Chapter 25(2/2): The Cemetery

But the priest closed in once more.

One kick. Qiu Meng was sent flying and crashed into a tree.

The trunk snapped, and a broken branch pierced through her lower abdomen.

“Gah—!”

Blood gushed out. Her vision began to blur.

Qiu Meng looked down at her impaled abdomen. The pain was so immense that she briefly lost her voice.

“How… could I run into a monster like this…?”

She wrenched the branch out and forced herself to her feet.

The priest’s right hand turned into a greatsword as she slowly walked toward Qiu Meng.

Clutching her abdomen, Qiu Meng tried to flee—but the priest’s horizontal slash was already upon her.

She could only block desperately with her Noble Sword. The impact hurled her back several meters.

She hit the ground. At this point, all she could do was gamble.

The priest raised her greatsword and walked over unhurriedly, then aimed it at Qiu Meng’s head.

Qiu Meng timed it, raised her sleeve, and fired her last Wind Crossbow Bolt.

BOOM!

The Wind Crossbow Bolt struck the priest’s head.

This time, both her eyes and the upper half of her head were blown to pieces.

The priest’s movements stopped, and she toppled backward.

‘I have to run fast… if she revives… there’s no way!’

Qiu Meng slowly straightened her body, then broke into a sprint.

She tore through the forest. Branches slashed her cheeks. Blood kept seeping from her abdomen.

Every step brought more agony, but she didn’t dare stop. The moment she stopped, that thing would kill her.

After running for who knows how long, sounds came from the forest on her right.

Alisia heard strange noises and immediately raised her greatsword in guard.

“…!”

Seraphina Cadera turned her head as well, lowering her voice.

“Careful.”

But a figure walked out of the mist.

After a closer look, she recognized Qiu Meng.

“Qiu Meng, you finally made it… are you okay…???”

Qiu Meng, clutching her pierced abdomen, coughed blood as she spoke.

“Over there… cough… there’s a monster… retreat…”

Before she could finish, her foot slipped and she collapsed, still barely gripping her Noble Sword.

“Qiu Meng!!!”

Alisia rushed to her side.

“How did you get so badly hurt…!?”

Alisia lifted Qiu Meng onto her back, her voice heavy.

“We have to move now… Qiu Meng must have run into something really nasty!”

“Hold on… let me do some simple wound treatment first.”

Seraphina Cadera had already raised her hand, ready to heal.

But at that moment, a dreadful pressure surged from the forest.

Seraphina Cadera turned to block the attack but was knocked backward by the sheer force.

The priest walked out of the mist.

“Don’t think you can run… Don’t think you can run!!!”

Alisia’s pupils contracted. She saw those wings.

The Celestial Wing Tribe’s wings should be pure white. Every theological text recorded it.

‘I remember… the books recorded that the Celestial Wing Tribe’s white wings are a symbol of purity and sanctity, a projection of order, a visual proof of the deity’s will manifested in the mortal world… but why are this Celestial Wing Tribe member’s wings black…’

Qiu Meng had completely lost consciousness on her back.

Seraphina Cadera’s expression changed too.

“This person… has the aura of… a heretic!”

“A heretic?”

Alisia looked at her in disbelief. The black-red priest seemed to have heard something hysterically funny.

“Me?!”

That thing let out a sound that should have been called laughter, but the laughter was so distorted and warped that it couldn’t possibly have come from vocal cords.

“A heretic? Hahaha! Since when do the people of the Temple dare to talk about the deity like that?!”

She kicked out. Alisia raised her greatsword to block.

BOOM!

The sheer force drove Alisia’s feet deep into the mud.

But the power didn’t exceed her limits.

At least, it wasn’t heavier than the anchor she’d once used in training.

Alisia blocked the strike and immediately swung her sword back.

The greatsword hit the priest, forcing her back one step—but only left a shallow gash in the black-red priest robe.

“No good… too shallow!”

Alisia quickly retreated and glanced at Seraphina Cadera.

“We have a wounded person here. This won’t end well if it drags on.”

Seraphina Cadera immediately lifted Qiu Meng onto her back. Pressing her abdomen with Healing Magic, she turned to retreat.

“I’ll take her and get out of here for treatment! This… this place is yours to handle!”

After her anxious explanation, she hesitated for a moment as she looked at Alisia’s face, then her expression hardened with resolve.

“Got it!”

Alisia took a deep breath and gripped her greatsword with both hands.

The priest, meanwhile, reached up and grabbed her own face.

Alisia had no idea what she was doing.

The next instant, the priest tore her face open.

What was inside wasn’t flesh and bone. It was a void.

An icy chill shot through Alisia’s heart.

“Something’s wrong!”

She charged forward, swinging her sword down.

That thing—whatever it was—was cut in half at the waist.

Its upper body fell to the ground, convulsing. But from the hollow face, a crimson hand reached out.

An eye grew in the center of the palm.

That eye stared at Alisia. The severed body pulled itself back up.

Muscle fibers stretched out from the severed waist, strand by strand, connecting the priest’s upper and lower body. The muscles writhed on their own.

The black-red priest robe swelled with them, hiding those nauseating regenerative tissues.

Alisia’s face went pale.

“A monster… and it regenerates…”

The next second, the thing’s silhouette changed completely.

It no longer resembled a person. It was more like a millipede.

The black-red priest robe split apart, the pair of black wings still dragging behind its back. The body had no facial features—only the eye in the palm remained.

It no longer spoke. It simply fixed that eye on Alisia.

Alisia turned at once and plunged into the forest in the opposite direction from Seraphina Cadera.

“Things beyond common sense—never think about them.”

She kept reminding herself: don’t understand, don’t stare, don’t give it a way into your head.

But that thing lingered in her mind, slowly gnawing at her.

She noticed the water droplets on the ground growing sticky. Then she saw herself reflected in a puddle—her face had no features, only a mass of eyes.

The deep green forest began to lose its color as she sprinted on.

Not a gradual fade. Not a desaturation. It was as if something was sucking the color away.

She ran a little further and discovered that even the outlines of the trees were beginning to dissolve.

She kept running, then collided with something—an invisible wall.

Without looking at the monster chasing her, she gathered her strength and swung her sword.

The blade hit the thing. No effect whatsoever.

In the next second, she was struck by a palm and went flying backward, crashing into the invisible wall.

“Cough…!”

The monster raised its hand. A voice came from the void.

“▇ ▇ ▇”

“I▇ will▇▇ you▇▇ that▇hope▇▇”

‘So this… is the true form of the monster Qiu Meng was facing… haha… what a terrible situation…’

Alisia smiled wryly and raised her sword in a defensive stance. She watched the monster lift its crimson palm.

But just as the palm came down, her vision went black.

She saw countless images flash by. They didn’t belong to her.

They didn’t belong to this world.

P▇m van L▇▇m▇l. Sam P▇▇n▇a. I▇n Pre▇▇m▇n Stev▇▇son. A▇dre▇ Lin▇e.

Strange names flashed through her mind like broken labels.

Then, a beeping sound—rhythmic, cold.

When Alisia opened her eyes, rain was falling from the sky.

She stood in the middle of a wide street.

Surrounding her were buildings so impossibly tall, their glass walls reflecting the gray sky. The black ground felt soft underfoot, with a white line running through it at regular intervals. Strange vehicles passed in the distance—no mana stones anywhere, yet they moved on their own.

Iron poles lined the street, like streetlamps. But the tops had three round lights, currently glowing green.

A pungent smell drifted from somewhere nearby.

Alisia looked down and saw her greatsword embedded in the ground.

She silently pulled it out and adjusted her cloak.

“Where… is this?”

She had no answer. Was time flowing here?

Or was it frozen? Where had that monster brought her?

***

Afterward… in the Reincarnation Chamber on the other side.

Angel No. 37 stood in the distance, gazing at the broken tower.

Suddenly, the sound of a clock came from the tower.

Dong.

The “one” on the clock face lit up.

Then, a name was carved onto it.

Ailixia Yixiumeier.

Angel No. 37 looked at the name, a satisfied smile spreading across her face.

“Mmm… it seems it’s been established~”

Just then, a black-haired man walked up from behind her.

His face was haggard, his eyes filled with suppressed rage and disgust.

“You… are you satisfied now?!”

Angel No. 37 turned to face him.

“Of course I’m satisfied, Mr. Former Hero.”

The black-haired man clenched his fists hard.

“Then what exactly do I have to do to go back?!”

Angel No. 37 answered with a smile.

“Fulfill the promise you made when you came to this world.”

“Only after you complete the deity’s demands will you be allowed to return.”

She turned around, staring at the black-haired man without blinking.

“As for why I’m having you repair this tower with the Hero’s Power… it’s because only then can I go back.”