The Divine Armor of the Old Century（Book 1）

Chapter 58

The heavy iron doors opened one by one before Lloyd. After alerting Red Falcon that something was amiss, he pressed forward, heading to the front of the train where Shrike was stationed.

Lloyd's intuition was screaming at him. Though it was an elusive sensation, it had saved his life countless times. His hand remained on the hilt of his sword, vigilant of every soldier around him.

Drawing from his experience in the Demon Hunter Corps, he knew that missions involving demons required precision and strength. The Corps aimed to end battles with as few hunters as possible. If things went awry, too many people would only increase the risk of corruption, turning former comrades into enemies.

On every level, this would be a devastating blow.

"Shrike! Respond if you can hear me!" Lloyd leaped to the roof of the train between two carriages, seeking a broader view.

"Lloyd? What's wrong?" Shrike's voice crackled over the radio, barely audible through the static.

"Something's wrong. The demon is still nearby!" The relentless wind roared as Lloyd stood atop the carriage, darkness stretching out in every direction, save for the lone light at the train's front.

Some had said the world was like an uncharted ocean, with humanity surviving on isolated islands. To venture into that maddening sea meant certain doom.

"The Geiger counter shows no activity..."

"That's unreliable," Lloyd interrupted.

"You should know this, right? Demons have certain characteristics, like the brief disappearance of 'light' when they appear. It's not just the light we see—sunlight, lamplight, starlight—they all vanish!"

He ran along the roof, each step producing a heavy clang on the steel.

"And your Geiger counter? What's its detection range? What if the demons are just beyond its reach?"

Inside the carriage, Shrike hesitated as he prepared his weapons.

Yes, what was the range of the Geiger counter? What if the demons were outside its detection area...

"Shrike, what's wrong?" Blue Jade noticed Shrike's unusual behavior, her voice tinged with concern.

Shrike signaled for her to be quiet, then asked, "Have you seen any signs?"

"Of course. Don't you think this night is too long?" Lloyd faced the endless wind, looking east—the direction where the sun should rise. Yet, it remained pitch black.

With a sharp memory honed as a demon hunter, Lloyd recalled details vividly. Lady Vernede's map was still etched in his mind.

"What time is it now?" Lloyd asked.

"Three in the morning," came the reply over the radio. Lloyd paused, pocketing his watch, which read four o'clock.

"Shrike, are you certain the time is correct?" he questioned. The radio crackled with what sounded like Shrike's curses. Even without a reply, Lloyd knew what had happened.

"Shrike, based on my experience as a demon hunter, I have good news and bad news."

Lloyd spoke with a hint of nostalgia. "Time has become distorted. Reality, even our senses, are being warped by some great corruption... which means we're nearing a massive source of pollution, one so immense it caused all this."

He continued, recalling something. "Shrike, check those Geiger counters again. I think they might have spiked to their limit as we approached, breaking down."

It was the only conclusion Lloyd could reach, but the radio remained silent. Only static filled the airwaves, like countless lost souls wailing in that eerie frequency.

Just as Shrike had mentioned, the damned radio was compromised. Lloyd's connection to them was severed.

The train hurtled toward the pollution source at high speed, with no chance of turning back.

Facing the darkness ahead, an invisible, immense force enveloped them. Everyone was under the influence of that will, which cleverly heated the water until it boiled, scalding them before they realized it.

A chill suddenly touched his cheek. Lloyd instinctively tightened his grip on his sword, brushing away the cold droplet. Moments later, a torrential downpour drenched the train, piercing his skin like icy needles.

The hellish scene unfolded before his eyes.

It was an eerie interface, as if the rain were a waterfall. The train passed through it, entering the storm, revealing another world.

Without hesitation, Lloyd struck his sword into the carriage roof to steady himself, but he was too late. Massive tentacles rose from the dark earth, slamming into the train. With barely time to react, twisted flesh engulfed him.

His eyes flared with fiery determination. As a demon hunter, Lloyd had faced fiercer battles. His sharp blade cut through the distorted flesh, but as he was about to sever it, something unexpected happened.

The flesh regenerated rapidly at the cut, engulfing both Lloyd and the speeding train in an instant.

More tentacles emerged, entwining the train, bringing it to a halt. The soldiers couldn't even fire their weapons before a deeper corruption took hold of their minds.

This was a premeditated attack. In those brief moments, the entire train fell silent.

The soldiers were ensnared by the warm flesh, Shrike and Blue Jade entangled in the web-like tendrils, while Lloyd was swallowed by the deepest darkness.

The steam engine roared powerlessly, pinned to the ground. Only the cold rain poured down, as if the entire ocean had inverted.

This eerie silence lasted for an unknown time. The radio channels were dead. A ghostly green light slowly rose from the abyss.

In the depths of this strange world, a girl gently opened the carriage door. The collision that had halted the train had nearly knocked her unconscious. As she came to, she saw the carriage filled with pink flesh. No matter how hard she shook him, Red Falcon remained in a deep sleep.

Eve looked at the bizarre world outside. Apart from the rain, it seemed she was all alone. Immobile tentacles stood like mountains on the dark ground.

It was as if the world had abandoned her, leaving her the sole conscious being.