Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 604 "The Mourner"

The crystal skeleton spoke slowly: "You will gradually remember... our mission... the mission we were created to fulfill."

The crystal skeleton spoke vaguely, but at least it wasn't the Riddler. Lin Yi seemed to have caught some key words: "Could it be that I was also created?"

The crystal skeleton shook its head slightly: "We are, you are not... Your reincarnation... is different from ours..."

"What exactly are you now? What... what are you?" Lin Yi asked.

The crystal skeleton remained silent for a moment, its eyes flickering with starlight: "We are the spirits of the Night Watch, the followers of the Black Sun, the most loyal servants of the 'First Apostles'..."

From the moment we were created until our death, until our flesh and blood were devoured by the Nightwalkers and our marrow was drained by them… we have always been here, fighting against the undying ghosts and ashes in the black tide. Even if only a skeleton remains, we will always uphold the will of the “First Apostles”…

We are the embers of a black sun fallen into the deep sea...

We are... "mourners."

"Mourners...?!" Lin Yi exclaimed in shock, "That admonition, could it be specifically directed at you?"

No… “When the black moon falls, the mourners return from the endless depths of the sea,” that’s not what it means. The voice of the “mourners” slowly rises, [When you master the complete “Requiem,” you will understand its meaning…]

“A Requiem? What’s that? Wait, I think I heard it… from the Night Watch!” Lin Yi said. “No, not the Night Watch! It was the notes from ‘Amon’s Music Box.’ The Night Watch said that the music box played ‘A Requiem.’”

"Lord Amon..." A strange emotion flickered in the eyes of the "Mourner." "He was right...they were all right at first, but unfortunately...they didn't persevere..."

"What did you say...?!" Lin Yi asked, "What persistence, what right, what do these things have to do with me?"

"It's connected to the whole world...," the mourner murmured, the decaying wooden cabin trembling and teetering on the verge of collapse with the resonance of its voice. "The whole world has been crumbling since the moment we were created... They mend and patch it up, but they can only delay the march of destruction..."

That city wall... was the last resort that the "original apostles" could manage; they had exhausted their options.

Even they... have run out of tricks...

"Does what happened back then still have an impact on the present?" Lin Yi asked in shock.

The world exists because of the sacrifices of those adults...

Since then, everything has been simply a result of the protection afforded by those who came before us…

However, the tree's roots have been severed. Once all the leaves have fallen, the withered branches will no longer be able to provide shelter from the wind and rain, leaving only death and the end for the world.

Lin Yi felt a tightness in his chest. He recalled the words the fanatics had said: "The sun has already set, how long can its afterglow last? You will all die eventually."

"Then...did you summon me, or did I find you?" Lin Yi asked.

He remembered sinking deeper and deeper into the black sea, and then, without knowing why, he landed in this wooden cabin.

"So...you've found me, or perhaps your consciousness sensed my presence across countless layers and appeared here," said "The Mourner." "Can't you even distinguish your own state?"

Lin Yi was startled upon hearing this.

The words of the "mourner" had a wake-up call for him. What state was he in now?

Wasn't he devoured? Even his skeletal golden body shattered...

"I don't know... what state am I in right now? And you, what state are you in?"

I am already dead. What you encountered may be the remnant will of the former 'me,' or it may be the will of the present 'me'...

We have long forgotten time... In the endless layers, we are like wandering ghosts...

Time has been lost... Lin Yi was slightly taken aback. He thought of another admonition, the one that the strange creatures in the black sea repeatedly chanted in a low voice: "In the abyss of fog and darkness, lost souls chase after illusions."

"etc……?!"

The sound seemed to have drifted from the depths of the black sea, mixed with a distant, ballad-like quality, and entered his senses.

"Could it be... the 'mourner's' call to him?!"

"But if that's the case...aren't those things in the depths of the Black Sea...evil?"

"Could my guess be wrong?"

The "mourner" spoke slowly: "Where are you now? What time is it outside?"

"Me?" Lin Yi was slightly taken aback. After thinking for a moment, he said, "I'm inside the campus. If we're talking about outside, I'm currently..."

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. He had been communicating well with the "mourner," but as he spoke these words, he felt as if something in the dark was looking down on him!
He suddenly shuddered!
The "mourner" just said it knew the exact time, so why... is it asking for the time again now?

"Could it be... for some kind of... 'coordinates'?!"

In a three-dimensional world, three elements are enough to determine the position of a unit in space. If it were four-dimensional, perhaps the element of time would also need to be added.

If the mourner knew their own "time" and "space," could they find their "coordinates" within endless layers of time?

When the black moon fades, the mourners return from the endless depths of the sea.

He shuddered. If the "Mourners" were the strange entities that had called to him from the depths of the distant black sea, then did their return signify... a world-class catastrophe?
"Is it deceiving me, trying to extract 'coordinates' from me in the real world?"

Lin Yi dared not be careless and slowly fabricated a piece of information: "It should be...X999 year."

The year X999 is said to be the time when the gray fog invasion truly began. It shouldn't matter if he uses a past established fact to endorse his point, right?
"[X999... So where is this 'campus' you're talking about?" "The Mourner" asked slowly, its tone becoming calm and gentle, like the intimate warmth between old friends, full of seductive charm.

“In your daily life… you might not even know anything about this country,” Lin Yi said slowly.

The story goes that "Little Life" was destroyed by "Snake Nest" in X999. Using a destroyed place as a basis for his claim is truly ingenious.

"I understand... X999... daily life... school..." the "Mourner" said slowly. "I will come to find you... wait for me, Lin Yi... I can't wait any longer..."

Although "The Mourner" was clearly just a crystal skeleton, at this moment, Lin Yi could clearly feel its bones trembling and the golden light in its eye sockets was flashing, full of a cultish and eerie atmosphere.

It chuckled softly, its laughter causing the entire wooden cabin to shake and tremble. The already rotten planks could not withstand the weight and crumbled one after another.

As the wooden planks broke, the light outside grew brighter... But as the rotten planks crumbled, he gradually discovered that the light source outside the cabin... was coming from a giant eye!

Outside the shipwreck, a terrifying behemoth beyond description lurked, and as he communicated with the "Mourner," the deep-sea monster kept watching him through the cracks in the rotting ship's wooden planks!
The light inside the cabin was emitted by the eyes of that deep-sea behemoth in the cold, dark water!

"Gurgle...gurgle gurgle..."

The waves in the sea flowed through the decaying cabin, scraping against Lin Yi's will like blades, almost suffocating him.

In a daze, he saw the base of the "Mourner's" chain through the gradually brightening light—in that corner filled with thick, impenetrable darkness, the end of the thick chain was actually gripped in the palm of a stark white skeleton!

That skeleton, until its death, clung tightly to the "mourner"!
On the skeleton, one could vaguely see a tattered, dark green robe, exactly the same as the ragged cloak that the "Mourner" had previously worn.

Or rather, the cloak worn by the "mourner" was very likely peeled off from the owner of this skeleton!
"It's not a 'mourner' at all! The real 'mourner' is long dead! Is it a spirit born after death... or is it something that was always here, imprisoned?!"

"Gurgle...gurgle..."

Outside the wooden cabin, the eyes of the deep-sea behemoth rolled around, slowly, slowly, fixing on Lin Yi.

At this moment, Lin Yi did not exist, but he clearly felt that he was being locked on!

They've been locked onto by that deep-sea behemoth!
His will trembled violently, like a wooden house in an earthquake, ready to collapse at any moment.

But at the crucial moment, he felt the surrounding light dimming again...

His will left that layer and sank once again into the endless waters of the black sea.

You're absolutely right... A true lie only requires mixing one or two falsehoods into a complete truth...

[Year X999...Days of daily life...Campus...]

Don't overdo it...

Let the 'Snake Nest' test the waters...

It was unclear who it was talking to, but the deep-sea behemoth offered no response, simply floating silently in the cold, dark water, continuing to emit waves as always…

"Gurgle...gurgle..."

……

Lin Yi's will floated continuously in the black seawater; he had originally wanted to check the time.

He knew that if he wanted to, he could definitely see the time.

But he was glad he hadn't checked the time.

Others might not notice his watch, but the "Mourner," with his presence hidden within the layers, would definitely notice it. Once he checks the time, the "Mourner" will surely notice his unusual behavior.

It's hard to say what might happen then.

He continued to sink... while trying to sense the fragments of his bones.

He sensed it.

His bone fragments seemed to be undergoing some kind of change; they were constantly absorbing something from the seawater, and the flocculent material was increasing, appearing from a distance like a drain filled with disgusting strands of hair and grayish-white flocculent material...

Every single one of his bone fragments was undergoing this change, and he couldn't tell whether it was his bone fragments absorbing strange things like flocculent matter, or whether those strange things were constantly attaching themselves to his bone fragments.

"Could you come back a little...?"

As this thought crossed his mind, the nearest bone fragment trembled slightly.

"Huh? It actually works?"

Lin Yi was initially delighted; the fact that he could still control it meant that he could reconstruct his skeletal golden body.

Then, he felt a slight chill, because he realized that he was losing control over the bone fragments!

It seems that he can not fully control every bone fragment.

Some of them are already in a state of numbness.

"This is bad..." With no time to investigate the "mourners" anymore, Lin Yi realized that the absorption of these flocculent substances was not due to his bone fragments acting on their own initiative, but rather that those strange things had come knocking on his door.

To restore it, you must first remove those fibrous and hair-like substances!

Having thought this through, Lin Yi stopped hesitating and immediately took action.

Since he couldn't decide whether to sink or rise in the black sea, he should at least preserve his skeletal body, right?

After all, we cannot abandon our fundamental principles, nor can we change the laws of our ancestors!

He then began to try to gather the bone fragments back with his will, but after trying, he found that his will was not enough to do so. He could sense the bone fragments, but he could not control them.

Ultimately, it was because those flocculent substances were too bizarre, clinging to the surface of his bone fragments like a membrane, which had a certain blocking effect on his will.

"I need to find a way... to get rid of those fibrous substances, otherwise I'll never be able to rebuild my skeletal golden body!"

However, this was not something that could be easily resolved. Lin Yi tried for a long time but was unable to cause any substantial damage to the flocculent material with his willpower.

Just when he was almost at his wit's end, he suddenly thought of something and had a flash of inspiration. He first tried to sense the fragments of his left arm bone.

On his left arm bone was branded the little girl's golden tattoo!

Although those golden runes have now disintegrated along with the shattering of his skeletal golden body, he still managed to summon them using some recent fragments.

"Whether it works or not depends on this!" he growled. "Come on!!"

(End of this chapter)