Chapter Ninety: A Traitor Among Us

An arm nearly two meters long, grotesquely extended and almost dragging on the ground, reached out toward the outermost servant.

At the edge of its palm, the light warped and twisted.

It seemed that the instant anything touched it, something dreadful would happen.

But then a sharp whistle cut through the air, and an iron axe flew over, striking squarely into its head.

A dull thud rang out, as though the blade had split a wooden stake.

The next second, a piercing scream burst from the tall, gaunt figure, though its face held no features at all, only a smooth blank surface, eerily unnatural.

Clutching its head with both hands, it staggered back while shrieking, then crumbled into a heap of ash. All sound ceased at once.

That was it? It died just like that?

Colin, who had already drawn another axe, froze for a moment at the sight. Then he quickly realized something was wrong. Its scream had been extraordinarily shrill and grating.

Even without any special effect, hearing too many such cries would pile on psychological pressure at a frightening rate.

“Die, and still have to scream so loud...”

Colin cursed under his breath. Once he saw that these monsters were at present little more than paper figures, he immediately led his group to break through and kept moving without pause.

Otherwise, those uncanny beings might appear within their formation at any time.

He did not know whether being touched would truly erase them, but he had no desire to find out.

Before long, Colin led the group out of the town. The slender figures within the streets showed no intention of following.

They merely turned their bodies and silently watched Colin and the others flee.

Only the slender figures that appeared in the lamplight ever made a move, and only when they were within arm’s reach of someone nearby.

Even then, their movements were far from swift, and could be stopped with ease.

Yet even after Colin had withdrawn into the forest and retreated along the path they had come, the strange tall figures continued to appear rapidly.

Cold, eerie silhouettes kept peering out from behind the trees.

They multiplied with each passing moment, dense beyond counting, so numerous that one glance sent a chill through the scalp.

Colin could scarcely imagine how many of those lank figures had appeared in just these brief ten-odd minutes...

Explosions, screams, and footsteps drifted out of the woods from time to time.

An unseen terror was fermenting wildly with every passing second...

The wind that swept toward them grew colder and colder.

The group had run until their throats were parched, and yet one breath of that wind made them feel as if they had fallen into an ice cave.

They all clearly sensed that some threshold was drawing near at terrifying speed.

Once the moment arrived,

all those countless slender shadows would launch their attack at once.

Colin steadied himself and swept his gaze across the group, his mind racing.

He felt as though he had almost understood something, yet whenever he tried to grasp that line of thought, it slipped from his fingers completely.

Everything seemed normal.

But Colin knew full well that...

only the last sliver of time remained before this horror erupted.

When that happened, something would inevitably go wrong. That would be the final opening, and his only chance to turn the situation around.

Colin had a premonition that if he could uncover the rules behind this sudden incident, dealing with it might not be difficult.

However, at that very moment, his heart lurched.

A rustling sound suddenly rose throughout the forest. Tall figures stepped out from behind the great trees, their gazes filled with malice as they slowly approached.

They appeared to be moving slowly, but everyone was horrified to discover that the distance between them was closing at a shocking pace.

They seemed to be distorting the concept of space itself.

And it was at that moment that Colin suddenly noticed a figure within the group, something violently writhing behind its back.

As if splitting apart, a new person had joined their ranks.

Then, for some reason Colin could not yet name, a flash of insight struck him, and his scalp instantly tightened with dread.

“Damn it, why are there thirty-two people in the group?”

Following the owner of the splitting shadow, Colin looked over, and that person was...

Li Chou!

He froze. He had not expected the source of everything to be this fellow, Li Chou...

But after only a fleeting instant, he sensed something was wrong.

“Here, here, heh heh heh, come along, we’re here, heh heh...”

“Heh heh, hurry, hurry, come on over, let them die, let them all die, heh heh heh, let them go to their deaths in despair...”

“They can’t get away, heh heh heh, they can’t get away anymore...”

Li Chou wore the expression of someone urging the others to flee, but from his mouth came endless cries, issuing strange, shrill laughter and brimming with malice as he called those beings from beyond this plane toward them.

Yet the others seemed not to notice the problem at all.

At that instant, Colin no longer hesitated. He could feel an invisible force beginning to warp his memories.

If he delayed even a few more seconds, he would once again forget.

His dark pupils deepened a little further.

Mental Piercing!

“Heh heh, hurry—uh...”

The bawdy, brothel-like cackling suddenly stopped. Li Chou gave a pained cry, clutching his head as he twisted and rolled across the ground like a loach thrown onto a scorching iron griddle.

At the same time, all the black shadows in motion froze.

They merely stared at the group with strange intent, but made no further move.

It was as if they had lost their bearings, unable to lock onto Colin, and could only watch by instinct.

But as “Li Chou” clutched his head and screamed in agony, they hesitated, then began to move again.

[You realize that this is merely a strange doppelganger, not Li Chou himself.]

Clang!

As the prompt appeared, Colin raised his axe and brought it down on “his” neck.

There was no spray of blood. It felt as though he had struck cotton. The body rapidly disintegrated, turning to ash on the ground.

At the same time, the long, wraithlike shadows also stopped.

“What was that just now? Why does he look exactly like me? What happened, what happened?!”

Not far away, another Li Chou stared at the ground, utterly baffled.

Only then did the others come back to themselves and notice that there had in fact been two Li Chous here just now.

“You’re the real one?”

Colin instinctively wanted to hack down with his axe, but he restrained himself.

“Yes.”

Li Chou said in confusion.

Colin’s gaze was cold. In order to ensure that he was not affected by that bizarre force that distorted cognition, he had already entered his killing state.

His icy stare swept over Li Chou, making the other man shiver uncontrollably. Colin nodded.

“Come on, stick your head out. I’ve got a little treasure to show you...”

“Boss, you wouldn’t hurt me, would you?”

“Don’t you trust my word?”

Swoosh...

With one swift motion, Colin’s blade fell. A head dropped to the ground, but there was no blood at all, as though a pile of leaves had fallen.

Only a heap of ash remained.

At the same time, the terror that had clung to them like a maggot in the bone weakened once more.

Even those uncanny figures were growing dim, as if they might vanish at any moment.