The Great Dying

"Orlando—"

Father Wright, who was anxiously watching Orlando's condition, glared with fury. His form suddenly became transparent, transforming into a ghost as he attempted to intercept the female spirit.

But it was too late.

Everything happened too fast!

The moment his form turned into a ghost, the female spirit lunged into Orlando's body.

"Nnngh—nnngh—"

Orlando, who had been struggling against the loss of control, abruptly opened his eyes. The flesh tumors that had been gradually fading from his face erupted wildly.

"Wuwuwuwu..."

A strange, feminine weeping sound came from Orlando's mouth.

"I'll leave! I'll leave, alright? Why won't you spare even the child? Why?!"

Before he could finish speaking, Orlando, having suffered this attack, completely lost control. The tumors on his head exploded one by one, launching slimy tentacles.

He looked as if an octopus-like blood droplet had replaced his head.

"Completely... out of control!"

Inside the carriage, Father Atley's pupils contracted sharply, a flicker of struggle flashing in his eyes.

He gritted his teeth and suddenly raised his revolver, aiming it at Orlando's head and pulling the trigger.

Unexpectedly, Father Wright, who hadn't managed to stop the female spirit, suddenly solidified and slapped the revolver.

"Bang!"

The shot went wide.

"You're going to kill him?"

Father Wright looked at Father Atley and questioned him with extreme anger.

"He's completely lost control, he can't be saved, kill him quickly!"

Father Atley, both shocked and enraged, had lost the golden opportunity to kill Orlando.

"I don't believe it, he said... Nnngh!"

Before Father Wright could finish, his entire body trembled, his mouth opening to its widest extent.

—A viscous tentacle had suddenly wrapped around his neck and burrowed into his mouth, silencing his remaining words.

"Bang!"

Another shot rang out. Father Atley decisively fired, severing the tentacle that had entered Father Wright's mouth.

But he couldn't stop the successive attacks.

Orlando's body was rapidly expanding, the octopus head on his shoulder growing larger and larger. Tentacles shot out wildly towards Father Wright, who was closest to him.

The carriage space was too confined, and Father Wright, in his attempt to stop the female spirit, was too close to Orlando.

This meant that when the tentacles shot out, he had no chance to dodge.

No, if he hadn't solidified and deflected Father Atley's revolver, these tentacles wouldn't have been able to seriously injure his ghostly form.

The result was that his solidification had led him into a tiger's mouth.

"Pft, pft, pft!"

"Bang, bang, bang!"

The sound of tentacles piercing flesh, accompanied by intense gunfire, echoed within the cramped carriage.

Tentacles broke, only to be replaced by new ones.

Bullets were limited, tentacles were infinite.

After Father Atley emptied his revolver, there was no longer any power to stop the uncontrolled entity that was Orlando from slaughtering Father Wright.

Countless tentacles burrowed into Father Wright's orifices, like a Taotie's greedy, aberrant sea monster, desperately siphoning Father Wright's life.

Father Wright's body rapidly shriveled at a visible rate, turning into a mere husk.

Though this sounds slow, it happened extremely quickly.

If Ning Xiuyuan hadn't initially fused with the Disease Deceiver, he wouldn't have even been able to clearly see the battle.

As Orlando's uncontrolled entity attacked Father Wright, Father Atley had attempted a diversionary tactic, attacking Orlando's uncontrolled entity to alleviate its assault on Father Wright.

But after firing only two bullets, he shifted his target.

Because Orlando's uncontrolled entity had too many tentacles, both of the two bullets he fired were intercepted by them.

At this moment, after absorbing Father Wright's extraordinary characteristic, Orlando's uncontrolled entity suddenly became transparent.

—It had actually transformed into a ghost.

"Run!"

Father Atley, who was preparing to reload, roared in terror at the sight. His body suddenly blurred, about to escape into the dreamscape.

His extraordinary characteristic was that of a Dreamwalker!

As long as someone nearby fell asleep, he could use this to open the door to the Dreamland and escape there to avoid harm.

"This place prohibits the supernatural!"

Unexpectedly, at this moment, a resounding roar came from outside the carriage.

It was Pine!

His words struck like thunder, as if he were a Deity, and a mysterious power enveloped the carriage.

Orlando's increasingly transparent uncontrolled entity suddenly solidified!

Pine looked at Atley with surprise.

His extraordinary characteristic was named Divine Word, and every word and action he took possessed incredible power.

The more he fused, the higher his social status, and the more powerful he became!

Of course, his strength was still very weak at the moment, and the failure rate was high. It often took several, or even dozens, of attempts to take effect.

He hadn't expected that this time it would succeed on the first try.

However, as he looked at Atley, expecting him to display his might, his expression suddenly turned to stone.

Atley, who was just about to escape into the dream, suddenly solidified, half of his semi-ethereal body outside the carriage and half inside.

His face contorted. The half of his face outside the carriage looked in disbelief towards Pine at the carriage door.

He seemed to have never expected that the usually unreliable Pine would succeed on the first try!

Speaking of which, if Pine were reliable, he wouldn't have issued the "Run!" order in the first place.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I, I didn't mean to, I, I don't know... I..."

The young Pine was completely flustered, stammering incoherently, his voice on the verge of tears.

Atley's mouth twitched, and a thin thread of blood slowly dripped from the corner of his lips.

His vision gradually blurred, and his consciousness sank into chaos.

Death was ultimately inevitable!

On the verge of death, Atley suddenly remembered Arthur's joke: "If apologies were useful..."

The eye stuck in the carriage went vacant, reflecting the rapidly approaching tentacles.

"Atley! Atley!"

Pine cried out in panic. Unexpectedly, a tentacle shot out, like reincarnation, piercing his mouth and then bursting from his right eye socket. At the end of the tentacle, a large eyeball was still attached to the suction cup.

What is the supernatural?

Power that transcends the limits of the physical body is the supernatural.

For Orlando's uncontrolled entity, the tentacles were its very being. Its rapid proliferation and ghostification abilities were suppressed, but its inherent physical strength was not.

"Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft!"

Tentacles followed one after another, piercing the bodies of Atley and Pine. Their bodies, like Father Wright's, began to shrivel rapidly.

All the matter that constituted them, including their extraordinary characteristics, rapidly gathered towards Orlando's uncontrolled entity.

An uncontrolled entity that fused four extraordinary characteristics was about to be born.

But it was still not satisfied. Its gaze suddenly fixed on Ning Xiuyuan, who was fleeing. It instinctively wanted to grow a tentacle to crush this ant.

As its thoughts moved, it suddenly realized that "the supernatural is prohibited" in this place.

So, it had to pull a tentacle from Pine and shoot it out.

Danger!

The frantic spiritual warning caused Ning Xiuyuan, who had turned to run, to instinctively dodge sideways. But how could his speed compare to the uncontrolled entity's?

However, his dodge did have some effect.

The tentacle, which should have pierced his neck, suddenly went through his shoulder blade, flipping him onto the ground.

"It's over!"

Ning Xiuyuan was utterly terrified, enveloped by endless horror and despair.

At this moment, he could no longer feel the pain in his shoulder blade. He only felt as if he had been pierced by an immense force, and he fell to the ground with a clang amidst the spinning world.

Immediately, the tentacle straightened, slowly dragging him back to his original position.

The bluestone-paved street was hard and cold, making Ning Xiuyuan's cheek ache. He frantically clawed at the tentacle hooked into his shoulder blade.

It was slippery and sticky.

This reminded Ning Xiuyuan of the loaches he could never catch when he was a child.

He could feel the tentacle piercing his body, draining his vitality, which made him rapidly weaken.

For the first time, he had a clear and intuitive understanding of vitality, such an abstract concept!

It was like air; you didn't feel it normally, but once it was gone, you realized its irreplaceability.

His extraordinary characteristic was also draining away.

However, since only one tentacle was doing the devouring, the efficiency was very low.

This meant he could probably live for another ten-odd seconds?

Ten-odd seconds?

Ning Xiuyuan weakly lifted his head and reached for his gun. Just as his hand touched the edge of the holster, he suddenly remembered.

All his bullets had been used up killing the Horse-Head Tiger, and the Church hadn't issued him any more yet.

External things were, after all, just external things!

He subconsciously reached for his lantern again. The lantern tied to his waist was as cold as ever.

Ning Xiuyuan's remaining spirituality stirred wildly within the lantern, but it remained silent, like an ordinary object.

That made sense. If the lantern were effective, it would have already done its job. Why wait until now?

Ning Xiuyuan let out a tragic laugh. Was he going to die like this?

On only the second day of encountering extraordinary power, was he going to die?

If I had taken the bird-beaked oddity's extraordinary characteristic earlier, would I be able to escape this predicament now?

I was too cautious.

Did I really think this was a movie, where all enemies let the protagonist grow slowly, and all hardships were overcome without danger?

Ning Xiuyuan's consciousness grew increasingly blurry.

He thought of the darkness.

How wonderful it would be if that darkness descended now.

Perhaps the monsters hidden in the darkness could kill Orlando's uncontrolled entity.

He thought of Bishop Byron.

It didn't seem that far from the church, did it? Why hadn't Bishop Byron arrived yet?

He thought of extraordinary characteristics.

Just as he was about to try something random, he scoffed. Supernatural powers were prohibited here.

Driven by the survival instinct, Ning Xiuyuan thought of every possible way to survive that he could conceive of.

But, no miracle occurred.

No one came to save him either.

Life is fleeting, and the end is near.

As his consciousness was about to sink into darkness, Ning Xiuyuan heard a heartbeat like a drum. It was the rhythm of his self being devoured and about to merge with the uncontrolled entity.

Ning Xiuyuan's dim eyes suddenly lit up with a blazing flame.

He knew what he had to do.