Chapter 64: The Young Girl

“A Horror…”

A strange sensation welled up in the depths of Luo Wei’s heart.

She knew Hathaway wasn’t referring to her, but truthfully, she was currently an existence that even Horrors would call a “horror”…

As long as she took out that feather quill and made these Horrors realize she was the Ancestor of Incantations, Lilith, they would likely piss themselves in terror.

It was a remarkably useful deterrent.

“Furthermore, it is very, likely,” Hathaway’s expression grew somewhat solemn, “to be, the source, of this, eerie, Kolun County.”

“…Miss Hathaway, do you have some sort of strange habit?” Luo Wei finally couldn’t help but complain. “Listening to you speak like that is quite exhausting…”

Upon hearing this, a hint of panic surfaced on Hathaway’s face. She waved her hands frantically, saying, “So… Sorry. This, is a pathway, trait. I, have, Aphasia.”

“Aphasia…”

Luo Wei nodded thoughtfully.

She knew that Transcendental Paths were always accompanied by negative symptoms.

For instance, in the “Dream” Path, once a person stepped into the Sequences, the boundary between the Transcendental’s dreams and reality would break. In their cognition, it became very easy to confuse the two.

This condition intensified with Sequence progression. Therefore, Transcendentals of the “Dream” Path usually required self-suggestions or periodic checks to ensure they weren’t stuck in a dream, avoiding unpredictable accidents.

It seemed that the “Silence” Path Hathaway followed caused a disorder in her speech system.

“So that’s how it is. I should be the one to apologize,” Luo Wei said, suddenly struck by an idea. “Can’t you just write it down?”

Hathaway fell silent for a moment before producing a pen and paper. As a Transcendental of the “Silence” Path, both text and language were mediums for her supernatural methods; she naturally carried them at all times.

She scribbled a sentence and held it up for Luo Wei to see.

“The situation, written, paper, pen, this is.”

Luo Wei: “?”

What was she even saying?

After studying it for a moment, she realized the word order was completely reversed.

It should have been: “This is the situation of writing with a pen and paper.”

“Well, that situation does indeed cause many inconveniences in daily life,” Luo Wei remarked.

To possess powerful strength, one always had to pay a Price. It wasn’t surprising.

“Accustomed, to it.”

A gentle, faint smile played at the corners of Hathaway’s mouth.

When she turned her gaze toward the upper floor, she pondered for a moment before writing a few more lines.

“Miss, Luo Wei.” Hathaway handed the paper to her. “Dangerous, moments, can, ignite, it.”

She pointed to her necklace and said, “My Lord, can, through, this, ash, descend. Protect, you.”

Luo Wei looked over and found only one fragment of Ash remaining on the pendant.

One had been consumed just now to heal Hathaway.

From the look in Hathaway’s eyes, Luo Wei could tell this Holy Artifact was incredibly precious.

Yet even with only the final fragment remaining, she did not hesitate to share its use.

“Mhm, thank you.”

Luo Wei accepted the offer. She didn’t reject Hathaway’s kindness, even if she likely wouldn’t need it herself.

She looked down at the content on the paper, her pupils shrinking slightly.

“This is…”

Meaningless words were pieced together into strange yet melodious syllables.

It was the same method used in the Grimoire of Forbidden Curses.

This should be the Divine Tongue.

It seems Lilith isn’t the only one who possesses this method…

Luo Wei committed this to memory. She then saw Hathaway staring at the shotgun hanging casually by Luo Wei’s side, her face full of embarrassment and hesitation.

“Um… Give it back to you?”

Luo Wei picked up the shotgun and handed it to Hathaway.

“Mhm, mhm.”

Hathaway breathed a sigh of relief. The moment she gripped the shotgun again, a look of peace surfaced on the nun’s face.

Only sufficient firepower could dispel fear; even Transcendentals were no exception.

Luo Wei: “……”

However, through their recent interaction, Luo Wei realized that the “Silence” Path Hathaway mastered likely wasn’t suited for combat.

Thinking about it, Hathaway had been commissioned to decipher the report letter. Her Transcendental abilities were clearly specialized in that field.

“Let us go.” Hathaway’s face turned solemn. “Follow, behind, me.”

The opportunity to escape the eerie Kolun County would likely only appear with the Horror upstairs.

Luo Wei followed obediently beside Hathaway. Truthfully, she really didn’t have many combat methods right now.

While she had mastered many dream-based techniques through Claudia, those were hindered by the fact that she hadn’t actually stepped into a Transcendental Sequence. Lacking the power of a “Path,” most of those methods were unusable.

What she could use were merely the innate talents of this puppet body itself.

Combat was out of the question, but she was exceptionally fast at running away.

As they entered the building together, Luo Wei constantly observed their surroundings. Everything in the Saint Elizabeth Sanatorium was nearly identical to the waking world; no difference could be seen.

Furthermore, the further she followed Hathaway, the more a sense of familiarity washed over her.

“…Could this really be Clecia’s room?” A strange look crossed Luo Wei’s face.

Indeed.

When Hathaway stopped before a certain room and signaled Luo Wei to prepare for combat, they were standing exactly before Clecia’s ward.

As Hathaway braced the shotgun with one hand and cautiously placed the other on the door, concentrating all her focus to push it open, several weak coughs suddenly drifted from inside.

“Enemy, attack!”

Hathaway’s hair practically stood on end. Like a startled kitten, she leaped backward, pressing herself against the wall and clutching the shotgun while staring deathly at the door.

It was obvious she didn’t actually have much experience dealing with Horrors…

“Who is it?”

The adolescent voice of a young girl came from inside the room. It was tinged with fragility and a trace of irrepressible nervousness.

Hathaway hugged the shotgun even tighter, using her eyes to signal Luo Wei to back away, fearing the girl would be caught in the Horror’s danger.

Luo Wei, however, recognized a familiar quality in that voice. She knew her lingering suspicion was correct.

She sighed, reached out, and knocked on the door.

“Miss Clecia.”

“Ah, is it the Caretaker Big Sister?” Clecia’s voice rang out again, sounding relieved. “Please, come in.”

Hathaway, standing behind, opened her mouth slightly in disbelief.

“Miss, Luo Wei, you, and, this, Horror… know each other?”

“I know her,” Luo Wei nodded and pushed the door open. “Sorry for the intrusion.”

A sickly, skeletal girl lay on the bed. When she saw Luo Wei enter, her small face couldn’t help but show a look of astonishment.

“So beautiful… Big Sister, are you the new caretaker?”

Then she saw the nun Hathaway, who was cautiously entering while holding a shotgun, and her expression turned puzzled.

“A nun… Big Sister? Are you a caretaker too?”

“We aren’t caretakers, Miss Clecia.” Luo Wei’s expression was incredibly grave. Since coming to this world, this was the first time she had shown such a serious face. “You haven’t woken up from reality yet. This is still… a dream.”

“Ah…”

Clecia’s mouth hung open, a hint of bitterness surfacing on her face.

She turned to look out the window, murmuring, “So… that’s how it is.”

Clecia’s face was full of disappointment.

“Are you… here to take me away?”

“Take you away where?” Luo Wei was stunned.

“…So, what, is, the matter?”

Hathaway, even more bewildered, couldn’t help but speak up.

“I don’t know either. But don’t worry, Clecia isn’t some Horror; she’s just a poor little girl.”

Luo Wei spread her hands. After thinking for a moment, she continued, “I think we should talk in detail… about our respective situations.”

Hathaway had no objections. Although Clecia was lost and helpless, she still nodded.

First was the nun, Hathaway.

Exactly as Luo Wei’s “Psychometric Profiling” had revealed, she had come to this eerie Kolun County because of the handwriting on the report letter.

Her cognition had been gradually warped by the eerie county until she almost merged with it. However, by using the Ash in her Holy Artifact, she had summoned a partial descent of the Gray Goddess’s avatar, which pointed out the location of the “Gate.”

As a result, she had been blocked outside by that cheeky, trash-talking door.

Luo Wei, of course, couldn’t tell the full truth. She claimed she had accidentally obtained some intelligence regarding the Dream Sanctum and reported it to the Enforcement Guards.

As for why the handwriting was problematic, Luo Wei could only say she didn’t know… if she took out the feather quill and Hathaway recognized it, things would get troublesome.

Regarding this eerie Kolun County, Luo Wei was likewise just an outsider who had arrived not long ago.

Clecia’s story, however, was much longer.

After patiently listening to the descriptions of the other two—though there were parts she didn’t quite understand—she grasped that this was a very terrifying place.

In fact, Clecia vaguely knew.

“I… have been sick since I was little,” Clecia said after some hesitation. “Every time I get sick… I dream of many strange people.

“The lampposts on the street are all strangely shaped Lamp-lighters, and the neighbors all turn into all sorts of weird shapes…”

Ever since she fell ill long ago, Clecia had been coming to this eerie Kolun County.

However, it was in the form of a dream, in the state of a soul.

“Sometimes, I can’t tell which is the dream and which is reality. I actually feel like the people in reality are the ones who look strange…”

Cognitive confusion—it was just like the side effect of the “Dream” Path. Except Clecia had not yet entered a Transcendental Sequence, yet she possessed similar symptoms.

Through the Transcendental knowledge she possessed, Luo Wei continuously cross-referenced Clecia’s condition.

“My sister found many doctors, but none could cure my illness.” Clecia lowered her head, her face unable to hide her sadness. “We even… spent all of our family’s savings.”

Beside them, Hathaway remained silent. She knew that if this were the case, they should have sought help from the Church of Storms.

This situation was clearly a potential result of Transcendental pollution.

“However, my sister found some strange people. They said they could alleviate my illness.”

As Clecia spoke, the corners of her mouth even turned up slightly. “Although they occasionally gave me weird things to eat and made me recite some superstitious nonsense, at the very least… my illness really did improve.

“Even when I dream now, I don’t dream of weird things, and I can distinguish between what is a dream and what is reality.”

“Are you sure? You didn’t seem to distinguish it just now,” Luo Wei pointed out.

“Mhm,” Clecia nodded. “I knew this was a dream. It was just that your voices made me mistakenly think I was back in the old state where I couldn’t tell the difference.”

After listening carefully, Hathaway spoke up casually, “Dream, Sanc—”

Before she could finish, she saw Luo Wei blinking at her frantically, signaling her with her eyes not to say another word.

Why not say it?

The people Clecia encountered were obviously from the Dream Sanctum!

Wait…

Hathaway soon realized something and shut her mouth.

Miss Luo Wei certainly knew some insider information. To obtain such detailed intelligence on the Dream Sanctum, it couldn’t be called a coincidence.

Hathaway knew Luo Wei was hiding something, but that was normal, as she herself was hiding a part of the truth.

At the very least, knowing they were teammates on the same side was enough.

As for Clecia’s identity…

Hearing this, Hathaway had more or less guessed it, but felt a bit dejected.

Clecia was merely a poor child poisoned by the Dream Sanctum. Her symptoms were likely being deliberately intensified by them, not alleviated.

If not for that, how could Clecia’s soul be so weak, so close to death?

This so-called safety zone should be something constructed by the Dream Sanctum, and Clecia was likewise an existence being sheltered here.

The eerie Kolun County… for the Dream Sanctum to have such a massive operation, it truly makes one shudder. Hathaway thought, her heart filled with a sense of urgency.

She had to escape this eerie county as soon as possible and tell Eliana this vital news.

Except…

Hathaway looked toward the sickly girl leaning against the bed, her mind filled with a few more doubts.

What role exactly was Clecia playing in all this?

So, Clecia isn’t actually in The Shelter… Wait, or rather, is the Dream Sanctum’s Shelter located within this eerie Kolun County?

Luo Wei pondered for a moment before saying, “Tell me more about what happened after that, Miss Clecia.

“For instance, in this dream, have you encountered anyone else besides us?”

“I have, but… I don’t know if he was a person,” Clecia said, her eyes shimmering slightly.

“Sometimes, when I return from reality, I see a strange fellow standing by my bed.

“He wears a long robe. His face is too black to see, but his eyes are very bright.

“After he looks at me for a while, he goes ‘poof’ and disappears.”

This description…

Luo Wei’s pupils shrank.

“It’s a Divine Envoy…”