Chapter 83: Unexpected

"You’re that damn fugitive!" The man before him grabbed the sword at his waist and swung it, aiming to slit his throat. He closed the distance in a single motion; he was powerful. His Rank was C. "With that pitiful strength, you dare to attack me?"

A mocking smile appeared on his lips, but his lightning-fast attack was met by a pair of claws, and the strike missed.

Zaid took advantage of the opening Valia had created to lunge at him and throw him off balance at the hip. Even though he was a Rank C, he was still human. If he got too cocky, even he could die at the hands of a Rank F.

Off balance, the man stumbled backward several times, feeling excruciating pain in his hip. "Impossible..." He swallowed hard through the pain and looked ahead.

Zaid was no longer there, and that flying cat attacked him with terrifying agility. He tried to attack her and break her wings, but he failed. He didn’t manage to land a single blow.

Instead, he only angered his opponent.

"You want to cut off my wings?" Valia felt rage surging through her entire body. Her tail bristled and glowed with the blinding light of fire—just like her eyes. Her power suddenly intensified, and a Rank D quickly became on par in strength with a Rank C.

Her claws pierced through her opponent’s defenses and sank into the bone, forcing her opponent to scream in pain and roll backward.

Zaid waited for him and attacked immediately... No sooner had he landed two strikes than the system popped up in front of him.

[You have killed a "Guard of the Church of the Seventh Night": Rank C, Level 31...]

[+ 10 PE...]

[+ 1,000 ME...]

[Scavenger has chosen its meal...]

[Scavenger has eaten a Rank C "Guard of the Church of the Seventh Night": + 2 Scavenger Fragments]

Zaid stared, bewildered, at the system windows before him and then looked at the guard’s body... That body ceased to have a human form and began to transform into an utterly hideous beast.

It was a wolf with ferocious fangs, but it was deathly pale. The strange thing? Not a single drop of blood came out of its body after it died from the cuts to its neck!

Not only was he perplexed by the fact that the system awarded him PE and ME for killing a human—if you could even call it that—but he was also perplexed by the fact that this human... wasn’t as human as he’d expected.

And his Scavenger ate him?

The corpse disappeared shortly afterward, but he witnessed the entire process in slow motion.

For a brief moment, he forgot where he was.

"Young Zaid, thank you very much for saving us." It was Khan’s voice that snapped him out of his thoughts.

Zaid looked up and stared at him... ’That’s right, I unlocked their cells when this guy wasn’t paying attention.’ He looked at his other companions as well; some had terrible headaches, while the others... were talking.

"Let’s go find the Bishops... They told us they had a surprise for us. The Church of the Seventh Night is truly benevolent and magnificent..."

Everyone ignored what Zaid had done, as if he hadn’t done it in the first place. They focused on flattering the church.

Khan frowned and looked at his affected companions.

"All the weak ones have fallen victim to an unknown mental attack. They’ve been going on for a while about how glorious this damn cult is," Khan whispered, then looked at Martin and the others in the Platinum Rank. "They’re suffering a bit. The attack has intensified on them just a moment ago."

Zaid took a deep breath and calmed himself down first. "I know," he whispered. "I’m being affected by it, too." He handed a piece of paper and a pencil to each of those who were still sane. "Write down things that will help you remember who you are. I don’t know who’s attacking us, but..."

Khan frowned, but grabbed his own. "How come it doesn’t affect you?" he asked.

Then he looked at the dead guard and the winged cat perched on his shoulders. He remembered what Martin and the others had told him and smiled sheepishly.

"Forget it. I guess you’re not really a Rank F after all." Khan didn’t pry any further into matters that weren’t his business.

"Come on. I’ll take the lead from here. I’ll need help getting out. This place is underground and..."

RUMBLE!

With great force, an earthquake shook the surrounding area.

"What’s going on?" Khan tried to steady himself, but most of his companions fell to the ground, overcome by dizziness caused by the headache.

The weakest among them suddenly vomited, and the basement door opened at the far end of the hallway.

Four archbishops and eight bishops from the church entered, carrying a strange, bright red stone that connected to the bars of the various cells, causing them all to glow in unison.

Now they understood why these bars had suppressive power. They were all special items.

The inmates in most of the prisons screamed in terror and rushed toward them, trying to flee. They looked like beasts possessed by a demon. They didn’t think about the consequences or the pain; they simply screamed hysterically in rage. Their eyes turned red, and their bodies began to separate from them.

Their legs remained stuck to the floor, one in front of the other, as if glued in place, and in a fraction of a second they lost all human form, leaving only a pile of bones scattered across the floor.

After losing their legs, they fell to the ground and rolled... They pushed themselves up with their arms and ran on them, assuming a grotesque posture that soon turned into the same scene as before.

They lost their hands, their arms... Each time, the scream was not one of hysteria, but of pain and terror.

Before they reached the bars, the entire bodies of each of these "Strangers" had separated from them. The flesh disappeared, and only the bones remained. The last things to fall to the ground were the eyes that popped out of their sockets... these remained intact and rolled until they struck the bars...

They were still moving. A great pain overwhelmed them... but most of them vanished the moment they touched the bars.

Only three eyes remained, scattered throughout all the prisons.

The bishops and archbishops looked on with contempt.

"Only three... Well, what could we expect from the scum of humanity who don’t even know God?"