Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 374 Beast
Upon entering the opera house, one is greeted by marble staircases, ceilings adorned with popular fables, and long corridors resembling ancient castle structures. The scattered lights in the corridors, reflecting off the glass and mirrors, create a sense of mystery.

Eclecticism perfectly blends classical romanticism with the newly created realist literary style.

Rick is a big fan of this style.

He was fascinated by every element of the building's decor.

But at this moment, he had no time to appreciate the beauty of these works of art built with money, because from the direction of the nearly two thousand surrounding stages, melodious piano music was climbing up the stairs of these corridors surrounding the hall. The staccato notes produced by the keys were like footsteps, making Rick feel that someone was approaching him with irregular steps, and that their silhouette might appear at any moment from behind those heavy curtains that were dozens of meters long...

Rick became very quiet. He quickened his pace, moving rapidly down the corridor towards the area facing the stage, trying to get a better view of the stage so he could see clearly who was playing the piano.

However, the rain outside made the sunlight that should have shone through the skylight dome extremely weak. Inside, there were only a few kerosene lamps hanging in front of the doors in the corridors and passageways. The light was not enough to support this grand opera house. The audience area below was like an abyss, completely dark.

Even after Rick walked to the corridor directly in front of the stage, he still couldn't make out what was on the completely black stage. He could only vaguely make out the outlines of some objects moving in the darkness, but he couldn't even tell if they were people...

The piano music never stopped from beginning to end.

What Rick found most strange was that the melody of the piano sounded very familiar.

It is the melody from the background music of Act III of "The Sleepwalker".

The gradually heavy and abrupt melody sounded somewhat monotonous in the empty room, but the emotion was incredibly rich. Rick could even picture the scene on stage last night in his mind.

……

While Rick was staring blankly in the direction of the dimly lit stage,

He couldn't help but ask this question:

What exactly is it that saddens Amina... her fiancé's indifference and resolute decision...?

"Perhaps it is, no one knows what she encountered in her dreams..."

Why would she frantically break into a stranger's room in the middle of the night?

……

These words came from Rick's mouth, but they were not what he truly meant.

The effects of the spell were still ongoing.

But the tone of those words no longer belonged to Marty.

It was like a persistent ghost, relentlessly pursuing Rick and discussing the plot of the opera he hadn't finished watching.

Rick stood by the window in the corridor, his thoughts once again in turmoil.

……

At that moment, the piano music that had been playing in the opera house came to an abrupt end.

Immediately afterwards, some ghostly noises came from the stage, as if something was wriggling in the darkness.

The sound had both a viscous and a tearing quality, yet no one could imagine the scene hidden behind the darkness based on the sound alone.

"No one knows, and no one has ever thought about, what she experienced in her dreams..."

Rick spoke again.

This time, he seemed to be in Amina's shoes. He saw himself being chased by wild beasts in his dream, their ferocious fangs and claws seemingly about to tear the entire night to shreds.

……

"Or perhaps, marrying her fiancé was never Amina's subjective wish, and she never approved of any of these arrangements."

“There were no wild beasts chasing her in the dream; what forced her to flee was a much crueler reality.”

……

"Or perhaps, she herself longs to become a beast."

"She prayed to the gods, hoping to have the power to fight against reality; she needed claws, she needed fangs."

“In her dreams, she can freely express her true feelings without caring about etiquette, rules, or even order.”

……

Rick's eyes began to cloud over.

An eerie green light flickered in his pupils, and his expression gradually shifted from solemn to bewildered and blank, as if something incomprehensible was placed before him.

He opened his mouth, his upper and lower jaws opening and closing repeatedly.

Driven by the effects of the spell, he said incoherently:

"Those who have a high synchronization rate with the Old Gods in their dreams will turn into beasts."

...

At the same time, in the abyss-like darkness on the stage, the outline of a twisted and ferocious creature slowly emerged.

The first thing exposed under the kerosene lamp was the protruding, rusty metal cage covering the head of a wild beast. Its snout was squeezed out of the cage, and the rusty chains and metal structure of the cage were completely twisted. What squeezed out from the gaps in the cage resembled the head of a wild dog, but also that of a horse, because a row of teeth similar to human upper and lower incisors were exposed at the front of the mouth, but even more ferocious and terrifying.

In addition, there was a pair of bloodthirsty eyes peering through the gaps in the metal cage at Rick in the long corridor, which was separated from the entire audience area.

A long, broken chain was dragging behind the metal cage.

As its massive body descended the stage steps, the chains struck the steps with a crisp sound...

"Ring... Ring..."

The sharp, piercing noise snapped Rick out of his daze in the corridor!
His thoughts were as if they had been forcibly pulled back from a quagmire, accompanied by an indescribable tearing pain.

And all of this was because of the sound of the chains dragging down the steps. Rick knew that sound all too well.

Ever since Milo used the magical ritual on him, the crisp sound of the chains clashing had been echoing in Rick's mind, never disappearing for a moment.

……

When he came to his senses, all that remained on the dark stage in the distance was the outline of a piano.

The faint light from outside shone through the glass of the skylight dome, slanting down onto the side stands. Rick caught a glimpse of a massive figure flashing by in that area out of the corner of his eye.

When he focused his gaze on that area, there was no movement from the audience below.

The next second, Rick's hair stood on end.

Because this time, the crisp sound of chains no longer came from the audience below.

Instead, it was coming from the end of the long corridor where he was now...

At the end of that long corridor, where each section, every ten meters or so, was illuminated only by a single, nearly burnt-out kerosene lamp, a long shadow was slowly approaching.

The kerosene lamp was hung on a platform on the wall, about two meters from the ground.

The creature's shadow was reflected on the ceiling of the corridor.

From Rick's perspective, all he could see was a large shadow at the end of the corridor swaying and approaching him, accompanied by the sound of chains dragging on the ground.

……

"Oh my god... I'm outta here."

Rick turned and started running.

At the end of the corridor, a huge creature lay sprawled on the ground with a metal cage on its head, emitting a deep, muffled growl.

It has now completely set its sights on Rick.

……

"That doesn't make sense. The words I've been hearing all this time couldn't possibly have come from a monster."

Rick sprinted down the corridor at top speed.

These corridors are interconnected and have many floors stacked on top of each other, serving as VIP seating areas for opera performances and other events.

However, today's good show didn't take place on stage, but rather in the audience seats...

Despite being followed by a huge, unidentified, and terrifying creature, Rick remained relatively calm in his emotions and thoughts, at least he didn't panic and run away recklessly.

He knew that many of the doors to the opera house were locked, so he chose to escape through open spaces, making it unlikely that he would get stuck in a dead end.

……

And so, a chase, somewhere between man and beast, quietly unfolded amidst the dappled light and shadow.

Rick's speed is outrageous.

As he continuously activated his bodily functions, his heart rate rapidly increased, and the features on his body that were no different from those of a normal human gradually disappeared. For example, his facial bones began to expand, his legs grew, and his classic eyeballs fell out of their sockets. Rick's way of dealing with this was to kick the eyeball hard during a break in his run, then catch the green eyeball, catch it, and put it back into its socket.

The imagery is already eerie enough.

And then, at some point, piano music began to play on the stage again.

And this time, instead of the somber and sorrowful melody of the Sleepwalking Girl's song, it is replaced by a relatively light and lively melody. Every note that is touched on the piano seems to perfectly match the chase between Rick and the Beast, complementing each other perfectly.

Rick's speed is increasing.

His potential was maximized. As a servant of the Graki, the undead possessed physical strength far exceeding that of ordinary humans. The strange proteins Rick had consumed over the past year came from various freaks, including the offspring of the Familia and priests. According to the Scarlet Witch, the way this guy survived was itself a blasphemy against the Old Gods, and he would sooner or later become a being hated by the gods.

Gradually, Rick discovered that he could move freely within the enormous horseshoe-shaped opera house. The monster couldn't touch him at all. He could even easily leap onto the chandelier directly above the hall, suspending himself more than ten meters in the air, and could also travel back and forth between the corridors on different floors...

The roars of the monster behind them and the sense of fear dissipated as time went on.

Rick even seemed to enjoy it to some extent.

……

But at a certain point in time, the piano music that had been filling the opera house suddenly stopped.

The scene before Rick's eyes suddenly became brighter, even somewhat dazzling.

...

When he came to his senses, he found himself hanging upside down on the edge of the corridor.

Meanwhile, almost every spot—the audience seats directly below the corridor, the stage, the spiral staircase, and so on—was filled with stunned spectators staring at him.

Yes.

Everything that happened here before—the beast with the iron cage on its head, the piano music, and that thrilling chase—was all an illusion.

At this moment, the opera house is hosting a daytime performance.

But clearly, the most frequent part has been performed by Rick in the past ten minutes or so.

……

At that moment, Rick realized that he had encountered the same situation as Amina.

(End of this chapter)