The Divine Armor of the Old Century（Book 1）

Chapter 65

In the pitch-black corner, the cold night wind surged in through the open car door. Red Falcon lay crumpled in the corner, his eyes tightly shut, brows furrowed, and fine beads of sweat seeping from his forehead, as if trapped in an inescapable nightmare.

This continued for a few minutes before a weak electric current released from the electrodes embedded beneath his flesh. The current traveled through his nerves, repeatedly jolting him until he gradually awoke.

Red Falcon looked around in bewilderment at the devastated surroundings. After a moment of daze, he whimpered in pain, struggling to his feet. Reaching to the back of his neck, he forcefully yanked out the thin cables, tearing out the electrodes embedded in his skin along with fresh blood.

This was a safety device. Everyone who fought against the demons had one. When their consciousness was eroded, it would release a current to wake them up. The device's activation was somewhat unpredictable, but fortunately, it triggered this time, and Red Falcon woke up. The feeling was far from pleasant, akin to being beaten, his body radiating fatigue and pain.

"What happened...?"

Red Falcon recalled the last moments before everything went dark. Lloyd had discovered something and suddenly rushed out, then the Glorious seemed to hit something, causing the entire train to come to a screeching halt. He had been thrown against the wall and blacked out. However, he remembered seeing Eve stepping out of the car before losing consciousness.

"Eve!"

Thinking of the girl, Red Falcon instantly became alert. Ignoring the pain, he grabbed his weapon and limped out. Only a handful of people knew Eve's secret, and even Red Falcon only had fragments of the truth. But like glimpsing a shadow of a terrifying entity, even a shadow revealed the fearsome nature of its source. The same was true for this truth.

Eve couldn't die here, not in such a meaningless way.

With this thought, Red Falcon stepped outside. The entire surface had been altered by the twisted flesh, transforming the once boundless wilderness into a complex terrain.

"Where are you?"

He muttered to himself, scanning his surroundings until he saw her. At the horizon's edge, Eve was staggering on a hilltop.

...

Eyes can see images, noses can smell scents, touch can feel textures, and ears can understand sound waves. Sometimes, Eve wondered if intuition was also a sensory organ, like something imperceptible by conventional means needing intuition to be observed.

Following her intuition, Eve moved forward. After the violent jolt, she stumbled out alone, unafraid of death despite her inability to kill the demons, and continued onward.

Seeing the green light rising at the horizon, Eve knew it was her destination, as if something there was calling her. Everyone else seemed to be dreaming; when she emerged, everyone had their eyes shut, breathing lightly.

Or maybe, what Eve was experiencing felt like a dream. She had never seen such power to alter the landscape in such a short time. The immense flesh defied her understanding of biology, the eerie green curtain draped over the night sky.

It all seemed like an absurd dream, blending reality and dream into an endless madness. Distant roars echoed, suggesting the demons were roaming the land. Eve tightened her grip on the silver revolver and quickened her pace.

She had no idea what awaited under the green light, but it felt like a ritual. When she arrived, she would discover something, be it a harsh reality or a way to end the nightmare.

"Eve!"

Suddenly, a voice called from behind. Turning instinctively, she saw a burning bullet graze past her, piercing a demon that had appeared behind her. The incendiary round's intense heat burned the demon, which had tried to attack, but Red Falcon detected it just in time.

This high-ranking knight displayed remarkable physical prowess, carrying heavy equipment and catching up to Eve in such a short time. Pushing her aside, he continued firing at the struggling demon until it was completely incinerated by the liquid metal, then stopped, panting heavily.

"What are you doing?"

Red Falcon asked anxiously, puzzled. Leaving the car's protection so recklessly, she could be killed by any passing demon.

"There... something..."

Eve struggled to describe her feeling, pointing towards the green light.

Seeing Eve's serious expression, Red Falcon would typically scold her and force her back to the safety of the car. But this wasn't typical; instead, he seemed to heed her words, asking,

"What do you think is there?"

He looked genuinely concerned about her words, which surprised Eve. Thinking for a moment, she finally said,

"The source..."

"The source?"

Red Falcon nodded, understanding the significance of the term. He continued,

"You know, the connection between the darkness is like a vortex. The deeper the connection, the heavier we become in the vortex, making it easier to be drawn into the center of the darkness."

"Like a swamp. Lloyd described it to me as fighting demons in a swamp. The more you fight, the deeper you sink."

Eve responded, her connection with the darkness deepening until there was no barrier between them.

"That's one way to put it. But what I mean is, when your connection with the darkness deepens, you can see the darkness... do you understand?"

Red Falcon gripped his incendiary rifle, his expression serious.

"You're saying... the source of the corruption is there!"

Eve said, both excited and fearful.

"Exactly. If your connection with the darkness is that deep, then your intuition is correct. At least on my way here, I felt nothing but irritation."

Red Falcon inexplicably trusted Eve. He then said,

"Now we need a new plan."

"What do you mean?"

"What else? We know its general location. Now we need to find a way to destroy it."

Red Falcon raised his incendiary rifle, the igniter at the front burning brightly.

"This should be a large-scale mental anomaly. It's been so quiet; everyone else should still be asleep."

"Should we wake them up?"

Eve thought waking everyone up was the right move. She doubted they could reach the source alone.

But Red Falcon shook his head.

"No, the most dangerous place now is the car. Under this large-scale mental anomaly, if they can wake up, nothing will happen. If they can't, they'll be corrupted into demons."

Red Falcon said calmly, gripping his weapon and striding forward.

"The optimal solution now is for us to locate the source and signal the others who can wake up."

"But communications are disrupted?"

Eve had picked up a communicator earlier, hearing only silence.

"So I brought signal flares."

Red Falcon proudly revealed a flare gun at his waist.