SCP Corporation: Contain Bonfire

Chapter 58: Strengthen_1

“Could it be that those people were sent here on purpose?”

Colin harbored a suspicion; aside from the guy who had slipped and provided a sizable meal for the monstrous creature, the other rioters hadn’t been attacked and some could have easily escaped.

Yet it seemed as if not one had fled. In fact, they appeared rather excited, charging forward as if they were deliberately seeking their own demise.

Colin couldn’t help but suspect they were sent intentionally.

Moreover, it looked like they used some secret passage to get in, which would have been nearly impossible without someone from inside the Church to guide them.

On top of that, there was the “Gluttonous Feast” that drew people away.

All of this hinted at a bigger scheme that had been set up behind the scenes, one that they were witnessing unfold, incomprehensible as it might be to them and likely part of the plan.

But before he could think further, another violent vibration came from behind, chunks of cracking stone falling from the ceiling. Colin promptly adjusted his position, narrowly avoiding the fallout.

“Forget it, no matter what their plans and conspiracies are, when facing a monster of that size, all I can do is choose to trust,” he thought.

Colin felt that there was a chance the Bonfire Company would directly intervene, as described in the mission briefing.

He had a fair amount of trust in the Company’s capabilities to handle the terrifying creature within the church, except for the Descent Protocol.

God knows if they actually intervened, how far off course things might go because of that protocol…

Hopefully, the Company would prove effective when the time came…

Colin took a deep breath, adjusted his breathing, and continued walking. He soon left the crumbling church behind and escaped to the outside.

Aside from Tang Ken, of the six guards who had initially set out with him, only two remained. Behind him, some panicked Church personnel were also scrambling out.

“What happened?”

No sooner had Colin emerged than Helena and others surrounded him, with several hundred soldiers following behind her, faces filled with horror as they observed the church that was still sending out vibrations.

What on earth could cause such earth-shaking rumbles?

“Run first,”
Colin didn’t waste words; a single phrase conveyed his attitude.

On the way, he quickly and briefly shared with Helena what he had witnessed inside the church.

“A formless entity over ten meters tall?”

The old butler’s face mirrored disbelief, a chill running down his spine as if recalling the giant beings emerging from the Magic Fog during the Mist Disaster and the fear they inspired.

And the one in the church was probably even more terrifying than those from the Mist Disaster.

“It wants to sacrifice everyone in the entire city to truly descend? Such a grand-scale ritual… Has Laurenson lost his mind? Does he not realize what he’s summoning?”

The old butler cursed: “An Evil God could be summoned because of this!”

“It’s likely that he orchestrated everything, but it’s too late to discuss that now. That thing, as it stands, is not something we can handle,”
Colin and the others made their way quickly towards the castle structure in the city’s center: “At least for the next few days, it should not be able to break through. Our main issue now is handling the common people infected with Beast Transformation Syndrome.”

On this front, he also had no clue why regular people were suddenly falling ill.

Warden Calder, who was accompanying the group, spoke up: “I’ll take some of the Holy Healing Church members in for questioning later. I don’t believe they’ve come up with absolutely nothing over these past few months… ”
“Good.”

Colin nodded. Whether it was finding the source of infection, methods of protection, or even just identifying who was infected with “Beastification” beforehand, any of these three methods were vitally important to him!

If these were not possible, saving people in the upcoming actions would be nothing but a harm to himself.

Suddenly, a towering figure emerged from an alley and blocked their path.

A pair of eyes glowed with a greenish light, staring at the group.

“Mid-to-Late First Stage ‘Beastification’.”

Warden Calder, standing nearby, saw a tall, skinny man who gripped a cross sword in his right hand, his body crouching as he focused on the monster, “Leave it to me!”

As soon as he finished speaking, he didn’t wait for the warden beside him to intervene. He surged forward, fast as an accelerating cheetah, and in an instant, he was at the monster’s side.

His sword swung, aiming to behead the “Beastification” sufferer.

“This sudden burst move is somewhat interesting…”

Colin silently assessed, hoping to learn it if the opportunity arose.

His current strength relied entirely on various artifacts, and what belonged to his body itself was not significant.

However, just as he finished his assessment, an abrupt change occurred ahead of him.

Bang.

Crack.

The clear sound of breaking bones echoed.

The tall, skinny man screamed, his body flying backward. His right hand was broken, dangling from his chest by skin and flesh, and as for the sword, it had already fallen to the ground.

But he couldn’t worry about that now; seeing the Beast Transformation Syndrome sufferer that had just countered successfully and was now lunging at him, he held his breath, his pupils shrinking.

Bang!

In that moment, a glimmer of light appeared behind him, and a bullet entered the enemy’s forehead.

The Beast Transformation Syndrome sufferer’s attack came to an abrupt halt, but he didn’t fall; instead, his body stiffened in place.

Then another robust figure rushed out; it was Calder, whose fat had transformed into muscle.

Dragging his heavy sword, he cleaved the monster in two on the spot.

“What are you still hiding there for?”

Colin scolded the one who was still in a daze, putting away his smoking revolver. He frowned, looking at the Beast Transformation Syndrome sufferer with the bullet hole in his forehead.

Others might not have grasped what had just happened.

But Colin saw it quite clearly; the mid-to-late first-stage Beast Transformation Syndrome sufferer had narrowly ducked his head a step earlier, narrowly avoiding the decapitating strike.

In the ensuing counterattack, had the tall, skinny man not reacted promptly, he might have been impaled through the heart by the creature’s hand.

And the ability used by the Beast Transformation Syndrome sufferer was something he was familiar with—”Deadly Insight”!

It could allow a person to detect a fatal attack coming one or two seconds in advance.

In life-or-death combat, this ability was simply a killer move.

Its weakness was also quite prominent: with short, frequent, deadly threats, it could not provide insight, and it wouldn’t work when the mind was affected.

When fighting the Human Patchwork Monster, Colin had his “Deadly Insight” disrupted by a psychic attack. For someone prepared and aware, this passive ability wasn’t difficult to counter.

However, that wasn’t the key point; the key was that Colin remembered that mid-to-late first-stage “Beastification” shouldn’t have such an ability!

“Could it be that because of that thing’s appearance, all of the ‘Beastification’ have been enhanced?”

While Colin speculated inwardly, Calder also came to the side of his assistant, pulling him up, “I told you, don’t go rushing in like that. Even if you don’t think about yourself, you should at least think about your dad. He most likely wouldn’t want to see his son die the same way he did…”

“Thank you,” the assistant said, not saying much else.

“You should thank that guy…”

Warden Calder pointed to Colin; it was largely due to Colin’s timely intervention that he could rescue the man in one piece.

Even though he already knew Colin’s identity at this moment, there still was an unbroken veil of pretense between them.

And at this time, other places were filled with more screams and low growls.