Watching Bai Tang lose all signs of life and collapse to the ground with her own eyes, Theresa’s mind fell into a brief stagnation.
“I… killed Bai Tang…?”
Only after the fact did she react to what she had actually done. Her pupils suddenly shrank to the size of pinpoints. The hand holding the long-barreled flintlock gun trembled uncontrollably.
Just a moment ago she had not even had such a thought. But after seeing the tentacles growing from inside Bai Tang’s body, her subconscious had treated Bai Tang — who had just been cooperating with her to kill the Barrel Butcher — as an evil Parasitic Demon.
Suspicion.
Parasitic Demons would never actively provide assistance to their hosts. Her subconscious had already concluded that Bai Tang was already dead, and that it was only the Parasitic Demon controlling the girl’s body.
The thought of killing the Parasitic Demon to avenge the dead Bai Tang had uncontrollably popped into her mind.
But if she thought about it carefully, this kind of speculation was full of holes.
If Bai Tang had really already died, and the one controlling her body was an evil Parasitic Demon, then why would it choose to save a human compatriot?
Just now, her mind had been controlled!
When exactly had it happened?
Could it have been the resentful shriek the undead released right before dying?
Suddenly, at that moment, the sound of flesh writhing and growing wildly rang out. It was very faint, but in the deathly silent tavern where a pin drop could be heard, it was exceptionally clear.
The Barrel Butcher, who had previously lost all signs of life, had his rolled-back eyeballs spinning crazily in their sockets. His stiff joints made continuous creak sounds as he actually stood back up!
The only difference from before was that the abdomen which had once housed the undead was now completely empty. The undead had thoroughly died and dissipated, leaving behind a vertical wound that ran from below the chest diaphragm to the navel — an empty, gaping cavity through which one could clearly see the internal writhing stomach sac from the outside, like a huge mouth.
The Barrel Butcher was not dead?
Theresa’s muscles instantly tensed. Her hands and feet turned ice-cold, as if she had fallen into an ice cellar.
No — they had been tricked. From beginning to end, she and Bai Tang had assumed that the undead which had drilled out of the Barrel Butcher’s body was essentially the Barrel Butcher’s own soul. As long as they killed the soul, the flesh body would naturally perish.
But what if the flesh and the undead had originally been two separate entities?
“So… so that’s how it is…”
Theresa let out a bitter laugh. She had finally remembered a clue she had overlooked.
No wonder the Barrel Butcher’s flesh body was so massive, while the evil spirit released after he split open his abdomen had shrunk several sizes. It turned out that had never been the Barrel Butcher’s soul in the first place.
Theresa recalled something she had accidentally heard while roaming the hell world as a demon hunter — a method some evil creatures used to grow stronger. Certain evil flesh creatures, relying on their perverted and terrifying recovery abilities, would split open their own bodies and forcibly stuff weaker undead inside. They would then use their flesh’s recovery and growth to squeeze and torture the imprisoned undead into submission.
They would turn them into part of themselves, making up for the shortcomings flesh creatures had on the soul level.
So even after killing the undead, the Barrel Butcher was still alive.
And just now, under the final soul control from the dying undead, she — Theresa — had personally killed Bai Tang, her companion.
This seemed to be a complete and utter failure of a subjugation.
“It looks like demon hunter Theresa Delina is going to die here today.” Theresa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Then I’ll die in the way a demon hunter should!”
She aimed the long-barreled flintlock gun at the resurrected Barrel Butcher.
Bang——!
The pitch-black bullet shattered half of the Barrel Butcher’s head. At the same time, Theresa was sent flying by a round table the Barrel Butcher casually grabbed and threw. Her back heavily slammed into the hard wall.
From such a heavy blow, four of her ribs were probably broken — maybe five. Theresa did not know. Her mouth was filled with a thick, bloody taste.
It hurt so much.
With trembling hands, she tried to reach for the recovery potions Bai Tang had given her, only to grab a handful of broken glass shards.
All the potion bottles were shattered.
Cough cough… cough…
Her vision was covered with a layer of blood-red and growing increasingly blurry.
Theresa saw that the Barrel Butcher did not immediately come forward to finish her off. His footsteps stopped in place. His attention had fallen on Bai Tang’s headless corpse lying on the floor.
He had turned the tables against the wind. He was probably mocking her right now.
Laughing at how stupid this demon hunter was — she had not even noticed that her mind had been controlled and had straightforwardly killed her companion who had been fighting alongside her because of suspicion.
Wait. What was that guy doing?
Theresa stared blankly as the Barrel Butcher grabbed Bai Tang’s corpse and tried to stuff it into his opened stomach cavity.
Was he trying to eat Bai Tang?
No. That was not it!
Under normal circumstances, even after a person dies, their soul can still linger inside the body for a while. During this period, a trace of weak consciousness can still be retained until some time later, when it either turns into an evil spirit or completely dissipates.
From the Barrel Butcher’s actions, she could only guess one possibility.
He wanted to trap Bai Tang’s soul — which was about to dissipate — in advance and use his own flesh body as a cage to imprison it, making Bai Tang’s soul replace the undead that had already died inside him and become part of his body.
Cough cough… urgh…
She suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood. Theresa wanted to stop him, but her body could not move even an inch.
She could only watch this tragedy unfold with her own eyes.
She was so stupid. Really.
……
……
Am I already dead?
Bai Tang was surprised that she still retained consciousness. It was just that everything before her eyes was pitch black, as if nothing existed.
Oh. Her head had been blown apart by the flintlock gun in the demon hunter lady’s hands. Her optic nerves, brain, and everything else had probably already been splattered everywhere.
Urgh… that sounds a bit disgusting…
But… why did she keep feeling like there was something sticky on her body?
Was this a normal sensation after death? This was Bai Tang’s first time dying — she had no experience!
And why did she feel like she was about to suffocate?
No. That could not be right!
No matter how she thought about it, a soul body should not need to breathe, right!!!
Bai Tang suddenly opened her eyes. Everything before her was pitch black. She struggled to breathe in fresh air, but it felt like she had suddenly sunk into the pitch-black deep sea. Her lungs were violently compressed. Her head spun from lack of oxygen. She was about to suffocate to death.
She was not dead after all. But why?!
She suddenly felt a burning heat at her waist. Bai Tang was stunned and reached in to pull it out.
Lying quietly in her palm at this moment was the tarot card the Witch teacher had told her to carry with her when she left the general store before Long Night descended —
The upright The Chariot, representing breaking through obstacles and ultimately achieving victory.
The card face, which had originally been emitting a faint glow, suddenly burst into deep blue flames with a whoosh. The entire tarot card in Bai Tang’s hand seemed to have consumed all of its power and completely burned to ashes.
No wonder the Witch teacher had agreed to let her go out even though she knew Long Night was dangerous. It turned out she had already left a backup plan.
She was not completely unconcerned about her safety after all~
But where was she right now?
Bai Tang groped around blindly. Her surroundings were narrow and enclosed, filled with soft, sticky things that felt like flesh. In addition, the clothes on her body were also being slowly corroded…
W-Wait, what the hell?!
How did I end up inside someone’s stomach like a little cake?!