Last Chance

The cohort maintained their silence for a long time. Each of them was too tired to chat with the other except for some casual exchanges.

When it was near midnight, the woman in her mid-twenties from earlier spoke again:

"It's getting late, we should take turns to guard the night, those who have the most injuries should rest first."

The members of the cohort nodded their heads in unison and went to have a rest while the woman who was the least injured started the first shift with the bulky man.

Both of them remained silent for a long time, then the woman suddenly said:

"How're their conditions?"

The man obviously knew the woman was referring to their teammates who were currently unconscious after being heavily injured.

He didn't answer immediately but shifted his gaze into the darkness of the woods, he spoke in a worried tone:

"Not good, especially the kid, his symptoms are starting to get worse."

The woman frowned slightly, then said, seemingly in confusion:

"This is peculiar, we shouldn't get contracted with diseases that easily."

As Divine, abilities weren't the only thing they acquired. Divine were supposed to also get great enhancement in physical capabilities and their immune systems were also increased by margins.

So for a teammate of theirs who was also a decently ranked Divine to get contracted a disease just because of an exhausting battle, something was strangely out of place.

The man shook his head and said with a sigh:

"Whatever the reasons, I hope the kid gets better, we should reach the city by tomorrow's noon."

"...It would be a real shame if a young talent like him were to die so early."

The woman didn't comment on what the man said, she knew the man next to her and the kid had quite a tight bond, so it wasn't her place to say anything further.

The man also stopped speaking and both of them looked out into the woods, each in their own thoughts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"ARGHHHHHH!!!!"

Loud screams resounded from a dark alley that light wasn't able to shine on.

A blurry, illusory figure was constantly rolling on the ground while holding its head.

It was none other than Achilles.

The time was currently the morning of the third day ever since he was born again.

His mind was one step away from complete insanity, he didn't have much time left!

The dirt worms that replaced his right side were wriggling crazily, they struggled to escape from him as they let out an inhuman shriek:

"KYARGHHHHHHH!!!"

This struggle went on for a long time before he slowly managed to calm himself down, albeit barely.

If he wasn't in his hidden state then the passerby had noticed him already.

Normally, evil spirits were undetectable to any being's eyes, there were only 2 cases that made them be able to perceive by living creatures:

First, those who wielded abilities that were able to help them see evil spirits or creatures born with the capabilities to see them.

Second, if an evil spirit showed hostile intention toward another living being, it would automatically cancel its hidden state.

If they were not seen for 10 minutes then the evil spirits would switch back to hidden state.

This removed a huge burden from Achilles because he naturally didn't want high rank Divine to hunt him down.

After another whole minute, Achilles started returning to normal. His left eye was no longer erratic and the worms on his right side slowly calmed themselves down.

He slowly stood up before yelling in anger and impatience:

"Damnation! Where the fuck is that cohort?"

With tenacity and an almost unwavering will, he had suppressed the corruption and escaped from his total ruination.

...But this would be the final time.

If the cohort didn't come back before he lost control again, he would finally turn into a pile of dirt worms with almost no rationality.

He couldn't even turn his right side back to normal anymore!

Irritated, he closed his eyes and linked his consciousness with the zombie rat again.

After making sure there was no problem, he cut the connection with the rat and shifted his consciousness to find the zombie crow.

'I left it near the city's entrance, where is it?'

An image slowly appeared in his mind as his connection with the crow strengthened.

The crow was standing on top of a tall building, it was looking at the gate of the city.

Achilles focused his attention on the city's gate and what he saw made him grin devilishly:

'They're here at last.'

He commanded the crow to fly near the gate to have a closer look.

He could see a large truck resembled vehicle driving through the gate, accompanied by a large group of people with weary and tired looks on their faces. They looked dirty, tattered, and full of wounds on their bodies.

Looking at the vehicle which was slowly driving through the crow's eyes, Achilles' grin got colder and crazier in seconds, the worms on his right side also seemed to respond to his emotions as they started wriggling and squirming excitedly.

'It's about time I finish my final objective.'

Three days of constant mental corruption were coming to an end!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the city's entrance, the check-in area.

A mid-twenties woman and a bulky man were doing some procedures so that they could get into the city without any problem.

Non-combatants in this city, which were either Divine that had no combat-related abilities or Abandoned that were lucky enough to have a job, could not go outside the city on their own without any permission.

Even combatants could only go out when permitted by the government or a mafia that wielded a portion of the authority in this city.

Since the government and the mafias were in a status quo over the control of this city, they came up with this agreement in order to keep the citizens in check.

The woman after finishing the procedure turned to look at the man, they both nodded at the same time and started running to their cohort.

The cohort who was waiting for them near the city's gate spotted them and turned to look at their direction.

The woman and the man got into the vehicle, then the former said to the cohort in a loud voice:

"We will drive to the morgue first to treat our unconscious teammates, those who can walk will go there on foot! Understood?"

"Yes, miss!" The cohort spoke loudly in unison.

The woman didn't pay attention to them anymore and commanded the driver.

He said nothing and started the vehicle.

The truck-like vehicle slowly sped up and moved to the morgue's direction.

...Unbeknownst to them all, a zombie crow hidden in the shadow was quietly watching them like a predator looking at its prey.