Chapter 144: Four Chimes
The only unfortunate aspect was my lack of appropriate clothing. I wasn't wearing my armour and was, instead, dressed in my classically vile long-sleeved frilly shirt and dark, tight pants that fit snugly.
What happens from here, though?
Am I safe from that thing?
Will it chase me to this place?
And what even is this place? Is my body still in the sepulchre, and I'm in a dream, or is this my real body?
These questions flashed through my brain, so I took a deep breath.
I returned to a calm state.
No point in asking useless, unanswerable questions.
I'll keep it for the future in the back of my mind, but, for now, let's focus on figuring out where I am and how to get out of here back to the real world. And, ideally, a method to survive that thing's attacks.
Rustle.
A crisp, unusual sound echoed from the entrance of the alleyway.
Shooting my head in that direction-
Thud.
-I found a young man, suited in light, metal-plated armour atop grey, furred, reinforced clothing, collapsed into a heap. His arms, quivering, slithered outwards. Smack, slamming his palm into the ground, he pulled his body deeper into the alley.
Closer towards me.
Just to double-check, I looked behind me, and there was no one there still. He could only be crawling towards me.
So...
"You are?"
...I took a couple of steps closer to the collapsed man, crouched with my elbows resting on my knees, and cocked my head to the side as I began my first conversation with a dream dweller.
The arm floating towards me dropped. It slumped onto the dirty ground.
After almost 10 seconds, just as I was about to speak up again, the man lifted his head.
He raised it.
Then, I witnessed his face for the first time.
Unfamiliar.
A rugged yet handsome face, embedded with fluttering pink eyes, stared into mine. "Y, you- Hiss..." Sipping air through his teeth, he took a moment, then finished his sentence with a confounding, confusing remark:
"-why are you here...?"
...?
He recognises me?
Then, squinting his eyes, he spat out a mouthful of dirt and, sipping another breath of air, mumbled in a vaguely audible voice, "...No. Not him."
Not him?
"Are you okay, mister? Do you need help?" Pretending not to have heard his mumble, I reached out and softly patted his shoulder, "You're not looking too swell over there."
I tapped his shoulder a couple more times, poking and prodding till he took another breath. Once he had enough air in his system, he left me with one last bite of information, "Take me to Ghilenna..."
Thud.
His head thunked into the ground, splitting the skin on his forehead in the process.
Ghilenna?
Now, who is that?
Helplessly rubbing my forehead; he seemingly recognised me and confused me with someone else, which is enough for me to help him and try to pry some information from him. But who the fuck is that?
Scratching my scalp for a moment, I then hovered my hand over his back, and-
Fwoosh!
-a fleet of Cursed Flames bubbled from the core of my vessels, burning me up from the inside out with shrieking, vile voices.
The flames spread across the man's body, not burning him, but removing any excess dirt, filth, and grime that covered him. I wasn't sure what was wrong with him; he didn't have any visible wounds, so the most I could do was reduce the chances of any infection from taking root and killing him in the long term.
With that complete, my hand moved over to his collar as I scrunched it up and picked him up with ease.
Don't underestimate me, I might look small, but this body packs plenty of power—enough to obliterate any average person; if anything, I have to be careful with my Authority. My control and understanding of it are severely lacking.
Was my Authority to leak out uncontrollably...
I'll disintegrate this block of the city.
...sighing, I tossed him over my shoulder.
Smack.
Then eyed his head that faceplanted into the ground and his boots that dragged across the ground in front of me.
"..."
Silently, quietly, I shifted his position to a piggyback instead-
"..."
-only for his feet to dangle on the floor again, and for his head to swivel like a pendulum in front of my eyes as it hung loosely.
"..."
Cracking a smile with my lips, I carelessly pulled him into both of my arms instead.
It was a princess hold.
Kill me.
With literally no other option but to carry him in the manner, besides using my Curses to hold him up, which would bring too much attention to me, I marched onwards and out of the alleyway and into the light.
Into the sunlight.
Not that carrying a man with this petite girl's body will bring any less attention.
But at least it'll be bizarre attention, and not malicious attention.
.....
...
Ding...
A solemn, archaic bell abruptly rang through the sky; it broke through the sound of the waves and bored itself into my eardrums.
Ding...
Again, it repeated a second time.
Chimes?
Then, Ding...
A third time.
Confused, I held tight to the railing while The Canary swayed heavily, "Did you hear that?" I focused my sentence towards Nemora.
And she, "No? What did you hear?" She didn't hear it.
Ding...
It came for a fourth time.
And this time, it was the final chime of the bell.
"The chime of a bell."
I waited for a bit, but the sound didn't repeat. Everything returned to the norm of thundering waves and a swaying, dizzying ship.
The usual.
What was that?
But this wasn't the usual; there's no way it could be. That chime came out of nowhere, and also left out of nowhere.
And only I heard it?
Why?
"Elden just contacted me. He heard it too; it woke him from his sleep. Jill didn't hear anything. Let me check with the others."
What's going on?
Holding my chin between my index finger and thumb, I calculated mentally how long it had been between each chime; four seconds between each chime, and it has been almost a minute now already since the first chime.
Four chimes, four seconds between each chime, it didn't seem like a coincidence. At least, not at first glance.
"I sent the question to everyone, so far, it seems like no one else heard it. Just you and Elden. Strange." Nemora's quick investigation led to a concrete outcome, only Elden and I were the ones to have heard the four chimes.
But just us two?
Why?
He has both Blessings and Curses, while I have Curses only, so this isn't linked to the Hierarchy of powers. Then what is it? Is it just a coincidence that we two are the ones who just so happen to hear the chimes?
Clueless as I was, I continued to contemplate this odd scenario.
I was asking useless questions, unanswerable questions.
Repeatedly, my brain churned with madness.
Repeatedly, my brain throbbed with anxiety.
What is it?
What was it?
Why?
I can't fully comprehend the 'why', but those chimes irked me in a manner vaguely similar to the arrival of the madness.
[1 minute]
"Alora."
"Hm?" I raised my head at Nemora's call.
"Look."
So, I looked.
The blinding darkness retreated like the splitting of waves, revealing a new location. This was unlike the appearance of the monument, which came with a thrumming that broke through the air, this one, however...
"What the fuck."
...this one didn't reveal itself quietly.
"CREEEEEEE!"
"Chiwak! Chiwak!"
"Clatter! Chitter!"
A storm struck down upon us like lightning; a storm of meat, of flesh, of chitin, of fetid blood. Thousands upon thousands of them lined the sky in front of us like a wall of demented Curses—Heathens.
Nearly countless Heathens of all forms shrieked at us from beyond the veil of darkness.
They'll be here in less than 2 minutes.
I stared at the incoming swarm unflinchingly. I didn't twist my head back, I didn't bother gazing backwards at Nemora, nor did I bother warning her.
Because-
Tap.
-a hand latched to my shoulder. A warm, delicate palm almost twice the size of my hand, "Hilda, what do you think?"
"Looks fun!" Her cheeky response prompted a not-so-cheeky smile from me that led to a jab into the side of her ribs, "Don't say stupid things, you big dummy."
"Ouch." Giggling, Hilda curled inwards on herself, clutching her tummy as though I'd punched her with full force; that's not even where I jabbed her as well, she should never take up a spot in a theatre.
"You support us from behind. Hilda, Jill and I will run into them. You, Elden, and Nemora stay back and keep us safe."
I glanced backwards at Esme as she tapped my back and stood to my left, "And Vanessa?"
"She'll be taking care of Yulei, Lily, and Hildekar." Elden, stretching his limbs beside Jill, gave me the full outlook of our set-up with a final confirmation coming from Nemora seconds later, "As they said, this'll be our formation today."
We've been through a couple of hordes already, but none the size of this one. This'll be the first time we all work together.
Grinning, I opened my right hand and summoned it from my core.
A book drowning with Curses and shrieking souls, the Book of Heresy.
And, in my left hand, a pen that accompanied the book, the Quill of Heresy.
"A good fight, it has been a while."
I chuckled with an unnecessarily wide smile.