Chapter 77: The Frightening Night at Needham Plain’s Nameless Riverbank (Part 1)

Chapter 77: The Frightening Night at Needham Plain’s Nameless Riverbank (Part 1)

Ximengsi Continent’s southern region, vicinity of Steinbeck Fief, outskirts of the Needham Plains

In the temporary campsite of Light Church’s investigative team along a nameless riverbank, Light Church’s investigative team who had escaped the large-scale chaotic warfare of dark forces welcomed a brief relaxation. However, their troubles had only just begun.

In the evening, Clyde detected some kind of demonic creature staring at the campsite. Generally speaking, when Light Church’s members went out, they took along holy items that exorcised evil spirits. Investigate teams tended to be especially careful as they explored dangerous areas, bring along things like Exorcise Holy Cross, Light Holy Scriptures, and miniature Light God’s statue; these three tools were requisite. Ordinary demonic creatures, even if they were of the unintelligent sort, would also instinctively take the initiative to avoid coming into contact with Light Church’s members.

These kinds of demonic creatures that directly rushed toward the temporary campsite of Light Church’s investigative team without concealing their hostility were most likely existences of extreme resentment, belonging to the class of demonic beasts with a very high level of danger. Clyde was not one of Light Church’s members, if it were not for the presence of those few saintesses, he wouldn’t have cared about the approaching demonic creatures because they could also be regarded as being of the same camp as him. Clyde was a little unwilling to kill the beings of his own side for ordinary members of the Human Race.

While those demonic creatures hiding in the dense forest waited for a chance to attack the temporary campsite of Light Church’s investigative team, Clyde snuck out of the back of his tent and walked toward the forest area. There were too many Light Church’s members in this temporary camp; thus, he didn’t have free rein. In the presence of so many Light Church’s members, it was unwise for Clyde to use evil magic.

Light Church’s members were busy reciting the Light Holy Scripture and meditating in the temporary camp. No one even noticed Clyde’s clandestine departure. Following his initial impressions from the focus of those gazes from just a moment ago, Clyde went towards the nameless river. The male believers had their own self-defense abilities, Clyde’s primary target for protection were those few Light Church saintesses. Suhiya and the others had left together with all the female members of the investigative team, which just happened to make things easier for Clyde.

The moment he entered the forest, the demonic creatures hiding in the forest attacked Clyde. Clyde had no holy items of Light Church that could exorcise evil spirits; thus, he became these demonic creatures’ first target. Those demonic creatures had shadowy forms, resembling legendary slenderman. Each one was over three meters tall, and their black shadowy hands stretched towards Clyde.

“This... what’s going on with this person!”

These shadows’ claws stopped when they reached near Clyde as if a layer of invisible barrier had blocked them. While the shadows hesitated in confusion about the situation, Clyde’s hand transformed into a black energy demonic blade. After a few casual swings, the shadow demonic creatures were cut into several pieces.

“Truly not having eyes. Next time, look carefully whether the opponent is from the same side or not before deciding to attack.”

Clyde leisurely left as those shadow demonic creatures turned into dust and dissipated. When attacking, Clyde had already guessed what type of creature these shadow demonic creatures belonged to: they were resentment spirit type demonic creatures. The Needham Plains had experienced a dark historical period for over two hundred years and had been shrouded with the undead calamity for such a long period of time, during which Light Church had never sent anyone here to carry out a purifying ritual; therefore, it was inevitable that such resentment spirits would appear. After a long period of time, having this problem was natural.

The dark forces’ large-scale chaotic warfare of before had brought along a significant amount of dark energy to the Needham Plains. Under the effects of this dark energy, those resentment spirits had mutated and become far more aggressive. Even though the allied forces of Demon and Ghost Realm had already withdrawn, the effects of their passage still existed. The best solution would be, after Cursed Queen Lafania and her younger sister Nightmare Queen Mephis resolved the matters of Murmans Regal Pyramid Area, holding a purifying ritual to remove the resentments remaining here in the Needham Plains.

After that brief battle, the demonic creatures lurking in the forest momentarily fell silent. After a short while, they took the initiative to make a path, no longer seeking trouble with Clyde. The dark energy demonic sword in Clyde’s hands had already proven his identity, and demonic creatures possessed instinctive fear towards higher level demonic creatures. Without Clyde saying anything, these demonic creatures knew that they couldn’t afford to offend this person in front of them and could only make way.

In the evening, visibility inside the dense forest area was low, but this didn’t affect Clyde’s field of vision because existences of the dark camp almost always had very perceptive night vision. In Clyde’s perspective, this place was clear as day. Going along the forest path, Clyde quickly arrived at the nameless riverbank.

The positions of Saintess Suhiya and others weren’t difficult to find. In order to prevent anyone from peeping, the saintesses had arranged a light defensive barrier normally used to guard against intruders around the place where they bathed. Because of his dark attribute, Clyde was especially sensitive to aura released by light magic and quickly discovered the area surrounded by that defensive barrier.

Even from far away, Clyde could hear the sound of water and babble of giggling voices. After hesitating for a moment, he still decided to go and take a look. Although he might be misunderstood as a peeper, since he had already come halfway, retreating was out of the question. After deciding, Clyde gingerly walked over to the area with the light defensive barrier. He then reached out his hand and lightly tapped a portion of the glowing barrier, opening a hole. Since he didn’t destroy the light defensive barrier, the people inside didn’t sense anything unusual. Under these circumstances, he successfully passed through the barrier.

The special contract between Clyde and Valkyrie Cynthia allowed him to easily dispel magic defensive barriers of the light series. After passing through the light defensive barrier, Clyde arrived at the nameless riverbank and squatted to conceal himself behind a thick clump of grass. Through the thick clump of grass, he appreciated the scenes at the riverbank.

The three saintesses of Light Church’s investigation team, “Radiant Saintess” Suhiya, “Punishment Saintess” Tiffany, and “Light Saintess” Maria, were there together. Accompanying them were the investigative team’s female members, including all the priestesses and female paladins. It seemed they greatly trusted the saintesses’ light defensive barrier. Not all the girls on-site had brought along their weapons and even those few weapons they had brought along on their journey were placed at the shore, far out of convenient reach.

Clyde watched all this and saw shining white alluring figures roaming along the shore. They were beauties of Light Church’s investigative team. The clothing and weapons they had carried along were randomly scattered on the shore. Their bras, panties and stockings were also placed on straw mats on the shore. Their styles were unexpectedly bold, if their clothes were not openwork garter then they were transparent gauze, and all were very appealing. Those priestesses and female paladins who had originally worn very conservative priestess’s attires or paladin’s armors, unexpectedly had inner attires that were very liberal.

Naturally, the priestesses and female paladins weren’t completely unprepared. They all wore Exorcising Holy Cross necklaces. These golden crosses on their bosoms were especially conspicuous in contrast to their fair and clear skin. The Exorcise Holy Cross had the exorcising attribute, so ordinary evil spirits wouldn’t dare to approach them; however, this holy item had a clear flaw: its effect against entity-type demonic creatures was not obvious.

The three saintesses sat on a rock at the shore; they were a bit more reserved. Still wearing their undergarments, they had yet to enter the water, unlike the other female believers. After entering the water, those female believers used the towels in their wooden tub to wipe their lithe bodies. Shifting his gaze, Clyde could clearly see the color of the three saintesses’ undergarments. Suhiya’s was white transparent gauze, Maria’s was golden openwork, and Tiffany’s was purple garter openwork. Like their subordinate female believers, in the selection of their undergarment styles, all were inclined towards the liberal style that appealed to the eye. This truly couldn’t have been deduced from their superficial conservative style.

Suhiya and the other two saintesses similarly bore no weapons and only wore Exorcising Holy Cross necklaces. In their view, that light defensive barrier should be sufficient to defend against the intrusion of entity-type demonic creatures, so there was absolutely no need to prepare additional defensive measures. Clyde keenly noticed a problem these saintesses had obviously ignored. There was no defensive barrier along the nameless river, so demonic creatures could easily carry out a sneak attack from inside the river. The area covered by that light defensive barrier was limited to approaches from the shore.

“Suhiya, don’t take this matter to heart. Even if there is no interesting content in your report, Bishop Garfield and Bishop Nichols will help you add some nonsense content.”

“Ai, I just want to separate the truth from the mystery of what we experienced. Don’t tell me that this is wrong?”

“That... Don’t think about those serious matters. It is now the time for rest. Suhiya, while we haven’t seen each other, you seem to have grown even more. Let me see!”

“Eh, wait, Tiffany. Don’t move around randomly. Who has been growing! Clearly, aren’t yours bigger?”

Tiffany and Suhiya boisterously teased each other on the shore while Maria quietly watched from one side. These saintesses didn’t notice any danger. Suddenly, the originally calm nameless river suddenly became violent. Big waves appeared, and a fierce wind blew towards the shore, sweeping away all the weapons and clothing of the female believers of Light Church’s investigative team. It was unknown where all their undergarments and clothing had been blown away.

This sudden and unexpected change dumbfounded the beauties present here. Without their clothing, how could they return to the campsite? Fortunately, when the wind had started to blow, they had timely crawled toward the shore. Clyde turned his head and looked towards the direction of the temporary campsite created by Light Church’s investigative team. The original surging light aura had completely disappeared and been replaced by endless darkness.

Clyde knew without guessing that at this moment, the temporary campsite might have already turned cold. Suhiya and others didn’t need to worry about returning to the campsite since it was probably nonexistent by now. However, the saintesses and the others didn’t yet know of the collapse of the temporary campsite. While they pondered over their options for dealing with their current situation, mysterious demonic creatures launched a surprise attack from inside the river.

Some strange big heads emerged from inside the nameless river holding mysterious weapons in their hands. A kind of thick bamboo tube, they looked like weapons used by indigenous tribes to blow darts.

Whoosh, whoosh! Along with a clear burst of whistling sounds, countless needle-type arrows shot out, directly hitting the female believers of Light Church present. If they were not hit on their thighs, they were hit on their buttocks. They had no way to dodge. At night, their shining white appearances were too obvious, making it very difficult to dodge the arrows even if they had a lot of physical skills like the paladins did.

Before the saintesses and others could respond, most of them were shot down by the arrows. After they were shot, they immediately fell to the ground and twitched. It didn’t seem like the arrows were poisoned, but it was very likely that a paralysis type drug had been used. Afterward, a huge net flew out from inside the river, and all the downed members of Light Church on the shore were covered inside this net before being dragged inside the river. At that moment, Clyde finally saw the true appearance of these attackers: they were fishmen.