Silent Crown

Hariti stepped firmly on his body, squeezing his throat. She watched as the youth struggled and slowly suffocated.

But for a moment, the dizziness disappeared.

He finally woke up from the nightmare, and looked up. He stared Hariti, but his eyes went through her, landing on the emptiness behind her, as if looking at the faces in uptown.

“Do you all still remember me?” His bloodshot eyes seemed to be swirling with lava. “I’m not dead yet!”

His fists clenched. Reaching out, he gripped her wrist. Fresh blood flowed out of his wounds, bringing with it a burning pain. “I’m back…”

Hariti stared into his eyes in shock. She felt that the boy’s body had withered, and had been replaced with something strong. It was no longer soft and weak under her touch.

His grip on her wrist was like a clamp. Within his delicate strength was an unwavering conviction. In the terrifying hallucination, the boy’s features twisted.

As if he had transformed into an evil spirit, he gripped Hariti’s wrist, making her feel cornered, although he was the one still being strangled. The d*amned mutt was still conscious. His eyes shone like the entrance to hell.

“You’re still afraid?” Ye Qingxuan’s voice was like two pieces of scrap metal scraping against each other. He forced Hariti’s hand away and punched her face.

“I’m already used to it!”

“F*ck, what are you doing? You’re…” Hariti roared and struggled, but the boy did not care. He just raised a fist and kept punched. First after fist, punch after punch! Skin broke, but he could not feel it. The pain of his fingers was small enough to ignore.

Hariti screamed, trying to say something…but he could not hear. Wordlessly, he continued to drown in the whispers from the hallucination, punching mechanically.

The world fell silent once again. Lost, Ye Qingxuan listened for the cries that echoed in his ears, watching the floating faces.

After a long, long time, Hariti finally stopped her crazed struggles and went still.

Ye Qingxuan relaxed his hold and tossed her to the side. He did not take another look, even if she still seemed to be breathing.

The hallucinations grew in intensity. Nonexistent ghosts and monsters paced by him, tugging on him, as if wanting to drag him to hell.

But he stumbled forward. There was something more important there.

“Bai Xi.” Ye Qingxuan gazed at the girl’s pale face—her long hair stuck to her cheeks, faint and messy. She struggled in her nightmare, as if still submerged in horror. She was awake, but her dark eyes showed that her mind was still in pain.

“It hurts…” She stared at Ye Qingxuan. With quavering lips, she whispered, “Am I dead?”

Ye Qingxuan did not reply. Something like disappointment flashed past her eyes.

“Sorry,” he murmured as he picked Bai Xi up. At that moment, Ye Qingxuan realized how fake he was. He did not save Bai Xi because she was pitiful, but because…she was like him.

When Old Phil brought her back that night, Ye Qingxuan chose to pull her through the door. Later, Bai Xi had asked him why he saved her. Ye Qingxuan told her it was because of her eyes. But it was not like that. Not at all.

Those sad eyes had actually said, “Don’t care about me. Don’t approach me,” and, “Don’t save me.” Maybe she had already known that anyone who had anything to do with her would be dragged into this mess.

She was scared of being with anyone because she knew that this day would come, and those people would find her. Because at that day, everyone who loved her would start to hate themselves for knowing her…

She had always been scared.

“Don’t be scared.” Ye Qingxuan hugged her. “I won’t leave you.”

—

In the terrifying cloud of smoke, he stumbled towards out the door and tried to find the exit. The layers of hallucinations were suppressed by his pain, allowing him to stay lucid.

But for a moment, he felt something wrap around his neck, familiar like a noose.

It was the formless ghosts…

They had started regrouping slowly in the smoke.

In shock, he craned his neck. Hariti lay in a puddle of blood, whimpering, her features twisted. With a speed the human eye could barely see, her facial muscles began to age and wither, her entire body began shriveling quickly.

But the formless ghosts seemed to had been put under a new collar, regrouping under her silent command…

On that aged face, the runes writhed like worms. The runes that had been carved into her skin illegally by alchemists had awoken. They fed on fresh blood and exchanged it for strength. The face-like teeth in Hariti’s mouth sang a call for evil spirits, and more formless ghosts emerged from the aether.

This was an illegal technique that exchanged a person’s life for power. Alchemy transformed the human body into a tool. Additional vocal organs were implanted. By transforming the body to communicate with the aether, even an ordinary person who could not become a musician could awaken the music score on their body.

With all the fresh blood available as sacrifice, the music from the Fallen Holy Spirit, “Tiryagyoni · Prologue” had awoke.

And so the crazed formless ghosts crawled out of the blood. Covered in sticky strands of blood, they floated into the air and began pacing. Finally, they stared at Hariti with their pitch black eyes, staring thirstily at the blood that represented life.

Hariti coughed heavily and ingested a tube of dark green medicine. She sang again and more blurry monsters crawled from the puddle of blood, one after another.

“Don’t worry. There’s still a lot of blood…” Hariti’s eyes were stormy. “After I give out the girl, there will be even more.”

From her pocket, she scooped out snow white ash. It was the ash from burning bodies. With the ashes scattered into the blood, the formless ghosts became more solid. The entire mud pit seemed to surge. Faintly, one could see the faces of children, as if they were drowning in the blood.

The Formless Ghosts became calmer, listening for her orders.

She smiled at Ye Qingxuan’s stumbling silhouette and chanted the words to control the Formless Ghosts.

“You can’t run. None of you will be able to escape. You’ll all die here.”

—

The abandoned sewage system was entirely surrounded by blood.

Blood seeped through the walls, painting it mournful colors. It lay on the stone, moving forward like black water. The moss in its path instantly withered, and the spider webs and bugs disappeared without a trace.

Sharp yet hoarse noises sounded. The wails was like iron wire scraping against the walls, echoing in every corner. With every echo, Ye Qingxuan felt a bit closer to suffocation.

His neck seemed to crack under the weight of chains as well. As his energy sapped, he fell to the ground.

The wails started up again, and countless blurry hands reached out from the blood. They probed, as if searching for Bai Xi’s trail.

Ye Qingxuan hid Bai Xi behind his back, silently trying to find a way to escape. But this, he realized, it did not exist.

In his arms, Bai Xi gazed at his eyes and asked, “Is there no hope?”

Ye Qingxuan hugged her and did not reply.

“Oh, that’s how it is.” She seemed to understand and closed her eyes.

Amid Hariti’s wails, numerous formless ghosts crawled out of the blood.

They grouped together. It was as if a tidal wave of blood suddenly appeared in the tight space, shooting straight toward Ye Qingxuan.

Along the way, their claws reached out, frantically scratching at everything they could touch. The walls, wooden boards, metal plates and everything touched by the blood was left scarred.

Ye Qingxuan watched it charge towards him. Using the last of his strength, he pushed away the girl in his arms. This way, at least she could stay alive.

But Bai Xi gripped onto his hand, catching him by surprise.

She had not let go as he had planned. Instead, she stood in front of Ye Qingxuan, allowing the angry wind to come toward her and pull her into the crushing vortex.

She took a deep breath. Her white hair glowed like fire. She faced the wave of blood, the skin on her healed face cracked open once again, as if the power of thunder was brewing in her delicate body.

As if remembering something, she raised a palm in front of her, hooking her finger. Suddenly, a white-hot glow lit from her finger.

Surging power tore the skin on her arm, blood spreading. But the scary power filled her body, as if it wanted to evaporate her from the inside and turn her into dust.

Quickly, she snapped her finger at the bloody vortex. Music sounded once again, and a terrifying noise followed.

As the roar muddled all thoughts, lightning spread from her fingertip. The flash of light entered the bloody flow of formless ghosts.

The mysterious power seemed to have lasted for only a second, as long as the snap of her finger.

But during that snap, the wave of blood was swallowed entirely. The electricity burned away the blood, tearing apart, and evaporating the ghosts. They roared in pain and turned to dust. The bloody vortex expanded and exploded. A thick mist of blood sprayed in all directions.

But in the end, a sliver of blood pierced through the electric light and rushed toward Bai Xi.

The crazed formless ghosts had saved their last attack to utterly destroy this now truly defenseless girl!

In the last moment, Bai Xi looked at it and a smile appeared on her pale face.

Maybe it would be okay to die like this. At least…it would mean something.