"Huh, were you the one who took my money?"
The old woman's eyes were a cloudy white, with no visible pupils.
Under her gaze,
Kallen felt as though his body had been hurled into an ice cellar. A biting chill seeped into his skin, ate into his bones, then surged in from every direction to seal his heart.
Even his thoughts, which should have flowed freely, now resembled a frozen river. Something still flowed beneath the ice, but it had already been "severed" from him.
It was a very strange sensation.
You felt that you were still yourself, yet you had forgotten who you were;
you felt that you could still think, yet you could not form a single thought.
If entering Miss Molly's "sleep paralysis" state because of Jeff last time had been a layering of dreams, then this time was a further division of his soul and consciousness.
It was not trying to scare him,
nor was it trying to intimidate him,
much less searching for weaknesses in his heart to magnify, looking for cracks in the dam to exploit until his mental defenses collapsed;
it had simply "petrified" his consciousness the instant they first met.
"You took my money, didn't you?"
A smile appeared at the corners of the old woman's mouth. It was not particularly sinister; it even seemed kindly. Yet the clash created by that visual contrast was enough to leave him feeling twisted and sick, body and mind.
It was not that Kallen wanted to stand there frozen like an idiot. He had already lost the chance to react;
something was happening right before his eyes, to his own body, yet he was merely a spectator;
a world-famous painting lay before him, and he was admiring it, yet he could offer no opinion, because he himself was a figure in another painting facing it.
"My money... you have to give it back..."
The old woman drew her face back a little;
then,
a withered hand reached out of the hole and seized Kallen's neck.
Kallen's upper body still hung over the side of the bed, one palm still braced against the floor tiles, but he could do nothing to change any of it. All he could do was feel the icy touch against his neck.
The hole before him, barely large enough for a face, began to stretch, and stretch, and stretch. Its depths were becoming an abyss, while he was like a sacrifice about to be offered up.
"My money... my money..."
The tiles began to melt like chocolate. The bed frame, the table, everything within sight was changing from solid reality into liquid, and Kallen's body was being swept into the same rhythm.
This hole
seemed intent on sucking in everything above it.
Just then,
a black lump fell off the bed ahead of Kallen. Just as it was about to be sucked into the hole, it suddenly moved.
"Meow!!!!!!"
Kallen loved peace and quiet. In this life and his previous one, he had always disliked noise.
Yet this piercing cat's cry
sounded like heavenly music to him.
At that cry, chaotic ripples spread through the surrounding "liquid," and some of Kallen's consciousness seemed to return.
"My money... my money..."
There was a stubbornness in the old woman's voice, as though she meant to take everything back.
But Puer, who had just cried out,
crouched beside the hole,
extended the claws of her left forepaw,
raised it,
and slashed down!
"Aah!!!!!!!"
Distinct, bloody claw marks appeared across the old woman's face, and she screamed.
The suction pulling at everything instantly stopped completely,
then,
rebounded,
like an explosion!
Boom!
Thud!
Kallen fell off the hospital bed. Pain shot through the joints that struck the floor, followed by a second wave as the wound on his chest was pulled.
"Hss..."
With a hiss of pain, Kallen suddenly curled up. Instinctively, he thought there was a hole beneath him, but when he looked down, the tiles under the bed were perfectly intact;
they might have been a little dirty, but there was certainly no hole.
And then,
with a click,
the overhead light came on.
Puer stood on the bedside cabinet, lowering a paw from the light switch.
Before Kallen could speak,
Puer spoke first:
"An otherworldly demon. A bewitching otherworldly demon."
As she spoke, Puer looked at Kallen:
"You weren't hearing things this morning. There's a bewitching otherworldly demon beneath us. This is serious. We need to tell Dis."
"Before telling Dis, could you press the call button for me?" Kallen said.
Puer blinked her feline eyes,
extended a paw toward the ward door,
and said, "Before pressing the button, I think you should move the things blocking the door."
"Ah..."
Kallen sighed and lay flat on the floor first. Once the pain gradually faded, or at least became bearable, he slowly climbed to his feet, went to the door, moved the cabinet aside, and took down the mop.
Puer pressed the call button.
Kallen sat on the edge of the bed and carefully examined the wound on his chest. Fortunately, although it had been strained, it had not torn open.
"Is a bewitching otherworldly demon a type of otherworldly demon?"
Otherworldly demon was probably an umbrella term, just as humans were divided into different races.
"Yes, but bewitching otherworldly demons are very rare. In a sense, even Alfred, whom you know, doesn't count as one, despite having Succubus Eyes.
"Bewitching no longer means influencing someone's emotions and mind through illusions or dreams. It can directly sever and command your consciousness, instantly turning you into a puppet under its control.
"Compared to a bewitching otherworldly demon, the one that possessed Mrs. Hughes, or Miss Molly, who merely frightened someone to death or ate someone, could be called harmless little darlings."
"So why did she come after me? I'm certain I didn't steal her money."
If someone wronged her, she should go after them. Why was I the one she "attacked"?
"Before, I might not have known how to describe it, but after she came looking for you, I understood."
"Understood what?"
"That overflowing talent of yours. You're so full of it, it's practically spilling out, like Lunt sneaking into the bathroom one morning six months ago, blushing as he washed his underwear."
"..." Kallen was speechless.
"She isn't deliberately trying to make trouble for you. A bewitching otherworldly demon's soul is extraordinarily sensitive, and you're so close to her. So, if everything in her field of vision is pitch-black,
"then you
"are a light bulb blazing brazenly right in front of her."
"Then, what you did earlier...?"
Kallen licked his lips,
then continued:
"You were amazing just now."
It was a genuine compliment. Without that swipe from Puer, Kallen felt his soul would already have been stripped away and extracted.
"She was just unlucky." Puer was quite modest. "I really am no good at fighting, but in this respect, I still retain some... instincts, I suppose."
"Instincts?"
A smile appeared at the corners of Puer's mouth. A black cat's smile was thoroughly eerie:
"Because I used to be a bewitching otherworldly demon myself. A noble pureblood, at that. She isn't."
"Otherworldly demons have bloodlines too? I thought only cats and dogs were classified by pedigree."
"Mind your words, especially in front of an elder who just saved your life."
"All right."
"Bloodline is part of an evolutionary process. Otherworldly demons can seek breakthroughs in the level of their existence through various means, striving to attain purity. Clergy are the same;
"although they constantly proclaim that they wish to become servants of their gods, what they secretly hope is that one day, they themselves can stand upon the altar."
"So you can't deal with her? I mean the one downstairs."
"I'm just a cat. If you want a fight, you'd be better off bringing that stupid Golden Retriever from home." Puer shook her head slightly. "Never mind. That Golden Retriever is even more cowardly."
"Mm." Kallen nodded.
"Call Dis. Bewitching otherworldly demons are rare now, and always have been. But whenever one appears, regardless of how it came into being, letting it lose control and run rampant will cause enormous destruction.
"The one that possessed Mrs. Hughes only killed a few people.
"Back then, a powerful bewitching otherworldly demon became a nation's head of state through speeches and elections, establishing a short-lived, brutal empire."
Just then, the ward door opened, and a female nurse entered.
Mina worked during the day. She was not on night duty tonight.
"Sir, what can I do for you?"
"I'd like to call my family. It's urgent," Kallen said.
When you stayed in a VIP ward, most requests would be accommodated as long as they were not excessive.
Of course, if you were young enough and unmarried, you might even leave the hospital hand in hand with a young nurse who had cared for you;
as a result, the turnover rate among VIP ward nurses was comparable to that of receptionists at large companies.
"Of course. Your telephone number is...?"
Kallen looked at the nurse in puzzlement. Logically, even if he were not in a VIP ward, the nurses' station should have his patient information. With his "VIP" status, it would surely be listed separately;
she should not have needed to ask him that question.
"Meow!!!"
Suddenly, Puer cried out and lunged straight at the nurse's face, slashing it with a paw.
Rrrip...
It sounded like a pencil tearing through an exercise book.
Puer's swipe tore away a patch of skin from the nurse's face. It did not fall off, but remained attached.
Yet the nurse did not scream. Her expression stayed exactly as it had been, while both hands immediately reached for Puer.
Puer leaped, slashing at the nurse's hand with another swipe.
But pain did nothing to affect her movements. Her hands still caught Puer.
Then,
she lifted Puer,
and toward the floor,
slammed her down!
Smack!
Puer hit the floor.
The nurse kicked her. Her shoes were flat, but made of hard leather.
Thump!
Puer flew into the corner of the wall. Her whole body curled up, and blood stained the floor.
The nurse continued toward Puer, reaching out to grab her.
From Puer's first leaping swipe to the nurse catching her and slamming her down, everything had happened too quickly for Kallen to react.
But now, Kallen braced both hands against the edge of the bed, raised his body, and kicked the nurse in the waist.
The nurse fell to the floor, her head striking the tiles with a crack;
Kallen quickly stood up, looking for something he could use as a weapon.
But the nurse he had just knocked down reached out almost without pausing, grabbed Kallen's ankle, and lunged forward.
She collided with Kallen, knocking him back onto the hospital bed, then climbed onto him like a vine. No-she sat directly on his chest.
"Hss..."
The pressure on his wound caused such intense pain that Kallen nearly fainted. Perhaps passing out from pain would have been a useful escape and a means of self-preservation at that moment, but Kallen knew even more clearly that if he lost consciousness now, he would never wake up again.
The nurse reached out with both hands and closed them around Kallen's neck. Her face remained calm, without the slightest trace of viciousness, but her hands were merciless.
Kallen struggled violently. The wound on his chest split open, and blood soaked a large patch of his hospital gown.
But this body was already frail, and he was still recovering from an injury. Against a nurse who did not fear pain in the slightest, he had no advantage whatsoever.
Kallen's left hand groped beside him and found the copy of I Bound Your Heart that Mina had lent him. Thank God, it was a hardcover.
Gripping the book, Kallen drove its corner straight into the face of the nurse strangling him!
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
Kallen had split the corner of the nurse's eye, knocked her nose crooked, and left several bruises on her face, yet the strength of her grip had not weakened in the slightest.
Kallen, meanwhile, was growing weaker and weaker from suffocation. With his final blow, the book flew out of his hand.
In the corner, Puer remained curled up where she lay.
And all Kallen could think was,
If only the previous "Kallen" had exercised more.
If only I'd started eating more protein and working out the very first day I woke up.
If only Dis hadn't stabbed me.
But now, every "if only" seemed to have come too late.
Kallen felt the strength draining from his body. All he could do was flail his arms in helpless rage, but each time, his fingertips merely brushed the nurse's face or neck. He no longer even had the strength to slap her.
But,
just then,
Kallen suddenly saw another identical nurse standing beside her. The two looked exactly alike, except the latter's face bore neither the scratches Puer had left nor the bruises he had inflicted.
She stood there in bewilderment, like a young girl who had just lost her wallet and had no idea what to do.
And the scene with "Mr. Mossan" and Mr. Mossan in his family's basement immediately surfaced in Kallen's mind.
Was it happening?
Had it been triggered?
With no time to think, Kallen began turning his face-or rather, shifting his gaze. The girl's figure moved along with it.
Finally,
just as Kallen felt he was about to die, his soul and consciousness on the verge of leaving his body, his body pushed to its limit by suffocation,
the girl's figure
was brought into alignment with the nurse on top of him... overlapping her completely!
In an instant,
the nurse's hands released him.
"Hah! Hah! Hah!"
Kallen began gulping down air, its sweetness intoxicating. Then came an almost hysterical fit of coughing, so violent that he could even ignore the pain of the wound in his chest.
The nurse, meanwhile, knelt on the hospital bed, continuing to reach forward with both hands. But halfway there, she pulled them back, then reached forward again, only to withdraw them once more.
Then,
she clamped one hand around her own throat while frantically pounding that arm with the other hand. At the same time, she opened her mouth and bit at her own fingers. The whole scene was utterly bloody and deranged.
It was like two mortal enemies fighting, except both were using the same body.
With blood spilling from the corner of her mouth, Puer slowly and painfully lifted her head. Seeing what was happening on the bed,
she cried,
"Control... her..."
An essential ability for an Inquisitor of the Order God Church: making the dead... awaken.
She had seen Kallen make Mr. Mossan sit up in the basement with her own eyes. She knew Kallen possessed this ability, but she understood even better that he had no ability to control this "ability."
But right now, the Bewitching Otherworldly Demon was possessing this nurse. If they could not use the "confusion" caused by awakening the corpse's consciousness to suppress it, the Bewitching Otherworldly Demon would soon regain control of this body.
This body might have been covered in wounds,
but a badly injured cat and a soft young man already recovering from an injury-
how could they possibly fight a possessed adult woman who felt no pain?
Kallen had not actually heard Puer, because the voice she could muster now was far too faint. It was during his violent coughing fit that he noticed the nurse's eyes gradually losing their confusion and turning toward him. At the same time, her "fight with herself" was steadily subsiding.
The girl's phantom figure seemed about to leave her body, as though it were evaporating, dissipating.
"Heh heh heh..."
Something resembling laughter emerged from the nurse's throat. Then, ignoring the hand still twisting at her own neck, she reached for Kallen with the other.
Kallen's eyes widened,
and he shouted,
"Kneel!"
Thump!
The nurse's forehead pressed straight against the bed frame. Her other hand kept reaching forward, but Kallen was tucked into the corner of the bed, beyond her reach.
After shouting that command and seeing her respond, Kallen himself froze for a moment. But he dared not waste time and continued shouting,
"Stay still!"
The next instant,
even the arm that had kept groping toward him stopped moving.
All that remained
was the dull, stifled sound still coming from the nurse's throat. To be precise, it was just one repeated word:
"Money... money... money..."
"Be silent."
The voice that had tormented him like a nightmare for almost an entire day finally stopped.
Kallen dared not touch the nurse's motionless body, her forehead still pressed against the bed.
Instead, he maneuvered his way off the bed.
Puer also managed to stand, with immense difficulty.
Kallen asked, "How long will she stay quiet?"
"Not long," Puer said, because she had no way to judge how long the restraint created by Kallen's "Art" would last.
"I'll call Dis."
Kallen walked out of the ward. Strangely, despite the violent struggle that had just taken place inside, it was still quiet outside. Only the occasional cough of a patient in a distant ward could be heard.
It was as though his ward had been cut off from the outside world earlier.
Clutching his chest, Kallen walked to the nurses' station and found the young nurse on night duty unconscious on the floor. There was a row of lights on the station's desk, each corresponding to one of the wards below it. The VIP wards were listed separately.
When a call came in, the duty nurse would first switch off its light, then get up and go to that ward. But right now, the light for his ward was still on.
Kallen did not try to wake the nurse who had been knocked unconscious. Instead, he picked up the phone and called home first.
It rang for quite a while before someone answered. It was Aunt Mary.
"Hello, this is the Inmerles Deceased Care Company."
"Aunt Mary, put Grandpa on the phone."
"Kallen? Did something happen over there?"
"Put Grandpa on the phone."
"Grandpa isn't home tonight. He's been visiting Mr. Hoffen these past few evenings. Mr. Hoffen's condition has already taken a turn for the worse..."
Click!
Upon learning that Dis was not home, Kallen immediately hung up. It was not out of rudeness; he genuinely had no time to explain things to his aunt, much less make excuses.
Unfortunately, without mobile phones, finding someone who was not beside a landline was difficult and time-consuming.
However,
almost without pausing after hanging up, Kallen dialed another number.
This time, the call was answered very quickly, after just one ring.
Then,
a rich male voice came through from the other end of the line.
"Hello?"
Kallen let out a long breath
and said into the receiver,
"I hereby summon you."
Before you continue