Witch’s Night: Chapter 22 A Ghastly Shadow
Chris really didn’t want to experience another flashback; one brush with death was enough.
But continuing to be lost wasn’t a solution either, and after leaving the Lower District, Chris vaguely sensed something amiss in Lannister.
It was likely that the situation in Lannister outside of Spencer Manor was far worse than they imagined.
Magistrate Norian’s commission was most likely related to these anomalies.
After the connection to the Ember Formation was cut off, even Chris couldn’t obtain information about the current situation in Lannister, let alone Luo Yan.
“Forget it, if there’s no other way, we’ll ask for directions and see how to leave.”
Chris gritted her teeth. She had never encountered a situation where she had to rely on asking for directions, and she felt a little embarrassed.
“That’s not impossible, but… do you see anyone around to ask for directions?” Luo Yan said, spreading her hands.
“Uh…”
Chris looked around, equally troubled.
Although they had left the dirty and smelly Lower District, the surrounding situation wasn’t much better.
The dilapidated old buildings still vaguely showed traces of their past glory, but most of the houses were in precarious condition, only barely holding up with patches.
“This should be Lannister’s Old Town,” Chris said. “Due to the constant shifting of the ‘Ember Formation’ and Lannister’s development, this unsuitable district was gradually abandoned. Only the most ordinary commoners and some refugees would choose to live here.”
Beneath the glorious Lannister, there were also hidden shadows.
But these historical legacy issues weren’t something Chris and Luo Yan could delve into at the moment. The worse situation was that all the commoners here were evacuating.
…Or rather, the word “fleeing” was more appropriate.
There were very few people on the road, and even if a figure occasionally appeared, they were hurrying away, scrambling towards the Lower District.
Luo Yan and Chris walked for a while but didn’t have any opportunity to ask for directions.
Even when they tried to stop fleeing passersby, the other party was filled with terror and incoherent, unable to utter a complete sentence.
“This is troublesome…”
Chris had a terrible headache, but she didn’t know how to solve it.
Luo Yan pondered for a moment and said, “These people’s reactions are abnormal.”
“I can see that too, Miss Luo Yan.”
“It seems something might have happened up ahead,” Luo Yan said in a low voice. “There’s another passerby over there. Try using ‘Siren’s Song’ and see if you can find out anything.”
Chris looked up and saw an ordinary woman in plain clothes, limping with a cane, her face filled with the same terror as the previous passersby.
“Eyes… evil… monster…”
The woman kept muttering incomprehensible words, only a few words discernible.
The passersby Luo Yan had stopped earlier were all in the same situation. Since she didn’t dare to rashly use her abilities on these ordinary people, she could only give up and let them continue to flee.
Chris nodded, and a soft humming sound began. “Siren’s Song” wrapped around the woman like a ribbon.
The warm, healing effect of her mental power gradually appeared, and the woman’s terrified expression eased, confusion replacing the panic in her eyes.
“It seems to be working.” Chris said.
“Let’s go and take a look.”
Luo Yan didn’t hesitate, immediately undid the effect of her Life Hacks, and walked forward.
This action had an immediate effect. The woman, who had just calmed down, became even more terrified upon seeing Luo Yan.
“Don’t eat me! Don’t eat me!”
The woman’s cane pounded the ground like a pecking chicken, but her legs seemed to have some ailment, and she fell to the ground after only a few steps.
But even so, the woman continued to flee from Luo Yan in terror, desperately using her hands to crawl on the ground, leaving a trail of blood.
“Miss Luo Yan… no, let’s just leave.”
Chris, watching the woman desperately trying to escape from Luo Yan, and seeing Luo Yan’s silent figure, spoke up.
“Am… I really that scary?” Luo Yan asked softly.
This was the first time Luo Yan had seen such undisguised terror in the eyes of an ordinary person. This unprecedented experience made her feel momentarily lost.
Chris wanted to answer “yes,” but she also knew that saying such a thing wasn’t appropriate at the moment.
So she could only say, “Don’t think too much, Miss Luo Yan. We have more important things to do… find Magistrate Norian and inform him of the situation in Spencer Manor.”
“I know.”
Luo Yan said in a low voice, and when she turned around, Chris saw that her expression was once again indifferent as usual.
Chris secretly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that Miss Luo Yan didn’t seem so fragile after all, and a little contact wouldn’t cause any irreparable damage.
Lannister’s caution seemed a bit excessive…
“These passersby seem to be fleeing from that direction,” Chris composed herself and focused on the matter at hand again. “From their fragmented words, it seems like some kind of monster appeared over there? Or… some kind of Calamity phenomenon.”
Luo Yan looked up and frowned slightly,
“I don’t sense any Calamity aura… But there is indeed an aura I’m very familiar with.”
The aura of a Primordial Demon…
She didn’t know which Demon it belonged to, but it was clearly the same type as the one she had encountered in Yan City before, a Devil’s Minion possessing part of a demonic power, or…
—A “God’s Chosen.”
However, the aura Luo Yan sensed was quite stable, not like it was out of control.
“Let’s go and take a look.” Chris drew a shadow dagger and held it in her hand, ready for battle. “If anything unexpected happens, Miss Luo Yan, try not to act. I’ll handle it.”
Chris wasn’t sure where Luo Yan’s “boundary” was. If there was no need to touch it, it was best not to… especially at this time, Lannister couldn’t spare the energy to deal with Luo Yan’s matters.
Luo Yan also understood her situation. Although she felt there wouldn’t be a problem, she still nodded and said,
“Mm.”
……
The sun set, and the faint twilight of dusk fell upon Lannister.
Unknowingly, the sky gradually darkened, the setting sun slowly sinking below the horizon, and this turmoil was far from over.
In an inconspicuous district of Lannister, in a dilapidated residential building, a small head peeked out of the window, a mess of light pink, slightly curly, short hair seemingly unkempt.
“Why has everyone left…”
Cecilia was a little dejected. This was usually her favorite time of day.
Because at this time, Cecilia could squat by the window and watch the people outside returning home in twos and threes.
The emotions they emanated were relaxed and comfortable, and Cecilia liked that.
And the beautiful sunset in the sky, the last rays of light on the horizon, these were all beautiful scenes that Cecilia rarely saw.
Since she became seriously ill, Cecilia found that everything she saw was covered with a faint gray mist, gradually thickening as her condition worsened.
Until finally, everything became black and white, ugly and unpleasant.
Cecilia didn’t like it.
Grandpa Bishop had just given her medicine today, and Cecilia’s condition had improved quite a bit, so she wanted to take this opportunity to see these scenes, which she didn’t know how many more times she would be able to see, for a little longer.
Unfortunately, something happened today. The emotions emanating from the crowd outside the window made Cecilia very uncomfortable, making her feel like vomiting.
When she came to her senses, the street was empty, and the occasional passerby was running and crawling away from the district.
“Why…”
Cecilia sat back in her chair, her face full of distress.
But what she didn’t see was that, above her residential building, floated a ghostly shadow, its ferocious face and blood-stained fangs terrifying to behold.
But it didn’t move, just hovered in mid-air, coldly watching everything on the ground.
……
“Another one escaping.”
Luo Yan silently watched a pitiful, incoherent man stumble past her.
Although his soul and body hadn’t suffered any damage, he was showing such a strange reaction that it was hard not to think more about it.
Chris looked up into the distance and frowned slightly,
“I don’t sense any Calamity phenomena, and the surrounding air doesn’t have the usual stench of Calamity monsters.”
The Calamities summoned by the Church of the End Gods were of two types: highly destructive Calamity monsters and strange Calamity phenomena.
Neither of them would be quiet, and neither… could ordinary people escape unscathed.
Although the people just now were panicked and incoherent, as if they had suffered some kind of serious mental contamination, they actually hadn’t.
Even Luo Yan, who possessed a mental demonic power, couldn’t see any contamination, so there definitely wasn’t any.
“It’s okay, we’ll be there soon.” Luo Yan said. “It should be just up ahead.”
“Hmm? Miss Luo Yan, did you sense something?” Chris raised an eyebrow and asked.
Luo Yan considered for a moment and said, “Have you heard of… ‘God’s Chosen’?”
“What’s that?” Chris scratched her head. “Haven’t heard of it… sounds a bit scary.”
Things related to Gods didn’t seem to be good things…
Well, in Miss Luo Yan’s case, it was fifty-fifty.
“Or another name, ‘Demonically Infected’.” Luo Yan said in a low voice.
Actually, compared to this somewhat derogatory term, Luo Yan preferred “God’s Chosen,” perhaps because of One’s residual influence.
After all, “Demonically Infected” sounded like siding with the Primordial Demons…
“I’ve heard of that. It’s said to be humans born with demonic powers… wait, Miss Luo Yan,”
Chris thought that Miss Luo Yan seemed to be one, but then her eyes widened. “Are you saying that there’s a Demonically Infect… a God’s Chosen up ahead?”
“Perhaps a Devil’s Minion, I can’t be completely sure.” Luo Yan nodded seriously and said in a deep voice.
But a Devil’s Minion wouldn’t be so quiet in this situation. The only explanation could be a God’s Chosen.
“…Unbelievable, I’ve actually encountered two Demonically Infected people at the same time.”
Chris was slightly speechless. Her first reaction when she heard Luo Yan’s words was disbelief.
But since Miss Luo Yan had said so, she certainly couldn’t deny it directly.
Demonically Infected individuals were extremely rare, rare to an exaggerated degree, otherwise Frick in Yan City wouldn’t have had the absurd idea of stealing One’s remains to use his ability.
Maybe only one would appear in several hundred years, and finding two in a hundred years was a miracle.
Actually, there was another reason for the rarity of Demonically Infected individuals, also known as God’s Chosen. Humans born with demonic powers were very likely to die in infancy. The chances of a human body being able to withstand demonic power were extremely small.
Within this small probability event, there was another small probability event that they had to go through, and even surviving each day during their growth was like overcoming a difficult hurdle. The erosive nature of demonic power itself was enough to take the lives of most God’s Chosen.
There were almost no known cases of God’s Chosen surviving to adulthood, which was why Chris was so shocked to encounter two at the same time.
As for the Misters of Dawn, their situation was a complete exception and couldn’t be replicated.
“I… forget it, let’s go and confirm first.”
Luo Yan originally wanted to explain that she couldn’t be considered a God’s Chosen, because her demonic powers weren’t innate.
“Envy” came from Mrs. Natalie, “End” from One, and the only one she might have innately possessed was perhaps the Forbidden Technique “Manjusaka” belonging to the Witch of Absolute Death.
But the problem was, after hearing One’s story in the space of silence, Luo Yan always felt that the black Manjusaka tattoo on her chest, the demonic offering “Death,” was actually deliberately left to her by Absolute Death.
So, counting it this way, did Luo Yan have any abilities of her own…?
Her own strength had only barely reached “Calamity” level… So, Luo Yan was actually a complete weakling.
Chris, who was the same age as her (sixteen), had already reached “Ruin” level, and didn’t seem weaker than Hua Qiling (over twenty, exact age unknown, she refused to say).
Luo Yan didn’t reveal these inner thoughts; her situation was already complicated enough, and further investigation wouldn’t yield any results.
“Mm,” Chris nodded, tightening her grip on the shadow dagger. “Even if it’s not a God’s Chosen, it’s probably related to those cultists.”
Having made up their minds, Luo Yan and Chris quickly set off, walking towards the direction of the God’s Chosen’s aura in the setting sun.
Six hours had passed since the start of the banquet at Spencer Manor, and this disaster in Lannister had also lasted for three hours.
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