Chapter 158: Strange

Right now, both Lukas and Natasha were hundreds of feet above the ground. Cold wind brushed past Lukas’s cheeks like ruthless whips.

"Church of the One Above All..."

Natasha commented with slight solemnity in her tone as she watched the grand roof of the conical building pierce through the clouds in the sky.

Lukas heard her words and finally turned to look in the direction she was facing, only to see the grand building in the distance.

Hmm... the Church of the One Above All...

He had almost forgotten that almost the entirety of Ravenstone City were devout believers of the One Above All. The church’s influence had spread far and wide. After the controversial claim that anyone who could donate fire-type star monster meat to the church would have their chance of awakening at least three-star potential almost guaranteed, the city population had gone wild.

One thousand kilograms for three-star potential.

Ten thousand for four-star energy potential.

As soon as this news spread, the entire monster population surrounding Ravenstone City was nearly wiped out. Maybe it was coincidence or something else, but most of the monsters surrounding the area happened to be fire-type as well. Once they were gone, the annual monster attacks on the city decreased, which only increased the popularity of the church even more.

While the entire city was talking about the Church of the One Above All, there was no mention of it in the star dimension.

While he was thinking, the airship rapidly descended downward and came to a halt at an open space, which could be dubbed an airport of some sort.

One by one, the passengers jumped down, making their way inside the city.

Natasha stood on the ground, looking around. Wherever one looked, posters of the Church of the One Above All were spread everywhere. Lukas read them one by one, each promotion sounding impossible.

One hundred thousand kilograms of fire monster meat for a guaranteed six-star energy potential...

Looking at this claim, Lukas could not help but curse out loud.

"Absolute nonsense. Who would even believe such a claim?"

Contrary to his words, all those awakened who saw this claim, instead of feeling surprised or even skeptical, seemed to readily believe in it.

This was very surprising for both Lukas and Natasha. Awakeners were inherently very cautious by nature, but now they did not show any sign of wariness.

Lukas turned his gaze away and looked at the giant building of the church. For some reason, in his vision the church suddenly seemed to grow bigger, thousands of tentacles stretching toward the entire boundaries of the city, controlling the minds of everyone present.

A perilous warning went off in his head.

Still, he was not going to turn back just because of this, not before he took Rosy and the rest of his family out of here.

With that thought in mind, Lukas did not stop but headed directly to their home — a small one-bedroom apartment where his family lived, in a crowded area of Ravenstone City, far away from the posh and luxurious lifeline of the nobles.

More than ninety percent of the residents of Ravenstone were mine workers who, with passing time, came to call Ravenstone City their home. However, ninety percent of the wealth was still controlled by the noble families like Soaring Eagle. But as the saying goes, karma comes back to bite. Slowly, with the rise of the Church of the One Above All, the noble families were also losing their influence.

All these thoughts went through Lukas’s head as he looked at the roaringly simple single-story house in front of him. Properly trimmed grass greeted him right at the entrance. A small well-paved pathway leading directly to the main entrance was flanked by green grass on both sides. From how evenly they were cut, it was clear someone was taking good care of them.

Lukas looked at this and instinctively a small smile appeared on his face. His younger sister Rosy liked to keep things neat, especially the grass. She would trim it even if a single strand did not look good.

While thinking about all these things, he made his way inside. With a soft click, the gate was pushed open, and he called out softly:

"Rosy, where are you? I’m finally back..."

"Where are you...? I’m back..."

His words reverberated through the open hall. Time passed, but there was no response.

Natasha was just behind him. She was extremely curious what could force an awakened like Lukas to ignore the Golden Letter of Recommendation and instead rush back home.

So when she realized the first thing he did after arriving at the city was rush back home and call out a name... and when she realized it was a woman, her expression fell. Just at that time she noticed a photo of two young people, none other than Lukas and another girl, the girl bearing an extremely close resemblance to him.

She realized the name he had called might be his sister.

Natasha’s nerves calmed down. For a second, her heart had felt as if it had been gripped by someone.

Whew, thank god...

The next moment she let out an exaggerated breath, her shoulders slumping down.

"Did you say something...?"

Lukas’s voice came from the front. The next moment she saw his gaze turning toward her.

Natasha hurriedly shook her head.

"It’s nothing..."

Suddenly she stopped speaking, her eyes instantly narrowing into slits.

Right at the center of the large hall stood a wooden picture stand emitting an eerie atmosphere.

Just one look, and the image of the overbearing church covering the entire city flashed through her head.

Instantly Natasha blurted out loud:

"Church of the One Above All...!"

Meanwhile, Lukas realized something was wrong. He had already called out Rosy’s name three times, yet there was no response. For a moment, the thought that something might have happened popped into his head, but the next moment he denied it.

Not wanting to jump to conclusions, he ignored the hall and moved to inspect the rest of the house while calling out Rosy’s name again and again.

"Rosy, come out, wherever you are..."

"This is not the time for games..."

"Look what I brought for you from my adventures in the star dimension..."

No matter what he said, there was no response to his words other than the cold silence of the hallway. With passing time, even his own voice seemed to be coming back to haunt him.

He did not know why, but as time passed, a strong sense of crisis rose in his heart. It was not him reacting, but the body — more like it was the original owner’s love for his sister sensing some danger.

Meanwhile, while he was looking, he might have ignored it, but not Natasha. As they moved deeper into the house, she noticed multiple wardrobes, tables, and bedding drenched with crimson blood everywhere. Not just that, large carcasses of fresh red meat hung everywhere, letting out a pungent smell. Lukas walked right past them, not noticing anything at all, as if for him none of this existed.

Very strange.

Why did he not show any emotion toward this bizarre and creepy sight?

At first, she thought he was not noticing simply because at this time he was too busy looking for his sister, but soon she noticed multiple other abnormalities that allowed her to come to a single conclusion:

There was something wrong with Lukas.

A disturbing realization.

After all, why else would someone not react to literal pieces of meat all over the house?

Finally, when Lukas fell silent, Natasha could not stop herself from confronting him.

"Hey, don’t you sense anything weird...?"

She grabbed his shoulders and forced him to face her.

Lukas instantly wanted to resist, but still there was some gap between him and a sequence-three warrior. He was not able to resist even if he wanted to.

"Of course there is something weird. There is no sign of my little sister anywhere."

Natasha nodded her head, then continued to look at him.

"Other than that, do you see no difference?"

"What other difference could there be—"

Before he could continue speaking, Natasha pointed her finger at the pieces of scattered meat, strange symbols, and status-altar signs associated with the Church of the One Above All.

Seeing that she was wasting his time by showing useless things, a frown appeared on Lukas’s face.

"What’s wrong with the wooden table and picture frames? Natasha, what is wrong with you?"

By the end of those words, Lukas’s voice fell by many octaves as, maybe it was Natasha’s words or something else, but suddenly the strange force distorting his vision disappeared, and he was able to see normally again.

What had been a normal house was suddenly littered with blood and all sorts of weird, eerie objects everywhere.

Lukas’s eyes widened in shock, almost popping out of their sockets.

Suddenly, an intense chill went running down his spine.