The statue was about two meters high, yellowish all over, its material indistinguishable.
Its form was roughly humanoid, but its face was covered by a mask, hiding its features.
Various items were scattered at the statue's feet: dried blood, burnt-down candles, and several bones that could have belonged to either man or beast.
They looked like offerings.
Kraken's heart tightened.
He had already predisposed himself to the idea that this Yishu Sect was a cult, so everything he saw now confirmed his suspicion that they were performing some sort of evil ritual.
"Those who offend the gods shall be punished!"
Suddenly, a voice rang out from behind him.
Kraken turned around.
Several people had appeared at the entrance at some unknown point. They wore yellow robes with hoods that covered most of their faces, leaving only their chins visible.
Kraken's eyes widened.
The leader raised a hand, and the yellow-robed men behind him lunged forward in unison.
Kraken panicked for a split second before immediately regaining his composure.
His right hand reached for his waist, and he pulled a deck of poker cards from between his fingers.
They were the most ordinary kind, with blue diagonal patterns on the back and numbers and suits printed on the front.
But in the next second, those poker cards came to life.
The front-most card, the Ace of Spades, flew out, drawing an arc through the air and hitting one of the yellow-robed men square in the chest.
Thump!
The yellow-robed man's body was sent flying as if hit by a truck. He slammed into the wall, slid down, and remained motionless.
Another card flew out: the King of Hearts.
The card exploded in front of another yellow-robed man, turning into countless tiny red points of light that bored into his eyes.
"Aaaagh!"
The yellow-robed man screamed, clutching his face as he stumbled back, knocking over the companion behind him.
The next card was the Queen of Diamonds. As it hit the floor, it transformed into a transparent barrier, blocking a short sword swinging in from the side.
Then came the Jack of Clubs.
The blade shattered, and the web between the thumb and index finger of the man holding the sword split open, blood spraying everywhere.
Kraken's fingers danced, cards flying from between them one after another, each with a different effect.
The yellow-robed men fell one by one.
The last man lunged at Kraken, who stepped aside to dodge and slapped a Five of Spades onto the back of the man's neck.
The man's vision went black, and he slumped to the ground.
The battle was over.
Kraken scanned his surroundings; all seven yellow-robed men were incapacitated.
He tucked away the remaining cards and turned back toward the statue, intending to take a photo to send back to the Alliance.
But at that moment, he accidentally stepped on something, causing a sharp crack.
Kraken looked down to see a segment of bone he had snapped in two.
His heart skipped a beat, and he looked up at the statue.
The statue seemed to be moving.
It wasn't an illusion.
The yellow statue was trembling slightly.
It was as if something inside was struggling, trying to break out.
The paint on the surface cracked, the fissures spreading from the top of its head to the soles of its feet with a faint creaking sound.
Kraken took a step back.
The cracks on the statue grew wider and wider, revealing the... thing inside.
The thing was moving, slowly squeezing its way out from within.
The statue's head split open.
A pair of eyes peered out from the fissure, their gaze landing on Kraken.
In that instant, Kraken felt as if something had licked him from head to toe.
A chill rose from the base of his spine and shot straight to the top of his skull.
What was that?
What on earth was that?
The statue's arms split, and claws reached out from the cracks.
Kraken's brow furrowed, a sense of unease gnawing at him.
Before long, the statue's torso split completely.
The thing inside squeezed itself out of the empty shell of the statue, bit by bit.
...
"Look over there!"
A startled cry rang out.
Pedestrians on the street stopped in their tracks, looking toward the source of the sound.
The Yishu Sect tower, a building that normally looked quite sacred on the outside, was currently spewing thick clouds of smoke from its top-floor windows.
The smoke was a grayish-white, so thick it seemed alive as it squeezed through the window gaps and flowed downward.
"What's that? Is there a fire?"
"Doesn't look like it. Look at the smoke—why is it flowing downward?"
The crowd gathered in that direction but didn't dare get too close, standing at a distance on the street corners and stretching their necks to watch.
Then they saw the yellow-robed men.
The followers of the Yishu Sect usually entered and exited that courtyard quietly, occasionally handing out flyers printed with strange symbols on the street.
Now, they were swarming toward the tower from all directions, their faces filled with an indescribable, fanatical expression.
"The Divine Envoy has descended!"
"The Divine Envoy is about to descend!" a yellow-robed man shouted at the top of his lungs.
Soon, more voices joined in, converging into a noisy, frantic cacophony.
The yellow-robed men knelt on the open ground in front of the tower, their heads thumping against the pavement as they kowtowed.
The onlookers exchanged bewildered glances.
"What are they saying? Divine Envoy?"
"What Divine Envoy?"
"I don't know. Let's get out of here."
Just then, the top-floor windows of the tower exploded.
The smoke itself was expanding, bursting through the window frames and shattering the brickwork.
A monster flew out from within.
The creature had a silhouette resembling a horse, its body covered in dark gray, soaking wet fur, and its limbs were long and thin, ending in claws.
Its head was hideously deformed, with a triangular skull and a mouth that was perpetually pulled back into a grin because it lacked lips, revealing three rows of inward-curving fangs.
Its eyes were cloudy orbs without eyelids, with a single point of dark green vertical pupil condensed in the center.
It also had a pair of massive wings on its back, like those of a bat, with a viscous liquid dripping from the edges that corroded small pits into the ground.
The monster circled once in the air.
Gray mist swirled around its body like some kind of living companion.
Then, the monster lowered its head and looked down at the kneeling yellow-robed men below.
"Bulu-bulu-bulu."
An eerie sound issued from the monster's perpetually grinning mouth.
The kneeling yellow-robed men let out even more fanatical cheers.
But the onlookers in the distance now had only one thought.
Run.
The crowd burst into motion, scattering in all directions.
People who had been watching the spectacle seconds ago now wished they had been born with extra legs.
When you actually encounter a monster, who has the courage to stay and watch?
The streets were filled with figures fleeing in panic.
No one looked back.
...
Kraken looked up at the thing that had flown out of the statue.
The gray mist filled the air, carrying a pungent, fishy stench that smelled like rotting seaweed mixed with rust.
The monster hung in the mist, barely a dozen meters away from him.
The swirling gray mist, the alien creature, and the ancient building should have been a scene of mysterious aura, but the monster's very body inspired an uncontrollable nausea from the depths of his heart.
He could barely make out the creature's full form.
Beneath a layer of soaking wet fur, the outline of bones was faintly visible, but the orientation of those bones was all wrong.
The joints were in the wrong places, and the proportions of the limbs were off, as if it had been forcibly stitched together from the corpses of different creatures and then given life.
Pop, pop, pop.
The lamps on the inner walls of the tower burst one after another.
The light grew dimmer and dimmer.
"Bulu-bulu-bulu."
The monster made that eerie sound again.
The sound pierced directly through his eardrums, vibrating within his cranial cavity.
Kraken felt a tingle on his scalp, as if countless tiny electrical currents were burrowing in from his hair follicles and spreading down his spine.
His body sensed the danger before his mind did.
His muscles tensed, adrenaline surged, and his heart raced frantically.
He immediately realized that this monster was absolutely not comparable to the cannon fodder he could easily crush.
"It really is a cult. To think such a ghastly thing was inside the statue."
He muttered a low complaint, trying to maintain his composure.
There was no one else left in the tower.
The yellow-robed men had either fallen in the previous fight or had run out before the monster appeared and were now kneeling outside.
In this space, only he and the creature suspended in the mist remained.
The monster's eyes rolled, its dark green vertical pupils locking onto him.
Kraken felt himself being targeted.
In the next second, a violent wind whipped up.
He only saw a claw swinging through the mist, its speed so fast it was almost impossible to track with the naked eye.
Kraken didn't dodge.
It wasn't that he didn't want to; he simply didn't have the time.
But his reactions were not slow.
Two poker cards flew from his fingers, crossing in mid-air.
Bang!
A semi-transparent barrier unfolded in front of him, forming just before the claw could reach him.
Boom.
The claw slammed into the barrier with a dull roar.
The barrier shook violently, countless cracks appearing on its surface. Kraken was sent flying by the impact, his back hitting the wall and shaking loose a cloud of dust.
But he had survived.
The monster withdrew its claw and hung in place, a flicker of confusion seemingly crossing its eyes.
It didn't understand why this tiny creature hadn't been torn to shreds like its previous prey.
Kraken wiped a trace of blood from the corner of his mouth, and with a flick of his fingers, he produced several more poker cards.
The monster lunged again.
This time, Kraken was prepared.
Instead of retreating, he took a step forward. At the same time, he swung his right hand, and three cards flew out in a fan shape.
The Seven of Clubs, Eight of Clubs, and Nine of Clubs.
A straight flush.
The three cards exploded in mid-air, turning into three emerald-green arcs of light that intertwined and wove into a massive net of light, dropping over the monster.
The monster was caught dead center.
The light net contracted, biting into its body. When the emerald-green light touched its skin, it made a sizzling sound, like a branding iron pressed against wet meat.
"Bulu!"
The monster let out a piercing screech, its body twisting violently as its claws flailed wildly, trying to tear the net apart.
But the light net's toughness far exceeded its expectations.
When it tore a hole, the net immediately mended itself elsewhere. When it snapped a cord of light, more immediately coiled around it.
Kraken didn't stop there.
He knew the light net wouldn't hold the monster for long.
He swung his left hand, throwing out two more cards.
The Ten of Hearts and Jack of Hearts.
A pair.
This time, it wasn't a binding; it was an attack.
Two spheres of crimson light surged from the cards, condensing into two fist-sized fireballs that streaked toward the monster, trailing flames.
Boom! Boom!
The fireballs exploded on the monster, causing its body to reel. Two holes were scorched into its wet fur, emitting thick smoke.
The monster's screeching became even more high-pitched.
It stopped trying to tear at the light net and instead flapped its massive wings.
A gale suddenly arose.
The gray mist was stirred into rotating vortices. The light net swayed in the wind, its emerald cords stretching and deforming until they finally snapped.
The monster broke free.
However, it didn't immediately lunge at Kraken. Instead, it flapped its wings and soared upward toward the sky.
Kraken was stunned for a moment.
Did it run away?
No.
In the next second, he understood.
The monster circled once in the air, then folded its wings and dove headfirst like a meteor!
Its speed was even faster than before, its silhouette a mere blur as it tore through the mist, hurtling toward Kraken.
Kraken's pupils shook.
Four cards flew from his right hand simultaneously.
The Four, Five, Six, and Seven of Diamonds.
A straight flush, four in a row.
The four cards condensed into a massive, slanted shield, blocking Kraken from above.
Boom!
The monster slammed into the shield.
A shockwave rippled outward, shattering the tower's walls and flipping the floorboards. Rubble and dust flew everywhere.
Kraken was forced to his knees by the impact, blood seeping from his facial orifices, his vision blurring.
But the shield didn't break.
The monster was pressed against the surface of the shield, its claws scratching frantically. Its mouth pulled back even further, revealing its fangs as it let out a furious roar at Kraken.
Foul-smelling saliva dripped down, corroding small pits into the shield.
Kraken knelt there, his vision swimming in darkness.
But he didn't fall.
His right hand was still moving.
A card slid from between his fingers.
It wasn't an ordinary card.
It was the black-and-white Joker card.
The Little Joker!
On the card, the grinning Joker seemed to be alive, its eyes fixed on the monster.
Kraken flicked the Joker card out.
The Joker card passed through the shield and landed lightly on the monster.
Then, the world went silent.
The monster's movements were frozen.
Its claws stopped in mid-air, its gaping mouth held its roaring pose, and for the first time, a look of confusion appeared in its cloudy eyes.
The Little Joker card was stuck to the monster's forehead, and the black-and-white Joker on the card began to move.
The Joker's smile was exaggerated, so much so that it tore across its entire face. It reached out a hand with only three fingers from the card and gently stroked the monster's head.
After the stroke came a kneading motion, and then deformation.
The monster's body became twisted, its silhouette collapsing inward. Bones dislocated, and flesh was compressed.
It wanted to roar, but it couldn't make a sound. It couldn't even move a single claw.
A few seconds later, the mass that had once been a monster completely collapsed into a fist-sized bead.
The bead's surface was smooth and grayish-white, and something could be faintly seen squirming inside, unable to break free.
The Little Joker card slid off the bead and floated back to Kraken.
Kraken reached out and caught the card.
The Joker was still smiling, a smile that was exceedingly malicious.
"Good job," Kraken croaked, offering a dry compliment before his vision went black and he collapsed forward.
The cost of using a trump card was too high; he couldn't hold on any longer.
The gray mist gradually dissipated.
In the ruins of the Yishu Sect tower, there was only a floor of rubble, an unconscious man, and a grayish-white bead.
The monster's screeching had vanished completely.
At the same time, the Yishu Sect followers outside, who had been kowtowing, began to wail.
"Divine Envoy! Lord Divine Envoy!"
"No!"
"Kill him! Kill that heretic!"
The yellow-robed men swarmed from all directions, passing through the broken courtyard walls and converging on the tower.
The elderly cultist in the lead had his eyes wide with shock as he stumbled into the ruins, constantly calling out, "Divine Envoy, Lord Divine Envoy..."
More cultists followed behind him.
There was no Divine Envoy at the scene, only an unconscious blasphemer.
The heretic who had murdered the Divine Envoy!
He had to die!
Rate on N.U.
