Yalilan listened for a moment, then had the Demon Hunters disperse and lie in ambush, preparing to strike at the right moment.

On the stage, following the prayers of several Priests, a few Undead Cultists escorted a person from backstage who was bound in iron chains and had a bag over their head.

The gazes of Yalilan and several Demon Hunters suddenly sharpened.

"Is that..."

Andre’s voice suddenly trembled. Baron followed his line of sight and saw the Undead Cultists on stage remove the person’s hood.

It was none other than Kazela, the one Andre had brought from the warehouse the other night!!!

’How could Kazela be here?’

A flicker of doubt crossed Baron’s mind, but what followed was a scene that shocked him—and all the other Demon Hunters—even more. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The Yellow-robed Priests each raised a long, asterisk-shaped spike and plunged them in unison into Kazela’s joints. With a twist, they tore him wide open while he was still alive.

Kazela let out a pained shriek, but the wounds torn open by the long spikes neither healed nor bled.

Maguire’s hand tightened on his weapon. He glanced around and saw that all the Demon Hunters had grim expressions and weren’t moving. He gripped the hilt of his half-drawn blade, then forced it back into its sheath.

As the Demon Hunters were rattled by the grating scream, the Yellow-robed Priests moved in an orderly fashion toward the corpses fastened to the asterisk-shaped racks. They took them down and placed them next to Kazela, who was struggling but ultimately unable to break free from his chains.

Something bizarre happened. As the prayers continued, the corpses—including the three from the Louis Squad—began to melt... the kind of melting like snow dissolving into water under the sun.

Skin, flesh, and bone began to turn into a bizarre slurry, which clung to Kazela’s wounds and formed a blackish-red scab.

Andre couldn’t sit still any longer. He whispered to Yalilan, "My lady..."

"Wait."

Yalilan said coldly. She was still scanning the surroundings for any possible ambush points, methodically sending her Demon Hunters out squad by squad to secure advantageous positions.

The changes on the stage continued. Kazela was no longer groaning. The blackish-red scabs began to squirm, as if something underneath was about to break out of its shell.

"It’s the Blessing," Zod said. "They’re using the Immortal Goddess’s Blessing to try and turn Kazela into an undead monster. Once the Blessing begins, it can’t be stopped unless a Golden Tier, or a Law Enforcer close to the Golden Tier, interferes with their Spiritual Power."

’An undead monster? Why now, of all times? Could it be that these people have already discovered the Demon Hunters hiding among the cultists?’

Baron had a growing sense of unease. Suddenly, someone pulled at him from behind.

It was Carmen.

The Witch whispered something to him. Baron’s eyes widened in shock. He made to follow her, but stopped, shaking his head after a moment of thought.

By this time, Yalilan had basically confirmed that there were no ambushes around the altar.

Looking at Kazela above, who was faintly beginning to take on a monstrous silhouette, and at the circle of Yellow-robed Priests around him, Yalilan finally drew her blade and coldly commanded, "Kill."

Blood spattered from the south.

The crowd panicked, scattering in all directions.

Some of the younger Demon Hunters hesitated, wondering if they should really strike down these people. After all, they were just ordinary folk with no strength to even truss a chicken.

A veteran Demon Hunter slapped one of them. "If you wanna play saint, go to a goddamn church! If I die because of you, I’ll come back as a ghost and slaughter your whole family!"

The young Demon Hunters no longer hesitated. With a single slash, they cleaved an Undead Cultist running past them in two.

In an instant, the area was filled with the sounds of battle and an endless, unbroken chorus of screams.

But the Yellow-robed Priests on the stage paid no mind to the chaos erupting below. They turned a blind eye, continuing to chant their esoteric, tongue-twisting prayers as if nothing was happening.

Of course, the Cultists who had been helping the Yellow-robed Priests pull the chains to restrain Kazela had all scattered and fled.

Only the Priests remained on stage, praying like monks chanting sutras, while Kazela clutched his head with his newly grown third and fourth hands and let out a low howl.

"Fucking posers."

Baron blew the head off a passing Cultist with a single shot, muttering the curse as he watched the unperturbed Priests on the stage.

Perhaps he had grown used to killing. He now had few qualms about it, especially when it came to these Cultists. They stood by coldly, watching their own comrades be slaughtered, all for the sake of their own petty, exploitative version of immortality. In Baron’s mind, they didn’t even deserve to be called human.

He casually lopped off another person’s head with a swing of his blade and shouted to Yalilan:

"Lord Marquis, we have to stop the Blessing! Ferdinand is most likely beneath the altar!"

This was the information Carmen had just given him. Although the Witch’s Spiritual Power was depleted, her perception was still at the level of a Silver Tier. This was evident from their first meeting, when she had mentioned her failed ascension.

Even for a Silver Tier, the Witch was clearly among the most powerful.

"Leave this to me! You, Zod, and Maguire, go beneath the altar!"

Yalilan didn’t ask how Baron knew Ferdinand was under the altar. Her Alchemy Circuits lit up, and silver runes spread from her body to the tip of her blade.

But then she saw the Demon Hunter hadn’t moved. She asked subconsciously, "What is it?"

"If Ferdinand is ascending to Silver, the three of us can’t beat him."

As he spoke, Baron stabbed a nearby Cultist in the chest, pulling his blade out and splattering blood across the ground.

Yalilan had forgotten about that. She fumbled in her clothes and pulled out a strange, amber-like Crystal Stone:

"An Annihilation Stone from the Fear Plateau. If the explosion is close enough, it can even severely wound a Bronze."