Chapter 65 Theater: Damn, We’ve Been Spotted!

Chapter 65 Theater: Damn, I've Been Spotted!

After passing the first vent, there was still a long stretch of pipe ahead of Everly.

The thought that the video had already been posted and the masked men could start the ritual at any moment made Everly's heart feel like it was being fried in a scalding pot of oil—utterly agonizing. To make matters worse, her fingertips had been completely worn raw from the earlier crawling, leaving faint traces of blood at every pipe joint she passed through.

Even though Everly had a high tolerance for pain, her injured hands still slowed her crawling speed.

Faster, faster, just hold on a little longer... don't give up, the second vent is right ahead!

Everly forced herself to forget the pain in her hands, clenched her teeth, and maintained a steady crawling pace as she continued forward.

Just as the vent was only half a meter away, a low, raspy voice suddenly came from directly below the stage—the Pig Mask.

"We have enough people. Begin the ritual."

"!!!"

No, not now! The magic circle was too close to her—once it started, she'd be the first to be dragged in!

At this moment, she couldn't afford to worry about whether crawling too fast might expose her. Her heart pounded like a war drum, adrenaline surging wildly, arm muscles tensed to their absolute limit. Moving at a speed that defied human limits, her left arm grabbed the pipe joint and pulled with all her might, while her other hand shot forward. As her body lunged, she hooked the vent grille with lightning-fast reflexes, muscles bulging as she hauled herself up to the vent in just a few motions.

The nearby pipe inevitably let out a "creak" from the sudden movement. Fortunately, at that very moment, a loud "clap" echoed through the entire hall, masking the unnatural sound—it was the masked man switching off all the stage lights.

With the lights off, the performance hall plunged into dimness. On the pitch-black stage, only a single spotlight remained, shining down from above onto the massive inverted pentagram painted in blood.

Chaotic footsteps sounded as, throughout the vast hall, all the freely moving masked men—except for those guarding the hostages—converged around the magic circle. They formed a ring and, led by the Pig Mask, bowed their heads and began chanting their prayers with devout fervor:

"You are the architect of the dark prison, the destroyer of sacred light, darker than twilight, redder than blood, more chaotic than chaos itself... I beseech you here, I swear to you here, I offer the blood and lives of living beings as sacrifice, imploring your mercy..."

Under the light, as the masked men chanted, the magic circle—which had absorbed the fear and resentment of the dead—grew ever more vibrant. The red lines gradually swelled like real blood vessels, pulsing and contracting while radiating an eerie, ominous crimson glow.

Time was critical. Everly curled her body into a side-lying position, used her dirty, still-bleeding hands to unzip her pants, yanked them open, and at the fastest speed of her life found the soft silicone object below. She pressed her fingertips to break the suction seal and removed the menstrual cup.

Inside the translucent silicone cup was half a cup of red menstrual blood.

—"The menstrual blood of a pure virgin." This was the only thing Everly had "carried" on her person that could disrupt the magic circle.

Although in Everly's previous life, people in her homeland generally considered women's menstrual blood to be filthy and impure, in Western occultism, menstrual blood was actually a powerful substance for warding off evil.

Because menstruation is synchronized with the moon's cycle, in ancient times people often regarded menstrual blood as a symbol of women's sacred spirituality and fertility.

In ancient Rome, Africa, and Siberia, there were many protective spells and rituals related to menstrual blood—for example, smearing menstrual blood on a doorstep could protect a home's interior from curses and black magic. Some female shamans would even deliberately perform rituals during their periods, because menstruation made their magical powers stronger.

And in confrontations with evil, the power of pure virgin's menstrual blood was greatly amplified. It was precisely for this reason that the exorcist Rebecca had consulted placed menstrual blood on equal footing with other holy objects.

Everly was immensely grateful she had chosen the girl's version menstrual cup instead of a tampon—otherwise, she could hardly imagine the scene of using her dirty hands to grab a tampon and squeeze the blood from it... With the menstrual cup, draining the blood was much simpler. All she had to do was pop open the stopper at the bottom, squeeze the cup body hard—through the gaps in the grille, the bright red blood dripped from the small opening at the bottom, most of it falling into the magic circle below, while some, due to the angle, splattered onto the heads of the masked men beneath.

Everly: "..."

True to its reputation as a warding object certified by the exorcist himself, wherever the menstrual blood fell, the magic circle reacted as if concentrated sulfuric acid had been poured on it—with a sizzle, a massive plume of black smoke erupted. Beneath the smoke, at the point where the menstrual blood fell, the crimson lines that had seemed to be "coming alive" instantly turned black, withered and shrank, finally becoming charred black lumps like coal. Large patches of black spread through the circle like a living mold, and in the blink of an eye, the black patches had devoured nearly a third of the magic circle's area!

"What's going on? My connection with the Lord has suddenly been severed!"

"Why is the circle suddenly failing..."

"Who's sabotaging the circle?"

A series of startled exclamations rang out. One of the followers felt something strange above his head, reached up to touch it, saw the blood on his palm, immediately sensed something was wrong, and looked up.

As it happened, this person was the Elephant Mask who had discovered the dust earlier.

If not for the previous dust incident, the Elephant Mask might have thought the drop of blood was accidentally smeared on him while slaughtering prisoners outside. But two consecutive mysterious falls of debris were enough to put him on high alert. Before the others could react, the Elephant Mask was the first to raise his hand, pointing at the still-dripping vent pipe.

"Someone's up there!"

"What?"

"It's the vent pipe—blood is still dripping from it!"

Alerted by the Elephant Mask, more and more masked men looked up. The Pig Mask leader raised his hand and fired a shot directly at the vent—"bang"—the bullet grazed the pipe, narrowly missing her and hitting the ceiling, stirring up a shower of dust and debris.

Damn, I've been spotted!

Everly didn't dare linger. She immediately grabbed the joint ahead and scrambled ahead as fast as she could.

The Pig Mask's second and third shots followed in quick succession, striking the vent opening. Fortunately, Everly reacted quickly and pulled her legs back just in time to avoid being hit. The two bullets tore through with thunderous force, mangling the vent grille. They continued upward, punching through the pipe on the other side and flying straight into the ceiling. Inside the pipe, the deafening clang of metal echoed repeatedly, making Everly's ears ring.

But at this point, she couldn't afford to cover her ears.

The Pig Mask's gunshot was like a signal. Following his lead, more masked men raised their pistols and opened fire at the vent pipe overhead. The pipe's thin metal was no match for the bullets' penetrating power—a rapid series of clangs rang out as a dense row of circular bullet holes appeared in the pipe behind Everly.

Some bullets, after piercing the bottom layer of metal, couldn't penetrate the second layer due to the angle and would ricochet up and down inside the square duct, creating dangerous ricochets that further increased Everly's chances of being hit.

Damn it, good thing she was fast!

And so, Everly continued crawling through the pipe amidst the hail of gunfire and constant booming sounds.

To speed up, she no longer cared about minimizing her profile. She pushed her upper body up, using her hands and feet, crawling through the pipe like a monkey. As she passed, the fragile pipe sagged slowly, the duct body banging against the outer metal plates, emitting precarious "creak" sounds.

"She's there! Up ahead, shoot that way!"

When Everly's figure passed the third vent, a sharp-eyed masked man spotted her and raised his hand to alert his companions. The masked men who had been firing at the rear of the pipe immediately swung their guns around and opened fire on the third section of the duct.

At this point, only about two meters remained to the exit. Once she cleared this distance, Everly could escape the suspended pipe and enter the wall, where the wall's protection and cover would allow her to get away quickly.

A little faster, just a little more... almost there...

Just as Everly was cheering herself on, a loud "clang" rang out—a bullet, of all things, struck the metal bracket holding the pipe. The screw on the bracket fell away from the impact, and without its support, the section of pipe Everly was in suddenly lurched downward. The surrounding metal brackets, strained by the sudden increase in tension, also began to loosen.

"Crackle... creak... groan..."

After a spine-tingling series of straining and snapping sounds, Everly's vision suddenly brightened—the section where the pipe connected to the wall had been torn apart, letting the spotlight's glow from outside shine through.

"Creak, creak"—the sound of metal splitting grew denser. Everly lay in the pipe, feeling her body rapidly sinking with it—no, this section of pipe couldn't hold anymore, she was going to fall!

Perhaps adversity truly unlocks all of a person's potential. With death looming, Everly executed a maneuver she had never attempted before: she adjusted her position, faced the pipe opening in the wall, planted her feet against the pipe wall, and with all the muscles in her legs working in unison, sprang into the air like a rabbit—a light, graceful leap.

Her slender figure traced an elegant arc through the air, flying toward the pipe opening in the wall. Her blood-stained fingers, like painless iron clamps, latched firmly onto the jagged remnants of metal around the opening, stabilizing her body just before she could fall, and hung securely at the pipe's mouth.

Seeing this, the masked men below locked their sights on the girl in midair and were about to pull the triggers when the pipe above finally gave way, crashing down with its surrounding metal plates and screws in a cacophony of "clatter-bang," blocking their view.

Distracted by the debris, by the time the masked men re-aimed, the girl above had already executed a clean pull-up and crawled into the pipe like a giant rat, disappearing from sight.