Bright light tore through the blockade of thick fog, and the three of them walked slowly out from within it.
The horses dared not enter the mist, so the four of them had no choice but to proceed on foot. Even though the red mist was filled with an eerie and dangerous aura, with monsters in pursuit, they had no choice but to bite the bullet and plunge into the fog, hoping to find a sliver of a chance for survival.
Anything was better than being wiped out by those monsters.
Luke held the Torch of Light with trembling hands, leading the way. The flickering frequency of the beam reflected his nervous state of mind.
His wife, Clara, clutched their daughter, Nara, and followed closely behind. Her face was pale, her body shaking, and she dared not move a single step outside the range where she could see her husband's back.
Lynch, meanwhile, held his cane, drifting around the family of three like a ghost.
At this moment, Lynch felt as if he had returned to the millions of years he had spent drifting aimlessly through the red mist after his death, before he awakened in this world. He had been chaotic, ignorant, and unaware of everything until that crimson moonlight enveloped him. Then followed the long years of living as neighbors, bathing in the blood-colored moonlight every day while drifting in a world filled with red fog.
It was very similar to the present.
Perhaps because he had long been accustomed to this feeling, Lynch used the moonlight he alone enjoyed in his heart to see much more clearly than the family of three.
Beneath his feet was a smooth asphalt road extending into the thick fog; perhaps only God knew where it led. Below the road shoulders on either side lay the wilderness, where the mist was even thicker. The wilderness was a pitch-black void, impossible to see clearly from the road.
The Helm family did not know what was out in the wilderness either. During their last outing, they had followed their instincts, driven by consciousness, and walked onto this path. Although they no longer had memories of the process, they were certain that following this road had led them to their destination.
During the day, one could still see through the fog to the wilderness, which was nothing but barren gravel and stone. However, at night, when everything turned pitch black, countless eerie creatures seemed to hide within the mist, peering at the faint light on the road and emitting malicious, whispered chatter.
The greatest fear stemmed from the unknown. Even though they saw nothing, the family of three grew more terrified with every step, especially the parents, who were shivering so violently that Lynch feared they might collapse at any moment.
Or perhaps they had already collapsed.
"Gaa--!"
A piercing scream suddenly erupted from behind, sending a chill through all four of them. Lynch whipped his head around to look at the sky; he could tell the sound came from above.
The pursuers had arrived.
Aided by the illumination of the crimson moonlight, Lynch barely managed to pierce through the red mist and see the sky behind them.
Six stitched-together monstrosities broke through the air, carrying the pursuers on their backs. Led by the girl with the black fan, their expressions were hidden, but judging by the rifles each of them held, they were likely not in a pleasant mood.
"Bang."
While still in the air, the sound of gunfire rang out.
The sound of bullets hitting the ground nearby echoed, and Lynch could even feel the sharp sting of flying gravel against his face.
Mrs. Clara let out a short, sharp scream, then pressed her hands tightly over her mouth, trembling as she quickened her pace.
Luke looked back in terror, realized he could see nothing but fog, and could only bury his head and continue fumbling along the road. As his nervous breathing grew heavier, the light beam in his hand shook more violently.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Another volley of dense gunfire erupted, and the ground in the fog rippled with impact once more.
"Watch out!"
Luke, who was leading the way, suddenly shrieked and threw himself onto his wife and daughter, pushing them down. A moment later, with a scream, the three of them fell off the road shoulder and tumbled into the wilderness down the slope.
Damn it, the fog seemed to have little effect on them.
Lynch fired two shots at the pursuers in the sky, but the range of his pistol could not compare to their rifles. The pursuers did not even need to dodge; they simply let out mocking laughter, followed by another round of intense gunfire. Worried about the family of three who had fallen, Lynch gritted his teeth and slid down the slope after them.
"Uncle, we're over here!"
The parents were a bit dazed from the fall, but the little girl was uninjured. She had even crawled out of her mother's arms and was waving to signal Lynch.
"Pfft." Lynch landed on his feet and ran quickly toward the family, but after only two steps, his feet suddenly sank, and he fell directly beside them.
His feet literally sank; the sensation of the ground was different from what he had imagined, as if he had stepped onto something soft.
A sense of foreboding rose in his heart, but before he could see what he had stepped on, a scream erupted from beside his ear, nearly tearing his eardrums.
At that moment, Lynch saw what he had stepped on.
Corpses.
Not just one, but countless corpses.
The wilderness below the road shoulder was paved with bodies. Fresh corpses lay atop decaying ones, piled layer upon layer, stretching endlessly across the wilderness to the edge of his vision.
Ugh.
It was so disgusting that Lynch nearly vomited on the spot. A powerful sense of horror slammed into his heart; although he managed to keep his composure, his lips trembled.
Furthermore, the screaming beside his ear grew louder.
It was Mrs. Clara. Her face had turned ashen, her expression twisted, and her eyes were bloodshot; she seemed on the verge of a total breakdown. Her husband, Mr. Luke, was slightly better—at least he wasn't screaming as loudly—but he lay limp atop the corpses, struggling desperately to stand, yet his limbs were weak, and every attempt ended in failure. Only the little girl remained oblivious, seemingly unaware of the terror of death, curiously observing the bodies covering the ground.
Bang, bang, bang—several more shots were fired, the bullets thudding into the corpses with eerie, squelching sounds.
The gunfire was the final straw. Mrs. Clara completely collapsed, continuing to scream while clutching her head, preparing to charge into the depths of the wilderness.
But the moment she took a step, Lynch kicked her to the ground.
Without waiting for her to get up, Lynch stepped forward, grabbed her hair to force her to face him, then quickly lit a cigarette and sprayed three consecutive puffs of smoke into Clara's face.
One pound, one pound, one pound.
Lynch didn't even care about the cost. He used the soul-returning grass he had kept in reserve to bring the nearly terror-stricken Clara back to her senses, and during a lull in the rifle fire, he helped the limp Luke up as well.
"Get back to the road quickly; this place is too eerie."
What truly made Lynch feel that this place was eerie was not just the sea of corpses, but the omnipresent red mist.
The strange red fog drifted from the distance of the wilderness, and as it drifted, it was absorbed by the endless remains. By the time it crossed the wilderness and drifted toward the city, there was almost no mist left.
It was as if the corpses were filtering out the filth. The problem was, what happened to the filtered filth? It certainly wouldn't just vanish into thin air.
They could not stay long.
However, mocking laughter came from the sky again, followed by another dense volley of rifle fire, forcing the four of them to stumble and stagger, nearly falling back into the pile of corpses several times.
"Mr. Hunter, what should we do?"
Luke's expression was also twisted. Although the fog interfered with the pursuers' accuracy, one bullet still grazed his thigh, leaving a bleeding wound.
What should we do? I'd like to know that myself.
Surprised? Fresh? Exciting?
"Cover your eyes, now!"
Lynch gave a low roar, then suddenly raised his volume, shouting at the pursuers in the sky:
"Hey! I'm over here!"
Attracted by the sound, both the pursuers and their flying mounts turned their eyes toward Lynch at once.
And then, they saw a violent burst of intense fire erupt from the darkness.
Flame Oil, ignite.
Thick fog, darkness, and a suddenly erupting fireball.
The drastic change in light caused the pursuers to let out a cry of surprise, and the six mounts went completely insane, colliding frantically in the air. For a moment, the sky above the wilderness descended into chaos.
"Don't just stand there, get up!"
Lynch scooped up Nara and pushed the couple to climb back onto the road. He no longer cared about being careful and ran wildly along the highway. Only after a long while did the sound of flapping wings return from above, but no more gunfire rang out.
It seems that blast was enough to rattle them.
"Mr. Hunter, we're almost there. I can feel it..."
However, just as a look of joy appeared on Luke's face, an eerie chanting suddenly came from above.
The content was incomprehensible, and the tone carried a strange rhythm. Lynch could feel that a sinister power was hidden within the sound—gloomy and oppressive, as if it were awakening the fear engraved deep within his soul.
The fear of death.
"Enough. Your tricks have angered me. The game is over."
The girl in the ornate robes let out an angry rebuke, and the chanting in the sky grew increasingly high-pitched.
As the chanting continued, countless rustling sounds came from the wilderness on both sides of the road.
Low growls, moans, friction, footsteps...
Countless black shadows climbed onto the road from the darkness, dragging their bodies as they surrounded the four of them.
【Authority, Death, Ability, Corpse Tide.】
Damn it, if you can't play, you flip the table, right? And we both control the authority of death, so why is yours so terrifying?
The corpses ran surprisingly fast, reminding Lynch of some legend or world war. Recalling the mountains of corpses he had just seen, Lynch felt his skin crawl. He threw two bottles of Flame Oil behind him, letting the fire consume the road in their wake, then turned, hoisted the little girl, and ran.
Luke, beside him, suddenly let out a howl. Looking toward the light, he realized that in this moment of distraction, corpses had already caught up. They had grabbed Mrs. Clara's hair; she screamed and struggled desperately but could not break free, and it looked like she was about to be swallowed by the tide of corpses.
Bang! The equally frail Luke slammed directly into them. While knocking the corpses aside, he shielded his wife with his body. He was scratched and bitten by the incoming corpses, his shoulders and back dripping with blood, but his efforts successfully stalled the surrounding corpses long enough for Lynch to arrive in time and swing his cane, knocking away the few nearest ones.
"You go on ahead! I'll be right behind you!"
Lynch shoved his revolver into Luke's hand; anyone who could save their wife at a time like this was qualified to hold a gun.
Lynch himself stayed at the rear, waving his cane with one hand while smashing another bottle of Flame Oil onto the ground with the other. He raised a friendly finger toward the girl in the ornate robes in the sky:
"You were the one who announced the start of the game, but it's not up to you to decide when it ends. You want to end the game? Did you ask me first?"
"Foolish outsider, you know nothing about humanity." The girl in the ornate robes sneered and suddenly raised her voice: "People of the Helm family, listen up! We are now accepting one person's repentance. We will wipe your memories and let you return to a normal life. There is only one spot. Whoever returns to our side first gets it."
Rate on N.U.
