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Noah spread out the detailed map once again.
Leon leaned against the nearby mountain wall, radiating a despondent aura of "I'm tired, just let it all end."
"No choice, one has to find some fun in a boring life," he replied weakly, then leaned in, illuminating the map with his flashlight.
"So then, Mr. Archaeologist, where are we going to dig up the other half of the 'treasure map' now?"
His finger traced aimlessly across the map.
Villages, farms, churches, the Lake.
Between these major landmarks, the space was filled with countless fine lines and markings.
"Don't rush." Noah's finger pointed to the location of the abandoned factory they had just left, then followed a dotted line all the way north, finally stopping at an area on the west side of the valley, near the edge of the farm.
That area only had a few lonely small houses drawn on it, with an inconspicuous note beside them.
"'Kennel'?" Leon read the word, and then, as if thinking of something, a look of disgust appeared on his face. "Don't tell me the other half of the fragment is hidden in a pile of dog crap."
"On the map, the location of the Kennel's basement is marked with a red circle by the Merchant. Moreover, this circle is even thicker than the one for the factory office," Noah analyzed calmly. "High risk usually means high reward. There's a high probability the other half of the relief is there."
Leon stared at the red circle as if he could see through the parchment to the pile of disgusting things hidden beneath.
He remained silent for a few seconds before finally compromising.
"Fine, fine, if it's the Kennel, then it's the Kennel. It's better than blowing in the cold wind here." He straightened up and stretched his stiff shoulders. "Better to get it over with quickly; let's finish this damn puzzle game."
"Let's go." Noah had already carefully tucked the map and the half-relief into his backpack.
The two retraced their steps, once again passing through the abandoned factory that had just witnessed a bloody battle.
The corpses scattered across the ground and the still-twitching remains of parasites formed a hellish scene under the flashlight beams.
They didn't spare it another glance, following another small path marked on the map.
This path was even more remote, almost completely obscured by overgrown weeds and shrubs. If not for the clear markings on the map, they would never have guessed a path existed here.
The night grew deeper, and even the moonlight could not penetrate the thick foliage overhead.
The surroundings were terrifyingly quiet, save for the "rustle" of their feet on dry branches and fallen leaves, and the faint, distant howling of unknown beasts.
"This place always makes me feel a bit uneasy." Leon held his shotgun, warily scanning the surrounding darkness.
Just as he finished speaking—
"Awooo—"
A shrill and fierce wolf howl suddenly exploded from the darkness not far ahead!
It wasn't an ordinary wolf howl; the sound was laced with a morbid, twisted madness.
Immediately following, pairs of blood-red eyes lit up in the dark woods!
One pair, two pairs, three pairs... In the blink of an eye, at least five or six pairs of red dots radiating bloodlust surrounded them from all directions on the narrow path.
"Damn it! Dogs!" Leon cursed, immediately aiming his muzzle at the nearest pair of red eyes.
In the next second, dark shadows surged!
A burly Doberman Pinscher with filthy fur pounced from the bushes like a bolt of black lightning! Its speed was astonishing, its open maw filled with sharp, dagger-like fangs.
"Bang!"
Leon pulled the trigger without hesitation.
The power of the buckshot at close range was devastating. Half of the Doberman Pinscher's head was instantly blown to pieces, and black blood and brain matter, mixed with bone fragments, sprayed backward.
However, before Leon could catch his breath, two more Mutated Hounds pounced from two other directions, one from the left and one from the right!
"Da! Da!"
The beretta in Noah's hand fired crisp and lethal shots.
Two nine-millimeter bullets accurately hit the eyes of the two hounds, the powerful impact knocking their mid-air bodies aside, causing them to tumble to the ground.
The battle reached a fever pitch in a flash.
These Mutated Hounds were more troublesome than the Villager they had encountered before. They were faster, more aggressive, and their movements were erratic and extremely difficult to aim at.
Even more terrifying, the head of a hound that Noah had shot in the body, which was now twitching on the ground, suddenly split open from the middle like a blooming piranha plant!
"Hiss—"
A hideous, mucus-covered, and hooked giant parasite mouthpart shot out from the split skull, snapping toward Leon's calf with a sharp whistling sound!
"Watch out!" Noah shouted, lunging forward as his tactical knife carved a cold arc from bottom to top.
Pfft!
The hideous parasite mouthpart was sliced open by the sharp blade, spraying green juice everywhere.
Leon broke into a cold sweat at this sudden scene. Without thinking, he raised his muzzle and fired a harsh follow-up shot into the still-writhing dog corpse.
"Bang!"
"Fuck! What the Hell is this thing!" He looked at the monster that had been blown into a pile of rotten meat and couldn't help but curse loudly. "I take back what I said earlier; those zombie dogs in Raccoon City are fucking adorable as teddy bears compared to these things!"
Angry roars could not stop the enemy's advance.
More hounds emerged from the darkness.
The two stood back-to-back, their weapons forming an airtight defensive line of death.
"Bang!" "Da da da!"
Gunshots echoed through the mountain forest in the silent night.
The battle lasted less than five minutes. When the last hound was pinned to a tree trunk by Noah's knife, silence finally returned to the surroundings.
Seven or eight dog corpses lay scattered on the ground, most of their heads split open to reveal the ugly and lethal parasites inside. The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder, blood, and a sour, rotten stench.
"Huff... huff..." Leon leaned against a tree trunk, gasping for air. The intensity of the battle just now was extremely high; a slight lapse in concentration could have resulted in being bitten by those elusive mouthparts.
"It seems the closer we get to a valuable target, the more'surprises' there are on the road." Noah checked his magazine and swapped in a full one.
The two briefly handled the battlefield and, without staying too long, continued toward the Kennel.
With the lesson they just learned, their nerves were even more tightly wound.
Ten minutes later, they finally emerged from that suffocating forest. A few low, dilapidated single-story houses appeared at the end of their vision.
The houses were surrounded by a ring of rusty barbed wire, and inside were empty, foul-smelling dog cages. This was the "Kennel" marked on the map.
The two did not enter through the front door but circled to the back of the building. According to the map's guidance, behind one of the houses was an entrance to the basement, covered by wooden boards and junk.
Leon easily pried open the rotting boards with a crowbar, revealing a pitch-black staircase leading underground.
A strange scent of dampness and mold, mixed with the smell of excrement and disinfectant, surged up from below.
"I'm starting to regret this." Leon pinched his nose, looking disgusted.
Noah didn't speak, but simply turned on his tactical flashlight and was the first to head down.
The basement wasn't large, but it was filled with various clutter. Rusty medical equipment, broken iron cages, and several operating tables stained with unknown substances. In the corner, a pile of animal bones had been tossed.
This place looked more like a slaughterhouse where some horrific experiments were being conducted.
"Split up and search."
The two began to rummage through the mess.
Leon was responsible for checking the cabinets and operating tables, while Noah targeted a corner at the very back of the basement. It was blocked by a pile of old sacks and discarded tires.
He walked over and moved the trash away piece by piece.
Soon, a wall made of bluestone bricks, completely different in material from the surrounding earthen walls, appeared before him. In the center of the wall was a very inconspicuous square protrusion, only the size of a palm.
Noah said, "Leon, come here quickly."
Hearing the call, Leon immediately ran over. He looked at the abrupt stone wall, then at Noah, seemingly understanding something.
Noah pressed his hand against the square protrusion, pushed it inward with force, and rotated it to the right.
"Click... rumble..."
A dull sound of mechanical turning rang out. The stone wall, which had appeared seamless, actually split from the middle and slowly slid to both sides, revealing a smaller secret room hidden behind it.
The secret room was empty, except for an ancient wooden box placed right in the center.
Leon whistled, walked forward, and kicked open the lid of the wooden box.
"Clink."
Amidst the crisp sound of metal clashing, half of a hexagonal relief, also made of bronze and bearing intricate patterns, lay quietly at the bottom of the box.
"Found it!" Leon excitedly picked up the half-relief and weighed it in his hand. "Well, this wasn't for nothing."
Noah also breathed a sigh of relief; this treasure hunt was finally showing a glimpse of the finish line.
The two didn't delay any further, taking the hard-won other half of the relief and quickly leaving the nauseating basement.
They followed the path they came by and rushed back to the Valley Altar without stopping.
The deafening roar of the waterfall rang out once again.
The two came to the cave half-hidden by vines and looked at the hexagonal groove on the stone wall that only had half a relief embedded in it.
Noah stepped forward and took out the half-relief they had just obtained.
Leon also took out the half he was keeping.
The two pieces of cold bronze relief joined as one in their hands, forming a complete hexagonal pattern depicting the sinister emblem of the Church of Light.
Noah aligned the complete relief with the groove and pressed it in with force.
"Click!"
With a crisp sound, the relief embedded perfectly into the groove.
Immediately after, a series of heavy "rumbling" sounds, like giant stones rubbing together, echoed from inside the cave.
The incredibly thick stone door that had sealed the cave entrance began to rise slowly. A draft of air, even colder and damper than the outside and carrying a heavy earthy smell, gushed out from the pitch-black opening.
The two shared a look, raised their guns, and cautiously walked one after the other into the secret cave hidden behind the waterfall.
The interior of the cave was far more spacious than they had imagined.
It was a massive natural karst cave with a very high ceiling. The surrounding rock walls were covered with slippery moss and hanging stalactites; water droplets fell from the stone tips, "drip, drop," onto the ground, creating ripples of echoes in the empty cave.
Right in the center of the cave stood an altar.
It was a strangely shaped platform made of an unknown black metal. A ring of burnt-out thick candles surrounded the altar, and dark red, long-dried traces remained on the ground.
Directly above the altar, a hideous metal claw held an irregularly shaped fragment firmly within its grasp.
That was exactly one of the four fragments of the "holy emblem" they were so desperately seeking!
"Finally... we finally found one!" Leon let out a long sigh of relief, his whole body relaxing.
They walked quickly to the altar.
The metal claw was locked extremely tight, with no gaps to be found for a brute-force break. And below the claw, there was a very obvious brass keyhole.
"I knew it." Leon's face instantly slumped again. He tapped the metal platform with his gun stock, producing a series of dull "clang clang" sounds. "I knew it wouldn't be that simple! These bastards put the thing right in front of you and then add a lock!"
He paced irritably around the altar. "What now? Where are we going to find that damn key? Don't tell me we have to go back and flip that village upside down again?"
Noah didn't speak; he walked around the altar, carefully checking every inch of the surrounding ground, hoping to find some clues.
However, besides dust and water stains, there was nothing here.
Just as the two were at their wits' end and preparing to discuss their next move—
A very faint rustling sound of friction abruptly came from directly above their heads.
The sound was dense and slight, like countless small insects gnawing on something.
Almost at the same time, their bodies tensed up. They snapped their heads up and shone their tactical flashlights toward the bottomless dark dome.
The moment the two bright beams of light pierced the darkness and illuminated the scene on the cave ceiling—
The curse that was about to escape Leon's mouth got stuck in his throat.
The eternal calm of Noah was also completely shattered at this moment.
It was a hellish scene that could only appear in the deepest nightmares.
The high ceiling, which they had originally thought was rock, was now clearly seen to be covered with layer upon layer of thick, quilt-like, grayish-white giant spiderwebs!
Those webs hung down from the ceiling, filling the entire upper half of the karst cave.
And within those layered webs, "cocoons" tightly wrapped in white spider silk, showing vague human outlines, were hanging upside down in the air like cured meat, densely packed together.
As the "rustling" sound drew closer, a shadow so massive it was suffocating slowly crawled out from the depths of the webs.
It was a... Mutated Spider, massive beyond imagination.
Its body was almost as large as a small car. Eight appendages like steel spears were covered in a black chitinous layer; every movement caused a tooth-aching tremor in the webs. Its abdomen was bloated and ugly, covered in eerie, distorted patterns that looked like human faces.
At this moment, it was unhurriedly crawling among the human-shaped cocoons, seemingly inspecting its "storage room."
Under the illumination of Leon and Noah's flashlight beams, something on the back of that giant Mutated Spider reflected a bit of cold metal luster, completely different from the other parts.
It was an old brass key.
It was just casually wrapped and fixed to the monster's carapace by a few strands of tough spider silk...
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