In the stuffy and cold basement, the atmosphere that had been romantic and awkward now turned into a gripping horror.
Chloe felt a strange vibration in the air. This sudden bad premonition instantly made her hair stand on end.
Outside, the groaning sounds of the undead, which had been just a distant background hum, now sounded closer, more numerous, turning into a horrifying chorus of hunger that seemed to make the stone walls around them vibrate.
Chloe's face instantly turned deathly pale, her wide eyes filled with fear as she unconsciously hugged Bill's arm.
Bill just stood still, his face expressionless.
Chloe looked at him, and in the reflection of Bill's dark eyes, she could see the shadow of the silver censer hanging on the wall.
She noticed as the pulsing purple light on the bone carvings on the censer's surface became faster, more frantic, now beating in sync with the sound of hundreds of undead feet running on the streets above them.
The dark purple smoke that had been billowing thinly now gushed out thickly, filling the room with a cold and piercing ozone scent.
At that moment, in the middle of the censer, a blinding white point of light suddenly appeared.
The light grew larger at a terrifying speed, swallowing all the purple color, all shadows, and all sounds, until the entire basement was bathed in an absolute white light that was deafening.
***
Far from there, Henri suddenly felt a bad premonition. He felt a wave of pressure in the air, as if a massive storm was about to explode right above his head.
The air around him felt increasingly terrifying, heavy and full of uncontrollable energy.
At that moment, a massive explosion, which produced no fire but a pure white energy wave, erupted from the direction of the basement.
The place where his two friends were!
The explosion was silent, just a total void that swallowed everything, before finally a tremendous rumbling sound tore through the silence, destroying the inn and everything around it.
Henri, who was far enough away, widened his eyes as he saw the building vanish in the blink of an eye.
He stood frozen, staring at the plume of dust and smoke now billowing high into the night sky.
"Chloe... Bill..."
Instantly, his paralysis broke.
At that moment, he immediately rushed there, thinking of nothing, just running with all his might, his feet stumbling over debris and ruins. But he didn't care.
He kept running, running, and running. When he arrived there, he could only stand still and stare with a blank gaze.
All the buildings around the place no longer remained, leaving only a large smoking crater in the ground.
Everything had been destroyed.
He walked into the crater. His steps stiff and limp like a wooden puppet. His wild eyes looked left and right with a painful expression.
At that moment, he suddenly stopped and looked down. Amid the dust and ash, among the fragments of charred wood, lay something gleaming.
It wasn't remnants of human bodies, nor pieces of clothing, just two simple silver rings lying close together, as if untouched by the tremendous explosion.
Henri suddenly fell, his knees hitting the hard ground. His violently trembling hand reached out, approaching the two rings.
As his fingertip touched the metal that still felt warm, his tears finally fell, dripping onto the rings with a soft hiss.
***
Arthur, who was walking, at that moment suddenly felt something.
A brief vibration in the ground beneath his feet, and a gust of wind that somehow felt painful as it touched his skin.
He looked up at the sky, narrowing his eyes as he saw a faint white flash on the distant horizon.
He opened his mouth, but not a single word came out.
He just stood there, staring in the direction of the explosion in silence.
***
Furina, who was running toward where she first saw her friend, Arthur, suddenly stopped as she heard a faint but so powerful explosion sound.
She turned and put on a shocked face.
A terrifying white light pillar billowed high into the sky from the direction she had just left!
That was the place where the two strangers were!
Her shocked face slowly turned sad. She felt a strange loss for two strangers she had just met.
***
Charles, who had just stored his sword back into the inventory, suddenly shifted his gaze to the bright light that suddenly appeared in the sky.
That was the direction where the undead that had surrounded him ran!
He didn't put on a shocked face.
Instead, he just narrowed his eyes.
***
In the midst of the crater of destruction, not far from there, a human silhouette suddenly appeared from behind the ruins, as if unaffected at all by the explosion.
He stood in silence, staring at Henri's back shaking violently from sobs.
After a few moments, he looked down, picking up a gold coin lying among the dust.
At that moment, he suddenly smiled.
"Thank you for your hard work," he said softly, his voice almost swallowed by the wind's howl.
He bowed politely toward Henri, as if giving respect to an actor who had just completed his role well.
Then, he turned.
The wind suddenly blew stronger, lifting dust and sand, obscuring his back from view.
When the sand settled again, the back was no longer visible.
He had vanished.
At that moment, Henri widened his eyes upon hearing the echo of that voice, somehow feeling so familiar.
He immediately turned, but found no one there, leaving only himself alone.
***
A/N: Alright, it seems two or three chapters left to end volume 2! Glad to know you're following this story up to this point!
Btw, I'm still expecting comments!
If you want to read the 7 advanced chapters with a faster update frequency than the webnovel, you can read it on my patreon whose link is below:
https://www.pâtreon.com/Junxt
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