Yama Rising

Within the narrow corridor, Elena gritted her teeth tightly as she frantically rushed toward the rooftop as quickly as she could.

Never had she felt nine stories of a building to be such a long journey. With every single step, she was going up three or four stairs at once, but there seemed to be no end to them.

She was biting down on her own lower lip so viciously that she was drawing blood, and right at this moment, a rumbling boom rang out, followed by the sound of bricks and stones clattering to the ground. It was clear that there was a massive creature pursuing her and that it had just burst through a wall.

She didn\\\'t even dare to take a look behind her.

However, there was no way that she could outrun a Count, and after she had made her way up seven floors, she could already hear her pursuer galloping along right behind her. This was the first time she had ever been placed in such a perilous situation, and she didn\\\'t even stop to think why it had taken an Infernal Judge seven whole stories to finally catch her.

All she knew was that the light was right up ahead! As soon as she scaled the final two floors and reached the rooftop, she would be able to release her flare, upon which everyone would be alerted to the betrayal of these abhorrent werewolves!

She was going to be the one to put an end to all of them.

She had heard that Cardinal Fernado had almost arrived in Philadelphia, and there was no way he would simply look on idly as the werewolves slaughtered the witch hunters. She had already guessed that there was no way these bloodthirsty demons would be content to stay in the church as they had promised!

The sound of another wall being shattered rang out, and at the same time, a bloodthirsty aura came barreling directly toward her. In a split-second decision, Elena immediately pressed herself tightly against the ground. Immediately thereafter, the metal railing of the staircase in front of her was struck by her assailant, and it was instantly bent to a severe degree. If that attack had struck a human\\\'s head, it would\\\'ve definitely been pulverized like a watermelon.

What had struck the metal railing was an inky-black claw that was bulging with muscle and completely covered in black fur. It only had four fingers, and each of those fingers had a black claw that was around an inch in length.

Elena\\\'s eyes had already become completely bloodshot at the sight of the claw. This was far too familiar a sight for her... It was the claw of a werewolf!

Right after she fell to the ground to avoid her pursurer\\\'s attack, she immediately swiveled around on the spot. Her cape rose up around her like a pair of wings, and countless streaks of menacing light shot out from under it in a torrential storm. After that, her cape didn\\\'t fall back down around her. Instead, it transformed into a pair of true black wings that allowed her to fly directly upward. At the same time, the holy silver crossbows strapped to her arms were already aimed directly at the monster in front of her.

Her green eyes were full of vindictive fury, and her gaze clashed with the bloodthirsty and deranged gaze of the werewolf.

This was a werewolf that was around 180 centimeters tall with an extremely powerful build and black fur all over its entire body. Streaks of putrid saliva were flowing out of its mouth from between the gaps in its fangs, and it was staring intently at Elena with greedy desire in its eyes.

In the next instant, countless streaks of silver light flew into the werewolf\\\'s body.

Those were silver daggers that were around three inches in length, and they were riddled with engravings of holy verses. Inky-black Yin energy immediately began to seep out of the wounds inflicted by the daggers, but they were unable to inflict any substantial harm upon the werewolf. Immediately thereafter, Elena\\\'s crossbows were unleashed in full force.

She flew back as she yelled in vindictive fury, and streaks of silver light instantly filled the entire corridor. However, as they came into contact with the werewolf\\\'s skin, they produced a string of metallic clangs.

\\\"You pathetic little maggot!!\\\" the werewolf roared as it narrowed its eyes and sprang forward like lightning.

Boom!! Elena\\\'s body dissipated into a burst of white light, and when she reappeared, she was already standing at the center of the corridor with the door to the rooftop right in front of her!

A thunderous roar of fury rang out, yet just as the werewolf was about to pounce toward her, it suddenly slipped before looking down at its own foot with a bewildered expression.

The thing it had slipped on was a ball that was formed entirely by interwoven white fabric and was riddled with holy scripture. Furthermore, there were sparks flying out of the top of the ball.

It was a holy light bomb!

Before it had a chance to do anything else, bursts of pure white light instantly inundated the werewolf\\\'s entire body. Immediately thereafter, the sound of boiling water being poured over raw flesh rang out alongside the gut-wrenching howls of the werewolf.

At the same time, Elena kicked open the door to the rooftop with her long black hair dancing behind her, then rushed out into the open like an agile spider.

I did it!

The icy wind of the night blew past her cheeks, and she could see the witch hunters standing atop the neighboring buildings. In the wake of the massive commotion she had just caused, many of the witch hunters had already cast alarmed eyes toward her.

Her heart was filled with a myriad of emotions. It was so great to be alive, yet the rest of her team was presumably dead. They had suffered the same terrible fate that had befallen her parents over a decade ago...

Eddy, Billy, Steven... One name after another surfaced in her mind, and she closed her eyes while trembling uncontrollably as she let loose a guttural howl of anguish. Immediately thereafter, she pulled something out of a pocket without any hesitation before hurling it up into the sky.

A burst of silver flames exploded in the sky, lingering for a long time.

It was an exorcism flare!

Only in the direst of situations could a witch hunter set off this flare, and once set off, all witch hunters within a radius of 10 kilometers had to react, while all churches were required to provide unconditional reinforcements! At the same time, all cultivators serving the church had to arrive on the scene to provide their assistance as well!

In a small church three kilometers away, a nun was praying in her chair when she abruptly turned toward the window with a bewildered expression.

Her gaze passed right through the colorful glass mosaic, looking directly at the glowing holy symbol that had lit up the night sky.

\\\"Someone\\\'s set off their exorcism flare...\\\" she murmured to herself in disbelief, following which the doors of the church were violently flung open. Her black nun robes rose up all around her while her bible had already separated into individual pages, following along behind her as she flew out of the church.

She was flying along the ground like a shooting star, and in the blink of an eye, she had already rushed through several streets.

\\\"Face the wrath of the lord, foul demons!\\\" Her body had completely burst into flames during the course of her flight!

She wasn\\\'t the only one to have responded in this manner. At this moment, countless streaks of light were rushing out of large and small churches all over the city of Philadelphia.

Further away at the Masonic Temple, the two bishops were looking up at the sky with stunned expressions, and the radiance of the exorcism flare was being reflected in their pupils.

\\\"What is going on here, Bishop Sebastian?!\\\" The bishop on the left turned to stare intently at the elderly man on the right. \\\"Why has an exorcism flare been set off?! The entire city is going to descend into complete pandemonium with the emergence of this exorcism flare! Patriarch Brando is here in person! If a battle ensues between us and the werewolf army, there will be no turning back!!\\\"

Sebastian shuddered before turning toward the bishop who had just spoken with a horrified expression. \\\"Are... Are you not the one who set off the flare? It wasn\\\'t me, so I thought that it had to have been you!\\\"

Deathly silence instantly settled over the room.

Neither of them said anything because they were both aware that as the bishops of the Usonia parish and the Kanata parish, there was no way either of them would make such a foolish error.

In that case, there could only be one possibility.

The werewolves had struck first... They had willingly instigated this war!

\\\"Have they gone insane?!\\\" Sebastian was at a complete loss for what to do. \\\"How could they possibly have struck first in this situation? I thought their objective was to protect Saint Peter\\\'s Church, could it all be just a ruse? Was their intention always to start a war with the catholic church? Cardinal Fernando has already arrived in the state and will be here in just a few days, how could they...\\\"

There was no time to waste.

A violent tremor ran through the entire Masonic Temple, and all of the picture frames hanging on the walls swayed unsteadily as if they were about to fall onto the ground. In the next instant, the two bishops had already arrived on the roof of the church.

From there, they could see most of the city, including Saint Peter\\\'s Church.

They could see hundreds of streaks of light rapidly converging from all directions. They were the nuns, reverends, and all of the other followers of the church who were rushing to the scene as quickly as they could upon seeing the exorcism flare. Even from here, the two bishops could sense just how fierce their killing intent was. They were fighting for the lord and exorcising true demons. This was a war that had been waged for centuries between the church and the forces of evil, and for the sake of this war, they were willing to give up their lives.

In the direction of Saint Peter\\\'s Church, bursts of holy light were rising up into the heavens while a chorus of holy music rang out.

The two elderly bishops were so horrified to see this that their legs almost gave out from under them.

In order to repress the unrest in Philadelphia, they had brought with them three pages from the original text of the Gospel of Matthew. This was a holy scripture that had been written thousands of years ago and it had been given to the commander of the Usonian parish\\\'s paladins, Udyr, in case of unforeseen circumstances.

At this moment, Udyr had used the Gospel of Matthew to form a heavenly barricade!

Within the barricade, all evil souls will be debilitated by over 10%, and its activation was a sign to all forces of evil that the church was about to unleash its final assault.

\\\"We need to stop them!!!\\\" Sebastian roared before frantically rushing toward the scene. \\\"Philadelphia can\\\'t withstand a battle like this!! Even if we have no choice but to fight, we can\\\'t allow the battle to take place here!! Usonia and Kanata will completely turn on us!!\\\"

For the church, the worst thing possible was to be kept out of a nation.

However, right as they attempted to rush onto the scene, a resounding boom suddenly rang out and an invisible barrier stopped them cold in their tracks, immediately following which a figure casually emerged out of thin air.

\\\"Edward!\\\" Sebastian turned toward the figure in the sky with bloodshot eyes. His aura was so powerful... It belonged to a Duke!

\\\"You... You\\\'re a Duke?! You\\\'re not Edward! Who are you?!\\\"

\\\"Who I am is not important,\\\" Edward replied with a smile. \\\"What\\\'s important is that you don\\\'t get to feature in this show.\\\"

\\\"How dare you!!\\\" Sebastian was about to rush toward Edward, but the other bishop hurriedly held him back.

\\\"What are you doing? Do you have a death wish?! It\\\'s clear that he doesn\\\'t care about Usonian lives! He\\\'s intentionally driving a wedge between the catholic church and the werewolf army, do you think he\\\'s going to spare you out of the kindness of his heart?!\\\"

He then turned to Edward before extending a deep bow. \\\"Regardless of who you are, I swear on behalf of the church that we won\\\'t pursue this matter as long as you allow us to get to Saint Peter\\\'s Church! Regardless of the final outcome, we won\\\'t place any blame on you!\\\"

An amused smile appeared on Edward\\\'s face. \\\"Even your pope wouldn\\\'t dare to negotiate with me like this. Just sit tight and watch, the show is only just beginning.\\\"

………………………………………………..

One reverend, priest, and nun after another were being summoned from all of the churches in the city, and true energy was flashing incessantly on hte streets of Philadelphia. The general public was most likely never going to know that there was another world existing alongside theirs all along.

\\\"Face the judgment of the lord, foul demons!\\\"

\\\"It\\\'s time for the radiance of the lord to illuminate Philadelphia once again!\\\"

\\\"This is the day all of you return to hell where you belong!\\\"

Elena was standing on the rooftop with a vindictive smile on her face. She was the one who had set everything into motion, and she could see the stunned looks on the faces of all of the witch hunters standing atop the surrounding buildings.

It was as if they were asking through their eyes: \\\"Why did you do that? Are you insane? The bishops told us not to use our exorcism flares unless absolutely necessary! Why would you do something like this?\\\"

However, their question was soon answered as a vicious claw plunged through Elena\\\'s chest and crushed her heart.

In that instant, it was as if time had completely stood still.

Everyone\\\'s eyes were on Elena, and their expressions transitioned from astonishment to fury, then to unbridled hatred.

In the next instant, around a dozen exorcism flares were fired up into the heavens in unison.

The entirety of Philadelphia had entered a state of war!