Katerina and the others, drawn by the heart-wrenching scream, burst into the hut.
They saw Lu Li with an icy expression, a headless body at his feet, and his corroded sleeve and arm.
Katerina rushed to Lu Li, took out her flask, and poured clean water onto his palm.
It didn't help; the sli still clung stubbornly to Lu Li's hand, eating through his skin and seeping deeper into the flesh.
— Give the artifact to Mr. Lu Li!
At that mont, Prusius shouted. Katerina snapped back to her senses and pressed the artifact fragnt into Lu Li's palm.
The tenacious sli vanished instantly along with the contamination, but Ophelia, standing beside him, suddenly began to radiate intense heat.
— What's happening?
Katerina drew her dagger and stared at the body.
— Soone... is watching... us!
Ophelia was looking in another direction.
An indistinct presence that had appeared in the void did not dissipate after the heretic's complete disappearance. Instead, it condensed, transforming into a palpable malice that suddenly spread out.
Everyone except the rchant and Lu Li clutched their heads and scread as delirious images seeped into the depths of their trembling consciousness.
A deep sea, waves, silt, ruins.
They ford a picture that, just before revealing the true horror lurking beneath the ocean depths, abruptly shattered and broke apart.
Katerina gasped for breath, her bloodshot eyes flying open.
Lu Li, as if waking from a dream, lowered his dark eyes.
The artifact fragnt in his palm had completely turned to dust, absorbing into his flesh.
It had protected them from the worst of the contamination.
— What... was... that?!
Katerina forced out a low growl. It was difficult for her to focus, countless residual images from the delirium swimming before her eyes.
— The... entity... they worship... it noticed... us.
Her bloodshot eyes turned to Prusius, whose fur was falling out in clumps.
— Are we cursed?
— No.
Ophelia's breathing gradually steadied.
— The artifact... deflected... the curse. Most of it.
A small amount of contamination had still seeped into their minds, and now they needed rest to recover from the terrible effects of being noticed.
— You go on ahead.
Lu Li unscrewed the cap of his flask, washed the remaining blood and li from his palm, and wrapped it in a bandage.
— I still have sothing to do.
— The artifact fragnt is destroyed. We can't lift the curse from this place anymore, — Katerina said, frowning and pressing a hand to her forehead.
— I'm not leaving the cetery.
But the cleansed area still existed.
— Then we'll wait for you at the house outside. Be as quick as you can. It noticed us, and it could co at any mont, — Katerina said hoarsely, barely holding herself together.
They left the hut; Ophelia and the rchant departed as well.
Only Lu Li remained in the cetery.
Once they were gone, Lu Li stepped over the heretic's body and picked up a snow-white skull from a wooden shelf.
The skull, with its empty eye sockets, looked no different from any other.
Lu Li carried it out of the hut, walked back along the path to Anna's headstone, and stepped into the open grave.
Carefully setting down the skull, he gathered the scattered bones, placing them in the grave one by one.
After placing the last femur inside, a silent Lu Li climbed out of the grave. He found a broken shovel near a ruined headstone nearby and began to fill the grave, scooping up earth mixed with snow.
Thud.
The shovel was tossed aside, the grave completely filled.
Lu Li stood quietly before the headstone. Before leaving, he took out the book he always carried in his inner pocket and placed it on the rough earth.
"Love of Belfast"
It was Anna's favorite book.
...
Knock, knock, knock.
Ophelia turned toward the knocking door.
Opening the door, she saw Lu Li standing outside, his hair covered in snow.
— Finished...?
— Yes.
Lu Li picked up the flask they had left by the door and entered the room.
Ophelia then closed the door.
They had moved the bed from the bedroom into the living room. Katerina was lying on it.
— Miss Katerina's condition is not good, — Prusius said.
He and Ophelia were anomalies; the contamination itself couldn't harm them, only the consciousness within it. But Katerina, being human, suffered from both the contamination and the consciousness.
As a hunter who had always lived in the wilderness, Katerina's Mind Level had long been approaching a critical point.
— Don't listen to his nonsense, I'm fine, — Katerina retorted weakly.
— The stone fragnt blocked the contamination, and the few remaining issues won't be a problem for , the Sting...
She was putting on a brave face, but that also ant the worst was yet to co.
— Now you tell us what happened back there. What made you... so angry?
Ophelia and Prusius looked at Lu Li.
After a short silence, Lu Li said:
— I'll tell you on the way.
They returned the sa way they had co and reached the wooden wall.
Ophelia supported Katerina as they passed through the wooden wall.
Lu Li glanced back; the spire of the city's western church was faintly visible through the falling snowflakes.
After a mont's silence, he lowered his head and followed his companions' call, stepping out of the walled area.
...
On the way back, they listened in silence as Lu Li dispassionately recounted everything that had happened in the hut.
— So what happened? Those bones... were they Anna's real body?
Katerina struggled to understand.
— But why did she beco human and get eaten... killed by a heretic?
— Anna was looking for a way to resurrect the dead, — Lu Li said.
— Resurrect the dead... You an, she resurrected herself...
Although it was hard for her to focus, Katerina finally understood what Anna had been doing all this ti.
Anna believed Lu Li was dead and was searching for a way to resurrect the dead to bring him back. She had almost succeeded, resurrecting herself in her true body, but was attacked by the heretic... and died.
— We still haven't seen the tree or the brown car! — shouted Prusius, who was following their tracks.
Katerina lifted her heavy head:
— Prusius is right. And no matter who Anna is in your heart, she's an evil spirit... a weak heretic couldn't have killed her.
— She's still alive... — Lu Li whispered.
— Yes! The prophet must know sothing. We have to ask him again, — Prusius said.
Katerina looked at him:
— Did the voice tempt you again?
— What? — Prusius froze, then raised his head and asked:
— Did I just say sothing about going back to Belfast?
— The prophet is in Belfast.
— I... I don't know...
Perhaps it was a coincidence, or perhaps Prusius's mind was gradually being influenced.
Either way, they had to go to Belfast again.
Having found Anna but with less than ideal results, everyone returned to the coast, boarded the Andrea, and set course for Belfast.
anwhile, a ssage arrived from Vinnelag.
— I heard you were in Himpfast? — asked Mayor Matteus.
Since the rchant was in Vinnelag, it wasn't difficult for Mayor Matteus to learn of Lu Li's whereabouts.
— Ask him what he wants.
Lu Li had beco even more silent than usual, and only Katerina could carry the conversation.
After a while, the rchant returned with a ssage: the museum director wanted to acquire a batch of valuable artworks from the Montali Art Museum in Himpfast.
— Tell them Himpfast is no longer accessible.
Soon after, Mayor Matteus replied, expressing his regrets and promising to pass the ssage on to the museum.
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