Rebirth

Several briefcases sat neatly on the cluttered table in Ash's RV, filled with enough American dollars to send him wild with joy. But looking at them, he wasn't as happy as he had imagined he would be.

He dug out the other Necronomicon from the iron box hidden beneath the couch. He had never found it so loathsome before. Every word, every line-even looking at it made him sick.

He stared at its cover, gritting his teeth. The two books had different covers. One had taken almost everything from him before, and now this one had taken his friend. Whichever one it was, they were equally abhorrent.

He cursed a few times, then straightened his arms, raised the Necronomicon high, and slammed it toward the floor. He knew it was pointless, but people needed some way to vent their pent-up emotions, or they really would go mad. Then... it was gone...

Not his anger or his emotions. The book was gone. The instant before it hit the floor, it vanished into thin air right before his eyes, as though it had fallen into some invisible rift in spacetime. There wasn't even the sound of it hitting the floor with all that force.

Refusing to believe it, he searched several times. He even wondered whether his eyes had played tricks on him and he had thrown it beneath the couch. But there was nothing under there except dust and empty cans.

Just as he stuck his backside up, preparing to overturn the entire couch, a jumble of voices came from outside his RV. He instinctively went out.

Luo Ya's body was missing. Ash realized something. Following a feeling, he ran to the edge of the forest. Far, far away... his eyes met Jason's.

Ash froze all over, as though something had seized him by the throat. It was a fear that sank deep into his bones.

Those hardly seemed like the eyes of a human, or even a living creature. They were a stagnant pool without a trace of responsiveness, containing far too much... far too much negativity... so blue, like a lifeless seabed. Until that figure disappeared, just looking at him left Ash collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath.

Fortunately, it was only that one glance before the figure disappeared into the forest.

Ash had never actually been very bright. He only had high emotional intelligence; his intellect lagged behind. But piecing his memories together with that familiar figure in Jason's arms just now, he seemed to understand something.

He calmly returned to the RV and inserted the key. He was torn and curious, all sorts of emotions mingling together. In the end, as he turned the ignition and the engine started, everything settled into calm.

The engine chugged a few times before the vehicle pulled away. As though he had shed some shackle, he disappeared over the distant horizon.

Jason had indeed done something. He had devoured the Necronomicon. Although the physical sensation was unpleasant, and he felt that a large part of what was inside him had changed, he was happy at heart. He had absolute power now, the power to protect what belonged to him absolutely.

He first took Luo Ya back to the little house where they had lived. Restrained by that thing, he hadn't been here in a long time. He missed this place terribly.

After seven years without anyone tending it, the little house was already thoroughly dilapidated. He climbed to the precarious second floor and laid Luo Ya on the bed in his room.

Then he returned to the cabin. He instinctively felt that something so filthy did not deserve to enter his home. He went back to the cellar. Without guidance, the book's struggle against it did not go smoothly, but fortunately, he succeeded before nightfall.

Jason's power surpassed those two books... no, it surpassed any demon that currently existed or still lingered in the human world. The Necronomicon's use of power was constrained by its user and creator, because the Necronomicon did not possess power; it could only use power through transactions. Jason, however, had cast off every restraint. He was energy itself.

He had been utterly transformed, no longer the monster with a child's mind he had once been. He had changed completely from an "undying killer" into the "dark overlord of the underworld dimension." His humanity had been shattered, and even his remaining instincts had become something more horrifying, twisted by the last suffering and darkness within those two books.

In the blink of an eye, he was back at the cabin. As he stepped inside, his surroundings warped. Before he reached the stairs, everything around him had returned completely to how it had been seven years ago: the cups on the living room coffee table that hadn't been washed yet, the dough chilling in the kitchen refrigerator for tomorrow's bread, and Luo Ya in the bedroom.

He entered the bedroom. Luo Ya was even wearing the same pajamas he had worn seven years ago. Jason stroked Luo Ya's skin with lingering fingers.

Then he suddenly touched several wounds. He remembered them; he had even caused the ones on his neck himself. His body distorted for an instant. In certain unseen dimensions, some beings wailed, dissipating in pain and despair.

Under Jason's influence, the wounds healed rapidly, leaving the skin smooth and unblemished, as though nothing had happened. Then his hands reached the leg. This was the missing part.

Jason pondered for a moment, roughly yanked the steel off that right leg, then tore off one of his own arms with a brief, teeth-grating sound of muscle tissue ripping.

But no blood flowed from the wound. Instead, smoke-like tendrils emerged and twined together, rapidly growing another arm.

He tore open the trouser leg and aligned the severed arm with the fully healed, semicircular stump. The arm actually began to change-first its shape, then its color. Next, tentacle-like things extended from its end, pierced the young man's body, and connected.

In the end, the leg looked just like Luo Ya's own. His body was whole again.

Jason sank into thought. He had a hundred ways to make Luo Ya better, whether his body or... other aspects.

The wait for Luo Ya to awaken was long. He had to extract Luo Ya's soul from his own body, slowly piece it back together, fill in the missing parts, then return it to this body, fuse body and soul, and finally use his own power to wake him.

Once everything was finished, warmth slowly returned to the body. His complexion grew rosy, and his heart gradually began to beat. Jason touched Luo Ya's cheeks and body, then gently brought his ear to Luo Ya's chest, listening to the gradually quickening heartbeat. It was how he made sure Luo Ya truly existed, rather than being another hallucination.

When my awareness returned, my body felt as though it had been submerged in an icy lake and suddenly hauled out-cold seeped through every limb and bone, and my fingertips were numb.

My head was utter chaos, as though I had been jolted awake from a dreamless sleep, followed by a shattered kaleidoscope. Memories and thoughts were like fireworks gathered together and ignited, twisting into one another before I slowly put them in order myself.

I didn't know how long this lasted. Once I could control my body and open my eyes, I instinctively tried to sit up, but my body was far too stiff, as though it had been frozen.

I could feel a faint stinging beneath my skin. If I had looked down then, I would have seen several pale gold symbols glowing faintly beneath it, like an icy brand.

When my vision focused on Jason standing before me, I looked at him, and my memories returned. He seemed no different from seven years ago. He was even wearing the same loungewear. But then, something was different. A sensation shot from the soles of my feet to the top of my head, and I trembled uncontrollably. It was fear. I recognized it clearly-that bone-deep fear.

"Luo Ya."

The voice was cold and utterly flat. I instinctively raised my head and met Jason's eyes. No, no, this wasn't Jason. His blue eye had been cold before, but at least I could still see something human in it.

But looking into these eyes was like gazing into the deep sea. They stirred humanity's deepest fears. I felt as though my throat had been seized, suffocating me.

I instinctively turned to flee, only for that voice to force me back.

"No, I am," he answered.

But I hadn't said anything aloud just now. And...

As though responding to me, he gripped my shoulders with both hands, like iron clamps. I could only look into his eyes. Those eyes were lake blue, utterly beautiful.

"Jason..." I murmured.

He responded, his voice finally carrying a little pleasure, but his mouth still hadn't opened. Then he embraced me.

"You're still here. That's good."

Our life afterward returned to normal. A normal... that only one of us acknowledged.

He was indeed Jason, and he also wasn't Jason...

"I am Jason."

Right. He also knew my thoughts and could pour his voice directly into my head through some ability.

Should I be glad? After I confirmed that he was Jason, the first feeling that rose in me was joy, rather than fear or any other negative emotion.

"I'll accept all of it," he said again.

I couldn't take this anymore.

Jason had changed enormously, in every sense. He had become stronger and could control space and time to a certain extent. It could also command demons, and perhaps had other abilities, but that was all I knew.

Also, had some sort of connection formed between our minds? This was what I currently found most troublesome. He could hear my thoughts, and I could hear his, but as for understanding his thoughts, I could guess those few scattered words without hearing them, so it was of no use to me.