I Am The Only Witch Hunter-Chapter 332: The Gate

The mother and the child returned to their bedroom and shut the door tight. They pushed the bed and flipped it over, letting it rest on the door.

"Remember, don’t open. Only speak. Even for me." Siderius said.

"We understand." The mother’s voice echoed from beyond the door.

Siderius left the house. He took a deeper look into the town. There were quite a few wandering shadow creatures. But most of them were minding their own businesses and didn’t pay much attention to the surroundings.

"Their numbers might be a problem. Better stay stealthy and deal with them one by one." Siderius lowered his body and went inside the opposite house of the street.

The door of this house was thrashed away, leaving only a few hanging wooden boards.

The room was lit with dim, almost extinguishing candles.

Siderius approached the candles and put them off. He didn’t light. Darkness was his ally.

Siderius went around the house to check for any shadow creatures. He saw a corrupted woman with a knife in her hand. Dark veins ran over her entire body.

The Silver Hawk silently appeared behind Siderius and he grabbed it. The witch hunter approached the corrupted woman slowly then did a quick horizontal strike over her neck, decapitating her in one strike.

The head rolled on the ground like a pumpkin.

In the real world, white foam bubbled out of the woman’s real body. Her eyes turned white then she died.

Siderius got to the second floor. There, he saw two more corrupted villagers. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get behind them as they’re staring at each other.

"This is going to be a little difficult."

Siderius stepped back a few meters to have enough distance. Then he rushed at the two corrupted villagers. The villagers heard his steps and turned to him immediately. They growled loudly.

Siderius jumped up, driving his knee into one of the villagers. His speed sent the villager flying and slamming on the wall.

Then he swiped the Silver Hawk over the second villager’s neck. Before the previous villager got up, this one was already decapitated.

Siderius kicked at the remaining villager with his boots, smacking its head into the wall again. Then he drove the Silver over its head before swiping to the side and cut its face in two.

The two of the villagers were killed in seconds.

"Huh..." Siderius’ ears perked up. He heard someone.

The witch hunter approached the balcony. This house was at the edge of the town, its balcony overlooking the space outside. It was far enough that the remaining corrupted villagers didn’t notice him.

Siderius looked around. There was no one. Then he followed the source of the noise and approached the barrel.

Mack was holding his breath inside the barrel. Just a moment ago, he heard some noises in the house. He tried not to make as many noises as possible.

Suddenly, the top of the barrel was lifted up. Mack was about to scream when Siderius reached his hand out and covered Mack’s mouth.

Siderius gestured to Mack to stay quiet.

His gesture let Mack know that he wasn’t one of them. Mack nodded quietly.

"Come on. I dealt with the shadows in the house."

"The shadows?" Mack said.

"Those changed villagers. The ones that turned into monsters."

Mack popped his head out of the barrel and looked inside the house. He saw the half face that was cut off by Siderius.

"Are you some kind of spirit swordsman, sir?"

Siderius shook his head. "I am not. But I am a capable warrior."

"That is for sure. You just took care of those people."

Mack slowly climbed out of the barrel. "My name is Mack. I’m the woodcutter of this house. Those are... Those were my brothers and fathers but they changed... They became mad. They don’t even know who I am."

"That is what happens to you when you’re in hell." Siderius said.

Mack took a deep breath. "This place is hell alright."

The two of them overlooked the town that was overrun with creatures.

"I met someone else. They said there is a well here that caused everything."

Mack nodded. He pointed to the wooden gate deep inside the town.

"It is in there. I don’t know why there is a gate now. It didn’t even have fences yesterday."

In the middle of the town, there was a tall wooden wall with pointy spikes. The wall was too thick for Siderius to even attempt cutting it down with Silver Hawk. He must find a way to open the gate.

"You remember how you got here?"

Mack nodded his head. "Sleep. Woke up. Everything lost their colors."

"This is not your world, Mack. It is a landscape of hell. I will be dealing with this. I suggest you find someplace to hide."

"I was hiding in the barrel!"

"Not a good place. Find somewhere that you can barricade yourself in. If they found you in the barrel, you would die in a blink of an eye."

"You do have a point..."

"Do you know how to open that gate?" Siderius said.

"Before hiding in the barrel, I did try to sneak around first. There are just too many of those things around so I went back here and hid.

I managed to take a look at the wooden wall before that. The gate seems to have a big keyhole in the middle. I don’t know where I need to find the key though."

"A key, huh... If there is a gate, there should be a key. It should be around here somewhere. Thank you, Mack. You’ve been a great help."

"It’s the least I can do."

Mack brought the barrel back to the bedroom. He almost vomited seeing the corpses of his family. He dragged them out to the balcony.

"Godspeed to you, strange swordsman."

Mack closed the door to the balcony and barricaded it tightly. He also shut the other door that led downstairs. Then he climbed inside the barrel to hide himself.

"What a careful guy." Siderius commented.

The hunter used the other stairs outside in the balcony to get down.

He started to slowly get rid of the wandering shadow creatures out in the streets and inside the houses.

At the same time, Ashe arrived at the rope bridge. She saw the writings on the wooden poles.

However, there were two versions. One with the language of this world and the other was a combination of Alchemical Seal.

Patterns of Alchemical Seal could be considered a language itself as it had the full capacity of delivering a message.

The writings of the language said, "Cross the bridge quickly."

The Alchemical Patterns said, "Tap the skull under the poles."