Chapter 13: Get in the Car, No Time to Explain

The flames spread across the town, thick black smoke curling into the sky, as the sacrificial ritual proceeded. Even without being there, one could imagine the bloody slaughter taking place.

"Damn it, the sacrifice has already begun."

Clenching her silver teeth, Veronica shouted down the chute, "The Death Walker is in the town, we've missed him. You two hurry and find the exit to climb up, I'm going ahead to save people, the car's left for you."

With that, Veronica took a deep breath and clenched her fist, slamming it forward with force.

With a thunderous roar, rubble and dust exploded in all directions, leaving a huge hole in one of the outer walls of the castle.

Veronica, carrying Monica, leapt upwards, dropping down from a height of five meters, causing a large splash of mud and water as they landed.

She sped toward Caforno Town, and within a few breaths, her figure was concealed by the oak forest.

Above in the sky, the moon seemed to descend further, becoming even larger than before, its surface pocked and marred, and tinged with a flickering orange glow as if ablaze with dancing flames.

————

At the bottom of the chute, Wayne sat up, propping himself with his stiff muscles. He had hit a wall during the fall and his head buzzed.

Lights along both sides of the passageway guided the way until the end of the tunnel and around the corner.

Wayne realized he was sitting on top of William, who lay sprawled out beneath him. From this vantage point, he could even see the blushing embarrassment on William's face.

Your face is red enough to boil water in a teapot!

Wayne, electrified by secondhand embarrassment, cursed under his breath and stood up. He closed his eyes, recalling Veronica's physique and face, finally shaking off the mental shadow William had cast over him.

Wayne had not even turned to start climbing up when he heard Veronica's voice. His head still a bit foggy, he hadn't caught what she said, only knowing that a loud boom had sealed the chute shut.

Wayne tried twice, but the inclined chute made it difficult to generate leverage. Each attempt to move the rocks only made him slip back down due to the reaction force.

He irritably said to William, "What are you standing around for, help out!"

William nodded repeatedly, standing behind Wayne, ready to push but seeing Wayne's dark expression, he scratched his head in honesty, "If you feel embarrassed, I can go in front, and you can push me."

Have some common sense, will you? How could I possibly move your two-hundred-plus-pound golden retriever bulk?

Wait, no, don't think for a second you'll get to touch my hands with your buttocks with your sly maneuvers!

Wayne abandoned the idea of going back the way they came and frowned, "William, what did Veronica just say? I didn't catch it. Did you hear her?"

"She said the sacrifice has begun, the Death Walker is in the town, she's going ahead, and we need to hurry over."

William took a deep breath, "Wayne, prepare yourself mentally, rescuing people is urgent, but we probably won't be able to break the curse this time."

Wayne nodded, understanding that priorities mattered. He then complained, "I get she's in a rush to save people, but she could've easily helped us two along the way without wasting much time. Now we have no choice but to push forward."

"No worries, we'll raid the Death Walker's lair and stop him from making any other plans," said William, not concerned about Veronica. As a Dragonblood Descendant, her physical attack was strong. If Veronica wanted, she could face the Death Walker and smash him into a photo.

Conversely, capturing him alive would be troublesome.

"That makes sense, but still, I..."

Wayne hesitated. If this were a horror film, splitting up would be taboo.

"You won't be in any danger with me protecting you." William patted his chest, striking a bodybuilder's pose.

Wayne's expression darkened further. In the dead of night, with the castle bereft of others, even shouting till his throat was raw would be useless.

Picking up a piece of broken stone from the ground, he threw it ahead to test the path. After several attempts, confirming that no mechanisms were triggered, he coaxed William to take the lead.

"Veronica said, 'The Death Walker is in the town, we're safe.'"

William muttered and stepped cautiously ahead, Wayne's overcaution made him a bit anxious, too.

"Being careful never hurts."

Wayne warned, his Supernatural Sensing detecting nothing unusual, indicating relative safety inside the castle, at least for the moment.

The pair advanced along the torch-lit path, turning corners multiple times, until Wayne smelled the scent of alcohol. He gestured to William and they walked into the castle's storeroom, searching for handy tools.

Perhaps this was the only storeroom inside the castle, where drinks and some life necessities were stored together. Wayne couldn't find a crowbar, and William only found a flashlight.

Not particularly useful, as they already had flashlights on them.

The good news was, Wayne, filtering the scents in the air, confirmed there was only one other living person in the castle—Mack, who returned to Caforno Town every year to tend graves.

"What's with this guy coming back every year? Just to tend graves?"

Wayne mumbled to himself, following the scent in the air to quickly find the exit from the passage.

The mechanism triggered the stone door, and the two emerged on a high platform of the castle, square and spacious, directly opposite the main gate—clearly designed with a military purpose in mind.

The night sky was clouded, starless, and the massive moon loomed over the earth, oppressive to any who looked up.

In the center of the platform, weeds had been cleared, and a black ink was used to outline an inverted triangle symbol. Whorls of black smoke twisted upward into the air, melding to form erratic swinging black arms.

The arms varied in size, adult and child, male and female, their palms reaching toward the sky as if trying to pull down the moon.

The macabre scene kindled a surge of irritability in Wayne. His desire to destroy swelled little by little, slowly eroding his calm rationality. The change was gradual, but it was making him uncomfortable.

William already felt the same, his eyes slightly narrowed, and within them, a dazzling light burst forth. Under the guidance of his magic power, the brilliance of the sun scattered across the platform.

Bathed in the light, his robust body and resolute expression made him appear invincible.

But Wayne sensed something was amiss. At the moment William dispersed the Death Ritual, his long-dormant supernatural sensing issued a violent warning.

A black arm emerged from the dark mist, transforming into a monster entirely shrouded in black.

Humanoid.

Its body surface was like black serpents writhing and intertwining, each part contorting, with gray hollows where the eyes and mouth should be, spiraling downward like bottomless pits.

This creature towered a head over William, lacking a neck, with limbs that one moment were as thick as a strong man's, and the next as slender as branches, possessing no stable form.

William had now become a little light person, surrounded by white steam, the rolling heatwaves causing the black monster to wail incessantly.

Without a fierce battle lasting three hundred rounds, William smashed the monster into pieces with a single punch and then raised his hands, pushing a halo of light towards the writhing tendrils.

Black tendrils enveloped William all at once.

Like butter against a hot knife, the screeching was ear-piercing and tooth-grindingly sour, causing Wayne, who was closest, to feel dizzy and nearly lose his footing.

By the time he regained his senses, the ringing in his ears persisted, his stomach roiled violently, and upon bending over, he vomited nothing.

The light triumphed over darkness, William successfully interrupted the ritual, and the light on his body quickly faded. He tossed out the can from his belt pouch, using the last of his magic power to activate the small magic tool, allowing the wildly growing greenery to flood over the upside-down triangle symbol, eliminating any possibility of the ritual restarting.

The magic tools were made by Veronica. Although William could not harness the Nature Goddess's power, due to the alliance between the three Goddesses, his magic power could activate the magic tools made by the Naturalism Cultists.

The rapidly growing vines rooted into the brick floor, forming a large bulge. William, his magic power drained and his energy greatly depleted, slipped and fell to the ground.

Thud!

"Wayne, so heartless. I thought you would catch me," William said, aggrieved.

"What were you thinking? Don't you know your own weight!" Wayne expressed helplessness; he did want to help, but he feared being crushed to death.

He helped William up, and the two made their way down the castle stone steps to the garden, where from a distance they saw a shadow hovering above a tombstone.

Wayne knew the figure couldn't harm him, but as he passed by, he still felt uneasy.

What if she suddenly scares me?

William resolved this fear by roaring fiercely at the ghostly shadow as they passed, scaring the frightened Drifting Ghost back underground.

Catching the ghost off guard and giving it a scare!

Wayne acknowledged the lesson, planning to try it himself next time. William said with pride, "Look how they're spoiled. I would not have been scared by a few spirits if it weren't for the fear of alerting the Death Walkers. As a devout follower of the Sun Goddess, how could I be scared by ghosts?"

No need to explain, being scared of ghosts isn't shameful.

William spoke sensibly, but Wayne had seen their true selves. Mages could easily destroy Drifting Ghosts, but being afraid of them was a different matter; the two were not contradictory.

The two left footprints as they departed the manor, finding the muddy way to the blue sedan. Wayne started the car and, with headlights blazing, drove straight for Caforno Town.

The fire still spread, but the sky had no mercy, unleashing a torrential downpour.

No longer worried about startling the quarry, Wayne took the turns at high speed, the tires slipping and drifting a distance, to William's terrified scream.

Soon, the blue sedan stopped in front of the town, with Wayne's heart violently pounding, his supernatural sensing issuing an unprecedented alarm.

Danger!

Deadly danger everywhere!

"Wait, something's not right…"

Wayne called out to the charging William, sniffing the air with a tingling scalp, "We're too late, there's no scent of living people here, all I smell is rot…"

A decay that felt as though it had been present for a very long time before being unearthed just now.

"How come I didn't smell it?" William asked, puzzled.

Just then, a figure rushed towards them at great speed—it was Veronica, with the town engulfed in flames behind her and a host of contorted, stiffly moving shadows following.

Veronica's face was covered in dust. She called out to Wayne and William to hurry into the car, then she took the driver's seat and started the vehicle to leave.

"Wait, where's Monica?" William asked urgently.

"No time for talk, get in the car, there's no time to explain."

Veronica urged frantically, but William's expression grew colder. He violently yanked the driver's door open, his fist radiating a faint glow of light, and smashed it hard against Veronica's delicate face.

A crack resounded as Veronica's neck broke, half her face shattered, revealing under the fresh facade dry, shrunken black-gray muscles and brittle, yellowing bones.

"Veronica would never leave Monica behind. Don't think you can fool me."

William dragged the imposter from the car, and Wayne retrieved a crowbar from the trunk; they each took one and, after a cacophony of clanging, successfully dismantled the fragile fake into parts.

Not far away, a large group of breakable items slowly approached, the full moon in the sky seemed to descend further…