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"How did the Hunter Association respond?" Illumi asked after King Bradley hung up the phone.
"He'll be coming by military fighter jet. He'll be here in six hours."
Listening to King Bradley, Illumi crouched down, looking at the destroyed street where many local residents were running out of their homes, fleeing.
"Six hours?"
"That is to say, during this time, at least 120,000 people will become its food."
On the street outside the church, a roughly ten-year-old girl with a ponytail was fleeing with a younger boy. She looked back at the black-and-red tentacles interspersed with human corpses in the air, her eyes filled with deep terror.
"Bang..."
While fleeing, the little boy suddenly fell to the ground, scraping his knee. A large patch of skin was abraded, and blood flowed out.
"Sister, I can't run anymore, boohoohoo..." The little boy clutched his knee, crying out in pain, sitting on the ground and refusing to get up.
"Can't stop, can't stop..." Tears welled up in the ponytail girl's eyes too, but she forced back her grief, her face resolute, and grabbed her brother's hand, trying to pull him up.
"Mommy, Daddy, boohoohoo..." The little boy remembered his parents and cried even more sadly, but still reached out and held his sister's hand, stumbling as he ran. Their parents had been impaled by the black-and-red tentacles while trying to save them. Now, among the desiccated corpses held aloft by the black-and-red tentacles, two were their parents.
"Quick, let's go to the church."
"There's a priest in the church. There's God in the church. God will definitely stop the monster." The innocent boy and girl looked ahead, towards the only magnificent church in Pirro City, hoping that God would descend from the sky, as described in books, and help them.
"Creak~" A soft sound, and the church door opened.
"God..." The two had just stepped into the square outside the church, looking at the open church door, both with expressions of expectation and hope.
"Children, quick, come over." However, the imagined deity did not exist. A priest opened the door and ran towards the two children on the edge of the square. He wanted to bring the two children into the church to protect them.
"Boom!" With a loud bang, a house on the street behind them collapsed, and two black-and-red tentacles emerged from it.
"Ah!" The boy and girl looked behind them, both screaming, so scared their legs turned to jelly.
"Don't just stand there, run! Run!" The priest looked even more terrified, but still forced back his fear and ran towards the two, grabbing their hands and accelerating towards the church.
"Hiss hiss..." The two thick black-and-red tentacles scraped against the ground, making faint, chaotic sounds. Suddenly, the tips of the tentacles twisted, fixing onto the priest and the two children like hunters.
"Whoosh!" Two black-and-red tentacles cut through the air, moving rapidly across the ground, smashing through cars and large rocks on the way, striking towards the boy, girl, and priest. The priest heard the sound, looked back, and was scared out of his wits.
"Don't look back, run, run!" The priest pressed down on the children's heads, preventing them from looking back, urging them to run quickly.
And the ponytail girl, while fleeing, felt something observing them. She subconsciously looked up at the church roof.
"Someone." Her eyesight seemed quite good. Even in such a dark night, she could tell at a glance that the three figures on the roof were humans, not sculptures.
"Someone?" The running priest heard the girl's cry and looked up following her gaze. With the help of the surrounding explosions and firelight, he vaguely saw that there were indeed three people standing on the church roof.
"Help, help, save us..." The priest ran, waving his hand at Illumi and the two on the church roof, begging for help. As a priest, a special profession, he knew some secrets and understood that those who could remain safe now were definitely not ordinary people.
"Humans always emit their own brilliance in the darkness. I admire such people." Illumi crouched on the roof, looking at the priest and the boy and girl waving for help below, feeling a pang of emotion.
"Should we save them?" King Bradley inquired.
"No, I was just feeling a little emotional," Illumi replied. In this city, black-and-red tentacles were everywhere. Even they could barely protect themselves. Saving them would only add three more burdens.
More importantly, they had to conserve their stamina until the Hunter Association's reinforcements arrived. If they wasted a lot of stamina fighting the endless black-and-red tentacles to save these three, and then made a mistake in the subsequent plan, more than just these three would die.
"Whoosh whoosh..." Two black-and-red tentacles broke through various obstacles and attacked the priest and the two children. The running priest and boy paused. Two black-and-red tentacles "thump-thumped" through their bodies, lifting them up.
"Run, sister..."
"Child, run, find more people..." Before the words of the two bodies, one large and one small, could finish, the black-and-red tentacles extracted large amounts of blood from their bodies, transforming it into red energy and transporting it towards the altar.
"Brother..." The ponytail girl watched as her brother and the priest instantly became desiccated corpses. Tears welled up in her eyes. Forcing back her grief, she turned and ran towards the church door. As she ran, she looked up at Illumi and the two on the church roof, a hint of hatred rising in her eyes.
"Hey, that little brat seems to have an opinion about our actions." Greed gave a cruel smile. As a Nen Beast born from devouring other people's emotions, Greed and King Bradley both keenly sensed the hatred in the girl's eyes.
"Shall I take care of her?" Greed's right hand's five fingers curled into a fist. His sharp nails popped out, flashing with a cold light like blades.
"No, there's no need for that."
"Boom!" As soon as Illumi finished speaking, the square beneath the ponytail girl's feet suddenly exploded, and a thick black-and-red tentacle burst out of the ground.
"Kyaaa~!!!" A girl's scream pierced the night sky. Her body was impaled by the black-and-red tentacle and lifted high.
"Buzz." A ball of red energy was extracted from the girl's body, and in an instant, she turned into a desiccated corpse.
"As humans, to have such a cruel side towards their own kind." Greed looked down at Illumi, who was crouching on the roof, and sneered.
"I'm not the kind of person who would sacrifice myself for others." Illumi didn't refute. He was inherently a selfish person, and saving these three was purely a waste of stamina.
"How long has it been?" Illumi asked. King Bradley raised his right hand, checked the time, and said. "It's been an hour."
Illumi heard this, slowly rose from the roof, and turned to look in the direction of Pirro City. "The army from Peregros is probably here now."
Under the night sky, faint red lights flickered.