“It’s not dead yet?!” I was shocked. It had already started causing trouble when we went back to clean up the mess that day. I can’t believe the Lord of the City’s soldiers haven’t dealt with it yet, what the hell?
Or perhaps, due to the City Defense Army’s desertion and the complete annihilation of the Steam Armor team that night, the Lord of the City didn’t have enough troops to eliminate that menace, leaving it until now?
“Does the Saintess know about the phenomenon over there?” the Vampire Girl asked, looking at the colorful lights over there in surprise. She had heard the name I mentioned.
“Yes, that’s the remnant of the Old Day Imprinter I dealt with. It’s one of the monsters they released, The Colour Out Of Space. I didn’t have a good method to eliminate it back then, and the situation was tense, so I let it run amok there, disrupting the situation. I didn’t expect it to have grown so much,” I said grimly.
“Then the Lord of the City won’t be planning to use the Halloween night parade to appease this monster, will he?” the Vampire Girl said.
“That’s unlikely. As long as The Colour Out Of Space exists, it will continuously absorb the surrounding vitality. It doesn’t have a human form, so it can’t go trick-or-treating. The key is, it’s from outer space and doesn’t understand Earth’s rules,” I said.
“The most crucial point is that this is just a juvenile form. With its intelligence, it shouldn’t understand what it means to follow rules. Speaking of which, if a monster doesn’t follow the rules on Halloween night, are there any countermeasures?”
The Vampire Girl found the Saintess’s question rather strange. On one hand, she could name a monster like The Colour Out Of Space, which she had never even heard of. On the other hand, she was asking a simple question about the Halloween night mechanism.
However, thinking about it, noble people are forgetful. The Saintess is busy with important matters every day, and her mind might be preoccupied with great undertakings or memorizing important knowledge. It’s normal for her to be a little unfamiliar with these common folk customs.
“There are no restrictions. Halloween night is a compromise for us, not a requirement. Although people who have received many blessings are generally unharmed, if we were to go on a killing spree, no one could really stop us,” the Vampire Girl said.
“From our Blood Race perspective, it’s probably like wearing a lot of garlic, making us very reluctant to approach. It’s also troublesome to kill them, so it’s better to follow the rules and gain more benefits,” Via added.
I had heard Via mention before that vampires dislike garlic. However, compared to other fatal weaknesses like sunlight, crosses, and birch stakes, this weakness isn’t considered too dangerous, being similar to water.
In the eyes of vampires, garlic is probably akin to excrement. For this reason, my family no longer uses garlic in cooking.
People would hang a circle of garlic on their doors or around their necks, and vampires, unable to stand the smell, would turn to find other prey. After all, who would want to have excrement mixed in their food? Moreover, vampires generally have a洁癖 (cleanliness obsession).
But this doesn’t mean vampires won’t kill people wearing garlic. As long as they don’t dirty their hands, killing a person is quite simple; it’s just a matter of whether it’s necessary.
Halloween night operates on a similar mechanism, offering these Demons and Monsters a better choice. However, if someone ungratefully chooses otherwise, there are no mandatory measures. They can only be killed by force.
Now, the commotion over there has affected the float parade. Soldiers maintaining order ran to stop the fleeing people and question them, and the parade procession also stopped.
“This might be counterproductive. The magic power is already unusually active tonight, and with so many people gathered on the streets, it might have directly stimulated The Colour Out Of Space, making it think this is a grand feast,” I said.
“Then let’s go and see. Let’s check the situation. We can’t do anything from here,” Jayad said.
In fact, quite a few people wanted to go and see the excitement. We mixed in with the crowd and slowly approached. The people trying to escape the area and those wanting to see the spectacle were crowding together, causing increasing chaos.
We carefully circumvented the area from the sides or from above. It’s evident that Cando City’s public security is rotten. No one was evacuating the crowds, nor were any isolation lines set up. The soldiers didn’t even know what to do, and the commander had to go to the Lord of the City’s manor to request orders.
I estimate that reinforcements would arrive at least half an hour later. This is assuming the Lord of the City made a decisive judgment, the soldiers assembled quickly, and they even ran all the way. Even if they ran, they might be blocked by the onlookers.
When we got closer to the area, we discovered the severity of the problem. Here, the ground was covered everywhere with a layer of color, like paint flowing on the ground, emitting a strange light.
Strange crystals had formed on both the buildings and the ground. These crystals were bright blue, resembling magic crystals, growing in clusters, some over a meter tall.
Not only buildings but even people had grown crystals. I saw many people fleeing the area in pain, or being dragged out by soldiers for rescue, with crystals growing on their bodies.
Moreover, the plants in that area had become very bizarre. They appeared withered and black, with all their leaves shed, yet they were growing at an abnormal rate, forming very strange shapes. All the branches pointed towards the sky, like arms worshipping the cosmos.
“Damn it! What happened here? It seems like there’s a monster, but we can’t see it!” a soldier shouted in frustration.
“It’s lurking underground, and we can’t attack it. Go rescue people first and transfer everyone out of this area!” a squad leader yelled.
They were all ordinary soldiers assigned to maintain public order on Halloween night. They had no idea there were monsters here, nor did they have corresponding countermeasures or superior orders. They could only focus on rescuing people first.
“Officer! They have strange ores growing on them, and their minds seem abnormal too!” A soldier held down a rescued person who was struggling violently and even attacking the soldier.
When they were dragged out earlier, they were unconscious. Now they had woken up. Their facial features were emitting light, their movements were like violent zombies, and they were even attacking other civilians.
However, among the people parading on Halloween night, there were some who were not to be trifled with. Seeing these people dare to attack them, they immediately retaliated. These individuals, who seemed to have lost their minds but not gained any strength, were instantly killed.
Screams and cries echoed through the streets, further escalating the chaos. Some soldiers had even started firing their guns.
At the same time, I finally understood the purpose of the Halloween night blessings. Those with a faint spiritual light of blessings could temporarily resist the corrosive effects of the exotic energy, maintain their sanity, and escape without going mad.
As for those who didn’t have time to collect blessings or clear the corrosive effects from their homes, they now had crystals growing on their bodies and had completely lost their sanity.
