Bear School Astartes

Lawrence’s beast-like body is undoubtedly on a different level from the bodies of ordinary clergy after transformation.

Lann doesn’t know the principle behind this difference.

Perhaps it is the advantage of his status as the archbishop, founder of the Healing Church, the discoverer of ”Blood Healing,” and more that gives Lawrence’s blood an unimaginably high quality and makes him extraordinarily strong after transformation.

Or perhaps it’s because he orchestrated the murder of the Divine Son, thereby receiving an additional curse like Ludwig, who delivered the final blow at the murder scene.

Or maybe being the ’first clergy beast’ holds special significance in this world, rendering Lawrence himself special.

In any case, compared to the clergy beast that the elderly Mark will become in the ’future’ Yan’an, Lawrence now seems almost gentle.

Lawrence possesses greater strength, a more frenzied state, and most uniquely... the flames and molten lava on him seem never to exhaust!

The dense black hair of beastly patients ignites easily, which is why people in the Yanyan Region have the common knowledge of ’using fire against beasts.’

The clergy beast is no exception.

But on Lawrence, this flame seems to shoot heat from within his bones; his marrow and blood are scorching magma!

What flame can harm him?

It’s him using the flame to harm others!

”Aooo!!!”

The bizarre beast roared, smashing its damaged lumbar vertebra straight away, leaving no last bit of connection between its upper and lower body!

Then, from the broken lumbar vertebra, the lava almost sprayed out!

In just an instant, the volume of lava flowing out was even larger than the abandoned lower half!

One cannot imagine where this quality of magma emerges from.

The semi-solid magma accumulated thickly at Lawrence’s lumbar fracture, then dispersed and spread under gravity.

The high temperature suddenly raised the cathedral’s temperature by a dozen degrees!

The cathedral, originally not well-lit, with a somewhat eerie, deep aura, now bathed in orange-red light, with heat felt on the skin!

In terms of impact range, Lawrence is far inferior to the Flame King Dragon.

But the lava on him is genuinely magma, not some illusion or sleight of hand!

As the lava gushed out, the frenzied hunter whose Hunter’s Axe handle was chopped off by Lann just now was almost silently knocked down by the thick and plentiful magma.

Next, these high-temperature semi-solid materials swiftly burned the unfortunate frenzied Old Hunter into a solid black ash scattering over the hot orange-red lava.

The cathedral’s marble floor was ground and abraded by the lava, and even the air became like a distorted funhouse mirror due to the intense heat.

The spreading lava looked slow, but no one could stop it, until it nearly covered the entire cathedral!

But just as the hunter’s frenzied and meaningless shouting ceased, and the arena was left almost solely with Lawrence’s beastly roars...

A delicate metal ball was thrown into the sky, landing next to the stone altar.

With a ”boom,” the Alchemy Bomb exploded, and a white cold mist suddenly spread out with the blast.

Alchemy Bomb [High North Wind].

The flowing lava before the stone table instantly cooled into black solid rock with a ”sizzle.”

The rock that was magma seconds ago turned into a dam blocking the lava from reaching the stone table.

And in the twisted air where the bomb was thrown, a tall figure stood.

Standing there, ignoring the ’sizzle’ sound of lava erosion!

The fog layer created by [Curse Technique: Profuse Sweating] envelops the body, and this armor named [Smaug], due to using the Lonely Mountain Evil Dragon’s scales, possesses extraordinary defense and flame resistance.

Lava?

Its temperature is only about one thousand two hundred or three degrees Celsius, not far above gold melting point.

And that evil dragon called Smaug, enveloped entirely by molten gold, seemed unfazed, discomforted only by the gold’s weight and not by heat.

Dense layers of dragon scale armor insulated the lava outside.

Stepping on it emitted white smoke, unable to harm the person within the armor.

Lann emerged from the heated and twisted air, frowning at the frenzied Lawrence.

The Demon Hunter remained calm; Lawrence was not his target, killing the beast he had become changed nothing.

After roughly tracing the nightmare’s root, his consistent target was the corpse of the Cos Orphan.

But since Lawrence is blocking this target, and seems set to destroy it...

”It must be handled.”

With one hand thick and the other delicate, the clergy beast now only has the upper body, paddling its two hands in the lava as if swimming toward Lann.

And above the magma, the Demon Hunter already held the Greatsword sparkling with deep moonlight.

Around him, even amidst the magma’s blaze, the floating light spots akin to living creatures gathered on the sword, intensifying the moonlight’s brightness!

”Buzz~”

Amidst the deep and mesmerizing sound of energy swirling, a thick stream of light shot straight towards Lawrence who lunged forward like he was swimming!

[Moonlight Stream]!

”Aooo!”

Lawrence roared with his mouth wide open.

But just as it opened its mouth, the surging yet calm stream of light smashed directly onto its face!

That wolf-like head was sliced off by more than half on its side under the stream of light!

Its left side face, along with its left neck and half of the shoulder, was blasted to pieces by the immense force!

The roar abruptly ceased in the [Moonlight Stream].

Ultimately, Lawrence wasn’t the kind of Hunter who treated blood vials as daily items; its life force was nowhere near as grotesque as Ludwig’s.

Immediately, the giant beast, which was swimming towards Lann, had its two hands powerlessly flop down on the lava ground.

Only the forward momentum carried the beast’s upper body crashing down and plowing ahead.

Stirring up a wave of thick, sticky lava.

As Lawrence fell, Lann sprang into action once more.

He had no intention of getting caught up in the heat of the moment, heading straight towards the half-corpse of the divine child on the stone table.

If Lawrence hadn’t been in this limiting terrain, and its wild, indiscriminate attacks potentially endangered the divine child’s corpse, he might not have even bothered with this guy.

But as it turned out, he ended up personally killing the founder of the Healing Church, the archbishop, and ’in the future’ killed the church’s proxy Amelia in the same Great Cathedral...

The top echelon of the Healing Church had been wiped out two generations by him.

The distorted half-corpse of the divine child remained twisted on the stone table, and Lann gave it a yank.

Having already covered it with a waterproof cloth while transporting the body, he wrapped the emaciated, bizarre, and sticky corpse entirely, then snatched it away with one hand.

Lann, with this thing on his back, hurried towards the Great Cathedral’s exit while treading on the sizzling magma.

The unknown scholar who had stolen the other half of the divine child’s body had already been gone for at least two minutes.

Though the entire Church Town was now sealed off, who knew what assistance that guy might have in Church Town?

Lann descended the stairs, making predictions about this nightmare’s progression with Mentos based on ’future’ Yan’an’s situation.

The Healing Church referred to blood therapy produced by unofficial means as ’Blood of Filth.’

And in the future, Lann had heard that in Maria’s hometown, Cainhurst, the Blood Nobility had secluded themselves and become the Blood Race of Filth.

Undoubtedly, they must have acquired blood therapy technology through unofficial channels outside the Healing Church. That’s how they earned that title.

And the accident that led to the outflow of Ancient God’s blood and knowledge... perhaps it was this time!

That scholar took away the entire lower half of Kos Orphan’s body!

This means that in ’future’ history, he succeeded!

Even though it was amidst the chaos that destroyed Old Yan’an entirely, managing to leave Church Town of the Healing Church with something so vital, he must have had help or a plan.

As expected, by the time Lann dashed out of the Great Cathedral with the half-wrapped body, all of Church Town was in utter chaos.

Screams and flames still raged in Church Town, barely better than the completely engulfed Old Yan’an, but not by much.

Yet the scholar was completely gone from sight.

Within two minutes, did he escape amidst the chaos without a trace?

Lann squinted slightly, while binding the waterproof cloth securely before placing the half-corpse into his Alchemy Pouch.

”Sigh~”

Lann adjusted his breathing, thereby controlling his senses through his breathing and heart rate.

His amber cat eyes, with vertical pupils, began to constrict restlessly.

If it were an ordinary Hunter from Yan’an, they would probably have lost track of people in such chaos.

But... trailing behind now was a Demon Hunter!

Amidst the flickering flames, amidst collapsing buildings and people’s cries, Lann’s vision shifted.

A trail of footprints rushing out from the Great Cathedral grew vivid in his eyes.

Even if Church Town’s ground was paved with bricks, leaving virtually no trace when stepped on, such a phenomenon was enough for the extraordinary senses of a Demon Hunter!

”You can’t escape.”

He murmured in a declarative tone as Lann raised his head, tracking the footprints leading deep into Church Town.

He chased after them, while glancing in the direction where Maria was. Although it was chaotic, the Female Hunter was nowhere to be seen, presumably having already escaped.

Without wanting to use the Blood Nobility’s special secret technique, the sheer number of enemies was a tough challenge, but it was not so severe that she couldn’t make her escape.