The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 518: Human Civilization Gradually Fades

Anna’s gaze abruptly shot to the window.

Her eyes seemed to pierce through the fog and the endless buildings, stretching out toward the black, lifeless sea.

A moment ago, a disturbing, pulsating presence had begun to spread from the shore.

This presence was so potent it even affected physical matter: the tea in the glass on the table rippled, and the candle flame trembled.

Anna couldn’t describe what it was, but she felt a tremor run through her very soul.

Her sense of dread intensified; something terrible was approaching—

The thought crossed Anna's mind as her gaze returned to Lu Li.

Only fifteen seconds remained. The moment Lu Li awoke, she would whisk him away from Belfast.

Time seemed to stretch, each second feeling like a minute.

For the first time in a long while, Anna's soul, long since grown cold, felt a powerful emotion—fear.Her hands even began to tremble, whether out of fear of the presence rising from the ocean depths or simple dread for the danger to come.

10, 9, 8, 7...

At that moment, a long, drawn-out peal of bells suddenly rang out in the distance.

The bells of churches scattered throughout the city began to ring in unison, their sounds merging into a single, deafening clamor that echoed across Belfast.

The frequent, insistent tolling filled the air with a palpable tension and anxiety. People were jolted from their sleep, terrified and confused about what was happening.

Children's cries were the first to be heard, but the barking of dogs seemed to have vanished entirely, replaced by an eerie silence.

3, 2, 1!

The minute was up. The rope snapped. Anna caught Lu Li as he fell, settling him back into the armchair and gently calling his name, urging him to wake.

His breathing began to recover, and his heart started beating again.

But Lu Li showed no signs of waking.

Anna's breath hitched.

His soul hadn't returned...

Tap—tap-tap-tap—

A rapid tapping came from the window.

Click-click-click-click-click-click—

The Contamination Detector on Lu Li's wrist began to click faster, triggered by Anna's anxiety.

Anna struggled to suppress her emotions and turned her head toward the window.

Swish—

The curtains parted, revealing a multitude of black dots clinging to the glass.

They were corpse-eating beetles, each the size of a fingernail. They would fold their translucent wings, lift their hard wing casings, and take flight again, but every second more slammed against the glass.

They were fleeing...

The thought flashed through Anna's mind.

“Lu Li...”

Calling softly to the seemingly sleeping Lu Li one more time, Anna, her anxiety mounting, could wait no longer.

She had to get to the shelter in the Elm Forest. It was probably the only safe place left.

Lifting Lu Li into her arms, Anna telekinetically gathered the sculpture and the black cat, then shot out of the corridor and into the street like a whirlwind.

It wasn't just beetles swarming through the fog like locusts. Gulls, bats, and insects—all the creatures that had not yet gone extinct—were fleeing the sea in droves, streaming toward the mountaintop.

The terrifying, apocalyptic scene gave Anna a moment's pause. Could the shelter truly protect Lu Li? Would it be better to flee to the other side of the mountain, far from the ocean depths? But then she remembered how tirelessly Lu Li had worked on their refuge, and she pushed her doubts away.

No matter what, she would stay by Lu Li's side.

Anna’s appearance on the street immediately drew attention. Many people, roused by the tolling bells, had rushed outside, and they cried out in terror at the sight of her.

Ignoring their cries, Anna rose into the air, carrying Lu Li while the sculpture and the black cat floated alongside her, and sped toward the Elm Forest.

The baleful presence emanating from the ocean depths was changing everything in the city. Countless creatures were dying; insects dropped from the sky like rain in a storm.

The Contamination Detector on Lu Li's wrist began to click more rapidly, but this time it wasn't because of Anna—it was the presence from the depths of the sea.

Even the black cat seemed to weaken, and the sculpture subtly shrank in on itself.

The Strange Fog had subtly thinned. Anna glanced toward the mountaintop. Something was happening up there, something that was dispersing the fog shrouding the city.

A familiar sense of revulsion reminded Anna of the shard of an ancient statue Lu Li had acquired.

However, the fog that currently enveloped nearly the entire city was likely being dispersed by similar statue shards in the possession of the Investigators.

While this meant Anna no longer had to worry about the thick fog obscuring her view, it also revealed a horrifying spectacle.

Suddenly, a piercing shriek echoed from above, sharper even than the tolling of the bells.

Anna looked toward the sound. Seconds later, a fishing boat, tens of meters long, plummeted from the sky, crashing thunderously into a street just a short distance away.

The buildings, dwarfed by the massive metal vessel, were effortlessly crushed into rubble. The resulting shockwave, a roaring gust of wind that even Anna could not fully resist, blasted her back more than ten meters.

Despairing cries echoed from the half-demolished houses that remained standing.

Anna suddenly understood why Lu Li always compared people to ants.

Whether it was the Investigators, the Night's Watch, or the ancient Spirit Exterminators of old, their power meant nothing in the face of such an apocalyptic spectacle.

When one side on the battlefield can easily crush the other, all strategy and tactics become meaningless.

This was no isolated incident. More and more terrifying, air-rending sounds followed in quick succession.

Then, a "rain of boats" began to fall on the district.

Vessels tens, even hundreds, of meters long rained down from the sky. Wooden houses, detached villas, sturdy brick buildings—all were as fragile as children's toys. The deafening roar of their impacts and the trembling of the earth drowned out both the tolling bells and the human screams.

Anna escaped the area just before the rain of ships descended upon it. With her lips pressed into a thin line, she shot across the rooftops like an arrow.

The dark, lifeless expanse of the Elm Forest appeared before her. As she plunged into it, a sense of calm washed over her, as if the presence from the ocean depths held no sway here.

The Forest Consciousness enveloped Anna and Lu Li, its previous hostility gone.

Only then did Anna have a moment to look back.

The light atop Sugard Mountain was beginning to fade. The thick fog was once again swallowing the prosperous city of Belfast—a city now wreathed in fire and smoke, its air filled with the tolling of bells and the sounds of screaming.

Following the muddy forest path, Anna landed on the clifftop before the shelter two minutes later.

A simple wooden cabin now stood beside the cave entrance. Anna saw the monstrous Jimmy lounging on a deck chair out front, with the ghostly figure of Remi in her white dress standing nearby.

They were clearly watching the events unfold in the distant city, and Anna’s arrival took them by surprise.

“I thought you had already left... What happened to Mr. Lu Li!” Remi exclaimed, covering her mouth.

“I’ll explain later.”

With those words, Anna entered the shelter with Lu Li.

She laid Lu Li on the bed and had just lit a second oil lamp when she heard Remi cry out from outside the cave.

“Miss Anna, I think you should come out and see this.”

Remi and Jimmy were staring, stunned, at the sky. When Anna stepped out of the cave, she saw the bizarre spectacle for herself.

Far out over the deep sea, at some unknowable distance, a black sun hung suspended in the void.

The fog could not conceal it. A thin, perfectly black thread stretched from its core down into the sea.

As she gazed at it, Anna felt countless whispers and chants echoing inside her mind.

Anna remembered the words Lu Li had said to her a few hours ago.

“The time for the stars to align has come.”