Chapter 1282: Section 1283: The Living and the Dead
Lyon pushed the door open.
A not-too-long staircase was revealed, leading to a high platform with railings enclosed by iron doors on both sides.
When Angel reached the railing and looked down, his expression instantly froze.
People!
A dense crowd of people!
In the vast underground cellar, it was filled with people!
...
These people were clad in rags. From the unique patterns on the rags, one could infer that they were once the garments of servants.
Among them, some female servants could still be recognized by the hems of their maid dresses, but now, they were nearly naked, their pale flesh starkly eye-catching.
Yet even so, there was not a hint of charm.
For they were all emaciated, with just a thin layer of skin over their bones. At a glance, it was as if one had entered the dungeon of the most severe slave owner.
The stench, the horror, and the palpitations.
Originally, these people moved very slowly, striking various strange poses, their expressions dull. But when Angel and the others came in, perhaps smelling the “human” scent, they all raised their heads, looking up at the high platform.
Upon seeing Angel and his group,
their eyes changed in an instant!
From lifeless to crazed, from ashen to blood-red, their expressions turning from stagnant to frenzied and frenetic, like a beast starved for an entire winter, mad with hunger upon waking to face food.
A pair of eyes, glowing blood-red, watched from the darkness. It was as if one had entered a damp cave and seen a swarm of bats ready to devour blood.
Before Angel could take a closer look at their faces, screams, roars, and eerie laughs suddenly mixed together, and pairs of gaunt hands reached up, clawing towards the high platform where Angel and the others stood.
Like the frenzied worshippers dancing for an evil god.
“Blood, blood… Give me blood!”, “The scent of the living, hee hee hee.”, “Kill them, kill them all!”
All the people became agitated, squeezing towards the front, but the iron doors on either side of the platform were locked; they couldn’t push through and could only bang desperately on the door latches.
The people in the back didn’t know what was happening at the front and kept pressing forward, causing constant cracking sounds; these were the sounds of bones breaking.
Some overly crazed people even started attacking those around them.
While Angel was stunned, he saw several dismembered limbs flung upwards, the blood spurting like a fountain onto them, and in the light of the red glow in their eyes, it looked even more bizarre and terrifying.
“These people are all servants from the manor. However, the incident half a month ago exposed them to the red light, turning them into what they are now.” Lyon’s eyes showed pity. Among these people, most had served the manor all their lives; some had watched the brothers grow up, while others had been companions from childhood. But now, they had all turned into such a ghastly sight.
“Those are the foods I put in there. I come here once a day, but none of them will eat anything, not even the bloody ones. They seem to only react to human blood, but where am I supposed to find human blood?” Lyon said, “They haven’t eaten anything for a full half-month, starving into skin and bones. Yet strangely, they are still alive, even those missing arms and legs didn’t die.”
“They only get excited when they see living people, like the Corpse Ghosts in legends.”
“Not human, not ghost,” Lyon’s eyes were watery, his voice choked, “Sometimes I really want to set a fire to end their suffering, but then I think there might still be a sliver of hope if they’re alive.”
Lyon turned his head to look at Angel, “Angel, is there any way you can save them?”
Angel quietly watched the struggling, writhing figures below, trying to put aside all external emotions, observing the people beneath closely.
Seeing their agile movements, Angel had thought that at least their bodies still retained some vitality. But this was not the case; their bodily functions had all ceased, and except for the ability to move, they were basically dead bodies.
Yet oddly enough, they weren’t decaying, and it seemed as if there was some energy in their brains, protecting the very limit of their remaining life essence.
Seeing that Angel was silent for a long time, Lyon seemed to understand something and was momentarily lost in thought, “As I feared, there’s no hope for them, is there?”
Angel’s expression was also somber, but he really didn’t know how to save them. He could only look to Sanders for help, but Sanders stood aside, his gaze flickering from time to time as if deep in thought and he didn’t notice Angel’s look.
Angel pondered a moment, “Lord Red, should have a way, right?”
“`
Lyon shook his head, “Previously, Mentor Suise told me that to save them is to kill them.”
Lyon didn’t understand what this meant and thought the Mentor meant that since they were already in such a state, saving them would be less merciful than granting them a quick death.
“Suise isn’t wrong, saving them indeed equates to killing them.” At this point, Sanders, who had been silent all along, finally spoke. He took out his wand, gently tapped the void, and a strange ripple diffused. The next second, the crowd in the underground cellar suddenly quieted down.
“They maintain their current viability because there is a mysterious force of Crimson Authority in their brains. To make them regain consciousness, that power must be expelled, but once it is expelled, they would lose their source of viability and would die immediately.” Sanders paused, “They are bound to die anyway, either now by expelling that power, or later when the force that maintains their viability naturally dissipates. It’s just a matter of time before they cannot escape death.”
Sanders’s words seemed to serve as a death notice for these people.
It also completely devastated Lyon. As the Viscount of Gru Town, faced with his own citizens, faced with the people who grew up with him, incapable of rescuing them, this kind of pain is incomprehensible to others.
To Sanders, the life and death of these people did not seem to matter; once he had concluded his point, he began pondering the effects of the Crimson Authority, “It seems that the mysterious force in their brains is the key to the truth.”
Sanders looked at Angel, “Perhaps, if you had initially been dragged into the Abyss of Corruption, you would have ended up like them.”
Angel closed his eyes, suppressing the emotions threatening to erupt, and tried to catch up with Sanders’s train of thought, “So, the effect of the Crimson Authority, is it merely to drive them mad?”
After a pause, Angel added, “Irreversible madness.”
Sanders shook his head, “If we want to know, we need to conduct an energy measurement experiment. However, it’s difficult to measure a mysterious force, and I cannot be certain of the final result. Ideally, we’d have more information.”
Sanders looked at Lyon, who was still in the throes of grief. After a long silence, waiting for Lyon to calm down slightly, he asked, “Do you remember how they behaved right after they were first eroded by the red light?”
Lyon responded somewhat sluggishly, “They were the same as they are now, showing a bloodthirsty and mad response whenever they saw a living person. However, at that time, they wouldn’t become quiet; they would be frantic even when no one was around. Perhaps after being confined in the cellar for some time, they gradually became quiet.”
“Becoming quiet is due to the self-extinguishing nature of the mysterious power, reducing consumption when it cannot actively absorb external energy is a common characteristic of certain special energies,” Sanders explained. “Besides that, was there any other abnormality?”
Lyon shook his head, “No more…” But as soon as he had spoken, he seemed to remember something else, “Wait, there is something else. They followed Lady Eulica’s lead, wherever Lady Eulica went, they would follow, like attendants.”
This point made by Lyon caused Sanders’s gaze to flicker briefly.
“Could it be Puppetisation?”
Sanders recalled that in the royal court of the Gumman Kingdom, from the highest to the lowest, the loyalty was extreme. Even though King Gumman was greatly tyrannical, there was never any dissent within the royal court. Could it be that it was because of the Crimson Authority, turning them into Puppets?
But real puppets are easy to identify, like the ones in Zithraide’s antique shop that, even though they had human souls, could be spotted at a glance. Perhaps, the effect of the Crimson Authority was not just simple Puppetisation.
Could it be something like a soul imprint?
“But if that’s truly the effect, why was Eulica herself affected?” Sanders pondered with some confusion.
Angel explained the answer, “There is a ‘Blood Origin Restoration’ Magical Energy Array on the Crimson Authority, and as far as I know, this array is still active. This means the true master of the Crimson Authority is not Eulica.”
That being said, there was still a question: Although Eulica was not the master, she was the user. Knowing the danger of the Crimson Authority, how could she possibly use it on herself?
“It seems we still need to get some answers from Suise,” Sanders surmised.
The topic came to an end, and Sanders didn’t continue further, while Angel turned his attention to Lyon, who was still in a state of confusion, his eyes devoid of any spark.
Angel looked down at the quiet crowd below. Although they were emaciated to the point of being skeletal, he could still make out some familiar faces from their contours.
He saw Gran, the gardener who was closest to his mother, Dink, the physician who had learned Earth medicine from Jon, the mid-yard female knight Swoki who taught Lyon knightly skills, and the Shepherd Frandu, who grew up with the two brothers.
Every familiar face tugged at Angel’s heartstrings.
Angel couldn’t bear to look anymore, he closed his eyes and breathed steadily, trying to quell the discomfort in his heart with the rhythm of his breaths.
After a while, Angel opened his eyes and looked at his brother Lyon:
“Mentor Jon is okay, right?”
Lyon numbly nodded, “Jon is protected by a barrier set up by Mentor Suise, and Subi is keeping watch beside him. He wasn’t affected.”
“What about Ollie, and the Head Maid Mana?”
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