novelraw Chapter 456: The Uninvited Guest
Chapter 456: The Uninvited Guest
A lone carriage rolled along a deserted road winding through the silent mountains.
Dusk was settling. The edge of a curtain lifted, and a hand reached out from the carriage to hang an oil lamp on its wooden frame. The person then retreated back inside.
Snippets of conversation drifted from the half-open door.
“What does she eat?”
“Usually the same as us.”
“But she hasn’t touched the bread.”
“She’ll eat when she’s hungry.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Not yet.”
Soon, Lu Li emerged from the carriage and took the reins.He glanced back at the road they had traveled. The last rays of sunset had faded, and darkness, as if in pursuit, was closing in from behind.
To put as much distance as possible between them and the uninvited guest from hell they’d encountered in the Coastal Town, Lu Li decided to travel through the night, pushing on toward the Allen Peninsula.
Judging by the time, the demon in the hospital must have already learned of his departure. Perhaps it had decided to leave him alone, or perhaps it was lurking somewhere in the shadows, biding its time.
Whatever the case, Anna materialized beside Lu Li, enveloping him in the aura of a vengeful spirit, ready to protect him from any danger.
“Meow,” came a sound from between them. A black cat slipped out of the carriage and, without the slightest hesitation, climbed onto Lu Li’s lap and curled into a ball.
Lu Li and Anna both looked down at the cat. “She’s like you,” Lu Li murmured. Anna lowered her gaze, her profile bathed in the glow of the lamp, a ghost of a smile on her lips.
“Just as black and quiet.”
Lu Li remained silent, freeing one hand from the reins to shield the cat from the night wind.
Anna, weightless, pressed against Lu Li and looked up at the night sky. No stars were visible, only an impenetrable darkness that merged with the earth, enveloping the entire world beyond the carriage.
It felt as if they—the two of them and the cat—were the only beings left in the entire world.
And yet, reflected in Lu Li’s dark eyes was a projection from the In-Between, creeping toward the carriage.
This strange, darkness-shrouded silence lasted for about half an hour, until it was broken by a long ribbon of fire that appeared on the road ahead.
“What’s that?” Anna couldn’t make out what was happening in the distance, but she guessed it had to be carriages.
But why were there so many carriages out here?
“The road through the swamp must be open again,” Lu Li said.
It was a caravan, heading to Belfast from other cities. People had banded together to travel the only available route.
Knights and members of the Night's Watch, with magical pistols at their belts, patrolled the caravan, driving away any monsters.
Evidently, the stream of refugees to the Lennon Archipelago was only growing stronger. One could assume that in the near future, more and more people would flock there, until the ocean became impassable.
But with such an impressive caravan, traveling at night felt a little safer.
The lone carriage soon joined the caravan. Now that they were no longer alone, Lu Li, holding the cat, returned to the carriage with Anna, who had once again become invisible.
As midnight approached, the caravan reached Fallen Leaves Town.
The town, soon to be abandoned, seemed to be experiencing a final burst of life. All the residents were awake, offering food and goods to the travelers.
Or else, they gathered what they could and joined the caravan.
Lu Li peeked out of the carriage again. In the crowd, he saw the knight captain and his subordinates, too busy maintaining order to notice the carriage that had driven past them during the day.
Anna, hovering nearby, knew that such bustling scenes would become rarer with each passing day.
Just as they were about to leave Fallen Leaves Town, someone came running from the rear of the caravan, shouting and drawing the attention of those around them as they approached Lu Li's carriage.
Lu Li stopped the horse and looked at the boy in a brown robe.
“My master asked me to give you this. It will protect you from demons,” the boy said, holding out a jeweled bracelet to Lu Li.
“Who is your master?” Lu Li didn’t take the bracelet.
“A venerable priest,” the boy, or rather, the acolyte, answered proudly.
“May I speak with him?”
The acolyte shook his head. “I don’t think my master wishes to see you. That is precisely why he sent me.”
“Then give him my thanks.”
After a moment of silence, Lu Li took the bracelet and watched as the boy disappeared into the crowd.
“Is that someone from the United Exorcist Organization who received a message, or just a passerby?” Anna asked.
“Neither,” Lu Li replied, and suddenly threw the bracelet into the roadside bushes.
Anna, who had just frowned in confusion, had no time to say anything before a dark shadow shot out of the bushes and lunged at Lu Li.
An invisible dark aura enveloped Lu Li. The object flying toward him—the bracelet—never reached its target. It stopped short before the carriage and, exuding a black, sulfurous smoke, transformed into a balding, middle-aged man in a striped suit.
“What is that?!”
“My God...”
“Run! It’s a monster! Run!”
People scattered in a panic. Carriages jammed together, blocking the road, leaving people no choice but to abandon them and flee.
The panic spread further.
“Hah!” Anna thrust out her hand, binding the air around the demon. An invisible spear, several meters long, shot through the space and, in the blink of an eye, pierced the figure, flying another hundred meters before embedding itself in the mountainside.
A roar echoed through the dark mountains, mingling with the creak of falling trees and the cries of birds.
The man’s figure froze. He slowly lowered his head and looked down at the fist-sized hole in his chest.
“You...” he pointed at Anna in disbelief and began to topple backward...
But the next moment, he straightened up again, wiped a hand over the hole in his chest, and when he pulled it away, the wound—along with the damage to his clothes—had vanished without a trace.
He bared his teeth in a hideous grin. “Little ghost, you shouldn’t flaunt your pathetic little powers in front of a demon.”
“How about this, then?” Anna’s expression grew even colder. Her hair whipped in the wind as a writhing shadow crept out from beneath her feet.
Suddenly, a powerful wind rose around the figure who called himself a demon, coalescing into a vortex. Sharp gusts, like razor blades, tore at him, peeling away his flesh layer by layer, ripping him to pieces.
Sand and stones flew into the air as the horses neighed in terror, pulling the carriages away from the swirling dust storm.
Lu Li and the carriage were protected by an invisible barrier. And in the center of the vortex, the mutilated figure suddenly took a step forward, heading toward the edge of the storm.
“I told you...” His grotesque, bloodied face suddenly transformed into a horrific skull wreathed in black flames as he let out a furious roar. The sound wave tore through the vortex as easily as if it were a sheet of paper.
“...you shouldn’t flaunt your pathetic little powers in front of a demon!”