The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 513: The Descent

Lu Li remained calm in any situation, and this moment was no exception. Anna didn't know how to stop him—it was clear he had already made his decision.

"Just keep an eye on my condition," Lu Li told her.

"I can go instead," Anna suggested, grasping at straws. "Mistress Marylin said I was better suited for a journey to Hell than you are."

"But not to find a person," Lu Li replied, looking up at Anna. "Even if you found Richard, it would be difficult for him to tell you anything. Besides, your consciousness is unstable. You could run into trouble and not make it back."

"The safest option is for you to guard my body."

"But it's Hell," Anna protested. She couldn't imagine what would happen to the soul of a living person who set foot there.

Lu Li answered calmly, "Mistress Marylin went there many times. Or more accurately, she spent decades moving between Hell and the real world."

"And that's why she died, not long after we met her," Anna countered, recalling more details. "And don't forget about the Devil who left a mark on your hand. He craves your soul, and you're about to walk right into his domain..."

Lu Li lowered his head slightly, his gaze falling on the inverted pentagram on the back of his left hand.

The burn had already faded, visible only upon close inspection. It looked as if it had been there for years, though in reality, it was only a few days old.Anna's quiet voice continued beside his ear. "We could find another way. Ask other mediums for help, for instance..."

"I have to go myself," Lu Li insisted.

Anna stared intently at Lu Li. His eyes told her that he was already prepared to visit Hell.

Anna still resisted Lu Li's decision, but she no longer tried to change his mind. Averting her gaze, she asked, "Do you remember how to perform the séance?"

Lu Li nodded, recalling the descriptions and details about Hell that Tesla and Mistress Marylin had shared.

[Chronic death is the surest way to enter Hell. Most mediums choose suffocation. The process is extremely dangerous, not only due to the risk of actually choking to death, but also because of the dangers that come from Hell itself.]

He could set aside the latter concern for now. With Anna standing guard, Lu Li didn't have to worry about actually killing himself.

The method he planned to use to reach Hell was the very one Tesla had described: "chronic death." Drowning and suffocation seemed to be the best options. Others, like poison or bloodletting, were irreversible—if he went to Hell that way, he would never come back.

Creating the right conditions for drowning was difficult, however, which left only suffocation—also based on oxygen deprivation—to achieve a near-death state.

That was precisely why Lu Li had prepared the rope.

Unlike Mistress Marylin, he couldn't use psychological suggestion to hypnotize himself. His only option was to truly experience the state of dying.

Lu Li made a noose from the rope hanging before him. The loop was a few centimeters above his neck—high enough to cause mechanical asphyxiation, but not to break his cervical vertebrae under the weight of his body.

"Ten to twenty seconds after my soul leaves my body, call out to me, but don't move me."

[You aren't really dying. You're still alive, just tricking the rules over there. That's why I usually call it a feigned death... or a deep sleep. Yes, a deep sleep. If someone touches your body or something happens nearby, your still-warm 'body' will sense it and pull your departed soul back.]

"After a minute passes, untie the rope and get me down."

"That's not much time... will it be enough?"

[Time in Hell is different from ours. Time there flows slower, like in a dream...]

["What's the 'ratio'? — Child, it isn't constant. Sometimes it's a little slower, and sometimes it feels like a whole season has passed...]

"Time flows differently there. A minute here could be several minutes, or even dozens of minutes there. I have something of Richard's; it will help me appear near him." Lu Li placed Richard's patched hat on his lap, holding it with one hand to keep it from falling. "The longer I stay, the more dangerous it is. Prolonged suffocation will damage the brain."

Anna nodded several times and asked, "Once you find Richard, how will you get back?"

[It's like waking up and realizing you're in a dream. You force your eyes open, tell yourself it's time to wake up. Remember, many young mediums don't die from the evil spirits of Hell; they get lost and can't find their way back... You have to avoid that. It's best to have someone you trust—someone who won't be careless—to wake you.]

"I'll try to wake myself up. If I can't, it'll be your turn to call me back."

"Mhm."

Lu Li said nothing more. He straightened up in the wooden chair, slipped his head into the noose, and his chin came to rest against the coarse rope.

[Legendary devils and demons, confirmed lesser demons of all kinds, and the suffering dead in Hell who long to return to the world of the living—for all of them, the soul of a living person who intrudes there is an indescribably great temptation. Any whispering entity that senses your presence will want to claim your soul.]

His straight back bent slightly as Lu Li settled his weight back onto the wooden chair. The cost was immediate: the noose tightened, forcing his chin unnaturally upward. His face reddened at a visible rate, and blood vessels began to stand out in his eyes.

Anna watched the scene unfold, her own eyes slowly clouding over. She had thought that, knowing everything and with her increasingly cold nature, she could watch this calmly. But she had underestimated just how important Lu Li was to her.

She found it difficult to look at the pained expression on Lu Li's face.

Thump—thump—thump—

Only Lu Li could hear the loud thumping of his own heart, echoing strangely inside his head. The rapidly advancing suffocation was making his thoughts increasingly foggy, like rusty gears grinding to a halt after one last half-turn.

Lu Li wasn't experiencing the pain Anna imagined. This kind of mechanical asphyxiation didn't bring the same despair as drowning, of lungs filling with water.

And as the suffocation reached a certain threshold, the pain gradually subsided. The thought that he no longer needed to breathe seeped into his fading mind.

In the final moment, a hazy image and a distorted voice surfaced in Lu Li's mind.

[Interestingly, you'll meet some old acquaintances there... Those who were connected to you but have since died—your enemies, for example—will know of your arrival in Hell the very instant you appear.]

Lu Li's breathing stopped. He sat on the wooden chair, his head hanging limply in the noose, silent as if he had fallen asleep.

Anna, standing beside him, began to silently count the seconds.

Lu Li was no longer aware of the outside world. In some unknown way, the space beneath him had become soft, like modeling clay, and his body began to sink into it, faster and faster.

His body—or rather, his soul—began to fall.

In a state of semi-oblivion, he seemed to hear a voice from above.

"If you can't make it back... I'll go to Hell, find you, and bring you home."