Debuff Master-Chapter 903

“Kyuuu! We have to run, owner punk! NOW!”

“O-Okay!”

Siegfried wanted to leave Hamchi behind to teach him a lesson. Honestly, it was quite tempting to do so, but he held back and decided otherwise.

“Huff! Huff! Huff!”

Siegfried could not just abandon Hamchi after seeing him struggle with all his might, dragging his chubby body that jiggled vigorously as he ran away.

“Damn it! Get on, quickly!”

“Kyuuu!”

“Argh! Why the hell did you get so fat?!” Siegfried groaned and complained the moment Hamchi jumped onto his shoulders.

His trusty companion seemed to have doubled in weight during the short time he did not see him.

“Just shut up and run, owner punk! Run!”

It was then.

“KYAAAAK! I’m going to kill you both!” Mochie let out a spine-chilling scream while swinging her hammer with an overwhelmingly powerful force.

“H-Hiiiik!” Siegfried shrieked in horror, nearly falling to the ground when the bloodlust she was radiating made his skin crawl. Without a doubt, both he and Hamchi’s skulls were going to be bashed in if she managed to catch them.

Wooong!

Siegfried activated the warp gate.

Flash!

Just in time, he and Hamchi vanished right before Mochi could grab them.

“KYAAAAAK! You’re both dead the moment you come back here!” Mochi shrieked.

Her enraged cry echoed throughout the halls of the Proatine Kingdom’s royal palace.

***

Siegfried and Hamchi barely escaped Mochi's wrath, and they found themselves in a coastal city on the southern part of the continent.

“Hey, what the hell happened back there?” asked Siegfried as soon as they walked out of the warp gate. He was so nervous that he could still feel his heart racing inside his chest.

“Kyuu... Don’t even ask. Hamchi almost died...” Hamchi replied. Then, he let out a long sigh and said, “Mochi... she fattened Hamchi up.”

“W-What?”

“Mochi fed Hamchi... f-five meals a day. Kyuuu...”

“Pfft! Bwahahaha!”

“Sniff... Sniff... So now Hamchi is this fat...” Hamchi said sadly, poking at his bloated belly while sobbing.

“But why did she feed you that much?” Siegfried asked.

“Mochi wants Hamchi to become ugly, so Hamchi can’t run away... Kyuu...” Hamchi replied.

“Wow... Isn’t that just straight-up insane?”

“Do you see why Hamchi’s scared of Mochi now?! Why do you think Hamchi is so scared of her?!”

“Damn...”

“Mochi is a terrifying woman. Hamchi might just get fattened like livestock. Kyuuu...”

“So, uh... what’s your plan from now on?” Siegfried asked. Then, he added under his breath, “The future looks bleak.”

“This is all your fault! Kyaaaak!” Hamchi shrieked, his fur standing up as he lunged at him.

Hamchi had a good reason for raging, as it was Siegfried who offered Hamchi to Mochi on a silver platter.

“Hey, you know that it was all for the greater good, right? Do you really think I did that to screw you over?” Siegfried said, trying to worm his way out with his glib tongue.

“Kyaaaak! Don’t lie to Hamchi! You were enjoying it! You wanted to see Hamchi suffer, didn’t you?!” Hamchi shrieked before lunging at him.

“Ack! H-Hey! Stop pulling m-my hair! Not my hair!”

And just like that, Siegfried found himself at the mercy of an enraged, chubby pig—no, hamster, mercilessly yanking at his hair.

***

“Kyuuu! But where the hell are we?!” Hamchi scowled.

“...Why the hell do you care?” Siegfried grumbled in response while dabbing potion on the scratches Hamchi put on his face. Then, he raged, “Ugh! Damn it! Will you quit hitting me?! My face is ruined!”

“You should be grateful! Hamchi went easy on you! Kyaaaak!”

“Damn it! This little punk!”

Siegfried fumed but did not retaliate. Even he admitted that he deserved it.

“Anyway, where else should we be? I have business with the Church of Neptune, the Temple of the Sea God.”

“Kyuuu?”

“Their headquarters is here,” Siegfried said, pointing at the sprawling metropolis in the distance.

Marine City.

It was the largest city in the southern region of the Nurburg Continent, a bustling hub of maritime trade and fishing. Marine City was indeed the perfect location for the Church of Neptune, which served the God of the Sea, Neptune.

‘I might find some lead on Neptune’s Blood if I go there...’

With that thought in mind, Siegfried headed toward Marine City with Hamchi waddling beside him.

“Kyuuu! But aren’t you going to rest? It’s late! You must be exhausted, owner punk!”

“I’ll just stop by the Temple of the Sea God real quick, then crash for the night. I’m pretty beat.”

“Kyuuu! Hurry up and get it over with, then go rest!”

“Yeah, yeah...”

It was then.

“Kyuuu?”

Hamchi suddenly tilted his head, staring up at the night sky over Marine City.

“Hey, owner punk.”

“What?”

“Aren’t birds supposed to be asleep at night?”

“Yeah?”

There was even a saying that daytime words are heard by birds and nighttime words by rats. Unless they were nocturnal birds, like owls, most birds would not be flying at night.

“Why are you asking?” Siegfried asked.

“Look! Birds are flying! Kyuuu!” Hamchi exclaimed, pointing at the night sky.

Siegfried scowled. “Hey, why the hell would birds be flying at night—”

Hamchi cut him off and pointed, “Just look!”

Siegfried turned in the direction Hamchi was pointing and said, “Oh? Are those really birds?”

There was indeed a flock of birds flying toward Marine City.

“Did a flock of owls decide to migrate at night or something? Why are they—”

It was then.

“...!”

Siegfried enhanced his vision and realized that the owls were not actually birds.

Flap! Flap!

The creatures flapping their wings and making their way toward Marine City were none other than the Fallen Angels.

“...!”

Siegfried's eyes shot wide open after realizing that it was a night raid. The Fallen Angels were heading straight for the Temple of the Sea God, the headquarters of the Church of Neptune.

“Hamchi! RUN!” Siegfried shouted, sprinting off.

“Kyuuu! What’s going on, owner punk?!”

“Hurry! The Fallen Angels are attacking the Temple of the Sea God!”

“Huff! Huff! O-Owner punk! Hamchi can’t... run... any... more...!”

“Hey, you—!” Siegfried whipped his head around and glared.

Boing! Boing!

The weight Hamchi gained from being force-fed by Mochi made it impossible for him to run like before.

“Argh! You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Siegfried raged.

With no other choice, he grabbed Hamchi, slung him over his shoulder, and spread out his +10 Black Crow Wingsuit.

But then—

“Oh, hell no...” Siegfried muttered under his breath.

He quickly changed course after seeing that the Fallen Angels heading for Marine City numbered easily over ten thousand.

Siegfried had gotten stronger, but there was no way he could take them all on alone.

‘Shit! Isn’t that a full-scale aerial assault?!’

For now, he had no other choice but to make a strategic retreat and assess the situation.

***

Nearly thirty thousand Fallen Angels descended upon Marine City, and they overran the massive metropolis within just a few moments.

Boom! Boom! Booms!

Hundreds of anti-aircraft cannons defending Marine City shot volley after volley of artillery fire, but it was all futile.

The Fallen Angels were practically immune to conventional attacks, and the shells fired were no different from pebbles being thrown at them.

What about the city’s defense forces? They were also useless.

The Fallen Angels could only be harmed by attacks infused with Divine Power. If one was not a Paladin or a Crusader, they had no chance against them at all.

It took the Fallen Angels less than thirty minutes to conquer the city.

“Ah, they conquered the city...” Siegfried despaired while watching the burning city from a distance..

“Aaaack!”

“Kyaaaah!”

Even from this distance, he could hear the screams of the people piercing through the night.

A city up in flames with thousands of people dying, but there was nothing Siegfried could do about it. Even if he called the entire Head Crusher Guild, the difference in sheer numbers was far too overwhelming.

“This is madness... How the hell can they call themselves angels?”

Siegfried gnashed his teeth while watching the massacre unfold before him.

However, there was nothing he could do in this situation.

“Let’s go.”

“Kyu? Where are we going, owner punk?!”

“To the Continent Religious Council.”

“Kyu?!”

“We have to go inform them. This is a full-scale assault on the Church of Neptune.”

With that, Siegfried turned and headed straight for the warp gate.

***

The Continent Religious Council was thrown into chaos upon hearing Siegfried’s report in the dead of night.

At first, the religious leaders dismissed his claims as nonsense.

However, the moment they confirmed that all communication with Marine City had been severed, panic erupted in the council.

“Oh my god!”

“Ah! The wrath of the angels has descended upon us once more!”

The religious leaders despaired after realizing that the stronghold of the Church of Neptune, one of the largest religious centers on the continent, had been wiped out in an instant.

“This can't be...! This shouldn’t happen...! O God of the Seas, Neptune! How can you remain silent while your devoted lambs perish like this?!”

A priest from the Church of Neptune fell to his knees and despaired, lamenting the fall of his order, before collapsing unconscious.

But that was not the only problem...

“What do we do?!”

“This is a disaster!”

“Alert all orders! Tell them to be prepared for combat at a moment’s notice!”

There was a possibility that the Fallen Angels would strike again, so each religious order prioritized pouring all of its efforts into bolstering its defenses.

‘Do they really think they can stop the Fallen Angels with that?’ Siegfried thought, completely skeptic of their frantic efforts.

Stopping the next attack of the Fallen Angels was not the important thing right now. The real problem was figuring out how the Fallen Angels were getting into this world in the first place.

Where was their base of operations? How were they crossing over?

That was the problem they had to solve first, and without the answers to those questions, nothing was going to change.

‘Figures...’

Unfortunately, even Siegfried did not have any clear solution to deal with the Fallen Angels, and the only thing he could do was defend.

‘Huh?’

Siegfried spotted a priestess serving the Goddess of Earth, Gaia. One of the key offerings he needed to summon the Incarnation of Life, Terra, was the Gaia’s Chalice.

He approached the priestess and asked, “Excuse me? Could I speak with you for a moment?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Please, speak freely,” the priestess replied with a respectful nod.

“Are you perhaps... familiar with the Gaia’s Chalice?”

“Certainly. It is a sacred relic of our order, after all.”

“Oh...”

“But if I may inquire, why is Your Majesty asking about the chalice?”

“I need it.”

“Pardon me?”

Siegfried proceeded to explain why he needed the Gaia’s Chalice.

“I mean... Well, the truth is... I went to Marine City to obtain Neptune’s Blood.”

“Oh, I see.”

“So I was thinking... Would it be possible for me to borrow the chalice?”

Siegfried knew this was an unreasonable request. Asking a priestess to lend him one of her god’s divine relics was not something most people would ask.

“Unfortunately, that is not for me to decide, Your Majesty,” the priestess said with a troubled look. Then, she added, “But if that will help us overcome this tribulation... I can petition the order for approval.”

“Please, I beg you.”

“I believe the order will easily grant Your Majesty’s request.”

“Really?”

“Your Majesty is trying to stop death from taking over this world. I am certain that even the goddess herself would support your endeavours.”

“Thank you very much. I truly appreciate it.”

“I will report this to the order at once, Your Majesty.”

It was then.

A herald burst into the chamber, his voice ringing with urgency, “We have received word from the Church of Neptune in Marine City!”

“...!”

Every head in the room, including Siegfried’s, snapped toward the herald.

All of them assumed that the angels had annihilated the Church of Neptune, so none of them expected this turn of events.

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