Chapter 176: Chapter 176 Synthesis Beast_1
Rebecca quickly realized that it was Victor’s team and the group that had been waiting at location C, who had come killing from the other end of the alley while the cult’s people were still trying to hold out.
Hurried footsteps approached from behind them, and, alert, Rebecca turned her head, only to see another group from her own team rushing towards them.
"Captain!" the lead mid-level Judge spoke up.
At the same time, the shadowy figures of the last group of personnel rapidly approaching from the opposite side of the village road appeared, and with that, all of Rebecca’s team had arrived at the scene.
"Target in the alley, surround the alley entrance and cut them off! Type two target, Devouring Magic Bullets!" Rebecca briefly issued her orders, leading her team toward the entrance to the alley.
In this narrow alley, being attacked from both the front by fifteen men and the rear by twenty-five, these heretic cult members would find it hard to escape even if they had wings!
The Judges, well-trained, quickly established an encirclement near the alley entrance, aiming their gun barrels at the entrance from all directions. Rebecca herself stood by the alley entrance, using the corner of a building as cover to peer into the alley.
She saw in the alley, shrouded by darkness, nuns in grey and white robes using their bodies as shields, protecting a man dressed as a priest and a nun in black, holding guns and resisting the Judges’ attempts to pursue them.
But in this narrow alley that could not accommodate a carriage, there was hardly any suitable cover, and as the shootout continued, the nuns used as shields fell one by one, until only a handful remained.
Rebecca judged the situation was under control, and was about to raise her hand to command her team to storm from this direction, when a terrifying roar burst forth without warning.
In her surprise, Rebecca saw the priest’s body suddenly swell, almost bursting the seams of his long robe.
Next, the priest grabbed a nun by his side and, with unimaginable strength, hurled her towards the approaching Judges.
The nun’s body flew like a cannonball, and several Judges were knocked to the ground, caught off guard.
Rebecca instinctively held her breath; the terror of the unnatural strength and the inexplicable swelling of the body—could it be... a werewolf!?
"Assault! Fire!!" Realizing they couldn’t let the enemy seize the opportunity to counter-attack the pursuing team, Rebecca instantly made the call and aimed at the priest to shoot.
With a few shots fired, the remaining nuns serving as human shields also fell, and at the same time, the priest, hit in the back, staggered but did not fall. Not only that, but his body further inflated like a balloon, rapidly transforming into a terrifying creature nearly four meters tall.
His lower half became like that of a mountain goat, covered in black fur, with hooves replacing his feet, while his torso still retained a human shape. However, Rebecca could see bat-like wings emerging from his back and a python-tailed, with patterns akin to a snakes, extending along the creature’s spine—this monster’s tail was actually a python.
The priest turned his head to look at the alley entrance, his head also becoming goat-like, with thick and sharp horns standing on top of his head. Of all his features, only his mouth took a different evolutionary path, becoming that of a feline predator filled with sharp teeth.
In that brief moment of eye contact, Rebecca’s blood nearly froze; this kind of bizarre chimera, which seemed to blaspheme the Creator, was something she vaguely remembered.
The Chimera, a creature forged using the forbidden arts of life alchemy, forcibly fuses different species of animals, even magical beasts, to create entirely new species.
Many alchemists and witches have attempted such experiments. Rebecca had seen chimeras of various forms in the alchemist’s workshop as well, but they were mostly corpses—the success rate of forcibly fusing different beings into living, coherent entities was so low it was maddening, given the known level of expertise in life alchemy.
Therefore, even these heretics who transgressed the taboo in their pursuit of knowledge’s pinnacle wouldn’t easily attempt combining humans with other creatures, not only because the cost of such a crime was high but also because the success rate was never promising.
After a local police station reported a suspected case of an artificial human corpse, the Heretic Inquisitor Bureau had estimated that there were alchemists skilled in life alchemy within the Harvest Mother Cult. Now, it seemed their estimates were far too conservative.
The priest transformed into a Chimera reached out and grabbed the black-robed nun who had been following closely by his side. With his now colossal size, he could easily grasp her waist with one hand.
Rebecca subconsciously thought he was about to use the nun as a weapon and throw her again. Just as she was about to respond, the priest instead pulled the nun to his chest and encased her by folding one of his wings around her.
"Category Three target, eliminate!" commanded a voice from the other end of the alley. Victor, the Senior Judge, gave the order to kill the target instead of capturing it alive.
For the Heretic Inquisitors, Category Two targets were spellcasters, while Category Three targets were large magical beasts. They never anticipated engaging a Category Three target in this operation, and so their gear was mostly suited for humans, not beasts. Standard bullets and demon-devouring bullets were largely ineffective against such a massive target, and in this disadvantageous situation, they had no choice but to go for the kill.
Rebecca also quickly realized this and issued the same command. The priest’s transformed, colossal chimera body nearly filled the alley; there was no need for precision aiming, and there was no worry about friendly fire from a volley.
While being showered with bullets, the Chimera suddenly spoke in an inhuman voice, shouting an incomprehensible spell: "■▇▇▉▄■■█▃▅"
In an instant, Rebecca felt something forcefully invading her mind. Her head throbbed with agonizing pain, and her vision twisted violently as waves of nausea surged through her.
Mental contamination!!
She was the first to comprehend the situation through the remnants of her rationality because she had undergone specialized training in combating mental spells when she was tasked with capturing Presia.
Propped against the wall near the alley’s entrance, she struggled to speak and recited a spell to stabilize her spirit, which alleviated the overwhelming discomfort slightly.
Just then, the Chimera’s huge body charged out of the alley, nearly brushing past her as it darted out and used its ram horns to send two Judges, who were distracted by mental contamination at the mouth of the alley, flying.
Once out of the narrow alley and into a more open space, the Chimera took a mighty leap, wrapping its wings around the black-robed nun and taking flight.
Rebecca, her right hand pressed against her still-aching head, fired multiple shots from the gun in her left hand at the Chimera in the sky until she emptied her magazine, managing to land only two shots.
But the Chimera seemed completely unbothered by the pain, quickly ascending and vanishing into the night.
