Encountering the Bishops

Captain Usman along with a small team of healers and archers waited patiently as they watched the alleyway.

In his left hand was his choice weapon from his soul realm. It was a massive longbow of stunning quality that could reach his neck in height when set on the ground. He was one of the best archers and rangers in the entire empire so this wasn't his only bow, but he chose this one for numerous reasons, namely for the unreal penetrative and distance abilities. The insane penetration was perfect for piercing through stuff like dragon scales if need be. He would stay back and command while sniping the target from a distance if things devolved to that point.

Not too long ago, Usman heard the sound of battle in the alley but it was eerily quiet now. He couldn't help but tighten his grip on his bow and imagine the worst.

There was an incident a while back that included a Demon Slayer from the Eternity War. He was a regular human before but after killing the demonic beings, he gained the ability to turn into one and his mind was slowly corrupted. It was quite a disaster at the time because no one expected a Slayer to receive such a substantial ability.

Ever since then, any mission that involved the subjugation or extermination of slayers was treated as a creature hunt, like how adventures did it. This was the sole reason why his entire unit was deployed.

After what felt like a year, the five figures they've been looking for appeared on the rooftops and signaled to them.

'They... did it? Was it really that simple?' As if to confirm his suspicions, one of the assassins had a very large lump hoisted on their back.

Slightly relieved, he signaled to the other teams to pack up the anti-dragon equipment and meet back at their temporary base of operations.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

'Their hostage hospitality is utter crap!! How did my luck give me such "great" kidnappers?!'

He was blindfolded, excessively tied up with all sorts of magical items, and in an extremely uncomfortable position. Using [Spatial Perception] and common sense, he could determine that they were jumping from roof to roof with very little grace and care for his wellbeing. He was treated like a sack of potatoes as his carrier's shoulder armor plate sank into his gut. It couldn't possibly cause him pain but it did give him enough discomfort to make him think about ending this charade and killing them all off.

Both he and Leo were also fighting a mental battle with his curses, trying hard to suppress them. Dragon's Anger wished to slaughter them all and bring about a calamity to the entire region while Dragon's Ego wanted to get out of this degrading situation and then let Dragon's Anger let loose.

Thankfully, his transcendent power came with greater control over himself. As a mortal, he would either succumb instantly or within a minute at most. But now he could go on for quite a while. It did take an insane amount of mental energy though, which even his recovery rate was having trouble with.

After letting out a sigh, he decided to see this through to the end. The benefits of successfully finding and capturing every single one of them were worth all of this. There were certainly other ways to go about this, but this method had the least amount of flaws and the lowest probability for a screw-up or leak.

He was in for a rough ride...

.....

They soon arrived at the central structure of the city which was in between a castle and a gigantic manor. This wasn't the first time Kyren has been here, but he's only ever set foot in the mansion part during his meeting with a high noble after the Immortal Invasion. Now he was about to enter the castle part, which was exponentially larger.

The imperial forces soon entered a large courtyard within the castle which was surrounded by walls on all sides. They've been camping here for months now so their apprentices were already hard at work cleaning things up. Now that they had the target, they were to depart immediately.

*THUD* *Clank*

Kyren was tossed onto the hard stone ground and he grunted in discomfort, further pissing him off. He wasn't proud of it, but he was one to keep a grudge. Unless his carrier was a pretty lady or he saw them as a special exception, he wouldn't go easy on them.

While Kyren grumbled at his mistreatment, Usman ordered everyone to help pack up so they could depart for the capital as soon as possible. He approached the assassin leader who currently had a troubled gaze fixated on Kyren.

"Did you encounter any difficulties, Harris?" Usman was already aware of the assassin's discomfort with this mission by the look in his eye. He also felt like something was off.

Harris has been watching the target nonstop, not daring to take his eyes off of him for even a second. "Nothing to note, Captain."

He then proceeded to explain what he knew of Kyren's inhuman abilities so far. If it wasn't for the multiple curse-inflicting items they used on him, he wasn't truly sure that things would've gone that smoothly. Due to this suspicion, he's been maintaining the curses on him in case something were to happen.

"*sigh* We didn't even need to use all of our anti-draconic gear to complete this mission. We even came with enough equipment and manpower to slay or capture an Adult Dragon..."

It was true that they were putting caution above all else when it came to missions like these. They were fully prepared to fight a genuine dragon if the slayer had the ability to transform into such a monster.

"Did you happen to see his appearance when you were binding him?"

"N-No sir, I didn't think to do that."

This was outside of what they were supposed to do but they were both curious. Harris approached the cacoon-like bundle of rope and aimed to undo the bindings near the face.

Just before he was about to do that, every soldier's danger sense went off the charts and they instantly armed themselves. Even the apprentices noticed the monstrous threat in the air.

Although their attention was diverted, Harris kept some of his attention on Kyren just in case.

*clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap*.....

High up on the walls where the castle guards should've been patrolling were two lavishly dressed humanoids in religious attire with a sacred air around them. But there was something ugly and vile within their aura that made all present unable to speak or move. Even breathing became difficult under their belittling glare.

The gorgeous woman in front who was applauding actually had a soft and gentle expression and smile unlike the scowling male behind. Her long pure silver hair flowed down her back like a calm river with her multi-colored opal eyes shining like a holy prism. She kinda seemed like the motherly type, like she could take in all your worries and make them go away. But the danger they sensed from her contradicted her appearance greatly, making them shiver.

Panic inadvertently rose as the noble veterans wavered under the harsh oppression. Those garments meant that they were full fledged Bishops of the church! If they all thought fighting a cataclysmic dragon was the worst-case scenario for this mission... they would now need to change that mindset. They would take getting eaten alive by a dragon over merely interacting with the church any day!

The female Bishop stopped her applause and joyously clasped her hands like she was getting wonderful news. Her charm showed brightly as her soft voice filled the courtyard, "Greetings gentlemen~!"

Usman kept his cool and lowered his bow, but didn't put it away completely, "To what do we owe the pleasure—"

A violent and flame-like physical aura with a vibrant orange and golden color burst out of the male Bishop in the back. A dark shadow was cast over his angered face as his booming voice filled the area as the ground quaked, "Who gave you permission to speak?!"

The female Bishop sighed as she raised her hand to calm her colleague down, "Now, now, you're killing them."

Under the overwhelming pressure of a S~grade physical aura, everyone was on the ground while being inflicted countless status effects. Their health was dropping fast as they took internal damage and coughed up blood. The healers and supporters passed out from the pain while the apprentices were on death's doorstep. Even Usman was having trouble keeping balance as his mouth filled with the warm metallic taste of blood. He gritted his teeth as he shuddered uncontrollably.

He could release his own physical aura to save some of his subordinates close by but that would just get them killed faster. His only hope was the female bishop taking pity on them.

"Why? If they die now, their fate would be better off compared to being with yo-"

The female Bishop's sweet and heavenly smile practically radiated with holy light, like she was some motherly saintess.

"...Tch, what a waste of time." After clicking his tongue, his aura receded and everybody just barely escaped death. He quickly averted his gaze from her blindingly affectionate expression because he was unable to maintain eye contact with such a woman. He'd rather stay out of her little fetishes and just get dealing with these lowlifes over with.

She giggled as two divine pairs of angelic wings sprouted from her back as she gracefully descended the side of the wall. Two halos materialized on top of her head while the rest of the world seemed to fade from reality, almost as if she was the center of the universe and nothing else mattered.

Onlookers were instantly mesmerized by their savior's heavenly display and appearance. They were so captivated by her that strong feelings welled up inside their hearts that made them want to either marry her or protect her for the rest of their lives.

As soon as she gently touched down, she scanned the crowd like she was watching her adorable little puppies act silly. Her attention landed on Captain Usman and she warmly smiled as she approached while folding up her wings but not getting rid of them.

When she came near to him, she offered her delicate hand to help him up, "I'm sorry about my colleague, he always spoils my mood when he kills... Life is precious you know? Even for those who don't support the church and our beliefs, I think everyone should have as much 'fun' with their life as possible~!!"

As someone who was also infatuated with her, he took it and stood up.

"I-I agree." Their hands were still connected despite him already standing and he could feel his heartbeat speed up.

As a naturally serious and responsible person who was often called a workaholic throughout his life, he's never had time for romantic feelings. So when such a stunning woman acted so intimate with him, he experienced sensations he's never felt before.

"Oh right, I forgot to introduce ourselves! The hothead, or lava-head, over yonder is the fortieth Bishop of the Lumeria continent while I'm the eighteenth Bishop! Sorry for the intrusion~!" Her expression beamed with a scary amount of brilliance and beauty that made the men and women alike feel weak in the legs.

'S-So cute!' Usman felt his cheeks heat up when he couldn't withstand such an attack. If it weren't for his slightly darker skin color, it would've been near impossible to keep up his intense and silent-giant facade, or else his blushing would've been easily noticed. He's built up his resistance to many things throughout hundreds of thousands of battles, but social interactions with people other than with his subordinates were his weakness.

"You must've been wounded pretty badly... Here, let me fix you up~"

His hand, which she was still holding, started to faintly glow while she cast a silent spell. In no time at all, his wounds were completely healed.

He was stunned speechless by what just happened. After snapping back into reality, he looked at the eighteenth Bishop with a slight pleading in his eyes, "Your excellency, please heal my subordinates also!"

She tilted her head and giggled as if what he said was silly, "Hehe, I already did that. I can't have all of you just die...! We didn't even get to have some 'fun' yet!!"

To confirm what she said was true, he glanced around and was relieved to find that everyone recovered. It seemed like there were no deaths, just some who passed out.

Expertly masking his anger and hatred, he looked up towards the Bishop on the wall with a cold stare. He wished he could've glared at him or taught him a lesson for treating them like that, but he'd rather that not happen again.

Suddenly, he noticed something weird about the male Bishop's expression.

'Why does the man who was just about to kill us for no good reason have such an expression of pity while he looks away?'

Then he recalled the last few words the female Bishop uttered and he got this feeling that something was off about how she said that. As if he forgot, he remembered that the female Bishop he was still holding hands with was also apart of the church.

He felt like an ice-cold bucket of water was just dumped on him, immediately making him sober. Who's hand was he holding? The hand of an upper echelon from the notorious Archaic Church!

"By the way," She seductively licked her lips and leaned in close to his face, "That expression you made earlier was to die for~ I bet you were really enjoying yourself while having so much fun! It would've been a pity if you died before I could see that arousing face of yours again~"

".....Pardon?"

"You know... when you took damage from that physical aura? Your expression, in particular, was priceless~!!" Her face slowly contorted from something angel-like and sweet to something grotesque and inhuman, as if whatever "it" was, was getting turned on. Her breath became steamy and lewd, her eyes became crazed as though she couldn't get enough of something, and her lovely cheeks reddened from remembering the agonizing expressions from earlier. "I like you a lot~ So I'll ask my big sister if I can keep you~❤️"

"!?!"

Snapping out of her perverted and hellish fantasies, she remembered that other little puppies were probably also craving for her attention and turned around to address them in an endearing voice, "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you cuties~ I'll also ask big sis if I can keep all of you~! My last toys broke a little too quickly so I'll make sure to have even more fun!!!"

Fear and dread reentered every imperial's heart as no amount of battle experience or bloody fighting could prepare them for this. The image of a once pure and downright gorgeous saintess that couldn't stand the thought of needless death warped and deformed into something vile and depraved that couldn't handle the thought of something dying or breaking without playing with it first.

Usman kept his cool and immediately tried to get his hand away from her unnaturally strong grip. When that didn't work, he summoned a reddish and black backup knife, made up of one the strongest metals around, from his Dimensional Storage and proceeded to slit her throat with stunning precision and coldness. She was taken by surprise and the fresh pearl white blood of a pure-blooded archangel gushed out like a fountain.

Despite the massive power difference between them, the blade went deep into her neck, hitting the bone even, but it didn't seem to cut it off completely. It was obvious that she was a healer and/or supporter so regardless of her grade, she was bound to be weak.

After doing that with little to no hesitation, he raised his knife to defend against any attacks from the other Bishop who was bound to be pissed. He already knew the consequences of killing a Bishop but he couldn't let his subordinates fall into the hands of that she-devil.

"EVERYONE RETREAT WITH THE TARGET AND WOUNDED IMMEDIATELY—" He choked on his words because he must've been seeing things. The male Bishop was just standing there with an uncaring expression. Shouldn't he be avenging his fallen comrade? Do the church's people not care for their own?

Suddenly, his hand felt something tighten on it and his heart stopped. 'IMPOSSIBLE, I CUT HER THROAT TO THE BONE!?!?!"

He turned and was horrified to find the same devil in an angel's skin with her neck unnaturally slanted on her shoulder while only the bone and some flesh supported it. Blood trailed down her chin from her thin lips which had the same caring and cutsie smile. Her beautiful eyes smugly looked at him with her usual "you're so silly" look. The extreme gore that was her neck was revolting and gruesome with enough damage to make it inconceivable for a mortal human to survive. Her breathtaking and insanely expensive robe for Bishops was stained with a lot of her blood down the front. The scene was graphic enough for an exceedingly seasoned veteran like him to have nightmares for many years to come!!