That was all I needed to assess their state.
I gripped my sword tighter and knocked the butcher knife aside with force.
Kaang!
Before the next attacker could lunge, I swept my leg around.
Crack!
My spinning kick landed squarely on the side of his face. He flew through the air, crashing into the pews and tumbling to the floor.
“Gghk...”
His neck twisted from the blow—he died instantly.
No sooner had I dropped one of them than the guy with the axe came rushing in. Neither he nor the rest, including the priest, reacted at all to their comrade’s death.
“Hah...”
Of course. If they’ve already killed people and called them sacrifices, why would they flinch at a corpse?
I twisted my upper body to dodge the axe and slashed my sword.
Shlak.
My blade tore across his chest, and he collapsed, gushing blood.
“Grraaahh! Aaarrgh!”
With two of their own down in seconds, the rest of them howled like beasts and charged all at once.
Only three remained, but I didn’t feel even a flicker of danger. Compared to the Rift incident, this fight was so easy it was almost boring.
They were slow. Clumsy. Predictable.
I took them out one by one.
I stepped back half a pace, dodged, and drove my sword into a throat. As the blood sprayed, I slammed my sheath into the thigh of another attacker charging in, throwing him off balance. Then, in the same motion, I yanked my blade free and cut him down.
“Guhhhk...”
“Gk...!”
Two more dropped. Just one left. I was about to finish him when—
“Hold up.”
I stopped instinctively—and a split second later, I heard the clink of metal overhead. A glowing white chain ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) flew past and wrapped tightly around the last man’s neck.
“Gkk!”
The chain lifted him clean off the ground.
He writhed and choked, feet kicking the air—until finally, he slumped, unconscious. Still breathing, at least. Eun Woojeong must’ve pulled his punch.
Not sure why he stopped me, but I couldn’t exactly complain about him taking one off my hands.
Wiping the blood from my face, I slowly approached the priest.
He hadn’t tried to flee. Just watched everything unfold, still wearing that same twisted smile.
Something about his presence sent a chill down my spine.
‘What is it...?’
The priest wasn’t an Awakener.
He had no weapon, no aura. Just a regular man. Yet the cold prickle crawling over my fingertips wouldn’t go away.
“How foolish,” he muttered.
His smiling face gave off a strange, uncanny vibe—like a well-crafted puppet.
I had planned to keep him alive for questioning, but things weren’t exactly going the way I’d intended.
Swallowing dryly, I asked,
“What do you mean by that?”
“It’s foolish to throw away a precious opportunity.”
“Opportunity? You mean getting killed and used as a sacrifice to some fake god?”
“It’s not a god.”
His dead eyes gleamed as the corners of his mouth twisted higher.
“Gods don’t answer us.”
“...”
“The one who offers mercy... is Him.”
“What the hell are you— Wait!”
He pulled something from his pocket. I saw the glint of a jackknife just in time and lunged to stop him—but he was faster.
Squelch.
A sickening sound of flesh tearing rang out.
Without hesitation, he buried the blade deep into his own throat.
“Hrghh...”
Blood spilled from between his smiling lips. His body swayed, then toppled to the ground with a dull thud.
In a rasping, sandpaper voice, he muttered,
“It would’ve all... ended anyway... to become a sacrifice... is not so...”
And died.
He left behind nothing but discomfort and questions.
I sighed and flicked the blood from my blade.
“No more presences nearby.”
Having confirmed the priest’s death, Eun Woojeong finally dropped down from the second floor.
“You handled them just fine. Why even ask for help?”
“Courtesy, ever heard of it?”
“From the head of an illegal organization? That’s a bit much, don’t you think?”
He gave a playful shrug and gestured. The unconscious man, still dangling in the air, dropped with a thud as the chains released him.
His neck was bruised, and he was still out cold, but he was alive. As he lay motionless, Woojeong pulled something small from his inventory.
A tiny, sharp item—smaller than a fingernail.
Curious, I watched as he casually jabbed it behind the unconscious man’s ear.
“A tracker.”
“So that’s why you stopped me. Did you know the priest would off himself?”
“Nope. But I had a hunch he’d pull something crazy. He didn’t exactly scream ‘sane,’ did he?”
Guess lunatics can sense their own kind.
This time, Woojeong’s call was the right one. I’d planned to kill everyone and use the priest, but if I’d done that, we’d have gained nothing in the end.
“Shame it wasn’t the priest, but this is still better than nothing. Maybe he’ll lead us to one of their other cells.”
He was right.
If the priest had lived, we might’ve gotten more—but he was gone. Now all we could do was hope this guy went somewhere useful.
I sheathed my sword and scanned the room again.
The church interior was a wreck from the fight, but otherwise unremarkable.
‘We probably won’t get another shot at this place. I should check for anything we missed—huh?’
While combing the area, something on the altar caught my eye.
I stepped over the blood-soaked floor toward it. Resting atop the stone slab was a book.
Bound in black leather, it looked well-worn—like it had been handled constantly.
I picked it up carefully and opened it.
The pages were old and yellowed, filled with ominous script.
“The Catastrophe will come without fail. It is unchangeable fate and the salvation that awaits us.”
The Catastrophe...?
My heart dropped. A cold sweat broke across my back. I bit my lip and quickly flipped the page.
“To attain salvation, offer a sacrifice. And pray, desperately.”
Another turn.
“May the Catastrophe show mercy.”
Cold sweat dripped down the side of my face.
Could this “Catastrophe” they spoke of... really be Cha Sahyeon?
But how? How could they know?
“Cover-ssi?”
“...!”
The sound of my name snapped me back to my senses.
I gasped and looked up—Eun Woojeong was eyeing me with mild concern.
‘...I can’t afford to lose focus.’
Not while I’m with him.
I forced my expression to calm and closed the book.
“What?”
“You looked a little pale, that’s all.”
With the mask on, all he could see were my eyes. And yet this nosy bastard still noticed.
“You’re imagining things.”
I shoved the book into my inventory. He clearly saw what I took, but for once, he let it go without a comment and turned away.
“I’d love to take our time searching, but we should leave before that guy wakes up. Anything else to check?”
“No. We’re good.”
Nothing else stood out. The second floor only had the room we came in through. We'd seen enough.
We’d planted the tracker, so leaving now—as Woojeong suggested—was the smarter move.
“I hope their cult leader finds out the church got hit soon. That should be fun.”
As we exited through the back, I paused at his words.
“...Cult leader?”
“Yeah. Don’t these kinds of cults usually have some charismatic figure leading them? I figured there must be one.”
His explanation was casual, almost lazy—but it hit me hard.
‘Why didn’t I think of that?’
He was right. Whether they called him a cult leader or not, someone had to be organizing this. Someone leading the rituals. Someone brainwashing followers.
And if the “Catastrophe” mentioned in that book really did mean Cha Sahyeon...
Then that person already knew—that Sahyeon would bring about the end of the world.
‘How is this connected to the lab?’
Until now, I’d thought the lab was just some rogue facility doing illegal drug experiments.
But after this...
I had a sinking feeling it was all part of something much larger. Something far more complex and dangerous than I’d ever imagined.

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