The healing salve wasn’t enough to heal them fully, but it kept them moving for a short ti.
"Start preparing the cannon. Use the ammunition I give you," I said.
They didn’t argue.
I pulled out three magazines.
Every bullet inside was fused with Positive Energy.
I knelt and began drawing runes on the ground with Fairy Dust.
The powder shimred faintly as I added alchemy ingredients, bullets, and a Catalyst at precise points along the rune circle.
The drone above us zood in, watching my hands closely.
I ignored it.
Alchemy that interacted with Positive Energy wasn’t common. I doubted many alchemists on Earth could handle this type of interaction.
If the System Church saw doing this, they would definitely increase my value.
I pushed that thought aside.
’Worry about that later. I need to get out of this domain first.’
I started chanting under my breath, guiding the flow of mana.
The ingredients reacted, fusing together with the bullets.
A spherical cannonball ford at the center.
The two gunner crewmates had already manifested a cannon.
As cremates who once handled heavy weaponry on the moving city-ship Nautilus, this was one of the few abilities they had.
I handed them the cannonball.
They loaded it imdiately and began preparing to fire.
anwhile, the two lee crewmates were getting overwheld.
The ghouls moved fast, using long claws and broken movents that made them hard to predict.
"Hold on! Keep fighting!" I shouted.
I ran across the battlefield, using broken trees and shattered stones as material. They were perfect anchors for the runes I needed next.
Attacks whistled past . Any one of them would’ve thrown across the forest.
One of the sword-wielders took a deep stab to the stomach.
He collapsed, coughing, unable to stand.
Their formation fell apart. A ghoul slipped past them and aid straight at .
Dante moved before I could shout.
He blocked the attack with a heavy impact that shook the ground.
My hair blew back from the shockwave.
"Good job," I said to him just as I finished the chant.
The rune circle lit up.
The runes triggered reactive dust, and clouds burst upward.
Dust began filling the entire area, spreading fast.
Only the space near , the cannon crew, and Dante stayed clear.
"You three! Co back now!" I shouted.
The remaining sword-wielder grabbed his injured partner and ran toward us, dragging him as best he could.
The gunner lifted his weapon, preparing to shoot to slow the ghouls.
"Don’t fire! Just co back!" I yelled.
He stopped and sprinted toward us.
As soon as they broke out of the dust cloud, I shouted, "Fire in the hole!"
The cannon fired with a deep boom.
The cannonball shot into the dust cloud. It hit the mask of the ghoul closest to our escaping crewmates.
A small spark appeared.
Then the world shook.
The dust cloud ignited.
A massive explosion ripped through the forest, throwing the crewmates forward.
They hit the ground rolling and groaning.
Burn marks scorched their clothes, but they were alive.
The ghouls were not.
They burned in Positive Energy flas, screaming until their voices faded.
I let out a long breath.
’One problem handled. Now—’
"New directive: duck imdiately," Judy’s voice said in my earpiece, flat and chanical.
I didn’t question it. I ducked at once.
A blade of shadow tore through the air where my head had been.
It sliced past and retracted into the trees.
Dante tensed. He hadn’t sensed the attack coming at all.
The crewmates tried to push themselves up, but they were too injured to help again so soon.
Judy’s voice ca again, cold and robotic. "Scanning. Identifying hostiles. Classification: Cursed Spirits from New Order. Sub-type: Exorcists."
Back at the inn, Valen had killed everyone except Saint Maverick, Judy, and two Cursed Spirits who called themselves Exorcists.
Those Exorcists belonged to New Order—one of the Pri Five, a powerful Cursed Spirit supremacist organization.
They supported Cursed Spirits and hated exorcism.
They even hated killing non-immortal Cursed Spirits like ghouls.
And I had just blown up several.
’They attacked because I killed the ghoul.’
’That was probably a warning shot.’
If I were acting as Alan Veritus, I would explain myself, talk calmly, and try to avoid conflict.
But right now, I was Caelum Nocthera.
I straightened and raised my voice. "Co out if you want to talk. Or are you too afraid to do that?"
Silence spread across the forest.
Then a voice echoed from all directions at once, as if it bounced between the trees.
"The Rank 4 Cursed Spirits beside you are injured and cannot protect you. Are you sure you want to talk like this, Caelum Nocthera?"
The tone was calm, almost polite, yet full of quiet pressure.
"We believe you are an important asset, Caelum Nocthera. We wish to work with you.
"Our attack was only a warning directive. Do not try to destroy a Cursed Spirit again."
The voice paused.
"But if you choose to continue this attitude, we will proceed with termination here."
Dante stepped forward and placed himself slightly in front of .
His posture tightened.
"Analyzing threat level. Probability of open combat: high. New directive: delay confrontation and continue data collection." Judy’s robotic tone ca through the earpiece. Only I could hear it.
I ignored her warning and focused on the voice echoing from the forest.
"Why? Won’t your bosses be pissed if you kill ?" I asked arrogantly.
"They will understand us. We do not want to let a dangerous person like you, who wishes harm upon Cursed Spirits, continue to live," the voice said.
Anyone else in my position would have exploded from frustration.
We were stuck inside a Rank 4 Cursed Spirit domain.
Our strongest fighter was half-dead.
We were surrounded by ghouls monts ago.
And instead of cooperating, the ’Exorcists’ from New Order still wanted a fight because I destroyed a Ghoul that tried to kill us.
But I didn’t feel angry.
Not even a little.
Why? Because I never expected anything from these people. Not in this life.
In my eyes, they were nothing more than steps on a staircase.
Steps I would climb to reach my goal, whether they wanted to or not.
"Fine. Then let’s fight," I said.
The voice didn’t reply imdiately.
I could practically feel their hesitation.
’They’re cautious because I’m too confident.’
I let a grin slip onto my face.
The kind of grin that suggested I genuinely wanted them to attack.
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