Upon entering the building, Richard didn’t actually go gung ho like a retired special forces veteran.

Instead, he walked through the eerily silent halls with calm precision.

Using all the techniques he learned and developed, Richard strengthened his body and senses to allow himself to react when necessary.

Moreover, he had already asked the Goddess, who had agreed to help him identify targets.

Although it was easy to just spray and pray, Richard had to deal with the stronger individuals first.

After all, the weakest people were just normal humans who had a bit of knowledge or a deep interest in the occult.

The strongest through... they were either powerful mystics or actual mystical beings.

With that, Richard immediately met the first targets.

Three men rushed through the halls carrying automatic rifles.

[Middle is a mystical being, the rest are non-mystics]

With the tip from the Goddess, Richard stood directly on the path of the three men. His figure invisible to them but just as they were five meters away-

"Stop!"

The man in the middle of the group, a mystical being who looked to be some sort of yokai. Maybe an oni or something as he had horns on his head, shouted for his companions to stop.

Unfortunately, the moment he screamed was the end-

*splat*

There was no sound of a gunshot, no sound of any attack, all that the two non-mystics noticed was that the man who was their leader ordered them to stop just before his head exploded.

Blood, brainmatter and skull fragments bathed the two men who were still frozen in shock, unable to make sense of what just happened.

*splat* *splat*

Unfortunately for them, Richard did not show mercy nor did he discriminate.

Whether they were mystics or not, they were allies to people who kidnapped their countrymen. What they did to those victims... maybe only the mystics and mystical beings know.

But Richard was not going to spare them just because they didn’t know.

The monster that spied on them was proof enough, moreover-

Richard turned to look outside and found Ragnar battling against some rather horrific beasts.

The stuff of nightmares that you’d only see in artist renditions of nightmare fuel creatures.

Yet Ragnar was smiling happily as he crushed the horrific monster’s limbs and smashed its skull into the concrete.

"As expected of a viking who does the blood eagle ritual"

[He didn’t admit to it though]

"He doesn’t need to"

Away from his companions, Richard could finally start talking with the goddess through his words.

There was still a difference between talking with your own mouth compared to just talking to yourself in your mind.

Richard had already experienced one incident of having difficulty speaking after spending quite some time conversing only with the Goddess who loves using telepathy.

They say unused muscles deteriorate and Richard was not willing to test whether the vocal chords are considered a muscle or not.

Of course he could research it but knowing won’t really help if you still end up forgetting it five minutes later right?

Because of this, Richard had developed a hobby of talking to himself, which was more "talking to the Goddess" but only his closest companions would know that.

Yet even they rarely saw him talk to himself with his own voice.

Mostly because Richard didn’t want to have them see him do such a comedic solo-act.

"Have you detected how many people there are?"

Richard asked the Goddess as he checked his gun for any issues.

[There are 21 in total, 24 if you count the people you dealt with but those that are still alive amount to 21]

"The ratios?"

[3 Mystical beings, 13 Mystics and 5 Non-mystics]

"I was expecting more non-mystics"

[They’re fighting Ragnar right now]

"..."

Richard let out a sigh, although he didn’t really want to show too much hate towards his current enemies.

When he looked down at the army of humanoid monsters, he felt immediately sick in the stomach.

[There’s no way to reverse the process, the monsters are made through a "spiritual method" rather than the "physical method" you know]

"So their current forms are like a mutation?"

[Correct]

"..."

No wonder Japan was able to make games like R*sid*nt Ev*l, even their mystical community was addicted to the idea of evolution and ascension.

Physical methods of creating monsters followed a system close to that which Cindy used. It basically used condensed madness left in the flesh to forge a new body.

Like making Frankenstein’s monsters, stitching together body parts to create a living creature. That was the "physical method".

On the other hand, the "Spiritual method" involved the use of souls, since the "body is a reflection of the soul", whatever shape the soul takes would be followed by the body.

In other words, if the soul grows a third limb, then the body would develop one as well.

Though, without mystical support, such changes would end up as mutations as the natural laws would try to "correct" the change.

This is the reason why some people change their personality and bearing when they get implants from diseased or living humans.

The reason being that the soul was still attached to the body part used, and since the body part was kept alive as it NEEDS to be in order for a successful transplant- the lingering spirit of the donor would end up melding with the recipient’s own soul.

More extreme cases are mediums who failed to control or awaken to mysticism, twins that never came to be-

Because of how "random" the results were, the "spiritual method" lost favor. Especially in the west where, even if bodies and souls are treated as "mere materials", wasting good resources was not something anyone would do.

Random changes would lead to random results and would of course lead to even greater losses.

If that weren’t enough, a mutation that is unwanted, because it came from the soul, made both the body AND the soul worthless upon failure.

As such, Richard’s disgust for the individuals who turned their people into mindless monsters were not going to get any brownie points from Richard.

Moreover... the Spiritual method could only be done through the use of souls...

In other words, each monster of the army that was being decimated by Ragnar had at least two souls worth of people in.

Every monster was created upon the bodies of others and that would immediately double the number of unfortunate individuals that ended up becoming victims...

It also wasn’t all too much of a stretch to say that the group may have been using the kidnapped people as materials.

Fortunately-

[Don’t get complacent, I told you, relying on clairvoyance would just put you in a pit worse than what you could have fallen into without it]

"It’s not reliance, I’m just using all available options"

Richard excused his own actions as he headed towards the direction where the Goddess pointed out to be where the largest number of targets were.

The enemies were hidden in an underground bunker and Richard could walk in through the front door, deflect all the bullets and magical attacks while putting the fear of God in his enemies...

But he didn’t want to do that.

Instead, he silently made his way to the spot right above the hiding place of the targets-

Richard pointed his pistol at the concrete ground.

His plan was obvious, he wanted to shoot through the concrete floor and eliminate all hostels without making contact with them.

Normally people would laugh at this idea since the gun Richard took out was a glock. A powerful gun sure but it can’t be pierced through extremely thick concrete.

But no one was here to tease him about it. Richard lowered the gun and pointed it towards the position of the mystical beings-

*shiiu* *shiiu* *shiiu*

Three silent shots that left no sound, only whistling winds as the concrete did not explode due to force but instead opened up to three holes as if it had no harness at all.

"Let’s try out phasing..."

Richard moved the muzzle and pointed it at the people who were panicking and began firing.

The bullets now phased through the concrete floor just like Richard did when he jumped from his office building to this one.

Below, chaos ensued, people panicked as they watched their comrades die.

But the craziest thing was that only the mystical beings were targeted. The rest of the non-mystics stayed safe.

Though the reason for that is because the non-mystics had people that could be considered hostages with them.

After taking care of the guards that were prepared for an intense battle, the hidden basement was now filled with nothing but death and weak non-mystics.

Richard phased through the floor and while he detected the perception blocking around him.

This created an image of a descent by Richard from the black ceiling- a product of the low light in the basement.

While Richard was just phasing through solid concrete, the non-mystics below saw it differently.

They watched in shock and horror as a humanoid being rose from the shadows above them.

Of the five non-mystics, three pissed their pants while the remaining two shat on their own as they already pissed themselves watching their companions fall due to an invisible force.

When Richard finally descended onto the ground, he found the five people kneeling on the ground as they repeatedly begged for mercy.

But Richard’s eyes did not turn to them and instead at the cage behind their seats.

[She’s not there]

’I know’

Richard glared at one of the men as he finally decided to do a "proper investigation".

Of course, he made sure to do it in front of the victims.

Whether it causes them undue trauma or helps them get over the one they already had-

Richard simply wanted to show the victims who were obviously subjected to horrific acts, the "punishment" their captors would receive.

Not from the government that seemed to have forgotten about them and completely abandoned them, nor the deities who many pray to when in a bad situation.

Richard showed them how "Man" would enforce retribution on the sinners.

[They call that- "playing God"]

’Am I really "Playing Goo" when I have an actual Goddess on my side?"

[...]