Giving the handgun to Youji, both him and Leon headed downstairs after collecting a few scattered stuff. They met Ken and Aya there, who were blocking a window using a shelf.
"All yours." said Aya to Leon and Youji. They both stood in front of the door as some villagers approached. "Just one round and we'll be out"
"Don't waste ammo shooting anything beside the head." said Leon to Youji.
Then the sound of a chainsaw came to them from outside. The man carrying it was the first one to appear at the door and while Leon shot him and made him fell, Youji took care of the other townsfolk trying to break in with nice shoots in the middle of their foreheads. Yet it took two shots from the shotgun to kill the chainsaw man and at least four from the handgun to bring down a single villager.
"/What the fuck are these things?/" said Youji disgusted with the extra ammo it took to kill the attackers As both shooters reloaded, Aya and Ken sprang out slashing through the people and made their way to the village itself. They came to a halt at a wooden gate, and it was Youji who opened it with an insignia key.
"Found it lying around." he said as explanation.
They entered the village grounds and found it deserted. Even though, they still scanned every building around, before going to the construction in the middle.
"When I first came here, I was about to get killed when suddenly a bell tolled on the church and every single villager went through this door." explained Leon.
Aya tried to open it but it was locked. He then just gave a step aside and Youji came forward, taking out a little case from his coat. Lock picks. It was a matter of two seconds or so for the door to fling open on its own. Youji put away his tools and entered cautiously without anyone saying anything. Leon again was surprised but kept quiet too.
"/Why on earth would anyone have a typewriter in a place like this?/" said Ken when he saw the thing lying on a table in a place where there were little more.
They soon found themselves in a kind of tunnel. While they followed it, they found... Well, Leon found some valuable objects lying around and decided to save them for sale to the weird merchant.
Speaking about the devil, this particular character was at the end of the tunnel as well. Ken this time decided to buy from him an attached case, since it seemed they'll be collecting some stuff on the way to rescue their friends.
After reaching the end of the tunnel, the group went outside to a graveyard and beyond it stood the church. They approached it cautiously but fast enough only to discover it was locked too. It was pointless for Youji to try to open it since some kind of plate or insignia key had to be placed on the door to unlock it, so they have to look out for it.
Youji saw another entrance and headed towards there but then, Hunnigam called again.
"Leon. Have you reached the church yet?"
"Ah...well, yeah. Sort of".
Still Youji went to check that door from earlier while Aya and Ken listened to Leon's conversation - not that Ken understood a great deal of it. "Leon, did I mention not to take the scenic route? At any rate, Ashley's inside that structure. Rescue her. Hurry!"
'I wonder how she is so damn sure...' thought Leon. "Entering the church is gonna take a while. The door's locked. I can't get in"
"Didn't they teach you how to pick locks at the academy?"
"There's some sort of indentation like something might fit inside"
"Well, there's no use standing around. Leon, you have to find some way or something to get inside."
"No kiddin', lady..." said Youji sarcastically. He arrived just in time to get the women last words. "The door is nailed shut from the other side. No point on trying to pick the lock." he said.
"We'll split up." said Aya on his commander tone of voice. "With no one around we should look for a way to get in. Balinese, take Siberian and go to the graveyard. Leon and I will take a look at the back of the building. Don't stay too much and be quiet about it, come back here in 15 or less"
Youji nodded and told Ken to go with him. Then they went back towards the tombs while Leon and Aya turned around the corner. There was a weird object in there, it looked like another puzzle involving some family insignias, but apart from that, there was nothing interesting around. The other two didn't find any useful thing around either, so they met back at the atrium.
"/Family insignias? They are all over the graves./" said Ken, once Aya told them what they found.
"/It may be nothing but we should give it a try./" added Youji, with not much excitement.
So they went back to whatever the thing was and Ken identified the family insignias he saw for the others to know, and it was Leon who solved it... Only to get a green jewel out of it.
"/What kind of people place such puzzles around for nothing? Damn freaks./" snarled Ken "/... That and the previous one were pretty easy to figure out./" said Youji "/I can't see what's the point./"
Aya said nothing but headed towards the road that ran alongside the church, towards the back. Soon enough, they came to a bridge with some more villagers. Aya was growing tired of them because, unless they had a gun or the damn chainsaw, they were just a mere waste of energy. So this time he didn't bothered to unsheathed his katana and just pushed all of them off the bridge.
The group reached a cabin and Aya found some disturbing documents inside. While he read them along with Leon and Youji, Ken gathered whatever was there that could be of any use. "/Del Lago has awaken?/" said Youji. "/What the fuck is Del Lago"
"/Means 'from the lake'./" said Aya.
"Some kind of monster, I guess..." said Leon interpreting what Youji asked though he knew no Japanese at all.
"/Is there a lake somewhere ahead?/" said Ken who had gone a bit further and then came back just to hear his teammates "/What's from the lake"
"We'll find out soon enough." answered Aya while getting out of the cabin.
Finally they reached a wooden construction with another merchant in the basement. They got their weapons tuned up and went back up to get to a swampy area.
"More and more villagers." growled Youji when he saw them.
The group was about to go and face them when Aya stopped them.
"Wait here." he said and left alone.
"/Hey, Abyssinian!/" Ken tried to protest but Youji shut him up.
"Un forastero!","AgАrrenlo!","Hey, acА!". As soon as the townsfolk spotted Aya, they began screaming and cursing and approaching them fast. Then, there was an explosion.
"Hold positions!" said Aya through the intercom just when both Ken and Youji were about to jump into action. A few more cursing, shouting and exploding later, Aya spoke again. "The path's clear"
The trio hurried to catch up with the Weiss leader as he waited for them at the other side of the swamp. On the road, they saw what triggered the explosions: there were dynamite floor traps along the road and judging for all the splashing around, Aya made the villagers themselves trigger every single one of those deadly devices.
"How the hell did Abyssinian saw them?" asked Leon. The others didn't answer as they didn't know either.
After a cabin there was a skull sign dyed in blood.
"We hadda be careful here." said Leon. "The last time I saw one of there signs, I found myself interpreting Indiana Jones being chased by some rolling boulder"
"/Be prepared to run./" said Aya as they all stepped forward to the road.
And just as Leon had said, a rolling boulder soon chased them down the path, but they managed to avoid being smashed successfully.
At last they reached the damn lake. Ahead of them there was a boat, but instead of going aboard, they took a path to the left to take a look at the muddy waters and hope to catch any sight of the thing named Del Lago.
Leon used his binoculars.
"What on earth...??? The other cop!" said Leon when he saw how two men on another boat dropped a corpse to the lake.
"Cop?" asked Youji.
"I was being escorted by two local police men to this place in the morning. I saw how their truck met the deeps of the river and at first I though they had died, either by the crash or by drowning. But later on I found one of them ending like barbeque at the middle of the town and that's the other one over there. You don't think he is still alive, do you?"
Aya stood up to go back to the boardwalk but then something huge emerged from the water and swallowed the dead man, just to go back to the deeps again.
"/What the bloody hell was that???/" said Ken.
"Del Lago." said Aya. The beast had earned a full two raised eyebrows expression from him. It was immense.
"And we have to go to the other side??" asked Youji looking at Aya, who just turned around and walked to the boat.
They were lucky enough for the two murderous men leaving their boat in there, so the group just killed them and got aboard.
"Let's try to avoid the thing." said Aya as he and Ken set off followed by Youji and Leon with the other boat.
But avoiding Del Lago was not as easy as it had sounded, as the monstrosity soon appeared blocking both Youji and Leon's path. As it emerged, their anchor dropped and got the beast's tail. As the huge thing started swimming, it dragged along both guys.
It seemed the beast didn't liked to be tied so it tried forcefully to get rid of the blonde's boat, so it swam all about the place at full speed, giving sharp turns, charging against the both the boats from time to time or diving into deep waters only to emerge suddenly trying to destroy them from below. Ken tried his best to keep their boat alongside the other while both him and Youji maneuvered to avoid crashing with the scattered logs floating in the lake or against Del Lago itself.
In the meanwhile, both Leon and Aya threw the sharp harpoons they found laying on the little ships tothe filthy monster. It took a great quantity of those harpoons to kill the huge thing, but it was killed nonetheless. Yet, the group couldn't quite celebrate it because Leon's leg got wrapped up on the anchor rope. He took out his knife and slashed the rope desperately until he could finally tear it off his leg. He then laid on the bottom of the boat. He was really exhausted from that but he was fine... At least he thought so.
They safely got to the other side of the lake, but Leon wasn't feeling alright. At first he thought it has been the adrenaline rush from the fight against Del Lago, but then it wasn't likely. He felt dizzy, disoriented and about to throw up.
There was a cabin ahead, the Weiss team tried to make him reach it but he passed out right on the spot.