Chapter 170: Lord Have Mercy
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 170: Lord Have Mercy
"I can't die!"
"I can't die!"
"I haven't attained the immortality I seek! How can I die now?!"
Lorenzo crawled along the dim street like a mangy dog with its legs kicked out from under it.
His legs were indeed broken—or rather, severed. Blood flowed incessantly from the smooth stumps, painting two straight crimson streaks behind him.
If he could find his feet now, he might still be able to reattach them with magic. But he didn't even dare to look back. Driven by pure terror, he simply pushed forward, and forward again.
Images flashed through his mind.
The people he had murdered.
The people who had died because of him.
The people who wanted him dead.
They all stood amidst flames, faces twisted in hatred as they reached out for him, seemingly intent on dragging him down into the bottomless abyss of hell.
"Get away! Get away from me!"
Lorenzo waved his hands in a panic, trying to sweep the visions from his sight.
"I won't die! I won't die!"
Just then, he heard footsteps.
They were leisurely, as if someone were taking a casual stroll.
But to his ears, they sounded like the steady approach of a pursuing demon, closing in step by step.
"Mr. Lorenzo, are you ready to answer my question now?"
That calm, mellow voice drifted from behind him. It sounded like a refined nobleman politely inquiring about the arrival of death.
"Don't come any closer! Stay away!"
He continued to crawl and crawl, oblivious to the sharp stones slicing into his palms.
He glanced toward the sides of the street. Disturbed by the commotion, dim flickers of firelight appeared in the windows.
A glimmer of hope flared in Lorenzo’s eyes. He scrambled toward a house and hammered on the door.
"Save me! Please, save me!"
"You don't even have to save me—just call the Guard Corps! Have them throw me in a cell! Anything! Just don't leave me alone with this monster!"
"Save me!"
The firelight inside suddenly vanished.
In the darkness, a man let out a terrified gasp and slammed the window shut.
At night, do not go out.
At night, trust no one.
At night, no matter what sounds you hear in the street, ignore them.
These were the survival rules for ordinary people in the chaotic Lower District.
"Look at that, Mr. Lorenzo. It seems the Lower District you rely on for survival hates you quite a bit as well."
Muen brandished his short blades, easily slicing through Lorenzo’s armor to leave one, two, three—a succession of gashes across his body.
The wounds weren't deep, but they bled incessantly.
Muen herded Lorenzo forward, letting him slowly bleed out drop by drop.
To savor the slow approach of death—wasn't that the most fitting end for a man like this?
"I won't die! I won't!"
Even though his blood was nearly spent, Lorenzo let out a high-pitched shriek, as if fueled by a final burst of terminal lucidity.
"I still have the Lord! I have the Lord! Lord, save me! Save me! I've done so much for you! You can't just abandon me!
"And immortality! That was your promise!"
"The Lord?"
Muen frowned.
The man had been babbling those words for a while now, along with mentions of immortality.
Muen didn't know what that was all about, but for safety's sake, it was better not to drag this out.
Muen stepped forward, prepared to send Lorenzo to hell.
He raised the pure white short blade. Under the moonlight that had just peeked out from behind the dark clouds, Elizabeth reflected a ghostly, cold glint.
To die under such a beautiful moon... you're getting off easy, Muen thought.
The blade fell.
However, at that exact moment, Muen felt the world go dark again.
The moon still hung in the sky, gazing down indifferently upon all creation.
So where did this darkness come from?
Muen looked up in alarm. A tall, thin shadow had appeared before him at some unknown moment.
The figure wore a heavy raincoat stained with multicolored filth. On its head was a grotesque mask that looked as if it had been stitched together directly from raw flesh.
Suddenly, that flesh split open, revealing the shadow's blood-stained, predatory grin.
A premonition of death exploded in Muen's mind. He instantly altered the trajectory of his blade, swinging it to meet the butcher's cleaver that was hacking down toward him.
"What—"
A terrifying force surged through the cleaver. Muen’s arm went numb with pain, and he nearly lost his grip on his weapon.
What monstrous strength!
Muen’s mind raced. He used the momentum to leap backward, putting a safe distance between them. While suppressing the tremors in his arm, he stared warily at the tall, thin monster.
"Who are you? Why are you attacking me?"
The monster didn't answer. It held a clump of twisted shadow in its hand, its jaws working as it crunched on something.
"The Lord! The Lord! You've finally come!"
Lorenzo looked at the monster as if he were a traveler lost in the desert who had finally found an oasis. He grabbed the figure's foot and cried out in excitement, "Save me! Quickly, save me!"
The monster still didn't answer. It simply lowered its head and stared silently at Lorenzo.
That gaze wasn't the look one gave a person. It was the look one gave... a delicious meal.
"Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy! Please, you must save me! I can do more for you! I can catch more people for you! You want more blood? Ancient Dragon Heart Blood! He has the Ancient Dragon Heart Blood on him!
"Lord have mercy! Lord have mercy!"
Lorenzo suddenly fell to his knees before the monster he called "Lord." He prostrated himself with the devotion of one worshipping a deity, his forehead repeatedly striking the ground. Soon, a clear, bloody bruise formed on his brow.
"Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy."
The monster tilted its head and watched for a long time. Then, it suddenly reached out... and grabbed Lorenzo’s shadow.
Under Muen’s bewildered, terrified, and utterly incredulous gaze, the monster physically hauled Lorenzo’s shadow up from the ground.
To hell with this. How can you pick up a shadow? That’s not scientific!
But before Muen could wonder if he was looking for logic in the wrong place within a magical world, he saw the monster bring Lorenzo’s shadow to its mouth.
Crunch. It took a bite.
A gap appeared in the shadow.
What made Muen’s skin crawl was that the gap didn't just appear in the shadow—it appeared on Lorenzo.
In the exact same spot as the shadow's missing piece, a chunk of Lorenzo’s flesh vanished unnaturally. From the jagged, bloody wound, Muen could vaguely discern an irregular shape that looked like a bite mark.
Yet Lorenzo seemed completely unaware. He continued to kowtow incessantly.
"Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy."
Crunch, crunch.
"Lord have mercy."
Crunch, crunch.
"Lord have mercy."
The monster continued to chew, bite after bite.
Like a well-behaved child listening to his mother, it chewed every mouthful thoroughly—exactly twenty times, no more, no less.
Bit by bit, the flesh on Lorenzo’s body disappeared, like a flatbread being eaten piece by piece. Finally, as Muen watched with a churning stomach, Lorenzo stopped repeating his plea for mercy and ceased his stubborn pursuit of immortality.
He had become a pile of bones. A pile of clean bones, as if every single one had been sucked dry.
"Burp—"
The monster crushed the pile of bones underfoot, let out a satisfied belch, and muttered:
"Delicious."