Emet-Selch crouched at the corner, glancing at the distant Great Cathedral of the Church of the War God. Its appearance seemed normal, except that the once splendid doors had vanished into thin air. Some ugly creatures of a different kind were gathering under the huge statue of the War God, crawling on all fours on the ground.
"These things are more numerous now." The Bishop of the Church of the War God bit his fingernails, angry for a reason, because Emet-Selch had just seen one of the different kind at the base of the statue... doing something quite profane.
At this moment, Bishop Meckel of the Benevolent Church approached and crouched beside Emet-Selch: "Aren’t you worried about your little Apprentice?"
"Not worried. In my memory, he’s the kind of brat that even Death would find annoying and consciously avoid." To be honest, Emet-Selch was indeed worried, but considering the Apprentice’s accomplishments over the years—anyone else would have probably been burned and buried in the northern cemetery by now—only he was still hopping around and attracting cute girls.
If it wasn’t for him possessing some real skills, such an annoying brat would have been sacked and beaten long ago when he was an Apprentice under Emet-Selch.
"By the way, I’ve read the battle report, you said you’ve seen those things?"
"Yes, years ago to the North of Carterburg, a Chaos Cult summoned such creatures. It just so happened that Malin stumbled upon their activities, or else their numbers would have grown beyond our management." As he said this, Emet-Selch glanced at the Bishop of the Church of the War God who was preparing to initiate an attack: "The thing they’ve found this time, I fear it has been targeted by coordinates, and the different kind are coming through those coordinates. If the Insectoid contamination at Silent Hill hadn’t occurred, these creatures wouldn’t be enough for the Church of the War God to slaughter, but no one expected the situation to take such a terrible turn... Wait a minute, what is that?"
Emet-Selch noticed the commotion at the gate; those creatures, akin to Ghouls, were frantically scattering, and then a group of Skeletons adorned in splendid armor emerged from the gate.
"What are those? Undead of a different kind? Since when do they wear plate armor?" Emet-Selch scratched his head. Observing the emergence of those Undead, he glanced at Meckel: "Bishop, sir, you better go and inform everyone, we have new guests."
Meckel patted Emet-Selch’s shoulder: "No problem, Quasar. Hide yourself well. I’ll go tell them."
As the old man left, Emet-Selch watched the distance: the Undead stepped aside and a skeletal figure draped in robes, floating above the ground and holding a staff, appeared before his eyes.
What is this thing? An Undead Mage? Wait, aren’t Undead Mages those who drink Magic Potions to live longer, making themselves neither human nor ghostlike creatures?
Could it be an otherworldly being? A Legendary entity that has bound its soul in a soul box?
Even so, isn’t this a bit too extravagant? There are hundreds of Undead Warriors alone, and those Ghouls... what in the world is that!
Emet-Selch almost cried out at the sight of the gigantic creature of a different kind that nearly burst the city walls—larger even than the one Malin and his group had killed before.
My God, can the members of the Church of Justice handle this?
Malin descended the steps, ready to get into the car, when a sudden heart palpitation caused him to turn and look toward the North.
Something seemed to be there, and the knowledge hidden in his bloodline flooded into his brain in an instant. Malin held his forehead as Clovis noticed his abnormal condition: "Mr. Malin, what’s wrong?"
"Enemies from the North, the knowledge from my bloodline has awakened." Malin looked into the distance, in this moment gaining knowledge of the monsters to the North from his father’s bloodline.
Hybrid offspring from the Undead plane, also one of the forms that make up the Tide of the Dead. These Undead have a unified legion and invade the worlds of all living beings until they transform those places into entirely new worlds of the dead.
We must go and kill those Undead; they must be the trouble within the Church of the War God we spoke of before.
"Let’s go, to the North." With that, Malin turned to Jiaxi: "Do you know where the Church of the War God is?"
"I know." Jiaxi nodded: "When I was little, I came here. The Holy Hall isn’t like other places—it won’t relocate unless absolutely necessary."
"Good, you lead the way. We’re going there," Malin said as he jumped into the car: "And, prepare the equipment for dealing with the Undead. We have guests to entertain."
Jessica immediately opened the car’s trunk, dragging out an arms box: "These are all Holy Salt Bullets and Quicksilver Bullets. Oh, I also have a box of grenades." The wolf girl pulled out a small box as she spoke: "Four in total. Malin, want one?"
"Hand them to you. Remember, you were pretty good at throwing in the cricket team."
"Of course, I’ll take care of it." Jessica said while transferring the box to the car, hopping onto the rear seat, dumping the grenades into her bag, and tossing the empty box behind the car.
Lillim handled her short-barrel, lever-action rifle, ejecting the steel core bullets.
Clovis was switching the bullets in her bullet belt around her waist.
Jiaxi leapt into the passenger seat and glanced at his own bullets, "I only brought 20 Quicksilver Bullets, do you guys have any ammo of this caliber?"
"No," Malin and the girls answered in unison.
Jiaxi spat out a curse, "I’m starting to understand the problem you guys mentioned before, screw the logistics department, I want to die."
"I’m driving," Malin inserted the key into the ignition as he spoke.
Without another word, Jiaxi strapped himself in tightly with the seatbelt, "Down the slope, straight north, after nine or ten intersections, we should see the Church’s gate."
"No problem, ladies, hold tight!" After Malin finished speaking, he saw through the rearview mirror that the girls were seated properly.
So without a second thought, he stepped on the gas.
Emet Selch tried to shrink into the corner of the wall. When the Bishops confirmed that more and more Undead were appearing, they had no choice but to forcefully launch an attack—if they didn’t act, even more of the different kind would emerge.
But as soon as the battle began, both sides fell in heaps—Church of Justice’s Spell Formations were extremely lethal to these Undead. Emet Selch had witnessed an Undead ignited by a stray Divine Ray—a mere first-circle Shaping Spell capable of causing minor healing to the living, yet it had set an armored Undead aflame.
Their holy resistance must be negative.
However, their own side didn’t fare any better. The Undead’s attacks were exceedingly methodical, their four-legged Undead fodder seemed endless, and the Church of the War God’s charging formation was nearly scattered. Were it not for the decisive self-sacrifice of Paladins amidst them, it was they who would have been surrounded.
Apart from that, those mage-looking Undead were indeed Mages. Various Curses and Shaping Spells inflicted casualties on the charging troops from the get-go, allowing those four-legged Undead a chance to break through the formation.
And when both sides ceased the melee due to the holy wall erected by the sacrificial Paladin, Emet Selch quickly realized these Undead were even outflanking them—this didn’t seem like typical Undead tactics at all.
This meant that these Undead were intelligent.
By now, on the streets, both sides were exchanging fire from a distance of around a hundred yards. Humans’ Quicksilver Bullets could kill them, while their bone arrows were laced with toxins and disease.
On both flanks, the spread-out troops were also engaged in battle.
The Church of the War God’s Bishop had lost an arm in the first charge and now waited with regret for reinforcements—previously, everyone was too overconfident, and they hadn’t adjusted the waves of reinforcements properly. The messenger had just left to call for reinforcements, and now they had only themselves to rely on.
Emet Selch cautiously peeked out a little, spotting an Undead Archer in his line of sight, firing arrows towards the distal end of the street—those Skeletons didn’t wear any armor, but their skeletal frame was their best defense. If the bullets didn’t hit something vital, they couldn’t harm them. In this regard, even if Emet Selch held a gun, he wouldn’t outperform their bows.
Because his bullets might not hit its spine, whereas if its arrow struck his abdomen, he would likely be done for.
With that thought in mind, as he raised his gun to aim, Emet Selch chose to target its skull—Quicksilver Bullets could inflict real damage on the Undead, and their heads were the easiest to shoot at the moment.
Following the gunshot, the Undead Archer crumbled in response, and Emet Selch swiftly withdrew behind the wall, just as an arrow grazed the wall and stuck where he was peeking.
Before Emet Selch could breathe a sigh of relief, he heard the sound of cannons firing.
Wait a second, where did they get cannons? With this question, Emet Selch heard cries of pain from his own side. He peeked out and saw that this side of the back had been hit by a solid shot, killing and injuring people.
This left Emet Selch even more astonished—these creatures actually had cannons!
Once again taking a risk, he peeked out just in time to see a giant Skeleton across the street holding a cannon, crouched there, with normal Skeletons busy reloading for it.
"Who still has Flame Burst? Take it down!" someone shouted.
Emet Selch tried to feel his Spiritual Energy Pool and found that he couldn’t even muster a minor healing spell.
Watching them finish the reload, Emet Selch was forced to raise his gun, ready to draw its attention.
Then he heard a familiar sound and saw a familiar car charging out from the alley, knocking down a whole row of Undead Archers. Before diving into another alley, Emet Selch saw several round objects thrown from the car towards the cannon-holding Undead, and he yelled for everyone to take cover—he recognized what those were.
Malin called it... Defensive Grenade.