Chapter 21.5 – Can You Hear My Heart Beating?
Behind the door was an extremely spacious room. There were four or five women lying on the carpet while leaning on an extremely tall and sturdy man. He raised his head, licking the woman lying in front of him while casting his sinisterly smiling face towards Madeline outside the door. When he clearly saw Madeline’s appearance, the male’s eyes immediately released a cruel green radiance! He suddenly stood up and roared madly. His body abruptly enlarged in size. Four long fangs reached out from his mouth and sharp claws emerged from both his hands and feet.
The male lowered his body, and then he suddenly exerted force, shooting towards Madeline like a cannonball! A loud bang immediately sounded inside the room, causing the ground to collapse under the tremendous force. The shattered slabs smashed into the room below, and sounds of flesh being torn apart could immediately be heard. However, there was unexpectedly no miserable screams to be heard.
Madeline calmly stared at the incoming male. During this short instant, his fangs had already protruded to a wolf like state and fiercely bit down towards Madeline’s shoulder! His right claw struck towards Madeline’s left ribs, while his left claw slashed towards her chest.
Madeline raised the death prison she was holding backwards to stop the male’s left claw. She allowed his right claw to continue towards her ribs and his mouth to bite down on her shoulder.
This wolf-like man didn’t seem to care at all that the place his mouth was landing on had several sharp spikes protruding outwards. Without decreasing his power in the slightest, his mouth closed downwards! The spikes on Madeline’s armor that were originally incomparably sturdy suddenly became soft under this man’s fangs, bending and breaking off. Then, even the thick armor began to creak and deform! Meanwhile, by Madeline’s ribs where that man’s claws descended, five sharp claws sliced deeply into the armor, immediately making their way halfway through.
Madeline’s face immediately became became pale. She turned around slightly to look at this wolf like male. The male’s eyes that were as round as balls were currently staring at her, his gaze full of savageness and desire, but also cautiousness.
Madeline’s lips slightly opened, and then she suddenly blew a stream of air at the male!
Great fear suddenly appeared in the wolf-like man’s eyes, but it was too late for him to react. His entire head exploded into a bloody mist, and then an intangible force blasted the remains into the wall on the other side, leaving behind a dark red imprint!
The headless body of the wolfman continued to hang from Madeline’s body. His four claws had clawed at Madeline’s armor until it continuously deformed, proving his body’s inconceivable power and vitality. However, a body without its head would never be a threat again. Death prison still never moved, but the edge of the blade began to trickle with blood. A bloody line appeared on each of the wolfman’s limbs, and soon after, the claws that were pointlessly inserted into Madeline’s armor completely detached from the rest of his body.
Madeline’s armor to vibrate, and as if it possessed life, the parts that had caved in began to restore itself bit by bit. Those claws that were swiping at the armor in a futile manner were sent flying out by a powerful force. They had been inserted deeply into the walls, ceiling, and columns.
The wolfman’s destroyed body still possessed astonishing vitality. Its various wounds seemed to have thousands to tens of thousands of little bugs crawling over it in an attempt to fix his injuries. Flesh continuously grew, but with his head smashed apart, his body that possessed boundless vitality lost its way and could only grow aimlessly. The crazily growing flesh extended close to half a meter out from his neck, forming a sinister and terrifying scene. The body that had lost its head and four limbs continued to grow chaotically while squirming about irregularly.
The wolfman originally wanted to rely on his body’s ridiculous recovery power to take on Madeline’s heavy armor and see which side could endure the most damage. He presumably relied on this type of method to obtain countless victories in the past. WIth his body’s astonishing vitality, even if he was hacked apart at the waist, there was still a chance to recreate new body parts. Unfortunately, the one he encountered was Madeline, and this wolfman who wanted to fight a sustained battle of exchanging injuries immediately had his head blasted off, resulting in him being unable to display his area of superiority.
When Madeline’s eyes landed on the wolfman’s chest, she saw that there was an eye-catching string of characters engraved there. These characters were extremely strange and were definitely not the commonly seen human language, yet Madeline softly read, “Sir Jargola Blackfang.”
She raised her head. Her line of sight shifted from the male’s corpse and walked forward. A large hole had silently appeared in the opposite wall, and resting within what remained of the ground was a deep trench. Madeline had already made her way through the room and was now slowly walking to the third floor. Her movement looked unhurried and smooth, but in actuality was inconceivably fast. Compared to her, everyone else were like unmoving statues, apart from the ruined corpse of that Jargola wolfman.
Madeline quickly reached the third floor and stood inside the banqueting hall. This banqueting hall was a bit smaller than the one on the first floor and traditionally used by the Zalenwell family for receiving the guests that truly had status. Seven or eight guests were scattered inside of this banqueting hall, with both men and women among them. Even though absolute chaos had already happened on the floor below, the people here seemed completely unaffected. When Madeline appeared, everyone here began to look at her with faces full of leisure, arrogance, and even interest.
At the other end of the banqueting hall was a small door. Behind the door was a short corridor that lead to the small parlor room where the legend of the seven apostles was painted. Piccolo liked to discuss truly important things with others in this small parlor room. The small parlor room was the ancient castle’s safest place, and the seven apostles that overlooked everything weren’t just an oil painting.
Piccolo had just walked out from the small door, and as soon as he pushed open the door, what he saw was a calmly standing Madeline. The old man’s eyebrows frowned in an almost undetectable manner, and his hawk like gray eyes narrowed. In fact, the moment he pushed open the door and his eyes landed on Madeline’s body just happened to be when Madeline appeared in front of the ballroom entrance. Was this a coincidence, or was it a type of foreboding?
The ballroom was filled with unusual energy. The men and women that could stand here, even the two guests that clearly weren’t pure-blooded humans, all possessed powerful abilities. At the very least, they had the confidence to stand in front of Madeline without choosing to run. They obviously noticed this coincidence, and as such, they all began to contemplate the meaning behind this coincidence.
Madeline in her armor was a whole head taller than the old man. Her face was always hidden behind the faint mist, making others unable to see exactly what she looked like. Meanwhile, those blue eyes were slightly turned, as if they were a bit lost, but also like they were smiling sweetly, as if they belonged to an innocent child untainted by the ways of the world. Perhaps Madeline with her mask on was a complete demonic king, while her current appearance without her mask was like the angel of everyone’s dreams.
The old man’s right hand moved in front of his chest, and with a slight bow, he performed an old-fashioned gesture of etiquette before saying with a smile, “Venerable dark saint, I never expected that you would appear in this place.”
Madeline smiled slightly. Her gaze did not completely rest on this old man’s body and instead into the unknown distance. Her voice sounded like one out of a fantasy, clear, pure, and indistinct. “Venerable Unwavering Sunset, since you wished to see me outside the Town of Trials, I thought that it might be better to directly come here to see you.”
The old man laughed in an easygoing manner. With an extremely confident smile, he said, “I greatly admire your distinguished self’s wisdom during the last two years. However, this time, your esteemed self made an extremely rudimentary error.”
The old man straightened his chest and widened his arms. With pride and deep emotions, he said, “This place is my home field!”
Sunset castle seemed to have come to life in that instant. The castle seemed to resonate in response to every word the old man spoke. His voice became more and more powerful, resounding through the hearts of every single guest in this banqueting hall!
The faces of all the guests fell, especially those of two or three particularly prideful individuals. They looked at the old man with fear appearing within the depths of their pupils! The warm fireplace, luxurious furnishings, and all the services and pleasure they could imagine made them almost forget that this was the old man’s home ground. At the very least, in this place, the old man had the power to determine whether they lived or died.
“I know.” Madeline said gently. “I know that this place is your home field, and I also know that you won’t leave this place, so I decided to come here instead.”
