Rust - Chapter 883



Only Krnovel

RUST [RUST]-883

Purung- Purung- Pururung-

The black horse was breathing heavily.

A space where buildings and buildings, roads and roads are connected like a maze. Human cities have always been stuffy. The black horse raised his voice as if trying to shake off that stuffiness.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—

“What’s wrong? Is something wrong?”

A faint scent accompanied by a small voice. It smelled exactly like my former partner, who had been like a fierce flame, but it was a distinctly different sensation.

The black horse sniffed slightly and focused on his sense of smell.

Cannibal?

It wasn’t the smell of something that he wanted to trample on. But it was definitely an uneasy and ominous smell. Something strange mixed with the smell of human blood.

Is it okay to go with a small partner?

The black horse slowed its steps and then suddenly stopped.

As I was muttering that I was still uneasy, my little partner stroked the black horse’s neck and mane and spoke.

“Is there something dangerous?”

Hee-

Hee-yeon nodded her head as she looked at the black horse, who was crying softly.

“So that’s why they evacuated people from the city.”

Heeeeeeling-

The fact that the Inquisitor went in and evacuated the people means that there is a problem with the Inquisitor.

‘The fact that there are rumors of a god of life and a god of healing means that there are at least two powers.’

This time, there was only one cannibal that came out and was properly caught, but the warlock was definitely able to sense the cannibal. Judging from that, it was clear that the warlock had at least some ability to sense something.

‘They even tracked us for over 90 days.’

A black horse like that suddenly stopped on its tracks?

It’s hard to guess why, but one thing is certain: it must be because it was ominous enough to stop you in your tracks.

‘Seeing as it said the God of Life and the God of Healing, it didn’t seem dangerous.’

Is it really a dangerous force that the Black Horse should be wary of? Hee-yeon thought for a moment. The fact that the Black Horse sensed something strange meant that it might have some connection to cannibals.

Brrrrrrrr-

Woooooooooo-

Soon after, the sound of the U+ sisters arriving was heard.

“Let’s do some reconnaissance first and then decide what to do.”

Hee-ing–

The black horse cried as if agreeing with the suggestion to take it slow from the start of the reconnaissance.

“Really? Let’s set up camp in that sturdy-looking building over there.”

Hee-yeon set up camp in a sturdy two-story building and went on a reconnaissance mission.

‧

It should have been a bitter cold of minus 20 to minus 30 degrees, but rather than being cold, it felt heavy and even sticky.

‘The atmosphere is definitely strange.’

It was unbelievable that the sense of crisis had turned into a sense of imminent death, as if it had lost its taste. If I had dealt with it as my heart raced when I saw the healing guy, I would have killed everyone in the church.

‘I didn’t use the Garden of Death in a gathering full of madness because I was worried something strange might happen.’

I didn’t know what effect the wishes of those who had been hit by the Garden of Death would have on the Healer. And there was no reason to take the risk.

Thump-thump-

‘shit.’

When I first got my healing powers, my heart started beating a little faster than usual. The closer I got to the church in Old East Village, the stronger the heartbeat became.

Maru paused for a moment, unsure whether it was a sense of crisis warning him of danger or a thumping heartbeat telling him to use death to push him away.

I was trying to use Nuclipse for the first time in a long time without using Death, but seeing my heart beating subtly, I think Nuclipse will have to take a break again this time.

When Maru tries to send Nuclipse back with a drone, Nuclipse whines and whines as if it doesn’t want to go.

[I wonder if it’ll be called the Garden of Death. Are you okay with that?]

It was Newclips who immediately stopped crying.

······.

As expected, the Garden of Death was right in front of Newclips. Maru, who had quickly returned Newclips to the airship, headed toward the alley that had been making a lot of noise a little while ago.

Pak-

Maru’s body, which had been floating up with the sound of snow being trampled, landed on the second floor rooftop. The sound of a snowball collapsing and hitting the floor.

I kicked the falling snowball and jumped again. What I saw on the floor that rose from the second floor to the third floor, and from the third floor to the fifth floor, was a giant black horse and the people trying to catch it.

‘The King?’

Why is the horse that Hee-yeon rode in there?

By the way, there was a small girl riding on the back of a huge black horse. She was wrapped so tightly that I couldn’t see her face, but she must have been Hee-yeon.

‘Did they surround us on purpose?’

Maru decided to watch for now. If it was Heeyeon, there would be a U+ team nearby.

“Shoot it!”

“Is this kid crazy? Put your guns down! Everyone, put your guns down! Don’t shoot!”

“Three people are already dead because of that crazy talk! Shoot him!”

“Hey. Didn’t you know that I need a sacrifice with strong vitality?”

“You want to kill that thing and be the sacrifice instead? You want to be the sacrifice instead of the guys who shot that thing?”

“Then catch it? How are you going to catch it?”

“Break your ankles. A horse can’t use its strength if its shins are broken.”

“Shoot the bitch holding the reins!”

“You crazy bastard, listen to me when I tell you not to kill me. I said capture me, capture me!”

There were three corpses trampled and kicked by horseshoes. Perhaps that was why people were carefully closing the encirclement. There seemed to be over thirty of them, threatening the black horse and the girl.

Phew-

The head of a man who was sneaking up on him from behind with an iron pipe was blown off by a kick from the horse. The sight of his head exploding like a watermelon and his body flying off and crashing down was beyond common sense.

Then, the black horse charged like a tank. Disregarding the people blocking the way and the muzzle, the black horse accelerated in an instant, and the people hit by it were thrown in all directions like bowling pins.

Torso and limbs broken, twisted and twisted. More than ten people rendered incapacitated by a single accelerated charge.

“Just shoot!”

The black horse, sensing the threat, turned 90 degrees. The black horse smashed into the wooden house covered with bricks and ran through the house to the other side.

Maru, who was watching the scene, was slightly impressed.

‘Whew-‘

Suddenly, a large number of people, including dead and seriously injured, appeared, so the group gave up the pursuit and began to move, carrying the injured on sleds.

“Ahhhhh – It’s okay. I can stand up by myself!”

“Let me down. Please.”

“Euuuuu- save me.”

Maru’s eyebrows rose as he used the stealth drone to check where they were going. The sounds the injured were making were strange.

‘Why are you afraid?’

You said that the reason you were trying to capture Heukma and Heeyeon was because of the sacrifices. So are you offering the injured as sacrifices?

Maru’s forehead furrowed slightly. The healing guy was taken care of, so the remaining one was life. The god of life was accepting a sacrifice? It seemed that the god of life was completely different from Chiyu.

‘hmm?’

A stealth drone captured the sight of a black horse chasing after the people carrying the injured.

What should I do?

Maru, who had decided to watch for the first time, got up.

‧

‧

‧

Hee-yeon, who set up camp and began to scout the area, felt that something was strange.

[There may be civil unrest in the city.]

[Citizens not affiliated with the cult are advised to evacuate the city.]

[Crimes such as looting, arson, robbery, and theft are judged summarily under special laws.]

[Citizens are requested to obey the law.]

[Reports are being received of cult members operating throughout the city.]

[Ordinary citizens are advised to leave the city until the situation calms down.]

Despite warnings from low-altitude blimps and crows, the people of Old East Village remained unmoved.

What was even stranger was that the people here gathered together and kidnapped people from other villages. Hee-yeon started rescuing the kidnapped people.

As Hee-yeon and the U+ team began to rescue the kidnapped people, the size of the group grew. At first, they were in groups of ten to twenty, but now they were in groups of thirty to forty, and sometimes even fifty, and they began to kidnap and rob.

While Hee-yeon had no choice but to lure them away on her black horse, the U+ team successfully used a method to rescue the kidnapped people. At the same time, they were able to find out why they were kidnapping them.

‘You told me to capture him alive so I could use him as a sacrifice?’

Could it be that sacrifice? He said that he would sacrifice not only himself but also the black horse, so it was a story of sacrificing a living thing.

Heeeeeeling-

The black horse, which had been chasing from a distance behind the group carrying the wounded on the sled, made a slightly anxious sound.

“It’s okay. We’re all fully armed.”

The U+ sisters followed, armed with their own core armor.

Purururung-

“I’ll just check where they’re going and arm myself.”

Only then did the black horse pick up speed again.

‧

After chasing for over an hour, the building that finally came into view was a cathedral. The black horse suddenly appeared in an open space, and naturally hid itself in the shadow of the building.

Hee-yeon’s vision came into focus as all the surrounding buildings were destroyed. People from the Free Canadian League had gathered, so there must have been a shortage of buildings, but they were destroyed.

‘They say the house collapsed not long ago.’

What caused the house to collapse?

An old cathedral building standing alone on a low hill. The tree stumps and the remains of a collapsed building surrounding it all meant one thing.

‘Secure your view?’

It was different from the urban warfare doctrine. If it was an important building, it was common to use the surrounding buildings as outposts or bunkers to protect them.

So, that wasn’t designed with urban combat in mind. If it was left alone like that, it would have been vulnerable to artillery fire or bombing.

Even if you were to gather people to take as hostages to prevent bombing and shelling, wouldn’t it be advantageous to have buildings nearby?

Even if you escaped in the worst case scenario, it would have been advantageous to have buildings and trees. But the fact that they cut down all the trees and destroyed the buildings means that there was no need to do that.

So what is that ice platform over there?

Heeyeon’s eyes narrowed.

‘God of life.’

‧

Wheeeeeeing-

A tiny drone flown by Heeyeon headed towards an old cathedral.

The cathedral was buried in snow that had piled up over 5 meters because it had not been cleared away, and there was a tunnel leading to the main entrance. And in front of that tunnel was a huge platform.

Just looking at this, it was suspicious. While they cleared the surrounding areas, cut down trees, and even tore down buildings, they left the ice that had accumulated on the cathedral as it was. What did they do to create a large ice platform in front of it?

The tiny drone flew higher and headed toward the bell tower. The thick rope that rings the bell was broken, but fortunately, the hole through which the rope entered was not blocked.

Wheeeeeeing-

The drone that entered the bell tower headed down the rusty stairs. It came to a second-floor hallway leading to the chapel(?), and a platform was visible across the railing on one wall of the hallway.

While Hee-yeon was concentrating on the video, a warning sound rang in her ears. Hee-yeon quickly zoomed out of the screen and looked around.

A sight of people carrying lanterns and torches beginning to gather at the cathedral. It was estimated to be in the thousands. Perhaps even more than ten thousand people were gathering from all directions.

At the same time, the video sent from the micro drone. The video, which was zoomed out to the corner of the HUD, began to shake.

‘Jamming?’

Radio interference? Hee-yeon’s expression changed seriously. She hid the micro drone in a corner, turned it off, and focused on the situation outside.

As the sun set, the temperature, which had been around -20 degrees Celsius during the day, began to drop rapidly. In an instant, the temperature dropped another 4 to 5 degrees, reaching -25 degrees Celsius, but people carrying torches and lanterns filled the open space as if they did not feel the cold.

A group of people began to emerge from the tunnel leading to the main entrance of the cathedral. They were dressed in attire similar to that of priests and nuns, and they came out swinging censers with red smoke.

The clothes were blood red, similar to those of an Eastern Orthodox man and a Catholic nun, but the way they revealed the body made them look more like cosplay clothes than formal nun attire.

And then, following them, people were being dragged out with ropes tied around their necks like slaves. Their mouths were gagged, and they were terrified.

Those who had climbed onto the ice platform began to wave incense burners with red smoke emanating from them in all directions, mumbling something that might be a spell or a prayer.

An old man wearing clothes and a hat that looked as if they were covered in glittering gold leaf came up onto the stage, raised both arms, and spoke in a solemn voice.

“Life is blood, and blood will replace life!”

Unlike his trembling white beard, his voice was deep.

At the same time, Hee-yeon held her breath as she felt the madness of the people growing in an instant. It was definitely madness that the people filling the empty space began to exude.

What the hell are you talking about?

“Thank you, God of life. Thank you, God, for preserving our lives. Thank you, God, for giving us life.”

“Bring a sacrifice.”

Eeeeeep- Eeeeeep-

“Behold the grandeur of life. Behold the miracles.”

Women in strange attire stabbed thick needle-like objects into the kneeling man, who was tied up tightly.

!!

Sticking a thick straw-like tube into someone’s chest.

Huuuuup- Huuuuup-

Blood began to drain from the body of the man who was struggling on his knees. The hot blood flowing out through the pipe dyed the ice platform red.

In a bizarre space where the light of torches and lanterns flickered and red blood gushed out, clumps of gore that should have flowed to the floor and cooled began to defy gravity as if they were alive.

“Blood is life. Blood will replace life!”

A long drop of blood appeared to be absorbed by the old man on the platform in his shiny clothes, and his white beard began to turn black in real time.

The wrinkled back of the hand gradually becomes taut, and the wrinkled face regresses to a middle-aged appearance.

Woooooooooo—-

“God of Life!”

“Life!”

“Blood is life!!”

Hee-yeon, who had been trembling slightly for a moment at the people’s shouts, sent a signal.

[firing!]

The U+ sisters began sniping at the one absorbing blood on the platform.

Thud- thud- thud- thud!

Kkeukjik- Woodduk-

The sound of someone who was slowly sucking blood suddenly collapsing like an aluminum can.

Drops of blood flowed from the squeezed corpse, rising like a shield.