Monster - Chapter 90
Chapter 90: Bedeviled
Although the little monster eating was docile and not aggressive, her hunger infected Lin Sandie like a plague. Lin Sandie knew the hunger she felt wasn't real, but it was still unbearably painful.
This was the spiritual infection Pie had spoken of. If she were to actually sit at the dining table, it would likely mean she had become lost as well.
After moving away from the dining table, the hunger subsided slightly, allowing Lin Sandie to think more calmly.
"I'm wondering if I should burn that dining table. What do you think?" the Guide codenamed Red asked as she walked over to Lin Sandie.
"Why did you turn into a raccoon?"
"I like raccoons. In a mindscape, it doesn't matter what you turn into. Besides, being small seems to make the hunger less intense."
"What else do you know about your partner?"
"I don't know her that well. I'm a bit older. She must have left her birth world not long ago—a girl of fifteen or sixteen. We both arrived in the Main World recently. Before we find permanent partners, we're assigned missions by the divine officials," Red was quite talkative and began to speak about her and her partner. "Since we're still juniors, the missions usually aren't too difficult. In fact, we'd already completed ours. But I can't figure out why Zhao suddenly became bedeviled. That's the trouble with Sentinels. Sometimes, a drop of water or a single leaf can trigger them at the worst possible moment."
"What does Zhao look like? I mean, is she fat or thin? Does she usually get hungry easily?" Lin Sandie did her best to gather any information that might be useful.
"Neither fat nor thin, and she eats normally. Aside from being quiet, she's great. Even as a temporary partner, she's a very reliable Sentinel."
"Did you choose your own codenames, or were they given to you by the divine officials?"
"We chose them ourselves. The codename doesn't really matter, because our goal is to inherit one of the codenames left by the Main God. That's an honor only high-level Sentinels and Guides can obtain. You didn't know?" Red went on. "What's your codename?"
"..." Lin Sandie resisted saying the words "Little Rabbit." It was so childish. It was only then that she realized she and Little Fool had given each other their codenames. She could only conclude that Pie was utterly unprofessional in this regard.
"I know a Sentinel codenamed Lou. Is the codename Lou one left by the Main God?"
"What?! Lou!! You know a Sentinel with that title?!" Red's eyes widened, and she circled Lin Sandie a few times, as if trying to determine if she was lying.
"Is it rare?"
"Of course! Lou is first in line after Pie. Since the divine seat of Pie is currently occupied, it means that if the Main God Pie were to perish, the Sentinel known as Lou would immediately ascend to become the Main God!"
Lin Sandie froze, not expecting to receive such information. Miu the crow had indeed said that Lou was the Main God's heir, the god's only daughter, and so on. Could the relationship between Pie and Lou be even deeper than she had imagined?
"This is just what I've heard. Although there are 24 divine seats for the Main Gods, they aren't all filled. I don't know why. But in the Main World, even Main Gods will fall after a certain time. Take Pie, for instance. After She falls, Her divine throne isn't inherited by another mortal codenamed Pie, but by the holder of the next codename in the sequence. So, for anyone who wants to ascend to godhood, the best method is to have a god occupying the seat directly preceding their own codename. (Note 1)"
"Is the divine seat for λ occupied right now?" Lin Sandie asked. It was the letter that came before "Miu" in the sequence. Perhaps Miu, like Lou, was also in line to inherit a divine seat.
"No. Don't tell me you also know someone codenamed Miu?"
Lin Sandie shrugged, a silent confirmation.
"The ones who get those titles are all high-level Sentinels and Guides. You almost never meet them. They're either traversing the most dangerous Tower Worlds or have already been promoted to divine officials managing the others. How could you know them? Besides, I get the feeling there's a lot you don't know."
"Just think of me as one of the gods' little pranks." Lin Sandie felt her mind relax. "I'm going to be a Guide, I just haven't been able to leave the Tower World I was born in yet."
"Alright then. When you get to the Main World, I'll buy you a drink," Red said cheerfully.
"So what should we do with this little monster now?"
"Have you tried talking to her?" An idea was already forming in Lin Sandie's mind, but she needed to investigate further to be sure.
"Yes. She ignores me."
"Red, think carefully. What happened right before Zhao became bedeviled? Tell me anything you can remember. A Sentinel doesn't just become bedeviled without some kind of external trigger causing her to sink into a world like this." As Lin Sandie spoke, she glanced around again. The atmosphere here was oppressive, filled with hunger and despair... A mindscape this terrifying couldn't have been created without a sudden shock.
"Uhh..." Red, in her raccoon form, flicked her tail and furrowed her brow in thought.
"Or you could manifest a scene from the time before Zhao became bedeviled. Maybe an outsider like me can see details you missed."
"Okay." Red agreed readily. She closed her eyes, and soon, darkness fell around them. Lin Sandie saw a fire light up in the distance. Two women in black combat gear were sitting around a campfire. The older one was a little over twenty, with wavy red hair falling over her shoulders, idly whittling a branch while talking to the younger one.
The younger one was fifteen or sixteen, her face still held some baby fat, her black hair was tied in a ponytail, and her skin was very fair. The firelight reflected on her face. Without a doubt, she was Little Fool, a few years older.
But Little Fool's skin wasn't this pale, and her eyes were a bit bigger than this. The corners of her mouth didn't turn down like that; even when she wasn't smiling, her lips would curve upwards...
The hunger was still screaming madly. Lin Sandie rubbed her temples. After a moment, she understood. This was the person manifested by Red, colored by her own subjective perspective. In her imagination, this was what Little Fool looked like.
Little Fool didn't have such a sullen face, and her skin wasn't so pale. Lin Sandie felt a little annoyed, though she couldn't say why. Or maybe it was because she suddenly felt that the older Little Fool looked a bit like Lou, which threw her thoughts into a mess and nearly sent her mental state into chaos.
Lin Sandie couldn't help but ask herself, had Lou become so important in her heart?
"Are you okay?" Red asked cautiously, seeing the faceless woman in a suit beside her suddenly fall silent, with bulging veins appearing on her featureless face.
Guides had the ability to lead Sentinels out of a bedeviled state, but it was never a simple matter. Traversing the spiritual domain was sometimes more terrifying and harder to control than any external danger.
Sometimes, with a single moment of carelessness, the Guide themselves would go completely mad.
"...I'm fine." Lin Sandie continuously used her abilities to soothe her own mind, temporarily pushing aside thoughts of Lou and focusing on the Little Fool in the illusion.
"We finished this mission about a month early. Want to go have some fun in a nearby town?" Red struck up a conversation with Little Fool, who was looking down, wiping her short sword.
"I want to go back quickly and take the next mission." Little Fool's voice was a bit hoarse, no longer the tender, childish voice from before.
Her voice must be changing around now. The corners of Lin Sandie's mouth turned up slightly.
"Why the rush to go back? How many points do you have?"
"After this, I should have over 50,000."
"Impressive. I only have a little over 20,000. I'm planning to get a better weapon. What about you? I think it's about time to replace your bow. I know a really amazing weapons dealer in the eastern part of the Main World, maybe you could go check it out."
"I already have something I want to get."
"What is it? Can you tell me?"
"It's..." Little Fool was about to answer when a shadow suddenly flashed in the nearby woods. She flicked her hand, releasing the small knife.
Swoosh— The knife hit its target. Red immediately activated her "Island" ability. After sensing what it was, she got up with a grin and came back a moment later, carrying a dead gray rabbit.
"Dinner delivered right to our door! This one has very little poison, we can eat it." Red handed the knife back to Little Fool, drew her own, and began to skin the rabbit with a huge smile. "I'm starving. It'll take us until the day after tomorrow to get out of this damn swamp."
Little Fool took back her knife and silently watched Red prepare the rabbit. They hadn't eaten a proper meal in days. Even with physiques that surpassed ordinary people, hunger was seriously threatening their survival. Luckily, they knew how much farther they had to go to leave the swampy forest, otherwise they would have long since panicked and eaten the poisonous food in the forest.
After beheading and skinning the wild rabbit, they roasted it and each ate half. Red stretched lazily in satisfaction and threw the leftover bones, the useless rabbit head, and the stick used to skewer the rabbit meat into the campfire.
"I'll take the first watch today," Little Fool said, her pupils, lighter than a normal person's, staring at the flames.
"I'm counting on you, then. I'll take over in two hours." Red took out her sleeping bag and crawled inside.
The illusion ended. Lin Sandie had seen the scene before Little Fool became bedeviled.
"That's what happened. When I woke up to switch watches, she was already bedeviled, just staring motionlessly at the campfire. It was like the soul had been sucked out of her eyes," Red said, and Lin Sandie saw another scene.
Little Fool sat with her legs drawn up, her hands on her knees, staring blankly at the extinguished campfire. In the ashes lay a rabbit head, charred black. Her eyes had lost all their light; only the occasional spark from the dying embers flickered within them, like lifeless obsidian.
Comments
Post a Comment