CHAPTER 12: CHAPTER 11: BLOODY ENDING (3)

Across the entire village, the spirits that had turned into monsters filled the streets, hunting down any human who moved.

Whenever they caught one of the villagers, they tore the body into pieces and devoured the remains while the victim screamed.

A father was trying to escape with his wife and their ten-year-old daughter.

They ran through the square, but the daughter stumbled and fell.

The mother stopped instantly, trying to lift her, while the girl cried in terror.

The father rushed back the moment he realized they had stopped running. The mother tried to pick up her daughter and flee as fast as she could.

But one of the Autumn Giants, now a terrifying monstrous brute, attacked them.

Its massive claws struck the father before he could even scream.

His body flew through the air and crashed against the ground with brutal force.

The monster stood over him, bent down, and began devouring him savagely.

The girl screamed as she stared at her father, who only hours ago had been laughing with her and feeding this same giant a piece of honey candy.

And now that gentle creature had turned into this hideous beast.

The mother didn’t look back. She grabbed her daughter and ran.

She saw nothing except a way to escape, while her daughter cried,

"He was playing with me yesterday... Why? Why did he become like this?"

Half the population was already dead.

Meanwhile, the sage was running, with Elinor behind him.

She shouted in panic,

"What is happening? What is all this?"

He replied without looking back,

"And how would I know?!"

"Isn’t this exactly what happened in the nightmares you said you had?"

"Yes, nightmares! Nightmares, Elinor, since I was a child! Was I supposed to tell everyone I keep seeing these filthy little Autumn Spirits slaughtering the village? They’d have laughed at me before throwing me out of the tower!"

"Maybe they weren’t nightmares! Maybe they were a vision! A warning from the Great Autumn Spirit!"

He snapped at her while dodging a falling wooden beam from one of the collapsing houses.

"Oh, the Great Autumn Spirit again! I didn’t know she wanted to warn me by ruining my sleep for twenty years straight! If she had that kind of power, she should have protected herself before turning into this damned thing!"

"You don’t like the Autumn Spirit much, do you?"

"Finally someone noticed! But unfortunately this discovery is useless because we’re about to die!"

She glared sharply at him.

"Strange. I didn’t expect the village sage, the closest person to the Autumn Spirit, to be the one who hates her the most."

"Being in this cursed position is the reason! Carrying responsibility for all this nonsense, never leaving that damned tower for years. Of course I’d hate her!"

Elinor stopped as she saw the small spirits attacking a group of people.

The spirits were killing them by swarming a single person, tearing into them all at once, then eating them.

"My God..."

The sage grabbed her hand and yanked her hard.

"Don’t look! Just run!"

Some villagers tried hiding inside their homes. But that didn’t save them.

The small monsters burst in by smashing doors and windows, while the transformed Autumn Giants broke walls and crushed everyone inside without any hesitation.

A man screamed from inside a house before the wall collapsed on him and crushed him.

When the masked man and Tell arrived, everything had already ended.

Tell rose a little higher, staring at the members of her clan who had become twisted, deformed abominations.

Bodies were scattered everywhere, buildings half-destroyed, and the screams of villagers echoed through the place while the corrupted Autumn Spirits hunted the survivors.

The masked man didn’t look at any of that. His eyes were fixed on one thing only.

The Great Autumn Spirit floating in the sky, unmoving, doing nothing.

He knew this calm wouldn’t last.

The Autumn Spirit was still resisting, but that wouldn’t last long. So he raised his gun and prepared to fight.

Before he could move, Oliver arrived, staring at the scene with horror.

"What happened here?"

The masked man turned to him.

"Kid, leave now. And take that spirit with you."

Oliver didn’t move.

"I’m not going anywhere until I understand what’s happening. If you know, talk."

"Do you want to die? This is a warning, nothing more."

One of the corrupted Autumn Giants charged at them. The masked man didn’t even turn.

He extended his arm and fired a single shot. The monster collapsed instantly, black liquid pouring from its mouth and eyes.

Then he pointed at the corpse.

"Get out now. Both of you. Before you end up like that."

Tell stared at the body, at its features slowly returning to something close to normal.

Then she screamed at Oliver,

"Tell this lunatic we’re not leaving until he explains what’s going on!"

Oliver raised his hands.

"We? I don’t want to die."

"Did you forget Miss Elinor?! Do you want to abandon her?!"

He turned to the masked man, panicked.

"You want us gone fast, right? Then explain. Why did the spirits turn into this?"

The masked man narrowed his eyes.

"Those spirits were corrupted."

Tell’s expression collapsed instantly at that word, as if her heart had been stabbed. Oliver frowned.

"And what is corruption?"

Another monster was about to devour a survivor, but the masked man fired again without even glancing at it.

He reloaded the gun with golden bullets and said,

"This is corruption. The Autumn Spirit was corrupted, and all the spirits followed."

"Isn’t there a way to save them?"

"No. Death is the only way."

At that moment, a black aura started pouring out of the Great Autumn Spirit’s body, and the black liquid spread deeper through her limbs.

He immediately raised his gun and charged toward her.