Gospel of Blood

“Ugh! What a nuisance! Did you see how he acted just now?”

“Yes, yes!”

“Isn’t it just because he got lucky and was chosen by the magician to be cast with a disguise spell? He really thinks he’s the boss now!”

“Yup, yup!”

“What’s wrong with playing in advance? She’s just a little girl without awakened bloodline power, a little threat is enough to stop her blabbering!”

“Yeah, yeah!”

Outside the courtyard, two attendants stood side by side watering the grass.

One grumbled while the other kept agreeing.

This area was quite desolate, surrounded by abandoned houses, occasionally some passing homeless people casting curious glances at the two.

“What are you looking at? Look again and I’ll shoot your eyeballs to pieces!”

The grumbling attendant glared and shouted. He flashed the crossbow at his waist, scaring the homeless man away instantly.

“What bad luck! Once I’m done with this job and become a knight, I’ll never come to this ghostly place again!”

The attendant snorted coldly, holstered his crossbow, and pulled up his pants.

After relaxing, the two glanced around roughly before turning back towards the courtyard.

This area was quite remote and rarely visited on ordinary days. They had already arranged for people to distract the Castell family, and they had been running around in circles, not worried at all about someone discovering the truth and chasing after them in a short while. Next, they had plenty of time to hand over the goods.

Just thinking about the reward they would soon receive filled the two with anticipation.

“Let’s hurry up! Who knows if that guy distracted us really for caution or if he wants to play sneakily in advance. The Castell family’s young lady is a temptation even a God would envy!”

“Yes, yes!”

“Damn! Do you think… he wouldn’t really eat her alone, wouldn’t he?”

“Yes, yes… hmm, you make sense! Let’s go quickly!”

The two attendants immediately quickened their pace. However, just as they took a few steps, a piercing scream came from the direction of the courtyard, exceptionally clear in the deep night.

They froze in their tracks.

“Just now… who was that?”

“It sounded… like Hatchet…”

They glanced at each other, their expressions slightly changed, then immediately picked up their crossbows, becoming even more vigilant.

“There might be trouble, let’s be careful!”

The two exchanged a glance, nodded silently, then tightened their grip on their crossbows and cautiously walked toward the direction of the courtyard.

The night was deep, and the mercury-like moonlight spilled onto the ground, adding a hint of eerie mystery to the dilapidated courtyard.

After that scream, there was no sound coming from the courtyard anymore. Only the rustling of leaves blown by the night wind, the chirping of insects in the grass, and occasionally the hoarse meowing of a cat could be heard.

“HATCHET— HATCHET—?”

The two attendants stood at the courtyard gate, calling out from afar.

However, there was no response.

A gust of night wind blew, cold and eerie, carrying a strong smell of blood, making the two feel a chill.

They looked at each other, seeing a hint of seriousness in each other’s eyes. Swallowing hard, they both subconsciously tightened their grip on the crossbows in their hands, as if only such powerful weapons could give them some sense of security.

They cautiously approached.

The courtyard was eerily silent.

The further they went, the stronger the smell of blood became.

And when they saw the carriage parked in front of the house, their pupils suddenly contracted.

Blood…

There was blood everywhere…

The carriage had been destroyed, the draft horses were nowhere to be seen, and the dilapidated carriage looked as if it had been drenched in a rain of blood, with blood everywhere within sight.

In a puddle of blood not far from the carriage, lay Hatchet dressed in attendant clothes. His appearance was no longer that of an ugly old attendant but that of a rough middle-aged man.

But at this moment, his eyes bulged out, his tongue sticking out, his expression full of terror. That expression… seemed to have seen something extremely horrifying.

There were traces of tearing all over his body, his limbs twisted at incredible angles, and his chest and abdomen were directly ripped open. The strong smell of blood rushed over, accompanied by a suffocating stench. The two attendants almost instantly changed their complexion.

“Lu… Lupe, look over there!”

One of the attendants tugged at the sleeve of the other, pointing tremblingly at the ground. The other followed his gaze, only to see a grim bloodstain on the ground starting from the front of the carriage, extending all the way to the woods in the distance.

There were rustling sounds in the woods as if something was moving.

Looking at the deep and dark forest, the two swallowed hard.

“Monster… there must be a monster here!”

“For the love of the gods! I knew it! The church has kept this district forbidden for so many years, there must be a reason!”

“Lupe… maybe… maybe we should give up the bounty… and just leave!”

The attendant who had been agreeing all along was clearly panicked, making the sign of the cross frantically across his chest. But the other attendant’s expression changed drastically. After a moment of hesitation, he looked at the empty carriage and clenched his teeth, cursing under his breath.

“Fool! Don’t you want the Awakening Seed? Not to mention if the goods are gone, if we leave now, we’ll surely die in the end!”

“Go and see what’s exactly going on!”

“Don’t be afraid! Unlike Hatchet, we have crossbows!”

The other attendant hesitated. But seeing the gloomy yet determined expression on his companion’s face, he finally gritted his teeth and followed.

The two held their crossbows and walked towards the woods. Along the way, they could sporadically see some remains of the carriage horses.

The sounds from the forest gradually became clearer. It seemed that some wild beast was tearing at something.

Their hearts pounded almost out of their chests, sweat soaking their backs, and the hands holding the crossbows felt numb.

Approaching the forest cautiously, the sounds from within became even clearer.

The two held their breath, tremblingly lifting a branch, finally seeing the scene in the woods. They saw the missing carriage horse lying in the forest.

The carriage horse was already dead. A petite figure was crouched beside it, seemingly sucking on something.

The moonlight poured through the branches, illuminating the petite figure clearly. The blood-stained white dress, the blood-stained golden hair, and under the moonlight, the face that looked like a doll. It was none other than the girl they had abducted!

But at this moment, the girl’s beautiful face was also stained with blood, adding a hint of cruelty and strangeness.

“Oh, God! Lupe! It’s the girl we brought here!”

The timid attendant couldn’t help but whisper.

Disturbed by the whisper, the petite figure stopped moving instantly. She slowly turned her head, and what the attendants saw were her familiar, captivating features. But at this moment, her sky-blue eyes had turned completely blood-red, with craziness filling her crimson pupils.

She looked at the two men, giving a faint smile, her two sharp teeth constantly dripping with fresh blood.

Eerie, sinister, yet beautiful…

The two attendants suddenly shivered coldly. In a panic, the timid attendant directly pulled the trigger, and the bolt shot out, piercing through the girl’s chest, bursting into a spray of blood.

The girl trembled slightly, slowly lowering her head to look at the bolt embedded in her body.

“Damn it! What are you doing, Antonio?!”

The other attendant, watching the girl hit by the arrow, widened his eyes, his expression even more terrified.

However, the girl did not react. She seemed completely unaware, tilting her head slightly, her crazy and dazed gaze falling on the embedded arrow, as if slowly pondering what had just happened. Then, she slowly raised her hand, gripping the half arrow protruding from her body— and pulled it out directly!

In the horrified gaze of the two attendants, blood splattered, and the gruesome wound on the girl’s chest slowly began to heal!

Thud…

The attendant who had pulled the trigger trembled, and the crossbow in his hand fell directly to the ground.

“Monster… she… she’s a monster!”

He widened his eyes, his voice trembling.

“She’s a blood demon! Run!”

Seemingly realizing something, the other attendant’s expression changed dramatically. He didn’t hesitate at all to turn around and start running.

However, just as he turned around, the girl who had been kneeling in the woods suddenly appeared in front of him.

Quiet… without any sound.

Her beautiful yet eerie face was less than thirty centimeters away from his. He could even see the delicate pores on the girl’s face and smell the sweet yet incredibly bloody scent emanating from her body.

The girl stood in front of him, playing with a beating heart in her hand. She leaned slightly forward, her warm and fragrant breath sprayed onto the attendant’s face.

“Where… are you going?”

The attendant’s body hair stood up. He was about to raise his crossbow to counterattack, but he felt a dull pain in his chest, his whole body went weak, and he slowly fell down. As his consciousness faded, he was left with only one thought.

Oh… that heart… was mine.

Thud!

The remaining attendant instantly fell to the ground. Watching the girl, drenched in blood under the moonlight, his gaze was dull, trembling in fear, clearly terrified by what had just happened.

Her crimson eyes moved slowly, the insane gaze falling on him.

The attendant was terrified, instantly breaking down, and execrating urine and feces.

“D-don’t… don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!”

“I surrender… I surrender…!”