The Eldritch Files

Chapter 293: Chapter 253: Just the Beginning

That was because their Spiritual Power was so immense that any living creature in the real world could perceive their presence.

But one could only see a silhouette. Seeing their faces clearly required paying a terrible price.

They came from the north, standing atop a hill, their long capes fluttering in the night.

They rode strange mounts—creatures shaped like horses, but with sawtooth fangs and bizarre, slimy tentacles.

From afar, they looked toward Qinggang City, at Ms. Shen, who was single-handedly suppressing countless monstrosities. One of them gently raised a hand, and then, every one of them took the long guns from their backs.

They appeared to be old-fashioned flintlock guns of a simple design.

Primitive weapons said to have been used only before the dawn of the Reconstruction Era—a time when civilization had yet to recover, and both craftsmanship and knowledge were exceptionally scarce.

But they used such weapons, aiming from afar at Ms. Shen in the skies above Qinggang City.

And then, they fired.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

A volley of bullets traveled dozens of kilometers, each one carrying an immense and terrifying surge of Spiritual Power. With a destructive force that defied all reason, they annihilated buildings in their path, tore through skyscrapers, and struck the tall, slender figure above Qinggang City.

This wasn’t a fight. It was more like an execution.

A public execution carried out upon the ruins of Qinggang by the world’s most powerful figures, passing judgment on one who had failed her task.

Ms. Shen’s body suddenly went rigid. Then, like a falling leaf, she drifted slowly toward the ground.

As she fell, her body turned, and she looked toward the deepest part of the Abyssal Studio’s ruins.

Within her eye sockets, the last of the crystalline colors flickered, transmitting a signal:

“Run…”

“…”

Han Su looked away. Although he had met her only a few times, and most of those encounters had been painful, a strange emotion still surfaced within him at this moment.

TICK. TOCK. TICK. TOCK…

The Mechanical Fragment had already activated. The familiar ticking, which began the moment Ms. Shen started to fall, was summoning Flashing.

Perhaps because he now had an extra Mechanical Fragment, Flashing arrived much faster than usual after the countdown began. Even as monstrous waves of Spiritual Power erupted all around, the space-time immediately surrounding him fell eerily quiet.

He watched the city collapse, inch by inch. He saw a deeply reluctant Song Chushi get dragged into the sewers by Lu Neng.

He saw Wei Lan meeting up with Rong Qiyue and Pot Lid Head. Although they survived, they were utterly powerless in the face of the city’s total collapse.

He saw Xu Ji in his sports car, which was covered with a decal of a beautiful anime girl, flooring the gas pedal as he rammed into a zombie.

VWOOM!

Flashing descended abruptly, and everything around him began to blur.

A powerful gravitational force began to pull Han Su back into the past. Everything he saw began to reassemble upon the ruins in a bizarre fashion.

Ms. Shen’s body returned to the sky in a graceful arc, the bullets flying out of her body and back into the muzzles of the flintlock guns.

The toppled buildings retracted all their debris, standing upright in the city once more.

The crystalline light once again illuminated the night sky.

Song Chushi emerged from the sewer, seemingly pulling an anxious-looking Lu Neng by the hand. Wei Lan, Rong Qiyue, and Pot Lid Head walked backward toward different parts of Qinggang.

All the people who had fallen rose to their feet again, turning to face the monstrosities invading Qinggang.

Han Su slowly retracted his gaze, looking further into the past, toward the end point of his regression: that eerie Ancient Castle.

Qinggang was facing annihilation, and he and everyone who tried to fight back against the kidnapping were facing an unprecedented defeat. Han Su had to admit it.

But, he had finally learned the secret of the Seven Days of Divine Descent. The eleven hidden altars and the children upon whom a fate had been forced had finally been revealed, deeply etched into his mind.

‘This wasn’t the end. This was only the beginning…’

…

…

Haaah…

A wave of dizziness washed over him. Han Su opened his eyes to find himself sitting on a school bus, watching as the Ancient Castle’s gates slowly opened before him. A sky full of crows circled overhead, like a silent tomb.

He sat quietly, letting the bus drive into the dilapidated Ancient Castle. He let the monsters make their selections, until he and the other children were locked in the cellar.

As long as the old butler was around, he did nothing, simply experiencing it all in silence.

Only after entering the cellar did he slowly raise his head. As the boy with the side-parted hair began to brag, Han Su once again silently surveyed the cellar—or rather, the entire Ancient Castle, his mind carefully turning things over.

‘Coming back this time, finding the key isn’t the most important goal anymore.’

‘Because even if I escape, I’ll still face the same outcome: Qinggang destroyed. I’ll still have to face those mysterious and powerful, monstrous opponents.’

‘I can finally be sure that on this timeline, I can’t beat them. Even their frontline Black Gloves are this powerful; the shadows behind the scenes must be even more terrifying.’

‘But it seems these people have also exposed their weaknesses. For example: what was the real reason the Seven Days of Divine Descent failed?’

‘For example, the Heirs are the most important thing. In other words…’

Han Su slowly swept his gaze across the children shivering in the dark cellar. ‘They are the most important thing!’

‘Right now, I’m still in a child’s body, but my consciousness, memories, Spiritual Activity, and even the Divine Material have all come back with me.’

‘So, isn’t there something more I can do?’

RRRRING…

Time flew by as Han Su was lost in thought. He didn’t act as quickly as he had before. He waited, until the mysterious telephone outside the cellar began to ring in the dead of night.