novelraw Chapter 872: Intertwined Time
Chapter 872: Intertwined Time
"Where is Anna?"
Lu Li asked the man who called himself Bishop John. Ophelia, standing guard, tensed her body as an obscure power roiled within her.
The cultists stood by the oil lamps, their elongated shadows pointing toward Lu Li in the center, creating the atmosphere of a clandestine ritual.
"We, too, are searching for our Lord, again and again..."
John bowed his head sorrowfully.
"But allow your most faithful servant to be direct. It is possible our Lord has sacrificed herself."
"Sacrificed... What does that mean?"
"She gave herself for your return," Bishop John said.
[Perhaps even your release is connected to her? The subterranean rock layers are like a mother's womb, and the turbulent currents that envelop them are the amniotic fluid, bringing nourishment. When you plunge into the river, struggle through the narrow passage, and emerge, it is like the birth of a baby...]
The whisper that had sounded when the Thinker statue in Sugra-Dno flickered seemed to echo in his ear.[She is beside you, she has never left you...]
"Tell me the details," Lu Li continued.
"Of course... even at the cost of my life."
Bishop John slowly raised his head, his eyes, clouded with a gray mist, filled with recollection:
"It was a cold, snowy night, just like this one..."
John, who should have died, was resurrected by Anna. After observing his condition, she had intended to abandon him, just like the other resurrected, imperfect subjects. But John chose to follow in her footsteps all the way to the Stone Forest.
John pleaded with Anna to take him in, a man with nowhere to go, and at that moment:
"She said she was expecting a guest."
...
"Where is Adamfiya?"
Tesla, shrouded in wind and snow, emerged from the edge of the darkness. The oil lamp illuminated his face, which had become even more gaunt and haggard than before.
The elegant Shadow Maiden did not answer.
"Adamfiya, where is she?!"
Tesla strode forward, repeating his question.
The girl's silhouette slowly lifted her head, her hair swirling around her:
"Are you questioning me? Questioning an evil spirit...?"
"Tell me... tell me where she is..."
Dragging his stiffened body, Tesla staggered forward like a living corpse, devoid of the confidence and nobility he once possessed as an investigator.
"I can't live without her."
His plea seemed to touch the Shadow Maiden, and her swirling hair gently settled.
"...Paradise Valley. That's all I know."
"How do you know she's connected to that place?"
Tesla still retained a sliver of his investigator's acuity, or perhaps he just didn't want to be disappointed again.
"After he and I left, Remi and the others went looking for us. When I returned to Sea Gaze Cliff, I saw a messenger's body and a soaked note. The only thing I could make out was the name Paradise Valley."
It was the most Anna had said at one time.
"Thank you... You will find Lu Li, too."
Tesla committed the name to memory and staggered away.
Watching Tesla walk into the darkness, a whisper echoed through the underground hall.
"Of course..."
...
In the end, John never managed to become Anna's servant.
Having plunged into the abyss, she no longer needed companions; all that remained with her was her old obsession.
And, perhaps, warped and powerful emotions.
John, who considered himself a servant, followed in Anna's footsteps, gathering those she had resurrected, as well as those who believed in her deeds.
Thus, the Church of Shadows was born.
After the Shadow Maiden vanished, they continued her rituals, searching for Lu Li, and from time to time, they would reenact the ritual in this very place.
Anna eventually disappeared from the face of the earth, and the returned Lu Li never crossed paths with her—the clues he followed were all left by the Church of Shadows.
Having finished his story, Bishop John calmly awaited his own dissolution.
But time passed, a dead silence enveloped everything, and nothing happened.
"Why haven't I..."
"I know Anna's ritual and I know how to avoid activating it," Lu Li said, pressing a hand to his forehead.
The hallucinations were intensifying; even the words reaching his ears were muffled by a hissing static...
"My Lord saved me once, and you have saved me a second time."
Bishop John bowed, his excitement unconcealed, and swore an oath of fealty.
"The Church of Shadows will be your most faithful servant."
Dozens of figures before the wall also bowed respectfully.
Only Lu Li could see the illusory threads emerging from beneath their hoods, drawn by an invisible force toward his body, coiling around him helplessly as if abandoned, yearning to connect with him.
Lu Li ignored these ethereal threads, which possessed a mysterious power, and stared into the depths of the underground hall.
"Do you like the gift I prepared for you?" Anna said quietly, her words cutting through the static and sounding clearly in his ear.
"Did Anna leave anything behind?"
Lu Li asked the short Bishop John.
"Her chambers..."
Bishop John lowered his head again:
"We did not dare to defile that room..."
Even when their rituals failed time and again, and their search for Anna proved fruitless, they never once set foot in the room that might hold clues related to her.
This was why heretics were always the most difficult beings on this earth to provoke.
Faith made them fearless and mad.
"Take me there."
Bishop John walked ahead, leading the way.
Lu Li and his companions followed him through the underground hall, entering the Stone Forest, into the former living quarters where Duke Valentin had once rested.
Except for being deep underground and lacking light, it was no different from the manors and castles on the surface; only time and plunder had caused it to fade.
But after the Church of Shadows occupied it, it had come to life once more.
After traversing a long corridor with a red carpet, lit by candles on either side, they reached a room at the very end.
The cultists guarding the door bowed and stepped aside; the fanaticism beneath their cloaks was difficult to conceal even with fabric.
"This is it..."
Something squirmed beneath his black cloak, and Bishop John offered up a copper key.
Lu Li took the copper key, inserted it into the keyhole, and turned it.
Click—
The dusty, carved wooden door slowly swung open.
Bishop John stepped back. Ophelia and the Merchant did not enter either. The Elder Sister was pulled from his hood by Ophelia. Only Lu Li, having put away the silver key, stepped through the wooden doorway.
A soft, cold hand suddenly squeezed Lu Li's palm inside his pocket. When he pulled his hand out, he saw that he was holding a book.
"Belfast"
It was one of the books the Library Spirit from the True Library had pulled out, which Lu Li had taken and forgotten in his pocket.
Lu Li paused, opened the book's title page, and read the preface that appeared.
[Two who truly loved were forced to part. The girl searched for the boy, the boy searched for the girl, and their end—]
Lu Li immediately flipped to the next page, but several pages were missing.
It was impossible to know who had done it—the Library Spirit or the Everlasting Dreamer.
Was this the hint the Library Spirit had given him back then?
Temporarily putting "Belfast" away, Lu Li stepped from the doorway into the room.
Paintings, statues, works of art. In the plundered room, only a bed and a writing desk remained.
And a notebook, lying on the desk.
Lu Li walked to the desk, picked up the notebook bearing the logo of the "Belfast Printing House" in the bottom right corner, and carefully opened it.
On the blank pages of the notebook, there was only a single line of text.
[Wherever you are, I will find you and bring you back]