Shadow Apostle

(It will be released at 12 o'clock tomorrow, all students are welcome to come and support)

It's already hard to tell where this is.

After the five people entered along the entrance of the passage where the meowing cat came from, the direction pointed by the pocket watch overlapped with the direction of the passage.

It seems this is it.

Several people looked at each other.

I don't know if it's an illusion, but I feel like the surrounding atmosphere has become depressing.

There is also a faint rancid smell in the air, which is still obvious even in a dirty environment like the sewer.

At some point, the waterways around me had dried up, and it seemed that no water had flowed through them for a long time.

He must have walked into an abandoned sewer.

There was silence all around, except for the roar and vibration of the train passing by, faintly coming from the distance along the ground.

"Bonnie, be ready to activate D-372 at any time."

"Yes, officer."

"Horst, this is your first time acting together with D372. Just remember the tune and hum it in your heart. Don't hum it out loud. If the enemy hears it and learns it, you will be in trouble."

"What if the enemy knows about this mysterious item?" Horst asked, "What if they all know how to crack it?"

"The tunes inside appear randomly from hundreds of tunes and are different every day." Monica shook her head and said, "This problem should not arise. Even if it does, Bonnie will control and adjust the tunes. In addition, this is your first time fighting with us, and your characteristics are too...well, special. We don’t have any requirements for you, you can decide according to your own ideas."

Horst raised his hat, bowed slightly, took a few steps back, stepped into someone's shadow, and disappeared from everyone's sight.

"Don't look at it. He has survived nearly forty mysterious incidents as an ordinary person. His experience and adaptability cannot be matched by the three of you combined. Just pretend that he does not exist and do your own thing. You have all smelled this smell, now, march on alert."

No one answered, but everyone followed Monica, moving forward cautiously with gentle steps.

Because everyone can tell that this putrid smell is the obvious corpse smell of a large corpse.

A smell more typical of rotten meat.

Along the straight abandoned waterway, the weak gas light shone from behind, dragging the shadows of the four people long, stretching to the corner at the end of the waterway.

Looking at the shadow on the ground, Monica's heart moved, and then she saw Horst's figure appearing at the end of the passage.

Somehow he escaped from the shadows and was staring blankly at the space behind the corner.

Monica frowned, and just as she was about to raise her hand to stop the team, she saw Horst had turned his head and ran back towards the team.

"It's okay, be mentally prepared." Horst's face turned pale and his eyes were a little dazed. He said in a dry voice, "It's just some corpses. It's nothing. The number and appearance are just a bit special."

"I understand, take the medicine."

Monica made a gesture, and then the four of them took out two blue glass vials, uncorked them and drank them.

Fear blocker, vomiting suppressant.

Ordinary people use enhanced versions of drugs that protect users from fear.

Well, temporarily.

"and yours?"

Monica threw away the bottle and stared sideways at Horst.

"I've seen it, there's no need to drink anymore."

"Stop talking nonsense." Monica took out two more spare bottles and stuffed them into Horst's hand, "I'll watch you drink it, hurry up."

It’s an expensive medicine that costs three lukas per pill.

Horst sighed and drank both bottles of potion in one gulp.

When the potion enters the throat, I don't know why I always feel warm in my heart. Ordinarily, the potion doesn't have this function.

But the next moment, he didn't have so many messy thoughts anymore.

He felt his will calm down quickly.

Fear will still occur, but it will not affect will and judgment for the time being.

It is a very useful drug in combat. As for the reaction when the accumulated pressure is released after the effect of the drug is over, it depends on how much pressure has been accumulated.

At least not straight up crazy.

Generally not.

"Walk."

Seeing that Julian had already set up the gun and was ready, Monica unsheathed her sword and walked quickly to Horst's position. Horst followed closely beside her, and soon she saw the scene behind the corner again.

The second time I saw it I was still shocked.

An abandoned cistern is trimmed behind the corner, a cylindrical space at least two stories high.

A dim beam of light shone down from above, shining in the middle of the reservoir.

There is a weird mountain of bones there.

Hundreds of human skeletons piled together.

It wasn't corpses. There was almost no flesh left on these corpses.

They seemed to have been eaten by something. Their skin, flesh and internal organs had long been gone, leaving only thick dried dark brown blood and traces of broken muscles still hanging on the blood-stained white bones.

The blood on the lower skeletons had turned dark, while the top ones were still bright red.

The thick rotten smell and fresh blood mixed together, making this space feel like a fantasy world.

There was a sound of breathing behind him, and the other three members of the Watch had already followed.

His face was a little stiff, but the impact of hundreds of corpses was still great.

"Ding".

Horst lit the lighter, cut a ball of flame and threw it in the air.

Monica immediately understood and adjusted her position so that her shadow extended to the mountain of bones.

Looking back and smiling, Horst gripped his cane and got into the shadow, sneaking quietly to the pile of bones.

The shadow cannot be seen from the outside, but Horst in the shadow can see the outside.

It’s just that everything around me feels a little taller.

Observed closely, the shock is even greater.

Even the bloodshot traces and pieces of flesh remaining on the bones are clearly visible.

If you look closely, you will see that they are all human skeletons. Each skull has its mouth wide open, as if it had suffered great pain before death.

Around the Skeleton Mountain, Horst was just about to get closer when he suddenly raised his head with something in mind.

The wind blew from above, and a ball of something fell down, hitting the top of the mountain of bones. With a crashing sound, many bones rolled down the hillside.

What fell from the sky was also a skeleton. It had been riddled with holes since it had been eaten, but it was slightly more complete than those on the pile of bones.

Horst's heart moved, and he felt that the completeness of these newly fallen skeletons was very close to those found in the corners of the city.

Before he had time to think about it, there was sudden movement in the pile of bones.

Countless rustling sounds gathered together and became as violent as the tide.

Following the sound, tens of thousands of rats emerged from the mountain of bones, screaming and climbing to the top of the mountain to enjoy this gift from the sky.

The rats covered the fresh bones like a tide. At the same time, a sound suddenly came from the direction where the bones fell.

The beam of light suddenly became brighter.

What followed was a burst of sound, whether it was chanting or singing.

The high-pitched sound was like the scream of a mouse, but it spoke human language.

It was like dozens or hundreds of voices coming together, sharp yet muddy.

"fa-ta-Satogua, fa-ta-Enkai, fa-ta-Satogua, fa-ta-Enkai...ka-ta-tuo-le..."

The rats below seemed to be stimulated by something and began to surge violently.

Correspondingly, the chanting and singing above became louder and louder, and there were even neat slapping sounds.

At the moment of the most violent surge, the rats below suddenly collapsed in all directions and submerged into the mountain of bones again in the blink of an eye.

But the bones that just fell changed.

It has regrown its flesh and blood and turned into a large rat with a human head and a rat body.

The mouse trembled, got up again, knelt down in the direction of the light beam like a human being, kowtowed continuously, and made the same sharp sound:

"fa-ta-Satogua, fa-ta-Enkai..."

The light beam returned to dimness again, and the chanting and singing gradually became low-pitched, faintly present.

The corners of Horst's eyes twitched, and he immediately thought of Little Minnie.

The little mouse may have gone through a similar process. I hope she was really unconscious at the time.

As soon as he was distracted, the kneeling mouse had already stood up on all fours. While continuing to chant in a low voice, he quickly climbed up the wall along the roof and disappeared into the darkness.

They witnessed the whole process, but the four watchers did not dare to express their anger for fear of disturbing the things above, until they saw the shadow in front of them twisting, and then Horst's figure emerged from the shadow.

Even with the blocker, Horst's expression was still quite shocked. As soon as he appeared, he made a silent gesture and pointed to the position where the newborn human-faced rat climbed up.

It's not far from the entrance.

The four of them observed carefully, and then noticed that there was a row of metal ladders going up vertically, extending to the top. Normally, that should be the sewer maintenance access, but now...

"Bruno, I leave it to you."

"no problem."

Bruno took two steps sideways and approached the wall, put his palms on the wall and stopped moving.

Horst discovered that a thin vine stretched out from his fingertips, climbing along the wall and extending all the way along the ladder to the roof.

"Let me see..." Bruno closed his eyes, "Well, there are a lot of rats with human faces. They have really bad taste. They don't wear clothes. At least they have to wear tramp rags. Well, good news , they all face the direction of the center of the water tank, just facing away from the ladder entrance. No, you can't see it any further away. Plants don't have eyes. However, there are some shelters at the entrance. Now is your chance. If you want to go up, take advantage of it."

"Is there a shadow on it?"

"have."

"Okay, I'll go first."

Horst touched Serena in his pocket, quietly sneaked under the ladder, and quickly climbed up.

There was light and shadow above the head, as well as sharp and noisy chanting.

The words are recited over and over again, sometimes high and sometimes low. The more you listen to it, the more irritable it becomes, almost crazy.

The light became brighter and brighter, and the chanting and chanting became louder and louder.

Quickly climbing to the top of the ladder, Horst stopped.

He tugged on the vines beside him.

The vine straightened instantly, and the tip poked his arm.

This is a safe signal.

Horst calmed down at the entrance of the ladder, gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and carefully poked his head out of the hole.

The strange sight in front of him made him hold his breath subconsciously, and his mind went blank.

An underground space the size of a basketball court.

There were a lot of debris piled around the site, reflecting writhing shadows.

In the center of the site is a water outlet with a diameter of two to three meters. Surrounding the water outlet, four huge braziers are currently lit.

The brazier raised green flames, lighting up the underground space.

Make the whole space become evil.

At least fifty or sixty groups of black shadows formed a circle around the outlet.

They were all the mice with human faces that I had seen at Viscount Star's house.

The rat is much smaller than a human, but it has a human head. However, it has a face that is clearly human, but has a pair of blood-red rat eyes. It exudes an aura of bloodthirsty and madness, making it look extremely weird.

These rat-sized monsters were kneeling in a circle like humans, chanting incomprehensible prayers, and kneeling in rhythm with the drain in the center.

Within the four brazier circles are three human-faced rats wearing cloaks and holding wooden staffs.

The three monsters stood like humans, jumping left and right around the drain frequently. Their claws holding wooden staffs were raised in the air from time to time, and their postures were twisted and weird, as if they were dancing an evil dance.

Dirty environment, twisted monsters, weird rituals...

However, the shock that these combined gave Horst was not as strong as the other thing.

It was a life-size statue as tall as one person.

The crouching, twisted body was covered with hair, and its square face and big mouth were as ugly as a toad.

In a way that defies common sense in physics, the huge statue is suspended directly above the drain. A strange light shines down from the top of the statue and passes through the drain to the lower level.

It's just a statue.

However, whether it was an illusion or not, the statue's eyes suddenly opened.

His gaze shot through the darkness to where Horst was lurking in the shadows.

Everyone, if you can contribute to the first order, please contribute to the first order, and if you can conquer the follow-up order, please help me. Thank you all.