Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

Malin had no idea which level of power the two combatants inflicting harm upon each other belonged to, only that he instinctively felt it was too dangerous. Mr. Mischael could tear off a werewolf's left arm with his bare hands, yet the grievously injured werewolf crazily launched an offensive, their movements so fast that Malin could hardly see clearly.

It wasn't until Mischael chose to block the werewolf's claw strike that Malin watched the latter unleash a kick that twisted the werewolf's waist, howling in pain as it was sent flying across the street, finally making intimate contact with a wall.

Mr. Mischael strode forward, grabbing the werewolf by the neck, "Trash that only knows how to attack kids!"

Malin glanced at the spiritual energy fluctuations rapidly approaching from a distance; he could feel that it must be other strong beings. Mr. Mischael suddenly turned into an actor at that moment, kicking aside the werewolf's final resistance before turning to look at the other side of the street: "You've arrived."

"Yes, is that Mr. Mischael?"

The figure that approached was a Punisher from the Church, whom Malin recognized, and he seemed to know Mr. Mischael as well.

The dark figure nodded, then dissolved its dark shell, Mr. Mischael dusted off his clothes: "Really, it feels like I can recognize everyone."

"That's because the Ashbringer persona of Mr. Mischael is too famous," the Punisher remarked, then noticed Malin sitting up from the ground: "Ah, the children!" It was evident that he also recognized the apprentice uniform on Malin.

By then, not only the Punisher, but Malin also sensed Colin and several familiar and unfamiliar spiritual energy fluctuations, which is why he confidently sat up.

"Ah, Mr. Punisher, my head hurts so bad." Malin covered his head, his face wrinkling into a frown, his acting over the top.

"I'm sorry, young Priest, in order not to expose you to anything too gory, I specifically used hypnosis on you," Mr. Mischael suddenly took responsibility for the matter at that moment.

Malin was initially stunned, then quickly realized—With Church personnel arriving on the scene, he couldn't silence the Cultist of Chaos, but seeing his confident demeanor, it didn't look like he was involved with Chaos.

Having figured it out, Malin stood up, pulled a photograph from Logan's face, and walked forward, handing it to Mr. Mischael: "Sir, this must be your wife, right?"

"...Yes, my wife, my dearest angel, I almost lost her, thank you, dear little Priest." Mr. Mischael's face was filled with sorrow as he took the photo, then patted Malin's little head.

At that moment, Colin came over; he glanced at Malin, then went and used a Purification Spell to remove the hypnotic enchantment from the girls.

Maya sat up first, she looked around, and finally, seeing Malin beckoning to her, the Cat Girl broke into laughter from tears and ran over, throwing herself into Malin's arms.

"That's great, brother, you're okay too."

"How could anything happen to me, it was Mr. Mischael who came to our rescue." Malin made a point of mentioning the gentleman, emphasizing his role and reliability.

This caused Colin to pause briefly, then he went to Mischael's side: "Thank you, Mr. Mischael, your arrival saved the Church's apprentices."

"Not at all, I just noticed the explosion and came over to check, and happened upon the encounter between the werewolf and the children. To avoid scaring them, I specially used hypnosis on them; I hope it won't negatively affect them," Mr. Mischael spoke easily in response to Colin's gratitude.

Maya wanted to say something, but Malin gently pinched her little hand and shook his head with an unreadable expression in the eyes of his confused sister.

So Maya stayed quiet.

Such a good child, Malin smiled and patted Maya's head.

"No worries, a mere Hypnotic Technique shouldn't harm the children." Colin gave Malin a glance and then shook his head with a smile: "Regardless, Mr. Mischael's action this time indeed helped us out of a big problem."

Adult pretense can sometimes be so suffocating and sleep-inducing to children; it was with some difficulty that at the end of their conversation and a handshake, Colin had the severely wounded werewolf and other children taken away, then took Malin to the carriage.

"You were lucky," Colin began abruptly.

"Yes, we were lucky." Malin felt somewhat relieved, thinking that if Mr. Mischael had simply ignored him and struck him, Malin would have been in real trouble.

"But I can confirm that Mischael has no connection with this group of Cultists of Chaos. The werewolf didn't even recognize him, and he also gave up the chase, directly handing the badly hurt creature over to me," Malin raised his head and said: "Colin, it was too dangerous, even a single meeting of eyes might have caused my Spiritual Body to suffer eternal suppression."

"He's not just Stage Eight, but even higher," Malin finally stated.

Watching the Church members leave, Mischael tucked the photo into his chest and straightened his collar.

The sunlight cast a lot of shadows on the street, Mischael continued walking through the shade, until in the end, as he passed a Punisher on guard duty and stepped through the shadows, Mischael finally showed a smile.

The next moment, the young scholar once again stepped into the shade, and when he re-emerged into the sunlight, a serious expression had replaced the previous smile.

"May the Deity bless you," a Proxy greeted Mischael.

"May the Deity bless you," Mischael replied.

..........

"Welcome back, Lord Gaiate," the receptionist at the Church hall beamed upon seeing Gaiate.

She took out a cup from a cabinet and poured a glass of ice water for the man standing in front of her: "The weather is getting hot, come, try this ice water I've treated with a spell."

"Thank you." The middle-aged man took the cup and downed it in one gulp: "I've heard about what happened at home."

"Yes, when it comes to that, your child Malin is really quite formidable. Despite being young, he has already subdued several Spirits, and in recent times, he has been helping his friends with announcements every day."

"Good child. I never doubted my judgment." Gaiate nodded in mention of the child he had picked up: "Where are they now?"

"Just got back to the inner hall, where did you pass through?"

"The Memory Corridor, old habit," the middle-aged man said, putting down his cup and walking towards the seldom-used corridor entrance.

Upon reaching the door, a Church guard reached out to take the weapons belt that Gaiate had unbuckled, then pushed open the door to the corridor for him.

"Welcome back, Your Excellency."

"I'm back."

Gaiate nodded and entered the corridor.

.........

"Worthy of a Panso cat person, the reflexes and throwing skills really are innate instincts."

The half-human instructor stood next to Malin and exclaimed, while before them stood Maya, the little leopard girl at a hundred-yard target with a small pulley crossbow in her hand—a standard Church weapon. Although it lacked the firing speed and lethality of a revolver, it was incredibly quiet and in the hands of someone like Maya, very effective. In the recent test, Maya hit the bullseye with every shot. Even though the crossbow experienced little drop at this distance, Malin could not replicate the feat with a revolver.

After returning, Malin specifically wanted to buy Maya some weapons.

Considering the significant issues with Mr. Mischael, Malin felt even more need to purchase self-defense weapons for Maya.

"How much for this crossbow? I want to buy one for Maya, her birthday is coming up," Malin asked his instructor.

"If you want it, you can use your points to exchange for it. From the first spirit you killed to the present, you've killed four spirits, plus the previous proclamation activity, you have enough to exchange for a pulley crossbow. Since you're exchanging it for someone else, we'll have to add a spiritual energy signal to the crossbow to prevent this controlled weapon from being lost," the instructor explained.

"No problem, I'll also keep an eye on Maya," Malin nodded.

While they were speaking, the sound of the training room door opening was heard, and Maya, happily playing with the pulley crossbow, immediately put down the 'toy' and ran towards the person who had pushed open the door.

"Father!" She joyfully leaped into Gaiate's arms.

"Good to see you are both safe and sound." As a father, the middle-aged man lifted Maya high before setting her down with a smile and turned to Malin: "I heard your story when I came back, well done, kid."

"Father, I was just learning how to survive," Malin smiled, walking forward to enjoy being lifted high as well.

After all, fundamentally speaking, he was but a child who appeared to be ten years old, and according to earlier information, as a half-blood, his physical age was uncertain and significantly disconnected from his mental age. As the old saying goes, when it's time to perform, one must act.

"Father, Brother Malin is preparing to give me this as a birthday gift." Maya walked to the table and picked up the pulley crossbow.

As a father, Gaiate frowned and looked down at Malin, who seriously met his gaze: "Yes, Maya has a talent for using this crossbow."

"But it's still a weapon. Doing this puts your sister in danger," Gaiate said, hunched over, staring intently at Malin.

Malin shook his head: "When the invisible spiritual body banshee invaded our home, Maya was unarmed. Without the array you prepared, she wouldn't have had the chance to resist. I'm giving her the crossbow as a birthday gift in the hope that when she's not at home and faces danger again, she can fend for herself before either you or I arrive. To think that because weapons are dangerous we should forsake our right to use them is no different from suicide because this world is so dangerous that no one can remain unscathed."

Gaiate was silent for a while, his silence making Maya feel so uneasy that she stepped behind Malin: "Never mind, I don't need it," she said, handing the crossbow to the half-human instructor.

This small act made Gaiate purse his lips with a smile; he extended his hand and ruffled both Malin and Maya's heads: "I'm not mad. On the contrary, I'm very pleased, Maya. You have a good brother." Then he patted Malin's head: "But I'm still the head of this family, so there's no need for you to spend points."

"No, this is the birthday gift I want to exchange for Maya," Malin said with a smile.

This answer made Gaiate pause for a moment, then he started nodding with a smile: "Since you say so, let's let you take the credit this time."

"Father, aren't you mad," Maya still seemed a bit confused.

Gaiate repeated his words and then laughed, hugging Maya and giving her a kiss on the cheek before setting her down and handing her hand to Malin: "I'll be away from home often in the coming days, so I'm leaving Maya in your care."

"Yes, Father, leave her to me," Malin said as he took Maya's hand.

"Then I'll be at ease,"

After saying this, Gaiate turned to the half-human: "Karlmo, Malin is in your hands for the coming days."

"Don't worry, I can tell how much the old man dotes on this kid, I'll teach him everything I know," the half-human replied with a grin.

At this moment, a guard walked in: "Your Excellency Gaiate, Mr. Hoffman is looking for you."

"Did you hear, my children? Maya, listen to your brother. Your father has matters to attend to," Gaiate said before following the guard out of the training ground. Maya wrinkled her nose: "Father is busy again."

Malin was clueless about this; all he knew was that Gaiate always had a lot of work and that he had a very good relationship with the Church.

Now it seemed that his relationship with the Church was even better than he had imagined.

These intriguing matters truly never cease.