Chapter 315: The Curse

「……」

The team gathered around the skeletal remains, as if thorns had grown from their mandibles, piercing and pinning their tongues into rigid, lifeless specimens, rendering them mute.

Even Kraft could not offer any meaningful commentary on this.

The restrictions on osteogenesis were completely lifted; vast quantities of calcium salts, woven protein fibers, and polysaccharides were mobilized here, constructing internal spires like reinforced concrete, bursting through fragile flesh.

The red layer clinging to the bone surface, upon close inspection, appeared as an extremely fine network of membrane-like capillaries—temporarily proliferated vessels transporting necessary substances, with massive amounts of calcium being delivered and deposited here.

This suggests his collapse may not have been due to excessive blood loss, but rather hypocalcemia.

As calcium rapidly deposited to form bone spurs, free calcium levels in the plasma plummeted sharply.

At first, there was strange numbness and tingling, wandering through the fingers and face, negligible compared to other injuries.

Then came weakness in the limbs, dizziness, and vertigo—perhaps mistaken during running as mere exhaustion.

Until, in terror, he realized his limbs were uncontrollable, convulsions replacing normal movement, breathing growing difficult, the spasming throat as if gripped by an invisible hand emerging from his lungs.

Before total asphyxiation, the catastrophic drop in blood calcium had already triggered central nervous system dysfunction; as consciousness faded, the only sensation in the chaos was pain slowly receding, growing beneath the skin.

The calcium in his blood alone was far insufficient to sustain such massive growth; thus, the other half of his skeleton showed pronounced brittleness, its surface pitted with tiny holes, internally loose as if fermented.

Uncontrolled osteogenesis and osteolysis occurred simultaneously—a hallmark of certain malignant bone cancers, but accelerated countlessfold.

Of course, he could not see the latter half of the process; this should be considered a mercy of physiological mechanism.

“From a medical standpoint, he may not have suffered greatly before passing.” Loss of consciousness to death occurred within moments; at least, it was not as horrifying as it appeared.

For the sake of precision, Kraft added, “Theoretically.”

“Though I dislike them, this kind of encounter is too terrible.” Brother Vading felt deeply uneasy; merely looking at the scene made him feel something growing and drilling beneath his skin.

“I hope no one ever suffers this—except… I mean, not even Theodore.”

Green silently repositioned the torn fabric, barely covering the skeleton, made a circle over his chest, and murmured a brief phrase, likely a prayer.

His gaze swept the surroundings, failed to find the missing item, then removed the winged pendant from his chest, tied a knot in its cord, and wrapped it around the spiky ribs.

“This will bless his soul. Let’s move on—we must be cautious.”

The pendant swung between the hollowed skeletons; whatever had once filled them was gone—perhaps taken by whatever killed him.

The stony ground and emerging water left no footprints, making it impossible to deduce the creature’s locomotion or size; yet since it could carry away most of an adult’s weight, it certainly wasn’t small.

Following this line of thought, they carefully examined the surroundings again and found several shallow depressions, as if having borne heavy weight, compacting the shattered stones downward.

Due to their scattered distribution and wide spacing, they had initially gone unnoticed; even upon discovery, it was impossible to confirm whether they were traces of anything, or to infer the creature’s movement from their placement.

Kraft, however, was thinking of something else.

Biological distortions upon contact with anomalous entities were not uncommon, but those always required close, zero-distance, or even negative-distance contact; yet if contact had already occurred, could the thing hunting the dead really have given him time to flee so far? [38] In fact, ground traces vanished quickly; it seemed the creature’s movement was not confined to the ground. Scrape marks, suspected as support points, appeared on rock clusters at varying heights and distances.

The specificity of this skeletal distortion was especially striking—not functional, as previously observed, but entirely designed for killing.

【This was designed.】

A deliberately selected, malicious program—unlike the deep biological style.

“A suggestion.” Kraft suppressed his discomfort and hurried to the front of the team. “Do not underestimate what we’re facing.”

The priest could not fathom how one could overestimate what they might encounter—what could be worse than a living lake?

“What do you mean?”

“I feel it might be… capable of thought. In any case, be as cautious as possible. Treat it as if we’re fighting a clever, evil sorcerer devil, not merely a powerful beast. Understood?”

“There seems no reason to refuse—I’ll remember.” Green assured him.

They were entering a stone forest inhabited by some intelligent being, one that clearly knew this place far better than any outsider.

In fact, ground traces vanished quickly; it seemed the creature’s movement was not confined to the ground. Scrape marks, suspected as support points, appeared on rock clusters at varying heights and distances.

The team could only advance blindly in a general direction; what truly guided them was the posture of the rocks.

The rising rock clusters widened and rose, becoming outward-sloping rock walls, their forms like frozen ripples thrown high into the air—ever since a stone fell from above, these ripples had never calmed.

The monks hoped the professor would offer some broad insight, analyzing what peculiar conditions had formed this landscape.

They were disappointed. Since making his suggestion, the professor had fallen silent, becoming unusually serious.

A sharp human cry tore through the last shred of hope.

Startled for only a moment, Green quickly turned his head, discerning the source of the echoing, overlapping sounds among the rock walls; after brief thought, he broke into a run.

Without further deliberation, the entire team was swept along by him, chasing the sound.

“Damn it!” Kraft wanted to stop this reckless move, but while the one who screamed was still alive, he found no justification to halt them—only gritted his teeth and followed.

Especially since the voice, though pained, still sounded strong—there was hope of survival.

The sound was moving; this inevitably exposed their position to whatever pursued him, yet also pointed the team’s direction.

After circling the umpteenth rock wall, they noticed a flickering light point nearby—the figure had clearly seen them too, and immediately accelerated toward them.

The flame revealed a face filled with terror and panic. Yes—it was the face from the other ship.

His scabbard was empty; his left arm was rigidly fixed against his side, like a gear jammed by thorns, immobile—each jolt of his running twisted his expression further in agony.

“Save…!” Seeing the Church’s team, fleeting joy overcame unbearable pain; an irrational reflex forced his body to expend precious lung capacity on a cry for help.

Green stopped immediately upon spotting him, positioning himself nearest the escape route, waiting for him to run over. He drew his sword, eyes locked on the darkness behind the man, awaiting the thing’s appearance.

“Save…!” The same syllable repeated; the rest of the word and his body froze together.

Kraft felt something—something that caught up to him in the instant he slowed his cry.

No fangs, no teeth, no muscle or bone—only some invisible thing, gentle as a breeze, insubstantial, delivering a “vibration” to the victim who had just glimpsed hope.

The expression of relief twitched unnaturally; limbs suddenly weakened, as if suddenly endowed with autonomous will, joining a dance of rapid, frenetic rhythm—Kraft called it convulsion.

Dense red dots, swollen and protruding like pores, covered every visible inch of skin within seconds.