Records of the Weakest Emperor

Chapter 182: Origin of the Curse(2)

"We'll go directly to the village center. Once we exit this alleyway, remember to act as if you belong." The deformed man still had that crazed smile on his face as he glanced at Heisenberg, Ricardo, and Calvin.

The three didn't react that much for the deformed man didn't even give them the chance to reply.

He walked out of the alleyway with the three and the others realized that the village had undergone a huge change.

"There are villagers!" Ricardo almost exclaimed, but his words were muffled by Calvin who was quick to react.

"Shhh... Don't make a sound. Act as if you belong here..." Calvin said.

Ricardo nodded his head in a serious manner before he swept his gaze at the other villagers. Most of them were women and there was this deadpan look on their faces. Their cheeks were hollow, while their eyes were sunken. Their lips were cracked and dry, yet one could vaguely make out a few emotions from their indifferent eyes.

It was longing, thirst, and devotion.

Then, all of a sudden...

The villagers dropped onto the floor with their bellies stuck close to the ground.

The deformed man was also quick to join the villagers followed by Calvin, Heisenberg, and Ricardo.

"Are we also going to crawl like this to the village center?" Ricardo asked in a soft voice.

"Fewer questions, more actions... Read between the lines..." Calvin scolded.

Heisenberg also stared at Ricardo as if he was staring at a dumb man.

The villagers started to chant.

"Way kamatayun... Way kamatayun... Way kamatayun..."

When their words fell, the streets outside started to change. All the oil lamps extinguished at once, plunging the entire village into darkness.

In the silence of the night, only the unceasing chanting of these crazed villagers and the sound of their graveclothes rustling up against the dusty road could be heard.

"There is no death... There is no death... There is no death..." Heisenberg mumbled.

This was the direct translation of what the villagers were chanting.

"Fucking hell, man... Shit's about to get real..." Ricardo who knew a little bit of Elder Tongue understood what the villagers were chanting.

Calvin didn't say anything at all as he tried to feel the presence of the Mortician and Stephanie lurking within his shadow.

He sighed in relief, they were still in his shadow. He could feel their menacing presence.

But even these two made from the amalgamation of resentment felt perturbed about what was happening. They could feel that the presence these villagers were worshipping seemed to be on a whole new level compared to them. Of course, this difference might not be a dichotomy of their strengths but the difference between their origins.

If an analogy was to be made.

It was how flood dragons felt fear in the presence of a true dragoneven if that true dragon hadn't matured yet.

Calvin started to wonder about what was the meaning behind the villagers chanting.

There was no death?

Well, now that they have become one of the living dead, then one could say that they could not die anymore since they were already dead.

But was that really it?

As for the owner of the crying voice? It's highly likely that the owner of the crying voice is this so-called Our Lady of Holy Death...

"Walay kamatayun... Walay kamatayun... Walay kamatayun!"

The chanting intensified and a woman's crying voice rang in the dark.

She seemed to be calling someone's name as if she wanted to vent her grievance onto that person, yet she also deeply longed for that person's presence like she didn't want that person to part with her.

But before the three could even think deeper into the meaning of the crying voice...

The doors of the houses around them were opened.

Footsteps echoed on the streets before a dull thud followed, indicating that the owner of those footsteps had dropped onto the floor like them.

Ricardo had heard someone vaguely land on his right side and when he turned around to curiously look at the person who was crawling beside him...

His face blanched in horror.

It was because the eyes, nose, and mouth of that person had been replaced by seemingly infinite black holes that threatened to swallow Ricardo in one big gulp!

"Aaa..." Ricardo froze on his tracks and the 'person' seemed to frown as it stared at Ricardo in doubt.

Calvin and Heisenberg had noticed what was going on and their expressions quickly changed.

The first one to react was Calvin since he was the closest to Ricardo.

He pinched the web between Ricardo's index and thumb finger.

"Ah!" The sharp pain made Ricardo gasp a mouthful of air as he awakened from his stupor.

He realized what had happened and he couldn't help but gratefully stare at Calvin.

The 'person' swept its gaze at the three before it ultimately lost its interest and continued to crawl towards the village center.

As he crawled away, he left a trail of black, sticky, and pungent liquid which almost made Ricardo vomit the contents of his stomach.

"What the fuck was that all about?" Ricardo asked. For some reason, he turned to look to Calvin, seeking the answer to his question.

But Calvin seemed serious and taciturn. He didn't even glance at Ricardo as he continued to slowly crawl his way to the center.

Heisenberg was the same. He ignored Ricardo and crawled side by side with Calvin.

It was at this moment that Ricardo finally realized why the two weren't talking.

'Act as if you belong...'

This was the key to their actions.

Ricardo had to act as if he belonged if he wanted to remain low-key as the living amidst the dead.

'From now on, I should talk less, and do more... I'll remember this adage...' Ricardo whispered to himself.

Then, he crawled his way upward and caught up with the others in no time.

Calvin didn't dare to open his Predator Senses since the villagers might notice the golden hue in his eyes.

Ricardo and Heisenberg did the same, but this brought more anxiety than comfort to the two.

Of course, Calvin was an exception.

He might be effectively blind at this moment, but his senses were as sensitive as a bat.

Since he was so close to the ground, he was able to effectively distinguish every footstep that rang out and attached those footsteps to a single individual.

Calvin counted.

One, two, three...

A dozen...

Several dozens.

A hundred...

Several hundred!

There were several hundreds of unique footsteps echoing through the ground at this moment!

Calvin's scalp went cold.

They have been surrounded!

There are monsters everywhere!

But Heisenberg and Ricardo didn't seem to notice the gravity of the situation as they focused all of their attention on crawling.

The everlasting darkness cast by the moonless night suffocated those underneath it. Bloodstains started to drip on every surface of the village's walls, and scratch marks, as well as knife marks, appeared on the ground. Though apart from Calvin, no one else seemed to have noticed this change.

But he was now certain that the things that happened in this village were far scarier and bloodier than what the deformed man had described. The story he had told was probably only a part of the entire truth that encompassed this village. The darkness was soon broken, but not by any natural light but an ethereal glow that stood out amidst the darkness.

The glow came from an elevated platform in the distance.

Hanging over the platform from a wooden pole was the glowing body of a woman and as soon as Calvin's eyes laid on her.

The woman's voice that had unceasingly rung earlier came to a halt.

Everyone stopped.

The deformed man crawling ahead of the three also stopped.

Calvin, Ricardo, and Heisenberg didn't dare to move.

A terrifying silence blanketed the village.

Then, as if in a trance...

The villagers that had been crawling stood up.

They were like soulless puppets as they stood in front of the platform where the glowing body of a woman was hanging.

The glow coming from the woman's body seemed warmed and full of life but in the very next moment... it was tainted black!

Twitching veins as dark as the everlasting night started to spread and cover the glow of the woman's body.

These veins were invasive and ruthless. In a blink of an eye, it had squashed the warm and ethereal glow from the woman's body, and darkness engulfed the entire village once again as the beacon in the darkness disappeared.

But Calvin was shaken at this moment.

It was because those dark and twitching veins looked familiar.

He felt a sense of deja vu... as if he had already encountered those veins in the past.

But he couldn't seem to remember it at this moment, and there was no time for him to continue his thinking as the ceremonial ritual to praise the Saintess of Death... the Our Lady of Holy Death officially begun!