Fourth floor, the Soul-Ferrying Passage.
Thousands upon thousands of spirits, their eyes vacant, their faces pale. Some bodies were rotting, limbs missing, flesh mangled, leaving only a pale skeleton supporting a few tattered scraps of skin.
The nature of the Bizarre allowed them to endure, immortal and undying, to walk here for eternity. But there was no doubt that once they passed completely through the Soul-Ferrying Passage, the spirits would not be revived. They would become ghosts, any one of the ghosts in the haunted house.
They retained the habits and hatred of the living, but they were purely ghosts, devoid of emotion, without reason, nothing but empty shells.
"Cough, cough... cough..."
Li Mo covered his mouth, forcing himself to stifle his coughs. He didn't know if the sound would break the balance and attract the spirits' attention. Plan for the worst, then do everything you can.
Fortunately, the spirits didn't seem to be startled, or perhaps they had already lost all perception of the outside world... Their only behavioral logic was to follow the line, endlessly.
Those who had toiled ceaselessly in life could not rest even in death.
Li Mo slowly lowered his right hand; his palm was a pool of bright red blood. His skin tone was fading from ashen gray, hovering between rosy and pale. The blood flowing from him was warm again, and the stench of decay on his body was rapidly dissipating.
But everything has a price. The price for reclaiming a human body was losing the immortality of the Bizarre. His wounds no longer healed noticeably, and his consciousness and rationality were gradually approaching collapse.
Li Mo gritted his teeth and limped to the side of the procession of spirits.
They walked slowly, but Li Mo was only slightly better. His blurred vision constantly searched for familiar faces among them. He saw many.
The ghost that had crawled into the haunted bed on the third floor, the people killed by the humanoid spider on the first floor... All the souls who died in the haunted house would eventually come here, and after one night, they would become ghosts in the haunted house, shuttling between the black fog and the house itself.
Their numbers had reached an unsolvable level. To stop it, one had to go to the fifth floor and deal with the source of the Bizarre...
But Li Mo had given up, chosen to evade his responsibility. According to the prompts in his mind, humans and ghosts did not interfere with each other.
As long as they each walked toward their own destination—the spirits to their final destination, and he to his own exit—he could safely reach the fifth floor and face the source of the Bizarre.
How selfish... But it was too late to say anything now. It was meaningless. Li Mo had never liked to apologize, because it couldn't change reality, only make him feel a little better.
Those who make mistakes should bear the guilt of their wrong choices, be whipped by the pain, and be constantly reminded of their failings. One regret was enough.
He didn't know how long he walked. Li Mo's consciousness gradually faded, his vision plunging into darkness.
But his footsteps didn't stop. Compared to the spirits beside him, the blood-soaked, exhausted Li Mo was more like a walking corpse. The Soul-Ferrying Passage was enveloped in boundless darkness.
Where Li Mo walked, he left behind footprints glowing with a reddish light, stretching from far away to the present.
"Kira..." Li Mo murmured. Perhaps he should never have involved her from the beginning.
"I'm sorry..." If he had been cruel enough back then, he should have erased the memories of everyone involved on the day of the funeral. At least they could have returned to a normal, happy life, instead of being tainted by corruption, entangled with the Bizarre, and becoming this undead thing.
Li Mo's pace slowed. He could barely walk anymore.
Unlike a Bizarre body, a human's physical strength and endurance were limited. But just before his vision faded completely, a faint, blurry blue appeared in his eyes.
Ice-blue hair floated gracefully in the air like a soft cloud. In the boundless darkness, it was like a warm sunbeam piercing through a crack. A single glance was enough to steal his entire focus.
Li Mo struggled to open his eyes, even though his pupils couldn't focus. A blurry silhouette was enough. He recognized her.
Li Mo dragged his heavy body to Shigure Kira's side and grabbed her wrist. Cold, bone-chilling, stiff... But Li Mo smiled. Because he had caught her, he had found her! He had found her! He could hold on, and he could keep her.
Li Mo tried to pull Shigure Kira out of the procession of spirits. He tried repeatedly, but found he couldn't do it. Instead, his injuries worsened, and he was only... No... he had already reached his limit. It was only his last breath that had kept him going, allowing him to walk this far by sheer will.
"Kira... Kira..."
["Hey! Is anyone there? Everyone! Gloomy guy!"]
The conversation between him and Shigure Kira after he had revived her suddenly echoed in his mind. Devoid of emotion, he had treated everyone with extreme coldness, completely unable to feel or understand the young girl's admiration and respect.
"Over here... turn around... look at me..."
["We can finally end this nightmare. I'm so happy. Why aren't you smiling? I think you'd look great if you smiled."]
"I am smiling... Leave with me... Come home with me, okay..."
Li Mo used all his strength to force a stiff, bitter smile onto his face. Her ice-blue hair was bewitching. Shigure Kira walked step by step toward the final destination of the spirits. An icy chill was just ahead.
Li Mo had a premonition. If he couldn't stop Shigure Kira, once she passed through the Soul-Ferrying Passage, it would be too late... Even Bizarre Kiana's time reversal couldn't save her.
Because ghosts are immortal. Any rule that attempts to erase their existence will fail, and time reversal is no exception. Once Shigure Kira became a ghost, all that time reversal could bring back would be a ghost named Shigure.
["Why aren't you talking? Hey? Why are you touching my hair? Ugh, fine, just consider it a reward for saving everyone."]
Li Mo's eyes stung. The spirits couldn't receive external information. No matter how much he shouted, he couldn't wake her. He could only watch as Shigure Kira walked step by step toward destruction.
Why? He had already reached the final step. He had already found her. Why couldn't he change the ending?
["My name is Shigure Kira. But I have a little secret wish. In private, just call me Kira Star. I feel a little shy saying it, but... I'm an idol, you know... Well... I'm a little tone-deaf, hehe."]
["You still haven't told me your name?"]
"Li Mo... My name is Li Mo..."
["Liar! You totally didn't! If you had told me your name, how could I not remember? Don't underestimate a Valkyrie's memory!"]
"Stay... I'm begging you... stay by my side."
Once, Shigure Kira had asked for his name, and he hadn't told her. When she complained, he had sent her away, coldly ordering, "Go back to your teammates." The story withers with time. On the current path, someone will always be aimlessly searching for shadows of the past.
In the end, all that remains in memory is something ethereal. Perhaps the ending was good. Those who were supposed to live, lived. Or perhaps, they were all already dead.
Shigure Kira's form grew more and more transparent, hazy, as if she would dissipate at any moment. As she neared the end, she grew younger and younger. Finally, she returned to her childhood, walking numbly toward the end where her soul would disappear.
Li Mo's tight grip finally gave way. Limited by his body's limits, he couldn't hold on to Shigure Kira any longer.
"..."
Li Mo lost all vision.
As a person nears death, the body takes the most optimal measures to preserve life, first cutting off the blood supply to the eyes. Shadows flickered.
Li Mo's head drooped, his pupils completely losing focus, becoming dim and lifeless. His fragile body stumbled, and he knelt on the ground, his hands falling limply onto the intangible yet tangible ground of the Soul-Ferrying Passage.
The blood loss from his body had long exceeded half. He should have been dead long ago.
Li Mo was like a scarecrow, motionless, his lips dry, only a few drops of bright red blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. This time, it seemed, everything had come to an end...
As his consciousness dissipated, the voice in his mind sounded again. But this time, it wasn't a memory, nor a prompt. It was like an interrogation, an inquisition.
In the depths of his consciousness, a thin, dark figure appeared before Li Mo. But Li Mo was already dead and couldn't see his face. The true form of the Knocking Ghost had entered Li Mo's consciousness. Its murky, unfocused eyes looked down coldly at the dead Li Mo.
[You abandoned your responsibility, but you gained nothing.]
[Foolish.]
[Not only did you fail to save the person you wanted to save, you also abandoned your companions, abandoned the world, abandoned your mission.]
[But it doesn't matter.]
[Since you made your choice, then die ugly as a human.]
[Since you chose to flee, then hide here forever.]
[I am your ultimate rationality, immortal and undying. You are weak, indecisive, bound by worldly morals and ethics, blindly impulsive... You are not worthy of being the one He eternally watches.]
[I will inherit everything from you, and in your place, I will exterminate all the Bizarre in the world.]
[Because... I am you.]
With that, he disappeared from Li Mo's consciousness and returned to the third floor to face Bizarre Kiana.
"Elysia, release your suppression of Pardofelis. Hua, modify Pardofelis's cognition, control her to release her corruption, and project that corruption onto her soul."
"Then, I will personally 'kill' her."
The Li Mo from the shadows stepped out of the darkness and commanded the helpers who had just arrived. The moment he appeared, Bizarre Kiana turned, her gaze hot and greedy as she stared at him.
However, the gaze Li Mo returned to Bizarre Kiana was cold, dead, without a trace of any extra emotion. He extended Bizarre Mei's left hand. Now, he didn't have to worry about the corruption that came with using it.
He was Li Mo, and he was also the Bizarre. Now, there was only one thing to do: "kill" all the Bizarre.
The group exchanged glances, but seeing that it was Li Mo, they had few reservations.
It was very likely that this "shedding of the skin" was part of Li Mo's plan. They just needed to obey unconditionally. Besides, from his aura and memories, it was indeed Li Mo himself.
They had seen Li Mo in this state before, but this time it seemed... especially bizarre.
In the Prime World, MEI, with only a few paper cutouts left, found her death had stalled. She slowly stood up and murmured, "Did it succeed?" So easily?
"Something's strange. According to my judgment, it's impossible for Li Mo to escape the trap so quickly. The Bizarre is grotesque and unpredictable. No one knows what will happen next. I'll have to wait for them to return and then... examine them one by one."
MEI picked up the paper cutouts from the floor and strangely found that the still intact ones seemed to have been cut by something, precisely divided in half.
In the Soul-Ferrying Passage, the spirits had long since departed. Li Mo's skeletal remains knelt on the spot, lifeless. The living could not leave the Soul-Ferrying Passage...
"Kira... Kira... Kira Star..."
"Twinkle... twinkle... little star..."
Li Mo's dead body, as if in a final burst of life, recited the lyrics from his memory. Li Mo had never confessed to Shigure Kira. He had deliberately kept his distance, not wanting to drag her into the vortex of the Bizarre.
This was his attitude toward ordinary people. Keeping them away from the Bizarre was the greatest protection he could offer. But in fact, he had been saved by Shigure Kira many times, and the two had even developed a physical relationship because of it.
But Li Mo had never said, "I love you." In terms of normal life memories, Li Mo had never said this to any girl. Because he knew very well that he might not have a tomorrow.
Saying "I love you" or not in the present was meaningless. He wasn't even sure if he truly loved the other person. Perhaps it was just because of mental exhaustion, looking for a spiritual anchor for comfort, or to vent his own ugly, polarized emotions. A person like him would find it difficult to find true happiness.
The only happiness he could empathize with was twisted, incomplete, and filled with the stench of death...
Losing the power of the Bizarre, losing the characteristics of the Bizarre, losing the rationality of the Bizarre... What did he have left? Was it his blind, impulsive, emotional personality? Or his fragile physical constitution? His terrible martial arts and marksmanship? Prying open the devil's skull, what was left inside? Was his soul noble because of the human, or the ghost?
"Please use absolute reason to suppress those emotions that shouldn't be there..." But without the latter, what... was he? What could he do? Li Mo needed an answer...
In the Soul-Ferrying Passage, a beautiful figure slowly walked to Li Mo's side, like a wound-up doll, step by step, her movements stiff, her direction singular. Her ice-blue hair was loose, reaching only to her waist, swaying with the movement of her body. It was a little girl.
She extended her hands and cupped Li Mo's face. She murmured softly, humming a simple melody in a clumsy tone:
"Kira... Kira... Kira Star..."
"Twinkle... twinkle... little star..."
......
The ellipses represent the fading of life, as pale and powerless as words. Doubled, they symbolize the deaths of Li Mo and Shigure Kira. But... not far from their entwined deaths, a beautiful figure watched everything happen.
————
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"You're awake? The surgery was a success. You've already..." The gentle voice of the attending physician sounded in his ear, although the content wasn't so gentle.
Li Mo sat up abruptly, clutching his forehead. His eyes trembled uncontrollably as he struggled to open them and see his surroundings.
"Kira? No, where am I..."
Barely making out that he was lying in an operating room, an immature thought suddenly popped into Li Mo's mind. All that he had encountered was just a dream, a fantasy.
He had transmigrated into the game Honkai Impact 3rd, but these worlds were incredibly bizarre. He had racked his brains, playing mind games with all sorts of unknown and terrifying ghosts, dealing with all kinds of strange phenomena and rituals... Was it all fake?
"Waking up suddenly, your eyes can't accept the bright light yet. You can temporarily close your eyes and slowly get used to it. No need to rush."
"The Kira you mentioned? Is her full name Shigure Kira?" the attending physician asked patiently, seemingly trying to ease Li Mo's mental stress.
Hearing this name, Li Mo's body trembled. He immediately looked at the doctor and asked, "How do you know? Where is she?"
"Of course I don't know her full name. It's just that you were under general anesthesia before the surgery, and you kept shouting in the middle of it: 'Look back at me,' 'Come home with me,' 'Stay by my side,' and then you said Shigure Kira's name."
With that, the attending physician and the other assistants in the operating room couldn't help but laugh. In their eyes, a three-year-old child who was so good at flirting would surely become some kind of "playboy" in the future.
"..." Not getting any news about Shigure Kira, Li Mo was a little disappointed.
Li Mo came back to his senses and found that his body was very young, like a child's.
He was wrapped in medical bandages, probably from a very serious injury that required general anesthesia. Li Mo quickly realized that his past experiences were by no means a dream, because a normal three-year-old child would never have his thoughts.
It was very likely that the Soul-Ferrying Passage had ferried his soul to another world... or another time node. Most likely, it was the world where the haunted house was located.
With past experience, Li Mo quickly understood his situation. He didn't panic, but immediately quieted down.
The attending physician was a little surprised, but didn't pay much attention to the behavior of a three-year-old child. He then said, "But there's a girl in the operating room next door who suffered injuries almost as serious as yours. She's currently in emergency treatment."
As soon as he finished speaking, Li Mo, who had just calmed down, immediately looked up and asked worriedly in a hoarse voice, "How is she?!"
"I don't know, but she should be fine. Since you were able to wake up, let alone a patient next door who was less seriously injured than you."
"You know, when we found you, the amount of blood you had lost was more than half of your body's total. Your blood circulation was almost completely destroyed, and your internal organs had a serious tendency toward failure... Forget it, what's the use of telling you this? You're just a child, you wouldn't understand."
The attending physician smiled, feeling it was absurd to seriously explain professional knowledge to a child.
"You don't have to worry about her. Worry more about yourself. Although your life was saved, I'm afraid the rest of your life won't be easy."
"Because we missed the golden rescue window, we couldn't restore your body to a normal state."
"Simply put, you're very fragile. Even though you're male, as an adult, you might not even be able to beat a ten-year-old girl. You're the type who gets out of breath after walking a few steps and needs help opening a bottle cap." The attending physician's smile faded, his expression becoming a little serious.
He looked at the bandage-wrapped Li Mo and shook his head with a heavy heart. Poor child. It was hard to imagine how much injustice and bullying Li Mo would experience before he died. Because he was too weak.
His fragile body wouldn't support any slightly intense training, nor would it allow him to overexert himself. To put it bluntly, he would likely accomplish nothing in his life.
"It's okay, I still have..."
Li Mo's words stopped abruptly. He stared blankly, inexplicably extending his hands.
The Bizarre aura... was gone? The wound showed no sign of rapid healing. In fact, it would take half a year or even longer to heal, slower than an ordinary person. His left hand was not Bizarre Mei's left hand, but a completely ordinary human limb.
Li Mo pondered for a long time, then slowly looked up. He remembered being in the Soul-Ferrying Passage, searching for the spirit of Shigure Kira in a human body, but he had died from his serious injuries and excessive blood loss. His memory stopped there.
He knew nothing about this world. So had he lost the power of the Bizarre...
Regardless of his physical condition, investigating the background of the world was always the right thing to do.
Li Mo looked at the attending physician calmly. "What... happened before?"
The attending physician looked at Li Mo in astonishment. "Aren't you going to ask if there's anything that can be done to help you? I thought you'd be crying by now. I even prepared tissues for you."
Li Mo: "..."
"I can still cry now if you want."
Attending Physician: "Haha, you're an interesting kid. Alright, alright, back to business."
"There are many children who have had the same experience as you. In the different operating rooms of this private hospital, your misfortune is not a natural disaster, but a man-made one."
"War... no, fighting. You know what fighting is, right?"
Li Mo nodded. The attending physician sighed. Of course. What was he thinking? How could a child in a war-torn area not know about war and fighting? For these children, tomorrow and death, no one knew which would come first.
"You were originally living in an orphanage, but the flames of war engulfed the place you relied on for survival. Although your director moved you quickly, the bombers came very fast. You were caught in the shelling, buried under the snow in the extremely cold, icy weather..."
"Fortunately, our leader, your savior: Cocolia. She led her soldiers to search for you in the snow, following the bloodstains. Those who weren't dead were brought back for emergency treatment. Those who were dead were given a proper burial."
"Be grateful, boy. Although Captain Cocolia's reputation isn't great, she's sincere with you children."
The attending physician straightened his clothes and had someone take the out-of-danger Li Mo out of the operating room.
"Yes, I will find a way to repay this kindness." Li Mo made a serious promise.
"Hahaha... good, good, we'll wait for that day. But don't get your hopes up. Captain Cocolia's current rank is probably a height you'll never be able to reach in your lifetime. If you were healthy, you might have a chance, but unfortunately... sigh, you should think more about what you're going to do in the future. She didn't save you because she wanted you to repay her."
The attending physician said with a laugh, but his smile quickly faded, becoming helpless and anxious.