Chapter 204: Chapter 196: Madness!

In the gloomy prison, time seemed to have halted, and the dried bloodstains on the ground were laden with heaviness.

The prison guards routinely began to check each cell, but when they reached the cell of the deceased, they quickly discovered something astonishing.

“Eh, where’s the person?”

To their surprise, that person had vanished! What was more terrifying was the considerable amount of fresh blood remaining on the floor!

“What in the world is going on?”

“The person has disappeared, and there’s only a lot of blood left on the ground, quickly go and notify the Warden and the prison director…”

Upon learning of the situation, the Warden instantly realized something was amiss and said:

“Check all the cells, see if anyone else has escaped, and be careful! There could be Extraordinary Exponents who can move freely around!”

He sharply sensed that there might have been a jailbreak, after all, a living person turning into a pool of blood suggested the possible involvement of extraordinary power.

“We’ve found a body here, no, just some partial remains!”

“Ah! I’ve found some here too!”

“Damn, that’s disgusting!”

The crowd was shocked to find a corpse in one cell, and then more bodies in several other cells, the remains scattered everywhere, with no one having any idea how they got there.

They immediately checked the status of all the Extraordinary Exponents, and none of the alchemically crafted shackles on them had been broken; evidently, the problem was not with the Extraordinary Exponent prisoners.

Everyone felt something eerie and sinister was at play, and with many mysterious beings in the world, people couldn’t help but speculate if some ghost or demon was causing trouble.

Indeed, it was not impossible; sometimes places where the dead were numerous and bodies amassed could give rise to spectral beings like Specters.

Rumors of mysterious beings gradually spread, but such a rumor alone could not shake the minds of many in a short period.

Then, in the following days, sometimes there would suddenly be another death in the prison, and sometimes nothing would happen at all.

Even though the prison guards were on vigilant watch outside the cells almost every day, they had no clue how these people were dying.

Often, they’d only hear a scream, rush in, and then be greeted by a corpse!

How was the murderer committing these locked-room killings?

No one knew the truth.

But fear began to rise in the depths of everyone’s hearts.

People grew increasingly anxious, many prisoners feared they might be the next to die, trembling and praying each time they returned to their cells after work.

With the already extremely oppressive environment of the great prison, it wasn’t long until several prisoners suddenly broke under the pressure during mining work.

“Ahhhh! It’s, it’s divine punishment! Surely, it’s the punishment of the gods! Hahaha!”

“Stop talking nonsense! Get back to work!”

The prison guards rushed over to beat the person, then dragged the madman away.

The lunatics’ breakdown only heightened the tension, not only among the prisoners, but the prison guards felt an immense headache as well, with the fear within them slowly magnifying.

The Warden had no choice but to come and reinforce patrols personally, while the prison director wrote a letter to the Priest of the World Order Church, hoping they could come to the prison to determine whether some sort of mysterious being was causing chaos.

Darren observed everything silently, feeling the power of the 2nd Rank of the Path of Shadow about to be completely mastered by himself.

So, mastering the Path of Shadow was not so difficult after all.

Hahahaha!

“This is merely the beginning!”

Soon another rumor emerged among the prisoners, its origin unknown to all, but it grew more believable as it spread.

They said, those people were not killed by ghosts or demons, but secretly executed by the Meyer family, and indeed, to the horror of the masses, so far, the victims had all been strong opposers of the Meyer family.

In fact, Darren had been selective in his killings.

He targeted those Rhea People who opposed the Meyer family for death; though they were also enemies of the Meyer family, the Rhea killed by Rhea, which was not a cause for concern.

He wanted to deliberately create an atmosphere of opposition and tension; the more chaotic people’s hearts were, the better. The prison mines were an inherently oppressive place, where everyone was gradually going mad, and he only needed to push them a little further.

In moments of idle contemplation, Darren would also ponder certain things.

“Perhaps everyone inherently possesses a side of madness that just requires something to draw it out, breaking through the iron bars imposed by secular conventions.”

What he aimed to destroy was not merely the shackles on the prisoners’ hands!

Finally, one day, a Rhea Extraordinary Exponent, overwhelmed with immense pressure and burdened with illness and pain, neglected his work, which resulted in a merciless beating from the prison guards.

“You swine! Get up and work! Get up!”

From a distance, Darren instantly realized that the opportunity had come!

He fixed his gaze on the stick weapons of those prison guards, harnessing the power of rune to “destroy” them silently, and in the next moment, they were all shattered, turning into black ash and drifting away.

“Ah!”

“What’s going on?”

All who witnessed the scene were stunned, be they prison guards or prisoners, all recognizing that something was awry!

While everyone was bewildered, Darren again employed the power of rune destruction to shatter the alchemical shackles of the Rhea Extraordinary Exponents who were prisoners!