Chapter 18: Fake Church (7)

A terrible scene of carnage unfolded within the chapel.

The pastor who had accompanied us recognized the middle-aged priest held by the scruff of his neck on the pulpit and muttered in dismay.

“L-leader….”

Before he could finish, a hand shot out and instantly clamped over his mouth.

“Hmph-“

“Quiet.”

After softly warning him not to make noise, ST turned back to me and whispered cautiously.

“They don’t seem to have noticed us yet. What would you like to do?”

“…..Let’s observe the situation a little longer for now. I want to know what on earth is going on.”

So, holding our breaths again, we peered through the door crack at the two men inside the chapel.

On the pulpit, the young man with bloodshot eyes gripped the collar of the middle-aged man Meyer had called ‘leader’.

The leader’s breath was choked off, his face already deathly pale, only faint wheezing sounds escaping him.

Suddenly, the young man’s roar erupted.

“You promised!!!”

A voice filled with resentment.

“Remember?! Believing only your promise, I… I sacrificed everything!!”

The leader writhed in pain from the choking grip, but the young man paid no heed and continued shouting.

“That ridiculous fanatic act…! I endured the agonizing combat prosthetic surgeries too! The horrifying pain of having my body torn apart, modified, and modified again…!”

His voice was close to a scream.

“All of it! I endured it all just trusting your promise! You said if I just did as I was told… you’d fix my sister… my only sister! That’s why I did all that disgusting, dirty cleanup for years!!”

“Keok….!”

As he spoke, he shook the other man almost like wringing him out.

“But what? Now… Now you say there’s no way?! Then what was all that crap you spouted before! That thousand-day prayer?! The holy water! All those countless miracles you mumbled about in front of the congregation!!!!”

Eyes with burst capillaries.

Pupils dilated from excessive excitement.

It seemed he no longer sought an answer.

“Say it again with that precious mouth of yours! Say it!!!”

The rage that had reached its peak finally snapped the thread of reason completely.

The young man, howling like a beast, grabbed the lower jaw of the priest, who couldn’t even scream, with both hands.

The priest’s eyes widened in terror as if they would burst.

“Ugh, ugh…. Uuuuugh-!!!!!!”

Blue veins bulged on the young man’s arms, and with a sickening crack…

The lower part of the priest’s jaw was literally ripped off.

“Keoheok….!”

Blood spurted like water from a fully opened faucet.

The priest’s body slumped and collapsed, lifeless.

But as if that wasn’t enough to appease his fury, the young man began stomping on the corpse.

Crushing it with all his might, kicking it, throwing it around.

Then he started laughing maniacally.

“Haha…. Ahahahaha!”

The chilling laughter of someone utterly deranged echoed through the chapel.

After laughing like that for a long while, the young man abruptly stopped and looked down at his own forearm.

Clank- From inside the modified upper arm, a built-in firearm revealed itself.

Then, like someone possessed, he began shooting one by one at the other corpses scattered around.

Bang! Bang! Rat-tat-tat!

Turning already cold corpses into chunks of flesh again—this act wasn’t even confirming kills.

Emptiness. Resentment. Despair over irreversible things.

It was the image of someone whose reason had snapped, driven by the rampage of all those emotions.

“Ha, hahaha, hahahahat! Hhhk….”

Thwack-! Splurch!!

The young man continued to brutally tear apart the surrounding corpses.

In a space where no one else breathed, solely surrendering to impulse, laughing and crying insanely… the sight wasn’t unfamiliar.

That was precisely the horrific side effect brought on by excessive nerve implants and body modification.

The end state of those who become closer to machines than humans.

‘Cybernetic Rage….!’

I unknowingly sucked in a breath.

It was a very small sound, but the heightened senses of the cyborg consumed by madness didn’t miss it.

Instantly, his movements, aiming the gun at the nearby corpses, stopped.

Slowly…. very slowly, his head turned this way.

Bloodshot, unfocused eyes met mine precisely through the open door crack.

He stared blankly at me for a long moment, then suddenly muttered in a child-like voice.

“Yoanna….?”

A completely unfamiliar name slipped through trembling lips.

His pupils were completely dilated, and his face was filled with a confused expression.

The young man suddenly became extremely flustered and stumbled backward.

“Yo-Yoanna….! Th-this…. I mean, no! Listen to my explanation! This is different!”

Hallucinations—visual, auditory.

Distortion of sensory perception is a typical symptom of cyber-psychosis.

I realized he was looking at me now, but simultaneously, not seeing me.

“Th-this kind of thing…. I didn’t really want to do it…. No, that’s not it….!”

With a desperate face, fumbling, he began frantically trying to string together incoherent, nonsensical excuses.

Then suddenly, his expression changed drastically, as if switching masks.

The previous confusion and panic vanished like a mirage.

As if nothing had happened, he called out to me again in an incredibly gentle and kind voice.

“Yoanna! Why are you standing there like that? It’s dangerous. Come over here quickly. Hmm? Something good happened today. Big brother will order lots of delicious food when we get home.”

With that, he began striding towards me.

Beneath his advancing steps, corpses squished mushily, but he paid them no mind.

His bloodshot gaze was fixed solely on me in the doorway—no, on someone superimposed in his mind.

The gentle smile, so out of place, was chilling.

I instinctively took a step back.

“….!”

Instantly, ST stepped in front of me, blocking the young man’s path.

“Stop. Do not approach any further.”

At the firm command, the smile vanished instantly from the young man’s face.

And again, bloodshot rage surfaced.

He glared murderously at ST and yelled.

“Get out of the way! Who the hell are you to interfere! Get away from Yoanna!!!”

“Lady Eve, please retreat as far as possible.”

She requested firmly without looking back at me.

Her saying that felt a bit unfamiliar.

Because whenever ST guarded me, she always defeated every enemy effortlessly.

As if feeling no burden at all.

I had never seen her tense or struggle even once.

But this time, the atmosphere was slightly different.

Did it mean the opponent before her was that dangerous?

“……..”

I nodded silently and stepped back amidst the tension.

One step, two steps, and just as I took the third step back.

CRASH!!!

I didn’t even register the movement.

Somehow, the two were already clashing forearms.

The ensuing exchange of blows happened at a speed impossible to follow with the eyes.

I couldn’t even properly see who attacked first and who blocked.

It was too fast.

‘Reflex acceleration…! Both of them…?!”

Eyes wide, I tried desperately to follow their movements, but all I could see were rapidly intersecting afterimages and the impact of collisions.

Dull thuds, sharp metallic clangs, and the sound of something breaking filled the chapel incessantly.

KRA-BOOM!!!!

As the battle intensified, tremendous shockwaves that could deafen ears exploded repeatedly.

It wasn’t bombs or other firearms.

It was hard to believe that such immense shockwaves, roughly tousling my hair, were generated solely by the impact of two bodies—bare or mechanized—colliding.

‘Unbelievable….’

Is combat between properly implanted users this overwhelming?

It was incomparable to what I saw in games.

The sheer force inadvertently froze me in place.

Truly, a battle of superhumans who had abandoned biology for power.

“Keok!”

The fight, which unfolded at imperceptible speed, concluded just as quickly.

The one sent flying in the final exchange was the bloodied young man.

“Krrrk-!”

His body staggered with a scream.

Before he could even fall, ST grabbed his hair and slammed him face-first onto the floor.

THUD-!

The chapel floorboards cracked like a spiderweb.

And the young man moved no more.

“….Hoo.”

ST caught her breath lightly.

Though the battle was fierce, no particular wounds were visible on her.

‘To take down such an opponent without a single injury….’

The young man’s display was astonishing, but ST’s ability to subdue him so cleanly was truly shocking.

Suddenly, she turned to me and spoke.

“Lady Eve, I have a proposal.”

“Yes?”

She briefly glanced down at the young man lying on the floor.

“That man… was a mercenary of a level rarely found in this vicinity.”

Her tone itself was calm as usual, but the content was somewhat unexpected.

“And during the recent engagement, however briefly, a security gap occurred where I left Lady Eve’s side. It was my oversight. I realized from this incident that it is difficult, even for me, to perfectly eliminate all risk factors alone.”

ST frankly admitted her limitation—or lack thereof—and got to the point.

“Therefore…. how about recruiting that man as a new bodyguard?”

“A bodyguard… you mean him?”

I looked again at the motionless young man lying on the floor.

He was likely a murderer who had killed dozens just in this place.

But whether it was an accident due to advanced cyber-psychosis or if his inherent nature was evil, I couldn’t tell yet.

‘He seems to have some kind of backstory.’

So, while I hesitated, ST added, as if reading my thoughts.

“If that man refuses the deal, or if he is truly an irredeemable murderer… we can simply dispose of him then.”

Her confident reassurance made it a bit easier for me to decide.

In the worst-case scenario, with ST around, an uncontrollable situation wouldn’t arise.

Conversely, leaving him here would surely mean death.

Cybernetic Rage at that level of cyber-psychosis is not only incurable but also has no known method to even alleviate the symptoms further.

Perhaps letting him pass peacefully in this unconscious state would be better.

But…..

‘Everyone deserves at least a minimal chance.’

Perhaps the first step in relating to people as people begin with allowing others such opportunities.

Because the first step to resolving misunderstandings and understanding others is communication.

I looked down at the fallen young man once more and finally made my decision.

“Then first…. shall we try talking to him once?”