〈 286화 〉 280화 – Crisis.
*
The cardinal charged at Caressy with a fierce speed.
No one could imagine the kind of speed coming from that tiny body.
“I’m gonna kill you!!!”
He threw his fist even faster than he charged.
Being a cyborg, his moves were simple yet powerfully forceful.
But.
“Clumsy, huh?”
“Huh?”
Caressy smoothly dodged the cardinal’s arm and deflected the attack.
It was a moment of utter shock for the cardinal.
He thought Caressy, as he knew her, would choose a direct attack and withstand with sheer toughness.
He planned to obliterate her with overwhelming strength.
But his plans fell apart in an instant.
“Shinwoo is sharper than that.”
With those words, Caressy advanced inside the cardinal’s guard and drove her elbow deep into his solar plexus.
Startled by the sudden attack, the cardinal rushed to strike with his other hand.
“You’ve got no family training, and you don’t even know how to fight.”
As she slid under his other hand, she now struck deep into the cardinal’s side with her fist.
It was an adaptation of the body blow combo Hyeji often demonstrated to Shinwoo.
“Y-You bitch!”
As the cardinal pulled back his arm, he swung an elbow toward Caressy’s head.
In response, Caressy bent down and spun, kicking the cardinal right in the face with her heel.
With the power of a cat’s paw manifested by divine energy.
Thwack!!!!
“I’m a catgirl, you fuck!”
And Caressy’s attack didn’t end there.
Keeping her heel planted on the cardinal’s face, she started dragging him across the ground.
Swish!!!!
“With a face like that, it’s perfect for floor sweeping.”
“You fucking orphan bitch!!!”
Even as his face scraped against the ground, the cardinal hurled insults at Caressy.
In return, Caressy started pounding the fallen cardinal’s face with her fists.
“Orphan punch!!!”
With the sharpness of the cat paw manifested by divine power, Caressy unleashed a flurry of blows upon the cardinal.
In overwhelming shock, the cardinal frantically swung his feet at Caressy.
“Die!!!”
“Really, you’ve learned nothing, huh?”
But Caressy managed to avoid the attack by taking just one backstep.
She then kicked the fallen cardinal hard in the side.
“Orphan punch!!!”
“That’s a fucking kick!!!”
As she soared through the air, the cardinal shouted indignantly.
“That’s what being an orphan is all about.”
“You dog bastard, really.”
“Tell that to Shinwoo.”
Caressy just laughed mockingly at the cardinal’s plight.
Even as he rolled on the ground, the anger swirling in his head made him unintentionally chew his lips.
It was infuriating to be reduced to this by that orphan in front of him.
But what frustrated him the most was the name Kim Shinwoo.
It was Kim Shinwoo who had ruined the trial earlier.
It was Kim Shinwoo who wiped out the believers that were still somewhat useful, despite their lack of value.
It was Kim Shinwoo who had led that orphan girl to adopt an unexpected fighting style.
And it was Kim Shinwoo who created this humiliating situation right now.
Everything revolved around Kim Shinwoo.
He felt like he would get PTSD just from hearing that name.
But the cardinal’s anguish didn’t last long.
Boomboomboomboomboom!!
A loud explosion echoed from outside the cathedral.
Upon hearing that, Caressy only felt joy.
As if she had been waiting for this moment.
“Shinwoo and Hyeji did something, huh!”
“Fuck! That bastard Kim Shinwoo!!!!!”
It was Kim Shinwoo again.
He was going crazy.
Everything was a mess because of that crazy idiot.
“Fuck! If things keep going like this, there’ll be nothing left!”
Plus, hearing the unending explosions made the cardinal feel anxious.
According to the original plan, he should have killed the pope by now and gradually eliminated the rest of the vermin.
But things were going far too differently.
If this continued, even if he killed the pope and seized power, what he would end up with would be nothing but ruins.
It was clear he wouldn’t achieve his dreams there.
On top of that, he hadn’t heard anything from the researchers who had asked for reinforcement cyborgs.
“What the hell are those masters doing!!!”
With his puny Boy’s Love brain, he still couldn’t grasp the difference between a master and a doctor.
If a professor from some magic university heard this, they would come to kill him immediately.
“I guess I have no choice!”
Eventually, the cardinal decided to resort to a more extreme method.
It was a function his researchers had adamantly cautioned against using due to its incomplete cyborg nature.
But solving the current situation took precedence.
In exchange for overwhelming power for a limited time, the cyborg’s body would be completely wrecked.
But he figured he could just make the researchers deal with it later.
Unaware that all the researchers had already been grilled to perfection in his plans.
To make sure of this, he decided to incorporate regression as well.
Though he could only use it about five times a day, given the enormous cost of power, he wanted to make sure.
“This time, I’ll treat this seriously!”
“Now that I see it, you’re a fucking mutt, huh. Keep your trash talk in check.”
“That’s enough of your bullshit!”
The cardinal got up and charged at Caressy, throwing a punch.
Seeing that, Caressy felt a yawn coming on.
It was the same scene as before.
She dodged the punch and, pretending to strike with her elbow to the solar plexus, quickly jabbed her knee forcefully into the cardinal’s gut.
It was a move inspired by the unpredictable paint moves Shinwoo displayed while fighting others.
However, there was one crucial difference between Shinwoo and Caressy.
Shinwoo had changed his course of action after seeing someone else regress.
Caressy was merely mimicking that level.
And there were two reasons why Caressy sensed something was off about the situation.
First was the cardinal’s expression just before her attack made contact.
It seemed as if he was mocking her, fully aware of her intentions.
But there was a more direct reason than the cardinal’s expression.
It was the strange sensation felt at the knee.
The feeling did not convince her that she was striking a human body.
Clang!!!
“What, what the hell!”
“I knew this would happen!”
The cardinal’s statement, as if he had already anticipated Caressy’s actions, amplified her anxiety.
At the same time, an intense numbing feeling struck her knee.
‘What, what the hell is this!’
The sudden change made Caressy falter for a moment.
And that hesitation demanded a painful price from her.
Crack!
“It’s gonna hurt now!”
“Damn it.”
The cardinal seized Caressy’s ankle and slammed it hard down to the ground.
As if Caressy, the hammer, was nailing a nail into the barren earth.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Die! You fucking orphan bitch!!!!”
Of course, Caressy tried various attempts to escape during the process.
She kicked the cardinal’s face.
She bent down to scratch and hit the hand gripping her ankle with all her might.
She even unleashed a burst of divine power to shake off the cardinal momentarily.
“You orphan bitch, where do you think you’re going!!!”
“Fuck off.”
But nothing worked.
The strange thing was that the area where Caressy struck briefly turned pitch black.
Perhaps that absorbed all the shock.
The harder Caressy resisted, the more strength the cardinal found in his grip.
“It hurts!!!!!”
“Caressy!!!! No!!!!”
“You just sit back and watch this orphan die!!!”
The pope’s tearful cries fell on deaf ears as the cardinal’s attack intensified.
In the end, Caressy wrapped her entire body in divine power, deciding to endure until the impact finished.
Yet, the cardinal’s merciless attacks showed no signs of stopping.
“Die! Die! Die!”
“……Cough.”
The assault continued until all the divine power surrounding Caressy disappeared.
As her divine power faded and she began to collapse, blood trickling down from her head, the cardinal finally halted the attacks.
He lifted her neck and growled.
“Now do you get your place!”
“Ptui.”
In response, Caressy spat a mix of blood and saliva in the cardinal’s face as a sign of defiance.
Then, she raised her middle finger to him, mocking.
“You fucking idiot…talking big without parents…huh.”
With her words, the cardinal reflexively threw Caressy violently into the bookshelf.
It was a possible answer because, although lacking in eloquence, the cardinal overflowed with power.
Then the pope rushed to the fallen Caressy in a hurry.
“My daughter! Are you okay!”
“I’m fine…just a little dizzy.”
Caressy spat on the ground and slowly began to rise up.
She thought she looked somewhat okay, but in reality, she wasn’t fine at all.
Her vision was spinning, and everything appeared red.
She kept feeling some lump rising in her throat.
Her arms and legs felt so heavy that she thought she would collapse any moment.
The only consolation was that her bones hadn’t broken, thanks to her sturdy body.
‘This is really dangerous.’
Meanwhile, the cardinal, appearing unscathed, slowly began to walk toward the dazed Caressy.
Moving closer to her inevitable death.
Seeing this, the pope quickly stepped in front of Caressy, arms wide open to protect her.
“What do you have against my daughter!”
“Get lost.”
Yet the cardinal simply smacked the pope without a second thought.
“Cough!”
“Dad!!!!!”
This time, Caressy rushed to support the pope.
Due to his old age, the pope was knocked out cold from just one blow from the cardinal.
As Caressy glared at the cardinal, he met her gaze coldly.
“Are you out of your fucking mind!!!”
“I have a personal grudge against you.”
At that moment, the cardinal gritted his teeth and spoke.
He let his boiling rage manifest in a sinister tone.
“I can never forgive you.”
*
