novelraw Chapter 486: The Last Host
Chapter 486: The Last Host
[ ...has not dissipated... lingers in the anomalous... *ksssh*... though the days are relatively safe... the United Exorcist Organization advises residents against going outside...]
A voice, distorted by static, crackled from the radio.
Through the window, gray fog bled into the morning light, the anomalous mist still clinging to the streets of Belfast.
Dong... dong... dong...
In the distance, the tolling of a bell announced the start of the day.
The city was waking. From the apartment building next door, voices, a child's laughter, and the crackle of firewood in a stove drifted into the detective agency.
People began their day as they always did: waking up, heading to work, earning their daily bread.
It was how they had learned to live since the Night Calamity began, and how they would likely continue to live until things became truly hopeless.
Lu Li picked up a letter that had been slipped under the door, sat down at his desk, and opened the envelope.
Anna glanced at the sculpture by the coat rack, then at the black cat curled up in a dry towel.[You wretched man, you should burn in hell!]
The letter's opening made Lu Li imagine Richard screaming the words.
[Do you have any idea what you've done?! Poor Richard tried so hard! He did everything right, waiting like a child for his seeds to sprout, and you ruined it all! You are a despicable wretch!]
[I'm warning you, stop acting like a clueless child. Consider this a warning. If you get in my way again, I'll find a way to create something far more terrible.]
[I am not joking!]
[Someone you do not want to cross.]
After a moment's thought, Lu Li handed the letter to Anna.
Anna read the letter. Her aura flickered with instability for a moment but quickly returned to normal.
— He's furious, — Anna said, looking up, — and he believes he's doing the right thing.
— That's because he's a patient from a psychiatric hospital.
— Can we tell where this letter came from?
Anna waved the envelope.
Lu Li shook his head. There was no stamp or postmark on the envelope. It had been delivered by hand, perhaps by Richard himself. It must have happened recently, likely after the incident with the Ghoul-ified at the port had concluded.
Judging by Richard's tone, Lu Li had foiled his plans again. This meant the Ghoul-ified were more than just a distraction.
— The Ghoul-ified...
Lu Li muttered the word. How had Richard created them?
With a piece of flesh? The eye? The tentacle? Or some other source of infection...
Anna worried for a moment that Lu Li's kindness would make him hesitate to pursue Richard. Fortunately, Lu Li's kindness didn't border on foolishness, and he had no intention of letting Richard go unpunished.
After topping up the oil lamps, filling a flask with water, and grabbing his silver bullets and a map, Lu Li and Anna left the detective agency.
On the fog-shrouded streets, lamps were no longer necessary, but the few passersby still held them, wary of the creatures lurking in the mist.
Lu Li looked up at the ghostly Bloody Tentacle hanging from the sky. Its position hadn't changed since last night.
The tentacle was in the western part of Belfast. The commercial district, Keltalas Cathedral, and the Oak Grove outside the city all lay in the same direction.
Folding the map of Belfast, Lu Li took out a map of the continent.
He needed to check something.
This continent, the second largest after the Fallow Lands, was the cradle of civilization. The history of its kingdoms and aristocratic houses spanned millennia.
Carefully studying the map dotted with the names of cities and villages, Lu Li moved a magnifying glass over it, starting from the edge of the Shadow Swamp and moving toward the center.
The search didn't take long. After a couple of minutes, Lu Li stopped. In the center of the magnifying glass was the name of a small town: Typhoon.
The place where the trial had taken place.
The city was real; it wasn't a figment of his imagination.
All that remained was to find out if the events in Typhoon had been real.
Typhoon was located in the southeast of the continent, not far from the Shadow Swamp, about three hundred miles away. If one were to travel around the mountain range, the distance would increase to four or five hundred miles.
Under the current conditions, getting there would be no easy task.
— Typhoon... What happened there?
Anna didn't know about the trial.
Along the way, Lu Li told her what had happened.
Perhaps because Lu Li was right there beside her, safe and sound, Anna was able to listen to his story calmly.
— Knowing you can't change anything, but trying anyway... That's just like you, — Anna whispered.
The fog was gradually thinning, and visibility increased to a few dozen meters. More people began to fill the streets—most of them feared starvation from lack of work more than they feared the anomalies.
Anna had thought the host of the Bloody Tentacle was hiding in the Oak Grove, but as they passed a cathedral, Lu Li slowed their carriage and looked up at the sky.
The Bloody Tentacle, hidden behind the clouds, was hanging directly over the cathedral.
— The cathedral...
Anna, having just heard the story about the cathedral and the Atonement, grew thoughtful.
The carriage stopped at the gates of the cemetery next to the cathedral.
Lu Li and Anna, who had hidden herself in the In-Between, stepped out of the carriage.
Beyond a low stone wall, rows of headstones were visible.
A light fog enveloped the cemetery. A profound silence and peace reigned, as if the cathedral were cut off from the rest of the world.
Lu Li entered the cemetery. His footsteps on the gravel path broke the silence, disturbing the peace of the deceased. He felt as though someone was watching him, but it could have just been his imagination.
Thanks to his supernatural perception, however, Lu Li was inclined to believe the former.
The sensation seemed to be connected to the anomalous fog.
Anna felt nothing, perhaps because she wasn't the one being watched.
The massive door of the cathedral was ajar. The Bloody Tentacle was somewhere inside, beyond the roof.
Lu Li walked along the gravel path to the entrance. A nun was quietly sweeping the floor near the doorway.
Swish... swish...
The sound of the broom echoed through the church, seeming to come from all directions at once.
Lu Li found the confessional to the left of the entrance, but neither the church nor the confessional looked like the ones he had seen in the trial.
Not wanting to disturb the nun, and finding no trace of the Bloody Tentacle, Lu Li left the church and circled around it, following the stone wall.
The Bloody Tentacle was in the cemetery behind the church.
Under Anna's protection, Lu Li headed toward it. Soon, the sound of a shovel striking the earth drifted out of the fog.
As Lu Li drew closer, the sound grew clearer.
Finally, the silhouette of a person digging a grave appeared in the mist.