Eldritch Horror Theatre

”His body didn’t even look that withered. How did he lose control to this extent?”

Time was precious when fighting to survive, and White’s decisiveness clearly earned their approval.

The group quickly followed. Before they even caught up to him, Jill had already drawn further conclusions.

She wasn’t speaking nonsense. Although scarlet blood lines were visible across the torso of the body on the ground, the rot wasn’t nearly as severe—at least, it was much lighter than her own.

”Not sure—look at me!”

White casually admitted he didn’t understand either, then suddenly roared directly at the figure.

It actually worked. The head of the figure on the ground snapped up with a convulsive jerk, trying to face the approaching group.

”Can you stand?”

White slowed his pace at this reaction and asked coldly, unconcerned whether those asymmetrical eyes could actually still see him.

As a result, the body began to twitch madly once again. Ultimately, it neither stood up nor vocalized a response; its eyes only grew redder.However, White responded to it.

A familiar flame fluttered to the ground at that moment, detonating with a deafening boom amidst their incredulous gazes.

...

Even from a distance, they could feel the astonishing heat.

Coupled with a violent shockwave, the prison guard at the epicenter was instantly reduced to flying ash, right along with the twitching blood lines on his body.

”Watch out!”

Almost simultaneously, Jill’s warning rang out.

White was undoubtedly upholding the style of a real man who didn’t look back at explosions. At that moment, he had already lifted his foot to walk away.

By the time he realized why Jill had issued the warning, a scarlet humanoid mass had already lunged at him alongside the shockwave, halting just a step away.

However, in the next moment, it seemed to get caught in some strange force field. Not only was it unable to advance any further, but it also began to twitch bizarrely.

”That doesn’t look human. It’s some kind of monster...”

Before White could react, the Scholar blurted out his diagnosis.

It was obvious he was trying hard to restrain his emotions.

But this kind of distortion, bred from within a human body, clearly made him—someone who was also suffering from contamination—feel an overwhelming sense of discomfort.

This one was different from the previous ones. Not only were its movements twisted, but the thing’s very shape was noticeably wrong.

A single glance revealed at least five appendages resembling arms and legs—it even had more than one head.

Almost the moment the Scholar finished shouting, another head pushed straight out from the mass of blood lines, right where the abdomen should have been.

”I can’t hold it!”

Jill’s low growl followed. She had clearly done more than just issue a warning earlier; the attack had been halted by her ability.

Unfortunately, as the second head stretched forward, some barrier seemed to finally break, and the thing’s movements abruptly became swift.

Boom!

But before it could pounce onto White, it was instantly crushed by an overwhelming surge of tremendous force.

The Sinner Excellency, who usually preferred to bring up the rear, had quietly stepped up beside them and thrown a massive, blue-black punch.

...

’If the Knights of the Apocalypse make their Descent like this, guarding against them might actually be a bit troublesome.’

Ignoring the group’s incredulous gazes, Fu Qian evaluated the sensation in his hand and thought to himself.

Although the current stage of his plan was merely to follow the prison staff and the prisoners to preliminarily test the reality of this place, he had never been so rigid as to strictly remain a spectator.

On one hand, the punch just now would help keep this team running smoothly.

On the other hand, he could personally test the Scarlet Angel’s resistance to physical blows. Why not?

As for exposing his strength—that was fine, he could conveniently expose some of it while he was at it.

His current assessment was that a Scarlet Angel’s strength was indeed correlated to some extent with its original host. This lump, for instance, couldn’t take much of a beating.

At the same time, its complete pulverization truly demonstrated the troublesome part.

Because he had used a bit too much force just now, the creature had shattered to a degree that couldn’t simply be described as splattering remnants. Yet, he could still sense something integrating into the surroundings—formless but tangible, as if the air had grown a fraction more humid and stifling.

That was a change he had been able to feel since the very first Scarlet Angel was destroyed.

Simply destroying them didn’t seem to solve the problem.

”Excellency...”

Without waiting for White to speak, Madam Ann couldn’t hold back. Amidst her shock, she even carried a hint of excitement.

Seemingly pessimistic about the situation, she had been constantly looking for the strength to help fight back. Yet the Sinner Excellency, who had given off the complete vibe of a spectator, not only stepped in to help, but did so with unbelievable, tyrannical force.

”Keep moving.”

Unfortunately, Fu Qian clearly had no interest in chatting. He merely shot her a glance and stood with his hands behind his back, urging them forward.

...

”What does Your Excellency think happened to that person just now? Did some sort of more specific mutation occur?”

They set off again, this time in even deeper silence.

Fortunately, loud bangs occasionally echoed from the sparsely distributed prison cells along the way, livening up the atmosphere.

Even though Madam Ann had received a rather impolite response earlier, Jill ultimately stepped closer to quietly ask for his insight.

Her perceptiveness was clearly second to none in this team.

Precisely because of this, she could better sense the terror of this bald old man, and she remained deeply troubled by the monster’s appearance from earlier.

”Those two people.”

Unfortunately, Fu Qian’s response was to give her the exact same glance and remain as concise as ever.

Two!

However, this casual remark provoked an exaggerated reaction.

Even White, who had been thoughtfully staring at Fu Qian’s hands hidden beneath his sleeves, paused in his steps.

”A fully grown individual entered that guy’s body...”

Jill reacted instantly.

Admittedly, once that premise was factored in, even those twisted movements and that inhuman appearance from earlier became much easier to understand.

”Then it fused with the blood lines inside his body, or perhaps even devoured them—”

”We’re here. It’s right there.”

Unfortunately, her analysis was directly interrupted.

White spoke in a cold voice, pointing ahead.

”Just turn a little more this way, and you’ll soon see an unbelievable sight—”

Sadly, those who interrupt are bound to be interrupted. In the next moment, his footsteps and his voice came to an abrupt halt together, turning him into a statue.

’What’s going on...’

An intense premonition of dread urged everyone to quicken their pace.

Following the direction the statue-like man was pointing, an unbelievable scene truly appeared.

A massive, door-shaped gap really had appeared in the back wall of this building.

Except, they couldn’t see any passage behind it; instead, there was a translucent, crystalline wall radiating a freezing aura.

It felt as though taking a single step past it would plunge them into an endless sea.