Grabbing the handle, so hesitation brought him to slowly turn it, having to combat the doubt in his mind. As the locking chanism was released, the door opened, revealing the steps descending into the basent.
With cautious steps, he ventured downward, placing each boot down lightly on the cobblestone footholds, as to let himself listen in. Grotesque squelching noises echoed from the depths, accompanied by heavy, labored breathing.
The closer he got to the bottom, the deeper his stomach sank into his body, the louder his own heartbeats beca, thumping in his ears. He kept his fingers wrapped around the handle of his blade, readying it for whatever may be waiting–
"Master..."
Right at the edge of the steps, the disheartening sight etched itself into his mory; the elder butler sat against the wall, slumped over with faint breaths.
"Thorgul–what happened?" Leon hurriedly asked as he descended the final steps, kneeling beside the butler.
Taking a mont to catch his own breath as he winced, Thorgul clutched the gaping wound opened in his gut as plentiful blood puddled beneath him, "...I witnessed them begin to turn, so I pushed them down here in hopes of isolating it, but it was too late...I couldn’t–"
"Them? Who’s down here, Thorgul?" He asked.
"The twins, but they...You need to worry about what’s beco of Jon. Whatever it is that has manifested, it’s unnatural. Master, please...Carry yourself with caution," Thorgul demanded with stern determination, gripping onto the lord’s sleeve.
"Yeah. Just hold on, alright? The others will be here soon," he assured the butler as he returned to his feet.
Attempting to summon his servants to his position, nothing occurred as, once more, he found his system abilities unresponsive within the basent. The initial section of the bottom of the stairs led into an archway, separating into a vast chamber, stacked the crates of long forgotten possessions of the Schoellers.
As he walked into the chamber only kept lit by a few candles hanging on the walls, a figure stood near the furthest wall with his back turned to him. In the right hand of the man shrouded in enigma, a bloodied lance was held, dripping with fresh essence.
"Jon?" Leon quietly called out.
The na used made the man slowly turn around, revealing what lay against the wall–the bodies of two children, the twins, so horribly left lifeless as scarlet stains. It was a sight that imdiately stirred a sickening sensation, putting a pause to his heartbeat for a mont as he clutched the handle of his sword.
The adventurer swayed as he stood, pale and drenched in sweat, breathing as if having just run a marathon, "I tried to help them. I wanted to save them. They were infected, so I was left with no choice..." Jon reasoned, staring right past the lord with his feverish gaze.
"You infected them," Leon corrected, keeping his blade ready.
"No, no, that’s not right, I..." Jon protested, shaking his head in denial. "I was the one that tried to save them. All I did was try to help–"
"Jon, why is Thorgul bleeding out in the other room? What happened?" Leon asked with his best attempt at remaining calm.
The jumbled recollections spurred through the lips of the sickly adventurer spoke without any semblance of a mind of sanity, "Thorgul...He was infected, too. If I didn’t take action, everyone would’ve been marked...I would be a coward if I watched it happen."
"You’re infected, Jon," Leon tried to convince the delusional man.
The entirety of the lance-carrying person’s neck was blackened, like the legs of a spider stretching from the mark on his throat across his skin.
"You too?" Jon said, shaking his head, rejecting the accusation as he instead pointed his hollow glare towards the lord. "--I think you’re the one that’s infected, Lord Schoeller. Yeah...It’s you–not ."
’He can’t be reasoned with. He’s a ghoul already, but for so reason...He’s still intact. It almost makes it feel like he can be helped, but that’s just not the way it is. I have to put down the threat, as the lord of this land,’ the resolve settled in Leon’s mind.
["Jon"] [Level: 26]
Beneath the afflicted man’s skin, the necrosis spread like a parasite, pulsating as if another being was housed within him.
"I’m sorry, Lord Schoeller...If you’re infected, I have to put you down," Jon declared, swaying as if his own head was too heavy to hold up.
"Yeah. It seems that way," Leon quietly said.
He held his ground, not rushing into a blind fight with the afflicted adventurer. Despite what he may have known of Jon’s strength before, the fact he overwheld Thorgul was worth being cautious over.
With a step that almost seed like the man was slipping forward, the infected dashed across the storage room, thrusting his lance forward. It ca quickly enough that Leon had only enough ti to lean to the side, lifting his sword to push against the piercing weapon.
Sparks flew as his steel t with the other, pushing against the side of the lance to deflect it, though it ca with more struggle than he expected.
"Greater Strengthening...!"
Imbuing his body with the reinforcent of mana, he was able to push away the lance, leaving Jon stumbling. He used the opening to deliver a kick to the afflicted’s abdon, flinging the man across the room.
"Uff..." Jon groaned as his body landed on the crates, breaking those beneath him.
Despite the kick being more than enough to make a normal man puke his guts, the infected lancer picked himself up groggily as if just waking from a long nap.
’I’ve only read about it briefly–what ghouls are. When they infect soone and possess their humanity, they beco violent, increasingly so until any semblance of reason is gone. It also increases their physical capabilities. If a normal person being possessed can threaten experienced adventurers, then soone like Jon being taken...It’s bad,’ he thought, watching the ghoulish figure hoist himself up with only the use of his core.
As the man of unkempt, jet-black hair picked himself up from the smashed crates, an unnerving orchestra of bones cracking, joints readjusting echoed through the dimly-lit room.
Jon was hunched over, using his own lance to hold himself up as he cupped his ear with his other hand as if listening to soone intently, "Do you hear that...? It’s the voice–the voice over the summit..."
"The voice?" Leon asked, questioning why he even entertained the words of the afflicted.
"That’s right. Just over the summit, where wars aren’t fought...where people can live without fear, where the angels sing," Jon said, straightening himself up as blackened blood trickled down his nose, gazing towards an endless distance. "That’s right. I’m doing the right thing."
Jon’s words were no longer pointed towards the lord, as if he was speaking to an unseen entity, perhaps one that was not truly present. It was only looking upon the man whose mind rested sowhere in a different world that Leon noticed; he was slightly taller, lankier now with his limbs unnaturally lengthened.
[Anomalous Entity Identified.]
["J–"] [Level: 28]
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