Valletta narrowed her eyes and moved her body forward a little more. At that moment, her eyes widened at the fishy smell that hit her nose.
‘…… blood?’
It was night, so she couldn’t see the color clearly. Her expression also darkened at the light bloody smell.
Zenith soon put Desilian on it, who seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep. Then she closed her eyes and stepped backwards. At the moment of the first, second, or third step, the reddish formation gradually faded. Soon something pitch black began to seep into Desilian’s body. The blood-soaked formation could clearly be seen from a distance as to what it was. Seeing that it didn’t emit any light, it was an ancient alchemy circle.
Clank. Clank.
As Valletta blinked to see what was going on, she heard the sound of bones being twisted somewhere. She couldn’t see properly, probably because she was in a blind spot. The distance was also quite far.
Valletta scanned around, found a ladder, and carefully climbed down. Keeping herself hidden behind the building, she kept her eyes glued to Desilian, who began to wiggle. As soon as she got down, Valletta, who was hiding, peeked her head out and looked outside. Then, she froze in place.
“Aaaaah!”
Desilian was twisting and screaming in pain.
His bones were warping, his vertebrae were tearing one by one, and every bone seemed to be broken. It was as if he had become a soft mollusk.
He was no longer in a human form. In fact, it looked more like the failed black lump Valletta experimented with the other day. The unpleasant smell of it seemed to waft to her nose again, and she covered her nose and mouth with her hands. Eventually they began to fit together anew, one by one, as if reassembling a human body.
‘Chimera be damned, what chimera is this?’
It was no different than simply reassembling a puzzle as she looked at it. The muscles bulged full, teeth sharp as a wolf’s, and thick veins grew on the face and body.
The clothes it wore were naturally torn, its fingernails and toenails were long like those of a beast, its back was long and curved, and both arms and legs stretched long. It was as if it was walking on all four legs.
It was not covered with fur, and it still had a human face. It was clearly different from a beast. Valletta held her breath at the horrible sight that she could not even describe in words. The moment when the human turned into a beast unfolded before her eyes. The skin, which had been pure white, turned bright red due to the torn blood.
She couldn’t even say that it was actually a beast. Monster was the right word. And someone had created it on purpose. They took all the bones out of the human and crushed the flesh into clay. The clay was then used to create a new life form.
The part that had been the Desilian’s face was already hanging down like it was unconscious.
“Rrrrrrr.”
And when he woke up again, he was no longer human. The eyes with all the veins protruded out and looked like fish, and the red-colored pupils already didn’t look like humans.
‘……What price did they pay?’
The only thing she remembered was the price was blood. They can use alchemy….what is the blood that has the price of…?
‘It’s …… alchemist’s blood.’
Valletta’s eyes opened wide. Zenith was not an alchemist. This meant that there was another person who did this.
‘Is it …… Gillian?’
‘Is Gillian’s blood enough?’
Valletta did not relax, keeping her eyes fixed on the scenery in front of her while thinking nonstop. The saliva dropped through the open lips of the hungry beast. Its long sharp claws gripped the ground tightly. The claws looked like those of a mole. Its teeth were as long as a mammoth’s tusks, and his torso was elongated like a panther’s.
The monster that had been Desilian kicked up off the ground and soared high into the air. He slammed himself straight into the building of the inn.
“Rrrrrrrrr!”
With a roar, a cloud of dust scattered.
“Kyaaaah!”
The screams that began to ring out from everywhere turned the village into a madhouse. Valletta turned her body while holding the shaking Snorta to her chest. For now, it would be better to join Reinhardt.
“Rrrrrr!”
Valletta’s eyes opened wide. The place where the sound was heard this time was not the one with Desilian. It was the direction Reinhardt had gone to look for something earlier.
“Jin.”
Valletta called Jin after much consideration. Then Jin appeared with the tornado. Valletta took a step, admiring him, who did not appear loudly anymore.
<What is it, you heartless human?>
“No, it’s a dangerous situation… Stay hidden here, and when I call you, come out and protect me. It doesn’t matter if they are dead or alive. But you can’t come out under any circumstances until I call you.”
<The demands are tricky too.>
He said, and Jin obediently hid himself inside Valletta’s robe. It felt like a gentle breeze drifting down the back of her neck, cooling her feverish head a bit.
<What’s going on?>
“I don’t know. My head hurts so bad, I don’t know what’s going on. I’m going to catch the murderer first.”
<The murderer? Did you get a job in the security forces?>
“I didn’t, but finding peace is tough. Lost will be here soon… what? What is this? Is it a magic circle?”
In the middle of talking, a huge magic circle started to be drawn on the floor. Valletta opened her eyes wide.
“Ahhhhh!”
She turned her head in panic at Zenith’s scream. The person, who had been fine until now, was sitting on the ground crying, with black holes in both eyes.
“Why ………………… why already…?
Blood trickled down from Zenith’s empty eyes like tears, constantly running down her cheeks as she mumbled unknown words in despair.
“This is the end… …..”
Valletta took a reflexive step backward when she saw Zenith’s body writhing like a maggot on the floor.
Valletta’s pupils fluttered.
“Ha, save me….!”
“Aaaaah!”
As if Zenith’s scream had been the catalyst, horrible screams began to be heard everywhere.
“Ahhhhhh!”
Valletta also panicked at the terrible pain that entered one of her eyes. She could see part of a huge magic circle at her feet. She rubbed it with her foot, but it didn’t break.
‘We have to get out of the magic circle.’
It was unknown how big it was. It was obvious that the whole village was surrounded by the magic circle. She finally understood what Reinhardt had said about entering the whole village circle.
She kicked the ground with all her might and moved her feet. It seemed that the phenomenon of “Lost” was something that happened by magic, not by alchemy. It was just too strange to be sure it was magic in general.
‘There’s also a feeling of alchemy.’
She knew what kind of magic Reinhardt used because she had experienced it often. This was different from ordinary magic. Moreover, there was a subtle feeling of alchemy underneath the magic circle covered by the huge magic power.
‘Did something happen to Reinhardt too?’
There was no way that he couldn’t have felt such a surge of magic power. The fact that he couldn’t come meant that there was a problem with him. If he wanted to kill himself, he could do it with his own hands, he wouldn’t bother with such a complicated task.
“Ugh……”
Valletta squeezed her eyes with the palms of her hands in such intense pain that was hitting her in the eyes constantly.
Groaning in pain, she gritted her teeth. It felt like someone was slowly pushing their fingers under her eyelids, gripping her eyeballs and tearing the nerves.
‘…… It’s okay.’
Fortunately, it was not the eye with the magic circle carved into it. Losing one eye would be solved by making a potion. Valletta, who had struggled to calm herself down, gritted her teeth as she looked at the long path.
She ran frantically with her eyes squeezed tightly shut. The empty eyes of Zenith appeared in her mind. And Elise’s dark-filled eye sockets.
A cold sweat trickled down her spine.
“Ha….ha….ha.”
She was out of breath. She looked back, but she barely made it past a couple of small houses, and that was the very road she had been running down. Come to think of it, she remembered now that her fitness was garbage. She hadn’t been exercising, so it was all too normal.
Valletta finally stopped in her tracks, gasping for breath.
“Ha …… please help me……”
A person crawled out of the house. It was a man with one of the legs missing. Blood left a trail in his moving path as his legs suddenly disappeared.
The man’s eyes were half turned inside out, and his thighs had been sliced clean under a single stroke of the sword. Valletta stepped back as he crawled out of the house to live.
***