Go Close the Door. It Can't Get In.

In the end, Colin decided not to pick up the wooden chairs.

Though, as a qualified scavenger, he knew he shouldn't pass up anything that "looked like trash but might be useful."

But now, recalling the Little Girl's final words, he felt uneasy.

"It's coming soon? Who is 'it'?"

Colin remembered hearing something similar in Father Kadish's soul vision.

He hadn't paid it much attention at first, thinking it must be far away. But the Little Girl had brought it up again just before she disappeared, making him think of the female Survivor from earlier.

This "it" might be that Bigfoot.

If it really was, then he was as good as dead!

Colin's thoughts were wandering, but just as he was about to reach the front door, he stiffened and abruptly stopped.

The next second, a footstep suddenly sounded from somewhere outside, a little way off.

It was clearly some distance away, and by the time the sound reached them, it had grown faint.

But no matter how faint it was, hearing it made a word involuntarily surface in your mind: heavy.

This can't be a coincidence, can it? Colin's gaze sharpened. He could feel a hair-raising presence wafting faintly through the crack in the door.

"Lord, that sound doesn't seem to have reached us yet, and it doesn't seem to be moving very fast. Should I take the lamp and rush outside to lure it away?"

Servant No. 2's face was resolute.

He realized how terrifying the thing making that sound must be. He wanted to stay behind and give his Lord a chance to escape.

"No." Colin shook his head. Not because he was being merciful, but because he knew they couldn't get away that way.

Neither he nor his two subordinates would escape.

They needed to find another way!

Gritting his teeth, Colin gave up on opening the door and hurriedly said, "Upstairs. Now!"

At the same time, the footsteps outside drew nearer. With its enormous body, every step it took sounded unmistakably heavy.

They had just reached the second floor when Colin was about to look outside through the hallway window. Then he suddenly thought of something, and his expression changed.

"You two, take the Hurricane Lamp downstairs and put the crossbar in place. Lock the front door. It shouldn't be able to get in for a while!"

After the Little Girl disappeared, the front door downstairs had lost its sealing power. If they didn't close it, it would probably be breached immediately.

Colin guessed that the monster hadn't come earlier because the Wailer was still inside the Church.

Perhaps it couldn't sense them, or there was some other reason it hadn't come to attack him.

"Yes!"

The two Servants took the Hurricane Lamp they had gotten from the female Survivor and went downstairs.

Colin peered through the slightly open window into the thick White Mist, toward the direction the sound had come from.

A prompt soon appeared in his mind!

[Though you haven't seen the monster, its heavy footsteps and terrifying presence make it clear that the creature outside is a Lord-level Aberration!]

[It is hunting living creatures in the woods. You have no trump card that could let you face it head-on!]

[Against it, you are powerless!]

Lord-level Aberration.

This doesn't make sense. I'm just an ordinary little hunter.

A sense of helplessness welled up in Colin. Next time he went out, he really ought to check his horoscope first; otherwise, he'd keep running into all sorts of "good fortune."

Footsteps sounded in the stairwell. The two Servants had returned.

"The door's secured, Lord!"

Colin nodded and removed the blood from their Hurricane Lamps, extinguishing them. Before he could say anything, a huge, deformed foot covered in lumps suddenly thrust out of the mist outside the window.

With a smack, Colin shut the window before he could get a clear look at the thing. He didn't dare keep watching.

He didn't even feel tempted to observe it for a prompt.

That would obviously be asking for trouble.

Just looking at a Lord-level Aberration with the naked eye could affect an ordinary person with its negative emotions.

Some could even kill their enemies with a mere glance. It was downright uncanny.

So Colin didn't dare look at it at all.

The next second, a loud bang came from the front door.

Dust showered down inside the Church. The monster had reached the door and was ramming it!

At that moment, there was only a door between them.

Without hesitation, Colin led the others back a little, away from the window.

"Did it stop?"

After backing away, Colin realized there had been no second blow.

For some reason, after that first impact, the monster had fallen silent. It was unexpected.

Colin went to the middle of the stairs and looked down. The tightly shut door blocked his view of the outside, but through the gap beneath it, he could tell something was standing outside.

Colin knew perfectly well that the door looked sturdy, but it definitely couldn't hold the monster back.

Still, for some reason, the creature didn't seem intent on breaking through.

"It must have some qualms about the Church."

After a quick guess, Colin waited on the stairs for a few minutes. Once he was sure the monster wouldn't act for a while, he led the two Servants downstairs and toward the back of the hall.

He planned to see whether the Underground Passage beneath the Lectern could get them out. If there was any way to leave right now, this was the only one he could think of.

He took off his shoes and walked barefoot across the floor, holding his breath and trying to make as little noise as possible so he wouldn't provoke the behemoth outside.

Before long, the three of them reached the statue. Colin held the lamp and, to avoid a repeat of what had happened earlier, didn't crouch this time.

He wouldn't let his shadow stray beyond the light. Staying alert, Colin wouldn't be beaten by the same trick twice.

By then, the two Servants had cleared the entrance to the Underground Passage.

The entrance was about a meter long and a meter wide, roughly square. There seemed to be stairs at the bottom, descending into darkness toward an unknown destination.

A prompt appeared.

[You feel that this entrance does not lead to an ordinary basement, but to an area filled with countless dangers.]

[Judging by the direction it extends, you think it leads toward Crow Mountain. There seems to be some unknown treasure there, and it may have something to do with the late Father Kadish.]

[However, you also feel that you are in no condition to explore that place right now, as you desperately need to rest.]

[You feel that place is a dead end.]

As Colin felt the prompt in his mind, he felt his body slowly growing cold.

This was the first time the prompt had been so "direct."

Going there meant certain death.