novelraw Chapter 128: Ritual of the Evil Spirit
Chapter 128: Ritual of the Evil Spirit
“Are you an exorcist?” Lu Li asked.
“No.”
“The Night’s Watch?”
“No, not them either. I’m not one of those guys, but I’m in a similar line of work,” the mysterious man replied, ignoring the surrounding shadows. He walked over to the nearest table, set his small suitcase down beside him, and took a seat. “Alright, I can tell you. I’m with another department. I’m an Investigator—a trainee, for now.”
Lu Li noted that the man still had his suitcase with him.
“I can tell.”
Lu Li slid his Spirit Gun back into its holster but kept his hand on the grip.
He doubted that a member of the Night’s Watch, or any official investigator who regularly dealt with ghastly creatures, would maintain the mysterious man’s level of optimism.
“So, what can you tell me?”
“I can. By the way, your composure is surprising. Are you an exorcist?”“Yes.”
“Then I can explain,” the mysterious man said, placing the hand holding a matchstick on the table. “We’ve been attacked by two Evil Spirits... Do you know what those are?”
“I know a little. Does this have something to do with our current predicament?”
“Exactly. We’re trapped inside their ritual.”
“A ritual...”
The word reminded Lu Li of what Gades had told him about the special “ritual” of Evil Spirits.
“Are you sure this is the right time for a chat? And...” Lu Li’s gaze shifted from the surrounding shadows to the burning match in the mysterious man’s hand, but he left the thought unfinished.
How much longer would that match burn?
“This match is an Anomaly. It’ll burn for a while longer.” To prove his point, the investigator gave his hand a vigorous shake. The weak flame flared and guttered, but it didn’t go out like an ordinary match would.
“But don’t try to light anything else with it—it’s useless. To get out of here, we need help from others. So sit down. Let’s figure out how to escape this ritual.”
Lu Li silently approached another empty wooden chair at the table and sat down.
He noticed a ghostly long skirt trailing close behind him at the very edge of the faint light.
Anna, who had been hiding in the In-Between, had become visible in the matchlight.
So, the match was an Anomaly, much like the Truth Candle.
“You want to know what happened, right?” The mysterious man ignored Anna, perhaps because he was already aware of her existence. He simply let go of the match, and it fell onto the wooden table.
The match, smelling of sulfur and burning wood, looked no different from any other, yet it continued to burn without scorching the table.
Its dim, flickering light illuminated the entire table where the two figures sat opposite each other, while in the darkness beyond, something stirred.
“At first, I thought we’d been attacked by the Abyss. Its ritual is to pull a person into a projection of itself, just like this. Darkness, nothing visible except with the help of special items. By the way, we’re still in the real world, and it’s fine. It should be bright outside right now, and the lights in the tavern should be on...”
“So, you’re saying we’re sitting in a bright room right now, with people walking by outside, but this attack from the Abyss has cut us off from them. Anyone else in the tavern could see and hear us, but we can’t perceive them.”
“That’s absolutely right.”
The mysterious man nodded in approval and continued, “But you just said that before the Abyss attacked, you saw a dry, black, shadow-like clawed hand reaching for the lamp right before it went out. That’s the ritual of the Shadow Stealing Fire. It appears from the darkness and extinguishes light sources. Hmm... Incidentally, these two Evil Spirits have been appearing more and more frequently lately. Before the Night Calamity, they were just a minor nuisance, but now...”
But now, something far more dangerous had appeared in the darkness.
Lu Li asked, “How do we deal with them?”
“The Abyss is simple enough—you just have to touch a person or creature that hasn’t been pulled into the ritual. As for the Shadow Stealing Fire...”
Something strange happened. A black, desiccated claw—as thin as an infant’s arm—appeared at the edge of the light. It crept up the leg of the table, crawled onto the tabletop, and reached for the burning match in the center...
Slap!
The mysterious man suddenly slapped his palm down on the claw of the Shadow Stealing Fire. As if startled, the shadow recoiled instantly and vanished into the unseen darkness.
“Just like that.”
“...” Lu Li was silent.
This was different from what he had imagined of Evil Spirits, which were supposed to have evolved from vengeful spirits.
“Is this your first time encountering an Evil Spirit?” the mysterious man asked, seeming to guess Lu Li’s thoughts.
“Probably.”
Perhaps the girl with the umbrella he had met before had also been an Evil Spirit.
“Not surprising.”
As if solving a puzzle, the mysterious man gave an understanding nod and waved his hand, making the match flame flicker. “Evil Spirits aren’t as terrifying as you might think... although, they are still terrifying. You think it’s simple because you know about their rituals. In other words, the true terror of an Evil Spirit lies in the unknown. You can’t know which one has attacked you, what its ritual is, or even if it is an Evil Spirit at all. If you were the only one pulled into this ritual and I wasn’t here to explain things, how long do you think you would have lasted?”
“Either until I ran out of bullets, or I’d have run outside and escaped,” Lu Li answered.
The latter was unlikely, as Lu Li’s fourth bullet had been aimed at a ghostly figure, and pulling the trigger would hardly have led to a good outcome.
The mysterious man spread his hands. “This is the kind of information people have paid for with their lives.”
Lu Li lowered his head slightly, his voice as calm as ever. “Thank you for telling me.”
The mysterious man might have mentioned it casually, but his words could help Lu Li, who knew nothing of this, avoid many mistakes.
“You’re welcome.”
The mysterious man waved his hand dismissively, and Lu Li continued, “But don’t we need to get out of this Evil Spirit’s ritual?”
“Not yet... It’s rare to be able to interact with an Evil Spirit this safely. I want to observe it for a while longer,” the mysterious man replied. “Are you scared?”
It seemed the Night’s Watch and the Investigators were vastly different. The former avoided knowing too much, because the more you knew, the faster you died. The latter, however, tried to learn as much as possible—the more you knew, the better your chances of survival.
Lu Li couldn’t say which approach was correct; perhaps both were. Ignorance and erudition were both factors in their survival.
Lu Li glanced around. “I’m not scared. I’m just worried that if we linger, it will be too late.”
“What...? Why do you say that?” The mysterious man had a bad feeling.
“Because they seem to be getting closer.”
The shadows in the darkness did seem closer than before.
The mysterious man’s face darkened. He shouted, “Go! Don’t worry about me!”
“Alright.”
Lu Li nodded and ran for the tavern exit without a moment’s hesitation.