Let those who have tormented others, who rejoice in the fear, pain, and despair of others, be swallowed up by greater darkness - this is the only obsession, or curse, that remains of the victims. Now they have become the only way to think about this kind of thing. The excessively intense and prolonged pain tore their hearts to shreds, and they have no function to understand what is hoped and what is now. They become curse-only, curse-making perpetrators who will only curse themselves.

If you torture them again, they will still react. But that's just instinctive, like throwing a stone into a pool and the water ripples. They have long since closed their hearts tightly, and pain and fear are only passive reactions.

At this point, the Ant Lord also seems to have lost interest in continuing to torture them with his own hands.

He decided to push the victims into the final stages of processing.

*

Naoto Inoue ended his narrative.

"This kind of thing has happened before...... Xu Shengxing muttered to himself with a deep face, sparks faintly appeared in his hair and body, as if he was about to explode, but he was still able to control it.

Then he turned his head to look at the patrolman, who was shaking, but did not dare to move.

"You've read these memories, and you're so thankful you were able to recover so quickly." I said to Naoto Inoue.

"After realizing that the air of this stronghold was filled with painful memories, I reset the bar for my ability to read memories. If it hadn't been for that, I would have passed out just now. He replied, looking at me more closely, "The reason why you want to kill the Ant Lord is because you learned about it from some source?" ”

Xu Shengxing also looked over. I didn't reply. If the matter is acknowledged here, it is easy to get into more problems. But if I don't admit it, I don't know how to take all the things that the Shapeless Killer has done in this stronghold for myself. Therefore it is better to be silent.

At the same time, I have a lot of information in my head to process.

Naoto Inoue's narration made me confirm one thing, and that is the "cause" of the disfigured murderer. I think that the reason why the Invisible Killer was born was based on the curse of these victims. They heard rumors of Facelings and Shapeless Killers, and frantically begged for someone to take their place and take equally brutal revenge on the Ant Lord and the Worker Ants who had killed them and others. They fit all the characteristics of what doctors in Turin described as "underground frenzy gatherings": no use of the Internet, at least two hundred people, freaked mentality, regular communication, and long duration. The only thing that contradicts what I imagined was that there were no real gatherings like illegal religions, just a group of broken-hearted victims.

It may be cruel to say this: as much as they want me to save them, I have no obligation to save them. However, I couldn't help but imagine that it would be nice if I could have come earlier. Perhaps the people who are hostile to the ant colony among the victims may not really be good people, but there must have been many innocent and good people here. If only I could have saved them sooner.

In addition, there is a doubt in my mind. Assuming that the reason why the Faceless Killer killed Xu Quanan was because Xu Quanan was involved in this matter, then why did the Faceless Killer kill him so happily?

Whether it's following the content of the tale or following the curses of the victims, the disfigured murderer should drag the target into the world of the shadow, repeatedly inflicting life-or-death torture until he is satisfied. And that one-hit killing method is too cheap for participants. Could it be that Xu Quanan has nothing to do with the incident here?

"Do you see the true face of the Ant Lord in your memory?" I asked Naoto Inoue.

"No, he's wearing a mask." He shook his head, "The other worker ants too." No one wants to be seen by the victims. ”

But even if he hides his true colors, he can't escape the tracking of the disfigured murderer. Because, if the Faceless Killer really inherited all of my skills, then he would definitely be able to identify the Ant Lord and the Worker Ants from the sea of people by virtue of their physical details.

"Coward." Xu Shengxing commented on them, and then frowned, "Wait, it's a little strange." ”

He looked around, "With so many people being tortured, the negative feeling should form a lot of dead air, and then be observed by the relevant departments." And now, instead of evolving into that, the amount of dead air left here is strangely small. ”

Hearing this, Naoto Inoue replied, "When I was reading those memories, I saw some strange devices in my memory. ”

"Strange device, what do you mean?" Xu Shengxing asked.

"It's like I've seen it in the regular lectures held at the bureau...... A device for collecting dead air. Inoue said unconfidently.

Xu Shengxing suddenly said, "Is the real purpose of the Ant Lord torturing those people to collect fresh, high-purity dead qi?" ”

"I've heard that the Ant Lord has the Dark Beaver Armor in his hands, but in order to suppress the soul imprint left by the leader of the Dark Beaver in the past, a sufficient amount of high-purity death qi is required." Naoto Inoue speculated, "Could it be for this?" ”

"The leader of the Dark Beaver is long dead, and if it was just to suppress the soul imprint he left behind, there would be no need for so much dead air." Based on my own experience, I replied, "Not even the imprint of his soul." Even if he was still alive, so much dead air would be enough to suppress his own soul. ”

However, it's like a pistol can kill me. A pistol can indeed kill me, if it hits.

"As you said earlier, the Ant Lord is ready to push the victims into the final stages of processing." Xu Shengxing looked at Naoto Inoue, "What is the final processing link?" Is it just killing? It's also the corpses of more than 200 people, so it's not so easy to deal with them. ”

"This ......" Hearing this question, Naoto's face unnaturally distorted, as if someone had punched him in the stomach.

Xu Shengxing asked, "What happened?" ”

Inoue first took a deep breath, then exhaled a long time, then calmed down and said, "Here." ”

With that, he walked to the deepest part of the containment chamber.

There is also an iron door in the deepest part that leads to a room in the depths. He directly used the brute force of the psyker to destroy the lock cylinder, and then pushed the door in. We followed him closely. This room was also shrouded in darkness, so Xu Shengxing threw out flames again. Flames flew upwards and stuck to the ceiling like chewing gum, providing reliable illumination throughout the room like a chandelier.

The room is spacious and reminiscent of an indoor basketball court, with the same bare cement floor and walls, and a pool in the center. And the pool is not filled with water, but full of ash. Some of the ash is lumpy, which is probably because the raw material was not broken after it was burned to ash. But with the help of the shape of some of the ash blocks, I was able to tell what the ash was made of. My mind went blank for a moment.

These are ashes.

The moment he saw these ashes, Xu Shengxing's face suddenly changed dramatically. He looked at Naoto Inoue abruptly, "These ashes are all alive, aren't they?" ”

The latter nodded heavily, "Yes." ”

Rao is a person who has reached the point of Xu Shengxing after a hundred battles, and finally can't control the reins of anger. He clenched his fists violently, and the temperature in the room suddenly climbed up, as if it had become a sauna.

"Calm down." I say.

He suddenly looked at me, his gaze as if he could burn through the hot lines of the steel plate. I suspect he could really get a heat out of his eyes if he meant that, and he definitely wanted to. Although he never mentioned the killing of Xu Quanan by "me" from just now, he definitely did not forget it. It's just that he is the man who can let reason prevail at a critical moment, and if he clashes with me here, it will only bring bad results. He let out a sigh of relief, and with that exhale, the temperature of the room dropped back down.

I looked at Naoto Inoue, "Havoc virus? ”

"Yes, the Havoc virus." He gave me a deep look, "Just when the victims thought they were completely numb and could no longer feel the pain, the Ant Lord pushed them into the final stage of processing: injecting them with the Havoc virus and then burning them to ashes. Inside the ashes still contained the sober souls of the victims, and every grain of ash was alive, and they could all feel the intense pain of the flames all the time. At the bottom of the pool is a machine that collects dead gas. If no one comes to their rescue, they will be in pain until the end of time. ”

If you get to this point, there really is no hope anymore.

This is hell, hell that really appears in reality. Even deeper than the hell depicted in some myths. No one can save them, not even the gods. If there is anything else that can give them hope, it is death.

"I'll do it." Xu Shengxing said.

I walked up in front of him, "No, I'll come." ”

"You?" His voice came from behind me.

I took out the flame hand and walked over to the columbarium. I'm late, but maybe there's something I can do. I put my hand on my right hand, and then stretched out my right hand, palm up, and the burning flame rose. Then I threw the flames into the columbarium.

The psionic flame spread as quickly as if it had encountered oil, and penetrated deep into the bottom of the columbarium. Souls trapped in the ashes, so that they can be liberated.

Thank you, Facelings. There was an auditory hallucination sound in my ears.

Moments later, the flames went out as if they had run out of fuel, and the columbarium hissed. Inoue told me that all the painful memories in the air had faded.