Chapter 50: Temple of the Faceless

As I carefully examined the large courtyard in front of the temple, I noticed the monsters kneeling before the entrance.

At the very front was a creature completely different from the others.

Even while kneeling, it was almost as tall as me. It was obvious that it would easily stand over two meters tall once it rose to its feet. From the waist down, it had goat legs covered in black fur, while its upper body resembled that of a large, muscular man.

A goat’s head with long, curved horns sat atop its neck.

Dozens of white creatures were lined up behind the goat-headed giant. Their faceless bodies had not yet taken on perfect human forms. They remained on their knees with their heads bowed toward the corpse in front of them.

They were all kneeling before a man who appeared to be dead.

The body had been placed on a stone altar in front of the temple entrance. The top of the man’s head had been completely destroyed, leaving a dark hole where his brain should have been.

Despite that, his body had not begun to decay.

Black veins moved beneath his swollen skin, covering his entire body and pulsing at regular intervals. In the center of his chest, where his heart should have been, an enormous lump pushed against his skin from within.

Whatever it was, it was several times larger than a normal human heart and continued beating powerfully beneath the man’s rib cage.

With every beat, the black veins expanded, and the purple lights on the temple walls flashed in the same rhythm.

I had no doubt that the swollen heart was the Core I had been searching for.

I tightened my grip on the handle of the spiked bat.

"Found you."

I looked at the crowd behind me.

More than fifty people were waiting silently among the rocks, watching me as they tried to figure out what I was going to do. I turned my attention back to the horde of monsters below.

Taking them all on at once wouldn’t be easy.

Worse, if I went down to the temple, the people behind me would be left completely defenseless. If more creatures came from the forest, I might not be able to return in time to protect them.

I pressed a hand against my forehead.

"What am I going to do...?"

The Core was beating more powerfully with every passing second. I could see black veins spreading from the man’s arms toward the stone altar before entering the temple floor like thin roots.

If I kept waiting, the situation could become even worse.

I took a deep breath.

All I had to do was finish this quickly.

I slapped both cheeks to prepare myself, but because of the armor covering my face, I barely felt the blows.

That was supposed to be more effective...

I turned toward the little girl beside me. The blue tips of her white hair moved in the cold wind, while her entirely blue eyes remained fixed on the corpse at the center of the temple.

"Little one, you’re staying here. No matter what happens, you won’t follow me."

"But—"

"If the monsters come up here, run and hide with the others. And don’t use your Nexus unless you have no other choice."

The little girl looked reluctant, but she nodded.

"Okay, Sir Guardian."

After telling several adults in the crowd to keep the children and injured people behind the rocks, I lowered the spiked bat from my shoulder.

I looked down the steep slope.

My heart was pounding as though it wanted to break through my rib cage. Even with the power of the potions flowing through my body, the sight before me hadn’t erased my fear.

Part of me was screaming at me to run away from this place.

Even so, I couldn’t turn back.

I jumped down from the rocks.

Thanks to my enhanced legs, I crossed the slope in long leaps, touching the slippery stones for only a moment before launching myself into the air again.

Within seconds, I reached the bottom of the valley and continued running toward the temple without slowing down.

The moment I crossed into the courtyard, all the white creatures turned their heads toward me at the same time.

Dozens of faceless bodies moved in disturbing unison.

Only the goat-headed giant remained still. Its head stayed bowed before the corpse as it continued kneeling.

"Looks like I’ll be clearing out the small ones first."

When the nearest white creature began running toward me, I charged at it as well. I swung the spiked bat from the side, shattering its head with a single blow.

The second creature lunged at me with its mouth open.

I kicked it hard in the chest, sending its body flying backward into the two monsters behind it and knocking them down as well.

I extended Umbrella into a spear and drove it through the open mouth of the third creature. Once the black tip emerged from the back of its head, I swung the weapon aside and threw its body onto the others.

While watching for an attack from the creature in front of me, I failed to notice the footsteps approaching from behind.

Cold claws wrapped around my neck.

The creature jumped onto my back and sank its teeth into the armor covering my nape. When several of its sharp teeth pierced the black layer and reached my skin, I growled in pain.

"Get off my back, you parasites!"

I grabbed the creature’s arm and pulled it forward with all my strength. As its body passed over my shoulder, I slammed it into another monster attacking from the front.

When they fell together, I thickened the bat into a sledgehammer and brought it down on them. The stone floor cracked, and both white bodies shattered beneath the blow.

Three creatures were approaching from my right at the same time.

I extended the bat’s handle, gripped it with both hands, and swung it in a wide circle. The first monster’s jaw shattered, the second one’s chest collapsed, and the third became caught on the spikes and was thrown into the air.

Two creatures behind me wrapped themselves around my legs.

As I lost my balance and dropped to one knee, the others took advantage of the opening and piled onto me. One pulled at my right arm while another tried to tear apart the armor covering my chest.

I formed short spikes from the sections of Umbrella covering my knees and elbows.

When I struck the heads of the creatures clinging to my legs with my knees, the black spikes pierced their faces. I drove my right elbow into the chest of the monster behind me, then stood and threw it over my shoulder.

But every time one fell, two more took its place.

I brought the bat down on the neck of the creature in front of me. After shattering its head, I transformed the other end of the weapon into a spear without pulling it back and drove it through the stomach of the monster behind me.

I blocked the claw coming from my left with my armor and grabbed the creature’s wrist. As I bent its arm in the opposite direction, I headbutted it in the chest, then threw its body onto the approaching group.

The number of white creatures was rapidly decreasing.

Before long, the floor of the temple courtyard was covered in shattered white bodies. When the final three creatures came at me, I transformed the bat into a broad-bladed axe and split the first one in two through its shoulder.

I avoided the second creature’s attack by stepping aside and cut through its leg. When it fell, I crushed its head beneath my foot.

I drove the black axe into the final creature’s open mouth and pinned it to the wall.

Although I was breathing heavily, I was still standing.

The goat-headed giant hadn’t moved even once throughout the entire fight.

I turned my gaze toward the swollen heart in front of the temple.

"Now it’s your turn."

Just as I transformed the axe back into a spiked bat, noises rose from the old structures around me.

When I turned my head to the right, I saw white creatures emerging through the windows of a collapsed building. Some crawled down the walls, while others dropped from the roof onto the snow.

Dozens more were coming from the ruined building on the left.

The stone path behind me quickly filled with another horde of creatures.

"fuck..."