Chapter 266: Mochi Mochi's Ordeal |
At the other end of the town, a lanky man dressed in a black formal suit—Mochi Mochi—was striding anxiously down the street, carrying an unconscious maid in one hand.
He arrived at the town’s perimeter wall and tried to leap over it, but the moment he landed on top, he was thrown back by an invisible barrier.
“How interesting… how very interesting. This curse is enormous—it’s enveloped the entire town. And the force of impact gets evenly distributed across the barrier… With our power, there’s no breaking through unless we find a weak point. Dammit. The town gates aren’t a way out. Even the sky’s highest point isn't it. Where the hell is the exit?”
At that moment, the sound of rushing water echoed behind him.
He spun around quickly—only to see a massive wave of blood, like a tsunami, surging down the street in hot pursuit.
Mochi Mochi’s brows drew together in a deep frown. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen this.
Suddenly, he hurled one of the maids into the wave. When the blood swallowed her up, he turned and dashed away with the only remaining maid.
He’d tried to use spells to resist the wave before, but his spells were instantly consumed. In contrast, throwing in a living person could temporarily slow the blood down.
He’d already tossed quite a few living people he came across during his search.
“But how could such a curse domain appeared in the Human Principality? How?” Mochi Mochi’s lips twisted bitterly. “Whoever laid this trap… they even put up a front outside to lure me in!”
After hearing Saul’s description, he had assumed this was a site where someone was cultivating a curse.
Such places usually originated from either a powerful Seed of Malice or a terrifying wraith.
Either one would be a priceless treasure for a Third Rank apprentice.
Greed had flared in Mochi Mochi’s heart in an instant.
He had claimed to be upholding the dignity of the Wizard Tower, but the truth was, he wanted to beat others to the punch and snatch the curse’s core before it fully matured.
A curse cultivated using an entire town—it would surely be devastatingly powerful.
So Mochi Mochi had rushed here with Saul, then quickly split up to find the curse’s source.
After all, a cultivated curse could recognize a master.
If he was late, it would belong to someone else.
But the horror of this curse domain far exceeded anything Mochi Mochi had imagined.
At one point, he even suspected that Saul had intentionally tricked him into coming here.
But Saul didn’t have that kind of power, and besides, he had entered the town himself.
Still, while he couldn’t fight the curse, that didn’t mean he couldn’t flee.
Earlier, Mochi Mochi had rescued a few survivors from where someone had screamed. Not out of kindness, of course, but because they could serve as bait to delay the blood tide.
A single human life could buy him enough time to explore another block. As long as he had bait, the blood wave couldn’t touch him.
He’d wandered through more than half the town by now, narrowly escaping danger multiple times. And with only one living bait left, he still hadn’t found a way out.
Whoever had created this cursed domain just how powerful were they?
“If I’m really backed into a corner…” His gaze drifted toward where he’d last parted ways with Saul, “Maybe Saul can buy me a little time.”
He opened his hand. Lying in his palm was a gold coin from ancient times.
But this wasn’t the same as the one he’d given Saul. Though it bore the same woman's face on both sides, this time she wore a pained expression.
At that moment, the maid in his grasp stirred with a groan.
“Ahhh!!!”
The maid jolted awake—only to lock eyes with the terrifying Mochi Mochi, whom she feared more than anything.
This dreadful wizard had once saved her and the others while they were fleeing.
At first, they had thought he was a rescue sent by the Kema Duchy.
But soon after, he had forced them to explore the cursed town with him. Every time the blood wave appeared, he’d sacrifice one of them to slow it down.
At first, they’d accepted this approach, thinking they would soon escape.
But as time passed, the maid realized. This wizard had no intention of leaving.
The ones being sacrificed wouldn’t just be a few—it would be all of them!
When only three of them remained, the group finally broke down and tried to scatter.
The maid hadn’t gotten far when her whole body suddenly went numb, and she blacked out.
Now, waking up again, she found herself still in the hands of that terrifying wizard. She looked around.
She was the only one left.
“Sob… sob…” Despair surged in the maid’s chest. She could hardly believe that in just half a day, their prestigious engagement entourage had been nearly wiped out.
“Please… let me go,” the maid clasped her hands in prayer under her chin, pleading.
“So noisy, so noisy. Can’t you see I’m thinking?” Mochi Mochi replied irritably, pressing a hand over her face.
Though his hand was quickly withdrawn, the maid suddenly felt an unbearable itch spread across her skin.
She reached up to touch her face, and felt soft, fine fuzz. Like a velvety carpet. It was oddly pleasant to the touch.
But the very fact that her face felt like that filled her with horror.
She clawed desperately at her own face, and then saw black hairs caught under her fingernails.
She opened her mouth, about to scream, but now even her lips itched.
The itching spread down into her throat.
And no sound came out.
The terror shattered her already fragile mind. Her eyes rolled back, and she fainted once again.
Satisfied, Mochi Mochi hoisted up the unconscious maid, “Tsk tsk. Last piece of bait. Should buy me five more minutes.”
Though he’d wasted quite a few living decoys while wandering the town, Mochi Mochi wasn’t without gain.
Suddenly, he changed direction and sprinted toward the center of town.
Near the town’s center was a small plaza. On its edge stood an old, inconspicuous clocktower.
Originally, Mochi Mochi hadn’t paid it much attention.
It wasn’t at the heart of town, nor was it the tallest building. It looked shabby and irrelevant.
But as he reflected on his many run-ins with the blood tide, he noticed something odd.
Almost every time the blood wave appeared, it surged inward from the town’s edges.
But when he was near the clocktower, the wave flowed out from the town center—toward the tower.
“My previous assumption was wrong. Not all streets connect directly to the town center. The blood’s flow just seems to converge there in general. But now it seems that the true destination of those tides… isn’t the town center. It’s the clocktower!”
“If there’s no exit around the edges, then the key to escaping this curse domain must be at its core—the clocktower!”
Mochi Mochi’s thin lips stretched into a wide smile.
Still carrying the unconscious maid, he leapt high, bounding from rooftop to rooftop toward the clocktower.
(End of Chapter)
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