Chapter 6: The Holy Trials 6
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
1 Peter 5:8-9
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Adam's pace steadied as he took in the sight of the dreadful castle they had to break into today. Several soldiers opted out of wearing the heavier uniforms—since it would impede their movements in the castle—but instead rubbed their hands together, hoping to heat their cold appendages, and the white mist after exhaling proved that the slowly rising sun was not enough to warm the battle-hardened men marching towards the monument stretching out across the horizon.
As expected from an old castle, the brick structure was located on a mini island, with the only entrance being a wooden bridge across a moat. The creaks generated by each step of the marching men were loud enough that Adam wondered if the wood would not crumble, but despite the dangerous sway of the bridge, the shakiness of each wooden piece, the bridge soldiered on, allowing everyone to enter the castle.
Through it all, only the small chatter, nearly whispers, could be heard among the group walking into the cursed walls of the castle. Tanya and her First Lieutenant led the troops, with Adam barely being a step backward. He glanced around as if noticing something for the first time, before tapping on the shoulder of the designated chief of his group, Lieutenant Karl.
"Excuse me…" The broad-shouldered man turned around, his eyes slightly puffy, probably from the lack of sleep.
"What is it, Adam?" Despite his will to whisper, Lieutenant Karl's gruff and masculine tone ended up attracting the attention of a few soldiers surrounding them.
"I was wondering, why are we storming into this building without all of the men available?" Adam asked.
Lieutenant Karl looked around, his gaze surveying the troops. "You haven't been inside this castle before, so you can't know, but despite its misleading appearance, the Château de Starbourg here is rather small from the inside."
Adam stared at the fort, nearly taking up all of his vision, his mouth slightly gaping.
"Plus," continued the broad-shouldered Lieutenant. "Large groups are not able to respond correctly to waves of undead. Despite the clear superior firepower that such a group would be able to display, the number of bullets going through a zombie's body doesn't matter. Even with our modified versions here," he gestured to his rifle, drawing Adam's attention to the weapon that must have seen quite a bit of blood. The amount of maintenance given to it did not matter, as evidenced by the green matter stuck to the metal parts of the firearm.
"What's this green… Substance on your weapon?" curiously commented on the Church member. Lieutenant Karl noticed his focus, and his head slightly jerked back, with the sliver of a frown appearing on his facial expression.
"You… Have you ever fought any Ghouls?"
Adam stopped his study of his interlocutor's weapon and lifted his eyes to look at Lieutenant Karl's expression. "...No, I only fought zombies," the self-proclaimed exorcist answered, wondering if this world's ghouls were the same as the one he knew about.
Karl's step faltered for a split second before a deep sigh escaped his mouth. "Could it be that you are new to this?" he asked.
"I wouldn't say I'm new to this," Adam trailed off. "But I was never stuck in a battlefield with waves of undead trying to kill me."
Adam swiped his eyes over the soldiers around him, meaningfully. Lieutenant Karl steeled his expression, realizing what kind of man he had to deal with and entrust this crucial mission to.
"I understand," curtly stated the Lieutenant. "Then, this will be your first time having to deal with large numbers of undead from every direction at the same time, am I correct?"
Adam simply nodded, his eyes narrowing slightly at Karl's words.
"Then I would like to ask a couple of questions, to ensure the well-being of the soldiers under me that will put their lives on the line for you." The high-ranked soldier's tone dropped and his words became blunter and blunter. Adam could understand Karl's unwillingness to let an unknown like himself being his group's trump card, no matter how much Tanya already assured them of his capabilities.
"Go ahead."
"How would you rank yourself compared to Captain Tanya?"
"Regarding fighting zombies?"
"Yes."
"..." Adam paused, his eyes wandering around in thoughts. The truth was that he had no idea how stats compared to each other, and how much a single point was worth—he did not know how stats translated into reality. What did his 55 points of strength mean? After all, he didn't feel anything different when he leveled up and gained 5 points in strength.
However, what he knew was the feeling of the wind rushing towards him, placating his body to the wall, leaving him feeling powerless, and all of that due to Tanya's display of power, a couple of miles away from him.
The might of a Half-Angel.
"Right now, I could be considered barely a worm next to her," Adam finally said.
Lieutenant Karl didn't comment further, only a small nod being his reaction to the Church member's words.
"In terms of Holy Energy…" remarked Adam, his gaze going to the sky in thought. "I don't even have a hundredth of what she possesses. But for these filthy creatures…"
Lieutenant Karl suddenly felt a chill go down his spine, as he watched Adam's expression break for just a moment, revealing something much more dangerous behind it. The way his eyes shone due to the light of the sun, slowly appearing on the horizon was something that Karl had already experienced before.
His eyes widened as Adam's lips curled into a cruel grin, something that was familiar to the Lieutenant. Long ago, he had witnessed something similar. A slip-up, something that he shouldn't have seen.
Tanya's calm and ideal soldier mask crumbles, because of her lust for battle. It was something he had sworn to forget because it contradicted his vision of Captain Tanya von Degurechaff too much, but now the memory emerged once more.
Because Adam sported a similar expression.
Lieutenant Karl couldn't stop the shiver his body experienced, as he kept his mouth shut, observing the Church member's facade immediately being built back up. The serene smile displayed on Adam's face looked deceptive now that Karl had noticed his true self.
'I understand now… Tanya is particularly mindful of Adam, nearly walking on eggshells, not because of his status in the Church, as I naively thought. It was because they are the same!'
"I am more than enough," stated Adam, his tone oozing with confidence.
The terrifying Church member turned around to fully face the Lieutenant, not noticing the sweat cascading down from his forehead, despite the cold atmosphere.
"May God have mercy on these poor souls, as I send them to meet their maker," Adam's smile simply looked wrong to Karl, the way his eyes narrowed with each of his words frightening him.
But more importantly, it was the fact that he realized that Adam was as much of a religious nutjob as their Captain.
'Shit… Now there's two of them!' internally shouted Karl, struggling to keep his stern face on.
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The main door of the castle was tall, tall enough that Adam had to raise his head as far as he could just to see the tip of the arched wooden door in front of him. It was surprising that it had stood the test of time after everything that happened inside of these walls. Adam observed the decorations of the barrier blocking his sight while Tanya gathered every single soldier that was about to enter the building.
A good portion of those deployed from the settlement a couple of miles away were staying outside of the castle, ready to either provide support or help the few soldiers entering the structure escape if things went wrong.
"Men, we will now start to enter the castle in front of us, and finally complete our mission," said Tanya, getting the attention of everyone. She was in her classic pose, with both of her hands behind her back, which was completely straight as she surveyed the soldiers in front of her. Adam's eyes left the building as he listened to the Half-Angel's words.
"We will, after 3 months of defeat and humiliation, attempt to finally learn the secrets of Albion, the filth that unleashed such a vile and devastating virus on our lands because of their approaching defeat at the hands of the Empire's glorious military."
The multiple platoons kept their posture up, their eyes slowly being filled with expectations.
"After 3 harsh months, we will enter this castle and obtain everything Albion left behind when they cowardly ran, after realizing what they had unleashed upon these now cursed lands. But do not forget, it will not be until every single citizen of the Commonwealth responsible for this calamity has paid with their lives, that the soldiers that have fallen and the innocent citizens that were massacred will be able to rest in peace, embraced by the Lord."
Tanya was able to easily control the flow of emotions coming from the men under her, as she easily managed to make the fire in their eyes roar, ready to take on the challenge—the castle sitting right in front of them—despite their previous failures.
"For the strategy we will employ, it is simple. The military that will enter these walls will be divided into two groups. The first one will act as the tip of the spear, following me in destroying every creature in our path and moving forward towards our destination, the laboratory part of this castle, located in the south wing. Meanwhile, the second group, led by Lieutenant Karl and helped by Adam, will secure each position and inevitably kill the zombies coming from the catacombs under this castle. As those that tried to storm inside this building before know, the moment the undead monsters smell the flesh of the living, they will keep coming over and over again, unrelenting until they manage to kill us or make us retreat—something that happened every time we tried to fulfill our objective in the past."
The silence and the motivated gazes were the only feedback Tanya received, but that was more than enough.
"Then, we will now start our fifth expedition inside the Château de Starbourg!"
Tanya pushed the doors of the castle open, slowly revealing the repulsive interior of the building, where the smell of blood and putrid flesh immediately overwhelmed Adam's senses. Judging by the reactions of the surrounding men, he was not the only one that jerked back at the smell oozing from the dark room of the castle.
The only source of light being the steadily opening large doors, Adam's eyes slowly uncovered the first room they would walk into—corpses littered on the ground, once a smooth stone path, now a sea of death and disease. Despite having seen the atrocious battlefield once before, Adam still stiffened at the devastating sight.
The armed group slowly walked into the building, keeping their formation. Adam observed the surroundings, narrowing his eyes at the sight of the corpses on the ground.
"These clothes… These people were not here the last time," stated Tanya, pointing towards the same corpses Adam was looking at. Her men nodded at her words, and slowly approached the decaying bodies. Adam watched like a hawk the unmoving flesh, ready to pounce at the slightest sign of movement.
"Nothing identifiable on them… However, judging by the general attire, they're clearly civilians," noted one of Tanya's men whose name was unknown to Adam.
"Civilians?" whispered Tanya, covering her mouth with her hand in thought. Her eyes darted around the room, looking for any clues. "Put a bullet through their head just in case and let's move on. There is no point in dallying around."
The man acquiesced and drew a small pistol from his belt before one-tapping each corpse.
"Come one, let's go," sighed Tanya, already moving forward.
Adam had to watch his step just like everyone else in the bifurcated room, due to the lack of light. The members of the expedition couldn't see the walls surrounding them, but those that already entered the castle knew where to go, due to their experience. One of the corridors led to the north aisle while the other led to the interesting part of this castle, the south aisle.
Adam noted that the path to the south aisle was littered with dead bodies, however considering what has happened until now, he didn't raise his eyebrow at the scene. Still, he kept an eye on the corpses, in case they start moving, but it was a mostly useless act because Tanya's group made sure to shoot every single body in the head as they walked through the long corridor.
The heavy footsteps of the soldiers were the only noise present in the castle. The curved corridor had large dirty windows on the right side, while the left side's doors were checked by the advancing platoons at each interval. For now, there were no signs of the rumored waves of undead.
The surrounding groans, low and booming enough to be taken as war cries, quickly dissuaded Adam of this notion. Behind them, the first undead appeared, coming from somewhere only God knows. It seemed that—just like Tanya said—there was a direct opening from a place with a lot of zombies, and this place was theorized to be the catacombs.
The putrid legs of these zombies, in the dark, moved much faster than what Adam had experienced.
"Steady yourself…" Lieutenant Karl trailed off. "And Fire!"
The sound of bullets ripping through the air, collapsing through the dead bodies was all Adam could hear for a moment. The heavy smell of gunpowder filled his nostrils, but the battlefield had already prepared him for that. The telltale sounds of flesh ripped accompanied the light created by each projectile fired by the rifles carried by the soldiers, but in vain, as it only slowed the creatures down. They fell, they staggered, but they kept on advancing, rounds after rounds.
"Now it's your time to shine, Adam!" yelled Lieutenant Karl through the deafening sound of the firearms doing their work.
The Church member nodded and dashed towards the vile creatures, uncaring of the few bullets that went towards him—as they produced a dull sound when they were stopped by his Holy aura. Despite being nowhere near a second death, the zombies were still hurt by the shooting, and therefore, were ripe for the picking.
In a swoop, Adam unleashed his sword and sliced the first zombie in half—making sure to infuse just a bit of Holy energy in his sword. The result was instantaneous, as the sizzling sound of the monster's flesh burning thanks to the light of the Lord was like the song of victory to the soldiers under Lieutenant Karl's command.
In just a moment, the undead creatures were taken care of, proving to the Lieutenant that Adam had not been all talk but no bite. Still, the reanimated corpses kept pouring onto the group as they followed Tanya's part of the expedition, testing Adam's stamina.
*Swish*
Adam cleaved through yet another monster—he could not recall the number of them that he already killed—and moved onto the next one. Seeing the green-fleshed being lung at him, its mouth wide open, Adam rolled to the left, and quickly diced through it, before readying himself for the next one.
The Church member had realized something after a while, and he did not doubt that the troops behind him did as well, evidenced by their inquiring but somewhat fascinated look. Every time he leveled up due to the experience he was getting from these monsters, his stamina and health were resetting, allowing him to fight for much longer than he should have been able to.
Each time his role leveled up, his physical attributes also increased, letting him swing with much more strength, faster, and with less and less wasted movements. While his swordsmanship wasn't getting any better, his body sure was.
Every time Adam dashed towards one of them, the sound of his body moving through the air became stronger, the swing of his sword started to generate a light breeze and the grabby hands of the monsters were getting further and further away from his body.
Role: Warrior has reached level 7.
+5 STR, +5 CON, +3 DEX.
Due to excessive use of a sword, the skill [Swordsmanship] has been created.
[Swordsmanship] (Passive) - Lv 1
+10% Damage with Sword-type weapons.
Not having the time to check his status, Adam pushed himself once more with glee, taking care of the monsters as they appeared faster than the soldiers could react. The shooting had stopped a long time ago, realizing that they were completely unneeded for these weak monsters, as the Church member made quick work of them.
Due to excessive use of Holy Energy, the skill [Holy Energy Manipulation] has leveled up.
[Holy Energy Manipulation] (Active) - Lv 2
Grants the ability to manipulate Holy Energy.
Adam even felt his reserves of Holy energy improve, the shine of the edge of his sword becoming more luminous. The smoke-like dust coming out of Adam's body every time he destroyed an undead increased slightly—but it was very noticeable in the barely lighted corridor the troops were in.
With his sword easily bisecting another undead form, Adam truly felt at home.
This was his goal, his purpose.
'May God have mercy on my enemies, because I won't.'
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A/N: So, we're approaching the end of the Tanya mini-arc :) With that, we can see a little bit of Adam's insanity that will only get worse with time. Feel free to give me your opinion on this chapter!
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