Chapter 123

Chapter 123: Extinction

Relying on the powerful physique of the “Cup” Extraordinary Being, Bill and Feiqi quickly leaped to the balcony corridor on the third floor, bypassing the stairs entirely. Following Lu’e’s orders, they needed to eliminate the sniper positioned above, who was none other than Vania.

Faced with the enemies rapidly climbing over the columns and railings, Vania felt panic rise in her heart but did not pause her actions. She chambered the next round into her rifle, aimed, and pulled the trigger once again. Accompanied by the sound of gunfire, Feiqi, who was crouching behind a column, was shot in the right hand, bl**d exploding forth. Losing his balance, he screamed and fell to the ground below, crashing headfirst onto the tiles and momentarily remaining incapacitated.

Though Vania was a clerical nun and had little battlefield experience, her focus, aided by the spirituality gifted by the “Lamp,” allowed her to struggle through the panic and avoid making rash mistakes at this critical moment.

She shot down one enemy, but that meant another was left unguarded. With Feiqi acting as a step stool, Bill successfully climbed over to the corridor on the third floor, landing about five meters away from Vania. Seeing this, Vania, who was preparing to reload, could no longer conceal her frantic expression.

‘He… he made it up here!’

Pleasantly surprised by Vania’s anxious demeanor, Bill knew the nature of the “Lamp” Extraordinary Beings within the Church. It was impossible to defeat her in a ranged exchange from below, but now that the distance was closed, the situation had changed—“Cup” Extraordinary Beings were far superior in close combat.

“You’re finished, Church dog…”

With that, Bill drew a short sword from his waist and charged at Vania. In a moment of desperation, Vania threw her rifle, which had not yet been reloaded, straight at him. Bill deflected the flying rifle with his sword, and seizing the opportunity, Vania pulled out a piece of paper and pressed it to her forehead.

‘Lord, please forgive me for invoking this heretical power…’

As the paper quickly ignited and burnt away, a faint “Cup” mark appeared on her forehead. This was the bl**d-Eating Sigil!

Dorothy had given this to Vania not long ago. After Dorothy helped her convert the Poison Recognition from the “Lamb Song” into spirituality, Vania had accumulated the “Cup” powers and could therefore utilize the bl**d-Eating Sigil.

After batting away the rifle, Bill swung his sword towards Vania, but with her enhanced abilities, Vania dodged his slash by stepping back and kicked open a long box nearby. She turned and drew a light sword from it—another weapon she had long prepared, just like the rifle.

With the sword in hand, Vania’s expression hardened. Seizing the moment while Bill was resetting his stance, she dashed forward and slashed her sword. Bill, startled, immediately raised his sword to block, narrowly fending off Vania’s counterattack.

‘That’s a fast sword! Aren’t most Radiant Church people proficient with guns? What’s with this sword?!’

Barely managing to block Vania’s strike, Bill thought in shock, but her assault did not relent. After one blow was blocked, she immediately adjusted her angle and thrust her sword again. This time, Bill narrowly avoided being cut, but he wasn’t safe yet, as Vania’s sword strikes came continuously like a torrential downpour, leaving him with no chance to counter. He was overwhelmed, unable to effectively block or evade.

In this moment, the strength of both Vania and Bill was nearly on par, but Vania’s mastery of swordsmanship surpassed Bill’s hackneyed skills by a wide margin, giving her a significant advantage.

The sound of steel clashing rang out in the corridor as Vania struck Bill with slashes and thrusts from various angles, leaving him with countless wounds that stained his body with bl**d. Despite being a “Cup” Extraordinary Being, he could barely protect his vital points. If he weren’t one, he would have long since fallen.

However, even this tenuous defense could not hold out for long under such suffocating pressure.

Just as Vania was gaining the upper hand in this one-on-one duel with her superb swordsmanship, an unexpected turn of events occurred; all the lights around them suddenly vanished, plunging the area into darkness.

…

A few moments earlier, in the chapel, Lu’e in his beastly form was entangled in a fierce battle with the many zombie puppets manipulated by Dorothy.

The puppets were bolstered by bl**d-Eating, but they still struggled to hold their ground against Lu’e. The power of the “Cup,” coupled with the sharpened attacks of “Shadow,” allowed Lu’e to easily tear apart puppet after puppet with a swift claw. Although the puppets’ attacks could inflict wounds upon Lu’e’s beastly body, they were mere superficial injuries. As a Black Tier “Cup,” Lu’e’s vitality was also on a different level, rendering such damage inconsequential.

In just two or three minutes, Dorothy had already lost half of her puppets. The chapel was littered with mangled remains, and bl**d soaked the floor.

‘Is this guy… really that insane?’

Hiding behind the curtains of a third-floor room, Dorothy could hardly believe her eyes as she watched Lu’e dispatch the puppets. Just as she calculated how much longer the remaining puppets could hold out, a new change suddenly occurred on the battlefield.

After tearing apart yet another puppet, Lu’e suddenly jumped back two steps, temporarily removing himself from the fight. He then used his bloodied claws to extract a small object from the tattered clothing. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a black candle.

Dorothy, using her Identification Technique passively, identified the candle as an Extraordinary Item, one with the properties of “Shadow.”

‘Extraordinary Item? What use could this have?’ Dorothy wondered, but she did not slacken her efforts. She summoned five more puppets to charge at Lu’e.

‘At this point, there’s no need to hold back my spirituality… Let’s end this quickly.’

With that thought, Lu’e began infusing the candle in his hand with his “Shadow,” and the black candle ignited with an eerie silver flame.

After that, Lu’e brought the burning candle to his mouth and blew it out with a puff.

As Lu’e blew out the candle, all the lights in the entire villa extinguished along with it.

Using this strange candle, Lu’e snuffed out all the lights in a vast area around him. In an instant, the radiance was gone, and darkness enveloped the expansive Phil villa, with only the faint glow of the moon flickering through.

Then, Lu’e’s figure melted into the darkness. Dorothy’s puppets charged forward to attack but slashed at nothing but air. Dorothy now discovered that her puppets could no longer sense Lu’e’s presence.

‘This is… using the power of “Shadow” to blend into the darkness? It’s completely invisible!’

With a tense expression, Dorothy realized she primarily relied on her puppets’ vision to gather battlefield information. Now, surrounded by pitch darkness, she could see nothing at all.

Without seeing the enemy, she couldn’t attack, while the enemy, concealed in this darkness, could see her…

“Swish…”

A faint sound echoed in the darkness, followed by the sound of something collapsing. Dorothy felt one of her puppets cease to function.

“Swish, swish, swish…”

The unfamiliar noises continued. Under the attacks from an unknown direction in the darkness, all the puppets she had been controlling were swiftly shredded. Utilizing the cover of darkness for a surprise attack, Lu’e systematically eliminated all of Dorothy’s puppets.

In the darkness, the hidden Lu’e licked the bl**d from his claws and then gazed up towards the third floor.

“All puppets have been cleared. Next… it’s time to hunt the main body…”