In the western suburbs of Tivian, by the Moonflow River, under the cover of night, the cleric Anrexius and the Hunter Captain Edmund were dealing with the giant water snake that Smith had just summoned, intending to quickly capture Smith, who was still in the villa, after resolving the water snake.
In the villa at this time, in the dilapidated secret room, Smith, supporting his weakened body, unleashed his final burst of power. Before Davik could shoot, he rushed towards him, bit open the traitor's throat with his mouth, and ended his life.
Tasting the traitor's blood, Smith's expression relaxed slightly. However, what he didn't expect was that Davik, whose vital point had been bitten open in front of him, didn't immediately fall down. Instead, after standing firm, he pulled out a rapier from behind and thrust it directly at close range, piercing straight through his chest.
Seeing that the traitor in front of him still had room to fight back, Smith was startled. He immediately prepared to strike a few more times to completely tear the person in front of him to shreds. He didn't care about the wound that had passed through his chest. Anyway, it hadn't injured his heart, and as a Chalk "cup", he could completely ignore this minor injury.
However, just as he was preparing to continue attacking, he immediately felt that something was wrong. He found his body was abnormal; the "cup" within him was rapidly draining, quickly flowing out from the wound in his chest! Then, Smith suddenly lowered his head and saw what the rapier inserted into his chest at close range looked like. In the flickering firelight of the secret room, he saw the inscriptions engraved on the sword body.
"Placenta... Holding the Ritual?! How... how could you have something like this! Something from the Main Cult!" Smith said in disbelief, his eyes wide, as if utterly astonished by the appearance of the sword in Davik's hand.
The heart-devouring staff-sword could only devour the "cup" within those with weakened bodies. At this moment, due to the previous battle, his body was weakened to the point where the "cup" within him could be devoured by the heart-devouring staff-sword. Feeling the rapid drainage of the "cup" within him, Smith, at a critical juncture, immediately reacted from his shock at seeing the rapier. He directly reached out and grabbed Davik, then forcefully tore him apart. The arm holding the sword was torn off, and the main body was directly thrown into the distant sea of fire.
Then, Smith wanted to pull out the staff-sword inserted in his chest that was constantly devouring the "cup" within him. And at this moment, all around him, countless black rapid shadows attacked, clinging to his body, grabbing his hands, preventing him from moving.
"What!"
The restrained Smith looked around and was surprised to find that what was restraining him were black ape-like beastmen! They were his beastmen who had originally died in the battle against Anrexius and Edmund. Now, for some reason, they had all come back to life and were suppressing him, preventing him from pulling out the sword.
"Meat... Puppet...!"
Facing this situation, Smith said through clenched teeth. Seeing these meat puppets, he finally began to understand that an invisible hand had been manipulating the situation on his side from the beginning. Everything that was happening now seemed to be under the silent control of some will. He, and even the Saint Knights and Hunters outside, might all be pawns!
Restrained by his former puppets, Smith struggled to break free, but his already weakened body's power further decreased as the "cup" continued to drain. After finally shaking off one beastman, another would immediately take its place, biting down firmly on the already wounded Smith with claws and mouths. To avoid any further delay, Dorothy ordered them to directly start biting at the vital points. With the "cup" constantly being extracted and his body suppressed, Smith was completely unable to move.
Finally, Smith's breathing became rapid. He knelt on the ground, his face pale, and eventually collapsed. He ultimately lost his life, his eyes wide open, being torn apart by the beastman Corpse Puppets. After his death, the heart-devouring staff-sword inserted in his chest also stopped extracting the "cup". The large ruby at the hilt was now shining with a wandering glow.
The heart-devouring staff-sword requires a more vibrant "cup", so it will not extract the "cup" from a corpse. At this time, a little bit of "cup" still remained in Smith's body, which prevented his corpse from directly becoming a dried corpse and allowed it to retain its general appearance.
"Hoo... He's finally dead..."
In the distant carriage, Dorothy, who was observing the situation in the secret room through the Corpse Puppet's perspective, let out a sigh of relief. He was already severely injured and weakened, and it took this long to die after struggling for so long. It just goes to show how tenacious the vitality of a Chalk "cup" truly is.
Including Alex and Claudius from before, in the few months he had been in Tivian, there had been three Chalks who had died directly or indirectly by Dorothy's hand.
Of course, this doesn't mean killing a White Chalk is easy. Dorothy himself could never win against a White Chalk in a head-on confrontation. Among the three Chalks who died, Alex and Smith used the power of the Church, the An Yin Bureau, and even Adele, while Claudius was killed after careful planning, thorough preparation, deploying more than half of the Rose Cross's combat power, and using many precious resources.
"Unfortunately, these two Werewolves from the Wolf Blood Society used up all their resources before they died. We couldn't find anything good on their bodies..."
Dorothy murmured, currently manipulating the dead Smith to search his own body. He found that most of the clothes on this guy were burned away, and the good things on him were either used in the recent battle with Anrexius and Edmund or were burned, which made Dorothy a little disappointed.
Originally, Dorothy was very hopeful of finding that extraordinary item that could summon water snakes, but now it seemed that the summoning of that water snake was either a one-time use, or the item was burned away or lost. However, Dorothy now had no time to search slowly.
'Hoo... It seems that fellow Luer is really a bit unreasonably rich. He's clearly just the leader of a small city's small society, how does he have so many good things on him...'
Dorothy continued to exclaim with emotion. As a Black Earth, Luer of the Holy Communion Society was excessively wealthy. Not to mention things like the Mad Banquet Sigil and the Hui Jian Lamp, Smith's reaction when he saw the heart-devouring staff-sword indicated that this thing was definitely not an ordinary extraordinary item.
"Main Hall... According to him, this heart-devouring staff-sword should be something from a place like the Fetal Garment Cult's Main Hall. I don't know why such a precious thing ended up in the hands of this guy Luer... Is there some hidden reason behind this?"
Manipulating Smith to pull out the heart-devouring staff-sword from his chest, Dorothy murmured in the carriage. The core belief of the Fetal Garment Cult is the Cup Mother. Besides branches like the Wolf Blood Society, there should be a Main Hall as the core. However, according to Adele, because the Cup Mother has not bestowed any divine revelations, this Main Hall, which should only worship the Cup Mother, has now declined and is squeezed by the other three expanding branches.
After putting away the staff-sword, Dorothy manipulated Smith and his beastmen to continue searching the secret room, trying to find something of value. Unfortunately, due to the fire, Dorothy found nothing else except for a secret transmission that was almost burned to ashes.
'Alright... One is one. Having something is better than nothing. The fire is getting bigger and bigger, and the water snake outside is almost dealt with. We need to get the things out quickly.'
Thinking this, Dorothy had a beastman pick up the heart-devouring staff-sword and the secret transmission she had found, quickly cross through the fire to a window sill, then place the items on the window. Soon after, a male eagle flew down from the night sky, grabbed the secret transmission and the staff-sword, and carried them away.
Dorothy controlled the eagle Corpse Puppet, carrying the spoils, to fly into the dark night sky. As she was about to release control of the Corpse Puppets in the secret room, the altar in the center of the secret room, built from blood-stained bones, suddenly stirred. The flesh and blood within it began to automatically churn.
Seeing this scene, Dorothy was startled. Having seen the Holy Communion Society's communication before, she knew what this was. With a flash of inspiration, she released control of all the beastman Corpse Puppets present, leaving only Smith's Corpse Puppet standing in the ruined secret room.
Then, under Dorothy's control, the Corpse Puppet Smith suddenly knelt on the ground, his face pale, breathing heavily, clearly looking extremely weak. Just then, the flesh and blood within the altar also began to gradually form a mouth and ears, and an eyeball slowly rose from the flesh and blood.
When the mouth within the altar formed, it was about to open and say something. However, when the eyeball fully rose and witnessed the situation in the secret room, the mouth that was originally preparing to open snapped shut and fell silent. Then, the eyeball quickly darted around, scanning the surroundings. After spotting Smith kneeling on the ground, it locked its gaze onto him. Then, the mouth on the altar opened and emitted an urgent voice.
"What happened! Why did it suddenly become like this! Answer me, Smith!"
Duval, an elder of the Wolf Blood Society, questioned Smith like this. He had just listened to Smith's suggestion and was dispatching secret transmissions suitable for corruption from the direction of Tivian to him. After the dispatch was completed, he contacted the other party again to inform them, but who would have thought that after only half an hour, the stronghold there had suddenly turned into this state.
Listening to this voice, the injured Smith weakly raised his head, looked at the eyeball on the altar, and then slowly opened his mouth, gasping for breath.
"Huff... huff... It's, it's Black Dog... and people from the Church... They just attacked in a joint operation... They have two Chalk, I couldn't resist, cough, cough, cough..."
Covering his bleeding wound, Smith spoke to the altar before him with a pained expression, and the mouth on the altar immediately opened to ask.
"Black Dog and the Church? They launched a surprise attack on your stronghold? How did they know the location of your stronghold? Could it be that Sister you just mentioned?"
The mouth on the altar continued, stating that Smith had previously mentioned getting a Sister who could infiltrate the Church. So Duval thought that Smith hadn't been set up by the Church, with that Sister finding some opportunity to tip off the Church.
"No... it's not... I checked that Sister with a Hui Jian Lamp, there were no extraordinary traces on her body, and she was under our surveillance the entire time... It wouldn't be her...
"The reason these guys found their way here... is because I was careless... When I checked, I only checked that Sister, and missed the subordinate I was supposed to rescue himself. I thought he was one of us so I didn't check... Who knew there was a Beacon printed on his handcuffs... They all followed the Beacon here..."
Under Dorothy's control, Smith spoke extremely weakly to the altar. Duval, the Wolf Blood Society elder connected to the altar, paused slightly after hearing Smith's explanation, then roared angrily.
"How could you make such a mistake! Do you know that because of your negligence, our power in Tivian will be greatly weakened again!!"
"I know... so I also... cough, cough, cough... I'm very ashamed... I'm already trying my best to... make up for it..." Smith continued to speak breathlessly. Listening to his words, Duval continued to speak disdainfully.
"Make up for it? With things turned out like this, what can you make up for!"
"The Sister... that Sister..."
Taking a deep breath, Smith allowed himself to calm down slightly before speaking.
"I just... personally released that Sister who was corrupted by Kirk... but the Church is still unaware... letting her go find the Church... huff... huff... And told her... we will continue to support her research on the Holy Mother and cup mother in the future... huff... And also gave her... the Davik's handcuffs that I had removed... telling her to say that she secretly picked them up herself at the scene of our carjacking... This way, the Church and Black Dog will think she is a meritorious person and give her a chance for promotion...
"But... the Church doesn't know that Sister's current thinking is terrifyingly twisted... She is a huge hidden danger that I arranged to send back into the Church... As long as Captain... Captain can send someone to contact her in the future, you can easily corrupt her... cough, cough, cough..."
With weakness and pain, Smith spoke intermittently, coughing severely at the end, coughing up a large pool of blood. Seeing Smith, a Chalk Werewolf, in this state, Duval knew he was almost done for.
"Alright... I understand your plan. You attribute the exposure due to the mistake to the merit of that corrupted Sister, letting the Church promote her, and then we contact her, using her as a starting point to open up the situation in the Tivian Church... In the face of crisis, your mind has somewhat returned. Tell me... how should we contact that Sister later?"
"Cough, cough... White, White Stone Craftsmen's Guild... According to that Sister herself, she had dealings with the White Stone Craftsmen's Guild when she was in the Historical Scripture Department, and has an account called 'White Prayer'... Captain... Captain's side can directly send messages there.
"Through that group of shrewd merchants... Captain's side doesn't need to directly contact her to reach her. This way, even if she is exposed over there, it won't affect us... cough... cough... In short... Captain's side can first use this channel to investigate her... If the investigation passes, then seek a more convenient method of communication..."
Saying this, Smith coughed up a few more mouthfuls of blood. Dorothy knew that it was impossible for the other party to trust Vanya from the start. They could only first establish a contact method that was safe for both sides, allowing the other party to investigate Vanya. The neutral principle of the Craftsmen's Guild was just right. After listening to Smith's words, Duval on the altar's side was silent for a moment, then spoke quietly again.
"I understand. We will go back and contact her to test her later... The question now is, do you still have a chance to escape?"
Duval said this, and just as he finished speaking, a wall of the secret room suddenly exploded with a bang, spewing out scorching flames. In the flames, a Saint Knight wearing broken armor slowly walked in, pointing the flaming sword in his hand at the weak Smith before the altar.
"Haha! I found you, evil wolf! Your snake has been steamed dry by me! Use whatever skills you have left! Otherwise, accept purification!"
Anrexius beneath the helmet said arrogantly to Smith, while Smith at this moment responded with a bitter smile.
"Sorry, it seems I can't leave. May I enjoy eternal hunting in the hunting grounds of Gluttonous Wolf..."
Saying this, Smith, supporting his bruised and battered body, roared at the flaming Saint Knight before him. Meanwhile, Duval in some distant location looked at the bursting flames engulfing Smith and let out a sigh.