Chapter 414: The Rift Opens (2)
Sister Sera, who had been staying at the monastery, had recently been hearing strange noises every time she fell asleep.
It was the sound of her fellow sister, who slept in the bed next to hers, muttering to herself alone in the early hours of dawn.
‘Ah… Why is she suddenly acting like this?’
At first, she thought it was just sleep-talking. However, since it had continued for several days, she had grown quite annoyed.
‘I’ll have to talk to her when she wakes up.’
Grasping her throbbing head, Sera finally managed to drift off to sleep. When she awoke, she was determined to speak with her.
“Oh, has she already left?”
It seemed she had overslept after a restless night. Her fellow sister was already gone.
Left with no choice, Sera decided she would speak with her when they crossed paths later. However, between prayers and chores, she became too busy and never found the opportunity.
Now that she thought about it, aside from bedtime, she hadn’t seen her fellow sister’s face recently.
‘It feels like our paths keep missing each other.’
By the time Sera finished her daily tasks and returned to the room, her fellow sister was already fast asleep.
Sera quietly approached and looked at her. She was so still, sleeping without the slightest movement.
‘Please, just be quiet tonight. I’m exhausted after not sleeping well for days.’
Muttering complaints to herself, Sera lay down and tried to sleep. She was just beginning to drift off when the strange sound returned.
“$%&#@$%!%^$$#”
A voice whispering rapidly, but the words were so muffled that she couldn’t understand them.
‘Ah, please…’
Even as she covered her ears, the sound persisted, as if someone was sitting right next to her, whispering directly into her ear.
Chills ran down her spine.
A terrifying thought crossed her mind, and she jolted upright. But there was no one around.
‘What on earth…?’
Gritting her teeth, she cautiously got up and walked toward the other bed.
As she slowly approached and looked closely, the sister was still lying there silently, just as she had seen moments earlier completely motionless.
‘What…?’
Was she just imagining things? But why did the whispering start only when she lay down?
When she sat up and stayed alert like this, no sound could be heard.
Even when she stared directly at the other bed, it remained silent.
In the end, Sera stayed awake the entire night.
As dawn began to break, she unknowingly dozed off.
“$%&#@$%!%^$$#”
“Ahhh!”
The strange sound jolted her awake once more.
“Please, just stop!”
She shouted and looked around, only to realize it was already night.
Had she slept the entire day?
That couldn’t be possible. Someone would have woken her there were far too many tasks in the monastery for her to sleep through the day undisturbed.
However, right now, her mounting frustration with her fellow sister drowned out her confusion.
“What on earth is wrong with you?!”
Sera marched over and yanked the blanket off the other bed.
“Kyahhh!”
She screamed and collapsed to the floor in horror.
Her fellow sister was a blood-soaked corpse. She must have already been dead when Sera first checked, which explained why she had been lying so still, without any movement.
“W-what is this…?”
Who would dare murder someone inside the monastery?
“S-someone… I have to call someone…”
She needed to alert the others and catch the culprit. As she staggered to her feet with that thought, the world around her suddenly distorted, and a wave of dizziness overwhelmed her.
Bzzzzzzt…
A sound like the world splitting apart echoed in her ears.
Her vision was painted red. No trace of the original colors of the room remained.
“W-what’s happening? What is this…?”
Terrified, she trembled, trying to leave the room.
Creeeeak…
At that moment, the door slowly opened on its own.
“W-what…”
Sera stepped back. Beyond the slightly opened door was only darkness. But she saw it clearly.
Drip…
From within the darkness, a single bloodshot eye emerged, staring into the room.
A demon surely a demon had come here.
Paralyzed by fear, Sera couldn’t bring herself to leave.
“L-Lord… please…”
She collapsed to her knees, clutching her rosary, and began to pray fervently to the heavens.
The more she recited the prayers, the calmer she felt.
But just as she started to feel a sliver of relief, another sound began to mix into her prayer.
“$%&#@$%!%^$$#”
The same whisper she had heard every night.
It couldn’t be her fellow sister’s voice. She was already dead.
This had to be the demon’s voice.
“P-please… just stop…”
“$%&#Kill…!%^$$#”
The whisper grew clearer. The once incomprehensible murmurs were now becoming clear enough for her to understand.
“$%&#Kill……!%^Escape…….#”
‘Kill what? Escape where?’
“$%To survive&#Kill……!Escape from the world%^…….#”
‘Demon! Begone from within me!’
The more the whispers echoed, the more fervently she prayed.
‘Father in heaven… Please, save my poor soul…’
There was nothing she could do but pray. She kept ignoring the whispers.
At some point, the content of the whispers changed.
[Kill… Kill… Kill… That’s the only way to live…]
Suddenly, a cold sensation made her open her eyes. She looked down at her hands.
At some point, a large butcher’s knife, the kind used to cut meat, was in her grip.
Drip… Drip…
Fresh blood dripped from the blade, as if it had just been used to slaughter an animal.
Her hands and body were also stained with blood.
“W-what is this…?”
The crimson world remained suffocatingly silent. Only the strange whispers and the sound of her own breathing could be heard.
Even in such a bizarre situation, the monastery was too quiet. That didn’t make sense. She looked ahead.
The eyes peering through the door crack were now gone.
Swallowing hard, she cautiously opened the door and stepped outside.
Only small candles faintly lit the dark interior of the monastery. On any other day, this dim atmosphere would have felt peaceful, but tonight it was terrifying.
Creak… Creak…
With every step she took, strange noises seemed to echo. As she looked around carefully, she noticed the walls were horrifically stained with blood.
“Ah…”
She couldn’t stop a trembling voice from escaping her lips.
Bodies lay dead all around. That was why no one had responded.
Had a demon truly invaded and slaughtered everyone?
‘I have to get out of here.’
She needed to leave and call for help. She had to find someone, anyone.
Clutching the knife tightly, she took two shaky steps forward. Perhaps this knife had been given to her by God to protect herself.
Why did the monastery, always so narrow and confining, feel so vast tonight?
[Kill… Kill… Kill… That’s the only way to live…]
She ignored the whispers. Ignored the blood-soaked walls and the corpses.
Gritting her teeth, she focused solely on escaping this place.
“Ah…”
Stepping into the monastery’s garden, she trembled with a fear she had never felt before.
Rumble!
The sky, stained red, was distorting. Even the moonlight twisted, emitting an ominous roar.
“Ahhh…”
An endless, eerie wind howled. The trees were withered and lifeless.
Screeeeech!
Strange screams echoed from all directions.
Tears streamed down her face as despair overwhelmed her.
If the world were to end, would it look like this? Beyond the iron gates, the landscape was nothing but crimson darkness.
At last, she began to understand the meaning behind the whispers.
‘!Escape from the world%^…….#’
Though she didn’t fully comprehend, it seemed the world had gone terribly wrong. But how was she supposed to escape?
She couldn’t stay here alone.
Terrified, but needing to know what had happened, she had to find survivors.
Gathering her courage, she flung open the monastery’s iron gates.
Creeeak.
Blinding light poured in, making her instinctively shut her eyes.
This made no sense. The iron gates were merely a barrier between the monastery and the outside.
It was already nighttime. Such brilliant light couldn’t be shining through.
Hadn’t she just seen the same crimson darkness through the crack in the door earlier?
Blinking several times, she adjusted to the brightness and saw figures standing before her.
“Ah…”
A young man with blonde hair, dressed like a noble, stood at the front. Behind him, a line of knights with grave expressions watched silently.
Though the design of their clothing and armor was slightly unfamiliar, she felt overwhelming relief to finally see other people.
Collapsing to the ground, she sobbed.
“Please, save me! A demon appeared! Everyone in the monastery is dead!”
The young man said nothing. Neither did the knights beside him.
They simply stared down at her with severe expressions.
“Hurry! Check the monastery! I am Sister Sera! Didn’t the lord send you because he sensed something was wrong?”
She pleaded through her tears, but the young man remained silent.
Instead, he drew the sword at his waist and pointed it at her.
Shocked, she screamed.
“What are you doing?! Go inside and see for yourself!”
The young man ignored her words and responded in an indifferent voice.
“You’ve already been consumed.”
“W-what? Consumed? What do you mean?”
“You are no nun.”
“What are you saying?”
She had lived in this monastery since childhood. She had dedicated her entire life to serving God. How could he say she was not a nun?
It was a denial of her entire existence.
No this wasn’t the time to argue about such things. The monastery was filled with corpses, and they couldn’t waste time standing here.
“Fine! Just please, check inside the monaste”
The young man interrupted her again.
“This is not a monastery. And you are not a nun. A man cannot be a nun.”
“What nonsense are you saying…!”
She shouted back, but then suddenly felt something strange. Her voice it had become deeper, rougher, like a man’s.
“Wh-what is this…?”
The bloodstained knife was still gripped in her hand. But the coarse, hairy arm, the muscular hand it wasn’t hers.
Confused, her mind spiraled in disbelief. Then, the overwhelming stench of blood and decay suddenly filled the air. Slowly, he turned his head to look behind him.
“Wha…”
There was no monastery garden or buildings.
Instead, he stood in a large slaughterhouse.
Chunks of meat hung from the ceiling, dripping blood.
Among them, human bodies were suspended as well. Corpses littered the floor in every direction.
“A-ah… Wh-what is this…”
Clang.
The man dropped the knife, his face hollow with shock.
And then it hit him. The bodies hanging there he knew them all.
His colleagues, occasional customers, even his family.
The slaughterhouse walls were painted with blood. Considering the brutal massacre, it was surprising anything remained intact at all.
“A-a-ah…”
His memories mixed with Sera’s. He couldn’t tell what was real anymore.
He was sure he had been a simple butcher, living an ordinary life, working to support his family.
But he was also certain he had been a nun, praying to God as the world crumbled.
‘$%&#@$%!%^$$#’
The whispers returned, but now he could finally understand them clearly.
They were speaking in a language he knew, yet it didn’t belong to this world.
‘…That’s the only way to survive.’
“Ah…”
Blood tears streamed from the man’s eyes.
He had killed them. His family, his friends all by his own hand.
A nun, devoted to God, had slaughtered the innocent.
He couldn’t understand what had possessed him.
He had…only wanted to live.
Yes, that was all.
Snap. Crack!
Suddenly, his bones twisted with sickening cracks as his body convulsed unnaturally.
Then, his head began splitting open from the crown.
Sizzle…
Like shedding a skin, his human shell peeled away.
What emerged was a mutant its brain writhing, with thick tendrils sprouting from it.
Szzzzzt…
A crimson gemstone embedded in the creature’s head glowed ominously, emitting an overwhelming aura of corruption.
Watching this, the young man Ghislain spoke in a grave tone.
“Gordon, go to the marketplace immediately. Gather the city’s forces, evacuate the people, and have the area surrounded.”
“Yes, sir!”
“The rest of you, prepare for battle.”
No matter how many mutants there were, Ghislain could handle them alone. However, this situation was different. The transformation was not occurring naturally, as it had when they captured Lavierre.
Rumble!
An enormous surge of magical energy erupted from beneath the ground.
Ghislain knew exactly what this meant.
“The ‘Gate’ has opened here.”
His expression turned cold and grim.