The ship was very quiet. Apart from the occasional soft sound of breaking waves through the open windows, the only movement that could be heard in the cabin was the slight noise coming from the distant engine room and plumbing equipment - most people seemed to have left the area, and even those who stayed should have stayed in their rooms cautiously and quietly at this time.
This silence even gives people a false sense of "safety". If it weren't for the faint smell of blood that could be smelled occasionally, a reckless and ignorant visitor would probably never have thought that this was a lair occupied by a group of cultists.
But Lucrecia knew that her "visit" might have been noticed by the owner of the ship.
Because she could feel a hostility towards herself spreading on the ship, and a powerful perception was "scanning" every corridor and every cabin here over and over again.
She raised the small "baton" in her hand and drew a few glowing symbols in the air, temporarily blocking the flow of her breath.
The rabbit Rabbi stood cautiously beside her. This scary-looking doll looked around nervously. After observing for a long time, he couldn't help but whispered, "Didn't the old master come with you?"
Lucrecia glanced down: "You want to see him now?"
The rabbit shuddered suddenly: "No, no, no, Rabbi is just a little curious, Rabbi doesn't want to..."
"Father will come later, but I have to help him clean up this dirty place first." Lucrecia felt that the rabbit's reaction was very interesting, but she did not continue to tease him. "He needs some living Annihilation Cultists to perform some kind of... communication ritual, but if he comes directly, I'm afraid there will be no survivors here."
The toy rabbit listened with a confused look, and after a while suddenly said, "Oh, Rabbi, I remember now. The demons around ordinary Annihilationists will be scared to death by their old master, right?"
“… You do remember some useful things.”
"The rabbi is so smart!" The toy rabbit immediately became proud, and then it changed its tone and whispered in a mysterious tone, "If that's the case, the rabbi has a suggestion..."
"suggestion?"
"Perhaps we just need to keep the 'Saint' here... According to the rabbi's observation, the 'Saint' has already eaten his symbiotic demon, so he won't die if he sees his old master..."
Lucrecia raised her eyebrows.
…
Something has come aboard - a shadow is spreading across the ship, a disturbing aura briefly appears and disappears from perception, some areas deep within the cabin are gradually losing contact, and some of the cultists moving around the ship...some are becoming abnormal.
In the brightly lit, spacious and magnificent assembly hall, the Annihilation Cult members are gathering. More and more people have received the summons from the saints. These anxious dark believers have come from all over, whispering in the oppressive atmosphere, and carefully discussing the current situation.
About a dozen more believers were isolated and brought to the platform where the saints were. Each of them was tied with ropes soaked in magic potions and had a special collar around his neck to suppress symbiotic demons.
There were also some fully armed priests standing not far away, apparently watching over the dozen or so believers who were tied up individually.
The eyes from nearby inevitably fell on the tied-up "compatriots", and the surrounding whispers began to discuss and speculate what mistakes these people had made to be tied up like this in front of the saints.
Someone recognized that those tied up were the "dream enterers" who had participated in the Dream of the Nameless One operation before. When thinking about the rumors about the Dream of the Nameless One and the Children of the Sun that had just spread on the ship today, this whispered discussion became even more nervous and uneasy.
Richard only felt that the whispers coming from all around him were noisy and chaotic.
The buzzing and rumbling sounds were like countless files poking at his head, gradually becoming like sharp noises and meaningless roars. He could no longer distinguish the words in the sounds, nor the meaning of those words. The increasingly cold feeling deep in his blood vessels made him more and more irritated, and what was even more disturbing was that he could no longer hear the small but reassuring voice in his mind from just now on.
Where's the rabbi
He raised his head slowly and looked at Dumont who was tied beside him - the latter also raised his head and turned his gaze towards him.
Dumont's eyes were filled with hesitation and confusion. He opened his mouth towards Richard but didn't say anything, as if something was blocking his throat. Some white flocs could be vaguely seen between his teeth.
"You brought something on board..."
The saint's voice finally sounded from the podium, and the chilling pressure was directed at Richard, Dumont and others.
"Where did you hide it?"
Among the dozen or so tied-up Annihilation Cultists, a few of them swayed a few times, as if they still had an instinctive fear in the face of the Saint's pressure, but the rest stood still, as if they had lost their sense of danger and superiors - it seemed that there were no nerves and flesh in their bodies that could respond to fear.
The criss-crossing black bones on the saint's body made a clicking sound, and each knock of the bones seemed to emit a force strong enough to knock on the soul. In this series of clicking sounds, Richard's shaky sanity seemed to recover a little, and he finally remembered who he was. But then, he began to wonder - why was he tied up
He raised his head hesitantly and looked towards the platform.
A majestic voice came from the high platform: "What did you see in the dream of the nameless one? What did you touch? What did you do after returning?"
Richard's mind was struggling to function. In his confusion, his remaining thoughts finally produced a last spark -
"It's the sea witch, that witch and her servants!"
He thought he shouted.
But in fact, he just opened his mouth suddenly, and after a few difficult and hoarse sounds, he spit out a large ball of cotton in front of everyone.
More cotton was stuck in his throat, making him unable to utter any words.
The last spark dissipated, and Richard lowered his head, staring blankly at the white fluff on the floor—cotton, precious cotton!
“My cotton… my cotton… my cotton!”
A series of meaningless grumbles came from his throat which was clogged with cotton, and Richard hurriedly lay down, trying to retrieve the precious cotton. The ropes tied around his body made him lose his balance, and he almost fell straight down. Then he struggled and squirmed on the floor in a twisted and crazy posture, trying desperately to pick up the wet cotton with his mouth.
Plop, plop.
Several other figures also fell down one after another!
Dumont, Weissen, Sulock... Those who had entered the dream of the nameless man with Richard all fell to the ground. The fatal attraction of cotton made them unable to resist. They roared, grunted, struggled, and desperately scrambled for the cotton wool that Richard had just spit out.
Don't steal my cotton! Don't steal my cotton!
Richard roared anxiously in his heart. He tried his best to use his head to push away Dumont who was pushing towards him, but was bitten on the ear by Weissen again - they began to bite each other for the cotton, all reason and emotion had disappeared, leaving only the instinct to fight for the cotton!
There was an uproar in the hall. Even the dark cultists with hearts as cold as iron were greatly moved by this strange and horrifying scene. They watched the dozen or so former "compatriots" struggling and squirming on the floor while being tied up with ropes. They watched them biting each other and making incoherent roars, while cotton wool kept pouring out of their torn wounds - like some kind of living parasite made of fibers!
"Execute them!" A loud shout came from the podium.
“Bang, bang, bang—”
Under the command of the saint, someone at the scene finally reacted. Several consecutive gunshots roared in the hall. The armed priests in charge of guarding began to shoot at Richard and others with large-caliber revolvers. Then, someone began to call on the power of the symbiotic demon, and used the power of magic bullets, lightning and acid mist to smash those former "compatriots" who were obviously no longer human.
Richard and Dumont's bodies were easily torn apart by these attacks. Their fragile skin was torn into pieces like old cloth, making crackling sounds, and cotton wool gushed out of their bodies without a trace of flesh and blood.
More than a dozen Annihilation Cultists who were parasitized by "Cotton" lost their lives in the blink of an eye.
However, the silence lasted only less than a few seconds, and the cotton flowing out of their bodies suddenly began to wriggle again - the cotton began to devour and tear each other, as if the obsession of these people to snatch the cotton in their lifetime was still surging in these flocs, and as the cotton devoured and tore each other, some fluttering things floated up from the pile of cotton.
Those are spores that are like dust.
Spores fluttered like a thin mist and began to spread throughout the hall.
Even the most dull-witted person could sense danger and terror after seeing the diffuse spore mist.
But those diffuse spores only floated outward for a short distance before they seemed to encounter an invisible barrier and were quickly suppressed back into the cotton wool pile by a powerful force.
On the high platform, the "Saint" opened his black skeleton that looked like a crown cage. Tentacles extended from the giant brain and swayed in the air.
All the scattered spores were captured, and then a flame ignited out of nowhere, instantly burning the pile of cotton that was still squirming and surging wildly.
(End of this chapter)