The monster’s “ergence from the cocoon” speed was not constant.
At the beginning, when its entire body was still wrapped tightly inside human skin, the process of breaking free was extrely slow. However, as its head and both arms gradually broke through—and with those arms now outside assisting—the rest of the process suddenly felt as if it had been sped up, becoming faster and faster.
Rebecca clearly understood this as well.
While the monster was in the midst of breaking free, she did not behave like the usual cannon-fodder characters in movies, standing there dumbly watching. Instead, taking advantage of the monster’s full concentration on escaping its shell and its lack of attention to anything else, she bent down and reached out, picking up the spike that had fallen onto the snow.
After grabbing it, Rebecca reached into her coat and took out a bottle of unknown silvery-white liquid, pouring it over the tal spike.
Sizzle!
The mont the liquid made contact, a thick cloud of black smoke imdiately rose from the surface of the spike.
When the smoke dissipated, the previously slightly darkened spike had returned to its original rusted appearance. An ancient and mysterious aura radiated from it.
“In the na of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!” Rebecca held the iron spike and continued chanting loudly in Spanish.
Due to the long history of colonization, many traditional spells and rituals in Bolivia had been blended with elents of Spanish Catholicism. The candle holder and Virgin Mary statue Rebecca had used during the Lucky Relief Case was a typical example.
The tal spike in her hand at this mont was clearly also so kind of Catholic sacred relic.
As her chanting continued, an almost imperceptible glow once again erged on the surface of the iron spike. The rust on its surface no longer looked old and decayed; instead, it began to flow like blood across the spike, as if eager and ready for a final battle against evil.
Victory or defeat would be decided in this mont!
Seeing that the monster’s chest had already broken free from the human skin, Rebecca took a deep breath, raised the spike high, and leapt upward. Aiming at the monster’s violently beating heart in its chest, she poured all her strength into both hands and drove the spike down fiercely.
“ROAR——!”
A shrill, piercing scream rang out as the sharp iron spike pierced straight through and shattered the monster’s heart.
Thick streams of foul, black liquid erupted from the monster’s chest like a fountain. The liquid was clearly corrosive; wherever it flowed, dense black smoke billowed up. The wooden exterior walls of the inn were burned into countless gaping holes, and even the hard stone pavent crumbled like biscuits under its touch, forming small sunken pits.
Fortunately, Rebecca had anticipated this.
The mont the black liquid gushed out, a clear ringing sound echoed. The copper bell clutched tightly in her palm began to vibrate, and a faint wave-like pattern spread outward from it, forming a protective barrier that enclosed her at the center.
The bell was called the “Hale Exorcism Bell.” It was small in size and usually made of copper or silver. Sacred patterns and symbols were engraved on its surface, giving it the power to repel and ward off approaching evil entities. It was a very popular protective charm among spirit diums.
Rebecca’s bell had once been blessed by a cleric, making its effect even stronger than ordinary ones.
Relying on its protection, she pressed on. She pulled out the iron spike again, recited a prayer, and once more drove it deeply into the monster’s chest.
“ROAR—!”
The heart was clearly the monster’s weak point. As the iron spike penetrated inch by inch, cracks began to spread outward from the heart like a spiderweb, extending across the monster’s entire body.
As if refusing to die so easily, the deer-headed monster let out a furious roar and raised its thick arm high, swinging it violently down toward Rebecca.
Naturally, Rebecca would not stand still and take the blow.
Sensing danger, she released the spike and nimbly leapt backward, retreating into the room. “Everly, help !”
Without needing her to say it, Everly, Old John, and Misha had already instinctively drawn their pistols and opened fire at the monster outside, aiming directly at its chest.
Bang! Bang! Bang bang bang!
A barrage of bullets struck the monster’s chest, montarily interrupting its attack.
When the punch finally ca down, the Himalayan pink salt Rebecca had sprinkled at the entrance gave its last bit of effect.
An invisible wall blocked the monster’s attack, and the remaining salt rapidly evaporated. When the unseen barrier was shattered by the force of the blow and the monster was finally able to storm into the inn without restraint, cracks symbolizing death had already crawled across its head.
Crack… crack crack crack…
Amid crisp cracking sounds, the deer-horned monster’s body split apart like glass. It fractured inch by inch, breaking into foul-slling chunks of flesh and white shattered bone, which scattered and crashed onto the ground.
The exorcism was successful.
……
The innkeeper couple brought out brooms and mops, while the front desk girl Minnie carried a shovel over from the boiler room.
Everyone worked together to clean up, shoveling the scattered, stinking remains into buckets and dumping them off the cliff below. Only the clothes the man had been wearing were left untouched.
Afterward, based on the personal belongings found in the pockets, it was deduced that the man who had turned into the monster was indeed “Daine,” the person ntioned by the innkeeper.
As for who Daine was—did you still rember the missing climbers ntioned in the negative news about Nathanjoya Mountain that Everly had investigated?
Daine was one of the three mountaineers who had gone missing while crossing the snowy mountain. Months earlier, in order to scout the area in advance, he and his companions had stayed at the Yomoor Snow Mountain Lodge for a period of ti, and had even booked rooms for the Christmas holiday.
Later, due to their disappearance, their reserved rooms were unintentionally taken over by Everly’s group.
The severe weather at the summit had continued for several days, and everyone had assud the three had already died in the mountains. Unexpectedly, during the avalanche that trapped Everly’s group, Daine had instead turned into a monster and appeared outside the snow mountain lodge.
Even now, recalling the scene of Daine’s face splitting open as a monster crawled out from inside him still filled everyone with a lingering chill.
Because of this, the way they looked at Everly’s group grew increasingly filled with awe and reverence. Even Lucas, who had always been sowhat proud, showed a dazed expression of having his worldview completely shattered after witnessing the deer-horned monster with his own eyes.
“How could this happen… this isn’t scientific…” He pressed his lips tightly together, leaned back against the sofa, his gaze unfocused, muttering the sa phrase over and over again.
Yes, none of this was scientific.
But Everly felt that what was even less scientific than the existence of monsters was the fact that Lucas—despite having directly or indirectly been involved in so many cases throughout his life—had sohow never encountered anything related to the supernatural.
Co on, this was a horror movie world. Why had he managed to perfectly avoid every supernatural incident and live peacefully as his little mystery novelist self? What, being the male lead made him special?!
After grumbling inwardly for a while, Everly glanced at Lucas again. The blow had been so severe that even his neatly combed bangs had fallen limp across his forehead. Under the dim yellow light, he looked utterly like a stray dog—downcast and fragile.
Then, suddenly, she felt oddly pleased.
Heh. Who cared how scientific his past life had been—he definitely wasn’t going back to that world anymore.
She even wondered how Lucas’s mystery-writing career would develop after witnessing the other side of this world. After all, many tricks in detective fiction relied on a strictly materialist worldview. If supernatural forces were involved, things like locked-room murders and alibis would beco completely aningless.
Hehe. Hehe…
Clearly, Lucas wasn’t the only one whose worldview had been reset.
Joshua, the innkeeper, who had previously interacted with Daine for a period of ti, still could not understand how a perfectly normal human being could suddenly turn into a monster.
“Last ti I saw him… Daine seed completely normal. Could it be that he was pretending to be human all along?” he asked blankly.
This question touched upon Everly’s blind spot in knowledge, so she turned her expectant gaze toward Rebecca.
Seeing Everly like this, the others also turned their attention to Rebecca.
As the main force responsible for killing the deer-horned monster, Rebecca clearly had so understanding of it.
“The deer-horned monster we encountered earlier is called a ‘Wendigo.’ It is a creature from legend, said to be ford when humans fall into corruption through cannibalism. They are often born in extrely cold regions, wandering the wilderness and feeding on human flesh. It is said their stomachs are like an endless black hole that can never be filled—the more they eat, the hungrier they beco, and the hungrier they are, the more greedy their nature turns. By consuming human flesh, a Wendigo’s body can regenerate indefinitely. The only way to completely kill them is to destroy their heart.”
“Ford from humans who resorted to cannibalism… Could it be—?”
Catching the key point in her words, everyone’s expression changed at once.
Although they hadn’t found any decisive items on Daine’s body, just by imagining it, everyone could already piece together what must have happened on the snowy mountain.
“Daine’s two companions are probably no longer alive…” Joshua said after a mont of silence, sighing.
“And what should we do with his clothes?” soone asked, while secretly glancing at Everly’s group, clearly expecting them to make the final decision.
After so hesitation, it was Old John—who had the most experience—who made the call.
“Let’s keep Daine’s clothes,” he said. “After all, they’re the only things he’s left in this world. Once we get out, we can hand them over to the police and say they were dragged down from the mountain by wolves. Nothing else needs to be said.”
“Alright then…”
After so discussion, everyone agreed with Old John’s suggestion.
……
Perhaps because the past two days had been so unlucky that they had already experienced every possible misfortune, after the Wendigo was killed, the following days were unexpectedly calm. Nothing bad happened at all.
There was also one rather “hellish” piece of good news: after three guests had died in a row, the lodge had an excess of food supplies. Compared to before, everyone was now allowed to eat more at every al.
In this way, they spent five and a half days in the cold inn, alternating between hunger and fullness, alongside three corpses.
On the sixth day of being trapped, after the sky—dark and overcast for a long ti—finally cleared, the unreliable rescue team at last rembered the group stranded on the mountain. They sent a helicopter, which flew up to the middle of the mountain and evacuated the twelve trapped people in batches… along with three stiff, frozen corpses.
According to Rebecca’s speculation, the Wendigo that appeared that night had most likely been drawn by the blood scent of those three bodies.
The people were rescued, but the road down the mountain was still blocked by thick snow that had not yet been cleared, aning their vehicles could not be driven down for the ti being.
Given the efficiency of Arican bureaucracy, Everly deeply suspected she would have to wait until spring, when the snow lted, before she could get her car back.
After being rescued, everyone was first sent to the hospital for examinations, and then taken to the police station. The good news was that detective Lucas had a good relationship with the police; with his involvent, Hilda’s murder case was quickly closed, and there was no need for the group to remain near the snow mountain any longer.
After all the trouble was finally over, Everly and the others boarded a long-distance bus in a rather disheveled state and returned ahead of schedule to the ranger cabin in Dalami City.
Thus, a thrilling ski trip ca to an end in a completely unexpected way.
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