645
"Thank the Lord for granting us food."
"Thank the Lord for granting us water."
A bamboo basket sat on the spread-out tablecloth, along with simple slices of white bread and jam. Several low- and mid-Sequence Beyonders with silver crosses hanging on their chests had found a clean, unpolluted spot in a nearby town and were having lunch as though on a picnic.
Apart from the gloomy sky, the surrounding land riddled with pollution and mutations, the incessant murmurs in their ears, the suspicious dark stains everywhere, and the diners' complicated, exhausted expressions, it could indeed just barely pass for a picnic.
There wasn't a single living person in the nearest town. It had been abandoned for nearly half a month, and they couldn't even find a clean dining table.
In the distance lay a black world: black earth, a dim sky, blood-red seawater flowing in from the sea, and countless devil spawn lurking in the darkness, mutated from wild animals and marine life.
To prevent more water sources from being polluted, the red river had been dammed, gathering into a horrifying lake of blood at its end. Anyone who approached it would feel the urge to jump in. It had already swallowed many lives, but the Church could do nothing about it for now.
"How's Sealed Artifact 1-087 doing?" the apparent captain asked as he ate.
The team member responsible for holding the Sealed Artifact immediately spread his arms, his face brimming with joy. "Praise the Lord! Praise the Sun!"
Having said that, he swept his companions with an unbelievably fanatical gaze. The others put down their food and perfunctorily praised the Sun and the Lord a few times, as the Sealed Artifact required. One of them said:
"Looks like the Sealed Artifact is doing very well."
"...Someone else