Bear School Astartes

The eyes of the Scholars and clergy burned with the flame of the desire for knowledge, a heat no less intense than the candles they held.

And as Lawrence placed the bone saw’s serrated edge against the emaciated body of the Cos Orphan, surgical instruments more refined and sharper than the Hunter’s weapon easily scratched the skin of this unresisting corpse.

A droplet of blood seeped from the gray-white skin, mixing with the nauseating mucus on the Cos Orphan’s skin.

The blend of blood-red and gray-white, merged with the texture of the mucus, turned into a chaotic and repulsive color.

But the Yan Nan People do not care about the color... they care about blood!

Almost at the moment that droplet of blood seeped from under the Cos Orphan’s skin.

”Gasp~” *N

The involuntary sounds of inhalation simultaneously arose within the Great Cathedral.

The clergy, scholars, and the few Hunters attending the ceremony...

They all raised their necks in rapture, even trembling, as if they smelled an indescribable and marvelous scent, deeply enchanted by it.

And collectively, the Hunters and clergy’s eyes all subtly tinged with red.

The process of surgery, the rigor of academic research... all became irrelevant after that single drop of blood oozed out.

Even the most rational Scholar could not control the surge of impulse rising within.

—Let the blood within this corpse surge forth!

Flow out!

Let more blood flow out!

The Miklás, who had intended to stop Lawrence, now stood dumbfounded, putting down the petite scalpel in his hand, and instead, took up the bone saw in his surgical tool set.

Lawrence panted under his hood, eager yet seemingly hindered by some physical limitation.

So, nearly collapsing his upper body onto the stone table, he pressed his weight upon the bone saw and painstakingly cut from the position of the Cos Orphan’s thoracic vertebrae downward!

The blood of the divine child began to flow, even shooting out fiercely.

To the Yan Nan People, there was no scent more alluring.

Miklás also began cutting with the bone saw on the Cos Orphan’s corpse.

He chose to cut from the pubic area of the lower body.

The already dead divine child was being dissected under the bone saw.

The grinding sound of steel and bone echoed continuously within the cavernous Great Cathedral.

It was enough to set any typical person’s teeth on edge, but the Yan Nan People only found it melodious.

Flames and firelight flickered, the sweet scent of blood grew increasingly intense, and the red in their eyes grew more vivid.

Initially, the people were just inhaling deeply, but soon, that sweet scent made mere inhalation inadequate.

People began to pant, breath wheezing with saliva dribbling from mouth to chin, indifferent to anything else.

They felt as though they heard something—the knowledge, the profound insights about Ancient Gods, about those above, about the ocean and the cosmos.

Because of this corpse being dissected layer by layer before their eyes and simultaneously displayed to them, absorbed, understood by their minds.

A delightful satisfaction filled each person’s heart.

Hunters indulged in the blood, scholars, and clergy enraptured by the profound knowledge.

Only Gremman leaned against the Great Cathedral’s pillar.

The shadow under the Old Hunter’s brim flickered with the firelight, but he remained motionless, like in a slumber.

But no reaction was perhaps the best circumstance.

Because in Yan’an, miraculous blood, profound knowledge... all came at a cost.

”Ah... Ah!... Ah!!!”

The uncontrollable screams roared forth from within the Great Cathedral.

The screaming individuals themselves unknown of their actions, with others seeming as if they hadn’t heard anything.

On the few Hunters present, something began to stir and crawl beneath their sturdy trench coats, pushing the fabric up.

No one noticed these occurrences; they remained fixated on the divine child’s corpse on the stone table.

Even one of the closest to the stone table, Lawrence, began to emit entirely unnatural heat, warping the air around his body—no one paid attention to it.

The robe symbolizing the archbishop, except its pristine fabric began to yellow.

It was not dirtied... but rather its fibers were being scorched nearly to carbon.

And the robe was changing from scorched yellow to burning black!

Maddening, bizarre, absurd...

The blood of the Ancient God, the knowledge of the Ancient God, never before so close to humanity.

But the humans immersed in it failed to perceive one question—they truly prepared to bear this blood and knowledge?

Gremman rose from the pillar-back, departing the Great Cathedral as though he saw nothing.

And behind him, everything triggered by the Cos Orphan’s dissection seemed to have reached an extreme.

At the moment Lawrence, panting heavily, hammered the Cos Orphan’s skull open recklessly...

”...”

Suddenly the Great Cathedral, already steeped in collective madness, felt a moment of silence.

The Hunters under whose trench coats were no longer humanoid, the scholars and clergy normal in appearance but brain disturbed by knowledge, and even Miklás and Lawrence who personally dissected.

In this instant, they appeared to return to normal thought.

They realized what they had done, and also what they had become.

Originally, their eyes were dreamy and deranged, but now turned fearful and resistant.

But it was already too late.

They regained consciousness for a fleeting moment... but it was only for that moment.

After that moment, having lost the essence of being ’human,’ their thoughts immediately collapsed.

”Aoo!!!”

A deafening roar! Suddenly erupted after that moment of silence!

The luxurious and magnificent Great Cathedral trembled with the overlapping roars.

No, listen carefully... it’s far more than the roars inside the Great Cathedral!

The eerie cries of crows and the barks of wild dogs were mingled with the inhuman roars.

The direction from which these roars came...

Lawrence, barely able to hold onto a sliver of sanity, looked in horror and despair toward the direction of the Great Cathedral’s doors.

It came from the entirety of Yan’an!

But then, even if Lawrence was one of the two most knowledgeable individuals present, having been devoted to studying the Ancient Gods since the time of Byron Vis,

he had been immersed too long in the research of this knowledge, the experiments on blood, and was no longer quite human.

Yet he now felt his vision blur, and his perspective lift.

He knew that at this moment, his pupils probably had already become like cracked yolks, dissolving.

With a ”boom,” Lawrence only felt his body burning hot, with a great heaviness on his left side.

Out of necessity, he instinctively used his left hand to prop himself against the stone table in front of him, barely managing to stand.

But upon seeing the hand he used to support himself on the stone table, he realized... the Cos Orphan lay atop the table, standing three meters tall, and his own hand covered the entire upper body of the Cos Orphan!

What on earth... have I become?!

Lawrence was blind and bewildered.

But right then, in the midst of chaos, a figure wearing a scholar’s robe suddenly picked up a bone saw with the dexterity of an ordinary Hunter, making a quick decision with a ”slash” sound!

He severed the Cos Orphan’s waist that Lawrence’s hand didn’t cover!

Then he picked up the lower half of the divine child and ran out!

The scholar robe fluttered in the air, while the person carrying the lower half of the divine child’s body, his expression was akin to an addict who suddenly obtained the keys to a stash of narcotics!

”Mi... Ka... Sh!!!”

The indistinct roar from his own mouth made even Lawrence himself terrified.

But he continued to shout loudly, furiously yelling the name of the person who had snatched half of the divine child’s body!

He just knew! This Byron Vis scholar, who also deviated from Master William’s academic ideals, yet did not join his own Healing Church, definitely had a set of his own ideas!

A set of academic philosophies different from those of Byron Vis and the Healing Church!

The results of this academic philosophy allowed him to even partake in the dissection of the Cos Orphan without being affected!

Even now, he still had the energy to snatch away half of the Cos Orphan’s body!

But no!

That half of the divine child’s body belongs to the Healing Church!

It must not be allowed for the Holy Blood to leak out!

Moreover... people must not know that clergy can transform into beasts!

Since Lawrence established the Healing Church, why had the Yan Nan People increasingly believed in this emerging church?

The biggest reason was they mastered the technology and source of [Blood Healing], and — never had any clergy transformed into beasts!

This was the Healing Church’s greatest evidence claiming [Blood Healing] could cure everything, including the ancient beast plague in the Yan’an Region!

Without this evidence, the Healing Church would be doomed!

”Kill... him! Brado!”

Lawrence’s hand now should be called a claw.

His claw painfully clasped his head, and his already mutated throat emitted a muffled roar.

He called out to his friend, the hunter who belonged to him.

Brado wasn’t the strongest Hunter, but he was the Hunter Lawrence trusted the most.

”Kill everyone... who knows! Everyone! And... ugh!”

And... kill me!

To elevate humanity to the heights of the Ancient Gods through the path of blood, for this ideal, the Healing Church must stand unshaken!

By the end, Lawrence was utterly unable to speak, only emitting a mixture of painful roars.

He didn’t know where his hunter friend was now, but he continued to shout this.

This was the last thing he could do, his final bequest.

And after a final howl mixed with a trace of humanity...

Thick, scorching lava, like a tide, mingled with flames, surged out from within the Great Cathedral, flowing down along the mountain slope!

The night of the hunt that destroyed the entire Old Yan’an... had begun.