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Chapter 553: Charge

After instructing Shais to look after his cryogenic chamber, Chen Chen took a set of clothes and left Shais’ baronial mansion, and went outside the castle.

Right outside the castle, he saw a bunch of plain houses.

This city was named the city of Khun, after Shais’ surname.

To call it a city might be generous since the spectacle Chen Chen saw resembled a crumbling civilization more than anything. These so-called houses were built with stones mixed with some sort of mud. Most of the houses were only single-story while the wealthier members were fortunate enough to have the addition of a second floor.

The streets were unfathomably dirty. All sorts of waste such as excrement and wastewater were simply dumped outside the doors of most households and dried out by the sun over time.

There was nothing remotely resembling a drainage system, no greenery, and no traces of commercial centers or a place for leisure.

Chen Chen stood by himself on the widest road in the city. Although it was early in the morning, there were already several locals wandering around seemingly without a purpose. They wore ragged clothes and their faces were thin and pale in complexion. Most of the people he saw were mixed races of black people while some were Middle-eastern just like Shais.

Chen Chen, who was of Asian heritage, did attract some attention but they were only simple, momentary glances at best.

All things considered, Chen Chen’s presence was not completely foreign. He had enquired with Shais previously and was told that there were Asians in the empire, only in lesser amounts.

This was not all too surprising to Chen Chen since even in the normal world, Asians were a rare sight in African countries. In this near-collapsed civilization, he assumed that these minorities were unable to return to their home countries due to circumstances and had to survive on foreign land.

Most of the citizens in the city looked underfed. Occasionally, he would see groups of three to five men who stood out like a sore thumb since these people were disproportionately larger than the other folks. They boasted muscular bodies and wielded intimidating expressions while they scrutinized the people on the street shamelessly with prideful eyes.

Most of the commoners lapped around them upon stumbling into them.

Chen Chen also saw many homeless people who were all skin and bones. There was hardly a breath of life left in their eyes. Most of them would consider themselves lucky to live another year.

Occasionally, he would spot pathetically thin figures thrown into the alleys on both sides of the road. These unfortunate people have had all their belongings stripped away. Even all of their clothing was taken without mercy.

Even the medieval civilization boasted a better quality of life than the poor state of this poor excuse of a city.

As Chen Chen continued down the city, he finally saw a camel hut with a two-story-tall building next to it. It seemed to be an inn.

This inn was probably the only restaurant in the city of Khun. The door of the restaurant was open and from the entrance, one could spot rows of seats inside and a handful of diners dining.

There was an old and rusty well just outside the inn. It allowed the patrons of the inn to get small amounts of groundwater by manually turning the handle at the top of the well.

This was probably the closest representation of modern technology in the entire city.

Chen Chen did not enter the inn and continued heading further toward the city walls. After another short five minutes journey, he finally arrived at the city gate.

The city wall was slightly over ten meters tall and built entirely of stones. It was not a thick wall and resembled a glorified fence more than anything. There were wooden ladders lined along the fence that led to the narrow paths built at its top. Several soldiers wearing flimsily made iron armor could be seen posted by the city gate that was made of wood.

Upon seeing Chen Chen approaching them, the city guards stepped forward and eyed him ferociously. Chen Chen proceeded to present a badge to them.

When the guards saw the badge and realized what it was, they were utterly speechless and silently made way for Chen Chen to proceed as he pleased.

There was not much by way of scenery outside the city apart from the lonely, desolate desert. However, it was not an endless stretch of golden sand but a landscape similar to the Gobi Desert that was a mixture of dunes, mountainous terrain, and sand. Occasionally, one could see tiny sprouts of tenacious plants.

Chen Chen took out the map and looked at it. He estimated his current position was somewhere in the regions of the Ténéré Desert in Niger, which was the location where he had built the teleportation hall.

The teleportation hall built by Chen Chen was not located anywhere near Namibia. Since the only means of access to the teleportation hall was using the Gantz black sphere anyway, Chen Chen had it built in Niger instead.

This was done as a preventative measure so that if something were to go wrong, at least it would be far away from Eco Science City.

The place Chen Chen was heading to was a city called Laman that was two hundred kilometers away. Unlike Baron Shais’ small city, it was the city of a Duke with a population of up to thirty thousand. There was a specific landmark in the city that Chen Chen was interested in – the Divine Fusion Church.

The reason Chen Chen embarked on this trip was to take a look at the church and see if this “God” they spoke of was the Consciousness Stealer. He also wanted to explore the true nature of these stigmata described.

“Two hundred kilometers?”

Chen Chen noted to himself. He looked into the general proximity of Laman and took two paces forward. Immediately after, he launched himself forward like a torpedo and headed off into the distance...

Three minutes later, Chen Chen decelerated from the speed of sound when he saw the silhouette of a city entering his line of sight. The city was built around an oasis located at the end of the desert and was basked in dark shadows. It was at least ten times larger than Khun and its city walls were far sturdier. It immediately reminded him of European medieval city-states.

After getting a better look at the city, Chen Chen accelerated again, this time aiming for the center of the city-state, above a huge building that looked like a church. He halted just above the church with a mighty crash as he cut off his momentum.

“Boom!”

The citizens of the city heard a thunderous clap echoing from the skies above. They looked up in confusion only to be greeted by the sight of a human standing in thin air high above the city as he looked at the ground beneath him with a cold, piercing gaze.

“What is that?”

The crowd of people underneath rose to a clamor and murmured among themselves. Some of them immediately knelt, believing that they were witnessing a miracle from God.

“Zoom-!”

Chen Chen used his Field to sweep through the church below to survey it but was stopped by an unidentifiable force. It was a strange sort of radiating force. It was not particularly powerful and was only wide enough to cover a small portion of the church.

This power felt strangely familiar. It seemed like the psionic power the Consciousness Stealer possessed.

Chen Chen also sensed the presence of a troop of a hundred paladins garrisoned behind the church. They all wore gray-coated armor with the emblem of the church etched onto it. They were undoubtedly the garrisons of the church.

Shais previously mentioned that the Divine Fusion Empire was governed by a system of monarchy and ruled by divine authority. All of the cities belonging to nobilities above the rank of a Count would also be garrisoned with a minor party of the Vatican. This meant that even if the city was owned by the nobles, it was governed equally by both parties that did their best to compromise with each other.

Most of the officers of the Vatican possessed these psionic powers as well. Even if they were not superbly powerful, it was still something that the city nobles had to be mindful of.

Chen Chen’s presence had alerted countless people in the city. The army garrisoned in the church immediately came outside to confront this sudden intrusion. Meanwhile, a man cloaked entirely in a black robe emerged from the church as well.

The robed man seemed to be of great age. He held a crane in hand and looked gravely at Chen Chen in the skies above. In a split instant, his gaze converged into that of Chen Chen’s.

Hm?

Chen Chen immediately felt faint waves of psionic energy coming from this person. He could sense that the hostility in this emission also carried the intent of sizing his strength. He immediately melted the psionic energy with Field.

The robed man was surprised to see his initial attempt at probing simply thwarted with as much effort as one would use to put out a candle flame. He raised a thin, rotten arm out of his robe and pointed at Chen Chen.

“A blasphemer!”

The robed man howled, his voice was hoarse and full of retching. Some of the paladins immediately unstrapped the bow on their backs and prepared to fire at Chen Chen.

“That’s all you’ve got?”

Chen Chen smirked. He fired a ring of Field energy at them that grew larger as it swept across the air. It sent the troop of paladins and the old robed man flying!

“Bang!”

Like a divine being, Chen Chen descended onto the top of the church with a mighty crash. The fortified ceiling of the church could not withstand this impact and crumbled almost immediately, revealing the wide interior with its countless people inside flocking away from the intruder.

“Blasphemer!”

However, a pompous, fat-faced man dressed like a noble emerged from the frenzied crowd. He glared at Chen Chen and rebuked him harshly, “God will punish you...”

“Bang!”

Chen Chen hardly spared a glance at the fat man’s direction as he was sent flying away by an invisible force. He slammed ferociously into the pulpit set on the front center of the church and his body splattered into pieces due to the brunt force of the impact!

Several other people dressed in black robes who also appeared to be psionicists prepared themselves for battle. Before they could twitch a muscle in Chen Chen’s direction, they were torn into pieces and burst into a mist of blood!

Chen Chen barged into a church like a brazen beast. Anyone who dared set into his path was ruthlessly ripped into pieces.

“It’s over here!”

As Chen Chen drew closer to the center of the church, he began to sense the radiating waves of energy growing stronger. It seemed to be trying to hold off his Field but it was too weak to accomplish that.

Chen Chen arrived at the source of this energy and did not see anything in the spot. It seemed to come from underground.

The ground in front of Chen Chen crumbled and revealed a winding hole ground. Inside the hole, there was a creature glimmering in red and shaped like a heart!

With a quick motion, the bright red substance flew into Chen Chen’s hands. It was a chunk of flesh the size of a human head, still beating constantly and regularly emitting rings of radiation invisible to the naked eye. It seemed that the effects of long-term exposure to this radiation would cause the body to become ulcerated and corrupted. At the same time, it was able to transform human DNA and grant the so-called psionic powers.

“Just as I thought, it’s the Consciousness Stealer...”

Chen Chen squinted to get a closer look. With this, he had confirmation that this was an aura identical to the Consciousness Stealer.

Chen Chen was not afraid of its consciousness infection qualities. Following his previous victory over the Consciousness Stealer in the consciousness battlefield, he had effectively obtained immunity. This power that threatened to devastate humanity no longer had an effect on him.

In the process, he also managed to attain a part of the Consciousness Stealer’s powers. Only he did not know how to properly utilize it.

“Blasphemer, you dare to take the Child of God!”

It was then when the paladins who were previously blasted away charged into the church again. The moment the robed man saw the chunk of flesh in Chen Chen’s hand, he lost his mind and roared savagely, “Kill him and reclaim the Child of God!”

The paladins did not need to be told of this since they were already well on their way to apprehending Chen Chen. On the other hand, Chen Chen only frowned with irritation as he waved his hand and summoned several transparent, thin slices of poker cards on his palm and swung it at the paladins!

“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!”

Before the paladins could sense what was happening, their bodies were sliced into clean halves by the oncoming objects!

“No–!”

The robed man cried out. As the invisible bolts glided past the paladins and went toward him, another undetectable force suddenly erupted and blasted Chen Chen’s attacks away.

Upon seeing this, Chen Chen tilted his head and shot the robed man a look. Then, he stomped his feet on the ground!

“Bang!”

The psionic barrier erected by the robed man detonated like it was hit by a grenade, claiming the robed man amid the explosion!

After getting rid of the troublemakers, Chen Chen went back to analyzing the chunk of flesh using Field. This thing they called “Child of God” was like a clone of the Consciousness Stealer. He was unsure how these people came to it.

What was the likelihood that after the Consciousness Stealer successfully resurrected itself using human conscience, he continued using human beings as its dependents? This would be a reasonable explanation that mankind was not extinct yet, but was given these pieces of the Consciousness Stealer that may grant them psionic powers.

Chen Chen originally planned to capture several church leaders to find out more. It turned out that the paladins and the robed man were a bunch of lunatic fanatics. He would be a fool to hope for any communication. He decided it was easier to just get rid of them.

If they were mad enough to willingly serve the Consciousness Stealer, they were better off dead.

With this in mind, Chen Chen suddenly clenched his fist and crushed the chunk of flesh like it was a watermelon. It exploded in his hands and splattered into finer chunks.

As soon as the chunk of flesh was crushed, the radiating field of psionic power dissipated as well.

By the time the reinforcements comprised of city guards arrived at the scene, all they could see were pieces of severed human parts on the ground. The previous invader was nowhere to be seen.

...

“What did you say? The bishop and the paladin in the church were wiped out?”

Inside a grand building larger than the previous church, a middle-aged man with a dark look and large spots of ulcers and scars on his face was shocked by the soldier’s reports. “What in the world happened? How could something like this possibly happen?”

“Master Duke, he’s an advanced-level psionicist!”

The soldier got down on his knees and kept his head low. “We saw a figure appearing above the church and the bishop and the paladins immediately commenced a vicious battle with the intruder. By the time we arrived at the scene, it was all over...”

“Useless bunch!”

The man exclaimed. There was no telling if he was angry at the church or the reporting soldier. “Continue the investigation and make sure you find out who this psionicist is!”

After watching the soldier stumbling out of the room frantically, the man’s expression turned grimmer than it already was. Losing the paladins was a small matter. It was the bishop dying that had him concerned.

What sort of joke was this? That powerful bishop that had been having secret conflicts with him for all these years just died like this?

Although he regularly prayed for the old bishop’s downfall, he would much rather the bishop die excruciatingly on a bed of old age. To think that the bishop would just suddenly get himself killed like this, could this mean that this mysterious psionicist was capable of killing himself as well?

All these were not even the focal point of his concerns. What he worried about now was that by the time the Vatican realized that the old bishop was dead, they would send officers to investigate. This meant that he would inevitably get dragged into all of these as well since the bishop was killed in his city...

The man felt his head throbbing with headache. Even he would rather not deal with the lunatics from the Vatican if he could help it.

“Clack...”

When the man was still troubling himself over these matters and trying to figure out a solution, he heard the gentle clap of feet against the hard tiles.

The man held his breath and slowly turned around...