AnalogHorror: Rule Kaidan 4016
Chapter 945 - 438: Burning_2

Chapter 945: Chapter 438: Burning_2

Uttering such pompous phrases like "We will remember your sacrifice." These words, when spoken by the homeroom teachers, are deeply admirable. But when they come out of the mouth of the eerie art teacher, Lin Yi finds them absurd and laughable.

"Die for me, I’ll remember you." What is this supposed to mean?

Lin Yi inhaled sharply, feeling that he sometimes overestimated the zealots.

Yet, a significant portion of the zealots did indeed slowly make their way toward the Sneering Angels.

Lin Yi realized that these zealots appeared like walking corpses, resembling the Pseudo-Human Sculptures, yet differing noticeably from them.

They seemed like... pseudo-human sculptures within the zealots!

Ordinary Pseudo-Human Sculptures are typically transformed from experience students or night species deprived of their student ID cards. But the sculptures here are the result of the zealots’ transformation.

Strictly speaking, these are "Fake Fanatic Sculptures."

Sculpture transformation and night species transformation seem to be two extreme forms of non-human mutations brought by contamination...

Lin Yi slowed his steps, his perception rippling out like waves, silently spreading throughout the nearly stagnant space.

The path he took began to reveal itself in his perception, and the yet-to-be traversed route gradually became clearer...

The space here had been stretched, but only stretched; the change in layers wasn’t overly eerie, perhaps caused by the collective descent of the Sneering Angels, resulting in distortion and grotesqueness.

It was unclear whether the Sneering Angels sensed the power of Lin Yi’s perception or were provoked by the zealots, but they were speeding up their awakening. The previously drowsy environment began flickering intermittently, like flashing lights.

This seemed like an illusion.

Yet within Lin Yi’s perception, as the Sneering Angels awakened, invisible ripples began radiating outward from them. These ripples seemed to exhibit a wave-particle duality, interfering with each other, overlapping or cancelling out. When crests and troughs appeared, the light flickered along with them.

Soon, Lin Yi faintly sensed that with the emergence of the Sneering Angels, some ash-like substances began drifting in the air—volcanic dust. That familiar sensation from earlier emanated from this volcanic dust...

He gazed at the volcanic dust and found that within it, there was "Ash!"

Of course, the volcanic dust was only the size of snowflakes, and the "Ash" proportions within were as thin as strands of hair. Yet even this minuscule amount was captured by Lin Yi’s perception.

But this was expected, as his body had survived the torment and consumption of an Alien Angel lurking in the black sea-like layer of the Art Building.

Thus, his ability to perceive "Ash" far surpassed most units within the school district. After all, he was the only one to bear "Ash" within a mortal body.

Emmmm... "A mortal body?" Lin Yi paused, then chuckled self-deprecatingly, "I suppose... yes..."

Meanwhile, the other Ashen Apostle bearing Ash had completely transformed into the grotesque shape of a conceptual-level sculpture—a being neither human nor ghost.

At this moment, the zealots who stepped forward began recklessly releasing the dark green aura within their bodies, using it to attract the snowflake-like volcanic dust. Amazingly, the volcanic dust was indeed drawn toward them.

As the "Ash" descended onto them, it quickly melted like raindrops, rapidly permeating their bodies.

"Hiss—Hiss—Hiss—"

Upon contact with the Ash, their bodies seemed to ignite, emitting streams of steam. And yet, their faces displayed no signs of distress, as though this had nothing to do with them.

Simultaneously, the awakened Sneering Angels revealed twisted, horrifying grins at the zealots, gathering in clusters around them to greedily inhale the steam emerging from their bodies.

The Sneering Angels looked distorted, depraved, manic, and indulgent, as if consuming some terrifying powder. Their transparent forms began to flow with sinister hues.

Strangely, as the Ash saturated the zealots, they showed no abnormal reactions. Meanwhile, the Sneering Angels, sucking in the steam, displayed no response of pain. Instead, their expressions grew increasingly ecstatic, as if they were on the verge of ascending.

However, Lin Yi’s perception revealed that the Ash was accumulating within the zealots’ bodies as the volcanic dust collected, causing their bodies to heat up.

If this continued, the zealots’ bodies would ignite like cotton exposed to sparks.

"This is bad!"

"Run! Let’s bolt!" Realizing the escalating danger, Lin Yi no longer lingered, grabbing Li Huiyuan’s hand and retreating.

Li Huiyuan didn’t resist, letting Lin Yi lead her away. But she asked curiously, "Where are we going?"

Lin Yi replied, "Not sure, but separating from them is the priority. Those people are about to become dangerous."

"Alright, I agree. Separation seems wise." Li Huiyuan nodded. Zhang Lingzhen showed deep hostility toward her, and she herself had often fantasized about smashing Zhang Lingzhen’s head with a baseball bat.

Lin Yi pulled Li Huiyuan back down the path they came, carefully avoiding the falling volcanic dust to avoid attracting the Sneering Angels’ attention.

Shortly after their escape, the first zealot, overwhelmed by the accumulated Ash, reached his limit and could no longer bear it.

With a loud "Poof," a flame erupted from within the zealot’s body. In an instant, the fire engulfed him entirely, wrapping his entire form in flames.

"Ah—"

The zealot finally succumbed to the agony, letting out a pained roar.

But the flames and steam soon consumed him, leaving only the shadow of his bones amid the blaze, which quickly disintegrated into Ash.

The Sneering Angels remained indifferent, continuing to greedily absorb the steam. Yet soon, the flames surged toward them, pouring into their ethereal forms with the steam...

"Whoosh—"

The Sneering Angels ignited like bellows stirred by fierce winds, bursting into roaring flames.

The ethereal Sneering Angels seemed transformed into some kind of fuel, but within the blaze, a crystalline substance appeared to be slowly forming...

Lin Yi withdrew his perception, silent.

He appeared to uncover some secret.

Some... secret belonging to the Ash Collectors.

He marked this location in his mind, turned away, and led Li Huiyuan out of the distorted space, returning to the relatively normal—no, comparatively normal—Forbidden Area-B-5F of the Teaching Building, surrounded in white mist.

...

X023, May 10th, 10:05, Teaching Building’s "Forbidden Area-B-5F."

Lin Yi halted with Li Huiyuan near the hallway, his brows furrowing in contemplation.

"Tsk! Damn it..."

Massaging his temples, Lin Yi noticed a row of Sneering Angels had appeared at the far end of the hallway.

However, these Sneering Angels had not yet been activated and remained in their weeping statuesque forms.

Lin Yi’s heart sank as he glanced toward the stairwell.

What he saw startled him; several Sneering Angel sculptures, fixed in their standard weeping positions, silently waited in the stairwell.

He then looked toward the corridor bridge. _{free we\bnove(l).com}

The hallway they were in was close to the stairwell, and across the white mist lay the bridge leading to Building A and Building C, though the entire passage was drowned in fog.

The eerie art teacher had led the science explorers toward Building A, which was closer to the Green Forest Belt. Lin Yi speculated their destination was the desolate land deep within the Green Forest Belt to seek shelter within the Matrix.