Tivian West Suburbs, by the Moonflow River, under the cover of night.
Priest Anrecius and Hunter Captain Edmond are busy dealing with the massive water serpent summoned by Smith, hoping to quickly eliminate it before rushing to capture Smith, who is still inside the villa.
Inside the villa, in the ruined secret chamber, Smith, weakened and barely standing, makes his final stand. Before Davic can fire his gun, Smith lunges forward and bites into the traitor’s throat, ending his life.
As Smith tastes the traitor’s blood, his expression relaxes slightly. However, to his surprise, Davic, despite having his throat torn out, does not immediately fall. Instead, he steadies himself, draws a thin sword from behind, and thrusts it directly into Smith’s chest.
Seeing the traitor still able to fight back, Smith is shocked. He prepares to tear Davic apart, ignoring the wound in his chest. As a White-rank Chalice Beyonder, such a wound is trivial as long as it doesn’t hit his heart.
But just as he is about to strike again, Smith feels something is wrong. He realizes that his Chalice spirituality is rapidly draining from his body through the wound in his chest. He looks down and, in the flickering light of the chamber, sees the inscription on the blade of the thin sword.
"Afterbirth… Keeper?! How... How could you have something like this? This is from the Central Order!"
Smith exclaims, his eyes wide with disbelief, as if the appearance of the sword is utterly shocking.
The Heart-Devouring Cane Sword can only drain the Chalice spirituality from a weakened body. Due to the previous battles, Smith’s body is already weak enough for the sword to drain his Chalice. Feeling his spirituality rapidly depleting, Smith reacts quickly. He grabs Davic, tears him apart, ripping off the arm holding the sword, and throws the main body into the nearby flames.
Smith then tries to pull the sword, which is continuously draining his Chalice, from his chest. But at that moment, countless black shadows rush toward him, clinging to his body and restraining his movements."What!"
Restrained, Smith looks around and is shocked to find that the creatures holding him down are black, ape-like Beastkin—his own transformed subordinates who had died earlier in the battle against Anrecius and Edmond. Somehow, they have reanimated and are now pinning him down, preventing him from pulling out the sword.
"Flesh... puppets...!!"
Facing this situation, Smith grits his teeth. Seeing these flesh puppets, he begins to realize that an invisible hand has been manipulating the situation from the beginning. Everything that has happened seems to be under the control of some hidden will. Even the Holy War Knights and Hunters outside might be pawns in this game.
Restrained by his former subordinates, Smith struggles to break free. But in his weakened state, with his Chalice rapidly draining, his strength diminishes further. Every time he manages to throw off one Beastkin, another immediately takes its place, biting and clawing at his already battered body. To avoid prolonging the situation, Dorothy, controlling the puppets, has them go straight for Smith’s vital points. With his Chalice being drained and his body pinned down, Smith is completely immobilized.
Finally, Smith’s breathing becomes labored. He collapses to his knees, his face pale, and eventually falls to the ground. His eyes wide open, he loses his life as the Beastkin marionettes tear into him. After his death, the Heart-Devouring Cane Sword embedded in his chest stops draining his Chalice. The large red gem on the hilt glows with a radiant light.
The Heart-Devouring Cane Sword requires fresh Chalice, so it does not drain spirituality from corpses. Smith’s body still retains a small amount of Chalice, preventing it from turning into a desiccated husk. Instead, it retains most of its original appearance.
"Phew... He’s finally dead..."
In a distant carriage, Dorothy, watching through the eyes of her marionettes, lets out a sigh of relief. Smith, already severely injured and weakened, took a long time to die, a testament to the formidable vitality of a White-rank Chalice Beyonder.
Including Alex and Claudius, Dorothy has now directly or indirectly caused the deaths of three White-rank Beyonders in the few months she has been in Tivian.
Of course, this doesn’t mean killing a White-rank Beyonder is easy. Dorothy herself could never defeat a White-rank opponent head-on. Alex and Smith were dealt with using the combined forces of the church, the Serenity Bureau, and even Adèle, while Claudius was killed only after meticulous planning, extensive preparation, and the mobilization of most of the Rose Cross Order’s forces, along with the use of many precious resources.
"What a pity. These two werewolves from the Wolf Blood Society used up all their resources before dying. There’s nothing valuable left on their bodies..."
Dorothy mutters to herself as she takes control of Smith’s corpse and searches it. She finds that most of his clothes have been burned away, and any valuable items he had were either used in the battle against Anrecius and Edmond or destroyed in the fire. This leaves Dorothy somewhat disappointed.
Dorothy had hoped to find the mystical item Smith used to summon the water serpent, but it seems the summoning was either a one-time ability or the item was lost or destroyed in the fire. However, Dorothy doesn’t have time to search thoroughly now.
“Sigh... Compared to this, Luer from the Crimson Eucharist was ridiculously wealthy. He was just the leader of a small sect in a small city, yet he had so many valuable items…”
Dorothy continues to muse. As a Black Earth-rank Beyonder, Luer was unusually rich. Items like the Feast Sigil and the Extinguishing Black Candle were already impressive, but Smith’s reaction to the Heart-Devouring Cane Sword suggests it is no ordinary item.
"The Central Order... According to him, this Heart-Devouring Cane Sword should be something from the Central Order of the Afterbirth Cult. I wonder how such a precious item ended up in Luer’s hands... Is there some hidden story behind this?"
Dorothy mutters as she controls Smith’s corpse to pull the Heart-Devouring Cane Sword from his chest. The core belief of the Afterbirth Cult is the Mother of Chalice. Apart from branches like the Wolf Blood Society, there should be a central faith dedicated solely to the Mother of Chalice. However, according to Adèle, due to the lack of divine revelations from the Mother of Chalice, this central faith has declined and is now overshadowed by the other three expanding branches.
After securing the sword, Dorothy controls Smith and his Beastkin to search the chamber for anything valuable. Unfortunately, due to the fire, the only thing she finds is a partially burned mystical text.
“Well... One is better than nothing. The fire is getting worse, and the water serpent outside is almost dealt with. I need to get these items out quickly.”
Thinking this, Dorothy has one of the Beastkin pick up the Heart-Devouring Cane Sword and the mystical text, then quickly navigate through the flames to a window. The Beastkin places the items on the windowsill, and soon a large eagle descends from the night sky, grabs the items, and flies away.
Dorothy controls the eagle marionette to carry the spoils into the dark night sky. Just as she is about to release control of the marionettes in the chamber, the blood-stained altar made of bones in the center of the room suddenly begins to stir. The flesh on the altar starts to churn on its own.
Seeing this, Dorothy is startled. Having witnessed the communication methods of the Crimson Eucharist, she recognizes what is happening. In a moment of inspiration, she releases control of all the Beastkin marionettes, leaving only Smith’s corpse standing in the ruined chamber.
Under Dorothy’s control, Smith’s corpse suddenly kneels, his face pale and his breathing heavy, appearing extremely weak. At that moment, the flesh on the altar begins to form a mouth and an ear, and an eye slowly rises from the mass of flesh.
As the mouth on the altar forms, it prepares to speak. But when the eye fully emerges and takes in the scene in the chamber, the mouth closes in silence. The eye darts around, scanning the room, and finally locks onto Smith’s kneeling corpse. The mouth on the altar opens and speaks urgently.
"What happened?! Why has everything turned out like this?! Answer me, Smith!"
Duval, an elder of the Wolf Blood Society, demands an explanation from Smith. He had just followed Smith’s suggestion and was in the process of gathering suitable mystical texts for corruption in Tivian. After completing the task, he contacted Smith to inform him, only to find the base in ruins just half an hour later.
Hearing the voice, the severely wounded Smith weakly raises his head and looks at the eye on the altar. He gasps for breath and speaks slowly.
" Huff... huff... It’s... it’s the black dogs... and the church... They launched a joint operation and attacked us... They had two White-rank Beyonders... I couldn’t hold them off... cough cough... "
Clutching his bleeding wound, Smith speaks with a pained expression. The mouth on the altar immediately asks.
"The black dogs and the church? They raided your base? How did they know its location? Was it that nun you mentioned earlier?"
The mouth on the altar continues. Smith had previously mentioned capturing a nun who could infiltrate the church, so Duval wonders if Smith was tricked by the church, with the nun somehow informing them of the base’s location.
"No... no... I checked the nun with the Illuminating Beacon... She had no traces on her... She was under our surveillance the entire time... It couldn’t have been her…”
"These guys found us... because I was careless... When I checked, I only checked the nun... I overlooked the subordinate I was rescuing... I thought he was one of us, so I didn’t check him... Who knew his handcuffs... had a tracking mark on them... They followed the mark here..."
Under Dorothy’s control, Smith speaks weakly to the altar. Hearing this, Duval, the elder of the Wolf Blood Society, pauses for a moment before angrily shouting.
"How could you make such a mistake?! Do you realize how much our strength in Tivian will be weakened because of your negligence?!"
"I know... That’s why... cough cough... I feel so guilty... I’ve been trying my best... to make up for it..."
Smith continues, gasping for breath. Hearing his words, Duval scoffs.
"Make up for it? With things in this state, what can you possibly make up for?!"
"The nun... that nun..."
Taking a deep breath, Smith tries to steady himself.
"I just... personally released the nun who was corrupted by Cork... but the church doesn’t know about it yet... I sent her to the church... pant... pant... and told her... that we would continue to support her research into the Holy Mother and the Mother of Chalice... I also gave her... the handcuffs I took from Davic... and told her to say she found them at the scene of the ambush... That way, the church and the black dogs will think she’s a hero and promote her…”
"But... the church doesn’t know... that nun’s thoughts are dangerously twisted... She’s a huge time bomb I’ve planted in the church... As long as you... you can get someone to contact her later... she can be easily corrupted... cough cough... "
Speaking weakly and in pain, Smith stammers, coughing up a large amount of blood at the end. Seeing Smith, a White-rank Werewolf, in this state, Duval knows he doesn’t have much time left.
"Alright... I understand your plan. You’re attributing the exposure due to your mistake to the corrupted nun’s credit, so the church will promote her. Then we can contact her and use her as a foothold to infiltrate the church in Tivian... In a crisis, your mind finally started working again. Tell me... how can we contact that nun later?"
" Cough... The White Craftsmen’s Guild... According to the nun, she had dealings with the White Craftsmen’s Guild when she was in the Historical Scripture Department... She has an account there called ’White Prayer’... You... you can send messages to her through that.”
"Using those merchants... you won’t need to contact her directly... That way, even if she’s exposed, it won’t affect us... cough... cough... In short... you can use this channel to assess her first... If she passes the assessment, then we can seek more direct communication methods..."
As Smith speaks, he coughs up more blood. Dorothy knows that it’s impossible for the other side to trust Vania immediately. They need a safe communication method for both sides to assess Vania first, and the neutrality of the White Craftsmen’s Guild is perfect for this. After listening to Smith’s explanation, Duval on the other side of the altar falls silent for a moment before speaking again.
"I understand. We’ll contact and test her later... Now, the question is, do you have any chance of escaping?"
As soon as Duval finishes speaking, one of the walls of the chamber suddenly explodes, spewing out intense flames. From the flames, a knight in tattered armor slowly walks in, pointing a flaming sword at the weakened Smith in front of the altar.
"Haha! Found you, you vile wolf! Your serpent has been vaporized! Show me what else you’ve got, or face purification!"
Anrecius, his voice filled with arrogance, shouts from beneath his helmet. Smith, meanwhile, responds with a bitter smile.
"Sorry... It seems I won’t be leaving... May I enjoy eternal hunting in the Wolf’s Hunting Grounds..."
With that, Smith, his body riddled with wounds, lets out a final roar at the flaming knight. From afar, Duval watches as the flames engulf Smith and sighs.