Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

"Make way for a matter concerning the safety of the apprentices from the Church of the God of Justice, the Church of the Sea God, and our own," Colin said loudly.

The guard did not move, but as the meeting room's library door was opened, an old man looked at Colin, "As the full representative of old Hoffman, you have the right to enter, but better have something worth discussing inside."

"Indeed," pushing past the guard, Colin entered the library and looked at the two bishops sitting on the sofa, "Your Excellencies, the Proxy of the Church of the God of Wisdom just returned with intelligence. They have confirmed that cultists are planning to perform a blood sacrifice ritual tomorrow—they are even summoning Undead of different kind at the ruined fortress."

"This is indeed an important matter," the seriousness on the face of the old man who opened the door did not fade, but his tone was much softer, "Colin, Hoffman was right to ask you to remain respectful, yet for such a matter, you do not even need our permission, you could resolve this with your own team. However, if you feel short-handed, it is indeed a problem. In that case, you can mobilize the Punisher Squad of our Church of the Dawn."

"Yes, I am aware of the elders' kindness, but there is another matter. Before nightfall today, our apprentice Malin Gaiate along with the apprentices from the Church of the Goddess of Commerce, Leon Skete, from the Church of the War God, Rager Steckton, from the Church of the God of Wisdom, Jon Sheringham, and from the Church of the Sea God, Richard Dorne, all teamed up for apprentice validation at the same ruined fortress."

"I know Richard. He is a very fine boy. Colin, bring him back," said the Archbishop of the Church of the Sea God, who appeared very old. He pulled out his divine emblem from his pocket, "Take my subordinate's Punisher Squad, hoping it's not too late."

"And take our Church of the War God's Punisher Squad as well, Colin. You should know what to do, right?" The elder with white hair from the Church of the War God tossed his divine emblem to Colin.

Then came the elder from the Church of the God of Justice. He turned to look outside the door, "Lev! Take your team! Follow Sir Colin to the ruined fortress. Kill all the Undead and cultists, purify all filth!"

"Yes, purify all filth, and if it can't be done... purify them," sighed the white-haired elder from the Church of the War God.

So Colin turned and left the meeting room. As he walked out of the door, he called back without turning his head, "I will bring them back."

......

The time rewinds to half an hour earlier.

The carriage ride was shaky. The driver couldn't be blamed, after all, the roads outside the city weren't maintained daily like those within, only getting fixed every half year, usually in the Month of Spring (March) and the Month of Autumn (September) after the Harvest Festival was when they had road repair week, so at this time of the year, the roads were in their worst condition of the half-year span.

It was a feat for the carriage to have not gotten stuck in any treacherous spot on the journey thus far.

And the only downside was that Malin truly felt as if he was on a rollercoaster ride—this was with the carriage having a shock absorption system. Had it not been for this feature, chances are everyone would have fainted from vomiting by now.

But fortunately, Malin could now see a part of the ruined fortress through the carriage window—it was much as he imagined, most of the visible walls had collapsed, and the few towers of the main fortress were either blown away or had their damaged bases completely fallen off.

Malin and the others' mission was to assist Rager in verifying whether the ground floor and the basement of the ruined fortress were safe. For this task, Rager had bought a whole dozen purple light sticks and four Silver Powder Grenades from the Church of the Goddess of Harvest. Malin had contributed ideas to the engineering department for these two items and had a technical stake in them, so if they counted as contributions, they had already made a total of 1400 for Malin.

This made Malin even happier.

"We have arrived, everyone. For safety, we need to park the carriage a bit further away," there must be a reason when Richard's cousin says so.

Malin followed Leon as he hopped off the carriage, while the sun was still zealously shining light and warmth in the west.

"Hurry up, everyone. Let's wrap this up, and we might be able to get back to our homes before the city gates close, take a hot bath, and then sleep well with the aid of a cooling spell formation." Feeling a bit hot, Richard tugged at his collar, but as the only Diviner among the apprentices in the group, he still pulled a small chain from his pocket, "Is there a significant danger in the ruined fortress ahead?"

The chain trembled slightly.

So the very happy Richard tucked away the chain, "Good, no danger. Let's go, a picnic activity."

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"That's really borrowing your lucky words," the few young lads in the team were very happy.

Malin glanced around, the forest was very quiet, "I seldom go out, so I want to ask, is it normally this quiet in the forest?"

"It shouldn't be, but considering that there might be invisible Spirits in the abandoned castle, it's normal for the animals to be scared away. We were still able to hear the birds chirping along the way," Leon analyzed, feeling like he had grasped the key point, "It must be this way without a doubt."

Malin fell silent for a moment and stopped advancing. His hairs had been on end since a while ago; the closer they got to the abandoned castle, the more he felt that there was something wrong ahead, "Wait a second."

"Why, if we don't get there soon, it'll be dark!" Lager pointed towards the distant horizon.

Malin looked at Richard's cousin. "Do you not feel the danger approaching?"

"No, what's wrong?" Surprisingly, Richard's cousin was not angry but asked very kindly.

"What's your name?" Malin asked again.

"Leonidas." The youth answered with a smile.

"Very well, Leonidas... Come, let's share our inspiration," Malin reached out and took his hand.

At that moment, Leonidas was startled, then his complexion turned uncontrollably pale, "Let's go! Immediately! Right now!"

In the instant when Leonidas's inspiration was connected with Malin's, the intentionally concealed barrier failed to work anymore, and he 'saw' the intense Chaos energy coming from the direction of the abandoned castle.

"What are we running for? The mission area is just ahead!" Jon pointed at the abandoned castle, looking up with a face ashen, his eyes lacking any whites, glowing red like lightbulbs.

"He's possessed!" Malin said as he pulled out a purple flare from his waist, disengaged the safety, and threw it down at his feet. The purple light illuminated the entire area and the darkness behind each of them.

The Spiritual Body behind Richard wailed and retreated from the illuminated area; Malin turned around, the palm of his outstretched hand exploded with intense but not blinding white light, and several Spiritual Bodies in the darkness were directly ignited—Malin was not the same unfortunate kid who could only use Silver Powder against Spiritual Bodies anymore.

Meanwhile, Jon was shrieking on his knees, holding his head as if trying to extract something.

Seeing such behavior, Malin knew there was still hope for the lad, so he took out a bottle of Holy Water from his waist, stuffed it into Jon's mouth, and forcibly tilted his chin up; this was not the time to worry about glass.

The Holy Water from the broken glass bottle instantly relieved his possessed state, and it seemed as if he had bitten into something; he screamed and opened his mouth—this time, he sounded like a person.

"What happened to me?" After having his fill of screaming, he looked at his companions dragging him away, asking while spitting out blood foam.

"You were possessed! Malin saved you!" Lager, while unwrapping the purple flare, looked towards the carriage, "We must get back on the carriage! Quick!"

At this time, Richard's cousin had already rushed onto the carriage, whipping the horses and steering the carriage.

At this point, Malin heard cries coming from the forest.

The forest, no longer quiet, was as bustling as a market should be at its peak.

```