After saying goodbye to Meteor, Blazing Flame headed toward the direction where the Magical Power Source was most concentrated.
Along the way, she easily dealt with a few escaping tentacle monsters before finally arriving at her destination.
Looking at the spacious and grand church before her, she studied the sign that read “Fanxing Church.” After observing the surroundings for a moment, Blazing Flame let out a soft sigh.
It was not because she feared she could not solve the problem — Blazing Flame was always confident in the power she possessed, and she did not believe she would lose to the monsters inside.
She was simply… sighing because she felt annoyed.
She did not understand why those missionaries, despite knowing there was something wrong with the Church, would still choose to help spread its ideology.
They were clearly all humans, yet the power behind the Church was a monster.
But those believers chose to trust a monster and helped it harm their own kind.
This kind of behavior truly lacked any shred of humanity.
‘Thinking about it that way, maybe I don’t need to treat the believers inside as humans after all.’
With that thought in mind, Blazing Flame stepped into the dim church.
Immediately, she heard an eerie and strange melody echoing in her ears.
The believers chanting the melody in unison did not notice her arrival.
They continued to sing along with the White-robed Youth on the pulpit, as if praising some great existence.
Seeing the Black-robed Believers in their state of feigned piety, Blazing Flame pondered for a few seconds before instantly switching to her Burst Form and deploying her Thermal Field.
Under the influence of the extreme heat, the sound of tentacles being evaporated by the heatwaves soon filled the air.
Strangely, however, neither the White-robed Youth on the stage nor the Black-robed Believers below reacted to the obvious high temperature.
They continued to sing that unique song, as dull and mindless as robots completing a programmed command.
Seeing that neither the believers nor the youth on the stage reacted to the heat, Blazing Flame narrowed her eyes and poured Magic Power into her Blazing Warhammer without hesitation.
In any case, there were no innocent citizens nearby — only these crazed believers and their leader — so she had nothing to worry about.
The moment Blazing Flame allowed her Magic Power to diffuse, a surging heatwave flooded the entire church.
The previously dim interior was instantly turned into day.
Even the shadowy areas blocked by wooden boards were illuminated by the flames, leaving the darkness that had filled the church with nowhere to hide.
Even so, the believers below remained indifferent, still singing their song in the middle of this deadly heat.
Blazing Flame could hear that some of them were already parched, while others were on the verge of death due to dehydration caused by the heatwaves.
Yet, not a single person chose to withdraw or flee from the church.
“They’re all lunatics…”
Seeing that they had completely lost their sanity, Blazing Flame murmured to herself. She let go of any inclination to help and chose to respect their choices.
She silently watched as the Black-robed Believers fell one by one, until finally, only the White-robed Youth on the pulpit remained.
Once all the believers had lost their life signs due to the heat, the White-robed Youth on the pulpit finally stopped singing.
He looked at the fallen believers, then at Blazing Flame standing not far away, and finally glanced around the church illuminated by fire before bowing elegantly to her.
Blazing Flame ignored him. Raising her hand, she smashed her Blazing Warhammer directly at him, intending to take the opportunity to kill him and resolve the trouble here quickly.
However, at the very moment the hammer was about to crush the youth’s skull, a dark red tentacle suddenly flew out from his back and deflected the strike.
But due to the massive difference in power, the White-robed Youth was still forced back dozens of steps, nearly reaching the edge of the pulpit.
“It seems you are in quite a hurry, even unwilling to wait for me to finish the proper hospitality.”
Even after taking such a terrifying hit, the White-robed Youth remained unfazed.
He smiled as he retracted the tentacle into his body and spoke to Blazing Flame.
The youth’s voice was very soft, and his mouth barely moved, but for some reason, Blazing Flame could hear him clearly.
“I have no need for politeness with monsters like you,” Blazing Flame said indifferently. “The sooner you die, the safer City A will be.”
“Heh, you really are heartless. Even though I am a fellow traveler, you treat your companion like this?”
“Don’t joke with me. Monsters like you, who don’t value human life, aren’t fit to talk to me about being fellow travelers!”
Blazing Flame raised her right hand and made a grasping motion in the air.
In the next second, the Blazing Warhammer that had fallen to the ground flew back into her hand, igniting with flames once again.
Faced with Blazing Flame’s attitude of being ready to charge and fight to the death at any moment, the White-robed Youth shook his head with a smile and explained.
“You seem to have misunderstood something. I actually cherish human life. Any human death is terrible news to me.”
“Is that so? But you didn’t seem to have any reaction when these followers of yours died right before your eyes,” Blazing Flame countered.
“Those were necessary sacrifices; their deaths have value,” the White-robed Youth said with a smile. “Furthermore, they have not truly died. They still live in this world.”
“Nonsense!”
Blazing Flame had no interest in listening further. She gripped her Blazing Warhammer and charged toward the youth.
She had already confirmed that those believers, who could no longer be called human, were as dead as could be.
On what grounds did this guy claim they were still living in this world?
It couldn’t be that he was trying to tell her these people hadn’t been declared dead yet, so they were currently in a state of unknown status, could it?
What a joke.
“Please, calm yourself. I will explain it clearly to you.”
Facing Blazing Flame’s sudden offensive, the White-robed Youth dodged while attempting to continue his theory.
But Blazing Flame chose to strike down with her hammer, far too lazy to listen to his gibberish.
In just a few breaths, Blazing Flame caught her opponent’s opening and finally annihilated the White-robed Youth with a single hammer strike, killing him on the spot.
Looking at the corpse, Blazing Flame raised an eyebrow slightly. She had not expected him to be so weak.
However, she soon accepted the news of his death and prepared to leave the church to report the situation.
But just as she left the pulpit and walked toward the church doors, a familiar voice echoed in her ears once again.
“You really are impatient… I said they still live in this world. I naturally wouldn’t lie to you.”
It was the voice of the White-robed Youth.
Blazing Flame looked back in surprise, only to see a ball of black and white energy falling from the top of the church. It landed precisely on one of the dead Black-robed Believers.
Then, that believer slowly crawled up from the ground.
Along with his robes, he was permeated by black and white Magic Power, and within a few seconds, he had transformed into the appearance of the White-robed Youth.
Even more bizarrely, after the White-robed Youth was resurrected from the believer’s body, the original corpse lying on the pulpit instantly turned back into a black-robed form.
“Now, are you willing to let me finish what I have to say?”
“Miss Strongest Magical Girl in History?”