Suddenly, Rosalia's crimson gaze flickered. Her pace even quickened somewhat.
"That person is not far ahead!"
Though initially somewhat lacking in confidence, as she drew closer to the injured person, the scent of blood grew increasingly intense. To the point that finally, she could pinpoint his location with ease.
Rosalia passed through a dark, deep and winding corner. What met her eyes were the black, cold muzzles of several firearms.
There were six of them in total. Four Secrets-Hunters held their guns raised, poised and ready. One of them was carrying an injured comrade on his back.
"Sister Haida?" The Secrets-Hunters soon spotted Haida behind Rosalia and promptly lowered their raised weapons.
"It's me."
Haida then displayed the platinum horizontal prism pendant at her neck, rigorously following procedure to confirm her identity.
"Briefly explain the situation, everyone."
The Hunter carrying the injured man nodded and began recounting their previous encounter.
"Near the pressure regulator tank area, we encountered a strange evil spawn. It attacked the squad leader and took his comms device... and part of the skin from his face."
"That thing was very agile, able to cling to walls and pillars to move. Its body could also resist secret-art bullets to a certain degree; the burns from prayer text could only barely force it back."
"A special evil spawn..."
Haida then observed the squad leader being carried by his comrade.
The skin on his face from his jawline to his neck was gone. The gauze wrapping the exposed muscle was soaked with oozing blood. His consciousness was nearly fading due to significant blood loss, his pupils dilated and unfocused.
"You take him back the way we came. Medicae colleagues are on standby above ground. I'll track that thing."
"Yes."
The Hunters of Squad Four also knew their leader's life was in critical danger and couldn't afford delay. After assenting to Haida, they headed towards the exit.
Before they left, Haida used a wooden-handled folding knife to cut a piece of blood-stained medical gauze for tracking.
Since that special evil spawn had taken Squad Four's leader's facial skin, it must also be stained with his blood.
Haida looked at the slow, only able to crawl on the ground Byers's severed arm, then at the fully-limbed Rosalia, and quickly reached a judgment.
"Ms. Rosalia, forgive my presumption, but... can you locate that evil spawn's position based on the bloodstains on that piece of facial skin?"
Hearing this, Rosalia narrowed her eyes slightly. Only now did she somewhat realize.
Her current role in Sister Haida's mind was probably not far from "man's best friend"...
She felt a touch of annoyance and unconsciously bit her lip, a flush of crimson rising on her cheeks.
But business was business; this was no time for personal emotions. Factually speaking... Rosalia could indeed track the evil spawn via blood.
"The scent of blood does extend towards another location. I can only roughly determine the direction."
Carrying an indescribable sense of shame, she once again took on the task of leading the way.
...
Before a massive, imposing concrete vertical shaft, amidst densely interwoven metal pipes, a uniformly pallid figure was constantly wriggling.
"Hehe... code phrase... Joseph's Coat..."
It cradled a half-torn piece of human facial skin like a treasure, playing with it. Occasionally, it would press it against its own face, seemingly utterly unconcerned about the now semi-coagulated, sticky, thick blood smearing on it.
Each time the evil spawn pressed the skin against its face, it could parrot-like produce human speech. Though only one phrase, it sounded utterly indistinguishable from a real person.
Its body was entirely composed of flesh-white neural tissue, shaped like a slug. On the tree-like, knotted vascular limbs, it wore a crimson robe... crafted from dozens of human skins stitched together.
"No, don't kill me..."
"I have to get back; my child is waiting for me..."
"It hurts! It hurts, it hurts... it hurts! Ah... let me die..."
It continuously switched between the faces on its leather robe, and the sounds it emitted changed accordingly. Men and women, pleas overflowing with fear, and tearful wailing sobs.
In the shadows behind a concrete wall, Haida and the others had concealed their breath and observed this evil spawn for some time.
Even with suppressed emotions, she could feel a sense of horror inexplicably surging up along her spine.
It's too similar! Practically identical...
The wriggling pallid nerves, the robe of stitched skin—its form was almost completely identical to that of "Suffer-Walkers" Hoven when he underwent saint-spawn transformation.
But Hoven was clearly dead.
He died at the Sated Club from Doctor Fran's sense-altering drug, and before the Cup's Servant descended, his other half was personally executed by her. Could this be another Ascetic High Priest?
No... Hoven was a Red Cup "Favored One." The blessing he received transformed all the flesh and blood of his body into nerves, to feel endless pain. Though not unique, this form was certainly not easily replicated...
Haida closed her eyes, concentrating, clearing the chaotic thoughts in her mind. She reached into her sheath and drew the power sword "Nirvana."
Regardless of who this evil spawn before her really was, what she had to do wouldn't change. Just as a Burial Court saying went... Only a dead evil spawn is a good evil spawn.
Bang!
The roar of a firearm abruptly rang out, like a fist striking the low keys of a piano.
Hoven, who had been stuck to the wall slowly crawling, was struck head-on. The Secrets-Hunter prayer text engraved on the steel-core bullet flashed with blinding azure flames, leaving a shallow crater on its body.
Hoven frantically writhed its neural tendrils, then lost its grip and fell onto the floor.
After confirming the hit, Haida holstered the pistol at her waist, switching to a two-handed grip on her sword, lunging forward to close in.
"Hehe..."
As Haida approached, the previously struggling Hoven violently lashed out its nerve-based tendrils like whips.
The pallid, translucent fleshy nerves rapidly solidified, hardening into hard bone spurs.
Second-category, upper-tier secret art [Bone-Wielding]. Even the secret art it used was identical to Hoven's...
The bone spurs clashed with the adamantium-forged power sword. After a burst of clanging metallic explosion, the former shattered into a shower of bone fragments.
But Haida also retreated half a step after this exchange. This was the first time since meeting Doctor Fran that she had been at a disadvantage in a pure contest of strength.
Different from Hoven at the Sated Club, this creature before her had already completed its saint-spawn transformation. Its strength, vitality, and speed had reached a new level.
And human thought and reason... that was the price Hoven had paid. However, it still retained a beast's cunning.
"Wah, wah..."
With undisguised mockery, Hoven selected another face from its leather robe and put it on. The childish sobbing of a young boy ensued.
"Wah, it's so dark here. I can't feel my hands; my right foot seems to be there... Mommy, where are you?"
"..."
Haida's grey-chestnut gaze stilled slightly.
Though she remained silent, a snake-like vein had bulged on her forehead.
At that moment, a lead ball struck Hoven's torso, causing it to stagger. The impacted area began dissolving and liquefying, flowing pus-like onto the ground.
Utus raised his classical flintlock pistol, blowing away the smoke from its barrel.
His flintlock was a relic imbued with the second-category ritual [Transfiguration], capable of randomly transforming struck matter into one of the three states: solid, liquid, or gas.
It was a relatively inefficient ancient ritual, but highly lethal when used on living beings.
As for the drawbacks... the flintlock's reloading process was agonizingly slow. After firing one shot, it basically could only be swung around as a club.
Such a perfect opportunity to attack, Haida naturally wouldn't miss.
The power sword "Nirvana" vibrated intensely, seemingly sensing the sword wielder's tightly gripping hand and her anger.
In merely an instant, Hoven was cut into a pile of pallid corpse pieces by Haida's forward stride.
Whether resilient nerves or hard bone, they were no different before "Nirvana's" monomolecular edge.
"Ascetic, no matter how many surrogates you have, how many lives, how many times you appear... I will oblige. It's merely killing you once more."
Though Hoven's body was in pieces, its tree-like neural tendrils still writhed, trying to reassemble. It wasn't dead... but had also lost sufficient mass to wield [Bone-Wielding] for the time being.
The saint-spawn Hoven transformed into by sacrificing himself was indeed powerful, but its raw material was, after all, human. It was as different as clouds and mud from the dragon-type saint-spawn in future Norlington, completely incomparable.
Just as Haida took out ritual materials, preparing to set up the third-category ritual [Dissolve the Blasphemous] to safely dispose of Hoven's remaining body, her movements suddenly halted.
Three. This was Hoven's third appearance.
Thoughts flashed through her mind like electricity. She almost immediately recalled the "reminder" Fran had left on her forehead previously.
Was Doctor Fran trying to tell me that the Red Cup High Priest who appeared during the Budding Moon rite wasn't one-half... but one-third?
—
Canned mercury, 900 grams. Contaminated crystal clusters, 10 grams. Spider-spawn egg sacs, 260 grams. Human cremation ashes, 90 grams...
As Haida sequentially placed the spirit-infused materials in her hands into the mercury array on the ground, the third-category ritual [Dissolve the Blasphemous] quickly took form.
This was an auxiliary ritual that could be constructed by a single person. Though it could dissolve evil spawn flesh and contamination, it activated slowly and had demanding conditions... thus was generally used for safely disposing of contaminated corpses during cleanup.
"Such tenacious vitality."
Utus bent down, carefully examining Hoven's pulpy fragments, which continuously dissolved and tried to reassemble, seemingly quite interested in it.
An opportunity to observe so closely a saint-spawn corpse... was very rare. Previously, he had only seen highly incomplete corpse specimens and could only look from afar through glass cabinets.
"Be careful, Professor Utus, don't get too close. It's only had its form severed; complete death will still take some time."
Haida casually reminded the somewhat entranced Utus.
But she didn't say more. After all, most White Cup naturalists were like this; once they saw something new they hadn't witnessed before, they became carried away.
"Thanks for the concern, Sister Haida... I'll maintain a safe distance."
Out of respect for Haida, Utus soon stepped back. Though he didn't think this saint-spawn remnants, essentially pronounced dead, could threaten him, caution was never wrong.
Actually, Utus was more interested in Haida than in Hoven's corpse fragments.
Before coming, he thought Professor Terence's description of this Mistress of Attendants was exaggerated. Things like ambushing a High Priest and slitting his throat, or injuring a "Cup's Servant" with just cold weapons... sounded like unreliable sensationalism from tabloid news.
But after witnessing firsthand Haida killing Hoven, Utus felt that Terence's account was actually quite fair, even somewhat conservative.
This Burial Attendant had shattered head-on the saint-spawn's heavy bone spurs with just a sword, emerging afterward without even a scratch... and upon finding an opening, she chopped Hoven to pieces in a single encounter, her agility astonishing.
Great Pioneer above, I actually witnessed a human suppressing a saint-spawn in physical combat. Who knows what the Medicae's Secrets-Hunters have been researching all these years...
Vivian brushed back a strand of hair on her face damp with sweat, tidying it.
During Haida's struggle with Hoven, she hadn't fired. Firstly, worried about hitting Haida. Secondly, conventional secret-art ammunition had limited effect on that thing; even if it hit, benefit wasn't high. So she didn't rashly attempt.
Though she felt like she hadn't done anything, no sense of participation. But running along this entire way was truly quite tiring. Being a hanger-on to Sister Haida was also a strenuous task...
Luckily, she wasn't the only one slacking off. Child, mixed among the Error-Purgers, had also done nothing, his presence even lower than hers... Was it because Professor Terence wasn't here?
As for Rosalia, she was initially somewhat curious about the saint-spawn transformed from a High Priest. But after glancing at Hoven's remains in the ritual array a few times, she lost interest in it.
This creature's body was completely composed of abnormal neural tendrils; it didn't have a single drop of blood, completely impossible to sample.
Of course, even if she obtained Hoven's blood, Rosalia had no intention of drinking it herself... The Nolaria family's secret art could seize knowledge and memories from blood, but it also was highly likely to introduce malicious mental contamination. One of her sisters had gone mad because of this.
An evil entity condensed from pure pain; its blood must be overflowing with endless pain.
...
Haida lightly touched the comms device dangling like a pendant from her earlobe, waiting for the next status confirmation code phrase report. Though Hoven's third body had also died, this mission wasn't over yet.
The definition of a Purge Directive was to eliminate all threats within an area, destroy nests, eradicate contamination, slaughter all evil entities... until this land returned to purity.
Clearly, the Burial Court's Hunters hadn't yet completed the comprehensive sweep of the city's drainage system.
"Let's rest briefly. Once this remnant is fully dissolved, we'll continue deeper."
Just as Haida was wiping the power sword "Nirvana," an aloof and cold voice sounded without warning.
"That won't be necessary."
...Ahern, dressed in leather hunting attire and wearing a tricorne hat, slowly emerged from the shadows beside a pillar.
His footsteps were silent, but each step carried immense oppressive force, as if stepping on the paused heartbeat rhythm of everyone present. Beneath the shadow of his hat brim, one could glimpse a pair of deep grey-chestnut eyes.
"Hoven was the Red Cup Sect's last gift to Norlington. They have already left. Continuing to waste time here is meaningless."
"...What are you doing here?"
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T/N: Hey readers~! New Translator here! Before I say anything, I'd first like to thank the original author for creating this wonderful story. Without them, I wouldn't have the chance to share this adventure with you. I hope my translation does justice to their work, and that together, we can enjoy this story.
With that said, I'm happy to let you know I'll be uploading daily chapters. And for those who wish to support my work and gain early access, I've set up a Patreon where advanced chapters will be available.
[email protected]/PeakTL