The second blow, the third blow... The executioner swung his axe, and fragments flew across the walls, some from the wooden floor, some from Spider-Man.
Spider-Man struggled at first, flailing his limbs wildly, but after a few blows with the axe, he stopped moving.
As Isaac watched the executioner dismember Spider-Man, a mixture of wariness and doubt filled his heart.
These two shouldn't be working together, right? Even considering that the Ghoul Cult might be putting on a show for him, it's still quite inexplicable and hard to understand their intentions.
In other words, this executioner was likely targeting Spider-Man?
Isaac glanced at the severed hand that Spider-Man had thrown at him earlier, and an idea struck him. While the executioner was busy dismembering the hand, he covered the bed with the blanket.
A moment later, the executioner stepped on the mangled torso, pulled out his axe, turned and walked toward the door without even glancing at Isaac.
The room returned to the state it was when only one person remained, except for the Spider-Man's remains scattered on the floor and the remains of a wooden door near the door.
Isaac walked to the door and glanced down the corridor. The dark figure was walking towards the end of the corridor, while a head peeked out from the stairwell.
Glen tilted his head, staring at the executioner, then looked down the corridor and noticed Isaac.
Upon realizing he had been discovered, he clicked his tongue and walked up the stairs.
As Glen passed the executioner, he made no attempt to avoid him or engage in conversation, as if he were passing a fixed object rather than a dangerous creature.
Glen stopped a few steps away, and before he could speak, Isaac asked, "What was that just now?"
"That's what I was going to ask you," Glen frowned. "I was downstairs having a good time when I heard a lot of banging and crashing upstairs. I thought you'd been chopped into pieces."
"Was it your arrangement to have that guy with the axe?"
"That's the ' Executioner '," Glen said. "Mr. Halperin lives here, so the Cult naturally provides guards, and the Executioner is part of that guard."
"The guards... don't look human."
"Of course not, this is a demonstration of the Cult's ' Great Arts '."
Isaac understood. Glen's posture when he passed the executioner had already revealed the truth. If the Executioner were alive, Glen would at least have made a gesture and asked what had happened.
But Glen completely ignored it, as if it were just a walking tool. Isaac guessed that the thing was probably similar to the Shroud-Wrapped Walking Corpse that Li Jiehao had previously created, something that was manufactured and controlled by the Cult.
Glen seemed unwilling to discuss much with someone who wasn't yet "qualified" to learn the Great Arts, and steered the conversation to what mattered more to him. "What exactly did you do?"
"I didn't do anything, and I'm wondering what happened too."
"That..."
"All I can say is that something climbed in through the window." Isaac gestured with his chin towards the windowsill. " The Executioner came and dismembered it."
Glen followed Isaac's gaze, looked at the broken pieces on the windowsill and floor, and fell silent for a moment. "... What are these things?"
"I don't know, he was taken down by that big guy."
Glen walked over and squatted down, looking at the broken pieces on the ground with disdain. "It's those... those guys again."
"Those traitors who go against the Cult." Glen waved his hand. "These inferior zombies are what they usually use. They're crudely made and clumsy. It's obvious they only learned the basics and completely lack the core of the Cult's ' Great Arts '."
... traitor?
Isaac knew that the Ghoul Cult was relatively loosely organized, with different factions acting independently. However, even if they disliked each other, they were still within the framework of the Cult and usually wouldn't refer to each other as traitors.
The word "traitor" implies those who might be behind Spider-Man, people who were once considered "one of their own" by Glen, but later turned against him.
"Has something happened within the Cult?" Isaac asked.
Glen glanced at him. "This is none of your business."
"It climbed in through the window and almost got onto my bed." Isaac pointed to the pile of wreckage on the floor. "If this isn't my business, then I don't know what is."
Glen was silent for a moment. "... A year ago, a group of people in the Cult were making a fuss about leaving, saying that the Cult had gone astray and that old guys like Mr. Halperin were no longer keeping up with the times, and that the Cult needed to be managed by a new group of people."
"Some people left, leaving behind a mess. They still consider the Cult an enemy and come knocking on our door from time to time. That thing tonight was probably placed there by them, trying to probe the situation here."
"Why are you trying to find out my background?"
Glen did not answer, his gaze momentarily shifting towards Halperin's room.
Isaac noticed this subtle movement, and Glen's reaction seemed to indicate that the forces behind Spider-Man were targeting Halperin.
But what's wrong with saying this? Why hide it? It's not surprising that a Cult elder so weak he can only lie in a chair would be targeted by a traitor, but Glen's reaction of hiding things suggests that things are not so simple.
"They come to 'harass' us frequently?"
"We've never been this close before," Glen said. "Tonight is the first time we've gotten this close to the outpost."
"You won't come back again, will you?"
"It's hard to say, but now that they've shown themselves, the Cult won't just stand by and watch; they'll naturally retaliate."
Isaac didn't press for more details; Glen was probably only willing to say these things because he needed a reason to explain the commotion that had occurred tonight.
However, if Isaac really came to join the Cult, seeing a traitor directing filthy creatures to attack through the window in the middle of the night, and then seeing the Cult's guards chop the intruder into pieces, it's hard to know whether he should have more confidence or feel that his future is bleak.
Glen seemed to think he had said enough, turned to walk towards the door, then stopped. "Change rooms tonight, choose one next door."
Isaac glanced at the rubble on the ground; it was indeed not a suitable place to stay until the middle of the night.
"Those things..."
"Someone will come to clean up tomorrow," Glen said before leaving.
After Glen left, Isaac lifted the blanket, revealing the severed hand underneath—the hand Spider-Man had inexplicably tossed over after his "heroic sacrifice."
Isaac rolled up the blanket along with the severed hand, packed it into a small bundle, and went out the door.
The corridor was silent; the executioner was nowhere to be seen, Halperin's door remained ajar.
"Hey, Asa, what do you think?"
Isaac had been holding the dice tightly in his hand the whole time, and Carlo had watched the whole thing.
"Boss, I have a feeling this Spider-Man... could he have been sent by Halperin?"