[This is so much fun.] Resheph said ecstatically, just before another beam of light blasted at him. This time the light was a bright, sparkling gold—completely different from Valeria's dim blue.
The specter of light had fully formed and began attacking Resheph.
"Finally," Valeria sighed to himself. It seemed the specter had finally understood the demon's hostility and was fighting back.
As the golden beam ceased, Resheph stood motionless, staring at his hands. Green mucus drooled from his mouth as he abruptly turned and walked away. In his path, stone tablets emerged from the ground, glowing faintly with a sickly green hue.
"No!" Kaiser yelled, grabbing his lance and sprinting out the door.
In an uncharacteristic display of emotion, Kaiser swung his lance down onto one of the 15 stone tablets that had spawned. From deep within the forest where Resheph had retreated, a loud, piercing screech echoed—a grim warning.
Suddenly, rats, vultures, and plague-afflicted disciples emerged, drawn to the tablets. The creatures that noticed Kaiser charged at him with terrifying speed.
"Come back inside, Mister!" Five shouted.
Kaiser's smile didn't falter, but his distress was clear as he spun his lance, fighting off the infected zombies rushing at him. Their claws raked toward him, and some even dodged his strikes, proving easy to kill but overwhelming in number.
"There's always more," Kaiser muttered, his lance whirling through the air.
Some of the plague disciples hurled rats or projectile vomited at him as makeshift attacks. It was unlike anything he'd seen before.
"Well, that's new," Kaiser said under his breath, his adept skills with the lance evident as he dispatched one enemy after another.
Valery, inside the cathedral, tried to drag Kaiser back the same way she'd pulled Vari down earlier. Black ribbons coiled around Kaiser's arms and legs, but he simply moved forward, making the ribbons taut before tearing through them. His clothes and skin paid the price, worn raw from the repeated attempts.
"Just leave him. Take care of the kid," Vari said, lying on the floor. He seemed to think helping Adam was a better use of their energy than retrieving Kaiser.
Valeria wheezed, then walked away up the stairs, clutching the scroll Resheph had delivered. The old woman from before guided him.
"There are two now. Take care of them, Valery," Valeria said, using his ability to force Five to close the cathedral doors against her will. Kaiser remained outside, his lance chipping away with every strike as bodies of the infected piled around him.
"Tend to the kid," Valeria ordered before disappearing into an upper room.
"Don't worry, kid," Vari reassured Five as she slowed the doors. "Kaiser is one tough son of a bitch. He'll be fine."
"Also you met him two minutes ago. Pipe down," Vari added, shoving the crying child aside as he climbed the stairs with the long hilt of his broken axe.
"You shouldn't go up there," Valery said.
"I know what I should and shouldn't do," Vari shot back, scaling the stairs effortlessly as Valery tended to Adam's sprained ankle, lifting him into a chair.
Upstairs, Vari found a single door unchained. Voices came from within. Without hesitation, he barged inside.
The room resembled a military dormitory with rows of bunk beds. People were strapped to them, crying and struggling in white garments. At the far end, Valeria washed his hands, murmuring a prayer.
Caught, Valeria cleared his throat. "These people will die if I don't do this."
"I don't care. Show me the thing the skinny guy gave you," Vari demanded, his tone sharp.
The scroll lay open on the table where Valeria worked. Vari glanced at it, his face darkening as realization hit. Without a word, he left, slamming the door shut behind him as one of the bound women reached out to him in vain.
Downstairs, Kaiser had returned, bloodied and drenched in green mucus, catching his breath.
"Hey. That was dumb," Kaiser said, wiping his face as Valery cleaned him up.
Vari ignored them, sitting across from Adam with his face buried in his hands.
"You've been quiet too long. Speak up, jester," Vari muttered.
"We need to leave," Adam blurted, leaping to retrieve his stashed weapons.
"We can't," Kaiser interjected. "I took out as many as I could, but as long as those obelisks are there, they'll keep coming. We'll die in the swarm."
Valery paled. "Hive points? We're going to run out of food. What then?"
"You're not me," Kaiser reasoned. "Vari lost his weapon, and we have these two to worry about."
"They're the enemy. I don't care about them," Adam retorted, his paranoia growing.
Vari sighed. "I agree with the kid. That devil's going to nuke this place. It's done for."
"What?" Adam said, turning sharply to Vari.
"That scroll Valeria got—it's a warning. Eventually, all the lesser kings plaguing the 0th Circle will do a thorough sweep through, trying to kill everything," Vari explained grimly.
Everyone recalled Resheph smearing blood over the door, a mockery of God asking for lambs blood to be smeard over household doors to protet certain people from the passing over of an angel of death.
"Wait, what? That's not part of the game. We were supposed to stay here for a few more weeks," Five stammered, her face pale.
"Well, that changes things," Vari said with a resigned sigh.
"What else was on the scroll?" Adam asked, his voice tense.
"Four statements," Vari began. "The clean sweep's already hit Areas A through C. Safe zones and havens aren't exempt. You can form contracts to save yourself, but…" Vari trailed off.
"I've never heard of that. Who made this game? Why are we here?" Adam shouted, his voice cracking.
Peering through the cracks of the church door, Adam saw the hundreds of zombies outside. Just hours ago, they'd been human. Days ago, they were just playing a game.
"The acid rain stopped, right?" Adam asked hopefully.
"Periodically. Should stop for good next week," Kaiser replied, rising to his feet and nudging Five out of his way.
"We don't have a week," Vari interjected. "We're better off heading to an area that's already been nuked."
"What?" Adam looked incredulous. "You're saying we should risk the plague and the rain?"
"No. We sneak past, hide in caves, and move to the next area," Vari clarified. "What do you think we are, jester?"
As they spoke, a loud, collective wail erupted from upstairs. Five darted up the stairs, panic etched on her face as she seemed to now be able to use emotion as she wasnt just a drone anymore.
"My uncle's gone. I can speak freely now," Valery said abruptly, following Five.
"Well, they finally grew a personality," Vari muttered, climbing the stairs after them. Adam and Kaiser stayed below.
A body fell from the cathedral balcony above—a gruesome sight of the old lady, her neck wrapped in black ribbons.
"Good on you, kid," Vari muttered, landing on the ground floor with a thud.
"Vaal took the sacrifice contract?" Kaiser asked, prompting Adam's ears to perk up.
"Wait, what?" Adam exclaimed.
"Yeah. Classic Vaal," Vari confirmed. "Took the nuns and the kids."
"That old hag was supposed to fight us if we tried anything rash," Five said, sliding down the stairs. "Valery's uncle was always weird."
Valery swung down, leaving the old woman's body hanging. With a ribbon, she pulled a cross from the church wall, unsheathing it to reveal a dagger.
"You can frisk me if you think I'm still under his control. I don't care. But we need to leave now," she declared, prying open the church doors.
At the edge of the safe zone, her ability manifested—two black orbs over her shoulders unraveled into ribbons, wrapping around the plague disciples and tying them to nearby trees. The clearing formed a path.
"I need my skills back," Vari grumbled, stepping outside with his broken axe, now reduced to a stick. Kaiser and Adam followed.
Five scurried up to Adam's shoulder, and Valery, leading the group, yanked a plague disciple away just as it lunged at Adam.
"You daydream a lot, don't you, Adam?" Valery remarked.
"Cut it out," Adam sneered, moving closer to Kaiser as they trudged through the mud.
"What's the plan?" Adam asked.
"You wanted out so bad—your call," Kaiser said, smirking despite the blood still caking his face.
"We can't do this alone. We need Moon," Vari interjected.
"What he said," Kaiser added with a chuckle.
Adam shot them a confused look. "Why do we need someone who's almost certainly dead?" Before he could say more, Five tugged his hair, and Valery pulled him away from another lurking disciple.
"We don't have time for your distractions," Valery snapped.