Chapter 12: A World Growing Ever More Mysterious
"Blade Killing Formation, rise!"
Twelve sword shadows bloomed like a lotus.
In an instant, they slashed in all directions, cutting through the swarming corpse insects, splitting them in half.
…
[Experience sufficient. Rogue level now Lv51.]
[Experience sufficient. Rogue level now Lv52.]
[Experience sufficient. Rogue level now Lv53.]
…
The notifications kept popping up, but Allen never stopped swinging his sword.
As his Rogue level increased, his physical attributes were comprehensively enhanced—though the system didn't provide a direct display of the basic four stats.
At the same time, with continuous use, his Weapon Mastery and Shadow Blade skills leveled up, further boosting his combat strength.
"Don't stop, I want more!"
Allen was ecstatic.
Like the intimate act between a man and a woman, each clash doubled the pleasure. Once it began, there was no stopping—it was a chain reaction.
His class level skyrocketed like a rocket.
In less than fifteen minutes, both skills that needed upgrading had maxed out.
[Lv10 Weapon Mastery: +10 Accuracy, +10 Strength, +10 Armor Penetration]
[Lv10 Shadow Blade: With each level increase, speed and damage increase by 100%.]
As he swung and slashed, flashes of silver-white sword light flickered. The corpse insects had no chance to approach—his sword shadows created an impenetrable barrier around him.
"Kehehe… the wilder the storm, the more exhilarated I become."
Suddenly, the swarm ceased its attack.
The darkness began to recede.
Corpse insects fell like raindrops, but before they could hit the ground, they were engulfed in rootless flames and burned to ashes.
The restroom walls, once consumed by fire, reverted in an instant to the normal appearance of the surface world.
"I didn't even pull my pants down, and you're already done?"
Allen grumbled, feeling unsatisfied. The thrill of power-leveling with an exploit left him craving more.
Looking around, he saw that the twisted monster's corpse still lay where it had fallen, its head separated from its body.
"Hope Bats and Green Arrow aren't in danger."
Allen suddenly remembered that he had been separated from his teammates while facing the swarm.
He immediately decided to find them.
Walking alone through the dilapidated school, Allen occasionally called out:
"Bats, I see you. Stop hiding."
Or he'd peek into a dry glass fish tank and say, "Green Arrow, your dad's not dead. Come out and reunite with him."
Passing an office, he leaned back and shouted, "Bats, I've got a parental redemption voucher here!"
Just as he was about to move on, a framed old photograph on the wall caught his eye.
In the picture, two middle-aged men stood shaking hands, with a caption below:
"Our gratitude to Mr. Osborn for his contributions to education."
"Osborn Industries!?"
Allen's mind clicked—Green Goblin's surname was also Osborn.
He couldn't verify the Osborn family's history, but based on movies and comics, if they were able to collaborate with the military, they had to be an old-money capitalist family.
Old-money families typically built their wealth through energy.
Silent Hill was a textbook example of an energy-producing town.
After a brief glance, Allen continued searching for Bruce and Oliver.
After all, Green Goblin was Spider-Man's enemy, not his.
Using his grappling claw, Allen swung between buildings, scanning for any signs of his teammates.
Meanwhile, cultists hiding in the shadows widened their eyes in shock.
They had set traps at every possible exit, yet they encountered a madman who refused to follow the usual script.
At that moment, inside a church—
Krista gestured with a wave of her hand. "Wake them up."
The teammates Allen had been searching for—Bruce and Oliver—were currently bound and unconscious.
A bucket of cold water splashed over them, jolting them awake.
"Welcome, honored guests."
Krista wore an amused expression as she retrieved a carefully preserved blade—the Redemption Blade—and said,
"The Demon's Head didn't come personally? Sending you two instead—how disrespectful."
Bruce and Oliver struggled against their restraints, but the ropes were too tight. Their weapons had been confiscated, leaving them no chance of escape.
They recalled that when the nightmare world had temporarily receded, they had decided to scout out the church's location first.
Unfortunately, they fell into a trap.
The moment they dropped, a group of muscular men wielding electric batons swarmed them, shocking them into unconsciousness.
By the time they woke up, they were already inside the church.
"There were three of us," Bruce remarked.
The implication: Allen was still out there and would come for them.
Krista suddenly chuckled. "That fool is having way too much fun right now—he's probably forgotten all about you."
Considering Allen's unreliable nature, self-rescue seemed like the more practical option.
"We don't have to be enemies. We can work together."
Oliver spoke seriously, "We're all trapped in Silent Hill, and you need the Redemption Blade to lift the curse. We can help."
Krista fell silent for a moment.
They had tried to kill Alessa before—many times.
But Alchemilla Hospital was too dangerous.
If they lost the Redemption Blade, they'd have no weapon capable of killing her.
And if the outsiders took the Redemption Blade but didn't kill Alessa, only using it to escape Silent Hill, they themselves would still remain cursed.
Krista wasn't willing to take that risk.
"You know nothing about Samael's power," she finally said, declining.
"I have a question."
Bruce analyzed, "The power source is the fallen angel Samael's offspring, yet you want to kill her. Why would Samael still protect you?"
Logically speaking, no parent would shield the murderer of their child.
Of course, this reasoning might not fully apply to demons and fallen angels.
If a fallen angel impregnated a mortal, the only plausible explanation would be that the child was meant to serve as a vessel for its descent.
Yet the cultists were trying to kill that vessel.
If Samael didn't punish them for this betrayal, but continued to protect them, something didn't add up.
Some might argue, "Can't a demon fall in love with a human? Even in nature, wolves and sheep can be together—anything is possible."
But the key issue was that Samael was a fallen angel.
And traditionally, angels didn't have certain parts.
"Didn't expect you to know so much."
Krista was blunt. "At first, we did worship Samael. But ever since the ritual failed and darkness descended upon us, we've been cursed—so we changed our faith to Flauros."
"That doesn't add up," Bruce said. "Samael is one of Hell's Seven Kings, while Flauros is just one of the seventy-two demons. If you wanted to oppose Samael, you should have chosen Belial instead."
Krista rolled her eyes, clearly uninterested in continuing the discussion.
At that moment, Oliver made a guess:
"Maybe Hell has its own politics. Since Belial is also one of the Seven Kings, he might not want to openly take in Samael's former followers out of respect. So instead, he assigns a subordinate as a scapegoat. If things go south, he can just throw Flauros under the bus and claim ignorance to avoid conflict."
As it turned out, Oliver was right.
Flauros was indeed a scapegoat.
The Seven Kings of Hell were all fallen angels and maintained a certain level of decorum with each other.
If they truly wanted to sever ties, they would have long since purged Samael's influence completely, rather than merely allowing it to linger over a single church.
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