Act.16 · [CRY]
Foreword:
The words "Cheery" and "Cry" differ by only three letters, specifically the first tone of the "Hee."
[ --Wendy Mills]
[Part 1: Burning Memories of Battle]
"What exactly are you?!"
Jason Megan's expression changed drastically; she was horrified and stunned by the scene before her.
In the instant he was blasted from his physical body by the Lord of Cinder's soul power, as he observed the world from a spirit's perspective, he discovered that a divine phantom was embracing him.
That person was his waiter, Wendy Mills, whom he couldn't forget and kept talking about.
The young woman was still wearing the same station uniform as she had three years ago. Time had left no trace on her, just like the life that the Immortal Lune had grasped. Even the nameplates on her clothes or the adhesive strips on her work ID showed no signs of aging.
Jason pressed, "Wendy Wendy! What have you turned into?"
He wanted to unravel these mysteries and understand the whole story.
Could the phantoms he's seeing at this moment merely be inner demons born from the spiritual pressure environment of Niflheim?
The woman did not answer Jason.
--To be precise, he stood completely still, his expression mirroring Jason's physical body, suffering from the black rays of the [icon] piercing his body, his nerve signals becoming extremely slow and weak.
Jason floated in his vision of Inspiration, swimming toward his physical body. His companions around him were all affected by their inner demons to varying degrees, especially his older brother Yibu.
Yibu's spirit was moving violently. Through the charred excrement, one could see pairs of strong, powerful arms emitting painful howls, as if the Soviet compatriots devoured by the Death Giant over the years were all coming back to settle scores with their leader, Yibu.
These fallen comrades, these people who sacrificed themselves for their ideals, have become Ibrahimovic's inner demons.
Yibu's spirit was like a cat with its fur standing on end. In an instant, four or five dark arms grabbed it, trying to drag it into a cesspool, to take it back to the Niflheim Kingdom of the Dead, to be buried with its departed companions.
Jason could still hear languid sounds of pain and resentment.
"Yibu and Iason!"
"It's all your fault! It's all your fault!"
"I'm so young! Brother Yibu! I'm so, so young! I'm going to be eaten by a giant! I'm going to be eaten by a giant!"
"Anastasia! Help me! Help me!"
"It's so cold, so cold, so cold!"
Unintelligible, chaotic murmurs emanated from the dark mud. Brother Yibu's spirit was on the verge of collapse. These people who had shared life and death with him, those who died on the beach, in the warehouse, and beside the shore gun emplacements, had all turned into black bullets, into terrifying inner demons, trying to pierce Brother Yibu's heart.
A blazing meteor, carrying the mangled body of the half- Dragonman, slid down the narrow, steep slope.
"Takeoff!"
After Meteor finished dealing with Big Sullivan, Little Sullivan immediately took over his father's role and became A Xing's new toy.
The sudden, massive impact nearly wiped out the vengeful black smoke surrounding Yibu.
The charred excrement was swept aside by the gale stirred up by the spirit, smashing a deep crater into the steel platform.
Meteor clapped his hands, his fighting spirit soaring.
Jason! Who were you talking to just now?
Jason Megan finally came to his senses. He pointed to his own body, to the eerie waiter clinging to his side, and to his "Wendy Mills"—
"--Can't you see it either?"
Meteor asked in confusion, "What do you see?"
Jason was nearly going crazy. "We're both in spirit form now! Even in this state, can't you see her? My servant! Wendy Mills! Right now, she's clinging to my neck, frozen in place before the shrine, just like me!"
"Really?" Meteor's gaze swept over Jason's body, finding nothing superfluous. He tried to reach out and touch Jason, but his hand only made a half-finished groping motion—
--It was suddenly smashed by a bass instrument.
These attacks came from the land of the dead, from the Hendler brothers of the bar district.
These two contestants from the vampire selection ceremony are now deceased, yet they remain deeply attached to Bu Liuxing.
My brother returned from hell with his hunting dog.
The younger brother took out the musical instrument he had carefully prepared before his death and used it as a weapon.
Meteor had no time to spare for Jason's old flame; she immediately turned back to confront her inner demons.
"We'll talk about it later! You can study it yourself for a while, I'm very busy right now!"
After saying that, the 1.9-meter-tall strong man caught the vicious dog that was pouncing on him, and used it as a cannonball to throw it back hard at the face of the inner demon.
Hear my mighty battle cry!
The passionate roar almost swept away the fear in people's hearts.
The shattered arm of the meteor instantly reformed. The original spiritual form of this arm, which had only a lone Thumb, was transformed into a bright red arm after being ambushed by the inner demon.
In the wondrous spiritual environment created by the [Holy Icon], Bu Liuxing seemed to regard it as a training room.
"Nothing can stop me now! You two were utterly wicked scum in your lives! I thank the Lord of Cinder for his gift, and thank this man-eating sun! For bringing you before me once again!"
Like a cannonball, the meteor caught little Hendler's head and dashed back into the tunnel, intending to grab big Hendler and have the brothers' skulls collide.
"Since you dared to come here, don't even think about escaping anywhere!"
These two scumbags didn't have time to exchange any greetings, nor to voice the regrets they left behind in life, before they merged into one in the surging, burning courage of the meteor.
Jason was utterly shocked by what he saw.
RSH's garrison personnel are often plagued by their inner demons, and someone like Yibu, with an intense sense of guilt, is no match for the vengeful spirits.
But A Xing
After his spiritual arm was shattered by his inner demons, it was like a dull sword that grew stronger with each blow, about to shave off its iron skin under the rubbing of a whetstone and shine. Undoubtedly, he was rapidly transforming, shedding his mortal body and turning into a butterfly. The flames emitted by the polishing of the sword alone could burn away the fear in people's hearts.
Just now, the young waitress Katusha was still troubled by her inner demons. Her parents' teachings and gun training in her childhood turned into a vicious mental attack, trying to gradually pull her back into that indifferent family.
With a roar from the meteor, the soaring sound waves, like the rapid strumming of an electric guitar, pulled people's souls back from the realm of the dead—this is the characteristic of [Flash Butterfly]!
Just as David Victor taught his two students by example, a butterfly can influence the spiritual world of others in this way, and it is unexpected that a shooting star, freed from the constraints of the physical body, can also do the same.
There were more than twenty people at the end of the shrine passage. Countless inner demons had come from the abyss of Niflheim to collect their debts, and the scene was chaotic.
Most people were struggling under the control of the [Sacred Statue], including VIP Big Wolf Girl Xia Xia, who uttered incomprehensible babbling.
The Red Stone People, Meteor, is like a flame, lighting a beacon in the darkness.
People are about to awaken, break free from the clutches of the vengeful spirits, and follow the trail of the Lord of Cinder's spiritual threads to return to their physical bodies.
Jason immediately pulled over his closest waiter, and he and Katusha asked him anxiously.
"Do you see her?! Katusha! Look closely! My waitress Wendy Mills is right next to me!"
Katusha didn't understand what Mr. Good was talking about; she couldn't see the phantom at all.
"Sir, what are you saying?"
She floated beside Jason's physical body in spirit form, reaching out her hand—
Jason's pupils contracted, and he let out a terrified scream.
"They actually passed right through it!?"
In Jason's eyes, Katusha's tender, pupalized spirit seemed to be wearing velvet gloves as it passed through Wendy's head, like a slap in thick fog, entering from the back of her head and exiting through her nose.
Katusha scratched her head, looking at her employer with a puzzled expression, still completely baffled as to what was going on.
Jason was completely baffled.
--Could Wendy really just be a figment of his imagination? A person he created out of thin air?
How could that be? Was all that companionship over the past twenty years just a lie?
Otherwise, how can we explain all of this?
In their spirit form, Katusha and Meteor were able to directly observe the most authentic psychic world.
If they can't see Wendy Mills, then there's only one possibility.
Jason clutched his head, feeling like the whole world was about to collapse.
--Wendy Mills does not exist; she never existed in reality.
There's only one reason Jason could see Wendy.
Jason's brain, Jason's optic nerve center, Jason's auditory center, and all his five senses, including Inspiration, believed that such a person existed.
Therefore, only he can see her, hear her, touch her, and even love her, embrace her, and kiss her.
This is a more serious delusion than schizophrenia, and it almost changed the course of Jason's life.
Without Wendy, he would never have dared to venture into the Underworld alone.
Without Wendy, he would have died during some exploration mission while traveling underground.
Without Wendy, he wouldn't have had the slightest interest in RSH, let alone come to help the Soviets.
Without Wendy, he would lose what little courage he had left.
Jason was not wearing Lapis Lazuli; only within the spiritual environment created by the [Icon] could he see this vague illusion rooted in his heart.
Katusha noticed that her employer's face had turned very pale, so she quickly went over to comfort him.
"Sir! My dear sir! What's wrong?! Are you thinking about the Lord of Cinder's power? Don't worry! This guy's ability will only last for ten minutes at most, we'll be back in our bodies soon."
Jason was almost speechless.
--When influenced by [Icon], he had already prepared for the worst.
His mental state was weak, his will to live was pitifully low, and his Madness Index fluctuated wildly; he was probably no match for his inner demons.
Asking him to imagine a terrifying enemy within himself, and to choose one from among them—he simply couldn't choose.
Jason could see the rotten dragon from Skull and Bones Society with perfect clarity, down to every single human skin and every single bone. If it were to return from Niflheim, Jason would probably suffer brain death on the spot, bleeding from his face and dying instantly.
But what he didn't expect was that his longing for Wendy Mills and his intense guilt made all these terrible inner demons disappear.
He was convinced that this journey was all for the purpose of finding Wendy.
It was all worth it; no enemy is invincible, and no inner demon can stop him.
Now that things have come to this, he doesn't know what to say.
As the boss told him--
--Everyone has a path they must take.
Now that path is broken, the person he has been searching for for years, the things he has been constantly reminiscing about, were all just illusions in his mind. They were all sweet illusions created by this extraordinary brain that could control twenty-four Lapis Lazuli, as it made autonomous protective stress responses.
Just as Jason was lost and confused...
"Mr. Right now is not the time to be daydreaming. What exactly are you struggling with?"
The young waiter seemed to understand something.
She embraced the mentally impaired Jason, and embraced her weathered employer.
The two spirits embraced tightly.
"I think you must be very smart. As for that Wendy you mentioned, I really can't see her, but now is not the time for you to be delusional or nostalgic. Wake up!"
Katusha gripped Jason's neck tightly, leaning in to kiss her employer's lips.
Jason finally snapped out of his daze and struggled desperately to push away the immature and ignorant girl.
His eyes couldn't leave Wendy—
--Move away from that beautiful hair? Move away from those gentle and lovely eyes?
He can't do it!
But in the next second, Wendy suddenly regained her senses from her frozen state.
She moved!
She gently patted Jason's body, her slender fingers calloused from years of holding guns, as she patted Jason's gaunt cheeks.
She deliberately pushed Jason's physical body away, pushed his head away, and gave him a meaningful smile towards his spirit.
She tilted her head, as if trying to see her employer's current appearance clearly and remember it, before speaking.
"The girl is right, Iason, you should listen to her."
Jason's eyes went unfocused again, and his brain momentarily shut down.
Katusha kissed her employer's lips fiercely.
The eerie feeling of weightlessness finally dissipated, Jason felt as if he had been pulled back into his body by a tremendous force! When he fully awoke and began to adjust to the stench in his nostrils, the rushing blood in his body, and the flickering illusions and reality in his eyes...
He then realized that, without him noticing, a string of Lapis Lazuli had appeared on his wrist. The immense flow of spiritual energy and his heightened Inspiration pulled him back from hell to earth.
Wendy Mills saved him once again, pulling her employer back to the real world from the eerie illusion of [Icon].
Jason turned around abruptly. He could still see Katusha's spirit floating in mid-air, kissing the air indiscriminately. It seemed the little girl hadn't quite caught up yet, closing her eyes as she asked for kisses, both passionate and shy. Her employer was long gone.
He looked away again, trying to search for the meteor's spirit, and the moment he turned his head, he bumped into Wendy.
"Heh--"
Jason gasped.
He didn't know what to do.
I don't know how to describe the person in front of me.
The illusion was bathed in an eerie, soft light, completely different from the ambient light of the dim passage. Just as he had imagined, Wendy Mills was always warm and always radiant.
Like the characters in horror and supernatural movies we watched as children, when people die and ascend to heaven, or when the ending shows the deceased's life before death, the director would give the actors this warm, soft light. The light seems to penetrate these characters, and it also implies that these people have already passed away and are ethereal souls.
Jason's brain is overloaded; his blood pressure spikes as chaotic Inspiration flood his head, and he feels an inexplicable sense of bewilderment when he reunites with his old friend.
"You can kiss, but be mindful of the duration." Wendy gave Jason a symbolic hug and kissed her good friend's cheek. "We've had our fun, time to get down to business."
[Part ②: Fools never admit they're fools]
Jason looked around and saw the dark threads of the Lord of Cinder's spirit network everywhere.
He clutched his throbbing temple and asked Wendy, "What do I do? What should I do? What should I do?"
Wendy: "Do what you do best, Iason!"
The young woman hugged Jason's arm and came to Bu Liuxing's lifeless body.
"Call upon your spirit, and shatter the spirit of the Lord of Cinder with your very being."
Jason urged the spirit arm, and a deep blue arm appeared in response. Its skin resembled that of withered, fossilized trees, yet it was adorned with brilliant gold.
Wendy: "Punch at the silk threads! Blow your strongest punch at Bu Liuxing's head, Iason!"
Jason: "Really?"
Wendy: "I know you best. If I say you can, then you can."
Jason: "What are you? You..."
Wendy Jason's chin in her hands and said earnestly and firmly, "Stop talking nonsense, you should already know the answer in your heart, Iason!"
A spirit punch slammed into the meteor's face.
--The head was almost smashed to pieces, with fragments and brain matter floating eerily in the air, and not a drop of blood could be seen!
Jason was completely unprepared for this outcome; he screamed in terror, on the verge of a mental breakdown.
Could this Wendy Mills be an illusion created by the enemy?
I just killed Bu Liuxing? His head is smashed into more than twenty pieces!
Does my spirit possess such great power?
"Look carefully! Iason!" Wendy lifted Jason's arm, leading it along with the spirit arm into the chunks of flesh, to select the part from the meteor's skull that connected to the black line of [Icon].
"This is your soul power. You already possessed soul power. You are the Flash Butterfly. You don't need any VIP trials, you don't need any certificates, and you don't need anyone to recognize you." Wendy manipulated Jason's arm to find six black lines of [Holy Icon] from a pile of white skull fragments.
"I already possessed Soul Power?!" Jason stared at his spirit arm. His transformation was a complicated process; after reaching the Feathering Stage, it was difficult to construct a physical form of Soul Power. But Wendy said—
"--You originally possessed Soul Power. If you can remember its true name." Wendy gathered the six black lines together, urging Jason to throw another punch. "Shattering the Lord of Cinder's mental world isn't difficult. He's fighting another VIP. Do what you do best, Iason."
Jason used all four hands, carefully cradling Meteor's skull with his bare palms. His spirit arms worked to separate the terrifying threads, peeling back the thick ropes into thinner lines, until finally they were detached from Meteor's brain nerves.
"Call back your spirit, Iason!" Wendy slapped Jason's butt.
Jason tensed up, a familiar yet strange feeling of annoyance rising within him.
"I know! I know! I know! Stop rushing me!"
As the spirit returned to its place, A Xing's shattered head quickly closed.
On the other side, A Xing's spirit stood at the highest point of the slope, gripping the inner demon's legs—
--That was an executive from the Red Queen Parish of Westminster, no longer resembling a bat.
Meteor was about to unleash an invincible whirlwind attack, catching his enemy and rolling them down the dung slide. After all, spirits couldn't smell the stench; he'd wanted to do this for a long time.
I saw the kid roll down the road. Attracted by his physical body, his spirit and body overlapped as if he had been hit hard. In the instant that his spirit and body became one, he rolled far away.
"Holy crap!" Bu Liuxing held his chin, twisted hard, and finally snapped his dislocated jaw back into place with a loud crack.
Jason's eyes widened in disbelief; he hadn't expected himself to possess such abilities.
"There's something really cruel, Iason— " Wendy whispered, resting her head on Jason's shoulder, "—this isn't your first time here, nor is it your second."
She pulled out Jason's passenger ID and pointed to the personal information section.
"You once wanted to burn this document, to burn away your past, but—"
"--Some things can't be burned away."
[Identification Name: Jason Megan]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 33 years old]
[Job Description: Passenger at Nine Realms Station - Active Areas: 41, 51, 55, 57, 58]
[Employee details: Mr. Megan is a Romania who speaks both English and French; his native language is the Banat dialect of Romania.]
The back of the document was covered with dense notes.
[Years of traveling by car have made Mr. Megan somewhat eccentric. His mental state has steadily declined since six years ago when he served as a translator on a mission to RSH (Red Star Hill).]
"You came here six years ago, your first encounter with the people of RSH. The BOSS considered you exceptionally talented, an excellent VIP candidate, to fight the Death Giant alongside the assault team. But you lost."
[Ultimately, he failed to pass the VIP (VIP) certification.]
[When it rains, it pours; when the boat is late, it gets caught in a headwind.]
Three years ago, Mr. Megan's waiter was urgently dispatched to the scene of Spirit Calamity, but unfortunately, he disappeared in the underworld.
"Three years ago, you decided to find a suitable reason to try again—if you were fearless at twenty-seven six years ago, then at thirty, you wanted to regroup and fight again. But unfortunately, you failed again, and you lost me in the process."
[We have assigned Mr. Megan another waiter, a fellow countryman, in the hope that he can soon overcome his nightmares and inner demons.]
"I am your courage, your determination. After countless setbacks and failures, you finally faced reality and cured the symptoms in your brain that resembled schizophrenia. I am your spirit, I am Wendy Mills [Wind Mills], which literally means [windmill]."
"These two failures shattered all your arrogance and confidence. The brave Roman can no longer see the giant within him, and can only yearn for the understanding windmills at all times."
Wendy Jason's face in her hands.
"You are the one who brought me back from the brink of death."
"Having traveled to numerous locations, you were the one who faced monstrous beasts and terrifying spiritual pressure."
"You're the one who wants to take shortcuts, and you're the one who wants to go the long way around."
"You're the one who's really speaking up for Diamond."
"You fought Yibu on the beach, and ultimately disappeared without a trace; it was you who went missing."
"You returned alive from the Niflheim border alone, erasing your name from the list of the dead."
You saved yourself.
As Jason untied the Lord of Cinder from his friends, he listened to Wendy's earnest advice and suddenly felt a mix of amusement and exasperation.
"I don't believe it! You must exist! You are a real girl!"
Wendy followed her employer at a leisurely pace, her expression relaxed and cheerful.
"Employer, or rather, the other me, we're not children anymore. All signs point to one fact: I believe your logical thinking and observational skills are stronger than most people's—so I'm telling you, you should have known long ago that Wendy Mills is a phantom."
Jason gritted his teeth and used the half-finished soul power attached to his spirit body to shatter Yibu's head. He then began a precise surgical procedure, peeling away the black lines from his partner's brain.
"I'm just a child!"
He kept repeating the words Jiang Xueming and Bu Liuxing had said to him.
"You want me to become a gloomy adult? I'm a long way from it!"
Suddenly--
--Wendy was speechless; the joy on her face turned into tears, which slowly slid down her cheeks to her chin.
Meteor awoke from his semi-conscious state, startled awake by Jason's roar. He rushed to Jason's side and saw the chef's spirit performing precise manipulations on his partner. He was initially pleased.
Then you hear Jason talking to himself.
Meteor asked, "Jason! Who are you talking to?"
Jason nodded vigorously, as if trying to convince himself. "My waiter! My waiter! Wendy is right here with me!"
Wendy shook her head gently, her voice trembling with tears.
"Stop talking, Iason. They can't see me; only you can."
Meteor: "Really?!"
Jason screamed hysterically, "It's really true!"
Wendy wiped away her tears, worried about her employer. "I'm afraid you, this reckless young man, are going to confuse your companion again. Look at him. He'll probably think you're some kind of unreasonable weirdo—this isn't the first time."
After dealing with Yibu's head, Jason went to the VIP's body. "Don't talk! Don't talk! Listen to me!"
Meteor stayed close to Jason: "Okay, I won't say anything."
Jason was furious, his eyes bloodshot. "I'm not talking to you!"
Wendy floated lightly beside Jason, like a ghost.
"Don't be nervous, don't get agitated. Your blood pressure and intracranial pressure will affect the spirit—employer. Calm down, the Blue Stone People need calm thinking."
"Wendy." Two clear tears streamed down Jason's face as he carefully described her to Bu Liuxing, "She just told me to calm down, did you hear that? Bu Liuxing! Did you hear that?"
Meteor nodded vigorously. "I heard you!"
Every second, every fleeting moment.
Wendy Mills and Jason were both extremely surprised.
"I heard it! Not only did I hear it—" Bu Liuxing pointed to the tear stains at the corner of Jason's eye, where there were traces of fingers wiping away tears. "—she was wiping away your tears! Jason! Our [JoeStar] head chef has found the girl he loves!"
Jason: "Yes, yes, yes! Yes!"
"Sir, you always say I'm stupid!" Bu Liuxing's eyes widened, and he listened intently, trying to take in all the sounds in the environment. "But just now, I really felt like I heard something, and then I didn't. It's too complicated to explain!"
Meteor scratched his head in distress, his hair becoming a mess.
"Fools can't see the emperor's new clothes! -- So I suppose it's only natural that I can't see the emperor's bride, nor hear her voice! But just because I can't see or hear her, does that mean she doesn't exist? I refuse to admit I'm a fool!"
Wendy leaned on Jason's shoulder, unsure what to say. She just kept crying, then suddenly burst into laughter. "Hahahahahahaha. Iason, I don't know what to say—"
"--After our parting, which felt like a separation of life and death, I imagined a thousand different scenarios for our reunion. You would definitely cry, right? Or be so happy you couldn't stop smiling, after all, 'Cheery' and 'Cry' are only three letters apart, just one 'Hee' sound apart. I miss you so much, I think about you every single moment."
"You will meet new friends, and new enemies. If you lose me, how will you face these people and these things? What are you trying to grasp with your hands raised high?"
The bloodshot in Jason's eyes was fading, and his Inspiration and spiritual pressure were returning to normal. He cried and laughed at the same time.
"Hahahaha. Hahahahahahahahahaha!"
The meteor grabbed Jason's shoulders--
"Jason Megan! I can see your waitress, I can hear her voice! I can feel it, she's crying! She's heartbroken! Because you're crying too—emotions are so contagious, they infected me instantly, even without seeing or hearing, even without Inspiration, I can feel it!"
"She's alive and well!"