Glenn didn't waste another second as he hurled a tiny light-absorbing ball at the strange humanoid creature made out of vines and thorns, covered in red roses. He couldn't afford to care about destroying the Dormitories anymore. This thing was way too dangerous!
The Blackhole flew at high speed, crashing against the monster's finger. At the point of contact, a rose bloomed out, red petals swallowing the attack. The powerful spell disappeared as if it had never been cast.
Glenn's face turned white, devoid of blood. The vine puppet opened its arms widely, spreading a cloud of spores in the room. The young man held his left, purple hand in front of him, using the invisible shield the cultists protected themselves with to push off the spores.
"...You're a little boring, 3333. Don't you know that we all have high hopes for you?" The creature spoke up, stepping slowly toward Glenn. The young man threw a glance at the window, before hurling his Half-Moon toward the creature, infusing his Mana into it and making it burn up in dark-red flames.
The creature seemed startled and took a step back. Vines came out of his right arm, trying to pierce through Glenn's body or to capture him, but it just kept failing as his target ferociously defended himself by cutting anything that came close to him.
'Damn it!' Glenn gritted his teeth, before infusing a tenth of his total Mana into the axe, hacking down in the creature's direction. A large blade of dark red fire flew toward the vine puppet, who jumped to the side to avoid it.
It shrieked violently, before a torrent of thorny vines came out of his body, filling every spot of the room like barbed wire. The creature retracted its vines, glancing over the whole room. The furniture as well as the cultists' corpses were completely shredded.
But Glenn's body was nowhere to be.
...
"Oh shit!" Glenn's mind spurned at extreme speed as he instantly summoned his Mana to somehow slow his fall from the building. He had managed to jump out of the room an instant before the creature used its big attack. A second before hitting the ground like a crepe, he threw a high-recoil shockwave at the ground, effectively pushing himself up and canceling the momentum. He rolled on the ground for a few meters before hitting a wall, stopping him dead still.
The young man pushed himself up with difficulty, before casually dusting off his destroyed suit. He took a step forward, only to kneel in pain and cough some blood.
He had taken quite a bit of damage, this time. His sleeveless suit, which usually could endure most attacks without ripping, had been mostly shredded by the thorny vines. Both of his arms were bleeding profusely, and his legs were similarly scratched.
"Argh!" Glenn bit down on his lips, his eyes tearing up as the pain suddenly amplified ten-fold. Diamanes panicked inside his host's mind.
'What the hell did you do? One second, I'm sleeping peacefully, the other you're fighting some kind of ungodly creature!' Glenn breathed in and out slowly, pushing down on his opened wounds. He threw an annoyed glance at Diamanes.
'What do you think, idiot? I was also sleeping peacefully, then I've been woken up by some shitty nightmare, and now I'm fighting a monstrosity!' The young man angrily complained, his hand tightening on his wound to try and slow the bleeding. The ground suddenly shook heavily as the creature landed not far from him.
It seemed like it had found him. Glenn quickly pushed himself up, ignoring the pain in his whole body, and tightened his hand on the axe's handle. He tried to summon the golden flames he used against the Chaos Tree back in the Blessed Grove, but his Mana wouldn't even consume itself. 'Shit, that only was for that fight in particular? This goddess is too much of a cheapskate!'
Glenn instinctively jumped to the side, rolling out and avoiding a thorny trying to pierce him.
"Are you enjoying the pain, Sacrifice?" The creature asked, walking menacingly toward his target, "Because I'm particularly enjoying inflicting it on you!" The creature lunged forward with a bestial roar, thorny vines covered in red roses bursting out from every part of its body.
Glenn summoned the invisible shield under his feet, crouching and making the barrier lengthen up. He pushed himself into the air, effectively jumping over the flow of attacks. Using the momentum, he grabbed his axe with both his hands, making it flame up intensively. Covering it with a giant Mana blade, he hacked down with all the weight of his body, leaving a dark-red fire trail behind him.
The Silence curse seemed to stop working at this moment, and suddenly a hundred people popped out of nowhere, weapons in their hands. Glenn sliced through the flow of thorny vines, burning them to ashes. The vine puppet shrieked back, before showing an ecstatic smile.
"YES!" The creature hugged itself, before opening and turning its head to the side, "You're able to hurt me...How good. Too bad this fun time comes to an end, don't you say, 3333?" Chains suddenly appeared out of nowhere, effectively restraining the creature. The roses covering its body suddenly wilted, turning into a grayish-dead color. The creature seemed to lose its reason as it roared to the sky, pulling on the chains madly while ripping part of its body.
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Glenn glanced to the side, seeing that most of the Cleaners he knew were there: Kane, the guide Reginald, and even his mentor, Mary! They all had displeased expressions from having been woken up in their sleep. It seemed like Sir Reginald had rushed over without caring about his outfit since he was wearing some comfortable-looking pajamas. Kane had thrown on some plain clothes, and only Mary was wearing the white armor covered in red crosses.
"What's the situation?" The woman directly went to Glenn, not sparing a glance at his wounds or him at all. Glenn smiled awkwardly and pointed at the chained creature.
"It's a product from the Thorn's Church. That's all I can say for sure."
Mary nodded after hearing that, playing with her daggers while lost in her thoughts. Reginald rubbed his chin, while Kane sighed with tiredness. Suddenly, the three of them looked up, making Glenn do the same. A giant column suddenly fell from the sky, crushing the creature like a bug. The Fixers that previously got out of their room watched on with mixed emotions, before all going back to their rooms to do what they intended to do: sleep.
The young man plopped to the ground, exhausted. The pretty receptionists that usually welcomed the members of the Cleaner Workshop in the main hall got out of the shadows, surrounding the column while holding each a chain that controlled the object. Their faces were void of any expressions, emotionless. They twisted the chain they each held, making the pylon twist and finish whatever was left under it.
Glenn watched silently, awed by the might of the previously seemingly weird but innocent women. With calculated movement, they then pulled at the chains at the same time, making it rise above the ground, and revealing the crushed flesh under it. The three women then jumped into the air, pulling the pylon with them. They disappeared into the night like the wind, the only proof of their existence being the crushed summon of the Thorn's Church.
"Holy..." The young man was left unable to say a word, staring at the literal crepe that the dangerous creature had become. Kane grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him to his feet.
"Haaaa...Alright, Glenn. Do you mind telling us what the hell happened, so that we might go back to bed at some point?" His tone was particularly rash and dry, but Glenn didn't care too much. He, of all people, hated being woken up in the middle of a peaceful rest. The young man slowly nodded, before beginning to explain how this mess went down. In the middle of his story, a nice bald priest from the Onnea's Church stopped them, quickly giving Glenn first aid and bathing him in divine light. It was supposed to be weaker since it was night, but he could still feel the difference from when he was bleeding all over.
"...And then the Silence curse disappeared. You know the rest," Glenn finished, before rubbing the back of his neck. He had slid his axe on his belt at some point and was wondering whether he should hide his left arm or not. The purple was much too easy to see for his taste, but he didn't have any bandages on hand to hide it with. And more and more people were aware of the existence of the accursed arm.
'Accursed? That's a bit harsh. Not as harsh as "parasite", but still quite harsh,' Diamanes commented with a dejected tone.
"Alright. I'll do the necessary. In the meanwhile, don't go anywhere and stay in the Northern Town," Kane decided, before turning back to head to his place. Mary shook her head and disappeared in the shadows, while Reginald simply phased out of existence with a somehow refined yawn. Glenn jumped up, worried.
"And what do I do if they come back?" He asked, making the senior Cleaner stop in his tracks.
"In that case, we'll take care of it. But I doubt they'll be coming back soon. I'll come see you tomorrow to take more details," Kane shrugged and left completely. There was only Glenn left outside the Dormitories, still wondering what all this mess was. He looked back up at his window and sighed disappointingly.
"No way I can sleep after that..." His eyes passed over his ripped and blood-tainted clothes. His gaze lit up when he found out about what he should do. He even had a detailed plan about it.
He first headed for the Dining Hall, entering the empty kitchen. The Gold-ranked Fixers had access to it, so they could prepare themselves meals when they came back in the night. Glenn had first wondered how would they prevent poisoning accidents from happening, but apparently, this matter had already been dealt with. Maybe there were some kind of monitoring devices checking the kitchen out.
'It seems a bit overkill but not unlikely, knowing the Workshop,' Glenn thought, picking a plate up and serving himself in the pantry. He took some fresh bread, a tomato, a few slices of ham, and some cheese. He switched on the light with quick Lux, a warm light illuminating the kitchen. With a knife, he sliced a few servings of bread and cheese, while cutting the tomatoes in thin slices.
He then made a sandwich with the whole, before wrapping it up in paper. He looked at the door, then at the delicious-looking sandwich, before shrugging and making himself another sandwich.
"I don't remember the last time I cooked something for myself...If this can even be called "cooking", heh," Glenn muttered, the corner of his lips rising slightly. He cleaned the kitchen placed everything he took back where they came from, and carried the sandwiches with him to his room, safely storing them there.
"Wait there, I'll be back in a second..." said Glenn, looking longingly at the sandwiches. He then headed for the hot spring, in which he carefully washed off the blood and dirt that had settled on his body during the fight. He picked a towel and wrapped himself up with it, deliberately letting his hair stay wet. He also chose to leave his suit unsummon so that it had the time to fix and clean itself.
Maybe he should try to see with Rusty if he could come up with new designs. It was a bit boring wearing the same thing every day, after all. He exited the hot spring and went back to his room.
"Finally..." Glenn picked the two sandwiches, installed himself into the double-sized bed, and opened his mouth to take a bite of the first one.
Before his teeth had the time to touch the bread, someone began pounding on the door. Glenn looked at it, then looked at the sandwiches, and decided the latter was more important. He tried to take a bite a gain but the someone behind the door knocked even harder, disturbing his peace.
Sigh...
Glenn slowly placed the sandwich on his nightstand, breathed in deeply, and walked up to the door.
Maintaining the best smile he could, he opened it, his fingers trembling with frustration.
"What's up, loser?" A young, charming but mocking voice blew in his face.
Sahro was standing there.