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Chapter 138: The Lunafaction Brood

After Hurricane died at last, Iris arrived at the very bottom, meeting up with Finn. She glanced at the body and the pool of blood, then back a Finn.

“Finn… did you…”

“… Yes.”

His voice contained no emotion, no remorse whatsoever for what he had done. And Iris wasn’t surprised in the least.

“… Well, it’s only fair, I suppose. He came at you first,” Iris said with a sigh, then noticed the message Hurricane had left behind with his own blood and activated night vision to see what it is. “Wait, that’s… ‘Heartbeat has a dangerous secret’. What does that mean…?”

Finn pretended to not know what she was talking about. “… What?”

“Hurricane left behind a message,” Iris said, swerving around and riding on top of Finn’s shoulders. “It says ‘Heartbeat has a dangerous secret’. What could it be…?”

“…” Finn fell silent. He actually had a good idea of what that secret was given the clues he had gotten so far, but he couldn’t be so sure just yet.

“There’s something else that concerns me more,” Finn said, changing the topic. “Archon and Melvia. Hurricane told Heartbeat about them, undoubtedly.”

Iris’s eyes widened. “Then…”

“… Yeah.” Finn nodded, a grim expression on his face. “Most likely… they’ve already been dealt with.”

Iris wrapped her arms tightly around Finn’s neck, nearly choking him. There were tears in her eyes, but Finn wasn’t the right person to go to for sentiment or empathy. Stone-cold as always, he took off with his wings, carrying Iris on his shoulders with no problem at all.

*****

Once they arrived at the top of the stairs, the others were waiting there, eager to hear what happened.

“You’re back… where’s Hurricane?” Acaya asked.

Finn, in the most monotone voice possible, spoke.

“… Dead.”

A wave of silence washed over the group, until Iris finally broke it.

“There was a trap triggered, for whatever reason. On the way up, a spike shot out of the wall, and tore straight through his chest. Finn got lucky and wasn’t hit.”

“I see…” Acaya looked slightly uncomfortable. “Although I didn’t like him much… he was still a valuable fighting power, and a fellow Ghost Hunter. As much as I’d like to collect his body for a proper funeral, we don’t have the leisure of carrying it around.”

The others silently agreed, while Qi Ling eyed Finn with suspicion. Of course, she didn’t say anything, but she knew there was no trap. Finn had just killed Hurricane with such ease that there didn’t seem to have been a fight at all.

If anything, Finn and Iris expected Hurricane’s teammate Shadow to say something about this, but he didn’t and remained broody and quiet as usual.

After Iyesha and Chisis performed a quick prayer for Hurricane’s soul, the group set off once more, heading down the new corridor in front of them. This one was lit by white lotus-shaped lamps on the ground, much like the Dungeon from before. It was quite bright, actually, compared to the rest of the cathedral so far. Narrow, too. The group was forced to walk in two columns, side by side.

Finn, with Iris on top of him, only counted as one person, so their corresponding partner in the other column, walking right alongside them, happened to be Qi Ling. Finn, sensing that she wanted to speak to him, purposely slowed down his pace. Qi Ling matched this, and soon, they were a good distance behind everyone else, out of earshot — so long as they whispered.

“… You killed him, didn’t you?” She asked quietly.

“… What of it?” Finn asked right back, completely unfazed.

“Nothing. I just wanted to know how ruthless you can be. That’s all.”

“Afraid I’m going to betray you in the future?”

“… A little.”

“Ace is a simple person, despite how he seems,” Iris interjected. “As long as you don’t get in his way or try to deliberately hurt him, he won’t act against you.”

[Fufu~ she seems to think of you as quite the kind-hearted guy.] Zelestria remarked in amusement. [Too bad… she’s slightly off the mark. You’ll do anything, no matter how cruel or heartless, so long as it secured you a significant benefit.]

Finn didn’t approve nor deny anything they said, and instead merely carried on walking. Qi Ling, on the other hand, stared at his face for several seconds longer, than finally turned away as well.

“… I can only hope so.”

*****

At the end of the corridor, there lay a door. It was quite exquisitely designed, like something out of an old medieval castle or some luxury banquet hall. As the group got closer, however, they suddenly swung open on their own, revealing a horde of knights with a cloaked, hooded, faceless entity hovering above them, skeletal hands skinny and sharp.

The entire group was taken aback, of course, and refrained from heading inside.

“What is this…?” Acaya muttered.

“Living souls… I welcome you to our master’s lair. We’ve been expecting you,” a raspy, dead voice whispered from within the room.

“…!”

The Ghost Hunters immediately tensed up, hearing these words. The cloaked, Wraith-like figure from within the room hovered up into the air, and spread its fleshless, bony arms, the upper part of which was hidden by the ragged dirty cloth it draped over its body.

“You come here to slay our master… and we are his army. Cut us down… or be cut down. If you wish to face our master… you must first defeat us. Now… if you wish to face the challenge, step into the room…”

“I-It talked… in human speech…” Iyesha gasped in shock.

“Powerful Ghosts have the ability to do that,” Iris explained. “That Wraith… he’ll be a tough opponent.”

“Tough or not… there’s only one way to go,” Acaya said, stepping forward. “If they want an all-out fight… an all-out fight is what they’ll get.”

Saying this, he activated his Angelica, and everyone else followed. Then, menacingly, the Ghost Hunters stepped into the room, facing the horde of soldiers and the Wraith hovering in the air who appeared to be leading them.

“I am Yokru, Servant of the Lunatic. And this… is the Lunafaction Brood.”

The beautiful doors slammed shut behind the Ghost Hunters, sealing their fates. But they didn’t tremble in the least.

It was them against the Lunafaction Brood.

And only one would walk away alive.