Chapter 1634: Chapter 1634

As the rest of the party chased after Maria, Alma, Nia, Ferleen, and Maria walked around, searching for the kids who had run away when they were told they were moving to the next floor because there were no inns here.

"Come on, Melianna! Where are you? You are much older than the kids, you should behave better," Ferleen sighed.

"Celes! Please come back! We have to go!" Nia said.

"Arachne! Nyx! Celes? Melianna?" Alma called all the kids.

"Nyx! Where are you?" Maria asked. "I can feel her presence... ah, over there! She went with the other kids... thankfully they didn't run away separately."

Hearing their parents' calls, Nyx and her friends sneaked past some attractions, noticing the carnival lights turning on while most attractions were being turned off.

"Huh, they're turning off everything?" Celes wondered.

"Do they not work at night?" Nyx asked, looking around. "Um, excuse me, sir clown?"

"Hey, clown!" Melianna called a walking clown with green hair. His eyes seemed unfocused.

They tried to talk to him from afar, but he ignored them.

"Can you give us some candy?" Arachne called, but the clown ignored them too.

The kids looked at one another, perplexed. The clowns would always run toward them when called.

They followed the clown, watching him walk into a huge circus tent.

"Do the clowns sleep inside the circus tents? Oh, maybe we can stay here for the night!" Nyx said.

"We should tell your mom we can stay with the clowns so we can have fun all night!" Celes nodded.

"Hmm, I bet they've got a secret stash of cotton candy inside!" Melianna said.

"I want cotton candy..." Arachne, with her bottomless stomach, muttered.

Nyx peeked through the tent first, finding clowns walking inside and lining up around the seats.

She stepped inside, and the children followed.

"Hey, clowns! Do you sleep here? Hi!" Nyx said, entering the faintly lit tent.

A small radio played a clown theme, glitching strangely with unsettling laughter in the background.

The clowns remained still, silent, staring at the radio, listening to its tune and laughter.

"Hey! I'm talking to you! Hello?" Nyx poked at them, but they barely moved, staying still.

"Is someone there? Are you sleeping with your eyes open, mister clown?" Celes waved his hand in front of a clown's eyes, but nothing happened.

"Weird..." Arachne kicked one, making it fall to the floor, but the clown slowly stood up and remained still again.

"They have no candy here! It's just a bunch of clowns," Melianna complained, looking around angrily.

At the center of the circus tent, another clown stepped forward. He was smaller than the rest, with red hair and black eyes.

He smiled at the children but said nothing, waving his hand.

"Look, there's a clown that can move!" Nyx said. "Let's go ask him for candy!"

They ran downstairs, finding the clown waving mindlessly.

"Hi, do you have candy, sir?" Nyx asked.

The clown smiled sweetly, a forced smile.

He took off his big hat and reached inside.

He started rummaging.

The children tilted their heads curiously, walking toward him.

Suddenly, he pulled out colorful flowers.

The children shook their heads.

"We don't want flowers, we want candy!" Melianna demanded.

The clown nodded and pulled out a dead white rabbit.

"A rabbit?" Arachne asked. "Is it dead? Huh, did you hunt it?"

The clown discarded the corpse, rummaging again.

Melianna's sharp fox ears picked up noise from behind, noticing the still clowns starting to move.

Their bodies twitched oddly. Their hands shifted as if their bones were breaking and rearranging.

The clown in front of them found something in his hat, opened his mouth wide, smiled, and nodded at the children.

Then, he pulled out something and threw it onto the floor.

"Huh?!" Celes gasped. "W-What?!"

"This is not candy..." Arachne muttered.

"Isn't this a corpse, mister clown?!" Nyx gasped.

Indeed, it was a corpse, the body of a young human man, covered in horrible wounds, as if bitten apart by sharks.

He was missing a leg and both arms, his face mauled...

Why would that happy clown show them something so horrifying?!

"Um... guys? I think something's wrong," Melianna said, looking behind her. "The clowns..."

As Melianna spoke, Nyx kept staring at the small clown, who smiled at her.

He showed sharp teeth, and his eyes turned red.

He drooled profusely, and sharp black claws emerged from his white gloves.

And he was laughing too.

Awkward giggles echoed from more clowns behind her as Nyx saw all the clowns lined around the circus tent moving, smiling at them.

Their faces twisted, looking monstrous...

They smiled with sharp teeth, their eyes glowing red.

They were all drooling, their arms growing huge with sharp claws.

"Meat... young... fresh meat..."

"Children... so tender..."

"How long since we've eaten... children?"

"Ahhh... I cannot... wait..."

The children, creeped out, stepped back as they heard their strange whispers.

"H-Hey, we aren't your food...!" Nyx said angrily.

"What do you mean by eating us?!" Melianna gasped. "That's not part of the deal!"

"I guess we aren't getting any candy from them," Arachne said.

"Um... you're joking, right?" Celes asked.

At his question, the clowns stopped, smiling and laughing.

"Yeah, we're... joking..."

"Let us take a nibble, as a joke!"

"WHY WON'T YOU LAUGH NOW?!"

The clowns grew more monstrous, and the children screamed, running away only to find more clowns everywhere!

"COME BACK HERE! LET'S PLAY!"

The smaller clown finally spoke, becoming a giant monster clown and chasing them! The ground shook, and the circus tent trembled.

Nyx screamed, unleashing her draconic aura and breath, blasting through dozens of clowns at once!

The remaining clowns watched in awe as their kind was pulverized by the girl's wrath.

They were not the helpless, weak children they expected.

From the remains of the dead clowns, weird gum-like textures twitched briefly.

Then they merged into a monstrosity made of clown pieces stuck together.

"WHY... DON'T YOU WANT... TO PLAY?" ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ NoveI(F)ire.net

Nyx and the kids screamed as Nyx grabbed everyone with her Aura and tried to fly into the skies.

However, the monstrous clowns grabbed her legs, pulling her back down.

"NIBBLE, NIBBLE, NIBBLEEEE!"

They tried biting Nyx's body, only to break their teeth. She was incredibly tough, not soft and delicious.

"Nyx, they're everywhere!" Celes screamed as he was grabbed by the clowns. "Aaahh, don't bite meeee!"

"Damn it, why is it so hard to use magic?!" Melianna cried. "I-I can't concentrate- Aaaaahhh!"

Suddenly, Arachne transformed into a gigantic black spider of monstrous size, so terrifying that even the clowns gasped.

Arachne glared at them with crimson eyes, swinging her sharp legs down and pulverizing them into pieces.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

They let out agonizing clown noises as they were crushed and mashed into strange clown goop that was still somehow alive.

"There you are!" Maria's voice echoed as she and the family found the children amid the commotion. "What happened here?! Huh?!"

Everyone gasped as the clowns suddenly surrounded them from all sides.

They smiled, showing sharp teeth.

Their eyes glowed bright red.