At 8:30 p.m., the bright moonlight illuminated the yard, as if coating the mound of dead rats with a layer of mercury sheen.
Marvin, holding a kerosene lamp in his hand, stared at the nearly waist-high pile of dead rats in front of him with an extremely ugly look on his face.
When one problem hadn't been resolved yet, and there was no conclusion about meeting the Fourth Prince, another a pile of dead rats appeared out of nowhere…
For Marvin, who had a severe case of mysophobia, dead rats teeming with hundreds and thousands of bacteria and viruses were definitely one of the last things he wanted to touch!
Why keep cats?
To catch mice, of course!
But the result…
He never expected that the biggest traitor would be right by his side…
Those dead rats all had their throats bitten off, traces of blood lingered around their mouths, and judging by the tooth marks, they seemed to be from various cats.
What was more despairing to Marvin was that even now, as he had arrived in the backyard, he could still see stray cats jumping onto the yard wall, tossing the dead rats they carried in their mouths into the yard.
Thankfully, at that moment, Fat Orange raised its paw and called out softly,
"Scatter!"
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
The stray cats perched on the wall vanished instantly after hearing Fat Orange's command, their movements uniform and precise. In less than half a minute, all the stray cats had disappeared, leaving behind only a pile of dead rats.
"Big brother is truly wise and brave, meow!" Little Black in Marvin's arms complimented.
"Let's check it out,"
Ignoring Little Black's flattery, Fat Orange twisted its plump backside and picked up a dead rat, "Don't get too close. Let me demonstrate for you."
After saying that, Fat Orange placed the dead rat on the ground not too far away and extended its sharp, frosty claws to gently slice through the rat's soft belly. Flesh and skin smoothly parted at the incision, as if the claw wasn't a claw at all but a sharp knife blade.
Just as Marvin was amazed by the sharpness of Fat Orange's claws, a vague black fog arose from the rat's cut, like maggots clinging to bone, and it thrust towards Fat Orange, who was mere inches away!
Having been on guard, Fat Orange dodged quickly, grabbed the black fog with its paw, and slammed it down on the ground with force!
Puff!
In a somewhat muted sound, the black fog was smashed and scattered in all directions. Instead of dissipating immediately, it writhed firmly, like a decapitated snake, which was bizarre in the extreme.
Watching this, Marvin narrowed his eyes and stepped forward slowly, crouched down, and picked up a twig to snap in half, carefully using it to lift a piece of the black fog for closer inspection.
"Little Black, stay alert," Fat Orange suddenly advised.
"Meow! Don't worry, big brother!"
Little Black, squatting in front of Marvin proclaimed confidently, "With me here, no one can harm the master, meow!"
From the brief skirmish just now, Marvin, too, had noticed that the black fog was nowhere near as fast as cats. With Fat Orange and Little Black around, he wasn't worried the black fog could hurt him.
After observing it for a long while, Marvin realized that with his knowledge, he could not explain such a strange black fog, but based on his deduction, it was either some sort of 'symbiotic entity' composed of countless microscopic insects invisible to the naked eye or it was some sort of special power that exceeded his understanding of science.
After thinking for a moment, Marvin took off the glass cover of the kerosene lamp with one hand, moved the piece of black fog held by the twig over the flame to toast it.
Sizzling… sizzling…
After toasting over the flame for a while, the piece of black fog finally began to melt. It frantically twisted as it melted away like fat under heat, eventually turning into a black droplet that 'plopped' onto the edge of the lamp and lost its activity.
Marvin suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, his tense mood eased slightly. Although he didn't know what this dreadful thing was, he at least found a weapon that could restrain it.
"There's no smell of burnt feathers. It looks like there's no protein inside. But if one were to conclude that this isn't some kind of symbiotic entity based on that, it would be too hasty..." Marvin murmured.
"Fat Orange, these rats that were tainted with the black fog, while they were still alive, did they show any abnormalities compared to the past?"
"Its aggression has intensified, and it's become much bolder," Fat Orange said.
Marvin nodded, "You're right, these black mists are far from ordinary. They possess strong aggressiveness and are very dangerous...."
"Daddy! Daddy!"
Yuniya's call came from inside the house, and Marvin immediately responded, "I'm in the yard!"
Before long, Yuniya came running over with a teddy bear in hand, "Daddy, dinner's ready. Mrs. Cecil is calling you over to eat...."
"You go ahead and eat; I'll be there once I'm done."
Discarding the stick, Marvin clapped the dust off his hands, planning to dig a hole to dispose of the polluted dead rats by dousing them with kerosene and burning them thoroughly when suddenly he remembered something.
Before today, the strange black mist had never appeared. It had only appeared after the descent of the deities so...
Could Yuniya know something about it?
With this thought, Marvin turned his head and said, "Yuniya, come here."
Yuniya, who was about to leave, trotted over and blinked her eyes, "What's wrong, Daddy?"
"Do you recognize this thing?"
Marvin pointed to the remnants of the black mist and asked.
Yuniya leaned in, looked at the fragments of black mist for a while, then suddenly reached out her small hand, grabbed a piece, crushed it between her fingers, and the fragments turned into dregs that scattered down, omitting even the struggle.
"It's a curse, Daddy."
"A curse?"
"Mhm." Yuniya nodded like a pecking chicken, "I don't know the specific type, but a common characteristic of curses is contagion. All living beings that come into contact with the cursed individual will get infected."
Hearing this, Marvin felt a shock in his heart, and involuntarily looked towards the small mountain of dead rats on the side. His Adam's apple moved as he swallowed hard.
A curse, of course, he had heard of, but a contagious curse seemed to him more like....
Plague!
A plague spread by rats?
Could it be the Black Death?!
"This isn't a disease as humans understand it."
Fat Orange seemed to see what was on Marvin's mind and spoke solemnly, "Since Yuniya says it's a curse, it means it's fundamentally different from a common plague!"
"Yes, Daddy." Yuniya agreed, "Humans can control and cure a plague with their methods, but not a curse. Once infected with a curse, no medicine can heal it, only the grace of deities... can save them."
As she spoke, Yuniya hugged Marvin's arm, giggling, "Daddy, you don't need to worry, although Yuniya can't give you the grace, you can always use Yuniya's power! These little curses can't hurt Daddy at all!"
"Can't give me grace, but I can always use your power?"
Marvin looked at her, puzzled, "What do you mean?"
"Only those who pledge loyalty to the deities can receive their grace. You're not Yuniya's follower, Daddy, so Yuniya can't give you grace. However... if a deity truly believes in another deity or a human, then the other party can use the deity's power without restriction."
Yuniya hugged Marvin tightly, "I like Daddy the best!"
"As a mortal usurps the throne of gods...."
Fat Orange looked at Marvin, who appeared as if struck by lightning, his eyes turning into vertical slits like those of a willow leaf:
"You're truly a God-Stealing Cultist."