106. Elaina's Adventure! Moonlit Town at Night
Courage, wisdom, and kindness often go hand in hand, and who is this witch with unparalleled beauty who has those traits? That's right, it's me right now.
However, I seem to be in a bit of trouble.
Elaina, hiding in a corner, cautiously peeked out to check the outside situation. Seeing nothing around, she breathed a long sigh of relief, then waved her wand in confusion. However, the magic she usually used so easily was now useless.
"What's going on? Why can't I use magic? Are you kidding me?!"
Elaina looked around.
"And Xiling is gone too. I was just with him a moment ago, and then he suddenly vanished in the blink of an eye."
Elaina tapped her temples in frustration. She seemed to have… forgotten something vital? But the more she tried to recall, the more the memory vanished like wisps of smoke. Frustrated, she shook her head.
"Forget it, the most important thing now is to find Xiling! This godforsaken place… There's something really wrong here."
She looked up at the night sky again. The outline of Moonlight Town was still there, as she remembered, but the sky had sunk completely into inky darkness. Only the moon, enormous beyond reason, hung in the center of the night, like an eye embedded in the black sky, mercilessly gazing down at the desolate land below.
After only a few seconds of staring, a strong wave of dizziness washed over Elaina. Her vision blurred at the edges. She abruptly closed her eyes and shook her head violently, barely managing to suppress the nausea.
"Damn it… this is just one misfortune after another." Elena leaned against the cold wall, panting.
"I'm sick of it. I shouldn't have come all this way. I haven't even had a proper meal, and now I'm in this godforsaken place."
The dizziness finally subsided. Elena took a deep breath.
"Once I'm free from here… I'm going to make that bastard Xiling bleed! He had to treat me to the most expensive restaurants and the most luxurious hotels! Ten times the compensation for my emotional distress!"
Just then—
An extremely faint, yet strangely clear sound of metal scraping and footsteps echoed from the depths of the alley behind her!
Elaina's blood seemed to freeze instantly. She stiffly turned her neck to look.
In the dim light, a silhouette gradually became clear. It was an extremely worn knight's armor, covered in dark brown stains. However, peeking through the gaps in the broken helmet visor, the scene inside caused Elaina's pupils to contract sharply, and a chilling coldness instantly shot from the soles of her feet to the top of her head!
Beneath the helmet lay a beast-like head covered in rough fur! Fangs bared from its twisted muzzle, and a pair of murky eyes were fixed intently on her! That gaze held no reason, only pure hatred and a bloodlust for living beings!
It seemed to sense Elaina's gaze. The beast's head raised, and a suppressed, ferocious growl escaped from deep within its throat!
Elaina clearly heard herself swallow.
The next second, she turned and ran!
Her slender figure shot out like an arrow from a bow, leaping from the corner of the wall, her long, silver-gray hair tracing a frantic path behind her!
"What the hell?!"
Why? When she and Xiling explored the town at dusk, it was as silent as a giant tomb. Why, at night, did this terrifying monster seem to crawl out of the ground?! A beast in armor?! What kind of place is this?! Is this still Moonlight Town?!
The heavy footsteps behind her accelerated suddenly, like a death knell! The monster roared even more wildly!
Elaina gritted her teeth. If only she could use magic, she would make that thing behind her know her power. For now, she had to run!
She ran for an unknown amount of time, her chest heaving, sweat soaking her inner lining. Finally, Elaina stopped abruptly in a dark corner filled with discarded wooden barrels. Leaning against the wall, she held her breath, listening intently.
Behind her… the chilling footsteps and the rustling of armor… had disappeared?
Elaina cautiously peeked out, looking into the alley behind her— it was empty!
"Ha…ha…huff…huff…" Elaina gasped, wiping the sweat from her brow with her sleeve and laughing, "Hmph…you…you can't catch me…don't underestimate…a witch's…stamina!"
As soon as her focus relaxed, exhaustion washed over her like a tidal wave. Elaina took a moment to calm her breathing, stepping out of her hiding place and intending to find Xiling or any clues to leave quickly.
However, this step caused her heart to stop!
The scene before her was even more chilling and terrifying than the walking armored monster she had just seen!
At the wide intersection ahead, the pale moonlight bathed the ground. And beneath that light, writhing of…more than one monster!
They were like creations of a nightmare, their bodies decaying and deformed, in some places even revealing rotting muscle and stark white bones. They wore tattered pieces of cloth stained with mud and dark dirt, their limbs twisted and deformed, some joints even bent backwards, crawling, writhing, and dragging slowly across the ground in an extremely incongruous and horrifying manner…
Elaina's breath caught in her throat; she instinctively recoiled.
"Don't make a sudden movement...don't make a sound..." she frantically chanted in her mind, trying to blend her body back into the shadows behind her.
However, the instant she shifted her heel—
One of the monsters sniffing the ground directly in front of her, its head covered in festering sores, suddenly and abruptly turned towards her hiding place!
Elaina's blood froze again! Her heart nearly leaped out of her throat!
Just as Elaina was about to turn and run, the monster sniffed with what appeared to be its nose and then turned its head away, as if it hadn't seen Elaina at all. Elaina breathed a sigh of relief because she saw that it had no eyes.
"That was close!" Elaina let out a long sigh of relief in her heart, while simultaneously shouting inwardly.
"Where is that guy Xiling?! If he doesn't find the beautiful witch soon, she might be in danger!"
Elena tiptoed, trying to bypass the monsters and find a safer place, when a familiar voice came from behind her.
Elena shook her head with a relieved smile, then took off running.
Her movement immediately startled the eyeless, limbless monsters crawling on the ground; they all froze in place!
A chilling sound rang out.
Then, a horrifying scene unfolded!
These seemingly slow, crawling, decaying bodies suddenly unleashed a terrifying speed far beyond imagination! They displayed agility surpassing even the armored beast from before, using all four limbs to pounce madly in the direction Elaina had fled!
"What do I do? What do I do?" Hearing the approaching footsteps behind her, Elena grew increasingly anxious!
However, when misfortune comes, it never comes alone!
From both sides and the alleyway ahead, deafening roars drew in even more monsters, who surged forth like a tidal wave!
On the left, a green giant monster, over three meters tall and resembling a mountain of rotting flesh, stood; on the right, several monsters with grotesque wolf heads, hyena heads, and even twisted bird heads, their bodies abnormally small and deformed! Ahead, a group of monsters of various shapes, all reeking of decay, completely blocked her path!
Elaina's heart sank. Unconsciously, she stopped, a thought flashing through her mind.
"It's over!"
But just then, a rope fell from the rooftop, followed by a hurried voice from a human girl above:
"Hey! You down there! Grab the rope! Get up here quickly!!"
Elaina, at that moment, no longer cared whether the person was human or monster, friend or foe. The survival instinct overwhelmed everything! She practically lunged forward, gripping the rope tightly with both hands. Her slender arms strained with their last ounce of strength, her feet digging into the rough wall as she desperately climbed upwards!
Below, the hulking monster's enormous hand, tearing through the air, barely grazed Elaina's ankle! This sent chills down her spine!
"Ah!" Elaina screamed, using every ounce of strength to leap upwards again!
"Hold on tight!" the voice above rang out again, and simultaneously, the rope was violently pulled upwards by a powerful force!
Elaina felt like a fish being pulled up, her feet leaving the ground instantly! She squeezed her eyes shut, letting her body be rapidly pulled upwards, the monsters' resentful roars and the ear-piercing sound of claws scraping against the walls fading into the distance.
A few seconds later, she felt herself roll, crashing heavily onto the relatively flat and sturdy rooftop platform.
"Huff...ha...huff...ha..."
Elaina collapsed to the ground, her chest heaving.
So close...so close! It was so close that she thought she was done for!
"Hey, are you alright? And why are you here?" The slightly hoarse female voice that had saved her rang out again.
Elaina looked up. It was a girl about her age, but she looked firm.
Elaina calmed her nerves slightly, dusted herself off, and stood up.
"Thank you for saving me. I came with a friend to investigate the problems in Moonlight Town. By the way, what exactly happened here?" Elaina turned back to look at the terrifying creatures below, taking a few steps forward, afraid she would fall.
The muscular girl, hearing Elaina's words, looked on with sudden realization.
"Oh, so you're from out of town. No wonder."
The girl looked Elaina up and down, a hint of disdain slowly creeping into her eyes.
"You really are a stranger. You look so weak, there's not a hint of muscle at all on you."
"Ah," Elaina's brow twitched.
"I'm a mage, it's normal not to have muscles."
"Mages like that can't survive in Moonlight Town. You might as well be a faith master; at least you can pray to the gods for power." The girl waved her hand.
"Fine, come with me, I'll take you to a safe place."
With that, the girl turned and walked towards a certain spot, showing no intention of waiting for Elaina.
"Although I can't be sure she's not a good person, at least she saved me. Unlike those monsters down there, staying here will only lead to being surrounded again. And that idiot Xiling is probably somewhere. I'll stick with her for now, and survive first!" Elaina thought for a moment, then started walking, closely following the girl.
Elaina followed behind the girl, asking the same question again, "Um... what exactly happened here?"
The girl didn't turn around, but her voice carried clearly through the air, tinged with a heavy weariness:
"A disease, a curse-like disease for which there's still no cure." She paused, seemingly organizing her thoughts, or perhaps suppressing some surging emotion.
"Three years ago... Moonshadow Lake, the only lifeline of Moonlight Town, was polluted by something."
"A disease," Elaina repeated, frowning.
"Yes, it's a disease." The girl's voice lowered, as if recounting a nightmare she didn't want to touch.
"At first, the symptoms were mild. Maybe just a few ugly spots appeared on the skin, or the joints would occasionally make strange noises."
"But soon… the nightmare began. When we discovered it was the lake water that caused it, we decisively cut off all water supplies, but things didn't get better." Her voice was filled with irony and despair.
"On the contrary, the changes came faster and more violently! The spots began to fester and spread, the bones began to deform with a popping sound, and reason, like a candle flame swallowed by the night, slowly went out… Until finally…"
She stopped abruptly, pointing to the rotting figures slowly crawling in the moonlight on the street below.
"They became what they are now, former neighbors, friends, relatives… all turned into monsters acting only on instinct and the smell of decay."
Elaina listened silently, looking at the twisted figures below, imagining what they had once been as humans, a chill rising from her spine.
Meanwhile, another question lingered in her mind.
"Three years? Doesn't Xiling say only two weeks have passed?" Elaina realized the situation might be worse than she'd imagined, so she asked another question.
"Since…since such a severe disaster has occurred here, for three years…why haven't you sent out any more calls for help to the Magic Society or nearby kingdoms? A disaster of this magnitude would definitely attract a large-scale investigation and aid effort!"
The girl in front of her stopped abruptly.
She slowly turned around, a mocking smile appearing on her face in the moonlight.
"You think we don't want to get out? We can't get out at all, and of course, neither can you."
She raised her arm, pointing to the edge of the town, her voice suddenly rising, filled with the rage and despair of a trapped beast:
"We can't get out! Everyone! Including you! Once you step into Moonlight Town, you can never take another step out! This place is a giant, rotting bear trap! Do you think those outsiders who risked coming in are here to die? They're rescue teams sent by fools who still don't believe this place has become hell!"
She pointed to the roaming monsters below:
"They all ended up becoming one of them, or transforming into something even more terrifying, disappearing into the depths of darkness! There are no exceptions! Not a single one!"
The girl stared intently at Elaina's face, as if trying to catch the anticipated look of despair on her cheeks.
However, she saw only silence.
The girl's anger was doused with cold water, replaced by immense confusion and a hint of annoyance at being belittled:
"...Hey! You...didn't you hear what I said? I said you can't get out! You're trapped here forever! With these monsters! Until you become like them!"
She emphasized, "I'm not joking! This isn't a threat!"
Elaina looked directly at the girl and slowly spoke:
"I heard you," her voice was unusually calm, "I know exactly what you're saying. And I absolutely believe you're telling the truth. This...is an inescapable hellish prison."
The girl froze, completely bewildered by Elaina's attitude:
"Then...then why aren't you afraid?! You might die! You might become a monster! You might never see your family and friends again! Forever!"
Under the girl's astonished gaze, the corners of Elaina's mouth, very slowly, curved upwards.
It wasn't a smile of despair, nor a forced smile of composure. It was an unwavering certainty in her gaze; her eyes seemed to pierce through the despairing darkness, illuminating a distant yet incredibly clear lighthouse.
"Because," Elaina's voice was soft, "my partner, Xiling... is a very powerful person. Powerful beyond imagination."
"Though it may sound strange, even a little ridiculous... but," her gaze passed over the girl, landing on the writhing darkness deep within the town, "he can definitely resolve things here. I believe we will find a way out."
Her tone was so matter-of-fact, so unquestionable, as if stating a fact as natural as sunrise and sunset.
...
On an unknown battlefield.
Amidst the beast's terrifying laughter, a sword pierced its skull.
The swordsman stood before the sleeping girl, gazing at her for a long time...
Then, the swordsman raised the sword and pierced his own heart.