Collective Sacrifice

"Get lost!"

No sooner had Milluki's curse left his mouth than a translucent panel popped up before Bai Zhu.

[Congratulations, host, for activating the series achievement: Ella's Suffering (3/?) · Holy Advent Ritual!]

[Mission Description: Protect the "Holy Infant Mother," and destroy or delay the Holy Advent Ritual.]

[Stage Reward: 100 Achievement Points.]

[Additional Reward: One random Bankai.]

Bai Zhu's mind buzzed.

One random Bankai.

The silver-robed bishop's staff was already crashing toward him with a howl of wind.

Bang!

Bai Zhu instinctively raised his blade to block, and the tremendous force shoved him two steps back, his soles plowing deep tracks through the snow. That brief distraction had nearly gotten his skull split open.

But he was not angry in the slightest.

He stared at the final line on the panel, the corners of his mouth uncontrollably curling upward.

You damn system.

You finally did something right!

"Blasphemer, and you still dare lose focus!"

Seeing that Bai Zhu could still smile, the silver-robed bishop grew even more furious and brought his staff down again.

Bai Zhu's arms went numb from the impact. He swung his blade backhandedly and knocked the staff aside.

He raised his head. The trace of laziness and flippancy on his face had completely vanished.

"Sorry."

"But I'm clearing this dungeon."

The silver-robed bishop did not understand what a dungeon was, but he sensed the change in Bai Zhu's tone.

The feeling was irritating.

This intruder was clearly surrounded, and his stamina was rapidly draining away, yet the drive in him only seemed to grow stronger.

"Take him down!"

After roaring the order, the silver-robed bishop stopped pressing the attack and turned toward the side entrance.

Four white-robed deacons carried a Black Crystal stretcher around the burning chandelier wreckage, steadily closing in on Ella.

In the snow, the fanatical believers knelt with both hands raised, chanting prayers again and again.

Some had their skin burned by flying sparks, yet did not move an inch.

Some had their eardrums ruptured by the explosion, yet still used their bodies to shield the white-robed deacons.

"Offer yourselves to the Lord!"

"Protect the Holy Stone!"

"Number Fifteen belongs to the Lord!"

Bai Zhu's scalp prickled at the sight.

Madmen were not scary. What was scary was a whole line of madmen rushing forward to die.

"Milluki, how far is the Black Crystal?"

The earpiece was filled with frantic keyboard clattering.

"Twelve meters."

"Ella's condition?"

"Terrible." Milluki's voice was taut as a bowstring. "Her temperature is dropping, her heartbeat is a complete mess, and the reaction in her abdomen has exceeded what I can handle. The stabilizer can only suppress part of the symptoms."

Beside the side entrance, Ella braced herself against a pillar, her nails scraping white marks into the rough wood.

She could hear the voices in her earpiece, but they seemed distant and broken.

With every step the Black Crystal stretcher took closer, it felt as if an invisible hand was gripping her lower abdomen and wrenching it tight.

That was not fetal movement.

The thing inside her belly seemed to have awakened, desperately trying to crawl out.

Static, women's cries, babies' shrieks—they stabbed into her mind like countless needles.

She bent over, her forehead nearly pressing against the cold pillar.

"Milluki..."

"Don't call me. I'm busy."

"The thing in my stomach... it's moving so hard."

Milluki's fingers paused over the keyboard.

Ella panted, her voice trembling beyond recognition.

"It feels like... it's about to be born."

"Shut up!" Milluki's tone was vicious to the extreme. "Who said it could be born? Did it ask me? Did it ask Bai Zhu? Did it ask you? Don't just agree without asking!"

Ella was in too much pain to speak.

After cursing, Milluki immediately controlled the Mechanical Spider and gave her another injection near her leg.

"Listen, if you collapse, collapse exactly where I told you to!"

"Don't make more work for me!"

Leaning against the pillar, Ella barely managed to shift half a step.

"You really are... heartless."

"I'm only heartless to you. If it were anyone else, I'd kill them directly without wasting a single word."

Milluki's mouth was vicious, but his hands never stopped. He swiftly marked every route in and out of the abandoned warehouse in red, then redirected the only two remaining Mechanical Spiders toward Ella.

The Black Crystal stretcher absolutely could not touch Ella.

Just getting close had tortured her into this state.

If it actually made contact, who knew what kind of accident might happen.

Underground.

Illumi had changed into the clothes of a low-ranking deacon. He carried a stack of procedural documents, followed by two "colleagues" controlled by Nen Needles.

One was a medic, the other a deacon.

The three of them headed deeper underground.

The farther in they went, the more stifling the air became, and the denser the pipes along the walls grew. Countless streams of pale golden liquid surged through transparent tubes like some bizarre network of veins, all eventually converging in the same direction.

Inside his clothes, a fragment of a Mechanical Spider was pressed against the inner side of the folder, silently transmitting the route map back to Milluki.

"Big brother, turn right thirty meters ahead. That should be the altar area," Milluki said quietly through the earpiece.

Illumi said nothing.

At the corner ahead, two white-robed guards stopped him.

"What are you doing?" One of them raised a hand, his tone hostile.

Keeping his head lowered, Illumi handed over the documents.

"Supplementary documents for the Pre-Sanctification Descent. The silver-robed bishop ordered them delivered."

The guard took the documents, flipped through a couple of pages carelessly, and frowned. "Why are these only arriving now?"

Imitating the tone of the lower-ranking deacons, Illumi spoke with a hint of suppressed complaint. "The surface is a complete mess. His Excellency the bishop is in a terrible mood."

The words were clearly effective.

The guard cursed as he tossed the documents back. "Everyone's making trouble."

He did not inspect them further.

The altar was about to activate. Documents, potions, and personnel were moving in and out chaotically. That very chaos made the best cover.

The door opened.

Illumi walked in. With a single sweep of his eyes, he memorized the entire altar's structure.

At the very center stood a Black Crystal Mother Stone over a hundred times larger than the fragment on the surface, secured by thick metal braces. More than ten thick tubes extended from the Mother Stone like a spiderweb, their other ends... connected to rows of glass compartments.

Inside the compartments lay the numbered women.

Their wrists, necks, and even abdomens were covered in instruments and tubes. Their vital signs had been converted into cold charts and transmitted in real time to the screens at the altar's center.

Even thinner soft tubes had been inserted directly into their swollen lower abdomens.

Illumi stopped to observe for a moment.

This was not merely a resurrection.

They intended to use both the mothers and their fetuses as fuel for the ritual.

And there was more than one source of fuel.

Not far away, a gray-robed technician was cursing at the instruments.

"Number Seven's response has dropped again. Hurry up and add more holy water!"

"Number Twelve's mental fluctuations have shattered. Ignore it, keep the connection going. It can't stop!"

"Where's Number Fifteen's data? Has the one on the surface not been brought back yet?"

Someone beside him immediately replied in a low voice, "The elder said Number Fifteen has already 'manifested.' The surface and underground reactions need to be calculated together."

"Are they insane? How are we supposed to calculate that data?"

"Then why don't you ask the elder?"

The man instantly fell silent.

Illumi walked to a table, set down the documents, and lightly tapped the tabletop with his fingertips.

The controlled deacon behind him immediately and silently headed toward a nearby backup control console.

"Big brother, I can see the altar," Milluki's voice came through. "Those women... they're all connected to the ritual?"

Illumi gave a soft "Mm."

Milluki fell silent on the other end.

A few seconds later, he ground out three words through clenched teeth.

"These animals."

Illumi offered no comment. He looked toward the innermost part of the altar, where the withered elder was being pushed in a wheelchair by several attendants.

The silver-robed bishop followed behind, delivering a rapid report.

"Elder, Number Fifteen in the ward has indeed disappeared. The medical staff confirmed that a Holy Stone reaction appeared on her body. After the Number Fifteen on the surface was injured and bled, the Holy Stone reaction surged again!"

The Black Crystal in the elder's chest throbbed violently. His shriveled hand pressed hard against the crystal, and his entire body shook.

"The Lord... the Lord has begun choosing His body."

The silver-robed bishop hurriedly lowered his head. "Then... should we wait until the Number Fifteen on the surface is brought back before activating the ritual?"

"Wait?"

The elder abruptly raised his hand, making the attendant beside him flinch.

"You would make the Lord wait for you?"

The silver-robed bishop dropped to his knees with a thud.

"I misspoke!"

The elder's gaze locked onto the Mother Stone at the center.

"Activate the Pre-Sanctification Descent immediately!"

"Bring the one on the surface back to me!"

"Connect the underground fuel to the ritual as usual!"

Illumi stood behind the crowd with his head lowered, motionless.

The information gap had already thrown the entire situation into chaos.

But it had also frantically accelerated the ritual's activation.

He raised a finger and, against the edge of the folder held against his chest, inconspicuously tapped out a short sequence of coded signals.

Milluki immediately relayed that fatal intelligence to Bai Zhu.