Chapter 190
The Unspoken Hurt (VIII)
I don't know what exactly I expected when I pulled out the umbrella, pointed it at the woman, and poured Qi into it... but, well, it just kind of did what umbrellas do? In addition to one thing umbrellas shouldn't be able to do.
It unfurled rapidly and with a rather loud boom before a sudden burst of energy exploded outwardly from its canopy--it was like a beam of light shot off but quickly broke off into individual tendrils that wrapped around the woman in the blink of an eye.
"What? What is this?! What are you doing?" She tried to struggle--in what capacity, I don't really know--but nothing seed to be working since tendrils wrapped around her limbs wholly and seed to chain her to the place.
The umbrella itself began to crack, and just as I thought it'd explode in my fingers (and take them with it), it instead dissolved into fading particles of light.
... huh.
First ti for everything, I suppose?
The woman continued to scream and try and conjure up a strange form of energy to counter the umbrella's effects--but all attempts were kind of imdiately snuffed out as the tendrils lashed out at the new energy and destroyed it.
I didn't actually know whether this would work; in actuality, the riddle doesn't really point to my assumption (which is a fairly big one): that the 'dead' person is actually alive, just not... alive. Maybe a spirit? Or a ghost? Which is why the resurrection ritual would have worked--because it wasn't actually resurrecting.
However, again, it was a huge leap, as it could have easily been a dozen other things, but judging by the skin molting as the tendrils began to literally peel it back like sheets of paper... yeah.
Looks like my completely and utterly blind(ish) guess was right?
"YOU DAMN VERMIN!! STOP THIS AT ONCE! STOP BEFORE I REVILE YOUR SOUL INTO ROTTEN SLUDGE!!!"
With the fact that her face was being, uh, de-faced (not defaced, but de-faced), and the fact that her voice turned into almost a beastly growl, I actually almost winced and pulled back.
But seeing as she was still rooted in place, tendrils continuing to, uh, at this point I don't even know what's happening--layers of skin are rippling out underneath other layers, as though there were multitudes hidden there, while her screams grow louder and more... piercing.
Everyone, even Long Tao, seed shocked at the rather abrupt developnt--I imagine they expected a 'showdown' of sorts, and now that I've interjected, it seems likely they won't get one.
"Uh, Master, what was that... umbrella?" Dai Xiu asked as she walked up to , seeming rather curious.
"Oh, it's a small artifact that Elder Qin gifted ." I quickly put forth the prepared lie. "According to him, it can break people out of an abnormal state. I suspected sothing, so I figured I'd test it rather than speculating wildly... and it seems I might have been right."
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"What were you suspecting?" she probed.
"As I ntioned already, and as she generously confird, this ritual wasn't really to resurrect anyone," I said. "Well, not in a traditional sense."
"What was it for, then?" Okay, what are you? A tiny prompter that doesn't even let have dramatic pauses for, you know, dramatic effect?!
"I'm... not really sure. My best guess is that the older brother's spirit was supposed to go in that boy over there. But--if there was a spirit anywhere out in the open, I imagine we would have all felt it by now. So..."
"Oh!" Long Tao exclaid softly, seemingly the first to put the pieces together. "That body shares the two souls. Hooh. No wonder they had to beco a 'Blood Fiend', ha ha."
"Two spirits...?" Lilia mumbled. "So, Laye's alive? And he's been alive this whole ti?"
"Twist it," Long Tao said, his lips curling up into a grin. "That is the older brother."
"... what?!"
"--HA HA HA HA!!!" The woman--well, at this point it wasn't really a woman. It was, eerily, an amalgamation of like eight different faces, so n and so won (and one child, too, even), and they did not fit together. It was a horror show, and I'm just surprised how well the kids are taking it.
... like hell I am! I'm surprised how well I'm taking it.
"EIGHTY YEARS!! I'VE BEEN PLANNING THIS FOR SO LONG... AND YOU RUINED IT!! YOU RUINED IT ALL!!" The scream was aid at , though it was, thankfully, just a gust of... bad-slling air. "HA HA HA!! PATHETIC! EVERYTHING IS SO PATHETIC!! HOW CAN HUMANITY EVER ESCAPE THESE CHAINS?! YOU THINK SIDING WITH THOSE COLD, APATHETIC GHOULS FEEDING ON OUR ROTTING ESSENCE WILL GIVE YOU A WAY OUT?! I WILL WAIT--I WILL WAIT IN THE BOWELS OF HELL FOR ALL OF YOU, AND I WILL LAUGH AT YOUR PATHETIC ENDS AS YOU CO TO , ONE BY ONE!! HA HA HA HA!!"
The laughter was quite droning, the voice filling out the entire chamber.
But, also, it was... depressing. I an, this is soone who terrorized the world for decades, evading pursuit, and concocting a defiant plan to achieve sothing so outrageous it was deed impossible--and he was defeated...
... by a fucking umbrella.
Look, I know that I shouldn't really complain, but, co on! It's true! I really thought I was heading into a den of a monster where I'd have to use the mirror at least once to even co out alive, and yet... I defeated it with an umbrella.
Sure, it's a magical umbrella, and it's an umbrella given to by the system, but ultimately... I just put myself in his shoes.
If sobody pointed an ordinary-looking umbrella at , and not five minutes later I was a molten bundle of sludge and flesh gasping for my final breath... how would I feel? Indignant? Sad? Depressed? Angry? So, so angry that I'd want to co back from the dead just to get my revenge?
Yeah, probably sothing like that.
"YOU... damned... cultivators..."
The body lted into a pile of literal sludge, but only for a mont before I saw an arm peek out as though it was the start of the zombie apocalypse.
As though trained for it (which they probably did), the kids surrounded , and even Long Tao pulled back, seemingly uncertain as to what to expect.
We all stood with bated breaths for a few seconds as a young man erged, like a butterfly from a cocoon, his body coated in thick, glue-like gunk and muck.
"Ha... ha ha... ha ha ha ha," though he, too, started laughing rather manically imdiately after, his laughter was... different. "I'm free! I'm free!" he exclaid, fingers snapping together even through the goo, causing a stir of energy that shaped itself into a sharp-seeming dagger.
"What are you doing?!" Lilia asked, with both her and Zhu joining the little armada around .
"... thank you," the young man said, his lips curling up into a smile. "Godspeed."
A dagger shot upward and went directly through his jaw and up through his brain, digging out a fairly sizeable hole. One second, there was light in those eyes--the next, only the color red and nothing else.
The body stumbled sideways like a ragdoll, the sound echoing a few tis until we all finally caught up on what happened.
... that's it?
Huh.
No way.
It was then that the cave suddenly started shaking rather violently, and all containers of blood exploded in concert, destabilizing the void itself.
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