Chapter 1 The Reaction

The black-skirted woman reacted the instant Duncan uttered the words "Ignorance is bliss"!

But this time, she didn't attempt any more futile fighting. Instead, she gripped the chains under the carrion bird's feet with one hand and waved the other behind her, summoning a hazy cloud of black mist in the air. Then, she turned and ran towards the cemetery entrance!

She no longer cared about her possessed companion or the other two accomplices who were still dealing with the warden. The bizarre events of tonight had exceeded her understanding. Even as someone who consorted with the abyssal demon...

She had to leave this place, the farther the better, the faster the better! She couldn't linger any longer in the field of vision of that invisible and unnameable intruder, couldn't continue to coexist with that terrifying shadow!

Duncan frowned. He hadn't fully adapted to the body he'd just taken over. Although he could clearly feel that this body was in better health than the one in the coffin, he still found it difficult to keep up with her fleeing footsteps.

However, he still stepped forward and chased after her, dispelling the strange black mist she summoned as she ran. He focused his gaze on her disheveled back as he adapted to his new body.

As he watched, the gas lamps along the fleeing woman's path suddenly flickered, a touch of deep green abruptly tainting their bright, stable flames.

The corrupted gas lamps, like invisible footsteps, followed the fleeing cultist, slowly spreading towards the cemetery entrance, scattering sparks of green fire along the way, growing closer and more numerous!

But just as the green flames scattered from the lamps were about to catch up to the cultist, the bizarre bird pieced together from black bone fragments suddenly screeched and flew into the air. The bird's skeletal wings scattered large swaths of smoke across the night sky, and its piercing cry seemed to tear apart a small area of space. Fei Zhi saw large cracks suddenly appear in the shadows beside the cultist, and these blurred, twisted fissures then merged into a huge black hole—

The bone bird screamed frantically and fearfully, rushing towards the dark hole that had appeared out of nowhere. The chains extending from its feet instantly tightened, and with a series of sharp cracking sounds, the woman in the white dress was also abruptly dragged towards the hole.

Two women in white were watching the old man's movements in the cottage, one standing by the door and the other by the window.

The two women in white exchanged a puzzled glance, seemingly finding the old stubborn man's sudden words inexplicable.

"That's quite a unique escape route," Duncan said, somewhat astonished by the sudden scene. After a moment, his lips twitched. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he said, "Didn't Sherry and A'gou run away like that back then... I seem to remember he wasn't afraid at all at the time?"

He strode towards the lights at the end of the path.

"Did you hear something?" Duncan asked, looking helplessly at his rapidly disintegrating body. He couldn't help but think of the body he had occupied when he first emerged from the coffin.

Inside the cool warden's cottage, the kettle on the stove hissed, and the gas lamp cast a dim light across the room. The old warden methodically arranged the bottles and jars on the wooden shelves, while his trusty double-barreled shotgun hung on the iron hooks beside them.

He certainly hadn't accepted the "open-mindedness" baptism from the start. This bizarre and terrifying scene would have been a huge shock to Duncan, but he was long accustomed to these strange and evil things, and was particularly calm at the moment, even reaching out to touch the area near his neck.

But their attention was clearly not entirely on the warden.

Duncan remembered that two other cultists, disguised as priests of the God of Death, had gone to the cottage with the warden—although the warden gave the impression of being stubborn and aloof, he was at least a loyal and dutiful man.

His flesh was gradually turning into some kind of white, charred substance. The shriveled surface of his skin had many cracks, and white smoke and ash poured out of these openings as if rising from a pile of firewood.

A faint crackling sound reached Fei Zhi's ears at that moment.

They were watching the movements at the cemetery entrance, waiting for a signal.

There seemed to be some movement outside.

After a brief deliberation, Duncan looked up at the lights coming from the other direction of the path.

Cultists were not good people.

There were quite a few lying in the morgue—but first, it was difficult to guarantee that he wouldn't encounter another one of poor quality, and second, opening the coffin was quite a chore.

But first, he had to think about what he should do now.

After he occupied this body, this "jellyfish" seemed to have gone on strike due to being unable to withstand the pressure, and now this cultist's body was showing signs of collapsing from the point of symbiosis with the chains… Did that mean that as long as the symbiotic demon died, the body would collapse with it?

Although the cause of the disintegration was different, this body also seemed to be experiencing a collapse of flesh and blood in the end.

That should be the direction of the warden's cottage.

The old warden suddenly stopped and looked up at the window, which appeared dirty and bright due to the passage of time. He listened carefully to the sounds outside the window—at the moment, only the hollow sound of the wind seemed to remain in the night.

He could ask Sherry about it when he got back.

With a final scream, the cultist was finally dragged into the dark hole by the chains. The hole howled shut and eventually disappeared into a quivering shadow.

But they didn't wait for the signal to "finish the job and evacuate." Instead, they only heard some faint, indistinct, and strange sounds coming from the direction of the path.

"Damn it! Stop! You b*stard! You beast!" the cultist struggled desperately, crying out in a distorted voice, his words filled with uncontrollable terror and despair. "No, no, no! Don't! Don't take him to the abyss... Save me, save me! No! No—"

"...Why is it so difficult to find a usable body?" He couldn't help but sigh, lamenting his bad luck. "It was much easier in Prland."

The change seemed to start at the throat—the place that had once been symbiotic with the abyssal demon and connected to the chains.

Duncan immediately thought of the jellyfish-like abyssal demon that had suddenly appeared.

Duncan instantly thought of the greatest possibility, and even of Sherry and A'gou—could there be a similar relationship between those two "people"?

The last faint scream was particularly unsettling.

The faint green light cast by the lamps on either side illuminated the empty cemetery path.

"Oh, crows," the old warden muttered. "Crows are annoying things. They steal your food and then stand triumphantly on a branch, laughing loudly... I hate thieves the most, and uninvited guests. Crows are both."

He looked up at the iron fence at the end of his vision—the cemetery entrance was ahead. Beyond the entrance seemed to be a large, desolate stretch of road, and beyond that was the brightly lit, bustling city.

He glanced back at the cemetery.

The shorter white-clad figure seemed to become vaguely wary, staring at the old warden's eyes: "Why?"

The lamps on both sides, tinged with ghostly green, quickly returned to normal as he withdrew his gaze, the intersecting ghostly shadows gradually returning to his feet like tentacles retracting into the darkness.

He frowned, looked in the direction where the cultist had disappeared, pondered for a moment, but gained nothing, and could only withdraw his gaze.

The old warden finally found what he was looking for among the pile of bottles and jars. He unscrewed the lid and poured some crushed herbs into the stove, casually saying, "Because generally speaking, two people are easier to deal with than three."

"There's no sound," the tall, strong woman standing by the door said immediately after hearing the warden's words. Although she was also a little uneasy, getting the warden to stay in the cottage was a higher priority at the moment. "Maybe it's just crows."

Duncan was stunned for a moment, not knowing what this unexpected situation was. Then he suddenly pulled open his chest, finally seeing the changes taking place in his body:

The old warden didn't seem to notice the two people's reactions, but continued to say to himself: "By the way, do you know why I went against this gentleman's advice and brought the two of you to my cottage?"

Was this a characteristic of the Annihilation cultists?

He looked in the direction of the sound in confusion, only to find that it was coming from his own body—a faint crackling sound was constantly coming from all parts of his body, and through the gaps in his clothes, he could see fine white smoke permeating and rising.

The civilized world of Frost was close at hand, but this crumbling body would probably have difficulty supporting him all the way there. Moreover, even if he ran into the city now, it would be impossible to get any information with his smoky, crumbling appearance. It would be more likely to attract the attention of the night watchmen at the first opportunity.