Bear School Astartes

”That is the child of Great God Kos, belonging to the oceanic Great God Kos, the nameless orphan left behind.”

Simon’s voice was as distant as if he were recounting some ancient tale.

”The god’s corpse drifted with the waves to the beach of the fishing hamlet. The fishermen here worshipped Him, revered Him, and in the end turned themselves into fish-men. Able to coexist with the sea.”

”But... that is a divine child! Kos’s orphan, bereft of all protection!”

As the child of an Ancient God, it was only natural that He was born already bearing the rank of a god-child.

Yet because His mother was already dead, Kos’s orphan was left without any guardian.

The Ancient Gods’ hunger for god-children is something mortals can never comprehend.

It may even be that Kos willingly died for the sake of the god-child’s birth.

But at a distance this close to Yan’an, once news that ”a god-child has appeared” leaked out...

Half-kneeling on the ground, leaning forward with his arm clasped by Simon’s hand, Lann turned his head to look out of the loft.

Corpses strewn across the ground, houses engulfed in gasoline flames... this is the outcome!

Using the last of his strength to finish recounting his investigation, this lucid Old Hunter also brought his life, within this nightmare, to an end.

As for why the Healing Church would go to such lengths to gather so many Hunters and come here to hunt that Kos Orphan, Simon had not said.

Lann also felt it was not hard to guess.

The god-child’s rank was indisputably lofty, even regarded as on par with an Ancient God.

And once Byron Vis discovered the blood of an Ancient God’s corpse, the sciences, medicine, and arcana of Yan’an erupted into explosive development.

What of a living god-child?

Setting aside, even, the human lust for gain.

Who could say with certainty that this was not part of some other Ancient God’s plan to remove a god-child?

The Ancient Gods all crave god-children, yet none wish for another Ancient God to obtain a god-child.

To sabotage one another, to drag each other down, even to the point of killing a god-child who has already taken flesh and descended—this is easy enough to fathom.

”Then... it all makes sense.”

Lann laid down Simon’s now motionless corpse, rose from his half-kneeling posture, and murmured under his breath.

The Old Hunters had said that the mighty Hunters led by Gremman and Ludwig had already ”completed the hunt.”

This was the Hunters’ nightmare, reflecting the process by which those Hunters committed original sin.

Which meant... the god-child had indeed been killed in this slaughter of the fishing hamlet.

An orphan left by an Ancient God slain—of course that was enough to shape the deepest of nightmares.

”And since the nightmare originates from that murdered orphan, then the most crucial thing within the nightmare is... Sir!”

Mentos swiftly finished sorting through the logic and immediately reported to the main self.

”Mm, indeed.” Lann looked at Simon’s corpse and nodded lightly. ”The key is that god-child’s body.”

The Demon Hunter moved at once, heading toward the place outside the fishing hamlet where Maria had agreed to meet him.

Now, the clues in Lann’s hands and the fruits of Simon’s exploration had already linked into a single line.

The Ashen-Blood disease currently raging in Old Yan’an originated from the fishing hamlet, and appeared to be a kind of oceanic parasitic illness.

The Healing Church’s spies had come to this fishing hamlet; they carried back the source of the Ashen-Blood, and also learned of the Kos Orphan’s existence.

Which of these had been their initial purpose in coming here was now of no importance.

What mattered was that they had begun, in Yan’an, to spread plague in order to study the Ashen-Blood and the knowledge hidden within the disease.

And now they had gathered Hunters to slaughter the entire fishing hamlet, to hunt down the Kos Orphan, all for the sake of the god-child’s knowledge of the Great Ones.

There was no time left!

Both Lann’s instincts and Mentos’s calculations showed this with stark clarity!

The Demon Hunter’s steps, rarely, took on an urgency.

He ran all the way out of the fishing hamlet, and at the place agreed upon with Maria he saw Adeline, peering nervously out from within the carriage, and the white-haired Female Hunter, her Long Blade ”Leaf Fall” already stained with blood, standing guard by the carriage door.

It seemed the Old Hunter originally entrusted with watching the carriage and looking after Adeline had already been ”dealt with” by her.