Grim Reaper in the Apocalypse: Reaping Immortals

Everyone looked up at the fiery explosion in the Church. The soldiers and Saviors stationed around the walls quickly moved and intercepted the giant rubble flying down on the civilians.

But even when the dangerous debris threatened to crush them from above, the civilians couldn't take their eyes off the plume of smoke rising from the church's burst-open spires.

It seemed to signal the start of an ominous air.

"Oh God…what's happening?!"

"What about the mission?"

Chaos and panic spread through the civilians.

Even the once ignorant City was now alerted of a problem once they saw the dark plume of smoke coming from the Church.

People stopped their horses in the middle of the road, they dropped their food in the ground, and they walked in the middle of a busy street as they looked towards the Church. They slowly walked over to the blockade on the four major roads leading to the Church.

"Let us in!"

"What's happening at the Church?"

Thankfully, the soldiers were well-equipped to deal with a bunch of angry and curious mobs that tried to enter the premises.

"Please! HeadQuarters is dealing with the situation. Don't cause further panic!" shouted the soldier.

But that wasn't enough to stop the civilians worried for their beloved Church. Even if they couldn't get past the soldiers, they opted to annoy them and hope that they changed their minds to let civilians enter the four major roads.

Meanwhile, the situation near the Church was even more disastrous. The nuns and priests witnessing their place of worship blow up in front of their eyes was nothing more than a traumatic experience. They stuttered in their prayers, with their belief wavering for a moment.

"Let me in!"

"We need to show our piety to the Genesis God for us to receive his blessing!"

The soldiers were overwhelmed by the holy men and women. They were given express instruction from the HeadQuarters to not touch the nuns and priests, but that made their job even harder because they were the ones more insistent on getting inside the Church.

"Believe in our Saviors!" shouted Reverend Fifty-Seventh. His commanding voice settled down the priests and nuns.

"Entering the Church will only exacerbate the situation!" Pterina shouted to the civilians. "The Church will be fine!"

Lizzie helped Pterina calm down the rousey crowd.

The Saviors stationed around the wall were forced to show their LifeSkills to intimidate anyone who dared come close to the Church.

This seemed to be the most effective way to calm them down. Once the civilians saw the power and pressure of a LifeSkill, they were forced to remember a Savior's power. They were reminded that there were professionals armed and ready to resolve the situation.

After a few minutes, the mob finally died down.

Atlan looked at the Church with his Thermal Vision and saw that the temperature inside the church increased! It was a lot hotter inside, with the same temperature as when the Symptom appeared in the Masamune district.

The Specialists must be fighting with the Ifrits now. Did that explosion mean that one of the Ifrits self-destructed?

If Atlan's guess was true, then he may have touched upon one of the ways to learn how a specific Symptom equated to a specific Canzer.

BURBLE

Just then, they all heard the glimmering of a portal inside the Church.

The civilians were none the wiser, but the Saviors recognized that sound. It was the effect when someone entered or exited a portal construct.

The mission is finished?

After a few seconds, footsteps resounded inside the Church. They were heavy. Whoever they were, carried with them something weighty.

The double doors creaked as they opened it and went outside of the Church.

With a rhythmic knock they agreed upon beforehand, the soldiers on the other side of the wall pulled the lever and split the wall to let the Saviors exit the Church.

Finally, Atlan saw the Specialist Saviors in charge of the mission.

His eyes shined with a hint of recognition as he looked at the black-haired woman in the middle of the group.

She wore a green battle suit inundated with medals and pins that showed her achievements as a Savior. On her back was a giant one-handed sword that seemed like it could cut through a skyscraper with ease.

Behind her were six more Saviors with fewer achievements than her, but were impressive nonetheless.

Atlan recognized them. They were the team that rescued them in the Pocket Remedium! He didn't think they'd be the ones assigned to this mission.

The black-haired woman, presumably their leader, walked over towards their group.

He thought she would walk over to Pterina and report to her about the mission, but instead, she walked over to Neumann and hugged him.

Is she Ninth? Neumann's daughter?

Neumann looked down at his daughter and saw her expression. She would usually don a proud, if not a little arrogant expression on her face whenever she finished the mission.

The fact that she was somber meant something different.

"We failed," she uttered.

Atlan simply couldn't believe her words. He couldn't understand how a Specialist-level team couldn't deal with a simple Ifrit. The power level disparity between the two should be like the difference between heaven and earth.

Did the Operator construct malfunction? Or perhaps, there was an anomaly?

Atlan wasn't the only one with questions in his mind. Pterina walked over to Ninth and questioned her. Even when she didn't mean it, her battle suit glowed as she subconsciously activated her Inquisitor LifeSkill.

"What happened? Was there a Sapient Canzer that ambushed your team?"

Ninth shook her head. "No. It's just as the Operators estimated. There were only 4 Ifrits in the mission."

Surprisingly, Pterina saw no lies in her words. She only told the truth. But that made things even more perplexing! She couldn't understand how they failed to defeat a simple Student-level Canzer.

"We found three of the Ifrits roaming around the Church. It was easy enough to kill them. The problem was with the last one. It's at the Door."

Pterina's face turned ghastly white. Lizzie couldn't help but gasp in horror.