Free Web NovelChapter 490: Chapter 491 Horror Movie_1
Over an hour later, Aiden arrived at the lakeside and tied his horse to a nearby tree.
At this dead of night, he could barely find any public transport that would take him to the suburbs of the city, so he had no choice but to contact a liaison officer of the local secret police to arrange for a fast horse. Fortunately, Heinz had given him enough support. In this city, the secret police would try their best to assist him, and they only recognized the credentials specially made for him by Heinz, not his appearance. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
"My dear Phoenix Lady, I hope our enemy is not nearby," Aiden began by confirming.
This was the most important matter, as he absolutely couldn’t afford to step into a range where Mr. Bloodcloth could sense him so easily.
"To the west, not very close, but not too far either," the Goddess of Revenge answered, "It’s barely a safe distance, I suppose."
"To the west..." Aiden recalled the map and the information previously given to him by Qiqimora.
This suggested that Mr. Bloodcloth was still active in the Sunset City base at the moment, and it seemed he really had lost interest in Lamia and her group. It made sense, as Lamia, influenced by the authorities of "Chaos" and "Hatred" to the point of madness, wasn’t easy to manipulate, and it was impossible to bring her back to normal without the interference of a higher authority that could directly affect the spirit. As long as she was left to her own devices, the Witch’s Gathering would sooner or later become a target for the Kingdom of Gistas.
He hesitated for a moment, then decided not to light the lantern right away and instead used a night vision dark magic spell.
If Lamia was still rampaging nearby, the light of a lantern would increase the risk of a surprise attack. It was better not to tempt her out until he was fully prepared.
"Qiqimora, are you still alive?" Aiden infused magic power into the Great Witch’s token and started to make contact.
After a few seconds of delay, he heard Qiqimora’s voice: "I’m still alive."
"Good, what’s the current state of Lamia?" Aiden asked further.
"Uh, that..." Qiqimora hesitated a bit.
"What’s happened?" Aiden had a bad feeling.
"I... I inadvertently lost sight of Lamia," Qiqimora replied softly.
A few seconds of silence followed, and Aiden let out a long sigh: "Qiqimora..."
In the middle of the night, in the wilderness, searching would become exceptionally difficult. Losing track of Lamia at such a critical juncture... If they found Lamia after she had already massacred a village, things would become extremely tricky.
"I don’t want to shirk responsibility, but how could I possibly keep up with Lamia’s speed with my own feet?" Qiqimora’s voice sounded a bit wronged, "For these past two hours, it was only by provoking Lamia that I was barely able to keep her in check. The power of ’Concealment’ has been used to its limits, I can only hide for now..."
"Alright, you’ve worked hard," Aiden swiftly cut off the pointless blame-shifting, the most important thing now was to find Lamia, "So, can you still move?"
"Sorry, I’m just too tired, and I can’t use the power of ’Concealment’ at the moment, let me rest a bit..." Qiqimora pleaded.
"Fine, then I won’t meet up with you, take care of yourself," Aiden decided resolutely.
Time was precious now, and with Qiqimora in this condition, she wouldn’t be of any help. It seemed he would have to rely on himself for this operation.
"Abigail, can you pinpoint Lamia’s location?" Aiden then asked Abigail for help.
Although Lamia was already insane, she still carried the Great Witch’s token, so Abigail should be able to locate her.
"The precision of this kind of sensing is not high, I can only sense that she is not far from you guys..." Abigail responded, "Allow me to use the Crystal Ball to check her surroundings."
Aiden scrutinized his surroundings warily. The fact that Lamia was still in the vicinity was good news; they weren’t far from the military base, and that base was far from towns and villages, so for the time being, there was no need to worry about Lamia going on a rampage in a human settlement.
He wasn’t worried about Qiqimora, protected by the "Concealment" power; what concerned him was himself. In the countryside at night, beasts held the advantage of time and terrain over man. The situation was urgent, and this time he couldn’t bring the mercury amalgam golem suitable for close combat because it couldn’t keep up with the horses and wasn’t capable of sustained long-distance travel.
Lamia could attack at any moment from any direction, so he decided to search along the lakeshore first. The lake’s surface reflected specks of moonlight, offering the most expansive and brightest view on the shoreline.
It was then that Abigail spoke up, "Strange, I can’t see anything in the Crystal Ball, but it seems like I can hear the sound of bubbles."
"Bubbles?" Aiden paused for a moment and then slowly shifted his gaze toward the lake. The night was eerily quiet, with only the occasional hoot of an owl.
Now he felt as if he were in the midst of a B-movie horror film where the scenes could become gory any second.
The terrified scream of a horse shattered this silence, and Aiden turned around in surprise—the sound had come from behind him, coming from the horse he had ridden.
He quickly reacted and called out to the token of the Great Witch, "Abigail!"
"Yes, I heard it too. The Crystal Ball just transmitted the sound of water and a horse," Abigail replied.
There was no doubt that his horse had been attacked by Lamia.
Aiden turned and walked back, trying to tread lightly.
By the time he reached the scene, he only saw a broken piece of horse rope on a tree trunk. The horse was nowhere to be seen.
A long blood trail was smeared across the ground, leading straight to the lakeshore.
Aiden turned his head stiffly, using the reflected moonlight on the water and the night vision magic he had cast; he could vaguely make out a blob of ink in the lake, along with continuously rising bubbles.
It really had turned into a horror movie, Aiden thought to himself.
Right beneath the water—he faced the lake and took a few steps backward, leaning against a tree.
"Well, it looks like I’ll have to walk back later," Aiden heard the voice of the avenging goddess.
"Is now the time to worry about such trivial matters?" Aiden responded, meanwhile lighting a lantern, taking out his pistol, and beginning to check the ammunition.
He quickly entered a pre-battle state, calmly realizing that he couldn’t let Lamia slip away from this place. Without a horse, if Lamia started running wild everywhere, there was no way he could catch up.
He had to lure her out...
Resolute, Aiden took out his gun, aimed at the lake’s surface, and fired several shots.
The gunshots startled the birds in the woods, but the lake remained still, only after two seconds, the bubbles rising to the surface became more numerous and dense.
Then, he faintly heard a rumbling sound emanating from beneath the water. He aimed his gun and began to recite holy words simultaneously.
With a loud "splash," a fierce roar broke the water surface, and the creature leaped ferociously onto the shore. Its wet body, propped up by six long arms clinging to the ground, dragged itself up, and Aiden heard the monster let out an angry scream—the recent shots had evidently disturbed her meal.
