The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 693: Even When No Longer Human, He Shows Compassion

"Caked in mud, with the vague shape of a pig, it grew larger the more it was fed," Elder Abidel explained.

"Statue" was hardly the right word for it. "Clay figure" was closer, or more accurately, "a pig plastered with mud."

It was inanimate, yet it possessed a strange, unnatural kind of life.

Three days after a villager brought it back, he presented it to the elder, claiming the statue could protect their settlement and grant its followers a special power: the inability to feel pain.

In other words, to become numb.

The elder was convinced when the villager slashed his own arm with a dagger without a moment's hesitation. Despite his apprehension, the statue's demands seemed simple enough—all it required was to be fed.

"How did it eat?" Lu Li asked.

"When no one was looking, you'd hear sounds like a pig smacking its lips... and then the food would be gone," Abidel answered.

Whether it was a trick of the mind or the statue actually protecting them, its arrival brought the villagers a sense of security.

But over time, problems began to emerge."It ate more and more. We couldn't afford meat, so we started giving it sweet potatoes. It took them, but soon, even the sweet potatoes weren't enough..."

The once-united village split apart. One faction, led by Elder Abidel, wanted to get rid of the statue. Otherwise, even if they didn't need its protection from outside threats, they would all starve to death feeding it.

The rest, mostly members of the statue's cult, refused. They were hungry for more power.

They believed their faith made them immune to pain and hunger.

More likely, it wasn't genuine faith at work, but the corrupting influence of the anomaly, a result of spending too much time in its presence.

Elder Abidel said that the statue did nothing but eat. All the so-called "revelations" and "visions" were either fabricated or staged by its followers.

Abidel was stripped of his authority, and he and the other dissenters were forbidden from going near the statue. In the end, this prohibition saved them from falling into the same numb state.

But soon, even hunting and robbing travelers could not satisfy the statue's appetite.

The followers began to eye the merchants and travelers who passed through.

They had food.

They had money that could be used to buy food.

They themselves were food.

Despite the constant calamities and the Silence, people were reluctant to abandon their homes. So, from time to time, migrants and merchants still passed through this village, situated less than seventy miles from Revoltown.

The migrants came through regularly, if infrequently. The merchants were a rarer sight, but they, their goods, and their money could have fed the statue for a long time—if, of course, the villagers hadn't been feeding it so excessively.

The cultists, of course, had no intention of restraining themselves.

The statue grew bigger and bigger, until it had to be moved into a barn that the fanatics had dubbed their "church."

The endless feeding continued until even hunting and robbing travelers was not enough to satisfy the statue's appetite. And so, this very evening, Elder Abidel and the other villagers under the cultists' control, along with the travelers captured yesterday, were herded into the pigsty. They were to be sacrificed to the statue after the bonfire ritual.

That was when Lu Li and Elena arrived and saved all those who had been condemned.

The situation with the statue resembled the incident with the cultists, but this was a separate event entirely. There was no sign of Anna's mark here.

Lu Li watched as the villagers brought out clothes and water, distributing them among the people huddled around the bonfire.

Five or six villagers, the cult followers, were bound and led to the edge of the fire. Gags in their mouths muffled their vicious curses.

A villager approached Abidel with a lion's hide, but the elder motioned for him to give it to Elena instead.

"I don't need it," Elena replied coldly, her eyes ignoring the soft fur shimmering in the firelight. "This is why the hyenas attacked. You've hunted the surrounding wildlife to extinction, leaving them no choice but to come after you."

"Perhaps it was revenge as well," Abidel added quietly. "Feeling no pain, they slaughtered countless wild animals in the area, including hyenas."

"Mr. Exorcist, can you destroy that monster?" Elder Abidel pleaded, turning to Lu Li.

All eyes around the fire turned to Lu Li, filled with hope.

"The best course of action is to spend the night outside the village and head for Revoltown in the morning," Lu Li stated.

It was an anomaly, after all. Confronting it at night was foolish, and there was no sense in provoking a creature that hadn't yet attacked anyone directly.

Elder Abidel sighed with disappointment. He understood the logic, of course, but the price was a heavy one to accept. The village would be abandoned, and most of its people were already dead.

"The fog is closing in!" someone yelled. A villager, torch in hand, was running toward the fire.

Everyone turned to look, but they could see nothing beyond the firelight.

"Forgive me, Mr. Exorcist, I have to try..."

Elder Abidel had made his decision. With a bow to Lu Li, he walked to the fire. The heat seared his hair as he snatched a burning torch from the flames and strode toward the barn, a dim shape in the gloom.

Realizing his intent, several other villagers grabbed torches as well, following the elder in a procession that trailed sparks into the night.

They stopped about fifteen meters from the barn. At Abidel's command, they hurled their torches in unison. The flaming brands struck the walls with a dull thud before falling to the ground.

The straw adorning their "church" caught fire instantly, and flames swiftly engulfed the building. The only wooden structure in the village was now ablaze.

The massive bonfire began to push back the darkness, revealing the strange fog that had already swallowed the houses at the edge of the village.

Just then, a shriek of pure pain and despair erupted from the barn.

It wasn't a human scream... it was more like the squeal of a pig, only deeper and more guttural, a sound that conveyed unbearable agony.

Many, even those who had thrown the torches, shuddered.

"That's the anomaly's scream! It's paying for what it's done!" Elder Abidel cried out, trying to convince the others—and himself.

The dry barn was an inferno. As the walls collapsed in a shower of sparks, the interior was revealed. A grotesque statue of a pig, more than three meters tall and caked in mud, sat in the center of the blaze like some corpulent human figure.

The screams seemed to emanate from all around it, yet the statue itself remained perfectly still.

Lu Li listened silently to the cries, trying to understand the emotions they expressed. Suddenly, he drew his spirit pistol, aimed it at the statue, and pulled the trigger.

Crack!

...

Lu Li found himself standing on a silent plain, bathed in the light of a setting sun.

A soft grunt sounded nearby.

Lu Li turned his head and saw a piglet, just a few months old, wandering close by. It was sniffing at the air, as if it sensed danger.

A set of a child's footprints led away from it, stretching into the distance.

Lu Li glanced down, his expression thoughtful, and cautiously touched the "ground" with the toe of his left boot.

The tip of his boot sank into a viscous, grayish mire.

It was a marsh. The sunset was creating the illusion of solid earth.

The piglet lifted its head, its snout twitching, and looked at Lu Li with bright, glistening eyes.

Lu Li raised his hand and pointed in the direction of the tracks.

The piglet grunted softly in response and, following the child's tracks, ran off into the distance, gradually disappearing into the twilight.