20:53.
After leaving another corridor, Number Three found the place in front of him somewhat familiar.
They looked around and it took them a while to realize that this was very similar to the dungeon they had been in before. It had a dome-shaped ceiling, but all the wooden bars of the cells were rotten, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of decaying matter and blood.
Clearly, this was another dungeon, another blood altar, but it was now abandoned.
Marden nudged his arm, and Number Three followed his gaze, then spotted the thing in the far corner.
There was a guy standing in a dilapidated cell. He was sure that in the Beelzebub play, it had been waiting there for a long time, perhaps thousands or even tens of thousands of years, because such a hybrid monster had nowhere else to go.
It was far more human-like than any of the mutated creatures that had appeared before. Its skin was frighteningly white, its waist was covered with layers of black scales, it had the head of an octopus and the sharp teeth of a canine, but its ears were human-like, and its hands were almost exactly human-like, covered with downy hair.
The monster stood upright for more than three meters, and in the darkness it looked like an extremely strange humanoid shape.
After a moment of deathly silence, Kreet was startled and stammered, "This... just how many animal genes has been fused into this?!"
"I'd like to sit over there, please make yourselves at home."
He Yu examined it for a while, then suddenly walked forward and sat down on the blood sacrifice altar.
They were momentarily at a loss for how to react, their minds clearly blank.
And that monster, it was so human-like that one wondered what it was thinking at that moment, what it was thinking as it killed? What would it feel like when a person's way of thinking is forever trapped with other messy creatures?
These thoughts flashed through their minds, and then they collectively realized that the creature was now watching them from the darkness, its eyes filled with blood and slaughter.
It just stared at them, giving them goosebumps; it was a very unsettling presence.
Number Three felt an indescribable eeriness about the scene. For a moment, he felt that He Yu's figure was slowly overlapping with it, and that he had been exposed to such a monster for hundreds of years, unable to escape forever.
He didn't know if it was due to excessive tension, or if the injuries from the previous play hadn't fully healed. Deep in his brain, memories he had deliberately forgotten were awakening, and he realized that many people would probably die here.
It charged at us without warning, at a terrifying speed, like a vengeful ghost.
Number Three looked clearly into its eyes, and resentment and tyranny replaced everything else; it only wanted to destroy all living things that appeared before it.
But—why was He Yu the only one overlooked?
Before the thought could be fully considered, in that instant, a spear pierced the monster's eye from the side with tremendous force, piercing its head straight through.
"Still standing there like a lunatic!" Marden, seemingly out of nowhere, gripped the long handle tightly, using all his strength, as if he hadn't expected it himself.
It didn't let out any wailing, but suddenly twisted its body and rushed diagonally past Marden, bringing with it a gust of foul-smelling wind.
Number Three instinctively took a large step back, at the same time feeling a huge and terrifying force brush past the tip of his nose. He knew that if he had reacted even a second slower, his head would be gone.
With his heart pounding, he felt someone yank him from behind, causing him to fall to the ground. Then, five sharp claws swept down from above his head.
Kreete's shield struck the monster's chin, shoving it aside and sending it crashing into the altar behind it with a heavy thud. But the monster seemed completely unaffected, charging forward as if it felt no pain.
He Yu crossed his legs, propped his chin up with one hand, and just stood there watching.
"Don't worry, my shield is..."
Before he could finish his words of comfort, the monster's hand crushed his artery and half of his neck.
He fell to the ground, and no one cared about him; everyone was struggling to survive.
Even with its eyes gouged out and blood flowing continuously, it still retains its memory and sense of smell. It will use its last strength to kill anything that is alive. This is how Beelzebub designed it.
As long as you're alive, you can keep killing.
Number Three watched as it crashed into the wall in front of it once again, finally stopping this time. The injury to its eye ultimately affected its movement.
Then it reached out, pressed the bone spear in its eye, and slowly pulled it out—damn it, this thing doesn't look like it's going to die at all, the spear went right through most of its head—and hasn't made a sound of pain yet.
It took a few steps back, then suddenly threw the spear in front of it, and after doing so, it slowly retreated back into the darkness.
Woodstock thought he had escaped death—that was what he thought before the spear pierced his head.
For a while, the surroundings remained deathly silent, but once you've seen something that inverts your worldview and even fought with it, you won't want to move anymore.
Number Three lowered his head; Marden was still dead.
This young, foolish, and gloomy loser died silently. Not entirely without a trace, though; at least he did what he'd said half an hour earlier—he thought they were too scared to save some people.
When Number Three saw the body, he realized that the monster had pierced his chest with its hand when it rushed back. The movement was too fast to see clearly; it seemed very familiar with this method of killing, efficient and fatal in one blow.
Marden probably didn't feel much pain; he was already dead when he was found.
Even after his death, he appeared remarkably childlike. He hardly spoke of his own life; all that was known was that this person had lost a partner and died in a horrific manner—that was all.
Number Three felt he should follow the normal procedure and squat down to check everyone's injuries, but he didn't move. He knew they were all beyond saving, and the outcome was obvious.
He also knew that if he hadn't been pulled back, he would be lying on the ground just like Kree; death is fair and merciless.
Some people can avoid it, but others are forced to accept it.
In less than an hour, all the other surviving inmates were gone, leaving only him and He Yu alone in the hall.
Number Three stood there, the dizzying feeling of being relentlessly pursued still lingering. A part of his soul was still trapped in what had happened a few minutes earlier, as if that was the reality and everything he was experiencing now was just an illusion.
He Yu looked at him and said expressionlessly, "Want to know why?"
Number Three first shook his head, then nodded, as if he had been thinking about a lot of things in those one or two seconds.
"Come here, I'll tell you now."
That's what he said.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
