Chapter 190

190: Abyss

"Sigh... having to stand guard in the middle of the night, this is such a damn hassle..."

At the entrance of a hidden cave in the back mountain, a man in black robes lay bored in the corner, his words filled with complaints about working overtime.

"I think so too! There isn't even a single bird in this wretched place, yet Lord Howard still made the two of us guard the entrance..."

Another black-robed figure sitting not far from him nodded in agreement. Then he turned around, pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, put one in his mouth, and used a lighter to ignite it.

"Oh yeah, that hits the spot!"

"Damn it, why didn't you take out the cigarettes sooner? Give me one, bro!"

The black-clad man leaning against the stone wall immediately reached out impatiently upon seeing his companion had cigarettes, signaling for him to give him one too.

"Here, grab one yourself!"

The black-clad man who had lit his cigarette casually tossed the cigarette pack behind him. But what came from behind was the sound of the pack hitting the ground.

"Thud!"

"What's the matter? Can't even catch a pack of cigarettes?"

The black-clad man turned his head in annoyance, only to see that his companion, who had been complaining earlier, had suddenly gone silent. His head was slightly lowered, as if thinking about something.

The cigarette pack had rolled to a spot not far from his hand.

"Hm?"

The black-clad man sensed something was wrong. He took the cigarette from his mouth and held it in his hand, using it as a light source as he moved slightly closer.

"Thud!"

But before he could observe carefully, his companion's head suddenly rolled off, tumbling to his feet like a soccer ball.

"What... what is..."

The black-clad man's pupils dilated as he stared in disbelief at the headless corpse before him. After a long moment, he finally reacted and opened his mouth to shout.

"Intrud... mmph!"

Before the words could leave his mouth, a pristine Black Key instantly pierced through his neck from behind, perfectly destroying his vocal cords.

"Gurgle... mm..."

Fine blood foam trickled from the corner of the black-clad man's mouth. His pupils dilated, and his body trembled continuously, as if trying to struggle one last time before death.

"Swipe!"

The Black Key was pulled out. Without giving the black-clad man a chance to continue struggling, the figure hidden behind him swiftly delivered a second strike!

Raising the hand, swinging the blade. With a flash of white light, a round head quietly flew through the air.

Lina looked at the two headless corpses on the ground and lightly flicked off the remaining blood from her Black Key.

The symbol on the back of these cloaks... yes, it was the Descent Faction, no mistake.

She remembered that the symbols on the two Descent Faction black-clad men she had killed in reality earlier were the same as the ones on these two now lying on the ground.

Two clusters of wheat-like hands holding a winged diamond symbol in the center, with dense black lines below. It had a strangely eerie appearance.

"Should I... or shouldn't I?"

Lina looked at the two corpses on the ground, a hint of hesitation flashing across her face.

It just felt so dirty...

"Forget it, I'll put it on..."

After a brief moment of hesitation, Lina quickly and skillfully removed the cloak from one of the black-robed men and draped it over herself.

Much better. Now she felt more secure.

"I really have been slacking off for too long at Noren's place. I'm clearly an Executor, yet I've actually started to dislike blood."

That was right. Lina had just been hesitating about whether to put on this bloodstained cloak.

It was not that she thought this thing had any special effects. After all, if it were an enchanted tool, these two useless fools would not have had their heads cut off without even noticing.

What Lina was seeking was that feeling from when she used to be an Executor.

Simply put, she had gotten so used to wearing black robes during missions as an Executor that now she felt uncomfortable doing stealth without one.

"Alright then~ Next up, it's mission time, long overdue~"

Looking at the dark, deep cave before her, Lina's face showed not the slightest fear. She even looked somewhat excited.

One of the main duties of Church Executors was to eliminate "heretics" like the Descent Faction who posed a threat to humanity.

And Lina had undertaken countless stealth assassination missions like this in the past.

That was simply the nature of the Executor organization. As long as you made the decision to join, what awaited you was endless killing and darkness.

Regardless of your age or gender, this remained true.

……

This mission turned out to be much easier than Lina had imagined.

Those Descent Faction idiots had clearly been sitting here peacefully for too long. Almost none of them were on high alert. As a result, Lina had mowed through them effortlessly, clearing out over ninety percent of the heretics in the cave like chopping vegetables.

The remaining ten percent were somewhat alert and had basically all detected Lina's infiltration.

But this still had no effect on Lina, because...

As long as you killed everyone who saw you, then no one would realize you had infiltrated, right?

This was a golden rule taught to Lina by her teacher back when she was an Executor!

However, although Lina had cleared out nearly all the heretics in the cave, the total count was only a few dozen people. The feeling of cutting them down was not even as satisfying as weeding Noren's garden.

But there was still one problem...

Skillfully flicking off the remaining blood from the tip of her blade, Lina turned to look at the chaotic interior of the cave, a trace of confusion flashing through her mind.

Strange. She had clearly reached the end, so why was there nothing here?

Don't tell me these Descent Faction people like to build caves within caves wherever they go.

Looking at the stone wall before her, Lina expressionlessly stepped forward and delivered a slash. This time, she could not even be bothered to look for a mechanism.

"Boom!"

The result was exactly as she expected. Behind the stone wall at the deepest part of the cave, there was still another hidden space hidden.

"Damn! Are these Descent Faction people pangolins or something? How can they dig so well?"

The corner of Lina's mouth twitched. Complaints aside, she definitely still had to go in.

But seriously, this illusion was way too realistic, wasn't it?

Whether it was the feeling of cutting people or cutting stone, it was basically identical to reality!

She shook her head, clearing away these strange thoughts from her mind, then slowly walked into the "cave within a cave" before her.

And the moment she truly saw this "experimental site," her face instantly went pale.

It was not the horrifying Blood Pool hidden beneath the Christian Orphanage like in reality, but something... even more disgusting and indescribable.

"Zophi wasn't lying. His and Howard's experimental projects... are indeed different."

Looking down at the churning Abyss of Black Mud beneath her feet, Lina's expression had become extremely grim.

If not for this illusion, she never would have imagined that hidden beside the orphanage where she grew up was something like this!

A massive canyon spanning dozens of meters, with a surging ocean of Black Mud below. In that moment, only one word came to Lina's mind to describe the scene before her.

"Abyss."