Chapter 154 – Divine Light
When the man that pretended to be Father Benedict successfully trapped Silver Gale village's chief Mark and his teammates in the special barrier of his own creation, he walked back into the inner chambers of the kirk. Walking into his work office, he pulled out a magic communication device from the closet.
Turning a few dials with sigils and sending a bit of his mana into the device he watched as dim red crystal light blinked for a few seconds before going black and a nearby green crystal lighted up. At the same moment, he heard a voice coming from the device.
"Speak." Said the voice from the device just one word before going silent.
"I need a team for protection with an immediate extraction in an hour." Said fake Father Benedict.
"Situation?" Asked the voice.
"My cover was blown. I am at the crucial point of my experiment. In an hour I will be done and ready for base change. However, there was a problem with the local ex-adventurer team. They tried to break in but were captured in my 'no level' barrier. They will be done for in a few minutes, but I am worried by another unknown team in their support. I will manage to hold them back for a short time, but I need insurance. I also activated the first stage of the mass grave ritual. In a dozen minutes all hypnotized villagers will gather around Kirk. And I will perform the ritual."
"You have progress in the experiment?" Asked the voice with an emotionless voice.
"I acquired high-quality material. The result will be available in an hour. But I have no doubts of its success."
"Understood. This will cost you ten thousand guild points. The backup will arrive in about ten minutes." Said the voice and the connection broke with the green crystal's light on the device going completely dark.
As the connection broke Father Benedict, smashed his fist against the table.
"Ten thousand points?!" He squeezed through the teeth. "Fuck! That damn vampire moron!"
Then he sighed, calming himself down. "Alright, it is just ten thousand. Once I succeed they will beg me to take their points in exchange for my product. Greedy bastards!"
He straightened up and walked back to the basement where his experiment was still in progress. Walking down the stairs he started hearing the screams of the cleric girl that brought a smile to his lips. Then he gazed at the three monsters laying on the ground, the same as when he left them and the smile was gone in an instant as frustration flushed him from seeing the unconscious form of a Vampire.
As Father Benedict walked by the unmoving figures on the ground he could not hold himself from kicking Theron a few times to release his frustration, sending a few streams of divine light into him with every kick. As he was done he sighed calming himself down and turned to walk to his control device.
Only then he noticed a few shiny crystals signaling an error in the process with their lights, accompanied by the unnatural readings shown on the big ball-like crystal in the center.
"What the…?" He muttered immediately running toward the control. He stared at it for a few moments trying to understand the cause of the problem, then turned to gaze at Lilly with his eyebrows creased.
He immediately walked up to the cleric girl to check the device connected to her but when he picked one of the hoses he felt that it easily came off laying in his hand. He raised his eyes and saw that the same hose was still connected to the device. The confusion came into his eyes for a split moment as he tried to understand the situation. And the next moment he turned around as his eyes grew wide in realization.
However, it was too late as what he saw upon turning were the huge antlers of the moose-like monsters inches away from impaling him. Or so this Tariaksuq must have thought. Instead of a face full of fright, a smile spread on the bishop's lips and just as he was about to be impaled the antlers of a rushing monster hit an invisible wall-like barrier stopping the monster cold with a loud impact that made the monster drop on the ground unconscious.
"Block that, fucker." Said a female voice from behind. This time surprising him for real. He felt several tentacle-like limbs latch on to him from behind as some cold mucous liquid dripped on him from above, drenching him in an instant.
Nu got a firm hold on the bishop, jumping at his back when he turned to stop the Tariaksuq and climbed his body, her jelly-like form engulfing his figure in an instant.
Cold was the first thing that the bishop felt, but soon it changed to a searing hot blaze of molten lava engulfing him. As he felt his hair, clothes, and skin start to dissolve, screams of incredible pain tore out of his throat. It turned to wail a moment later as his face drenched in acidic mucus started to come off of his skull.
But the next moment bright golden light started to shine in the bishop's hands as his face turned to vicious fury.
"YOU MAGGOT PIECE OF…." Started to scream bishop, but his words were instantly stopped by huge antlers impaling him through his chest. Blood flew out of his mouth instead of the end word as his lungs were prickled through in several spots.
Bishop watched in shock at the monster that should have been unconscious from the force of impact just a moment ago. It had blood streaming out of all its orifices yet kept moving as if unbothered by its brain's damage.
"Y..Yo..u…" Spat out bishop the single word followed by a stream of blood from his mouth as the truth of the situation dawned on him. "You.." he repeated, turning his head to look back at the shape barely resembling a woman gazing at him with hatred in her monstrous eyes.
These were the last words he managed to squeeze out of himself as the next moment Tariaksuq jerked back pulling out his bloody antlers and stepped away. Blood flooded out of his body in streams and immediately boiled, dissolving in the slime mucus and ending the bishop's struggle. The dead body's legs wobbled and it dropped on the knees before slamming head first on the ground.
Nu continued to dissolve his body with a wicked smile on her slime-like face but a moment later her smile disappeared, changing to confusion. She felt something wrong with his body as her slime reached the innards of her prey. She felt as if he was too light inside, too weightless, too… empty. At that moment the dead half-dissolved body shone with dim golden light and disintegrated into light particles that flashed in the direction of a huge tank with white liquid, leaving her in her slime form laying on the ground
"Nice try." Said the voice spreading through the whole room as if the voice of a God.
Something stirred in the white liquid as the open wide palm slammed against the glass from the inside of the tank. Two bright golden fires lit up inside the liquid. They turned in unity toward the surprised doppelganger, showing that these were not fires but someone's eyes staring at her through the white shiny liquid.
As the gaze of the being inside the tank fell on her, Nu felt as if something clutched her soul trying to tear it out of her body. Her slime shape started to shudder and tear. As if the very connection between molecules and atoms inside her body started to disappear, chunks of slime mucus started to fall off of her body. These pieces of mucus hit the ground and quickly turned to liquid, turning to puddles.
"Son..of a bitch." Said Nu through incredible pain. "That was… not… his real body."
"Nu!" Screamed Lilly putting force into her barely moving limb with a face full of fright at seeing the slime monster that protected her, starting to disintegrate. She wanted to do something but had no strength to even lift herself. She pointed her hand in Nu's direction and a white light spread around the slime-like body covering her with a barrier. It stopped the doppelganger's dissolution, but Lilly felt an incredible force behind the gaze of the one who was inside the tank of white liquid. The force of gaze pressed at the white barrier and Lilly's mind as if an invisible monstrous mallet slamming at her, spreading crack in her mind and the white barrier.
However the next moment an earthquake-like vibration shook the whole room with a shattered glass sound following soon after. A golden light spread through the whole kirk and reached the basement engulfing everything inside it and filling every corner in a split second.
Screams of a beast on a slaughter tore out of the white liquid tank, as the golden light coming from the upper floor contested with the golden light inside the liquid as if it marked it as its opponent. Two lights contested for just a split second before the light coming from above engulfed the light coming from the tank. As if gobbled down by a monster the light from the liquid in the tanks was absorbed and dissolved. After that, the light from above spread further inside the basement.
Once the golden light hit Lilly she felt an incredible surge of energy and power as her eyes shone with white light. The barrier around Nu was immediately reinforced, all cracks in it instantly disappearing.
As the light reached the bodies of Taur and Theron, the two monsters instantly burst into white flames and turned to ashes in split seconds, hitting the ground as a pile of dust. However, when the light reached Nu, it passed over her as if it slid over Lilly's barrier and went off without hurting her in any way.
Next, the light passed through the kids laying on the beds still connected to the strange device, and the next moment control device at the center of the room burst into sparks and blew up in pieces.
After a few seconds, the golden light dimmed and quickly disappeared bringing the room back to its original brightness.
"What was that?" Asked Nu, turning to look at the ashes of two monsters before turning her gaze to Lilly.
"I have no idea," Said Lilly, dropping down on the floor, her magic power quickly draining out of her as she held the barrier around Nu. As she fell the white barrier shattered making Nu inhale deeply in fright. However, she did not feel anything as it seemed that with the disappearance of the golden light, the danger of turning to ashes like the other two monsters was gone.
Nu turned to look at the Tank with liquid and saw the hand that was pressing against the glass now laying on the tank's floor unmoving. The golden fire of the person's eyes that tore her apart with the force of their gaze, was now gone.
"Lilly!" Screamed Samantha a few seconds later as the figure of her sister showed up rushing down the stairs.
"Sam!" Groaned Lilly.
"Lilly! Lilly, how are you?" Screamed Samantha rushing to her sister and dropping to her knees near Lilly.
"Where is that mother fucker?" Asked Mark, rushing into the basement after her.
"In the glass tank." Said Nu.
"Whoa! What the fuck is that?" Asked Mark, pointing his sword at the slime-like shape.
"Don't!" Said Kate behind him. "This is an ally."
"Monster?" Asked Marked, surprised but putting down his sword.
"Long story. Just trust me, it's on our side."
"Emmy!" Screamed Milla rushing toward the kids sitting on the bed in a strange state as if her mind was vacant. "What did he do to you?!" She wailed.
"He used kids to extract divine energy." Said Lilly, pointing with her eyes at the glass tank.
"He?" Asked Samantha. Then she looked in the direction her sister showed, noticing the unmoving hand in the liquid.
"What happened to him?" Asked Kate.
"I don't know. Some kind of light broke into the basement and attacked him, saving us in the nick of time. We'd be dead by now if not for that."
"Noah." Whispered Samantha with an exhale.
"It was him?" Asked Lilly, hearing her sisters whisper. "I see…" She whispered back seeing Samantha's acknowledging nod in reply. "Did you save Dany?" She said, looking Sam in the eyes.
Samantha smiled back at her in reply and turned her body finally allowing Lilly to see Dany that came to the basement after everyone.
"I am here." Said Danyella in a dry voice as if just speaking brought her pain.
"I see. He kept his promise." Said Lilly slowly standing up from the ground as Samantha helped her by putting her hand over her waist. "So where is he?"
"Outside." Said Kate. "It looks like the trick he pulled to shoot that light did not go easy on him. He was out of commission when we rushed here."
"I see. Let's get out of here then." Said Lilly.
"Yeah." Said Samantha.
At that moment they heard a loud sound of explosions and screams of people coming from above.