Chapter 312: The Angel's Descent (Part 9)
"Your Excellencies, the heretics' magic array is right here," a Holy Clergy Member spoke.
"The evil aura on the outer layer of the barrier is extremely dense; we will be polluted the moment we get close..."
Standing beside him were three men, all members of the Holy See's Priest Order who had come as backup.
Originally there should have been one more, but that person had gone to the nearby temporary camp earlier.
Among the three who arrived, one wore round, black-rimmed glasses, appearing to be in his twenties, and was listening intently at this moment.
Upon hearing the word "polluted," the young man with black-rimmed glasses immediately adopted an anxious tone: "Has Holy Water been used to purify it? How is the recovery going now? Are there any signs of mental diffusion?"
The man leading the way bowed slightly: "Reporting to Your Excellency Innocent, the injured have already undergone exorcism. Because the battle is deadlocked right now, we temporarily have no way to complete a mental assessment..."
"How can this be? The evil aura affects people's minds subtly; perhaps that injured priest is suffering torment right now," Innocent Gregory shook his head.
The guide was stunned for a moment: "Thank you... for your concern, Your Excellency. That priest was only slightly tainted. We will complete the corresponding assessment according to your instructions later."
"That's very good," Innocent nodded. "Roughly when, and what suspicious points have you found so far?"
The guide: "..."
He glanced to the side. At this moment, the two heretics inside the evil aura barrier were looking over here, yet this Excellency in front of him still had a look of waiting for him to continue.
"C-currently, there are none," the guide bit the bullet and said.
"This won't do!" Hearing this, Innocent immediately shook his head, "There are many symptoms of the mind being affected by evil, such as a drastic change in temperament, suddenly mastering a certain skill..."
The guide was instantly shocked.
"I was just casually brushing him off... besides, that's not the main point right now!" he roared inwardly.
Smack!
The guide suddenly felt a heavy slap on his shoulder.
He almost lost his footing, and then a gruff voice rang in his ear.
"Hey! Innocent is just like this!"
The guide turned his head, discovering it was the other person who came with that Excellency.
The other party wore a sleeveless top, revealing two muscular arms.
"Lord Calvin..."
"You don't need to pay attention to him. Since Lord Jolan sent us, you don't need to worry about what happens next," Calvin Ash said.
"Take your people and stay far away first, lest you get accidentally injured."
Hearing this, the guide breathed a sigh of relief. After giving a salute, he hurriedly scurried away.
"Calvin, this is not right..."
"Of course! You are the team leader, you must think comprehensively!" Calvin immediately stated his stance.
"However, right now, that group of heretics is planning to do bad things. I think only you can make them turn over a new leaf!"
"As for helping John capture samples..."
Calvin turned his head as he spoke, but there was no one behind him.
"Anyway, Sid is handling the healing. Our mission is to find the weaknesses of this legion of the dead. Lord Jolan is still fighting for his life up there," he pointed upwards.
"Hmm... what you say makes sense." Innocent immediately walked toward the evil aura barrier on the side.
"Hey, finally some peace and quiet." Calvin stretched his arms.
Then he looked to the side, only to see a few skeleton soldiers gathering towards him.
"Today's theological coursework hasn't been completed yet; this is a good opportunity to practice."
He reached toward his lower back, taking out a water bottle and a glass bottle from a black cloth bag there. The bottle contained some milky white powder.
Calvin unplugged the cork, poured all the powder into the clean water, shook it well, and chugged it all down in one breath.
"Burp~" He wiped the water stains from the corner of his mouth.
Immediately after, he took out a Walkman from his bag, put on the headphones, and pressed the play button.
Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum...
Dense, powerful drumbeats clashed with the screaming of an electric guitar.
Calvin clenched his fists: "Standard push-ups, 200 per set, begin!"
As soon as his voice fell, he immediately dropped to the ground, bobbing up and down at a speed almost invisible to the naked eye.
At the same time, the skeleton soldiers also drew near. Yellowish-brown slime flowed on their surfaces, corroding the ground beneath their feet into potholes.
Clatter... Clatter...
The skeleton soldiers raised their weapons simultaneously and stabbed toward Calvin.
"First set, complete!"
The latter had already stood up at some unknown time.
"I'll just use these four enemies to complete my inter-set rest." Calvin curled his lips, his entire body covered in a layer of Holy Light barrier.
Bang!
Hearing a loud crash, a cloud of dirt billowed into mid-air. When the dust settled, those skeleton soldiers had already vanished, leaving only a burly man lying on the ground, bobbing rapidly up and down.
At the same time, near the temporary camp.
Several injured Holy Clergy Members stood together, pointing at a clearing not far away.
They saw many dead soldiers lying there, all tightly bound by gray chains at this moment.
And beside them was a middle-aged man with a full head of white hair, squatting next to a skeleton.
"Height 5 feet, bone age approximately 300 years old... Hey! Stop thrashing your foot bones around," John Kerson dodged a kick by stepping sideways.
Subsequently, he drove the chains to bind the remains a bit tighter.
"Ah... no need to apologize. I understand this isn't your true intention. Come, turn your head over, good boy." He beckoned with his hand.
"Hiss-ah!"
The dead soldier suddenly tilted its chin up and spat out a mouthful of yellowish-brown slime.
John dodged once again, and the slime fell not far in front of the several onlookers.
Sizzle... Sizzle...
The weeds instantly dissolved, and a plume of white smoke rose from the ground.
Gulp...
The throats of the several onlookers rolled.
They stared at that man with weird expressions, their gazes as if looking at a madman.
One of them turned his head and said to a nun who was bandaging a wound: "Your Excellency Sid, is that your companion?"
"No," the other party responded immediately.
"Uh..." The person asking the question was stunned.
"Strange... I clearly saw Sister Sid arrive with three other people," he thought to himself.
On the other side.
"There's a fatal penetrating wound on the chest. Doesn't look like a participant of the war back then..." John rubbed his chin.
"Ah, thank you for your cooperation. Next." He dragged the dead soldier to the side with the chains.
Before taking a few steps, John suddenly stopped.
"What did you say?" He looked at the skeleton soldier from just now.
"As long as I liberate the sin in your remains, you'll tell me the source of the power controlling you?"
Opposite him, the skeleton on the ground still struggled, and was extremely aggressive.
"You should have said so earlier." John licked his lips, revealing a smile. "Come, let me personally give you a full-body examination."
A moment later, he arrived beside the camp.
"The legion of the dead has their limbs controlled by a force; it's not the enslavement of their souls. As long as the power connection within them is broken, we should be able to stop them." John handed an investigation report to Sid.
The latter was changing dressings for those few onlookers from earlier.
After reading the report, Sid frowned.
"Innocent sensed earlier that the range covered by the evil power is very large. Even if it's destroyed for a short time, it can recover rapidly," she said.
"The safest method is still to destroy the rune structures of the remains, so no power can control them anymore."
John spread his hands: "This thing is like a fingerprint; everyone's is different. To rapidly decipher over a thousand remains in a short time is simply impossible."
"Y-Your Excellency Sid, this is..." an injured person whispered.
"Someone who came with me," she said casually.
"We are companions who have shared life and death," John added.
"Then Your Excellency Sid, why did you say you didn't know him just now... Hiss! Ouch, ouch, ouch!"
Sid ripped off the old gauze in one fell swoop, threw it into the waste collection box, and then said again: "How are those two guys doing?"
"Probably not dead yet," John said, rubbing his hands together. "I'll go deliver the intelligence right now. What if Innocent has a way..."
When he walked to the intersection, he turned his head again and shouted: "By the way, don't mess with those dead soldiers. I haven't finished giving them a full-body examination yet, hehe..."
As soon as his voice fell, John's figure instantly disappeared from the spot.
"Sigh..." Sid covered her forehead.
"Talks too much nonsense, all brawn and no brains, psychologically perverted... Why am I stuck with such a companion."
"Lord Jolan said a new person might arrive soon. I hope that guy is somewhat normal."
In front of the evil aura barrier.
Abraham was also covering his forehead.
"Hey... are you going to fight or not? If you're not going to make a move, then hurry up and leave," he frowned and said.
"Then will you cancel the ritual magic array?" Innocent's voice came from outside.
"Of course not! Is there something wrong with your brain??"
"But, you have already harmed so many innocent people. Don't you realize this magic array is an evil thing?"
"So... we are the bad guys!" The corner of Abraham's mouth twitched, forcefully pointing behind him.
On the ground there, a pentagram magic array was drawn, with many sacrifices placed in the middle.
The arms of men and women formed the left and right wings.
The brains of numerous Holy Clergy Members were pieced together to form the shape of a head.
Countless short legs formed the lower limbs, and beast-like claws served as the soles of the feet...
This was distinctly the pattern of an angel.
Abraham stepped aside: "As heinous villains, isn't doing bad things completely normal!"
He panted heavily after speaking.
"But..." Innocent said, "You can abandon the evil in your hearts and reclaim mercy and kindness. I am willing to accept you according to the Lord's guidance."
The air fell into a brief silence.
Abraham widened his eyes, his glasses sliding to one side.
At this moment, it seemed something in his brain had been smoothed over.
Looking back to not long ago, the Wings of Vengeance powerfully attacked the Church's Holy Land, achieving a feat that other factions around the world wouldn't even dare to dream of.
After that, they swept through this lost space again, forcing the Evil Spirit and the Church to fight each other.
Now, all the departed souls in the entire lost space had become their pawns, and they were only one step away from that grand goal.
Yet this Church slave actually... wanted him to turn over a new leaf?
"Heh... Hehe..." Abraham laughed out of pure anger.
He turned his head, only to see Beelzebub pinching two lumps of meat dug out from a corpse.
The latter pointed to his own ears, gave a thumbs up, and then offered the meat chunks.
Abraham looked at the residual bloodstains on them, the corner of his mouth twitching.
A moment later, he still declined Beelzebub's good intentions.
"Say whatever you want. Since you refuse to leave, then just stand aside and watch. Hmph." Abraham took a deep breath and retreated to the edge of the ritual magic array.
"Watch? Have you finally decided to end this evil ritual!" Innocent's tone was excited.
"You f*cking..."
The tranquility here was merely a corner of the entire battlefield. In other places, the shouts of charging and the sounds of slaughter remained brutal.
"Huff... Hah... Huff... Hah..."
Two Holy Clergy Members leaned against each other shoulder-to-shoulder. They were covered in wounds, and their clothes were completely stained with blood.
And opposite them, a skinless dead soldier was crouching on the ground.
The squad these two were in had encountered this monster not long ago.
The other party's speed was extremely fast. After only a few seconds, they lost a companion.
In order to eliminate this monster, the squad tried various methods, but the Holy Water they carried could not completely purify the other party.
As for magic arrays... only members of the Priest Order and a few powerful Holy Clergy Members had this capability.
And there were still many such monsters on the battlefield; everyone was simply stretched too thin.
Therefore, this team could only try the final method—finding the monster's weakness.
After continuously sacrificing the lives of three companions, they finally made a discovery.
"This monster is unable to attack for a short time while feeding. That is our only chance," one of them, a round-faced priest, said.
"But there are no other dead soldiers around... Do we have to..." The other, a tall priest, looked hesitant.
"No! They died for us. How can we pollute their souls!" The round-faced priest stared dead ahead.
"I will buy an opportunity for you."
Before the tall priest could react, the former charged towards the monster.
Squelch!
With a sickening wet sound, sharp fangs sank into the round-faced priest's shoulder.
"What are you doing!" The tall priest's eyes looked as if they would split.
"Hurry! Kill it!"
The tall priest's eyes reddened. He picked up an ancient cross-sword from the ground and charged forward.
Seeing this, the monster immediately intended to leave.
"Hmph, you killed so many of our people, don't think you can run!" The round-faced priest took out a dagger as he spoke.
"I have plenty of meat on me. Can you finish it all in one bite!!"
Enduring the intense pain, he chopped off his own hand that was being bitten.
With fresh meat in its mouth, the monster was forced to swallow it down, and this also bought time for the tall priest.
"Live... a good life."
Due to excessive blood loss, the round-faced priest's consciousness began to blur.
"Die!!"
The tall priest rushed in front of the monster, frantically hacking at the other party's weak points. Before long, he chopped the monster into pieces.
"Wake up!"
He picked up the round-faced priest, but the latter had long since stopped breathing due to the severity of his injuries.
"Ugh..."
The tall priest threw his head back, tears flowing uncontrollably from the corners of his eyes.
Squelch!
The next second, there was another headless corpse on the ground.
Another monster had drawn near at some unknown time and sneak-attacked the tall priest.
Thud... Thud...
The two corpses fell to the ground, becoming the monster's food.
Crunch... Crunch...
The sound of bones being chewed echoed in the air.
Boom!
At this time, another loud crash sounded from the sky.
The monster raised its head, only to see a wave of air plunging down from above.
"Hiss... Raaar..." It bared its fangs, growling low.
A few seconds later, the air wave hit the ground, and the nearby debris and wood were swept up.
After the tremor subsided, the monster's figure had long vanished, leaving only a puddle of mashed flesh and mud on the ground.
Above the clouds.
A bright red slash plunged through the middle of the dark clouds, accompanied by powerful air currents, only stopping several kilometers away.
And the entire cloud cluster was also split into two, as if a rift had opened in the sky.
Sariel's amber pupils darted up and down, capturing the movements around her.
The next moment, a dazzling cluster of light suddenly burst out of the clouds.
She tilted her head slightly, avoiding the piercing bright light, and then, relying on combat instincts, raised her long crusader sword.
Clang!
A quaint crucifix collided with the tip of the sword, and the erupting energy fluctuation knocked both sides away.
"Although you have also undergone Holy Casting, how can the power inherited by humans rival the gods," Sariel said, looking downwards.
"Hmph, gods... are nothing more than a bunch of fallen beings," Jolan panted.
Sariel frowned: "Meaningless disputes are indeed unnecessary, especially when you are about to be defeated."
At this moment, the aura on Jolan's body was growing weaker and weaker, and the cluster of light behind him had also dimmed considerably.
"After you die, those people down below will also become nourishment for the True God together."
"Don't speak too soon. Look at yourself."
Hearing this, Sariel frowned. She looked down, only to see seven rays of light had lit up on her body's surface at some unknown time. Those were nails radiating golden light.
At the same time, she felt the power in her entire body suddenly stagnate, and her whole person plummeted downwards.
"Phew... Still have to rely on dirty tricks, huh. May the Lord forgive my baseness." Jolan drew a cross on his chest.
Then he looked at the ground and raised an eyebrow: "Heh... this guy is finally here."
He saw a small squad of people quietly sneaking up to the edge of the battlefield. One of them would stop to observe after walking a certain distance.
Just as Jolan planned to descend, he suddenly realized something was wrong.
At this moment, Sariel was still plummeting toward the ground.
But looking throughout their previous confrontation, no matter what methods Jolan used, the other party always had a way to counter them. How could she suddenly fall for a trick this time?
He remembered that when the two first met, Jolan had used the Holy Nails to make Sariel suffer.
Thinking of this, his expression changed.
"Damn it!"
Jolan plummeted down like a cannonball, his hoarse shout echoing in mid-air: "Run!"
On the ground.
Shiloj, Bettis, and the others all raised their heads upon hearing the sound, only to see a bright red shadow.
William saw it even more clearly. It was a pair of amber eyes brimming with murderous intent.
☆☆☆
-> 30 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Inkshaper
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you