Chapter 183: Origin of the Curse(3)


    Snap!


    The rope wrapped around the woman''s neck had snapped as a dull sound rang out the moment her body struck the ground.


    Then, she stood up...the vibe surrounding her made everyone feel as if she was a majestic Goddess that had just descended from her heavenly abode to the mortal realm.


    However, she was most definitely not a Goddess.


    The aura surrounding her was too sinister and undivine that no one would possibly think of her as a Goddess.


    If she was to be described, then it would be deserved for her to be called as the Saintess of Death!


    As if on cue and true to her nature, a change urred at that moment.


    The pungent smell of rotting flesh washed over through the entire vige as Heisenberg and Ricardo did everything that they could to stop themselves from vomiting. They had to pretend that they were dead, and how could the dead still vomit? In fact, it was questionable if the dead had a sense of smell!


    "Shit..." Ricardo''s teeth were chattering from fear and his throat continuously swallowed mouthfuls of saliva as it forced the bile that was about to burst from his throat.


    Heisenberg was doing pretty well considering his age.


    Although he was stricken with fear, he managed to hold fast on his wits and his teeth weren''t chattering like Ricardo.


    Calvin tapped the shoulders of the two and said, "Calm down... Hold your wits... Act as if you belong here..."


    "I know... I know..."


    Heisenberg mumbled a reply.


    Ricardo didn''t say anything but Calvin''s words made him remember their current mission.


    They had to act low-key until it was time for them to act.


    Calvin nced at Heisenberg and Ricardo.


    He couldn''t help but sigh.


    To be honest, he couldn''t really me the two of them for being so scared in front of such a monster. Even hewasn''t an exception to the fear, although he managed to recover faster than these two, he was still afraid. After all, every human out there had this innate fear of monsters, especially monsters whose strengths were iprehensible.


    "Hey, bro... What do we do next?" Calvin decided to scratch the ankles of the deformed man to attract his attention.


    "We will stay here until the ceremony ends. Don''t worry, this ceremony will end shortly. This is amon ceremony that happens at the darkest hour of the night. The true nightmare is once the ceremony that only happens every full moon urs. That is when all hell will break loose..."


    "Just what is this ceremony, anyway?" Calvin asked.


    "This is a ceremony of conversion... The vigers had kidnapped outsiders a few days ago. They''ve already converted quite a few of them, but there are still about a dozen survivors remaining."


    ''The passengers!'' Calvin was rmed hearing the deformed man''s words, "Conversion? What do you mean?"


    A crazed smile once again appeared on the deformed man''s lips, "It''s simple... They will either be turned into an eternal devotee of the Saintess of Death, or they will turn into meat that the vigers will consume! A person''s conversion depends on their faith. If their devotion is stronger than their will to submit to the Saintess, they''ll be turned into meat for consumption..."


    "If not, then you should be able to guess their fate." The deformed man mysteriously smirked.


    But his words weren''t much for a mystery since the implications hidden behind it were too clear for anyone to miss.


    Heisenberg and Ricardo were shaken.


    "Are those passengers already dead?"


    Ricardo still had this hope in his heart.


    Heisenberg also had the same thought, but his experience enabled him to think into this matter even deeper than Ricardo.


    What would they do if those passengers were still alive?


    Save them?


    What a joke!


    Their teeth were already chattering from fear upon seeing that monster, and they would obviously need to fight her to save those passengers.


    If they fought her, could they really survive and seed?


    Let alone seeding, even escaping from this vige was now a difficult endeavor.


    "Hahaha..." The deformed man merely chuckled in the face of the question.


    Ricardo''s expression changed.


    He clenched his fists out of frustration and he started to me himself that despite being a public servant, he was ultimately unable to save those passengers from their terrifying ends.


    Calvin nced at Ricardo.


    He could catch a glimpse of his past self upon seeing how frustrated Ricardo was knowing the fates of the passengers.


    Back then, he had also be like this when the trench he was holding with hisrades in the front lines were subdued by those monsters.


    Since he had the weakest ss, the others forced him to escape.


    In the end, he was the only survivor from that batch of soldiers loyal to the Joselian Kingdom.


    His friends and even his best friend back then had died under the ws and jaws of those monsters.


    Calvin had med himself a lot at that time and he almostmitted suicide due to Survivor''s Guilt.


    "Sigh..."


    Calvin let out a sigh and shook his head.


    This wasn''t the time to reminisce about the past.


    He stretched his arm out and ced his hand on Ricardo''s shoulder.


    "Calvin..." Ricardo nced at him.


    But Calvin refused to say anything and after a good while, he eventually retracted his hand.


    "Focus on the task at hand."


    "A-All right..." Ricardo didn''t know what to say.


    Was this guy trying to encourage me?


    He had no idea what the answer was, but Calvin''s encouragement sure did bring a smile to his face.


    What an awkward bastard.


    He doesn''t even know how to console someone!


    Sniggering to himself, Ricardo soon recovered from his trance.


    The terrifying woman was now wrapped in a dress made out of darkness itself.


    She walked down the wooden tform and one of the vigers wheeled in a cart full of corpses.


    The corpses wore clothes simr to what the three could remember. Furthermore, their faces were also familiar.


    Heisenberg even saw the body of the woman he shagged in that passenger wagon!


    "They''re dead..."


    Calvin dered.


    Heisenberg immediately calmed down.


    There was no use acting so wronged for the sake of a dead person.


    "Calvin... Since we''ve already confirmed that the passengers are dead. Shouldn''t we n on how we can make our escape by now?"


    Calvin didn''t even turn to look at Heisenberg for he raised his head and stared at the vast expanse of the skies above them.


    "Escape...? Hahaha, it wouldn''t be that easy, Heisenberg..."


    Calvin''s eyes seem to emit a faint golden light as he activated his Vision.


    The calm skies seemed to be pure, not hiding anything from the eyes of those who stared at it.


    But being the possessor of the Emperor''s Commandment, Calvin saw that there were countless locusts and a swarm of flies beating their wings up above the clouds!


    Calvin''s pupils constricted.


    How could these locusts and flies survive so far up above the skies?


    There was only one exnation.


    This Saintess of Death wasn''t a Subordinate God, but a disciple!


    She might possibly be the disciple of the Goddess of Pestilence and Famine, Pisti!


    "Shit..." Calvin audibly cursed.


    ''Now I know why this mission is S-Tier...'' A bitter smile appeared on Calvin''s face. Facing a disciple of the Goddess of Pestilence and Famine in battle would be a foolish endeavor for Calvin, but was this so-called Saintess of Death really a true disciple of the Goddess of Pestilence and Famine?


    If that was the case, then she was too weak!


    Far too weak to be considered as a Goddess''s disciple...


    If Calvin''s memory served him right, then one could only be considered to be a Goddess''s or God''s disciple if they were at the Ambassador rank at least!


    But this woman.


    She seemed to be only a High-Tier monster with strengthparable to the fragment of Valefor''s soul!


    Calvin had the Mortician and Stephanie, both High-Tier monsters hidden beneath his shadows, so he wasn''t that afraid.


    But Calvin knew that this wasn''t the time to act.


    He still needed to know how to remove this curse of sleeplessness from the vigers, and for him to understand how to remove the curse. He must follow the instructions of the deformed man and remain low-key until the end of the ceremony.


    The woman was now starting to move to the cart. She opened the steel gates and the stacked corpses tumbled onto the ground. A distorted smile crept up her lips as she picked a random corpse off the ground and held the body on its head with a single hand. A burst of Nether Qi visible only to Calvin who had his Vision activated assaulted all of the person''s orifices.


    In the very next moment, the same veins that had covered the young woman''s body appeared on the corpse. These veins were incredibly invasive that in just under five seconds, they had upied every nook and cranny of the corpse''s body. Then, the veins wrapped the corpse in a cocoon of darkness before that cocoon eventually cracked open to reveal another monster d in the graveclothes of vigers.


    The sight of this made the other vigers cheer.


    "Wy kamatayun! Wy kamatayun! Wy kamatayun!" They chanted. Some of the vigers even copsed right there and then and bawled their eyes out thanking the young woman for supposedly giving ''salvation'' to these outsiders.


    Indeed, the person that hade out of the cocoon would not die anymore for he had already be a living dead.


    The ceremony of conversion continued and the young woman converted these corpses into monsters. The women were turned into Subi, Dryads, Hags, or Witches, while the men were turned into ghouls, creepers, and devourers. No matter what monster they transformed into, it was now impossible for them to die.


    In a sense, they had attained eternal life.


    The eternal life that the Our Lady of Holy Death advocated through ''Her'' prayers.


    About a quarter of the corpses were sessfully converted into monsters, while the others would be turned into meat that the vigers could share and enjoy with their families.


    Seeing the sickening sight of these vigers excitedly carrying the corpses to be washed and skinned for their consumption almost made Ricardo vomit once more.


    No words were exchanged among the four of them as the deformed man started crawling his way to a dark alleyway.


    Ricardo and Heisenberg along with Calvin quickly followed suit. They wanted to leave this ce as fast as possible.


    When they reached the dark alleyway, the deformed man had this crazed smile on his face as he said.


    "In a few minutes, these vigers will return to their homes and they won''te out again until daybreak. We should do our best to break the curse of sleeplessness before daybreak."


    Calvin nced at the dark skies as if he was checking the time.


    Noticing that the swarms of locusts and flies had disappeared along with the vigers, he let out a sigh of relief as he said, "Break the curse before daybreak? We''re mere weaklingspared to our superiors. Why not we lead our superiors here so they can break the curse for you in our stead?"


    "Once we''ve reported everything that had happened here to the church, then they should be able toe here and cleanse this vige."


    Calvin asked as if he was probing for more information, but the deformed man''s expression distorted out of anger.


    "The church?! No, not the church! They are not allowed to step a single foot into this vige! I''ve already had enough of their help... Do you think that I can still trust those ipetent fools to help me when even a child is more courageous than them?!"


    The deformed man was so angry that he eximed.


    Fortunately, the other vigers were already in their houses, so no one was out in the streets to hear his shout.


    "Shut it, man! You''re too loud!" Ricardo burst into a panic though as he scolded the deformed man.


    The deformed man seemed to have realized that he had gone overboard.


    But there was still this defiant look on his face as he patiently exined.


    This time, in a soft voice, "I apologize for being angry, but I can''t just trust those bastards who insist on spreading their gospels and putting themselves on a pedestal as if they are holier than thou... Much more, I''ve already experienced the help of one of their judiciaries."


    "Oh?" Ricardo and Calvin stared at the deformed man in surprise.


    "Yes... Yes... It''s been a year, but I still remember that the man seemed to havee from a judiciary called, what was it again? Uh... Cabal?"


    "The Cavaliers..."


    "Yeah, that''s it..." The deformed man nodded to Calvin''sment, "I thought he would be able to cleanse this vige once and for all but it turned out that he was too scared to do it! He tried to escape the vige without my guidance even though the ceremony had already started..."


    "In the end, he was killed by that woman..."


    "He was killed by that amalgamation of curses."


    The deformed man seemed to still be afraid of what had happened at that time that his body kept on shaking as if he was a leaf.


    Heisenberg and Ricardo were shaken after hearing the deformed man''s words.


    But Calvin seemed to be in deep thoughts about something else. He nced at the deformed man and noticed that the trembling and the twirling fear in his eyes didn''t seem to be fabricated. Yet there was something off in his words that Calvin felt at the back of his head.


    "He died while trying to escape the vige without your guidance? Are you saying that if you''ll guide us, we''ll be able to escape the vige?"


    Ricardo asked in excitement.


    Calvin and Heisenberg turned to look at the deformed man as if they were waiting for his answer.


    The deformed man nodded his head, "I will give you a map that you can use to avoid all the hidden monsters and traps in this vige as well as the taboos as long as you promise to save this vige from the curse and free my fellow vigers from this curse of immortality." The man''s words were steady and serious. It would be hard for anyone to refuse.


    Heisenberg and Ricardo were still thinking about their response when Calvin stepped forward with this cryptic smile on his face.


    "I''ll take you on that offer."


    "I promise to rid this vige of the curse."


    The expression on Calvin''s face was so sincere that anyone couldn''t possibly find any fault in it.


    But Calvin''s mind had already hatched a n.


    The so-called young woman was just too weak to be a disciple of one of the Seven Gods and Goddesses.


    In that case, why were there locusts and flies standing by above the clouds in the skies of the Vige of Tulog?


    There was only a single answer to this question.


    The young woman wasn''t the disciple of the Goddess of Pestilence and Famine.


    It was someone else...


    The mysterious smile on Calvin''s lips deepened.


    He was now getting closer to having the answer to this question.