Chapter 15: Mutation

Chapter 15: Mutation

In a bar in Belltaine City.

Roy, Byers, Phil, and Pasha sat around a small round table, drinking Southville beer in large gulps.

They did not talk much. With faint smiles, they listened to the drunkards at the neighboring table discuss supernatural powers and mysticism incidents.

“Earlier—hic—I saw those Feysacians in Belltaine. Not only did they look like bears, they could even command flames and throw them like javelins!”

“No way… There really are supernatural powers?”

“Haha, that’s because you’ve never seen anything. One day I got drunk and fell asleep near the cemetery. I saw people from the Church of Evernight leading several ghosts out. Oh, ghosts! They were floating in midair, absolutely terrifying!”

The drunkards rambled on, speaking of things no one knew whether they had personally experienced or heard secondhand. They talked with spittle flying and their faces flushed.

“They’re like that. They only get more excited after drinking, and they always like to boast. Usually, they’re all rather gloomy.” Byers, a local resident of Belltaine, explained the situation. “Ever since the coal mines began drying up, the young people gradually left Belltaine for Constant and Backlund. The atmosphere here has become more and more oppressive, and the city has grown increasingly gray and dilapidated.”

This man, not yet thirty, had worked as a miner in his youth. By luck, he had not died in the mines, but his skin had been darkened by that experience.

The muscles exposed on his body were not overly exaggerated, yet they gave the impression of being cast from steel.

As the leader among the four, Roy smiled.

“What they said may all be true. They might not be boasting. The previous war did indeed expose many people to supernatural powers, especially the soldiers who directly participated. As long as they survived, they all had corresponding experiences.

“Furthermore, this also brought many opportunities. Certain people who previously had no chance to come into contact with supernatural powers or true mysticism became Beyonders.”

His wording was very reserved, as if he were speaking about others, but in reality, this was precisely the experience of the four of them.

Byers and Roy had both fought as soldiers in the defensive battle of Belltaine. Phil had once been plundered by Feysacians, yet fortunately survived. Pasha and her former group of civilian companions had lured and ambushed several Intisian soldiers during the street fighting.

They had all witnessed the deaths of many friends and, for various reasons, obtained supernatural powers.

Afterward, because of the chaos brought by the war, some of them became separated from the army, while others actively avoided it. None of them were discovered by official forces. Slowly, they came to know one another and became friends out of the instinct to huddle together for warmth.

This time, they had come to Byers’s hometown of Belltaine to search for relatives and friends of his who might have survived.

“The truth of this world far exceeds our imagination,” Pasha, with dark-golden hair and deep blue eyes, sighed in agreement.

She was only in her twenties. Her features were fairly pretty, but her face had little extra flesh, making the outline of her bones stand out and causing her to look quite a bit older than her true age.

“In the future, we’ll have different lives.” Roy, whose hairline bore the typical features of a Loenese, raised his cup. “A toast to a brand-new future—”

Before he could finish, someone in the bar hall suddenly let out a miserable scream.

Roy and the others all had some experience. They immediately grew vigilant and cast their gazes over.

They saw an ordinarily dressed young man fall to the ground, rolling back and forth as though in extreme pain.

Under the dim yellow light of the gas wall lamps, everyone discovered that the clothes on the young man’s back had burst open, revealing one blood-red mark after another, as if they had been made by lashes from a whip.

Yet no one around him was holding a whip, and the victim had only cried out once just now—unless he had been whipped countless times in that single instant.

But if that were the case, how could no one have noticed?

“…He’s holding a wallet… Could that have something to do with the abnormality just now?” After glancing a few times, the thin Phil considered his words and said, “Should I bring it over and take a look?”

Roy thought for a moment, then nodded lightly.

“Be careful.”

Phil gave an “Mm,” left the small round table area, and, using the surrounding crowd as cover, approached the young man who had stopped rolling and was now only groaning softly.

He silently stretched out his left hand toward the ordinary-looking leather wallet.

“Ah!”

Phil suddenly screamed. He stared at his left hand as it was severed cleanly at the wrist and fell to the ground with a slap.

From the cut, blood gushed out, splattering onto the faces and bodies of the people around him.

The entire scene froze. The drunken patrons first stared blankly, then swallowed. Then they turned around and fled madly toward the door and the corners!

“There’s something strange… No one attacked me!” Phil nearly fainted from the pain, but he still forced himself to tell Roy, Byers, and Pasha what he had “experienced.”

Roy’s gaze sharpened. He decisively said,

“We leave first!”

He then turned his head toward Byers and said,

“Pick up Phil’s hand and preserve it. I remember that the military doctor Webber, whom we once knew, is also from Belltaine. After retiring from the army, he returned here and opened a private clinic. He—he can effectively treat injuries of this sort.”

That military doctor named Webber was likewise a Beyonder. While participating in the southern war, he had advanced step by step and gained medical skills beyond reality. It was said that he could sew severed limbs back on and make them as nimble as before.

“All right.” Byers answered without hesitation.

He rushed forward a few steps, took out a wooden box, picked up Phil’s severed hand, and placed it inside.

At the same time, Pasha used a miraculous ointment she had purchased earlier to preliminarily stop the bleeding at Phil’s wound and bandaged it to a certain extent.

Immediately afterward, the four left the bar.

After asking around many times, they finally found Webber’s clinic with the help of passersby.

The clinic had not yet closed for the night. Light from the gas streetlamps inside spread outward, casting a dim yellow glow.

Roy politely pulled the doorbell and heard chime after chime echo within.

Yet several minutes passed, and no one came to receive them.

“Drunk?” Pasha glanced at Phil, who was in unbearable pain, and made a doubtful guess.

Roy shook his head.

“I remember Webber wasn’t a drunkard. Aside from being rather licentious, he had no other bad habits. Perhaps he’s currently…”

As he spoke, this man of medium build with weathered traces on his face tentatively pushed at the door and discovered that it was not locked, only ajar.

As the door opened, Roy, Byers, and the others saw two figures.

Those two figures hung in the middle of the clinic, swaying gently as wind from outside blew in.

One was a man in his thirties wearing a white coat. The other was a young woman in a nurse’s uniform. Their lower bodies were naked. Their eyes bulged, their mouths hung half open, and their tongues protruded. They had been hanged from the ceiling by invisible ropes, their expressions filled with terror, despair, and bewilderment.

“Webber…” Roy recognized the hanged man.

At the same time, he, Pasha, Phil, and Byers felt a chill rise behind them. None of them knew why such a thing had happened, nor what kind of terror this unknown abnormality would bring next.

Bang!

The sound of a chair falling came from the side, waking Roy and the others from their frightened stupor.

They looked toward the sound and saw a woman holding an infant stand up in panic. Terrified and confused, she murmured,

“They were committing adultery…”

What necessary connection does that have to what we encountered? Roy inhaled silently and felt that it was not advisable to remain here for long.

He immediately ordered,

“Go!”

He did not let Pasha comfort the woman, nor did he try to obtain disinfectant or bandages from the clinic.

Byers and the others swallowed with difficulty, quickly turned, and left the clinic with extreme caution.

For Phil, the terror of the unknown had completely overwhelmed the pain in his left hand.

“What exactly is happening?” After turning into another street, Phil asked, the muscles of his face twitching.

“How would I know?” Byers blurted out, his emotions slightly out of control.

Roy looked left and right, then exhaled.

“Calm down.

“This should be a terrifying supernatural matter beyond our imagination.”

“Yes. Everything is far too bizarre. It can only be because of that.” Pasha nodded in agreement.

“Then what do we do?” Phil asked in panic.

Roy thought for a moment and said,

“Try to leave Belltaine.

“Also, analyze what happened earlier and summarize the hidden laws within it.

“None of us can guarantee we won’t encounter those abnormalities again. Only by grasping the laws behind them can we possibly ensure our safety.”

“Right.” Byers calmed down and agreed with Roy’s suggestion.

As they walked, they discussed the matter and gradually formed some ideas.

“Before Webber was hanged, he was committing adultery. Before Phil’s hand was severed, he tried to take that wallet. That counts as theft…” Pasha summarized the common points between the two incidents.

…Roy suddenly found inspiration.

“Could it be that they suffered those encounters because they did something illegal?”

“How is that possible?” Byers and Phil answered at the same time.

But the instant the words left their mouths, both formed the corresponding guess, and their expressions gradually turned serious.

“Perhaps there is an invisible law enforcer. Perhaps that is the essence of this supernatural incident…” Byers said in thought.

Roy gave an “Mm.”

“That possibility is very high.

“Next, we must be careful about our own behavior.”

Pasha and the others nodded. Growing even more vigilant, they walked along the street toward the outskirts of the city.

Before long, they arrived at the municipal square and saw many people standing around the noticeboard in the night.

“A notice?” Roy and the others exchanged glances, suspecting that it was a hint from official forces regarding this supernatural incident.

Therefore, they drew closer and, under the light of the gas streetlamps, looked toward the announcement on the wooden board.

A white sheet of paper was pasted in the very center. Beneath it was a yellow sheet of paper, seemingly serving as a supplementary explanation.

As Roy, Pasha, and the others quickly browsed the notice, their gazes gradually filled with horror, as though they were beginning to understand where the root of the matter lay.

After finishing the white paper, their eyes fell on the yellow one:

“All citizens are requested to capture outsiders together. Any method may be used.”

Capture outsiders… Roy and the others’ hearts tightened. By instinct, they looked toward the citizens gathered around the noticeboard.

As if sensing their gazes, those citizens turned around in unison and cast their eyes upon them.

Under the dim yellow light of the gas streetlamps, those pairs of eyes seemed to gleam with a strange brilliance.