Chapter 37: Activation

Chapter 37: Activation

“Already dead…”

Edwards turned his head. With those pale-blue eyes, he looked toward Bernadette’s Invisible Servant. His gaze was no longer cold and wooden. A strange light flickered in it, filled with disbelief.

Only at that moment did he seem to realize that he had long since died and then “come alive” again, fundamentally no different from William, Poli, and Green, against whom others had to be on guard.

That change lasted only two short seconds. Then Edwards’s face suddenly twisted. His already bluish-white skin swiftly darkened and tore apart, inch by inch.

Beneath his skin, chunks of fresh red flesh began rotting at a visible speed, dripping foul-smelling pale yellow liquid.

With a swish, Edwards raised the iron-black axe in his hand.

Puff!

That axe struck hard into the crown of his head, as though he wanted to stop bad thoughts from surfacing in his mind.

The axe was both heavy and sharp, splitting Edwards’s skull directly and cleaving all the way down between his brows and eyes.

Drip. Drip. Drops of milky-white brain matter slid down the axe wound and across Edwards’s twisted, torn face, as if a little milk had been poured over fresh red strawberries.

“Do not… do not come near me…” After giving himself an axe strike to the head, Edwards spoke to Bernadette’s Invisible Servant in a strained, hoarse voice.

Before his words fully faded, his expression returned to blankness, his eyes gradually turned wooden, and he turned around, walking step by step toward the forest from which he had come.

His tall, thin, withered body bent slightly, as though his back had suddenly hunched.

Bernadette had asked that probing question because she carried too many doubts and worries about entering the mausoleum. She had no choice but to indirectly point out the problem with Edwards himself and see whether his answer might reveal more clues. Who would have thought that this knight once famous across the Northern Continent during Roselle’s era would react in such an intense and bizarre manner?

After two seconds of silence, Bernadette had the Invisible Servant speak toward Edwards’s back.

“Your descendants are all living fairly well. They have achieved certain things.”

With his back to the mausoleum, Edwards paused in his steps. Then he continued forward, passing through the invisible boundary and disappearing into the forest.

His destination seemed to be the stone-pillar graveyard where the dead could obtain “rebirth.”

At the same time, Bernadette raised her head and looked toward the sky.

The faint blackness spreading there had clearly dissipated quite a bit, but a certain indescribable feeling had appeared in its place. Because of it, the entire primitive island underwent a subtle, impossible-to-describe change.

Suddenly, Bernadette, hidden at the edge of the invisible boundary, reached back and touched her own back.

She felt something heavy there, as though something had appeared on it.

After her left hand touched the target, Bernadette discovered that what had appeared was a length of hair.

At present, she wore an Intis-style women’s shirt with large lace flowers at the collar on the inside, and a patterned indigo captain’s coat over it. Below that were beige trousers and boots that reached close to the knees. On her head was a feathered tricorn hat. She looked like the captain of a pirate ship.

With such an appearance, her chestnut hair had originally been tied into a half-bun, just reaching her back. Now, although her hairstyle had not changed, her hair had suddenly grown by a large length, falling all the way to her waist.

Immediately afterward, Bernadette lowered her head and looked at her right palm. She saw the nails of all five fingers growing outward at the same time.

The Queen of Mysteries did not show surprise or panic. Following the instincts of a Prophet and the experience accumulated over many years, she took a few steps forward, passed through the invisible boundary, fully…