novelraw Chapter 809: Into the Abandoned Nis
Chapter 809: Into the Abandoned Nis
The Hillerwig Mountains were not safe.
Although the Flowing Cat protected this place, it couldn't compare to the cities of the Wastelands, which were shielded by an evil god.
Amid the morning dampness, Lu Li and his companions left Wigtown and headed for Nis, located to the southwest in the mountains.
The anomalous fog, trapped among the mountains and forests, crept across the black earth, forming a swirling pool of mist.
They skirted the pool of mist, making their way through the dead, silent mountains and forests.
The Fallen led them, for he could sense the malice inherent in anomalies. There were few of them here, but they existed. Some anomalies arrived with the fog, left stranded like flotsam when the mist receded like a tide.
Signs of human passage gradually disappeared around them. After climbing a low slope, Katerina glanced back for a moment.
Far in the distance, among the mountains, smoke rose from Wigtown.
Silence, as if nothing had happened.
They pressed on. They were not alone; occasionally, they would spot wild cats curled up in the treetops or huddled on rocks for warmth.These forest spirits added a touch of life to their journey. They were more skittish and independent than city cats, and as Lu Li and his companions passed, they merely opened their slitted feline eyes, watching calmly.
The journey was dull and tedious, and they had to remain constantly vigilant against approaching anomalies.
A ghostly song, like a lament, drifted faintly from the depths of the forest.
"Visible Song," Lu Li stated. "Close your eyes." He glanced at the Merchant, and after receiving a nod, he closed his own.
They stood in the cold forest with their eyes closed, waiting calmly as the ghostly singing grew clearer.
The Visible Song drew closer, its source now barely ten meters to their left. Katerina tensed, fighting with all her might against the urge to open her eyes.
In the darkness behind their eyelids, the source of the song—like a girl in a white dress walking barefoot over the black earth, humming softly—passed by them and slowly faded into the distance.
Once the singing had faded completely into the depths of the forest, they opened their eyes and continued on their way.
"Where are your badges?" The Fallen looked at Lu Li. When Lu Li pulled them from his pocket, the Fallen added:
"The ancient mark is only useful when it's worn openly. They have to be able to see it."
Lu Li and Katerina pinned the badges with the ancient marks to their chests.
The badges with the ancient marks worked faster than expected.
A moment later, an unseen malice suddenly lunged at the group.
But there was nothing to be seen.
The Fallen spat out a mass of furry, tentacled viscera. Elder Sister leaped onto his shoulder. Lu Li raised his left palm toward the unseen presence.
Whoosh!
In the blink of an eye, just before it could make contact, a ripple appeared before them like a fleeting trail and then dissolved into nothingness.
Calm returned.
"What was that?"
Lu Li waited a moment before lowering his hand. He tilted his head and asked.
The Merchant didn't know the answer. The Fallen whispered coldly:
"Great exorcist, don't try to memorize every anomaly you encounter. All the records we've ever created couldn't possibly describe them all."
Once the danger had passed, Prusius, ever concerned with the group's morale, wagged his tail and said:
"Mister Fallen is treating us much better than when we first met."
The Fallen swallowed the furry, tentacled viscera, which clung to the inside of his mouth as if reluctant to return. He then broke into a hideous grin:
"It's simply that this woman despises me so thoroughly. Her negative emotions spare me the effort of saying more disgusting things."
"Please, keep it up!"
Prusius turned to Katerina, whose face was impassive.
They resumed their journey. They encountered a few more stray anomalies, but the Fallen successfully diverted them each time.
Around noon, they stopped briefly to rest and eat.
They were only halfway there, but had less than half the day left.
Picking up their pace, and after avoiding or resolving several crises along the way, the group barely managed to reach the outskirts of Nis before nightfall.
They had less than an hour until dark.
The abandoned town of Nis was larger than Wigtown, and the derelict wagons clustered on its outskirts resembled tilted tombstones.
If plants still grew, vines and weeds would have long since overrun the place.
"Be careful," Katerina reminded them quietly as they prepared to enter.
An abandoned town, full of dead ends and dark corners, was more dangerous than the open wastes.
Stepping onto a dust-covered street flanked by dilapidated buildings, they could vaguely make out the signs of Nis's former prosperity.
There were more wild cats here than in Wigtown; they were everywhere—in the streets, in shop windows, on cornices. All of them were descendants of the cats that once lived in Nis.
Abandoned Nis was filled with a strange sort of liveliness, and their presence made it easy to let one's guard down.
Walking down the street toward the center of Nis, they saw the fountain they had once seen in the silhouette painting.
Only, there was no elegant black cat; instead, hundreds of wild cats were gathered around the fountain, as if a grand assembly had just concluded.
"Where should we look for Her?"
Prusius looked around. Standing before the fountain, they could survey all the streets that radiated out from it.
One could see a shadow of Wigtown in Nis—or rather, a shadow of Nis in Wigtown.
Lu Li's gaze shifted from the empty steps of the fountain to the town's police station across the way.
...
The disturbed dust mingled with the dust already hanging in the air.
Reaching the second floor of the police station, they found themselves among yellowed, faded, old furnishings.
The group split up, searching for any possible clues left behind.
Lu Li entered the sheriff's office. His dark eyes lingered for a moment on an oil painting on the wall, then he moved around the desk.
Creak!
With a faint clatter, items deep inside the drawer rolled forward.
Several bullets of various sizes lay in the drawer.
These were the sheriff's personal effects, but for some reason, he hadn't taken them with him when he left.
A pale hand reached into the drawer and picked up a bullet. Its size matched those used by a Spirit Gun, but there was no way to know if it was still usable.
Lu Li emerged from the sheriff's empty, bookless office. The others had also found nothing.
The people had left without haste; they'd had time to take their documents.
"We should have forced those cultists to summon the Flowing Cat," Katerina said, feeling they had wasted their time.
"But then we would have become their enemies," Prusius said, looking up.
"Didn't Lu Li say he knows the Flowing Cat?"
Katerina looked at Lu Li.
Lu Li lowered his eyes:
"I'm not sure if She remembers me."
Twenty-four years is long enough to erase many things.
Just then. A faint humming suddenly began.
A dark shadow clung to the stairwell. Its glowing gray pupils, peering out from beneath the floor, were stark and sinister. The humming, which sounded like a nursery rhyme, emanated from the shadow.
The Fallen pressed a forefinger to the fissure on his face.
The song and the presence, more eerie than the Visible Song, lasted for a few dozen seconds before gradually fading away.
"What was that?"
"The Shadow of Silence. An evil spirit."
The Shadow of Silence was similar to the entity known as Silence before it became the Hour of Silence, but its influence couldn't encompass the whole world, existing only in its immediate vicinity.
The nursery rhyme reminded Lu Li of the faint tune he had heard during the memory of the deaths of Model and her mother.
"What happens if you make a sound?" Lu Li asked.
"It will eat you."
"You die?"
The Fallen couldn't understand Lu Li's question, but he refrained from a sarcastic reply:
"Who knows... I've never seen any survivors."