Though reluctant, Sno followed Sera and Light to the hatch leading to the second deck.
After all, unless he returned directly to Backlund now, he still had to take a look.
"Locked from the other side." Light spread his hands helplessly. "Do you think the people below noticed something and sealed the hatch, or..."
"Either way, we just pick the lock." Sno had no intention of wasting words. As the saying went, seeing for oneself was better than hearing a thousand reports. A spark of spiritual lightning flashed across his hand, and the hatch lock clicked open, revealing the passage to the second deck.
But the instant the hatch opened, an overpowering, nauseating stench of blood burst forth.
"Ugh..." Sera let out a pained whimper and squatted down with a hand over her mouth, looking as though she might vomit at any moment. Sno pulled an Iron Cigarette Case from his pocket and pinched out a blue crystal like amber containing a wisp of storm. As he infused it with spirituality, a breeze appeared from nowhere, dispersing the heavy smell of blood while wrapping the three of them in a faint wind shield.
The wind shield could only withstand two or three revolver bullets at most, but its real purpose was to create a relatively isolated air environment so they would not be poisoned simply by breathing.
Sera braced herself upright, her face pale. She gave Sno a grateful look, then gazed worriedly toward the stairway leading down, as if it were a gaping maw devouring lives. "Just how many people died down there?"
"I don't know, but there are only around a thousand people on this ship in total." As if worried about being misunderstood, Light rather theatrically drew his revolver and took the lead.
Although Light's pistol looked