hooklinebooks Chapter 66 "Would saying it this way make you feel better?"
Chapter 66 "Would saying it this way make you feel better?"
Chapter 66 "Would saying it this way make you feel better?"
"There's nothing that one fireball can't solve; if there is, then two will do."
"Even if you say that—" Rod said, squinting, "it doesn't seem to be a problem."
"Hmm?" Milan's gaze pierced through the rising smoke and landed on the monster nailed to the wall.
Even as it was scorched by the flames, the enormous body continued to writhe and struggle under their watchful eyes.
"Its vitality is really tenacious." Milan couldn't help but frown.
"Yes, but apart from its recovery ability, it's too weak in other aspects," Rhodes said with a hint of regret.
Upon closer inspection, one can see that this monster is simply resilient in its vitality. Its strength and attack methods are far less terrifying than its size suggests, and its intelligence is only slightly higher than that of goblins.
"roar-
'
Seeing that the arrows piercing the monster's body were just beginning to loosen, Rhodes immediately and cautiously fired a few more arrows.
Now it was completely unable to break free from its restraints.
"roar----"
Its indistinct, gurgling roars continued to echo in my ears, making it impossible to discern any complete words.
"What is it saying?" Rod turned his head to look at Milan.
"What do you take me for, a druid?" Milan smirked and couldn't help but complain.
What kind of nonsense is it for me, a dignified mage, to be a monster translator for a wandering knight?
It's really strange no matter how you look at it.
But looking into his eyes, which were full of thirst for knowledge, Milan found it hard to refuse.
"Sigh—" She took out a handful of salt, lightly touched the gem on her staff with her fingertips, and a soft purple light enveloped both herself and Rhodes.
This time, the spell was cast with much more skill, and it was successful very quickly.
"Listen to yourself," Milan said impatiently, waving her hand.
Rhodes felt the noisy growls in his ears immediately transform into stumbling, chaotic, and painful sounds, and he gradually began to understand their meaning.
What a wonderful experience! I wish he could learn it too.
"I'm so sorry I don't know this kind of magic—" Alina, in the consciousness space, noticed his thoughts and said abruptly.
"Hmm?" Rod asked, puzzled, but Alina remained silent.
Seeing that she didn't move, Rhodes had no choice but to refocus his attention on the monster in front of him.
"Grasp----"
"It hurts—it hurts so much—Master—please stop cutting me—"
"Please, please let me go—I can bring you more—more people—"
"I will capture more humans—all of them for you—for your experiments—"
The intermittent pleas drifted into their ears along with the roars, and Rod and Milan exchanged a glance.
"Sure enough, that corpse is related to them." Milan said solemnly, thinking of the strange corpse they had discovered earlier.
They rely on splicing together the flesh and blood of different species and using dark magic to modify living beings for human experiments, and they continue to capture villagers to use as experimental subjects.
"So, besides those we just saw, all the people who were captured earlier were also transported there to be used as test subjects?" Rhodes asked, stroking his chin.
"No wonder there were almost no obvious corpses or severed limbs in the village, only bloodstains, because their mission was not to hunt and kill, but to capture the villagers alive."
"That makes sense now."
"What do we do now?" Milan gently nudged him to interrupt him, seeing that he was engrossed in his reasoning.
"Hmm—" Rod snapped back to reality. "If it can talk, it should be able to communicate too, right?"
"I'll try to find out the location of their nest and such from it first. As for you—" Rod glanced at Milan, "why don't you go and settle the others in?"
Having made these arrangements, Rhodes squatted down to the side and, taking advantage of his language skills, enthusiastically posed various questions, patiently communicating with it to extract more useful information and intelligence.
"This guy—" Milan listened for a short while before turning and leaving.
It was like an adult coaxing a child.
For someone like her who hates nonsense, staying even a moment longer is a waste of life.
Before long, Don Quixote and Susanna arrived with all the elderly, women, and children who had taken refuge in the cave.
Everything was normal on their side. Just as Rhodes had predicted, there were hardly any monsters around; they had all been wiped out in the previous battle.
Upon seeing their relatives and friends who had been rescued from the wooden cages previously imprisoned by the monsters, they embraced each other and wept with joy.
"My God, you're still alive!"
"They're back, they're back—"
Cheers mingled with long-suppressed sobs echoed among the ruins, but many people looked around, unable to find their loved ones, and could only huddle alone in a corner, silently wiping away their tears.
Don Quixote, carrying his greatsword, stood guard around the crowd, enjoying being surrounded and thanked by them.
Meanwhile, Susanna, the priestess, moved among the villagers, constantly waving her staff to provide healing and soothe their emotions.
Once the group of villagers was completely settled and the two groups of villagers had reunited, Rhodes also finished questioning the monster, stood up, and dusted off the charred ash from his clothes.
He had pried the exact location of their lair from the monsters' mouths: an abandoned quarry cave on the west side of the village.
"Oh, right, I also found this inside its body." Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Rhodes pulled out an adventurer's certificate the size of a palm.
"What does it say?" Milan walked over and couldn't help but ask, looking at the blurry writing.
"It seems to be—Bill?" Rod thought for a moment, then asked the surrounding villagers, "Does anyone know a guy named Bill?"
The words had barely left his lips when a tremor ran through the crowd. One person stepped forward, their face deathly pale: "Bill? That adventurer Bill who always haggles over prices when buying mountain goods?"
"He came to the village a few days ago to collect herbs and wild fruits. He left the village that same evening after finishing his business, and we all thought he had gone far away!"
"I see. So it's actually possible to turn a person into a monster using such a crude method—" Upon hearing this, Rhodes pondered, "Magic is truly amazing."
During his previous research, he had already discovered various human structures on the other person, and some of the suturing methods were exactly the same as those on the previous corpse.
However, out of a sense of rigor, no conclusion was drawn directly.
"Warrior, what do you mean by this?" Hearing Rhodes's words, one of the bolder men couldn't help but ask, "You mean—this monster before us is Bill?"
"Yes, this monster should be the Bill you know," Rod thought for a moment and added, "or rather, he has become a part of this monster?"
Considering the monster's size and intelligence, as well as the proportion of other monsters, Rhodes couldn't say for sure how much of the original Bill was left; he could only give a rough estimate.
These words immediately caused an uproar among the surrounding villagers, and a cacophony of discussion erupted instantly.
"Oh my god!"
"How could humans turn into monsters?!"
"Could Bill have always been a monster? Did it already have its eyes on us when it first came to the village?"
After the initial uproar subsided, everyone's gaze fell upon the giant, modified monster pinned to the charred earthen wall by arrows.
The mere thought of this terrifying monster, covered in lumps of flesh and blood, constantly oozing foul-smelling black liquid, being none other than Bill, the merchant who had come into the village just days before to haggle with everyone and take away their mountain goods and medicinal herbs, sent chills down the villagers' spines, and they instinctively took a large step back.
Several younger children hid behind the adults and, seeing its twisting, ferocious body, burst into tears. Their cries amplified the fear they had been experiencing.
"No, everyone, don't overthink it," the old man who had dealt with Bill for many years and led the village in selling herbs said, suppressing his fear as he reassured the crowd. "Bill might just have been eaten by this terrible monster, who knows?"
As he spoke, he mustered his courage and took two steps forward, squinting to carefully examine the half of its face that had been burned and mutilated by the flames.
Beneath the charred flesh, one could vaguely see the outline of the other's facial features when it was once human. Looking at its distinctive flat nose and buttock-like jawline, he was absolutely certain that the monster in front of him was probably the merchant who always tried to rip them off by undercutting their prices.
"It really is Bill—" The old man's voice trembled, and his legs went weak as he stood in front of it, almost collapsing. "How could such a good person have become such a grotesque figure—"
The moment those words left his mouth, the modified monster Bill on the wall sensed his approach, felt the fear of its prey, and its bloodshot eyes suddenly flashed with ferocity.
Even though his limbs had been severed by Rhodes and he could only struggle up and down in vain, he still screamed wildly in a hoarse and broken voice.
"Humans—human beings—capture them—and offer them to their masters—"
It twisted its body desperately, its remaining regenerated flesh frantically wrapping around the arrow shaft, determined to break free and pounce on the villagers in front of it.
"Dedicated to the master—received a reward—"
"What a nuisance—" Milan stood to the side, staff in hand, the flame magic at her fingertips slowly fading as she quietly observed the scene before her, lost in thought.
Susanna covered her mouth, tears welling in her eyes, her heart filled with sorrow and unbearable pain. She sighed softly, "She was once an ordinary person—what kind of cruel torture did she suffer to be transformed into a monster without a self, who only knows how to hunt its own kind?"
Don Quixote gripped his greatsword tightly, the clatter of his armor against it producing a dull clang. His expression was resolute, and he declared righteously, "No matter who's behind this, we will personally destroy this evil and terrifying lair! We will never let anyone else suffer the same fate as these pathetic beings!"
However, when it came to how to deal with the monster who was once human, the group inevitably had some disagreements.
Looking at the monster that was constantly howling and struggling, Susanna still felt a trace of pity: "He was originally an innocent villager and merchant, but he was manipulated and modified by a dark sorcerer—it would be too cruel to kill him."
"Can't we find a way to cure him and restore him to normal?" she asked Milan for help.
"Yes, that is indeed a problem," Milan paused, "The Arcane Society is also helpless about it. We have always had disagreements on how to deal with groups affected by dark magic."
"Most of the effects of black magic are irreversible. Often, even when we know the other party is innocent, we have no other choice."
“Yes,” Rod stepped forward, calmly examining Bill’s ever-growing, deformed flesh, and explained, “Judging from its words and actions, it has long since lost its human consciousness.”
He pointed to the monster's frantic attack on the villagers and continued, "It actively captures its own kind, willingly sending living people to its lair for cruel experiments. All its actions are in active service to the mastermind behind it all."
"What sustains his existence is only the monstrous instinct to prey on the living; the part that originally belonged to Bill is long gone."
"Keeping it alive is hardly merciful," Rod paused, his voice steady and clear, reaching the ears of everyone around him. "Once you loosen its grip, it will immediately break free and attack innocent people again, repeating this tragedy."
"Killing him would be a relief, a release for his soul trapped within this monster's body."
At this point, Rhodes glanced at their expressions and asked with concern, "Will saying this make you feel better?"
"—Don't say the last sentence out loud!" Alina couldn't help but shout from within the consciousness space.
"Oh," Rhodes responded, then continued, "Are we really going to risk the lives of all the villagers to keep a monster that only knows how to capture and harm its own kind alive?"
"Should we not kill him, but instead let him continue his evil deeds, perpetuating this cruelty and tragedy?"
Don Quixote nodded slightly, agreeing with Rhodes's statement, and slammed his greatsword heavily into the ground: "The ranger is right! It has become a tool for harming its own kind, and even if it is pitiful—we will absolutely not show any mercy!"
Susanna pursed her lips, watching Bill's painful yet ferocious roars, and fell silent, her pity tinged with helplessness.
Milan leaned against the broken wall and calmly echoed Rhodes, "The black magic transformation has completely corrupted his mind; there's no way to salvage it. Keeping him around is a disaster; getting rid of him is the only way to solve the problem once and for all."
Bill on the wall couldn't understand their argument, only repeating his roars over and over again about capturing humans and offering them to his master.
The proliferating sarcoma caused endless pain to tear and heal, clinging to this body that no longer belonged to humanity.
All Rod could do was end its suffering as soon as possible.
After the head was completely pierced and severed, the massive, wildly writhing body suddenly stiffened, the tumors covering its entire body stopped writhing, and its bloodshot eyes quickly lost their luster and drooped heavily.
The continuous, agonizing screams abruptly ceased, and there was no further sound.
Once he confirmed that all signs of life had vanished, Rhodes removed the arrow that had been pinned to the wall, carried the monster's mangled body to an open space, found a shovel, and quickly dug a deep pit. He then carefully buried the pieced-together body, his movements practiced and efficient, covering it with layers of soil to erase all traces of darkness.
Back in the ruins where the villagers had gathered, the four of them stood together, preparing to discuss their plan to raid the quarry nest on the west side.
Just then, a soft, timid footstep came from behind the crowd.
A little girl with gray braids, clutching a tattered rag doll tightly in her arms, slowly moved in front of the group, her eyes red-rimmed, her little hands gripping the doll tightly.
She raised her head, cautiously looking at Rhodes and his group, her voice soft yet exceptionally firm: "Big brothers and sisters, I've heard you're adventurers—could I ask you for a favor?"