Chapter 143

The first person Leandros thought of was Duke Arenheit.

According to the snowman who had been seized by the rat, the Duke, who had now become almost the central figure for Leandros, appeared to be imprisoned somewhere in the village.

Not knowing where that might be, he returned to the center of the village, following the human-faced rat aimlessly, and thought.

'It would be fair to assume that the entire village is in on this together.'

This meant that he could grab anyone walking on the street, rough them up, and find out where Arenheit and his companions had been taken.

As soon as Leandros reached this conclusion, he entered the first building he saw.

Initially, he intended to grab whoever he saw and interrogate them,

But by chance, the building he entered was an inn he had visited once before.

Max and his son, Jonas.

As soon as Leandros realized this, he was conflicted.

The most urgent matter was the safety of His Grace.

But at the same time, he couldn't just pass by Max and Jonas, who had played a significant role in saving His Grace's life.

In the end, after deliberately spending time to visit and warn them,

Some guests at the inn left Gallo before the sun completely set, blaming the unsettling atmosphere and suspicious rumors.

And when Leandros finally found the tower where Arenheit and Amelia were said to be imprisoned.

The tower was already empty.

The snowman poked its face out from within his embrace as he stood in front of the wide-open door.

"Worshipper, gone. Moving."

"Is he safe?"

"Yes. No change. But magic power only. Stamina? Don't know? Worshipper has low durability. Must watch carefully."

"Which way did His Grace go?"

"There."

He turned his head in the direction indicated by the snowman's arm.

It was clearly the place Leandros had come from, but now it was blocked by a house with a green roof that he had never seen before.

What was going on?

While Leandros raised one eyebrow, a surprising event occurred.

The house with the green roof slowly moved sideways, and a house with a brown roof took its place.

Next to it, a temporary stable for travelers appeared and then retreated.

It looked like the buildings were dancing an elegant dance with each other, minus the massive vibrations and noise.

All the buildings surrounding the square, except for the wide empty space where Leandros stood, shifted and moved positions.

Even the snowman was speechless at this amazing scene.

Finally, with a rumbling sound from the earth, the movement between buildings stopped.

The snowman looked up at Leandros.

"Beyond there, children are. Can you win? Children just a year old, stronger than humans."

"There is no option other than winning."

Leandros extended one hand.

Frost spread down his forearm.

A white ice sword took form in his hand.

* * *

"Be careful, something's changing. It feels strange!"

"I-I feel it t-too!"

It wasn't just that the ground was shaking or the flow of air was changing.

The road they were running on was gradually bending and developing curves.

Buildings that were clearly visible ahead were sneaking sideways, and completely different houses were popping out.

It seemed as if the entire village had its own consciousness and was starting to reconstruct itself.

To make matters worse, the speed of reconstruction was accelerating.

At this rate, they would either get lost or be crushed by a building.

Verde, running behind them, gasped and shouted.

"Is feeling it the problem! Huff, not dying is the problem, huff, you know! Huff, where are we going now!"

"The inn where we were staying! We need to go there!"

"Why, huff, on earth?"

"Because my grimoire is there!"

The stones on the ground erupted as the road contracted.

In the distance, a bell tower moved, and a huge bell began to ring.

The sound of something collapsing, the sound of forcing a larger building into an ill-fitting frame.

Dust and dirt swirled in all directions.

Beyond the hazy air, a faint silhouette appeared in the darkness.

Before they could properly identify what it was, Amelia pushed both of them into a side alley that had just appeared.

"Argh! What's this! Are you finally showing your true colors, you crazy woman!"

"Q-quiet!"

Amelia covered the mouth of the frantic Verde.

While Verde was making muffled sounds and hitting Amelia's arm, a massive shadow passed right by the side alley where they were hiding.

The moment they saw it, they all held their breath.

It was a giant tentacled monster.

Each tentacle and muscle strand touching the ground was as thick as a log and glistened.

Its head, which seemed to sway weakly from side to side, was at a height that could reach the second floor.

Saliva was dripping from the gaping mouth on its head.

Red and yellow eyes, each as large as a child's head, were alternately watching in all directions across its body.

The muscles, seemingly moving independently of each other, moved the heavy body with an intricate mechanism to avoid tangling with each other.

They felt the faint tremors of the earth as they remained silent until the huge monster had completely disappeared from sight.

Only after a long while did Verde finally speak, stunned.

"T-too big. Not human."

Verde was right.

That was no monster transformed from a human.

It was a full-fledged demonic beast, and one that belonged to the medium-large species category or higher.

A monster of a completely different size from the newly hatched ones.

Amelia, in shock, whispered.

"I-it seems that the a-artifact separating the o-outskirts and the c-center has s-stopped, and is r-returning to its o-original form."

"You're right, Lady. If the two sides weren't connected, such a creature couldn't have come here to the center."

Whether it was hostile or not,

Whether it had offensive capabilities or not,

How it would attack if it did.

They needed to quickly assess and find a way to counter it.

They escaped the side alley that was beginning to close and headed towards the inn.

The inn, visible after a short distance, was barely maintaining its form amidst the moving roads and buildings.

People were gathered in front of it, and among them, some faces were familiar.

For instance, the innkeeper, or the furious village elder.

In front of the inn was not only oil for lamps but also everything that could be used as fuel.

Clothes, firewood, twigs, bundles of straw.

And among them, a book with a red cover.

He gasped as soon as he saw the scene.

Those madmen had ransacked his room and brought out the grimoire Pnakotic to use as firewood!

* * *

Under cover of darkness, several shadows moved stealthily.

These people, who muffled their footsteps as much as possible, were those who remembered when Gallo was still an ordinary village a few years ago.

Those who knew every corner of Gallo's back roads felt troubled that their memories were being used for such a purpose.

But they had no choice.

This was a war no different from a holy war for them,

And their opponents were monsters who had given up on being human.

Living in this narrow center, always in trepidation, had reached its limit.

They wanted more land and more freedom.

Those who had slipped through the narrow alleys like mice were now lying in wait on a back road at the entrance to the outskirts of the village.

Each of them had a small lamp filled with oil attached to their waist.

One of them whispered softly.

"Now we should split up here. Three go south, two go east. I'll go west, so come if anything happens."

"What could happen? It's not like we'll encounter monsters. Those rotten creatures."

"Think of it as cleaning up neatly."

With the joke, muffled giggles escaped.

They split up as agreed and hurried towards their duties.

The three who went south were among the youngest of the group.

They were carelessly excited about being entrusted with such an important task.

Because of this, they couldn't discern how dangerous or cruel this task was.

The three, choosing only roads with few people, arrived at a place that looked like a warehouse.

On a cart, there were several burlap sacks of unknown content.

Similar sacks were piled up in the slightly open warehouse.

"Hey, what's all this? They say when you become a monster, you don't need to eat or sleep, right? This can't be food."

"How would I know? Rather, come quickly and look here, don't you think it would catch fire well if we lit it where the wood chips are piled?"

"I guess so. Shine the light here."

While two of them started working in a corner, the remaining person, unable to contain his curiosity, slightly opened a burlap sack.

It was full of fine gray powder.

"...Sand? No, ash?"

He muttered as he inserted his hand and touched the soft powder.

Occasionally, he felt rough pieces. Judging by the powder sticking to his fingers, it seemed like something that had been finely ground.

After rubbing his fingers together, he even smelled them and then shrugged.

There was a strange smell, but he couldn't quite remember exactly what it was, even though it seemed familiar.

An angry voice erupted from behind him.

"What are you doing standing there? Help me here! It's too dark to see, so light up the lamp!"

"Alright, alright."

They just won't leave me alone.

He inwardly complained as he lit the old lamp.

And the moment he turned around, he could only freeze in place.

When the expected light didn't return, an irritated voice flew sharply.

"What are you doing, have you lost your mind? Are you going to take responsibility if this fails!"

"...Uh..."

"You bastard! What the hell are you-"

The scolding that should have continued with "doing" ended with the sound of an inhale.

The lamp in his frozen hand swayed feebly.

Squeak, squeak.

What was feeling across his face was a damp and flexible mass of muscle that had lost its strength.

But there was no doubt that it could easily crush a skull as soon as it exerted force.

It was touching his face as if caressing something precious.

In the lamplight, only part of the monster was revealed, making it even more terrifying.

The muscular tentacle traced from his face down to his neck, chest, stomach, and legs.

After a thorough inspection, the tentacle swept the ground in search of the next examiner.

The two people who had been working in the corner.

They too could only watch, paralyzed with fear, as the tentacle crept towards them.

The moment the tentacle settled on the faces of the two.

The tentacle exhibited a completely different reaction.

The pale mass of muscle writhed fiercely as if it had detected something.

In that instant, a sense of foreboding overcame them.

"N-no, no, n-"

Before the words could fully form.

The tentacle grabbed the round head and crushed it.

With a horribly disgusting sound, the person standing next to him opened his mouth in a square shape.

It was a moment when a scream should have emerged, but the tentacle was a step faster.

The monster, which had instantly turned the two into corpses, dragged the headless bodies with its blood-reddened tentacle.

Two broken lamps rolled on the floor, spilling oil.

A sound was heard in the darkness.

-Crunch, crunch, crunch.

The yellow light of the lamp wavered precariously.

The two people, who had been moving fine just moments ago, left only two streams of blood as they disappeared into the darkness.

The hand holding the lamp began to tremble.

As he tried to take a step back, he discovered something on the back of his hand that was raised to hold the lamp.

A pale gray lump was swelling.

The other hand was the same.

Gray lumps were swelling or had already swelled to the size of an egg all over his body.

He screamed, threw the lamp, and scratched his face, arms, and flesh indiscriminately.

"Aah, aah, aaah!"

The oil pooled on the floor burst into flames.

The cart, the warehouse, everything around caught fire, and it spread to nearby houses in an instant.

Amid the flames, a terrible scream and the sound of crunching blended together, spreading into the night sky along with the smoke.