The cultists paid no mind to their fallen comrades. They stood there, looking at Shade, vaguely beginning to surround him. Knowing that three Ring-Wizards were enough to stalemate a squad of Ring-Wizards from an Orthodox Church, Shade knew there must be something even more powerful inside the damp chapel; thus, he did not let his confidence swell enough to risk making another move.
He held the remaining fat fishman priest hostage, then glanced at Darkness and his companion. Naturally, the two of them stood with the fishmen. However, Shade did not panic; the sea breeze coming from behind him indicated that there was definitely another path behind the stone wall.
"Everyone back off, or I can't guarantee I won't pull the trigger," he shouted. Since he had put on a mask before sneaking in wearing the robes, he wasn't afraid of being identified.
Surprisingly, the fat fishman held by Shade showed no intention of struggling. It continued to chant its prayers on its own, as if Shade didn't even exist.
The cultists of the Scarlet Secret Sect looked at Shade as if he were a madman. But upon closer observation, Shade could see that everyone's lips were moving; they were praying as well.
An inexplicable sense of unease left Shade somewhat surprised.
"Are there any traces of abnormal elements?"
【Yes, look at the ground.】
Looking down, he saw that due to the previous attack and the resulting deaths, the blood of the fishmen was continuously seeping downward. Once it entered the sewage on the ground, it seemed to vaguely overlap with patterns beneath the water's surface.
Along with the humming prayers of the old fishman priest held by Shade, and without needing the voice in his ear to warn him, the increasingly dense profane elements had turned into substantial silver light radiating from the ground.
Shade suddenly realized
"By killing them, I actually provided sacrifices for the ritual? There's actually such a thing? Wait, these guys... they probably intended to commit suicide from the start, which is why they didn't care that the manor was surrounded, right?"
Thinking he couldn't wait any longer, Shade gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger, killing the praying old fishman in one shot. The annoying humming prayers stopped abruptly, but immediately afterward, the prayers of the remaining cultists suddenly grew louder.
Shade turned and ran backward, targeting the stone wall where the holy symbol was placed.
Escaping the way he came was impossible; there was still a Ring-Wizard of unknown rank in the wine cellar. Since wind was blowing out of the hole in the wall, there had to be a path behind it.
"Don't let him get away!"
Voices came from behind. Although Shade couldn't see behind him, "she" could.
【Now!】
"Lagley's Leap!"
The attacks of spells and oddities aimed at his back missed, slamming into the stone wall ahead. The impact blasted open a hidden, rugged narrow path, and the evil god's holy symbol rolled into the debris of the collapsed wall.
Shade's figure appeared at the corner of the wall, then he lunged violently toward the narrow path, performing a clean roll and darting inside.
"Quick, chase him!"
Darkness likely wanted to gain favor with the cultists, so he arrived at the damaged chapel wall faster than anyone else.
"Don't chase him!"
But someone behind him stopped him. Turning around, he saw the only Sixth-Ring Wizard among the cultists. It was he who had blocked Shade's Silver Moon Slash, preventing things from becoming even worse.
"There is no need to chase."
He knelt and respectfully retrieved the undamaged holy symbol from the rubble. After kissing it, he handed it to the fishman behind him.
Seeing Darkness's confusion, the wizard frowned and looked into the darkness of the rugged passage, explaining
"The path behind the wall may indeed lead outside; it was a passage we used to transport sensitive materials many years ago when we occupied the manor. But sixty years ago, when we abandoned this manor, we sealed a Document-grade relic inside—a Siren."
"Document-grade? A Siren?"
The middle-aged man in red gloves immediately stepped back. "Are you sure that person will definitely die at the hands of the Siren?"
"Of course. Although it is Document-grade, it took everything we had just to seal it. Nothing went wrong for sixty years, but as for what has happened inside now, even our church cannot say for sure. Since he walked in of his own accord, we needn't worry about him."
The man then looked sympathetically at the corpse of the fishman priest on the ground.
"We were going to draw lots to decide who would be the self-sacrifice... forget it, the ritual is complete. There are ten minutes until sunrise; let us leave as well."
"Wait."
Darkness, with his withered yellow short hair, reached out. "What about the thing you promised me?"
The Sixth-Ring Wizard beckoned behind him, and a living fishman immediately searched the corpses of its companions and found a box. He handed the brass ring inside the box to Darkness, whose face broke into an expression of ecstasy.
"The incantation," the cultist reminded him, curious about what Darkness intended to do.
"Of course—the transition of silence and stillness is the manifestation of hidden power!"
In front of everyone, he took off his red glove. After reciting the incantation, he slipped the ring onto the index finger of his right hand.
The skin of his palm writhed and split open, revealing that terrifying mouth. As the mouth and sharp teeth shifted, it actually spoke
"I feel blood and fear; this is quite wonderful."
The mouth burst into laughter. The horrific language it used seemed to possess the power to directly pollute the environment, making the cultists of the Scarlet Secret Sect feel nauseous and dizzy. This was certainly not the common tongue of Delarion, nor was it even a human language; no one understood it except Darkness.
Seeing this eerie scene, not only the cultists of the Scarlet Secret Sect but even Darkness's companion—the short, bearded man—wore an expression of discomfort.
He subconsciously took a step back, seeing a large shadow cover Darkness. His lips twitched, but he did not voice his doubts.
Their original purpose was merely to use flesh-nourishing techniques in exchange for the fishmen's promise to help them leave Coldwater Port. The Poet-grade relic [Fish-Taming Ring] was a private trade proposed by Darkness.
Subsequently, the group began to clear the traces of the ritual and used oddities to blast the narrow stone crevice behind the wall Shade had entered, causing it to collapse. Finally, they gathered the corpses on the ground so that the flesh could be more evenly distributed across the carved ritual marks.
About seven or eight minutes later, just as the cultists were preparing to leave, they suddenly heard clear footsteps coming from the exit of the damp chapel
"Who is playing with steam bombs in my basement?"
It was a woman's voice.
(Shade running)
Shade was sprinting. More accurately, he was running while calculating the timing to perform spatial leaps forward.
The wall was like a naturally formed fissure; the winding road prevented those behind him from attacking directly. However, the feeling of having enemies at his back made his scalp tingle. Shade could only run forward as fast as possible, occasionally turning abruptly to slash a beam of light backward, then continuing his flight regardless of what happened behind him.
He ran like this for a full five minutes until he saw the end ahead. Only then did he stop, pressing himself against the flat stone surface beneath his feet to listen, but no footsteps followed.
"Did they not chase me? Or is the path ahead actually a dead end?"
But at this point, Shade had no way to retreat. Moreover, it was better that the enemy hadn't caught up; perhaps Miss Aurora would arrive here soon due to the explosion of the steam bombs.
Finding a way out on his own while waiting for the witch's rescue—this was Shade's true plan.
Since he couldn't go back, he had to continue forward. Finally, a human creation appeared ahead: an iron door. A small slot, large enough to post an envelope, was cut into the door at three-quarters of the way up from the ground, as if a normal door had been installed upside down.
The wind was blowing out from the gap and the small slot; it was fresh sea air. Considering that Aurora Manor was located by the sea, it was very likely that the door led to a seaside cave or something similar.
"But if it's really that easy to find the exit, why didn't the cultists chase me?"
Shade looked at the iron door in confusion. The door seemed to be quite old, with severe corrosion on the surface. He could barely make out that there had once been a pattern on it; upon closer inspection, he saw it was the holy symbol of the evil god [Lord of the Scarlet Spiral].
"This door was placed here by the Scarlet Secret Sect."
He approached the door slightly. An inexplicable sense of unease prevented him from opening it directly, so he asked in his mind
"Is there anything abnormal?"
【Nothing for now.】
"Then..."
The door had no handle. Panting, Shade pressed his hand against the rusted iron surface and immediately felt that the spell [Key of the Door] could be used, meaning the door was actually locked. However, the difficulty of picking the lock was low—only slightly harder than Mr. Jude's safe.
"Could it be that the cultists outside believe I can't open this door, which is why they felt safe enough not to pursue me?"
He couldn't figure it out. Upon a more careful inspection, he actually discovered a series of deeply engraved ancient runes beneath the rust on the edge of the doorframe.
After translating them, Shade confirmed that these were prayer words used for sealing. Only the most dangerous seals would have prayer words of this grade written on them.
"What on earth is behind this?"
Looking at the door with curiosity, the area beyond remained pitch black under the moonlight of his fingertips. Shade thought about it and decided not to rashly open this strange iron door. He turned to leave, wanting to see what the fishmen outside were doing; perhaps Miss Aurora had already arrived.
Unexpectedly, after only two steps, the sound of an explosion and the whistling wind caused by atmospheric turbulence rushed in along the passage.
"Oh!"
The force of that strange wind was so great that it sent the unprepared Shade flying backward, slamming into the iron door with a loud *clang*.
Simultaneously, due to the explosion and the powerful wind, the entire passage began to shake. Shade sat before the door, dumbfounded, listening to the continuous sound of collapsing stone in the distance.
The passage leading from the damp chapel to this door had collapsed, stopping dozens of steps away from Shade. The rising dust made him cough incessantly.
Now, even if he didn't want to open the door, he had no choice.
(End of Chapter)