New Gods of North America

"Bang! Bang!"

"Bang!"

As the gunshots rang out from upstairs, the extraordinary power surging through Delphine LaLaurie, fueled by the potion, was also nearing its end.

Trying her best not to collapse, she downed the remaining portion of the potion given to her by Pastor Pasiel, hoping to replenish her spiritual power as quickly as possible.

The front door of the dormitory was already chained from the inside.

She steadied herself against the wall, made her way to a window at the corner, climbed out, and then smashed the kerosene lamp she had placed on the windowsill into the hallway.

The fiery serpent rapidly spread along the spilled kerosene, bringing light and warmth to the night dormitory.

She moved away from the scene as quickly as possible,

recalling the deal she had struck with Pastor Pasiel at the end—

"Madam LaLaurie, I recall from the exorcist association's files that, in addition to 'persuasion' and 'bestowal,' you also possess the ability to temporarily drive people insane?"

"That's an ability I use for emergency self-preservation. Unlike 'persuasion,' it requires detonating 'anchor points,' temporarily leaving only one thought in a person's mind. The duration of the effect varies from person to person, but it usually doesn't last more than 5 minutes. It's difficult to use it to eliminate enemies; humans without thought are even less useful than baboons."

"Oh, you may have misunderstood, Madam LaLaurie. It turns out your previous plan has failed, and there's no time left for you to slowly 'persuade' others. I no longer need you to kill anyone; I simply need you to control as many students as possible and send them to be slaughtered by the other party."

"...What's the point of that?"

"The church will not tolerate filth being displayed openly. A person who has personally slaughtered the innocent, even in self-defense, will not be qualified to bask in the glory of the Holy Spirit in the public eye once the incident is revealed. It's not a good method, but at least it's feasible."

"But after receiving your notification, I detonated all the 'anchor points' this evening. I can't 'persuade' too many people in a short amount of time."

"I will give you a potion. Drink it, and you will find yourself far more powerful than you imagined. Complete this task, and a carriage will be waiting for you in the direction outside the academy. It will take you to the docks before dawn, where there will be a freighter about to depart for Frank."

"I don't feel like I can fully trust you, Pastor Pasiel."

"Of course, we only trust ourselves. But refusing to trust is only an option if you believe you can escape Georgeberg on your own. I am just an old man whose body is decaying; deceiving you would bring me no benefit."

...

Meanwhile, on Wayne's side,

upon seeing that a bunch of familiar-faced classmates in the dormitory had turned into 'zombies' with eerie glowing eyes,

his first reaction was to fire a warning shot.

The incident of Miss Ovelia being attacked this afternoon flashed through his mind—that criminal could control innocent people through the 'lucky coin.'

He couldn't just kill them, or who would call him 'Daddy Wayne' in the dormitory in the future?

Wayne had tried to choose obscure positions, hoping that continuous gunfire wouldn't accidentally shoot through some classmate's butt upstairs.

But firing shots obviously couldn't wake them up.

The closest guy had already pounced in front of Wayne, looking like he really wanted to bite him like a zombie.

Wayne smoothly redirected him, causing the guy to fall to the side, and then saw that there were actually people next to him who didn't want to 'bite' but wanted to 'chop.'

So he fired a shot to knock the lawn-mowing tool out of that guy's hand, and then forcefully pushed him backward, temporarily blocking the crowd that continued to squeeze into the dormitory.

These guys seemed to be controlled by extraordinary power and shouldn't transmit viruses like zombies.

Biting was barely acceptable, but chopping people was a bit much.

Wayne tucked the revolver into the back of his waist—damn, the barrel was still a bit hot—and then rolled up his sleeves, ready to cosplay Bruce Lee.

Even Miss Ovelia could clear the level without injury; how could he lose to a delicate rich girl?

As it turned out,

it really wasn't working out so well.

Mainly because some of these guys looked like they wanted to bite, and some looked like they wanted to kill, but all of them seemed to have lost their sense of 'pain.'

It was a little difficult to knock them unconscious, scaring them didn't work, and hitting them too hard seemed a bit impolite.

So Wayne could only change his profession on the spot in the dormitory, pretending to be Jackie Chan from a furniture store,

waving a chair to block for a while, retreating to the bed and jumping around a few times, wanting to run out of the dormitory but there were still people 'queuing' behind him, so he didn't dare to drill into the wall of people at all,

In the end, Wayne was gradually forced into a corner, jumping up and stepping on someone's shoulder and head, landing on the not-so-sturdy desk, playing a little game called 'whoever comes close gets kicked,'

Then he opened the window next to him, squatted down as much as possible, grabbed the window frame and jumped down, kicking off the wall in the middle and rolling on the lawn, finally managing to temporarily get away from the 'place of trouble.'

The first floor of the dormitory looked bright at this time, and probably because there were gunshots just now, the adjacent dormitories seemed unusually quiet, not even a clearly exposed onlooker was seen,

Before Wayne could take a closer look, he found that the guys upstairs were still leaning out of their dormitory windows, one after another, with a pile of arms stretching out like seaweed,

The two or three guys in the front looked like they were almost falling down, and it was hard to determine whether they wanted to jump themselves or were being squeezed out by the 'zombies' behind them.

Hiss...

I still have to catch you below, right?

Then suddenly, with a "poof" sound, the specific sound was hard to describe, probably the sound effect of a perfectly developed pimple being squeezed,

A wave of invisible spiritual pressure, like a shockwave, suddenly overflowed. Wayne reflexively jumped a step in the direction he thought was 'away', almost losing his slippers.

The guys by the windows upstairs stopped at this time, seeming to collapse instantly,

Wayne could still see two arms resting on the window frame.

Taking out the revolver and turning on the minimalist-line vision, he moved slightly closer to the direction where the invisible spiritual pressure seemed to be coming from,

Going around to the side of the dormitory,

Wayne quickly found a... mushroom squatting on the ground, holding its head?

That thing obviously noticed Wayne's approach and quickly stood up from the shadows,

Taking a look at the faint flickering light coming from the adjacent dormitory, Wayne felt his eyes dry a bit.

It was a 'mushroom' wearing a decent dress,

as if someone had placed a large, deformed jellyfish on someone's head. The 'cap' part was a slightly flattened hemisphere overall, looking more than a meter in diameter, round and like a large slime with bright flesh color,

The 'cap' was covered with eyes of various sizes and tangled 'meat threads,' looking pitted,

Some flesh-colored tentacles extended from the bottom of the 'cap,' about long enough to hang to the 'mushroom's' waist, looking not very energetic. Some tentacles were wrapped around the guy's arms and body, but more were 'hanging' softly like willow leaves, still dripping juice.

Apart from these, the body looked like a normal woman's body, and the kind that was plump and had a corset.

The mushroom person turned to look at Wayne—probably, this guy had so many eyes, and the head was hemispherical, who knew where it was looking, one could only judge based on the body situation,

slightly spreading its arms,

Wayne, still wearing pajamas and slippers, saw that the situation was not right, and although it wasn't a demon-hunting bullet, he still raised his hand and gave the other party a shot.

"Bang!"

The largest eyeball on the cap, estimated to be about the size of an apple, directly burst open,

Then a series of distorted and sharp screams suddenly sounded,

The sound seemed to pierce the eardrums and stir the brains.

Wayne covered his ears with one hand and continued to fire,

"Bang!"

"Bang! Bang!"

"Tap."

The gunshots stopped before the series of sharp screams that seemed to directly strike the soul,

Um...