Kill everything alive in this place!

When the Foreigner was entrusted with this task, his weathered, rugged face showed a trace of surprise. No matter how you looked at it, this was an extremely brutal and arduous mission. This was a small town with thousands of people — even if those thousands were pigs standing still to be slaughtered, it would be enough to exhaust someone to death!

Still, the Foreigner was quite eager to try accomplishing the feat of killing a thousand in a single day!

On his arduous road toward creating his own class, he had hunted countless fierce beasts and predatory birds — some even being half-legendary species with dragonblood or golden blood!

For any transcendent, those were glorious feats that brought unimaginable honor and a collection of resplendent titles. But none of that was enough to push him toward the true extreme of his path. The Foreigner had begun to feel bored — but today’s crisis rekindled that long-lost heat in his fingers!

“If you die, do you have any last wishes?”

The roguish Foreigner grinned at the black-robed nun, casually closing the coffin lid beneath him with a bang as he asked. He admired her — her elegant sharpness, her kindness and resilience — all so rare and precious.

“Give me a swift death.”

“Haha! Then you’ve found the right man. I’ll make sure you die without the slightest pain!”

“Thank you.”

Perhaps it was the Foreigner’s free, unrestrained air — never putting anyone in his eyes — that influenced Maria. The suffocating, despairing heaviness she’d been carrying lightened ever so slightly. She gave that optimistic, masculine face a long look. No matter how many times she saw it, she still felt the urge to smack it.

Miss Maria didn’t waste her already precious time any further.

Because of the feelings she’d wanted to avoid, she had missed the chance to prevent a tragedy. Now, by turning back to the cathedral, she meant to make up for the opportunity her own weakness had cost her.

Even with nothing, I will give my body!

“One with nothing still has their faith! That faith will sustain me until death itself!” she murmured her wartime prayer from her previous life, her speed ever increasing, a black afterimage streaking down the empty street.

And in the strangely silent town, her rapid movement seemed to trigger some kind of signal. From deep within the fog, indistinct overlapping shadows began to emerge. From a bird’s-eye view, one could see them moving purposefully toward the same destination.

Like an ant colony with a clear goal, they advanced toward the small chapel in the southern part of town.

Corrupted.

The shadows hidden in the mist could not escape the black-robed nun’s gaze. These were creatures that often appeared in the wake of acts by Chaos worshippers, individually weaker than an average grown man. But once gathered past a certain number, their territory easily became a breeding ground for Chaos.

Everything was like this heavy fog. Maria didn’t understand — why, during the closed beta, had Chaos worshippers already begun spreading corruption?

In normal progression, Chaos only truly revealed its horrors starting with Version 2.0, The Hunt King’s Feast. If it was already emerging now, there was no reason the closed beta players wouldn’t notice. Miss Maria felt she was approaching a truth.

Small Chapel — Cellar

Gurgle… gurgle… splat… splat…

In the pitch-black darkness, the wet, bursting sounds of unknown fluids were especially unnerving. In the faint glow, the blasphemous altar — built entirely from slick, rotting human bodies — loomed with wicked depth. The corpses seemed to retain some instinct from life, with limbs twitching outwards, as if begging for help!

Begging for mercy. Begging for release.

Those already dead, and those not yet dead, offered faint cries — surrendering their last shred of remaining worth to the despairing being they were sacrificed to!

Pastor Lynn — or rather, the man who once had been Pastor Lynn — gazed up at the altar he had built himself. Its body of human corpses oozed rancid pus, their deliberately sliced skin covered in blasphemous writings. These meaningless, mocking symbols were enough to enrage any god!

All of this… was offered to the great being beyond the world!

“Green, will this bring Ruth back?”

“Of course, Pastor Lynn. You’re my lifesaver — how could I lie to you?” The vagrant Green sat quietly in a corner, savoring the sight of a righteous pastor’s fall. “The great being beyond the world — even a brief contact reveals such grandeur that petty gods are nothing but jokes. Your wife will be reborn as you wish… and you, too, may gain eternal life.”

“I have no interest in eternal life. I only want Ruth back.”

Pastor Lynn seemed blind to the maddeningly defiling sight. Under the ghostly green, ominous light, the lenses of his eyes were slowly clouding toward decay.

“How merciful is my Lord, to grant you all eternal life!”

Green watched in intoxicated delight. Last year’s harvest festival had given him the fortune to receive a message from beyond the world — a glimpse of reality. So-called gods were pathetic weaklings curled inside an eggshell, while the true beings worthy of the title “god” were reveling and competing beyond the world.

Sadly, this world was stubborn.

He had received only a fragment of information, unable to make true contact. But Green was patient. He knew even the most obstinate barrier would one day break. All he needed to do was prepare an offering for the great being before that day came.

And he wasn’t alone.

The pastor’s eldest daughter was also favored and loved by the being beyond the world. Miss Maria’s favor far surpassed his own — so much so that he couldn’t help but feel jealous!

Sitting cross-legged like any vagrant, Green suddenly thought of something amusing.

“Pastor Lynn, I think your eldest daughter, Miss Maria, is on her way here.”

“Maria…”

“That’s right! Oh, poor Miss Maria, merciful Miss Maria, beautiful Miss Maria! She surely wouldn’t want to see you and your wife abandon her. So… welcome her into the eternal family as well, and let her realize the grand blessing she bears!”

With coaxing tones, Green casually snatched a green-headed fly from the air, biting into it with yellowed teeth and savoring the juice as he swallowed.

Pastor Lynn slowly nodded. The skin exposed on his body was turning an unnatural gray-green, his whole being seeming hollow, soulless.

✦✧✦------------------------------------------------------------✦✧✦