Chapter 334: Uninvited Guests
"You... doing this is completely meaningless." Frey stared dead at William.
"To delusionally think you can contend with the Church all by yourself, this is simply suicide!"
"Moreover, to the Church, I am just an insignificant nobody. Dragging me down with you won't change anything."
He forcefully suppressed his emotions.
"How about this: I can become your mole within the Church and pass intelligence to you."
William looked at him calmly.
"How about it! Rather than releasing this evidence, it's better to let me gather more information for you!" Frey was like a drowning man clutching at the only life-saving straw.
"I know a big shot from the Holy Clans, which is why I was able to get this assignment."
"You probably don't know, but besides the Vatican, many Holy Clergy Members from lower-level dioceses are currently looking for you. You have nowhere to hide on your own..."
"So there really are people who want to catch me for the bounty," William thought to himself.
But outwardly, he shook his head slightly.
"Let a person harboring malicious intentions leave? That would be true suicide. Alright, stop struggling."
Frey's face turned ashen.
Once he agreed to this matter, it meant standing completely on the opposite side of the Church.
"Why did I accept this mission..." He felt unparalleled remorse inwardly.
At this time, William suddenly turned his head.
"You few have been watching from the sidelines for so long, it's about time you came out."
"Could they be here to hunt him down?" Frey instantly felt a surge of joy inwardly.
He looked in that direction and saw a man and a woman walk out from behind the woods.
"Oh? It's you." William raised an eyebrow.
"Father William, long time no see." Gail nodded with a smile.
She wore a pure black form-fitting dress, her proud figure as stunning as ever.
Beside her was the founder of the Light of Humanity, Mark Divia.
William had briefly met the other party during the Freddy incident.
"I specifically chose this remote location, so it's unlikely you are just passing by." William was thoughtful.
"Does this mean... the Light of Humanity also intends to make a move against me?"
His tone was calm, but he had already covered his body with a Holy Light barrier.
"No, no! You misunderstand!" Gail hurriedly waved her hands.
"Ever since the Church issued the notice, we have been looking for you."
"But it wasn't until today that the members guarding the West District Community Church reported your tracks, which is why we hurried over."
Mark beside her also spoke up: "We are not here to capture you, but to invite you to join the Light of Humanity."
Hearing this, William narrowed his eyes slightly.
Somewhere in Philadelphia, Light of Humanity Headquarters.
"This is the recent situation regarding this matter." Gail placed several files on the table.
William reached out to take them and then began flipping through.
He had not joined the Light of Humanity.
Earlier in the woods, after confirming the two harbored no hostility, he had originally planned to leave. But Gail suggested he could follow them to their headquarters first. The Light of Humanity could provide some recently gathered intelligence as a reward for William saving them during the Freddy incident last time.
William pondered for a moment before deciding to agree.
After all, this was exactly what he needed most right now. A large organization's ability to gather information definitely far exceeded an individual's.
And that Vatican envoy was also brought back.
Soon, William raised an eyebrow.
The matter of Jolan's defection had indeed caused turbulence throughout North America, but the reactions from various factions were somewhat beyond his expectations.
Including the Lord Knights, almost all organizations had publicly condemned the Church's behavior.
Ever since the Holy Land was attacked, the various organizations had been investigating the truth. And the Angel's Descent in the Land of the Holy War further pointed them in the right direction. Therefore, regarding the role Jolan played in it, the higher-ups of other organizations had heard about it.
That was why they had been denouncing the Church all along, believing this was yet another of the latter's "religious persecutions."
The Church naturally publicly denied it, but its effect was clearly limited.
And this impact also rippled out to William.
Upon hearing that the Church had put a bounty on him, various factions also publicly took a stand. They stated that as long as William was willing to join, they were willing to provide asylum.
Among them, many also publicly declared—
William had helped them in past commissions; he was an excellent priest, and the Church's behavior was completely the persecution of a good man!
Regarding such a situation, William was genuinely somewhat surprised.
Whether this was driven by profit or genuine sentiment, at least for now, he wouldn't be unable to survive in North America.
"Right now, as long as you make a public appearance, I think other organizations will immediately send people to pick you up." Gail smiled.
"Of course, no one will force you. It's just that, both professionally and personally, I hope you can join us."
"I'm very sorry, but in the short term, I won't consider joining any organization again," William put down the files and declined.
Having experienced this incident with the Church, he had completely lost hope in these so-called organizations.
Then he changed the subject: "But you can talk about your true purpose. Perhaps it's not impossible for us to cooperate."
Other organizations merely paid lip service, but the Light of Humanity actually sent people to stake him out. William refused to believe the other party's goal was simply to pull him into their organization.
Sure enough, hearing his words, Gail's eyes lit up.
She then stood up: "Then please come with me."
The two walked through the corridor and arrived in front of a heavily guarded gate.
Only after verifying their identities did they enter under the watchful eyes of security.
Behind the door looked like a research institute, with various devices in the rooms on both sides. There were also crucifixes, longswords, colorful plants... and other items with vastly different styles.
"This is the Light of Humanity's Exorcism Research Institute," Gail proactively introduced.
"We have collected current exorcism implements from various factions, attempting to find a way to allow ordinary people to defend against evil as well."
William raised an eyebrow: "Oh? Then you've had some gains."
Gail nodded, then shook her head.
"We researched for a long time. The energy you use for exorcism doesn't seem to belong to this world, therefore it cannot be created out of thin air..."
"That is true," William thought to himself. He didn't expect the other party to actually perceive even this.
"...Therefore, we shifted our thinking. Instead of trying to create energy, we became transporters of energy."
Gail said as she pressed a switch on the wall.
Subsequently, the door to an adjacent room quickly opened, and the voices inside wafted out.
"Mr. Mark, this is the last bit of 'Justice Energy.' Shouldn't we be a little more cautious?" a researcher in a white coat spoke.
"Stop nagging. The research has reached a critical moment. As long as we can succeed this time, it proves our direction is not wrong!" Mark said.
William looked toward the voices and saw the two standing outside a small glass room.
The latter was a space resembling a testing ground.
Inside lay an implement shaped like a gun. The top of the gun body had a transparent tube section filled with pale yellow liquid.
Upon seeing that thing, surprise flashed in William's eyes.
If he wasn't mistaken, that pale yellow liquid contained Source Power, and the Source Power didn't have any additional elemental attributes. And opposite the muzzle was a black-and-red object emitting a dense evil aura, clearly an evil material.
Some holy artifacts were also arranged around the glass room, restricting the evil aura inside.
The next moment, the muzzle sprayed the pale yellow liquid onto the material.
A scorching sound instantly echoed in the air, but the liquid quickly began to boil, and before long, it completely dried up.
"Damn it! It clearly had an effect! But the quantity just isn't enough!" Mark slammed his fist hard against the glass.
"Mark!" Gail called out at this time.
Only then did the two realize someone had come in.
"William..." Mark took off his protective gloves and turned around. "Welcome to the team."
His eyes couldn't hide his exhaustion; it seemed this matter had dealt him a heavy blow.
"Mr. William is just here to visit," Gail hurriedly explained. "If the conditions are right, he is willing to cooperate with us."
Hearing this, Mark immediately looked at Gail and said in a low voice, "If that's the case, you shouldn't have brought him here. This is the organization's..."
"What's in that gun barrel is Source Power, right?" William suddenly spoke.
Doubt flashed in Mark's eyes: "Source Power? That's what we collected from the incident site after the Anniversary event. You know what this is?"
His attention was instantly captivated.
"Mixing Source Power into a special liquid can produce an effect similar to Holy Water..." William rubbed his chin.
"The idea is not bad, but unfortunately, the quantity is too small. Its effect on ordinary evil materials is also limited."
From William's perspective, the pale yellow liquid contained merely a sliver of Source Power, so it naturally couldn't completely purify the evil aura.
Hearing this, Mark widened his eyes instantly.
"You can understand it! Do you know what this is! Where can we get it!" His tone was agitated as he fired off a barrage of questions.
"Ahem... mind your manners!" Gail reminded him.
"Apologies!" Only then did Mark realize he was yanking on William's sleeve, hurriedly letting go and smoothing out the wrinkles.
"I have asked many exorcists, but none of them are clear on the origin of 'Justice'... Source Power."
William was thoughtful.
Source Power was energy unattached to any attributes and rarely appeared on its own. Therefore, it was true that not many people knew about it. He immediately explained the function of this thing to the two.
"So that's how it is!" Mark's eyes shone brightly. "As expected, my research was not wrong!"
Gail explained from the side: "After the incident at the Philadelphia high school last time, we realized we couldn't destroy evil using equipment and instruments."
"Coincidentally, at that time, the materials the Light of Humanity was researching captured a special energy, which is the Source Power you mentioned."
"Through experiments, we found that this thing has a very obvious effect on evil, so we specifically developed an implement to contain this energy. But..."
Her topic changed.
"This energy leaves almost no trace to follow, and our exploration has consistently yielded no results. Therefore, up until now, we've been using the leftover amount collected accidentally that one time. But the last portion was just consumed as well."
William nodded: "I see."
"This is also the reason we were looking for you." Gail brushed her hair back.
"Among all the exorcists I know, you are the most special one, so I thought you might have a way..."
Seeing William still pondering, she spoke again.
"Perhaps you don't know, but recently, multiple bizarre incidents have occurred in the suburbs of several remote states."
"The bodies of the people living there mutated. Their skin became hard and corrosive, and some parts even had numbers engraved on them."
"What's most incomprehensible is that they claim to be members of the Demon God's army, and that their masters from the underground will reclaim their territory."
William raised an eyebrow: "The Demon God's army... The 72 Pillar Demon Gods?"
"Large-scale riots have also broken out near New York. Many people took to the streets, making special hand gestures toward the sky, as if performing some kind of ritual."
"And the Rosicrucian Order in New Orleans has also released word, stating that Hell demons are lurking in the local warlock school..."
Gail's tone was urgent.
"Present-day North America is no longer safe, and people can only rely on exorcists. If this continues, once a large-scale disaster occurs, the resulting losses will be extremely devastating."
"So we must find a countermeasure as soon as possible. Please, I ask for your assistance."
Mark beside her also had a complex gaze.
When he initially founded the Light of Humanity, he thought eliminating evil was a very "cool" thing to do. But as his contact with evil spirits and demons increased, and after seeing those tragic victims, he realized his past thoughts were too naive.
And wanting to possess powerful strength like those exorcists was also an incredibly difficult thing.
He shook his head inwardly.
"This is what you're looking for, right." William said, taking out a glass bottle.
The mouth of the bottle was sealed with a special strip of paper. This was exactly that tampered sealing sacrifice from back then.
"This is..."
"Source Power."
Hearing this, both Mark and Gail wore faces of disbelief.
The former immediately took the glass bottle and walked to the equipment.
"Carl! Turn on the machine!"
The researcher who had been assisting Mark earlier quickly returned from outside.
Accompanied by the sound of grinding machinery, Mark carefully placed the glass bottle into the groove on top.
The next second.
Beep beep—
The equipment immediately lit up with red lights.
Immediately after, the rest of the indicator lights also issued their own alarms, and for a moment, the room became quite noisy.
William observed his surroundings and narrowed his eyes.
"Mark, what happened?" Gail hurriedly asked.
"This... how is this possible!" Mark's mouth dropped wide open.
"All the test results show that the purity of the 'Justice'... Source Power in the glass bottle is incredibly high!" Researcher Carl also exclaimed in shock, "Far exceeding what we collected back then!"
"This..." Surprise flashed in Gail's eyes.
Of course she knew what this meant, and she couldn't help but look back at William.
"Quick, prepare the experiment!" Mark immediately put on his protective suit.
He didn't need to say more; Researcher Carl had already sprung into action.
"Firing countdown. Three, two, one!"
With a soft click, a glob of exceptionally thick orange liquid sprayed onto the evil material.
The next second, the surface of that object began to boil violently!
A massive amount of pitch-black aura emanated from it, and at the same time, faint wailing sounds could be heard!
Mark and Carl looked astonished and hurriedly backed away from the glass room.
Subsequently, the group actually saw a shadowy mass emerge from the evil material. It had two distinct eyes that were staring at them with a venomous glare.
Except for William, who remained calm, everyone else couldn't help but hold their breath.
However, a moment later, this shadowy mass completely dissolved into the orange liquid, and that piece of evil material was completely reduced to powder.
"It worked!" Mark muttered.
"As long as we have a sufficient amount, we can manufacture weapons capable of fighting against demons! I did it!"
He looked at the gun implement containing the orange liquid; there was still quite a bit left inside, indicating that the utilization efficiency of the Source Power was extremely high!
Mark held his head with both hands, unable to suppress the smile curling the corners of his mouth.
Three circles of golden patterns flashed around William's pupils before returning to normal.
"No evil residue left. It seems the evil spirit inside the material has been completely purified," he thought to himself.
He had noticed early on that there was something wrong with the material, it's just that the entity hadn't fully transformed into an evil spirit yet, so the threat it posed was very limited.
Before long, the room suddenly fell into silence.
William raised his head, only to see the three of them staring fixedly at him.
And Mark slid right up to him in one stride, tightly gripping his hands.
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