Chapter 166: bl**d Pool
… They’re all dead.
Tanis, those clergymen… all dead. Dead in such a miserable way. Like a pile of useless rotten meat tossed deep in this dark cellar, quietly waiting to rot.
My stomach churned violently.
The discomfort after vomiting welled up, and a haze of tears blurred my vision, distorting Tanis’s cold and rigid face.
I turned away, not wanting to look at her, not wanting to glance at those corpses again.
I was afraid of finding more familiar faces lurking within.
Who could it be…
The question echoed in my mind, but deep down, I already knew the answer.
Yet I needed to see it with my own eyes.
I wiped my mouth, brushing aside the drool that trickled down, then turned back, gripping Captain Gray tightly, and hurried towards the flickering light up ahead.
I could vaguely see a half-open wooden door there. Not long ago, when the surrounding lights hadn’t been lit, the flicker of fire I saw in the dark seeped through the crack of that door… Though it wasn’t as obvious now, there must be someone—or at least something—inside.
Be careful, check it out…
I quickened my pace, eyeing that door intently. After a few steps, suddenly a frantic scream pierced through.
“Cough… Uh… Ahhhh——!”
I froze in place.
The voice was clearly coming from within the door, a man was wailing inside.
“Is anyone there?! Who’s there——!”
“Help, someone, please, save me! Help us——!”
… There are still living people inside!
Realizing this, I instinctively darted a few giant steps forward, then suddenly halted, recognizing that something was off. Taking a deep breath to suppress the urgent urge to rescue him, I forced myself to stay calm.
Don’t be reckless… Silvya… especially now, you need to keep your cool.
The cellar had been eerily quiet until now; why was someone suddenly begging for help? It was obviously a trap. The enemy must be hiding nearby; I needed to be careful.
With that thought, I slowed my steps, gripping Captain Gray’s handle tightly as I crouched slightly, tensing up, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.
One step… two steps…
“Help——! There’s someone still alive! Please help me!”
“I don’t want to d*e——!”
The voice was getting hoarse, and I could feel the desperation in his calls.
But I couldn’t be moved.
I was up against the enemy who had killed Tanis in one strike. If they truly wanted to k*ll the man begging for help, how could they let him talk this much nonsense? … Without a doubt, it was a lure.
“Help——”
There was no way I was falling for it so easily…
“Help me…”
“Children——!”
Children…
My feet instinctively took two steps forward.
Then, “Buzz——!” my head spun around.
What… did he just say…? No, I won’t be fooled… this is the enemy’s scheme… there’s no way the children… but that little sweetheart said Aili left… so many people have gone… no, it can’t be, it won’t be… she’s not that kind of person… this must be a trap…
… d*mn their trap!
Whoosh——
Suddenly, I activated Moon Step.
The walls around me flew backward in a blur; the wall lamps streaked together, and the black skirt swirled wildly, whipping up a gale that extinguished two whole rows of candles left behind.
Clatter, clang!
Captain Gray transformed swiftly into a gleaming black spear with the whirring of tiny gears.
I gripped the handle firm, leaned down for a slide— the tip of the spear cut through the air, screaming sharply, propelled by the force of Moon Step, I lunged forward.
BANG——!!!
In an instant, the wooden door shattered.
Crash…
Amid splintered wood, I dashed into the room, sliding about four to five meters before finally stopping. Then, with a swift slap on the ground, I flipped to regain my balance, gripping Captain Gray once more, and it rang out, the massive blade twisting back into its scythe form.
I lifted it high, scanning the room vigilantly from left to right: blue brick walls, lamps, a bl**d-stained wooden table, a chaotic pile of empty bottles, and a ground peppered with holes… I didn’t see the enemy, but over there… it’s that Hat-Wearing Man, he’s still alive… behind him lay many people… no, corpses. Heads… lots of them… bl**d…
… All bl**d.
The scene in the room slowly formed in my mind.
My gaze started to glaze over.
What is this…
What… is this…
In that moment, I stood before a pool filled with bl**d, my mind completely blank.
I didn’t understand what I was seeing. It was completely incomprehensible, and I could only clumsily replay the hellish scene in my mind.
Time seemed to freeze.
I saw dark red bl**d splattered across the walls of the room.
The rocky floor I stood on was riddled with messy gashes, remnants of something that had been hacked and smashed, with bits of meat and fresh bl**d sticking around the edges.
The Hat-Wearing Man Charles, who should’ve been dragged to the Underground Prison ages ago, now curled up not far from my right.
His clothes were tattered, his skin was pale, his body trembling like a leaf, his deep-set eyes widened in horror as they fixed on me, his chapped lips quivered, seemingly wanting to say something. And behind him, I saw dozens of corpses.
Every one of these corpses had their heads chopped off and carelessly stacked together—their bodies looked so small and shriveled, like malnourished children.
No… they were children.
Immediately, I spotted their heads piled on the other side of the room. Of them all, I recognized Abel right away, his head perched on top, facing me directly.
Abel’s eyes were wide open, his hair matted and sticky with bl**d, sticking up unevenly on his head. His expression was terrifying—terrifying enough that I deciphered the fear and pain he must have felt before dying.
He must have been so afraid, so tortured.
Then, I saw Lucas’s head. I almost didn’t recognize him; his mouth gaped open at the chin—like someone had smashed it down with excessive force, ruthlessly splitting it wide… I was sure of it.
I… I couldn’t bear to look any longer.
I was already frozen, my heart racing. It felt as if all the bl**d in my body had stopped flowing, even breathing became a struggle.
The whole room reeked, the stench mingled with something alcoholic.
Then, I turned my trembling, unfocused gaze toward the bl**d pool right before me.
I saw a small, headless corpse upside down at the edge of the rectangular pool. Red liquid poured from its severed neck into the pool.
And lurking in the bl**d pool was a blackened spinal column… I wasn’t sure of what creature it belonged to. It was too big, big enough to nearly fill the pool.
The spinal column quivered slightly.
Because of its movement, the bl**d in the pool seemed to come alive, writhing and boiling, rising up around the spinal column, gradually coalescing into crimson beads above it.
I couldn’t comprehend what I was witnessing.
I just stood there, rooted in place, bewildered.
The next moment, time resumed its course.
Charles opened his mouth, managing to call out to me, “Watch out above—”
He was too late.
A massive black axe came crashing down from above, aimed straight for my head.
