When Juan thought of this point, the blade edge of the weapon in his hand was already beginning to turn red after being placed above the fire.
This made him observe the red blade more intently. He wanted to find out why such a change happened and how it occurred.
In the end, he was just satisfying his curious heart despite finding nothing new. Playing scientist, explorer, researcher, and more.
"Hmm..."
Holding the javelin, Juan somehow found himself looking around him, wanting to search for something his javelin could be use for.
It was subconscious thinking when a person found something interesting and was still wondering what would happen if it was paired with something else.
Then he saw the dancing shadows around him. Although the torches can indeed brighten the room, It couldn't perfectly cover the whole area.
There are some places where shadows can be seen dancing along with the blaze of the fire.
'Now that I thought about shadows, It seems shadows can't really be hurt by fire because they always evade by nature. Like a magnet of the same pole.'
'But an object subject to fire shouldn't have that much repulsion, right? I wonder what will happen next when this javelin of mine hits it. '
Juan withdraws his weapon from the fire and then changes his hold from just grabbing to a throwing stance.
Looking around, he soon saw a place near the cabinet where the brightness of the torch couldn't reach.
Juan began to observe that place intently. And then he indeed saw it behave unnaturally.
Have you ever seen a shadow that goes beyond its natural boundaries from time to time? Even when brightened by fire, tendrils of shadows could be seen extending out.
This scene seems to go beyond nature, seemingly provoking the authority of the world.
'Truly a monster.'
Monsters are called monsters because they go beyond the norm. They are living lives in a fantasy world that are uncontrollable and bring unknown disasters to people.
Without further thought, Juan's arm holding the spear bent a bit backward, seemingly accumulating some force for the throw.
Then, a few seconds later, that arm muscle tightened and straightened up as it went forward in a bid to transfer the force it had built up to the weapon in hand.
In the next second, Juan threw the javelin strongly and left his hand. He didn't even think of the consequences that would happen because of this.
Swoosh~
It was wind whistling as the javelins passed.
Poof~
This is the sound when the javelin's glowing red edge met and pierced through the shadow and ground.
Juan was still conscious of what might happen if he targeted a house he didn't even own.
In an instant, the javelin's reddish spearhead pierced through those shadows.
The world suddenly turned quiet all of a sudden. Even the sounds of thunder and the pitter-patter of the rain hitting the ground and roof outside disappeared.
'Did I hit the mark? '
Juan, who hasn't been as nervous as before, suddenly felt his heart shake because of this unknown phenomenon he had caused.
'Uhh...no way...right? '
Hearing the silence and then looking at the dispersing, unnatural shadow where his javelin pierced through.
Juan knew that he might have provoked something he shouldn't have.
After all, he could see that the shadows, which should have been dancing around the other places, were strangely still at this moment.
The fire on the torches wasn't still, so why would the shadows below it remain still?
'Ahhhh!'
Juan shouted in his heart as he could clearly feel the familiar pressure of fear engulfing his whole being. His face is changing into fear, calm, serious, and then angry.
'Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn. I'm still reckless. I let my curiosity get the best of me. But....so be it! '
Knowing this, his expression immediately turned ferocious, like that of a scavenging dog. Gritting his teeth subconsciously, Juan's mind started to heat up.
'This has already reached this point; there's no going back anymore. Curse you, monster! If you want to die, then let's die together! '
Different from the past, Juan can move and has gathered enough resistance in his heart for courage and bravery to bloom.
Fueled by his anger after being targeted and cornered. In addition, he now holds a way to raise a resistance against that monster.
'I, Juan, wasn't just a soft persimmon you can play and get pranked to just because I can't do anything to you.'
Leaving Ceth's hand, Juan left the bed, picked up the torch, and bent down to pick up the other javelin with his hand.
Along with his movements, the shadows that remain still for a while suddenly turn a shade darker and longer.
Juan immediately moved fast, taking the other torches around. Putting them near the bed where Ceth was. Illuminating the area much more brightly.
'I said I wouldn't leave you, but...I broke it after. It seems I can't really make promises anymore. I can't even fulfill it.'
Only in this way can he feel at ease, leaving her out of his grasp.
Just that, in the next moment, he had done that.
The shadows around him seem to have been influenced by something or triggered by his sudden movement.
He, who had just been outside the bed, a few feet away from the torches, immediately saw the shadows in the surroundings seemed to have forgotten the restrictions of nature.
The shadows seem to have forgotten about the existence of fire. No, they didn't forget about the fire. They're fighting against their weakness!
Juan clearly saw it when those shadows moved beyond their boundary, against the norm. They acted like how paper would become after being burned—turning to ashes.
Yet, the shadows didn't seem to know when to give up this time, nor did they even have any inkling of giving up.
As the shadows continued to expand, the whole room, the walls, the grounds, and the roofs were soon covered by their influence.
The only place that remained brightly safe and intact was the place surrounded by the torches. In other words, the bed where Ceth is sleeping.
'As for me, I can't escape this domain even if I want to long ago. This monster truly hid what it could do. Garu and those hunters were indeed right; they were just being played! '
Before those events could even happen, Juan, who wanted to immediately move more nearer in the light, couldn't, even if he wanted to.
Even moving a finger was impossible. Like a statue, unable to make an ounce of movement or sound.
Juan could only helplessly find himself sinking into the shadows of despair as he disappeared from the place he was standing.
'Am I.... going to die this time? Hehe...hehehe.'
After his disappearance, the shadows that were turning into ashes and disappearing near the brightness immediately receded, and the room returned to normal.
The rainstorm noise of hitting the roof and ground, the thunder that occasionally rang above,.
Ceth, who was sleeping, twitched a little but didn't wake up.
Garu, who was sitting on the bed beside his sleeping wife, looked at the torch, which was a step away, with unknown thoughts in his mind.
No one knew that at this moment. That Juan disappeared and his disappearance isn't the only thing happening at this moment.
On a broken house, flooded by water and wreckage of the roofs. A family disappeared after the flood of shadows surged in.
A hunter was repairing the hole in his roof when the torch in his hand suddenly went out by accident because of the leaking water from another hole.
The house was suddenly flooded with blackness from who knew where and engulfed the hunter down before he disappeared.
Slowly, the villagers and hunters in the village. As long as the protection given by the light of their fire went out.
Without exception, all places devoid of light will be flooded in by the sea of shadows engulfing every living being before disappearing.
At this point, the whole village—no, it's the whole land—under its darkness seems to have become part of the monster body.
Two red-line circles slowly appeared on the sea of shadows, each as long as the size of the whole village.
Suddenly, the lines widened, becoming a half-moon.
In just a few seconds, they turn into two gigantic circles, encompassing the whole village in a sea of redness.
Even the village houses seem to have sunk and disappeared.
What remains is the vicious sea of shadows and those two eerie-looking pairs of red circles staring at the sky.
...
"I can't see anything outside. This village might be doomed to end and disappear this night."
Menmo said while looking at the small hole with his eyes leading outside. Even when thunder rang out, there wasn't even a flash of lightning to be seen outside.
"Don't say that. I don't want to die yet. Our child hasn't even grown up and married a wife."
Holding a ten-year-old child in her arms, a middle-aged woman cried out in tears after hearing that.
However, Menmo was expressionless. He looked at the remaining bonfire burning with brightness on the ground.
And then to the remainder of the firewood besides it, as well as the two still-useful torches not far away.
The shadows around the room weren't normal either and would even stretch out, playing with their mind and heart from time to time.
"Nobody could have expected this to happen."
Menmo signed.