The SSS Ranked Villain's Return-Chapter 148: The Remaining Churches

In 15 minutes, I need to fix their mindset, he thought before going over to the one being overly protective of Jane.

"Levy, right? I need you to watch her at all times for the next hour or so. Can you do that?" Neraxis asked, receiving a scoff in response.

"You can go, devil. We don’t need your assistance. Someone like you, tainted by the filth of—"

"Got it. You’re loud," Neraxis interjected and began walking away.

It seemed that instead of warning the others about the monsters, the only thing that guard had done was warn them of his skills—namely, {Aura of the Abyss}.

Nonetheless, Neraxis dashed onto a roof while Jane wasn’t looking and quickly made his way toward the eastern church.

As he arrived, the sight of multiple people building barricades greeted his eyes.

He initially planned on observing them for a while but went against that and jumped down before approaching a guard.

"Devi—"

Before the guard could alert the others, Neraxis sent a weak kick to his abdomen, effectively knocking the wind out of him.

"Sorry about this," Neraxis expressed and grabbed hold of the guard’s collar.

But that was not all. From the ground, he picked up a wooden pike and stabbed it through the guard’s shoulder, drawing blood.

Despite Neraxis not hitting any vitals, on the outside, the pike looked menacing, and that was his objective.

Instead of killing every heretic or taking the risk, why not simply make the people turn against him?

Therefore, Neraxis carried the guard over to the church, dragging him across the ground.

As he was doing so, the remaining guards who were building pikes of all sorts finally took notice of the situation and froze.

"He’s here! The witch might be close by, so keep your guards up!" one of the guards ordered.

"If you move or attempt to search for the witch, I will kill him," Neraxis stated in a cold voice, bringing his sword near the impaled guard’s throat. "I wish to send a warning."

"A warning by the devil himself? Ha! As if we would—" The guard’s words were interrupted when, all of a sudden, Neraxis appeared before the guard and, in an instant, broke his arm.

But that was not all, as with the added momentum, Neraxis went around, injuring the other guards as well.

However, it wasn’t to the point where they would be rendered useless in a fight, as most of the injuries he had inflicted would heal within the next few minutes.

After all, he did not fully break their bones.

"AAAH!" Screams rang out one after another, and the civilians seemed to take notice of that too as they huddled closer to one another.

Neraxis felt like it wasn’t right to do something like this, but since it was the only way, he would see it through.

"Now, back to my warning," Neraxis said, glancing at each and every single guard lying on the ground before turning to the civilians. "In exactly 15 minutes, I will come back and kill you all. If you wish to live, reinforce your barricades, build up your inner defenses, and lastly, hide to the best of your abilities."

He paused to let the information sink in, then, with slow steps, began walking away.

How was it? Neraxis asked.

[I’d say a solid 8/10,] Evangeline critiqued. [You didn’t give off that murderous aura true devils have. Also, some of the guards noticed the pike hadn’t hit any of the vital areas, so they weren’t as afraid.]

Oh... He sighed. I thought it went pretty well...

Nonetheless, Neraxis headed over to the northern church, which was a tad bit shabbier looking, and did the same.

Just this time, he implemented what Evangeline had told him, twisting the pike in a way that made it seem like it hit a vital area while at the same time putting on a devilish expression.

Safe to say, he could have joined the acting club.

As he finally dealt with the northern and western churches, it was finally time for him to make some final preparations.

Neraxis went along the entire city and destroyed each house near the wall in an attempt to make the goblins’ breakthrough that much slower.

If anything, they might end up impaling themselves on the rubble.

Soon, he was finished, and according to his calculations, he still had around a minute to spare.

[05:00:22]

[05:00:21]

Yep... I’ll just need to hold out for 5 more hours... Seems doable, he expressed with a sigh and dashed up the walls.

Neraxis could still roughly spot each and every single church from above, and the one Jane was in seemed the most bustling.

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She was running around outside, commanding the guards to fortify everything, and the entire circular perimeter seemed like it would be enough to hold out.

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However, as he glanced at the northern church, he was left a tad bit disappointed.

They had not changed anything and would likely be the first ones to die.

I’m just happy there are less than 15% of the population there, Neraxis thought inwardly, and soon, the timer hit 5 hours.

But with that also came the rumbling of the wall he had stood on.

The undead were still a couple hundred meters away, but somehow, they were already breaking the wall down.

And he soon found out the reason why, as off in the distance, he could see massive undead amalgamations picking up giant boulders and throwing them directly at the wall.

Each direction had several of them present, and they were all stationed in the back, which meant Neraxis could not easily get to them.

Nonetheless, since everyone—except the northern church—was ready, he decided it was finally time to cull some undead.

Taking a deep breath, Neraxis leaped off the city wall and landed straight onto the desolate ground below.

The soil was dry, and the air was filled with dust, making any ordinary person unable to breathe.

But that was not the case for Neraxis as he began steadily jogging toward the batch of undead, and not even a few seconds later, they clashed.

Their skeletal figures seemed extremely eerie, but in turn, destroying them was that much easier.

Pity they don’t give any stigmata progress. I wish they’d be useful and give me information too... But sadly, undead can’t disclose information regarding their master. He thought with a sigh and cleaved his sword in an arc, destroying each and every skeleton in a 10-meter radius.

With the amount of effort he was using, Neraxis was surprisingly holding up well, and if the trial only required him to survive, then it would be no trouble to pass.

But that was not the case.

After breaking through their formation for a few minutes and likely destroying thousands of the undead skeletons, Neraxis decided to speed things up a little.

He jumped up and kicked off an undead skeleton’s head, crushing its skull in the process.

However, with that, he was able to traverse through this undead army that much easier until, eventually, he arrived before one of the massive skeleton amalgamations responsible for breaking down the wall with boulders.

And before it could even react to his presence, Neraxis performed a {Simple Stab}, collapsing its entire body in an instant.

[1x (C- Ranked Monster) Skeleton Brute Slain! Reward: Stigmata 11.37% → 11.38%]

That took a few minutes, it felt like. I wonder how long I have to keep doing this for? Neraxis thought, glancing at the timer.

And as he did, his expression immediately soured.

[04:58:02]

[04:58:01]

Yet just as he was about to complain, Neraxis spotted something further beyond the undead skeletal army—an armored skeleton legion.

It seemed like they were not escorting anyone, and the necromancer wasn’t with them, meaning they were just ordinary skeleton soldiers.

Steeling his resolve, Neraxis took a deep breath, taking in the putrid air with disgust, and dashed through the cannon fodder skeletons, arriving before the skeleton legion.

There were 20 armored skeletons in total, and despite him not being able to tell their expressions, he felt like they were amused.

And soon, his suspicions were confirmed.

"How has a human come out this far? Introduce yourself," the skeleton spoke in a hoarse voice, sending shivers down Neraxis’s spine.

However, he wasn’t going to answer, because after all, he was going to kill them all.