TWD - Chapter 555: Whoever Believes in Her Will Be Saved! (Patreon)

Everyone froze. Even the walkers’ howls seemed to fall silent for an instant.

The Reapers looked around, unable to locate the source of the voice.

The Pope’s face darkened, and Xavier spun around abruptly. “Who is it?! Come out!”

No one came forward, but the voice rang out again:

“If the Lord you believe in truly exists, why would He let you fall into such a desperate situation?”

Someone in the crowd swallowed hard.

The voice went on. “If the Lord you believe in truly exists, why would He let you kill people?

“If the Lord you believe in truly exists, why does He make you live in fear?

“If the Lord you believe in really exists...”

The voice paused. “Why is He standing here, watching you wait to die?!”

A deathly silence fell.

The Pope’s face contorted. He opened his mouth to speak, but was suddenly interrupted by Dubin: “Guys, what’s that?!”

Everyone looked in the direction he was pointing.

At the edge of the tide of walkers, a gap appeared.

The walkers parted of their own accord, like the Red Sea before Moses, revealing a passageway. At the end of the passageway, there was light.

A woman stepped out of that opening.

She wore a flowing white dress that looked almost unreal in the wasteland, like a mirage. The hem trailed along the ground, its edges fluttering gently in the wind like an angel’s wings.

Her light golden hair cascaded over her shoulders, swept up by the breeze like flowing sunlight.

The moment they saw her face, everyone seemed to stop breathing. Such beauty had no place in this ruined world.

Her features looked delicately sculpted, and her gray-blue eyes shone in the sunlight like stars fallen from the heavens. Her skin was so fair it was nearly translucent, her eyelashes long, and her lips slightly pursed, giving her an almost sacred expression.

She stood there like a goddess stepping out of ancient Greek mythology, the midday sun streaming in from behind her, bathing her entire form in dazzling gold.

Half a step behind her followed a man dressed in a black priest’s cassock, a silver cross hanging from his chest, holding an open Bible in his hands, its pages gently fluttering in the wind.

Within five meters of the pair, the walkers seemed to hit an invisible barrier. Not one came closer.

They howled, but refused to take a single step forward, as though they had seen something impossible. As though they had seen... a god!

Calista simply walked on, step by step, calmly making her way out of the tide of walkers.

Xavier’s gun dropped to his side, Dubin’s knife fell to the ground, and Zike’s legs gave way.

Mika stood with his mouth hanging open, his eyes reddening as tears welled up.

Malcolm and Samuel knelt down, their hands devoutly clasped together.

More people instinctively made the sign of the cross over their chests and, like dominoes, began to pray in hushed voices.

The Pope glared intently at the woman, watching the walkers part of their own accord and the black-robed priest. Something in his eyes was crumbling.

The priest stood beside the pit of fire, watching the impossible scene. The cross slipped from his hand and struck the ground with a clang.

Oh, that was the sound of faith shattering.

At that moment, Gabriel stepped out from behind Calista, holding an open Bible in one hand and pointing at the Pope with the other.

His lips were clearly moving, but the voice came from behind the crowd, near the pit of fire:

“The Lord you believe in is not real.

“Behold!

“This is the true Chosen One! The Divine Maiden has descended!”

All around them was a dense, swarming tide of gray-black corpses, rotting and despairing, exuding a thick stench of death. In the void at the center of this tide stood Calista, solemn and sacred in her white gown, alongside a priest who, though clearly far away, had a voice that echoed right in the Reapers’ ears.

This scene was more powerful than any fanatical shout!

Sunlight fell upon Gabriel, making the golden letters on the Bible in his hands gleam: “Whoever believes in her will be saved!”

Mika knelt on the ground, his hands covering his face, his shoulders shaking. His voice trembling, he said, “A miracle! This is a miracle!”

Dubin froze in place, watching as Mika, Malcolm, Samuel, and the others knelt one after another. He exchanged a glance with Zike. After a moment’s hesitation, both men knelt as well.

Xavier’s face contorted. He raised his gun and aimed it at the woman. “It’s a lie! It’s all a lie! Get up!”

His finger was on the trigger, but he could not bring himself to fire after Calista gave him a single, fleeting glance.

In a daze, Xavier saw a flash of crimson light flicker past him, and the muzzle of his gun dropped limply.

The Pope stood motionless, something slowly dying in his savage eyes. “No, impossible! It’s a lie! It’s all a lie!”

Gabriel watched him calmly. “You deceived them. Now, they’ve seen the truth.”

Calista quietly raised her hand behind her back and made a subtle gesture.

No one noticed. Or rather, a few people did.

At the front of the walker horde surging in from every direction were a few suspiciously fresh-looking “walkers.”

Like the other walkers, they had rotting faces and twisted bodies, but upon closer inspection, their movements were slightly more agile and coordinated. Their ragged clothes were smeared with thick, sticky blood, and strips of bloody entrails dangled from them as they moved.

They weaved through the tide of corpses, leading the way, deliberately steering clear of Calista and Gabriel, bypassing those who had ceased to resist, and driving the horde toward the Pope and the handful of loyalists behind him.

Some in the crowd screamed, others retreated, and still others trembled as they prayed.

But those walkers did not touch them.

Someone noticed that the few walkers at the very front seemed to reach out and toss something ahead, and the horde surged past them.

They rubbed their eyes, but the next moment, those strange walkers were gone.

Holy shit! There have been so many miracles today, I’m seeing things!

The Pope, his eyes bloodshot, stared at the walkers surging toward him. “You’ll all go to hell!”

He turned and walked toward the workshop. Xavier hesitated for a moment, then ran after him, followed by the three die-hard followers who had always stayed by the Pope’s side.

Gabriel watched their retreating figures without saying a word.

The priest stood where he was and suddenly broke down, shouting, “She’s the devil! She’s deceiving you with witchcraft! Wake up!”

No one listened to him. After Mika, Malcolm, and the other Reapers stood up, they walked one by one toward Calista. Even those who had been backing away hesitated before joining them.

The priest’s voice grew increasingly shrill: “You’ll be cursed! You’ll go to hell!!!”

The walkers’ howls grew louder and louder. No one paid any attention to the priest, whose entire worldview was crumbling. Only the walkers paid attention to this noisy source of fresh meat, and they quickly surrounded him.

It wasn’t until he smelled the stench of decay right before his nose that the priest snapped back to reality. He screamed and lunged backward, but was yanked by a swift walker and quickly swallowed up by the horde.

First kill!

Cyrus supported Victor, who was leaning entirely on him. Victor looked at Calista and Gabriel, his voice so hoarse it was barely audible. “I told you, they’d come.”

Cyrus’s eyes suddenly stung with tears. “You’re such a damn fool!”

Victor smiled. “I know.”

Gabriel stood at the front of the crowd, holding up the Bible. “Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not proud. Whoever believes in her will be saved.”

From within the crowd, someone began to repeat the words softly, “Whoever believes in her will be saved.”

Then more people whispered, “Whoever believes in her will be saved.”

Zike’s voice was the loudest, but when he noticed the walkers beside him seemed to be moving a little closer, he was so startled that he immediately lowered his voice.

The walkers were still surging forward, but these Reapers were no longer afraid, for the Goddess was there. Sunlight streamed in from behind her, casting a long shadow.

That shadow covered everyone.

Calista turned around and nodded to the submissive crowd. She pointed toward the factory gates, where the passage through the walkers still stood open. “Let’s go.”

The crowd began to move. Cyrus, supporting Victor, led the way, followed by Mika, then Dubin, Zike, Malcolm, Samuel, and the others, one by one entering the passage.

Calista stood where she was, watching them go. Gabriel walked up beside her. “Aren’t you coming?”

Calista shook her head, gazing at the spot in the workshop where the Pope had vanished. “There are still people inside. We must uproot the problem completely. You take them to find Leah first.”

Flames from the pit shot high into the sky, burning behind her. The hem of her skirt fluttered in the wind as she stood there calmly, like a true deity, awaiting the final battle.

Gabriel quickly caught up with the Reapers, who were heading off in an unknown direction. His black robe was speckled with ash, but his stride remained composed.

“Father.”

Gabriel looked back. “Hmm?”

Victor leaned on Cyrus and hesitated. “What you said earlier... was that true?”

Gabriel paused in surprise. “What?”

“You know, about the Divine Maiden coming down to earth. The Chosen One...”

Gabriel said nothing. He reached out and patted Victor on the shoulder. “Let’s go. There are others waiting for you.”

Cyrus looked pensive.

He knew Gabriel’s voice had come from the radio he himself had hidden near the fire pit. But the way the walkers had parted and the horde had been guided... could a human really do that?

Maybe she really is a goddess.

Just then, a shrill, piercing cackle suddenly rang out from behind them. Cyrus spun around abruptly and saw the Pope and his group standing at the workshop entrance, their clothes scuffed black and their faces covered in grime.

The Pope had somehow found a gun and ammunition in a corner of the workshop. His eyes gleamed with frightening intensity. “Run! All of you, run!”

His voice was loud, as if roared from the depths of his chest, instantly drawing even more walkers toward him.

But the Pope did not care. All he could see was the woman who had destroyed his faction. “You think you can escape? You think that bitch can save you?”

Calista stood where she was, staring at him coldly, as if looking at a dead man.

The Pope raised his gun at Calista and laughed maniacally, “If you’re a divine maiden, let’s see whether a bullet can kill you! Die!”

A gunshot rang out.