Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 576 - 576 Ninety-five

576: Ninety-five.

The civilization of mankind is gradually fading away.

576: Ninety-five.

The civilization of mankind is gradually fading away.

Anna suddenly looked out the window.

Her gaze seemed to pierce through the fog and the stretched buildings, landing on the pitch-black, deathly still sea surface.

Just a moment ago, a disquieting pulse had spread from the deep sea onto the shore.

That breath even affected matter, stirring ripples in the tea inside the cup on the desk, causing the flame to flicker.

Anna couldn’t quite articulate what it was, but she felt a shiver deep in her soul.

Anxiety began to deepen, something bad was drawing near—

Anna thought, shifting her gaze back to Lu Li.

There were only 15 seconds left until the appointed time, once Lu Li woke up, she would immediately take him and leave Belfast.

The ticking of time seemed to stretch, every second as slow as a minute.

The long-stilled heart of Anna, for the first time in a while, filled with a strong emotion—named fear.

Her hands were even trembling slightly, as if frightened by that trace of breath leaking from the deep sea, or perhaps uneasy about the imminent danger.

10, 9, 8, 7…

At this moment, the distant sound of church bells began to resonate.

The tolling of bells from churches scattered around the city mingled, echoing urgently over the skies of Belfast.

The dense echoes of bells carried a sense of oppression and urgency, forcing people to wake from deep sleep, panicking without knowing what had happened.

The cries of children were the first to sound, but there was an absence of barking dogs, as if they had vanished without a trace.

3, 2, 1!

A minute had passed, the rope snapped in an instant, and Anna, catching the naturally falling Lu Li, propped him back against the chair’s backrest and softly called for him to wake up.

Breathing began to recover, and the heart started beating again.

But there was no sign of Lu Li waking up.

Anna’s breath became increasingly ragged.

His soul hadn’t returned…

Clack—clack, clack, clack—

The window began to echo with the sound of persistent tapping.

Click, click, click, click—

The counter on Lu Li’s wrist began to speed up in response to Anna’s breath.

Anna, barely suppressing her emotions, turned her head to look outside the window.

Whoosh—

As the curtain was drawn, many black dots clinging to the window glass came into view.

Those were carrion beetles the size of fingernails.

They were folding their transparent wings, lifting their carapaces as they took flight again, and at every moment, more beetles crashed against the window.

They were fleeing…

A thought emerged in Anna’s mind.

“Lu Li…”

She called softly to Lu Li, who lay as if asleep, but with her unease growing, Anna didn’t wait any longer.

She would head to the refuge point in Elm Forest; it might be the only safe place for now.

Picking up Lu Li, just as she was about to leave, Anna remembered something, her strength gathering up the sculpture and the black cat as she, like a gust of wind, dashed through the corridor and onto the street.

It wasn’t just beetles sweeping through the fog like locusts; seagulls, bats, insects, those remaining creatures not yet extinct, were fleeing in masses from the ocean, flying toward the mountaintop.

The apocalyptic scene brought a moment of hesitation to Anna—could the refuge point protect Lu Li?

Perhaps it would be better to escape to the far side of the mountain away from the deep sea?

But remembering how diligently Lu Li had worked on it, Anna dismissed her doubts about the refuge point.

No matter what, she would stay by Lu Li’s side.

“`

Anna on the streets attracted attention, and many people who rushed out because of the bells’ ringing screamed in terror at the sight.

Ignoring them, Anna cradled Lu Li, took the sculpture and the black cat, and flew off the ground, heading toward Elm Forest.

The obscure breath emanating from the deep sea was changing everything in the city, a vast swathe of creatures were dying, insects fell like raindrops in a stormy night.

The sound from the Sanity Value Counter on Lu Li’s wrist was becoming more frequent, this time unrelated to Anna—all stemming from the breath of the deep sea.

Even the black cat began to weaken, and the sculpture, at some point, had curled up its body.

The Mist of Strangeness had somewhat dispersed without notice, and Anna turned her head toward the mountaintop, something there was dissolving the eldritch fog shrouding the city.

The familiar disgust reminded Anna of the Ancient Statue Fragment that Lu Li had obtained.

But this time, what might have spread across the entire city were perhaps all the Ancient Statue Fragments the investigators had.

This allowed Anna not to worry about the thick fog blocking her vision, but also allowed her to witness the occurrence of unspeakably awful events.

At a certain moment, a sharp ripping sound came from overhead, even more piercing than the bells’ echoes.

Anna looked in the direction of the ripping sound, and seconds later, a fishing boat tens of meters long fell from the sky, smashing into the streets dozens of meters away, carrying fierce winds.

Buildings were effortlessly crushed by the metal fishing boat several times larger than itself, ground into rubble.

The howling wind was something even Anna couldn’t withstand, and she was tossed about, flying a dozen meters away.

Desperate cries of the citizens emerged from the half-collapsed houses that still stood.

Anna suddenly understood why Lu Li had always likened humans to ants.

Whether they were investigators, night watchmen, or ancient Demon Slayers, their powers meant nothing in front of such apocalyptic scenes.

When one side in battle can easily crush the other, tactics and strategies become meaningless.

This scene was no accident, as more terrifying ripping sounds followed one after another.

Next, a “rain of ships” fell over this area.

Ships tens, hundreds of meters in length crashed to the ground, no matter whether wooden huts, detached houses, or sturdier buildings, all as fragile as children’s blocks, the shaking of the earth and the thunderous noise echoing everywhere drowned out both the bells and the people’s cries.

Anna had already left the area before the storm-like rain of fishing boats began, pursing her lips, flying rapidly across rooftops like an arrow.

The pitch-black and deathly still Elm Forest under the night sky was just ahead.

The moment she plunged in, Anna felt peace, as if the being in the deep sea couldn’t affect this place.

The consciousness of the forest was lingering around Anna and Lu Li, no longer filled with hostility.

It was only then that Anna found a chance to look back.

The light at the top of Sugard Mountain began to dim gradually, and the thick fog once again engulfed the city, shrouded in flames, gun smoke, bell ringing, and crying, known as Belfast.

Following a muddy path through the forest, Anna landed at the cliff-top refuge two minutes later.

A rudimentary wooden hut had been erected by the cave entrance, where Anna saw Jimmy, who looked like a monster, lying on the chair in front of the door, and Raimy, the ethereal figure in a white dress.

They were clearly watching everything happening in the far-off city, and Anna’s arrival brought them shock and surprise.

“I thought you had left…

What’s happened to Mr.

Luli!” Raimy exclaimed, covering her mouth in shock.

“Wait and talk.”

Anna left behind a sentence, taking Lu Li into the refuge.

After placing Lu Li on the bed and just lighting the second oil lamp, suddenly Raimy’s shout came from outside the cave.

“Miss Anna, I suggest you come out and look.”

Raimy and Jimmy stood staring blankly into the sky; coming out of the cave, Anna saw the curious spectacle.

Above the deep sea and who knows how far from here, a black sun hung high in the void.

The mist couldn’t conceal it, a slender, pure black thread extended into the sea.

The moment she looked at it, countless whispers chant and singing echoed in her mind.

Anna recalled the words Lu Li had spoken to her a few hours earlier.

“The time of the descent of the stars has come.”

“`