Cain surely had a unique talent; he circled the ruins twice and identified two spots. The Punishers removed one pile of debris to confirm a ventilation shaft.
After excavating the other spot, they confirmed it was a passage. Like the camp, Chaos seemed to always fancy their handiwork underground, reminding Malin of the destroyed Carterburg. It seems the Western District’s walls were damaged by these rats.
It’s a pity that in this world, you all have met a unique me.
The search and extermination of the underground sewer were left to the Church of the War God, but the old Bishop disagreed, "You lad should also lead our Church’s apprentices. Last time we trained with your Church’s apprentices for combat, our apprentices’ brains were almost hammered out by yours. Who exactly are the apprentices of the Church of the War God?"
The old man expressed his displeasure so bluntly, and Malin was also headaches—after training his own Church’s apprentices for years and feeding them tricks, they had become sharp. They even assimilated strengths from various homes, and the higher-year apprentices published a booklet—’How to Survive Six Seconds Longer in an Encounter with Malin’.
Malin naturally couldn’t know the content, but according to Miss Margaret who had seen it, it was truly full of blood and tears.
"Alright then, since you’re pleading for your apprentices to get hit, I’ll come over every Thursday. That should be fine, right?" Malin replied with a wry smile.
"That won’t do. You lead the team here, I’ll give you a Punisher squad and two teams of higher-year apprentices," the Bishop from the Church of the War God insisted, presenting a tough demand which made Malin frown, "I’m not a nanny," Malin said, turning around and waving his hand, deciding to leave then and there.
"Sara’s sister is also here," the Bishop mentioned.
Malin turned back, looking at the old man in front of him, and couldn’t help but feel some annoyance at this old coot, "Are the kids from the House of Brice in debt to you or something?"
"How can you speak like that?" A Punisher said in displeasure, only to be elbowed aside by the Bishop.
Malin fell silent for a moment, then somehow found the old man in front of him less annoying—after all, that elbow could be said to be saving someone in another context.
"Anyway, help me this once. The young giants from the House of Brice are an important combat force for our Church. I truly don’t want them to die young," the old man said.
After thinking it over, Malin finally nodded, "Fine, but you take care of Cain."
"Don’t worry, he’s my grandson now," the Bishop declared.
This remark nearly choked Malin to death—how could this old man be so brazen in taking advantage of others.
Though it was a CHAOS-infested underground sewer, Malin didn’t sense much of their presence while leading his team below. Even with various zombies and wraiths, for Malin of today, they were just post-dinner entertainment. For safety, Malin even cast a Holy Sanctuary on the Shield the Brice girl was carrying, and told her it was fine to just walk with it on her back.
This Brice Scion, named Heather, had an extremely beautiful and artistic name, which unfortunately did not match her appearance at all—she was the girl Malin had flung half a mile away at her brother’s advancement ceremony.
Her arms, thicker than Malin’s waist, her very masculine horse-like face, or her bodybuilder’s physique with twelve pack abs... Malin couldn’t begin to compare.
Malin did a hundred sit-ups and two hundred push-ups every day, yet his arms remained thin, his face still cute, and his stomach—well, that single pack was a natural work of art.
Where Malin got his strength from had always been the most mysterious question among the higher-year apprentices of the Church of the Goddess of Harvest.
"Mr. Malin is quite impressive," the girl, Hathaway, seemed to like Malin a lot. Along the way, she was always offering warm greetings and occasionally taking out candies... What’s with the girl’s pockets anyway? Malin felt that although his tastes were strange, they weren’t weird enough for him to take a liking to a girl whose waistline was higher off the ground than his own height.
Yet he couldn’t stand the girl’s smug behavior. Malin didn’t consider himself the kind of bad guy who could be mean to girls, and in this critical moment, the Chaotic Believers showed up, discovering their trail. Finally, the girl shut up, and the commander of the Punishers’ squad walked up to Malin to discuss how to launch an attack.
The enemies seemed completely unaware of the arrival of Malin and the others, still scattered in twos and threes around an area that was clearly dug out, appearing as if they were preparing to move.
"By the way, why hasn’t Falm brought the team back yet?" one man said.
"I don’t know, Your Excellency. Would you like me to go check it out?" asked a half-human.
"Then go quickly, and if you find any trouble, escape back here to tell us," the man replied.
Malin and the captain of the Punishers exchanged glances, each seeing the decision in the other’s eyes.
So both stood up, picked up their weapons, and led their team around the corner.
"Ah, they’re back..." The half-human didn’t recognize the newcomers at first and called out happily, but quickly, the spray of bullets from someone’s shotgun turned the half-human into a bloody mess.
Malin’s shotgun started its work, targeting that man who began to transform as the gunfire rang out. Malin immediately found a good use for the hollow point bullet in his gun; the round burst out of the barrel into the man’s chest, interrupting his transformation and wiping out his life altogether.
The Chaotic Believers didn’t react in time and were quickly overrun. As Malin deliberately targeted the casters and shape-shifters, by the time the first shot ended and the remaining believers were preparing to retaliate, Malin had already jumped into their faces with his team.
After a close-range volley, Malin kicked the face of a Chaotic Believer in front of him, twisting his neck. He then drew his revolver and blew the head off another believer who was grappling with an apprentice. The latter pushed the corpse away, turned around, and used the butt of his gun to free his friend from the circle. Two half-grown boys subdued the tall believer, while a shorter apprentice pulled out a dagger and thrust it into the enemy’s groin.
The big man let out a cry, akin to a cuckoo’s blood tears.
The short apprentice pulled the dagger out and stabbed down again.
The big man’s eyes rolled back, and it seemed he fainted from the pain.
Malin couldn’t bear to watch and turned to kick away a half-human Chaotic Believer who was having a colorful fight with a gnome apprentice.
With the numbers on their side, the Chaotic Believers soon lay dead all around. The Punishers were indifferent to the Chaotic Believers lying in the pools of blood; after making sure that the most serious injury among the apprentices was nothing more than a graze from a bullet, they began to inspect the area.
And Malin noticed a small portrait frame.
There was a sketch of a girl in the frame, who didn’t look very pretty, but seemed to have been well-preserved.
Turning the frame over, Malin saw a strange name.