She had to get You Shuo out.
When You Ling hoisted You Shuo onto her back, his breathing had turned rapid and shallow — hyperventilating.
You Shuo had severe panic disorder. You Ling knew this. She didn't know when it had started — in her memory, he'd always been this way.
When they were little, You Shuo had carried her on his back too.
After all, he'd had to raise a child and work odd jobs at the same time. Their parents had died when You Ling was just five — too young to help with anything.
Those school essays where the parents rush a feverish child to the hospital on their back — You Shuo had done that too. They'd both been so small back then, and a simple cold had felt like You Shuo's entire sky was falling.
Little You Ling, clinging to her brother's back, had said: "It's OK, I'm fine. I'm really fine."
But You Shuo was terrified. He was scared half to death. Perhaps their parents' departure had left such deep psychological scars that he couldn't move past them.
Even now, he still couldn't.
So You Ling had indulged him. Whatever path You Shuo charted for her, she walked it. The whole ordinary university life plan — You Ling didn't care. She truly didn't care. She only wanted You Shuo to feel at ease. He had it hard enough out there already. She hoped she could stop being a psychological burden to him, a dead weight.
Be a good little sister. An obedient, hassle-free little sister.
Their lives had never been easy — like walking a razor-thin tightrope, one misstep away from plummeting into the abyss. They had no parents, no safety net, no one to catch them. Everything had to come from their own hands.
That kind of life couldn't withstand turbulence. Couldn't weather even the slightest storm.
So You Ling could absolutely not tolerate anyone trying to hurt You Shuo through her. She could be a good little sister, but she refused to be nothing but a liability to the very end.
"Don't be afraid. I'm here to help you." You Ling carried You Shuo on her back and walked toward the exit. An adult male's weight was a bit much — she couldn't run, and she couldn't walk too fast either, for fear of tripping. "Can you contact your teammates to come pick you up?"
From behind her came only rapid, labored breathing. You Ling turned her head to look — she couldn't see clearly, but she could make out You Shuo's mouth opening and closing.
"Rough." You Ling understood the situation. That little punk 【Jiao Tu】 really hadn't held back. The most effective counter against 【Yanmo】 was indeed to just mute him, but still — they'd been teammates for years. "Go ahead and talk. I can read lips."
She couldn't actually read lips. But she knew You Shuo.
The corridor stretched on and on, the lighting sparse. You Shuo's mouth moved, forming words with nothing but air.
He was saying: "I trusted someone I shouldn't have and got the person who trusted me most killed. I tried to shoulder everything alone, but I keep making the wrong choices. Would the people around me be better off without me?"
"Then quit and wash your hands of it. Go find somewhere to sell yourself as a gigolo — wouldn't that be nice?" You Ling said.
You Shuo paused for a moment, then finally mustered a small struggle — but he relaxed again and shook his head.
"Well, there's nothing for it then. If you insist on walking this road, nothing anyone says will change your mind." You Ling gazed at the ceiling as though she could see the moon right through it. "You're the manga protagonist. Picked out from all the masses — you must have something unique about you. You've got a mission. You're about to go save the world, young man."
So don't worry. You're worth it.
"Keep going. There'll always be someone behind you, cheering you on. You're the protagonist, after all."
No matter what anyone else did, she would be there.
Only one set of footsteps echoed through the corridor. You Shuo buried his head, and for a time, neither of them made a sound.
Three seconds later, red light flared, flooding the entire corridor.
"Base A39 initiating automatic lockdown protocol."
The announcement blared from the far end of the hallway, alarm klaxons shrieking beside their ears. You Ling stopped walking. She didn't attempt to sneak You Shuo out through brute force.
Her voice carried a smile. "We've been found out."
You Shuo seemed to tense up instantly. You Ling said: "It's fine."
Plan A had failed. There was still Plan B. She'd always preferred having multiple contingencies, in case things spiraled beyond control.
Golden threads extended from her fingertips and sank into the walls.
"It's all right," You Ling said again. Her voice was perfectly calm. "Nothing's going to happen to you. You're the protagonist, after all."
...
Yiluoqi discovered 【Railgun】's access log.
He'd only been tinkering with the system idly — trying to buy time, letting his mind go blank, avoiding certain thoughts.
But to his shock, he stumbled upon something that should have been impossible.
"Wasn't he already killed by Bi Xi?"
Yiluoqi had sent Railgun to kill You Shuo's sister, but he'd had the bad luck of running into Bi Xi. In Yiluoqi's mind, Railgun was already a dead man.
Yet Base A39's records showed an access log under his credentials — and it was timestamped after that phone call.
Something was very wrong.
The instant Yiluoqi made the discovery, he accessed the master system and sealed every entrance and exit in the building. But something was faster than him: a barrier.
The 【Red Moon】 barrier descended, engulfing the entire building and everything within a kilometer radius. Two seconds before the barrier locked into place, the ability user the organization had dispatched — 【Farshore】 — sent two messages.
[Did you call in the Nightwatch? Have you truly betrayed the organization?]
[The Leader is merciful. He anticipated your betrayal but is still giving you one last chance. Destroy all classified files in the base and kill 【Yanmo】 in front of them. You can still come back. As a colleague, here's my advice: times have changed. You're not as irreplaceable as you used to be. Don't test the limits of the Leader's mercy. Justice and friendship — we don't have the right to those.]
Yiluoqi stared at the two messages, his heartbeat spiking.
...
Ten minutes earlier. Nightwatch headquarters. Sui Xiao's head was wrapped in a circle of white gauze, her face ghastly pale.
Before her was a video call.
On the screen, the white-haired man spoke with his eyes closed, his tone laced with apology: "I'm sorry. 【Jiao Tu】 used a counter-ability specifically targeting mine to deceive me. The person we captured was merely a fringe member of the organization — not 【Jiao Tu】 himself."
"Would you really be deceived?" Sui Xiao asked, an unmistakable tremor in her voice.
She'd already been asleep. The call had come out of nowhere.
Sui Xiao's ability was formidable — she was the team's trump card — and the team's captain had a tendency to shoulder responsibilities alone. With You Shuo around, other ability users generally contacted the captain directly; if You Shuo was unavailable, they'd go to Yiluoqi.
That an S-rank ability user like 【Zhi Tianming】 had her number wasn't surprising. But the fact that he'd contacted her specifically — that was.
A foreboding dread coiled in Sui Xiao's heart, and it soon proved justified.
【Zhi Tianming】 didn't bother defending himself. He continued: "I've broken through their deception. 【Jiao Tu】's true identity is Yiluoqi. You Shuo is in danger."
Sui Xiao's pupils blew wide, her eyes filled with sheer disbelief.
"I've already submitted a request for reinforcements to headquarters, but right now, you're the only one who can reach the scene immediately." 【Zhi Tianming】 went on. "Coordinates have been sent to your terminal. Headquarters has issued an arrest warrant for 【Shuttler】. 【Mycelium】 — everything in Jinli City from here on out is in your hands."
Sui Xiao gripped the back of her chair and stood. She walked past the doorframe, tore her cloak from its hook, and draped it over her shoulders.
"That's a lie..." Sui Xiao said, her voice edged with panic.
Her hand rose, and a mask materialized in her palm. She put it on, and her hunched spine slowly straightened.
You Shuo was gone. Yiluoqi was suspected of betrayal. Right now, she held the most authority of anyone at the Jinli City Nightwatch headquarters. She had to lead this team.
"All ability users C-rank and above — assemble!" she said into the radio, pressing her voice low. "Our target is..." She drew a deep breath and forced out the name. "B-rank ability user with spatial-type abilities. 【Shuttler】 — Yiluoqi."
...
Yiluoqi sent a message to 【Farshore】: [You're not going to help me?]
Three minutes passed with no reply. Whether she hadn't entered the barrier or was lurking in the shadows, unwilling to show herself — he didn't know.
He gave a self-deprecating laugh. Of course. If he'd truly betrayed the organization, then 【Farshore】 showing herself would only mean getting handed over to the Nightwatch. But he hadn't actually betrayed anyone.
People like them — from the moment they were born, they'd been subjected to brainwashing arranged by the Leader. Every one of them had an ability-based bomb embedded in their heart. It couldn't be removed, couldn't be detected by any medical instrument, and the detonation switch was in the Leader's hands.
They couldn't betray the organization. Because betrayal meant death.
Beyond the building's walls, the rumble of helicopters penetrated the thick concrete and reached inside.
They were already here. 【Quick Blade】 had used the barrier to escape before; now the Nightwatch could use the same barrier to trap him.
Even though Yiluoqi was a spatial-type who could teleport, he couldn't escape the barrier of an SS-rank ability user like 【Red Moon】.
A turtle in a jar. He couldn't run.
Yiluoqi sent one final message to 【Farshore】: [I haven't betrayed anyone. I didn't bring the Nightwatch here. I've already activated the base's self-destruct sequence.]
Whether 【Railgun】 was alive or dead no longer mattered. He couldn't find a way out for himself.
He initiated the base's self-destruct protocol. Throughout the vast hall, the glass casings of the 【Petri Dish】 subjects opened one after another.
Grotesquely altered ability users clambered out of their transparent pods, faces contorted, pain having warped their minds. The monsters that had been set loose had only a single thought remaining: destruction.
The organization's conditioning ensured they couldn't kill allies — their frenzy would be directed solely at strangers. So when the Nightwatch entered, what they'd find wouldn't be victims in need of rescue, but a horde of mindless, berserk ability users.
Yiluoqi opened the pod doors and the base's main gates alike, releasing these killing machines.
He didn't even know why he was doing it. Perhaps just to put on a show for the Leader — grasping at a sliver of hope.
When it was done, he sank down with his back against the control console, murmuring: "Kill Shuo-ge with my own hands? I can't do that."
【Boulder】 had gone silent — who knew what he'd done. The Nightwatch was already here. As long as You Shuo could speak, an A-rank ability user like 【Yanmo】 wasn't so easily killed.
And Sui Xiao — she would definitely come. 【Mycelium】 in an enclosed space was inescapable.
It was precisely because he understood them that he knew he stood no chance of resistance.
On the organization's side, 【Farshore】 refused to show herself. The Leader was unlikely to trust him. Even if he escaped, he'd be executed as a traitor. As for being captured by the Nightwatch — someone in his situation would be referred to headquarters, and headquarters dealt with traitors the same way: execution as a warning to others.
What could he do? There seemed to be nothing left.
"Why did I accept this mission in the first place?" He gazed into the pitch-black depths at the end of the corridor. "Back then... I think I wanted to walk in the sunlight."
A normal identity. A legitimate job. Friends he could trust to watch his back.
But greed was like poison — it grew and grew, swelling out of control. The more he wanted, the more reckless he became, until he was left with nothing at all.
He hadn't wanted to kill You Shuo, so he'd gone after his sister instead. When he couldn't kill You Ling, he'd had no choice but to sell out You Shuo. His normal life had crumbled to pieces, beyond repair.
Just then, from the darkness he'd been staring into, came the sound of footsteps.
One step, then another — erratic, lurching, as though a drunk were stumbling through the shadows toward him.
As the footsteps drew closer, Yiluoqi made out the figure. "【Railgun】? You're really not dead?"
【Railgun】 shambled out of the darkness on strange, jerky steps. His expression was bizarre — a rigid, feverish ecstasy.
"Doesn't matter anymore." Yiluoqi thought.
But in the next instant, 【Railgun】 lunged at him, his face filling Yiluoqi's vision. His wide-open eyes were shot through with red veins.
The manic expression made Yiluoqi's skin crawl: "He granted my wish. I feel incredible right now. I never have to take orders from any of you pieces of shit again!"
"I've been given eternal life! Eternal life!" He threw his head back and laughed.
"Lost your mind?" Yiluoqi frowned.
The man was completely unhinged — he had no idea what he was doing.
Yiluoqi drew the dagger from his belt. One swift stroke, and he severed 【Railgun】's head.
Far more brutal than what he'd done to You Shuo — You Shuo had only had his vocal cords damaged. 【Railgun】's head was now connected by nothing but a strip of skin.
But in the next instant, 【Railgun】's hand rose mechanically and straightened his own head.
The severed skin sealed shut before Yiluoqi's eyes. The man who should have been dead stretched his twisted smile wide once more.
Yiluoqi's pupils dilated.
Terror erupted in his heart — this was utterly impossible. The dead could not come back to life. A wound like that was fatal beyond all doubt —
Unless it was that monster.
Yiluoqi suddenly understood why 【Railgun】 was still alive. If it was Him, then yes — it could be done.
"Eternal life — I'm immortal. You can't kill me. Nobody can kill me!" 【Railgun】 said. He seized Yiluoqi by the throat with one hand. The suffocating pressure blanked Yiluoqi's mind, but 【Railgun】's giggling voice still drifted clearly into his ears.
"Make a wish to Him. He is everywhere."
That monster —
Was a miracle.
...
The corridor still pulsed with red emergency lights, but the metal door leading to the outside had opened.
You Shuo's eyes held a question, as if asking what had happened.
"Your teammates are probably here." You Ling said. Her brother was really heavy — she could barely keep carrying him. Before she'd died, she'd been nothing more than a bookworm. You Shuo had never taught her any hand-to-hand combat, and carrying him for over three hundred meters was already her absolute limit.
She eyed the wide-open door ahead, then crouched down and set You Shuo by the entrance.
You Ling assessed his condition — his hands had stopped trembling, his pupils looked stable, and his psychological state seemed much better. Physically, though, he appeared to have been injected with a muscle relaxant. He was weak, but recovery should be underway.
Outside the barrier, the red glow cast everything in crimson. The red filter painted even the moon in red.
"Wait here for your teammates," she said. She turned to head back inside — she'd gotten You Shuo out, but she still had things to do. But the instant she rose, You Shuo caught the hem of her sleeve.
You Ling turned to look at him. He mouthed a question.
"Who are you? What should I call you?" You Shuo asked.
You Ling smiled behind the mask, then raised a single finger and wagged it. "If I told you, I'm afraid it would scare you. So — it's a secret."
You Shuo let go. She gave him a wave, turned, and walked back into the darkness.
...
With 【Zhi Tianming】's calculated coordinates, Sui Xiao arrived quickly.
The opponent was Yiluoqi — a teammate she'd worked alongside for years. Sui Xiao knew his abilities intimately and immediately requested a Red Moon barrier.
A B-rank spatial-type couldn't escape the barrier's range. Otherwise, once he fled, no one would catch him.
"I still can't bring myself to believe it."
She stepped out of the vehicle and looked at the door slowly opening before her, her heart climbing into her throat.
In truth, the night they'd been guarding 【Quick Blade】 had felt off. Yiluoqi had suddenly offered to switch shifts, and she'd gone along with it.
The prisoner had been bound, on their own turf — she'd let her guard down. And in that single moment of inattention, 【Quick Blade】 had broken free and struck her on the head. The rest was a blank.
Where her access card was stored, the specifics of her ability, why the prisoner had suddenly broken loose — all of it raised questions. It was just that neither she nor You Shuo would ever suspect a teammate.
This was someone they'd fought alongside for years, someone who'd walked through life-and-death crises at their side.
She swallowed hard, walked toward the door, and when she finally saw the person sitting against the doorframe, her breath caught.
"Captain?!" She approached with a mix of relief and wariness. You Shuo looked at her, raised his chin to point at his own throat, shook his head, then pointed at her and gestured to the wound on his neck.
"You can't speak? You need 【Mycelium】?" Sui Xiao asked.
B-rank ability 【Mycelium】 possessed devastating lethality due to its infectious nature — once infected, the target would be parasitized by fungi.
But because of 【Mycelium】's properties, it could occasionally serve as a battlefield emergency measure — performing impromptu surgery. The window, however, was strictly limited to ten minutes. If the fungi remained inside a body beyond that, not even Sui Xiao — the ability's wielder — could recall the spreading spores.
Sui Xiao hated how uncontrollable her ability was. But this was the captain's request, and she trusted the captain.
Strange gasping and crashing sounds emanated from the building, as if a vast crowd were about to come pouring out. Sui Xiao closed her eyes. Mycelium spread from her body — microscopic fungi entered You Shuo's throat, temporarily bridging the severed cells and flesh.
"Ten-minute countdown starts now. Captain, what are you going to do?" Sui Xiao asked, her voice careful. "Yiluoqi — did he really...?"
"I'm going to talk to him." You Shuo touched his neck and, bracing himself against the wall, slowly rose to his feet. "If he truly betrayed us, I'll execute him."
The faint hope on Sui Xiao's face died.
But then the sounds from behind them grew louder and louder, the chaotic footsteps closing in. They saw the crowd emerging from the building.
Every one of them was wrong in some way — not quite human, yet undeniably human.
Their eyes were bloodshot. The moment they saw the Nightwatch outside, they erupted in inhuman roars and charged through the door, one after another.
A tidal wave of abilities detonated before their eyes. You Shuo coughed once and spoke: "Kneel."
In an instant, the blaze of abilities froze. Every one of those grotesque figures locked mid-stride. As though struck by an irresistible force, they dropped to the marble floor one after another, collapsing to their knees, powerless to resist.
A-rank ability user 【Yanmo】 was far from weak.
The dull thuds of knees hitting stone rang out ceaselessly. You Shuo stepped past them. "They're likely victims. Sui Xiao — they're all yours. Coordinate with the medical team and get them to the base hospital. I'm going to see Yiluoqi. Alone."
Sui Xiao's mouth opened. In the end, all she said was: "Captain..."
All at once, she felt profoundly lost — as though she suddenly couldn't see what lay ahead for any of them.
The medical and logistics teams received their orders and surged forward from the rear, white hazmat suits converging on the kneeling victims until they blocked Sui Xiao's line of sight entirely.
...
Another puppet decomposed. That warm, sun-soaked feeling washed over her again.
You Ling looked at her own palm. It wasn't her imagination — her ability did seem to have strengthened slightly.
She was heading toward the master control room where Yiluoqi had been stationed earlier — the monitoring room. The man in the white lab coat from before — she hadn't killed him. She'd merely frightened him, and he'd been so thoroughly terrified that she'd taken control of him on the spot.
Then, using the System's face-sculpting feature, she'd reshaped his face to look like 【Railgun】, and sent him to terrorize Yiluoqi.
The puppet was her, and she was the puppet.
Rule Four: face-to-face confirmation of the above three conditions.
If the puppet faced someone, it counted as her facing them. They were one and the same.
Golden threads retracted, then sank into a new prey's body.
You Ling pushed open the door to the master control room. Yiluoqi had already left. She brought up the surveillance feeds — he was currently in the 【Petri Dish】 central hall, sitting on a white operating table, lost in thought.
She shifted her gaze. On another monitor, You Shuo was making his way through the dim corridor, walking toward the 【Petri Dish】 hall.
Honestly — the man was injured, so why couldn't he just leave and rest properly? She glared at the screen with a touch of resentment, and at the face on it.
Years of being teammates probably built that kind of unspoken understanding. One waited while the other came looking. You Ling — the outsider floating beyond their circle — had no such bond. Yiluoqi had kidnapped himself, and You Shuo had suspected her.
But it was fine. The stage was set. Time for the actors to take their marks.
TAP.
A clear footstep sounded behind her. You Ling turned her head, then tilted it.
A familiar face. White hair, eyes closed, dressed in a relaxed shirt-and-slacks ensemble — the neighboring city's S-rank ability user, 【Zhi Tianming】.
What was he doing here?
"What a coincidence — here to watch the show too?" 【Zhi Tianming】's closed eyes seemed to peer at her right through the lids.
Can you even see with those eyes shut?
The sudden intruder sent You Ling's heart rate spiking for an instant, but it quickly leveled back out.
【Zhi Tianming】 was an S-rank information-type ability user. His actual combat capabilities were unknown. His ability functioned similarly to divination — it involved reading one's birth chart. He could open his eyes to directly perceive whatever information he sought, but whether opening them carried some cost was unclear — he rarely did so.
That was how supporting characters worked. Unlike the protagonist, whose ability was fully disclosed, the mysterious ones kept their secrets.
You Ling recalled that this guy had fairly high popularity too — handsome face plus an air of mystery plus a distinctive personality equaled devastating fan-attracting power. She couldn't help studying him a bit longer.
The System's code operated at a level above this world's abilities. She wasn't worried about her disguise being seen through. The real question was why this man had suddenly appeared here.
You Ling remembered very well — it was this very person who'd claimed to have captured 【Jiao Tu】, creating the massive information gap that had left You Shuo and his team blind. But trying to read the mind of a cryptic riddle-speaker was a fool's errand.
Still, her preparations were already in place. She wasn't afraid of the plan being disrupted, nor of having one more spectator.
【Zhi Tianming】 made himself right at home, walking over to stand beside You Ling and joining her in watching the wall of monitors. "First time meeting you. What's your code name?"
"【Phantom】," You Ling said.
Wasn't she precisely that — a phantom? In every sense of the word.
"A ghost? Nice name," 【Zhi Tianming】 said.
Then neither of them spoke, because on the high-definition surveillance feed, You Shuo had reached the entrance to the 【Petri Dish】 central hall.
Yiluoqi pushed himself off the operating table and stood. The final act was about to begin.
...
Ten minutes wasn't long — nor should it have felt especially short — but in this moment, it was unbearably brief, as if the seconds themselves were slipping through his fingers.
"I'm sorry, Shuo-ge." Yiluoqi spoke first. He didn't look You Shuo in the eye. "There's a bomb in my heart — theirs. It was already there when Ji-jie first rescued me. I was trained from the start to be their mole."
"Can it be removed?" You Shuo asked. "The Nightwatch has the best equipment, and we have healing-type ability users."
"Probably not." Yiluoqi stared at the ceiling.
"Why not?" You Shuo's voice was perfectly steady when he asked — as though the earlier emotional collapse had already carried away what little softness he had left.
"Shuo-ge, it's just — I didn't have the guts. I'll own everything I've done. At this point, there's nothing left to argue." Yiluoqi leaned against the operating table and spoke slowly. "Right now, the organization has branded me a traitor beyond any doubt. I've been abandoned. And the Nightwatch — I can't go back there either, can I?"
"I can write an appeal on your behalf," You Shuo said. "If you were coerced, leniency is possible. But if you acted of your own free will —"
"Then you'll kill me. Right?" Yiluoqi gazed at the ceiling and laughed. "Why are you people always like this? Shuo-ge — I looked into your parents for you. According to the organization's records, your parents were Nightwatch too. But after they died, did the Nightwatch help you and your sister even once? Why don't you resent them? Why does it have to be this way? I couldn't be a good person, but I couldn't be a thoroughly bad one either."
More than half of the ten minutes had already elapsed. You Shuo's throat itched faintly, and he coughed several times.
His pupils trembled, as though he were fighting to suppress certain emotions spiraling out of control.
So Yiluoqi had really done it. He'd admitted it. There was nothing more to say. The Nightwatch had only one rule for traitors: the traitor's commanding officer would carry out the execution personally.
Had he never truly understood this teammate? They'd entrusted each other with their lives through so many battles, fought their way out of so many crises side by side — and still, Yiluoqi had chosen betrayal, in a way he simply couldn't comprehend.
Their conflict was between them. What did Lingling have to do with any of it? Why drag her into this? Why?
He looked at Yiluoqi as though seeing him for the first time.
No matter how Yiluoqi had hurt him — slitting his throat, betraying him — those things he could bear. But why You Ling?
"You hate me," You Shuo said.
It was the only explanation. Otherwise, Yiluoqi wouldn't have done it. As someone at You Shuo's side, he knew You Shuo's circumstances better than anyone.
"It doesn't matter anymore," Yiluoqi said.
And truly, it no longer mattered. Whatever the hidden reasons might be, tonight, he was going to die.
"Any last words?" You Shuo asked. His voice was level, composed. This was a final farewell.
Yiluoqi raised his hand, as though he could see through the heavy ceiling to the red moon hanging in the sky. He seemed to be talking to himself: "He is everywhere. Perhaps He only cares about you, but — what if? What if a wretched soul like mine could also catch His gaze?"
"Yiluoqi?" You Shuo didn't understand what he was saying, but instinct flooded him with dread. "Stop!"
He used his ability. But it had no effect.
An A-rank ability — nullified.
You Shuo suddenly felt as though he were standing at the crossroads of fate, facing a destiny he couldn't resist. The waves were too high, the ship beyond his control — all he could do was watch it crash into the iceberg.
Then he heard Yiluoqi say something strange.
Yiluoqi murmured: "I offer up my broken, battered soul, and beg You to cast Your gaze upon me. Grant my humble wish."
"Bi Xi — I want to be free."
You Shuo's pupils blew wide.
The transformation began. Everything unfolded like slow motion through a camera lens.
He watched as infinite black sludge welled up from the floor, surging upward in a frenzy, climbing Yiluoqi's body before his very eyes.
In an instant, Yiluoqi was enveloped entirely.
And then that familiar face, in a familiar voice, answered its own words — but in someone else's tone altogether.
"Aiya, aiya, people of this era sure are enthusiastic."
You Shuo's heart stopped. His mind went white. All he could do was stare in horror at the black mass before him — like a curtain, blotting out the light beyond.
Impossible. This being hadn't been here, hadn't appeared at all — and yet now —
The black sludge receded, revealing those emerald eyes. The upturned corners of those brows, so disarmingly amiable, so warmly smiling. The red tassels swaying by his ears looked almost playful. The cascade of black hair spread out like something spectral.
Those grotesque things had devoured someone he knew, and in that person's place had disgorged a monster. The monster seemed to have consumed the original, then used his body to exist in this world.
The devil licked his fingertips and narrowed those long, slitted, emerald beast-eyes. He wore the smile of one fully sated.
"Deal accepted. Your soul — I'll be taking it."