Chapter 146: He’s Melting |
"Why hasn't Saul woken up yet?" Wright crouched next to Saul, anxiously asking Byron, who was standing nearby.
Just a moment ago, the circle suddenly failed, and the electric sensor had stopped working.
Nick had no choice but to remove the wires from Saul's body.
Byron glanced at Nick, who was still busy adjusting the sensor.
Nick, while tidying up the sensor, said, "The last measurements show that Saul only has one emotional entity left inside him, and it's very calm. Whoever survived, it definitely wasn’t Morton."
Byron turned to Wright. "Mm."
Wright, "You’ve run out of words today, haven’t you?"
Wright sighed, rubbing his hands together. "In the end, I didn’t help much. Do you think Saul will tell the Tower Master when he wakes up? Will I be dead by the time we get back?"
"Mm..." Byron hesitated, unsure whether to speak.
He suddenly began making strange noises.
Byron and Nick were startled by his cries and quickly followed his gaze.
Wright finally shouted, "Saul, he’s melting!!!"
They saw Saul’s hands hanging limply at his sides. At some point, his hands had started to melt like burning wax, slowly sliding away from the bones at the center and spreading outward.
Not only that, when Byron anxiously rolled up Saul's sleeve, they noticed that even his normal arm was starting to deform.
The skin loosened and sagged, as if he had aged a hundred years in an instant.
Furthermore, this aging skin was spreading towards his torso.
If this continues, will it cover his entire body?
"What’s happening?" Nick’s expression turned grim.
Byron looked at the sensor nearby, suddenly having an idea.
Before Byron could speak, the ground suddenly shook, and a fierce wind blew from behind them.
The three of them turned around simultaneously and realized that the soul storm, which had originally lasted for a few more days, had started to dissipate.
Countless white fragments began to fade, and the rotating wind speed slowed.
But in its place came the tremors from the cracks and the rolling boulders from above.
"It must be our circle that accelerated the storm’s dissipation. The cave is about to collapse. We need to leave now." Nick said quickly, clutching his sensor.
"But what about Saul in this state? If we run out, will he turn into a pile of skin and bones?" Wright quickly asked, concerned for their lives.
Hearing this, Byron suddenly reached into his mouth and pulled out a pouch.
It was the same pouch Saul had used to store spoils.
Byron lightly shook it, and the pouch immediately expanded into a one-meter-square bag.
Byron held the pouch open and nodded toward Saul.
Wright immediately understood Byron’s meaning. He quickly but carefully picked up Saul and stuffed him into the pouch before any skin fell off.
Byron didn’t seal the pouch but simply threw it over his shoulder.
The three of them ran at full speed.
The tremors from the cracks didn’t affect the ground much. The further they ran upward, the weaker the aftershocks became.
Finally, they reached the entrance of the cave.
Wright reminded the others, "There are quite a few head monsters outside. We have to be careful when we go out. We need to find a weak spot and break through. If we get surrounded, we’re done for."
"The Head Monsters have poor eyesight. How about we wait until nightfall before going out?" Nick cautiously suggested.
The mountain was covered with head monsters, and no one was unafraid.
Byron handed the pouch to Nick, then stepped forward to quietly observe the outside.
But soon, he returned with a surprised look.
"Hmm~" he shook his head lightly.
"Is it gone?" Wright asked, disbelieving, and rushed to the position where Byron had stood. He peeked out from the cave, slowly extended his upper body, and then stepped all the way out.
The sunlight was behind him, casting a huge shadow over the entire valley.
Everything was eerily quiet.
The brutal, intense scene they had just witnessed was nowhere to be seen.
"It’s really gone."
Byron and Nick followed and walked out.
Standing at the cave entrance on the cliff, they all had complex feelings they couldn’t easily express.
Especially Wright, who hadn’t expected that after the wraith disappeared, the head monsters would leave on their own.
Could it be that the head monsters were actually dependent on the wraith’s existence?
Suddenly, something in the shadow stirred.
"Who?" Wright shouted.
A few figures staggered out from below the cave.
Wright looked down and saw that they were apprentices from the Land Drifters, some of whom looked familiar. They were the unlucky ones who had been chased by the wraith earlier.
"It’s you?" One of them recognized Wright and knew he was a third-rank apprentice.
Among the surviving Land Drifters, there was no one left of third rank.
The situation had reversed, and the people on the ground immediately surrendered.
"Master."
"The head monsters? Are there only a few of you left?" Wright looked down at them coldly, his voice icy.
The group exchanged glances, and one of them stepped forward to answer.
"Master, after you went underground, the head monsters started killing us indiscriminately. Most of our companions were bitten to death. But then, for some reason, those head monsters started to scream in fear and vanished. We were afraid there was danger, so we hid in place and didn’t dare move."
He seemed to be answering respectfully, but Byron noticed that when they exchanged looks, one of the apprentices had a strange glint in his eyes.
"Master, what about the wraith… Master Morden, how is he?" Another one stepped forward, trembling with fear.
And when the apprentice stepped forward, he partly blocked the one with the strange look.
"They’re signaling outside!" Byron immediately realized that these guys weren’t being honest.
"I feel something huge approaching." Wright suddenly crouched down, placing a hand on the ground. "With this tremor, it will arrive in half an hour. It’s not friendly. We must leave immediately."
"Let’s go, head straight back to the Tower."
Byron nodded, and the three of them immediately jumped out of the cave, landing on the ground.
Seeing them about to run, one of the Land Drifter apprentices actually stepped forward to try and stop them.
However, at that moment, the pouch Nick was holding suddenly started to struggle violently.
Remembering who was inside the pouch, Nick quickly put it on the ground.
The pouch wasn’t tightly sealed to allow air, and once Nick let go, the opening was immediately forced wide.
A small, thin figure climbed out of the pouch.
"Ahhhhhh!!!"
Seeing the figure rise from the pouch, the apprentice who had been approaching immediately retreated in terror. He was so frightened that he tripped after taking two steps and fell to the ground, crawling backward on all fours.
The others also trembled with fear.
They tried to run, but their feet were stuck to the ground, unable to move.
Unlike the first one who had fallen, this was their last act of defiance.
The figure that stood up from the pouch covered its head with both hands, looking a little pained.
Its hands were pure white bone, making one wonder how much flesh remained on its frail body under the clothes.
"Saul?" Byron noticed that although Saul’s expression was painful, his eyes were clear, and his skin seemed to have recovered, no longer appearing aged.
Saul lowered his hands and looked around. "Senior?"
Looking around, he realized he had already left the underground.
When he looked down again, he was shocked to see that his hands had turned back into bones.
Underneath his feet, there were two sticky puddles and one of his shockproof gloves.
"What... what’s going on?"
He woke up and his hands were gone?
(End of Chapter)
