Even though the scenes they had witnessed within the city were already horrifying enough, when the group left the town and followed the road forward, they were soon met with an even more shocking sight.
"What… what is this?"
Bambi's eyes widened in disbelief as she looked at the piles of fat pigs heaped up on both sides of the road. Her voice trembled with unease.
"Aren't these pigs supposed to be food for humans? Why are they all…"
"They were probably infected with the plague, so they had to be slaughtered," Duanmu Huai replied grimly. "But honestly—killing them and leaving them here without burying or burning the bodies? What the hell is this?"
He frowned deeply as he looked at the hundreds of pig corpses stacked along the roadside. Killing infected livestock was one thing—but not handling the bodies properly afterward? That was suicide. Leaving them to rot like this turned each carcass into a massive breeding ground for infection. It wouldn't be surprising if the plague in the town they'd just left had actually spread from these very corpses.
"Sir Knight!"
Suddenly, Lorena let out a startled cry. She stumbled backward a few steps, her trembling finger pointing ahead.
"T-that pig… it's moving!"
"Oh?"
Duanmu Huai raised his head and looked in the direction she was pointing. Dusk had already fallen, and aside from the glow of a few torches and the bright beam of his armor's searchlight, the world was shrouded in darkness.
Under the pale white light, they saw a large pig lying on the ground not far ahead. Its bloated body twitched slightly, its head shifting as though it were trying to turn toward them.
A zombie pig? Surely this world couldn't be that ridiculous.
But before he could even scoff, a horrifying scene unfolded.
The pig's swollen belly began to writhe—something was moving inside it. The skin stretched and squirmed as though a mass of worms were tunneling beneath.
And then—
RIP!
The pig's stomach burst open, and hundreds of black rats poured out like a tidal wave, shrieking as they surged toward the group!
"KYAAAAAAHH!!"
The girls screamed. Bambi instantly jumped into Duanmu Huai's arms, burying her face in his chest. Lorena and Odelle both went pale, stumbling back in horror. Only Olgis, perched calmly on Duanmu Huai's shoulder, remained expressionless.
"Get lost!!"
Duanmu Huai roared, stepping forward. A wave of Soulfire erupted from his armor, bursting outward in all directions. Flames engulfed everything—the swarming rats were instantly consumed, their bodies vanishing in the inferno. The dead pigs, scorched by the fire, exploded one after another as more rats burst out, squealing as they fled from the flames.
"What—what in the world is happening?!"
Lorena's face was ghostly pale as she watched the tide of rats scatter into the darkness. She was a strong priestess, yes—but she didn't know any large-scale offensive magic. Against this kind of swarm, her holy book was utterly useless.
"Tch. This is getting annoying."
Duanmu Huai scanned the area. Though many of the rats had fled the burning piles, countless red eyes still glimmered in the shadows nearby, reflecting the torchlight like drops of blood.
"Use this."
He reached into his armor and pulled out several grenades.
"What's that?"
"Incendiary bombs. Pull the pin and throw them into the swarm."
He yanked a pin and hurled the grenade. BOOM! The blast erupted in the middle of the rat horde, a wave of fire instantly engulfing them. Dozens of shrieking rats burned alive—but that wasn't all. Their bodies seemed to carry the flames, spreading fire rapidly among the others. Yet the creatures weren't mindless—they quickly scurried away from their burning kin and regrouped elsewhere.
"Ugh…"
Lorena turned away, her face pale as chalk. Odelle clutched her mouth, looking like she was about to vomit.
"Strange," Olgis said quietly. "They almost seem… intelligent."
Duanmu Huai nodded. "Not strange at all. Hive-mind effect—the more of them there are, the smarter they get. Especially since these aren't normal rats."
He kept hurling incendiaries until the ground was ringed in flames. Only when the surviving rats finally retreated—vanishing into the forest—did Duanmu Huai lower his hand.
"All right. Let's keep moving."
Once the rats were gone, he turned back to the group.
They continued down the road, though the scenery didn't improve. Eventually, Duanmu Huai found an old, half-collapsed hut by the roadside. Using his gravity gloves, he casually reconstructed it—Minecraft-style—into a crude but stable cube-shaped shelter. It wasn't pretty, but it would do for the night.
"I've never seen anything like that before…"
Sitting by the campfire, Lorena still looked shaken. Understandable—being surrounded by thousands of rats that seemed to move with a single will would terrify anyone.
"I remember you weren't this scared back in Mordheim," Duanmu Huai teased. "Didn't you fight the Skaven there?"
"Skaven I can handle," she said weakly, "but rats are different… they're small, they crawl everywhere… what if one—"
She shuddered, glancing around nervously.
"Relax," Duanmu Huai said with a smirk. "I reinforced the walls. They're not getting in."
Her frightened expression made him chuckle. Truth be told, he understood. Anyone would panic if they woke up to find a rat crawling across their face.
"Tea is ready."
Odelle's calm voice cut in as she served dinner. Unlike the others, she remained in her role as maid, pulling utensils and ingredients from a small bag that—judging by its impossible capacity—was definitely some kind of pocket dimension.
Still, her cooking was excellent. Duanmu Huai wasn't picky—he ate simply to maintain his strength—but he certainly didn't mind good food when he could get it.
The meat sizzled in the pan, filling the air with rich, savory aroma. Bambi and Lorena gradually relaxed, their fear fading. Odelle carefully plated the food, serving Duanmu Huai first, then Bambi, Lorena, and finally Olgis—who, of course, declined.
She didn't need to eat.
"I didn't expect it to be this bad already," Duanmu Huai said between bites. "Those rats…"
"Sorry, Sir Knight," Lorena interrupted, grimacing. "Can we not talk about rats while we're eating?"
"…Fair enough."
He shrugged with a small grin. Even he found the swarms unnerving—any creature, when multiplied into the thousands, became terrifying. And rats were bad enough. If they'd been cockroaches… even he might've run.
After dinner, they rested by the fire and eventually drifted into sleep.
Duanmu Huai did too.
But when he opened his eyes again—
The world had changed.
"———!!!"
He found himself standing amid desolation. The hut was gone. The others were gone. Around him stretched a wasteland of sand and ruin, like a post-nuclear apocalypse. Dust storms howled beneath a sunless sky.
"Squeak… squeak…"
He stopped. From beyond the swirling sand came the sound of countless rats. As the storm cleared, a ruined city emerged in the distance.
He didn't recognize it. Its architecture was local, but he had never been here before.
And it had been completely destroyed.
Collapsed buildings, charred walls, and corpses everywhere—human corpses, flayed, gnawed, and stripped to bone.
He saw nothing moving… yet he felt them. Malicious eyes staring from every shadow, every broken wall.
He began to walk forward.
"Squeak… squeak… squeak…"
The sound grew louder beneath his feet. When he reached the city square, the ground began to quake.
Suddenly, a massive swarm of rats burst forth, merging together—melding into a colossal, humanoid figure shaped like a giant rat. It had horns like a twisted bull and burning crimson eyes that fixed coldly on him.
Duanmu Huai glared right back.
The moment their gazes met, the giant rat convulsed violently, letting out a furious shriek. Then, its body shattered apart—disintegrating into dust as the world around him plunged into darkness once more.
When Duanmu Huai opened his eyes again, he was back by the campfire, now long extinguished.
He stared into the embers, his expression icy.
"Well now," he muttered, the corner of his mouth curling upward.
"So that was a challenge, huh?"
He smirked.
"Fine. I accept."
(End of Chapter)