Chapter 327: Holy Art "Blood of Oaths"
"Anomalous space..." William quickly realized something.
He stared at the end of the hair strand and used [Divine Eye Seal] to restrict the flow of spirit particles nearby.
Subsequently, a massive amount of spirit particle runes suddenly surfaced in mid-air. These things were of various colors, overlapping with one another.
Relying on the [Focused One] ability from his panel, William quickly discovered an anomaly.
He saw the end of the pitch-black hair strand vanish into a patch of pale white runes, where the spirit particle structure was noticeably more complex than elsewhere.
He immediately took out a holy artifact to decipher it.
Before long, a ripple appeared in mid-air, followed by an opening appearing in the room.
"This is..." William narrowed his eyes.
After a moment of confirming there were no anomalies with the opening, he stepped into it.
He looked around; it was still the second-floor bedroom.
But there were some extra things.
Yellowing light, brand-new furniture, and fresh food on the table...
William looked at the bizarre scene before him.
New and old items were piled together, as if people from different eras lived in the same space.
"If I remember correctly... Kayako's haunted house seems to possess multi-spatiotemporal abilities," William rubbed his chin.
In the second movie of the original series, she utilized exactly this ability to let the characters foresee their futures prematurely, completely crushing their minds.
Although such a setting seemed somewhat mismatched for an evil spirit, it logically explained how Kayako managed to kill people so elusively.
William shook his head inwardly; now was not the time to write movie reviews.
Golden patterns surfaced around his pupils again as he searched for traces of the hair.
But this time, things were a bit troublesome.
He saw the originally single strand of pitch-black hair suddenly split into many strands, each sinking into different corners of the room. A portion of them remained within this house, but the rest continued to vanish into mid-air.
And the various interlocking spirit particle runes in the room further confirmed William's suspicion—many different timelines were converging here.
"I hope those two can hold on..." William frowned slightly.
Meanwhile, at a certain point in the past.
Bang!
Mia violently shoved the door open, a look of despair immediately surfacing on her face.
She had returned to the room where Mr. Nakamura died once again.
"How could this happen... I was wrong, please let me go home," she sobbed softly.
But at this time, the low bubbling croak sounded from the hallway again, accompanied by the sound of something crawling on the floorboards.
Mia tightly covered her mouth with both hands. Even though large teardrops continued to stream down from the corners of her eyes, she still took a few deep breaths, forcefully suppressing her emotions.
Seeing the sound getting closer and closer, she hurriedly crawled to the wooden closet.
After opening the doors, she couldn't help but frown. The smell of rot mixed with the scent of incense, making it smell incredibly bizarre.
Inside the closet were some household items, a portion of which were already tattered, providing a narrow space within the wooden enclosure.
Without any hesitation, Mia crawled inside.
After closing the closet doors, she was instantly plunged into darkness.
Silence, sweltering heat, the sound of her own heartbeat...
Mia felt every minute drag on with excruciating torment.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.
The urgent, rhythmic sound entered the bedroom.
Mia trembled as she moved closer to the closet doors, where she could faintly see the situation outside through the wooden lattice.
Then, she saw that evil spirit dressed in white.
The other party's hair covered the entire floor and had further crawled onto the walls, seemingly intent on enveloping the whole room.
Mia could only lean as far back as possible, praying the other party wouldn't discover her.
Thump—
Suddenly, the inner shelf of the wooden closet fell down. Even though it was cushioned by the blankets underneath, it still made a slight noise.
Mia's heart instantly leaped into her throat.
She tremblingly leaned closer to the wooden lattice, only to meet a dead, icy eye.
"Ah—"
Mia threw her entire body backward.
Creak.
At the same time, the wooden closet doors were pulled open.
The next second, she was forcefully yanked out by a hand.
"No! No!"
Mia struggled fiercely, but upon opening her eyes, she saw a familiar face.
"Simon?" She panted heavily, constantly looking around. "Where's the evil spirit!"
At this moment, the floor in the room looked completely normal; the white figure and the black hair had entirely vanished.
At the same time, a blanket inside the wooden closet suddenly moved, and then a deathly pale hand reached out from underneath it.
Mia, with her back to the closet, remained completely oblivious.
At this time, Simon suddenly pivoted his camera and pointed in the direction of the wooden closet.
Mia immediately turned around, and her eyes widened instantly.
She saw the blanket she had just been leaning against... there was actually a silhouette inside it right now!
The reason she could see it was because the blanket was poked full of holes; she just hadn't noticed them earlier because she was in the dark.
Mia only then realized that Simon was answering her previous question.
The two immediately backed away from the wooden closet.
This movement also caused that deathly pale ghost hand to freeze in mid-air.
"Ugh-uh——"
The low bubbling croak sounded again, and the hand gripped the edge of a hole in the blanket tightly.
Subsequently, it tore at it forcefully, as if only just discovering the flaw here.
But at this time, several crucifix patterns drawn with fresh blood surfaced on the outer layer of the blanket. These patterns were arranged in a specific combination, instantly erupting with a burst of energy.
Mia and Simon instantly felt the gloom in their hearts lessen considerably.
Sizzle... Sizzle...
At the same time, a scorching sound echoed from the wooden closet, and the evil spirit inside the blanket let out a pained scream.
"This is..." Mia widened her eyes.
Although she didn't understand exorcism, seeing the crucifixes immediately reminded her of those two priests.
"Could it be that they saved me."
She was just about to continue fleeing, but then realized the evil spirit was trapped.
She saw the other party continuously tearing at the blanket, but whenever it touched the outer layer, it would violently recoil, as if something was restricting it.
The very thing this evil spirit previously used to conceal its body had now become its cage.
Seeing this scene, Mia's expression suddenly became hesitant.
A moment later, she clenched her fists.
"Simon! Stand a bit further back, get both of us in the shot."
After saying this, she actually crouched down, bringing her entire head close.
"Ready?" Mia's voice trembled.
Simon, standing not far away, gave a thumbs-up.
"Hey... Hey! Everyone, I am currently inside the haunted house, and right... right next to me is an ev... evil spirit..."
She was actually resuming the recording of her show.
And upon seeing her actions, Kayako inside the blanket paused for a rare moment.
A second later, it began to tear at the blanket even more frantically.
Mia immediately dodged to the side in a panic.
But after observing for a while, she realized the other party truly couldn't get out, so she gradually grew bolder.
"S-Simon, I want to take a picture with it..."
William squatted in front of the closet in the second-floor bedroom, frowning as he stared at the blanket beneath his feet.
More accurately... pieces of the "blanket."
Even though it had been completely destroyed, traces of magic array power still lingered on it.
This was exactly the Oath Magic Array William had drawn with fresh blood not long ago.
He had only recently mastered this Holy Art, so its area of effect was limited. That was why he drew it on the blanket, to avoid being detected by Kayako.
"Looking at it this way, the magic array should have worked, I just don't know which timeline trapped that thing in..."
Because the space-time in the room was chaotic, he couldn't directly help those two. He could only adopt this roundabout method, making corresponding arrangements in every timeline he passed through.
On the other side.
Mia stood in front of Simon, pouting her lips.
The latter was holding the camera with one hand and a lipstick with the other.
A moment later, Simon nodded.
Only then did Mia take the lipstick back from him.
"Thank goodness you're here, otherwise I'd look as ugly as that evil spirit on camera," she sighed.
"It's so strange... there isn't even a single mirror in this room."
Just now, the two had already finished shooting the most important material for their original project.
Next, they just needed to shoot some supplementary footage, and they could wrap up... and run for their lives!
Thinking of this, Mia found it somewhat unbelievable. To think she could so brazenly "throw her weight around" right in front of an evil spirit, and the other party couldn't do a single thing about it.
"It turns out those two priests are the real exorcists..."
She was already feeling a bit regretful inwardly.
If she had listened to that cute-looking priest earlier, she might have already finished shooting and gone home, instead of being trapped like she was now...
"Forget it... better finish the remaining content first," Mia clenched her fists.
"This way, even if I die, as long as people can see this video, I will definitely gain massive popularity!"
After a few words of self-encouragement, she returned to the wooden closet.
But it was unusually quiet inside.
"Huh? Where did Miss Evil Spirit go?"
Haunted House, Interstice Space.
The layout here was similar to reality, but completely reversed.
"Ugh-uh..."
Kayako crawled on the bathroom wall, its hands continuously groping the area above the sink.
There was supposed to be a mirror here, but now it was completely empty.
That was one of the few entrances connecting the interstice to the real space-time.
Only with mirrors present could it use them as mediums to travel between various reflective surfaces throughout the house.
Kayako let out the low bubbling croak again, sensing the situation in other timelines.
But it quickly discovered that the mirrors in every single space-time had been taken away.
Even the moment when it first moved into this house was the same.
Crunch!
It crushed the edge of the sink with a single squeeze, its body trembling violently.
Aside, a child poked its head out from the doorframe.
It possessed the same deathly pale skin, but the dead emptiness in its eyes was much less.
Toshio curled its body up; it was its first time seeing "Mother" so furious.
Just as it was about to go forward and do something, "Mother" suddenly crawled out of the bathroom.
"Strange... the evil spirit really disappeared, and it didn't come to hunt us either," Mia sat on an overturned bed, a face full of confusion.
"Could it have been destroyed?"
But this thought was quickly dismissed.
Before coming here, Mia had done her homework. She had read a booklet called the "Safety Defense Manual," which detailed the circumstances under which evil spirits influenced reality.
Previously, she had merely treated the contents of the booklet as creative writing.
But ever since entering the haunted house, many things happening here lined up perfectly with it.
This made Mia couldn't help but think: The person who wrote this booklet is very likely a true exorcist.
And the current situation was very similar to a passage she had read—
"...As long as the surrounding environment has not changed, you must realize that the evil spirit has very likely not been truly killed..."
Right at this moment, an accident suddenly occurred.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Violent thuds echoed from beneath the bed boards.
Mia shrieked and immediately stood up.
She turned around, only to see something seemingly trying to bore its way out from underneath.
But the bed boards suddenly emitted a faint glow, and several bright red crucifix patterns manifested on them.
"This is... just like the ones on the blanket!" Mia immediately recognized them.
At the same time, Interstice Space.
Countless black hairs attacked a wooden bed, completely destroying the floor nearby.
There was supposed to be an opening there, but right now it was blocked because the bed had been flipped over.
Kayako's eyes were ferocious, and two streaks of bloody tears flowed from the corners of its eyes.
The mirror situation from earlier was happening again; another one of its passages had been sealed!
To think a human dared to encroach upon its territory!
But no matter how Kayako tried, it could not disperse the power on the outside.
It even had to exert all its perception just to detect the other party.
If it had encountered this power not long ago, Kayako would have definitely retreated immediately to the interstice space, utilizing the chaotic time here to slowly torture the other party.
After all, it was exactly through this method that it had devoured those few powerful humans earlier.
But right now, its space for action had been compressed.
If this continued, perhaps it would permanently lose control over the haunted house.
Thinking of this, Kayako stopped attacking the bed boards and instead crawled toward a corner nearby.
Toshio watched "Mother's" back, then went up to the bed boards alone.
It reached out and touched it, immediately feeling a deep, agonizing pain strike its spirit body.
Without any hesitation, Toshio cried and ran toward "Mother."
On the other side, Kayako stood before a patch of shadow.
This was the final connecting passage.
It had traveled through here countless times to reach those humans, tasting their fresh blood.
Now, this scene would happen once again.
Kayako let out its low bubbling croak. For that guy who sealed the passages of the haunted house, it would definitely tear off his flesh piece by piece.
Thinking of this, it crawled into the darkness.
But the next moment.
Sizzle... Sizzle...
After a flash of red light, Kayako's entire body was sent flying backward.
When it stood up again, a large portion of its hands had been melted away, and the extremely evil aura beneath its skin was exposed.
Its face was ferocious as it looked up at the corner.
It saw several tiny crucifixes emitting a faint glow, radiating an unusually powerful force.
"Ugh-uh..."
Kayako could endure it no longer.
It turned its head and stared dead at Toshio beside it.
The latter actually revealed a terrified expression.
The next moment, Kayako instantly appeared beside Toshio, its deathly pale hands grabbing its head.
The latter's body exploded instantly, and the interstice space was permeated with a cloud of pitch-black mist.
Kayako traced a pattern in the air with one hand. Immediately after, the black mist condensed into the character "Ju" (Curse).
Almost simultaneously, the entire interstice space began to shake violently.
At the same time, the overlapping timelines within the haunted house began to merge, ultimately converging into one.
Inside the room.
Mia looked shocked as the surrounding scenery constantly blurred and shook, just like a time-lapse sequence in a movie.
And a cruel murder scene played out before her eyes.
Ultimately, the woman collapsed in a pool of blood.
Mia covered her mouth, tremblingly approaching the other party.
But immediately after, she was astonished to discover that the corpse on the floor had turned into Mr. Nakamura.
At the same time, a deathly pale figure abruptly appeared in front of Mia.
Gloomy, icy cold, with a terrifying resentment...
Before Mia could react, a mass of black hair wrapped around her body, and she instantly found it difficult to breathe.
Aside, Simon picked a good camera angle, set down the video camera, and then resolutely charged forward.
In the lens, his limbs were pierced by the black hair, and fresh blood flowed onto the floorboards.
This seemed to be a shot foretelling death.
But the next moment, the back of a black-robed figure appeared in the frame.
☆☆☆
-> 30 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Inkshaper
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you