CHAPTER 101: THE SILENT PRAYER

Max sighed one last time, then moved from table to table, handing them envelopes that had everyone’s name written boldly on them.

After sharing the letters, Max walked back to the front, where the board was, then grunted.

"From now onward..." he paused, inhaled, and shook his head, "...you’re all free to go on with your normal activities as normal citizens and not military personnel."

A loud chiming sound echoed in the barracks immediately after Max’s voice faded, causing everyone in the room with him to rush toward the windows.

When Max turned and stood by the window at the side of the board, he swallowed hard.

Shortly after staring at the chaotic view outside, Jinix, Oin, and Nich gritted their teeth and burst out of the room.

As the three walked hastily toward the direction of the building beside the gate of the barracks, their weapons shimmered under the fresh night’s light.

The screams continued to increase as they moved past two buildings behind the junior dormitory and halted when they reached the side of the junior dormitory.

"Lieutenant Wang?" Oin said, squeezing his eyes, and gesturing at the guy and the lady behind him to stop.

Watching how Lieutenant Wang kept slamming down the soldiers keeping guard at the barracks, Oin’s heart raced so hard it seemed as if it wanted to burst out from his chest.

Oin inhaled, then rushed toward the few soldiers standing in a shield stance.

"What are you doing? Lieutenant Wang!" Oin said, screaming the lieutenant’s name, thinking it was just madness that had struck the lieutenant.

But as Oin saw the face of one new soldier crawling her way in her own blood, he frowned, lowered himself, and helped the soldier.

Oin carried the female soldier on his shoulder, moved her to where Jinx and Nich were standing, then placed her calmly on the ground.

After helping the soldier gain a clear vision, Oin bowed on one knee, then smiled at the soldier.

"What’s your name?" Oin asked, placing his sword on the ground, moved his left arm at the back of the soldier’s neck, raising it slightly, then held onto the bleeding, torn leg tightly, preventing more outflow of blood.

"Mmm... I’m..." the soldier paused, coughed out blood, then continued, "I’m Judith..."

"Judith... what’s going on here? Why are you all fighting against the lieutenant?" Oin asked, feeling a bit confused as he tilted his gaze at the young soldiers still standing in the shield stance even after getting injured by Wang.

"He... he... he killed Lieutenant Gray..." The moment Judith’s voice ended, a dying air gushed out of her mouth, leaving her dead.

Jinx’s expression turned angrier upon hearing that Lieutenant Wang was the cause of Lieutenant Gray’s death all along.

But as she stood up wanting to use the rage on Wang, Oin countered her and held her tightly.

"Jinx... don’t rush, go back with Nich and notify Corporal Max and all other soldiers at the remote part to forget about the content in the envelope."

Even after hearing Oin’s command, Jinx tried all she could to free herself from Oin’s grip so she could strike her sword in the lieutenant’s chest.

But after five minutes of struggle, she loosened her grip on the sword, then stumbled back, sobbing.

As Oin watched Jinx and Nich run on the pathway and move on the road leading to the remote part, he tilted his gaze toward the stars in the sky, then inhaled.

He held his breath so tight that his face turned slightly reddish, then tilted his gaze to Gray’s monument.

Oin closed his eyes, letting his mind reel all the memories and training he went through under the lieutenant’s care.

And when he cracked his eyes open, great sage of rage shimmered in his pupil, then burst forward toward the shield formation the young soldiers had created.

"Give way...!" Oin said, screaming so loud that it made Wang and the two men beside him turn toward the soldier running toward them.

"Who is this stupid boy..." Kang said, slicing his finger across the bloodied golden sword held tightly under his right arm, then laughed.

"Hahaha..." Wang joined in the laughter before even tilting his gaze at Kang.

"...I will leave this one under your care. I need to head back and take care of the girl I brought from that kid we came for’s village."

As Wang moved past Kang, he tapped on Kang’s shoulder, then on Marcus’s.

When Kang saw the soldier closing in on him, he opened his eyes wide, then gritted his teeth and surged at high speed toward the soldier.

The moment the two men met, a loud crashing sound echoed as the blades of their weapons slammed together, igniting sparks and sending them flying into the air.

All the soldiers standing in the shield stance, along with the man leaning on the wall, turned to the two men fighting in shock.

Oin fought tirelessly for thirty minutes, throwing strikes and blocking strikes that could’ve killed all the soldiers standing in the shield stance at once.

The more Oin blocked and threw a strike at Kang, the more Kang’s smile widened.

Oin wasn’t hearing Kang’s thoughts, but continuously became irritated by just looking at Kang’s smiling face as they fought.

...

Meanwhile, outside the barracks’ walls, Wang walked boldly toward one of the parked vehicles, opened its door, and then grinned.

Staring at the lady lying in the car like a lifeless human, Wang licked his lips, spotting the unwrapped thigh of the lady shimmering as the moon’s rays fell on her body.

As Wang entered the car and shut the door, the sobbing sounds echoed as the lady jolted from and saw the man who killed her Auntie sitting beside her and brushing his fingers on her unwrapped thigh.

Elina screamed as the man shoved his finger deep between her legs.

Though the car’s doors were locked, Elina’s voice echoed in the night sky, drifting long and far toward where Kang and the soldier were fighting vigorously.

Hearing and recognizing the scream, Oin’s blocking stance faltered, giving way for the golden sword in the man’s arm to strike him on the shoulder and cut a huge wound on him.

Seeing the soldier kneel, panting heavily, Kang shook his head and closed his eyes, then brushed his hands across his face.

"There’s no need for me or my colleague to waste their energy on rags like you or any other soldier in this place," Kang said, took three steps back, and roared at the soldiers standing in shield stance.

When the soldiers stumbled back in fear, Kang laughed heavily, "None of you deserve to fight against me," he grunted in dissatisfaction, then turned and gestured at Marcus.

The moment the two exited through the gate of the barracks, two soldiers standing in a shield stance broke the formation and rushed toward their senior, who was struggling to pull himself up.

and helped him toward where the lab technician and his subordinate were hiding.

They helped Oin for a while, then halted at the locked gate of the lab. Letting their senior lean by the wall of the lab as they knock on the door, Oin felt something moving within him and began behaving strangely.

When the two soldiers saw how their senior was slowly showing the symptoms of the zombified humans, they increased the rate at which they slammed their fists on the door.

At the moment when Oin saw his veins turning green, he pulled a dagger from the waist of the soldier standing at his left side and stretched the tip of the dagger at his neck.

Though there were many options available, Oin wasn’t ready to withstand the trauma and the number of people that would suffer under his hand, in case he turned into what he dreamed of not becoming.

Luckily, as Oin pressed on the handle of the dagger, letting the tip of the blade pierce through his neck, a clenched fist slammed on the blade of the dagger, pulling it away.

When Oin turned a pale and greenish face toward the direction the dagger was smashed to, his eyes widened as he saw blood dripping from the hands of the lady holding the dagger.

As two drops of blood streaked from the blade and landed on the ground, the door opened.

And at the space beneath the open door, Ryo stood there, holding a piece of the petrified skin that had been used as a cure for the zombified outbreak.

Ryo turned, letting the two soldiers carry the Oin inside, then closed his eyes when he saw Jinx still clinging to the blade of the daggers.

Immediately the lab door shut, six men entered through the gate of the barracks, holding guns that shimmered under the moon’s gaze.

Seeing the tip of the guns pointed at them, the soldiers broke free from the shield formation and started to run for proper shelter.

But before they could take two steps each, firing sounds echoed like a generator, letting small, starlike lights fly through the side of the gate.

When the sound and the light faded, leaving smoke and holes in the walls and streetlights, all thirty-five young men and the fifteen young ladies lay on the ground dead.

Noting that they were the only people walking on the huge courtyard, the six men smiled, then moved toward the locked gate of all the buildings closer to the gate.

They slammed all the doors open, one after another, entering and firing when they saw someone hiding inside the room.

But as they reached the lab’s door, they paused as one of them ran to the gate and back at them.

"Should we check here?" one guy holding an AK-47 said, brushing his left palm across his face, grunting.

"Man... we have to head back... Kang, Marcus, and the one wearing the military uniform are all gone; let’s head back..." the skinny and short one among them said, frowning.

"Yeah... let’s head back... we can’t be doing this for three days straight just to search for someone... me, I’m going back to the truck. I feel sorry for all the kids we’ve killed so far."

"You know what they will do when they come back and see you sleeping in the truck, right?... go and sign your own death warrant."

All five of the gunmen sighed, lowered their heads, and turned, letting their backs face the lab’s door.

Outside the gate of the barracks, Kang and Marcus joined the vehicle in which Wang and the lady were already seated.

"What’s that smell?" Kang said, placing his left arm on his face and squeezing his nose, then turned an angry face to the lady tied to the back like a dog.

...

Meanwhile, at the sea shore where Kai and Jude normally stood to catch fresh air, brown bamboo leaves spun and landed on the ground, only to be washed away by the bubbling waves of the sea.

Inside the main temple’s gate, groups of wine-dressed monks stood at the corners of the courtyard, sharing what they knew of the flying sword myth and referencing the one they had just seen take place two days ago.

While the groups of monks stood in the courtyard, Clara stood at the top of the staircase, staring at the tiny object moving at a far distance beneath the stairs, like ants.