A minute later, the Trader departed from the clifftop.
“Why didn’t you buy more canned food?” Remi asked. Neither she nor her brother rembered what Lu Li had asked about.
“This world might not last that long,” Lu Li replied, deflecting the paradoxical question.
The world itself wouldn't perish; it would simply be assimilated by the strange aura, transforming into a paradise for monsters. It would rely transition from one state to another.
The true calamity would befall the people living in this world.
“We’ll protect you,” Jimmy suddenly declared. Frail as he was, he had been lying quietly in his lounge chair, listening to them. Remi nodded in agreent.
For Lu Li, helping them break free from the shackles of the evil spirit’s book had been almost an accident. But for them, escaping the monotonous pages of the book to beco truly living beings was a debt of gratitude so imnse they were willing to give anything to repay it.
“Thank you.”
Though it felt out of place, with the end of the world drawing near, Lu Li found himself with a mont of genuine free ti. He no longer needed to make plans, devise sches, or contemplate where to run.
Seeing them as companions with whom he would likely spend a great deal of ti, Lu Li asked Jimmy and his sister to detail their abilities.
Remi was a ghost, even before she was turned into a servant of an Evil God. She was still a soul now, but she couldn’t be categorized within the system of evil spirits.
The Evil God was dead, and as its servant, she should have followed her master into oblivion. But within the evil spirit’s book, the story was the only rule, and nothing could break it. So, in the perfect ending woven by Lu Li, she survived and appeared in reality, in a form that defied the “four major classifications” established by the spirit exterminators.
Detached from the classification of evil gods, she was now more akin to a spirit of defilent. She couldn't be contaminated by the aura of the In-Between like the souls of evil spirits, nor could she be controlled by a higher power like the servants of evil gods. And she certainly wasn't anything like the strange, indescribable creatures classified as anomalies.
Her power was an ability inherited from a servant of the Evil God known as the “Scholar”: the Banshee’s Wail.
Remi yearned for a quiet life, so she had never had the chance to use this ability.
Her only knowledge of her power ca from fragnted mories she received when she inherited it: the Banshee’s Wail attacked everything within a radius of over ten ters, friend and foe alike. The weak would be crushed, whether they were real or illusory. The stronger the enemy, the weaker the effect; it might only stun them briefly, or have no impact at all.
Her brother, Jimmy, was far less fortunate. The monster’s body was rely a low-tier servant of that Evil God, a far cry from the mid-tier “Scholar.” He had no special abilities, only a physical form capable of overpowering wild beasts. Moreover, since he had never been fully transford into a servant, he was still burdened by his human body, enduring the daily tornt of the conflict between his two forms.
They had considered severing the connection, allowing him to either fully transform into a monster or revert to his human form. But he and his sister had always been too afraid to try, fearing the possibility that he might beco neither and simply die.
As a result, Jimmy currently existed sowhere between a spirit of defilent and an anomaly—if he were to truly abandon one of his bodies, he would imdiately beco a being of a different classification.
“Unfortunately, we’re still too weak,” Remi said regretfully.
“That doesn’t matter,” Lu Li replied.
Monsters could never be judged as simply strong or weak, with the exception of those indescribable beings.
Most evil spirits, the kind that could easily destroy a city and that humans deeply feared, might not even be able to harm a monster.
They are simply filled with an undisguised malice toward humanity.
A short while later, Remi told Lu Li what she had seen on her way to Belfast. When she ntioned the strange town of Innsmouth, Lu Li told her about the peculiar experience he’d had on the train.
As a forr “Scholar,” she might know sothing.
“Are you saying the townspeople changed because of you?”
Lu Li nodded. “They were all watching
as they walked.”
“It sounds like their minds and bodies were being controlled... So evil gods are capable of that. Did you offend an evil god? Or are you carrying sothing that interests one?”
The beautiful face of the Mother of the Swamp flashed through his mind. Lu Li lowered his head and glanced at the crimson bracelet peeking out from under his sleeve.
In a half-trance, the sight of his own wrist rged with the mory of a pale wrist protruding from the swamp.
He shook his head quietly. “It can’t be the first one.”
At the ti, the Mother of the Swamp had only just freed herself from the influence of the Old Mother of the Swamp; she couldn't possibly have been ddling in the affairs of a coastal town over a hundred kiloters away.
“Then it’s the second reason?”
Lu Li shook his head again. He wasn’t carrying anything unusual.
“I can sense the auras of other evil gods, if one has taken an interest in you. But I’d need to touch your forehead. Is that alright?”
“Of course.”
A flicker of excitent appeared in Remi’s eyes, seemingly born from Lu Li’s trust. She raised her hand, which was much more solid than Anna’s, and a faint, strange aura ford around it.
Her aura was completely different from Anna’s. Anna’s darkness was malevolent, an overflowing presence from the In-Between that felt as if it could devour the entire world.
Remi’s was more like that of the strange spirit of defilent with the wide umbrella whom Lu Li had encountered long ago.
A cool, white palm rested on Lu Li’s forehead. Remi closed her eyes and sank her consciousness into the depths of her spirit, sensing carefully.
“Such a vibrant life force and soul... here... no malice... it is observing... sensing... no... understanding...”
After a few dozen seconds, Remi slowly opened her eyes and removed her hand. “You really do have the aura of an evil god on you.”
A look of confusion crossed Remi’s face. “But it’s strange. There’s no malice in it, no evil intent. It’s just wrapped around your body, doing nothing. That’s why Miss Anna can’t detect it either.”
Lu Li asked, “What is its purpose?”
“That’s the problem,” Remi said, feeling as if there might be a flaw in the ‘Scholar’s’ inheritance. In her inherited mories, all auras left by evil gods served to seduce, tempt, mark, or curse. “This one is useless. It’s just... on you. Like... a strand of hair.”
Lu Li had a good idea who had left it.
After all, the only Evil God he had truly interacted with was the one dwelling in the Shadow Swamp.
“The aura is very weak. I can help you get rid of it. Should I?”
“Leave it.”
Ten minutes later, Anna returned.
Anna hadn’t found the wheelchair Lu Li needed, but she had brought back plenty of fresh food and two dusty crates of canned goods—it seed she had raided a restaurant.
“In the future, if you find more canned goods, you can leave half behind,” Lu Li said.
“Why?”
Lowering his gaze slightly, he told Anna about the canned goods sold by the Trader. “Many people need them more than we do.”
“As you wish,” Anna replied, gazing tenderly at Lu Li.
Remi could hardly believe that the Anna before her now was the sa cold person from the previous night.
Rembering sothing, Anna said to Lu Li with a serious expression, “I saw those children...”
“Are they still alive?”
After a brief silence, Anna said, “In another sense.”
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