Chapter 576 - UNDER ATTACK

When Terra watched what was happening to the priestess, she was screaming and was about to dash towards the podium, but Leroy grabbed her hand and pulled her back.

historical

"Wait!" he said while giving the other hunter a cue to follow him. "Stay behind me!"

Leroy and the other hunters made a human barricade in front of the fallen angel and Terra sneaked behind them to check on the priestess.

The girl was slightly relieved when she didn't see blood on the place where Chiron's dagger stabbed the head of the priestess, probably it couldn't pierce the thick of the mask that she was wearing.

With trembling hands, Terra tried to remove the mask from the priestess while listening to the arguments that were going on between Chiron and Leroy.

However, when the girl managed to remove the mask from the priestess, the scene that she watched before her eyes was too frightful for her to see.

She didn't even realize when her ear-splitting scream interrupted the hostile exchange between the centaur and the hunter.

"What happened?" Leroy turned his head to Terra, and found the girl was pointing her trembling finger towards the priestess's body.

"The priestess.." The girl stuttered and Leroy didn't need Terra to finish her words to see what the thing that scared the hell out of her.

When Leroy's eyes landed on the priestess, he himself shrieked and he could hear a loud gasp from the other hunters beside him.

What he watched was something beyond his wildest imagination. Even though the centaur had warned him about the priestess being an impostor, this was far from what they expected.

The skin on the priestess's face was peeling from her flesh with yellow eyes and blood-red pupils that were engorged from its socket. The scene was simply too terrifying to see.

The priestess's condition now was akin to the dead hunter's body that was being burned, her body was scarred and hardened from burn marks. Those marks couldn't be seen before, but now everything was deeply surreal, despite the fact that she was very alive only a few minutes ago when she led the prayer for the dead soul, now with that condition, she must be dead.

How could she be like this?!

Leroy immediately reached Terra and covered her eyes from the dreadful scene as he shouted to Chiron. "Chiron!!! What is going on with the priestess!?"

Hearing the way Leroy called his name and how the other hunter's reaction, even though he couldn't see the priestess now, the chief of the centaur knew in an instant that they finally found something, which baffled them.

Gracefully, the centaur climbed the stairs towards the podium as the hunters dispersed and gave him a way while lowering their weapon.

This was not the time for battle yet.

"What have you done to the priestess!?" Leroy seethed to the centaur. He thought the dagger was coated with some dark magic that could harm the priestess. "You used a black magic on her? You cursed her!?"

Chiron didn't answer his accusation immediately when he kneeled beside the 'priestess' charred body.

"Don't come close to her!" Leroy was about to grab his sword again, but one look from the centaur was enough to make him stop his obtuse action.

This was the first time Chiron glared at him, even when they were in argumentation, Chiron barely raised his tone to talk to him.

It showed how Leroy's foolish objection annoyed the chief of the centaurs.

"You know my people will never use dark magic such as curse." His voice was very deep, yet laced with warning and impatient. "I have told you many times, but you keep ignoring me."

This past year, Chiron had tried to make the hunter take the priestess out of their protection, but they kept refusing his demand.

Chiron didn't want to fight them just to reach the fake priestess.

That was why during this funeral, when the priestess in obligation had no other choice, but to come out in person, was the perfect time for them to show those hunters that they had protected the wrong person.

"But.. but.." Leroy stammered. Deep inside, he knew that Chiron's words did make sense, but his pride prevented him to admit his wrong decision.

Meanwhile, the other hunters were flabbergasted to see how the situation unfolded.

"The priestess is still in the mountain of Uzu." Chiron said. "Our people can't go through the barrier, that's why we can't do anything if you don't trust me."

"What is—"

As Chiron and Leroy were speaking, the girl in Leroy's arms moved, and two things happened at the same time, it happened so fast almost simultaneously.

The girl made a swiftly slashing move as she pushed Leroy's body away from her.

With a knife in her hand, Terra had slit Leroy's throat and his blood spurted from the opened wound as he gagged on his own blood, his mouth opened wide, but wasn't able to form a single word.

Terra kicked Leroy's body down from the podium into the dirty ground.

At the same time, there was another wave of shrill scream from the villagers, from the direction of the entrance gates. The sound grew louder.

"CLOSE THE GATE! CLOSE THE GATE!"

Many people yelled the same order when the men rushed toward the gates to close it, the women gathered their children and rushed towards the safety of their home.

Among the commotion, Hope, Kace, Lana and the siblings were caught in the middle of this messy situation.

They had not yet reached the gates when they closed it.

"What happened?" Hope, in the safety of her mate's embrace, watched in dismay to the crowd of people.

Kace sniffed the air and Hope could feel the rumble in his chest when he growled. "Damn it!"

"We need to go back to the centaur." Lana suggested.

??Why? What happened?" It was so silly for Hope to try to sniff the air too when she didn't have the shapeshifter's remarkable nose.

"This place is under attack!" Ethan answered her.