CHAPTER 13: GET IN THE CAR, NO TIME TO EXPLAIN

Fire swept across the town. Billowing black smoke swirled toward the night sky. A sacrificial ritual was underway; even without being there, one could imagine the bloody massacre taking place.

“Damn it, the sacrifice has already begun.” Veronica clenched her teeth and shouted at the chute, “The Deathwalker is in the town. We missed him. You two, hurry and find an exit out of there. I’ll go ahead and save the townspeople. The car’s yours.”

She took a deep breath and clenched her fist before making a powerful punch, putting a hole into the castle’s outer wall with a thunderous rumble. Stone fragments and dust flew before slowly settling. She jumped with Monica in her arms, landing five meters below amid splashing mudwater. With lightning speed, she raced toward Klofron. It took only a few seconds for her to disappear into the oak forest.

The moon seemed to have descended further in the sky, appearing even larger than before. Its cratered surface took on a flickering orange hue, as if covered in dancing fire.

***

At the bottom of the chute, Wayne sat up, supporting himself with his hands against hard muscles. He had hit the wall during the descent, and his head was buzzing.

Lights bloomed on the two sides of the passage, guiding the way to its far end, where it took a turn. He realized that he was sitting on William’s sprawled form. Looking down, he could see William’s bashful expression.

What are you blushing for? Are you a teenager?!

Hissing and cursing, he stood up, closing his eyes to think about Veronica and dispersing the trauma William had inflicted on him. Before he could climb back up, he heard Veronica’s voice. He was still reeling from the fall so much that his brain didn’t register what she said. He only knew that with a loud boom, the floor had dropped and sealed the chute.

He tried twice to push the tile open, but the incline made it difficult to gain leverage. Each time he pushed, he slid back due to the counterforce.

He huffed at William, “What are you waiting for? Help me!”

William nodded and stood behind Wayne, rubbing his hands together, ready to push his buttocks. When Wayne glowered at him, he scratched his head sheepishly and said, “If you feel embarrassed, I can be in the front, and you can push me.”

Some common sense, please. You’re a hundred kilos of muscles and blond hair. How am I gonna push you?

Wait, no. You cunning top! Your’e not touching my hand with your butt!

Wayne gave up on returning the way they came. With a frown, he asked, “What did Veronica say, William? I didn’t hear her. Did you?”

“She said that the sacrifice has begun, and the Deathwalker is in the town. She’s going ahead and wants us to hurry over.” William took a deep breath. “I have to tell you this, Wayne. Saving people is our priority. We may not be able to break the curse this time.”

Wayne nodded. He understood the priorities. “I know she’s in a hurry to save people, but it wouldn’t have taken much time to help us out, would it?” he muttered. “Now we have no choice but to keep moving forward.”

“It’s fine. We’ll raid the Deathwalker’s lair in case he has other plans.” William wasn’t worried about Veronica. Dragonbloods were amazing physical fighters. If she wanted, she could send the Deathwalker to his goddess as soon as she saw him.

Capturing him alive, on the other hand, would be more difficult.

“That’s true, but I...” Wayne hesitated. Were this a horror movie, splitting up would be suicide.

“I’ll protect you. Nothing will happen to you.” William patted his chest and struck a pose like a bodybuilder.

Wayne’s expression darkened further. It was the middle of the night, and the castle was empty. No one would come to his aid even if he screamed until he lost his voice.

He picked up stone fragments from the ground and threw them to check the path for traps. After confirming that there was none, he persuaded William to walk in the front.

“Veronica said that the Deathwalker is in the town. We’re safe here...” William muttered, taking careful steps forward. Wayne’s excessive caution was making him nervous.

“Better safe than sorry,” Wayne warned. His supernatural sense wasn’t picking up anything, which confirmed that the castle was safe, at least for now.

They followed the torch-lit path through a few turns until Wayne caught the scent of alcohol. He beckoned to William, and they entered the castle’s storage for weapons.

It seemed to be the only storage, and it stored both alcohol and daily necessities. Wayne didn’t find a crowbar. William found only a flashlight.

Not very useful. They already had flashlights.

The good news was that Wayne could tell from the lingering scents in the air that there had only been one living person in the castle besides them; Mike was likely the one who cleaned up the graves, returning to Klofron regularly.

“Why does this guy come back? Just to tend the graves?” he muttered to himself, soon finding the exit to the passage with his keen smell. Activating a mechanism to open a stone door, they stepped into a spacious square platform high up in the castle, directly facing the main gate. It had clearly been designed with military purposes in mind.

Night had fallen. No stars were visible. The giant moon alone loomed above the land, an oppressive presence to all onlookers.

Weeds had been cleared away from the center of the platform. Black ink outlined an upside-down triangle on the stone. Wisps of black smoke curled upward, twisting into numerous black arms swinging without a set pattern. The arms varied in size—some belonged to adults, some, children. Some male, others female. They reached toward the sky, as if trying to drag the moon down.

The disturbing scene ignited Wayne’s ire, amplifying a desire to destroy and eroding his rationality. It was slow going, but he could feel the shift.

William was experiencing the same thing. He narrowed his eyes, and a dazzling light burst out, guiding the sun’s radiance to pour upon the platform. Bathed in the light, his powerful physique and resolute expression made him look invincible.

But Wayne sensed trouble. The moment William dispersed the Death ritual, his supernatural sense, which had been quiet, sounded a blaring alarm.

A black arm slithered out of the black smoke and transformed into a pitch-black monster. It looked humanoid.

Its skin writhed like intertwining and undulating venomous snakes, every part of its body twisting. Where its eyes and mouth should be, grey cavities spiraled inward like bottomless pits. Standing a head taller than William, the monster had no neck, and its torso and limbs changed shapes constantly, morphing from a burly figure to a slim, twig-like body in seconds. It had no stable form.

William had transformed into a human embodiment of light with steam rising from his body. The rolling waves of heat rippling from him swept toward the black monster and made it wail.

There were no drawn-out exchanges or retaliation. William shattered the monster with one punch and raised a halo of light with both hands, shoving it into the cluster of writhing black tentacles. They swooped down, enveloping William entirely.

Like butter meeting a heated knife, the tentacles melted and shrieked. The piercing noises assaulted the eardrums and made the teeth clatter. Standing close, Wayne nearly lost his balance from vertigo, his vision blurring. When he came to his senses, his head was still ringing, and his stomach churned. He doubled over, but didn’t throw up anything.

Light had triumphed over darkness. William had interrupted the ritual. As his light faded fast, he tossed a can from his pouch and used the last bit of his mana to activate the device. Wildly growing plants covered the inverted triangle, eliminating any possibility of restarting the ritual.

Veronica had made the magical device. Although William couldn’t use Nature’s power, he could activate magical items made by Nature’s followers with his mana thanks to the alliance between the three goddesses.

The rapidly growing vines took root in the stone tile floor, resulting in a bursting swell. Having depleted his mana and used up much of his stamina, William slipped and tumbled down.

Thud!

“You’re mean, Wayne,” he complained. “I thought you would catch me.”

“Really? Do you know how much you weigh?” It wasn’t that Wayne didn’t want to give a helping hand, but he would like to avoid getting crushed. Thank you very much.

He helped William up, and they went down the stone stairs and reached the garden. From afar, they saw a shadow floating above one of the gravestones. Wayne knew it couldn’t harm him, but he still felt uneasy as he passed by.

What if it jump-scared me?

William answered his unspoken question by suddenly shouting at the ghost, frightening the coward into retreating underground.

Catching the ghost off guard, scaring it for a change!

Wayne thanked him for the lesson and stated that he would give it a try next time. William said proudly, “They took me as a pushover, but I was just worried about alerting the Deathwalker. A proud follower of the Sun fears no ghost.”

Stop. It’s not embarrassing to be afraid of ghosts.

William’s argument made sense, but Wayne had seen the real them. Mages could easily eliminate ghosts, yes, but that didn’t mean they weren’t afraid. Both could be true.

They left the estate and trudged through the mud to reach their blue car. Wayne started it and turned on the headlights, driving straight to Klofron.

The fire was spreading, but the unhelpful weather had decided to clear up and stop the downpour. Given there was no longer a need to worry about alerting the Deathwalker, Wayne took the corner at maximum speed, sending the car skidding for some distance before recovering. William let out a characteristically William scream.

Soon, they reached the town and parked. Wayne’s heart pounded uncontrollably. His supernatural sense blared louder than ever before.

Danger! Deadly danger everywhere!

“Wait, something’s wrong...” He stopped William with a shout and took a deep breath. His scalp tingled. “We’re too late. There’s no scent of the living here, only the stench of decay...”

Decay in the sense of something that had been dead for a long time, but was only freshly dug up.

“Why can’t I smell it?” William asked in confusion.

Just then, someone dashed toward the two of them. It was Veronica, running across the blazing town with twisted figures moving in stiff, eerie motions behind her. Her face was covered in ash. She called for the two of them to get into the car quickly before diving into the driver’s seat. She started the car, ready to leave.

“Wait, where’s Monica?” William hurriedly asked.

“Stop wasting time. Get in the car. No time to explain.”

Veronica urged, while William’s expression grew icy. He yanked the door to the driver’s seat open and swung his softly glowing fist at her. With a crack, her neck broke, and half of her face shattered, revealing shriveled, dark grey muscles and fragile, yellowed bones under the surface of aliveness.

“Veronica would never abandon Monica. I won’t be fooled.”

William dragged the impostor out of the car. Wayne grabbed two crowbars from the trunk, one for each of them. With a clattering of blows, they broke the fake into pieces.

Not far from them, a large group of more breakable impostors ambled toward them. The round moon in the sky seemed even lower.