novelraw Chapter 471: They Are Connected
Chapter 471: They Are Connected
A strange, blindingly white light, like a great orb, descended upon the world, engulfing everything.
The figures outside the church were swallowed by this light, and then Lu Li himself, sitting in the confessional—he who was not supposed to exist in this space.
Lu Li squinted, but the light didn't sting his eyes. The confessional vanished from sight, and Lu Li, still seated on the wooden chair, found himself in a boundless white world.
Fragmentary scenes unfolded before his eyes.
Lu Li could clearly see the face of each person and what was happening to them.
Olivia Kiken, looking like an old woman of fifty, emerged with sorrow from a wooden hut thick with the sound of her son's coughing and entered the church. After receiving counsel from the blurred figure in the confessional, she walked out onto a wide street, only to perish beneath the wheels of Viscount Levais's luxurious carriage. Her lifeless body, her open eyes full of silent reproach, reflected the entire world.
...
Green Pierce, with an ugly scar running from the bridge of his nose to the corner of his mouth, was an unattractive man, and his daughter was so beautiful she seemed not his own.
But that didn't matter. What mattered was that when he saw local thugs dragging his daughter into an alley, the enraged Green Pierce grabbed an axe and rushed to her aid, raining blows down upon her attackers.
When his fury subsided, only two of the thugs could still groan in pain. Green Pierce grabbed his daughter's hand and fled home, then, filled with anxiety, went to the church to seek God's forgiveness. The blurred silhouette in the confessional offered him a path to redemption, but before he could do anything, the gang members found Green and beheaded him.The rolling head blinked, and the scene froze on his eyes, which were filled with a desperate thirst for life.
...
A girl with freckled cheeks and a healthy complexion ran down the street, clutching something tightly to her chest as shouting thugs gave chase. Deftly weaving through the crowd, she used a wooden crate by a wall to scramble onto a roof and disappeared into another district. She failed to notice the thugs spot another girl who resembled her and drag her into an alley.
The girl, meanwhile, reached her street, where sewage flowed in the gutters. She knocked on the wooden door of a hut and, receiving no answer, stepped inside. The only sound from within was a cough. The girl pulled a bundle from beneath her clothes—several pieces of silver jewelry.
She set down the jewelry, gently stroked the coughing boy's head, and slipped out of the house.
"There she is!" a cry rang out nearby. Several thugs were pointing at her.
Startled, the girl bolted and soon found herself at the church. As she pleaded for help at the confessional, two rolled-up slips of paper fell out of the opening.
After only a fleeting glance at them, the girl fled the church and hid around the corner. When the thugs burst inside, she seized the opportunity and ran. As she made her way down the street, she suddenly froze, staring in shock at the lifeless body beneath the carriage.
The thugs spotted her again and seized the girl, who had lost all composure, dragging her away to their lair.
Met with the vicious gaze of their leader, the girl was shoved into a cellar to the jeers of his cronies. She knew what awaited her. As the door slammed shut, her eyes filled with utter despair.
...
"You fraud! How dare you show your face in my home, before me!" Baroness Levais exclaimed furiously, addressing an elderly priest with a lifeless gaze. She refused to even listen to his reason for coming and immediately ordered her guards to drag him to the dungeon.
"What is it, Father?" a girl's voice called from another room.
"That deceitful priest dared to come to my house!" Baroness Levais replied in a rage.
The priest tried to explain, but the guards forcibly dragged him from the hall. His lifeless eyes conveyed his utter helplessness.
...
The simple-minded, seemingly harmless John Peters pinned a struggling wildcat to the ground. The sharp point of a knife he'd fashioned from a tin can pressed against the screeching animal's belly.
"What are you doing?" a soft voice asked from behind. A flicker of cruelty crossed John Peters's eyes. He turned, freezing when he saw the girl's face. "None of your business," he muttered.
His undisguised, appraising gaze made the girl in the wheelchair knit her absent brows, but she was more concerned for the poor cat. "You can't do that," she said. "You mustn't harm an innocent creature."
The girl's voice, melodic as music, made John Peters obey. He released the cat.
It was hardly an ideal first meeting, but both young people, who rarely socialized, were content. The girl seemed to forget the cruelty John Peters had just displayed. And John, for his part, paid no mind to her disfigurement and injuries, as if his eyes could see past her outer shell, piercing through to her soul, whether it was pure or sullied.
It seemed he had fallen in love with her.
John Peters wanted to do something for the girl. He went down to his cellar and opened a strange, leather-bound book. Then, like a wicked alchemist, he began collecting human organs, arranging them in bizarre patterns in the cellar as if trying to summon something—but to no avail.
As the number of victims grew, so did the panic among the townsfolk. The police intensified their investigation, and John Peters realized they would soon be on his trail.
The image of the girl was all that remained in his thoughts. John devised a way to deflect suspicion from himself. He went to the church and, in the confessional, told the blurred figure of his crimes, shifting all the blame onto his brother.
When Ol was arrested, John, sensing success was within his grasp, set fire to the church at sunset.
"I'm sorry... But I had to do it. You're not a god. You can't save us, you can't even save yourself..."
Standing before the burning church, John tossed his torch aside. In his flame-reflecting eyes, there was both cruelty and pity.
...
It was difficult to tell Ol Peters apart from his brother. Ol had hoped John would repent, but as he watched him continue his crimes, he could no longer stand by while innocent people died. Yet, at the same time, he could not bring himself to send his beloved brother to the gallows.
In desperation, he went to the church, seeking help from the figure in the confessional.
After receiving an answer, Ol seemed to have made a decision to save his brother from falling into the abyss.
But just then, the police appeared at the church.
After reading the note, Ol Peters realized that John had framed him, and a sudden sense of relief washed over him.
He couldn't bear the thought of his brother being hanged. He would rather die himself.
And so, Ol Peters surrendered to the police without resistance. He wanted to die in his brother's place, to atone for his sins.
His eyes were filled with guilt and regret.
...
The visions gradually dissolved into the white space, but something was missing.
The last scene was missing, the one with the final believer—what had happened to the girl.