Church of Suffering

Ahead, a towering Church stood amid the withered forest, like a sleeping beast crouched within the trees.

In the thin, hazy light, Colin was able to make out the Church's appearance.

It was a Gothic-style Church with pointed spires. Its walls were grayish white, and it appeared to have only two floors.

Due to years of disrepair, the decorative patterns on the walls had nearly all peeled away, leaving a layer of lime accumulated beneath them.

All of this indicated that no one had visited this Church for a very long time.

On closer inspection, he could vaguely make out that the wall patterns seemed to depict some kind of thorn-covered vine.

The thorny vines wound around the walls over and over, seeming both protective and binding.

"Mother of Suffering and Thorns."

Colin could not help recalling the words he had heard in his daze earlier and murmured softly.

As his voice fell, an intangible gust of wind seemed to brush past in that instant, raising goosebumps all over his body.

At the same time, the wind carried an intense stench.

Colin gagged, then covered his nose and mouth. Narrowing his eyes, he saw piles of meat heaped before the Church's three-meter-tall wooden doors.

[Severely Rotten Wolf Meat *4]

[Severely Rotten Rat Meat *3]

[Moderately Rotten Deer Meat *4]

[Severely Rotten]

The heavily decayed, foul-smelling chunks of meat had formed a small hill. Before it lay countless shallow tracks, each as wide as a bucket.

These seemed to be traces left behind by the Priest's movements.

Ignoring the disgust, Colin collected the moderately rotten meat.

At that moment, he suddenly understood what the words he had heard in Kadish's Dreamscape meant.

Having become a monster through obsession, Father Kadish had remained worried that the children would go hungry. He had continuously hunted other beasts during his outings and brought their flesh and blood back.

Yet he did not even dare push open the doors.

Mechanically, numbly, and uselessly carrying out the obsession in his heart, he firmly believed that the children inside were still alive.

However, Colin, who had once entered his Dreamscape, knew that the Priest had likely realized what had happened inside the Church before he died.

The task of bringing the children their final peace was less a system mission than Father Kadish's final wish as he carried the Wheel on his back.

He could not bring himself to do it.

Looking at the tightly shut doors, Colin paused briefly before taking action.

"Lord, I'll push open the doors. Please wait behind me."

As they approached, Servant One volunteered. After seeing Colin nod and warn him to be careful, Servant One slung the Wheel, which Father Kadish had transformed into a weapon, onto his back and pressed both hands against the double wooden doors.

Then he exerted force through his waist and leaned forward amid the trembling and teeth-grating screech caused by the hinges turning.

The doors, sealed for decades or perhaps centuries, slowly opened.

A powerful, concentrated stench of rotting corpses spilled out from the Church. Compared with it, the smell of the decaying animal meat outside became "mild."

Servant One, who bore the brunt of it, immediately gagged. Though he had made the necessary preparations before pushing the doors open, it was—

Simply too foul.

Colin and the other person behind him fared somewhat better. The rotting flesh at the entrance had prepared them somewhat, and with the distance and the air diluting the smell, their reactions were not too violent.

At this point, the Church doors had only opened wide enough for two fingers to fit through.

Curiously peering inside, Colin found that the interior was likewise filled with Gray Fog, preventing him from seeing very far.

Moreover, with no light inside the Church, it appeared even more terrifying and Unknown.

"Push the doors open a little farther. Let that stink out and let air in. Otherwise, we won't be able to explore at all," Colin ordered.

Though the Church did not appear to be completely sealed, the toxic gases accumulated within, such as methane, were certainly far more concentrated than outside.

If they did not wait for fresh air to enter, then forget killing those Wailers—they would probably collapse from poisoning by some Unknown gas before taking two steps.

By comparison, the foul odor was secondary.

The human brain could filter out smells. Once you felt extreme discomfort from a particular odor, you might adapt to it after a while.

The most common example was using the toilet: after squatting there for a while, you stopped noticing the stench. It was not that it no longer smelled; your brain had simply filtered the odor out, making it seem as though it did not stink.

As the doors opened, Colin and the others could now see some of the furnishings inside.

Several scattered pews, a red carpet leading toward the back of the Church, and several small skeletons that had long since died.

Without exception, they were covered in thick dust, appearing terribly gray-white and dilapidated.

Then, as the doors slowly opened, an unexpected incident suddenly occurred.

Several small Corpse skeletons lying at the entrance, face-down on the ground, suddenly raised their heads.

Their blood-red, hollow, and horrifying features turned toward Colin and the others outside.

Tap, tap, tap.

Their skulls began to tremble, and their jaws shook rapidly, as though they were about to open.

"Move." As Colin spoke, his body moved with him. He rushed forward with his axe in hand.

With a bang, the axe came down and smashed its skull to pieces.

"Aberration—Suffering Citizen—Wailer." One could tell from the name alone what their method of attack was.

Naturally, Colin was not about to let it open its mouth and launch its attack.

What Colin had not expected, however, was that these mutated monsters were so weak. One blow from his axe and they were finished.

In less than ten seconds, the three of them easily dealt with the six Corpse skeletons at the entrance, so easily that it exceeded Colin's expectations.

However, they only collected nine points of blood from the six Corpse skeletons, a pitifully small amount.

As for Rotten Flesh, Bones, and the like, Colin had lost all desire to collect them. There was simply too much of the stuff, and it was practically useless.

Afterward, Colin opened the Parchment and looked it over, frowning slightly.

After killing six Wailers, the mission progress bar had only moved the slightest bit.

"By that estimate, doesn't that mean there are at least sixty Wailers inside the Church?"

Colin felt that this was troublesome.

Though this Gothic Church with its pointed spires did not look especially large, it was at least the size of an ordinary shopping mall. With dozens or even hundreds of Wailers scattered randomly throughout it, simply finding them would be a hassle.

But now that they were here, they could not return empty-handed.

The only advantage now was that Colin was not pressed for time. The blood he had replenished before coming was enough to burn for quite a long while.

Before long, the Church doors were fully opened.

Within the darkness shrouded by mist, the sound of bones grinding together echoed continuously.

"Let's hope this mission ends safely."

Carrying a Hurricane Lamp, Colin stepped inside and began to "cleanse" the Church.