"That girl...is her name Breeze Aoba? I've already sent my men to capture her. Although I don't know what your relationship is, you've been protecting her until now, so I suppose you wouldn't want anything to happen to her, right?"
The speech of the cult priest weighed heavily on my heart.
Since he was able to say the name Breeze Aoba and knew that I was protecting her, it means he must have a certain degree of understanding of our recent activities, and he must know the fact that Aoba is currently at the Yukio family villa. He is not just an ordinary survivor, but a priest who leads the cult followers, and he certainly has the ability to dispatch his subordinates to capture Aoba. I cannot dismiss his words lightly.
I gave Aoba a handgun, but I really don't think she can face the cult members head-on.
If the priest dispatched is a high-level cultist who wields arcane power...
I no longer have high hopes for Aoba's successful escape.
"How? Join us." The priest smiled with ease, "I promise, as long as you open your mouth, I will give you a position second only to me. One day, even reaching a position equal to mine is not impossible."
"My equal status? I asked, "Aren't you the highest-ranking person in this noble school?"
"It's rather harsh to call us a cult, but after you join us, you'll have plenty of opportunities to clear up this misunderstanding." The priest said, "I'll just answer your question. You're mistaken, I'm not the highest-ranking member of the clergy. Above me, there are five bishops and a pope. They are the true leaders of the sect, and I'm just one of the administrators for this small region of Japan."
"Five bishops, one Pope? " I continued to ask, "Are they also in Beaver City?"
"No, none of them are here. Therefore, in this city of beavers, I am the one with the highest position." The priest said, "I know what you are thinking. You think that since the Bishop and the Pope are above me, they must have greater power than me as well, right? You are correct, they are far stronger than me; but so what? When facing me, you still have no chance of winning. Abandon your futile worries."
Although his words were quite impolite, I have to admit that I don't have a grip on resisting his mental control. Because I know nothing about the supernatural power of mind control, of course I can't even think about how to break this power.
"If I sacrifice all the citizens of this city, I can greatly please the deities." The priest's expression revealed an uncontrollable desire, "This is the population of an entire city, how many such feats have there been since the founding of the faith? I'm sure that if I accomplish this feat, the deities will grant me more power. After this, even becoming the sixth bishop of the sect would not be a dream."
His words carried an indifferent air towards the lives of all the city's citizens, which deeply made me feel his craziness.
"And you, just by following me, I promise to give you a lifetime of wealth and prosperity." The priest said to me, "A person like you who has not yet joined the faith but possesses extraordinary powers, the divine spirits will certainly pay attention to you and bestow upon you even more power. What do you think? This kind of great opportunity is rare, and you surely won't refuse the chance to become even stronger, right?"
This simple persuasion caused me to waver for a moment.
A lifetime of prosperity and wealth, and greater opportunities...
What could be more appealing than getting stronger, for someone like me who has no talents beyond superpowers?
However, this is just a pie in the sky for now. Will he really fulfill his promises? Will things go as smoothly as he says? I won't just be easily persuaded and drool while bowing my head, that would be too foolish.
The priest continued to persuade: "I know you won't simply believe me, but it's okay, I will..."
Before he could finish, a ringing sound suddenly came from his pocket.
He frowned slightly, took out a white mobile phone.
Phone? Can you still use a phone in today's Beaver City?
Before becoming a patient, Yukio had tried to use a mobile phone, landline, and the internet to contact the outside world, but all of them failed. The mobile phone had no signal, the landline couldn't be reached, and the internet was also disconnected. If that's the case, why can the priest use a mobile phone? I'm not familiar with the communication principles of mobile phones, and perhaps there are capable people among the cult members who can restore the communication function of mobile phones, but this should be limited to the Beaver City area.
The city of Beaver has fallen into the stomach of the gods, completely isolated from the outside world. If you want to break through this isolation with a mobile signal, it would require supernatural powers, that's what I think.
My black phone and Aoba's purple phone can be used, probably because the power of the dark side is at work.
The priest brought the mobile phone close to his ear.
"What's wrong? .....What? ......Surprisingly......I see......Okay......I understand......"
After a while, he hung up the phone and looked at me.
"Breeze Aoba has been captured by my subordinates." He resumed his confident smile, "As long as you are willing to join us in good faith, I will not do anything bad to her. What do you think?"
Aoba was caught?
I intuitively feel that he is lying.
Because I have a strong intuition, I have always been an intuitive person. Specifically, I am the kind of person who, when thinking and intuition conflict, will prioritize believing my intuition.
"You are lying."I said firmly.
The priest's expression stiffened for a moment, but quickly returned to normal.
"I'm not lying," he said.
"No, I know you are lying. Keep lying won't do any good."
The priest put away his smile and looked at me with an impassive expression.
Perhaps he is the kind of person who is good at reading between the lines, I don't know what he picked up from my expression, after a while, he frowned and said: "It seems you can really see through my lies, incredible... Is this also one of your extraordinary abilities? Or are you the kind of character who is good at discerning lies?"
I am silent.
"I understand. I admit, I was lying," he said. "But it's not entirely a lie. Although my subordinates failed to capture Breeze Aoba, it's only a matter of time. You gave the Akatomi mask to her, didn't you? I only have two of those special items, and I gave one to the subordinate responsible for eliminating the survivors. Now it seems that my subordinate suddenly went missing because you took him out. It's precisely because of the help of that mask that Breeze Aoba has been able to survive for so long."
So the cult member I originally took down with the Fireball spell was responsible for eliminating the survivors? No wonder they attacked us, as they likely saw us as targets to be eliminated as well.
The more important news is that Aoba was not caught. She effectively used the mask I gave her to escape from the evil clutches of the priest. I can imagine how Aoba used that mask, likely by taking advantage of the cover provided by the sick people on the streets to create an opportunity to escape. I have always underestimated Aoba's abilities, and now I need to correct that view.
"Don't be too happy too soon, she hasn't completely escaped yet." The priest said, "My previous invitation to you will not change. Let me ask you again, do you choose to accept my invitation?"
"I refuse."I said unhesitatingly.
"Don't refuse so quickly." The priest said expressionlessly, "Can I hear your reasons for refusal?"
"You guys are so disgusting." I said.
"What?" the priest hesitated for a moment.
"You are so disgusting." I repeated.
Disgusting.
I feel a deep sense of revulsion towards the actions of this cult, the heinous crimes they have committed in this city, and the priest's callous disregard for human life. It's as if I've seen cockroaches on the bedroom wall, centipedes on the bathroom floor, or a half-eaten caterpillar in my plate at the student cafeteria; and even these analogies fail to capture the profound aversion I feel. My disgust goes beyond that.
The option of defection was never in my mind.
Of course, I have to admit that when I heard that I could become stronger, I wavered for a moment; and when I heard that Aoba might be captured, I hesitated for a while. Even so, I never really considered joining the other side. The opponent is the cult that planned the Red Eye outbreak, and we don't know how many people have died because of it, nor how many families have been destroyed. As for the patients who are still wandering the streets, it is also uncertain whether they can recover.
I clearly remember: how painful Yukio was after Mr. Chuzhi became a patient; and how sad Aoba was after Yukio became a patient.
I don't want to talk about justice, morality, ethics...
I just want to say that I strongly dislike this group of people.
I have never in my life seen someone I find so repulsive up close.
When I was in middle school, I also had moments of admiring evil. Evil people often seem more powerful and decisive than good people, while good people appear so rigid and indecisive. Compared to the bright heroes, I preferred the cold and ruthless anti-heroes. Even now, I don't really like the good characters in stories, still finding them sometimes quite foolish; but at the least, I no longer think that evil is something cool.
This man before me, this priest, this demon in human skin, no matter how self-assured he may appear, no matter how serene his smile, I cannot bring myself to feel the slightest sense of identification with him.
I will not collude with him.This is my decision.
"You say we are disgusting?" The priest looked at me coldly, "It's not too late to take back that statement."
"You guys are too disgusting." I deliberately said it for the third time.
"I've given you a chance. The priest gestured to Alphonse beside him."
Alphonse, clad in armor, took a step forward, his heavy metal boots landing on the ground with a resounding thud.
The priest said: "Kill him."
Alphonse came rushing towards me.
I have focused my mental energy throughout my entire body.
The priest mentioned that Alphonse, due to being under mental control, is in a state where he is unable to use supernatural powers. If that is the case, then he is just a guy who relies on the power of his armored suit and martial arts to defeat opponents. For ordinary people, he may be an unbeatable opponent, but for someone like me with superhuman abilities, that is certainly not the case.
Although wearing that heavy armor, Alphonse's movements were very swift, and he quickly ran up in front of me. He suddenly lifted his right foot and kicked towards me.
I followed my battle instincts and nimbly dodged the kick. Then, I channeled more psychic energy into my right hand and struck with a knife-hand technique, aiming for Alphonse's left leg.
The sword strike demolished the left leg of the armor, cutting it cleanly in two.
I couldn't help but be stunned for a moment - it's empty inside?
Alphonse is in the pose of raising his right leg to kick, so when the left leg supporting his body is destroyed, he immediately loses his balance and falls to the ground.
The heavy armor fell to the ground, making a loud noise.
I looked at Alphonse in surprise.
There's no mistake, the feel just now... the armor is empty inside.
Alphonse tried to stand up.
I immediately stepped forward, channeling mental energy into the soles of my feet, and stepped down firmly.
I've also broken Alphonse's right leg armor in the middle by stepping on it.
Then, I took another step forward and kicked his helmet off.
Just as I had faintly sensed, after I kicked away Alphonse's helmet, there was no human head revealed underneath, but only emptiness, nothing at all.
It was as if the armor itself had a life of its own, moving on its own.
"What, are you strange?" the priest said from afar, "Aren't you his partner? Didn't he tell you about this?"
I looked back at him.
The priest said slowly: "I was also very shocked when I first saw him. I didn't expect there to be such a guy. I carefully checked it, and found that this armor was fixed with a human soul. I don't know how this was done, that a human soul can be placed inside metal."
This is truly a great technology. With this technology, humans can escape their frail physical bodies and enter other materials; and the problem of the inherent mortality of the flesh can also be completely ignored. I once broke his mental control and wanted to ask him about the intelligence of this technology, but he was unwilling to tell me.
I originally thought that someone with superpowers like me was already incredible enough, but I didn't expect there to be a guy like Alphonse.
Alphonse, whose legs I had destroyed, was still struggling, trying to carry out the priest's orders, but he could no longer stand and had lost the ability to threaten me.
I moved a little away from Alphonse and then confronted the priest.
The next opponent is him alone.
