Chapter 439: Chapter 54: Escalation of Alert

The night sky wept, a pitter-patter of rain.

Crimson droplets fell, sprung from the loss of control and downfall of a demigod.

Beneath the siege of death made manifest by the Death Law, failure to maintain one’s domain meant instant “death,” while sustaining it equated to suicide. Before Gaius lay two paths, each leading to a fate already sealed.

The necromantic anomaly born from his death collected clouds of scarlet in the heavens.

The blood rain seeped through the crevices in the wooden planks and into the trenches, dripping down in strands like crimson curtains.

The bodies of knights dissolved slowly in the bloody water, while Priest Mark frantically pulled the trigger, emptying all his ammo on Peggy.

Even if he were to perish in this anomaly, he was determined to drag the devil’s ally down to the River Styx!

However, no matter how much he fired, the bullets could not harm Peggy.

Until his feet too dissolved in the anomaly’s bloody waters, and his body collapsed into the pool of blood, to be slowly devoured.

Peggy sat in silence on the ground, her left hand clasped around Aske’s neck, her right hand caressing his cheek.

Countless death tadpoles merrily circled around her, swimming, creating a barrier between the blood-soaked waters and the two of them.

She had come to understand what death is.

Yet she wished she never had.

“I don’t agree,” Peggy murmured softly.

The tadpoles scattered quickly as if startled, and then cautiously circled around her at a distance.

Tears streamed down Peggy’s cheeks as she attempted to speak in a steady voice,

“I won’t let you pass away.”

Numerous dark tadpoles emerged from Aske’s corpse, the concept of death being stripped away from it.

Yet Aske still lay in her arms, his heart did not beat, his breath did not return, and his face had no trace of color; he had merely stopped decaying.

He was no longer dead, but neither had he come back to life.

So it seems, it doesn’t work…

Peggy vigorously wiped the tears from her cheeks, yet more continued to fall unabated from her eyes.

“I now understand my mistake, Aske.”

She murmured in a pleading tone, her pale hand covering his face,

“I’ll never act on my own without telling you again…”

As more tears fell into the pool of blood, Peggy looked sorrowfully at the body in her arms, her eyelashes quivering.

“Forgive me.”

No response.

“Aske…” she called out softly, “please, open your eyes.”

No response.

“I have yet to show you my diary… there are so many things I wanted to tell you…” Her voice nearly quivered into distortion as more tears overflowed from her eyes, her chest as if scorched by a fire, the corpse of a once-frolicking fawn, her dead heart.

“…And our children, our future…”

No response, for a long while.

“Is that so?” She closed her eyes slowly, allowing tears to continue sliding down her neck, “So, in the end…”

In the end, I still have nothing at all.

Above the trenches, the rain of necromantic blood continued its quiet descent, while two giant dragons circled cautiously around the perimeter of the anomaly, never daring to enter.

“It’s a Death System anomaly,” one of the giant dragons flapped its wings vibrantly, gliding gracefully through the nighttime sky, “The anomaly is corroding the land. This trench is off-limits now. Small Saxony’s war plans are in trouble.”

“Which demigod has fallen here?” Another dragon followed it in flight, “I smell an ominous scent.”

Suddenly, a piercing scream tore through the night’s calm, laden with such grief and despair that it nearly caused the two dragons to lose their composure for a moment.

“What is that?” A dragon steadied itself in midair, somewhat dazed, “Seems to be a woman’s cry.”

“No,” the other dragon spoke, “It’s more like the desperate roar of a wild beast.”

……..

Church Intelligence Bureau, BI Monitoring Room.

“The Raphael thread has raised an alarm again!” Exclamation marks that suddenly popped up on the screen caused all the priests to become instantly busy.

“Where is the location?!”

“North of Verona City! The alarm content [Threat Level Change], PeggyR4Monitor thread, shifted from Encluid to Keter level!”

Soon, Pope Innocent and the cardinals also hurried to the monitoring room.

“Keter level?” Innocent looked grave, understanding that Keter implied a threat to the existence of the technological civilization, “Can the All-Sight lock on to the specific location?”

“The target site is located in the north of Verona. The nearest All-Sight is currently above the Atlantis Ocean and cannot monitor the specified location! Moreover, it is midnight, and the surface visibility is extremely low; even if monitored, it would not be possible to produce a high-definition image!”

“What about the Temple Knights stationed in Verona?” Innocent interrupted, “Hurry and have them investigate!”

In Verona City, a group of Temple Knights stepped out.

The Church had issued a new emergency mission with a danger level reaching S4. But the reward offered was exceptionally generous. Soon, Temple Knights unafraid of death accepted the mission and set out to investigate the mutant phenomena in the northern trenches.

At that moment, the skies above the trenches were covered with gloomy clouds, and a strange and eerie blood rain continuously fell, almost submerging the entire trench.

The Temple Knights stood at the entrance of the trench, gazing at the blood-colored water that had risen to the height of their shins, not daring to go down.

One of the knights caught a grasshopper nearby and threw it into the water ahead.

The grasshopper didn’t struggle, sinking directly below the surface as if swallowed by a monster’s gaping mouth.

This was too weird. The Temple Knights exchanged uneasy glances.

Suddenly, mysterious footsteps echoed from the depths of the trench.

The Temple Knights fixed their eyes ahead, raising their firearms in readiness, only to see a figure emerge from the accumulated water.

It was a pretty young girl, holding a young man’s corpse in her arms, wading through the water with a vacant look in her eyes. The blood-infused water that could devour grasshoppers parted naturally around her legs as if meeting resistance.

“Halt!” the leading Temple Knight fired a warning shot into the air, “In the name of God, I command you to stop!”

…Your God who cannot save him, I do not care for.

Peggy continued to walk forward, cradling the corpse, her movements mechanical and stiff like a puppet.

“I command you to stop!” That Temple Knight aimed his rifle at her, shouting fearfully and fiercely, “Stop or I’ll shoot!”

For an S4-level mission, rashly opening fire was usually ineffective and could provoke even greater dangers. Therefore, the Temple Knights merely kept their aim, swiftly spread to the sides, not daring to obstruct the path of the young girl as she continued to walk forward.

…Why is it that he has died, yet all of you are allowed to live?

Peggy climbed out of the trench up the slope, and suddenly, a hint of emotion flickered in her hollow eyes.

The Temple Knights subconsciously prepared to pull their triggers, but the firearms in their hands began to rust and decay at a speed visible to the naked eye. First the muzzle, then the barrel, followed by the grip, quickly spreading along their prosthetic arms towards their shoulders.

All man-made industrial products naturally have a lifespan.

And with a lifespan, comes inevitably, “death.”

An epiphany flashed through Peggy’s mind; her deepened understanding of the Death Law resulted in another upgrade, further enhancing her Law Ability.

The Temple Knights whose prosthetic limbs were destroyed collapsed on the ground, petrified and unable to move, their expressions filled with terror, with no understanding of what had happened.

Peggy watched them silently, her black pupils now showing only indifferent emotions.

A faint red aura drifted out from their remaining flesh bodies, converging into the corpse that Peggy held.

“Life Stealing II” – extracting the life force from living creatures from a distance, and channeling it into the specified body.

Under Peggy’s control, as life force continuously flowed in, the grievous wounds on Aske’s chest began to heal, and his skin slowly regained a healthy color.

Yet still there was no heartbeat or breathing; the life force made a loop within his body and then began to dissipate slowly like water leaking from a cracked pot.

“Aske,” Peggy gazed at his now ruddily tinted face, a hint of tenderness transforming her lifeless eyes, “I will not let you die like this.”

“Never…”

“Never…”

“Even if it means killing every living being in this world…”

She pressed her forehead to Aske’s pale cheek, closed her eyes, as though feeling the remnants of life within him.

Conceived from the concept of death, ink-colored tadpoles appeared under the strong drive of her emotions, emerging from the sky, from the ground, from the void, swirling joyfully around her.

Crowded and dense, they blotted out the sky.