Nightmare Assault

Chen Ran’s reaction was intriguing. He held the cup, but he didn’t drink from it. He swirled it occasionally, showing more interest in the cup than the man’s story. No one minded Chen Ran. Jiang Cheng was deep in thought. Fatty was greatly drawn into the golden-haired man’s story.

With a deep breath, the man’s emotions slowly calmed down. Even though it was a long time ago, the memory of it was still fresh in his mind.

“All dead…” Jiang Cheng repeated to himself.

The golden-haired man paused and looked at the darkness around them. Eventually, he said coolly, “If only they were just dead.”

Fatty pressed his lips. He predicted what happened next. Jiang Cheng took a quiet sip of the bitter wine. He put the cup down and asked, “What do you mean?”

“When we wanted to approach the stone plate to take back the corpses of our friends and family, something happened,” The golden-haired man answered, “We were attacked.”

“By… the dead?”

The man looked at Jiang Cheng. He wanted to glean something from his eyes, but he failed, “That’s right. They somehow came back to life and attacked us madly.

“Less than one-third of us managed to escape. The scariest thing was after they killed us, they brought the fresh corpses and placed them on the stone plate.” The golden-haired man’s breathing became urgent again. “You can’t imagine it. Some of us were practically torn apart. The revived villagers were immeasurably powerful. They could tear through the human bodies with their bare hands.

“Plus… the broken bodies somehow were reanimated not long after they were placed on the stone plate. Their wounds disappeared as if they were never there to begin with.”

“How does that relate to the building you built?” Chen Ran looked right at the man, “I don’t get it.”

Fatty swallowed nervously, “Can the building… repel certain things?”

“No.” The golden-haired man shook his head, “A priest helped us build that place. The priest’s ship sank near the island. The priest was the sole survivor. We found the priest on a wooden board near the sea.

“The priest was supposed to go on a mission on the other side of the ocean. After we shared the things that happened inside the forest, the priest said this was predestined. The reason the divine spared his follower was because the divine wanted the priest to come to us.

“The priest said that the stone plate in the forest was an altar. It is used to serve a creature of deep misfortune slumbering in the deep sea. However, the priest said… it might have already awakened.

“The revived people… were the products of its curse. If this continued, none of us would survive. We were too weak to resist it. We had to build a great building and borrow the power of the church to fight it and undo the curse.”

Church… Fatty thought back to the building. Even though he didn’t get it, the place did match his idea of a great cathedral.

“It looks like that didn’t work,” Jiang Cheng said directly. He looked around. This strange city on the sea was these people’s last sanctuary. Plus… they didn’t see any priests.

“We built the building as requested,” The man looked down the distance. “As long… as long as the lighthouse’s fire keeps burning, we’ll find salvation.

“But… on that last day! Something happened to the priest…

“The priest was killed by the devil!” The golden-haired man’s eyes shrivelled with fear. “No. It was more than that. The devil ate the priest!”

Devil… Fatty remembered the last time the mayor used this term, and it was to describe a newborn child in the child.

“That was not a child. It was the devil!” The man growled, “It ate the priest! Everything we had done to counter the curse was wasted! The devil first killed its parents. Due to sympathy, the priest took it in. However, while the priest was breastfeeding the devil…”

“Wait!” Both Chen Ran and Jiang Cheng stopped him at the same time. “The priest is a lady?!”

The man was shocked as if this had never been an issue. He nodded. “Yes. The priest was a lady. The devil took advantage of her motherly instinct and then ate her.”

Chen Ran glanced at Jiang Cheng before nodding at the golden-haired man, “Noted. Please continue.”

After a long time, the man walked out of his memory. For a moment, he seemed to age a lot. He leaned forward to look into his empty cup.

“After the priest died, the lighthouse went out. The curse exploded. The land crashed, and the sea level rose. Our original town was taken over by the curse, and it became a city floating on the city.

“We live our lives in the black mist and cannot see the sun again. We have to hide in the darkness and fog. We can only leave for shore when the black mist envelopes the land.”

“In other words, you can only see us and move onto the land when the black mist takes over the whole area?” Jiang Cheng asked.

“Yes.”

“Then, how does the world look like when it’s daytime for us?”

“It’s a world of black mist. The mist covers our small city on all sides. We’re surrounded by the sea, but it is not the sea. No one dares to enter the sea because those who tried had all disappeared. We could only use the most traditional methods to fish for some seafood to maintain our lives.” The man glanced at the plates on the table. He said with sadness, “These are the best we can offer.”

Jiang Cheng and the rest looked around. Other than their table, the other tables only had a few plates of seafood. Some of them didn’t even look like normal fish.

Life was very hard for these people.

“Then, what about the thing… in the forest…” Before Fatty could finish, he was interrupted by the golden-haired man. He sounded relaxed for the first time. “We’ll have to thank the priest for that.”