CH 224

nside the gardens at the perimeter of the Benedict Manor, Bella and Kriss were exploring carefully with Lolita following behind them on high alert. 

Large batches of skeleton soldiers were surrounding them, arquebus and copper guns at the ready. Every once in a while, humanoid demonic beings would charge out of the bushes.

“Bang!”

“Bang!”

With a few gunshots, the humanoid demonic being fell to the ground. While it was still unconscious, a few skeleton soldiers approached its fallen figure and poured the elixir that Bethia had concocted all over its body.

Initially, the body was struggling to get up. However, it did not take long before it was completely dissolved by the elixir and was reduced to a puddle of corpse water. The sting operation to attack the mutated demonic beings was still ongoing, and in an effort to eradicate every last one of them, Bella made use of the teleportation doors to transfer and mobilize more than ten thousand skeleton shooter soldiers from the Darkness Sacred Region to join in the battle. 

There were many mutated demonic beings inside the Benedict Manor, and the fight was incredibly intense. The skeleton soldiers would be pushed to the ground and crushed to pieces while the surrounding soldiers took the opportunity to fire their arquebus at the demonic beings. Once they were shot down, they would pour the elixir to dissolve them. 

“Lolita, tell Noesha to send another two hundred thousand skeleton soldiers. This time, bring the heavy firearms, as well as the cannons. There’s a barrier here that prevents the outside from hearing anything.”

“Got it.”

With their firepower advantage, the skeleton soldiers managed to advance into the central region of the Benedict Manor. Although they had taken out many mutated demonic beings along the way, the skeleton soldiers had lost half their numbers as well. Fortunately, the reinforcement got here in time to suppress the retaliation attempt. 

The mutated demonic beings all emerged from the same church-like structure that was already surrounded by the skeleton soldiers. A pile of dead demonic beings laid in front of the open doorway as the skeleton soldiers raised their arquebus, aiming directly at the doors. 

Ever so often, a demon being would rush out. However, the guns took it out before it could get close.

Other than the church, Bella’s subordinates had already searched the entire Benedict Manor. There was not even a spare tile in sight, let alone treasures. Her heart was aching since this operation was a bust! There were no treasures to be seen, and she could not even recoup her losses for the firearms.

Bella took out the treasure map to take another look. The marked location seemed to be within that church. The problem was that the main church was not too big. Therefore, how could such a vast fortune fit inside it?

Those dead demonic beings had all been modified and mutated. Bella suspected that the mastermind behind all this was inside the main church. As the skeleton soldiers steadily advanced towards the entrance, their overwhelming firepower rained hell on the demonic beings inside the church. 

“Kriss, I think it might be better if you do not go over. Stay here and wait for me instead!”

“But, I…”

“I don’t want to leave you with any unpleasant memories. How about this, I’ll give you a present when we get back.”

Once Bella made sure that Kriss was fine, she moved towards the side of the main church with Lolita. Other than using their firearms to block off the front doors, the skeleton soldiers had found some ladders and were using them to infiltrate the church through the side windows.

When Bella and Lolita finally climbed through the main church’s windows, a few batches of skeleton soldiers had already entered the second floor. In the beginning, intense gunshots could be heard from deeper inside. However, once the invaders took over the second floor, things quietened down.

As Bella walked into the second floor, she saw many human corpses that were clearly dressed as bandits. When she got a closer look, Bella nearly threw up. The bodies had been dismembered and crassly pieced back together like a morbid jigsaw puzzle. Even worse, some had extra arms and heads attached to them.

There were arquebus-shot wounds all over those dead bodies. It seemed as though those spliced corpses had been active before. The skeleton shooter soldiers had shot down all those magically modified zombies before Bella made her way up in an attempt to prevent her from feeling disgusted.

“Is this a corpse modification factory? This… it’s too disgusting here behind the scenes.”

Bella covered her mouth and followed her skeleton soldiers further into the church. Most of the windows on the second floor had been sealed with wooden boards. Who knew what unspeakable things had transpired inside this ghastly place.

The magically modified zombies gave Bella the creeps. As more windows were torn apart, the skeleton soldiers gained the upper hand. They had occupied the second floor and were steadily advancing towards the first. The ones in charge of attacking the first floor had already reached the entrance of the church in the Benedict Manor. 

Bella and Lolita each put on a mask to prevent their faces from being disfigured by any unexpected attacks. The battle on the first floor was extremely savage. It seemed as though there were a few tall and thin figures that were currently engaged in a ferocious clash with the skeleton soldiers.

Those tall and thin Demons appeared to be unafraid of the arquebus and copper guns. Only after it had destroyed many skeleton soldiers in a row was it finally killed by a cannon shot to the chest. 

Once Bella saw that the dust had settled, she finally arrived at the first floor, not wishing to look at any of those dead mutated demonic beings. With a wave of her hand, she gestured for the skeleton soldiers to use the Corpse Dissolving Liquid to clear the bodies and to prevent them from resurrecting.

“Hopefully, the Grand Duke Benedict was not some poor bloke. I’ve put in so many gold coins already… Aargh, I’m so angry. Huh, where are the gunshots coming from?”

To Bella, this church felt unlucky. She was about to send out an order for it to be burnt down when gunshots rang out from a concealed room on the first floor. The skeleton soldiers that were in charge of searching the main church had met with a new situation.

It was a large, hidden laboratory. When Bella and Lolita walked in, the smell of gunpowder and medicines was still lingering in the air. By now, the skeleton soldiers had already taken care of the unusual sitch. 

A man was currently sprawled on top of a lab table. He was wearing elegant clothes of the nobility, and there was a badge on his chest that indicated his position as a Duke. Since Bella was a Duchess herself, she could determine on sight that this was an authentic badge. 

The man was clearly mutated, and his body was severely zombified. It had probably tried to run amok but was shot in the head by the skeleton soldiers’ copper guns. Black blood was splattered all over the scene, giving plenty of evidence to her conjecture. 

To prevent it from resurrecting, the skeleton soldiers used nails to secure its hands and feet to the table. In addition, it was pinned down at its chest as well. On a nearby table, an old and tattered book could be found; it appeared to be a notebook and was completely filled with words.

In a prominent position in the laboratory, there was a metal cage that held seven or eight beautiful young maidens. Those beauties were stark naked, though, and they were handcuffed with thick black metal chains, dangling from the top of the cage. 

The beauties had one foot on the ground while the other was suspended in the air by chains. On their necks, there were metal collars, which had been soldered shut. A metal ring propped their mouths open, preventing them from closing. 

It seemed the fellow that had imprisoned them planned to use them as human experimental subjects. Furthermore, judging by the torture instruments laid out in the secret room, it had already exceeded the realms of seeking pleasure. Bella suspected that the fellow was a “Dark Sir”.

There were metal nails of various lengths littered on the ground of the metal cage, their sharp ends pointing upwards. As a result, the imprisoned beauties could only stay obediently at their spot. If they were to move around too much, they could be injured by them. Many whip marks could also be seen all over their snow-white skin. 

Their eyes had not been covered, though. The “Dark Sir” who had held them captive clearly wanted them to watch the entire process of their transformation into a mutant monster with their own eyes. When they saw the skeleton soldiers, they were practically in tears. 

The past few days, the girls had been tortured to the brink of death by the Grand Duke Benedict. So, understandably, the scary-looking skeleton soldiers suddenly looked extremely adorable. If they could turn back time, the girls would not have come to the Benedict Manor to seek for treasures at all. 

At the sight of those beauties, Bella’s eyes sparkled. She seemed to recall that these chicks belonged to an infamous group of bandits from around Olsylvia City. To put it bluntly, they were the “babes” among the bandits. 

The bandit beauties were supposed to be very aggressive. However, they had been tortured until they became meek and vulnerable. Although his methods were dark and unorthodox, Bella had to admit that the “Old Sir” was extremely skilled. 

“Dem… Your Excellency, save us, please. We’re begging you. We’re willing to offer up…”

“You are all bandits. It doesn’t benefit me to save you in any way. Instead, I should just leave you here until the imperial guard arrives and sends you to prison!”

“No… please don’t give us up to the authorities. We can give you anything, anything you say. We cannot go to prison. Please…”

The City Guards’ camp was similar to the “police stations” of the Other World. Upon hearing that Bella was going to hand them over, they were terrified. If they were sent there, they would become the prison guards’ playthings. 

None of the female bandits appeared to be a day over eighteen, and they had not been “used” before. Furthermore, they were quite decent looking. If they were sent behind bars, their fate would not be any better than this. It might have been a better option to offer themselves up to a Demon. 

“If that’s the case, then tell me everything you know about the Benedict Manor. However, I’ll send anyone who lies straight to the guards!”

Usually, it would have been challenging for her to obtain any information from such female bandits. If they were tortured for information, they would typically bite their tongues in an attempt to commit suicide. However, the circumstances were completely different as someone had already helped Bella train them into subservience. Once she began asking questions, the female bandits spilled the beans pretty quickly. 

Apparently, the master of the Benedict Manor, the Grand Duke Benedict, was not dead. Technically speaking, his corpse was still moving, and it had been active for more than one hundred thousand years. That fake treasure map was something he had cooked up to attract large numbers of living humans, most of them being bandits who ended up as a part of his experiments. 

The Grand Duke Benedict was the one that Bella’s skeleton soldiers had killed using their arquebus earlier on. That fellow was not wholly useless; it was just that it had not amplified any of its combat abilities. Bella had taken one glance at the notebook on the table before closing it as quickly as she could. 

“The few of you, take this out and burn it. In fact, burn every notebook that looks like this.”

Those notebooks were filled with information about magically modifying zombies. As Bella detested having any form of records for human modifications, she ordered the skeleton soldiers to dispose of the notebooks. 

Inside that pile of notes, Bella found the Grand Duke Benedict’s diary. This particular one was made out of sheepskin, and the writings in the book were extremely clear. Inside, it documented the truth behind Benedict Manor’s curse. 

The curse was false. The truth was, back then, the Grand Duke Benedict enjoyed collecting all sorts of rare treasures. One day, he received a Black Scripture of an unknown origin, with a “God” residing within. Under the “God”  ’s instruction, he got corrupted and began to engage in those horrifying and immoral forbidden experiments. 

A real God would not dabble in such befuddlement. Bella guessed that the Black Scripture was, in fact, a Demonic Book. Finally, she found the legendary book that supposedly had a God living inside in an inconspicuous corner of the laboratory. 

There were no words in the Black Scripture. Nonetheless, as Bella approached it, she could hear a seductive male voice constantly speaking to her, urging her to open the scripture. Based on Grand Duke Benedict’s memories, the bewitching voice that enticed him to open the book was an alluring female one.

This Black Scripture would create a sound based on the gender of the owner it wished to attract. Back then, when Grand Duke Benedict heard that voice, he could not help but open the book. It was as though he was being controlled by someone else. 

Bella’s body still moved based on her own free will, however. This confused the Black Scripture. Somehow, this girl’s powers were well hidden, and it had been unable to control her at all. Another thing that it did not expect was the fact that Bella had been transformed into a girl and was immune to males.

“How noisy. I’m just going to refuse to open it. What can you do about that? Come here, take that black book, and burn it.”

“Hold on. You lass, I can give you the powers of a God. Aren’t you going to think about it at all?”

“Powers of a God? Please! I would never want to become a God like the one who had just died on the table!”

The skeleton soldiers raised their torches and were about to burn the Black Scripture when a blast of dark energy burst out of the book and decimated the skeleton soldier closest to it. However, the energy was blocked by another wave of energy and did not affect Bella at all.

“Overconfident little lass, you dare reject a God’s… What’s going on? That light… It’s Vianne’s power!

“Impossible! Vianne would never give her blessing to a Demon! Unless you’re… Wait, stop! We can talk about this…”

Bella placed the Creator of Light Vianne’s treasure, the “Praise of Light” on the Black Scripture. With the power of light, the Dark Scripture finally fell silent. 

Anyone who knew of Creator of Light Vianne was definitely at least a Demon God, as Demon Kings would not know about her. Bella did not wish to find out what was being said inside the Black Scripture. Yet, she still found the real treasure map under the demonic book. 

Grand Duke Benedict was actually extremely wealthy. However, under the influence of the Black Scripture, he had hidden his entire fortune somewhere else. This time, the map showed the true hiding spot, and Bella could finally recoup her losses. 

However, Bella’s smile was short-lived. This new hiding place was in a certain forbidden area within the St. Louis Church Academy. The location had also appeared within the “Olsylvia Academy’s Midnight Unbelievable Tales”. This meant that Bella had to do it all over again. 

When Bella poured the “Tears of the Goddess” over the Black Scripture, it instantly burst into flames and gave off a foul smell. The stench caused the female bandits to tear up uncontrollably. At that moment, strange scratching sounds could be heard on the ground of the secret room. 

“Madam Demoness, please take us away. Please. We’ll do anything that you ask, as long as you do not send us to prison.”

“You must not open that door. The basement is where the demonic beings were cultivated. It also dragged many of our companions who had been alive down there.”

The female bandits’ faces were ghastly pale, as though they were terrified of the concealed door on the secret room’s floor. Bella had ordered her skeleton soldiers to remove the female bandits from the metal cage before opening the secret door. 

The moment the doors opened, a sickening stench wafted out. As she stood at the entrance and looked down, Bella realized that there was a sloped tunnel, and the bottom of the basement was its lowest part.

“A nest? Or is it some unknown demonic beings’…”

There were gigantic cocoons that had alive humans inside them, and the skeletons of unfortunate victims could be seen within the broken cocoons. Those bones had been scraped clean of flesh and blood. Furthermore, the sternums had been torn apart, as though something had crawled right out of it. 

Bella remained expressionless as she looked at those remains. However, the hand that was clutching her sword was trembling slightly. The sight in front of her had genuinely shocked her. The mouths on the skeletons had been broken apart as well. It seemed like those parasitic mutated demonic beings had not only crawled out of their stomachs but their mouths as well. 

The nest that those parasitic demonic beings lived in was more ridiculous than the one that the Mechanical Creator Andrea and the Creator of Darkness Mystica had created together. This seemed like a high-level nest. 

The style of the nest’s design was clearly from the hands of a Creator, though. They loved to make nests that were buried beneath a sloped entrance; World Destructors made them too. However, they preferred to use soil and earth to build them, creating nests in mounds on the ground. 

“Help… save us, please. We do not wish to stay here any longer.”

“Your Excellency, save us. Quick, those demonic beings are approaching.”

There were another three or four female bandits on the sloped path. Like their comrades, they were the “babes” as well. Now, they had been left here while completely naked. Besides, they had been bound in a similar fashion as the girls in the metal cage. The other end of their chain was attached to a large boulder, which prevented them from running away.

Bella eyed their stomachs suspiciously. Her mind wandered over to the monsters in one of the movies from her previous life. Could it be that those monsters existed in this Other World as well?

“We have not been infected. It’s the truth, Your Excellency; please, take us away!”

As Bella hesitated, the female bandits became increasingly nervous, and their legs buckled underneath them. Hurried footsteps could be heard approaching them from the depths of the nest behind them. It sounded like there was something crawling around the dark world underground. 

The skeleton soldiers showed no sign of fear, though. They raised their arquebus and copper guns and began to fire. At the same time, Bella took this opportunity to charge forward to rescue the few beautiful female bandits.