The eccentric doctor never makes a misdiagnosis!

"Do you know why you can't move, High Priestess? It's because your brain keeps growing to resist the effects of [Redundant Consciousness Intrusion]. There's no more computing power left to control your body."

"We can stay this close until the effects of this White Cup Class II Secret Technique wear off... Please look forward to it!"

Sayens wanted to scream, but she couldn't. Because her vocal cords had been removed…

The speed at which this heretical priest's flesh regenerated was nowhere near the speed at which Fran removed it. Her Anatomy resolution was a full 79%, far surpassing all other techniques!

Soon, Sayens became a skeleton. Her many organs were neatly arranged to the side, like some kind of eerie exhibit.

Fran's white coat was soaked in blood, but she didn't care. Because she had found the source of the flesh-and-blood proliferation—half a tiny, beating heart.

The scalpel swiftly pierced the half of the heart and peeled it off.

“Oh, please forgive my slip of the tongue. I just said you were a heretical priest, but I was clearly wrong... You are only a ‘half-priest’.”

Fran sighed with pity and indifference, seemingly having lost all interest in Sayens.

She tossed the heart onto the ground like trash, and with a crushing blow from her thick-soled leather shoes, it dissolved into a puddle of scum.

Then, Fran, nearly covered in blood, let out a long sigh of relief, feeling refreshed and smiling broadly. She then turned her gaze to Haida.

"Solanie is still alive, it's not time for a victory celebration yet. Would you like to come with me to find her, Sister Haida?"

Even with Haida's exceptional mental fortitude, the scene of the live dissection of the heretical priest still greatly shocked her.

“…Okay, let’s go.” It took Haida a while to regain her composure.

She sighed softly, came to Fran, rolled up her travel robe, and wiped the bloodstains from his face.

Sifuran maintained his original posture, his deep amber-gold eyes slightly narrowed, like a feline enjoying being petted.

-

Chapter Fourteen: Solani Lois

Zero Solani wandered through the vagrant settlements on the outskirts of the city, her tattered robes billowing as she staggered, but her expression was strangely excited.

She gazed with delight at her fair palms, where the veins and lines intertwined to form an inverted triangular emblem of a red cup.

This signifies her elevation from the ranks of lay believers and ordinary believers... to becoming a glorious acolyte.

Having received her appointment as High Priestess of the Hunger Club, she felt an unprecedented sense of mission. Sweet to the point of melting, she had never been happier since birth.

What could be more enjoyable than climbing step by step up a grand staircase made of jagged bones?

Perfect yourself, enrich yourself, and after shedding the mundane and attaining perfection in this flesh and blood body... dedicate everything to the supreme Lord and become His retinue in His kingdom.

Just imagining these things made Solani uncontrollably passionate.

"The Plum Moon Festival is approaching, and the Hungry Club's ritual array requires even more human sacrifices... We can finally loosen up a bit. I wonder which clan will respond to the [Summon Bloodline] this time?"

Her anticipation was so intense that she knelt down, her body trembling uncontrollably. She stood out among the scattered group of homeless people.

To outsiders, Lady Solani looked as if she were collapsing and crying, or perhaps she had stumbled and fallen due to hunger. But no one went to pay her any attention.

Which of the homeless people here doesn't have a tragic past and be driven to desperation? As long as they have the ability to work and are not wanted by the authorities, no one would want to stay on the shadowy northern border.

"Hello, madam, are you alright?"

A concerned female voice sounded beside Solani.

Lost in her own fanatical ideas, Solani felt someone supporting her, and she was overjoyed. A live sacrifice… delivered so easily to her doorstep.

Suddenly, Solani's expression turned somewhat strange, her fervent emotions freezing in an instant. (Three ∫＾”≠_【【)

The person helping her up called her "Madam"? But she has now undergone a transformation and looks like an ordinary woman in her early twenties.

Shouldn't the proper form of address be "Miss" or "Madam"? How does the person in front of me know that I'm already married?

Solani's thoughts quickly cooled, and her gaze went straight to the woman supporting her forearm.

The woman was dressed in the robes commonly worn by travelers, with long, light-colored hair, and a few strands of braids visible at her temples. Her eyes were as clear and flawless as amber... Solani was deeply impressed by this.

Dr. Fran!

...But how is that possible? How could anyone find me? The High Priest clearly examined me; there shouldn't be any marks left by any secret arts on my body.

She changed her appearance constantly, making it impossible for even the most skilled hunters to track her down.

"How did you find me? My disguise should be flawless... The High Priest clearly and meticulously touched every corner of my body; there couldn't possibly be any Hunter's mark or brand on me!"

Fran removed the hood of his travel robe and stepped back slightly, keeping a certain distance from Solani.

At this moment, she took off her doctor's coat, which was soaked with a huge amount of blood plasma, and put on the standard nun's robe of the Hunters Order.

Fortunately, one of the purging squad's funeral maids was of a similar build to Fran, so the logistics department provided her with a change of clothes, allowing her to avoid going out in sticky clothes. After a quick wash, she changed into her hunter's attire.

Fran was shorter than Lady Solani, but for some reason, Solani could sense from Fran's eyes that she was looking down on her in a condescending manner.

"First of all, your disguise is not very clever in my opinion. [Transformation], as the third type of secret technique of the Red Cup, can only be called basic knowledge, and your modification of flesh and blood is too crude. As I said before... it has no aesthetic appeal."

"Secondly, Qiu: you do not have the mark of the Hunter's Order, but you do have my mark."

As Fran spoke, she slightly spread her hands, and one of Solani's eyeballs nimbly crawled out of its socket like a spider and jumped into her palm.

Flesh and nerves form the four pairs of limbs of the eyeball, giving it the ability to move.

"When it's on you, it blends perfectly with your own flesh and blood without any abnormality. Even the high priest can't tell anything without a destructive examination, let alone... Sayens isn't strictly speaking a 'high priest'."

Solani felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave; her upper and lower jaws trembled uncontrollably, and her limbs felt colder than ever before.

"You are not a Hunter! Hunters cannot surpass us in the art of flesh and blood... You, what exactly are you..."

Her perspective was now split in two: on one side she was staring at Fran, and on the other... she was being stared at by Fran!

Solani slowly and absently reached out to touch her neck. Although there was nothing there, she seemed to see the Grim Reaper's scythe hanging in the air, ready to decapitate her at any moment.

"Madam, politeness is your greatest virtue, and I hope you will maintain it. What do you mean by 'who do you think you are'?"

Fran raised an eyebrow, seemingly somewhat displeased.

"I am Fran Hesser, a doctor at the Fog Street Clinic at No. 13 North District. I am currently employed as a coroner for the Order of the Mysteries."

Solani backed away little by little, stopping when the back of her head hit something cold and hard.

That was the muzzle of Haida's gun, and a chilling, silent intent of death spread out.

She froze, then looked back with a hint of helplessness at Fran, who was walking slowly towards her with his hands behind his back.

"The Hunter's hound, you can name High Priestess Sayens, which means you've already gone to the Hunger Club? Mr. Sayens, she..."

“Sains. You mean her, right? She’s dead.”

Fran took out a few strands of soft silk from the storage bag of her nun's robe and gently fiddled with them between her fingertips.

Those were the ribbons that swirled around Sayens when he danced.

Solani's face was filled with disbelief and shock, but her near-collapse quickly subsided. She seemed to have found an explanation that could convince herself.

"High Priest... no, these are just her clothes. You are bewitching me! Yes, High Priest must have already escaped the encirclement."

Vivian, standing next to Haida, gagged almost imperceptibly.

She then recalled Sayens's skeletal body, its internal organs neatly arranged, and its tree-like veins that had been removed...

Although members of the Secret Service are often exposed to bloody things that are beyond the tolerance of ordinary people, witnessing Fran's live dissection in person was still too horrifying.

"If thinking this way makes you feel better, then please stick to your guess."

Fran was clearly used to this kind of self-deception. She took a quartz vial with a needle from her medicine box and then went to Solani.

Her movements were incredibly fast; a blur flashed by, and the potion had already been injected into Solani's skin through her neck.

What did you do to me? Don't come near me!

Solani clutched her neck and staggered away to the other side.

“Teacher, should we stop them?” Child, who was hiding among the vagrants, asked Professor Terence beside him.

“There’s no need for that. Even the high priest couldn’t escape, so a newly promoted assistant priest would have even less of a chance to escape. Although the high priest couldn’t move at the time because of your [redundant consciousness intrusion]... Sister Haida’s strength is beyond doubt.”

Terence glanced at him, stopping his somewhat rash assistant from doing so.

The White Cup Order's assistance was supposed to end after the Hunger Club was wiped out, but out of curiosity about Dr. Fran, he joined the others in the hunt for Solani.

Fran's gruesome autopsy forced Child to find a secluded spot and dry heave for a full five minutes afterward... He should be glad he hadn't eaten breakfast.

But in Terence's eyes, this dissection possessed a strange beauty. The doctor was so familiar with the human body that every cut was like a masterpiece by a renowned artist, exquisitely beautiful.

Terence served as a field medic for a short period when he was young, and he acquired some clinical care skills.

Therefore, he was able to vaguely perceive the enormous gap between the two sides in terms of technology and theory.

……

Solani's escape speed slowed down, and she soon knelt on the ground, curling up in a ball with her arms wrapped around her chest.

"What blasphemy! ... Doctors, such a lowly profession, how dare you presume to lay a finger on the supreme skill bestowed upon you by our Lord?"

She seemed to feel very cold, shivering uncontrollably. She gritted her teeth and stared intently at Fran, as if she wanted to devour her alive.

"When I am completely dissolved into the Lord's cup, I will unleash endless curses to entangle you..."

Fran, holding the black hem of the Hunter's nun's robe, stood elegantly to the side, observing Solani.

"If curses without any mystical power could really work, the world would never be the way it is now. Look at you, a cultist like yourself, the only one still alive in your family. That alone proves that 'retribution' is nothing but self-deception."

Fran is waiting for the medication to take effect.

The next moment, Solani felt her vision become moist, and her eyes were uncontrollably welling up with slightly salty fluid.

Am I crying?

The feverish excitement was gone; the overheated thoughts in Solani's mind were cooled down by some irresistible external force.

And a strange feeling enveloped her, one she had never experienced before...

It was a profound and intense grief that was almost suffocating.

She cried out in anguish, thinking that she would never see her husband Logan again, never touch her beloved son Faith again, and that all of this was a sin she had committed herself… She began to repent in near despair.

“They were all sacrifices offered to my Lord, and they died a worthy death!... No, but, Fez, alas, my child... what have I done?”

The transformation effect on Solani's face had disappeared, and she had returned to her original appearance. Even her speech function was abnormal, as if two consciousnesses were tearing each other apart in her mind.

"I created a virtual personality and implanted it into your brain using a special agent."

"A virtual personality? But, oh..."

She was almost sobbing uncontrollably, the unspoken words being, "But why is my sadness so real?"

"She is the gentle and kind mother in Faith's eyes, the considerate and strong wife in Logan's eyes, the elegant noblewoman in the eyes of outsiders, and a devout believer in the White Cup. Her longing and attachment to life far surpasses yours, which has lost its fanaticism."

"Soon, you will be completely devoured."

Fran's smile had faded; at this moment, she felt neither sorrow nor joy, merely observing everything indifferently from the perspective of an outsider.

This was the first time Haida had seen her with this expression. She was like a cast-iron statue, devoid of any emotion.

Solani's wailing gradually stopped, turning into mournful low sobs.

"All the foolish things I did, were they merely to pursue that illusory god? No, I am a sinner through and through..."

She crawled on the ground almost like she was climbing, and came to Fran, reaching out to grab her slender ankles, which were covered in pure black stockings.

Solani raised her head, pleading with teary eyes.

“Dr. Fran, I do not accept my own vile confession. Please end my suffering. Bury the traces of my past existence with this body, and end this sin with my insignificant life…”

Fran nodded slightly.

"as you wish."

"boom!"

The guns roared crisply, and a wisp of grayish-white smoke drifted from Haida's gun muzzle.

A precise, dark bullet wound appeared on Solani's heart, and her raised head immediately drooped softly.

Under the influence of the Hunter's Prayer on the bullet, her body began to wither and decay rapidly, losing its vitality in an instant.

[Solanie Lois's mania has been cured. This month's routine consultations are complete, Completion Level: A. Your next monthly consultation will be randomly triggered next month.]

[This consultation fee: 1 unknown biotechnology raw material (common quality, unidentified)]

-

"Is this really a good thing? Replacing the original personality with a virtual one might be like putting an innocent person into the body of a guilty one."