Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest Chapter 1995: Welcome! Come Inside!

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"Good morning," Blank announced politely. "I come in the name of the Velberth family. I am traveling with my undead servants. We’re here mostly to purchase supplies and explore the dungeon. Is there an entrance fee?"

"..."

"..."

The two White Ghost guards stared back at him with completely expressionless faces, their pale, ethereal features utterly devoid of emotion. They did nothing but blink slowly in eerie silence.

"Hello?" Blank tried again, his brow furrowing slightly. "Did you hear what I’m saying?"

"..."

"..."

Still, they offered no response whatsoever, continuing only to blink with mechanical regularity.

"I am from the Velberth Family," Blank repeated, his tone sharpening with disbelief. "Would you not even have the basic decency to respond to my words?"

"..."

"..."

The same unnerving silence greeted him once more. The entire group exchanged uneasy glances, the growing tension thick in the air.

"Something’s wrong here," Sailor muttered, sniffing the air cautiously. His sharp senses picked up a faint but unnatural undertone beneath the usual village scents. "This smell... it’s off."

"Why are they not responding at all?" Norman wondered aloud, his hand instinctively drifting toward his weapon.

"They’re just... blinking?" Granny Yaga asked, waving her hand directly in front of one guard’s face. The White Ghost’s silver eyes followed her movement blankly but offered no other reaction.

"..." Elayne remained quiet, but a deep sense of unease settled in her chest. She scanned their surroundings carefully. At first glance, the village seemed normal enough—people moving about their daily routines in the distance, the streets relatively clean and orderly. It was quiet, but White Ghosts were known for disliking unnecessary noise, so she had initially dismissed it. Now, however, the silence felt oppressive and unnatural.

"It feels like they’re not really alive..." Mark said, taking a cautious step backward. His instincts screamed danger. "There’s something very wrong with this village. We shouldn’t enter. Everyone, fall back! Fall back right now!"

A low rumble echoed through the ground.

As the group hastily retreated, the earth beneath their feet began to shake violently. The air around them warped and twisted, rapidly thickening into dense clouds of swirling black fog.

"W-What is this?!" Elayne coughed violently, her eyes stinging. "Black fog... curses!"

She quickly realized the fog was saturated with potent cursed energy. To her horror, the two White Ghost guards stood motionless, their mouths stretched open unnaturally wide as they spewed the thick black miasma. Their once-silver eyes had turned empty and puppet-like, devoid of any spark of consciousness.

The massive gates of the village creaked open with a groan, revealing a yawning black void behind them. The entire visage of the village began to warp and distort like melting wax. Every person inside—every White Ghost, Blue Ghostly Goblin, and other inhabitant—twisted grotesquely. Their skin tore apart to reveal the monstrous forms beneath: Shades, animated Skeletons, and aberrant creatures stitched together from curses and pure death energy.

"?!"

Elayne gasped as an immense siphoning force gripped her body, threatening to drag her inside. She watched in alarm as Lisette and Sailor were violently pulled into the warped domain first. With no other choice if she wanted to save her companions, she steeled herself and leaped forward alongside Mark and the rest of the group.

"Fine! Whoever you are, reveal yourself!"

The warped domain swallowed them whole. Darkness consumed everything for a terrifying moment as they tumbled through an endless sea of shadows. Violent turbulences battered their bodies while relentless curses tried to invade their souls, gnawing at their very essence.

"D-Damn it!" Elayne growled through clenched teeth.

Refusing to surrender, she began channeling the immense power of her Soul Trait. Bright, radiant light surged from her hands, burning away the encroaching darkness like the purifying flames of dawn.

A brilliant explosion of golden light erupted amidst the void. The curses and shadows vaporized instantly, burned away by the holy radiance of a goddess of the sun. The oppressive darkness recoiled as if in pain.

Elayne fell from the spatial tornado that had carried her, tumbling through the air before landing hard on a patch of strange red grass. Immediately, sharp red vines lashed out from the ground, attempting to pierce her skin and drain her nether energy and mana.

With a mere thought, however, the parasitic plants withered and died. Elayne effortlessly absorbed their life force instead, converting it into her own strength. She rose slowly to her feet, dusting off her clothes and brushing away the strange crimson soil that clung to her.

"Where... am I?"

She looked around, realizing she had been transported into an entirely different space—a pocket dimension or isolated realm. This was no ordinary illusion.

"It’s a Domain," she whispered. "So that’s what we were pulled into."

The once-thriving Ghostly Garden village now lay in complete ruins. Red grass and thorny vines with razor-sharp crimson spikes covered nearly every surface. The streets were littered with the corpses of its former citizens—Undead, White Ghosts, Blue Ghostly Goblins, and many others. All of them had been brutally slain, their bodies entangled and slowly consumed by the voracious red vegetation that sprouted from the corrupted soil.

"T-This is horrible..." Elayne covered her mouth in shock and sorrow, her eyes widening with disbelief. They had arrived too late. Someone—or something—had been waiting for them. This massacre had been prepared specifically to greet her and her party.

Whoever orchestrated this possessed overwhelming strength, capable of single-handedly slaughtering an entire village filled with powerful noble undead races, many of whom were at Blank’s level or higher. Within the Demon King’s Army, only a handful of beings could accomplish such a feat so swiftly.

It was either a coordinated group of powerful Generals with their forces... or a single, exceptionally mighty entity.

A Death Apostle.

Pushing down her rising grief and anger, Elayne pressed forward, following the signals from her companions through their bonds. She found they had been scattered across different parts of the ruined village. As she advanced, she spotted large creatures lumbering through the devastated streets.

No—there were several of them. Dozens.

These massive monstrosities were chimeric abominations, their bodies crudely grafted together from various undead parts. They possessed long, skinny limbs, bulging black muscles, and eerie white masks covering what passed for their faces.

"Hollows?!" Elayne gasped in recognition.

They strongly resembled the Hollows that plagued the world of the living—creatures born from accumulated negative human emotions. Like their counterparts, these beings came in varied, nightmarish shapes, all sharing the signature white masks. The strongest among them sported large horns and gaping holes in their chests. These undead versions appeared to be a wicked fusion of Hollows and traditional undead, far more grotesque and powerful.

The creatures smiled hideously beneath their skull-like masks, dragging long spears fashioned from sharpened bone. Impaled upon these spears were the corpses of villagers—women, children, and warriors alike—their bodies still dripping blood and spilling innards onto the red grass below.

Eerie, distorted laughter echoed from their masked maws as they slowly approached Elayne. Their wide, unnatural grins only deepened her utter disgust, anger, frustration, and profound sorrow.

She hadn’t arrived in time.

So many innocent people—entire families—had died agonizing, horrible deaths.

All because of her.

Because someone harbored enough resentment toward her to slaughter an entire village and set this trap in anticipation of her arrival.

"Who is in charge of this place?!" Elayne roared furiously, her voice echoing across the ruins. "Where are you?! You invited me here, so reveal yourself!!!"

For a moment, only silence answered her challenge. Then, at the center of the devastated village, atop the castle where the lord once resided, a massive surge of red and black energy erupted. It coiled upward like a sinister tower of malicious power. Within the darkness, a pair of enormous, malevolent eyes slowly opened, blinking once before fixing their gaze directly upon her.

a deep, mocking voice resonated through the domain.

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