Capítulo 284: Chapter 284: Gunshots Breaking the Night
Although York had mentally prepared himself, upon entering the main building of the newly named Pluto Church, he couldn't help but twitch at the corners of his eyes.
The neatly arranged pews were completely ruined, surrounded by broken wood covered with a thick layer of dust.
The central aisle was no longer visible.
The once decent floor-to-ceiling windows were smeared with unknown substances, now blocking out the sunlight.
Crucially, the image of Jesus was missing its upper body, with only a pair of feet and half a cross stuck stubbornly on the platform, refusing to fall.
That was just the beginning.
York looked up and saw bats hanging in hibernation from the ceiling, which began fluttering around due to their arrival.
"Father York, this..."
Mirta was already embarrassed behind him.
York shook his head, looking at everything inside the church: "It's okay, we'll take it slow."
This was indeed a situation to take slowly.
Mirta was clearly the type to get by day by day, a penitent always battling the corrupted, and didn't have much money.
So everything in front of them required their joint efforts.
As for asking for help from others, that was out of the question.
With demons prevalent, the church had long been relegated to historical garbage, no longer a place for prayer and refuge since it was deemed useless.
"Let's start cleaning then," York said quietly.
"Yes! Father York." Mirta's excitement surged again; in her eyes, any command from Father York was worth following.
Soon, the building, newly named Pluto Church, began to come back to life.
York and Mirta started with the broken wood scattered all over the floor.
The pews that were still intact were set aside, to be cleaned and used later.
During this process, York inevitably performed a miracle in Mirta's eyes.
Telekinesis spread through the air, forming countless invisible hands that swept up the debris.
The floating garbage was all swept outside in a couple of trips, piling up outside the church.
Meanwhile, the bats overhead were also controlled and cleared away by York.
For a moment, the Pluto Church began to regain its former appearance.
A whole day passed like this...
Nighttime.
York casually sat on a freshly cleaned pew, picking up a piece of bread from the table and watching Mirta who had just been on the phone.
This world was special but also resembled the real world in many ways.
Only, the countries were fewer and each one's territory was unbelievably large.
From his understanding, this planet might be larger than Earth, but in some aspects, it was undoubtedly backward.
Specifically, there were no nuclear weapons or other strategic deterrents.
Mirta had explained that because demons could easily corrupt people's minds, there was once a country where key figures, including its leader, had been corrupted by demons and turned into evil spirits.
These corrupted individuals had unleashed numerous weapons, annihilating their own country and its people.
Following that example, to prevent the world from descending into faster ruin, the remaining countries' leaders signed agreements to cease weapons research and collectively destroy any weapons that could be used strategically, witnessed by the world's populace.
The largest weapons now were merely conventional ones like tanks and firearms.
From that moment on, the world's greatest threat and common enemy was the demon.
This was one reason why this world had managed to endure up to now despite the rampant presence of demons.
"That's great, although I don't believe..."
York mumbled as he ate a bite of bread, squinting his eyes.
He disliked dealing with officials, but the conditions of this world made it a perfect environment for him to thrive.
The people oppressed by demons were like a vast ocean that could keep his ship sailing.
"Like a variant of the real world, spatial rifts akin to the demons of this world..."
York thought to himself, watching Mirta walk back over, and calmly asked.
"Did it not go well?"
Mirta shook her head, looking seriously at the priest and sighed: "They don't believe, they don't believe in your existence."
"Normal."
York smiled faintly; he too would be skeptical if, after such a long absence, a figure like him suddenly appeared.
"So our first task now is to find the corrupted and prove ourselves."
Mirta nodded earnestly, her eyes filled with devotion: "Father York, I'll go to the police station tomorrow."
"Hm, we've been busy all day, let's eat first."
York's voice echoed in the freshly tidied Pluto Church, hanging in the air.
"Yes..."
However, about ten kilometers away from Pluto Church, a man with a calm demeanor was walking through the woods outside a farm, carrying a briefcase. He had just put away his phone, a sneer appearing in his eyes.
"The legendary priest? A thing of over a thousand years ago, how could it suddenly appear now? Mirta is unreliable, could be marked as a suspected evil spirit, she needs to go to the city for an inspection to prove herself, she has been missing for a long time..."
Saying this, the man shook his head, stopped, and continued fumbling in the dark, pulling out a notebook and then a flashlight to illuminate it.
He was responding to a suspected case of corruption, having traveled a long distance for it.
Now, he was starting to regret it.
How could demons appear in such a desolate wilderness?
And with a farm nearby, along with some farmworkers living there, the small town they passed through showed no changes.
The man's mind was caught in a storm of thoughts, yet his demeanor remained steady.
"Since I'm here, I might as well go through with it."
Using the light from his flashlight, the man illuminated the notebook and flipped through a few pages.
A rough map of the town and farm was visible, with several paths marked outside the farm.
His target was indicated ahead, inside the woods.
This map was drawn from the descriptions given by the informant.
"We're almost there, it should be just ahead."
The man looked forward, and whether it was an illusion or not, he thought he saw some light.
"Who's there?"
Confirming it was not his imagination, the man raised his flashlight and shone it ahead.
With the sound of rustling and footsteps, the man silently pulled out a revolver.
As long as the demon's true form did not appear, everyone was just a normal person.
"Who's there!"
The man called out again.
"Come out!"
"Wait! Are you a cleaner?"
Hearing the voice opposite, the man still did not relax his guard, staring at the light ahead and called out again.
"Come out here."
A young man, probably in his early twenties, with his hands raised, emerged from the woods in front of the man.
He was dirty and wore an innocent look.
"I'm the informant you spoke with on the phone."
"The informant."
The man frowned, his gun still pointed at the young man.
"Yes!" the young man said.
"My name is Alex, Urial's brother."
The man looked at the young man with a wary eye, confirming the consistency of the voice.
"The voice matches, the name Urial is correct, he must be the informant."
Then, he looked closely at the young man, ensuring he wasn't carrying anything offensive.
"What's your mother's name?" the man asked
.
"Maria!" Alex replied without a second's hesitation, keeping his hands raised.
The man looked past Alex into the distance.
In his view, he could still see the vague light from a distant lamp.
"Why are you here?" the man continued to ask, his heart somewhat relaxed.
"Because my mother, Maria, saw the light from your flashlight," Alex pointed at the bright flashlight in the man's hand.
"So she sent me out to meet you."
"Phew!"
Hearing this, the man finally holstered his revolver, though he kept it in hand.
"Is your home up ahead?"
Alex nodded.
"Lead the way." The man said, "Go ahead and lead me to your brother Urial."
Alex obediently nodded again and turned to lead the way.
Everything seemed entirely normal.
The man let out a sigh of relief and silently followed behind the young man.
But what he didn't see was the gloom on Alex's face.
Nor could he have imagined that tied to the ground led by Alex was a transparent thin wire.
So as the man walked, he was tripped by the wire, causing him to stumble in the darkness.
Then he abruptly realized the danger as Alex, with a ferocious face, lunged at him.
...
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several gunshots shattered the night's silence, exceptionally loud.
The shots alarmed the nearest house, specifically the farm marked on the cleaner's map, on the outer buildings.
"Did you hear that?" Inside the house, a rugged man wiped the window, looking toward the source of the gunshots.
He had a full beard and was smoking a cigarette; he was asking his younger brother Jimmy.
"Could it be on our farm?"
With the last gunshot, Pedro could see a fleeting flash of light in the distance through the window.
"No,"
Pedro stared out into the deep night, thought carefully, and then shook his head: "It seems to come from the forest over there."
After speaking, Pedro immediately turned and walked toward where the hunting rifles were stored.
Jimmy remained in place, his nerves already tense.
"Could it be the Lewis family? Or maybe a poacher?"
In these peculiar times, the last things anyone wanted to hear at night were gunshots and screams.
As a farm guard, Jimmy didn't want to think about anything else.
"No, not the Lewis family, Lewis is just a farmworker, he doesn't have a gun."
His brother Pedro had already reached the rifles, picked one up to check it, and replied.
"Not poachers either, poachers wouldn't fire that many shots."
Pedro said, loading shotgun shells one by one.
"I heard three shots, a pause, then two more shots, that's not hunting, that's not how you hunt."
Pedro paused from loading, raised the rifle, and took a deep breath.
"Because that wasn't the sound of a shotgun, it was a revolver. Only a revolver could fire five consecutive shots."
Behind him, Jimmy's face was extremely solemn.
"Should we take the dogs?"
"No need, the dogs will bark." Pedro shook his head, passing the double-barreled shotgun he had loaded to Jimmy.
Seeing his brother catch it, he picked up another shotgun, grabbed two shells, and started loading them as he walked towards the door.
The slender, taller Jimmy silently followed.
Both were fully tense, each carrying a shotgun as they stepped outside, looking towards the distant woods.
All they could see was the dense fog enveloping the farm and the nearby woods.
It was as dark as a giant beast ready to swallow everything in its gaping maw.
Jimmy felt a sudden fear.
As guards, they naturally needed to check the woods, but under these circumstances, he was hesitant.
Pedro squinted into the foggy darkness ahead and discarded his nearly spent cigarette.
"Let's check it out in the morning."
On a foggy night like this, no one dared to step into the darkness.
Including him, an experienced hunter.
"Okay!"
Jimmy felt relieved at the side.
Thus, the two of them retreated.
As night faded and dawn barely broke,
Sleepless Pedro and Jimmy, the brothers, armed themselves and stepped out of the house.
They even took the hunting dogs with them.
Due to the terrain, their pickup truck outside couldn't be used.
They had to walk to see what had happened in the woods last night.
Just as they were halfway out, farmworker Lewis came looking for them.
Looking greasy and disheveled, he too appeared sleepless.
"What happened last night?"
Lewis had an honest, sturdy appearance as he looked at the fully armed Pedro.
"I thought something had happened to you."
Pedro glanced at Lewis: "Don't know yet, we're just about to check it out, do you want to come along?"
Lewis immediately and decisively shook his head.
"I'd rather not."
Pedro withdrew his gaze, signaled to his brother Jimmy, and continued past Lewis towards the woods outside the farm.
"Don't worry, we'll figure it out." Jimmy patted the still shaken Lewis on the shoulder, following behind.
Both dressed in hunter's garb, each carrying a shotgun filled with buckshot, and accompanied by two hunting dogs, they headed towards the source of last night's gunshots.
Led by the hunting dogs, they entered the weed-filled woods with a few trees and soon found the source in the center.
The ground was covered in blood, and in the center of the blood pool lay a body surrounded by various insects.
The sight weighed heavily on them.
The body was left with only the lower half, feet connected to some organs, looking particularly horrific.
Other organs, including hands, were scattered around, with the upper half missing.
Jimmy's breathing grew heavier: "Could a large predator, maybe a lion, have done this? Antonio's sheep was eaten by a big fellow..."
Antonio, the local farm owner and their boss, had scolded the brothers recently because a large animal had taken his sheep.
Jimmy immediately thought of this.
"No."
Pedro stared at the cut on the body, speaking gravely.
"The cut in the middle of the waist is very smooth, more like it was cut by some sharp tool. Would a wild beast leave such a wound?"
Jimmy took a closer look and also felt the scene didn't look like it was done by a wild beast, anxiously asking: "What should we do?"
"We must report this." Pedro instinctively scanned the scene.
Ahead of the body, he noticed an old briefcase hidden among the weeds.
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