章節 35: Investigation
Disclaimer: I have never been to Liverpool so forgive me if what im writing isnt entirely correct.
After leaving the Sanctum, Liam took a taxi to Liverpool, following the Ancient One's directive to investigate a small dimensional tear that had recently appeared there.
As he walked through the thin layer of snow covering Liverpool's streets, he took out his phone to search for a nearby hotel. During a recent training session with Mordo, he had asked how long missions usually took.
"Turns out they can last quite a while," Liam muttered with a sigh, kicking a pebble in front of him. "Figures, given how little information I got for this one."
'I'll book a room for seven days; that should be enough,' he thought as he reserved a hotel. Walking toward the area, Liam's thoughts went to the event expected in October. 'There wasn't a precise date for the fight between Obadiah and Tony in the movie. After this mission, I'll need to hurry over to Los Angeles.'
Once in his hotel room, Liam unpacked a few spare clothes and set up his laptop to search for any signs of unusual activity in the area. "Let's hope it's not a tear to the Dream Dimension," he muttered. "That would mean searching all of Liverpool. Even though I have this Mystic Pendulum to detect dimensional energy, its range is small, and it only works if I walk slowly."
He glanced down at the pendant hanging around his neck and couldn't help but complain, "Who makes artifacts that require you to walk slow?" The pendulum was supposed to glow brighter the closer he got to dimensional energy, but it wouldn't work if he moved too quickly.
'Anyway, that's not important right now,' he thought, starting his search for recent news articles. Typing keywords like murder, supernatural, disappearance, and haunted, he knew he'd have to go through countless exaggerated reports about hauntings and ghost sightings. 'This'll take time. And the tear may not even have released any minions or leaked energy yet.'
He made a list of "haunted" houses, disappearances, and murders in the area, but nothing stood out—no pattern, no big group of strange occurrences to make the search easier.
"It's 4 p.m.," he said to himself. "I'll check out a few of the nearby locations before calling it a night."
The sun was already setting. As Liam stepped outside, he looked at the people around him. Unlike the rush of New York, Liverpool was quite peaceful. He saw students, a few years younger than himself, laughing and joking around. An elderly couple sat on a bench, watching the sunset while feeding a stray cat.
Liam's hotel was close to the first 'haunted' house on his list. However, his pendulum didn't react when he arrived. "Figures it wouldn't be that easy," he muttered, moving on to another location a few blocks away. After visiting six haunted houses with no results, he finally headed to his last checkpoint of the day, a recent disappearance site, but found nothing unusual there either.
The next few days passed with little progress. Then, while waiting for a taxi to the next crime scene, he saw a news alert that caught his eye: "Brutal Murder on Wilson Road." He clicked on the article, reading: "Police have found pools of blood along with what appears to be chewed-up flesh and bones."
"Well, after a week of searching, looks like I've finally found something," he said.
When his taxi arrived, he asked the driver, "How much to get to Wilson Road?"
"That's about 25 miles from here. It'll be around seventy pounds," the driver replied.
"I'll give you a hundred if you get there fast," Liam offered.
"I can take a few shortcuts," the driver agreed, starting the car. Liam refreshed the news site for updates on the brutal murder, but there were no new details. After a shortened ride of 32 minutes instead of 40, the driver stopped close to the scene.
"I'm afraid I can't go any further; the road's blocked by police barricades," the driver explained.
"That's fine. Thanks for the quick drive," Liam replied, handing over the money and stepping out of the car.
Liam slipped past the police barricade, moving stealthily toward the crime scene. As he got closer, he noticed the pendulum glowing, it started glowing brighter with each step. After confirming that the area contained dimensional energy, he removed the pendant to avoid drawing attention and pulling up his hood.
He overheard bits of conversation between the officers, some of whom were visibly disturbed. A few newcomers were even throwing up from the sight. Observing from a distance, Liam took in the gruesome scene. The body parts looked chewed up, like a leftover chicken leg, with bones scattered and a large pool of blood staining the ground.
But something else caught his eye—burn marks on the walls and the pavement. "Fire marks," he noted, studying them closely. "These burns were made with dimensional energy—that's what the pendulum was reacting to."
Liam took one final look and started exploring the area around him. ''It's a low level tear so the creatures act mostly based on instinct, I will scan the area around here and that will most likely bring me to it.''
---
There will be a flashback explaining Liam's thoughts about the last chapter in one of the next chapters, don't worry :).
創作者的想法 
Donnuuu
Donnuuu Have some idea's for the story? Comment it and let me know.
章節 36: Hellish Fiend 1
'A low-level being that can use fire attacks? It should be a low-level demon,' Liam thought as he climbed onto a nearby house to get a better view.
'There's a river behind the murder scene, the rift shouldn't be there since water would have extinguished whatever came through.' He surveyed the area. 'To the right is a park, behind me is a busy road, and to the left is an old factory. No additional reports about this creature have been made, so it didn't come from the road, as it would have been seen and reported. There would also be burned leaves or trees if it had come through the park. That just leaves the old factory.'
Liam headed towards the small factory. 'According to Google, this factory is old but still in use by a small company with only around eight people.' He frowned as he remembered this detail. 'There haven't been any reports to the police about a murder or strange creature in this area.'
As he got closer to the factory, he noticed some burnt grass about 200 meters away from the factory. 'As expected.'
Reaching the factory, he saw the large sliding door lying broken on the ground. 'This certainly wasn't done by a small creature; the sliding door was smashed off its hinges, and there are molten areas here, too.'
Liam looked inside the factory and saw cracks on the floor and more molten lava patches. 'This confirms my guess, this creature either gives off heat or is partially made of magma.'
'There are only three low-level demons that match this description: a Cinder Imp, a Hellfiend, and an Abyssal Beast.'
Liam entered the factory. At first, he saw nothing, so he continued walking, following the creature's tracks. After a few minutes, a foul smell hit him. 'As expected, how unfortunate. The people working here are probably all dead.'
He walked forward to a left turn leading to a slightly larger area. He didn't enter immediately, instead, he peeked around the corner, hoping to see something. 'The next factory hall must be about 40 by 40 meters.'
Suddenly, he heard something snap, followed by the sound of munching.
Liam cautiously stepped forward and looked into the hall. 'Rock-like body structure, around eigth to ten feet tall, cracks filled with molten lava running through the rocks. It must be a Hellish Fiend.' Liam thought as he looked at the left side of the hall.
As Liam finished studying the fiend, he noticed what it was doing. He couldn't help but feel angry and disgusted. 'It's eating someone… or rather, what used to be someone.' The fiend tore off another arm from a headless, limbless corpse, leaving only part of the body's chest and a single leg. Blood was splattered around everywhere in that part of the hall.
Behind the fiend, Liam noticed a dimensional tear, the edges showing pieces of this dimension breaking apart, with an orange-red glow coming through.
'This isn't good. Low-level demons near dimensional tears drain energy from their surroundings. If left alone, the tear will grow larger, allowing more powerful beings to come through.' He remembered the creature's known abilities and weaknesses from the dimensional creatures book. 'Its weaknesses should be its slow movement, limited intelligence and water. It can spew lava from its mouth and it can harden specific locations on its body when attacked.'
Liam analyzed further. 'I need to end this quickly. After finishing that corpse, it'll likely hunt for another victim. I can't afford to wait. Incursio's armor should handle the heat from a low-level fiend, given the low damage it caused at the murder scene.'
He continued assessing. 'I doubt it was holding back, considering how low its intelligence is. It didn't even need to use its lava against ordinary humans. Its physical strength alone should have been enough, while it may not be on Captain America's level. With its size and power, it should be more than enough to overpower some ordinary people.'
'While I could use water from the nearby river, fighting it head-on would be a good way to test my current abilities. Being non-organic, it can regenerate if I attack the wrong spots. I'll need to hit its core points—the shoulders, upper legs, chest, and head. These points are where its power circulates; once broken, it won't be able to flow energy there again.'
With this plan, Liam stepped forward and summoned Incursio's armor and Neontote. He deliberately made some noise to attract the fiend's attention.
The Hellish Fiend, hearing him, stopped munching and turned around. It screeched at Liam as molten lava dripped from the top of its mouth.
Both charged forward. The fiend reached out to grab Liam with one hand and opened its mouth, preparing to spew molten lava. 'There it is,' Liam noted, sidestepping the hand and using his spear to create distance.
The fiend spat molten lava, but Liam's distance gave him time to dodge. As it closed in, it swung a fist at him. 'Let's test this hardening ability,' Liam thought, bringing his spear down on the incoming fist.
Upon impact, the fiend's right fist cracked, revealing more molten lava inside. Enraged, it swung its left fist, forcing Liam to jump back. The fiend screeched at him, even angrier, and began throwing molten lava from its cracked hand in his direction.
Liam continued to dodge while closing the distance. When he got closer, the fiend opened its mouth again. 'This time I won't dodge,' Liam thought, advancing as the fiend spewed out more molten lava. Its accuracy was terrible, but since Liam was close, some of the lava splattered onto his armor.
'It's hotter than I thought,' Liam muttered to himself, lightly cursing, 'but at least my armor wasn't broken by some lava.'
The fiend swung its cracked right hand at Liam again, hoping to melt him with the lava flowing from the cracks. Liam pulled Neontote back and thrust it forward toward the center of its palm.
The already cracked hand was no match for Liam's thrust and shattered completely. Liam continued with another thrust towards the left shoulder, breaking the energy core that was in it, making sure it would not regenerate its left arm again.
As the energy core in its left shoulder was broken, its entire left arm fell off. 'That makes sense, if it can't circulate its energy, it can't keep its body together.' Liam thought.
創作者的想法
Donnuuu
Donnuuu
Have some idea about the story? Comment it and let me know.
每周推薦票狀態
200+ 推薦票
榜單 
78 推薦票 
段落評論