Chapter 503: Town’s Demon Trail
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The sky was dark.
Thick dark clouds blocked the moonlight, turning the ground pitch-black. From time to time, lightning would flash among the distorted clouds. Only at this time would the ground light up for a moment.
The foul-smelling cold wind with the stench of decay howled, sweeping past the strange stone mountains and valleys. In the depths of the valleys was a deserted, dilapidated town. The broken windows and eaves creaked with the wind. It was one of the few sounds in this silent town.
A group of carrion-eating crows was circling above the town. Their black feathers were moist and shiny, and they looked like they just had a good meal.
There were several big withered trees in the town, and on the bare branches hung a few shriveled bodies. They were human corpses that had long dried up. These corpses swayed with the airflow, and their sunken eye sockets looked at the town below them. Most of the buildings in the town had collapsed, and the building materials still had traces of being burnt. Some damaged swords were scattered all over the town. Looking at the black color on them, it was unknown if it was the blood of their former master or the blood of the enemy…
This place was an abandoned town in the human world of Sanctuary. There were countless towns like this in Sanctuary. The territories that the pioneers had spent decades establishing often collapsed in an instant.
But in this town that should have been deathly silent, there was a slight difference today. In a collapsed church in the center of the town, dim lights were coming out, and the rotten wind was accompanied by a faint strange sound, as though it was haunted.
It was late at night, and about two kilometers away from the town, a few warhorses appeared. On these warhorses were people who had covered themselves tightly. These people rode their horses and gradually slowed down when they were about to approach the town.
The leader jumped down from his horse, stood on the ground, and took off his cloak. He was a burly man with a tower-like body and a scarred face. His wild blond hair was tied up above his head, and two heavy axes were crossed behind his waist.
After he dismounted, the other knights landed one after another, stood with this big man, and looked cautiously at the dead town in front of them.
“Kehr, is this the place?” a petite figure asked, sounding like a woman. “Are the survivors of Zakarum really hiding in this town?”
“The intelligence shouldn’t be a problem. There aren’t many enemies!” the man
named Kehr said in a deep voice. “But we don’t have any information about why these survivors of the Church of Zakarum are hiding here. We can only rely on ourselves to investigate.”
“Then, what are we waiting for?” Another man’s voice came. It was a tall, thin figure. He took out a crossbow, held it in his hand, and pulled the string. “Kill those guys. Leave one alive to ask. Don’t you understand?”
“Let’s go! In the name of Horadrim!” The petite woman took out a staff that was almost as tall as her. With her voice, the crystal at the top of the staff flashed with a fiery red light.
The group headed toward the town. Lightning flashed in the sky, illuminating their path. The ghost-like town looked strange in the light, but they were fearless.
This was because they were professional demon hunters from the Church of Horadrim, ‘professionals’ with great power!
After entering the town and exploring, this group of demon hunters discovered the strange light in the center of the town. But just as they were about to enter the church, they were attacked by a large number of monsters.
These monsters seemed to have emerged from the church. They were ferocious and fearless as they launched suicidal attacks against the demon hunters. At first, the demon hunters were still patient and formed a formation to block the monsters’ attacks. But after a while, the demon hunters realized that something was wrong.
The monsters were not strong, but there were too many of them. It was as though a Gate of Hell had opened in a church, allowing these monsters to appear continuously.
“They’re delaying us. Something must be happening in the church! ” the petite female mage said.
Everyone agreed with her guess. So the next second, the burly man named Kehr roared angrily, held his two axes, and turned into a whirlwind as he charged forward. The monsters pouncing on him instantly turned into pieces of flesh and blood under his two axes. With the opening created by the meat grinder, the other demon hunters quickly followed. After rushing to the church, the female mage held her staff with both hands, and the light of magic power lit up on her body. Then a meteor burning with raging flames appeared in the air and smashed straight at the church’s roof.
With a loud bang, the roof of the collapsed church was completely lifted off, exposing the interior.
But what was strange was that after smashing open the church’s roof, the demon hunters did not find anything abnormal inside. Only a Gate of Hell shining with blood-red light was slowly closing.
“Is it over?” Looking at the Gate of Hell that was closing, the demon hunters were puzzled. They felt that it was too easy to resolve.
Not… right! Where were the remnants of the Church of Zakarum in the intelligence? Why hadn’t they seen them?
“Look around! There might be some kind of mechanism here!” The man with the two axes shook off the limbs and flesh hanging from his body and took the lead to step forward.
The demon hunters started searching around the church. Under their careful search, they finally found something!
It was a secret door behind a bookcase. After the demon hunters found the mechanism and twisted it, the secret door opened with a click, revealing a narrow passage that could only fit one person. From the direction of the passage, it seemed to lead to the underground of the church.
Taking out torches, the demon hunters were vigilant and began to enter the passage one after another. They could already tell that the Gate of Hell outside might just be a means of guarding. The surviving members of the Church of Zakarum should be hiding in the underground space. If they did not hurry, they might escape.
The staircase was unexpectedly long. After walking for nearly twenty minutes, they finally saw the light ahead, but they did not know where it went.
At the exit, the demon hunters carefully leaned forward to observe, and what they saw was a giant underground hall. There were torches burning all around, illuminating the strange blood-red demon characters on the wall. In the middle of the hall, an enormous hexagram was engraved in the floor.
At the sharp corners of the hexagram lay dozens of believers wearing the clothes of the Church of Zakarum. These believers were already lying in pools of blood. But judging from the remaining fanaticism in their eyes and the hands holding the hilt of their abdomens, it was obvious that they had committed suicide.
The blood of these believers was flowing along the engraved hexagram grooves and gradually perfecting the pattern.
“Self sacrifice??” The demon hunters were shocked, and then they immediately reacted and looked at the center of the magic formation.
There, a Zakarum believer in a priest robe was quickly chanting incantations. He chanted in the demon language and repeated in the human language. As he chanted, the blood flowing in the hexagram magic formation began to emit a blood-red ominous light!
“Quick! Stop him!” Kehr shouted and immediately rushed into the magic formation with his two axes. The other demon hunters tacitly cooperated well with him and attacked together.
The scarlet demon-hunting arrows were the first to shoot at the priest presiding over the magic formation. But as soon as these arrows entered the range of the magic formation, they immediately lost their momentum and fell. A huge red light screen appeared and enveloped the entire magic formation.
Kehr, who was charging forward, was also blocked by this light shield. He slammed his head into the light shield, and under the pain, he angrily slashed at the light shield. The other demon hunters also helped in trying to break the light shield.
The chanting priest seemed to understand that he would not be able to stop these demon hunters for long, so his chanting speed increased again.
“Damn it! He wants to summon a demon!” Kehr roared. “Don’t tell me these guys want to resurrect their master, Mephisto?!”
“Impossible. Although Mephisto is sealed, how can it be so easy to resurrect him?” the female mage hurriedly replied. “Don’t think too much. It’s more important to stop him quickly!”
Thus, the group strengthened their attacks.
But at this moment, the priest’s chanting suddenly stopped. The blood-red light shield covering the magic formation suddenly disappeared at the same time, almost causing Kehr, at the front, to crash into the magic formation. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and stopped in time to stand at the edge of the magic formation.
The appearance of this abnormality shocked the demon hunters. They thought that the priest’s ritual was complete, and a powerful demon was about to come out. But then they saw the priest in the formation suddenly let out a tragic roar.
The skin and flesh on his face quickly dried up, and his entire body shrank. At this moment, it was as though all his essence, energy, and spirit had been sucked away, and he instantly became old.
Threads of black soul light swarmed out of his eyes, mouth, and nose and seeped into the magic formation before disappearing. When the soul light disappeared, the priest collapsed to the floor.
“Is this… a backlash?! His ritual failed?!” The demon hunters quickly realized and looked at the gradually dissipating magic formation with surprise and doubt.
Kehr was shocked and could not care less. He rushed to the front of the priest, squatted down, and grabbed his collar. While he was dying, he asked, “What did you do?! Who do you want to summon?”
The priest did not answer him. His withered face was like a dried corpse, and he only opened his mouth with difficulty and said in a hoarse voice, “Not enough. The offerings… are not enough… My Lord, we can’t… complete what you ordered…”
With that, the priest died.
Kehr heard some words and did not know what was going on, but he understood what the priest meant when he said ‘My Lord’. It was the King of Hatred, Mephisto.
What did Mephisto order? What is it?
“Damn it!” Kehr thought for a long time but could not understand. He punched the ground angrily.
“Looks like… we have to report this matter!” The female mage sighed.. “I hope…
Tyrael can give us guidance…”
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