It was as if countless mosquitoes droned in her ears, their strident and restless sounds wearing down Eve’s composure. Anxiety, panic, and terror—all these negative emotions sought to devour her reason.

  Eve wanted to scream, but Burton pulled her along. This infuriating man exuded an unexpected sense of reliability at this moment; his hand holding hers was the only thing keeping her sanity intact.

  The two desperately ran through the dark tunnel, but it seemed endless, with no sign of the end. Although the red tide of death behind them had disappeared, the whispers echoing in the darkness warned that it was still in pursuit.

  "Don’t be afraid. That thing can’t catch up with us!"

  As if to comfort the girl, Burton suddenly spoke.

  "It’s a conglomeration of human bodies. Although it’s beyond common sense, it still follows certain laws of reality—like being too fat to run fast or too large to squeeze through here."

  With that, he picked up Eve in his arms. She was completely stunned by fear, like a doll, allowing herself to be manipulated by him.

  There was a passage higher up, hidden in the darkness. In crisis, their senses became more acute, and Burton immediately noticed it. He threw Eve onto it, then climbed up himself.

  This was a secret passage of the underground palace. Given Sabo’s caution, it was surely a complex network of tunnels, perhaps leading to a hidden exit. If not for the strange demons, Burton would have had plenty of time to try each path, but now he could only gamble on luck.

  I hope Lady Luck still favors me.

  Fear and death followed them closely. Eve couldn’t understand why the detective remained calm in such a situation. Why wasn’t he afraid?

  His calmness and resolve were beyond ordinary people. Thinking carefully, despite his bad personality, he was almost an invincible genius, with cunning strategies and swordsmanship that surpassed ordinary people.

  Eve was about to ask when she felt Burton’s hand trembling slightly. Although it was faint, she clearly felt it.

  He was also afraid. This damn detective was actually afraid, but Eve knew he was different from her—he was forcing himself to stay calm, the only way they could survive.

  As for death? Burton didn’t care. He was the type of madman who, even when death came knocking, would pull out his Winchester and shoot at the door.

  Burton had to survive. He had come to Old Dunling, and the good new life was already in his hands. He could sit in the square feeding pigeons with a cigarette in his mouth or ride a steam tram around the entire mechanical city.

  No one could take his life away, not even the demons dug up from his memories.

  "Don’t worry. It’s normal to be afraid. That thing exerts pressure on the mind, forcing out various negative emotions. Once you lose, you’ll become a puppet of fear!"

  Burton spoke as if he had faced such things before, explaining to Eve.

  He took a hard drag on his cigarette. In the dark, Eve could only see the glowing tip and smell the smoke.

  Eve couldn’t see Burton’s face clearly, but she felt another strange emotion welling up.

  "We must leave quickly. If possible, we need to notify the rescuing Suyalan Hall—ordinary people are just sacrifices against that thing."

  His voice was calm, but beneath it was anger and self-blame.

  This was Burton’s fault. When he saw Vole’s mutated body, he should have realized the problem. For some reason, Vole had already started transforming into a demon at that time, but he had killed him in time before the transformation was complete.

  Presumably, Vole had begged him to kill him for this reason—he had realized his own difference and didn’t want to become one of those monsters.

  He should have remained vigilant, but life in Old Dunling had made him lose his guard. The strange changes in the flesh were already obvious, yet he hadn’t thought in this direction.

  "Wha… what exactly is that thing?"

  Eve calmed her breathing, tried to compose herself, then gripped her weapon and asked the shadow in the darkness.

  The question seemed to stir bad memories, and he answered in a strained voice:

  "Demon."

  ...

  "And God said, Let there be light, and there was light."

  This is the first sentence in the Gospel, through which believers understand God’s greatness and holiness. But what the Gospel does not record is that where there is light, there must be darkness.

  Philosophers understand it this way: just as all things in the world are opposites, only through cold can people understand warmth, only in the face of sin does kindness become precious, and only through death can the beauty of life be revealed.

  It was as if God were testing mortals—bringing light while the darkest and deepest abyss rose from its shadow, breeding monsters called demons.

  The term "demon" originally came from the Gospel’s Book of Isaiah, used to describe "adversaries" against God. Unlike mortals bathed in God’s light, they crawled out of God’s shadow, luring mortals into the abyss of depravity, accompanying sin and violence, thus being abandoned by heaven and lingering in hell.

  Eve was dazed. Of course, she knew what this term meant. Old Dunling had originally been built by the Romans, who had brought not only its glory but also their faith. Although the influence of the Gospel Church on various countries had diminished, it still had many believers, including Eve’s deceased mother.

  When her mother was alive, she had told Eve these stories and even given her a religious name, so Eve understood these theological things well—but she was terrified because of this understanding.

  "This… how is this possible…"

  Her understanding of the world collapsed at that moment, and Eve’s heart, which had with great difficulty calmed down, began to beat violently again, as loud as a bell in the deep tunnel.

  Eve had always scoffed at so-called mythical faith, thinking it was just something fabricated by those in power to maintain rule and plunder interests. But now, something from mythology was truly before her eyes. As Burton said, it was by no means a hallucination but something real.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  "There’s nothing impossible. We must escape quickly. I don’t know why a demon is here, but there are at least hundreds of people in this underground palace, and they’re all people incapacitated by hallucinogens. Those people are its food, and it will only grow bigger and more terrifying."

  Burton’s voice came from the darkness ahead.

  "...How do you know all this, Burton?!"

  Eve stopped in her tracks. The whispers in her ears grew louder, as if a strange monk were chanting beside her. Under the effect of the hallucinogens and the demon’s mental impact, the girl’s condition was very bad, and she found it hard to trust anyone.

  She pointed her gun at the figure in the darkness—it was her own pistol, fully loaded.

  "Don’t give in, Eve. You’ve already been affected by it."

  Burton’s voice remained calm, as if he didn’t care at all that Eve was pointing a gun at him.

  Cold sweat ran down the girl’s cheeks, and her breathing became heavy. All kinds of thoughts raced through her mind, and under the catalysis of these negative emotions, the doubts about Burton grew bigger and bigger.

  Why did this detective know so much? Why had he chosen her to be with him? Was it really for that rescue plan? Of course, these doubts were not the most fatal. The most fatal one was Burton himself.

  A detective proficient in combat skills and secret knowledge—Burton’s very existence was the biggest suspicion.

  "Don’t be afraid, Eve. I understand how you feel. The first time I faced a demon, I was just like you… I almost killed my friend. That’s how they are—they directly destroy people’s minds. When confronting them, you not only have to guard against demons but also against teammates who’ve gone mad."

  Burton comforted her from the darkness, but his hand had already gripped his cane sword tightly. This was a dark tunnel with low visibility, and Burton was very close to Eve. As long as he was fast enough, he was confident he could kill the girl before she fired.

  There was no inner struggle. Since the first time Burton had swung his sword at a demon, he had known one thing: fighting such strange beings required paying a price. That price could be a person’s kindness, the constraints of their principles, or warm blood turning cold.

  "Eve, calm down. Don’t let your ancestors down."

  His voice became stern, and Burton was now like a strict teacher scolding his disappointing student. Even so, in the darkness, the cane sword was already raised above his head. With Burton’s arm strength, he could slice Eve in two in an instant.

  Chaotic emotions tormented Eve, and her gun hand trembled. The two faced each other in the darkness for nearly a minute. Finally, after a long silence, Eve lowered her gun.

  "Wha… what’s wrong with me…"

  Eve collapsed to her knees, her eyes bloodshot, her beautiful face pale. The youth and vitality were gone, and she looked like a sickly woman.

  "Demons are very strange creatures—they aren’t even the same as ordinary living beings. Anything they touch will be infected with their strange nature, like a vessel they’ve touched. If an ordinary person touches it, they’ll have nightmares.

  "Similarly, as long as ordinary people see it, hear it, or smell it—in short, any act that allows them to observe its existence—they’ll be affected. The nature of the influence varies depending on the degree of contact, but the result is always ‘madness’."

  Burton lowered his lethal cane sword, helped Eve up, and took her gun to prevent the girl from doing something stupid.

  "Even words about it are forbidden. That’s why the rules are: Do not look, do not touch, do not understand."

  With difficulty, Eve turned her head. In the strange atmosphere, Burton remained calm, as if completely unaffected.

  "Then why aren’t you… afraid?"

  Burton supported Eve as they walked, answering her question.

  "There are many reasons. It’s like a hunter who lives with tigers every day. The first time you see one, you’re scared to death, but if you see them every day, you’ll treat them as just big, fierce cats."

  Light shone ahead—it seemed to be an exit.

  "So in your eyes, that ghostly thing is just a big cat?"

  After endless darkness, seeing light finally eased the girl’s mood, and she even wanted to laugh at Burton’s description.

  "When fear becomes a normal state, it’s just an ordinary emotion. I’ve said before that I used to be a priest, from Firenze of the Holy Gospel Papacy. I know demons are things we don’t understand, and we need another unknown to fight them.

  Burton picked up his Winchester, hooked his finger through the guard, and swung it. The shotgun spun elegantly and was loaded in the process. His cigarette had burned out, and he crushed it underfoot, the embers mixing with ash.

  "The unknown that protected us hundreds of years ago was called God and faith. Now, its name is machinery and energy."

  Burton tore off his mask—it had been very uncomfortable to wear. By the light of the exit, the girl finally saw Burton’s face clearly.

  She had thought Burton was afraid, just that his psychological quality was strong enough to force calm, but the truth was that his face was full of fury. This was no expression a person should have when afraid.

  The hand holding the gun trembled uncontrollably—not from fear, but because Burton was too excited.

  He knew exactly why. It was like a hunter who had sealed away his shotgun, only to find that all the trees had been burned to charcoal and the hunting forest had disappeared into the river of history. The so-called hunter was thus far abandoned by the new era.

  But one day, when you’re muddling through life, you discover that the dark forest still exists, filled with the strange beings that should have been burned to death.

  So you pick up the long-sealed shotgun and welcome the new life.