The Fifth Volume: Return from the Other Shore - Homecoming (IV)

It was another bright and beautiful night.

Insects chirped softly in the grass, the evening breeze rustled through the wheat fields, and moonlight shone on the earth—nothing seemed different from usual.

Even that girl was the same.

That evening, the girl sat on the railing beside the wheat field, gazing absently towards the mountains.

The peasant woman watched her helplessly from the side.

At first, the child would only sneak out at night to stare blankly in the direction of the mountain, but now she stays here as soon as night falls. If the farmer's wife doesn't forcibly drag her away, she believes her strange daughter can stay here all night.

"Hey, what are you looking at?"—this is a question the peasant woman asks almost every time, but the answer is always "looking at the mountain." Then she asks, "What's on the mountain?" and she replies, "Nothing." Eventually, it escalates to, "There's nothing there, why are you staring like an idiot?" "Nothing now, but soon."

If asked "What's coming soon?", she couldn't give a clear answer.

The same applies today.

Thinking this through, the peasant woman asked again:

"Hey, what are you looking at?"

"The... ruler of blood."

"You have nothing, yet you—huh? What did you say?"

He has arrived...

The girl's eyes shone with a newfound light as she looked at the mountains, a rare sight indeed.

The peasant woman looked suspiciously in the direction the girl was looking, but found nothing unusual. The mountain was still the same mountain, huge, dark, with little vegetation and no precious resources, a mountain that was good for nothing except for its height.

"So there's nothing there. What could you possibly see?"

"As for the Lycoris radiata... it's too far away to see clearly. From here, we can only see its general shape."

"... ha?"

"Directly above the mountaintop, there was a huge hole in the air, like shattered glass... Some enormous insects clung to the edge of the hole, gnawing and gnawing at the space... 'He' was hanging down from the middle of the hole."

"'He'?"

"At first glance, it looks like a stalactite, but it's probably not complete; it's more like fragments of some kind of creature... blood and flesh and bone, crystals and flames and flowers, frost and patterns and life, so many things, all intertwined together. Those are his fragments, the gifts and curses he brought... just as the dream said."

"What are you talking about... There's clearly nothing there! You child, if you keep talking nonsense, Mommy will get angry! Go back to your room and go to sleep!"

"... Um."

If we were to select the most influential game companies in Japan, Konami, a long-established name in the industry, would certainly be included.

Founded in 1969, it has created many well-known masterpieces in its more than forty-year history. Such as Contra, Metal Gear Solid, Pro Evolution Soccer, Silent Hill, Castlevania, DDR, and Cube... each of which is a widely circulated and highly acclaimed series.

Its most famous horror game series is undoubtedly Silent Hill. Although its popularity has declined somewhat, during its heyday, the series was practically synonymous with horror games. In addition to its excellent atmosphere, meticulous environmental design, and thought-provoking plot, the monster design is also a major highlight.

Of all the monsters that appear in the series, the most representative one, and perhaps even the one that has become synonymous with the Silent Hill series, is probably Triangle Head.

Affectionately known as "Third Brother" by players, it has an imposing and burly body, always carrying a spear or a large cleaver, and wearing a huge metal triangle on its head. It is always accompanied by some very bizarre behavior when it appears, and is quite popular among players.

There was a time when I seriously considered whether I should sell everything I own to save up money to buy my third brother's collectible figurines and place them on my desk to admire.

But if someone asked me now if I wanted it, I would definitely answer "no".

Because it's already in front of me.

I stood face to face with it in the dilapidated, narrow corridor.

A large, triangular iron head.

A burly body stained with blood and rust.

The sheer presence of the man was enough to suffocate you.

He's basically a character from a game, with Triangle Head Sama cut out of the game.

If there's any difference, it's probably that he's completely empty-handed, without the spear from the second generation or the large cleaver from the movies and fifth generation.

Although I couldn't see his face, I could feel that he was looking at me.

The invisible flames of fear burned ever brighter.

"Rushing Flame Pillar!!!"

I roared, as if trying to dispel fear with my voice. I leaped back to create distance between myself and him, and at the same time, a dazzling pillar of Blood Flame erupted! The scorching airwaves instantly turned the old walls into ashes. The house where Blood Fiend was born and raised was destroyed by me in one move, leaving only ruins. But I didn't have time to lament!

"Flame Wings!"

A burst of Blood Flame erupted from behind me, instantly accelerating me to its maximum speed, piercing through the fire and smoke that obscured my vision, and shooting straight into the sky hundreds of meters high.

Then, my face was grabbed by a large hand.

Its skin was like thick leather, devoid of any warmth, and had a strong fishy and rusty smell.

The gripping force of his hand was astonishing as its size. I could feel that he wasn't actually using any force, but even so, my skull, which had been reinforced by the blood crystal, was about to crack.

"Gurgle... Ugh..."

"..."

I could only let out muffled groans, while he remained silent.

With a flick of his hand, I was thrown directly to the ground—I shouldn't be afraid of this level of attack at all, but for some reason I was powerless to resist! At the last moment, I wrapped myself in blood crystals and buffering blood, followed by a violent impact!

"Gah..."

I groaned as I stood up from the huge crater that had been smashed open.

I was thinking about how to launch the next attack--

He was already standing in front of me.

"--Blood Beast!!"

Blood gushed from my body, filling the entire space in the blink of an eye. Countless bizarre creatures rushed out, roaring and howling as they charged towards Triangle Head —it works! He hasn't shown any special attack methods yet, only using his powerful body for simple physical attacks!

The Triangle Head in the game is merely stronger and physically stronger than ordinary people! In terms of strength and resilience, he is not as good as Xiao Wu; in terms of agility and versatility, he is not as good as Kogetsu; he does not have the attack range of the Sick Spider, nor the swarm tactics of Shino; he is far inferior to the opponents I have encountered along the way, there is no reason why I cannot win!

However, reality slapped me hard in the face.

Triangle Head raised his hand, and in his hand appeared a large, rusty-colored cleaver, the kind from the movie and the fifth generation. With a sweeping swing, the first Blood Beast that pounced was cleaved in two. The dismembered Blood Beast immediately self-destructed, but after the Blood Flame dissipated, only some scorch marks remained on his body. Several flying Blood Beast, like insects, swooped down on him, but couldn't bite through his skin. After hacking away at the next few Blood Beast that pounced, he casually tore off and crushed the flying insects. The Blood Flame explosions, from beginning to end, hadn't caused any effective damage. Swift, efficient, stable, without any fancy moves, he just stood there, and my Blood Beast were never able to pose a threat to him.

However, he made no further move; he simply stood a few meters away from me, neither moving forward nor backward.

"...?"

Something's a bit strange?

I released a large swarm of small Blood Beast, enough to fill my field of vision, while simultaneously unleashing the Blood Flame on my legs, and quickly ran away from him.

So he moved on.

Ignoring all the Blood Beast's obstruction, he suddenly charged forward, as if there were no interaction between him and the Blood Beast at all.

Then he reappeared in front of me.

Despite its seemingly clumsy body, it was always a little faster than me, and before I knew it, it had caught up.

And so, everything that had just happened was repeated.

My face was grabbed → I was thrown to the ground → I struggled to get up.

Then I realized that he only moves when I try to get away from him, grabs me, and then stops. Like... a line-following robot?

"Well, although I might be presumptuous, but... Mr. Triangle Head?"

He didn't react.

"Excuse me, do you mean... I should go with you?"

He remained silent, but silently turned his massive body away from me and slowly began to walk.

The meaning is already quite clear.

I swallowed hard and followed slowly behind that figure.

The Starfall Mountain Range are one of the many mountain ranges in the West Saint Continent. They are not large in scale and not rich in resources. Most of them are bare rocks and ordinary soil, making them quite inconspicuous. The reason they got the seemingly poetic name "Starfall" is because a long time ago, someone observed light resembling falling meteors in the Starfall Mountain Range. It was later proven that the person was mistaken.

Dunwich Village is located on the edge of the Starfall Mountain Range, only two kilometers away from one of the higher peaks in the mountains.

Perhaps it was because the guide was so imposing that the short two kilometers felt like an eternity.

"We've arrived..."

The terrain clearly begins to rise, there are more loose rocks, the road narrows, and ahead lies the real mountainous area.

"Um, Mr. Triangle Head, may I ask now—"

He disappeared.

Just as I was distracted by this unremarkable mountain, and my gaze drifted away for only a few seconds, it vanished without a trace, without a sound.

Hey, if you're going to be a guide, then take it seriously...

But I immediately found a substitute.

In Greek mythology, Theseus avoided getting lost in the Minotaur's labyrinth by using a ball of thread.

However, the ball of yarn has now been replaced with barbed wire.

Often seen in war movies as a defensive trap beside trenches, this barbed wire consists of one or two iron wires twisted together as the main wire, with many smaller pieces of wire twisted onto the main wire to form sharp spikes. This barbed wire lies forlornly on the ground at the entrance of a mountain road, covered with eerie rust and bloodstains, with strange, minced meat-like substances hanging from the edges of the spikes.

... strangeness.

Why does this thing look so familiar the more I look at it?

Have I seen this somewhere before?

It seems... to be in a small room no more than fifteen square meters in size.

An indescribable emptiness permeated the air; everything was old and dilapidated, and the room's owner, that "he"—

"Woo!"

A sharp pain shot through my head, but it wasn't intense, as if telling me, "Don't think too much about it."

"..."

Looking ahead, the barbed wire stretched into the mountains, seemingly endless, like a signpost on campus for new students—an invitation that couldn't be clearer.

Who exactly is it?

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It really feels like returning home (laughs)