710: 229.
Old Miklos’s Farewell 710: 229.
Old Miklos’s Farewell The dense night, the thick fog that couldn’t be dispelled swirled outside the house, making even the fire look dim and faint.
After waiting about ten seconds, the second knocking didn’t co again.
There was no sound of breathing outside the door, nor any obscure presence.
“You stay here to protect Lu Li, I’ll go check.” Raimy, worried that the knocking was bait, crossed through the wooden door.
Lu Li and Anna waited, and shortly after, the wooden door opened from the outside, Raimy’s ethereal palm holding a bunch of rough hemp rope: “There’s a bundle of rope on the ground by the door…
Could it be the Rope of Descent you ntioned?”
The sea breeze blew into the cabin, making the fire even weaker, and the black cat that had been lying by the fire scurried to Lu Li’s side.
Raimy closed the wooden door, and Anna approached to take the hemp rope from her.
It was just a section of ordinary hemp rope, severely worn and with its coarse fibers curled, bearing no special aura.
But ordinary hemp rope would not just appear at the doorstep amidst the Mist of Strangeness.
At the sa ti, Old Micklos’s intermittent, feeble whispering suddenly arose within the cabin: “Please…
help …”
Anna, holding the hemp rope, seed to hear more, saying to Lu Li, “It wants you to help it find release.”
Raimy looked surprised, not quite convinced that this malicious spirit visiting their doorstep was trying to convey this ssage.
“Is there a chance to revive him?” Anna calmly looked at the hemp rope, as if she noticed nothing: “Old Micklos could beco a new resident of Elm Forest.”
Raimy let go of her unfounded suspicions about Anna due to that statent.
Maybe she was overthinking it.
Anna, who saw Lu Li as more important than anything, would surely know that a malevolent spirit could protect Lu Li better.
Killing it for its humanity would only make Lu Li an even sweeter and more delectable target.
“Even if we do nothing, it won’t last until dawn,” Anna shook her head and replied.
Old Micklos, now too weak to make a sound, seed to have expended his last bit of strength with the knocking and his fragnted plea.
There was no room for hesitation, Lu Li picked up the gun holster and poured the redemption on the body of Old Micklos, lying on the floor.
Hiss—
Colorless, vapor-like smoke billowed from the hemp rope, and the next mont, Lu Li’s consciousness was taken into Old Micklos’s Death Retrace.
…
The autumnal sunlight-like amber glow stread through the patchy windows and into the theater.
The empty seats extended, and dust floated aimlessly in the air.
Lu Li stood in the aisle, the setting sun casting into the theater fell on his shoes, adding a touch of liveliness.
Click—
The empty theater resonated with the sound of a chanism, as a hemp rope fell from the stage, unseen from the audience seats.
The echoes faded, and in the now silent theater, even the swish of the swinging rope could be heard.
But soon, the silence was broken by slow footsteps as a decrepit figure appeared from behind the curtain, walking onto the stage.
Old Micklos looked older than his years, perhaps because his back was too bowed.
He walked with a tremble toward the hanging Rope of Descent, his steps were slow yet resolute.
Lu Li’s body leaned forward slightly.
But just then, as if Old Micklos had discovered sothing, he awkwardly knelt on the floor, breathed on his sleeve, and diligently wiped a stain on the stage floor.
This movent made Lu Li stop his attempt to intervene.
Old Micklos stood up again, almost falling.
He was too old, resting for several seconds before moving toward the rope again, taking nurous breaks to tie a noose.
Once tied, the rope hung half a head taller than him, but Old Micklos suddenly straightened his back, put his head in the noose as a playful child might do, and thrust up on his toes.
In the empty theater, on the desolate stage, the struggling Old Micklos soon lost all signs of life and hung in the rope, swinging slightly like a swing.
“I wish…
I could go back and take one more look…”
A faint sigh arose beside his ear.
…
Flas flickered into view, and Lu Li erged from Death Retrace.
Anna took the gun holster from Lu Li’s hand, retrieved the Redemption that had vanished and fallen to the floor with a hemp rope, “How much humanity did you get?”
She could distinctly feel the changes in Lu Li as the Rope of Descent vanished.
The changes were not superficial; at least Lu Li’s appearance showed no alteration.
It was more like a change in scent.
“Steaming delicious food,” Anna thought subconsciously, and then beca uneasy at the thought.
Because initially, she had resisted the scent of Lu Li’s humanity, but now it was completely the opposite…
“Less than Sarai Adam…” Lu Li answered after careful consideration.
After the amplification by Doomsday Apocalypse, Sarai Adam had brought nearly 9 portions of humanity.
Old Micklos had less than 7 portions.
Now, Lu Li possessed nearly 20 portions of humanity.
“Lu Li’s aura is even harder to hide,” Raimy said, she and her brother, being entities in the book, were not affected by instinct.
“Fortunately, we can finish building the safe house by tomorrow.”
This path was destined to be twisted.
Without improving humanity, the perilous environnt would devour rationality.
But to enhance humanity was like a fawn straying into a dark forest.
Fortunately, the Elm Forest, Anna and others, along with the Deep Sea Stone, constructed barriers to protect Lu Li from the assault of the Mist of Strangeness.
The fire cald once more, and the black cat quickly returned to the fire to warm up.
Lu Li reopened “Voice of Tragedy.”
The title already disclosed that this would not be a work with a happy ending.
This point was slowly being unveiled.
Jamie, having drunk the Elixir of Immortality for the fourth ti, had lost his emotions.
Nothing could make him happy, sad, troubled, or excited.
This was within Jamie’s capacity to accept—emotions were more of a hindrance than a benefit to an alchemist.
Rather than the flashes of miraculous brightness when excited, it was more important not to fail in alchemy because of emotions.
Of course, thinking this way wasn’t because Jamie didn’t care about emotions, but rather because he had lost them, naturally he wouldn’t feel pain or sadness because of it.
Loss of emotions ant that it was unlikely anything in the world could make him care again.
Wealth?
Status?
Won?
All those originated from emotions, and would naturally be extinguished by Jamie.
Only inertia drove him to continue his alchemical experints, and he didn’t wait to age again.
Then his sense of touch also disappeared.
This was similar to the loss of pain, but more severe, as it ant Jamie couldn’t feel anything at all.
The only proof of his actions ca from his eyes and ears.
After drinking the potion, it even took him several hours to walk out of the basent, his bruised appearance frightening the servants.
Jamie thought he could get used to the loss of touch, like the other losses he had grown accustod to, but he couldn’t.
Days passed, and he still fell while walking, as his body returned no feedback, so he didn’t know how much force to use.
Experience was aningless here.
It was worse than that.
Perhaps out of a dark sense of humor, Flo Mitchell described scenes of Jamie incontinent of urine and feces.
But even so, Jamie did not give up on modifying the Elixir of Immortality.
He succeeded, and when he drank the potion while sitting in his wheelchair, his appearance miraculously reverted to that of a 20-year-old.
Afterward, Jamie also developed the Emotion Potion, which could temporarily bestow upon him the emotions he had lost, sadly nothing else could return…
In short, he achieved immortality.
No one could kill him, no one could strip him from the river of ti.
Reviews
All reviews (0)