being pushed back by force, I just needed to increase the concentration of the self-buff.
“Amplification.”
As the holy power wrapping around my body intensified, the weight felt by my arms decreased.
Now it felt rather light.
Having deflected the sword of huge volume, I leaped quickly. Moving swiftly, my staff pointed towards the space where holy power was cast.
“Creation.”
All of the remaining holy power gathered together to construct a single form.
That form was a sword. A sword that consolidated so much holy power that it was hard to call it a mere piece of holy power.
I jumped into the air and snatched the sword. Dialo, who was still chasing me, moved quickly.
However.
I was even faster than his speed. With a slashing sound, a sword strike was engraved on Dialo’s swollen arm.
Red blood erupted from the wound carved by the sword.
The lingering fishy scent of blood pricked my nose, but I didn’t stop moving.
It would be over if I could just detach that grotesque arm. So I didn’t stop my slashing. I hadn’t learned swordsmanship separately, but my enhanced physical abilities compensated for that almost non-existent experience.
And finally, when that grotesque arm was detached from Dialo’s body, I extracted holy power from the fallen arm.
It had already been mixed with another substance, so absorbing it into my body would damage my body, but there was no problem using it to engrave circuits.
“The subject is Bondage.”
I restrained Dialo’s body by reusing the holy power extracted from the arm. This time, with everything sealed, there was nothing more he could do.
I aimed the golden sword, which seemed about to scatter at any moment, at Dialo. Even maintaining that sword was burdensome with the depleted holy power, but there was enough time to stab him right now.
However, I didn’t intend to kill him now.
“…Who’s behind this?”
Holy power isn’t meant to be used like this. At least, it shouldn’t be used like this.
Holy power is a substance that performs miracles in this world, not a substance to be overworked by forcibly fusing it with something else.
Had numerous priests died at their hands until now? Thinking about it, I felt like my head was getting unnecessarily complicated.
It wasn’t for nothing that I described holy power as a cursed power.
When that power is directed toward others, it holds high value, but if there’s no power to protect oneself, it’s a strange fate to be just used by others and die.
No matter how much I had discarded my morality, I hadn’t fallen so far as to turn my back on my comrades.
“Kuk… do you think I’d tell you…?”
“It would be better if you did.”
I pushed the sword closer to Dialo. In the darkness where light still didn’t reach, the sword shining clearly in the moonlight touched his skin.
Blood seeped from a small wound carved by the slight cut.
Now, as maintaining the sword in my hand was approaching its limit, it felt like I would stab him right now if he didn’t speak quickly.
However, before I could take any action, it was Dialo who reacted first.
He opened his mouth and extended his tongue out long. What this meant in this situation was clear.
“This fucking bastard.”
While suppressing a bit of disgust, I pushed my hand into his mouth just before he could bite his tongue to commit suicide.
The slippery sensation of his tongue was vividly felt, making me involuntarily frown, but there was still information to extract from him.
-Crunch.
Dialo’s teeth bit into my hand, causing indescribable pain.
Human teeth were somewhat blunt to be called sharp, but if the act of closing that mouth was done with the strength of an adult male, it was a different story.
“Damn…”
His teeth pierced my hand, and blood seeped out. Unable to endure the pain, I took out the staff with my other hand and struck his head strongly.
With a “clang,” a quite good resonance of a dull sound reached my ears.
Since my physical abilities were already enhanced with holy power, it was enough of an impact to at least knock him unconscious.
The strength in the teeth, which seemed unwilling to release my firmly bitten hand, slowly loosens.
The pain that had been continuing, enough to make me narrow my brow involuntarily, subsides.
“Tsk.”
Even though I ended up knocking him out, a proper interrogation could be done after my holy power returned.
I sat down in that place, gently rubbing my hand that was still hurting.
Today was a day when I particularly missed Karnel.