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The night wind whipped up choking smoke and ash, blowing across the faces of those passing through the unrecognizable river valley that had been blown apart.
The "shortcut" to the Quarry and the suspension bridge on the map, which Leon S. Kennedy had pinned high hopes on, had turned out to be a bottomless cliff in reality.
The murky stream converged here into a rushing waterfall, plunging into a pitch-black abyss with a deafening roar.
The cliff on the opposite side was as steep as if it had been sliced, with no path forward at all.
Not even a single rotten wooden plank remained of the so-called "suspension bridge," as if it had been nothing more than a joke drawn on paper from the very beginning.
"I knew it." Leon crumpled the already tattered map into a ball, stuffed it back into his pocket with resentment, and cursed.
"The maps in this godforsaken place are just like their hospitality—full of malice and deception."
They had wasted a precious half-hour only to conclude that the map was either a decades-old relic or a trap deliberately drawn to lure outsiders to their doom.
"Let's head back." Noah shook his head. "This path is a dead end."
Leon followed behind him, stumbling along the muddy path, his voice low as he incessantly cursed the bastard who drew the map and Luis Sera for providing the intel.
"That smooth-talking guy better not let me run into him again," Leon said bitterly. "'Good luck to you, gentlemen knights'... I bet he knew this way was a dead end and just wanted to see us waste our energy."
Luis's appearance and his words were inherently suspicious.
But right now, dwelling on an "informant" with unclear motives was pointless.
They crossed back through the farm that had been smashed to bits by the Minotaur Giant and returned to the heavy wooden door.
Pushing the door open, the familiar scent of the village—a mix of blood and death—assailed them once again.
Under the cover of night, the village was even more deathly silent than when they had left.
The wind blew through the deserted streets, kicking up a few withered leaves with a "rustling" sound.
The two stood in the central square of the village, the place where their battle had begun and their only starting point now.
"Alright, Mr. Ace Agent." Noah looked around, breaking the silence.
"We've practically turned this village upside down, kicked in every door we could, and checked every drawer that might hide a clue. Now, we're back at square one. Do you have a new plan?"
Leon ran his fingers through his hair irritably, his blond locks looking a bit messy under the moonlight.
He paced back and forth, his tactical boots making a dull thud on the stone path stained with dark blood.
"Hunnigan hasn't sent any new satellite intel, that bastard Luis is nowhere to be found, the map is fake, the path to the church is cut off..." With every fact he stated, his frustration grew.
"We're like rats trapped in a giant maze, while that damn Bitores Mendez is hiding in some corner, enjoying our helplessness."
His gaze swept over the silent houses around them, which were the "trophy rooms" they had previously scavenged.
Ammo, herbs, and some scattered intel, but nothing that pointed directly toward the path to the church.
Finally, his gaze fixed on the building at the end of the square, which was taller and sturdier than any of the other houses.
It was a two-story stone-and-wood structure with no windows, only a wooden door as thick as a fortress gate.
That was the place where all the Villager had lined up and walked into, as if hypnotized, when the bell rang earlier.
It was also the only place in the entire village they hadn't set foot in.
"Prayer..." Leon's footsteps stopped as he murmured the word Noah had used before. At that moment, his eyes lit up again.
"They all went in there to 'pray'." He turned his head sharply toward Noah. "We searched all the rooms, but we forgot to search their... assembly hall."
Noah nodded.
When all paths are blocked, the most obvious and easily overlooked route is often the only way out.
No longer hesitating, the two strode across the empty square and headed straight for the building that exuded an ominous aura.
The heavy wooden door was unlocked. Leon pushed hard with both hands, and with a tooth-grinding "creak," the door slowly swung inward, releasing a gust of stale air smelling of sweat, dust, and some low-quality incense.
The sight behind the door made both of them frown simultaneously.
This was a vast and empty hall.
Dozens of crude wooden benches were arranged neatly like pews in a church, facing a half-meter-high stone platform at the far end of the hall.
Atop the platform sat a rough lectern, also carved from stone.
On the wall behind the lectern, a large and twisted emblem was painted in dark red pigment.
It was the holy emblem of the Church of Light, composed of arthropod limbs, plant vines, and eerie runes, exuding a sinister aura.
This was the place where the Villager were brainwashed by the "Church of Light."
"Looks like we've found the right place." Leon entered cautiously, holding his shotgun. Noah followed behind him, closing the door to shut out the outside world.
The hall was empty, with only the sound of their footsteps echoing clearly in the vast space.
They began searching separately.
Leon started from the first row of benches, carefully checking under each one and tapping on every stone slab, trying to find any possible mechanisms or hidden compartments.
Noah walked directly onto the platform.
His goal was clear: if there were secrets here, they were most likely hidden in this lectern, which symbolized power and the issuance of commands.
The lectern's structure was simple—a heavy stone base supporting a forward-sloping stone slab for the speaker's notes.
Noah's fingers slid slowly across the cold, rough stone surface, not missing any cracks or abnormalities.
At the right edge of the lectern, his fingertips felt an extremely slight indentation, different from the rest.
It was an inconspicuous notch that almost blended in with the natural grain of the stone.
Noah followed the shape of the notch and pressed down firmly with his fingertip.
Click.
The faint sound of a mechanism springing open echoed.
The center of the once-solid sloping stone slab on the lectern silently recessed inward, revealing a square hidden compartment.
"Leon, come here, quick."
Leon, who was checking a corner, immediately ran over upon hearing the voice.
He leaned over the lectern and whistled at the hidden compartment that had appeared out of thin air. "Hey, there really is something."
Inside the compartment was a neatly stacked pile of yellowed documents made of crude parchment.
Noah reached in and took out the stack of documents. The top one had a title written in exaggerated cursive: "Guidance for the Path of Ascension."
Noah quickly scanned the Spanish text on it.
"Well? What's it say? Is it a treasure map?" Leon asked impatiently from the side.
"More or less." Noah handed the paper to Leon. "You can think of it as... a game walkthrough."
Leon took the parchment. One diagram showed the assembly hall they were currently in, with a dotted line extending from the lectern down to another diagram. That diagram depicted a tall church with a cross.
"So, the path to the church is hidden behind this assembly hall?" Leon tapped the stone slab beneath his feet with his gun stock. "An underground passage?"
"Exactly." Noah had already picked up the second document, and its contents made him frown.
"But," he looked up at Leon, his tone carrying an obvious sense of trouble, "to open the cell door holding the 'Impure' in the church, we need one more thing."
"What thing?"
"An emblem." Noah showed the second document to Leon as well. "Something called the 'holy emblem.' And unfortunately, this holy emblem has been split into four fragments."
Leon's expression froze at that moment.
He stared at the diagram showing four differently shaped fragments, an ominous premonition welling up in his heart.
Noah's voice continued to read the contents of the document unhurriedly, as if providing a commentary for his premonition.
"The first fragment is hidden in the 'Forest Altar,' described as 'the place where the giant trees roar'."
"The second fragment is hidden in the 'Valley Altar,' described as 'the cliff where the abyss sheds tears'."
"The third fragment is hidden in the 'Great Grotto Altar,' described as 'the mouth of the Earth Mother's breath'."
"The fourth fragment..." Noah's voice paused, his tone turning a bit strange, "...is in a 'submerged Small Grotto Altar' northeast of the Lake."
When Noah finished reading the last word, the entire hall fell into silence.
The expression on Leon's face went from frozen to bewildered, then to disbelief, and finally, it turned completely ashen.
He snatched the document from Noah's hand and stared intently at the Spanish text and diagrams that looked like gibberish to him.
His chest heaved violently, and the poor piece of paper was crumpled out of shape in his grip.
"Are you kidding me?" His voice was somewhat distorted.
"You're saying we have to play a goddamn... treasure hunt now?!"
"A... four-piece... puzzle?!"
His volume rose higher and higher.
"Ashley Graham and Manuela are trapped in that damn church, and we don't even know if they're alive! And we're supposed to wander all over the mountains like two idiots looking for some bullshit fragments?!"
He felt as if he had been forced to swallow a fly—disgust, frustration, and a sense of being toyed with fueled a rage that nearly burned away his reason.
"F*CK!!!"
A pure American curse, saturated with endless fury and frustration, roared out of the mouth of this American ace agent.
Noah watched him fuming and silently took back the document Leon had crumpled, carefully smoothing it out.
Because his current mood was exactly the same as Leon's.
Cursing and shouting aside.
The mission wouldn't complete itself just because they were angry.
Leon paced back and forth several times like a caged beast.
Finally, he stopped, exhaled a long breath of turbid air, and forcibly suppressed the explosive anger.
"Fine... fine..." He wiped his face with his hand to calm himself down. "Treasure hunt it is. At least we know what to do now."
He leaned over the lectern again, and together with Noah, spread out the documents and the only crude map they had.
"Forest Altar... Valley Altar... Great Grotto... and the small grotto by the Lake..." Leon pointed at the tongue-twisting descriptions, his brow furrowing even tighter. "Where the hell are these places?"
They tried to match these vague descriptions with the simple markings on the map.
"Look, there's a patch of trees drawn here on the map. Could this be the 'Forest Altar'?" Leon pointed to a doodle in the upper left corner of the map.
"It could also just be a normal forest," Noah dampened his spirits. "The whole valley is full of trees."
"Then this... this mark next to the Lake. Could it be that'submerged Small Grotto'?"
"It could also just be an ordinary fisherman's hut."
...Half an hour later, the two reached an even more despairing conclusion.
Aside from indicating the general locations of the farm, church, and Lake, this map was utterly useless for finding four specific targets on the level of "altars."
They held the "walkthrough" in their hands, yet they didn't even know where the exit of the starting village was.
The goal that had just become clear instantly turned vague again.
Leon irritably slammed his fist onto the hard stone lectern with a dull thud.
"Damn it! We're completely stuck!"
The entire hall fell back into a suffocating silence.
Amidst the nearly frozen air.
Creak...
A slight sound of wood rubbing together came abruptly from the side wall of the hall.
It was a high window, covered in thick dust, through which the hazy moonlight outside dimly filtered.
Leon and Noah tensed up almost simultaneously.
Their guns were already pointed in the direction of the sound.
The wooden bolt of the window seemed to have been flicked open from the outside.
Then, the closed wooden window was slowly pushed open a crack by a hand wearing a black leather glove.
Moonlight filtered through the gap, casting a long, narrow strip of light on the dusty floor.
A dark figure draped in a voluminous deep-blue hooded robe appeared at the window.
His entire body was shrouded in the shadow of the robe, and he wore a purple mask over his nose and mouth, revealing only a pair of eyes that glittered with shrewdness in the darkness.
He seemed completely unconcerned by the two dark muzzles pointed straight at his head.
He even raised a hand and leisurely waved to the two inside the hall through the window.
Then, a raspy voice, muffled by the mask and carrying a thick Spanish accent, full of playfulness and mystery, drifted in slowly.
"Hehehe... Good evening, you two strangers from afar..."
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