Marvel Survival Rule Number 4: Don't enter abandoned hospitals; usually, there's a Big Boss hiding inside!
Was Jeri Hogarth the Big Boss? Bella scratched her head. Instead of running her law firm in New York, what on earth was this lesbian lawyer doing inexplicably in Silent Hill?
She was totally baffled. Visually, the opponent was extremely fast. Theoretically, Bella could match that speed, but ignoring gravity and crawling on the ceiling like a spider? That was beyond her.
What the hell was going on?
006's reaction speed was definitely lightning fast. The moment Bella saw him, he also saw his wife and daughter. Without a word, he turned around and ran back the way he came.
Bella instantly grasped his intention: Just get my wife and daughter out, don't worry about me!
She was decisive too. She immediately turned around, preparing to get Rose, Sharon, and the policewoman in the car out first. Once she'd gotten them out safely, she would come back to support 006.
But she underestimated Rose's love for her husband. Hearing the chaotic footsteps, the woman instinctively looked up.
"Christopher?! Christopher! Wait for me!" The foolish woman charged forward without a second thought.
Are you out of your mind? What good is charging over there going to do?! Bella was thoroughly exasperated, but she still managed to grab Rose's arm after the woman had taken three steps.
Before she could say a word, the Inner World descended again in an instant.
This descent came without warning, the transformation incredibly fast. One second it was a gray, dilapidated hospital lobby; the next, it had turned into a nightmarish world filled with rust and decay.
Bella had just grabbed Rose's arm. When she looked back, she found that Sharon was gone.
The surrounding space was shifting rapidly. Walls became ceilings; the floor-to-ceiling windows suddenly moved from her side to beneath her feet. The entrance was clearly just behind them, but when they turned around a split second later, they found a thick, heavy wall.
"Sharon— Sharon! —" Rose began to scream heart-wrenchingly for her daughter again.
Amateurs watched the chaos; professionals watched the mechanics. Bella carefully surveyed her surroundings. What's with the strange changes in the Inner World this time? What exactly triggered it?
"Rose! Sharon! —" Real shouting rang out from her side. Covered in blood, voice hoarse, guns in both hands, 006 charged out from another corridor.
"Where are my wife and daughter? I just saw them!" he asked in astonishment.
Bella turned back again, only to find that even Rose had vanished...
A soft hissing sound, like a venomous snake, appeared overhead. She immediately took a defensive stance and looked up. Jeri Hogarth was hanging upside down from the ceiling like a Licker from Resident Evil. The female lawyer's hair was disheveled, her eyes glowing with a fierce light, staring dead at Bella like a beast eyeing its prey.
Unsure if this was the real deal or some illusion, and with her injured arm and shoulder still throbbing, Bella exchanged a few blows with Jeri Hogarth. When she turned around again, she found that 006 had disappeared too...
Little Sharon drifted past in front of her, looking like she was sleepwalking. Bella, with quick eyes and hands, grabbed the girl's arm and simultaneously cast a psychic shield.
Sharon snapped out of it immediately.
"Bella, I'm so scared!" The pitiful little girl hugged Bella's leg, crying with snot and tears.
Is this whole family pranking me?!
Bella was completely befuddled.
She forced herself to calm down, recalling movies she had seen. This felt like a magical version of Cube. Nothing too terrifying, just confusion spells and visual tricks.
"Hold my hand and do not let go. Do you hear me? If you dare let go, I'll beat you!" she said sternly to the little girl.
Sharon nodded blankly.
Between looking for people and waiting in place, Bella chose the latter. Running around blindly was the worst thing to do right now!
If her prediction was correct, those people would pass by her again.
Thinking about Jeri Hogarth's state, she held Sharon's hand with one hand and accessed the memories in her mind with the other, starting to draw an anti-magic circle on the ground!
When Rose appeared in front of her again, Bella was drawing the circle. The woman seemed bewitched; she didn't see them at all and ran past like a madwoman. Bella missed grabbing her by two steps.
However, when 006 passed by, she grabbed him by the collar and managed to haul him in. 006's willpower was much stronger than Rose or Sharon's. Without needing a psychic shield, he slowly woke up from the dilemma of intertwined illusion and reality.
"Daddy!" The little girl hugged 006's waist and cried, eyes brimming with tears. Bella felt that if she were in the little girl's shoes, she'd be crying too. Having parents flash before your eyes like a broken slideshow was just too stimulating!
006 hugged his daughter tightly, as if she were the most beautiful treasure in the world. "It's okay, it's okay!"
Is it okay? This is a huge mess!
Close on 006's heels was Jeri Hogarth. This old acquaintance came charging at the trio with a shout, but under Bella's clever luring, she plunged headfirst into the anti-magic circle.
This social elite, who used to speak with such assurance in court and whose appearance and temperament were impeccable, now looked like a lunatic. Her face was ferocious, her figure like a vengeful ghost, emitting beast-like roars.
She was trapped in the center of the anti-magic circle, dashing left and right but unable to break through the confinement.
Bella didn't waste her breath with clichés like "Snap out of it," "I'm your friend," or "How did we get here?" She took out her loot from ten minutes ago—the Tome of Metatron—and began the exorcism.
Words have power, and books are the tools that trap those words.
Exorcism didn't require faith; you just needed to be literate and able to read the sentences out loud.
Often, specific sentences weren't even needed. To put it piously, the book recorded holy words; the words themselves carried exorcising properties, regardless of who recited them. The key was the book and the ancient text upon it.
Selecting a relevant passage, Bella began to circle the anti-magic circle and chanted: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law! ..."
Jeri Hogarth struggled desperately, but this anti-magic circle, used by countless generations of demon hunters, had withstood the test of time and was extremely effective. As Bella chanted, a massive amount of black, mist-like gas poured out of the lawyer's eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
The gas coalesced to form a female monster with hands like sharp blades and eyes that had been gouged out, the sockets bearing rough stitching marks.
The female monster let out a soundless roar before being blasted back to hell by the holy words.
This was the limitation of demon hunters; often, they could only banish devils, rarely kill them.
Bella felt a slight regret, but at least she hadn't expended much energy and had saved Jeri Hogarth from the devil's grasp. It wasn't much, but it still counted as a win.