The Secret Code of Monsters.

Chapter 12 The Burner

In the days after Roland's 'recovery', he played the role of Nina.

Every evening, he was given a tube of blood and fed food that made him sick...

Or the flesh and blood that becomes increasingly sweet.

He began to hear some rustling whispers, as if something was calling him gently in his ears and in his mouth after night fell.

"Come on, come on..."

"With fragile flesh and blood..."

'In exchange for an immortal soul...'

Who is speaking.

He began to grow weak.

Day after day, it seemed as if an invisible force was enveloping his body.

From having difficulty walking to needing a cane to get out of bed.

From being able to swing his arms freely, to being unable to hold a candlestick.

He seemed to have his life force sucked away by a long, sharp mouthpart like a mosquito.

soon.

He would probably become a living corpse, unable to move, like Nina.

Roland lay quietly, counting the days.

Counting my despair and hope.

until…

One evening.

at last.

He heard extremely noisy noises coming from downstairs: crashes and explosions.

There were also the cries and screams of the servants.

This time it's not uniform.

The room began to creak, and the flames spread along the stairs all the way to the second floor.

He curled up in the corner of the bed, staring at the door, watching Seth Will stumble in. The skin on his face melted and peeled off like wax, revealing the blood threads tangled and pumping like spider webs: there seemed to be a throbbing tumor inside.

The man was no longer as respectable as before, with burn marks all over his body. His black suit was not straight and clean, he was barefoot, had three fingers missing, and was limping.

After the door was opened, the flames came all the way in.

Golden flames.

He shouted in shock and anger:

"The Burner!"

The constant noise no longer required Roland to bang on the edge of the bed.

He saw the fire growing like thorns, roaring fiercely at Seth. They ignited everything in the room that could burn, but Roland did not feel the slightest heat.

Then he heard the sound of heels hitting the floor.

Click, click.

Uniform and stable.

The raging flames suddenly became docile at the sound.

They dodged left and right, making way.

Let those high leather boots come in.

Is a female.

She was tall and thin, wearing a strange black stand-up collar gauze dress, with raised eyebrows and a high nose bridge; her hair was very long and tied behind her head, and she wore two dark brown deerskin gloves on her hands.

When she stood at the door, she looked like a brown-haired, brown-eyed goddess surrounded by flames, looking into the house expressionlessly.

"You're more vulnerable than I thought, cultist."

The woman raised her lips in pleasure, twisted her wrist and stepped into the house - and Seth began to retreat.

He first retreated to the bedside, but then felt something was wrong, so he jumped over Roland in a panic and crawled to the other side using his hands and feet.

His skin was almost burned.

There were holes in the arms, thighs, and abdomen, and long, soft tentacles like intestines flowed out.

They struggled in the flames, making even sharper and more piercing cries.

Seth leaned against the wall, his eyes full of resentment.

"You wild dogs..." he growled, "One day, Mother will pull your hypocritical flesh and blood out of the earth one by one..."

"I like your wording," the woman's brown eyes became brighter in the firelight, but her expression was like a tree withering when everything else withered, snowing in the flames. "Unfortunately, you can't use it to save your life."

"Shut up! Hypocritical Dai-"

She didn't give the man a chance to speak, she raised her hand and snapped her fingers:

The thorns opened their eyes, and the gun forest was blazing. A few feet away, they were within an instant!

Flames like the scorching sun burst out from her body, illuminating not only the entire room, but also the dark midnight - the dazzling flame like a spear pierced the man's chest, entering from the front and exiting from the back!
The violent shock even shattered the peeling brick wall behind Seth!
Bang-!
After a loud bang, a hole the size of four or five people was blown open on the side of the second floor.

Gunshots came out in clusters.

Amid screams and flying bricks, Seth Will...

It was actually smashed to pieces.

The moonlight from outside the wall shone in, illuminating the quiet half of the room.
The walls and floors that had been burned by the flames were surprisingly clean.

Roland huddled beside the bed, staring quietly at the hazy moonlight, which was like a veil, falling on the woman's body.

"woman"

The pale words wrote truthfully.

She shook her wrist, turned around, and the extinguished heat wave lifted up the hem of her skirt.

The black veil flutters.

Like a mysterious bird landing in the moonlight...

bat.

As Roland thought about it, the words above her head slowly melted away and changed:
"It looks like a woman, but it's actually a bat."

Do not…

That was not what I meant.

Roland rubbed his temple.

"Who are you."

The woman's voice was bright and clear.

As she spoke, she moved closer to Roland—she bent down and glanced at the empty bed.

Perhaps it was because the pair of eyes that looked like soft gold flowing in the firelight were too charming, or perhaps it was because Roland's entire face was like that.

As she got closer, his tone became softer.

There is a small teardrop mole behind her slightly upturned eyes.

"Kid, what's your name? Were you kidnapped by the cultists?"

"It looks like a woman, but it is actually a bat that has been bewitched by Roland Collins's appearance."

Roland: ...
-
Miss Nina, are you really dead?
"This is my home, ma'am." Roland lowered his voice and answered respectfully, "I am Roland Collins, the youngest son of Thales Collins. I was found recently..."

The woman continued: "…complete this evil ritual?"

She suddenly took off her brown deerskin gloves, revealing a hand with distinct joints but scars all over it - and carefully picked out the splinters tangled in Roland's black hair.

Roland felt that she was like a torch, no, she was hotter than a burning forge.

"I grew up in a workhouse, ma'am. Got the letter a month ago, so..."

The woman touched his face.

"A group of ignorant cultists and an innocent child?"

She half-knelt in front of Roland, quietly looking at the black-haired boy's face, watching him carefully move his amber eyes, trying his best to find the direction where she was - he had to 'look' at her when he spoke to show respect.

This is a frightened and miserable child.

The eyes can't see yet.

She judged in her mind and stroked Roland's slightly pale and sickly face with her rough fingertips, all the way down to his neck, arms, and wrists.

A powerless body.

mortal.

And it's not visible.

A beautiful but fragile boy, an exquisite doll, a bird shivering in the cold winter - Roland's image in her eyes kept changing, always going back to the sparrow that froze to death outside her window when she was in her teens.

Through the window, she watched it tremble, flutter and struggle, and finally become stiff.

A strange feeling came over me.

"Face your fear and you will gain courage and strength. Child, everything is over." She gently grasped Roland's hand, wrapped him with her rough and powerful palm, and then slowly pulled him up from the ground.

"This nightmare is over. The All-Father will not allow these cultists to walk within His sight."

As those strange, prayer-like whispers were spoken, the silver cross-shaped pendant on the woman's chest shone brightly:
It was like a warm and soft flame, floating down very slowly and lightly, blowing across Roland's body like a veil.

Those whispers in his ears seemed to no longer bother him.

He finally regained his spirits, and the physical weakness of the past seemed like a dream he had just woken up from.

He heard faintly the uplifting singing voice coming to his ears, but it quickly faded away.

"I am Enid, the executive officer of the Holy Cross Church."

The woman put away the necklace and held out her hand to him.

"You survived."

(End of this chapter)