Grim Reaper in the Apocalypse: Reaping Immortals

Chapter 181 Rogue clones

The Inquisitor's intimidating footsteps immediately silenced all the chatter from the civilians. The soldiers suddenly stood up straight and saluted Pterina as she walked past them.

"It's good to see you, Pterina." Lizzie hugged her and greeted the bespectacled woman.

Pterina looked over to Atlan and greeted him as well.

"How've you been, Star Porter? You're rising faster than we can keep up with."

"It seems so," he replied.

Pterina looked at the civilians next to him and immediately knew what he was up to. "I'm guessing you were curious about the mission in the church."

Atlan nodded.

She looked at the soldiers and survivors curious to know what she would reveal. She pulled Atlan and Lizzie away from the crowd for some privacy.

"First of all, it looks like we'll have to postpone your SoulTime bonus for now, Atlan. I invited you to the church so that you can claim it, but an expected Symptom changed that."

"Do you know what it is?"

She nodded. "Yes. It's a Canzer that you're familiar with and ran into quite recently. It's the Gastros Enterifrits."

Atlan was surprised. "The Ifrit?!"

He didn't think that another Ifrit would coincidentally spawn just the very next day they defeated them at the Masamune district.

"Are Ifrits that common?" he asked.

"No. You know about Infection Canzers, correct? Well sometimes, as they multiply by the thousands, a few rogue clones travel through the Remedium and spread to the other places in the City.

Yesterday, a few clones of the Ifrit made their way from the Masamune district all the way to the Genesis Church."

Atlan didn't know that was possible. He knew that Symptoms could spread outwards and infect the neighboring spaces, but he didn't know that they could travel through to the other side of the City without infecting the nearby places first.

The Symptoms described by the survivors finally made sense. If only a few clones of the Ifrit made their way to the Church, then the subsequent temperature increase would only be enough to turn it up by a few degrees.

If it's the same Ifrit as the one we faced in the Masamune district, then it's easy to kill.

Atlan killed hundreds of clones just using a barrage of punches powered by his Physique LifeSkill. Killing a few rogue clones should be easy.

However, when he looked at the church and the barricade set up to protect it, the danger level of the mission was completely unequal.

There was an entire steel wall about 10 feet tall installed in the perimeter around the Church. With how large it was, and how fast they installed it, it must have taken a lot of resources to set up.

By his count, there must have been a thousand soldiers on stand-by next to the wall, and even more stationed around the buildings surrounding the Church.

Even in the carnage and destruction in the Masamune district that took the lives of hundreds of humans and dwarves, HeadQuarters didn't station as many soldiers and guards during that mission.

There were also 6th stage Saviors on guard duty, preventing anyone from entering the Church.

It didn't make sense. Ifrits could be killed by 6th stage Saviors, but they were only delegated as guards in this mission.

The Church is a Critical Point, but isn't this too much? They're only facing a few Ifrits. By using the oil lamp, they could be dealt with in just a few minutes.

"Can I ask why they had to have all these guards? Why is there a huge steel wall covering the Church? Why are the four major roads leading to the church blocked?"

Pterina saw the curiosity in Atlan's eyes and couldn't help but be impressed. If he didn't become a Vanguard, then she was sure that he would have made a great Operator.

He was asking questions that no Vanguard ever took the time to ask.

"The four major roads are blocked because they are part of the Church. I'm sure you noticed that the Heat Wave yesterday was only contained in the Masamune district. That's because each district, each part of the City corresponds to a different Remedium.

A Remedium in the Church is completely different from a Remedium in the Masamune district. They're two different dimensions, so you can't access one by going through the other.

The Church's Remedium can be accessed by opening a portal inside the Church itself as well as the four major roads leading to it.

If some insane and bored person tried to enter the Remedium through the roads, then they could end up going to the church and interfering in the current mission.

That would be even more dangerous than a Canzer.

We can prepare for a Canzer and we know how to defeat it, but if we get sabotaged while on a mission, it could cause the entire team to be wiped out."

With how integral the Church was to the City, it made sense why HeadQuarters allocated so much manpower around it.

"I understand why there is so much protection outside, but why is it taking too long? Isn't it only an Ifrit?"

If another 3rd stage Savior said those words, they would get laughed at for being ignorant of an Ifrit's threat. But Atlan already proved that he had what it took to defeat Ifrits while being at a low level.

"We have to be careful. Unlike the other Remediums, we have to make sure that we keep the destruction to a minimum. It could result in an unexpected Symptom. That's why we dispatched a reliable team to finish the mission."

"Who?" he asked.

"Specialists."

Atlan was shocked. Specialists dispatched to take care of a 6th-stage Student difficulty Canzer? That was overkill. A Specialist was three stages above a Student!

"Ninth and her team have proven themselves to have a good success rate. It's a good choice," Lizzie commented.

Neumann's daughter is a Specialist?! I didn't know the daughter he talked about was such a big shot! Whenever he talks about her, I always think of her as a young student like me.

With a Specialist in charge of such an easy mission, HeadQuarters was assured that the Church would be safe from any harm. Even if it was overkill, they would rather waste resources than fail a mission in a Critical Point.

BUUUGSHHHHH

Just then, an explosion disintegrated the Church's black spires, sending rubble flying all over the air.