Chapter 414
Chapter 414: The Door Opened. (2)
Sister Sarah, who has been living in the monastery, recently started hearing strange sounds every time she fell asleep.
It was the voice of her fellow sister, who was mumbling to herself alone in the early morning hours from the next bed.
‘Ugh… Why is she acting like that all of a sudden?’
At first, she thought it was just sleep talking. But as it continued for a few days, it started to annoy her quite a bit.
‘I need to talk to her when she wakes up.’
Gripping her throbbing head, she barely managed to fall asleep, wanting to talk as soon as she woke up.
“Ah, has she already gone out?”
It seemed she had slept in late, as her companion was already gone.
She thought she’d have to find her and talk when they crossed paths. However, she was too busy praying and doing her tasks to meet up with her.
Now that she thought about it, she couldn’t remember the last time she had seen her companion’s face unless it was while they were both asleep.
‘It feels like our paths keep crossing uneasily.’
After finishing her work and returning, she found her companion already asleep.
Sarah approached quietly to look at her. It was eerily silent; she was sound asleep, not moving an inch.
‘Please just stay quiet today. I’ve been exhausted from not sleeping for the past few days.’
Grumbling to herself, she lay down and tried to sleep. Just as she was finally dozing off, she heard another strange sound.
[$%&*#@$%!%^$$#]
It was a voice that seemed to whisper at an incredibly fast pace. However, she couldn’t comprehend what it was saying through the mumbling.
‘Oh, please…’
Even with her ears covered, it continued to echo. It felt like someone was sitting next to her, whispering directly into her ear.
Chill ran down her spine!
A sudden thought made her hair stand on end, and she shot upright in bed. But there was no one around.
‘What on earth is going on?’
Clenching her teeth, she cautiously got up and walked over to the adjacent bed.
As she slowly approached and looked, the sister was still silently sleeping as before, not even a twitch.
‘What…?’
Did she perhaps mishear? But what was this sound that kept appearing every time she lay down?
Whenever she was awake and alert, there was nothing to hear.
Even if she looked to the next bed, there wasn’t a sound to be found.
In the end, Sarah spent a sleepless night.
As dawn broke, she had somehow fallen asleep without realizing it.
[$%&*#@$%!%^$$#]
“Aaaah!”
Once again startled awake by the strange sound, she bolted upright.
“Please, stop it!”
She looked around and found it was already nighttime.
Had she really just slept the whole day away?
That doesn’t make sense. Someone would have come to wake her. There’s more to manage at the monastery than she expected.
But at this moment, more than those questions in her head, anger towards her companion in the next bed suddenly took precedence.
“Why on earth is she acting like that?!”
Sarah marched over and roughly pulled back the blanket.
“AAAH!”
Then she fell to the floor in a heap, screaming.
Her companion was a bloody corpse. She must have already been dead by the time Sarah had checked earlier. That’s why she hadn’t moved at all.
“Wh-what the hell is this…?”
Who dares to come all the way to the monastery and kill someone?!
“I-I need to call for help…”
Others must be informed. The perpetrator needs to be caught. With that thought in mind, she sprang up, but suddenly the world around her warped, and her head began to spin.
Zzzzzzt…
It sounded as if the world was splitting apart.
In an instant, her surroundings turned red. She couldn’t find a single object retaining its original color.
“Why… Why is this happening? What is this?”
Trembling with fear, she tried to flee.
Screech…
At that moment, the door opened by itself.
“W-what…?”
Sarah took a step back. The slightly ajar door was filled with darkness, but she saw it clearly.
Creeeak.
From within that darkness, a bloodshot eye appeared, peering into the room.
It’s a demon, a demon has surely appeared here.
Filled with fear, Sarah couldn’t muster the courage to step outside.
“L-lord….”
She sank to the floor, closed her eyes, and kept rolling her rosary, praying to God.
The more she recited her prayers, the more her heart seemed to calm.
But just as she started to relax, another sound began to creep into her prayers.
[$%&*#@$%!%^$$#]
It was the whisper she had heard every night.
It couldn’t have come from her companion; her companion was already dead.
This must be the voice of a demon.
“P-please…”
[$%&*#kill me…!%^$$#]
The whisper grew clearer and clearer. And the inaudible mumble was beginning to shape into something she could understand.
[$%&*#kill me…!%^escape….#]
‘What am I supposed to kill? Where am I supposed to escape to?’
[$%to survive&*#kill me…!escape from the%^world….#]
‘Demon! Leave me alone!’
The more the whispers echoed, the more fervently she prayed.
‘Heavenly Father… please save my pitiful soul….’
At that moment, praying was the only means she had. She tried to ignore and block out those whispers.
In an instant, the content of the whispers changed.
[Kill… Kill… Kill… That’s the only way to live…]
Awakened suddenly by a cold sensation, she opened her eyes and looked at her hands.
Somehow, she was holding a wide butcher’s knife meant for cutting meat.
Drip… Drip…
Fresh blood dripped from the knife, as if she had just slaughtered an animal.
Her hands and body were soaked in blood.
“W-what is this…?”
The still red world was suffocatingly quiet. All she could hear was the incomprehensible whispers and her own breaths.
This place was far too quiet for a monastery. Thinking it was odd, she looked ahead.
The bloodshot eye she had seen peeking through the door had vanished.
Swallowing hard, she cautiously opened the door and stepped outside.
Only small candle flames illuminated the dark interior of the monastery. It didn’t typically bother her, but today, the atmosphere felt incredibly frightening.
Creeeak… creak…
It seemed like strange sounds emerged with every step. As she cautiously looked around, she saw the walls horrifically painted in blood.
“Ah….”
She involuntarily let out a trembling voice.
Dead bodies were strewn about here and there. No wonder no one reacted.
Had a real demon come in and killed everyone?
‘I must get outside.’
She needed to get outside and call for help. She needed to ask for assistance.
Clutching the knife tightly, she took two shaky steps. This knife might have been sent by God to protect her.
The monastery, which always felt cramped and suffocating, appeared strangely spacious tonight.
[Kill… Kill… Kill… That’s the only way to live…]
She ignored the whispers. She disregarded the bloodied walls and the corpses.
All she focused on was escaping from this horrid place.
“Ah…”
Stepping into the garden of the monastery, she trembled with a fear she had never known before.
Rumble!
The scarlet sky began to twist. Even the moonlight warped and emitted a foreboding roar.
“Ahhh…”
An eerie wind howled without end. The trees stood withered and dying.
Aaaaargh!
Strange screams resonated from every direction.
With a despairing expression, tears streamed down her face.
Is this what the world’s end looks like? The scenery beyond the iron gate was filled solely with crimson darkness.
Only then did she begin to understand the meaning behind the whispers.
[!Escape from the%^world…#]
For reasons unknown, it seemed the world had gone bizarre. But she had no idea how to escape.
Still, she couldn’t remain here alone.
Although terrifying, she needed to see how the world had changed. She needed to find the survivors.
With that resolve, she threw open the iron door of the monastery.
Creeeak.
As the door swung open, a bright light poured in. She instinctively shut her eyes.
This doesn’t make sense. The iron door was merely a barrier between the monastery and the outside.
It was already nighttime; there shouldn’t be this much light flooding in. She clearly remembered seeing outside this gate, it looked no different from the monastery.
After several blinks to adjust to the brightness, she spotted figures standing before the door.
“Ah…”
A blonde young man, looking like a noble, stood in front of her. Behind him lined up serious-looking knights.
Although their attire and armor seemed slightly different from what she usually saw, she was extraordinarily relieved to have encountered other people.
Sinking down to the floor, she began to wail.
“Please save me! A demon has appeared! Everyone in the monastery is dead!”
The young man offered no reply to her frantic cries. The knights beside him remained silent as well.
They only looked down at her with serious expressions.
“Quickly! Please check the monastery! I am Sister Sarah! Didn’t the lord send you here because he sensed something was wrong?”
Though she spoke haltingly through her sobs, the young man still remained silent.
Instead, he drew the sword that hung at his waist, pointing it at her.
She gasped in shock.
“What are you doing?! I said to check inside the monastery!”
Ignoring her words, the young man replied with an indifferent tone.
“You’ve already been devoured.”
“What? Devoured? By what?”
“You are not a sister.”
“What do you mean?”
She had lived in this monastery since childhood. She had devoted her life to God, and now someone was claiming she was not a sister?!
That was a denial of her entire existence.
No, right now, that wasn’t what mattered. The place was filled with corpses; this wasn’t the time for such a discussion.
“Fine! Just please check the monastery….”
The young man cut her off again.
“This is not a monastery. And you are not a sister. A man cannot become a sister.”
“What the hell are you talking about?!”
As she screamed, she suddenly sensed something was off. Her voice had unknowingly turned deep and rough like a man’s.
“Wh-what is going on…?”
In her hand, she still clutched the blood-stained knife. But the rough hands and the hairy arms were not her own.
In the unbelievable reality, confusion clouded her mind as blood and a foul stench suddenly wafted through the air. He slowly turned to look behind him.
“Um…”
Instead of the garden and buildings of the monastery, there was a pretty spacious butcher shop.
Blood dripped from the chunks of meat hanging all around.
Beside them, bodies dangled alongside. Corpses lay scattered across the floor.
“Ah, ah, ah… What… what is this…?”
Clatter.
The man dropped the knife and stood there in shock.
Only then did he realize that the dead in front of him were all familiar faces.
Colleagues he worked with, occasional customers, and even family members.
The walls of the butcher shop were smeared in blood. Given the extent of killings, it would have been strange for there to be any living beings here.
“Ah, ah…”
His memories and Sarah’s began to intertwine. He couldn’t tell what was real anymore.
He was undoubtedly a man who worked in this butcher shop. Just living a normal life, selling meat for his family…
And he also clearly remembered being a sister, praying to God amidst the crumbling world…
[$%&*#@$%!%^$$#]
The whispers echoed in his ears once again. He could now recognize their meaning distinctly.
The murmurs were speaking in a language he understood, yet was not of this world.
[…That’s how you survive.]
“Ah…”
Tears of blood began to flow from the man’s eyes. He had just slaughtered his own family with his own hands.
The sister, devoted to God, had killed innocent people.
What kind of madness led to this?
He only wanted to survive.
Yes, that was all.
Drip, drip! Drip!
Suddenly, a sound like breaking bones erupted as the man’s body began to grotesquely twist.
Then, his head began splitting open from the crown.
Sizzling…
As if shedding skin, his human form peeled away. What emerged was a writhing abomination with thick tentacles sprouting from its brain.
Tssss…
The red gem attached to the abomination’s head began to shine, and it unleashed a malevolent energy.
Ghislaine, who had been watching, spoke in a somber tone.
“Gordon, find the mayor of this place immediately, gather troops, evacuate the people, and then encircle the city.”
“Understood!”
“Everyone else, prepare for battle.”
No matter how many abominations there might be, Ghislaine could handle them alone. But right now, the situation was like when they captured Raviere; things wouldn’t proceed normally.
Rumble!
Immense magical energy began to surge from beneath the ground.
Ghislaine was well aware of what this phenomenon portended.
“The ‘door’ here has opened.”
Ghislaine’s expression hardened into a chilling visage.
