American Horror Story, Starting from Falls Town

Chapter 259 All Fear Stems from Insufficient Firepower
Inside the New Centella Cathedral, Gilesby coughed up another mouthful of blood, looking as if he had aged more than ten years.

"Lord Gilesby, are you alright?"

Sullivan went over and inquired about Gilesby.

Gilesby took a deep breath and then looked at Sullivan.

“I have just successfully repelled the messenger of the false god and protected the area around the church with a barrier. However, I am also seriously injured and must return to the old church in Silent Hill to recuperate. Sullivan, you are my most outstanding disciple, and I entrust the new church to you.”

Upon hearing this, Sullivan was extremely excited.

"Lord Gilesby, please rest assured! I will defend this church with my life!"

"Then I'll leave it to you, Sullivan. As long as the Red God's kingdom descends to earth, all our wishes will be fulfilled!"

Gilesby continued to paint a rosy picture for Sullivan, unaware of the unusual glint in Sullivan's eyes.

After giving his instructions, Gilesby handed his scepter to Sullivan, giving him temporary control of the cathedral.

He then returned to his office and opened the door to Silent Hill.

The cathedral of New Centellaia, after all, had only been built for twenty years. The power of faith it contained, along with the sacrifices of hundreds of fanatics, could only barely contend with Iris.

However, the old church in Silent Hill is different. It has been built for over two hundred years, and the accumulated power of faith is incomparable to that of the New Centella Cathedral.

As soon as Gilesby entered the old church, she saw an old man in a dark red robe standing in the distance, seemingly waiting for her.

“Dalia Gilesby, how long has it been since we last met?”

The old man looked at Gilesby with a strange smile. Gilesby looked quite disheveled, with a snake-shaped dagger stuck in his chest.

“That’s true, Leonard Wolff.”

You look terrible. Do you need my help?

Gilesby glanced at the old man, then forcefully pulled out the serpentine dagger. With the help of the immense power of faith within the church, her chest wound began to heal rapidly. This was thanks to her superb magical skills, not to the power of the Wrathful King.

"No need! You should worry about your own backside first."

Wolf's expression changed instantly. Earlier, on the island in the middle of Crystal Lake, he had been shot in the buttock by Roy while escaping by boat.

Although the injury healed quickly afterward and there is no trace of Wolf's injury now, it was still a huge humiliation for him.

"Giresby! If you can't lead the Holy Church forward, you might as well hand that thing over to me!"

Gilesby looked at Wolf with indifference.

"If I can't do it, who can? You?"

These sarcastic remarks made Wolf tremble with anger.

"Giresby, do you want to start another war?"

Upon hearing this, Gilesby knew that Wolf was truly angry. The man, despite his age, was still running around, unwilling to be subordinate to her.

If we provoke him any further, he might actually quit and leave.

So Gilesby's expression softened slightly, and he stopped arguing with Wolf.

"Wolf, I have already promised you that I will hand over the power of the Holy Church to your daughter after my death, and I will not go back on my word! You don't need to come all the way here to greet me!"

Wolf's expression softened slightly, but he was still somewhat stubborn.

"I'm just worried that you'll ruin the Holy Church's excellent situation! Look at the enemies you've made for the Holy Church!"

"At worst, we'll just retreat to Silent Hill, this sacred land, and hide there for a while. But one day we'll lead our divine kingdom back to the mortal realm!"

Gilesby didn't want to waste any more words with Wolf, so she walked past him and headed deeper into the church. After all, although her body had been healed with magic, her mental trauma was not so easy to recover from.

Elise's fighting prowess is no joke. Gilesby's strength is far from reaching the level of the Greed King Mammon. He can only barely fight against Elise by relying on the power of faith and the sacrifice of fanatics.

Wolff would naturally disagree with Igilesby's statement.

“Giresby, things can’t be like this! If you fail this time, just hand over the position of archbishop to my daughter!”

Gilesby stopped in his tracks, realizing that Wolff had raised the price at the last minute.

It's clear that Wolf has learned about the situation in New Centella, so they want to take this opportunity to force Gilesby to compromise.

"Yes, but I will not fail!"

It was just an empty promise, but Gilesby wrote it to Wolf without hesitation.

Wolf watched Gilesby's retreating figure, his expression turning extremely gloomy.

"She actually agreed to even these conditions? What on earth is she planning? Damn it! If I had known she agreed so quickly, I should have brought Carrie over too!"

Wolf's expression shifted between anger and uncertainty; he remained unable to make up his mind.

In terms of strength, Wolf, who could not draw upon the power of the church's faith, was completely unable to confront Gilesby head-on. Therefore, he could only remain on the fringes of the power of the Followers' Sect, and even had to forge a new path outside.

"Hmph! If all else fails, we might as well just take some men and kidnap Carrie!"

Finally, Wolf made up his mind to make one last desperate attempt while Gilesby was preoccupied with other matters.

At that moment, the security alarm on the top of the old church suddenly sounded, its piercing sound echoing throughout Silent Hill.

"Huh, has it entered the time of the Otherworld again?"

Upon hearing the alarm, the residents of Silent Hill immediately returned to the old church for refuge.

At that moment, Madison and Maria, who were exploring Silent Hill, also heard the air raid siren. The two looked curiously in the direction from which the siren came.

"Where did this air raid siren come from? Are there still people living in this world?"

After exiting the Silent Hill subway station, Madison and Maria quickly discovered that the desolate city seemed isolated from the world, with only empty buildings and endless ashes.

Madison and Maria wandered around the city for ages without finding a way out, when they heard the very unsettling air raid siren.

Then Madison noticed that the sky was getting darker.

"It seems to be getting dark? Maria, how long have we been here?"

Maria raised her wrist to look at her watch, but the hands had stopped moving.

"I don't know! But I'm sure it hasn't been 12 hours yet!"

"Damn it! Time here is completely messed up!"

Madison and Maria entered the cave around midnight, and they were puzzled that the sky was bright in Silent Hill.

As a result, several hours later, while it should have been daylight outside, it was starting to get dark in Silent Hill.

At this point, Madison and Maria discovered that as darkness fell, their surroundings were undergoing tremendous changes.

The walls, the floor, and everything around them began to rot, rust, and peel away rapidly, pieces drifting into the sky. The scene was so shocking that Madison and Maria were stunned.

(The world-changing changes in the movie version are truly fantastic; the early game graphics were simply too poor to compare.)
"Could this be the other world Roy was talking about?"

Maria recalled what Roy had told them about Silent Hill, mentioning that the surface world of Silent Hill was relatively safe, while the inner world was extremely dangerous.

"Maria, let's go! Run towards the air raid siren!"

Madison immediately realized what was happening and grabbed Maria, starting to run towards the old church.

If the air raid sirens are being sounded by someone to warn of global changes, then that place should be relatively safe.

Unfortunately, the two had only run a few steps when it became completely dark, with no light source in sight and it was pitch black.

Humans have an instinctive fear of darkness, and Madison and Zoe dared not run in the dark, so they had to stop.

Because they left in a hurry, neither of them brought a flashlight, and the brightness of mobile phones at that time was also very limited.

Fortunately, Madison and Maria both smoked, so they both carried lighters.

The appearance of two small flames dispelled the surrounding darkness, allowing Madison and Maria to see their surroundings for the time being.

The once empty streets were now filled with many mangled, twisted humanoid creatures, devoid of hands.

(The Man in the Case is arguably the most classic grunt in games; it appears in almost every installment.)
"What kind of monsters are these?"

Madison looked disgusted; the monster was truly repulsive.

Maria frowned as well, and another invisible figure, identical to her, split off from her body.

"No matter what kind of monster they are, it seems like their target is us. Let's take them down first!"

"Yes!"

Madison and Maria attacked simultaneously, instantly sending the nearest monsters flying. Telekinesis is much more effective than soul substitutes in group battles.

However, these twisted monsters were incredibly resilient. Madison repeatedly grabbed them and slammed them to the ground, but they always managed to stand up again and walk towards the two of them.

On the contrary, Maria's soul stand, Alan, can kill a monster with just a few punches. However, Alan's monster-clearing efficiency is relatively slow, mainly because he has no movement ability and his footwork is not fast.

And so, the two little witches began to work together.

Madison captured these monsters one by one and brought them to Alan, who then executed them one by one.

The two of them basically stood still and cleared out all the monsters around them.

"Huh, it doesn't seem as dangerous as Roy said!"

Madison felt a little smug after easily defeating the monster, and suddenly the dark and oppressive world of Silent Hill didn't seem so scary anymore.

This is normal. It's like playing a survival horror game and suddenly getting a Gatling gun. You'd naturally stop being afraid of being chased by mentally ill people.

All the fear stems from insufficient firepower!

"Madison, let's go! I hate this dark place!"

Maria wasn't particularly happy. Her past experiences made her hate this environment, and she just wanted to leave as soon as possible.

"Got it! By the way, where did the air raid siren sound just now?"

Maria was taken aback by these words, as the surrounding environment had changed drastically after entering the Otherworld, and there were no suitable points of reference.

Meanwhile, the battle had changed the direction they were facing, and now neither of them knew which way to go.

As the two hesitated, they heard a heavy tremor in the ground.

"Maria, can you hear me?"

"Of course I heard you! I'm not deaf!"

The two looked in the direction from which the tremor came and saw two pillar-sized objects slamming into the ground, followed by a huge humanoid creature.

It is about three meters tall and its whole body is bound with black tape. What should be the eyes are a pair of intertwined arms.

(Siam translation not found, from Silent Hill: Homecoming)

Madison once again showed a look of disgust.

"Huh! Why are all the monsters here so bizarrely shaped? Aren't there any that are even remotely normal?"

Maria shook her head.

"If it looks normal, would it still be considered a monster? Stop talking nonsense and kill it!"

"so troublesome!"

Madison raised his hand, trying to control the monster in front of him as he had controlled the previous trapped people, but the monster's body only lifted slightly off the ground before falling back down.

"Why is it so heavy?"

Madison stared at the monster in astonishment. Her telekinesis was enough to easily lift a bus, and several tons of weight were effortless for her, but she couldn't even lift the monster in front of her.

"Don't just stand there, run!"

Enraged by the thought, the monster charged furiously at the two little witches.

Without Madison's ability to control the situation, no matter how powerful Maria's Stand's attack was, it couldn't stop the two of them from being smashed into mincemeat by the monster.

This is the weakness of the two little witches. No matter how strong their abilities are, their physical bodies are still weak, and any sniper can take them out from a distance.

Otherwise, how could the people at the White House possibly sleep at night?

Maria pulled Madison back to prevent him from being flattened by the monster while he was distracted, and the two began to flee.

"Damn! This guy's skin is so thick!"

During the escape, Maria tried to get her sister to attack the monster, but Alan's weakness of not being able to fight tanks became apparent again.

Just as Roy couldn't defeat Jason with his soul clone in Crystal Lake, Alan was also unable to shake the monster, at most only able to cause some damage to its surface.

To explain it in a game-like way, the Soul Stand has high defense penetration, but its attack power ceiling is not high. It is suitable for dealing with enemies with low health, but it is very difficult to fight against enemies with high health.

Moreover, the disadvantage of a soul substitute having no physical form has become apparent. Alan is now completely unable to stop the monster's advance and can only watch helplessly as the monster chases after his sister.

Fortunately, this monster wasn't too fast.

However, the two dared not run too fast, because running too fast might cause the lighter to go out, and then they wouldn't be able to see anything. So they could only be chased by the monster.

Meanwhile, many other different types of monsters appeared around them, and the situation seemed to be getting more and more critical.

(End of this chapter)