Chapter 140 : The Day Real Estate Fails
The Day Real Estate Fails
"My 25 years of living in hiding have become worthless."
At Barkal's words, melissa bit her lip hard. Did she want to argue? But not a single word came from her mouth.
"Is there anything else you wish to ask?"
Rugar opened his mouth, but no one answered.
I didn't have anything to ask right now, either. Things like the Seven Abyssal Brands or the tendons, rugar would probably bring up, so it didn't matter if I let them go for now.
"If not, then we're finished here."
Rugar nodded to the barbarians guarding the entrance.
"Keep a close watch. Don't take your eyes off this prisoner until the execution."
"Understood, priest."
"I'll handle the rest of the interrogation."
With Rugar's final words, we left the detention cell. Gor didn't follow us, perhaps determined to stay and maintain his post.
"... Go, Gor looks really troubled,"
Serena's sorrowful voice came as soon as we exited.
Her gaze lingered on the torchlight flickering in the detention cell.
I could see deep emotion regarding Gor, who hadn't come out.
"It can't be helped."
On the other hand, Barkal didn't seem particularly bothered.
"No matter what kind of person she is, or how she has lived as a healer—she is a criminal."
Through the gaps of the skull helmet, the guy's eyes flashed with determination.
"It's regrettable for Gor, but she's someone who shouldn't be allowed to live."
I could understand Gor's feelings, but now was a time to be firm.
"Brother Dmihtan."
Serena stepped up beside me.
"Shall we return for now?"
"We should."
There wasn't anything to do at the moment. Perhaps by tomorrow some information regarding the Seven Abyssal Brands would leak out.
I was thinking that and about to head for the hovel when it happened.
— "Master".
A familiar voice resounded in my mind.
It was Dullahan Chunsik.
— "I sense a strange air."
A strange air?
Don't speak in abstract terms—tell me clearly what it is.
I wanted to press him like that, but his tone felt urgent, so I decided to hear the story out first.
*【Summoning Dullahan, chunsik.】*
When I called Chunsik out, a wolf's head began to materialize in my hand.
"O-oh...?"
"Thrag!"
The wolf head summoned from the Red Wolf Tribe startled the other barbarians, who shouted Thrag's name in confusion, but I paid them no mind.
Barkal and the others, thinking it was the "Incarnation of Thrag"—how amusing.
"What kind of air do you mean?"
I stopped walking and looked around. Serena gave me a puzzled look, but I gestured for her to wait.
— "It's the Abyssal Energy I sensed before."
Abyssal Energy?
"Where?"
Chunsik started spinning his head around.
When I briefly released the struggling guy, chunsik's eyes fixed on a direction.
— "Over there."
The healinghut.
The place where Melissa had cared for the sick.
No way.
I muttered unconsciously.
Abyssal Energy, from the healinghut?
"Brother Dmihtan?"
Serena asked anxiously, but I had no time to answer.
The purpose of the Seven Abyssal Brands.
To create a Vessel in which to contain the god of the Abyss.
To create someone who could endure the Abyss, like Darsan, with that tendon implanted in his body.
And Melissa was the one "treating" patients afflicted by the plague as a healer.
"Damn."
Just imagining it made a curse slip from my mouth.
* * *
I kicked off the ground.
Anxious thoughts made my heart pound wildly as the worst-case scenario played out in my head.
"Please let me be wrong."
But has Chunsik ever misread Abyssal Energy?
Probably not.
"Brother, what's wrong?!"
"Brother Dmihtan?"
Barkal and Serena called out, running after me.
"I'll explain later!"
But there was no time to explain now. Checking the healinghut was the top priority.
The distance to the healinghut.
It wasn't far, but now it felt endlessly distant.
Then it happened.
"Kyahhhhh!"
A scream echoed from afar.
A woman tribe member. The shrill, terrified scream tore through the darkening night sky.
"What's happening?!"
Barkal cried out. The direction of the scream—exactly where the healinghut was.
"Kraaaagh!"
Another sound this time—not a scream, but a howl.
Not beast nor human, but some bizarre sound. A roar only someone who had lost all reason could make.
"W-What is that?"
"Taron! Get ahold of yourself!"
Restless voices came from the healinghut.
Tribe members who had been resting in their tents after their daily work poked their heads out due to the sudden commotion.
Bang!
At the same time, there was the sound of something breaking, and people began fleeing from the direction of the healinghut.
"B-Brothers are acting strange!"
"Help! The brothers!"
These were the tribe members tending to patients. Their faces were pale with terror as if they'd seen something horrific.
"What happened?"
"T-The patients in the healinghut are acting weird!"
"Something black... something black burst out!"
Something black.
It had to be tendons.
I moved faster.
The closer I got to the healinghut, the more ominous the air became.
Around the tent, it was mayhem. The tribe members who had cared for the sick had all fled, scattering everywhere to call for help.
"Aaaaaaah!"
Soaring through the chaos, Barkal leapt forward. Sensing the situation was dire, urgency flashed in his eyes like never before.
"Grrrrrk."
As Barkal lifted the tent flap, a gruesome sight spread out before us.
The barbarians who had collapsed from plague and were receiving care in the healinghut—black tendons began to show on their bodies.
Tendons writhing under the skin. Upon seeing it, Barkal spoke first.
"Brothers! Taron!"
The very first barbarian I'd seen when we returned to the village. He spoke the name, but the guy, now with "tendons" embedded in him, did not regain his senses.
"G-Grrrrrk!"
The thing that had once been "Taron" howled up at the sky, and as if answering a signal, other howls exploded from inside the healinghut.
One.
Two.
Three.
Through the shredded tent, the barbarians emerged.
Barbarians with implanted "tendons" were beginning to increase in number.
"Has everyone turned into Darsan?"
"... It seems so."
"That rat of a woman! What trick did she pull?!"
Leaving Barkal's venomous words behind, I surveyed the situation.
Worse than I thought. This was Melissa's plan from the start.
She spread the plague to create patients.
Then, under the guise of treatment, she implanted the "tendons."
No wonder she was so calm when captured.
It wasn't resignation—it was the composure of a victor.
"If it's the same as Darsan..."
Barkal drew his axe and asked,
"If my brothers are lost so, then I too shall act as such."
"Stand aside!"
A resounding voice echoed through the tent. At the same time, heavy footsteps sounded as barbarians appeared behind us.
Among them, a massive figure stood out.
The chieftain.
His already large figure looked even larger than usual.
"What is all this commotion?!"
The chieftain looked over the healinghut scene and then opened his mouth wide in shock.
"Thrag...!"
The chieftain's voice shook.
"Pull yourselves together!"
"Chieftain, they have become slaves to the Abyss! They will not return to themselves with mere words!"
My words surprised the chieftain, and he stared wide-eyed at me.
Then, one of the barbarians infected with tendons charged at the chieftain.
Seeing it, the chieftain teared up.
Boom!
He slammed a massive body blow into the charging barbarian.
"Kyeeagh!"
"Is it truly irreversible...!"
The monstrous howls seemed to steel the chieftain's resolve.
"If there is no way back, then so be it!"
As expected.
Barbarians are barbarians.
For a moment, I had felt sympathy for the tribe members, but only for an instant.
"We purify corrupted blood! Purify our brothers, and send them to Thrag's side!"
"Uwaaaaaaaaaah!"
The barbarians charging into the healinghut were in chaos, but the chieftain's cry began to snap them back to their senses.
Many brothers had been overtaken by the tendons, but this was the barbarian "tribe."
Naturally, there were more sane barbarians, and those infected with the tendons began to be outnumbered.
"Farewell, brother! See you soon at Thrag's side!"
"Taron! I will remember you!"
Maybe because all their lives, they had played survival games called "coming-of-age ceremonies" since childhood.
The barbarians' combat power was incredible.
Even Barkal and Serena could barely find a chance to intervene.
'... This is strange.'
However, I still couldn't feel easy, despite the situation being brought under control.
Chunsik's Abyssal Energy was certainly related to some "Rune."
But no sign of the Rune of the Abyss could be seen here.
— "Master".
It was as if Chunsik had read my mind.
— "Below."
Below?
— "The air is coming from below."
Krrrummmmm!
With Chunsik's words, a fissure spread from the center of the healinghut.
"Wh-What...!?"
"Why are you suddenly dancing?!"
It's not dancing—the ground is shaking, you idiots.
I wanted to tack on a retort to the barbarians' absurd comments, but a strange air rose from below.
The ground split.
From its center, something enormous began to rise.
A black gate. A grotesque door covered in bone and tendons.
A dungeon.
"No... No way...!"
"It's a dungeon!"
A dungeon was forming beneath the Red Wolf village.