Bizarre Honkai, a Wife-Chasing Crematorium

Chapter 60: The False "Mei"



Saori Tsuruyo vanished, leaving the two ghost infants to tumble to the ground. They spotted Li Mo entering the room and lunged, but he was too quick. He grabbed their heads in a vise-like grip.

His hands bulged with veins as he crushed the tiny skulls, splattering dark ichor. "To hell with you," he said, his face a mask of cold indifference.

The headless bodies, still spurting black blood, were ripped apart by wind blades. The Law of the Wind, at his command, had conjured a whirling vortex. The airborne chunks of flesh froze mid-air, trapped in time.

The last anomaly, aside from Li Mo himself, was sealed.

Li Mo calmly returned to the main hall. The crowd, startled to see him alive, parted like the Red Sea.

"After all that, time to head home and catch some Z's," Li Mo said, ascending above the ruined city. Below him, the streets were silent, scarred by the recent chaos.

Enormous wings, shimmering with incandescent light, unfurled from his back. Like embers blazing in the twilight, they outshone the approaching dawn, captivating all who saw them.

The Herrscher of the End, fully unleashed, was an angel of destruction.

For a fleeting moment, the anomalous contamination was held at bay.

From the vastness of space, the Earth was a swirling canvas of purple patterns. The entire planet was changing, time itself rewinding…

Lights flickered back on in homes across the city. Streets once silent now buzzed with life. Cars flowed, crowds bustled, the city's heartbeat returned. The world had reset, back to the day before the anomaly's insidious spread.

"Good enough," Li Mo murmured, the heavy burden on his shoulders finally easing. He opened a portal, a gateway to the cave that bridged parallel worlds.

This grotesque cave, a link between realities, was a charnel house of human parts. Walls and stalactites, formed of flesh and bone, were draped in thin skin. Disembodied eyes, dangling from nerve cords, watched from the darkness. Each trip through this nightmare demanded a piece of the traveler's body. 7:00 AM was the optimal time; every hour earlier meant a steeper price.

It was 6:00 AM, just an hour early. The summer sky hinted at the coming dawn.

"Gotta go. Now. Or I'm dead," Li Mo thought. He had more to investigate, but time was a luxury he couldn't afford. If he lingered, the anomalous Qi within him would awaken, and he would be consumed.

Without the black coffin's suppression, human will was no match for the anomaly. The anomalous Qi, tracing the marks left within him, would descend and devour him now that they shared the same space and time. Contamination was an equal-opportunity destroyer. It didn't care what you were; if you existed, you were vulnerable.

The cave wasn't so much a cave as a tunnel. Both entrance and exit were empty voids. Only at the beginning and end could you catch a glimpse of light. The journey between was an abyss of darkness, where even anomalous light couldn't penetrate.

This cave was a doorway for anything. So, before stepping into that darkness, you had to be damn sure nothing was following you in.

"No need to check this time," Li Mo thought, relaxing. "I've sealed all the anomalies in this world. They're gone." He carried the sealed Head Ghost and stepped into the depths of the cave.

He focused his mind, picturing his home world. The people, the places, the memories… It was the only way to navigate the shifting paths of the cave. There was only one path, straight ahead, but without that mental anchor, the destination was a roulette wheel.

Crunch… crunch…

The sound of bone on bone echoed around him. The floor wasn't dirt, it was bone. A macabre path of countless skeletons.

In the darkness, unseen eyes watched him. Mouths in the walls writhed, limbs reached out. If they could grab him, trap him, maybe they could escape. But they were too short, their reach agonizingly limited. Unless he strayed from the center…

Li Mo knew this. In true darkness, no one could walk a straight line for long. But he'd trained for this, enough to keep his path true for short distances.

In the infinite darkness, the watching eyes suddenly shifted. They snapped shut as they fell upon the two women behind Li Mo.

Anomalies didn't feel fear. Not even against beings infinitely more powerful. But these were human anomalies, twisted remnants of human consciousness. Over eons, those minds had merged and warped, creating a grotesque parody of human instinct.

And instinct screamed. One of those women could end them. Forever.

"Quiet tonight," Li Mo muttered. "Just the bones moving behind me. Weird." He navigated by sound. The limbs and organs on the walls and ceiling were unusually still. A few twitched, grasping for him, but the rest were silent. Like they were dead.

The only odd thing was the bones behind him. They were moving. And they shouldn't be able to.

He couldn't turn around. That was the first rule of the cave. Turn around, and you're lost. Reach the midpoint, and you just had to keep going. Until the end.

The only sound was his footsteps. And then, blessed light.

"Made it."

Li Mo opened his eyes, breathing in the familiar air of his home world. It was early morning, fresh and clean after the rain. The scent of damp earth and grass filled the air.

"Time to take inventory," he thought. Every trip through the cave took its toll. He was an hour early, so the price would be doubled.

He examined himself, jumped around, even did a full set of standardized Chinese student calisthenics. [a common form of exercise in Chinese schools].

Finally, panting, he found the missing piece. A kidney. His left side ached, but his right felt…nothing.

His right kidney was gone, claimed by the cave.

"Just a kidney?" he wondered. "I figured it'd be more, being an hour early." A single, slightly inconvenient kidney seemed a small price to pay. Why just that?

Was he simply too strong? Did the cave decide a single kidney was enough to balance the scales?

He extended his hand, striking a chuunibyou pose, trying to summon the Spear of Cassius. Nothing. Not even a ripple of spatial energy.

"No side effects. The anomalous Qi left its mark, but I'm out of her spacetime now. She can't touch me."

"But just in case," he thought, "a reset is in order." He raised his pistol to his head. Even a weak pistol, at point-blank range, was lethal.

Resetting wouldn't send him back into the cave. It would send him back to the moment he exited.

He pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The shot echoed, birds scattering in alarm. Blood and brain matter splattered as Li Mo collapsed at the cave's mouth.

He awoke, exactly as planned, just outside the cave.

"Perfect. Dead twice, no anomalous Qi. Time to head home, clear the death counter, and call it a day." He glanced back at the dark mouth of the cave. It was empty, but…

Something felt off. A sense of familiarity, like a half-forgotten dream.

"Is it just me?" he wondered. He scanned the area, looking for anything unusual. He pulled out his thermometer. Normal temperature.

Still uneasy, he fired a few shots into the air behind him. No telltale blue-violet flames of burning anomaly.

"Probably just paranoid," he decided. "Lingering effects of the Misfortune Ghost." The entity within his mind remained dormant, silent and still.

He buried the Head Ghost and walked the streets of Changkong City, his mind calm and empty.

He entered an alley, a shortcut home.

Woof?

A dog barked. Li Mo followed the sound, rounding a corner.

A stray dog trotted down the middle of the alley, then suddenly stopped. It moved to the side, pressing close to the wall.

Li Mo looked. Nothing there. No overflowing bins, no obvious reason for the dog's behavior.

The dog glanced back at him, then at the empty air beside it. Three times, then it bolted.

Li Mo checked his thermometer. Two degrees colder. He took a step forward. Another two degrees.

"An invisible ghost? Here? In my world?"

"Home first," he decided. "Clear the death count. Then I'll have more room for error." He hugged the wall, giving the unseen entity a wide berth.

He reached the end of the alley, almost out.

"Li Mo!"

A familiar voice called his name. Mei. If he wasn't effectively dead twice, he would have turned.

He didn't turn, but he didn't leave the alley either. He stood frozen, silent.

"Li Mo!" Louder this time, repeating his name. And that's when he knew.

It wasn't Mei. It was the ghost.

Few people in this world knew his name. Fewer still used it so casually. Mei was one of them. The first call had given him pause. If it were really Mei, she would have realized his hesitation and said something to prove her identity.

But she didn't. She just kept repeating his name. It was a trap.

He pushed down his curiosity, his hand resting on his weapon at his waist. The voice was getting louder. Closer.

He couldn't leave the alley. Even if the exit was real, you never just walked away from an anomaly. Like at St. Freya, the closer you were to the edge, the more you stood out. Leaving was an invitation to attack. Unless the anomaly didn't care about boundaries.

And this one clearly cared. It was focused on him. Waiting for him to move. To break the rules.

"Li Mo... you're finally back. I missed you so much..."

"Look at me, won't you?"

An icy hand touched his shoulder, caressing his cheek. Soft breaths whispered against his ear.

The "Mei" behind him embraced him, pressing against his back. Her teeth nibbled his ear, her tongue tracing its contours. Warm breaths tickled his skin.

Li Mo didn't move. His heart was a still pool. His tastes were strange, but this wasn't real. Mei would never do this.

The ghost knew his desires. But they were outdated. He no longer cared for such things. Not anymore.

The cold hand retreated. The pressure against his back vanished. The voice was gone. The warm breaths ceased.

It was as if nothing had happened. Except for the bite mark on his ear. A chilling reminder.

The test was over. Li Mo felt nothing. No fear. Just a cold certainty.

He stepped forward with his right foot, half his body out of the alley.

A shrill, piercing scream erupted behind him…


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