“Hands on your head, squat down.”
Igris unhesitatingly raised the gun in her hand and aimed it at the cultist before her.
But he showed no reaction, as if he did not care at all about the weapon in Igris’s hand.
He frantically waved the machete in his hand, trying to slash at Igris.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out.
The bullet instantly pierced through the man’s body, and Igris’s arm also went numb from the recoil of this gun.
Her body was too weak now.
Probably the only one she could use normally was that hand cannon…
She should find a chance to get it back.
Looking at the cultist, who dropped the machete to the ground and painfully covered his arm, Igris tapped his forehead with the gun muzzle.
“Next, I ask, you answer, all right?”
The man’s face wore a mask, so no expression could be seen, but the vicious gaze revealed from beneath the mask was still quite obvious.
Bang!
Igris once again fired a shot against his arm, putting a hole through his other movable arm as well.
Only then did she feel at ease, and again tapped his head with the gun muzzle.
“Tell me, what is your goal, where is Chrisuna, why did you capture her?”
“Eternal Night is a lie… The sea waves will devour everything! Only she can save everyone! Toward the oldest sunken city… call out to the storm…!”
Bang!
Looking at the man who had completely lost his life, Igris wiped the blood on the gun muzzle on the man’s body and picked up his mask.
She was in no mood to listen to any ancient evil faith.
That would make her already sensitive intuition inexplicably have problems, and force her to undergo an insight check.
If handled poorly, she would be mentally contaminated.
In addition, she had never intended to let this kind of cultist go, so she simply shot him dead.
Although she should have asked how to get out, it was actually meaningless now.
After all, she could not completely believe what a cultist said.
If handled poorly, she might accidentally run into some monster’s nest and be unable to escape.
Besides, Ling’s current situation was still unknown.
She could only hope she was safe.
…
“Hah… Hah… Hah…”
Ling’s figure quickly shuttled through the different forks, while behind her, dense strange sounds continuously came, as if something was tightly chasing this officer in the darkness.
The sewer passages were intricate and complex.
Running around without a sense of direction was very dangerous, but at this moment Ling did not have too many choices.
She did not know what exactly was behind her, but she knew it definitely was not anything good. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
At least she could not be caught.
“…!”
In the midst of her constant running, she suddenly slipped underfoot, her whole body instantly stumbled, and she directly crashed headfirst into the wall.
Her footsteps were also forced to stop.
There was no time at all to care about the pain on her body.
Ling instantly turned around and drew her sidearm, staring fixedly at the strange sound continuously approaching through the passage, which was almost completely invisible because of the darkness.
The sound grew closer and closer, dense and packed.
Hearing it would make one unable to resist getting goosebumps, as if sticky arthropods were walking on stone slabs.
Disgusting and bizarre.
Ling’s flashlight had long since disappeared, and at this moment she could only rely on her very limited vision to try to protect her own safety.
But the gun in her hand could hardly bring her any sense of security, because she knew what kind of enemy she might be facing.
The bizarre sound grew closer and closer, as if it had already come before Ling and stopped.
But she did not see anything appear before her eyes, nor did she feel any anomaly appear.
Either she could not see it, or that thing had hidden itself.
But why hide…?
“Ling?”
Just then, a familiar voice sounded in the darkness beside her, and a figure slowly walked out.
“Pasa! Are you all right?!”
It was Pasa, and he did not look injured either.
“It is nothing. I have already found their base.” Pasa glanced lightly at Ling and extended an invitation to her.
“Come along. It is good to have someone watching your back on the way.”
“All right… Did you run into Igris?”
Hearing Igris’s name, Pasa slightly raised his head.
“No. What happened to her?”
“She also came with me… But we got separated. I know I should not have brought her… But, sorry… This is my fault.” Ling looked very guilty.
After all, Igris was currently wandering alone in such a dangerous place, and with only a gun it would be very hard to guarantee her safety.
“We will talk about that later. You look injured.”
“Ah… I bumped into something. It is nothing.”
Ling looked at the scrape on her arm and shook her head without much concern.
“There is no time for idle chat. Let us go.”
Ling nodded and took a step forward.
“Ling?”
“I may have sprained my ankle. You go first. I will catch up behind you.”
Pasa gave Ling’s appearance a deep look, and finally shook his head helplessly.
“I will wait for you. Do you need help?”
“Yes… Could you trouble yourself to give me a hand?”
“…”
Pasa hesitated for a moment, and somewhat displeasedly frowned.
“I think this is not a good idea.”
“Yes… This is not a good idea.”
Ling slightly straightened her body, and the gun in her hand also pointed at the Pasa before her.
“Who are you?”
“…What are you doing?”
“You cannot fool me.” Ling placed her finger on the trigger of her sidearm and said in a low voice.
“You have too many flaws. You are like someone who suddenly appeared before me, and before that, I did not hear footsteps approaching at all. Also, from the moment you appeared before me, you have not moved your feet even once. Even when you said you were preparing to leave, you still made no movement at all. Your acting is too poor.”
Pasa fell silent, and the next moment, the Pasa before Ling seemed to be pulled by something and disappeared into the darkness.
The dense sounds rose again, and Ling finally heard the specific direction from which the sound came.
Above her head.
As she looked up, countless different faces appeared in her eyes.
They belonged to different people, had different expressions, different appearances, and constantly underwent changes, alternating back and forth.
One moment crying, one moment smiling, one moment angry, one moment full of sorrow.
Countless faces circled and moved above her head, and she finally saw clearly what it was.
A centipede.
A very, very large centipede.
Each part of its body carried many human faces, and they all looked in unison at Ling below.
Thousand Faces Hundred Aspects.
It generally appeared in areas with a large number of deaths.
It would mimic the masks on its body into familiar humans, attract others to come close, and launch attacks.
If discovered, it would quickly leave.
“This place… many people have died here?”
The scene above her head, although very impactful, was not the first time Ling had seen such a scene.
In addition, the method of handling Thousand Faces Hundred Aspects was also very simple, so she instead relaxed quite a bit.
Until she noticed that those faces on the ceiling were still watching her, unwilling to leave.
+++
T/N: Elden Ring traumatised me so much that I would have looked up every time if that was me.