AnalogHorror: Rule Kaidan 4016
Chapter 1018 - 475: Illusions of the Past, the "Name" the World Cannot Bear_2

Chapter 1018: Chapter 475: Illusions of the Past, the "Name" the World Cannot Bear_2

Lin Yi’s soul trembled uncontrollably, his will slowly twisting into a gigantic tree-like form. He seemed to see the burning ashes in Fibonacci sequence shapes blooming around the "Primordial Ash Apostle," forming strange floral shapes akin to those of Ancient Indian religions. Countless nocturnal species and a multitude of Sneering Angels sang hymns of an unholy ritual, as if conducting a dark mass that transcends solitude...

And in the center of this mass was Lin Yi’s lonely will...

His ears were filled with endless whispers, fervent chants, and lengthy murmurs. He seemed to hear languages from beyond the world, yet couldn’t hear any sounds from the world he was familiar with.

His will seemed enveloped by a vortex, his thoughts plunged into a hypercube labyrinth. He tried to find logic within, but every attempt at extrapolation seemed to create new paradoxical branches.

He gazed directly at the "Primordial Ash Apostle," but every frame of what he witnessed became a path for cognitive overwrite and erosion, constantly creating cracks in his original cognition. In the midst of infinite overwrites, the existence of the "Primordial Ash Apostle" itself seemed to have transformed into an insoluble paradox, stitching reality and madness together in the same eerie radiance...

[som...]

[lyset...]

[fantmoer...]

[till...]

The call from the void sounded like thousands of tearing silk, countless shattered voices swirling in the ash-formed wind, wandering in twisted layers, surrounding Lin Yi’s will, as if trying to obliterate him completely.

[De...som...]

[e som...jager...lyset...]

[... i tåke... fantomer...]

...

Lin Yi’s consciousness began to blur, countless chaotic bluish-gray lines surged in his mind, and vague images began flashing before his eyes. These images contained various stories, but Lin Yi couldn’t see them clearly nor sense them; he only felt himself falling endlessly in an unknown time and space...

Strange scales twisted and proliferated in the corridors of the abyss, sometimes resembling the throat chants of ancient priests, sometimes morphing into sharp electronic synthesizer hums. But in the end, everything vanished, leaving only endless darkness and heavy breathing.

"Huff, huff, huff..."

Lin Yi gasped.

Or perhaps, it wasn’t Lin Yi who was gasping.

"Clang! Clang! Clang..."

"He" heard the hammering sound from the dim environment...

Following this feeling "to look," something in the darkness brightened.

A slender figure was relentlessly swinging an iron hammer, striking at glowing metal in a dim, scorching narrow room...

"Clang!"

"Clang!"

"Clang..."

Each hammer strike scattered sparks, those sparks seemed to reflect the radiant colors akin to the "Primordial Ash Apostle."

Lin Yi remembered this person; he had repeatedly seen phantom visions related to him in the Art Building layers, but in all those visions, this person maintained the same actions.

This person seemed to be forging something, and the more Lin Yi tried to see, the further away it felt...

After who knows how long, the person stopped.

He slowly raised the iron tongs, a square piece of iron at the tip was slowly cooling, emitting white vapor.

"Succeeded?" Some voice seemed to appear in the void; it was an extremely cold female voice, familiar yet so foreign that Lin Yi couldn’t recall.

After waiting for a long time, no one appeared in the scene.

"No." The hammer-wielding person spoke coldly, releasing the iron tongs, dropping the square piece with a casual "clang."

Lin Yi hurried to look, only seeing a scored mark.

He was stunned for a moment; after all that hammering, it only left a mark?

"Still only this?" The cold female voice in the void said.

At this moment, the Caster slowly spoke in a detached tone, "Still only this..."

"It seems... there’s nothing in this world capable of bearing our ’name’..." A male voice spoke again, also fading into the void.

"Try again," said the cold female voice.

"Again?" The hammer-wielding person was indifferent and speechless, "Are you playing me, Boss? My hand is about to break with all this hammering!"

"If it breaks, we’ll just forge another. The ’name’ we lost... is the key to influencing the future." The male voice said.

"Anyway, we can anchor each other with respect names..." The Caster weighed the hammer in his hand, "Since the world can’t bear my ’name,’ I’ll just change it... If the true name isn’t apparent, then use the title."

"If even a title becomes an upgrade, then this world is truly finished."

"What do you all think?"

The male voice paused silently: "Titles... that’s too far-fetched. If you ask me, keep it simple, surname plus number..."

"Zhang San Li Si? That’s too boring..." The Caster immediately denied, "I’ve decided that from now on I’ll go by ’Divine Craftsman’... Call whatever you want, future generations must call upon us."

He said, striking fiercely at the furnace, the scattered sparks seemingly reflecting faces surrounding him.

Among them was the sinister little girl—"Contractor Mage."

Just as Lin Yi’s attention was drawn to the "Contractor Mage" visible through the sparks, unknown gears seemed to pause for a moment, and after countless ages, that little girl slightly turned her head... seemingly, she saw Lin Yi.

In that fleeting moment, Lin Yi noticed the "Contractor Mage"’s eyes slightly widened, her small mouth slightly opened, as if she saw something shocking from him.

Lin Yi was startled; despite only being a consciousness, he still felt a stinging pain in his left arm, as if pricked by a needle, and he quickly withdrew his gaze.

But at this moment, he heard a cold "hee-hee" sounding next to him.

Lin Yi’s consciousness shivered violently.

In this infinite darkness, he suddenly found there was an additional person beside him.

That little girl.

[Those who inherit Angel’s Power ultimately become Angel’s Illusion], for some reason, in Lin Yi’s mind, emerged words once spoken by the Boss.

Could it be because his arm was branded with the Secret Mark by the little girl, so he, as "Contracted Mage’s power inheritor," at this moment, also became the "Contractor Mage’s Illusion"?

However, the sensation given by the little girl appearing here was different from the one in the Gallery of the Art Building.

The little girl in the gallery exuded an eerie aura all over, but this one seemed more normal... or rather, so abnormal that even he couldn’t detect it.

"Oh, I see..." The little girl mumbled weakly before disappearing.

Lin Yi was bewildered, completely unaware of what had just happened.

But in the next moment, he heard some faint "creak~ creak!" sounds, like a saw being repeatedly pulled.

Following the sound to look, a place in the darkness again lit up, and within that glow was a filthy little girl; Lin Yi recognized her as the "Contractor Mage," and at her feet, there seemed to be a blackened corpse.

The "creak creak" sound was her pulling a Big Steel Saw to segment the corpse.

Segmenteing while humming that black nursery rhyme:

[Little kid, hide and seek~ One and two hide away~]

[Little yard a good place~ Brother and sister hide body~]

[...]

[Brother brother you’re so bad~ Joke sister saw is dull~]

[That tree is really good~ I split brother hang separately~]

[...]

...

Seeing the little girl, the sting in Lin Yi’s left hand started to become clearer and stronger, more vague images kept floating in the infinite darkness, but the Secret Mark seared on his arm by the little girl seemed imbued with the power to penetrate layers, slowly appearing in the unknown dark abyss, then as if being held by an invisible hand like a pen, slowly inscribing a mark in the void...