Chapter 561

Chapter 8 of Chapter 183 – Grayscale

As the eastern mountains began to glow with light, amidst the vast scorched ruins from south to east in Deer Town, the raging fire seemed to have slightly diminished.

Near and far, black ashes and beacon smoke rose into the sky, countless collapsed houses in the flames, red fires still burning among the shattered walls and rubble, the stone roads melted and solidified by high temperatures, completely changing their shapes. The dense crowds and noisy atmosphere of the previous night had long disappeared, leaving only those corpses lying in all directions, their death scenes grotesque.

In the foothills to the east, more corpses were spread out on the lawns and in the woods. The dead knights and priests seemed to have been drained of their blood, turning into hideous mummies with sunken eye sockets wide open, staring at the dim daylight. In the distance, faint cries of battle could still be heard, but with the sudden appearance of an eerie red glow, those sounds quickly faded away as night came to an end.

And that eerie red light began to flicker quietly again from within Deer Town, among the sparse flames and scorched earth.

On the western side of the town, far away from the demonic fire-infested entrance, the air was not as scorching as in hell, and the stinking wind had yet to arrive. By the crooked fence, a mud-covered little girl limped along, occasionally looking back at the town with thick smoke rising. Her small eyes looked dull, lifeless.

The thunderous storm had ceased, and the people who had fled seemed to have vanished. Instead, she saw a blood-red halo in the distance that frightened her even more. She could occasionally hear miserable screams; sometimes they were very close. The little girl did not know to hide; she just kept walking, passing through the dark, silent path, and when she left the western exit of the town, she stopped and looked back one last time. She still couldn’t understand that her mother was no longer there. She felt a bit homesick for her mother, biting her finger, wanting to go back to find her.

But then she saw many piled-up corpses behind the slope outside the town entrance, their death scenes gruesome, blood seeping into the soil, already dried, with a nauseating stench faintly drifting over.

In the hazy light, such shocking scenes left the girl’s small head blank for a moment. She didn’t understand anything, didn’t comprehend anything, only feeling that many people had died. She stood there呆呆地, her fingers still in her mouth, motionless. Then, someone walked around the corpses.

It should have been a man, his body wrapped in a large black cloak, with a corner of the cloak stained with blood, and wearing a strange mask, like that of a fox.

The night had not yet faded. Such a figure approached the dazed little girl. She smelled the scent of the noblemen on him, and the material of the cloak shimmered in the dim light, indicating it must have been very expensive. She lifted her head and murmured subconsciously, “Sir…”

Then her tiny body flew up, tumbling in mid-air, and fell into a mud pit ten meters away. When she landed, blood gushed from her mouth and nostrils. She twitched a few times, emitting a weak whimper before stopping.

The black-robed person retracted his raised foot, grinding his boot on the grass, seemingly quite disgusted by the stench of pig dung and mud on the girl. After wiping off the dirt with some grass, he turned indifferently.

“Hey! Are your feet itchy? Why did you kick her to death?”

A voice came from ahead. Another figure in a black cloak emerged from the woods, slightly shorter than the first, with a face hidden by a mask. The tone was sharp, and the voice sounded like a woman’s: “That girl was the right age, suitable for catching…

“Isn’t it better to go back and be a patient? Really, you know very well that we in Silgaya don’t have enough patients. Dr. Romanie got so angry about it. Can’t you use that tiny worm-like brain of yours to think of a way to solve this problem? It’s so black-hearted to kick someone. What do you want? Even after all this, are you still not satisfied with the chaos?”

The man in the black cloak was silent for a moment, his voice muffled from behind the mask. “Leave no one here.”

“Tsk…”

The woman in the cloak clicked her tongue, pacing a few steps in place. Suddenly, she kicked a nearby corpse in frustration. “What are they up to? Massacre the town? Murdering witnesses!? Do they really expect us to do such despicable things? Where is Daniel? He’s supposed to be in charge here. Why are we still being asked to come over? Where is that guy now?”

“He’s dead.” The man in the black robe shrugged.

“Useless waste…”

The woman cursed irritably, rolling her eyes under her mask. “You’re pretty calm, aren’t you? You’re the director of the choir, dragged all the way from the city’s comfort zone to this poor village, doing this cursed work. I wouldn’t be surprised if you just took it all on. Fine, let me just find somewhere to sleep.”

She waved her hand and turned to leave. “Don’t report me for slacking off…”

But before she could take two steps, a flash of golden light appeared, and the man in the cloak blocked her path, shaking his head. “No.”

His voice was low and firm, with an unyielding command. “There should still be some people left. One person isn’t enough. We need to split up. You go north, I’ll go south.”

“Aaah!”

The woman in the cloak stomped her foot in frustration, then shouted, “Why isn’t it enough? Lamar, you’re the director of the choir. If you can’t handle a few villagers, how are you going to survive out there… You just don’t want to work alone, right?”

“Yes.”

Unexpectedly, the man nodded and admitted it directly, which made the woman grab her brown hair in frustration. “I won’t! I don’t want to do such evil things. Lamar, don’t push me. I get so crazy when I lose control, and none of you will complete your tasks!”

“Let’s start, don’t waste any more time.”

Ignoring her tantrum, the man turned and walked toward the town. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew, lifting his cloak behind him, fluttering in the wind. The light from the east illuminated his cloak, briefly highlighting the bloody thorn pattern on it.

The golden light dispersed, and the man vanished from where he stood, leaving the woman standing foolishly in the wind, still cursing. Soon, she heard the director’s voice, seemingly coming from nowhere.

“Keep it quiet, don’t shout. Don’t let the heretics in the town discover us. Our goals are temporarily aligned, but don’t cause trouble, especially… given the presence of that special ‘patient’ here.”

The voice seemed to come from far away, yet whispered close to her ear. “Emily, you know, it’s not our time to show ourselves yet.”

“…Shut up, you annoying thing.”

The woman named Emily dug her ears, gesturing down at the night sky, then took a deep breath. After a moment, she kicked the corpse again and stormed off to the north, fuming.