Chapter 109 — The Emergence of the "Trait"
Thump… thump…
Sadie's heartbeat raced as she clutched the cross tightly in her hand. Compared to the monsters they had faced before, this one was on an entirely different level.
Fortunately, the holy relics had stopped its advance. She finally let out a shaky breath.
Beside her, Lance had already recovered. The corruption clinging to him had vanished, leaving him staring in disbelief at the monster.
With the power it had displayed, even the three of them together stood little chance. Yet a single statue had managed to hold it back.
"This… is the true strength of the Church?" Lance thought to himself, half-convinced Father Gideon must be some kind of archbishop.
Meanwhile, Ralph squinted, already calculating whether it was possible to join the Church and marry Sadie.
"According to our plan, I'll go in first. You two guard the statue." Lance bound his arm with gauze before rising. His cursed blood would heal him soon enough, but as a doctor, he refused to leave a wound unattended.
Before he could move, Ralph clamped a hand on his shoulder.
"Annoying bastard. Can't let you hog all the glory in front of the lady."
He pulled a small hammer from his leather bag and adjusted the brim of his hat. Lance opened his mouth but shut it again—Ralph was right, he was still injured.
"Be careful," Sadie added softly.
Ralph tipped his hat and stepped silently into the hall.
The holy relics created a pocket of safety near the entrance. Ralph walked calmly to the very edge.
The Assassin still battered the barrier, its gaze locking onto him the instant he approached.
Ralph shifted to the side wall, keeping a safe distance from the statue. Planting his feet, he crooked a finger in mockery.
The monster snapped its attention to him, but its strike once again bounced harmlessly off the invisible ward.
In that moment of hesitation, Ralph lunged just past the boundary.
"Father Gideon said… start with blunt force."
Recalling the instructions, he swung the hammer down hard on the creature's armor.
Clang!
The blow rang out like a cracked bell. The jolt numbed his entire arm, but without hesitation he retreated back behind the barrier.
"Father Gideon said—strike and retreat, success or failure doesn't matter."
Sure enough, the Assassin's spike slammed into the exact spot he had just vacated.
"Whew… that was close."
Ralph lit a cigarette, dragging deep. Smoke curled from his lips. His eyes gleamed with excitement.
"Next—sharp weapons."
And so, following Gideon's method, they tested one attack after another: knives, molotovs, firearms.
Sadie and Lance rotated in and out, each taking turns to strike and retreat.
This was Gideon's strategy—systematically probing the monster's defenses with minimal risk.
Of course, Gideon already knew the weaknesses. But having the hunters prove it themselves built their confidence and discipline. And above all, it was safe.
Normally, hunters would never attempt such a drawn-out process. Every second spent against an elite monster was another step closer to death.
But with the priest's relics anchoring the fight, time itself favored them.
For the first time in their lives, Sadie and the others found battling an elite monster… almost easy. All they had to do was dance back and forth across the line, whittling away at the Assassin.
The monster, however, was in torment—forced to defend against constant strikes while struggling futilely to reclaim its territory. Even when it entered a berserk state, producing five phantoms and swarming the hall with insects, the barrier held.
The three hunters shivered. Without the holy relics, this thing would have been unbeatable.
During the tests, Sadie discovered a way to break its armor: a vial of Bee Venom from the Hive Queen, combined with Allard family armor-piercing rounds.
The plates cracked, then shattered.
After that, it was only a matter of exploiting the exposed weaknesses. Molotovs and incendiary grenades finished the job.
The Assassin collapsed with a thunderous crash.
Lance started forward, but Sadie raised a hand.
"Don't. Wait."
She had learned caution—never assume a kill until it was certain.
"Smart," Gideon murmured from above, nodding in approval. He had watched the entire encounter. At first, when Lance was wounded, he had considered intervening. But they had quickly adapted, following his plan with iron discipline.
If only the characters from American Horror had that kind of sense, he mused, Satan himself could have retired early.
Below, a new phenomenon emerged.
The monster's body began to swirl, a vortex forming at its core. Outside, thunder cracked across the skies of the plague zone.
Sadie's eyes lit up.
This was the sign of a Trait's emergence—a process that took several minutes.
She also confirmed the monster was truly dead.
Still, none of the hunters lowered their weapons. If anything, their guard rose higher than before.
The scene outside the fortress was spectacular—so much so that it could be seen across the entire Plague Zone.
Which meant every hunter out there now knew where to go.
Still uneasy, Lance slipped upstairs to a window to take a look for himself.
"This is…?"
He froze at what he saw.
Sure enough, many hunting parties were converging through the forest—but all of them were battered and bloodied, forced to take the routes swarming with the most monsters.
"So they did fall for it…"
Lance's eyes gleamed, his mind sparking with fresh ideas for trap-laying.
---
Meanwhile, at the fortress gate.
A rhythmic pounding of boots echoed through the trees before a pack of hounds emerged from the shadows.
Zod clenched his fist. At once, every hound stopped and crouched low, waiting for orders.
Vinnia quickly pulled chunks of meat from her satchel and fed them to the lead dogs, wiping grime from her face—clearly, she hadn't rested once along the way.
"Someone's already beaten the elite monster. We've arrived at the perfect time," said Dolbora, gripping the Revelation Stone.
Zod nodded grimly. The Cooper family's journey had been anything but easy.
The entrance traps had shown him the changing nature of scents in the Plague Zone. The vanishing oases had cost him a good number of hounds.
Fortunately, they had been tracking another hunter team—one that had clearly been injured fighting monsters. Blood drops had marked their trail the whole way.
It was then that Zod noticed the wooden sign planted at the gate.
He read it once, and his face darkened into a deep frown.
In an instant, the image of that priest flashed across his mind.
Memories resurfaced—the haunted warehouse, the poisoned Dead Dog Tavern, the entrance traps.
Zod's suspicion solidified: all of it had been that man's work.
Cunning bastard.
Hatred boiled in his chest, but so did caution. The priest hadn't placed that sign without purpose.
Scanning the ground, Zod soon found other hunter tracks.
But instead of heading straight to the gate, they split to either side of the fortress.
"They came before us, but avoided the front…?"
Zod narrowed his eyes. At last, he gave the order to circle around as well.
Moments later, the Coopers followed the path Theo's group had taken earlier.
The wreckage was everywhere. Zod frowned again. Why would they willingly walk into traps?
But since others had already "cleared the mines," he had no reason not to take advantage.
"Follow the footprints."
At first, the Cooper party advanced smoothly. But soon, one of the hounds caught a strange scent on the ground and veered off…
---
Inside the fortress.
Sadie lifted a round stone from the monster's corpse. An eye-shaped sigil was etched into its surface.
The prize every hunter coveted—a Trait.
Even holding it, she felt her mind sharpen, her thoughts cleared, as though a cool breeze had brushed across her soul.
This was only the Trait's residual power.
If she tried to fuse with it now, the backlash would kill her instantly.
"I've upheld my end of the deal. Now it's your turn," Lance said, stepping forward.
"Relax. The Allard family keeps its word," Sadie replied with a nod.
The three hunters gathered their gear and went upstairs to meet Gideon.
Under Lance's lead, they headed for the place he had spoken of earlier—the Gate.