Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

Chapter 181: The Four Families of New Reno

While Zane and the girls haggled with the ranchers from Winnemucca regarding the trade of weapons and armor for their livestock. The representatives of Elysium were busy discussing matters with the City Council of New Reno.

Each of the members present on the City Council belonged to one of the four "Families" that had formed out of the thousands of survivors within the settlement. These so-called families were similar to the concept of "guilds" or "clans" that were commonly found in MMORPGs.

But in reality, they acted more like the Mafia insofar that each family owned a section of the settlement of New Reno, where they extorted the people who resided within their turf. Or at least those who were not a member of the Family themselves.

The representatives of Elysium, or "Missionaries" as they were known, had travelled far and wide in search of other human settlements to convert to their religion. These were just some of many who traversed the wasteland looking to spread the message of their goddess, who had the mystical power to not only heal the wounded and the sick, but to increase the power of her believers at a rapid rate.

While this may be a reason for other settlements to convert to their cult, to the people of New Reno, who already had access to a healer, this was nothing but laughable. After all they already had access to the healing services of Angelica whose residence was within the nearby settlement of Gravestone, and unlike the so called Goddess of Elysium, she did not demand that they worship her.

It was because of this fact that the City Councilmen were not interested in what Elysium was preaching, some of which were more than willing to say this bluntly.

Among the City Councilmen was a mature woman with striking red hair, and an elaborately decorated eyepatch. Her hair was unkempt and wild, much like her personality, and it more resembled the mane of a lion than it did a human hairstyle.

The locals knew this woman as Rita, and she was a member of the Family known as the Diamonds, which was one of the four Families of New Reno. Each of the families was named after one of the four suits in a game of cards.

Due to her bold and outlandish personality, she was more than willing to laugh in the face of Elysium's missionaries after they boasted of their goddess and her incredible abilities.

"Goddess? You fools have been duped! Your so called Goddess is just an awakened survivor who can heal the injured. We would know, after all, we ourselves have contact with such an individual. We call her the Saintess, but that's just a nickname, one that nobody takes seriously, herself included.

If you think we are all going to become members of your cult because you also have someone who has the rare ability to heal the sick and wounded, then I am afraid you wasted your visit. But you two should enjoy yourselves while you're in New Reno. After all, there is plenty to do here other than just proselytize, if you get what I mean."

Reno had always been a city known for its vice. In many ways, it was just a smaller and more destitute version of Las Vegas. Or it had been prior to the outbreak of the apocalypse. Even so, the survivors within the ruins had managed to recreate this culture of drugs, sex, gambling, and alcohol a little too well.

But the Missionaries of Elysium were not interested in such sinful endeavors, instead they became alert when they heard that a blasphemer existed within the boundaries of New Reno, or so they had thought. After all, Rita did not actually say that Angelica lived in New Reno, simply that the residents of the settlement had access to her services.

Despite this, the Missionaries did not know this, and instead became borderline hostile as they demanded to know who this blasphemer was, and where she was located.

"Blasphemy! Only the Goddess can cure the infected and the injured! We demand that you hand this heretic over to us this instant!"

While the City Councilmen of New Reno had entertained the Missionaries of Elysium until now, largely because they took enjoyment in silently mocking them, their benevolence towards these outsiders had vanished when the Missionaries made demands of them.

Although Angelica resided in Gravestone, the residents of New Reno quite literally had her to thank for their continued wellbeing. Without Angelica's healing services, many of them would have perished, or turned into an undead by now.

It was because of this that even these mobster like figures were quite protective of her. Not only would they never hand Angelica over to these cultists, but they would also never tell her where she resided.

With one man, who was the representative of the Spades family, standing up from his seat in an intimidating gesture, where he chastised the missionaries for their lack of decorum.

"You come to our home in an attempt to convert out people to your cult, while offering nothing in return, only to demand that we hand over one of our residents to you? The audacity? Who do you little shits think you are!?!"

Despite his intimidating gesture, the Missionaries were undeterred from their quest to find this so-called blasphemer and apprehend her. While the representative of the Spades Family may be quite powerful among the residents of New Reno, with his level being around ten. He was significantly weaker than the Missionaries of Elysium.

Missionaries were trusted with spreading the word of their paradise to those unfortunate souls who had not yet discovered the light of their goddess in this otherwise dark and dreary world. Because of this, they were among the most powerful fighter within the Cult of Elysium, not to mention the most fanatical of its members.

If anything, these two missionaries were closer to Zane's level than they were to the City Councilmen, and because of this, they were not the least bit afraid, despite the threatening gesture that the Representative of the Spades Family had just made.

"Please, quell your anger. It is unbecoming of a weakling such as yourself. If the four of you came at me alone right now, you would not survive the encounter. So how about you just hand over this blasphemer to us so that it doesn't come to that?"

Being called a weakling, when he was among the most powerful residents of New Reno, was a serious blow to the man's ego. And thus he did not hesitate to respond as he threw an overhand fist straight towards the face of his opponent.

The missionary did not move in the slightest, nor did he make a move to intercept the oncoming fist. Instead, he simply stood there, and let it collide with his face. But it was not he who was howling in pain, rather it was the representative of the Spades family who fell to the floor, clutching his hand, whose bones had been shattered to pieces, as he stared in terror at the man responsible.

"What… What the hell did you just do to me?"

The Missionary wore a stoic expression as he explained the difference between someone like him, and someone like the man who had attacked him.

"Funny thing about those attribute points. Once you have more than 20 of them in a single attribute, that attribute becomes super human. I have invested quite a bit of my attribute points into Constitution and because of this my flesh and bone are as tough as iron.

Your meager fist alone is not enough to inflict harm upon me. But if the rest of you would like to test this fact out for yourselves, you are more than welcome to do so!"

Previously, the City Councilmen had all been rather cocky when dealing with these missionaries who dressed like they had come from Ancient Greece. But now, after seeing their strength displayed, the members of the City Council could only back up in fear.

Upon seeing that he had properly intimidated the city councilmen into submission, the Missionary asked once more for the details regarding this so-called blasphemer.

"I will ask you one more time before I get violent. Where is this blasphemer you all so proudly boast about? If you do not hand her over to us, then do not be surprised if we become violent… And I assure you, if that were to happen, then nobody in this run down little hamlet of yours could possible stop our massacre!"

The city councilmen looked at one another with grave expressions on their faces. Although their lives were being threatened, they were all silently in agreement. They would not hand over Angelica.

After all, she was quite literally the lifeline of New Reno, nay the entire population of Northern Nevada as a whole! If she were to be carried off, or god forbid killed by these cultists, then they would all die a miserable death.

Besides, it's not like the combined force of the four families would not be capable of stopping any rampage that these so-called missionaries went on. And thus they all grinned as they stubbornly refused the demands of Elysium with a particularly vulgar suggestion.

"Eat shit!"