"Am I hallucinating?"

"What is this darkness?"

"Is this some kind of magic?"

"Maybe a Rank 3 is here?"

All the people in the town started talking in fear and confusion. There was a veil of darkness surrounding their town, preventing the light from going inside.

They were used to seeing magical phenomena from time to time. But now, it was surrounding the entire town and appeared without a single sound.

Now, they were barely seeing anything, relying on some magic and the lanterns in the streets to see. The veil caused a pure darkness without even the light of the moon.

"No, no, no, no, no…"

The one who was most shocked among all of them was Dante, who was staring at the most terrifying sight he had seen in his entire life.

He looked at Jin, who was looking at the sky with clear eyes, as though his former drunk state was a mere illusion.

He looked at Daniel, who wielded his staff firmly while sweating heavily.

He looked at Emeralda, who drew a wind arrow, but couldn't find any target to hit.

He looked at the merchants, the other mercenaries, the children, the men, the women, the passing guards, and everyone in his sight.

"Every single one of them!"

All of them had the most intense misfortune he had seen in his entire life, surpassing the misfortune that he had been struggling with since his birth.

There were many colors of luck rising in intensity, but the blood-red luck was the most intense among them.

A fight was coming. And apparently, they had no chance of winning.

Dante looked at his own luck. The black hole luck that he had reduced to a small size after killing countless monsters was now surpassing its former size by a high percentage.

'FAFNIR, KILL YOURSELF NOW!'

Upon hearing his master's order, Fafnir suddenly appeared in front of all the merchants in the Central Region and cut himself with no hesitation. Now, he needed an hour in order to review.

"D-Don't worry, I'm sure everything will be alright." Emeralda suddenly held Dante's hand and gave him a weak smile, hiding her own fear.

"Yes, it's probably a magical phenomenon that will disappear soon, like the rainbows and lightning storms." Daniel agreed while patting Dante's shoulder.

Dante was a bit confused by their actions to calm him down. Was his nervousness that clear on his face?

But just then, Dante noticed that Emeralda was holding his right hand. His pupils shrank in an instant, seeing his right arm shaking more than any other other part of his body.

'Oh, no wonder they—wait!'

No matter how nervous and tense he was, this level of shaking wasn't something he would do.

'The centipede?'

That was the only explanation that he could think of. After all, that relic was part of Dante's right arm.

'Is it afraid?'

But since when did it have the ability to show emotions? Wasn't it supposed to be completely dead after failing to possess Dante's body and becoming his relic? And how could it move Dante's arm without his knowledge?

'Does it still have a part of its consciousness? Is this why it isn't stored in my soul like the other relics?'

Dante felt that it was a huge problem. He barely resisted the urge to cut his own arm at this moment. But then another question came.

'What… What could possibly make this demon afraid?'

"AHHHH!"

Dante didn't have to wait for so long before knowing the answer.

Close to Dante and the mercenaries, a woman screamed. By the time Dante and the others shifted their gaze to her, all they saw was a skinless human.

"What the—"

Blink!

After they all blinked, the woman fell to her knees as she turned into a skeleton without muscles, blood, or organs.

Blink!

And with the next blink, she was gone.

"STAND CLOSE TO ME!!" Dante shouted loudly as he channeled his silver Ether.

Silver Ether Spell — Ether Sphere!

Instantly, a silver sphere materialized, covering Jin, Dante, Emeralda, Daniel, and a merchant who heard Dante's shout .

She was the unfortunate merchant that lost her carriage.

Dante had learnt from his fight with the baron and created a sphere spell, ensuring that all sides would be safe.

Other than them, everyone that had seen this sight used their own defensive methods, whether they were protection spells, wielding shields, body enhancement, and some defensive artifacts.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Emeralda shouted, a look of terror in her eyes.

Even her spirit trembled in the air, looking at every direction to find the source of that attack.

No one could answer her, as none of them understood what had happened.

"NOOO—!"

All of a sudden, they heard a man screaming. The moment they turned their heads toward him, they once again saw a living body without skin that seemed to have suddenly lost the ability to scream.

This time, no one blinked at this sight. But this didn't prevent the inevitable.

Under their terrified gazes, the man turned into a skeleton.

They didn't hear anything. They didn't see anything. They didn't feel anything.

One moment, it had organs and muscles. The next moment, it was a mass of bones.

Dante didn't hesitate in transforming his Centipede into a shield. And in their fear, no one showed a reaction to the boy behind them using a sword covered in demonic energy.

"Each of us must look in a different direction. We have to ensure that everything is visible to us." Jin suggested, doing his best to speak calmly: "And let one of us stay in the middle to observe our condition."

Immediately, they let Emeralda stay in the middle before giving each other a random direction to observe.

Emeralda was an archer who had sharp eyes, even compared to Dante's eyes. And her spirit would allow her to have a wider observation.

As they observed everything from inside the Ether Sphere, the screams returned.

"PLEASE—"

"IT HURT—"

"MOM—!"

"ARGH—"

It was happening right in front of them.

The people would feel something and scream. Then suddenly, they'd lose their skin and sound.

The frequency of this sudden death increased with time. At first, it was once in a while. Now, over ten people were dying simultaneously.

"What the hell is wrong with this town?! We have just arrived!"

Just then, Dante felt a hand touching his shoulder.

He turned around with shaking eyes, ready to strike in an instant. But what he had seen was something he didn't expect.

Another skinless human. No hair, no fingernails, nothing. Only the muscles that shaped a female body and some organs remained.

"Emeralda…" Dante muttered in disbelief.

Upon hearing him, everyone turned around and were also shocked to see her like that.

Before anyone could mutter a word, she fell against Dante, turning into a white skeleton.

Dante's eyes couldn't stop trembling at this sight. She didn't even scream. She had only touched his shoulder, and the next moment she was dead.

It wasn't only her. To his disbelief, no one was screaming before turning into a skinless body anymore. The process was becoming faster!

The next moment, Emeralda's skeleton disappeared, leaving the spirit alone.

Only one horrifying truth remained, causing Dante's heartbeats to accelerate.

Whatever was responsible for this…

It bypassed the silver Ether.

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