Enforcer Manual
Chapter 561: Angel of Death_1

Chapter 561: Chapter 561: Angel of Death_1

Yeying brought some important intelligence and offered another interpretation of the chaos that had erupted in the third Neutral Country.

This was not a war of foreign invasion but the result of a direct confrontation between the Barrosa Group and the Lunar Eclipse Sect forces. Once the End Ritual began, both parties viewed each other as the greatest competitors.

In fact, despite both the Lunar Eclipse Sect and the Barrosa Group being forces within the third Neutral Country, their relationship had always been tense. In the past, they had barely maintained a surface-level cooperative relationship due to the common enemy of the United Government.

In private, the Lunar Eclipse Sect believed the Barrosa Group were heretics blinded by money and wealth, with no faith to speak of; whereas the Barrosa Group considered the Believers of the Lunar Eclipse Sect to be fools, their brains drained by baseless faith.

The advent of the festival lifted the last veil of shame, leading these two forces, already averse to each other, to cross swords.

Song Lan, through a process of deduction, understood the true nature of the End Ritual from the multitude of information revealed by Yeying—it was a large-scale, real-life battle royale taking place in the third Neutral Country, and only the last person alive would emerge as the ultimate winner, ready to receive baptism from the Father God.

This was also why she had to travel thousands of miles, arriving in District 17 as a messenger.

The number of participants in the festival had to be complete, and besides the "leader of the Bug Swarm," they also needed to summon others who had heard the call of the Father God to the third Neutral Country.

Considering the fairness of the festival, to prevent the participants from dying at the hands of mutated creatures before reaching the core city of the festival, Yeying took the initiative to work as a guide. She believed that this also embodied the Archbishop’s kindness and fairness—the Church never resorted to foul means to eliminate dissidents.

The Believers were convinced they would be the ultimate victors, and that all heretics would face judgment after this grand festival.

These heretics naturally included the United Government.

Yeying’s farewell was as unique as her arrival.

She opened the window, took a deep leap, and with a pair of wings resembling those of bats sprouting from her back, she glided through the night sky for a long distance before disappearing into the darkness.

Both of them were certain that, although this girl appeared human, she was in fact some other kind of creature.

The high-ranking members of the Bug Swarm convened an emergency video conference that night, where Father Bruno, formerly a high-ranking member of the Lunar Eclipse Sect, confirmed the guesses of Lu Xiang and Song Lan.

Even within the Lunar Eclipse Sect, Yeying’s identity was extremely special.

Although the relationship between the Lunar Eclipse Sect and the Barrosa Group worsened over time, there was a honeymoon period at the beginning of their alliance. During this time, they shared their technologies to some extent, and Yeying and her sisters were the product of the integration of Barrosa Group’s genetic engineering and the faith system of the Lunar Eclipse Sect.

Father Bruno was a witness to this integration project.

He personally saw the chosen children injected with the gene fusion drugs provided by the Barrosa Group, then the nuns of the Church took them into the "mine pits."

A month later, the nuns found survivors including Yeying around the "mine pits." To their surprise, the course of one month for these children seemed to have lasted more than twenty years; their growth was astonishing, leaping from six or seven years old to their current appearance of twenty-somethings.

After being returned to the Church, the Believers discovered their extraordinary aspects.

They could sprout wings, morph forelimbs capable of digging, and, when thrown into lakes, gills appeared on their necks.

They could run at a speed comparable to machinery, and if they wished, they could tear metal constructs apart with their bare hands.

Not only that, but they also had voracious appetites and had retained the habit acquired in the "mine pits"—cannibalism.

The mutated creatures caught by them, or the heretics executed for defying the Church, all became their sustenance.

The Archbishop recorded their existence in the Church’s canon, yet even the Archbishop himself did not know if they were still human, and if not, into what kind of creatures had they been transformed by Barrosa Group’s gene drugs?

To quell the panic caused by Yeying and her sisters among the Believers, the Archbishop had no choice but to send them to maintain and defend the uninhabited "mine pits." Within the Church, they were given the title "Angel of Death," a name under which, with the embellishment of various rumors, Yeying and her sisters became entities even the Believers feared.

Hearing this, Lu Xiang and Song Lan both revealed subtle expressions.

They vaguely guessed the origin of the blood traces and chunks of flesh left on the Yeying’s claws.

After finishing the story of the "Angel of Death," Father Bruno fell into contemplation once again, because in his view, what was worth more attention than Yeying herself was the End of Sacrifice she mentioned.

He had once held a high position within the Lunar Eclipse Sect and had never heard anything about the End of Sacrifice. The Father God Yeying referred to undoubtedly alluded to the Moon God, and within the Church, the only one who could communicate with the Moon God was none other than the Archbishop himself. But what was strange was that if the ceremony were an instruction of the Moon God, then why would more "Chosen Ones" from the Barrosa Group become involved?

The Barrosa Group was the largest military organization in the Neutral Country, their business spreading across nations and a thoroughly atheistic organization.

The division between the Lunar Eclipse Sect and the Barrosa Group began with their unwillingness to believe in the existence of the Moon God and denial of the Moon God’s teachings.

After arriving in the Seventeen District and breaking away from the Lunar Eclipse Sect, Father Bruno finally got to view the Moon God from the perspective of an observer. He once thought the true face of the Moon God might be the will of Devourers, yet the arrival of this ritual made him question the credibility of this theory.

Could it be...

The gods truly exist?

Otherwise, how could it accurately know about each Chosen One’s existence, and how could it convey consciousness to them, even over the great distance to the Seventeen District?

This secret, they feared, could only be revealed once they had arrived within the borders of the Third Neutral Country, perhaps even after they ventured deep into "the Mining Pit."

"The Mining Pit" concealed countless secrets, but the monsters and brutal Consciousness Entities wandering within would shred anyone trying to probe these secrets to pieces, not even the Archbishop had ever entered the deepest parts of "the Mining Pit."

Father Bruno suddenly had a peculiar premonition.

The premonition told him that none of the Chosen Ones might reach the deepest part of "the Mining Pit," but Song Lan, a person with no apparent connection to the ritual, might.

He and the Devourers had been studying Song Lan all along, and perhaps his inexplicable strength was somehow connected to the deepest secrets of "the Mining Pit."

And before this expedition began, another problem presented itself.

If the Third Neutral Country had already become a battlefield for the Chosen Ones, then the Vanguard sent by the United Government would face a journey of no return.

Exoskeleton armor could neither shield them from the heavy firepower of the Barrosa Group nor fend off the erosion from the "Moon God."

Father Bruno foresaw their ending.

To become limbs torn asunder in the baptism of gunfire and to fall into utter madness from the echoing call of the Moon God.

Despite the ranks of the Expeditionary Army swelling with gang members and criminals, more still were citizens who had responded to the call to arms.

"Thinking of stopping this expedition is impossible," he may have thought.

In the past half-week, Lu Xiang had come to terms with the current situation.

Let alone stopping the expedition, anyone who raised objections or questions about the mass conscription was treated as a spy from the Rebel Army, becoming a public enemy of the United Government.

At this very moment, the entire United Government was enveloped in the fervor of war.

So, were they to simply watch helplessly as this army of tens of thousands marched to their deaths at the front lines?

As the chief of the local Law Enforcers department, Lu Xiang never imagined that one day she would be so worried over an expedition by the United Government.

She turned to Song Lan, who had been silent since the meeting began, hoping he would join the discussion on this thorny issue, "Song Lan, what do you think?"