บท 16: I May Be a Demon, But I DO Pray to the Lord

Chapter 16 - I May Be a Demon, But I DO Pray to the Lord

Thanks to the strong spotlight piercing through the foggy haze, the usual thickness of the mist gave Carn a clearer path to follow. He traced the yellow line running along the floor until the end, which pointed at a solitary prison cell.

Stepping inside, he looked around. Betraying his expectations, it was an empty room without a toilet stall, a chair, or a bed. Only metallic walls and steel bars surrounded him.

A voice crackled through the speaker, issuing a new instruction.

"Stand in the middle of the room and face the wall with the red X mark!"

Carn complied, stepping into the center of the room and turning toward the cold metal wall with the red tape. Curious about the test, Carn closed his eyes, scanning the surroundings with his mind map.

Behind him, he heard the hum of ventilation fans, the footsteps of soldiers, and the low murmur of voices. Without looking, Carn counted the number of people nearby.

10… 20… 40… 80… Over a hundred?

So many people?

Behind Carn was a hundred military men, carrying heavy firearms. Amid them was either a tank or a massive turret, but its muzzle pointed at him. This level of force seemed excessive for a lone prisoner.

*BEEP*

A piercing siren jolted Carn's focus. He noted a group of soldiers approaching, ten of whom were military personnel. However, the eleventh figure arrived on a trolley.

Carn recognized the trolley, as it was the same model as the one in the van. He could have arrived here on that thing, too.

Two soldiers pushed the trolley in front of Carn, and the prisoner stared back in fright. His shoulders and body never stopped trembling.

"RELEASE THE RESTRAINTS!"

The guards complied, unfastening the restraints and removing a bite mask that revealed the prisoner's distorted features. The guy's teeth consisted of fangs and no molars or front teeth. His slit mouth had no lips, showing a lot of gums.

He looked like a fierce character from a fighting video game, yet to Carn, there was a strange cuteness to him.

The prisoner thrashed, trying to shake free of the straitjacket, but the bindings on his ankles threw off his balance, causing him to tumble to the floor, writhing like a trapped worm.

Soldiers withdrew from the cell while their eyes focused on Carn. The speaker crackled again, issuing a brutal command.

"SUBJECT CARN, KILL THAT DOPPELGANGER!"

Carn raised an eyebrow at the abrupt kill order but showed little reaction. Instead, he looked down at the mutated man, assessing him.

He had hoped he might be able to gather some free Aether from him but sensed nothing.

Moreover, Carn could feel a faint trace of holy power emanating from him.

At a glance, the man seemed innocent, perhaps even righteous. However, Carn's noticed the inconsistency in within the holy power's source, located within the person's brain. He narrowed his eyes, finding this 'zombie' amusing.

"D-Don't kill me! Those people abducted me! Please, you have to believe me. I haven't done anything wrong!" The man stammered from the floor, pleading for his life.

Carn crouched and probed the man. "They say you're a doppelganger."

"That's a lie! They've got the wrong person! I was heading to church when a rift opened, and I got pulled into some alien world. The task force found me there and dragged me here against my will!"

Carn studied him closely. "Ever killed anyone?"

"No! Never! I'm a pastor! I'm a man of God!"

Carn nodded, piecing things together. The trace of holy power made sense, but the man couldn't completely hide his disguise.

He tested the pastor, "Can you recite me 1 John 4:1¹ or Matthew 7:15²?"

"…"

Carn grinned widely, realizing what this doppelganger-wannabe had done to its host. The source of the host's holy power was a dead giveaway.

In Carn's former world, devoted priests and saints always accumulated holy power in their hearts, not their brains. But when that power transferred to the brain, it was a telltale symptom unique to zombie parasite hosts.

The parasite had already consumed most of the internal organs, preserving only the brain to maintain basic bodily functions and continuously leech off the host's food. With the parasite rooted in the brain, the host remained hypnotized, perceiving every abnormal event as if it were completely ordinary.

Thus, the host was technically still alive, and no vengeful spirit had yet emerged to curse the parasite.

"You can't, can you? Want me to recite them for you?" Carn grinned.

The self-proclaimed pastor glared at Carn. Frustrated that his acting failed, he lunged toward Carn's neck, opening his mouth wide.

Carn calmly grabbed the nameless man's lower jaw and his crown. As usual, he rotated them.

*CRACK*

The intelligent zombie's neck twisted upside down. However, that didn't stop the monster from trying to bite him. Its arms broke free from jacket and grabbed Carn's shoulders, pulling its twisted head closer to Carn's face.

Carn snorted and continued rotating, twisting it 360 degrees, 720 degrees, and 1440 degrees. By the time he realized it, he was spinning the broken neck like a helicopter until it detached from its body.

As soon as the body detached from its head, a million worms emerged from the host's body, trying to escape. As for the head, it was still alive.

The man's eyeball slipped off its socket, revealing a snake-like worm within.

The parasite shot toward Carn's face, trying to possess him.

Carn seized the flying snake and yanked it from the host's head. He felt bad for the host, but there was no helping it.

Standing up, Carn raised the living parasite and pointed at the wiggling worms on the floor.

"I have the living doppelganger and its babies. Anybody wants to collect them for some fun experiments?" Carn teased the people behind him.

*BEEP*

The siren alarmed again. The same voice from the speaker provided another instruction.

"Well done. You may turn around and follow the new path to another test room. Leave the parasite in your hand to the men behind you."

Carn shrugged and thought to himself.

'Well, that was easy. But first thing's first.'

Carn gently placed the host's head on the floor and secretly touched the crown with his fingertip. The remaining portion of holy water moved, entering his fingertip.

An invisible gold thread traveled through his arm and rested in his heart, which throbbed so hard that Carn flinched.

It was a sign that the holy power rejected Carn as it deemed him unqualified. However, Carn recited a passage to soothe the pastor's real spirit.

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."¹

The gold thread paused and slowly dissipated into gold dust, which became one with Carn's heart. The spirit wisp of the pastor also emerged from the corpse. The tiny firefly smiled at Carn and waved before he followed the light to a better place.

A gold scratch manifested on Carn's left shoulder. The ritual had been successful.

Carn chuckled. Once again, he found himself in an ironic situation.

'This always gets me. I'm a freaking demon lord's creation, but here I am, stealing divine power and praying to god. Oh, well. Holy spells are just too good to skip.'

Leaving the cell, Carn passed the wiggling parasite to a man in a white hazmat suit. Five men with tranquilizer rifles, who had been waiting and watching, gestured for Carn to follow them.

He walked after the men, wondering what the next test would be. He also looked up as he found the second floor's balcony area or a walkway, where 40-50 scientists had been gathering like tourists watching animals in a zoo.

All of them leaked artificial Aether's haze!