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Chapter 8: Awakening Hearts
With Anna screaming, the two fell in a large hole.
Dizzy, Anna looked around horrified.
The large hole turned out to be an underground cave, filled with lava. Water was flowing from the other underground tunnels, the underground tunnel extended into all directions and looked like an underground maze.
“Drip drip” The water dripping sound was the only thing that could be heard, the cave gave off a quiet and lonely feeling.
“Where is this place?” Anna asked in panic.
She turned around and saw Shen Yi, “Where did you take me to?”
Shen Yi flicked off the mud from his body, then carefully observed the cave and replied, “Here should be an underground cave in Transylvania. Millions of years ago, this area was once a volcanic mountain range. A large volcanic eruption from it was enough to cover thousands of miles of land, but in the process of cooling and solidifying, some special subterranean caverns were sometimes formed due to the infiltration of air. These caverns could stretch hundreds of miles and this should be one of those caverns.”
“I didn’t ask you about how this thing was made, I asked why you wanted to take me here! And how do you even know that there was a cave here?” Anna didn’t understand.
“That’s not important, the important thing is that we have a friend here.”
Anna was shocked, “Friend?”
Shen Yi didn’t answer and just looked to the ground.
In the soft and wet soil, there were several footprints as big as half a yard, that had been leading to a dark corner in the cave. Along the footprints leading to the darkness, Anna could even feel that there was something tall standing there.
“There’s someone there!” Anna cried, raising her sword.
“Don’t be nervous, I’m not a bad person!” A dull voice suddenly sounded.
“Come out, let me see your face!” Anna said in deep tone.
The man in the dark slowly came out.
By the light that came through from the roof of the cave, Anna could clearly see that it was a monster with a very ferocious figure.
He was nearly two meters tall and seriously deformed, the left and right sides of his body was clearly not in proportion.
His body was full of suture traces, and each block was suffused with a unique gray color that belonged to dead bodies, while some were different, as if made from countless of lumps of meat sewed together.
In the head, the heart, and other vital parts, there were shining-green-lights like special devices, substituted for the brain and heart function.
Anna finally couldn’t help but to call out, “Oh my God! He is that monster!
Yes, this monster was in Van Helsing’s story, which Dr. Frankenstein personally created by the use of science: Frankenstein – it was made from seven corpses, completed as God’s work of miracle, creation of life!
In the beginning of the plot, Dr. Frankenstein, because of his crazy behavior was sieged by the townspeople and ultimately died by the hands of his investor, to be more accurate, Count Dracula’s fangs. And this artificial life which was single-handedly created by the Dr. Frankenstein, from the moment of his birth, he had the desire for fatherly love.
The death of his father figure, Dr. Frankenstein, made him extremely sad. He carried Dr. Frankenstein’s dead body and escaped the castle, everyone believed that he and the doctor had turned into ashes from the siege of the townspeople.
Who could ever imagine that he was not dead, but had been hiding in the underground cave?
Completely from instinct, Anna drew her sword.
“No, don’t hurt it! Its not bad, it just looks ugly.” Shen Yi quickly held Anna’s wrist.
“For what purpose did you seek him out?” Anna asked, puzzled and angry.
Shen Yi took a long glance at the monster whose outer appearance was horrific, but his inner appearance was a good and slowly said, “Its the key to killing the Vampire Count, the key that will allow your family to enter the doors of heaven.”
***
When they came back to town, the time already ran late. Shen Yi and Anna worked hard till midnight, but each seemed to have their own difficulties. Shen Yi ‘s was due to the double attributes he had in stamina, but Anna had been very tired.
The moment she went back into her room, she blinked her bright eyes, watching Shen Yi and said, “I don’t know why you wanted to do that, but I believe you must have your reasons.”
“Thank you for your support.” Shen Yi kissed her forehead, then left.
Looking at Shen Yi’s back, her eyes flashed a touch of loss.
Anna had gradually felt that something was wrong. She knew she had fallen into Shen Yi’s trap. This guy had deliberately brought her into the caverns.
The question was, how did he know that Frankenstein was there?
Anna felt that this man was full of mystery.
His inexplicable appearance, his killing of the terrible Silver Werewolf, to be able to only use an hour to get the townspeople’s respect, how he killed the Goblin Leader, and then he found Frankenstein.
Everything he did was mysterious and inconceivable.
She did not know the conversation Shen Yi had with that Frankenstein monster.
Anyway, after seeing that guy, he and that monster kept talking in low voices. Frankenstein went from resisting to silently agreeing with something, and then Shen Yi left with her. From the begin to the end, he didn’t give any explanation. This made her quite dissatisfied. As the Valerious family’s princess, Anna thought things were getting out of her control, she was being led by that man.
But she didn’t know why she was enjoying the feeling.
The feeling that everything that was placed on her shoulders had been slowly alleviated.
Lying on her bed, Anna couldn’t sleep. She kept twisting and turning, her head was full of that person’s image, it wasn’t until dawn that she finally managed to sleep.
***
Anna was awakened by the noise from the town.
The town seemed to be extra noisy today.
Anna quickly ran to the window and looked outside, she saw Shen Yi standing in the town center square, holding the head of the Goblin Leader while he faced a large number of people and shouted, “Open your eyes and look! This is the horrible monster that has made you tremble in fear and has enslaved you for hundreds of years! Look closely at its face, tell me, what do you see?”
The townspeople stared at the head of the Goblin Leader while someone shouted, “It seems to be scared.”
The crowd laughed.
“That’s right, it’s scared! They will be afraid, they will retreat, they are not an invincible existence!”
Someone exclaimed, “But Count Dracula is much more powerful.”
Shen Yi raised eyebrows, “Three days ago, if someone told you that the damn silver werewolf could be killed and that the goblin leader could also be killed, would you have believed it?
The townspeople were silent.
“Yes, no one would have believed, as there are still many people who believe in the fearsome power of Count Dracula. I don’t deny that Count Dracula is indeed powerful, and from his minions I can see how terrible he is. In fact I’m not here to deceive you with empty promises and boring lies, and I don’t think I’m stronger than him.”
The townspeople felt strange, what is he saying.
Shen Yi continued, “But I hope you can understand one thing, that is, no matter the Silver Werewolf, or the Goblin Leader, and even Dracula himself; they may be strong, but they’re not invincible. They can be killed. They have survived until now, because no one has ever tried to challenge them.”
“I can understand your feelings. In order to survive, you have to endure their oppression. But I hope you can give it a deeper thought. Does your patience have any meaning? Maybe you don’t care about the life of your neighbors and some don’t even care about even their own lives, but what about your children? Do you hope that they will grow up to suffer your fate? To try to survive by living under the shadow of the vampires? Can you accept to watch your children as they get snatched alive by the vampires? Their blood being drank by the vampire? Watching them die, but can’t do a thing?”
“If I am right, at least half of the people here have experienced their own family’s abduction! Do you really want to live as pigs in the pigsty? Even pigs, when getting slaughtered would try to resist. Are you no better than pigs?”
Behind the window, Anna stunned, stared at Shen Yi.
A man stood in the center of the high platform, loudly delivering a passionate speech, while the townspeople are shedding bitter tears.
He was a natural leader, and he was able to quickly fuse himself into the Transylvanian town which extremely boycotted foreigners. Not only did he make the people here accept him, but also made them obey his commands.
He changed the originally disorganized town of Transylvania into a new powerful force…
On the platform, Shen Yi loudly said, “I responded to the call of God, but the task God gave me was not to clean this world from evil, but to awaken your dying hearts! Sin is like darkness, they’ll go away but they can always come back. If you do not have the confidence and energy to fight against evil, then even if I help you destroy Dracula today, in the future when a new evil force appears, you still would only wait for outside rescue. It’s useless…”
“I am not a savior! I am only a guide! Citizens! Re-ignite your the cold blood in your body! Awaken your anger, ignite your blood, so that your dead hearts can be resurrected! We will fight! We may die in the battle, and though we may die, we were not be a group of lambs. We can say to our children that we are worthy of them! That we fulfilled our duties as a parent! Worthy of the heroic blood flowing in the bodies of the Transylvanian people! We fight for justice and survival! We don’t fear death! At the moment we die, we will be called upon by God, and not become a wandering soul in the world!”
“This is a war! In this war, everyone has two choices. Lowering your heads, enduring and dying a pointless death. Or stand up, take up your weapons, and die a heroic death! Which one do you choose?”
“Heroic death!” All the townspeople strongly shouted. At this moment, all their passion have been lit by Shen Yi.
They finally realized that hundreds of years of insensitivity cannot change their tragic fate, only anger and protest, this was their last and only way out.
“Take up your weapons! Build defense lines!” Shen Yi shouted.
The townspeople started to act.