Mystery: The Last Shepherd

Chapter 10 Haynes Vancent
"coming soon!"

Lu Ze shouted, jolting awake from the sofa bed. His voice was filled with fear and anxiety, and his loud voice echoed in the quiet lounge, waking up the several people who had been sleeping.

Luo Yao, sitting opposite him, put down his newspaper and looked at him calmly.

"Having a nightmare?"

She asked casually.

On the other beds, Klein woke up, and Cecilia also sat up groggily, rubbing her eyes.

Lu Ze's heart pounded wildly in his ribs, and his breathing became rapid. He looked around blankly; the missing people seemed to be in the lounge all along, and there were no strange noises in the corridor.

Is it a dream?

It feels like a dream.

Lu Ze instinctively wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but a sudden feeling of anxiety surged into his heart.

wrong!

Something is wrong!
A sense of danger kept stimulating his nerves, like seeing a steel needle hanging in front of his eyes, slowly approaching and about to pierce his head. Although he hadn't been pierced yet, an extremely uncomfortable, illusory pain was already rising between his brows.

"It's not a nightmare! There's real danger!"

Lu Ze shouted to Luo Yao, "I don't know how to describe it, but something is coming!"

He explained, his face pale and withered, waving his arms in vain, looking utterly unconvincing. At first, Lu Ze thought Luo Yao would think he was crazy. But to his surprise, the other man merely frowned, then deftly stood up and, with a swift motion, drew a revolver from its holster.

Which side is it?

She asked, "Which side do you feel is off?"

Which way?

Lu Ze was stunned for a moment and couldn't answer. He just instinctively sensed danger, but he couldn't tell what it was or where it came from.

“Did you see anything? Tell me, and I can try to do a divination,” Klein said, standing up seriously.

"Who are you! Don't come any closer! Ah—"

Just then, a girl screamed from outside the lounge.

"Rosanne!"

Luo Yao's expression changed slightly, and she quickly ran towards the door of the lounge, while also telling Lu Ze, "Protect your sister, hide here! Klein, come with me!" Before Lu Ze could respond, she rushed out with her gun.

Lu Ze was startled and quickly pulled Cecilia to find a place to squat down.

Klein gripped the revolver and followed Luo Yao out of the lounge.

Rosemary was still screaming outside, which made him somewhat anxious. After all, there were only two Night Watchers present, including himself, a newcomer. If the enemy was too strong, he worried that the situation might worsen.

Luo Yao, who was charging ahead, had already crossed the barrier, holding his gun horizontally with both hands, aiming it in a certain direction.

"Stop! Don't move!"

The elegant and aloof lady let out a loud, uncouth roar.

Klein ran across the partition, holding his revolver and aiming the muzzle in Luo Yao's direction. The scene in the hall immediately came into view. Rosanne was sitting on the ground, not injured, but looking very frightened. She was dragging her legs across the floor, desperately trying to move her body backward.

The intruder stood in front of her.

When Klein saw who the other person was, he was taken aback.

"Hainas!"

He cried out in disbelief.

"That's Haynes? Captain and the others didn't catch him? — I told you not to move! If you move again, I'm going to shoot!"

Luo Yaodao's first half of the sentence was directed at Klein, while the second half was a warning to the uninvited guest.

“I don’t know.” Klein was very surprised, not only because he saw Haynes, but also because of Haynes’s current state.

Dark circles under his eyes, thick, stiff brown hair, a serious and anxious middle-aged man—that was Klein's original impression of Hainas. But the Hainas before him, apart from his unchanged appearance, had undergone a complete transformation in his overall demeanor. His face was filled with an unprecedented blissful smile, as if he were immersed in unparalleled happiness. His eyes were unfocused; even though someone was pointing a gun at him, he didn't glance at it, but stared in an empty direction, muttering to himself with a beaming smile.

Even more horrifying, he was covered in blood, as if he had just been drenched in a bloody rain before entering. Bright red blood was constantly dripping from his face, hands, and the black classical robe he was wearing.

Looking at the unusual Hynas, Klein felt a chill run down his spine.

Just then, he heard Hainas speak.

"It was the Lord who led me here."

His voice was dazed, and something bulged and writhed beneath his robe, as if hiding something alive. "He is right, the breath of the Lord is here, my salvation is here. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord!"

Hainas's expression grew increasingly fanatical. Ignoring Luo Yao's repeated warnings, he strode toward the partition, the corridor behind which was where Lu Ze and the others were hiding.

Luo Yao gritted his teeth.

"Rosanne, stand up and run inside! Klein, you follow me and fire, understand?!"

she shouted.

Klein responded immediately, and Rosanne, recovering from her shock, got up and ran across the partition. Seeing Haynes approaching step by step, Luo Yao pulled the trigger without hesitation, and Klein followed suit.

"Bang bang bang!"

Gunshots and smoke immediately filled the lobby of Blackthorn Security Company. Hainas stopped in his tracks, his body swaying back and forth as if he had been hit by a hammer. He was even shot in the face, the bullet piercing his eye socket, red and white splattering out.

Seeing his acquaintance's face like this, Klein felt a wave of nausea and instinctively stopped shooting.

"do not stop!"

Luo Yao shouted.

Klein thought, "But he's been shot in the head!" Then he saw that Hainas, despite his gunshot wound, hadn't fallen! Amidst a series of sticky, nauseating sounds, bright red growths writhed and sprouted from Hainas's wound, even pushing out the bullet lodged in his eye socket. The still-hot metal bullet hissed and burned Hainas's flesh before clattering to the floor.

As the two stared in astonishment, Hainas grinned at them, revealing a sinister smile.

Are you going to stop me?

With a tearing sound, he reached into the bulging eye socket, ripped the tumor off and crushed it, then raised his arm.
"careful!"

Klein suddenly felt a lightness in his body, then involuntarily swayed to the right as Luo Yao pulled him away from where he had been. He looked closely and saw that the spot where he had just stood was now covered in splattered blood and flesh; the disgusting substance was corroding the floor and partitions, rising smoke and hissing!
I go
Klein felt a chill run down his spine. Hainas had mutated and was immune to pistols; his flesh could even corrode things. How was he supposed to deal with him now?

Besides the revolver, he still had a "Slumbering Charm" in his pocket. There were two sealed artifacts in the captain's office behind him, but he couldn't get away to retrieve them; those two sealed artifacts weren't offensive and could only be used to detect whether a target was harmful. Was there any other way?
Klein's mind raced as he dodged the gore and flesh thrown at him by Haynes, occasionally firing back with his pistol. The hall quickly descended into chaos, reduced to a mangled mess.

Or we could use the power above the gray fog.
The situation was somewhat tense, and for a moment Klein even had this thought.

Fortunately, Luo Yao called out to him, "Klein! I need to switch to Demon Hunter bullets, can you buy me a few seconds?"

"it is good!"

Klein's eyes lit up upon hearing this. That's right! Right now, their revolvers are loaded with ordinary bullets. If they were replaced with demon-hunting bullets specifically designed for evil, it might be effective!
He quickly pulled the "Slumbering Charm" from his pocket. It was a silver piece the size of an infant's palm, engraved with Hermesian incantations, as well as various symbols and numerology. Just holding it in his hand, one could feel the calm and peaceful power it emanated.

"Crimson!"

Klein shouted in ancient Hermes, channeling his spiritual energy into the talisman, then swung his arm and threw the talisman at Haynes.

"boom!"

The silver sheet exploded into a ball of dark red flame, engulfing Hainas's head. His body swayed, and the twisted smile that seemed fixed on his face quickly faded, his eyelids drooping involuntarily.

efficient!

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Luo Yao emptied the magazine and loaded the silver bullets, engraved with exorcism patterns and the holy emblem of the Night Goddess, into the revolver. She whispered the goddess's prayer, and the silent, hidden power of the night silently manifested, resonating with her and the revolver.

After finishing his prayers, Luo Yao's eyes were at peace as he pointed his revolver at the still-sleeping Hainas.

(End of this chapter)