Chapter 112-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation

From the map Annabella had given her, the entire base consisted of the front courtyard's church and temple; the middle courtyard's nursery and school; the back courtyard's clergy quarters, exercise yard, Back Garden Enclosure (the secured area for containing failed experiments), and a massive underground lab.

Ye Zheng had arrived in the front courtyard's church, where she'd met Annabella, and now she was likely in the back courtyard's residential building.

Which spot to slip into first?

Her fingertip traced the map before she suddenly recalled the green turf she'd passed through with Annabella earlier. Per the icons, that was the exercise yard, right next to the Back Garden Enclosure.

"She mentioned the Back Garden Enclosure."

Ye Zheng remembered that when she'd brought up Zhou Yun, Annabella had gritted her teeth and spat, "She's the one who opened the Back Garden Enclosure."

Warm sunlight streamed through the window, but Ye Zheng felt no warmth. The door was still guarded—as head nun, Annabella lacked absolute control here. Next, she'd have to move covertly.

Ye Zheng stood by the window, reaching toward the light. Dust motes danced in her palm; she slowly clenched her fist.

Waiting until night for action was safest, but she couldn't wait that long.

The girl glanced down from the windowsill. The base seemed under attack—exploring amid the chaos might be a prime opportunity.

Palm on the sill, Ye Zheng leaped from the third floor.

Percy had lost Ye Zheng's trail in the thick mist. He'd watched her dash from the church outward, following the footsteps, only to find white-robed knights and a massive dragon-bodied humanoid monster nearby—no sign of that familiar, slender figure.

The monster's hisses and the people's screams rang in his ears. Reason told him to help, to stop the beast from drawing closer. But as he advanced and looked up into the emotionless, all-black eyes of the woman on the black dragon body...

Percy's heart jolted. Sorrow, fear, rage... Countless emotions churned his chest, and he turned, fleeing back into the church in abject panic.

Inside the church, the enraged Sykes slammed a white-robed man to the ground, yanking Kiran's hair with one hand. The nearby priests and nuns dared not intervene, huddling in terror as they watched.

"Sykes!"

Percy seized Sykes' wrist, stopping him just in time. The guy had even removed his right glove—he'd truly meant to kill Kiran.

"Don't—aren't you curious what this guy's hiding?"

Sykes slowly released his grip on Kiran's hair and stood, slipping the glove back on.

He kicked Kiran viciously. "What the hell is that lab below?!"

The white-robed man coughed heavily, hauling himself up shakily. His soft blue locks and pristine robe were dusted with grime, yet Kiran still smiled with debonair grace.

"I didn't expect you'd escape so quickly—I underestimated you. But I still hold high hopes for you—"

Before Kiran could finish, Sykes impatiently seized him and dragged him back down the path the three had just ascended, to the underground lab. Percy followed in silence.

Sykes flung Kiran unceremoniously to the lab floor. His furious glare nearly tore the man apart, but soon, his slightly trembling golden eyes uncontrollably drifted to the transparent jars lining the lab.

"Feels familiar, doesn't it? You once lived in there, watched with high expectations by so many. And you didn't disappoint—became the sturdiest child, the most worthy to emerge from the empress's womb..."

The man's fractured, twisted words stabbed into Sykes' skull like jagged glass shards. Fragmented memories exploded and overlapped before his eyes. Sykes' golden eyes bloodshot, his black-gloved right hand clamped the man's throat.

He wanted to silence the demonic voice, but the agony in his brain sapped his strength, his grip quivering at the base.

No more—! Sykes' mind defensively began discarding the surfacing fragments, but the pain didn't abate. In a daze, his hand was pried loose, his body slumping backward powerlessly.

"Sykes, stop!"

The black-haired, blue-eyed youth intervened once more against the crown prince's lost reason.

"Kiran, me, Sykes, Ye Zheng—are we all tied to your twisted experiments? Sykes was born from those jars—was I too?"

Percy shoved aside the strangling Sykes and grabbed Kiran's collar, his trembling voice nearly cracking.

At a certain name, Sykes—leaning against the wall—suddenly steadied his limp body. The glass-shard memories vanished instantly, replaced by the vision of a pale, gentle face.

His body abruptly recalled that enveloping healing force, like every time Ye Zheng aided his recall of lost memories—the pain simply soothed away.

Snapping to, Sykes' pupils dilated in disbelief as he clutched his forehead.

"Percy, you didn't grow up in the nursery jars. You're the sole precious child to descend naturally from a holy vessel. The West District overseer at the time raised you as his own by his side. The only flaw was your occasional loss of control over your ability, so he had no choice but to confine you in that little room."

Percy stiffly turned his head, staring at the black room they'd burst out from.

"That was a room the overseer had specially made for you. He couldn't bear to imprison you in the base; he wanted to teach you himself and arranged a nun for your personal care. But that nun betrayed his trust, letting you end up in the common folk."

"Even so, true gold never loses its shine. When you rose in the lower district, I took notice."

Percy's lips twitched, veins bulging at his neck. In that instant, a violent urge to strangle the man surged within him.

With Kiran's words, disjointed memories drifted through his mind. Percy seemed to witness the first four years of a pitiful child's life as an outsider.

A tiny body observed in a pallid lab, surrounded by white demons, distant roars from black monsters. A kind-faced middle-aged man took him away, brief glimpses of bustling crowds, then endless darkness swallowing him...

—That pitiful child was none other than his thirteen-year-old self!

Percy released his grip on the man's collar, slumping in exhaustion. Kiran smiled at the sight, rising to straighten his clothes, once more the picture of elegant handsomeness.

"Zhou Yun hates the Hope Project for taking her child, so she's destroying everything it built—including you precious children."

"Stay in this safe underground room. Zhou Yun's power, fueled by the dragon bone, won't last. She'll soon be fully backlashed by it, and this mist is doomed to dissipate. Once it's over, you'll return to your original paths."

Kiran’s gaze brushed the two youths' cheeks with fond affection. Percy sat dazed on the floor, still processing the shocking memories, while Sykes straightened, his golden eyes regaining their icy edge.

He asked, "And Ye Zheng? Is she one of your test subjects too?"

Kiran frowned slightly at that, his tone uncertain for the first time. "Barring surprises, she should be... a holy vessel transformed personally by Wen Jian using dragon bone."

"Holy Vessel?"

Percy barely steadied his mind, looking at Kiran in confusion.

"Ah, a holy vessel is a sacred duty only great women can bear."

Kiran closed his eyes, arms spread, inhaling deeply. After a moment, he opened them to the still-puzzled boys and veered to another topic.

"Has the Ye family not announced Ye Zheng's betrothal yet?"

Percy showed surprise and confusion, while Sykes' golden eyes darkened slightly.

*

"Don't make a sound."

The short man was suddenly seized at the neck from behind by a pair of icy hands. He instinctively tried to shout, but all that escaped was a near-suffocating retch, his feet kicking futilely off the ground in terror.

"Tell me—what's this Back Garden Enclosure for?"

Ye Zheng had slipped from the residential building all the way to the Back Garden Enclosure Annabella had mentioned.

A transparent, dome-like glass barrier enclosed a vast wild area: undulating wildflowers and weeds, rampant tall trees, a gently flowing stream. Looking back, the passage she'd snuck through flanked enormous prison-like spaces with thick iron chains strung across.

This wasn't some church garden—it was more like an abandoned beast pen.

Weaving through, she found shed scales, molted dead skin, massive footprints on the ground, deep claw marks on trunks.

Ye Zheng quickly realized the residents here were likely the dragon-bodied humanoids she'd seen outside the West District church.

But she didn't understand—why did such things exist?

Her hand released suddenly, and the short man collapsed to the ground, gasping greedily. Meeting the youth's icy gaze, he stammered through his recovery, tongue thick.

"This is, is where the Fallen Breed live. They used to stay here, but—but two weeks ago, the barrier just opened, and they all flew away!"

"Fallen Breed?"

"Th-the women who failed the demon dragon power trial. Their bodies couldn't purify the dragon bone's evil force, so they degenerated into monsters. Even then, we never gave up on them—we raised them specially..."

Demon dragon power trial?

Ye Zheng suddenly recalled the dragon bone fragment in Zoya's body, now embedded in her palm. So the so-called trial was implanting dragon bone...?

Ye Zheng had only dared embed a small piece in her palm so far. Without her ability's inherent healing, she might not even control that tiny shard.

The out-of-control sensation from the fragment still made her cautious in handling it.

So once it went wrong, she'd turn into one of those dragon-bodied things? This man's so-called Fallen Breed?

The girl's lips curled in mocking smile. "And the women who pass the demon dragon's evil power trial?"

"They're precious holy vessels, carriers of hope!"

At "holy vessel," the man who'd just escaped death spoke fluidly, as if he'd heard and repeated it countless times. "We care for the holy vessels with utmost attention. Their sacred fertility purifies the demon dragon's malignance, birthing extraordinary children—and those children are our future!"

Ye Zheng eyed the man oddly, slowly crouching to peer at his twitching face, as if gauging his truthfulness.

"I've always wondered—why do you think evil dragon bone can birth the next God of Hope?"

The man's face spasmed. He seemed to forget death's shadow entirely, fanaticism gleaming in his eyes.

"That's a secret only we know—aaah!"

Bang!

Ye Zheng shot his shoulder, restoring some peril sense.

"Y-you—I-I'll talk!"

The man clutched his gushing shoulder in agony.

"The first Pope left records: all power stems from the same source—be it Demonic Domain monsters, the demon dragon, humans with abilities, or the God of Hope."

"This force erupted massively upon first descent. Most early ability-awakened humans lost control, turning monstrous like Demonic Domain beasts, bringing catastrophic disaster to the empire—until the God of Hope appeared."

"After the God of Hope vanished, the empire panicked again. Though the first Pope, Saintess, and other ability stabilizers emerged, most remained unstable. The empire grew pessimistic about the future: without the God of Hope, humanity would either be devoured by Demonic Domains or assimilated into monsters by their power."

"Yet, this ability rampage stabilized rapidly within thirty years."

The man paused, seemingly teasing a reveal (deliberately withholding info for suspense), only to hear the cool voice above: "Because second-generation ability users born through human women remained stable?"

"The odds of ordinary human women birthing ability-user children are low, usually low-rank."

"But female ability users have high odds of birthing ability-wielding offspring, at the cost of their own power declining."

"Regardless, their children are stable ability users."

Ye Zheng's gaze turned utterly cold, fixed on the man's terrified face. Her tone grew lighter, like calm before a storm.

"The demon dragon's power most closely mirrors the ancient God of Hope. Since both forces are from the same source, you covet power rivaling the God of Hope."

"You use women as vessels to purify and stabilize the dragon bone's force—"

Ye Zheng closed her eyes, recalling Sykes' body full of dragon bone, the odd biological corpses in the transparent jars, the Pope's Mother of All Things ability, and the women dubbed holy vessels...

All clues linked in this moment. They used [Mother of All Things] to revive the dragon bone, then cultivated holy vessels to birth stable human ability users from dragon bone life—for instance, Sykes.

The former empress was what they called a holy vessel.

Ye Zheng glanced at her palm—by their standards, so was she.

The empty space fell deathly silent.

Facing the girl's faintly mocking tone, the man's bulging eyes protruded, breaths ragged. After a while, he mustered courage for a fervent rebuttal: "You think we're just sacrificing so many for power?"

Ye Zheng's dark eyes churned with suppressed fury. She slowly raised her gun, but the man's next words made her widen her eyes in surprise.

"You know nothing! That famous prophecy—the super S-rank Demonic Domain descending in five hundred years, with the God of Hope's chosen successor turning the tide—only the first half is real!"

Ye Zheng's mouth parted slightly in astonishment, words failing her.

"The true prophecy left by the first Pope: in five hundred years, the empire will utterly perish after the super S-rank Demonic Domain arrives. No mention of any successor—the latter half was fabricated to soothe the masses..."

The squat man, slumped on the ground, suddenly erupted with immense force, shoving Ye Zheng—who'd been crouching to interrogate him—away. He stood tall, looming over the ignorant girl.

"Without hope, we create it—never bowing to a doomed future. That's the core tenet of the Hope Project!"

"The God of Hope won't save us again, so we forge our own god. That's humanity's greatness! The Hope Project's greatness!"

"The sacrifices aren't just women—we all bury our names and devote our lives!"

Ye Zheng crouched in place, head bowed low, seemingly processing the massive info dump.

Then the girl rose languidly. As she stood, the man's impassioned momentum wilted before her height. Ye Zheng couldn't help tilting her head with a chuckle.

"The humanity you speak of, the future—does it include those—like us women?" Ye Zheng paused midway, then continued.

The man under 5'7" had to crane his neck to meet the tall girl's eyes. His lips curved in a stiff arc, straining to hold his ground.

"Every—every woman volunteered. Some threw themselves into the project; others arrived by accident. Those accidental women and girls might not understand at first, but once they learned of us, every one accepted the experiments willingly. We never force anyone."

"They're great—history will engrave their noble choice!"

"What a noble choice!"

Ye Zheng smiled. She casually tossed her gun aside and clapped her hands, the crisp applause ringing sharply in the barren space.

The man gawked at her like she'd gone mad.

"Now I'll give you a choice too: death by the sword at my side, death by my gun, or..."

The white-robed squat man didn't wait for Ye Zheng to finish—he barreled past her, bolting desperately toward the opposite wilds.

The path back inside was blocked by Ye Zheng, but he knew this place intimately—there were other exits!

Damn! Who the hell was this girl? Her features seemed vaguely familiar, but the crisis left no room for thought.

Gunshots cracked behind him nonstop, followed by the girl's footsteps. The man fled in dread, not daring a glance back, inwardly relieved.

Idiot! If she hadn't ditched the gun, she might've nailed him already. Now, she might not catch up—as long as he crossed that stream ahead and slipped through the handlers' side door, he'd find help!

The man eyed the distant small door with hope, one foot unwittingly splashing into the stream.

"Urk—"

His vision spun wildly; he toppled into the creek.

The stream was shallow, but as the man flailed to rise, it felt like boulders crushing him down. Soon, water engulfed his senses, the five senses fading—even his sight dimmed.

In the final moments, only muffled hearing lingered.

"Here's to your 'great choice'." (mocking his earlier claims of voluntary sacrifice)

The casual voice filtered through the surface, rippling it one last time. Then the water stilled completely.

Moments later, the pale corpse floated up from the shallow stream. Ye Zheng rummaged it briefly, fishing a metal card from the upper pocket.

"Henry Jones... Ah, from the Jones family—no wonder he reached supervisor rank and knew so much."

Ye Zheng stared at the "Nursery Supervisor" on the metal ID card. She decided her next stop was the nursery on the map.

Meanwhile.

"Roy, Caleb—we're heading to Lanshire County. Lucy's hometown's there... and so's where I was born..."

"Ryan, gather everyone still mobile."

"Looks like I can't stop you. How about I join along?"

In the West District cathedral, the two youths exchanged a glance, then both turned to the gently smiling Kiran.

Author's Note:

If these two don't hurry, Zheng's gonna wipe out the whole base.

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