The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 635: Conversation

The storm raged on, lasting far longer than expected.

The following morning, the wind still howled in the chimney, and outside the cave, the rain fell in a solid, unyielding sheet.

Anna no longer showed any signs of agitation, as if Sara's shadow had finally receded. Only in private did she press Lu Li to set out at once, even if it meant traveling through the storm.

And so, without waiting for the storm to break, Lu Li and Anna left the clifftop and made their way toward the Shadow Swamp.

The journey wasn't long. Even with the storm forcing Anna to slow her pace, they reached the ruins of Tenebrae by midday.

The torrential rains had transformed the swamp into a sodden mire, submerging the gnarled tree roots that were usually exposed during drier times.

The Mother of the Swamp sensed their approach the moment they crossed the border of her domain. From behind a stand of withered trees, a silhouette materialized, standing in the murky water and indicating the path forward.

The stream had swollen with the downpour, its waters muddy and turbulent as they rushed downstream.

Finding themselves once more beneath the enormous ficus, they took shelter under its sprawling canopy. Only a few stray drops of rain managed to filter through the dense leaves to the black soil below.

At the southeastern edge of the great tree, nestled among its gnarled, interwoven roots, stood a small hut that was almost indistinguishable from them."Mr. Lu Li, Miss Anna." Lilia had already sensed their arrival and was waiting for them by the door.

Beside her stood a silhouette cloaked in a black robe.

Halting before the hut, Lu Li got straight to the point. "Now it's your turn to help us."

The silhouette seemed to be listening for something. A moment later, a voice emanated from beneath the robe, relaying the words of the Mother of the Swamp. "What is it you desire..."

"Anna has been afflicted with foreign memories. We've heard that evil gods can seal and erase memories."

"I can, indeed..." the Mother of the Swamp replied after a brief pause. The silhouette turned slightly. "Please, follow me."

Lilia followed as the silhouette guided Lu Li and Anna through the web of roots to the far side of the great ficus.

Here, the earth was split open, the soil churned and heaved upward.

A stone platform, like an altar, appeared to have been thrust up from the depths of the earth only moments before. Fresh, black mud was piled all around it.

"Lie upon it... I will seal away the outsider's memory..." a whisper emanated from beneath the robe, a chilling chorus of men's, women's, elderly, and children's voices all speaking as one.

Anna drifted over and lay down on the cold, damp slab, a sensation her ghostly form couldn't physically register.

"Stand back," the silhouette whispered.

Lu Li and Lilia stepped back a few paces.

Suddenly, a thick, almost tangible black mist rose from the fissure in the earth. It didn't disperse, but flowed slowly, coiling around Anna on the slab, yet it was unable to penetrate her spiritual essence.

"Vengeful Spirit, do not resist..." the silhouette conveyed the Mother of the Swamp's words.

Anna didn't reply, her gaze simply shifting to Lu Li.

"You can trust the Mother of the Swamp," he reassured her.

Anna trusted Lu Li. She relaxed her spiritual defenses, allowing the black mist to swallow her form.

Even so, she craved a physical body far more than she desired freedom from Sara's memories.

But without these memories, I wouldn't crave a body so intensely, and I wouldn't have hurt Lu Li, Anna thought, and closed her eyes.

A few moments later, when she opened them again, she found herself standing in a bedroom with a carpet of swan's down. Bright sunlight streamed in from a balcony, where, amidst the chirping of birds, stood a figure in a long, purple dress.

"So, you've finally decided to show your face..." Anna's eyes became as cold as ice. "You cowardly, filthy rat, skulking in the darkness."

"I was never hiding. You were the one avoiding me." The figure turned slowly, revealing a stunningly beautiful face with crimson eyes. "It's good to see you again."

"I'm not, Sara," Anna replied, her voice glacial as she advanced on the other woman. Even the warm sunlight streaming from the balcony couldn't thaw her chilling presence.

"That woman is searching for us," Sara remarked, ignoring Anna's advance and gazing outside.

Beneath the balcony, flowers bloomed, their petals glistening with dew in the sunlight.

The manor was awash in greenery, but a very different scene unfolded beyond its walls. A distorted, menacing black mist was coalescing into a solid darkness, slowly encroaching upon the estate.

"You," Anna corrected her.

"But you're the one who brought me back," Sara smiled, seemingly oblivious to the encroaching darkness as she glanced at the flowers below. Their vibrant colors only served to highlight the encroaching blackness. "I only want to help someone even more miserable and pathetic than I was."

"I didn't abandon the one I love," Anna replied coldly.

"Do you truly believe that?" Sara's tone sent an unpleasant shiver through Anna, and a certain memory surfaced.

"A short life fills people with such complex emotions," Sara said, extending a hand. A bluewing fluttered down from the eaves and landed on her finger. "But everything is fated to decay. Matter and consciousness alike."

The bird's lively eyes glazed over, turning a sickly yellow, and it tumbled into the wilting flowers below.

Anna was silent.

"Do you still not understand? Or do you refuse to?" Sara's crimson eyes bored into Anna's. "There never was a Sara. She died along with Adam. The one speaking to you now is merely a shadow, an obsession, a part... of you."

The darkness closed in, enveloping the mansion. Anna felt herself drowning in those words, in those crimson eyes. When she blinked back to awareness, the eyes were still scarlet, but the face was her own...

"Remember your innermost thoughts... The poverty of your senses, that fleeting experience in the royal city of Ellen, the desperate thirst for life that was born from it..." The stranger wearing her face gently touched Anna's cheek. "I could have borne the darkness, if only I had never seen the light..."

"I'm not the one who took you over."

"You are the one who awakened me..."

At that moment, the darkness consumed them both.

...

The mist above the stone slab dissipated as silently as smoke.

Beneath the great ficus, the beautiful, snow-white girl lay upon the dark, grimy slab.

"Anna?" Lu Li called out to the girl as she began to stir.

"It's me." Anna opened her eyes. She stared at Lu Li for a few moments before rising from the slab and floating back to his side. Then, as if sensing something, her gaze drifted up toward the tree's canopy.

A black shadow streaked across the sky and settled on Lu Li's shoulder. It was a crow, and tied to its leg was a small bamboo cylinder.

Lu Li untied the cylinder, removed the note, and unrolled it. It contained only a single line:

[Ghost Prison maliciously destroyed. Warden missing. Inmates have escaped.]

The crow launched from his shoulder and soared into the sky. Lu Li turned to Lilia and the silhouette. "Thank you for your help. We must be going."

The escaped inmates meant that the fragile stability established in Belfast was about to collapse. The city's supernatural entities hardly coexisted peacefully, and the heretics who had destroyed the prison were undoubtedly plotting something sinister.

Lu Li and Anna departed. Lilia turned and walked toward the hut.

"Your Highness, they simply had urgent matters to attend to," Lilia said, not wanting Princess Rolan to be angered by Lu Li's abrupt departure.

"Lilia..." the Mother of the Swamp called.

"Your Highness."

"I want you to tell me a story..."