No matter how they wept, darkness descended right on time.
More terrifying still, the darkness enveloping them seemed to have substance, and it was trying to assimilate every last one of them.
Agonized wails rang out one after another...
"I don't want to die! Aaaah..."
Accompanied by an inhuman sound, a young man in his twenties suddenly began to mutate. In just a few seconds, he became a monster neither human nor ghost, drooling from the corners of his mouth, his eyes vacant.
This transformation seemed to trigger a chain reaction. In mere moments, more than half of them had become monsters like him.
But there were exceptions.
When the darkness finally disappeared...
Of the hundred people, only three had remained largely unchanged. Just a few parts of their bodies had become deformed, but they could still be considered human.
Then something even more shocking followed.
"Kill them. Live."
When that voice rang out, the monsters filling the space seemed to receive an order, charging at those few "outsiders" with bloodshot eyes.
A hundred or so monsters against three ordinary people-under normal circumstances, those ordinary people would certainly have died horribly.
Yet the reality was precisely the opposite.
The three survivors seemed to have awakened some sort of talent, becoming special beings.
Survivor No. 1's hands had mutated into sharp claws. When he swung them, black energy coated them, allowing him to effortlessly slice apart the monsters charging at him.
While fleeing, Survivor No. 2 actually merged completely into the surrounding shadows. Not only was he immune to all attacks, he also devoured one monster after another with darkness.
If Shinji had been here to see this, he would certainly have found it very familiar.
The deformed, short man he had encountered back in the Land of Salt had possessed