I can evolve everything

Several hours later, the group finally returned to Ironwood Town and Harold's mansion before nightfall completely covered the sky.

The mansion was brightly lit, with a dim yellow light shining through every window.

The servants were startled when they saw Harold and Karen return, and huddled in the shadows and corners of the corridor.

Their motivation was not reverence, but fear.

"Sit down, Harold."

Karen's voice sounded exceptionally clear in the overly quiet mansion.

He pointed to the sofa next to the fireplace, where Ella had already brought a first-aid kit on a small table.

"Let your leg rest. Treat the wound. If you don't stop the bleeding and stitch it up, you won't live to see Judgment Day; tetanus will kill you first."

"No need."

Harold raised his hand and waved it gently, refusing the bandage Ella offered.

"Come with me now."

The old man didn't stop, moving slowly and deliberately towards the study.

"It's better that it's all dried up." Harold's lips twitched slightly. "Anyway, this body... inside and out, has long been rotten to the core."

He pushed open the study door, which was half-damaged after being violently kicked open the day before.

He walked straight to the bookshelf at the back of the room.

Harold staggered to the bookshelf, reached out, and without hesitation, pressed his hand on the cover of a book on the third shelf.

"Click".

The sound of gears turning gradually rose, and then the seemingly normal bookshelf, along with the stone wall behind it, began to recede and rotate inward, revealing a stone staircase leading downwards.

A blast of icy air rushed out the moment the door opened, hitting everyone's faces.

It was mixed with a strong incense smell and the stench of corpses.

"Ugh...!"

Caught off guard, Ella was directly hit by the smell, and her stomach churned violently.

She abruptly covered her mouth and nose, taking a half-step back. Her face instantly turned pale, and her disgust was undisguised.

"This... is this the truth you wanted to show us? The cellar hidden beneath the study?"

Karen did not speak immediately.

The veins on the back of his hand bulged slightly, then slowly subsided.

He didn't look at Harold, but stared at the dark steps before him and demanded, "How long have you been covering this up, Harold?"

Harold ignored their reactions.

"Come down." He picked up a candle lamp that was lit on the desk. "Once you get down there, you'll know everything."

The stone steps spiral downwards.

As the group slowly descended, the surrounding air grew increasingly cold.

Finally, there were no more steps leading down from beneath my feet.

They stepped into the basement of the mansion.

This place was clearly once a large wine cellar.

By the limited light of the candle in Harold's hand, one could see sturdy wooden shelves on both sides, piled with oak barrels.

However, as the four of them ventured deeper into the wine cellar, the scene at the very back began to change.

At the end of the cellar was a cage, with several iron bars deeply embedded in the stone wall and the ground, isolating part of the space.

Splash—splash—

Renn could hear the sound of chains being dragged from the end of the darkness.

Immediately afterwards, another sound slowly arose, seemingly some creature constantly growling and making gurgling sounds.

Harold's hand holding the lamp trembled even more.

The dim, yellowish light swayed as he trembled. He took a deep breath, slowly raised the lantern, and pushed the light little by little towards the end.

The light first illuminated some scraps of meat and dried stains at the edge of the cage, then slowly crept up to a huddled shadow in the corner.

The shadow moved.

"Nina...?"

Ella seemed to recognize the "person" in front of her first, and her voice was filled with shock.

She recognized the corner of the clothes on the shadowy figure; it was the same clothes the little girl had worn at dinner the previous day.

However, that garment has now been torn into several pieces.

Perhaps it was because the necromancer Mars died that the magic he had cast on Nina, as agreed with Harold, vanished without a trace the moment he died.

Beneath the clothes, bluish-purple skin was visible.

The skin surface is covered with festering sores, and in some places it has even completely peeled off, revealing the flesh underneath or the stark white outline of bones.

What's most captivating, yet makes you want to flee immediately, is that face.

That cute little face from yesterday,

Only about one-third of it remained, barely maintaining its human form.

The skin and muscles on the right side of the face were almost completely rotted away, exposing the cheekbone, gums, and cavities inside part of the nasal cavity.

The left side of his face was slightly better, but it was still covered with dark purple necrotic patches.

It—perhaps it should still be called a humanoid being—was tightly embracing something.

That was the teddy bear Nina was hugging yesterday.

Seemingly having heard a sound, smelled the scent of living people, or perhaps stimulated by the light of the lantern, Nina suddenly raised her head.

The rotting half of the face was facing the light source.

"grandfather……"

The sound was squeezed out of its throat.

It awkwardly moved towards the railing.

The relatively intact left hand emerged from the sleeve and scratched in Harold's direction.

"Hungry……"

"Eat...Master...eat..."

Harold stood outside the iron railing.

He just watched, watching Nina in the cage.

Perhaps because he had already prepared, Harold did not show any obvious change in expression at this moment.

It was as if, on that rainy night a few years ago, or on countless nights afterward when he faced this hellish scene alone, his emotions had died along with the real Nina, turning to ashes.

The old man silently turned around and temporarily hung the lantern on an empty iron hook next to him.

Then he walked to the cage, where there was a metal bucket.

He bent down and lifted the lid of the bucket. Inside were several large pieces of bright red raw pork.

Harold used a pair of long-handled iron tongs hanging on the side of the bucket to tremblingly pick up the largest piece.

Bright red blood dripped down the edge of the chunk of flesh and onto the stone floor. He moved to the edge of the cage and inserted the iron pliers into the two bars.

"Eat up... Nina." His voice rang out, as gentle as it had been at the dinner party the night before.

But in this situation, his tone sent a chill down the spines of those behind him.

"Grandpa's here. Grandpa... brought you something delicious."

The monster inside the cage didn't respond to Harold's words at all; all its attention was completely drawn to the piece of raw meat dripping with blood.

The smell of blood stimulated its appetite.

"Hoh—!" it hissed urgently, lunging forward with astonishing speed.

His left hand gripped the piece of meat on the tongs. Then, he couldn't wait to stuff the meat into his mouth.

"Smack... gulp... snap..."

A chilling sound echoed through the deathly silent cellar.

Karen eventually turned her head away, no longer looking at the cage.

Ella had already turned her gaze away, biting her lower lip tightly.

The usually lively girl was now silent. A mix of emotions churned within her, but when she looked at Nina again, all she felt was a strong sense of nausea.

She couldn't imagine how Harold had coped with this situation over the past three years.

"Heh...heh..." The monster quickly finished the piece of meat, licking its fingers with lingering satisfaction, and looked at Harold outside the railing again.

Harold didn't reach for a second piece of meat.

He loosened the iron clamps, letting them fall onto the stone floor.

Then, the old man, who had been forcibly keeping his back straight, suddenly slumped down in the shoulders, and his entire hunched back began to tremble violently.

He raised his hand and covered his face, his intermittent breathing coming through his fingers.

After a few minutes, he slowly lowered his hand and turned around.

With his back to his granddaughter, who was still craving food, and facing Karen and the other two, he seemed to be pleading:

"Stop looking..."

"Go to that small room next door. This place... is too dirty."

He paused, then added:

"I will tell you everything."

After saying that, he ignored everyone and, with his body hunched over, slowly walked towards the small room on the other side.