Episode 445 The Fall of the Usher Family (5)
Usher for Madeline.
She took all the remaining members of the God Sniper Team and went in pursuit of Tudor and Bianca.
After riding her horse across a bridge over a swamp, she soon came to the foot of a steep mountain.
[Leave your horse and climb the mountain. It doesn’t matter if you kill Tudor, but you must capture Bianca.] Madeline
lost her temper in anger and couldn’t even think of hiding her original voice anymore.
From the mouth that was torn down to the bottom of the ear, a sound like the howling of an animal caught in a trap came out.
The pupils, each turned in a strange direction after being hit by an arrow between the eyebrows, stood vertically and sharply, like those of reptiles.
Once leading the era of destruction at the forefront and making countless contributions as the vanguard of the destruction of mankind, the strongman of the demon army was slowly revealing its true color.
Puff deuk –
Every time Madeline moved the hem of her puffy dress, there was a sound like a bird’s feathers being rubbed.
[It smells. The smell of young, fresh meat…]
Madeline was climbing the mountain faster than anyone else.
A pile of rocks and fallen leaves. A smell dotted with the tip of a pointed tree branch.
Madeline was chasing after the bloodstains that Bianca had spilled as she ran away.
[Hohohoho- I must have been in a hurry. As long as he ran away without even
getting rid of the smell.] It was evident from the growing number of traces that the prey was gradually losing its composure.
Saliva such as sweat and saliva that fell on the floor.
Among them, the most obvious smell is, of course, blood.
Not only did the shed blood go away without covering it with fallen leaves or soil, but there were clear traces of footprints and hair everywhere.
Broken branches and stray grass also clearly indicated the direction in which the prey had fled.
[Finally goodbye to this rotting bitch. Ho-ho-ho- As soon as I change my body, the first thing I have to do is to smash this wriggling body with a whip. I’ve been really frustrated and fed up with it.]
Madeline arrived at the ridge with a smile on her face.
Before long, you can see the lake area on the other side of the mountain.
Lake Dog Lake.
It is the largest lake in the area, along with the marshes surrounding the Usher mansion.
Madeline and Usher’s pursuers left the woods and headed for Lake Dog Lake.
Then what they saw was a somewhat unexpected sight.
[…?]
It was a heap of stones and mud piled high on the shore of a lake that had turned into a desolate field.
Where there should have been a lake, it was dry without water.
The water has completely disappeared due to continuous forest fires and drought.
[But was the drought this severe?]
The bottom of the lake was strangely dry.
It wouldn’t have been if the water level was lowering, but it would be strange if it split like this to the bottom of the lake.
There was a bit of water in the puddles here and there, and I could see large fish huddled there.
…with a plop! Wood deok!
Madeline reached into the puddle and caught a large catfish, chewing it up and swallowing it raw.
[It’s strange. No matter how severe the drought, the water in Lake Dog didn’t dry up… ho ho ho- I wonder if the era of destruction that is coming soon will be that harsh?] Madeline threw the
catfish she was chewing on the floor and turned her head to the horizon. I looked over at the glowing crimson flames.
Wildfires spreading far and wide are, of course, not common natural disasters.
All natural disasters, such as drought, forest fires, and monster outbreaks are only precursors.
It was a natural phenomenon and the flow of condensed magical energy that was being held up to open a huge dimensional portal in the sky.
[……gate. The door to destruction will open soon!]
The demons, frustrated by the continued disappearance of their comrades, decided to open the door to the Demon World a little earlier, which they were supposed to open only ten years later.
It was also for this reason that the civil war in the Empire broke out earlier than expected.
[For that time, I have to quickly change my body into something young and fresh.]
Madeleine felt her body heat up as she remembered the many plans she would make after taking over Bianca’s body.
[Ah, first of all, I have to make a lot of children! How delicious are the children made of my flesh and blood! My mouth is already watering.]
She quickly went down to the bottom of the lake and made her way towards the center.
Passing between the towering stones and mounds of earth and entering the interior, the desolate landscape of the interior comes into view.
Whii-i-i-ing-
At that moment, a damp wind blew from somewhere.
[……!]
Madeleine’s expression changed as she turned her head away wanting something.
I have an ominous feeling in my head.
When I looked back between the piles of stones I had just passed through, the road I had been walking on had changed a little.
Madeline’s eyes narrowed slightly.
[Oh, my God. Will you deal with me with Jin?]
Yes.
These piles of stones piled up on the bottom of the lake are the walls that form a labyrinth one by one.
And the roads in between draw strange shapes as a whole.
If you walk this road, you will naturally suffer from hallucinations and illusions, and furthermore, you will completely lose your sense of direction and get stuck in them.
It was similar to the structure inside the mansion of the Usher family, where Bianca’s brainwashing was triggered, but the method was much more complicated.
[Hohohoho-I’m also a member of the Usher family. Are you going to fight the truth? It’s cute~]
Despite being caught in a trap, Madeline was very relaxed.
When I looked around, it was a situation where strange stones that rose like knives and soil and rocks piled up like a wall completely surrounded the surroundings.
Madeline’s eyes twinkle with an evil light.
[Hehe… that’s quite right. Isn’t it exactly the same shape as the eight stars drawn on the map of hell? Is this the work of Belial and Dantalian? Did those bastards betray and join the human side?]
But that couldn’t be the case.
Didn’t Belial and Dantalian already disappear in the first place?
However, the Jin in front of me was definitely a trap Belial and Dantalian used during large-scale wars.
It is unknown how a mere human reproduced it.
[Who is it? Is Bianca that bitch? No, there’s no way a human being could imitate the devil’s tactics this well. Huh…]
Madeleine, who was a bit worried, smiled.
[What are you doing? It has nothing to do with me. Because this body is not affected by the truth. In the first place, Belial and Dantalian had already heard the structure of this Jin. Then, shall we destroy it in an instant?]
The other party must have set this trap to buy time.
However, Madeline thought to herself that she could not fall into such a low maze when she not only absorbed all the Usher family’s knowledge of the method, but also knew the method of the demons.
[I’ll make it all a fuss.]
Madeline raised her head triumphantly.
[Hu(休) Life(生) Sang(傷) Du(杜) Gyeong(景) Death(死) Gyeong(驚) Dog(開). Among the eight gates of Jin, if you go to Life, Gyeong, and Open, you will live; Was it?]
Madeline knew very well which was the bow and which was the death route.
It was a very famous tactic even among demons.
[Ho-ho-ho- It’s like scribbles on the street, which are extremely effective for those who don’t know the method, but are nothing to those who know them well. Efforts are imaginary, but futile!]
Madeleine triumphantly stepped forward and broke through the path of the Jinbeop.
……But at that moment.
[Huh?]
Madeline found Maggie’s head lying on the floor.
It was a catfish in the puddle that Madeline had eaten near the entrance to the camp.
For some reason, she was back in the area where the maze first started.
Of course, the exit is still invisible.
[It can’t be?]
Madeline moved right away.
I went out through the gates of life, Gyeongmun, and Gaemun, which I knew were the escape routes, but the same scene was still repeated.
I was prepared to get hurt just in case, and went out to the upper gate, the upper gate, and the lower gate, but the result was the same.
Rather, there was only confusion in my head, as if the heavens and the earth were turned upside down.
Even so, he did not have the courage to enter the head gate and the death gate where the route of death was certain.
[what? Wasn’t this for sale? If that’s the case, is it right to go out like this? Huh?]
The line drawn in black blood on the floor was distracting Madeline.
There is no hole to escape from around, only more and more dense walls are visible.
[…Now that this has happened, we have no choice but to advance towards the center of the lake? Hmm. There is a guy who knows the devil’s true method. Who are you? Could it be that demon hunter who kills his comrades? But he must have been imprisoned in Nouvelle Vague?]
However, the further the troubles continued, the further forward the field of vision only grew darker.
Madeline was brought to the deepest part of the gin with half of her own will and half of her other.
There stood a bare tree with a small torch hanging from it, and at the base of it stood a message written in black blood.
Madeline held back her rising anger and impatience and walked toward the tree.
Before long, the words written on the floor in the middle of the maze caught Madeline’s attention.
-Devils die under this tree-
The moment Madeline saw the words, she gnashed her teeth.
[Where do you dare to provoke cheap provocations…!]
But. It wasn’t just a provocation to spoil the mood.
Madeline quickly realized that.
…slam!
The sound of something heavy pushing in and hitting a huge rock.
The dry,
cracked floor trembled loudly, and stone fragments and dried mud dust rose up.
[……!?]
Madeleine’s expression crumpled terribly.
Now I understand why the bottom of Lake Dog was so parched.
Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!
water attack.
A huge current of water was rushing in from far away.
