"Ahhh, if only I were a transcendent too…"
bullied by the Foreigner, Felia huffed and plopped back onto the ground. She had no grasp of the horror unfolding in Seth Town, thinking it was nothing more than another ordinary cultist raid.
In her mind, her father and sister were surely sweeping aside those reckless cultists together. To her, there was nothing her father and sister couldn't do. Though she still felt a pang of anger over her mother's passing—believing they had failed to protect her—Felia was, after all, a sensible child.
"Maybe next life. Or the one after."
The Foreigner showed no mercy in cutting down her naïve hopes. Years of wandering and hunting had honed him into someone with sharp teeth, ready to bite down on anyone.
"Hmph! Rude Foreigner! Let me tell you—someday I will walk the transcendent path. One day, when I've become a cleric of some great god, holding a Holy Tome while I reminisce with you, then you'll finally learn what manners are!"
"Pfft—hahaha! That joke'll last me until the Eternal Hunt at the end of the century!" Ale sprayed from his mouth as the Foreigner doubled over with laughter. The little sprout really was too innocent.
Foolishly innocent.
Her family had sheltered her so completely that she had grown up in the calm of their protection. Understandable, the Foreigner mused. If he had a silly little sister like her, he'd surely spoil her rotten too. But…
Glancing at the furious Felia, the Foreigner rolled his eyes. He suddenly thought that perhaps Lady Maria was so graceful and refined because she had taken all the maturity that Felia should have possessed. If he ever had family, at least someone like Lady Maria would be easy on the eyes and on the nerves.
As the two bickered outside town—
The deathly silent settlement suddenly came alive. Of course, not literally, not like a blasphemous altar writhing with corruption. If a Chaos bloom of that magnitude had taken root under the First Flame's ward, Southwind Province would already be a plague-ridden carnival of ruin.
From every corner came shrieking cries—Corrupted howling in panic. Even though the Foreigner couldn't understand their gibbering tongues, he felt the raw terror in them. His mind leapt immediately to that resolute nun in black. It looked like she had really succeeded.
"W-what's happening?"
The tidal wave of shrieks made Felia shiver, blue eyes filling with tears. Even she could tell this wasn't the same as a mere cultist incursion. An entire town wailing with such inhuman voices… this was something else.
"Be glad. Your sister pulled it off. I don't know what exactly, but from the way those things are screaming, she did it well." He slugged down a swig of liquor, grabbed Felia by the arm, and strode toward the town.
His steps were impossibly long, each one carrying him across distances like teleportation.
And strangely, Felia adapted easily to the warping pull of space around him. Clutching the protective charm he'd hung on her earlier, she looked toward her hometown. She was nervous, yes, but not afraid. This was her birthplace. Even if it meant death, she would protect Seth Town.
The Foreigner, however, had no such tangled feelings. He simply thought it was time for his entrance.
Lady Maria had earned his recognition—through action.
Seth Town, the chapel.
The moment Lady Maria drove pure Bloodforce into her mother Ruth's body, the writhing blasphemous altar froze. As if someone had slammed down a pause button.
And then—
The grotesque flesh-made structure, ever leaking psychic corruption, met its end. From what looked like its "head," crimson blood essence ate away at the flesh, layer after layer. Souls bound within the corruption core were the first to wither under the blood's touch.
Deprived of ambient Chaos energy, the core had relied on tormenting souls for fuel.
Maria destroyed it outright.
For that, she drove Bloodforce not only into her mother Ruth, but into the countless souls tangled around her. The pain of having one's soul corroded by blood essence was beyond words. In her past life on the Fractured forum, the skill Viscera Critical ranked among the top ten most soul-breaking abilities on the "mental torment" charts.
The wronged spirits went wild.
One after another, they willingly dissolved under Bloodforce rather than remain bound in endless agony. Some even cried out their gratitude to Maria in their final moments. But since the true culprit had been her father, Pastor Lynn, Maria burned with shame and could not accept their thanks.
Yet fate had other plans.
Just as Ruth's soul was about to fade away in the blood's tide, the Chaos worshipper Green suddenly burst forth. A corrupted bone-spike smashed Maria off her feet.
"Praise the Merciful Father!"
Using some vile method, his body re-formed before the altar's total collapse. He dragged himself from the foul yellow-white slurry, a swollen carcass of plague-green flesh. Skin mottled with sores and pustules. One face-wide eye taking up two-thirds of his head. A gaping mouth lined with jagged molars.
The sight nearly forced Maria into a willpower check.
The cunning worshipper had failed one plan, but was quick to seize another chance.
This vessel, brimming with diseased vitality, was more than enough to crush the already-spent Maria. Today, he would offer her as the perfect sacrifice to the Merciful Father.
"All things rot—yet all beings endure!"
As the countless Corrupted shrieked across Seth Town, the lumbering Plague Demon bellowed its silent roar to the world, declaring its arrival.
Maria, hurled aside by the bone-spike, gave a faint, bitter smile of relief when she heard it.
This was the end…
Her strength was gone. Her blood nearly spent. Her body was like a broken machine pushed far past its limits.
If she closed her eyes now, she would almost certainly never wake again.
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