Chapter 84: Heading to Frostcreek
Olivia raised the light machine gun with both hands and pulled the trigger. A bright yellow tongue of flame spat from the dark muzzle as a storm of searing metal tore through the air.
The heavy machine gunner on the pickup died instantly, blood bursting from several wounds as he toppled backward. The windshield shattered, and the driver was riddled with dozens of bullets, blood spraying from his wounds.
No one had expected Finn and Olivia to open fire first while facing an entire Radiant Path force.
After a brief moment of shock, the well-trained soldiers of the Holy Army of Deliverance immediately returned fire. Several heavy machine guns mounted on the pickups swung toward Olivia and unleashed a barrage.
A storm of bullets came at her like driving rain, but the soldiers watched in astonishment as they struck an invisible barrier. They produced showers of bright sparks but did nothing else. Not a single bullet could touch Olivia.
She swung her light machine gun toward the gunners. It rattled furiously as bullets ripped into them, claiming more than a dozen lives.
“Advance,” Finn ordered.
He walked side by side with Olivia through the Radiant Path convoy. As they moved, Olivia sprayed bullets in every direction. Fuel tanks ignited and exploded one after another, while ammunition cooked off in bursts of orange-red fire.
Olivia identified the weak points in the armored personnel carriers and fired a few well-placed rounds into each one. The sturdy vehicles were immediately disabled.
A hulking mutant threw open one of the doors. Flames erupted across his body, turning him into a terrifying human torch. With a powerful leap, he lunged at Olivia.
Finn intercepted the attack with his sword, then slashed diagonally and cut the burning mutant in half. Blood gushed from the two blazing halves and immediately caught fire.
Some of the heavier armored vehicles were too thickly plated for Olivia’s bullets to penetrate.
Against those steel hulks, Finn unleashed Crimson Flame Torrent. Blazing, superheated fire erupted from his sword, making it look as though he were wielding a military flamethrower and spraying fire in every direction.
Crimson flames towered into the sky.
The armored vehicles vanished beneath the surging waves of fire and soon melted into pools of molten metal. The Radiant Path soldiers inside were burned to a crisp like roast chickens.
Before long, the entire Radiant Path force had been wiped out by bullets and flames. Only one intact armored personnel carrier remained, trembling amid the steel wreckage.
With her x-ray vision, Olivia had already confirmed that the Radiant Path high priest was inside.
“Come out!” Finn rapped his sword against the armored hull. “Or I’ll toss a grenade in there.”
The rear door reluctantly swung open, revealing five Radiant Path followers dressed in ordinary soldiers’ uniforms.
They climbed down with trembling legs and lined up amid the heat haze rising from the burning battlefield.
Finn raised his sword and pointed it at one man’s face.
“Which one of you is the priest in command?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” a heavyset man said. “We’re all low-ranking soldiers. There isn’t a single priest among us, let alone a high priest!”
Olivia gave a cold snort. She had seen everything that had happened inside the vehicle.
These five cowardly Radiant Path followers had removed their red robes and changed into ordinary soldiers’ uniforms, hoping to bluff their way through. They had no idea Olivia had witnessed the entire thing.
As for the high priest, she had kept her eyes on his every move.
“Stop pretending. You’re the high priest.”
Olivia aimed her light machine gun at a bald man, her expression cold.
“I’m really not a high priest. I’m just an ordinary man.” The bald man raised both hands, not daring to meet her eyes.
Finn shook his head. He produced five vials of veritaserum and tossed them onto the ground.
“One each. Drink it now. If you do, we won’t kill you. Refuse, and you’re dead.”
The five Radiant Path followers went cold with fear beneath the black-haired man’s terrifying presence. They had no idea what was in the pale blue glass vials, but it did not look particularly dangerous.
Besides, who in the wasteland had not drunk polluted or irradiated water? They had all developed plenty of resistance.
With their lives on the line, the five men reached out with trembling hands, took one vial each, and drank every drop.
“Can we leave now?” the bald man asked.
“Who’s the high priest?” Finn asked.
“I am!” the bald man answered without hesitation.
The moment the words left his mouth, he clapped a hand over it in shock, unable to understand why he had blurted out the truth.
“That’s him!” the other four said in unison, pointing at him.
“Why did you come down from the north?”
“We received word that Stonefort Refuge City was destroyed by a nuclear blast of unknown origin. The Holy Pontiff sent us to determine what happened,” the bald man explained in full.
“Where will the Holy Radiance descend?”
“We don’t know. The descent of the Holy Radiance is a secret of the highest order. Only the Holy Pontiff and the three senior priests know.”
Finn considered this for a moment.
“Then where can I find them?”
“Holy Pontiff Alistair Rupert has remained in the Holy City. Lewis Valen is at a sandy bay in the northern part of the Alderon Sea. Fergus Gould is in the Holy City, and Pandora Davis is in Frostcreek Refuge City.”
“Do you know anything else about the Holy Radiance?”
Forced to voice his true thoughts, the bald man spoke with devout fervor.
“The Holy Radiance is the highest and holiest focus of our faith. He will surely descend into this world, wash away its sins, and judge every sinner!
“In one month and ten days, He shall return from Heaven. Then His radiance will cover the earth.
“The gates of Hell shall open, and the guilty shall be cast into the nuclear reactor, condemned to perish eternally in its radiation and suffer torment without end!…”
After that, the bald man lapsed into incoherent religious rambling, most of it the standard doctrine of the Radiant Path.
Knowing he would get no more useful information, Finn turned and left with Olivia.
“Master, aren’t we going to kill them?” Olivia asked as she caught up with him.
“Leave them.”
The five Radiant Path followers watched Finn disappear into the distance. Believing they had managed to save their lives, they were overwhelmed with joy.
They scrambled to their feet and fled as fast as they could.
“We have to tell the Holy Pontiff that we’ve found the arch-sinner Finn! Send the rocket artillery vehicles and flatten him!”
Without warning, all five collapsed at once.
The veritaserum’s aftereffect had begun.
Their eyes glazed over. Foam spilled from their mouths as their limbs convulsed violently. Before long, they lay dead on the ground.
A flock of vultures circled overhead for a long while before swooping down and tearing viciously into the corpses.
...
Finn and Olivia rode north in their off-road vehicle, heading for Frostcreek Refuge City.
“We’re changing the plan,” Finn said. “We won’t nuke Frostcreek Refuge City.”
“I never knew you could be so kind, Master.” Olivia smiled, a sweet warmth filling her heart.
She was convinced that Finn had flattened Stonefort Refuge City to settle the score on her behalf.
Ever since the nuclear strike, a faint unease had lingered in her heart. She felt that innocent people must have died in the blast and that not everyone in the Radiant Path was evil.
“We’ll capture the senior priest Pandora Davis first,” Finn said with his eyes closed. “Then we’ll nuke Frostcreek Refuge City.”