Chapter 183: Origin of the Curse(3) (2/2)
”Escape...? Hahaha, it wouldn't be that easy, Heisenberg...”
Calvin's eyes seem to emit a faint golden light as he activated his Vision.
The calm skies seemed to be pure, not hiding anything from the eyes of those who stared at it.
But being the possessor of the Emperor's Commandment, Calvin saw that there were countless locusts and a swarm of flies beating their wings up above the clouds!
Calvin's pupils constricted.
How could these locusts and flies survive so far up above the skies?
There was only one explanation.
This Saintess of Death wasn't a Subordinate God, but a disciple!
She might possibly be the disciple of the Goddess of Pestilence and Famine, Pisti!
”Shit...” Calvin audibly cursed.
'Now I know why this mission is S-Tier...' A bitter smile appeared on Calvin's face. Facing a disciple of the Goddess of Pestilence and Famine in battle would be a foolish endeavor for Calvin, but was this so-called Saintess of Death really a true disciple of the Goddess of Pestilence and Famine?
If that was the case, then she was too weak!
Far too weak to be considered as a Goddess's disciple...
If Calvin's memory served him right, then one could only be considered to become a Goddess's or God's disciple if they were at the Ambassador rank at least!
But this woman.
She seemed to be only a High-Tier monster with strength comparable to the fragment of Valefor's soul!
Calvin had the Mortician and Stephanie, both High-Tier monsters hidden beneath his shadows, so he wasn't that afraid.
But Calvin knew that this wasn't the time to act.
He still needed to know how to remove this curse of sleeplessness from the villagers, and for him to understand how to remove the curse. He must follow the instructions of the deformed man and remain low-key until the end of the ceremony.
The woman was now starting to move to the cart. She opened the steel gates and the stacked corpses tumbled onto the ground. A distorted smile crept up her lips as she picked a random corpse off the ground and held the body on its head with a single hand. A burst of Nether Qi visible only to Calvin who had his Vision activated assaulted all of the person's orifices.
In the very next moment, the same veins that had covered the young woman's body appeared on the corpse. These veins were incredibly invasive that in just under five seconds, they had occupied every nook and cranny of the corpse's body. Then, the veins wrapped the corpse in a cocoon of darkness before that cocoon eventually cracked open to reveal another monster clad in the graveclothes of villagers.
The sight of this made the other villagers cheer.
”Walay kamatayun! Walay kamatayun! Walay kamatayun!” They chanted. Some of the villagers even collapsed right there and then and bawled their eyes out thanking the young woman for supposedly giving 'salvation' to these outsiders.
Indeed, the person that had come out of the cocoon would not die anymore for he had already become a living dead.
The ceremony of conversion continued and the young woman converted these corpses into monsters. The women were turned into Succubi, Dryads, Hags, or Witches, while the men were turned into ghouls, creepers, and devourers. No matter what monster they transformed into, it was now impossible for them to die.
In a sense, they had attained eternal life.
The eternal life that the Our Lady of Holy Death advocated through 'Her' prayers.
About a quarter of the corpses were successfully converted into monsters, while the others would be turned into meat that the villagers could share and enjoy with their families.
Seeing the sickening sight of these villagers excitedly carrying the corpses to be washed and skinned for their consumption almost made Ricardo vomit once more.
No words were exchanged among the four of them as the deformed man started crawling his way to a dark alleyway.
Ricardo and Heisenberg along with Calvin quickly followed suit. They wanted to leave this place as fast as possible.
When they reached the dark alleyway, the deformed man had this crazed smile on his face as he said.
”In a few minutes, these villagers will return to their homes and they won't come out again until daybreak. We should do our best to break the curse of sleeplessness before daybreak.”
Calvin glanced at the dark skies as if he was checking the time.
Noticing that the swarms of locusts and flies had disappeared along with the villagers, he let out a sigh of relief as he said, ”Break the curse before daybreak? We're mere weaklings compared to our superiors. Why not we lead our superiors here so they can break the curse for you in our stead?”
”Once we've reported everything that had happened here to the church, then they should be able to come here and cleanse this village.”
Calvin asked as if he was probing for more information, but the deformed man's expression distorted out of anger.
”The church?! No, not the church! They are not allowed to step a single foot into this village! I've already had enough of their help... Do you think that I can still trust those incompetent fools to help me when even a child is more courageous than them?!”
The deformed man was so angry that he exclaimed.
Fortunately, the other villagers were already in their houses, so no one was out in the streets to hear his shout.
”Shut it, man! You're too loud!” Ricardo burst into a panic though as he scolded the deformed man.
The deformed man seemed to have realized that he had gone overboard.
But there was still this defiant look on his face as he patiently explained.
This time, in a soft voice, ”I apologize for being angry, but I can't just trust those bastards who insist on spreading their gospels and putting themselves on a pedestal as if they are holier than thou... Much more, I've already experienced the help of one of their judiciaries.”
”Oh?” Ricardo and Calvin stared at the deformed man in surprise.
”Yes... Yes... It's been a year, but I still remember that the man seemed to have come from a judiciary called, what was it again? Uh... Cabal?”
”The Cavaliers...”
”Yeah, that's it...” The deformed man nodded to Calvin's comment, ”I thought he would be able to cleanse this village once and for all but it turned out that he was too scared to do it! He tried to escape the village without my guidance even though the ceremony had already started...”
”In the end, he was killed by that woman...”
”He was killed by that amalgamation of curses.”
The deformed man seemed to still be afraid of what had happened at that time that his body kept on shaking as if he was a leaf.
Heisenberg and Ricardo were shaken after hearing the deformed man's words.
But Calvin seemed to be in deep thoughts about something else. He glanced at the deformed man and noticed that the trembling and the twirling fear in his eyes didn't seem to be fabricated. Yet there was something off in his words that Calvin felt at the back of his head.
”He died while trying to escape the village without your guidance? Are you saying that if you'll guide us, we'll be able to escape the village?”
Ricardo asked in excitement.
Calvin and Heisenberg turned to look at the deformed man as if they were waiting for his answer.
The deformed man nodded his head, ”I will give you a map that you can use to avoid all the hidden monsters and traps in this village as well as the taboos as long as you promise to save this village from the curse and free my fellow villagers from this curse of immortality.” The man's words were steady and serious. It would be hard for anyone to refuse.
Heisenberg and Ricardo were still thinking about their response when Calvin stepped forward with this cryptic smile on his face.
”I'll take you on that offer.”
”I promise to rid this village of the curse.”
The expression on Calvin's face was so sincere that anyone couldn't possibly find any fault in it.
But Calvin's mind had already hatched a plan.
The so-called young woman was just too weak to become a disciple of one of the Seven Gods and Goddesses.
In that case, why were there locusts and flies standing by above the clouds in the skies of the Village of Tulog?
There was only a single answer to this question.
The young woman wasn't the disciple of the Goddess of Pestilence and Famine.
It was someone else...
The mysterious smile on Calvin's lips deepened.
He was now getting closer to having the answer to this question.