Chapter 100: When the Flowers of Sin Bloom (Part 13)
“So, what exactly are you…?”
I frowned deeply.
Cautiously, I stepped closer to the vines, lifting my foot and snapping one of the thin branches.
Crack—
The branch shattered into several pieces as soon as I stepped on it, and the frost clinging to the leaves plummeted onto the stone floor. It wasn’t until I ground the broken branch into dust beneath my foot that they finally stopped moving.
…Interesting.
After waiting a moment to confirm these plants were really done twitching, I lifted my gaze and peered ahead.
Just now…
They absorbed the power of Infernal Fire, and those light spots were heading towards the deeper darkness.
Could that be…
Where their “roots” are?
“Sword Demon—”
I took a step forward, stepping on the crimson vines, softly calling out the Sword Demon’s name.
At this point, my voice was careless; no need to tiptoe anymore. The hide-and-seek game was over; anyway, it’s doubtful they could hide now.
Whatever’s coming, let it come quickly…
“Hey, Sword Demon!”
Where the heck did that little guy scurry off to…
And those Knights…
Ever since I got in here, I hadn’t seen a single footprint… It was such a mess in here; the ground was littered with these odd plants, and without my torch, the light was growing dimmer. I was practically stumbling around in the dark, unable to see anything clearly, let alone notice…
…Huh?
Suddenly, I stopped in my tracks.
What is this…
A curtain?
What was blocking my view seemed to be a very rudimentary iron frame supporting a sheet of white fabric… about as tall as a person, like a resident’s rooftop line drying sheets, simply hung with iron wires to serve as a barrier.
Oh…
I must have kicked that bottle, crashing right into this frame’s legs, right?
What’s it for?
I looked up around, and in the darkness, it seemed there were quite a few of these things, as if to divide this place into separate spaces… The crimson moss was creeping up the frame, many of them extending onto the white fabric, making it look dirty, like it was stained with congealed bl**d.
A makeshift isolation chamber, huh…
I tilted my head thoughtfully for a moment, lifted the white fabric, and crawled inside.
“Ugh…”
As soon as I stepped in, I was hit with a heavy medicinal smell, way stronger than outside, pungent enough to be annoying, even a bit eye-watering.
“d*mn…”
I rubbed my eyes vigorously.
Then…
When floating ice blocks flew in from above, I finally saw the scene in front of me.
“What is this…?”
It seemed to resemble a hospital room.
A space that wasn’t too big nor too small, surrounded by fabric partitions propped up by iron frames. The first thing that caught my eye was a filthy iron bed caked with bloodstains.
No, that wasn’t bloodstains…
It seemed to be moss too.
The crimson moss had spread in here; it looked much darker than outside, resembling dried bloodstains, filthy and scattered all over the bed.
There were no corpses here.
Naturally, no living beings either.
I saw beside the bed a low nightstand, similarly covered in “bloodstains,” thick with dust. The drawer was opened, but it was empty, and yet on the surface sat an iron dish, already rusted, containing…
cr*p.
That looked like a human hand bone.
I unconsciously walked over.
The ice blocks floating above closely followed my footsteps. After a few steps, I arrived at the nightstand, the dim blue light illuminating the dish better; I was able to see it clearly—it was a human arm.
Chopped off just above the wrist, the five finger bones distinctly visible—what other animal would have such a structure… But the bone was dark, not as if stained by old bl**d, but almost like it was black… with eerie dark red hues.
“Uh…”
I suddenly felt a bit of a headache.
As if a cold wind blew from behind, chilling up my spine.
This hand bone… it had the scent of the Power of Sin…
Is this a specimen’s bone?
The “patient” mentioned in the notebook that had pieces of Deity Body implanted, their bodies overwhelmed by unbearable divine power, and then dying in agony… Would their bones turn this color?
Why was the hand chopped off and left here…
What about the other parts?
I glanced around; I didn’t find any other bones or anything in this isolated chamber.
However…
Not far off, by the white curtain, there was a taller cabinet.
Inside it were various utensils…
And the source of that overwhelmingly sharp medicinal smell seemed to originate from there.
So I walked over.
“Cough, cough! Aah-choo—”
What a killer smell…
It was like some unnamable but intensely irritating potion mixed with the odor of rotting things. As I approached the cabinet, the strong stench nearly brought me to tears, and after a few coughs, I couldn’t help but sneeze. I instinctively covered my nose and, using the dim light, began to make out what was sitting on the cabinet…
Various sized yellowing but transparent containers.
Many of the containers were broken, but some weren’t; while intact, they held liquid… Inside that liquid floated something similar to what I had smashed and burned earlier.
Chunks of flesh…
But also pieces of black bone that I had never seen before yet felt strangely familiar.
“The scent of sin…”
And…
The aroma of the Abyss.
In a daze, I recalled the dreamscape Irush crafted for me using Oblivion’s power back in the Royal City.
The scenes in that dream, the smells, the damp air, the cold environment—it all began overlap with the cabinet in front of me…
[Eat…]
!
[Devour them…]
“Who—!”
I thought I heard someone calling.
That voice seemed to come from behind me yet also appeared to emanate from the surrounding darkness. My scalp tingled, and icy shivers crawled down my spine. I suddenly turned to look, but all I found was utter silence, with only that white curtain gently swaying in the dim light.
“…Sword Demon?”
Was someone just standing there?
Wandering in this pitch-black bizarre place, that fear was creeping back up on me.
“d*mn…”
I should get out of here…
This hellhole was giving me serious physiological discomfort.
I turned, retreated, and without a second thought, my escape was seamless; I was desperate to avoid lingering here a moment longer, continuing this monotonous search game with whatever the hell this creepy thing was.
It had already noticed me…
“Sword Demon—!”
I yanked open another side of the white curtain, stepping out of the area surrounded by white fabric. Instinctively calling the Sword Demon’s name, I soon discovered I seemed to have entered yet another tiny compartment, almost identical in layout, also covered with white fabric…
All around me, there were almost identical compartments.
The same noxious, nauseating smell, the same iron dish and utensils sitting in the corners of the beds, vines spreading like bl**d across the corners, and a seemingly endless stretch of darkness ahead—everything suddenly made me feel queasy again.
“d*mn Church…”
d*mn Angel.
I couldn’t help but quicken my pace, searching among the countless white barriers; along the way, I clumsily knocked over and crashed into many things, splattered orange-yellow unknown liquids onto my feet, and I could vaguely see a few scarlet pills rolling out from the nightstand I accidentally toppled, scattering into the darkness.
[Eat them…]
That voice echoed in my ear once more.
At the same time, from the darkness ahead, a figure cloaked in black suddenly appeared.
