“People from the Saint Assembly? They’ve come all the way here. Last time I saw them was in the Western Land.”
Omiyou walked beside corpses that had been cleaved in two, their sticky blood splattering onto the gravel and sand, quickly turning dark purple.
“Their activities are already widespread across the continent, so it’s not strange to encounter them here. But…”
Xiste thought for a moment.
Although they knew the Saint Assembly wasn’t a small organization, it couldn’t be said to be especially powerful.
There were other fanatical groups on the continent that far outnumbered them.
For example, “Salvation” was a massive organization active in both the Eastern and Western Lands, frequently appearing in various cities to cause destruction while constantly infiltrating in the shadows.
There was also an organization called “Liyeta,” which mainly operated in the Eastern Land.
Its strength was likely even greater than Salvation’s, possessing an army that could rival several cities and reclaiming and retrofitting weapons and equipment left behind by humans.
If they wanted, they could probably capture a city directly.
But the current question was how Shengtuhui had grown so quickly.
Based on previous experience in the Western Land, destroying just one major base had kept them from making any big moves.
Now they were arrogant enough to directly attack a city?
If not for relying on some other organization.
After thinking it over, there was only one final answer.
“That Giant Mad Beast.”
Omiyou helped Xiste say that answer.
Xiste nodded, stood up, put that small card into her pocket, and gathered with the other squad members.
“How is the interrogation going?”
Le Paxi, who was in charge of interrogating the surviving Saint Assembly members, waved her hand; it seemed it wasn’t going well.
“They’re just poor souls trapped by religious fanaticism.”
The “poor souls” Le Paxi referred to wasn’t a sympathetic term; it was just because her upbringing prevented her from cursing directly.
If she had to say it, a word like “fool” would also work.
“Really… then what should we do next?”
“Wait for the captain. He’ll contact us after he’s done anyway.”
“Hmm… but given the situation, maybe the city has also been infiltrated by the Saint Assembly. If the captain…”
Xiste, thinking this, panicked and tried to rush into the city, but Omiyou grabbed her.
“Don’t be so tense, seriously. Every time you think the captain might be in danger, Xiste, you get riled up.”
After being scolded by Omiyou in a teasing tone, Xiste had no choice but to lower her head and give up on the idea of rushing into the city.
“Remember the captain’s two-hour principle? There’s still half an hour left. Let’s wait a bit longer.”
With that, she found a shaded spot and lay down to sleep soundly.
Le Paxi had already sat down in a tent, taken out the tea leaves that the Saint Assembly members had placed in their own boxes, and started brewing tea for herself.
Gradually calming down, Xiste warned herself not to be so impulsive in the future.
“Are you still afraid?”
Hai Shi crouched in front of the only two surviving Saint Assembly members and asked a sympathetic question in a tone devoid of emotion.
But the two Saint Assembly members clearly couldn’t answer Hai Shi’s direct question comfortably.
Their eyes were on her, but not really on her.
They were looking at the monster inside her.
“Ah… ah…”
“Here, these are for you.”
Hai Shi took out two candies wrapped in plastic paper from the inside pocket of her coat.
These were snacks she used to satisfy her cravings when bored.
Fortunately, her coat had protected them, so they hadn’t all sublimated and disappeared.
Since their hands and feet were tightly bound, Hai Shi tore open the wrappers for them, put the trash in another pocket of her coat, and placed a candy in each of their palms, holding them out.
“Eat. This, very sweet.”
Seeing that the two just stared blankly at the candy without eating, Hai Shi tilted her head in confusion.
Then, as if thinking of something, she popped the two candies from her own hand into her mouth in one go, then took out two more candies.
“No problem. Very sweet. You eat, will feel a little better.”
Although Hai Shi genuinely hoped they would accept the candy she gave them, the two were like lost souls.
Hai Shi thought they might just be shy, so she directly stuffed the candy into their mouths, forcing them to eat it.
Suddenly feeling something foreign enter their mouths, the two jolted awake as if from a dream.
Flustered, they instinctively licked the candy with their tongues, found it was sweet, and continued eating in confusion.
“Is it good?”
Hai Shi looked at the two Saint Assembly members who had finished the candy in confusion with expectant eyes.
The two seemed to take this as a form of interrogation, nodding frantically for fear of offending the little girl who could take their lives at any moment.
“Mm, that’s good.”
Hai Shi stood up, looked at the pillars used to restrain them, then suddenly ran off.
She came back with a canvas, covered the top of the pillars, and fixed the four corners so the canvas stretched out, blocking the sun from reaching them.
“Then I’ll, go now. Later, when we, leave, we’ll take you, back.”
Hai Shi waved her hand slightly to them, planning to rest like the others.
Once Hai Shi was far away, the two dared to take slightly deeper breaths.
To them, it felt like they had just passed through the gates of hell.
“Did we just eat candy that might be poisoned?” the slightly thinner of the two asked in a trembling voice.
The other, more burly man lowered his head and answered after a moment.
“Probably… not. She ate it herself just now. She wouldn’t poison herself, would she?”
“How can we know? You saw it too. They are beings that aren’t even afraid of missiles. How do we know if a poison that’s lethal to us works on them? Maybe she likes to deceive us this way?”
“No, that can’t be…”
“Why?”
The thin man gradually became agitated.
He was afraid his guess was true.
He had seen with his own eyes how the person before him had remained unscathed under such bombardment.
He now believed the rumors about the Madman Squad were not groundless.
“She… her eyes, very clear, like a child’s. She makes me…”
“Think of your own daughter?”
“Yeah.”
“Come on! What is she? Think about it! After all, can she even be called human? A being like her is—”
“Is exactly the form we pray to the gods for.”
“Uh!”
The burly man’s one sentence forced the thin man to swallow his words.
“We hold fast to our faith, pray day and night, and fight for the Holy Lord, all for the sake of being recognized and becoming saints who walk the world, aiding the poor and helping the weak.”
The thin man turned his head away without replying.
The burly man also closed his eyes.
What he was thinking of now was surely a girl about Hai Shi’s age, innocent and carefree.