At the Aldridge Empire’s important border transportation point, Dolan City, at Nelon Magic Train Station.
The girls from Olsylvia Academy did not head in for now due to the strange atmosphere surrounding the train station. Bella, Lisha, Kriss, and Marionette Master Elaine were currently exploring the spooky train station. For safety reasons, Bella had the other three Renegades who are waiting for orders outside, Mage Ariel, Priest Isaman, and Assassin Noreya come with as well.
Collapsing Evil Dragon Emperor Lolita and Devouring Holy Dragon Euphenisia are still at St. Michael’s Cathedral, looking after the rest of the dragon beauties, so they were temporarily unavailable to come. Demon God Angel and Evil God Mia were with the two Chaos Bringers, Noesha and Betty, at the girls’ base camp, so the strongest forces Bella could deploy at the moment were only the six Renegades.
Nelun Train Station looks as if it had been abandoned for quite some time. While surveying it, they had a distinct impression that it was like one of those haunted train stations on Earth. There were broken run-down bits everywhere. The magic trains themselves were covered in bloody scratch marks, and under the spirit powder, you could see all kinds of fearful and distorted faces on the windows. This place must be cursed.
Based on the plate of the train plate, the first magic train to depart was the magic train arranged for the Antoinette Academy, not Olsylvia Academy, mainly because Bella and the others had prepared funds in advance to teleport directly with magic teleportation arrays, and that was why they arrived before the other academies. A blush of cold wind blew past them at the station. Even though Demon Gods and Renegades were unaffected by curses, as transmigrators at heart, the scene in the train station looked too much like the haunted train stations on Earth so it gave them all chills inside.
Exercising her full right as a little sister, Lisha went right up to Bella and took her hand. The rest of the Renegades could only watch as Lisha snuck away yet could only pretend to have seen nothing. Everyone had their separate tasks. Marionette Master Elaine was in a group with Priest Isaman, and they were in charge of figuring out the nature of the curse here. Swordsman Kriss and Assassin Noreya were in charge of checking if any live people were at the train station. Meanwhile, Bella, Lisha, and Mage Ariel were in charge of backup support.
“Bella, this curse is not from this world. President Maria and the others’ light magic won’t be able to dispel it. I can temporarily suppress it, but the origin of the curse is not here. It’s at the end of the magic train station, so it’s useless trying to suppress it here.”
“The end? Isaman, isn’t the end of the train station Oldrango City where the conference is supposed to be held? Unless, that place is…”
“It’s possible. The curse is very strong. I wouldn’t dare try the purification ritual myself if you’re not here.”
“Then do the purification ritual as soon as possible, Isaman. Remember to watch out for your big sister!”
“Got it. Seriously…I’m a curse magic Marionette Master and I actually have to watch out for a Priest…But well you’re all my important people after all. I’ll try my best.”
Priest Isaman immediately began the purification ritual. This time, the ritual she used was different from general other world purification rituals. It was similar to the kind done by Western exorcists on Earth. Isaman took out a book that resembled a bible and a crystal clear bottle of holy water. While reciting lines from the bible, she sprinkled the holy water as she performed the purification ritual on the magic train.
Marionette Master Elaine who was by Isaman’s side was holding a black forbidden book on guard surrounded by a dozen or so cursed puppets that were all in the forms of puppets with broken limbs. The dolls were surrounding the priest and the marionette master, and they were responsible for guarding their exorcism purification ritual. There was an otherworldly strangeness to the scene. At first glance, the image of a priest in charge of exorcising working alongside a marionette master as she controlled evil puppets was unexplainable.
Kriss and Assassin Noreya soon found the stationmaster’s office at Nelon Train Station. There, they found the stationmaster hiding inside and shivering. The middle-aged man looked haggard and frightened as if he hadn’t slept for days. When he saw someone enter, he was so scared that he nearly tried to jump out of the window to escape, but fortunately, Assassin Noreya flashed over and knocked him out. Then, she escorted him with Kriss to Bella.
“Don’t kill me, I don’t know anything…Don’t kill me…”
“This uncle isn’t possessed, is he? Hey Isaman, let me borrow your holy water.”
“Here. Really though, don’t you have the more potent Tears of the Goddess?”
Bella borrowed about half a bottle of holy water and sprayed it on the man. When the holy water touched him, a burst of smoke came out of the old man’s body, and then he was finally sober. When he saw the Olsylvia Academy girls around him, his worried heart finally felt at ease for the time being. Anything was fine as long as it wasn’t those scary bastards.
“Hey mister, tell us what happened. This train station isn’t right…Don’t shake your head yet. If you don’t tell me, then I’ll send you on the first train on a test drive!”
“No…I’ll tell you! Those magic trains…They’re cursed. It’s better if you don’t go in first. Let the Antoinette Academy students go.”
Stationmaster Adam of Nelon Magic Train Station has already been working here for more than a decade. In these recent years, terrifyingly strange occurrences have been happening through the entire Aldridge Empire magic railway. Magic trains that used to be in good condition often encountered all sorts of horrible and unimaginable things during the course of its operation, either encountering spirit or zombie attacks.
Then, the Aldridge Empire deployed large numbers of troops to investigate the magic train’s track, but they didn’t notice anything off. They also secretly asked the bishop of the Radiant Church to come see, but they also did not not find any problems with the magic railway line. So to say, the magic trains were travelling into a parallel alternate dimension, so it was not known where the horrible things would happen.
The first train that leaves each station each day is bound to encounter supernatural phenomenons, and there was a good chance that the subsequent magic trains wouldn’t. This time, the Aldridge Empire wanted to screw over the art school that wasn’t considered one of the Twelve Academies, the Antoinette Academy, so as to ensure that students of the real Twelve Academies would have a smooth trip.
Since citizens of the Aldridge Empire basically relied on magic teleportation, magic trains were hardly ever used. They were only used by foreigners or for transporting cargo. Thus, these strange occurrences were kept secret. For the sake of the empire and mages’ images, they never dared inform the Radiant Church about this matter, nor did they dare ask the Imperial Union for help, thus the matter kept dragging on.
After listening to Stationmaster Adam, Bella felt a fuzzy feeling in her heart. Isn’t this a copy of one of Earth’s urban legends? A ghost train that suddenly drives into a parallel world, a scary deserted train station, and lingering horrific faces covering the train windows. Even though Bella could vaguely guess that it had something to do with the exit of the Cursed Land, it really was terrifying to encounter this, and she was leading an entire group full of girls.
The inhabitants of the other world may not be frightened when faced with skeletons and ghosts. After all, this was within their scope of knowledge. However, things were different when it came to these horrifying scenes. The unknown is almost the most terrifying. However, Bella didn’t want to just send the Antoinette Academy students to their death. There were still quite a lot of pretty girls on that side, it would be an extravagant waste to just lead them to their deaths.
“Stationmaster Adam, couldn’t the Empire have replaced the occupants of the first train with death row prisoners or some other living creatures? It’s very bad for an entire train full of students to disappear. It won’t be good if word gets out that it happened.”
“That…The Empire has experimented with it, to no results almost. For the past three years, many mercenaries have been sent to investigate this matter. In the end, they all disappeared. Now, those terrible demons often attack the station, so the Empire had to close off the station.”
“So, Grand Duke Baize. You’d better not go. The Emperor gave the order that you and the Olsylvia Academy’s students will leave tomorrow after the Antoinette Academy’s students leave on the first train.”
“That’s a good offer, but I refuse. You don’t have to bother, I have my own plan.”
Bella rejected Stationmaster Adam’s suggestion without even thinking. She didn’t want to sacrifice students from other academies just to make way for the girls from her own academy. Stationmaster Adam saw that she couldn’t be dissuaded, so he didn’t continue. Bella’s current identity was that of Grand Duke Baize. The empire’s princess, Mage Ariel, who was with her had no comments about it either. So he, as a mere stationmaster who didn’t even have a title, could only stay quiet. He can only pray in his heart now that nothing would happen to Bella and the others, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to get out of this.
The magic train’s route was currently freely available to be used. Bella decided to tinker with the first magic train a little, then set off. After Priest Isaman’s purification ritual, Bella borrowed the dolls summoned by Marionette Master Elaine to help, and soon, a newly transformed magic train was completed.
In this new magic train, holy water was sprinkled all over and curtains were installed on the windows. There were also charms written by Isaman herself decorating the windows outside. In order to achieve an exorcising effect, Kriss inserted a different evil dispelling sword in each carriage to prevent malicious spirits from destroying the train.
The driver and the crew of the train were all replaced with Marionette Master Elaine’s dolls. Bella put on doll skins on each one of them. That way, they didn’t look as scary anymore. Puppet dolls are emotionless so they wouldn’t feel fear. If they were controlling the train, even the scariest images would not scare them.
The Olsylvia Academy’s girls quickly boarded the modified magic train. Even though the environment around the train station was weird and the girls all felt a little confused, the Rose Society girls in the lead didn’t say anything, so they chose to trust them. As Stationmaster Adam watched on, the train slowly depared towards the seaside city of Oldrango. As the first train of the Twelve Academies to depart, Bella and the others were considered the pioneers.
As soon as the magic train left the station, it immediately entered an alternate dimension. Bella, alongside Lisha and several other Renegades, gathered in the first carriage to prepare for battle. The first carriage was not covered by any black curtains nor were the doors locked out of convenience for the fight later. The end of the train was protected by Demon God Angel and Evil God Mia. Meanwhile, the center was guarded by Time Space Demon Noesha and Poison Origin Betty.
The scene outside of the train has already changed. It was still blue skies and white clouds before departure, but the sky instantly turned dark as soon as they left the station. A number of haunting figures were looming outside. They were afraid of the spiritual talismans attached to the windows and didn’t dare to wander close. This extradimensional space was filled with resentful energy. From the cab’s front mirror, you could see all sorts of cliffs, abysses, deep pits, and the like. Basically a show of all things terrifying.
If it was a normal driver at the front, they would have been scared witless, but the ones driving Bella’s train weren’t normal people; they were a puppet doll. The dolls continued driving the magic train just like robots. It doesn’t matter how scary the scenes are, in their perception, there were no obstacles in the scene before them. These were just normal road conditions, so they continued on as usual. Virtual illusions don’t scare puppets.
As soon as they got on the train, the girls received modified earphones from the Rose Society. Since their ears were plugged, they couldn’t hear all the various terrifying wails coming from outside. With the black curtains covering the windows, they had no idea what sort of horrifying scenes were happening outside, so they weren’t bothered. After drinking the soothing tea provided by the Rose Society, most of the girls shut their eyes for a nap.
Bella and the others stayed put, ready to guard the safety of the train. The malicious spirits that were besieging the train were all focused on the first compartment without the curtains. They tried to scare Bella and the others to death by making all sorts of scary faces, but Bella and the others who were already prepared continued to sit quietly, awaiting their arrival at the next station.
After moving for a short while, magic trains that were running in mid-air appeared on each side of the magic train, and you could see in one of them that the passengers had all turned into skeletons while the other turned into bloody zombies. The dark empty eye sockets of the skeletons and the rotten resenting faces of the zombies were all staring at Bella and the girls.
These two trains were presumably the ones that went missing before. The passengers had long ago turned into vengeful spirits. Who knows how many of such passengers there are, but that’s no reason for them to drag others down with them. If not for the blessings of the holy water, then those two vengeful spirit trains would probably have come over to crush Bella’s modified train between them.
“How pitiful. See you later, spirits! Go and get reincarnated!”
Bella took out a modified version of a holy water bomb and opened the window, throwing it directly at the spirit train with the zombies across from them. The holy water bomb was basically just a modified bomb where holy water was concentrated and put into an exploding ball before being thrown out and detonated. The zombie train could not dodge the bomb and it instantly exploded as it hit, splitting the train down the middle and burning to the ground.
The holy water inside of the ball was mixed together by Priest Isaman herself. It was different from the ones from the Radiant Church. If someone else from the Radiant Church was to take her place, then they wouldn’t have been able to purify the spirits in this other dimension.
The skeleton train on the other side could see that things weren’t going the right way and was just about to turn around and leave, but it was caught in Marionette Master Elaine’s puppet threads. Then, it was hit by several holy water bombs and was blasted into dust. In the blink of an eye, two terrifying vengeful trains retired from the stage. With the deterrence of the holy water bombs, Bella and the girls did not encounter any further ghost trains approaching them along the way.
“Bella, why haven’t we encountered the legendary deserted haunted station? I want to see it.”
“Elaine, your interests really are…I think they’re afraid so they don’t dare to show up anymore. We still have to hurry to Oldrango City so let’s check that station out next time. Ariel, how are the preparations going?”
“Done, I’m ready to go.”
Just because this parallel dimension wasn’t doing anything didn’t mean that Bella would let them go. With Mage Ariel’s help, they opened the gate of the Abyss and connected this dimension with the Dark Abyss. A large number of Abyssal Demonic Beings will follow it into this dimension, and because of the invasion, it was impossible for this dimension to connect with the human continent for the time being. Then, the magic trains that set off in the future won’t step into this terrifying space by mistake anymore.
Soon, blood red clouds appeared in the originally dark skies. This was a sign of the Abyss Demonic Beings’ invasion. When Bella’s train leaves, this place will turn into a battlefield for the Abyss Demonic Beings and the vengeful spirits of this dimension to fight it out. Using Abyssal Demonic Beings to invade the other dimension isn’t the best way to solve the problem, but it was the most direct and most effective way.
Once the black curtains of the train were pulled, the girls saw only blue skies as far as the eye could see, as well as the beautiful scenery of the Aldridge Empire’s border town, as well as the faces of the residents who looked as if they had seen a ghost. To think that a magic train set out at this time could actually travel unscathed…Somehow, that scary urban legend did not come true this time.
“Big Sister Bella, that was really scary. Good thing those scary guys didn’t climb into the train, otherwise…”
“Don’t lie, Little Sister Lisha. I saw how you were smiling when you threw the bomb. How could you be scared?”
“Big Sister Kriss, you’re a meanie! Can’t you let me act cute with Big Sister Bella a little? Oh yeah, Big Sister Bella. I felt the aura of a dragon in that dimension earlier.”
Bella wasn’t surprised. The reason that the train entered the other dimension was really because of the abnormalities with the Cursed Land’s entrance. Someone tried to open the Cursed Land’s gates at least three years ago to set free the Cursed Dragon as well as the other cursed beings inside, but failed, maybe due to his key not being an original or something else, but it was hard to confirm that now.
