I Can Only Go Alone

Ku De showed Jie La Er a torn page from the book's title.

This is a very ordinary academic book. Because it is a torn title page, the title is incomplete, and you can only see the words "Automated Prosthetic Limbs".

But the title is clearly not the point; the point is the painting on the title page.

The painting depicts a colossal creature, its body composed of interwoven metal and Holy Light, resembling a classical and sacred work of art.

But Jie La Er knew that this was not a work of art.

This is... Him.

Yes, this is the Lyra itself.

"Does this remind you of anything?" Ku De said. "This is a torn piece from one of my father's books. He always carried all the books he kept from twelve years ago that were officially published."

"I know," Jie La Er said in a deep voice. "Ten years ago, before each time Xiaoxing entered the Contaminated Land, she would pray to this painting, because..."

"He is Lyra," Ku De said softly. "He is our god, but without realizing it, we have forgotten Him. After returning from my father, I searched for a long time in the Skeleton Corps' office, but I couldn't find any books with His image on them. They were nowhere to be found. But in my memory, I also swore an oath to Him before entering the Bone Corps, but now I can't find anything. It's as if He disappeared suddenly."

This is indeed a very unsettling thing.

For ten years, Jie La Er had been searching for Clerk 44 and the truth of what happened back then, but he hadn't discovered that Lyra God had disappeared from his memory.

He could understand why Ku De would take such a risk and rush to seek cooperation with him.

Jie La Er looked at Ku De and said, "I think you haven't told anyone about this yet."

"Yes." Ku De nodded. "You are the first. I didn't even tell my father. He doesn't know what happened and is very angry that I suddenly tore up his book... because he still respects Lyra, just like twelve years ago."

"Because it's not within Lyra City, it wasn't affected?"

"That should be the case," Ku De said again. "Besides my father, I also asked other people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and their reactions were similar to my father's. They all seemed to be living in the past twelve years, and they also had a common characteristic."

"What?"

"They've rarely returned to Lyra City over the years and have always stayed in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," Ku De said. "Those who return to Lyra City more frequently leave the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a very short time and never come back. This has led to a rapid reduction in the number of personnel in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and now there are only a dozen or so people left."

"In other words, it's still because of Lyra City," Jie La Er said in a deep voice. "Everyone has been affected by Lyra City."

"Yes, right now, the feeling I get from Lyra City is like a Gear Train," Ku De said softly. "It has been accelerating for the past ten years, getting faster every year, but the people on the Gear Car don't feel it at all. Only those outside the Gear Car can see how crazy the Gear Car has become, far exceeding its limits, and it could collapse and derail at any moment. But... those on the train can't feel it, and those outside can't warn them."

Ku De's description left Jie La Er silent for a long time before he nodded slightly. "Your summary... is very apt."

"But thankfully, you and I are still on board." Ku De pointed to himself and Jie La Er, saying slowly and deliberately, "We still have a chance to stop it before it completely goes out of control and derails."

Ku De's words left Jie La Er feeling somewhat dazed.

For the past ten years, he has always been alone.

No one understood him, no one helped him, everyone treated him like a madman. He was like the only normal person on that Gear Train. After realizing that something was wrong with the train, he tried to warn everyone, but was met with cold indifference and treated as an old lunatic.

But now, finally a young man has stood up and said the same thing as him.

The transition from "I" to "we" is not an easy one.

But Jie La Er was not blindly overjoyed. He knew very well that what they were about to face could not be solved by mere enthusiasm. He had been stuck in place for ten years, while the enemy had been in action for ten years, even erasing their god... and they still did not know what they were about to face.

So Jie La Er simply looked at Ku De calmly and asked, "Do you have any other thoughts?"

"Yes," Ku De said quickly. "I had thought about it carefully before coming here. The turning point that triggered all these changes should be the 'Night Star' incident ten years ago, which involved you. So all my thoughts revolve around you, but..."

He paused.

"Before I reveal my thoughts, I hope you can provide more information. I have already told you everything I know, which is my way of showing you my sincerity, Jie La Er." Ku De looked into Jie La Er's eyes and said, word by word, "I want to know, what exactly did Night Star do when it entered the Land of Corruption ten years ago, and did you bring anything out of the Land of Corruption?"

"I know you don't have definite answers to these questions right now because you have amnesia, so I won't demand all of them."

"Even a little bit, whatever you find out or recall, even just a little bit will do."

"In short, I want you to tell me everything you know."

"Only in this way can we find the key to stopping the Gear Train that is the Lyra."

Jie La Er remained silent.

He could sense the sincerity in Ku De's words and knew that the key to the present was still the mission from ten years ago. Once that was solved, all the problems would be solved.

And he was no longer as ignorant as before.

But all the information he possessed, all the things he knew, came from...

"Tell him," Bai Wei's voice suddenly rang in Jie La Er's mind. "You can tell him everything except what's about me."

"Isn't that what you want to do too?"

"And I also want to see just how far you and your successors can go," Bai Wei said with a light laugh, "Whether it's reaching the truth through hard work, or..."

After losing everything, why do you pray for my strength?

Bai Wei didn't finish the second half of his sentence, but Jie La Er understood.

So after a long period of silence, Jie La Er made his decision.

"In that case, come to my house," Jie La Er said. "I can show you some things."

Fourth District Tower.

Zamen took several deep breaths in front of an office door, making sure he was mentally prepared, before knocking on the door.

"Come in."

Yong Xin's voice came from inside. Zamen pushed open the door and entered, then bowed respectfully to Yong Xin inside.

"Lord Yongxin."

His words still betrayed his nervousness. He didn't even dare to look up at Yong Xin, because the changes in Yong Xin that night kept replaying in his mind, giving him nightmares about misusing the correct measure word, and it still made him feel uneasy.

But Yong Xin didn't pay any attention and calmly asked, "Have the people I sent to Jie La Er's house returned?"

This question made Zamen even more nervous. He stammered, "Reporting to Lord Yongxin, they haven't returned yet."

"They're not back yet?"

Yes, yes.

"Not even a single word?"

"No, no," Zamen quickly asked, "Should we send out a second team?"

"No need." Yong Xin seemed unsurprised by the outcome. He said calmly, "The fact that they didn't come back already says a lot. Sending more people won't make a difference... Besides, we've already alerted them."

"I'm so sorry, Lord Yongxin." Zamen bowed even lower. "So what should we do now?"

"Now..." Yong Xin pondered for a moment, then said softly, "Since it has been confirmed that Jie La Er has become an uncontrollable figure, then we can't continue in the usual way. Let's start ahead of schedule."

Zamen was slightly taken aback. "Starting early? That much earlier?"

"Yes, after all, plans can't keep up with changes," Yong Xin said calmly. "If I remember correctly, tomorrow night is the day Bishop Holman returns, right?"

Yes, yes.

"In that case..." Yong Xin said with a light laugh, "Then let His Bishop personally ignite this new fire."

"What's going on!?"

Upon arriving at Jie La Er's house, Ku De was stunned by the scene before him.

The ordinary wooden house had been mostly destroyed. Outside the house was a huge, scorched corpse, and behind the huge corpse was a series of bloody footprints, as if this thing had walked out of a sea of blood. But the end of the series of footprints was the wooden house.

So what exactly happened inside the house!?

Ku De looked at Jie La Er in shock, thinking this was what Jie La Er was going to show him.

But he soon realized that Jie La Er's expression wasn't much better than his, and he was clearly not very aware of what had happened in his home.

Because Jie La Er really didn't know what Bai Wei had done, he only knew that Bai Wei had taken care of the three intruders, but he hadn't said how he had taken care of them!

"I don't know what happened here either," Jie La Er said in a calm voice. "But the remains seem to be contaminated. I'll go examine the remains. You go inside and see if there are any living people left. I think those footprints look like human blood."

Given all this, are there any survivors left?

Ku De thought to himself that he had something to say, but he didn't say anything. After nodding, he immediately went into Jie La Er's house.

Jie La Er strode toward the polluted corpse, and then, at Bai Wei's instruction, retrieved the finger that had been swallowed and then spat out from directly in front of the pollutant.

This is something that Ku De can't know.

After retrieving his finger, Jie La Er did not immediately return to the house to meet up with Ku De, but instead carefully examined the contaminated corpse before him.

To be honest, Jie La Er has killed at least a thousand or eight hundred pollutants over the years. He has killed pollutants in all sorts of ways, but he has never turned their corpses into this state—the entire corpse looks like it has been burned dry and thoroughly burned. The pollutants' proud ability to regenerate and recombine seems to have vanished into thin air at this moment.

This was the second time Jie La Er had witnessed such a situation.

The first time was in Somu City two weeks ago, when he buried a man named Ulu with his own hands.

Is this the ultimate fate of those who use the power of Visas?

Whether it's humans or pollutants with even stronger vitality, they will eventually turn into this state... leaving not even a trace.

As Jie La Er looked at the polluted corpses in front of him, he suddenly felt as if he were looking at his future self.

Just then, he heard footsteps behind him, and soon after, Ku De stood beside him with a very unpleasant expression.

"I checked, there are three bodies inside." Even the experienced squad leader of the Skeleton Corps found it hard to remain Ku De after seeing the gruesome state of the bodies in the inner room. "One of the bodies was completely shattered, which made me think there were only two bodies at first... Ugh, I don't want to talk about it anymore."

Ku De shook his head, then looked at Jie La Er again.

"If I asked you about the identities of those three people, you would probably say you don't know, right?"

"I really don't know." Jie La Er shook his head, then pointed to the contaminated remains in front of him. "What I originally wanted you to see was this."

"Contaminants?" Ku De frowned. "Why would there be contaminants here?"

"That's what I wanted to tell you," Jie La Er said. "Ever since that incident ten years ago, I've been plagued by these things. No matter where I live, they find me, which is why I moved to this remote place to avoid accidentally harming other people."

Ku De asked thoughtfully, "How long have these things been bothering you?"

"As I just said, it's been going on ever since that incident," Jie La Er said calmly. "It appears every few days, as if I stole something from them, but I don't know exactly what it is."

As he spoke, Jie La Er glanced back into his house.

"As for who's inside, all I can say is... a lot of people have been trying to cause me trouble lately. Maybe they just happened to run into each other."

Ku De didn't question Jie La Er's account much. The horrific scene did indeed appear to be caused by contaminants, and judging from the bloodstains, Jie La Er should have been imprisoned at the Skeleton Corps headquarters when the tragedy occurred, making it impossible for him to have been there...

Um?

Ku De narrowed his eyes slightly, then murmured, "So, when these three people came to your house, you were being held captive by us... and in a way that violated the rules, is that right?"

Jie La Er turned to look at Ku De and said, "Now you should know what I'm dealing with."

"The pollutants are looking for you, Lyra is looking for you too," Ku De said softly. "It's as if you've taken something that they all care about, but you don't even know what it is."

"Yes," Jie La Er said calmly. "What you've seen is all I can tell you."

Ku De slowly closed his eyes, seemingly deep in thought.

After a long while, he opened his eyes, as if he had made a decision, and took out a uniquely shaped key from his pocket.

"I got this from my old boss," Ku De said to Jie La Er. "With this, you can go directly to Bishop Holman."

Jie La Er immediately looked surprised. "You also want to find Huo Er Man?"

"It seems we share the same idea." Ku De nodded, then said softly, "The bishop is connected to Lyra above and to the mortal world below. If Lyra really has a problem, he couldn't possibly not know."

Jie La Er looked at Ku De and asked, "What if he's the one who caused the problem?"

"So..." Ku De gripped the key in his hand, then suddenly smiled at Jie La Er, "I can only go by myself... alone."