「 IMpuRiTY! 」the monster uttered a resounding roar as its body morphed again.
The lanky canine-looking creature's limbs began to writhe, two large bulges of flesh manifested on its back before finally exploding. The membranes of the bulges were directly ripped through as a large number of tentacles stretched out from within, a pair of 'wings' made of tentacles swiftly showed up in front of everyone.
A yellowish-green liquid splattered everywhere as the bulges exploded, exuding a rancid sour smell that caused numerous people to back off.
The monster howled and screeched in a frenzy as its body slowly started to mutate irregularly. Originally it still seemed like a canine, despite its nauseating appearance, but after this mutation, the monster couldn't even maintain a basic appearance.
The forces who had gathered here kept a close eye on the monster, but none of them tried to approach it just yet.
As Chromie arrived at the same, right after a bit of observation, he managed to sort out the opposition forces at the scene.
"The Patrols, Night Watchers, the Hermit Order, as well as some hidden evil cultists of various cults" Chromie quickly understood the allure of the Gear of Impurity after just a bit of observation.
This thing was still incomplete, but it was already capable of stimulating the host's body to constantly mutate. Something from inside the Gear was capable of causing any life form whose body it inhabited to quickly evolve, even the most mundane living creature would quickly evolve and reach the level of a supernatural creature in a few hours.
However, there was one issue with this: the instability of this evolution. Not only did the evolutions occur too rapidly, but most of the time, the mutations were irregular and random, even a normal human could mutate into a literal living mess.
To obtain a relatively safe and matured Gear, there was a need to sacrifice sufficient lives to make up what was missing.
The monster that had mutated to an unrecognizable degree uttered one last illegible screech, then collapsed as its body crumbled and melted into a blob of filthy fluids.
A jet-black gear rolled out from within that, its pristine black coating wasn't tainted by any of the dirty mess on the ground, as if the monster's previous mutations had nothing to do with it.
"Fire! Destroy that blasphemous thing!" before Chromie could say anything, the knights in the Patrol had already impatiently attacked.
After undergoing reforms, the newly formed Saint Hunters were responsible for hunting down any illegal organization, while the Night Watchers' responsibility after their restructuring continued to be hunting dangerous night creatures.
While the Patrol's responsibilities were related to everything in between. Their job was to investigate anything unusual within the city, making sure that no dangerous items harmed the lives, property, or safety of the church's believers.
The three departments had different responsibilities, but their work sometimes intersected with one another. For example, this incident involved the black gear, which was related to an illegal organization, it created dangerous creatures of the night, and it posed a threat to the church's believers.
At the same time, the people of the Patrols mostly belonged to the Conservative faction, as they only cared about preserving the benefit of believers without actually caring about the safety of normal citizens, they had even frankly stated that it was the city police's job instead.
While most people from the Reformist faction's personnel were funneled into the Saint Hunters, not only did this department include knights and priests, they also had believers with shallow faith like Chromie, as this department valued ability more than anything else.
The church also had various non-combative departments, like the Missionary Troupe responsible for spreading faith; or departments that were still under construction like the Combat Priests.
Compared to their previous chaotic organization, this was already much better, but sometimes, the Patrols simply acted like a stick in the mud. They did not care about the bigger picture or the grand scheme of things; the only thing they considered was their own benefits and faith.
Furthermore, they treated the Saint Hunters – who were lacking in faith – as well as the Night Watchers - who were originally a collection of scums – as inferior, believing that it was the faithful like themselves to be the true elites of the church.
For this reason, despite having discussed with the others what to do before they fought, the Patrols didn't actually care too much about that plan. If there was a wicked blasphemous object, then they simply needed to be eliminated. The church didn't make compromises, as the most powerful organization of the region, this had always been how the Sun Shadow church operated.
With that thought in mind, they immediately attacked the gear, shooting arrows clad in divine techniques as red streaks of light towards the gear that altered its host.
They have a death wish…
Quite a few people had the same thought as they watched the Patrol's actions.
These people still held the notion that the Sun Shadow church was the dominant force, failing to recognize that the times had changed. Although the church was powerful, it wasn't omnipotent, especially when it became the enemy of the majority.
And right at this moment, it was the majority that craved to obtain the Gear.
A completed Gear could allow the human body to break through their limits, obtaining near-immortal vitality, as well as the blasphemous power of Impurity. Finally, there would also be a random ability contained within the gear.
Even a normal person who obtained the Gear could rapidly become a powerful individual, which made it so that countless people of Lohr coveted these Gears.
At this very location, there were at least three evil cultists who were hired by some wealthy merchant or an influential figure, all for the sake of obtaining this single Gear.
Almost immediately, the battle began on all fronts. Before the monster died, everyone held back to retain their strength and not waste it on the monster; after all, everyone knew that the monster would eventually die on its own. Once the spoils had shown itself, everyone sprang into action.
The ground rumbled and shifted, several hands of earth reached out from below to try and grab the Gear. At the same time, the blades of grass around it suddenly plucked themselves out from the ground, sprouting arms and hands while screeching and rushing towards everyone in their vicinity.
Several mundane birds that were perching on top of the surrounding buildings also abruptly displayed cruel expressions before growing exponentially in size. The birds' feathers scattered all over as they swooped down like hawks towards their prey, attempting to grab the gear with their talons.
The square that only had around 10-20 people gathered earlier had doubled in number in just the blink of an eye.
Furthermore, having used his Fearless Spirit, Chromie noticed that several spirits and entities from other aspects of the world had also weaved among the people, waiting for their chance to steal the gear for themselves.
Negary merely tossed out a single gear, and every manner of goblins and hoblins came crawling out from their holes.
…
On top of the clock tower, Negary sat atop his throne with a book in his hand. The giant clock face was right behind him, the minute hand of the clock moved slowly but unceasingly from the turning gears of its mechanism, until finally it reached the top and chimes of the bell resounded throughout the entire town of Lohr.
〖 Your grace, Eternal Heat, may I ask from what do I owe this honor? 〗Negary looked forward and stated such a thing. Although he was clearly using respectful language, his tone didn't contain a single bit of respect.
Naturally, an entity of the other party's caliber didn't care about the respect of other beings in the first place. A sun-like existence was giving off light as it hovered in front of him, causing its surroundings to distort and warp, shifting from their normal state, or rather, everything was displaying more of their mystical sides.
Negary simply observed it all, the assorted rays of light, the innumerable halos, the sickening beating sound, and the furnace-like heat.
After an unknown amount of time, everything ultimately faded away. Negary glanced at the book that he had inadvertently squeezed his fingerprints onto and relaxed his hands. The book quickly grew a pair of wings made of tentacles, flapped them and returned to the bookshelf. The fingerprints had already been erased after the book moved around just a bit.
