Chapter 144: An Ancient Curse |
"Creed?"
Seeing their companion suddenly appear, Joe and Miss Godine were both caught completely off guard.
"What are you doing here?"
"Why shouldn't I be here?"
Facing his companions' questions, Creed smiled and opened his arms wide.
"Whose dream do you think this is?"
"Wait, what do you mean by that? Isn't this the Teacher's dream? This is about what happened during his previous excavation. It has absolutely nothing to do with you!"
Joe frowned, glaring at Creed in displeasure, while the latter simply smiled and remained silent. Right at that moment, Levi spoke up.
"Even though it sounds improbable... you couldn't be that child, could you?"
"The local guide and his child."
Levi explained his reasoning to Annie and the others.
"When I saw him just now, I thought he looked familiar. If this isn't the Professor's dream, then it can only belong to someone else. Currently, only three people have appeared in the Professor's memory: the Professor himself, the local guide, and his child. With Mr. Creed appearing here, I think it's the only logical explanation."
"..."
Hearing Levi's deduction, everyone was left dumbfounded. Creed turned his gaze back to Levi.
"As expected of a detective. You should know that even the Teacher didn't recognize me. But that's only natural. Back then, he abandoned us and left this temple all by himself. I imagine he wished he could completely erase everything about this temple from his mind."
"The Teacher abandoned you?"
"That's right."
Creed nodded.
"Let me show you exactly what happened back then."
As Creed spoke, their surroundings rapidly began to shift. Soon, the enclosed underground space transformed into an old, dilapidated fishing village. A group of villagers was kneeling on the ground, kowtowing and praying continuously.
Standing before them on a wooden crate was a young boy. At the same time, Creed's voice echoed again.
"Ever since I was a child, I possessed the ability to peer into dreams. I could predict the future through them, knowing whether tomorrow's weather would be good or bad, and whether it was safe to go out to sea. Because of this, the villagers viewed me as a child of divine prophecy. But only I knew that this power wasn't mine. Every time I dreamed, I would see a temple. It was calling out to me, guiding me to go there. Unfortunately, I was just a child back then and had no way of reaching such a place. Until... an archaeology team showed up."
The scene shifted quickly.
A ship docked at the wharf near the fishing village, and a group of archaeology team members disembarked. Leading them was the old professor in his youth, carrying a backpack and looking full of vigor and high spirits.
"They came here looking for ruins, and I knew my chance had come. So, I told those explorers that I knew where a temple was, and they naturally became interested. The Teacher negotiated with my father. At first, my father was very reluctant to let me leave, but the Teacher offered enough money to make him agree to come along and search for the temple with me."
Creed let out a soft snort.
"My father was a devout follower of the Holy Lord Church. I never dared to tell him about my dreams, especially about that temple. It would have made him think I was possessed by evil, and he might have even killed me. But I believed that as long as I actually found the temple, all problems would cease to be problems."
The scene shifted once more.
This time, everyone saw the young Creed leading the archaeology team to a nearby high mountain. They passed through a fissure and entered the underground depths, arriving at the very temple Levi and the others had seen earlier.
"The archaeology team entered the temple, but they awoke the guardians here..."
As Creed spoke, the tightly shut temple doors were blasted open with explosives. The crowd rushed inside, arriving at the main hall to set up camp. None of them noticed that above their heads, the Night Demons, awakened by the loud noise, had quietly prepared their assault.
"And then, it was a ruthless slaughter..."
The Night Demons swarmed down and began slaughtering the archaeology team. The explorers had no way to dodge because there were too many monsters, and the entrance was completely blocked. Thus, the team members could only flee deeper inside.
Seeing this, Annie, Joe, and Miss Godine all looked at Levi in astonishment. The situation was almost exactly as Levi had deduced. Of course, Levi hadn't known about the existence of those monsters beforehand.
"I fled inside with them. Unlike those people who ran around like headless chickens, the moment I entered the temple, I heard the voice that had been calling to me in my dreams. So, I followed the sound all the way. Although I didn't know what it was, I could feel that my destiny was intimately tied to that voice."
Creed paused for a moment.
"I don't know if it was just good luck, but we didn't encounter any more Night Demon attacks along the way. However, just as my father and I were about to reach the source of the voice, we crossed paths with the Teacher and a few other surviving team members. I don't know what they went through, but it was clear they had managed to survive the swarm. Then, the others, my father, and I walked into the deepest depths together. Finally, we arrived at that place."
The scene swirled again, changing from a narrow tunnel into a burial chamber. Inside, a stone coffin, virtually identical to that of the Baskerville ancestor, rested in the center.
However, unlike the well-maintained coffin of the Baskerville ancestor, this stone coffin looked incredibly ancient and decrepit. More importantly, it was tightly bound by countless heavy iron chains, making it impossible to open. Just by looking at it, one could tell that whatever was inside this coffin was something that should never see the light of day.
Upon seeing the coffin, Creed's father trembled all over and fell to his knees in terror. The young professor's eyes, however, lit up with excitement. He stepped forward and examined the stone coffin closely, seemingly wanting to conduct some kind of research on it. Soon, the professor quickly pulled tools from his backpack and forcefully smashed the chains on the coffin. The others began to help, intending to pry the stone coffin open.
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
Heavy impacts resounded. Levi crossed his arms, watching the scene play out. Although he didn't know what was inside the coffin, judging by the plot of every tomb-exploration movie he had ever seen, nothing good ever came from this.
"Clatter."
Finally, the rusted chains wrapped around the stone coffin were completely broken and tossed aside. A few team members stepped forward, pushing the heavy lid open with all their might.
Then... the ground began to tremble.
Accompanied by a piercing shriek, the vision suddenly went pitch black. It was unknown how much time passed before the light returned.
The scene currently before them was shocking.
Several bizarre tentacles, looking like thick columns of solidified black sludge, erupted from the stone coffin. They tightly ensnared the archaeology team members, Creed's father, and the old professor. The team members screamed in agony, and then Levi and the others watched as the bodies of those caught by the tentacles, including Creed's father, began to wither and shrink.
Like sucked-dry popsicles, they turned into desiccated corpses. Only the young boy remained standing there, silent, watching the scene with a twisted smile on his face.
"Everything was going perfectly back then!" Creed's voice echoed once more. "I knew it was about to awaken completely, and I would finally obtain the power I deserved... But...!"
"Go to hell!"
Suddenly, a furious roar cut through the air. Everyone looked over to see the old professor reach into his bag and pull out a bundle of dynamite. Staring at the uncovered stone coffin, he used the pipe clenched between his teeth to light the fuse, then threw the explosives directly into the coffin!
"Boom!"
The entire stone coffin blew apart. Simultaneously, the earth began to quake violently. A deafening, sorrowful wail rose from deep underground. A tentacle flung the old professor to the ground, but he scrambled up with unimaginable speed and quickly vanished down the end of the corridor.
"Rumble!"
The roaring of the earth grew louder, as if venting the fury of some ancient entity. Creed, who was standing nearby, lost his balance and slid across the floor, falling directly into a widening fissure in the ground. He vanished into the dark depths before he could even let out a scream.
Then, the illusions vanished, and everything returned to the way it was before.
"Later, when I woke up, I was lying on a beach. My village and all the people living there had completely vanished due to the tsunami triggered by the earthquake."
"So... that earthquake wasn't a natural disaster, it was caused by the Teacher?" Miss Godine looked incredulous, while Joe's brow furrowed tightly.
"Is that why you wanted to find the Teacher? To exact revenge for your family?"
"Revenge? Yes, it is revenge, but it has nothing to do with my family." Creed shook his head. "Since that day, I have dreamed every single night. I scream, struggle, and wail in nightmares. I can feel that entity's anger and agony. It has penetrated my soul and saturated my body. And its goal is singular: revenge!"
As he spoke, Creed glared fiercely at the Professor, who was tightly bound by chains and suspended high in the air.
"And now, I have finally found my chance! I know this place. This is the dream world. Here, I am the master of this dream, and I will use this power to make him face his well-deserved retribution!"
"Stop, you can't do this!" Joe wanted to step forward to stop him, but several Night Demons immediately dropped from the sky, blocking his path.
"Of course I can." Creed stood before the coffin, staring down at the group with a cold smile on his face. "In fact, it is very hungry right now, very weak. It needs more power, more emotions, more souls... So, all of you can stay behind as well."
"...!"
Hearing this, everyone's expressions changed drastically. Joe and Godine raised their guns, and Annie silently drew her weapon as well. In contrast, Levi remained perfectly calm.
"So, you mean to say you don't plan on letting us leave?"
"Naturally. This is my world. Here, I can create anything I desire. You have no way of fighting me."
Hearing Levi's question, Creed flashed a triumphant smirk, but Levi merely shrugged his shoulders.
"Since you put it that way... I guess we have no choice."
"Eh?"
"Roar!"
Before Creed could comprehend what Levi meant, a thunderous roar suddenly erupted right next to his ear. Creed instinctively turned his head, only to see a colossal, terrifying monstrosity burst forth from the darkness with its jaws wide open. In a single bite, it clamped down on a Night Demon Creed had created, ripping it into shreds instantly.
"..."
Seeing this scene, Creed was utterly dumbstruck, and Levi's voice echoed in his ear once more.
"I forgot to mention, creating things in dreams isn't a privilege unique to you."