Chapter 212: The Fourth Act

Chapter 212: The Fourth Act

In Resurrection Square, already covered in scorch marks and cracks, the environment suddenly darkened. A gloom and chill nearly tangible in substance filled the air, and even the piercing silver-white lightning could not disperse it.

Daly Simone keenly sensed that an unknown creature was passing through the spirit world, drawing near this area. A bad premonition surged through her heart at once, as though she had already seen Ince Zangwill escape easily with the help of this unexpected development, vanishing to some unknown place.

A chill that she could not restrain spread through her body, as though she had returned to the time when she had first become a Beyonder.

Back then, because of an accident, the nineteen-year-old Daly had lost her family, accidentally consumed a potion, became a Corpse Collector, and was placed into a Nighthawks team.

The potion’s influence and the trauma of losing her family made her begin to enjoy coldness. She could not help drawing close to corpses. She often wandered through cemeteries and slept before graves.

This made her seem strange. It caused others to instinctively reject her. Not only did her body temperature drop; even her soul seemed to slowly freeze, turning cold.

She feared that feeling. She still wanted to be a living, breathing person. And so, instinctively making use of men’s coveting of her looks and body, she dated boyfriend after boyfriend, hoping to use the warmth of flesh to resist the cooling of her soul.

Within that dazed and fallen life, she met that man.

The man who always listened gently as she spoke. The man who always remained nearby, steadily offering help. The man who grew embarrassed when faced with jokes about relations between men and women. The man who tolerated all his teammates’ flaws with sincerity. The man who, again and again under her teasing, was left at a loss for what to do. The man who liked to hide pain and sorrow inside himself until his hairline receded far too early. The man who, when danger came, would always be the first to stand forward and shield his teammates behind him.

She changed. She began liking old-fashioned makeup. She no longer drew close to other men. Only her verbal jokes remained, deliberately declaring that she had not obviously changed.

But she still had not made it in time.

She had not had time to witness that man skillfully apply the acting method, digest his potion, and advance to Sequence 6. She had not had time to see him reach out his hand and invite her to dance the opening number. She had not had time to participate in the final battle of his life. She had not had time to tell him what she felt.

Last time, I missed it. I didn’t make it in time to do anything. Today, I don’t want that to happen again… Daly’s expression became sorrowful. The corners of her mouth slowly lifted, gentle and sweet.

With her eyes tightly shut, she suddenly pulled a small metal bottle from a hidden pocket of her clothes, threw away the stopper, and gulped down the liquid inside.

Her blue eyeshadow and blush instantly became vivid, and even her skin turned somewhat translucent. Her coiled hair broke apart in an instant, pushing back her hood and scattering outward.

“Spirit that roams the void; fearsome creature of the upper realms; unpredictable visitor.” Daly rapidly recited in ancient Hermes, each word short and powerful. “I, I in my own name, make a contract with you and beseech you to leave this place!”

Behind the eight-legged, white-feathered Ince Zangwill, a figure outlined itself. It was a bloody mass of flesh covered in countless eyes and pierced with arm after arm from different races.

It was about to grab Ince Zangwill’s body and drag him into the spirit world when it suddenly paused. One gaze after another turned toward Daly Simone.

On the surface of Daly’s skin, pitch-black snake scales suddenly protruded, and white fuzz grew from the cracks between those scales one patch after another.

Her…