The Old Man Had Taken a Fancy to Illumi

Underground core area.

Illumi lowered his head as the silver-robed bishop led him to the end of the corridor.

This route was much quieter than outside.

The glass compartments on both sides were filled with pregnant women.

Tubes were connected to their bodies, and the instruments beside their beds kept pulsing. Pale golden liquid dripped from IV bottles. After entering their bodies, it caused brief movements in their abdomens.

Illumi only looked a few times before piecing the information together.

The golden liquid was not medicine.

It was mixed with something resembling Post-Mortem Nen, though the malice it should have emitted was far stronger than this.

The residual Nen was a mess. There was Enhancement, Manipulator, and fragments that had already lost their original structure, leaving behind only stimulation.

The mothers could not withstand it.

The fetuses were consuming it.

This was neither treatment nor a blessing.

They were using the women as culture dishes and the unborn children as vessels to be calibrated.

Illumi's fingers tapped lightly beneath the blanket.

At the hotel, Milluki immediately recorded it.

"The holy water contains residual Nen. The source is suspected to be the dead."

Ella sat before the screen, her face pale.

On the screen, a woman designated Number Thirty-Four was unconscious.

She looked about Ella's age. She still clutched a cross in her hand, while her lips moved continuously.

Milluki turned up the audio.

"Lord... save my child..."

Ella's breathing became unsteady.

It was not the first time she had witnessed something so horrific.

But this time, she saw herself.

If Bai Zhu had not come, she would have been lying there too, a number stuck to her hand, the thing in her belly being "baptized" over and over by those people.

She had once thought she had merely been deceived by love.

Only now did she understand that she had simply been one part of this assembly line.

"If I'd woken up sooner..."

She spoke, her voice dry.

"Would anyone have survived?"

Milluki stared at the screen, his fingers never stopping.

He was not good at comforting people, nor was he interested in it.

"Maybe. Maybe not."

Ella lowered her head.

Milluki added another sentence.

"But if you don't wake up now, you'll die, and these people will definitely die too."

Ella gripped her cup tightly.

The words were blunt and harsh.

But they sank in.

Before the core area's door.

The silver-robed bishop stopped and bowed.

"Elder, the candidate Holy Mother has been brought."

A hoarse voice came from inside.

"Let her enter alone."

The silver-robed bishop hesitated.

"Her condition is unstable. She needs restraints."

"I said, let her enter."

The silver-robed bishop immediately stepped back.

Illumi supported himself against the wall, moving slowly as though he might collapse at any moment.

The door opened.

Inside was an empty room.

At least, it appeared empty on the surface.

The walls were clean, there was no unnecessary equipment on the floor, and only a chair stood in the middle.

Illumi walked in, and the door shut behind him.

He did not sit.

Because the wall on the right side of the room was too smooth.

The angle at which the light fell on it was wrong.

Illumi quickly realized it was one-way glass.

There were people behind the glass.

And more than one.

A few seconds later, that aged voice sounded again.

"Sit down, child."

Illumi used Ella's voice, making it tremble.

"I... where's my husband?"

"He will be proud of you."

"I want to go home."

"This is where you belong."

Illumi slowly sat down, both hands protecting his abdomen.

Behind the glass, a withered old man sat amid a cluster of instruments.

A black crystal was embedded in his chest. Every time it pulsed, the readings on the instruments surged.

The attendant beside him kept his head lowered, hardly daring to breathe.

The old man watched "Ella" in the room through the glass.

"Her soul is very resilient."

The attendant spoke quietly.

"Elder, records before Number Fifteen show that she was only an ordinary woman."

The old man raised a hand, and the attendant immediately fell silent.

"Records can lie. Instruments can lie."

The old man leaned closer to the glass.

"But the Lord cannot."

Inside the room, Illumi gently raised his head, then immediately avoided that wall, acting like a pregnant woman frightened by the voice.

The old man seemed very satisfied.

"Fear has not crushed her. Her body is weak, yet her mind has not shattered."

The attendant hesitated.

"Should we conduct a deep examination immediately?"

The old man chuckled, as if phlegm were lodged in his throat.

"Don't be hasty."

He pressed the button beside him.

Inside the room, two straps sprang from the chair's armrests and snapped toward Illumi's wrists.

Illumi did not dodge.

Smack.

The straps fastened around his wrists.

The next second, his ankles were secured as well.

A silver needle extended from behind the chair, stopping three centimeters from the back of his neck.

The old man spoke slowly.

"Child, don't be afraid."

Illumi drew in a quiet breath.

"What are you going to do?"

"Just seeing whether you can withstand the Lord's gaze."

Behind the glass, the black crystal in the old man's chest began pulsing faster.

A stream of Nen surged into the room through the needle.

Illumi lowered his head, and his body began to tremble.

This was not an act.

This Nen was filthy, and its malice was obvious.

It was mixed with far too many lingering obsessions from the dead, tearing at one another before being forcibly stitched together by some method.

If an ordinary person were touched by it even once, their mind would probably collapse on the spot.

Illumi's fingertips twitched as the Nen Needle hidden in his palm pressed against the straps.

Give him another half second, and he could break free.

But he did not move.

Because the old man's words had exposed the crucial point.

"The Lord's gaze."

This was not a simple resurrection.

Whatever stood behind the Creation Society had not yet been resurrected, but its Nen had always possessed an independent consciousness.

It needed a vessel capable of withstanding massive amounts of Post-Mortem Nen residue.

Illumi kept trembling, his breathing becoming erratic enough to trigger the instruments' alarms.

The attendant hurriedly spoke.

"Elder! The readings are unstable!"

But the old man stared at the monitor.

The curve on it first jumped wildly, then gradually steadied.

The old man leaned forward.

"Do you see that?"

The attendant's eyes widened.

"She... adapted?"

The old man raised his withered hand and pressed it against the glass.

"Not adapted."

"She swallowed it."

Inside the room, Illumi kept his head lowered, his long hair concealing half his face.

He had not swallowed anything.

He had merely used Nen Needles to divide his body's reactions into separate zones, trapping the foreign Nen within inconsequential muscle groups.

This was a technique the Zoldycks had trained from childhood.

It hurt.

But he could endure it.

The old man did not know.

He only saw a result that drove him mad.

"List Number Fifteen as the first vessel."

The attendant froze.

"But the first vessel for the Holy Advent Ritual in three days was originally Number Seven."

"Replace Number Seven."

The old man's voice was hoarse.

"Number Seven cannot withstand the true Lord. Number Fifteen can."

The attendant lowered his head.

"What about the fetus in her womb..."

The old man stared at "Ella" in the room.

"Keep it."

"Keep the mother too."

"This time, don't just take the Holy Infant."

The old man paused, greed seeping into his tone.

"I want the mother on the altar too."

At the hotel, Milluki's entire expression changed when he heard those words.

"Damn it."

Ella stood up.

"What did he say? What did he mean by sending the mother body onto the altar too?"

Milluki did not answer.

He frantically hammered at the keyboard, trying to stabilize the feed from the core area.

The signal kept flickering.

All they could see on the screen was Illumi strapped to a chair and a few instrument readings.

Ella grew anxious.

"Say something!"

Milluki slammed his hand against the desk.

"Shut up! I'm trying to save my big brother!"

Ella was startled into silence.

Milluki took two breaths before forcing out a sentence through gritted teeth.

"That old bastard thinks my brother is the perfect vessel."

Ella froze.

"What do we do?"

Milluki did not look at her.

"Depends on whether that lunatic Bai Zhu can throw the surface into chaos."

The church bell tower.

Bai Zhu finally climbed to the top.

He set the last scout device to standby and looked down through the window.

The patrol routes throughout the entire church lay spread out beneath him.

Six at the front entrance, four in the side courtyard, two at the back door.

The underground elevator entrance changed shifts every three minutes.

The security detail had not been thrown into disarray.

That meant Illumi had not been exposed yet.

Bai Zhu touched his earpiece.

"Milluki, all six are in place. So how are we blowing this up? Start with an appetizer, or go straight for the main course?"

There was only static in his earpiece.

Bai Zhu frowned.

"Hello? Chubby? Don't go offline at a time like this."

A few seconds later, Milluki's voice came through.

It was much lower than before.

"Bai Zhu."

"Yeah?"

"That old bastard listed my brother as the first vessel."

Bai Zhu's hand on the bell tower railing went still.

"The first vessel?"

"Yeah."

Milluki took a breath, as though suppressing the urge to curse.

"And he plans to send the 'mother body' onto the altar too."

"What else did you hear?"

Only then did Milluki realize that the important thing was not being sent onto the altar, but the timing of the ritual. Suddenly, he felt stupid compared to Bai Zhu and his brother. Bai Zhu had realized that was not the key point without even being in front of the surveillance feed, yet he had not.

"Three days from now, there's some Holy Advent Ritual. That's when my brother will be sent onto the altar."

Bai Zhu lowered his gaze toward the main hall.

The believers below were still praying.

On the dais, the priest was leading everyone in chanting the name of the Creation God.

He slowly slipped his hand into his pocket and felt the detonator Milluki had given him.

"Fine. Then we still have time. First, we'll get your brother out."

Milluki panicked.

"Don't do anything reckless! You can't blow up the underground levels!"

"I never said I'd blow up the underground levels."

Bai Zhu looked up at the massive bell in the bell tower.

Its body was heavy, and it had hung there for who knew how many years.

He clenched his fist and slowly gathered his strength.

"Since they like a sense of ritual."

Milluki's voice tightened in the earpiece.

"What are you going to do?"

Bai Zhu swung his fist hard at the bell.

Dong.

The bell's toll rang out.

The prayers throughout the entire church faltered for half a beat.

Bai Zhu watched the believers below raise their heads, his voice low.

"Then I'll ring their death knell first."

The next second, footsteps sounded at the bell tower stairs.

Someone charged up.

"Who's up there?!"