The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren was rooted to the spot. He had thought of many possibilities, but it never crossed his mind that the aristocratic family who once lived in the mansion was a group of demon hunters!

What amazed Hao Ren, even more, was that these demon hunters had broken off with the demon-hunter organization and mingled with an otherworldling.

Hesperides also could not believe what she heard. “It’s impossible! If the journal and the voices are true, then these demon hunters are defectors! It has never happened before.”

“Demon hunters are extremely united and loyal to their organization. Even if there is a quarrel among them, it will not turn into a defection.” Vivian said, shaking her head gently. “At least until we lifted the bondage of the innate hostility, they never have defected, let alone bringing a group of demon hunters to help an otherworldling remnant like Hercules.”

Something the echo from the past said earlier came into mind. Hao Ren said, “Wait a minute, didn’t we hear a demon hunter it in the mansion said that Hercules drew power from the divine artifact and freed them from the bondage? Is the bondage here the innate hostility?”

It suddenly dawned on Vivian. “Ahh, that’s what it means. What is that divine artifact?”

“It possesses the power of Battie. Somehow it has lifted the innate hostility of a group of demon hunters, and sealed a bad guy inside it.” Lily said as she scratched her head and wagged her tail restlessly. “That thing sounds weird.”

Hao Ren, silent, looked up at the tower, which was still rock-solid standing in the alien dimension. It was built of stone and painted with white mortar, and had slender windows with iron-textured frames. Looking at these details and recalling the words he had just heard, Hao Ren realized that this was a magic tower.

It was a magic tower disguised in a secular architectural design.

“The echoes we have heard so far seem to follow us,” Hesperides said. “We heard the voices no matter where we went, and they were about the turning point of some major event.”

“Maybe someone deliberately set these up as a hint to us. Or it may be that any living person steps into this dimension would trigger the magic that has been preserved for hundreds of years. This phenomenon often appears in ruins,” Vivian said while nodding her head.

“That tower,” Hao Ren pointed, “could be the venue of the turning point.”

They quickly found the way to the tower. Walking on the path between the main building and an annex, they came to the back of the mansion, where it could be a small garden, but the flower beds and stone pots had only gray sand and semi-crystalline substance in them. The tower was right at the end of this little garden.

Lily took up her courage and strode toward the tower. Suddenly, she heard a fierce quarrel in the air.

A stately male voice said, “That’s enough, Sivir! Your research has become more and more dangerous. If you still keep doing it, sooner or later, you will step into the darkness on the other side.”

Then came the young female voice. “I know what I am doing, Master Mohabben. I respect your knowledge, but despise your cowardice—have you not seen the wonderful sight on the other side? It is not empty in the darkness, except—”

“Except madness, what do you want to find?” Mohabben’s voice became louder than before. “You should have heard your mentor say countless times before you complete your first test of adulthood. There are many mysteries in this world, but the mortals could understand not every mystery. Some secrets are the twisted world of taboos, and some lead to the dark side of the universe. You are now standing only a step away from the dark side of the universe! From now on, you must no meet Hercules anymore, and you are not allowed to touch that divine artifact again. I want to forever—”

The voices came to an abrupt end.

Hao Ren looked at Hesperides. “It seems just like what you said, as soon as we come to a spot where a major event has occurred before, we will trigger the space-time memory here.”

Lily came before the tower, sniffling to confirm that there was nothing suspicious in it, she then pushed open the door, which looked heavy-looking, oak-iron bars door.

As soon as the door swung open, Hao Ren seemed to hear voices, trivial whispers, intermittent quarrels, and casual chats, as if there were hundreds of invisible people hiding nearby whispering while pointing in his direction. These interweaving whispers were so vague that he could not hear any meaningful things.

It was not until a dozen seconds later that these whispers gradually faded away except a sporadic sound coming from the vicinity. Looking at the dark entrance of the magic tower, these whispers that came from nowhere sounded creepy.

“This place is a focus of magic,” Hesperides said as she had also heard the voices, but she sounded more professional. “so a lot more voices have been recorded.”

Hao Ren nodded. Leading the way, Lily and him stepped into the tower, and those whispers followed them.

The interior of the tower was surprisingly simple – perhaps Hao Ren had explored too many ruins and seen more prominent magic towers like the Netherrealm Clock Tower, he had almost forgotten how a regular tower should look like. There was virtually no decoration or room inside the tower, only a spiral wooden staircase extending up along the curved wall. Other than a few protruding platforms in the middle section of the tower and the floor at the top, there was nothing in between.

Standing at the bottom, Hao Ren saw many wooden shelves, filled with unknown drug bottles, silver ritual utensils, and scrolls and books from unknown ages. Perhaps due to heterogenization, all these things appeared twisted and misaligned, glass bottles were deformed, ritual utensils glowing in an abnormal luster, and books and scrolls were blank.

When they stepped onto the stairs, everyone heard the voices from the past, which sounded severely distorted and full of interference. Now, they could no longer identify who was who in the whispers.

“It finally began to enter the real world… Our measures did not work well; it is impossible to contain the power of the divine artifact. It is beyond our understanding.”

“So we can only build a prison…”

“In the end, we still have to depend on Sivir’s findings. Her research might have broken the boundary prematurely, but she found the possibility.”

“Can Sivir still come back?”

“I only found her research notes and the scene of the ritual, which was badly destroyed. She has probably fallen into the other side of the boundary. Once in the dark side of the universe, no mortal can escape. We have lost a very promising demon hunter; she is the best researcher I have ever seen. Had she stayed in Coldpath, she could have become a scholar in the library of the Netherrealm Clock Tower. But she has come out with us, and her impatience has killed her.”

” I am also a dying man. But you are different, buddy, this burden will fall on you and Hathaway. You have to keep going.”

“Hercules will be there with us, don’t worry.”

As the voices faded away, and they had come to the end of the spiral staircase.

“They must have held some ritual upstairs,” Vivian said, looking up. “They have created the enchantment in the village.”

At the end of the stairs, Hao Ren held the wooden handrail and poked his head peeking the top of the tower. “Huh?” he whispered.

The top floor of the tower was a circular room with a large number of shelves and desks. The four narrow windows were symmetrically distributed on the curved outer wall, and behind one of the windows, a white-haired man was sitting on a chair.

The white-haired man sat with his back facing the stairs, so Hao Ren could not see his face. But Hao Ren could see the man was wearing a demon-hunter suit with a sacred silver sword placed across his tighs with half of the sword sticking out on one side.

“Someone is there?” Lily followed closely behind Hao Ren. Seeing the man, she could not help but exclaim quietly.

“Hey Doggie, your tail is hitting my face. What’s going on up there?”

“May I…” Hao Ren strode toward the old man sitting at the window, but the old man did not respond.

From here, Hao Ren could see the appearance of the man, who was an old demon hunter, whose face still exuded a hint of his heroic past. But now, this demon hunter was in his advanced age, slouching on the chair. His eyes were half-closed. The old demon hunter was seemingly still alive.

Hao Ren reached out his hand. Just as his hand was about to touch the shoulder of the old demon hunter, a faint female voice said from not far, “Don’t disturb the Watcher.”