Bear School Astartes

Chapter 379: 379. Revere the Ancient God’s Blood

The antlers of the white monster trembled incessantly.

The agony of having its bones shattered and flesh torn from the wrist was indescribable.

Yet it still managed to pull back its broken hand and the palm that clutched something tightly to its chest.

Kneeling on its bent legs, it seemed to be praying for something.

A soft golden light began to rise from where it knelt, growing ever brighter.

Visibly, the stump of its lost wrist was quickly staunching the flow of blood, and bits of flesh seemed to come alive, beginning to intertwine and grow.

Due to its massive size, a single step back from the monster was equivalent to a dozen steps for a human.

Lann now carried the Turbulent Flow Greatsword on his shoulder, walking towards Amelia.

Neither hurried nor slowed, he behaved as if he didn’t notice the obviously supernatural golden light.

Lann made no sudden movements, yet abruptly, the white monster began trembling spontaneously.

With an uncomfortable groan in its throat, the flesh that was intertwining and growing on its wrist suddenly went rigid and then sickened, shriveling away.

The golden light dissipated before reaching its brightest point as Amelia failed to maintain her casting state.

”Just as expected...”

Lann’s footsteps were heavy, the sound of the armor plates clashing ominously.

Opposing that was his tone, which carried the weight of foreknowledge.

”What beast transformation disease? You’re merely cursed souls entangled by a large curse. Otherwise, the [Oil of Curse] couldn’t possibly be this effective.”

On that huge black blade, a layer of an oily sheen flickered under the candlelight.

The Demon Hunter’s [Curse Breaker Sword Oil] is specially used against werewolves and the like, monsters that exist in the world due to curses.

The highly targeted toxicity instead highlights the nature of the enemy.

The vast surface area of the Turbulent Flow allows these sword oils to enter the enemy’s body in large amounts with a single slash, causing destruction.

Amelia is now poisoned.

Originally, Lann wanted to try the fire paper given by Alfred. After all, the matted fur of those beast transformations looked very flammable.

But compared to the enchantments of the Magic World, the disadvantages of fire paper became apparent.

The flame burning directly on the sword would destroy other coatings. The enchantment causes the foe to combust spontaneously, thus not affecting anything.

”Analysis complete, uploading.”

The stable voice of Mentos echoed in his mind.

It summarized the combat style and considerations of the enormous monster.

Lann tapped his temple lightly with a finger, acknowledging the battle plan.

The monster that Amelia had transformed into, seeing its recovery magic interrupted, still clung tightly to the object in its hand.

One of its hands laid several meters away on the floor, while the other could only maintain a fist.

Its combat methods were now limited to an extremely narrow scope.

”Wooah!”

The holy white-furred beast smashed down with its only remaining hand, and Lann flickered away, leaving only a round ball in his place.

Amelia’s fist crushed the ball, and with a ’boom’, a yellow-green mist abruptly exploded, the oily substance adhering to half of her body.

Alchemy Bomb—[Dragon’s Dream].

Lann realized that his opponent was utterly unfamiliar with its beastform body, let alone halting in emergencies. So he simply did not even light it; Amelia herself would help him shatter the bomb.

The hand sign of his left hand became ready, and with a snap of his fingers, Chaos Magic Power spontaneously generated a spark, igniting the yellow-green mist.

”Boom!”

A roaring flame instantly ignited half of the monster’s body in a conflagration!

The poisoning combined with the burning were both significant negative states.

The white monster writhed and howled in distress.

And as the blaze spread across it and the toxin penetrated deeper, its struggles grew weaker.

Until finally, it lay weakly on the ground, unable even to hold onto that object it so desperately clutched.

A golden pendant rolled from its beast claw to Lann’s feet.

The Demon Hunter bent down to pick it up, brushing off the blood from the pendant, whispering the engraving softly.

”Revere the Ancient God’s Blood.”*2

The Demon Hunter’s voice mingled with an oddly hoarse voice, uttering the words.

Lann’s feline eyes lifted slightly, gazing at the white beast, which seemed to have accepted its fate, becoming calmly serene.

”That’s an ancient saying from the Byron Vis era, a warning passed down through the Healing Church for generations... teacher... Lawrence...”

Lann was about to ask more, but it seemed that Amelia’s consciousness could only hold on this long, afterwards it kept uttering regretful calls for its teacher.

Also the founder of the Healing Church, Lawrence.

This mantra, passed down through generations, clearly expressed caution in handling the Ancient God’s Blood, yet the Healing Church nowadays has promoted blood healing not for the first time.

When Old Yan’an was destroyed, they might have had a chance to halt the trend of [Blood Healing]. But they did not, instead promoting [Blood Healing] again to New Yan’an.

Those careful, righteous visions at the founding always get mixed with desire and greed through the generations.

Then rules and boundaries become ’flexible,’ and the negative effects meant to be guarded against begin to spread.

They didn’t even need ’generations,’ seemingly right in the hands of founder Lawrence, they already began violating mantras, extensively using the Ancient God’s Blood.

Lann didn’t know if Amelia continued promoting blood healing after succeeding out of intellectual curiosity as a researcher or due to inheriting and upholding teacher Lawrence’s legacy.

Either way, she did what she did.

The spread of the beast transformation plague, people’s dependency on blood healing, she played a role in it.

While Lann was displeased with the xenophobia and arrogance of Yan Nan people, he was more displeased by how church members treated an entire city’s population as experimental cases for the knowledge within Ancient God’s Blood.

”You performed reasonably well.”

Lann said calmly.

The massive sword stopped above the neck of the antlered wolf-headed beast. Aimed precisely, this stroke would swiftly end its suffering.

”At least, you didn’t struggle so disgracefully in the end, nor did you portray yourself as a harbinger of justice laden with sin... that would be too disgusting.”

The antlered, wolf-headed beast did not speak again; even the murmured calls of ’teacher’ ceased.

At this moment, the serenely white beast truly transformed into something sacred.

But for Lann, a mistake requires acknowledgment.

If you don’t acknowledge it, then when I see it, I will help you acknowledge it.

”... Farewell.”

”Bang!!! Squelch!”

The great sword chopped down cleanly and sharply, leaving thick, dark, fan-shaped remnants in the air.

The monster’s neck spurted blood from the wound, splashing from the center of the church hall to the corner of the wall.

The church returned to a silent and solemn place.

And on that altar where Amelia had prayed, something that Lann had not noticed began to glow.

It was an enormous skull, its mouth elongated to the extent of being nearly lupine.

A skull of a highly beast-transformed patient.

On the top of this skull was a large crack made from having been struck, its cause of death, and the origin of the light.

Lann cautiously approached the glowing skull...