Raga of the Dry Branch - Chapter 33

I’m normally an insensitive person, so I don’t usually feel sacred or stuff like that… but now I was terrified. I felt like I was going to scream so loud that my ears wouldn’t work anymore, as if an electric current was running through my body, but I struggled – I struggled to hold it in.

In front of me was the corpse which made me feel both fear and pity, I shed tears for no reason.

Quiver.

Quiver.

Say, Shang-di, Ren, Juli, Heli can you hear me?

I didn’t tell them about this at home because I knew they would start nagging me, but now that my party vanished and I entered this place, I focused on the left hand where the bracelet was there and called for them.

But there was no response. It seemed like something was blocking it. Like the earpiece which was still crackling.

Static

Crack.

This was the wrong place and I didn’t want to be alone. When I looked at the face, I could see different faces overlapping which made my stomach churn.

I need to find my party. I looked for another exit as I wiped my face.

In the square room, there were doors all over. The door I entered and the door behind the woman would lead me to the monster outside, apart from that there were two more left.

Where was my party? It would be convenient if I was a searcher like Dame Mino.

I felt frustrated as if a stone was slammed into my heart, I could end up wandering all around and never find the party.

What am I supposed to do?

Around the time I was trembling in fear, I noticed a bloodstain.

“I guess it… someone’s hurt?”

There were two traces that seemed like someone dragged another and a few drops.

All of them were leading through one door. As I examined it, I looked at it and lowered the bracelet.

All that I used till now, recovery, teleport, shield, and each kind have been used once. All that remains is another of the three, and summoning magic twice.

I opened the subspace, a special function within the bracelet, and took out the sword given to me by Shang-di. I wasn’t confident in my skills, but I thought this was better than nothing.

Since it had been a while, I felt awkward holding it, but despite that, when I held the cold sword, I felt relieved.

But, where did that creature that attacked me a while ago a while ago disappear to?

It was blocked here then it must have gone to another place. As I thought, once I entered, I couldn’t hear anything from the place it was there apart from the corpse.

An ominous feel loomed over me, but I tried to ignore it and opened the door.

It was about the time I was getting tired from counting how many roomsi passed. The bloodstains I suspected of the party stopped, and the place I entered was full of strange things.

It seemed like a laboratory.

Therebeast’s red eyes were only huge feathers of an unknown race piled on the floor in some rooms, and in others were what looked like scales.

All of them left the impression that some kind of bizarre and unusual experiments were conducted, but given the air around, it had to be used recently! But no one was around.

In one of the rooms, I entered was a journal written in Bequan, but I kept back in the room since I couldn’t find anything regarding the party.

And the place I came in now too looked like a lab. Fortunately, there was only one door leading to another.

A breath of relief came over me as I was getting tired.

Just where in the world were the others?

The desire to quickly find the party and the entire situation around was putting me on the edge.

The room, which looked to be around 130 meters, was spacious compared to other rooms. And there were several tables spread out, and one wall was full of unknown tools for experiments.

The head of a corpse that looked like a monster was inside a barrel placed next to an experimental chair.

This was a bad place.

Several times more unpleasant than the theme of the park.

As soon as I confirmed that my party wasn’t here, I headed to the door on the opposite side when I heard a strange thump.

What was it?

I didn’t know what it was, but I felt my body go tight in an instant and my hands lost strength. I slowly lowered myself and hid under the table.

Clank!

A sound from a little far away.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

And now it sounded like something was running.

What was it? It was making me go dead still. And the sound only got closer and closer.

I moved my body between the tables as if crawling in a low position. All I knew was that an unknown thing was approaching me, so I had to move. But the moment I looked down, I went stiff.

On the floor under the table were pictograms from the brothels again.

Judging from the writing, it wasn’t just one or two. And all those who wrote seemed to be women.

All the words were scribbled in hurry as if they were terrified of something, and the words were out of date.

Words and expressions which were more than 10 years old and not familiarcorpse’s headTwo traces seemed now. They were all terms like domesticated animals, confinement, covenant, offspring, and confluence (marriage).

Perhaps the place where the missing people were locked was in this basement. Due to the strange structure of this place maybe a room was connected and they came here. As if possessed by what I saw, I forgot my situation for a moment.

Rattle.

Thud!

Thud!

The sound got closer and closer and so did the beating of my heart.

This isn’t the time for it. Move the body and get out of this place! And so I moved to another table near the exit.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

It seemed that ‘that’ was moving faster too.

Was it doing this knowing that someone was hiding inside?

I crawled and crumpled inside the table.

And put my hand on the sword at my waist,simultaneously praying I would hear the sound of it going away.

If we kept moving like this I was sure to bet attacked by it.

‘What is the attack magic I could use now…’

“…”

The sound stopped.

Feeling it was weird, I slowly lifted my head a little up and tried to look around.

… strangely as I looked a little to see the red eyes of the beast met with mine.

“!?”

The huge wings which covered the body, the horns protruding from the head, and the sharp teeth from its mouth and dark lips, yet, it looked like the form of a human. Yet that was bizarre, but it looked rather young.

However, the neck was bent strangely, and pale face like a corpse and undried blood around the mouth which showed that ‘that’ wasn’t a normal human being.

Whether it was a human or a monster it had a blood-stained smile as it looked at me. The small-looking mouth actually reached its ears.

Crack!

At the same time, the head which was bent in 180 degrees returned to its normal position. And the red eyes looking at me. And the lips of it clenched.

“Kak Kak Kak-”

A sound too strange to be a laugh came out of its mouth and then it stopped.

Before the silence could even settle around us, the beast came at me like a lightning.

“Shield!”

Thung!

I shouted it at the same time as it jumped and it bounced off the shield. Had I been a little late, I wouldn’t be alive like this. Just the thought was terrifying. It was impossible to tell if this was a human or an animal and the speed was beyond imagination,

I hurriedly hot up and shouted without delay.

“Water attack!”

With dozens of water arrows being generated around all rushed for that one thing at once. I didn’t even check if they hit it or not. I ran frantically without looking back.

Swoosh!

Behind me, the arrows split open, and the water sprinkled around.

Judging by that sound, I was certain that the arrows were hitting the monster.

As one arrow was left to hit, I ran down the hallway and the terrifying thumping sound didn’t stop.

“Kakakakakak-!!”

A strange sound resounded through the hallway. I really wasn’t sure if it was a scream or laugh.

I was out of breath but couldn’t stop and it was strange that the sound kept getting closer and closer to me.

The last one was the shield. Now if I got caught that would be the end of me. Even if I don’t die, I was sure that it would eat me alive.

No time to look back. With hearing only, when I felt dangerously close I yelled out.

“Wind attack!”

And a deafening wind started around and passed back,seemedashing everything around.

The wall and the doors all rattled at the dangerous wind and the wallpaper around too seemed to be torn.

Peeling the torn pieces of wallpaper off my arm, I looked back to find the beast crushed against the wall.

It was alive!

But the wind would stop at any moment.had I opened a barely noticeable one of the many doors in the hallway and went in. That alone wasn’t reassuring, so I turned around to find something to block the door.

“Alkeris?”