RG 56

This was enough to check their status. I tightened my grip and forcefully knocked the kitchen knife aside once more.

Clang!

Before the opponent could charge again, I swung my leg. Crack! My roundhouse kick hit his cheek perfectly, sending him flying along with a chair to the floor.

“Ugh…”

The man’s neck snapped from the impact, and he died instantly.

As soon as I dealt with one of them, another man with an axe rushed at me. Neither the pastor nor the other men seemed to care that their comrade had just died.

“Hah…”

Of course, they wouldn’t be shocked by a corpse when they’ve probably killed countless people in their sacrificial rites.

I twisted my head to dodge the axe and swung my sword. Swoosh, the man’s chest was slashed, and he collapsed, bleeding heavily.

“Grrr, aaah!”

With two down in an instant, the remaining three men charged at me like wild beasts.

Although there were still three left, I didn’t feel any sense of danger. Compared to the last rift incident, this fight was so boring it almost made me yawn.

I systematically dealt with the three men, who moved sluggishly and foolishly from my perspective.

I stepped back half a step to avoid an attack and thrust my sword into a man’s neck. As blood spurted, I struck the next assailant’s thigh with my scabbard, causing him to lose his balance. I then pulled my sword from the first man’s neck and slashed the second.

“Ugh…”

“Argh…”

Two more fell in an instant. Just as I was about to finish off the last man, a calm voice interrupted.

“Wait.”

I instinctively stopped, and a white chain flew over my head with a clanging sound.

“Gah!”

The chain wrapped around the man’s neck in front of me and lifted him into the air. With a few gasping breaths, the man went limp. He wasn’t dead, just unconscious.

I didn’t know why Eun Woojeong had stopped me, but it wasn’t bad to have one less enemy to deal with.

Wiping the blood from my face, I slowly walked toward the pastor. Surprisingly, he hadn’t fled and was watching the fight with a smile.

The eerie atmosphere made my skin crawl instinctively.

‘What is this?’

The pastor wasn’t an Awakened being. He was an ordinary person, unarmed, so there was no reason to be afraid. Yet, I felt a strange chill in my fingertips.

“You’re foolish.”

The pastor’s smiling face gave off an uncanny sense of unease. It was like looking at a perfectly crafted doll.

I had planned to keep the pastor alive to question him, but the mood was unsettling. Swallowing dryly, I asked, “What’s so foolish?”

“You missed a precious opportunity, which is incredibly foolish.”

“An opportunity? To be killed here and sacrificed to some nonexistent god?”

“Not a god.”

The pastor’s empty eyes and ever-widening grin were unsettling.

“God doesn’t grant our wishes.”

“…”

“Only He bestows mercy.”

“What do you mean… Wait!”

The pastor pulled something out of his pocket. Realizing it was a jackknife, I quickly reached out to grab it, but he was faster.

Squelch, the horrible sound of flesh being twisted echoed through the room. Without a moment’s hesitation, the pastor plunged the jackknife into his own neck, blood gushing from his smiling lips.

“Heh…”

The pastor’s body slowly tilted sideways, and he collapsed to the floor with a thud, murmuring in a coarse voice like sandpaper.

“In the end… it doesn’t matter… becoming a sacrifice… so foolish…”

Spouting incomprehensible words to the end, the pastor died, leaving only a lingering sense of unease. I sighed and brushed the blood off my sword.

“No more signs of life around,” Eun Woojeong confirmed as he jumped down to the first floor, now that the pastor was dead. “You fought well enough on your own. Why did you ask for help?”

“Ever heard of common decency?”

“Considering I run an illegal organization, I doubt I knew anything about that,” Eun Woojeong replied playfully, flicking his hand. The man who had been hanging in the air by the chain fell to the ground with a thud. Though his neck was badly bruised and he hadn’t regained consciousness, he was still alive. 

Leaving the unconscious man, Eun Woojeong retrieved something from his inventory. It was a tiny, sharp item, smaller than a fingernail.

Curious about its purpose, I watched as he inserted it behind the man’s ear.

“A tracking device.”

“So that’s why you spared him. Did you know the pastor would kill himself?”

“I didn’t know, but I had a hunch he might do something crazy. He clearly wasn’t sane, was he?”

Do lunatics have a way of understanding each other?

This time, Eun Woojeong’s judgment was right. I had been thinking of keeping the pastor alive for questioning and killing the rest, which would have left us with nothing.

“It’s a shame it’s not the pastor, but it’s better than nothing. We might learn about other locations if we’re lucky.”

He was right. It would have been better if the pastor had been the one we tracked, but he was dead, so this was the next best thing. Hopefully, this man would lead us somewhere useful.

I sheathed my sword and scanned the area once more. The church, now a chaotic mess from the recent fight, didn’t seem to hold anything special.

‘I probably won’t come back here, so I should make sure I didn’t miss anything… hmm?’

While looking around, I noticed something on the altar. Making my way across the blood-soaked floor, I approached the altar and saw a book.

The black leather book looked like the most frequently handled item in the church. Carefully, I picked it up and opened it, revealing aged, worn pages with inscribed text.

<No matter what happens, the Calamity will come. It is an unchangeable fate and will soon bring us peace.>

‘Calamity? What…’

My heart sank. Feeling my blood run cold, I quickly turned to the next page.

<If you wish to attain peace, offer a sacrifice. And cry out fervently.>

I flipped another page.

<May the Calamity show mercy.>

Cold sweat trickled down my temple.

Could the Calamity mentioned here be… No, but how could it be?

“Mr. Cover?”

“…!”

The voice calling my name snapped me back to reality. I gasped and looked up to see Eun Woojeong staring at me curiously.

‘…This is no time to lose focus.’

At least while I’m with Eun Woojeong, I can’t show any weakness. I forced myself to compose my expression and closed the book.

“What?”

“Your face suddenly went pale.”

I was wearing a mask, so only my eyes were visible. He was annoyingly perceptive.

“You’re imagining things,” I responded curtly and put the book into my inventory. Though Eun Woojeong clearly saw me take the book, he surprisingly didn’t comment on it and turned his head.

woo

“It would be nice to take our time, but we should leave before this guy wakes up. Is there anywhere else you want to check?”

“No. We’re done here.”

From what I saw, there was nowhere else worth investigating. There was nothing on the second floor except the room we entered. Since we planted a tracking device on the surviving man, leaving now, as Eun Woojeong suggested, would avoid unnecessary trouble.

“I hope the cult leader finds out about this place being raided soon. It’s bound to be interesting.”

As we exited the church through the back door, I stopped in my tracks at Eun Woojeong’s words.

“…Cult leader?”

“Yes. There’s usually someone leading these cults. Such a person is typically called a cult leader.”

His leisurely explanation left me quietly stunned.

‘How did I not think of that?’

Whether or not there actually was a cult leader, as Eun Woojeong suggested, someone must be orchestrating the sacrifices and brainwashing the followers.

If the ‘Calamity’ mentioned in the book on the altar refers to Cha Sahyeon, then that person already knows Cha Sahyeon will bring about the apocalypse.

‘How is this connected to the lab?’

I had always believed the lab was conducting human experiments to develop some suspicious drug.

But after this experience… I had an ominous feeling that far more complex and numerous factions were involved than I had previously imagined.