Phase 24 “The Pain”
“You're to blame for everything that's happened, Lucas...” The elderly guy took hold of Dominique's hair and said, “You're so ignorant, didn't want to understand how sad your dumb father, King Cecilion, was... Should I continue to refer to him by his previous name, or is this the time to start using his new one since he has been reincarnated? Indeed, we are aware that his new name is Kaien...”
“Please... Stop...” Dominique was sobbing uncontrollably as he desperately tried to seize anything that could serve as a weapon, but he was too weak. All he could do was mumble incomprehensible phrases as the shaman's chuckle reverberated inside the large iron truck that stood in the middle of the forest. It felt as though Dominique was being put through the agony of a slow and torturous death by the memories that had just been implanted in his head, the memories of Dominique's previous life. Although Dominique's head hurt a lot, as if it had been struck by a truck, his heart hurt even more.
“Do you have any idea how many years I waited to see the five of you again? I can finally have my revenge! Hahaha! Especially to that holy fool bishop who permanently sealed me for the centuries!” the old man screamed like a maniac. “It was a difficult time to be alone in that prison. I was able to regain control of my power gradually step by step... After that I began spreading the cursed, or as you now refer to it, the virus...”
“I found Kaien first of course; he was just an innocent child back there. I started by tearing his family and turning his entire beloved one into the undead.” The shaman laughed again, “Haha! It was fantastic, you should have seen it!”
“Then, I searched for that holy fool bishop! His fate wasn’t as good as Yunho at all. He deserved it, no, he deserved more than that! I would skin him alive and feed him to my beautiful undead creation. He would suffer from the eternal flame of hell!”
Dominique almost lost his sight. He got no idea what the shaman meant or who he was referred to when he said “bishop”. He had never felt so feeble, and it seemed as though his body was turning against him once more. He was so helpless. He slammed his tired eyes shut as the shaman took him out into the storm which made him shiver and freeze to death. The chill sank deep into his flesh, and he struggled to scream but failed. He had the sensation that the entire world was spinning around him as he began to lose consciousness.
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Benji fired his guns and kicked the zombies until their heads blew off. It was mentally draining, but he could not risk getting bitten anymore. He had had enough of getting bit and being worthless. Nathan, in the meantime, made an effort to make effective use of his firearms as well. He utilised his sword the majority of the time but resorted to his pistols when he was outnumbered. It seemed like an ocean filled with zombies out there.
They were both counting the number of zombies they had killed, and it was getting close to a hundred, yet, the number of zombies did not appear to be diminished in any way. Nathan was knocked off balance and fell onto his posterior all of a sudden. He was caught off guard when a massive zombie came dangerously close to stepping on him, however, Benji was able to pull him away in time.
“Ready?” Nathan nodded his head in acknowledgement as Benji gave the signal. Benji threw Nathan with all of his strength towards the direction of the monster who was attacking them. Benji sliced the monster's throat from the other side of its body while Nathan fired a few shots at the monster's head, attracting the monster's entire attention. They quickly got to their feet, fled the area as quickly as they could, and made their way deeper into the forest. They were aware that they were very close to their destination.
“Nathan, can you get Dominique?” Benji asked after his failed attempt to contact Dominique.
“I can’t get Dominique at all,” Nathan responded as Benji cursed and they blew another zombies’ head. They kept marching forward with a blink map, containing only Kaien and Allen’s blinking tracking device. They passed a few big trees as the monster was still after them.
“Look!” Benji pointed to a cave-like entrance. “They must be there---Arrggg!”
“Ben! What's wrong?! Urrrggg!” Nathan fell to the ground and passed out next to Benji. They were both breathing heavily as their bodies betrayed them. As they were unable to move at all, their cells felt dead. In the distance, they could make out a shrill scream that was following them. The sound of the scream was loud and they felt like their brain was going to explode.
“Ben... Scared...” Nathan muttered before he completely lost his consciousness. Benji wanted to reply but he could not. He forced his body to move and he managed to get up and take Nathan. His muscles hurt like hell as he forced them to move but he could care less. He rushed and hid behind a huge root of trees. He crawled below the root and made sure the zombies would not find them as he covered the entrance with leaves. The storm would make the monsters could not smell them as good as they should be.
Benji began to scream when he was suddenly overwhelmed with excruciating pain, and at the same time, his vision began to blur. He felt so cold as the storm froze them up. Benji despised himself for screaming earlier as the screams of the zombies got closer and closer. But the pain was just too much for him to hold back any longer.
He mustered every ounce of his last power to cradle Nathan in his arms before a flood of pictures overtook his mind. The husky voice from right next to him was the last sound he heard before everything went completely silent. It was uncomfortably dark and quiet there. It seemed as though the entire world had vanished into thin air. He prayed that when he woke up, he would discover that the whole event had been a nightmare and that none of them existed. It was the only hallucinatory explanation he could come up with at the time he was thinking it.