The bastard child becomes the empires royal consort Chapter 44

The silence that followed the crunch was even more terrifying than the sound itself.

Alan held his breath, he didn’t blink, he pushed his mana control to its limit, keeping his heartbeat in a steady, rhythmic throb, physically forcing himself to remain calm, praying he wouldn’t be found.

The loud crunch diminished, now replaced by an inconsistent recurrent sound of chewing flesh.

Alan lowered his centre of gravity, moving ahead, his boots submerged in a pool of blood that felt unnecessarily warm, the severed arm he noticed earlier lay just a few metres away, it hadn’t been a clean cut, and the sticking-out bone was jagged, like it had been snapped off.

Alan hesitated for a brief moment, but only a brief moment before continuing onwards.

Truthfully speaking, he was unnerved, fleeting sparks of fear thumped against his ribs, it wasn’t a daily occurrence for him to be as agitated as he was now, hell, the only one to ever make him feel genuine fear was Ziray.

But the current atmosphere only brought reasons for such emotions, a dark area drowned by the night sky and deafening silence interrupted with a grotesque noise striking his ear.

Still, he rooted his mind to his task, constantly reminding himself why he was here.

Each of his steps was a silent tap, dipping into the surface of blood pools without a single ripple, eventually reaching the shattered doors, the wood splintered outwards in a broken mess.

The interior of the church was a corridor of shadows, leaving the place in unknown conditions.

As he crossed the threshold, the sound returned.

CRUNCH

It was closer now, wet, deliberate, like bones being ripped off.

Alan continued onwards, passing through the dark hallways, moving closer to the horrifying source of noise, the corridor he stepped through had doors on either side of the walls, leading into rooms.

The majority of the doors were crushed, granting an open view of the destroyed room inside, overturned beds, shattered tables and chairs.

Alan looked away, continuing forward with a calm gaze, he passed by more rooms with the same view, broken doors and ruined interior.

Until he came to an abrupt halt, slowly turning his head to the right, the wooden door was intact, not fully closed, leaving a slight crack of opening.

Alan narrowed his eyes, he could sense the slight presence of something inside, not the creature he could hear.

He raised his palm, exercising his control over mana, he pushed a silent pulse of mana outward, colliding gently with the door, pushing it open without a sound.

Alan’s eyes widened behind his blindfold in shock, he first noticed a nun, her uniform smeared with blood, staring back at Alan with wide, terrified eyes.

She hugged four girls, each one of them clamping their hands over their mouths, doing anything possible to not leak a sound, their eyes flew open, past the tears streaking down their cheeks, realising Alan’s identity.

Similarly, Alan realised theirs, the nun was Sister Lily, the very same woman he met when he came to the church for the first time, and the four girls were the ones he left behind, Tania, Hailey and the two twins Ren, Rin.

However, Alan didn’t allow himself to relax or let out a sigh of relief, he quickly pressed a finger to his lips and mouthed. ’Stay here.’

The five of them nodded their heads, understanding his intentions.

Alan created another pulse of mana, pulling the door inwards, leaving the entrance with a slight crack.

He couldn’t yet escape with the girls, he had unfinished business with the abyssal creature.

...

It didn’t take long for him to reach the nave of the church, he moved past the overturned pews, his gaze on the far end of the space.

CRUNCH

The sound was the loudest it’d have ever been, it echoed off the vaulted ceilings of the nave, originating directly beneath the altar.

Alan kept his footsteps mute, every step of his revealed more and more of the tragedy, he passed by a discarded prayer book, its pages soaked in crimson, he stepped over a broken rosary, the silver beads crushed into the floor.

Alan reached the final rows of the pew, the centrepiece of the church coming into view, the statue of God.

The statue of an entity Alan simply referred to as the nameless god, as no names of the god were ever recorded, no gender, no deeds, just an empty slate.

It was a towering, faceless figure carved from black obsedian, the features were androgynous, depicting a genderless being, its head was tilted down with its arms outstretched in a gesture that could have been a curse or a blessing.

Beneath the statue’s feet, basking in the soft moonlight glow, sat a creature.

CRUNCH

Lifeless bodies with severed limbs lay scattered around the altar, its body was hunched over a body, its spine protruding like a row of knives.

The creature’s upper body was a mimicry of a bat, with scaly patterns on its skin instead of fur, its limbs were distorted and vaguely resembled a human’s but were far too long to be one.

CRUNCH

Feasting at the foot of God’s statue, the creature bit down on a femur, the sound of splintering bones echoing in the silent hall.

Alan’s brows were tightly knitted together, his eyes glaring holes into the creature’s head with a hateful scowl, still he released none of his hostility, he quietly approached the doubled-over creature by completely masking his own presence.

Crack

But in a moment of carelessness, he stepped on a glass bottle, shattering the glass under his feet.

Alan froze, his calm heart now banging against his ribs.

The chewing stopped.

The creature didn’t move its head at first, its head still buried in the flesh and bones of its meal, but its long ears twitched, it straightened its hunched spine.

Slowly, very slowly, the creature began to turn its head.

Four eyeballs with crimson irises rolled, locking onto Alan, blood dripped down its chin as the detached limb remained in its jaws.

Thup

It didn’t hiss or roar, it dropped the piece of flesh he was devouring and sniffed the air, flaring its nostrils.

"Alright, fuck it then." Alan immediately abandoned all attempts at hiding himself and raised his fists. "Come at me."

The creature didn’t wait, it launched forward, dashing on all fours as its human-like fingers dug into the concrete.

As the beast approached, it lunged up, raising its two claws as if to slash Alan.

Alan stepped into the strike, enhancing his legs with mana, bursting forward in a quick dash, he dipped low and drove a fist upward.

Thup

It struck the creature dead in the stomach, the sheer impact lifted the creature into the air.

But it didn’t fall, it unfurled a gnarled pair of wings, using its wing, it pushed forward at an unnatural angle, with a clawed foot slamming into Alan’s chest before he could react.

Alan skidded against the bloody floor, crashing into a pew nearby, splintering wood, he spat out a mouthful of blood and muttered. "Fuck."

The creature dropped to the floor, opening its jaws beyond what it should be capable of.

SCREEEECH

And released a god-awful shriek, but having previous experience with the griffin, Alan blocked his eardrums with mana and rushed forward.

Without allowing it any time, Alan launched a left hook, snapping the creature’s head to the side, and quickly followed with a right high kick.

Crack Crack

Using the small window of time he received, he dropped low to the ground, snatching a long piece of shattered wood with a jagged edge, just sharp enough to impale.

And impale he did, Alan pushed the piece of wood into the creature’s left knee, and before it could even scream, Alan struck a clean uppercut to the creature’s jaw.

A lightning-quick claw came from his left, Alan responded fast by dropping his body and hitting another heavy blow to the creature’s sternum, pushing it off its feet.

Thup Thup Thup

What followed was a barrage, a continuous, relentless barrage of attacks with a mixture of martial arts, each blow snapping the creature’s body in a different direction.

And not once did Alan get hit, coating his hands with mana, he continued his assault, allowing no time for the creature to fight back.

But it didn’t last long, the creature swerved along the flow of his right hook, then copied his exact move from before, the creature ducked low and drove its fist upward.

It was a clumsy imitation of Alan’s technique, but the fact was, it worked.

The blow hit Alan in his guts, his vision blurred for a moment as he hovered in the air, weightless, as realisation came a bit late to him.

’It’s copying to me?’ No, not copying, more like.

"Adapting, huh?" Alan grinned despite the pain lingering in his stomach.

Instead of a vocal response, the creature grabbed Alan’s face with its claw and hurled Alan with all its might.

CRASH

Launching Alan straight through the stone walls of the church.