novelraw Chapter 533: Rest
Chapter 533: Rest
With trembling hands, Gades crawled out from under the table. He surveyed the wreckage in the room and the shattered window, then gasped hoarsely, “Damn you, Lu Li! You’ll pay for this...”
A pair of cold eyes settled on Gades, seeming to freeze his very soul.
Gades held his breath and continued in a much softer tone, “...respects to this young lady, the vengeful spirit. She was in such a hurry, she must have missed you terribly...”
The shouts from the street grew louder. The door to the detective agency burst open, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps from downstairs.
“What scoundrel dares to come here at a time like this...” Gades muttered angrily, striding toward the door. Not daring to vent his fury on Anna, he redirected it at the others.
“It must be the exorcists, alarmed by your appearance,” Lu Li remarked, releasing his hold on Anna.
Anna’s gaze, no longer quite so cold, lingered on Lu Li. She was reluctant to leave. “Are you going to go talk to them?” she asked.
Lu Li shook his head. “I’m just a soul right now; they might not listen to me. Take me back to my body.”
“Alright.”
“Just... let’s try a different position this time...”Before he could finish, Anna swept him up into her arms.
Without another word, Lu Li bid Gades farewell, and Anna carried him out of the detective agency.
Footsteps thundered up the stairs.
Bang!
The door flew open, and police officers stormed into the room, leveling their Spirit Guns at Gades, whose back was turned to them.
Gades stared out the window in the direction Lu Li had disappeared, his heart bleeding.
...
Anna flew with a speed that rivaled the Skeletal Horse. In his soul form, Lu Li felt no rushing wind nor heard its whistle in his ears.
This allowed him, as they neared the peak of Sugard Mountain, to clearly hear every sound drifting up from the doomed city below.
The ceaseless tolling of church bells, the roar of fire consuming buildings, the screams and pleas for help, and a low, slow breathing, as if from the depths of the sea.
Perhaps wary of the monsters roaming the city, or perhaps simply not wanting Lu Li to witness the carnage, Anna flew at an altitude of several hundred meters. Other than the red-tinged fog and the sounds rising from below, Lu Li could see nothing.
Once they left the crimson fog behind, Anna began to descend. Even before the ground came into view, Lu Li could feel the emotions of the Elm Forest: wariness and alienation, followed by... something akin to tenderness.
The closer they flew to the clifftop, the warmer the Elm Forest's emotions became, as if welcoming him back to a familiar home.
When they landed on the summit, a faint but distinct consciousness enveloped Anna before gently touching Lu Li.
“Enni is awake,” Lu Li thought.
Jimmy, leaning against the monster’s body, peered out from the cave. When he saw Lu Li, both bodies smiled at once.
After entering the cave and reaching the shelter, Anna set Lu Li down.
As the others watched, Lu Li drifted toward his own body, which seemed to be calling to him, and lay down on the bed.
Heavy footsteps sounded from outside. Supported by the monster’s body, Jimmy moved to the entrance. He glanced back at his sister, and together they waited for Lu Li to awaken.
A few seconds passed. A pair of dark eyes slowly opened, their gaze gradually coming into focus.
The sensation of a beating heart, of blood coursing through veins, of lungs filling with air, the perception of the world around him—it all returned, as if the world had regained its color.
Lu Li sat up, but suddenly, it all vanished. With a dull thud, his body separated from his soul and collapsed back onto the bed.
Anna involuntarily released a wave of cold.
Lu Li thoughtfully lay back down, rejoining his body.
A few seconds later, his eyes opened again. This time, Lu Li didn’t try to sit up abruptly. Instead, he slowly and cautiously raised his hand.
He raised it inch by inch until his arm was fully extended. Nothing happened.
It was as if the previous scene had been nothing but a shared hallucination.
Lu Li sat up again, moving as slowly as an old man. Then he tried to stand.
But he was still too hasty. His body suddenly lost control and pitched forward, leaving his translucent soul behind.
Anna caught Lu Li’s body.
“Why is this happening?” she asked, bewildered.
“The body and the soul... they’re incompatible,” Lu Li’s soul replied, frowning.
“Your soul is pure, strong, and it holds some kind of vital energy I don’t understand. Perhaps that’s the problem,” Remi offered, supporting her brother.
“Or maybe your soul was separated from your body for too long,” she added. “It’s grown used to existing without it, like a ghost.”
Anna looked at Remi. “How do you know that?”
“I am a Scholar.”
“In what sense?” Lu Li asked, his curiosity and thirst for knowledge undiminished by his circumstances.
Anna laid Lu Li’s body back on the bed as Remi explained, “In that book... the one who took over the ruins was an Evil God. I was converted into its servant and received a portion of its legacy, becoming a Scholar—a keeper of knowledge.”
“What else do you know?” Anna asked, standing beside Lu Li. “Like how to fix this?”
“The soul must remain inside the body. It needs to re-accustom itself to being there.”
“How long will that take?”
“Maybe a few hours, maybe a few days.”
It might be slow, but at last, there was a way to completely solve the problem without any lingering side effects.
“Belfast is destroyed. We have nowhere to go,” Anna remarked, watching as Lu Li’s soul settled back into his body.
“But is this place really safe?” Remi asked worriedly.
They were too close to the coast.
As creatures of the In-Between, they were unlikely to be attacked by other monsters, but Lu Li, being human, was vulnerable.
“I will protect him,” Anna replied calmly.
Lu Li opened his eyes for a third time. He didn’t try to sit up, instead just slowly raising one hand.
Anna watched patiently as Lu Li patted his chest, as if searching for something in a pocket.
“It’s an artifact I got from Hell—an Evil Spirit Chess Piece,” Lu Li explained, describing the properties of the Book of the Apocalypse.
Anna latched onto one detail. “Including the Mind Level?”
“Yes.”
Lu Li nodded. The hallucinations and intrusive thoughts caused by his low Mind Level were gone. Now, his Mind Level was probably close to normal.
He looked at Anna, and a faint smile appeared on her face. “It would be most effective in your hands,” he said, “but I wouldn’t advise you to carry it all the time.”
With the Book of the Apocalypse, Anna would undoubtedly grow stronger, but could she maintain her sanity and humanity...?
“It’s yours,” Anna replied without objection. She would have preferred him to carry it himself.
Lu Li suddenly recalled something. “What happened to the children from the warehouse on Elm Street?” he asked.
Anna was silent.
“I understand,” Lu Li whispered.
Her silence was more eloquent than any words.