Mission Accomplished

The scene suddenly fell silent.

The Wailing Girl lowered her head to look at the chunk of flesh, saying nothing, as if she had entered some kind of system crash.

Taking advantage of this moment, Colin tore off the mostly severed left sleeve of his shirt, had Number One help him press against the wound, and tied a tight knot.

The process was far from easy; the pain caused cold sweat to drench Colin's forehead once again, leaving him pale and his teeth chattering uncontrollably.

Beyond the pain, the loss of strength as blood drained away and the sensation of his body growing colder by the degree filled Colin with profound panic and unease.

It felt as if he could die at any moment, a realization that chilled him to the bone.

Fortunately, pain aside, the heavy bleeding had been temporarily staunched.

As for the crashed Wailing Girl, Colin had no intention of disturbing the current peace.

Of course, the more fundamental reason was that they currently lacked any effective means to inflict damage upon her.

The prompt had mentioned that new weapons could be synthesized using special materials, which could inflict damage on spirits.

However, that would only inflict damage, and heaven knows how much damage it would actually do.

Therefore, to avoid provoking the Wailing Girl, Colin refrained from doing so.

Having regained the prompts, Colin now had a certain grasp of the current situation.

If possible, Colin hoped everyone could sit down for a peaceful and friendly talk; violence was not the only way to solve problems.

According to the description of the spirit in the prompt, some events or objects that could trigger emotional fluctuations might be able to cause her to collapse and dissipate directly.

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

[The non-human creature you see looks like a spirit, exists like a spirit, was born like a spirit, and even methods used against spirits are effective against her, so is she really a spirit?]

[You are confused. Before your eyes is only a mass of chaos; you cannot observe her effectively, cannot determine her detailed traits, and can only rely on your own cognition to make limited guesses.]

"A mass of chaos. Is this the image 'seen' by the cheat?"

Colin realized with a start. Since the prompt said so, he would just treat her as a spirit for now.

After all, the methods for dealing with spirits were effective against her; the flesh and blood of Father Kadish had undoubtedly caused her a certain degree of mental shock.

He just didn't understand why there were so many children in this church stronghold, or perhaps, was this a retreat stronghold back in the day?

Colin remembered that the description of Father Kadish on the wheel weapon mentioned that when he couldn't wait for reinforcements, he had used the wheel to defeat many aberrant creatures.

Then, who were the reinforcements they were waiting for?

"It seems that those reinforcements met with an accident, and in the end, everyone died in despair while waiting."

Colin felt he had vaguely figured out what had happened here.

Just then, Colin suddenly noticed the slightly crimson world in his eyes beginning to fade, returning to the world's original colors.

Some of the violent impulses in his heart also dissipated rapidly.

Pop, pop, pop.

The gathered bones suddenly fell to the ground; those "Wailers" that had just been revived died once again, turning into a pile of broken bones.

"It's a good thing I didn't boil that priest's flesh into porridge to drink, otherwise I would have been truly finished."

Colin felt a secret sense of relief.

At this moment, Colin's sharp eyes noticed that the eerie, ominous blood was seeping into the cracks in the ground, seemingly returning to the depths below.

"There really is something under the church."

For no reason, Colin thought of the previous survivor; she had died near this patch of woods.

He hadn't thought much of it at the time, but now Colin was suddenly suspicious: what exactly had she discovered that would provoke a terrifying enemy to hunt her down specifically?

But there was no time to think too much; after several minutes of silence, Colin saw that the Wailing Girl finally moved.

He hurriedly reined in his thoughts.

He saw the Wailing Girl's eyes return to black; she slowly squatted down and picked up the slightly rotten piece of flesh.

As a spirit life form extremely sensitive to flesh and blood, the moment Colin threw that piece of meat, she had realized what it was.

The Wailing Girl held the chunk of meat in her palm and looked at it for a while, then suddenly put it into her mouth and ate it. Her eyes then turned desolate, and she whispered, "It tastes like Grandpa Priest."

Colin's eyelids twitched; he felt amazed by the little girl's action, but not surprised.

Then, the spirit stood up again and looked around, her gaze sweeping over the pile of broken bones on the ground.

"...I remember now. Grandpa Priest said he was going to bring reinforcements to take us away, and then we never saw him again. But everyone kept holding on in the church, waiting, and one by one, the children died..."

"In the end, we waited for the corruption. Whether dead or alive, everyone eventually turned into monsters, letting out painful wails. The last one left alive, I prayed to the Mother Goddess, praying for Her miracle to descend, praying for Her to make the children suffer less. But what happened in the end? I forgot. There are many things I can't remember..."

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

As the little girl slowly turned around, she spoke incoherently in a voice filled with pain and despair.

Finally, she turned to face Colin, but after just one turn, seeing those eyes again, Colin's heart couldn't help but skip a beat.

The Wailing Girl's eyes were showing signs of turning red again.

This meant her madness would soon return!

"So it really was only a temporary suppression."

Colin felt his heart grow heavier, preparing to take out the Synthesis Table to craft a weapon capable of fighting the evil spirit for a desperate final stand.

However, at this moment, he heard the little girl continue: "Big brother, could you lend me that weapon? I don't think I can suppress myself much longer."

She was pointing at the Wooden Wheel, the special weapon modified by Father Kadish.

Colin agreed to her request with almost no hesitation, signaling Number One to toss the weapon over.

The little girl reached out and caught the wooden wheel, which looked nearly as large as she was.

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

As soon as she finished speaking, a white light emerged from the wheel, and the little girl immediately slammed the side with the wooden spikes into her own chest.

Crack.

The wooden spikes pierced her chest, and the little girl's body began to develop countless cracks, as if a mirror were shattering.

Bright red blood flowed out from these fissures.

Through the gaps in those cracks, Colin vaguely saw a skin-and-bones mummy inside her body.

The next second, she vanished like ash.

"Big brother, leave quickly. I can feel it—it's coming." A somewhat hazy and distorted voice echoed.

Before Colin could carefully process the meaning of her words, he suddenly felt an intuition and pulled out the Parchment.

The mission was complete!