Shortly before Charlotte was eroded by negative spirituality.
On the outskirts of the Lily of the Valley Convent cemetery.
On a muddy path overgrown with weeds.
Elias was walking with his head down through the waterlogged hollows.
He intended to leave this place of trouble alone.
Behind him was the soaring aura of death and the faint roars of a monster.
Before him was the dark road leading to the city.
He walked very fast.
One could even say he was fleeing.
“What kind of fucking bullshit pendulum is this!”
He cursed under his breath as he walked, his teeth clenched.
His chest heaved violently, and his lungs were filled with the cold wind.
That rotting stench seemed to still be swirling around his collar, refusing to dissipate.
“Is this something a mere Scale Two like me can solve?!”
He waved his arm in the darkness.
Even though his actual combat power had soared, facing such a scene.
He felt in his heart that he was still a weak, low-Scale rookie.
Was that mountain of flesh monster something humans were meant to fight?
“Old Crowley is truly insane!”
Elias kicked a pebble on the side of the road.
The stone rolled into the grass, making a dull thud.
“To actually want something so dangerous!”
Recalling Old Crowley’s mysterious and secretive face.
He now wanted nothing more than to pull out the old man's beard, hair by hair.
“I can't help but doubt what that old man's motive really is!”
An old relic going through so much trouble to get a time bomb that could store souls and dark erosion energy.
No matter how he looked at it, it didn't seem like something intended for resale to make money.
This matter, just as he had calculated in his heart earlier.
Originally had absolutely nothing to do with him!
He was just a drudge watching the lighthouse after being cursed.
Coincidentally.
It was because John and Crowley happened to both ask him to retrieve this damn pendulum at the same time.
Originally.
He had come to dig up the grave purely because he was thinking of breaking the deadly dream demon curse on him, bracing himself to take a risk.
But who knew?
A single damn pendulum would attract several groups of people to fight over it in the middle of the night!
The Seventh Agency, Mist Veil Society cultists, Wayland Capital.
They all pounced on it like dogs smelling shit.
That was one thing.
But now, the most fatal part was that the pendulum itself had used John's mummified corpse to turn into a monster!
There were so many things to complain about that he didn't even know where to start.
He now recalled the looks in the eyes of those Seventh Agency investigators just a moment ago.
Those people were covered in blood, yet they held their positions behind cover, showing a spirit of being ready to die.
In contrast.
His own figure as he chose to flee without hesitation seemed exceptionally thin.
It made him look like a coward who feared death.
Give me a break!
Elias defended himself loudly in his mind.
He, Elias, was never afraid of death.
When he was fighting for his life against those eerie creatures on the lighthouse, had he ever shrunk back?
No!
But the premise was that, at the very least, the reason he was dying for had to be personally relevant to him, right?
He had to know what he was risking his life for.
While that damn pendulum was an important item for him to obtain clues about the dream demon curse.
He didn't need to throw his entire life into the mouth of that mountain of flesh monster just for a clue, did he?
Be rational!
He hinted frantically to himself in his heart.
What had he gone through so much trouble to break the curse for?
Wasn't it just so he could live well and leave that broken lighthouse in one piece?
If he lost his life right here in this foul-smelling graveyard for the sake of a way to break the curse.
Wouldn't that be putting the cart before the horse, losing more than he gained?
It would be a real tragedy if he died here before the curse was even broken.
That would be true dark humor.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt his logic was impeccable.
His footsteps also became more determined.
“Do you really plan on just leaving like this?”
Suddenly.
Just as Elias was walking faster and faster, and the silhouette of the convent behind him grew more distant.
Deep in his mind.
Old Ed's voice rang out without warning.
An unusual inquiry.
The tone lacked the usual banter, leaving only a cold questioning.
Elias paused in his tracks.
“What? If I don't leave, am I supposed to stay there and wait for death?”
He retorted irritably, his brow furrowing into a tight knot.
What was this old man's problem now?
“Don't forget, you are a Firebearer.”
Old Edmond's voice echoed through the Mental Channel.
This tone.
It had never been so severe.
As if standing on the moral high ground to pass judgment.
Hearing this.
The anger Elias had been suppressing all night flared up instantly.
“Look, old man, you're acting very strange today!”
He snapped back directly in his mind.
“What about being a Firebearer?”
“Are Firebearers not human?!”
Did signing a labor contract for the lighthouse come with a free life-long deed to save the world whenever and wherever?
“A Firebearer should protect what ought to be protected!”
The old man didn't back down at all, his voice even rising a few notches.
It carried an unquestionable sense of sacredness.
This lecture completely lit Elias's fuse.
“You have the right to lecture me?”
Elias was practically laughing from anger.
The corner of his mouth under the mask curled into a mocking arc.
He simply stopped walking and stood in the cold wind.
“Don't forget that when Guss came, you ran faster than anyone!”
He ruthlessly exposed the old man's past.
Recalling that desperate situation on the island.
“And now you're educating me?”
There had to be a limit to double standards!
“The matter with Guss has nothing to do with this!”
Old Ed deepened his tone, his voice sounding completely different from usual.
“If I truly had the ability to help you, of course I wouldn't have disconnected the Mental Channel.”
The old man began to defend himself.
“But given the situation at the time, I could neither help you nor avoid getting in your way.”
Excuses.
Pure excuses.
“Oh?”
Elias simply stopped moving forward altogether.
He crossed his arms and stood on the muddy path, asking with a cold laugh.
“Why don't you tell me then, how would you have gotten in my way?”
He was determined to settle this old debt today.
“Even if you had just told me about a few spells I hadn't seen before during the fight, it would have been a help!”
Even being a voice pack would have been better than playing dead.
The mind went silent for two seconds.
Then, Old Ed's voice rang out again.
“Because Guss is an infernal demon!”
“Though I don't know what that bone flute in your hand really is.”
“I don't even know what a Shuowang Beast is.”
“But there is one thing I am clear about.”
“And that is that an infernal demon would very likely demand this bracelet from you.”
Hearing this sentence.
Elias's eyes flickered.
“With your logic of fearing death above all else, wouldn't you have handed me over?”
Old Ed threw out this heart-piercing deduction.
He was afraid that to save his own life, Elias would have directly handed him over along with the bracelet as blood money to that infernal demon.
The air grew still.
Only the rustling of leaves in the wind remained.
“Hahahaha!”
Elias suddenly threw his head back.
Looking at the pitch-black night sky, he laughed wantonly.
The laughter was full of absurdity.
“You complain every day that I don't trust you, but what about you?”
He stopped laughing and questioned coldly in his mind.
“Do you trust me?”
Guarding against each other, testing each other.
This was the ridiculous alliance between them.
“I, Elias, remember that if it weren't for you, I couldn't have come back from the island alive!”
He said each word clearly.
His voice was exceptionally distinct in the night wind.
“I owe you, and I will definitely pay it back.”
This was his baseline and principle as a modern man.
Spirit of contract, equivalent exchange.
“Like I said just now, you, old man, are related to me, so I will help you.”
Elias gripped The Roaring Cane tightly.
“I will help you even without considering the cost!”
He stated his position.
“And is this matter unrelated to you?”
Old Ed suddenly replied in his mind.
His tone was eerily calm.
“Old man, are you stupid? This pendulum had nothing to do with me in the first place!”
Elias interrupted him impatiently.
Whatever others wanted to snatch had nothing to do with him.
“But now it does!”
Old Ed's voice suddenly became sharp.
Like an awl, it pierced straight into Elias's soft spot.
“Don't forget, John's obsession was looking for you and that damn Luke.”
This sentence was like a thunderclap on a clear day.
“If you leave now, will the mountain of flesh follow your spirituality and hunt you down?”
Old Ed pressed on, step by step.
“Have you thought about that?”
Elias's breath hitched.
In the supernatural world, this was practically common sense.
The monster that had absorbed John's obsession had definitely remembered him, the person who had performed the transcendence on him.
“The death of a few investigators is a small matter.”
Old Ed's voice continued to echo in his mind.
“What about Arthur?”
“What about Charlotte?”
“What about everyone in the city?”
The rapid-fire questions made Elias feel a surge of dizziness.
“Are you going to keep running forever, until someone else comes to solve this pile of shit monster for you?”
“...”
Elias fell completely silent.
Fine beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.
The cold wind blew past, but it couldn't take away the irritation and confusion in his heart.
Arthur.
Charlotte.
The names of his brother and sister were like a needle, stabbing deep into his heart.
If the monster really reached the city.
With Arthur and Charlotte's fragile ordinary human bodies, they would surely face certain death.
He had wanted to struggle.
After all, they weren't his real brother and sister.
But he couldn't do it.
It was as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water over him in the middle of winter.
His vision became blurred for a moment.
The surrounding darkness and tree shadows began to twist and reorganize like ripples in water.
By the time he could see the things before him clearly again.
He suddenly realized.
Not far ahead on the muddy path, at some point, a figure had appeared.
That person was wearing modern casual wear that was completely out of place in this steam era.
He had clean, short hair.
That face was one he was all too familiar with.
Because that was himself.
A "Jiang Huan" was standing ahead.
Elias stared blankly at that phantom.
“After all that has been said, are you still not going back to solve the problem?”
“Jiang Huan” had his hands in his pockets.
He looked at him seriously and said.
His tone carried the decisiveness and sense of responsibility unique to a modern person.
Elias opened his mouth, just about to answer.
Just then.
“Elias!”
Old Ed's familiar voice seemed to come from a very distant place.
The quality of this voice was completely different from the "Old Ed" who had been arguing fiercely with him just now!
“Who the fuck fed you dreamlily again?!”
In the distant, real voice, there was anxiety and exasperation.
Elias's heart shrank violently.
The “Jiang Huan” before him began to twist like a melting wax statue.
Only then did he suddenly realize.
All that arguing, questioning, and moral coercion just now.
It was all fake!
“I told you earlier that you should have used your cane to snap yourself out of it!”
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