The old remains fell back into the pool of blood, the new souls erged from the old body, drifting away from the dark red haze emitted by the Obsidian Stele with Lu Li.
Lu Li took Aileen back to a shelter untouchable by the Obsidian Stele.
"Are there any survivors left?"
Still shaken from the upheaval, Aileen shook her head, "Did you kill ...?"
The entrance rocks crumbled at Lu Li’s will, burying the cave leading to the horrifying stele.
"I did this so you wouldn’t be eaten by the monsters."
"So you killed ..."
At the window of the Manager’s House, a rchant’s brief observation cast a silhouette, Lu Li withdrew his dream, using the faint glow emitted by the soul, and returned to the mansion with the synchronized Aileen.
"What happened?" Lu Li asked her.
Back in familiar surroundings, the terrified Aileen gradually relaxed, yet she continued to avoid the window facing the caves.
"We... we released the demons ourselves..."
Being soone freshly returned from hell, Lu Li knew demons weren’t as terrifying as the Obsidian Stele.
Everything happened about four months ago.
At that ti, the Land of Light had not yet been reclaid; by the ti they retrieved Belfast, the shelter had already lost contact.
The shelter remained deeply entangled in partisan conflicts. Led by Aileen, one faction advocated for contacting the outside world, while forr councilor Loren spearheaded the opposition to any external contact.
They believed that the shelter had already been exposed and needed to migrate deeper. The discovered natural caves served as their best evacuation routes.
Aileen did not oppose, nor did she have reason to. Everyone in the shelter knew one fact: the deeper underground they went, the safer they were.
Even if it also ant distancing from the surface.
With Aileen’s implicit indulgence, the opposition began digging deeper along the natural caves and crevices.
The precipitating calamity occurred one "late night," when Aileen, under Lulu’s care and preparing for rest, was awakened by cheers; she sent Lulu outside to see what was happening, but Lulu did not return nor did she quell the increasingly loud commotion, not even the torches illuminating the shelter were left unlit.
Aileen climbed from the bed back into the swaying wheelchair, wheeling over to the window, where she saw people cheering in the street, residents in nightclothes scampering over in panic, then joining the cheering crowd.
Soon, Lulu returned to the mansion with both good and potentially bad news: the natural cave had reached its end, a new cavern was situated there, but the opposition found it.
Shortly thereafter, the forr councilor Loren arrived proudly at the Manager’s House, exhibiting their discovery at the cave’s end to Aileen.
A cavern broader than the shelter, an unfailing natural underground river, fertile soil piled on both banks.
Aileen sent Lulu to the cave to confirm, the forr councilor Loren also hurriedly went to confirm.
"That was my most regretful decision... Lulu died because of , and the entire shelter was destroyed due to my neglect..."
Floating in mid-air, the ghostly Aileen was filled with remorse for everything that followed, which Lu Li knew and experienced.
The Obsidian Stele in its hunting phase manipulated Lulu, forr councilor Loren, and other residents who went with them as it once did Lu Li. They returned with good news to the shelter, and when the residents gleefully approached the steep slope, the Obsidian Stele infected them; driven mad, the shelter residents dashed down the slope, shouting "Blood sacrifice, eternal tornt," killing each other until a dim pool of blood with severed limbs was ford.
The Ailen Peninsula’s shelter, the Exorcists Association’s Spark Project, one of humanity’s hopes, was extinguished.
"How did you survive?"
Aileen remained silent for a long ti, subconsciously avoiding the question: "My legs were broken, and I broke my arm while crawling toward it after falling, unable to commit suicide."
Aileen feigned death to fool it.
Before Lu Li arrived, Aileen soaked in the pool of blood and fed on it the entire ti.
Aileen nauseously wished to vomit what she’d consud over those months, but as a ghost, she couldn’t expel anything.
"Do you know what that thing... is?"
Lu Li shook his head.
Was it an anomaly in itself? So cursed object? A forgotten ritual?
The only thing he knew was that the Obsidian Stele seed only effective on blood and flesh.
"Migrate to the Land of Light."
Amid rchants moving books, Lu Li woke Elena, who’d fallen into chaotic contemplation.
"Where is that?"
"Old Belfast. We cleaned it up and let the sunlight in."
Lu Li described everything about the Land of Light to Aileen—if the Land of Light wasn’t in Old Belfast but in the caverns, she’d have suspected that Lu Li had fallen under the Obsidian Stele’s influence too.
"Is this for real?"
Finding Lu Li not inclined to jest, Aileen was slightly stunned.
"The rchant can testify."
Aileen indeed sought confirmation from the rchant moving the shelter’s assets, which she received.
"But how is that possible..."
Aileen continued to doubt, but instead of the Land of Light, she doubted herself.
"Why not sooner..."
Beside the oil lamp’s glow, the epheral soul wept, "Everyone in the shelter wouldn’t have died... Lulu wouldn’t have left ..."
Ghosts don’t shed tears.
Grief surged like pressure inside a boiling kettle corked shut, battering the ghost’s remaining sanity. As Aileen touched the breath of the Inner World, Lu Li stopped her: "Don’t engage with the Inner World, you’ll descend into the abyss."
"Just like Anna?"
Aileen coldly retorted, as the breath of the Inner World encircling her gradually dissipated, "Sorry... I couldn’t control myself just now."
"It’s okay."
She was stating the truth.
Aileen’s emotions gradually returned to normal, departing from sadness, focusing on her surroundings, seeing the dust-brushed "How to Increase Your Chances of Becoming a Ghost."
"So you chose to kill without hesitation?"
Aileen touched her chest, no penetration wound left by Lu Li remained on her soul.
"Hmm."
If Aileen died from this, it would have been Lu Li liberating her; considering she survived, her luck was good.
Aileen bowed her head to gaze at her empty skirt hem, "My arm broke too, yet after death, my arms remain but my legs are gone?"
"It’s related to your condition before death."
So ghosts with rotted heads didn’t have heads after death either.
Confirming no second survivor existed in the shelter, Lu Li prepared to leave.
"Will you not bring back?"
Still drenched in sorrow, Aileen didn’t want to leave Lu Li again, nor remain here.
"The Land of Light will send soone to pick you up, the Obsidian Stele can’t affect this place, and the rchant will accompany you."
The ssage sent by the rchant to the Land of Light received a response, Mother of the Marsh said as Andrea journeyed back, she would pass by the coast and take Aileen onboard.
Lu Li reminded her one last ti not to touch the Inner World, nor attempt to harness any unknown powers, while helping the rchant locate the shelter’s assets to be sent to the Land of Light.
As the cavern returned to gloom, Aileen stood beneath the Manager’s House, dazedly watching the direction Lu Li departed.
Rustling...
The incomprehensible obscurity quietly resounded.
"What did you say?" Listening, Aileen shook her head lightly, "No way, Lu Li wouldn’t trick ..."
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