Deep within the church.
The elderly Bishop awoke among the seats. The black-robed assistant beside him had sensed something as well.
"I never expected the village chief who was granted the 'Birth Umbilical Cord' to be killed... He could have become one of us, a participant in the Final Ritual.
"Hadn't the intruders among the villages been completely cleared out? Theodore."
The black-robed assistant spoke with a look of astonishment:
"Impossible. The 'Final Sacrifice' has already been arranged and imprisoned in the ritual area.
"As for his teammate, I clearly shattered his heart and felt the Death Aura flowing from his corpse. The village chief then took him to the factory for processing.
"Besides those two, no one else crossed the High Wall.
"Could some special Sick Ones be causing trouble in secret?"
"Impossible. The village chief who was granted the umbilical cord possessed strength equal to ours. Those creatures hiding away and relying on ashification could never threaten him.
"There is only one possibility. The young man whose heart you tore out did not die. He used some method of feigning death to deceive you, then quietly eliminated the village chief.
"If nothing unexpected happened, he should be heading here soon."
Theodore, the black-robed assistant, heard the Bishop's displeasure and immediately dropped to one knee:
"I'll search for his trail right now. Killing the village chief couldn't have been easy; he must be exhausted! I'll personally deal with him, burning him to ashes without leaving behind a single scrap of flesh."
Just as Theodore was about to rise,
he and the Bishop simultaneously felt a 'call' coming from within their bodies. Their abdomens swelled high, and umbilical cords protruded slightly from their navels, as if conveying some message.
In an instant, their gazes both grew vacant.
The Bishop's withered