novelraw Chapter 416: Moon
Chapter 416: Moon
The small patch of darkness, which had formed only moments before, was replenished by the melting Face-Worm.
The shadow resumed its spread, allowing Lu Li to press onward.
As they moved further from the neck of the Old Mother of the Swamp's shell, the winding, blood-red passage grew steeper. At times, Lu Li had to use both hands, gripping the cold patches of darkness to continue his ascent.
He encountered more and more Face-Worms ahead, sometimes in entire clusters. Spotting them, Lu Li was forced to retreat into side passages, waiting for the creatures to drift by.
The naturally forming patches of darkness vanished beyond the neck. The only stable footing Lu Li had was on the dark paths created by the Mother of the Swamp.
Everything indicated that this domain was under the complete control of the Old Mother of the Swamp.
The good news was that, for now, nothing had changed, which meant Lu Li had not yet been discovered.
“I... don’t know how to break the seal...” the Mother of the Swamp whispered, her tone like someone telling a terrible joke.
Lu Li’s expression remained impassive, his usual calm unshaken. “Then how do you expect me to help you?”
“You... are the only one I can make a deal with... avoid them...”The Mother of the Swamp’s whisper changed. Having experienced this before, Lu Li said nothing. He followed a newly formed patch of darkness back to a fork in the passage and waited.
The spreading shadow drew the attention of the drifting Face-Worms.
Once they had disappeared from view, the patch of darkness began to stretch out again, creating a path for Lu Li.
Lu Li and the Mother of the Swamp had emerged too soon.
A lone Face-Worm drifted out from the depths of the passage. There was no need for Lu Li to hide.
The Mother of the Swamp’s shadowy lure materialized in front of the Face-Worm.
This time, however, the creature ignored the beckoning shadow and headed straight for the motionless Lu Li.
“Something’s wrong...” Lu Li muttered, his hand tightening on the grip of his pistol. The Face-Worm’s disturbingly human face seemed to be staring directly at him.
At his words, the Mother of the Swamp conjured several more patches of darkness in front of the Face-Worm, but the creature ignored them all.
The distance closed until Lu Li could clearly see its twisted, malevolent face.
There was no longer any point in waiting. The moment the Face-Worm was within arm's reach, Lu Li abruptly drew his Spirit Gun and struck the creature.
The lone Face-Worm was as fragile as an insect. Touched by the power of the First Pistol, with its fully bloomed rose, the creature dissolved like a wisp of smoke.
In that same instant, his surroundings changed dramatically.
Lu Li found himself standing in the middle of a tilled field. A few farmers toiled in the dirt nearby, swinging their hoes.
Dusk was settling, the sun already lost beyond the horizon. At the edge of the field stood a few simple huts. When Lu Li turned, he saw a dark, damp, emerald-green forest that bordered a swamp.
The time and place were obvious.
This was the early days of Tenebrae, when settlers had just begun to cultivate the land.
“Was the Face-Worm... once human?” Lu Li wondered, watching a lone figure approach from the swamp.
He knew what was about to happen: the farmer would be attacked and killed. But before that moment arrived, his gaze was drawn to something else.
Hanging in the southwestern sky, high above the Shadow Swamp, was a brilliant point of light.
Lu Li, a man not normally given to displays of emotion, clenched his fists.
“Is that... this world’s moon...?”
...
Back in the passage, Lu Li’s actions had triggered a new wave of changes.
The passage walls began to tremble, and an anxious hum filled the air, as if the entire shell were starting to awaken.
“Lu Li... the Old Mother’s shell has sensed something...” the Mother of the Swamp warned, her voice reaching the Lu Li who was still lost in the vision.
The vibration bled into Lu Li’s vision, and the Mother of the Swamp's whisper echoed in his mind. The nearby farmer wiped sweat from his brow and started walking toward Lu Li’s position—or rather, toward the man who stood there in his place.
But Lu Li merely lifted his head, his gaze locked on the “moon.”
Lu Li had never seen this world’s moon. Since the day he arrived, the sky had been perpetually shrouded in thick clouds, and he’d never heard anyone speak of it.
He was no astronomer, after all. Since he couldn’t even determine this world’s location from the stars, there was little point in pondering the distance to its sun or moon.
However, the luminous object hanging in the sky was unlike any moon he had ever known. Perhaps it only seemed dim because the daylight had not yet fully faded.
“The shell has found you... The Old Mother of the Swamp is approaching...” The Mother of the Swamp’s whisper grew anxious.
At that same moment, the farmer near Lu Li screamed.
The vision shattered, returning Lu Li to the blood-red passage. All that remained was the sharp image of the moon etched in his mind, and the fleeting glimpse of a relieved smile on the Face-Worm’s face as it disappeared.
Committing the shape of the moon to memory, Lu Li focused on the present. “I’ve been discovered?”
The passage walls pulsed, and the crimson light flickered with increasing frequency, seeming to press in on his mind and stir up feelings of irritation, anger, and anxiety.
“The Old Mother of the Swamp has only sensed a disturbance... She doesn’t know it’s you...”
“But she will soon,” Lu Li said, peering down the passage. A strange, indescribable sound echoed from its depths. Whatever was approaching, it didn’t bode well. “Can you get me out of this shell?”
“My power is too weak...”
“Can you make a path?”
“Only that...”
“Then lead me to the head.”
Lu Li holstered his pistol and moved swiftly forward, following the dark path.
The vibrations continued unabated, and the flickering crimson light made it difficult to see. Lu Li stopped paying attention to his surroundings, trusting the Mother of the Swamp to guide him along the dark paths and steer him clear of danger.
“We... are here...” the Mother of the Swamp whispered just as the strange sound drew alarmingly close.
At the end of the bloody passage, the tunnel opened into a wide, cavern-like space.
Countless blood-red passages converged in the center of the space, where a faded stone statue stood.
The body of an insect, the head of a human.
“Your shell?”
After a brief glance at the statue, Lu Li looked away, removing it from his line of sight. His Mind Level counter was clicking frantically, and he knew exactly what that meant.
“Yes... How are you going to break the seal?...”
Lu Li didn’t answer. He drew his pistol, located the statue in his peripheral vision, and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
A deafening roar echoed through the shell, reverberating down the countless passages and spreading throughout the creature’s entire body.
There was no point in hiding now.
“Did anything change?” Lu Li asked calmly, reloading his pistol with a fresh silver bullet.
“It’s as if you didn’t fire at all... And... they’re coming...”
Lu Li looked up to find that the strange noise from the passages had vanished. The echo of the gunshot died away, leaving an ominous silence in its wake.
Something was stirring in the innumerable blood-red passages that led to the brain cavity.
“Where is the Old Mother of the Swamp?”
“She will be here soon...”