The Holy Trials 7

To which of the angels did God ever say,

"Sit at my right hand

until I make your enemies

a footstool for your feet"?

Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

Hebrews 1:13-14

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"Truly magnificent…" whispered one soldier, watching the ferocity of Adam—cutting down zombies after zombies.

"Is that the strength of a follower of God?" asked another.

"Don't be ridiculous! He's some sort of secret weapon from God—just like Captain Degurechaff!"

"Secret weapon? Wake up from your fantasy! The Church has always been able to do this, those bastards just waited that long to see us suffer." muttered another soldier.

The comments about Adam's performance were getting out of hand, but Lieutenant Karl was as transfixed as his troops and didn't bother calming them down. Adam's might increasing with each monster evaporating under the pressure of his Holy energy was a sight to behold.

*Swish* The flesh parted like water under the edge of his sword. Another down for the count.

A sight that both excited and terrified the Lieutenant.

He had been wrong, Captain Degurechaff wasn't the same as Adam, Adam was worse.

His gleeful smile when he ravaged the innards of a reanimated corpse or the intensity with which his eyes shone through the dark corridor because of his holy energy—directed at the monsters pouncing on him…

That man is truly dangerous.

Lieutenant Karl gulped; watching as Adam took care of the last zombie of this wave. Covered in slowly vanishing tripes and blood, Adam caught his breath—feeling winded, not due to exhaustion but the exhilaration—and started to stroll towards the rest of the group.

Tanya's squad had already moved up and they now needed to catch up, but the Lieutenant was paralyzed by Adam's figure, covered in gore yet grinning like a joyous child.

"We uh... We should follow Captain Degurechaff's group," said Karl, escaping Adam's gaze like he was prey being stared at by a predator. The Church members' mood gradually calmed down, and his face projected a calm expression again, but the people that had just observed his performance were not fooled.

At least, they wouldn't die to the zombies so long as Adam was with them. It was the same feeling, both demoralizing and calming, that they experienced with Tanya in their ranks—protecting them from the rampant plague Albion unleashed.

They felt ashamed that they were not as useful, but they felt relieved that they wouldn't die needlessly.

As Adam walked amongst the soldiers, the chatter died down very quickly as they felt like a true monster was passing next to them. Sweat dripped and gulps could be heard throughout.

At last, they rejoined Tanya's group, occupied by what Adam could only call a mutation. The undead creature they were fighting was three times the size of a normal human, and its width followed this scheme. The towering monster cracked the ground under its feet and its toxic, foul breath made every soldier jerk back when they entered his range of 'attack'.

Its gleaming clean skin contrasted deeply with the usual zombies' putrid and decaying flesh—making it look a cut above the rest.

However the blank face, with absolutely no feature—making it look like a mannequin—was truly the most terrifying aspect.

Each swing it performed was too fast for Adam to follow, as he saw Tanya von Degurechaff dance around the creature, shooting it with holy bullets at every opening.

Even with Tanya's stats, she struggled to kill the undead titan. While her holy energy burned its skin, it only left minor wounds, the monster's natural regeneration fighting against the corrosive and burning nature of the holy energy against the undead.

Annoyed, the titan stepped back for a second before inhaling a large amount of air. "WRAAAAAAAGH" it screamed. The sonic wave of its booming yell buffeting the soldiers, once again reminding them of the difference in strength.

Adam did not have the time to stare at the half-angel's fight, as the titan's roar destroyed the surrounding windows and mirrors. Its shout was so deafening that everyone in the vicinity had covered their ears for a second, the unpleasant buzz of the aftereffects ringing through their brains.

However, its shout was not to destabilize Tanya's unit—though it succeeded in that aspect—but slowly, several smaller voices could be heard answering to the monster's call.

The groans of the zombies intensified, and Adam was the witness of a true wave of zombies running towards them. The glowing green eyes of the horde shining through the darkness. The already destroyed brick path fractured even further, the sound drowned under the cacophony of screams and groans.

Even through all of that, Adam only smiled. Suspecting it was time to unleash a technique he had seen his late mentor do—but was never able to reproduce due to his meager reserves of Holy energy, the fanatic extended his arm, holding his claymore with only the right hand, while he grasped his right wrist with his other hand.

He closed his eyes for a second, drawing out the bubbly and lively energy from him. From the soldiers' perspective, it looked like Adam was starting to shine, and that the light was converging towards his weapon.

Once the smoke-like aura started to materialize, looking like solid light around his sword, Adam lashed out, using all of his strength—enough to create the powerful sound of the blade cutting through the air.

*SWIIISH*

Extending from his blade, an arc of light flew through the air and decimated the horde of zombies incoming. The sound of flesh being cut clean could be heard repeatedly.

Bones being cut, intestines being crushed—the creatures moving through the night were obliterated by Adam's move.

The speeding blade of light's intensity diminished with each monster it sliced through, before fizzling out with a loud thud—the upper halves of the corpses falling to the ground, separated from the rest of the bodies.

With it, the stench of burning bodies hit everyone, revealed by the slowly fading corpses on the ground—the light produced by the blazing flesh replacing the vanished green glint of their eyes.

Several soldiers gasped, their minds unable to comprehend what Adam just accomplished, something that even Tanya never showed.

Role: Warrior has reached level 13.

+30 STR, +30 CON, +12 DEX

Due to the development of a new move, the skill [Blade Of Wrath] has been created.

[Blade Of Wrath] (Active) - Lv 1

Upon activation, a coat of Holy energy envelops the weapon, ready to lash out at any enemy it is aimed at.

When swinging your sword while this skill is active, the holy energy surges forward in a wave of the same proportions the sword-swipe had.

+11% cutting damage to unholy beings.

"W-What a monster!" heaved one soldier, but Adam paid no mind to their comments.

So this is the result of the skill [Holy Manipulation] being level 2? He had not truly understood how much more Holy energy he had gained until he unleashed his first holy wave.

Though the system called it [Blade Of Wrath]. A fitting name, in Adam's opinion—but since everything God created was perfect, it was only natural that the name his Sacred Gear gave to his new skill was perfect.

Adam would have liked to say that after releasing such a devastating attack that wiped more than half of the sea of monsters coming towards them, he was tired. That he had used every drop of juice he had. But as he felt the effects of his leveling up through his body, his mind refreshed, his muscles roaring and his reserves filled to the brim…

Adam only smiled, and prepared his second [Blade Of Wrath], since the zombies kept pouring from every entrance, attracted by the titan's war cry.

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Adam gasped, trying to find the air to fill his completely normal lungs. His body screamed of exhaustion, even though he looked perfectly fine from the exterior. Despite the first levels being easy, he quickly realized that the further he advanced, the harder it was to level up—and the level-ups were his way to fight against exhaustion.

His physical frame was completely fine, barely phased by the exercise, as Adam barely moved but launched [Blade Of Wrath] over and over again, riding the world of the undead that crawled towards them until Tanya was able to get rid of the titan.

What he was experiencing was mental exhaustion. He had overestimated the toll using his Holy energy took on him, and breathing heavily was completely worthless to heal his mind—but he did it anyway as if there was a placebo effect in place.

He was spent, the hundreds of zombies he killed with his last attack not awarding him with any level-up.

"Are you okay?" called Lieutenant Karl, making Adam jerk his head around in surprise. Since he had advanced a bit towards the hordes of zombies, he did not expect someone to follow him.

"Yes… I'm fine, I just used too much Holy energy." answered the fanatic, his eyes perpetually narrowed due to the unfamiliar experience.

"I see… Captain Degurechaff wishes to see you, as they have established a base at the entrance of the laboratory area that we just reached. The enormous titan has been slain by the Captain and we suffered zero casualties, something that never happened before."

"She wants the soldiers to rest before we go further?"

"Exactly." The Lieutenant didn't wait for Adam's answer, as he sharply turned around and headed back towards the camp.

Before following him, Adam glanced at his weapon, gleaming from the light of the sun weaseling through an opening his new skill created when it hit one of the walls of the corridor.

The sunlight pierced through the darkness, illuminating the brick path—filled with blood, the only part of the zombies that didn't disappear from the Holy energy.

The Hall was painted red and green, the only traces left of the defiled corpses.

Adam, strolling towards the rest of the group, decided to check his status.

Adam

Race: Human

Role: Warrior

Level: 16

Faith: 98%

Impurity: 16%

STR: 126

CON: 106

DEX: 60

INT: 10

WIS: 10

CHA: 10

Skills:

[Song Of David] (Passive) - Lv MAX

Protects the believer from outside mental and emotional manipulation.

[Vow Of Nazarite] (Passive) - Lv MAX

Grants infinite growth and potential.

[Truth] (Active) - Lv MAX

Reveals information about the target.

[Dungeon Dimension] (Active) - Lv 1

Grants the ability to travel to various instances.

[Warrior Conditioning] (Passive) - Lv 1

Grants increased body and martial growth.

1% increased stat growth and skill growth related to the physical aspect.

[Holy Energy Manipulation] (Active) - Lv 2

Grants the ability to manipulate Holy Energy.

[Swordsmanship] (Passive) - Lv 1

+10% Damage with Sword-type weapons.

[Blade Of Wrath] (Active) - Lv 2

Upon activation, a coat of Holy energy envelops the weapon, ready to lash out at any enemy it is aimed at.

When swinging your sword while this skill is active, the holy energy surges forward in a wave of the same proportions the sword-swipe had.

+12% cutting damage to unholy beings.

Traits:

[Holy Man]

You are the bearer of the Holy Light amongst humans.

Unlocks Holy Magic and grants Major Affinity to Holy Magic.

[Virtue of Righteous Anger]

Your belief in the Almighty is impenetrable and unchanging. You are willing to do what must be done to expel the impurity of this world.

+100% damage to unholy beings. ​

Satisfied with his progression, especially regarding his physical stats, he realized that he would have to find a way to increase the three other stats left, as he theorized that they would have an impact on his Holy energy.

Even though his reserves increased from his average amount to enough to be qualified as a talented Holy Man, he knew that his Holy energy was still unfocused and weak in density, as evidenced by the low light coming out of his blade when he used his [Blade Of Wrath].

Compared to what his mentor could unleash, his Holy energy was far too weak and far too feeble, so he had to replace quality with quantity—simply pumping more and more energy into his blade.

As a result—Adam sent one more glance at his weapon, seeing chips of the edge being missing, and parts of the blade being colored in a red hue—his sword suffered from the overload.

Though his weapon was not one of good quality by any standard, it was still a very decent and reliable metal sword, one that shouldn't be already breaking down like this if Adam was more controlled in his Holy energy.

'It does not matter… The true weapon against Evil is my mind, the truth, and my body,' thought Adam, covering his claymore with simple white clothing once more.

The clicks of his footsteps approaching drew the attention of the soldiers standing in the room that Tanya designated as the resting room. They were resting, but the tense shoulders, darting eyes and the hands still grabbing their rifles did not lie—they were alert.

However, their eyes all lit up when they watched Adam enter the room. Despite the fright at the realization of the power Adam held, and his capability to constantly improve and grow stronger on the spot, he still played a major part in this operation—they knew that their survival was in no small amounts due to the dark-haired man dressed in religious clothes.

Religious clothes that were painted in red due to the amount of blood that splashed onto them, and that nobody in this world could recognize completely. A—now bloodied—tighter than usual surplice.

In the end, Tanya cut through the chase and roamed towards Adam. Her eyes tightened for a moment when she looked at him before she returned to her neutral expression.

"I want to thank you for the work you've put into this operation. I've only heard good things about your performances in your group. Both Lieutenant Karl and the rest of the soldiers praised your efficiency," stated Tanya. Her wide eyes seemed to suck Adam's attention as they slightly glowed through the dark room.

Despite the candles and magical lamps brought by the soldiers, it wasn't enough to lighten the hall correctly—a testament to the general size of the castle.

"I thank you… Tanya," answered Adam, not knowing how to call the Half-angel in front of him. It seemed that she wanted to mesh with the humans, unwilling to reveal her heritage until necessary, therefore Adam deduced that her human name would do the job.

If she noticed his efforts, she didn't show it as she turned her head around, checking the troops. "Adam. I can now understand why you are so praised by the Church. Numerous awards are waiting for you in the new capital of the Empire, should you want to retrieve them."

Adam narrowed his eyes, wondering if this was a test. "I'm honored by your words but… I will have to pass, it wouldn't be proper for a Church member like myself to accept such materialistic rewards." He bowed slightly.

In her head, Tanya thought, 'Hmmm, so he doesn't want material goods. What is his objective then? And more importantly, how can he get that much stronger while fighting? How much Being X spent on him to grant him such ridiculous talent.' She squinted her eyes, extending her holy sense towards him. 'His reserves of Holy energy even grew!'

Adam took notice of her shifting expressions but didn't pay much attention. It was his duty to help the Lord's agent in ridding the world of monsters now marching on Earth—and he wouldn't fail.

"I see," said Tanya, giving Adam a tense smile. "If that is the case, then know that God recognizes your efforts and will reward you appropriately."

These words however gave Adam pause. Warmth exploded from within as a direct subordinate of the Lord told him that God was proud of what he was doing. Flustered, Adam didn't know what to answer.

"I-I do not have the words..." His voice was trembling, gaining the attention of a few surrounding soldiers. "I… I will make sure to continue honoring the Lord in the future!"

The affirmation of his faith was awkward but overwhelmed by emotions, Adam just blurted out what was on his mind. Tanya's cough at the end of his sentence was used to disguise her internal cringe at the Church member's reaction.

'Damn it, he really is a fanatic through and through! This might become hard to trick him…' mentally lamented Tanya, suddenly feeling the urge to bite her nails.

Meanwhile, Adam thought, 'I will follow the servant you sent on these cursed lands to the end, God! This I swear!'

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Beta: Darklord331 and Novaclysm.

A/N:

Tanya and Adam are quite funny to write together. 1 Chapter away from the return of the boobs dimension!