Soon, ordinary worshippers brought Holy Water.
It was called Holy Water, but in reality, it was just clear water from the pool in the church's backyard, filled in a Holy Grail, crystal clear and seemingly nothing special.
The priest waved away the trembling worshippers, then holding the Holy Grail, he turned to Officer Zhang.
"What's up?" Officer Zhang asked, raising an eyebrow.
She knew from the police station's archives that, decades ago, the majority of the main fighting force against those Cultists actually came from the church. After all, as a religious institution, they should have some means to deal with foreign religions.
Although the present church looked quite shabby, the bishop, the priest, and the pastor were all the same person, and in the large church, there were hardly any worshippers, not even knights...
The more she thought about it, the shabbier it seemed.
The priest smiled and said softly, "You'll have to endure some pain, probably about the same as alcohol disinfection."
Upon hearing this, Officer Zhang looked around, pulled a seat cushion off the pew, bit into the corner of the edge, and then nodded towards the priest.
Previously, Lanruo had attacked her while she was driving, and she had almost caused a car accident. Although she had eventually subdued Lanruo, her entire right arm had been infected, burning and stinging as if it had been scorched.
Even more so, if there was nothing to distract her, her thinking seemed to be influenced by the intense pain, muddled as if in a nightmare.
And now, as the priest poured the Holy Water over her, Officer Zhang bit down hard on the cushion, a delicate and lovely face of a girl flashing through her mind.
"Hiss—"
The Holy Water flowed down the arm, and immediately there was a sizzling sound like hot oil cooking meat, black mist entwining as white vapor rose. Officer Zhang drew a sharp breath, enduring the agony as she lowered her head, her left hand clenched tightly, her whole body trembling slightly.
After the swirling black mist dissipated, Officer Zhang's arm was revealed, the skin a pallid grey, with a piece hanging limply as if the flesh had been torn apart, surrounded by rotting, eerily pitch-black flesh.
With a calm expression, the priest took a square cloth, soaked it in Holy Water, and wrapped it around the blackened rotting flesh. Then he made a gesture and closed his eyes to begin praying.
Officer Zhang kneeled on the ground, leaning against the pew, her head buried in her arm as she endured the punishment. After a while, she felt the tearing pain in her arm ease slightly and become bearable.
"That's enough, just rest for a bit longer," came the priest's gentle voice.
Officer Zhang let go of the seat cushion in her mouth and cursed clearly, "Fuck! That really damn hurts!"
Priest: "..."
Officer Zhang had just teased a bit in keeping with her identity and then she immediately asked, "Did you find out any information today, like where that group of people is hiding?"
"No." The priest slightly frowned, "Lanruo's figure always appears only under the cameras on the road to the dance studio, and once she enters the urban village, we can't track her anymore. I have only identified two possible areas, but no exact locations. — What about your people?"
"Don't mention it, no news at all, and they almost got completely wiped out." Officer Zhang said with a mouth twist.
The police lack the 'holy' methods of the church; they are okay at gathering information but don't have a way to deal with those strange attacks for now.
Although the church is out of the loop with regards to news, it has methods for the purification of cultists; that's why they teamed up in the first place years ago.
Now that the incident has resurfaced, those cultists clearly understand this reason and targeted the police first since they could locate their positions, which also caused the investigation to halt at a critical moment.
After hearing this, the priest reflected for a moment and then said, "I've been meaning to tell you, since they've already made a move against the police, I think the church will soon be attacked as well."
"And then?" Officer Zhang asked, touching her right arm.
"You got Lanruo from Qiuzi today, and I've figured it out, Qiuzi's current state is probably not much different from a Necrophage," continued the priest.
Hearing this, and recalling that exquisitely cute, yet occasionally eerie girl, Officer Zhang fell silent.
'Black Dog' stirs up the desires within one's heart, and the contaminated person amplifies their darkest thoughts, acting solely on those instincts.
Lanruo probably killed Qiuzi out of uncontrollable jealousy initially, but what would Qiuzi do after being contaminated?
She remembered how the girl danced during the day, her light, leaping figure as graceful and pure as a white swan. Enjoy exclusive chapters from m-v l'e|-novelhall.net
It was hard to imagine what Qiuzi would do after turning dark, after all, if she wanted revenge, naturally she would kill Lanruo, but Lanruo was already dead, what else could she do?
Win the performance competition?
Go and kill Xuena?
This plot really is about contaminating the dance troupe one by one...
Officer Zhang's thoughts inevitably drifted.
At this moment, the priest spoke again, "So, Qiuzi must know something, she even said she looked forward to you visiting her, why not go directly and ask her for the location of the cultists' hideout?"
...