Ashley guaranteed… she definitely wasn't afraid, but the opponent's level was simply not something a novice like her could defeat.
If it were just ordinary cultists and servants, it would be fine; Ashley would still have the courage to attack with a pistol, but facing this monster with an ant's head, Ashley truly didn't believe she had any means to kill it.
So,
it's better to quickly find the all-powerful Leon to solve the problem!
"…"
Meanwhile, Leon, busy eliminating the remaining servants and cultists in the distance, sighed helplessly upon hearing Ashley's scream again.
It seemed this little girl still had a long way to go before she could truly learn to protect herself.
"Crack—!"
"Bang—————!!!"
Another loud bang.
A Garand Rifle bullet shot out, precisely piercing the head of the ant Plaga parasite chasing Ashley with an elegant trajectory.
Although this thing's shell was very strong, it could only defend against pistols.
Against the high-powered bullets of sniper rifles and shotguns, they still had no means of resistance.
It's also fortunate that this is the era of hot weapons.
If it were truly the Middle Ages with cold weapons,
it's truly unknown how to deal with these things.
Even military crossbows, if they didn't have specialized armor-piercing arrowheads installed, would probably find it difficult to penetrate!
"Pfft…!"
The bullet violently pierced through.
The ant Plaga parasite chasing Ashley had no ability to resist and once again collapsed and died on the ground.
This time it should be completely dead, without even a trace of movement or twitching.
But Ashley, who had been chased by the ugly monster for a long time, still cautiously looked at the dead ant Plaga parasite behind her, and even took out her USP9 agent pistol and shot it twice more in the head, then went closer and kicked it twice.
After confirming it was truly dead, Ashley finally let out a heavy sigh of relief.
Thank goodness,
this creepy thing was finally dead.
Such an ugly perverted Plaga parasite frantically chasing a beautiful young girl was actually a very terrifying thing.
Ashley almost had her heart jump out of her chest just now, and she still felt lingering fear.
Moreover, Ashley guaranteed… she absolutely did not want to become so ugly.
To have her head replaced with such a disgusting insect head, Ashley would rather die than that!
"…"
"Hey, are you alright, girl?"
And while Ashley was in a daze,
Leon had already eliminated all the remaining cultists and servants.
Dozens of corpses were already lying in the Holy Water Hall, including six or seven Exploding Bugs, which were thick-skinned and tough, no wonder Leon wasted so much time.
After resolving the crisis, Leon slowly walked up to the still-shaken Ashley, reaching out to help her up as she was almost trembling and collapsing to the ground, asking in a teasingly comforting tone,
To be honest,
Ashley's courage was already quite sufficient.
After all, for a seventeen-year-old underage girl to be able to shoot and kill someone on her own was already a very difficult thing, so Leon was only satisfied with Ashley and had no thoughts of being disappointed.
You know, when he was a police academy cadet, he only dared to shoot at targets, and the first time he used a gun to help an old officer take down a town drug dealer, Leon didn't feel any excitement, only shock, and it took him a long time to gradually recover.
"I'm fine…!"
"Thank you just now, Leon."
Grabbing Leon's strong arm, Ashley braced herself and stood firm, shaking her head and forcing a smile as she replied, indicating that she was fine.
And looking at Ashley's feigned strong smile, Leon couldn't help but want to laugh, but he didn't expose the strong girl's last shred of dignity.
After all, strength, sometimes, transforms from fake to real.
If you give yourself enough positive affirmations, over time and repetitions, you truly become indifferent to everything and start to become strong…
In a sense, this is not just an adjective,
but also a quantifier.
And with that said—
After a brief tidying up, the two continued deeper into the castle.
They had no retreat, so they could only keep going down.
After passing through the Holy Water Hall, Leon and Ashley arrived at the castle's central courtyard garden.
This was located in the very center of the castle, indicating that the two of them had already infiltrated a very deep part of the castle.
The entire central courtyard garden was enormous.
In addition to various colored roses, there were also tall, neatly trimmed green hedges, arranged like a labyrinth.
In the very center of the garden was a resting pavilion with beautiful gold-trimmed swings, and the entire layout was exceptionally luxurious…
This was one of Salazar Castle's very famous attractions.
It was a facility built by the Fifth Lord of the Castle for his enjoyment, also costing a huge amount of money.
He usually liked to rest and play in the central courtyard garden, dancing like butterflies with young maidens, playing and frolicking, and when the mood struck, it was even possible for them to engage in debauchery in broad daylight.
And because of his excessive indulgence,
he died young not long after taking office, a lord who only knew how to indulge in pleasure…
"Tap, tap, tap…"
"So beautiful, I never thought such a beautiful place existed within such an eerie castle.
Even at night, the fragrance of roses still lingered at the tip of my nose; it's truly so fragrant…"
Just as she stepped into the central courtyard garden,
Ashley's nose twitched slightly, and she carefully sniffed the floral scent in the central courtyard garden.
Looking at such a beautiful garden, her beautiful eyes couldn't help but show a surprised expression as she exclaimed,
Around her, various brightly colored and beautiful roses bloomed: red, white, purple, pink, black, blue, yellow, orange—all artificially cultivated colors, causing every young girl who came to admire the central courtyard garden to pause in slight daze.
See…
This was the grand vision of the Fifth Lord of the Castle.
Ashley, a modern girl from the twenty-first century, and even the President's daughter, couldn't help but marvel at the central courtyard garden, let alone the ignorant girls from centuries ago.
It shows how carefree the Fifth Lord of the Castle's daily life was, seemingly even enjoying being drained by flower fairies and butterfly demonesses every day—
And looking at the roses blooming so beautifully beside her,
Ashley couldn't resist the temptation,
wanting to reach out and pluck one, but careless Ashley seemed to have forgotten that roses have thorns.
As soon as she touched it, a drop of blood bloomed on her fingertip.
A sharp pain, Ashley quickly retracted her hand as if electrocuted, and seeing her finger had been pricked, Ashley seemed a little annoyed, feeling she was becoming more and more clumsy!
"Are you alright, Ashley…?"
And seeing Ashley's finger pricked,
Leon frowned, quickly going to check and asking with concern.
This girl was too careless; she could even prick her hand picking a rose.
Was she becoming less focused or for some other reason?
"I'm fine…!"
"Cough, cough… cough, cough…!!!"
However,
Ashley was about to say something more,
but suddenly felt uncomfortable.
The blood vessels on her neck suddenly became hideously exposed, and her lungs itched.
Before she could react,
a large number of blood vessels and blue veins covered both sides of Ashley's cheeks, and her beautiful eyes were completely replaced by a crimson hue.
Undoubtedly, this was a sign that the Plaga parasite was gradually beginning to control her body.
Her expression froze,
As if possessed,
Ashley's hand moved completely uncontrollably towards the dagger on Leon's thigh, and she pulled out the tactical dagger from Leon's sheath.
While Leon was busy worrying about Ashley's safety, he was completely unaware that danger had suddenly arrived!
"Whoosh—!"
A cold glint flashed,
The sharp blade suddenly struck.
Leon's expression changed, and his instinctive reaction made him quickly retreat, but his speed was still a step too slow.
Stinging pain came, and when Leon looked down, he found that his arm had been cut, and blood was continuously dripping.
Fortunately, the wound was not that deep,
and didn't cut into a vein or anything.
Otherwise, just the heavy bleeding alone would have made it impossible for Leon to treat himself.
"Ashley…?!
Seeing Ashley suddenly attack him,
Leon suddenly had a bad premonition and quickly looked at Ashley's face.
Sure enough, he found that both sides of Ashley's cheeks were covered with blood vessels and blue veins, her eyes were sinister and dark, and her face showed a fierce light.
Undoubtedly, this was a state of being controlled by the Plaga parasite.
Leon called out to Ashley in a low voice,
trying to make the girl regain consciousness,
but it seemed to have no effect.
His heart sank, Leon slowly reached for the gun holster on his thigh, preparing to use force to subdue Ashley, but this small movement was quickly discovered by Ashley.
"Hey, calm down, child."
"You are all chosen by God, and you cannot easily kill each other.
Also… this is our first meeting, American.
My name is Osman Saddler; I am the leader of The Illuminados, a devout missionary of the Plaga holy relic."
"This child will soon become one of us.
She will accept God's will, complete the tasks bestowed by God, and then spread the love of The Illuminados throughout the world, and the first stop will be America."
"And you… you have also been injected with the Plaga organism.
We will soon be one family, so please bear with it a little longer.
The holy relic will help you get rid of the defiled body of mortals!"
From Ashley's mouth,
such chilling words slowly emerged, like the self-brainwashing and fanatical pronouncements of a cultist, and indeed, on the other side was Saddler, the leader of The Illuminados.
He sensed that the Plaga parasite within Ashley was about to fully mature, so he used the Plaga parasite scepter to control Ashley's body in advance.
Like a soul possession,
he could host his will in anyone, no wonder Saddler was so confident.
It turned out that the Plaga parasite could also be controlled remotely.
In this way, even if Ashley was infected by the Plaga parasite and became a foolish puppet, as long as Saddler used the Plaga parasite remote control to control her remotely, Ashley could still act like a normal person, easily deceiving the foolish Americans.
And now,
Saddler was just coming to say hello to Leon in advance.
He wanted to use this to threaten and warn Leon that even if he rescued Ashley, as long as the Plaga parasite in her body still existed, Ashley would still not be able to escape the clutches of The Illuminados.
The other half was used to sow discord, clearly telling Ashley that she could backstab Leon at any time, making Leon anxious about whether he should abandon Ashley and escape, or continue to take the risk with this ticking time bomb.
At the same time,
this could also cause Ashley to develop a strong sense of inferiority and guilt.
Actively turning into a monster and attacking the person who protects her would cause such a mentally fragile underage girl to have a mental breakdown.
Osman Saddler…
It seems,
this leader of The Illuminados was not a simple fool who only knew how to rule the world.
He still possessed a little bit of cunning, at least he was very skilled in scheming; he was a very sinister and despicable fellow.
Otherwise,
he wouldn't have perfectly replicated the script, successfully instigating the fool Raymond to commit patricide, directly annihilating the entire Salazar Family in one fell swoop—
And sure enough,
after saying these words,
Saddler quickly withdrew his control over Ashley.
The distance was too far, and the Plaga parasite had not fully matured.
He could only control her for a very short time, so he had to leave it at that for now.
And when Ashley regained consciousness, the first thing she saw was the sharp dagger in her hand, as well as the wound and blood on Leon's arm.
Ashley, who had regained consciousness, almost didn't need to think to know what had happened.
She had only lost control of her body just now, not her consciousness was asleep.
The visual memories collected through her eyes were still deeply etched in her mind.
She had just turned into a monster, lost her sanity, and attacked Leon!
"Leon… Leon…"
"No, I'm sorry, Leon, I didn't mean to.
I really don't want to become a monster, I didn't mean to, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry…!!!"
"Clang—!"
The tactical dagger immediately dropped to the ground.
Ashley seemed a little flustered by the situation, and more than that, she was mentally broken and terrified, unable to accept the fact that she was about to become a monster.
Ashley chose to escape.
After apologizing to Leon in a panic, Ashley dared not look at Leon again and quickly lowered her head and ran away.
Facing the cruel reality, Ashley helplessly chose to escape reality…
Chapter 46: Miguel de Cervantes
"Ashley!"