The priest’s severed head rolled down the steps like a leather ball, coming to a stop right in front of the crowd.
Even in death, he hadn’t realized the crisis had descended. When he was instantly slain, his face had still been locked in ecstatic joy.
This formed a stark contrast with his gruesome fate now.
The headless body sprayed forth a torrent of crimson liquid before collapsing.
The clerics’ blood immediately stained the divine statue red.
The scene fell into a deathly silence. Everyone thought their eyes were playing tricks on them.
“Th… this…”
Before the statue loomed a massive monster, hunched over and radiating abyssal aura. It gazed down at the people below, its twin claws like enormous sickles capable of effortlessly rending ordinary flesh. Its body was grotesquely muscular, covered in inhumanly exaggerated bulges. Its skin was a sickly pallor, riddled with cracks from which oozed a dark purple fluid.
It bore no resemblance to any known magical beast—more like some unknown abomination.
Hiss…
The white monster cracked open its maw, extending a long, serpentine tongue that coiled around the priest’s corpse. Like snacking on a treat, it shoved the body into its mouth and crunched it to pieces with razor-sharp teeth.
“Ah… ah…
“AAARGH!!”
The utterly shocking sight unleashed a tidal wave of terror through the crowd.
The people, who had been frozen in stunned disbelief moments before, erupted into screams laced with pure dread.
Chaos spread like wildfire through every heart, infecting every corner of Kado City’s square and driving the masses into a frenzy.
“Wasn’t an angel supposed to descend here? Why is it this monster?!”
“Help—somebody help!!”
“I don’t wanna die here!”
The white monster eyed the panicking throng, its gaze wild and feral.
Clearly, it saw every twitching human in its field of vision as prey.
Especially those radiating intense emotional fluctuations—they gave off an irresistibly delicious scent, making its mouth water even more.
It raised a massive claw and swung forward, unleashing a wind blade that gouged the ground and sliced through the crowd like a sword parting a lake’s surface. Bodies were bisected, creating a literal storm of blood and gore.
“Stop it—protect the civilians!!”
A holy knight in blue armor barked orders to his fellows on the scene.
His name was Yuwen. The color of his armor marked him as no ordinary knight in the Holy Knight Order—he was a knight captain, very close to titled status, in charge of commanding the knights stationed in Kado City.
Yuwen had years of experience battling beasts corrupted by abyssal aura, so when the crisis hit, he was the first to steady himself, react, and issue commands.
“Understood!”
The holy knights sprang into action. They raised their shields, channeling holy power to form a unified barrier wall, positioning it before the white monster to shield the civilians as they evacuated the square.
“Urgh… what is…”
Via had dragged Sophie off the altar just in time, landing on the ground and narrowly avoiding the lethal strike.
She shook her head, slowly pushing herself up from the dirt. Once her vision cleared and she laid eyes on the white monster, surprise washed over her.
This creature was an abyssal beast.
Unlike beasts corrupted postnatally by abyssal aura, abyssal beasts were born infused with it. Their affinity for abyssal aura was extraordinarily high—surpassing even the demonkin—and they could wield Abyssal Force without any training.
While demonkin had greater resistance to abyssal aura than other races, they could still be eroded by it.
If fully eroded, they would mutate into monstrous forms eerily similar to abyssal beasts.
Hence, there was a saying: the endpoint for demonkin was to become abyssal beasts.
But what puzzled Via was that most abyssal beasts roamed the Thousand Sea Abyss in the Desolate Fallen Continent. They rarely ever left that domain.
So why encounter one in the human world?
“Urgh…”
Sophie clambered to her feet as well. The fall had left her with some scrapes and bruises.
But it was nothing serious. She quickly rose, and upon seeing the white monster facing off against the Holy Knight Order, shock hit her just as hard.
“Abyssal beast?!”
Via’s eyes widened.
Standing so close to Sophie, she heard the term crystal clear.
No—that can’t be right.
Humans knew next to nothing about the Abyss. Even the Holy Land’s knowledge was limited.
So how could Sophie, a saintess candidate, identify it at a glance?
“Holy Light, please shield the innocent civilians!!”
As the holy knights held the line against the abyssal beast, the on-site priests and nuns mobilized. They cast sacred arts to heal the wounded among the crowd.
Holy power flooded the space in abundance.
Perhaps due to its innate enmity with holy power, this thoroughly enraged the abyssal beast.
The abyssal aura around it thickened until it hit a critical threshold—then it erupted in a flash. The abyssal aura coalesced into Abyssal Force, warping the very space around them.
ROOOAR—!!!
The white abyssal beast unleashed a deafening roar. The Abyssal Force manifested as a tangible shockwave that swept across Kado City’s square.
It displayed Transcendent-tier might, shattering the holy knights’ defensive line with ease.
The priests and nuns tending to the wounded couldn’t withstand the Transcendent-tier Abyssal Force and collapsed unconscious one after another.
The sacred glow shattered, the altar crumbled, and the golden curtain symbolizing the miracle was utterly dispersed, raining down in fragments.
Kado City’s square trembled violently, as if struck by an earthquake. The Abyssal Force disintegrated the entire plaza’s surface, sending everyone plummeting into the chasm below.
“Damn it, how did this happen to us? What the hell is the Holy Land doing?!”
Ole was fleeing toward the city gates with his daughter in tow.
He’d been lucky—after the square collapsed, his position hadn’t dropped into the pit.
“Father, what is that monster?!” Lucy cried, terrified.
“I don’t know!”
How could Ole possibly know what it was?
One thing was certain: sticking around Kado City meant certain death.
After the disaster struck the square, alarms blared throughout the city. Though the security forces and Saint Luo Empire soldiers mobilized, they couldn’t contain the rising panic.
Civilians and nobles alike bolted for the exits, desperate to escape the city and find safety elsewhere.
Ole leveraged his status as Count Favi to demand protection from the empire’s soldiers, ordering them to escort him and Lucy out of Kado City.
But when the soldiers finally reached the gates with Ole and Lucy in tow, everyone froze in disbelief.
The gates were sealed.
A eerie purple barrier enveloped Kado City’s walls, locking the place down tight. At this moment, not even a bug could slip through.
Atop the walls stood numerous mysterious figures in black robes emblazoned with crimson single eyes. They overlooked the panicked masses below, their faces twisted in sinister malice, utterly unmasked.
“Ignorant and foolish mortals—we of Abyssal Eye hereby declare: the survival game of Kado City has officially begun!”
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