Chapter 24: The Red Priest

Without thinking, Sydney reached out with her hand, defending Harold from the claw.

However, in order to do so, she had to pay.

A disturbing fleshy sound rang out.

The monster's claw directly pierced into Sydney's arm, but was stopped in place. It was the part of her arm that had been changed by the red sun. It wouldn't have been too much to be concerned about, however, the monster that Sydney neglected wasn't just going to leave her alone.

Its claw scratched against her back, prompting Sydney to cry out in pain.

Harold's eyes widened.

"Sydney!"

Nicole reached out with her hand, taking a step forward.

"Mom!"

As for Kairos, Chase, and Tori, they watched on indifferently.

Nicole began running forth, but the monster that Kairos had fought earlier suddenly spoke up.

"No. Interference."

She ended up freezing.

In that time, Harold grit his teeth and swung his metal pipe as hard as possible towards the monster that scratched up Sydney's back.

In the end, he hit that monster hard on the head, forcing it to stumble backwards. As for Sydney, she was in a daze from the pain. The monster that had pierced through her arm withdrew its claw, realizing that part of her was strangely durable.

Harold then tried to swing at that monster.

However, it threw its head back, dodging the attack. Right afterwards, Sydney had come to her senses and immediately realized that this was a good opportunity to attack, thus swung her bat.

However, as she did so, a bright orange light came from the side of the monster. Sydney committed to her swing nonetheless, but the target shifted with another. Not prepared for the sudden shift of positions, she missed.

And even ended up stumbling forth.

The monster fully intended on capitalizing on the opportunity, its hand shooting straight towards Sydney's heart. The person in question didn't realize that her life was being threatened, but there was someone else that did.

Harold.

He felt his entire life with her flash by his eyes. And then without thinking, just threw his body in front of her.

Nicole seemed to be on the verge of losing it and ended up running towards them when she saw what happened. But strangely enough, the monster that chastised her before didn't seem to care now.

The monster's claw that had been going for Sydney's heart ended up shooting towards Harold's instead.

Harold closed his eyes, losing complete faith in his survival.

As for Sydney, her brain still didn't process the events.

And then...

"Pass."

The monster suddenly stopped its attack, one millimeter away from Harold's chest.

Nicole who was running ended up slowing down to a stop.

Sydney blinked a few times, overloaded by the series of events that happened. As for Harold, his legs trembled before giving way, making him land on his knees.

"Sh... Shit. What the fuck just happened?"

The two monsters casually left.

Chase muttered to himself.

"That was unexpected."

As for Sydney, she ended up hugging Harold and sobbing a little.

"What are you doing! You almost died!"

Harold was still in a daze.

"I... I don't know."

Sydney's back ended up bleeding pretty badly.

Kairos called out.

"Nicole, get the bandages."

Nicole flinched, then hurriedly got out the medical kit. Harold and Sydney both calmed down a little bit, and Nicole hurriedly wrapped some bandages around her mother's body.

Harold took a deep breath.

"Wait, your arm! You were also hit there, right?"

Sydney gasped.

"Ah, how did I forget!"

She pulled down the sleeve. However, instead of a horrid wound like they were expecting, there was only a scar that was already in the process of scabbing over. Harold blinked a few times.

"How..."

Although he didn't catch that good of a look during the battle, Harold knew that the wound was far worse than that.

Kairos had walked over and raised an eyebrow.

"It seems that the red sun made that part of your body have extremely high levels of regeneration."

Sydney blinked a few times.

"Oh..."

The hooded monster from before had all grouped up and began walking down the left tunnel. The one in the lead turned its head around.

"Follow."

Kairos looked at the others.

"Anyway, now that we all passed, should we have a look?"

Chase chuckled.

"That's what we did all of this for, no?"

Kairos ended up taking the lead, following behind the monsters, while the others followed from behind. It seemed that Sydney and Harold were still a little reluctant, but they had gone too far now.

As they walked, Kairos wondered how these monsters were able to retain their sanity to this extent. After all, the other monsters seemed to retain their intelligence a little, but not enough to use genuine combat tactics or formulate enough thought to even speak.

Upon reaching a set of four tunnels, they chose the one on the far right. Then, there were seven tunnels.

The monsters led them down the third one.

Kairos cleared his throat.

"Hey, where are we going anyway?"

The monster at the front spoke.

"Church."

Kairos' eyebrow twitched.

"There is a church here?"

The monster nodded.

"Yes."

Chase rubbed his chin.

"I was never a fan of going to church."

He narrowed his eyes.

"But I feel like this one might be more interesting."

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The red veins lined against the tunnel walls became far larger. It reached the point where it had reached the thickness of an arm. It was a little creepy, but other than pulsating strangely, they didn't do anything else.

And eventually, the tunnel opened up to reveal what looked like a large prayer hall. The roof was raised quite high and there was even a chandelier with a set of candles on the ceiling. All across on the left and right side of the room were prayer mats. Some of them seemed slightly folded, while others had a few wrinkles.

They had been used recently, but nobody was kneeling down on them.

At the center of this room was a pillar. And on top of that pillar was a fairly small red prism, rotating lazily. However, that was not the most noticeable thing in the room.

At the very back was what seemed to be some sort of magic circle. It shone with a bright blue, shining so brightly it was the main illumination of the room. There were various patterns, but the most notable was the giant pentagon in the center. Standing in between that magic circle and pillar was a young man wearing the same hooded robes.

The hood covered up part of his face, just barely showing his nose. He had a black glove on one hand and what looked like a red bead in that hand. It was clear that this was a normal person.

A few meters away from him was a middle-aged man also in black robes, kneeling down with his head on the floor.

As they walked into the room, the man noticed them. He looked up and smiled amicably.

"Ah, I see that you are the new recruits for our Church of Evolution!"

Chase raised an eyebrow.

"Nice place you got here."

The man laughed.

"Yes, yes. It naturally is for an esteemed church. I am The Red Priest. You have come at just the right time! This is the last follower that shall be baptized. Watch as our god bestows his blessings!"

Suddenly, the red bead in his hand began to glow slightly. Then, it shot a red beam straight towards the middle-aged man. Almost immediately, he began screaming in pain.

Sydney's eyes flew wide open.

"What are you doing?!"

The young man chuckled as the light from the bead died down.

"This is the baptism. Don't worry, he is in pain now, but that is because he is discarding his mortal shell and becoming one of the blessed!"

The middle-aged man's breathing was unsteady. His skin had reddened considerably. He was clearly sweating and in pain, but had a smile on his face.

"Yes! This is true! For too long I have lived in such a filthy and imperfect way. But now, I can truly join our god as one of his angels!"

The young man nodded.

"Yes, yes. Now be prepared for the second dose."

The red bead began letting out a red light once more, making the man scream out in agony once more. His body began to expand and mutate. The black robes on his body used to be loose-fitting, and even oversized, but now they were tightly wrapped against his body.

Nicole cringed in fear at this strange display. She wanted to tell the two to stop right now, but was too scared to say anything.

The light from the red bead dimmed once more.

Now, the middle-aged man began to growl, almost like he was an animal. It looked up at The Red Priest and seemed to be on the verge of attacking.

Seeing this, Harold furrowed his brows.

"Watch out!"

However, The Red Priest was not afraid. In fact, he chuckled.

"Do not worry. They still understand the meaning of our god and will not bite the hand that feeds."

This was a little hard to believe as the half transformed middle-aged man pulled back his partial claw, ready to attack.

Harold frowned.

"Are you... sure?"

Suddenly, the middle-aged man lunged forth, swiping towards The Red Priest's face.

Yet, right before it was about to connect, his attack stopped.

The Red Priest did not even flinch that entire time and even had a small smile on his face. Instead, he let out a calm and gentle voice.

"Remember who we follow."

The middle-aged man let out a garbled voice.

"God... of... Evolution."

Then, he slowly got back down on his knees and his head against the floor.

The Red Priest nodded.

"Good."

Kairos and the others watched on in astonishment.

The red bead then began to glow once more. The middle-aged man spasmed violently, letting out monstrous cries of pain.

But eventually, those cries of pain disappeared despite the red light shining on him.

The middle-aged man was now a monster.

It slowly stood up, then put his hands together in the praying gesture.

The Red Priest smiled.

"For."

The monster bowed.

"Perfection."

The Red Priest sighed.

"Very well. Your baptism is complete. Now join the others for the search in the holy land."

Like that, the monster walked over to the glowing magic circle at the back of the room. The very moment its foot was set down, it vanished entirely.

Tori let out a long breath and muttered.

"Freaky..."

Chase smiled.

"That appears to be quite painful."

The Red Priest laughed.

"Of course. But it is but a small price to pay for salvation. Since you are the new recruits it is understandable you don't get it. But do not worry, for I will educate you on the ways of our god."

He motioned towards the other monsters.

"My followers that have already been baptized, please go to help the others search for the holy land. For now, I will perform the natural procedures that they should go through."

The six monsters nodded before making their way to the magic circle.

Sydney furrowed her brows.

"Um, what if-"

"Be respectful and wait for them to leave."

Kairos interrupted her. He knew that she was going to express her reluctance to join this religion. Kairos was on the same page, however, he wanted those strong monsters to be gone before then.

The Red Priest chuckled.

"No need to be so formal, what is your question?"

Kairos shook his head.

"This is simply proper manners."

The Red Priest nodded.

"Alright, alright."

Once all of the monsters disappeared, Sydney looked around awkwardly before saying what she intended.

"What if we don't want to join this church?"

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