Visiting Azik

Azik's home was located within the city, a detached building with a front lawn and a rear garden, occupying a larger plot of land than Old Neil's house. Such a fine property, situated right in Tingen City, was likely beyond the reach of a university instructor's salary.

Old Neil's house was worth 900 pounds, so this place probably cost three or five thousand...

Luther surveyed the house, thinking to himself as he stepped forward to pull the cord on the side of the gate.

"Ding! Ding!"

The doorbell rang out.

Footsteps followed shortly after, and before long, the gate opened to reveal Azik, who was dressed in loungewear.

"Welcome."

He smiled faintly. "I've been waiting for you for a while. Please, come in."

Before coming to Azik's home, Luther had already reached out through Klein to exchange greetings, obtain the address, and set a time for the meeting, all to avoid the awkward scenario of arriving only to find Azik absent.

"Good afternoon."

Luther nodded at him. "Mr. Azik, sorry to bother you."

Azik stepped aside to welcome him into the house, closed the door, and led him to the living room on the ground floor.

"Please, sit... Would you like something to drink? Coffee or black tea?"

Azik asked.

Sitting in the soft, high-end sofa, Luther thought for a moment and said, "Black tea will be fine."

After speaking, he suddenly felt a bit curious. Azik's home was so nice, yet there were no servants to be seen, which was quite different from the lifestyle of the middle and upper classes in Roosevelt. But if that was the case, who would brew the tea? Could it be that he preferred to do things himself?

"Snap!"

He saw Mr. Azik, with his bronze skin and soft features, raise a hand and snap his fingers.

Behind the living room, in the empty kitchen, the sound of cups and saucers clattering suddenly rang out. A moment later, a tray flew through the air, carrying a teapot and teacups that sat perfectly steady upon it.

Luther's eyes narrowed. An ordinary person would only see a tray floating in mid-air, but with his own eyes, he saw a phantom shadow carrying the tray—it looked like a low-level undead creature recorded in his files, a Wraith. But he had never seen an ordinary Wraith with such capabilities; not only could it interact with physical matter, but it was even clever enough to brew black tea!

"Clink."

The tray was placed on the coffee table, the porcelain making a crisp sound as it met the surface. The invisible Wraith bowed respectfully to Azik before drifting back into the kitchen and vanishing.

"Give it a try. She is quite skilled at brewing tea."

Azik said with a smile to the stunned Luther.

"...Alright."

Luther picked up the teacup. The tea was a clear, reddish hue, and the thin, translucent, milky-white porcelain featured intricate, complex patterns—it appeared to be expensive bone china. With a cautious attitude, he brought the cup to his lips and took a small sip.

"How is it?"

"...To be honest, I don't know much about this."

Between "pretending to be sophisticated" and "telling the truth," Luther frankly chose the latter. "It just smells quite fragrant."

Mr. Azik couldn't help but chuckle at this.

"Heh, you really are honest... To tell you the truth, I don't know much about black tea either."

He didn't drink any tea himself, but instead picked up a cigar from the coffee table and offered it to Luther. "Would you like one?"

"Thank you, I don't smoke."

Luther shook his head in refusal. In his past life, he hadn't liked tobacco or alcohol. In this world, due to the danger of losing control, he was even less willing to touch such things. Most importantly, his younger sister Cecilia had disliked the smell of cigarettes since she was a child and would cough whenever she smelled them.

Seeing that Luther declined, Azik turned and lit it for himself, the strong scent of the cigar beginning to diffuse through the living room.

I'll have to stand in the wind for a while when I head back, so the smell doesn't linger on my clothes.

Luther thought to himself.

He took a few more sips of black tea and finally couldn't help but take the initiative to speak:

"Mr. Azik, you said you wanted me to help you with something. May I ask what exactly you need me to do?"

Azik took a deep drag of his cigar, and amidst the blue-gray smoke he exhaled, he said faintly, "I want you to help me recover my past memories."

"Past memories?"

Luther asked, surprised.

And so, Azik began to explain his experiences to Luther. It turned out that Mr. Azik's memories were incomplete; he only remembered the time after he entered the university. He had no impression of his life before that, not knowing where he came from or who his parents were.

During this time, he gradually discovered that he possessed peculiar abilities and would occasionally recall fragments of the past. Pursuing his past had become an obsession that drove him forward.

"Mr. Azik, are you saying that the aura I carry made you almost remember something, so you hope I can let you perceive that aura again?" Luther understood Azik's intent. "But I don't even know what this aura you're talking about is, let alone how to release it."

Although he said this, Luther had some guesses of his own. The aura that gave Azik a sense of déjà vu was very likely the influence of the True Creator upon him.

But what kind of person was he in his past to be connected to such a dangerous Evil God without being affected and becoming a Degenerate?

"Do not worry, I naturally have a way; I just need your cooperation." Azik said. "I will summon a special undead creature to draw out the aura hidden within you. Its appearance might be a bit frightening, so I hope you don't mind... Of course, as I said before, regardless of the outcome, I will provide you with the reward you deserve."

Luther had come here for the reward, so he naturally wouldn't refuse. He nodded and said, "That's fine, please, let's get started."

If he finished early, he could still head to the shooting range to practice with his revolver.

Azik saw this and said nothing more, taking a gleaming white bone flute from his pocket. He sliced his index finger with his thumbnail, letting a drop of blood fall onto the flute. The bright red blood quickly seeped into the bone.

"Woo-woo—"

Even though no one was blowing into it, the bone flute emitted a sound on its own. Accompanied by this hollow, low-pitched drone, the surrounding environment became hazy, with large swaths of vivid colors piling up and overlapping... as if the most deranged painter had smeared a chaotic world with bold oil paints.

Luther saw a bronze gate appear behind Azik—just like the one he had seen in his dreams before. The surface of the gate was rusted and damaged, but upon closer inspection, he realized those weren't rust stains, but twisted faces.

"Creak—"

The gate slowly pulled open, and pitch-black vines reached out from within, wrapping around Azik and gathering in front of him to form a sphere.

A fissure opened in the center of the sphere, and from that gap, a transparent Monster emerged, looking like a cross between an octopus and a jellyfish. It extended its slimy tentacles toward Luther.

Luther watched this Monster, feeling a fair amount of vigilance in his heart.

Before coming, he had taken some precautions and mailed a letter, with the recipient being himself at Blackthorn Security Company. If he managed to make it out today, he would naturally retrieve the letter; if he didn't return, the others at the company would receive it, and they would immediately take notice of Azik.

However, it seemed he had overthought things, as the tentacle merely rested stickily against his forehead without causing him any harm.

Not long after, hazy hallucinations began to form before his eyes.

Within the illusions, there were soaring Feathered Serpents and many other peculiar existences.