The old man certainly had a wild imagination.
Normally, Elias would have given him a piece of his mind, thoroughly mocking his runaway imagination that was like a dog off its leash.
But now?
Forget it. Even breathing felt like his lungs were filled with shards of glass; he had no energy left to bicker with the nonsensical spirit hanging over his shoulder.
After all, the world before his eyes was currently on the verge of total collapse.
Literally collapsing.
In his eyes, tortured by the dream demon curse, Ash Street was taking on a nauseating, dissolving state.
Elias closed his eyes, his fingers instinctively reaching for the Resonance Mark on his cane.
Should he... give himself another jolt?
Fight magic with magic, or rather, use physical transcendence to wake up his sanity?
The moment the thought bubbled up in his mind, a shudder rippled through the depths of his soul.
No way.
Even thinking about the Soul Screams gave him a stress response now.
By comparison, what was a little imagery of corpses and rotting meat?
He gritted his teeth, maintaining a stoic face amidst the dance of demons outside the window.
The carriage finally came to a slow halt in front of 137 Ash Street.
Old Ed’s incessant rambling finally came to a sensible stop.
He was home.
Elias forced his nearly broken body to move, habitually pulling a few Fenni from his pocket to pay the fare.
However, when his gaze fell upon his palm, he froze.
The denomination of the coins... wasn't right.
Or rather, they weren't Fenni or Shillings at all.
Through the filter of his hallucinations, what lay in his hand were several one-yuan coins with peony patterns.
The most classic design. Even the serrations on the edges were clearly visible.
“...”
Can I pay with a QR code?
He simply clenched the “peony coins” in his fist and shoved them all into the hand of the “Finn-zombie driver” who was turning around.
“Keep the change as a tip!”
Leaving those words behind, Elias jumped out of the carriage without looking back and headed toward his front door.
In the night wind...
The innocent public carriage driver sat stunned in his seat.
By the dim light of the street lamps, the driver saw the handful of coins in his hand.
Altogether... they were worth twelve Shillings.
For a short late-night trip, this was an astronomical sum that could make anyone's jaw drop.
The driver fell into deep thought.
He looked at Elias’s stumbling silhouette, then back at the money in his hand.
Is this boss just incredibly rich...
Or did this poor kid drink some bootleg liquor?
Whatever, praise the generous gentleman!
While the driver behind him debated whether to call out and remind the gentleman of his mistake...
Elias had already pushed open the front door and slipped inside.
The once warm and comfortable room was now unrecognizable.
The wallpaper was peeling away, revealing moss-covered tombstone rock.
Massive greyish-white cobwebs hung from the ceiling.
What kind of tomb-style decor is this...
He didn't care.
He didn't care at all.
Never mind tomb-style; even if a group of zombies jumped out into the living room right now to do a square dance, he wouldn't even blink.
His only thought was to get to the second floor.
He needed to pack his things and get out before Arthur returned.
He took off his coat, which was now an unrecognizable color, hung it on the rack, and dragged his heavy steps toward the stairs.
“Kid!”
Old Ed’s urgent warning flared in his mind.
“Your brother is home!”
That shout sent a cold sweat down Elias’s back.
All his drowsiness and fatigue were blown away by the shock.
“Where?!”
Elias panicked, reflexively shouting back in his mind.
This was impossible!
He had calculated everything clearly in his head.
At this hour, the boisterous parade tonight should have only just dispersed. As a police officer, Arthur should logically be out patrolling the streets to prevent any drunken brawls among the lingering citizens.
That was the source of his confidence in waltzing back home in this battle-damaged state.
How could Arthur possibly be home already?!
“Who is it?”
“Al?”
Just as Elias’s mind was turning into a chaotic mess, Arthur’s familiar voice drifted clearly from the hall downstairs.
The voice carried a hint of confusion and a touch of exhaustion.
Dammit.
Caught red-handed.
Elias turned stiffly, peeking his head over the second-floor banister to look down.
The sight sent his blood pressure soaring to his skull.
Standing in the living room below wasn't his so-called brother.
It was a living corpse Finn wearing a standard Hope County police uniform.
Elias felt a chill run down his spine.
He knew exactly why he was seeing such a ghastly sight.
The hallucinations created by the dream demon curse weren't random blind boxes. In most cases, they were built upon the victim's subconscious perceptions, fears, and deepest psychological states.
Ultimately, he still felt guilty about Finn’s death.
That sense of guilt, hidden beneath his cynical exterior, was magnified infinitely by the curse and projected onto his vision.
“Arthur?”
“You’re back?”
Elias forced a smile that looked more painful than crying.
This meant that the things he had planned to hide...
He now had to face head-on.
The “living corpse Finn” below—Arthur—frowned and walked to the base of the stairs, looking up at his brother who had returned so late.
“Where’s Lottie?”
Arthur’s first question stepped precisely on Elias’s frantic landmine.
“Didn't you two go out together?”
“...”
“Her?”
Elias swallowed hard, his throat feeling dry enough to spit fire.
Brain, think of something, fast!
His brain, already riddled with holes from the torture of the spiritual sting and under a continuous dimensional strike from the hallucinations, began to work in a frantic overload.
Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, collided, and were discarded.
Finally, he dug out a wicked method that had proven effective before.
He would do exactly what he did to deal with Charlotte at the White Bank Hotel!
Tactical subject change!
“She might be staying at Victoria’s tonight.”
Elias gripped the banister with both hands, trying his best to keep his tone calm and casual.
Before Arthur could follow up with more questions...
Elias dropped a bombshell.
“But honestly, Arthur.”
“I don't think I should be in a hurry to get married.”
He lied with a straight face, pivoting the conversation from his sister’s whereabouts to his own non-existent marital future.
This was a classic diversion, a chaotic move to catch a veteran off guard.
“What?”
Sure enough, Arthur was thrown off by this sudden turn.
His eyebrows knitted together, and his brotherly authority immediately took over.
“No!”
Officer Rockland put his hands on his hips, expressing a stern refusal.
He took the bait.
Elias breathed a small sigh of relief and immediately pressed his advantage.
“If you’re not married, why should I be?”
He retorted righteously.
However, Arthur clearly didn't play by the rules.
He intended to keep lecturing his brother, but his nose keenly caught a strange scent in the air.
Arthur’s attention was drawn by something else.
He took a deep breath, and his expression changed instantly.
“What on earth is that on you?!”
Arthur marched up the steps, his voice full of shock and disgust.
“You reek!”
His eyes widened as he looked at the large patches of dried, black, mysterious liquid staining Elias’s clothes.
Truth be told, as an experienced police officer, Arthur had handled all sorts of murder scenes.
His first instinct told him these black stains looked very much like oxidized blood.
However...
The smell was far from the metallic, iron-like scent of blood.
It was more like a potent stench mixed with rotting aquatic plants and fermented dead fish.
“It’s like you went swimming in a sewer!”
Arthur pinched his nose, giving a fairly accurate comparison.
A sewer?
That was two nights ago, I think.
Elias’s chaotic brain immediately jumped around, and he couldn't help but make a silent quip.
But as Arthur drew closer on the stairs, the keen officer discovered even more clues.
It wasn't just the stains and the stench.
“Why is your face so pale?”
Arthur stood just two steps below Elias, looking at his brother’s bloodless face under the gaslight.
And those shifty, unfocused eyes that couldn't seem to lock onto anything.
Arthur’s police radar went into overdrive, and he became deeply suspicious.
“What happened to you?”
He suddenly stepped forward, his hands like iron pincers, firmly gripping his brother’s shoulders.
In that second, through the thin shirt, Arthur felt the tensed muscles on his brother’s shoulders and... the faint pain of injuries.
“Tell me the truth. What were you and Lottie doing tonight?”
Arthur’s voice became low and stern. Seeing the various small abrasions peeking out from beneath the torn fabric, his tension reached its peak.
This was definitely not what someone should look like after attending a parade!
Crap.
Feeling the irresistible force on his shoulders, Elias cursed inwardly.
The massive shock of his sister being corrupted, combined with his miscalculation of Arthur’s schedule tonight, and then layered with the double torture of spiritual stings and hallucinations...
It had caused his brain to suffer a brief shutdown.
An explanation?
How could he explain?
Say he just fought a corpse and then got cursed by a dream demon?
Verbal deception had completely failed.
“Arthur.”
Elias closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and forcing his focus onto his brother, who was covered in the spectral image of a living corpse.
“I’m tired.”
He spoke softly, his voice as calm as a pool of stagnant water.
At the same time, the remnant spirituality within him began to stir quietly.
【Sleep Spell】.
As the light of the Rational Circuit in his mind was ignited, his spirituality acted like fine threads, connecting to the ubiquitous Origin Web.
Invisible arcane energy drifted through the narrow stairwell, accurately enveloping Arthur, who was standing right in front of him.
“Are you... tired?”
Arthur froze, the tensed nerves in his brain feeling as if their power had been suddenly cut.
The officer, who was on the verge of an outburst a second ago, now had his eyes turn misty.
An irresistible drowsiness washed over him like a tsunami.
His body began to sway uncontrollably.
“Hey! Don't fall asleep!”
Elias immediately put on a look of terror, grabbing Arthur’s swaying body while pretending to shout in panic, looking every bit like an innocent and flustered brother.
“Arthur!”
He shouted in the empty house, watching as Arthur’s eyelids fought a losing battle under the overbearing power of the 【Sleep Spell】. Finally, his head tilted to the side, and he drifted off to sleep against Elias’s shoulder.
Heavy, even breathing sounded in his ear.
The panic and terror on Elias’s face vanished instantly.
He struggled to support Arthur’s tall, solid frame.
Fatigue and resolve were intertwined in his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“To keep the ‘brother’ in your heart alive, I have to leave early.”
Rate on N.U.
