Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 553

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“Kale Heniatus. What’s wrong?”

Cotton gazed at Kale’s condition with a bewildered expression.

‘Why is he acting like this all of a sudden?’

Kale was drenched in sweat, his face drained of all color.
He seemed oblivious to Cotton’s voice, his eyes fixed intensely on the interior of the Black Door.

“What’s inside that’s got you like this?”

Cotton gently tugged at Kale’s shoulder, attempting to peer inside herself.
At her touch, Kale’s gaze shifted toward her.

‘Such a murderous look—’

Cotton instinctively recoiled at the intensity in his eyes, which burned with the fury of someone ready to kill.
Kale seized her arm and pulled her back.

“Hey!”

The force of his grip was considerable, causing Cotton to wince before her eyes widened in surprise.

‘He’s trembling?’

The hand gripping her arm was shaking.
Only then did Cotton realize that the emotion burning in Kale’s eyes was not merely murderous rage—there was something else beneath it.

“Look inside. Now.”

Kale’s voice remained as measured as always, yet his tone betrayed urgency.
Prompted by his insistence, Cotton peered into the Black Door.

An octagonal platform came into view, along with eight altars and eight statues.

“Vice High Priest. Do you know what those statues are?”

Kale Heniatus waited for Cotton’s response with a trembling heart as she peered into the Black Door.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
His heart pounded with increasing intensity.

‘Why, why in the world!’

Why did the monsters he had seen in Korea exist here as statues!
Kale’s mind transcended mere complexity and descended into absolute chaos.

‘…Six.’

Six of those statues—no, six of those monsters—their records remained etched in my mind.

The top six most powerful monsters in Earth’s history, including Korea, stood on the Altar in precisely identical forms.

‘My records are never wrong.’

During my time in Korea, the records of all those unranked-grade monsters had been preserved in video and shared across the world, and I held more information about them than anyone else in the Company.

‘I memorized every detail.’

After Team Leader Lee Soo-hyuk and Choi Jung-soo, along with the other team members, had fallen, I committed every scrap of information about the monsters to memory.
I could not allow such tragedy to repeat.
As the new team leader, I had to protect my members’ safety.
And unlike me, all the members of my newly formed team had families waiting for them.

So I gathered information about the monsters more thoroughly than anyone.
Foreign texts, academic papers, videos—I obtained everything I could find and burned it into my mind.
The appearance of unranked-grade monsters, their combat patterns, their attack tendencies—I overlooked not a single detail.

So I knew well.

How terrifying they were.
And how many lives on Earth they had claimed.

‘Damn it!’

Kale contorted his face as he stared down at his trembling hands.
Then Cotton’s voice reached him.

“…I have no idea. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

Cotton’s gaze turned toward Kale Heniatus.
She opened her mouth.

“It’s not a living creature that exists in this world.”

Kale Heniatus clenched his fist with trembling hands. When the trembling subsided, he voiced the hypothesis that had been consuming his mind since moments ago.

“…Could it be a creature from the Demon Realm?”

Something not of this world, yet something Gersei and White Star would prepare for.
Could it be anything other than the Demon Realm?

‘If that’s the case, are creatures from the Demon Realm appearing on Earth? Why?’

Kale Heniatus’s mind grew turbulent.
He could see Cotton hesitating before answering his question.

“I’m not certain. It’s possible, but I can’t confirm it.”

A long exhale escaped him.
Without thinking, Kale Heniatus released a deep breath.
He turned his gaze back toward the gap in the Black Door, narrow enough for perhaps one person to slip through.

“Vice High Priest. According to what you said, White Star and Gersei provided sustenance to the creature. But I don’t see any living beings inside right now.”
“…That’s true.”

Cotton’s heart began to race with unease.

‘If it’s a creature from the Demon Realm?’

A horrifying possibility made her stomach churn.
Cotton’s eyes met Kale Heniatus’s. The two realized they were thinking the same thing.
She spoke first.

“That statue must be the creature. And that statue’s current state must be a seal. White Star and Gersei must be planning to break that seal. During the ceremony on the final day of the festival.”

What came after was something neither of them needed to articulate—the horrifying images flooded their minds unbidden.
Of course, Kale Heniatus found himself drowning in even more terrifying visions.
Within his mind’s eye, the calamities that had once engulfed Earth flickered past like a sequence of film frames.

“By the way…”

Kale Heniatus turned his gaze toward Cotton at the sound of her voice.

“The altars holding the statues—they’re all slightly different heights. Do you think there’s a reason for that?”
“What?”

Kale Heniatus peered back into the Black Door.

‘She’s right!’

Just as Cotton had said, the altars were indeed varying heights.

“…Hey. Your complexion looks terrible.”

Cotton could see Kale Heniatus’s face growing increasingly ashen.

‘Damn it!’

But Kale Heniatus couldn’t even hear Cotton’s words anymore.

The altars supporting the statues were indeed different heights, creating a jagged, uneven arrangement.

‘I was so focused on the monsters that I missed this.’

Kale Heniatus examined the overlooked detail more carefully, and goosebumps erupted across his entire body.

The statue on the lowest altar.
That monster ranked sixth among all unranked creatures.
The statue on the next lowest altar was fifth.

And the monster that had held the number one position throughout Earth’s history stood on the third-highest altar.

“…Is the height a measure of the monster’s strength?”

Then.

‘…There are two more altars higher than first rank.’

Which meant.

“…The remaining two are stronger?”

Kale Heniatus felt a chill run down his spine. That monster—the strongest in Earth’s history—was literally a disaster incarnate. Yet there were two more above it?

“Kale Heniatus. What are you thinking? Should we try entering?”

He turned to look at Cotton, who was speaking to him.
Cotton was concerned about Kale Heniatus’s complexion, but there was a more pressing matter to address, so she opened her mouth.

“We have to destroy that seal, this entire facility. We don’t have time. There’s no room for hesitation. You know that too, right?”
“…Yeah. I know that—”

Boom!
Kale Heniatus was startled by the deafening explosion and spun around.

Crackle, crackle.
Strange gray electricity flowed across the translucent golden barrier, causing it to tremble.

“Erhafen!”

In Kale Heniatus’s eyes appeared Erhafen, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Without thinking, he moved toward Erhafen.

“Don’t come!”

But he had to stop at Erhafen’s cry.
Erhafen glared beyond the golden barrier.

Beyond the translucent wall stood Gersei, pulling a fan suffused with gray energy away from the barrier.

“You’re holding up better than I expected.”

Gersei’s lips twisted upward as he looked at Erhafen.
Uuuu— uuuung—
Above his head, a gray aura coalesced into a massive sphere.

A glance.
Erhafen’s gaze shifted toward that gray sphere.

‘…This is bad.’

Just moments ago, Gersei had channeled roughly one-third of that gray sphere’s power into his fan and attacked the golden wall.
Though I managed to block it, I was deeply concerned about what lay ahead.

‘If he unleashes all that power, I won’t be able to hold it back.’

The wall would crumble.
Fully aware of this reality, I opened my mouth.

“What are you all doing standing around like idiots!”

My voice crashed down upon my companions.

-Kale. Why aren’t you going in? You need to destroy it quickly so we can teleport and escape!

I was already preparing for the worst—planning our escape.
At my words, Kale turned back toward the Black Door. Since I was going this far for him, Kale had to deliver results worthy of my effort.

“Hurry.”

Kale inserted his leg through the gap of the Black Door. His foot touched the bottom of the cavity.
Shhhhh—
In that instant, an ominous chill engulfed him, but Kale had to go through.

‘I need to know.’

I had to understand what was happening.
Before pushing the rest of my body through, I grabbed the golden spinning top from my pocket and then released it.

‘I’ll contact you!’
‘Chaos, Destruction, Peace. Don’t worry.’

After confirming the presence of the spirits that had secretly followed, Kale Heniatus gestured to Bud.

“I’ll help too.”

Bud moved beside Erhafen and aimed his aura blade toward Gersei beyond the wall.
In that moment, I heard Gersei’s cry from behind me.

“If you destroy it, the seal will break!”

Erhafen’s mouth opened as he listened to the conversation between Kale Heniatus and Cotton.

“Shut it! From what the kids were saying, it sounds like you’re trying to summon monsters from the Demon Realm, and if we destroy the summoning location, the summoning won’t be possible! Where are you trying to lie?”

Gersei smirked at Erhafen and spread his fan wide once more.
Whoosh—

“Summoning? That statue is a prison sealing away monsters. The moment you destroy the prison.”

The gray sphere began seeping into the spread fan.

“Hell will begin in this world.”

The fan, now holding more than half of the gray sphere, pointed toward the golden wall.
Gersei spoke calmly.

“Tsk. The time hasn’t come yet. Only catastrophe remains.”

It’s real.
Erhafen realized from his appearance that his words were the truth.

‘If we destroy the seal, it won’t just hurt White Star—it will hurt us too!’

What should I do?
The moment his mind became complicated.

“Then, what if we don’t destroy it?”

Kale Heniatus’s calm voice rang out.
He was looking at Gersei.

“As long as I don’t break it, that should be fine, right?”

Gersei clamped his mouth shut. Kale Heniatus’s lips curved upward.
His body was already more than halfway through the Black Door.
Soon he slipped completely inside, then turned back to look at Gersei through the gap and spoke.

“What if I steal it without breaking it?”
“…What?”

In that instant, Gersei’s pupils trembled.
Kale Heniatus didn’t miss it. A sly smile spread across his face.

“If this is a prison for monsters, I could just take the whole prison and bolt, couldn’t I?”
“You crazy bastard-!”

Uuuuuung—
A tremendous vibration erupted from the fan.

-Kale! That’s enough provocation! Hurry up, whether you steal it or whatever!
“As long as I don’t overexert myself—”
-Yes, yes! I’ll make it out alive without pushing too hard! Just hurry! If worst comes to worst, I’ll abandon everything and we’ll escape together!
“Then I shall proceed.”

At Erhafen’s urgent voice, Kale Heniatus answered leisurely before moving swiftly toward the Octagonal Platform.
His expression was completely different from the unhurried tone he’d used moments before.

Thump. Thump. Thump.
My heart raced.

Why had monsters suddenly appeared on Earth?
And why was this creature here, and what connection did it have to the Demon Realm?

The truth seemed to be right before my eyes.

“Hup!”

I heard Cotton’s voice following behind me through the gap in the Black Door, but there was no time to turn back.

I had to hurry.
Tap.
Kale Heniatus stepped up onto the platform.
Then he quickly began comparing the statues’ appearance with his records.
He also surveyed the surroundings.

“…There’s nothing here.”

Aside from the statues, the space was empty of everything else.
Eight statues formed a circle atop the Octagonal Platform, their center vacant, yet no magical circle was visible.
There were no traces either.

…How had they been providing sustenance?

“Ah!”

In that instant, something flashed through Kale Heniatus’s mind like lightning.
He turned around.
Cotton.
And beyond the Black Door, past the golden wall, he saw Gersei, poised as if to swing a fan but not yet swinging it, his gaze fixed upon him.

“Did you find something? Would it be bad if we actually destroyed this?”

Cotton stepped up onto the platform and approached Kale Heniatus.
In that moment, she was pushed backward.
It was the power of Wind.

Then it happened.
With a whoosh, Gersei’s fan erupted in ashen light.

“Creatures born from darkness, hunt your prey!”

Whooooom—
Black smoke began rising from the center of the empty platform.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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