At 8:00 PM sharp, Li Mo plunged a small, sharp knife into the girl's fragile heart. Cold blood, bathed in the moon's pure glow, flowed around Shigure Kira's corpse.
The pure white moonlight streamed through the window, like flawless white flowers piling up beside the young girl. She fell amidst the white flowers, a symbol of sacrifice and death.
In an instant, the sacred moonlight changed. The world's appearance twisted into something bizarre, warped by an unknown corruption. A dim, scarlet glow filled the entire room.
The corpse's eyes, once tightly shut, snapped open. It slowly stood up, its blood-red pupils gradually focusing. Shigure Kira had frozen her own time, but a forced death could break that equilibrium, allowing her time to flow once more—even if the person who emerged was no longer herself.
She was reawakening, attempting to take control of Shigure Kira's body.
With the appearance of Bizarre Kiana, the rules within the haunted house underwent a drastic change, becoming unstable.
8:00 PM. The Soul-Ferrying Passage began to operate.
He had to get to the fourth floor and bring Shigure Kira's soul back... Only by breaking the balance of the haunted house's rules could Li Mo reach the fourth floor on the third night.
In the past, he would never have made such a choice, not even if he hadn't died once. He would have considered the bigger picture, dealing with the Bizarre with maximum efficiency and minimum sacrifice, preventing its spread and buying its silence with the smallest price.
"Ugh..."
Clutching his bleeding left hand, Li Mo limped to the stairwell, rushing toward the fourth floor. It was a high-stakes gamble, a race against time. Li Mo knew that if he couldn't reach the fourth floor before Bizarre Kiana fully awakened, he would surely be killed.
Reviving her was a double-edged sword, one that could not be sheathed. He who plays with fire will eventually get burned...
He didn't know if the haunted house's rules could stop Bizarre Kiana. Perhaps she could still follow him even after he reached the fourth floor, but he had to go there now. Every second counted... he couldn't let Shigure Kira's soul pass completely through the Soul-Ferrying Passage. That wasn't rebirth; it was decay.
His current state was unique. He was suppressing the rules with a fleeting humanity, trading it for a semblance of a "living" identity. Using "Usurp" while so deeply corrupted had caused his body to be rejected by the Bizarre, leaving it shattered and broken.
But Li Mo dared not relax. The moment he let his guard down, the Bizarre corruption would instantly invade his brain. Then, he would feel no emotion at all.
Impulsive action without regard for consequences is a uniquely human trait. Because humans are such creatures. When faced with the shattering of beauty, they are neither rational nor calm.
They fantasize that tragedies can be changed, that the dead can be resurrected.
They construct illusory stories in their minds, making irreversible tragedies beautiful and dreamlike. Or they throw themselves forward recklessly, knowing they will gain nothing and lose so much, yet still pressing on, even... abandoning all their previous responsibilities.
Those responsibilities were also heavy shackles. Only extreme emotion could allow one to briefly escape the prison. Everyone was like this.
But ghosts were different. They were rigid, stiff, slow, like inflexible programs, strictly executing their code. Except for the occasional "bug"... an unexpected process that the creator's programming didn't account for...
"Ngh... Kira..."
Cold blood gushed from the wound, staining his entire arm red. His consciousness was blurring, his clear eyes obscured by a haze of blood, only able to vaguely make out the scene before him. His exhausted body forced his lungs to work violently with every step, gasping for air.
His faltering steps seemed ready to give way at any moment, and then... he would never get up again.
Li Mo bit off a piece of his lip. The pain sharpened his focus. He knew he couldn't lose consciousness. If he fell, he would never wake up...
The stairs weren't long, but for a dying man whose body was riddled with wounds, it was an eternity, so long that he had no confidence he could climb them all and reach the fourth floor. But Li Mo had a reason he had to go up. For that, he had abandoned everything.
Just to be like a human, to try and reclaim something important at all costs, even if he might gain nothing and become an outcast of the world.
At some point, the chains on the ninth room had all fallen away.
Creak—!
The door was pushed open, and a tall, dark figure emerged.
Li Mo was still struggling forward when he suddenly felt a bone-chilling cold on his back. A beautiful, lively shadow appeared at his feet, not far behind him...
"Mo... I found you..."
"Come back to me... I love you..."
The seductive voice, like a melody from hell, made Li Mo's soul tremble, and he couldn't help but turn back.
"Ugh..."
Li Mo dug the fingers of his right hand into the wound on Bizarre Mei's left hand and twisted the flesh and tissue inside.
Having temporarily lost his ghost identity, his left hand had become incredibly fragile. Blood vessels ruptured, flesh churned... The unbearable pain from this frantic act almost robbed Li Mo of his ability to think.
Forward.
Forward.
Forward.
Only this phrase echoed in Li Mo's mind. He was only two steps away from the fourth floor. His body was on the verge of collapse. Every time he lifted his foot, the cells in his body screamed in agony.
Invisible, heavy shackles were locked around his ankles. But on his back, invisible wings of freedom had sprouted. Will and spirit are romantic, at least for humans.
He could not stop!
Seeing that Li Mo had no intention of turning back, Bizarre Kiana's lips parted slightly, her pale lips trembling. Crimson blood slid down her cheeks, tracing two tear-like paths on her snow-white face.
Betrayal, alienation, abandonment...
If... if even Mo abandoned her... where would she go? Where could she go? Who would accept her? She already had... nothing left...
Bizarre Kiana's face was desolate. In an instant, the time-space of the entire haunted house fell into a dead silence. The Soul-Ferrying Passage stopped operating. All existence in the haunted house had its time flow stopped, entering a special state—"Eternal Death."
Including Li Mo. But he was only one step away from reaching the fourth floor...
Bizarre Kiana approached Li Mo step by step, her expression growing more and more twisted. She spread her pale arms, ready to embrace him, to use her most romantic and sincere confession to be with him forever, to fulfill the promise they had made...
Just as Bizarre Kiana was about to embrace Li Mo, an unexpected guest blocked their path. A tall, dark figure, its features indistinct, its most obvious characteristic being its bloated body and the thin, gaunt shadow at its feet that didn't match its size.
"..."
Bizarre Kiana tilted her head, her limited mind crashing as she tried to analyze the characteristics of the ghost before her. Ghosts couldn't be killed. They would immediately restart upon receiving fatal damage.
And their abilities could be used infinitely, with no energy restrictions. Given enough time, they could wear down any race other than ghosts. Because one of the primordial rules was immortality.
Bizarre Kiana's approach to enemies was also simple: kill, then lock. She used her spatial abilities to move the Knocking Ghost aside, then instantly locked the time-space.
Just as Bizarre Kiana thought the battle was over and spread her arms to embrace Li Mo, something unexpected happened.
The Knocking Ghost grabbed Bizarre Kiana with one hand and threw her backward. Caught off guard by the sudden attack, Bizarre Kiana fell helplessly onto the third-floor landing, covered in blood.
"???"
At this moment, although the frozen Li Mo couldn't move, his mind was still working. He didn't understand why the Knocking Ghost was helping him, much less how it could escape Bizarre Kiana's time-space lock.
The rules of the Bizarre were absolute. Li Mo had never encountered a rule that could help a ghost escape time, let alone the objective factor of time-space.
No... there was one. The rule that seemed to ignore all rules, the one on Erin.
Bizarre Kiana slowly stood up, her wounds healing rapidly. She tilted her head, pausing for a few seconds. Then, several Lances of the Void appeared above the Knocking Ghost's head. The lances were warped, carrying the power of dominance and binding, and plunged straight into the Knocking Ghost's body.
Controlling ghosts wasn't limited to time-space locks. Bizarre Kiana had many ways to suppress them without killing them.
After being pierced by the Lances of the Void, the Knocking Ghost's head suddenly drooped, as if it had fallen silent. But the next second, it raised its head again, pulled out the lances, and threw them at Bizarre Kiana in a normal projectile fashion.
Bizarre Kiana didn't dodge, because ghosts don't have the concept of dodging.
The Lances of the Void pierced her limbs, pinning her to the wall, but the power of binding and dominance couldn't control her.
Bizarre Kiana let her body be divided, returning to the ground without pause. Her body immediately recovered, her scarlet, star-and-moon eyes sizing up the bloated Knocking Ghost with a strange gaze.
"...?"
The Knocking Ghost could contend with Bizarre Kiana? Li Mo was somewhat shocked. He knew the Knocking Ghost was terrifying and possessed many different rules.
But he never expected it to be this powerful, even able to fight Bizarre Kiana on equal footing. No matter what method Bizarre Kiana used to control it, the Knocking Ghost could immediately break free, as if it had a Ragnarok-like control immunity.
Boom—!
The Knocking Ghost charged forward again, tanking the frost and flames released by Bizarre Kiana and sending her flying. The ice-blue flames burned fiercely on the Knocking Ghost's body, then quickly dissipated. And the Knocking Ghost was completely unharmed.
But this time, Li Mo saw the trick. It wasn't that nothing happened... The Knocking Ghost's body had shrunk.
The change was minuscule, but the perceptive Li Mo still noticed it. There was a crack in the Knocking Ghost's arm, and inside was something Li Mo couldn't comprehend, perhaps a ghost, or something else.
The things inside were desperately trying to get out. Because the crack was large, they could occasionally stick out a part of their body.
However, after suffering several of Bizarre Kiana's fatal attacks, the crack had shrunk, the bloated body had started to shrivel, and the things inside could no longer stick their bodies out.
Thump... thump... thump...
Thump... thump... thump...
Thump... thump... thump...
Frequent footsteps appeared on the third floor, but Bizarre Kiana had just locked the time-space of the haunted house. The footsteps were from the ghosts that had played hide-and-seek with him before. Li Mo was sure these ghosts couldn't have escaped the time-space lock on their own.
There was only one answer.
They had been eaten by the Knocking Ghost, and then released by Bizarre Kiana's attacks.
So the Knocking Ghost wasn't completely immune to Bizarre Kiana's attacks. It was using the ghosts inside it to take the hits. But after only a few seconds of activity, they were killed again by Bizarre Kiana and locked in a state of death.
Li Mo's earlier thought was quickly verified. As Bizarre Kiana's attacks grew more frantic, the Knocking Ghost's body gradually shriveled, from a bloated, tall, dark figure to a normal size, then to a thin, gaunt form, just like the shadow on the ground.
So when he saw the thin human shadow at the Knocking Ghost's feet, was that actually the Knocking Ghost's true form?
"Mo... this time we'll never be apart."
The Knocking Ghost seemed to be dead. Bizarre Kiana walked up behind Li Mo.
At the critical moment, a light, pleasant voice echoed in his ear.
"Radiant light, shine upon the earth~"
Elysia was here... Why was she here? Did Hua use the ghost phone to ask Mei for help again?
In a daze, Li Mo found he could move again. Without lingering, he dragged his heavy steps and gritted his teeth, climbing the last step. The moment Li Mo reached the fourth floor, the stairs quickly disappeared. Li Mo looked back one last time and met a pair of bizarre eyes. They were the eyes he had after dying four times.
And the Knocking Ghost, having lost all the ghosts inside it, had pale skin covered in liver spots. Most of its flesh had rotted away, faintly emitting an unbearable stench. It was extremely haggard.
But that wasn't enough to startle Li Mo. He stared, wide-eyed, at the Knocking Ghost's true face in disbelief. It was him. It was himself. But different from the current him.
Li Mo had denied a certain rule and briefly gained a human identity. But the Knocking Ghost showed no sign of life, as if it were his own form, fallen into the Bizarre.
"Ngh..." Li Mo's head throbbed. Excessive blood loss had slowed his thinking. He no longer had the luxury of considering the connection between the Knocking Ghost and himself, or even the sudden appearance of Elysia, Pardofelis, and Mei.
So tired... I just want to sleep...
A thick wave of drowsiness filled his head, his eyelids feeling as heavy as lead. Li Mo stumbled forward in a daze, toward the Soul-Ferrying Passage where time had resumed flowing.
He finally saw it... countless vacant souls, walking in an orderly fashion in one direction. That was the final stop of the soul ferry, to peacefully guide the departed souls...
"Kira, I'm coming..."
Li Mo staggered, his steps heavy, limping toward the souls.
On the third floor, Bizarre Kiana had a ferocious, angry expression, staring deadly at the sudden arrivals. Once again... her desire had been thwarted once again.
"Sister Elysia, Kiana... she's very powerful, very strong. The 'Wishing' ability doesn't work on her." Mei said weakly, clutching her chest, a handgun in her hand.
The handgun couldn't kill any ghosts. It was to kill herself, to release Bizarre Mei. To protect Li Mo, Mei had long been prepared to sacrifice herself. This rule had been indelibly branded on every counterpart with Mei's characteristics since the death of the first fictional Mei.
"Sis Ely! I can't beat her! She's as terrifying as Bro Mo was back then!"
Khorne's intuition immediately warned Pardofelis that the opponent was an unbeatable existence.
At the height of destruction and slaughter, Khorne's roar would even echo throughout the entire wasteland, and anyone who heard it would fall into eternal madness.
But the opponent was even more mad, more twisted than her.
Pardofelis could slaughter any enemy weaker than herself.
No matter how many buffs the opponent stacked, as long as their base form was weaker than hers, her attacks would always be able to kill them. But in the current situation, even with numerous buffs, she still couldn't win. Whether it was from their human combat strength or the degree of corruption they had suffered, she was hopelessly outmatched.
"Emmm... it does seem a bit tricky. Mei, wish for Hua to be summoned here. Don't worry~ With the omnipotent Miss Pink Elf here, she won't interrupt your wish. After all, we're all understanding girls~"
"Sis Ely, if you're omnipotent, why can't you just take her out yourself? The weak should be thoroughly humiliated by the strong, ribbit!"
"Hee hee~ Don't mind me. If a girl's date ends so quickly, it would be a bit too... lonely, wouldn't it?"
A pinkish-white glow surrounded Elysia. The Herrscher of Human:Ego's outfit replaced her everyday clothes. Holding a bow, Elysia aimed at Bizarre Kiana.
Mei immediately wished for Hua to be summoned before them and enchanted Elysia's attack: "I say Sister Elysia's arrow will surely hit."
The next second, Elysia released the Arrow of Flowers and Birds, which flew straight toward Bizarre Kiana, accompanied by a brilliant starlight. The arrow stopped in mid-air the moment it neared Bizarre Kiana, frozen in time-space. After a brief pause, the arrow suddenly teleported, piercing Bizarre Kiana's heart.
The light of "Divinity" began to bloom within Bizarre Kiana. Her scarlet eyes miraculously faded, becoming clear and azure, a standard manifestation of the Kaslana genes. However, it didn't last long. In just an instant, the corrupted scarlet blood once again overwhelmed all the pure colors.
"Huh? How did I... Elysia? Pardofelis, and... Mei?"
The arriving Hua froze on the spot. A second ago, she was dealing with a paranormal incident. The ghosts outside had gone out of control, several cities had become dead cities, and every night, a hundred ghosts would parade, their path becoming the road to the underworld.
"Sis Hua! You're finally here!! Quick, help us defeat her!" Pardofelis pointed at the ferocious-looking Bizarre Kiana.
Hua glanced at her, then turned her gaze to Elysia. Elysia's face was a little pale. Logically, Elysia should have an advantage against any Bizarre. For even her to be struggling so much...
"Sister Hua, MEI sensed that Brother was in danger, so she sent us to rescue him. I summoned you here with my wishing ability, hoping you can help us. Brother went to the fourth floor, he probably has something to accomplish. We just need to stop her here." Mei explained succinctly.
After hearing this, Hua nodded and decisively made a bold statement: "Of course. More talk is useless. I will not let this ghost get half a step closer to Mo!"
The words had barely left her mouth when Bizarre Kiana appeared in front of Hua and slapped her without warning.
"..."
Instantly, Hua's cheek burned. Bizarre Kiana said nothing, but it was as if she had said everything.
You think you're worthy?
"Tsk."
Realizing the difference in strength, Hua no longer restrained her own corruption. She threatened Bizarre Hua with a price, demanding the ability to stop Bizarre Kiana.
Hua slowly closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was in a completely unfamiliar scene. She had arrived in a shabby rental apartment.
This was Bizarre Hua's ability, to make the opponent forget a certain memory, thereby erasing the corresponding reality. Erasing the trigger that turned Kiana into a Bizarre.
Although it couldn't directly turn her back into a human, because ghosts can't be killed, it could put her into a brief state of crashing. Without a prelude, without the beginning of a story, the ending would naturally be like a rootless duckweed.
"A small room, looks like a cheap temporary rental." Hua's control over Bizarre Hua's ability wasn't complete. She couldn't just delete memories like Bizarre Hua could. She could only search for the opponent's deepest memories and then actively erase them.
"Mo! Mo! Wash my hair! In return, I'll cook for you!" In the room, Kiana ran up to Li Mo, pointing at her messy hair and shouting.
Li Mo put down his phone, smiled warmly, and replied naturally, "Okay, but you don't have to cook..."
"I want to~"
"Alright then, I'll cook with you after I wash your hair."
Then, Li Mo took the showerhead and wet Kiana's long, white hair, then squeezed out some shampoo and started lathering.
"Hee hee~ Mo is the best..." Kiana smiled sweetly, seemingly enjoying the atmosphere.
Hua stood to the side, unobserved, in a god-like perspective. Like a dream, the creator of the dream had shielded her from the perception of everyone in it. Even if she stood right in front of them, they couldn't see or touch her.
"How heartwarming..." Hua mused.
"Not here. Go to the next place." Hua shook her head, closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she was in a medical room. The shelves were filled with various medicines. On the hospital bed, Li Mo was lying down, and Kiana was sitting on a small stool by the bed, her head resting on it. Both were sound asleep.
"Not here either."
Hua switched memories again. This time, the moment she opened her eyes, a chaotic, collapsing emotion rushed toward her. She saw Kiana in an endless, dark space, holding Li Mo's head, her eyes vacant.
"This is it."
Just as Hua was about to erase this memory, she suddenly felt a pair of cold hands wrap around her neck. With a crisp "crack," Hua was pulled out of the memory and back to reality. She immediately reached up to touch her neck. It was still there.
"I was discovered? Why?"
In a memory she controlled, it should have been impossible to be detected. Unless the opponent had the same ability, and was even more corrupted than her.