Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 163 - 124: Deep into the Night (II)

Chapter 163: Chapter 124: Deep into the Night (II)

"I am a Priest of Father’s Love, you can call me Casaman."

When the man disarmed the bomb and sat down in front of Malin, he started with a very simple introduction.

Malin nodded, "I think you must have another identity."

If not for another identity, that newsboy, along with them all, would have been blown to the skies.

"Yes, I am a secret agent from the Sydney Union Intelligence Headquarters, and I started infiltrating the sect of Father’s Love fifteen years ago. Today at noon, my only contact died before my eyes," the man replied, looking at Malin.

Observing the ’lie detection passed’ sign above his head, Malin furrowed his brows, "Then why are you here, having killed everyone?"

"The Assistant Priest upstairs, he was my insurance. I had made contact with this Assistant Priest from the Goddess of Harvest sect before and told him I was willing to be a witness..." The man paused and sighed, "My supervisor died, I was determined today to avenge him and my friend, but during a raid on a den of the Master of Wisdom, I discovered this." The man looked at Malin and finally pulled out a map from his waistbag, "This should be a floor plan of the underground pathways of Pamir City. Something felt off; they seemed to be preparing something in the tunnels. I had to provide this information and raise the alarm with the Church, so I came to find him, but by then he was already dead, and I had followed the trail here."

Looking at the map laid out on the table, which appeared to be an underground map with obscure writing—possibly Chaos or Abyssal language?—Malin’s mind raced.

This was by no means good news.

But it was undoubtedly useful information.

"You say you’re an agent, without evidence, but you passed my lie detection. Alright, clean up, and let’s head back to the Church," Malin said, standing up and handing the violin case over to the man.

The agent hesitated for a moment, then cautiously accepted the violin case.

The Half-human captain was already waiting at the front door, and seeing Malin approach with the man, he opened the door.

In that moment, screams, groans, and the whinnying of horses all burst into the house, and in Malin’s eyes, a carriage recklessly dashed past him, the horses looking as swollen as corpses. The Half-human was taken aback, and Malin grabbed the door and slammed it shut.

Swelling! Chaos! Who else but a certain kind of old father could it be!

Before the door closed, an explosion could be heard.

"Damn! It’s the corruption toxin!" the Half-human shouted, looking out the window.

"Back door! Quick!" Malin yelled.

The Half-humans hastily ran towards the back door, while Malin glanced at the large human who had taken a gun out of the violin case, "I never knew your sect would be so combat-ready."

"I thought the same until today," the man replied with a wry smile on his face.

They dashed out of the house, as the toxin began to spread on the other side of the street.

The Half-humans were already scaling the low wall. Malin ran over, pulled a branch from the wall, "Follow me!"

"No, Your Excellency! We need to evacuate the civilians!" The Half-humans stood their ground, choosing not to follow Malin but rather took out protective masks against the toxin from their belts.

Before fastening his mask, the captain turned to Malin, "Your Excellency, take this guy back to the Church, tell everyone there’s been an incident."

"...Take care," said Malin, turning to the man, "You lead the way!"

"Leave it to me. I know the way, I think about going back to my real home every day," the man said, wiping his nose and then running ahead of Malin.

...

Colin opened his eyes, hearing the commotion in the city. He stood up and went to the window, noticing the distant lights.

"Mentor, there’s a fire somewhere."

Old Hoffman frowned as he got up and joined his Apprentice by the window, staring at the lights, his brows knitted tightly, "That’s not just a fire."

"What is it then?"

"The toxin rises with the heat, it’s corruption toxin!" The old man turned to the local Assistant Priest with open eyes, "Ring the alarm bell!"

The Assistant Priest hesitated, then hurriedly got up from the mat and raced out the door.

And Old Hoffman clapped his hands, looking at the Punishers who had just awakened from meditation, "Some lunatics do love to join the chaos. Let’s go downstairs and get ready."

...

Constance heard the alarm bell and his first thought wasn’t that someone had rung it by mistake, but whether someone had discovered a danger—otherwise, under normal circumstances, the alarm bell that alerted the entire city wouldn’t have been rung.

He got up, put down the specimen he was working on, pushed open the room door, crossed the hallway, walked up the stairs, and arrived at the Great Hall.

From Carterburg, Old Hoffman was here with his people putting on their armor.

"What’s the matter, Hoffman?" As an old classmate, Constance asked.

"Constance, there are traces of Chaos in the south of the city. I saw the corruption toxin dust rising with the fire. We’re making the fastest choice. I’ll lead the team through the underground, we can’t wait," Old Hoffman explained to his old classmate, "What about you?"

"Then I’ll stay on the surface. I will lead the team to deal with the problem in the south of the city," Constance said, extending his hand, the two old friends shook hands firmly.

"Hoffman, you old dog, don’t die too soon."

"I’m still kicking, but you old thing, don’t you croak either."

The greetings between friends came to an end as Hoffman led his team towards the north of the city. Before leaving, Hoffman patted his old friend on the shoulder, "I’m entrusting Malin to you."

"Didn’t you say you wanted him to see some blood?" he asked with a hint of curiosity.

"Where on earth isn’t a purgatory, to survive one must learn to kill a little something," he answered in a grave tone.

......

Malin leaned against the wall, glanced at the situation outside the alley, "Why are there Chaotic Believers here?"

They were now in the alley behind the Temple of the God of Wealth, observing the Chaotic Believers on the streets. Malin and this fellow named Casaman could only cautiously attempt to circumvent them, but wherever they detoured, there were Chaotic Believers.

"The only possibility is that the local Bishop of the Church of the God of Wealth has become a dog to the Evil God. Otherwise, I can’t imagine why there would be so many Chaotics in front of the gates of the Church of the God of Wealth."

No sooner had he spoken than Malin saw the Chaotic worshippers start to shout and gather, then advance towards Central District.

Quickly, the streets took on an empty look, as Malin and Casaman hurried across and dove into the opposite alley. Not two steps in, Malin noticed a bag on the roadside and instinctively felt something was wrong: "It seems like there’s a creature in here."

Casaman also halted, surveyed the surroundings, and after ensuring safety, knelt down to open the bag.

Malin saw a Gnome with a hole in its head.

Casaman sighed, "I should have known; this guy was definitely a spy for the Church. There’s only one possibility: he sought help from the Bishop of the Goddess of Harvest and reported my situation, but that Bishop is completely corrupted, so he was silenced by being killed."

"Then what are we waiting for, let’s go quickly," Malin said, patting Casaman’s back. Casaman nodded, then stood up and moved deeper into the alley, "We’ll cross here, then head east for a bit, and you’ll see the Great Cathedral of the Church of the Goddess of Harvest."

"Hope the journey is smooth," Malin finished, turning his head along with Casaman at the sound of footsteps.

They just caught sight of an Apprentice with the appearance of Chaos at the mouth of the alley.

The two sides caught each other’s eyes, and the latter immediately started shrieking.

Malin raised his gun and finished off the kid, then turned to follow Casaman in a run.

Behind them, the shrieking was incessant, and the Gothic windows of the Church kept shattering, with a large number of Apprentice Chaotics breaking through the glass and jumping out.

"The Fortune Church in Pamir City is done for," Malin said as he looked upon the Apprentices converted into Chaos. Nearly no Apprentice could pass the ordeal of the mental distortion brought on by the transformation.

Casaman, running, unslung the bag from his back and tossed it to Malin, "Put it on the ground! Do it quietly!"

"You should have told me this before you said it! If I had missed and dropped it, we’d both be dead!" Malin cursed as he placed the bomb on the ground.

After dashing around the corner, Casaman hit the detonator in his hand.

The next second, Malin turned back to see masses of flesh splattering onto the street like jets.

If there were any parents still waiting for their sons to create a miracle, then Malin could only confront them with the reality that not every student who flunks will become the top scholar.

Nor can every infected person maintain their sanity.

......

"Eh, looks like they’ve set off?" Jessica posed the question from the window.

Hearing her, Faye approached, observing the Church’s fully armed response force below the window, "It’s old Hoffman leading the team, I can’t see Malin."

"Where’s Malin gone?" The news was so explosive that everyone except Chris, who was making potions, was inquiring with Faye.

"I really haven’t seen Malin. It’s very strange, wasn’t old Hoffman supposed to take Malin to the underground passages?" Jessica said, "I think this means there’s a problem. Should I go check it out?"

"No way, I can’t let you go out alone. If you’re missing something when you get back, how can I explain it to Malin?" Faye had just finished speaking when another explosion came from the south of the city.

"Now I definitely can’t let you go out by yourself," Faye said looking at the distant Great Cathedral that was lighting up, "That’s the Church of Justice. They’re responding to our bells."

"I feel like Malin really is tough, wherever he goes, things just blow up," Logan exclaimed over there.

Then he got hung up on the wall by the girls.

"Just you and your big mouth!" Faye felt it was only right for Malin’s friend to suffer a bit.

......

When the carriage stopped in front of the Church of Justice, Singer felt as if he had crawled out from the gates of hell — it was nothing but assaults all along the way.

"Welcome, your excellency Bishop Singer of the Church of the God of Wealth," recognized a member of the Church of Justice immediately, greeting him warmly.

"Is Constance here?" Singer inquired.

"Bishop Constance is not in the church right now. Isn’t he supposed to be at the Church of the Goddess of Harvest?" the guard at the door asked with a bit of surprise.

"That’s great, I need to see your Bishop."

Good, this guy wasn’t lying. If it were fake, they would probably have lied following Singer’s lead just now.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.