The Soul in Skull No. 1

Human fat is a vessel for the soul... Night Hawk devour souls... Old Whateley wasn't caught by Night Hawk...

The soul can exist outside the human body... but a skull as a vessel for the soul...

The soul within the Skull No. 1 had never been perceived by Hope before.

I don't know how it did it, but it was probably in a state of suspended animation at the time.

Elizabeth's soul resides within the skull... a skull that isn't even hers...

She might vanish into thin air, just like Old Whateley's soul.

Hope abandoned the idea of stalling for time with the "Elizabeth" in front of her.

He touched the glass of the cabinet, roughly guessed its thickness, and, realizing he probably couldn't break it with a single punch, quietly took two steps back.

He raised one arm, tucked his hand into the sleeve of his raincoat, and spread the wide sleeve open with his fingers.

Close your eyes, activate "Uncertainty", and Hope reappears beside "Elizabeth".

Brown hair obscured the creature's vision, and it itself hadn't paid any attention to the area.

Hope's raincoat sleeves, under Hope's deliberate control, had partially blended into the glass.

The sudden appearance of the foreign object caused the glass to deform slightly. Hope pulled hard, and after a series of cracking sounds, the entire piece of glass, along with part of Hope's sleeve, fell to the ground and shattered into several pieces.

Elizabeth looked up at him in surprise.

"You..."

Hope didn't speak, nor did he intend to listen to what it had to say. He raised his leg and kicked the other in the waist.

At the same time, he raised his hand and ran his fingers through Elizabeth's hair.

Elizabeth lost her balance and took a few steps back, only managing to avoid falling by grabbing the glass cabinet.

A few more brown hairs had appeared in Hope's hand.

Before "Elizabeth" could react, he grabbed the Skull No. 1 from the display case by its hair, the hair wrapping around the skull's eye sockets.

"Oh!" Elizabeth steadied herself, seemingly unperturbed by Hope's actions. "How amazing, you noticed it instantly."

It shook its head. "I admit my acting wasn't very good, after all, I was asleep for so long. But you must have found out something was wrong using some other method..."

"Hmm, so the soul's natural hair serves as a temporary vessel for the soul? It seems I misjudged you; you're not an ordinary person who knows nothing."

"Who are you?" Hope asked.

"Me? If you're asking for my name, I'm sorry, I can't remember. It's been too long, and my memory is severely impaired..."

"What do you want to do?" Hope interrupted.

"As you can see," it said, "I don't want to stay inside this skull any longer."

Why her?

"The guidance of fate."

Unclear and indistinct words.

You charlatan, go eat shit.

Hope recalled Old Whateley's explanation that day: extraordinary abilities are divided into spells, special abilities, and magic. He wondered which one the Skull No. 1 used was... It probably wasn't a spell.

He placed the skull on the glass case and then pushed it backward sharply.

The skull slid across the smooth glass before being stopped by the wall behind it, moving away from Hope.

"Oh~" Elizabeth opened her mouth in confusion.

Hope suddenly stepped forward, stood in front of it, clenched her right fist and punched it in the abdomen, while grabbing its neck with her other hand.

"Ah!" Elizabeth laughed, seemingly more pleased to know what Hope wanted to do than to see Hope already in front of her.

Then, strange syllables came from its mouth.

1.73...

1.71

A short, cicada-like noise rang in Hope's ears, like the whisper of some creature—incomprehensible, yet containing boundless malice...

No, it wasn't malicious; it's just that the human body couldn't withstand it.

When Hope came to his senses, he was kneeling helplessly on the ground. He had lost a small part of his memory and couldn't remember what he had heard. "Elizabeth" was standing beside him.

"It seems you're still conscious," it said in surprise.

"Incredible. I have so many missing memories, but I vaguely remember that this incantation seemed to summon the whispers of some great being. You should be unconscious for a few days, or go insane."

It said this, but seemed completely unwilling to pay attention to Hope anymore, and walked toward the skull that Hope had pushed into the corner.

A shard of glass suddenly flew towards it and hit it. Although it did not cause any harm, it still made it turn around to look at Hope.

Hope had her back to it, her black raincoat completely covering Hope, with no part of her skin exposed.

All that can be seen in "Elizabeth" is the human figure outlined on the raincoat.

"What are you doing?" it asked. "What's the point of doing this?"

"Oh?" it uttered a sound of doubt.

The black raincoat in front of me suddenly caved in and collapsed to the ground without support. There was no one behind the raincoat.

It turned around, Hope had already hugged the skull back to her arms.

"Isn't that amazing?" Hope said.

Elizabeth nodded:

"I remember now, you used this to break the glass; it seems like magic. But what surprises me even more is that you can still stand up."

"People's bodies are different," Hope said. "I once killed a bird with a wingspan of four or five meters in a fit of extreme anger."

"No, you can't kill me," Elizabeth said with certainty.

"Based solely on size, its ' Spirit Body ' is significantly larger than yours. Moreover, my spell has nothing to do with the strength of your ' Spirit Body.'"

I never said I killed him with my bare hands, Hope thought.

"Spirit Body"... Hope noted down this term; it seemed to be the name the Skull No. 1 used for "constitution"...

Well, Hope called it a constitution, but that was just his own guess. The Skull No. 1's words and actions were like those of an old cultist; perhaps "Spirit Body" would be a more accurate term.

"Do you know what's even more amazing?" Hope asked.

What is it?

"I just said some trivial things," Hope said, "And you actually kept me company."

"So what?" Elizabeth said.

"You do have some decent magic, but you don't seem to know a single spell. You pose no threat to me; would anyone bother killing an ant?"

Hope did not respond; instead, he raised the skull as if to smash it to the ground.

He was pleased to see a fleeting look of panic on Elizabeth's face.

"I thought you came over to destroy the skull," Hope said. "But now it seems that might not be the case."

Hope laughed, "The truth is, your ' Possession ' isn't completely finished yet. If something happens to the skull, your fate won't be good, right?"

"After all, to destroy the skull, you only need to cast another spell. You didn't use a spell because you were afraid I'd accidentally break the skull."

Elizabeth watched him silently.