Task Complete

The scene suddenly fell silent.

The Wailing Girl lowered her head and stared at the chunk of flesh, saying nothing, as if she'd crashed.

Seizing the opportunity, Colin tore off most of his already-ripped left sleeve and had Number One press it against his wound, then tied it into a tight knot.

The process was far from easy. Pain covered Colin's forehead with cold sweat once more, and his face turned pale as his teeth chattered.

Beyond the pain, the loss of strength as his blood drained away and the gradual chill spreading through his body left Colin especially frightened and uneasy.

It felt as if he could die at any moment, chilling him to the bone.

Fortunately, though the pain remained, the heavy bleeding had stopped for now.

As for the Wailing Girl, still seemingly crashed, Colin had no intention of disturbing the peace at that moment.

Of course, the more fundamental reason was that they currently had no effective means of hurting her.

The prompt had said they could combine certain special materials to create new weapons capable of harming evil spirits.

But that only meant they could cause harm. Who knew how much damage they could do?

So, to avoid provoking the Wailing Girl, Colin didn't do that.

After regaining access to the prompts, Colin had a better grasp of the situation.

If possible, he hoped they could all sit down and have a peaceful, friendly conversation. It wasn't as if violence couldn't solve the problem.

Judging by the evil spirit described in the prompt, perhaps something that stirred her emotions could make her break down and disappear altogether.

However, most of the prompt's description of the girl was filled with uncertainty.

[The nonhuman being before you looks like an evil spirit, exists like an evil spirit, and was born like one. Even methods used against evil spirits work on her. But is she really an evil spirit?]

[You're confused. All you can see before you is a mass of chaos. You can't observe her effectively or determine her exact characteristics, and can only make limited guesses based on what you know.]

"A mass of chaos. Is that what the Cheat 'saw'?"

Colin seemed to understand. Since that was what the prompt said, he might as well treat her as an evil spirit for now.

After all, methods used against evil spirits worked on her, and Father Kadish's flesh had undoubtedly caused her some mental shock.

He just couldn't understand why there were so many children at this church outpost. Or had it been a retreat site back then?

Colin remembered that the description of Father Kadish on the Wheel weapon said he'd used the wheel to defeat many mutated creatures when he couldn't wait for reinforcements any longer.

So... who were the reinforcements they'd been waiting for?

"Looks like something happened to the reinforcements. In the end, everyone died in despair while waiting."

Colin felt he was beginning to piece together what had happened here.

Just then, he noticed the world, tinged faintly red before his eyes, begin to fade back to its original colors.

The violence stirring inside him quickly subsided, too.

Clatter, clatter, clatter.

The assembled Bones suddenly fell to the ground. The Wailers that had just come back to life died once more, crumbling into a heap of shattered bones.

"Good thing I didn't boil Father Kadish's flesh into the soup and drink it earlier. Otherwise, I'd really have been done for."

Colin felt secretly relieved.

Then he noticed the strange, ominous blood seeping into the cracks in the ground, as if returning underground.

"There really is something beneath the Church."

For no particular reason, Colin thought of the Survivor from before. She'd died near this forest.

He hadn't given it much thought at the time, but now he couldn't help wondering: what had she discovered that made such a terrifying enemy hunt her down?

But he had no time to dwell on it. After several minutes of stillness, Colin saw the Wailing Girl finally move.

He quickly reined in his thoughts.

The Wailing Girl's eyes had returned to black. She slowly crouched and picked up the slightly rotten flesh.

As a spirit highly sensitive to flesh, she'd recognized what it was the moment Colin threw it.

The Wailing Girl held the piece of flesh in her palms and looked at it for a while. Suddenly, she put it into her mouth and ate it. Then, with a desolate look in her eyes, she murmured, "It smells like Father Grandpa."

Colin's eyelid twitched. He found the girl's actions surprising, but not unexpected.

Then the evil spirit stood up again and looked around, her gaze passing over the pile of shattered bones nearby.

"...I remember now. Father Grandpa said he was going to bring help back to get us out... but we never saw him again. Still, everyone kept holding on in the Church, waiting. The children died one by one...

"In the end, pollution came. The dead and the living alike became monsters, crying out in agony... I was the last one left alive. I prayed to the Mother Goddess. I prayed for Her miracle to come, and for Her to make the children suffer less. But what happened after that? I've forgotten. There's so much I can't remember...

"I don't remember how I became like this, or what I did after I changed. I only remember how much pain I was in, and that I hadn't eaten for a long time. I might have starved to death."

The Little Girl slowly turned as she spoke in a voice filled with pain and despair, her words tumbling out incoherently.

At last, she turned to face Colin. But when he saw those eyes again after that brief turn, his heart gave a jolt.

The Wailing Girl's eyes were beginning to turn red again.

That meant her madness would return soon!

"So it was only suppressed temporarily."

Colin's heart grew heavier. He was preparing to take out the Synthesis Table and make a weapon that could fight an evil spirit, ready to risk everything in one final battle.

But then he heard the girl continue, "Big brother, could I borrow that weapon? I think I'm about to lose control of myself."

She was pointing at the Wood Wheel, the special weapon Father Kadish had modified.

Colin agreed with almost no hesitation and had Number One toss it over to her.

The girl reached out and caught the wooden wheel, which looked almost as big as she was.

She glanced at the spikes on the wheel, then smiled at Colin, pure and unblemished. "Thank you."

As soon as the words left her mouth, white light appeared on the wheel. The girl hugged it and drove the spiked side into herself.

Crack!

The spikes pierced her chest, and her body fractured like a shattered mirror, splitting into countless cracks.

Bright red blood flowed out through them.

Through the gaps, Colin could just make out a skin-and-bones corpse inside her.

The next second, she vanished like ashes.

"Big brother, hurry and leave. I can feel it coming." Her voice echoed, faint and distorted.

Before Colin could make out the words, he suddenly sensed something and took out the Parchment.

The mission was complete!