Shadow Apostle

"Crunch..."

The metal door pivoted, and a piercing scream echoed in the darkness.

The door to the steam engine room was slowly pushed open.

Because of the smoke and steam, the entrance was not opened in the villa, so the two went around outside to find the iron door of the computer room.

Holding a lantern, Horst and Serena stayed close to the iron door until Jessica pushed the door completely open from the other side.

As soon as the door opened, the long-standing smell of coal smoke mixed with the fishy smell of metal rust hit the nostrils. The smell was not strong, but it was impossible to ignore.

Making a gesture of stopping in place, Horst held up a lantern to illuminate the area below. All he saw was a narrow corridor, and a long metal staircase extended downwards along the corridor until it was submerged into the darkness below.

Looking at the dark corridor below that looked like a big mouth, Horst took a deep breath. Just as he was about to walk in, he was stopped by Jessica on the opposite side.

"Uncle Swain said that your fighting ability is your weak link. I am an awakened person and have stronger fighting ability than you. Moreover, this is my home and I am more familiar with you. I will go first and you will take the lead for me."

"You are the employer. If something happens to you, who will I turn to to settle the bill? You don't want to use this method to default on the debt, do you? I won't give you a chance."

With that said, Horst raised his hat, grinned, and squeezed past Jessica.

What an annoying guy, he doesn't say anything properly!

Miss Berndt wrinkled her nose behind Horst, secretly made a false kick, then fumbled for a match on the wall and lit the kerosene wall lamp.

Of course, rich people are more well-prepared. There are two sets of lighting equipment in the corridor, one set is gas and the other is kerosene. Horst paused, turned around, glared, and walked down muttering.

The two walked along, lighting kerosene lamps, turning three corners in a row, and descended to about the third floor underground.

The outside buzzing of insects overhead could no longer be heard, and only the footsteps of the two people still echoed in the corridor.

The ground leveled out, and the stairs had reached their end. A door that was ajar appeared at the end of the stairs. Before they even got close, the fragrant smell of blood was already wafting over.

right here. The two looked at each other and could see what the other was thinking.

Horst pointed to the side of the door, signaling Jessica to hide first, and then kicked the door violently. While kicking the door open, he hid in the corner.

"boom."

The iron door slammed against the wall, and the huge impact echoed repeatedly. Horst listened carefully. Apart from the collision of the iron door, the surroundings were still silent.

After thinking about it, Horst changed his pistol into a cane and then flashed through the door with a light in his hand.

Even though I have been practicing fighting hard for a year, I am still the same athletic loser. In other aspects, I am already an experienced mysterious hunter. But my fighting skills are still so terrible that I could only use my life to create opportunities last night.

It was dark inside, with only a little light coming from the kerosene lamp outside the door.

There were several piles of large black machines standing in the room. The behemoths several meters high were twisted and entangled together, like a group of ferocious metal monsters.

The lantern quickly swept through the darkness of the machine room. Although there always seemed to be something hidden in the corner, if you looked carefully, you could see that they were just corners of machinery and gears, emitting a faint cold light under the light.

Behind Horst, Jessica also entered the computer room and immediately lit the kerosene wall lamp. The dim yellow light danced and warmed the dark space.

"There."

Horst pointed to the corner of the wall.

The walls here are covered with pipes of different thicknesses. According to Horst's life experience over the past year, there are water pipes, gas pipes, and steam pipes, and what he is pointing to now is one of the gas pipes that extends into the ground.

The gas pipe had been broken, as if it had been torn apart with great force. One end was twisted and fell to the ground. The main valve beside it was open, but there was no gas spurting out of the crack, and there was no smell at all.

Horst shook his head at Jessica, threw the broken piece back to its original place, and looked around with a lantern. The smell of blood was still strong, but he couldn't find any blood around it.

Jessica pointed to the top of the head. When Horst looked up, he realized that the top of the head was an iron plate with mesh, which should be the maintenance floor.

He quickly found a ladder on one side, and the moment he climbed onto the iron floor, Horst felt his breath suffocate.

In front of you is a flat iron platform.

The platform was covered with a large dark red blood stain.

The bloodstains formed a large and strange pattern, the pattern was twisted and messy, full of a frightening sense of oppression.

The huge visual impact meant that Horst did not even need to touch the bloodstains. He sensed the mystery coming from the bloodstains only through sight and smell. His sensitive spiritual sense made his eyes covered with blood light again, and his brain also felt like It was a throbbing pain like being cut by a knife.

"Is everything okay, Mr. Horst?"

He pressed his head to slow down. Although visions flashed in front of his eyes like a splash screen from time to time, at least his head no longer throbbed. Horst shook his head and found that Jessica was already beside him and looking at him with a troubled expression. With some worry.

"Don't worry about the result of your spiritual sense being too sensitive."

Horst always felt that his strange spiritual sense was related to some situations during time travel, but there was no basis for it at all. He could only put it aside for the time being and watch Jessica start writing furiously and copying the patterns on the iron plate.

"Is it really okay for you to keep staring like this? Miss Burnt."

"I don't have as keen a spiritual sense as you, but it won't be affected. As long as I don't try to analyze and understand, it's relatively safe."

"Um?"

"Once you try to understand the mystery, you will establish a connection with the mystery. If you cannot bear this connection, the only result is that you will be completely swallowed by the mystery and become a pitiful madman." Jessica smiled and ended the copying in her hands. , "So... um? What's wrong with you?"

Horst was twitching his nose and changing sides.

"Did you smell it? There seems to be a strange smell. Hmm...like gas."

"No, it's gas." Jessica also took a few deep breaths, "It seems like the gas is flowing? I'll close the valve first. If too much leakage activates the protection mechanism, it will be troublesome to remove it."

However, before he could move, Horst grabbed his arm.

The first active physical contact made Jessica stunned. She turned to look at him in surprise, and found that Horst's expression was unprecedentedly solemn, his eyes were full of vigilance, and he uttered one word:

"sign."

Jessica paused and nodded slightly. The knuckles of the fingers holding the folding fan turned pale from exertion.

Horst let go of his hand, and Jessica slowly walked to the edge of the iron plate, holding on to the railing and peering down.

There was still silence in the computer room.

Only the two kerosene lamps at the door were dancing with dim light, making the surrounding shadows twist and sway, making them look even more eerie.

There was a soft sound of footsteps, and Horst also reached the railing. Serena had already set herself up underneath, while Jessica carefully walked down the stairs and approached the gas valve.

There was still nothing around, only messy and weird shadows shaking under the lamp. Jessica shook her head and moved closer to the break to smell it.

It is indeed the smell of gas. It must have just been restored, and the smell is still very light. There is no danger of detonation. Jessica was slightly relieved and leaned over to turn off the valve, but at this moment, a gunshot suddenly rang out from behind.

Horst, who was upstairs, kept his eyes around Jessica, watching her careful movements along the way, but didn't notice anything strange. However, as he looked at it, he suddenly realized that something was wrong.

The shaking of the surrounding shadows seemed a bit too violent.

With a target in mind and a closer look, Horst felt as if his hair was about to explode.

They were two shadows moving independently, slowly, silently, and continuously surrounding Jessica.

What the hell?

Have they been staring at us since we came in?

The two shadows, which seemed to move slowly but were actually fast, had already arrived behind Miss Burnt.

After careful observation, Horst discovered that it was not a black shadow, but two strange black ooze-like objects that kept changing their shapes.

These black monsters present an irregular shape, with tentacles and arms that stretch and stretch around the edges, as if they want to grab everything around them. Their main body is a dark, twisted and sticky mass of unknown There are large or small eyes growing inside the matter. The strange eyeballs constantly change directions and look everywhere. The strange and cold eyes stare at everything around them without any emotion.

The two monsters waved their tentacles on the edge, getting closer and closer to Jessica's back in the darkness.

Without enough time to warn, Horst fired.

Serena jolted, and the bullet accurately penetrated into the shadow closest to Jessica.

The shadow trembled for a moment, then continued to pounce on Jessica as if it was not affected, but after the gunshot, Jessica had already turned around.

The field of vision was filled with a huge black shadow, and Miss Berndt took two steps back in shock, and blurted out a scream.

As the screams came out, gunshots rang out again.

The folding fan she had been holding in her hand suddenly erupted from one end, followed by smoke and gunshots.

The special sawn-barreled shotgun fired.

The black shadow that had already jumped halfway from top to bottom was bombarded at close range, and the impact caused it to fly back into the air. Then the roar of the shotgun rang out again, and the black shadow rolled out directly, and collided with two other black figures. together.

However, Jessica did not relax. Instead, she pointed at Horst on the platform.

"Careful, invisible son."

Horst felt his hair stand on end. He didn't even have time to think about what he should be careful about, so he instinctively rushed forward and jumped directly out of the railing at the edge of the platform.

boom.

There was a muffled sound from behind.

The metal plate groaned violently.

Horst, who was in mid-air, only had time to look back and glanced back, and saw that the third shadow monster fell from the sky, and its huge body hit the edge of the iron plate so hard that the edge was dented.

After stumbling for a while, Horst landed and barely managed to steady his body. When he raised his head, he saw a group of black shadows sweeping towards him silently.

With no time to escape, Horst protected his chest with his arms, gritted his teeth, and prepared to resist the monster's sweep. Seeing the power of the monster falling from the sky just now, he was mentally prepared to die for the twelfth time.

But at this moment, a hand was placed on his shoulder.

Miss Burnt's voice sounded from behind.

"Compassion."

Horst suddenly felt as if he was being held by a pair of gentle arms, as if he had returned to his mother's arms as a baby.

The soul seemed to hear a burst of ethereal and clear singing.

"Holy, holy is the mercy of the Lord. I share with you all the sufferings in this world."

The next moment, the incoming black shadow has arrived.