Maybe because memories were stirred, although Lorenzo hated them, he still started to ramble at this moment.
"In the capital of the Holy Evangelical Pope Kingdom, Seven Hills, it's even more prevalent. Only the most devout believers are allowed to go there. They say it's the holiest place in the world, where demons cannot step a foot in, but the truth is that the Holy Hall Crusaders are stationed there. Even Ingwig attacking would take days."
A strong stench wafted from below, and something fell from above during the conversation.
A swiftly descending shadow landed heavily on the stairs in front of the exit—it was a corpse. With the violent impact, the entire body shattered partially under the collision, and dark red blood slowly seeped out.
"Of course, if I ever have the chance to return, my greatest wish is to cover the streets of Seven Hills with cow dung… You know, those believers take pride in dying in Seven Hills. If you splash a basin of water there, a few Cardinals might be buried underneath."
Lorenzo spoke while striding out heavily.
"Of course, that's all later, for now I need to investigate why the demons that should be extinct are still alive?"
His words ended like a lion's low growl as he kicked the corpse into the deep pit, full of emotion. It seemed this guy was really unhappy.
The corpse slid down, then crashed onto the surface of the pit. With that violent impact, the thick red mist dispersed slightly, revealing the eerie face like a ghost under a vague veil.
"It's a sacrificial offering… someone is raising these things."
Lorenzo's voice was colder than ever. Now it's certain that everything tonight was no coincidence; it was a scheme long-planned in the dark, and it all related to that mysterious item called the Holy Coffin, which had ties to demons.
This is just the tip of the iceberg emerging from the sea's surface, with deeper, colder, darker unknowns yet to be discovered.
Eve looked down at the deep pit, seemingly as if something crawled out of her stomach. Unable to hold back, she leaned at the edge, retching dryly.
The ground was covered with bones and flesh, much like the final pursuit of the two under the crimson tide, the stinking flesh sprouting tiny hairs.
After the corpse fell, the flesh seemed to come back to life, the red hairs twining around the corpse like silken threads, accompanied by faint sounds of gnawing. In just a few breaths, only bare bones remained where the corpse had been.
"It's the Stomach Chewing Grass, a plant-like demon without much mobility, but dangerous because of its hunting nature. Once the fluff-like tentacles capture you, they'll pierce your skin to gnaw on your body."
Lorenzo stood at the edge of the stairs, feeling how dreadful this old habit revisiting is.
"Be careful. These things cannot move, but to prey, like biological evolution, they'll have symbiotic bodies that cooperate, like another group of mobile demons—they're responsible for the hunting, while the Stomach Chewing Grass's lethal property provides them shelter."
Eve mustered her courage, scared but realizing as Lorenzo said that if she doesn't want to die, she must force herself to be strong.
"What should we do?"
Looking at it, the two had no way down, except to return the way they came.
Lorenzo didn't answer, just examined the terrain quietly. Eve suddenly had a bad feeling and tentatively asked.
"Are you planning to kill it?"
Eve asked fearfully. That thing called a demon—just one glance left Eve terribly intimidated by its so-called mental oppressiveness, let alone charging at it with a sword. Even if she had the courage, how could she kill that bizarre, twisted thing with sword or gun?
A whole field of blood-red demonic grass.
"Do you know? Most demons have a common trait, they abhor light and fear fire and silver."
This is the knowledge accumulated by the Evangelical Church over thousands of years, existing now in Lorenzo's mind, but knowing it doesn't help. Let alone silver; here, the only flames are just those few illuminating torches.
"Eve, these are captive things. Look around the pit bottom. It's boiling and rolling but never overflows. You should know, while it can't move, it expands extremely fast. Records in the church state that just one Stomach Chewing Grass could devour an entire town. To control it, the church burned the town to the ground."
"You mean something is restricting its movement?"
Eve seemed to understand Lorenzo's point, that detective's observation was indeed sharp, unlike her own mind, which is filled only with thoughts of fleeing rather than counterattacking.
"Yeah, I think I know what's really happening tonight."
Everything fragmented assembled in Lorenzo's mind, the detailed events of the night were picked up one by one by the detective, and he finally understood what Sabo intended to do.
"Tonight, Sabo plans to launch a premeditated attack on all of Old Dunling."
The detective's face turned extremely grim. How many people are in Old Dunling? One million or two million? Given enough flesh, the Stomach Chewing Grass overgrowing Old Dunling is just a matter of time.
"This is also why he says no one will survive tonight. Never mind the Underground Palace, if these things escape, the entire Lower City District will fall tonight."
Sabo's words echoed in his mind. Following the mysterious mentor, everything happened as it did—be it those deaths or the grim fate tonight, it was all related to that mysterious Holy Spirit Coffin, for all those dead had contact with it.
Lorenzo seemed to grasp a critical point. He realized it, meaning the Holy Coffin had once stayed here.
Sabo destroyed everyone related to it and now plans to destroy the place too, just because it's connected to the Holy Coffin.
"Bola… what exactly did you transport?"
Lorenzo murmured. If he survives tonight, maybe he really needs to have a serious talk with Bola.
In that eerie silence, another sound seemed to rise—the creaking of gears dragging iron chains, possibly rusted from moisture, a painfully sharp sound.
Eve looked up, the sound came from above. When they first entered here, the high-intensity lighting had already weakened, allowing Eve to see.
Above the pit was a funnel-shaped iron mesh, with closely arranged daylight lamps above. Although the light had dimmed, looking against its glow, she could only see a mass of writhing shadows extending countless hands at the edges, as if made up of hundreds of people.
Suddenly, water dripped down from the shadows, falling onto Eve's face. The liquid was warm, and wiping lightly with her hand, she found her palm stained red.
"I think I know what that is," Lorenzo suddenly said beside her.
"That's the shackle limiting this demon."
The dense daylight lamp array constituted a high-intensity daylight illumination, restricting the Stomach Chewing Grass's activity to some extent. But now, as the light faded and the iron net fell, the objects within were revealed—it was countless corpses.
Previously, those falling accidentally were from within, and now they all plunged into the deep pit.
In the next second, the light disappeared completely, and like encountering the demon in the hall, darkness swallowed everything around.
Both of their breaths grew heavy involuntarily, and then, from the darkness, came countless sounds of chewing—the demon was feeding, and for it, this was an incomparably sumptuous feast.
"What happened?"
The girl got no answer; Lorenzo remained silent, only pulling her towards the passage behind. In truth, he knew well what happened—this was a feeding session. Once fed, with the Stomach Chewing Grass's trait, it would surely expand, but now the high-intensity daylight lamps restraining it had been extinguished.
Just like Sabo said, the real "no one survives" is about to begin.