Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1492 Farewell to Friends
The church members had nothing to say to those who were messing around with the sacrifices. After Vanessa gave the order, everyone rushed forward. A few who dared to resist were killed on the spot, while the rest either collapsed or fled deeper into the area, and everyone chased after them.

"Seventeen."

Vanessa brought up the rear, her steps visibly hurried. The apothecary, however, was not in a hurry. She had seen this situation many times before; these people weren't even plague apostles, but had simply been bewitched and turned into this state.

This is the temptation of divine power; the mere feeling is enough to lead one to commit grave sins. Vanessa slowed her pace to prepare herself mentally.

"...No exceptions," the pharmacist reminded him.

That was something the pharmacist had told Vanessa during class; no one could resist such temptation. The effects of touching the divine are lifelong, therefore everyone here who has been involved in the sacrifice must die.

"I know."

Vanessa ventured deeper. The people hidden here were defenseless, mere civilians from Violet City, utterly powerless against the well-trained church soldiers. The further she went, the worse Vanessa's expression became. There were ample supplies, yet this underground area had become a complete sacrificial site. Human-made artifacts were everywhere, and aside from the stench of blood from the previous sacrificial site, she couldn't detect any putrid stench.

This is even more astonishing than smelling decay, indicating that the people here had long mastered a complete method for processing corpses.

“Who would teach them this?” Vanessa slammed her fist on the wall. “This is definitely not knowledge that ordinary people can master!”

The apothecary shook his head slightly. Many of the Plague Apostles were skilled in this; with just a little guidance, they would spontaneously share that blissful feeling with others. By now, the instigator had probably already fled.

In the end, only a few young children remained inside, huddled together, crying and calling for their parents. Seeing this, the young soldiers hesitated, and then waited for Vanessa to arrive.

Vanessa stepped forward, raising the plague weapon in her hand.

The children just cried and screamed, shouting all sorts of things, but Vanessa paid them no heed. She simply tossed out a piece of blood-soaked cloth, a random cut from someone killed at the sacrificial site, briefly dipped in the blood of the chosen victim.

In that instant, all the crying and screaming stopped. The children rushed forward frantically, snatching and tearing at the red cloth. Those who managed to grab it immediately stuffed it into their mouths, while those who didn't even punch and kick the children who had caught them.

The pharmacist heard Vanessa sigh, followed by a flash of light from a blade.

There were large quantities of grain and cloth stockpiled here, but that was all; medicine and similar items were still missing. Although a small amount could be found in some rooms, it wasn't enough. This was normal; the warehouses in Violet City were designed for a single purpose to avoid concentrating too many resources in one place.

The bodies in the basement were burned and then buried, followed by loading and transporting them onto trucks. The factory had many wagons for transport, which, although not driven by horses, could be pulled by manpower.

Vanessa stood at the underground entrance for a long time. The apothecary heard her reciting a prayer softly. After she finally finished reciting it, the apothecary went over and hugged her without saying anything.

The material has already been covered in class, so for pharmacists, this is a common occurrence.

Afterwards, the first batch of supplies was delivered, and Father Thorne agreed to let these people move in. However, the houses needed to be rebuilt. Father Thorne had previously ordered the construction of a shelter around the Minute Church to serve as a central defensive line to gather people there, but the original design did not include a redundancy of two thousand extra people.

This request wasn't too difficult, since among those being accepted this time were a group of monks from the Church of Christ. The leader, Sneijder, also came to meet everyone. This monk was tall and imposing, and clearly a skilled builder. After reviewing the design plans for the Minute Church, he quickly devised a plan for the housing for this group of people and declared that the Church of Christ would assume primary responsibility.

With the arrival of this group, the Clockwork River district began to liven up again. As people devoted themselves to reconstruction work, their grief over the disaster lessened. Of course, it was also necessary to control their emotions and prevent them from becoming too happy, otherwise it would immediately trigger the bubble-like manifestation of the divine disaster.

A few more days passed, and Rosalind and Crom approached Father Thorne and the others; it was time to leave.

"In any case, we must go back and meet with Charles to clarify the intelligence. If all goes well, we may contact them within a month with new information. Of course... that's assuming everything goes smoothly." Crom remained calm. "Don't have too high expectations. In Violet City now, no one is more noble than anyone else. Everyone is just trying to make a living. You are in a good situation now. If the Church of East makes any unsuitable demands in the future, just refuse them."

“We will pay close attention,” Father Thorne said politely.

"Besides the people we took, there are 150 soldiers. These have all been on the battlefield once, so cherish them. Also, the people gathered here are quite mixed, and we lack cultivators from the Oath-Monitoring Center, so you'll have to keep a close eye on them yourselves," Rosalin instructed.

“I will be careful,” Vanessa replied.

"Alright, also, don't forget to practice. Don't put it down even after I'm gone. This thing can save your lives." Rosalin grinned. "I'm satisfied that I can teach some decent apprentices before I leave. Just be diligent. Skills are yours to keep, don't lie to yourself."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“The carriage prepared for you two is outside, but the church doesn’t have many horses, so we can only prepare one carriage. The rest of you will probably have to walk with the carriage,” Father Thorne said.

“It’s nothing. We know you don’t have much money. Don’t worry, I’ll see if I can get you some supplies. Trust me, the things stored in the Church of East are more than you can imagine.” Rosalind smiled and patted Father Thorne on the shoulder. “Keep up the good work. You’re quite capable. It’s not easy to organize this area like this.”

Thank you for your compliment.

"Let's go." Krom waved his hand, tucked the hammer into his waistband, and walked out the door with Rosalind.

The border was no longer blocked, and the carriages passed through safely. They didn't leave too quickly, but after passing through the light barrier, they soon became undetectable to everyone. "Alright, alright, time to get to work! We need to build all these houses before winter!" Sneijder clapped his hands and shouted, and then everyone continued their work.

Besides building houses and transporting supplies, the autumn harvest is another task that must begin soon. The Clockwork River District has a large amount of arable land, and while the destruction caused by divine pollution and plague apostles is deadly to humans, it's less likely to harm crops; at most, monsters might damage the fields. The harvest will indeed be worse with less manpower, but it's better than nothing. Moreover, the Clockwork River District was originally the least affected area.

Once the staff was split up, Father Thorne discovered that there was a shortage of manpower. Vanessa became smug again, saying things like, "Two thousand more people are not enough. Without them, we can't finish all this work." Even the pharmacist heard her say things like, "We still can't do enough with two thousand more people. Without them, we can't finish all this work."

The pharmacist was just passing by when she arrived at the newly built children's daycare center, something Veronica had been working on for some time. As people needed to return to work, the children increasingly needed care, so Veronica simply took on the responsibility and built the facility. Since most people now lived near the church, drop-off and pick-up were convenient, and for younger orphans, the church could take them in.

To some, Veronica's role was merely a partial one, far less important than that of Father Thorne and Vanessa. But in reality, Veronica's influence was quite significant.

She has been supervising the six children with special needs here.

Among the children Rosalind praised were the six who had been taken in earlier. Before the divine calamity, these children had been well-fed and raised. Their growth was astonishing, and they quickly learned to speak. They are now all around ten years old.

The pharmacist hadn't inquired too much about the matter before, because she trusted Veronica's control. However, she was still very curious about what made these children different.

As she entered the house, she saw the children playing among themselves. Judging from their current appearance, it was clear that they would grow up to be exceptionally beautiful. In terms of their studies, all six children were making rapid progress, and some had even begun to learn basic magic.

The pharmacist found Veronica.

Her own office wasn't large, but it was already piled high with documents. The observation records for those six people were entirely compiled by Veronica herself, and they had undergone several medical examinations.

"Madam Pharmacist!" Veronica hurriedly stood up when she saw the pharmacist come in.

"It's alright, I just came to check on the children. How was it? Did you find anything else?"

“Their bodies are perfectly fine, or rather, too perfect.” Veronica picked up a file from the table. “I’m monitoring their bodies while I’m increasing their growth rate. But they just grow so fast, without any side effects, and they learn all sorts of knowledge at an astonishing speed. It only took them three days to learn how to speak, and they could communicate fluently with me in less than a week. Their progress in learning magic is also very fast; they learned how to cast spells in about two days.”

“If that’s the case, then the next thing to watch out for is their growth limit.” The pharmacist sat down, took the file, and began to look through it.

“Since resources are still relatively plentiful, I plan to let them continue to grow. I can’t be sure how long this accelerated growth will last until they are roughly the same age as humans. And if it doesn’t stop, then they will quickly go through a person’s life, and then grow old and die,” Veronica said.

The pharmacist carefully examined some data in the file and said, "I don't think it's the latter."

"Did you make any discoveries?"

“If we take the plague as the source of our research, these children are very likely to be a transmission route. If so, the route must be kept stable,” the apothecary said. “Here… although we have not yet found any connection between these children and the plague, there were some flaws when we rapidly raised them to adulthood and began training them in magic.”

Professor Veronica's teachings were naturally divine magic, and when used, divine magic would create a certain connection with other gods. This connection was subtle and not always readily apparent. However, under Veronica's rapid tutelage, this subtle connection became evident.

"The power of the combined power of the King of Decay and the King of Immortality." The apothecary sketched a few lines on the spell's structure. "It's normal that you can't tell, after all, you don't understand the power of gods... It's also fortunate that the spell you teach is the Restoration spell, a first-tier divine spell of the Salvation Nexus. I don't understand the power of other gods either."

She was all too familiar with the magical configuration of the Fountain of Youth; she could spot any disturbance it caused.

"So...it's confirmed?" Veronica was momentarily at a loss for how to proceed.

"It's confirmed, but this is the first time I've seen a virus that spreads through humans, yet I haven't seen the plague affecting infected individuals. This plague is probably more unique than any I've ever seen before. We need to continue our research, but you must be careful."

“I understand, the transmission route means that new infected people will be created.” Veronica nodded.

“Continue to observe. The new plague is also a new learning model for the Salvation Council. We are always chasing after the Plague Apostles in terms of technology.” The apothecary closed the file and suddenly saw the name left on the first page.

"...You named them after once-famous saints?"

“Their physical unusualness does not change the fact that they are good children.” Veronica nodded. “They are humble and polite to others and actively help others when they are in trouble. These children are quite excellent from any angle. I cannot be prejudiced against them because of their physical unusualness.”

"Even if this is how they spread the plague?" the pharmacist asked.

Veronica nodded firmly.

"Alright, then you must keep your current feelings in mind. If these children can be taught well, you will also have a good research result, and it is more likely to provide us with a lot of help."

The pharmacist was still somewhat worried about the current situation. Meanwhile, the nearly twenty-day-long debate outside the city finally came to an end, with most of the proposed solutions for dealing with Violet City having been finalized.

The church doesn't have that much power in terms of political authority, but when it comes to the practical implementation, they have to give in. After all, very few people dare to enter a place contaminated by divine calamity. No matter how clear the plan is, it still needs to be implementable.