Chapter 181: The Necromantic Altar
"Study...the body?"
Leia looked puzzled. Since when did the Church do that?
But Gideon offered no further explanation.
After setting up the ritual tools around them, he crouched beside the towering mountain man.
The holy nails really can lock down this thing's power source, he thought.
Using Spiritual Sight, Gideon had already noticed several unusual points on the creature's body where the aura of evil was abnormally dense. That was why he decided to seal those points with force—and the result proved him right.
Once its energy supply was cut off, this mountain man was nothing more than a physically strong brute.
To prevent any accidents, Gideon drove several more holy nails into its joints. That way, even if the creature suddenly recovered its strength, he would still have enough time to retreat safely.
Nearby, Leia watched the priest's actions with clear surprise.
She hadn't expected to encounter a cleric capable of using power-sealing techniques.
This was an advanced combat method. In many supernatural incidents, the power of demons or monsters did not originate from themselves, but from a higher-ranking existence behind them. Purely physical purification methods were often insufficient.
By sealing the power source instead, one could temporarily sever the connection between the monster and whatever lay behind it. Even if the evil power later flowed back, it would be far harder for the creature to continue causing harm.
However, not every exorcist possessed such ability.
It required eliminating interference and accurately pinpointing the monster's source of power—a skill only elite exorcists mastered. Among knightly orders, only powerful Templar Knights could reliably do this.
Even Leia herself usually relied on trial and error—cutting down one part after another to find the key.
He looks so young… could his strength really rival that of a Templar Knight? she wondered.
Meanwhile, Gideon used Psychological Counseling to awaken the towering mountain man.
This startled Leia badly at first, but the creature showed no intention of attacking. When she realized the priest was actually trying to communicate with it, her shock deepened even further.
"Have you seen this girl?" Gideon asked, holding up a photo of Jenny.
As expected of an elite-level monster, the mountain man knew quite a lot.
According to its account, Jenny had entered the forest more than ten days ago—and it was this very mountain man who escorted her into the deeper woods.
Seeing that Jenny was young and delicate, they had intended to keep her as a reserve breeding subject, though she first needed to undergo a baptism.
Upon hearing this, Gideon finally relaxed a little.
This meant Jenny was very likely still alive.
At the same time, he felt speechless. A group of bloodthirsty cannibals… performing baptisms?
Yet the mountain man was not lying.
Every human woman granted the "right of reproduction" had to be immersed in a pool filled with blood. Afterward, she would mate one by one with higher-generation male mountain men, ensuring that the children born carried a sufficient concentration of "pure blood."
The revelation shattered Gideon's moral tolerance.
Back in the original source material, he already thought these cannibals were depraved enough. He hadn't expected that in this American-horror world, they were even more deranged.
Why do all the fools seduced by Satan love playing these disgusting games? Gideon cursed inwardly.
Beyond that, he also learned more about the depths of the forest.
As expected, numerous altars were hidden there—strongholds packed with restless undead, used by the mountain men as defenses against intruders.
Deeper within the forest, traps grew more numerous, and black miasma permeated everything.
Only Mountain men could pass through safely.
Jenny was being held at one of the inner camps. Only after gathering enough "breeding vessels" would the mountain men perform the baptism ritual.
Gideon frowned. He couldn't imagine what that scene would look like.
The mountain men deeper inside were far stronger—born to dwell there, waiting as their lesser kin delivered food from the outskirts.
The towering mountain man, lacking sufficient blood purity, had been stationed near the forest's edge instead.
Leia watched Gideon and the creature converse, her expression increasingly strange.
From her perspective, the priest spoke in human language while the mountain man replied with guttural roars—and yet, they somehow understood each other.
She rubbed her face, half-convinced she was hallucinating.
After finishing the interrogation, Gideon stood and selectively relayed the information to Leia.
"How are you communicating with it?" she asked curiously. She even poked the mountain man and tried questioning it herself, only to be shoved away.
"This is a gift from the Lord," Gideon replied with a faint smile. "Pray sincerely, and you may gain the same ability."
"You're quite humorous, Father," Leia said with a smile, letting the matter drop.
She avoided his questions about her identity and purpose just as smoothly.
"Don't worry," she said. "I bear no ill will toward the Church. Let's move quickly—those missing travelers don't have much time."
After purifying the towering mountain man, the two continued deeper into the forest, keeping a cautious distance between them.
Before long, they reached a wooden cabin and found a mountain woman and child inside.
The female was feeding the infant with a bottle filled with foul, murky green sludge. Both of them frowned.
The infant's appearance was grotesque—barely humanoid in outline. Its face had no distinct features, only an irregular opening that might have been a mouth.
"You take the small one," Gideon said.
"Fine."
Without hesitation, both excluded the creature from any notion of childhood.
The mountain woman was crippled at the joints and quickly subdued. After killing it, Leia cut open its abdomen and examined the interior.
"What are you looking for?" Gideon asked.
"Just making sure it's dead," she replied calmly.
Then she turned—and saw Gideon pushing a baby stroller.
"…What is that?"
"mountain men clearly have a strong sense of kinship," Gideon said. "This thing might serve as a hostage."
Leia froze.
You're a priest… aren't you? she nearly asked.
But then she reconsidered. This thing couldn't really be called a child. By that logic, his actions weren't exactly wrong.
Still, the sight of a priest pushing a monster infant was deeply unsettling.
---
Crossing an invisible boundary, the black miasma thickened dramatically.
Holy white light radiated from Gideon, repelling the corruption. Leia drew a dagger that emitted a strange energy, forming a protective field around her.
Soon, they encountered another altar.
Black fog churned, specters howled.
Leia frowned. She hadn't expected lingering spirits here.
"We should—" she began, only to see Gideon stride straight toward the altar.
"Back off," he called out. "Or this little thing dies."
He pressed a crucifix to the mountain man infant's throat.
Leia stared at him.
Why does he look so practiced at this?
The dead spirits surged forward, but some restriction kept them from straying too far from the altar.
Wails filled the forest.
Gideon's brows lifted. When the spirits lunged, their gazes were locked firmly on the infant.
So that's it…
He waved the infant deliberately in front of them.
"As long as you cooperate," he said smoothly, "this little one is yours to deal with."
Leia's mouth twitched.
That was a fast change in stance.
The spirits still glared, unmoved.
"It's useless," Leia said. "They're consumed by hatred—no communication is-"
Before she finished, the spirits suddenly calmed and lined up under Gideon's direction.
Leia rubbed her eyes.
Is he even human? He can command the dead?
Gideon discreetly put away the Amulet of the Undead. (Taken from Final Destination Arc)
"You may speak of your grievances," he said. "We're here to solve your suffering and wipe out the mountain men once and for all."
Blue energy surged from the spirits.
Images unfolded across the altar—scenes much like those Gideon had seen before.
These people had been slaughtered, their souls bound to the altar, cultivated in hatred, and eventually offered to Hell.
From them, Gideon learned more about Jenny.
Three days earlier, Jenny had stopped here. Her companions were killed at the altar; she was taken deeper into the forest.
"You don't want to ask anything?" Gideon turned to Leia.
After a pause, she said, "Ask them where the Progenitor mountain man is."
That single question revealed much.
The spirits explained that the mountain man clan was divided into three layers.
Gideon and Leia were in the second layer, home to mountain men with immense strength, speed, and terrifying coordination—able to spread black miasma together to corrupt everything around them.
The third layer, at the core, housed the Progenitor mountain man. Even the spirits spoke vaguely of it—only that it had been cursed since the race's birth, and only the purest bloodlines could survive there.
Gideon relayed the information.
Leia simply thanked him.
Gideon felt a theory forming—but said nothing.
He then had the spirits sit neatly along the altar's edge, picked up a stick, and stepped before them.
"What are you doing?" Leia asked.
"Teaching them a lesson," Gideon replied calmly.