"You caught it, Kenny?" Sean, who was hiding behind a pine tree by the lake, galloped over, stared at the mysterious and massive creature with wide eyes, and exclaimed in a trembling voice, "God, a snake-like neck, a turtle-like torso, more than three meters long, do you know what I thought?" The legendary Loch Ness Monster. ”

"It's a bit like that, but the water monster doesn't have the ability to be as complex and changeable as it is." Dean looked through the life light of the monster suspended in mid-air, about level 4, shaking his small arms and thighs, and in the midst of white steam, he used his mental power to dry the water around him, "I'm sorry, I used your sympathy to deceive you." But if I don't, I won't be able to catch you. ”

"Let's talk about it now, as long as you cooperate honestly, I promise not to hurt you further."

Woo-hum... Woo-hum...

A deep and grand sigh came from the monster's frozen mouth, like a whale's song, which shook the entire ice sculpture slightly, and this unique sound wave seemed to have some kind of magical power, condensing in the lake water under the feet of the two.

The surface of the lake stirred up a circle of ripples, and a pale blue stream of water slowly rose in the center of the ripples, transforming into a petite boy.

The appearance and body shape are exactly the same as Dean's imitation of Billy Drayton.

But the whole body is transparent and pale blue, and every inch of skin is flowing, like a water man.

The expression is vivid.

"I agree to your terms," said Billy the Water Man, looking at Dean in a crisp, immature, and fearful childlike voice, "but you have to make sure that when I'm done answering the question, let me go, and keep it a secret for me, and don't reveal my existence." ”

"Wow... It's carved out of a mold. Sean's gaze flickered between Dean's changing Billy and Billy the Water Man, and he couldn't help but mutter, "It's just using this ability to shape the water to deceive Martha." ”

"We promise you," Dean said in a deep voice, "that as soon as the conversation is over and you prove that you have not harmed any innocent humans, I will apologize and let you go." ”

"I believe in you." Billy the Water Man looked Dean from head to toe as if to see through his heart, "I can feel your sincerity." ”

So it also has telepathic abilities?

Dean was a little glad that he was fully engaged in the performance he had just performed, and that the mimicry could perfectly simulate Billy's soul, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to fool the mysterious creature.

"Now on, what the hell are you? Where did you come from and how long did you stay in the lake? ”

What am I?

Billy the Water Man looked up at the body frozen in mid-air, a trace of confusion flashed in his blue eyes, and he said a shocking sentence, "I don't know what I am, but I was born in the long lake." ”

"The time of birth, according to your human calculations, was two years ago in the middle of the night."

"I woke up from darkness and chaos with a body the size of your palm."

Billy's soft voice echoed in the night sky,

"The water of the lake gives me a warmth and coziness that touches my soul, and there is a mysterious and timeless voice in the lake, just like my mother, who taught me to use my ability to hunt the fish in the lake, avoid tourists and fishermen on the lake, and purify every part of the lake to make it more suitable for survival."

"I don't know where I'm from, but if I had to say a place, it's Long Lake."

Long Lake is my home.

Sean frowned strangely at this, the mysterious creature's self-introduction sounded not at all like a monster that would kill little girls, but like a conservationist.

Dean suddenly whispered sorry to Billy, reached out to the ice sculpture, and his telekinesis turned into an invisible blade that quickly sliced open the top of its large mushroom-like head, taking out a drop of blood.

Well, pale blue, like some kind of bodily fluid.

Blood flew into Dean's mouth, emitting a complex smell of aquatic weeds, fishy, cold, and slightly sweet.

His body twisted and re-transformed into the snake demon Seth, and he licked his memories, and the memories of the "things in the lake" swept through his mind.

Billy, the water man on the other side, was startled by this sudden change, and deep curiosity flashed in his big eyes, but he heard him speak again,

"What are your abilities?"

"I—I can melt into the long lake," Billy said, "and it's important that I can't let any human find out where I am, and my instinct tells me that if I leak my whereabouts, I'm going to suffer terrible doom, just like now." ”

Dean and Sean looked at each other and nodded.

Such a strange lake spirit, except for innocent and pure children, once other adults find it, there is a high probability that they will not be able to resist the temptation in their hearts and sell it in exchange for money and other benefits.

"I'm also going to control the flow of water to change into all kinds of shapes..."Billy held out his hand towards the lake at his feet, and streams of water wrapped around his feet like pale blue vines emitting white smoke, wrapping around his body and spinning.

A flower bone grew on the vine, which quietly bloomed in the moonlight, and a stream of water turned into a bee to pounce on the stamen to collect nectar.

Soon the honey sac became heavy, but it did not have time to fly away, and another stream of water turned into a bee-eater bird and took it in its mouth, flapped its wings and flew high, hitting the ice like a cannonball, breaking through a large hole and dissolving in the lake, turning into an ice-blue catfish and swimming into the dark bottom of the lake.

This series of changes was like some kind of exquisite magic, and the two of them were dazzled.

"Good, but what else?" Dean confirmed these claims in his blood and asked, "What other abilities do you have?" ”

"I can also absorb the emotions around me and all kinds of knowledge."

Billy's gaze swept over the faces of the two men, "The fishermen who live on the lake and sail on the lake all day long, I can feel their inner activities as they sail past me, and I can read all kinds of strange ideas and knowledge in their minds. ”

"At first, I didn't understand why the human mind is so complex than the fish in the lake."

"But the more I absorbed, the more they became easier to understand, and I gradually mastered your human language, and learned that there are bridge pier towns, stone ridge towns, and Naples towns by the long lake... The town is inhabited by all kinds of people. ”

"I often hear from the fishermen about something new and interesting happening in the town."

A smile uncontrollably appeared on Billy's lips, and even the strange pale blue eyes that were frozen in mid-air showed a sense of joy.

Dean and Sean also seemed to be infected in some way, and a wave of joy rose in their hearts.

And the shallows in his pockets swallowed wildly.

"Master, seize it, enslave it and send me electricity! What a pure and energetic emotion... Shhhh It will make me grow a lot! ”

Dean directly ignored the shallow screams and sighed, "Just living in the lake, you can know the events in the surrounding human society, this ability is like the god of the long lake." ”

"Gods? I'm not a god, otherwise I wouldn't have been caught by you easily. I feel right... The human world is dangerous... Complex... There are ordinary people, and there are supernatural people. Billy glanced at Dean in fear, who shook his head and smiled, "It's the effect of the Law of Convergence, you can't avoid it." But you've been observing humans, have you hurt them? ”

"Never, I just want to stay away."

"Why did you reach out to Marsa half a year ago?"

"Martha," Billy's eyes darkened, "I lived in the Long Lake without any worries, and I never intended to approach anyone. But since hearing your human emotions and hearts, my mood has changed with ups and downs. ”

"Human emotions are sometimes as sweet as honey and make me happy."

"But sometimes, it's like a cocoa-flavored cake, so bitter that I can't hold back my tears."

"One of the strongest emotions comes from the fact that from June to November every year, thousands of tourists from all over the world come to Changhu Lake to escape the summer."

"But most of them are not alone, but as a family... My husband, my wife, my children, and some of them brought the elderly, and they sailed over my head in a boat, and they played fishing competitions, swimming competitions, splashing water on each other, and everyone had a smile on their faces... Warm and happy. ”

"It was a very different kind of happiness than what I usually feel. I've absorbed a lot of the same emotions, but what's terrible is that..."

Billy paused, and his small blue body trembled alone in the night wind.

There was a hum from the huge ice sculpture... Woo-hum... but this time it was full of melancholy and sadness.

"I didn't feel a trace of happiness, I felt bad." Billy covered his face and sobbed, "Even when I eat fish, I can't feel the sweetness of the past, even if I float quietly in the water, I feel a kind of spiritual exhaustion, a kind of cold to the bone." ”

Billy takes a deep breath,

"I'm sick. I couldn't help but ask myself why everyone else has close family and companions, even the goofy fish in the lake. And I'm just on my own? ”

Billy stared at Dean and Sean, and the doubt, confusion and sadness in his eyes couldn't help but make the two deeply shocked, there is such a deeply human "monster" in the world?

Did it really hurt Marsha?

The progress of the event has jumped to sixty percent.

"I want to find a companion too!" A strange glint flashed in Billy's eyes, "And then the companion came." ”

"Martha quietly walked to the lake on the night of half a year ago and cried very sadly at the lake."

"I've never seen a human cub with such a deep sadness in their hearts, and that attracted me and piqued my curiosity."

"I swam over and secretly sniffed into her heart... She was bullied by her school peers because she lost her parents, and not long ago she lost her grandfather, who loved her the most. ”

"She is lonely and helpless, her life is bleak, and she is about to jump into the lake to end her life."

"But her loneliness struck me... For the first time, I couldn't help but appear in front of a human, prevented her from committing suicide, and then used a stream of water to transform her dead relatives and make her happy. ”

"The young of man is the purest creature in the world."

"I was good to her, and she also felt my sincerity, accepted me as a friend, called me light blue, not only kept it secret for me, but also came to the lake every night after my grandmother went to sleep, and played with me."

Light.

Dean's mood became extremely complicated, and the blood memory proved that this guy was not lying.

A human girl made a pact with a monster like this?

The world is truly amazing.

Billy's tone became lively and cheerful, like the tinkling of a rushing stream.

"I'm cured... Every day is full of anticipation, looking forward to meeting Marsha, listening to her tell all kinds of interesting and sad things that happen in her life, and describe her future. ”

"Two lonely souls attract each other and heal each other." Sean muttered, looking at the lake monster ice sculpture, but couldn't tell if it was male or female.

Billy continued,

"We've been like this for half a year, and this half year is also the happiest time since I was born."

"Until the evening of a month ago." Billy stared at the lake at the bottom of his feet, as if he saw the abyss, and his liquid cheeks trembled with fear, "I was supposed to go to the lake to meet little Martha at nine to ten o'clock as agreed, but suddenly a thick fog appeared on the lake and blocked my path. ”

"So you didn't make the fog?" Dean asked, looking at the seventy percent progress.

"I don't have that ability." Billy's eyes were jealous and painful, with a hint of choking in his throat, "There is a special energy field in the mist, which obscures my sense of direction, it's ridiculous, I actually got lost in my own home, and I couldn't find the agreed place with Martha." ”

"There's something terrible and dangerous hiding in the mist... They seem to have a symbiotic relationship with the White Mist..."

Dean is lost in thought, a monster who lives in symbiosis with the mist?

How doesn't it sound like a product of the earth.

"I kept swimming like crazy, always swimming to another distant shore."

"The fog cleared, and at two o'clock in the morning, I finally managed to swim to my destination and met Marsha."

Billy paused, covered his face and sobbed.

"But my only friend, my companion, has become a cold corpse, and is gone from me forever."

And the infectious hum of the ice sculpture swept across the ice, like a tribute in front of the grave of a loved one, and the sadness penetrated deep into the soul.

Dean and Sean couldn't help but have sour noses.

……

The progress of the event jumped to seventy-five percent.

Dean asked, "Did Martha drown under the mist, or was she killed by a monster in the mist?" ”

"I could feel it, first the things in the mist had taken her inside." Billy stared into Dean's eyes, remorseful, "The remaining empty shell just fell into the water and gradually lost its vitality, I tried, but it didn't work, and I can't selfishly take her body, or her grandma will go crazy." ”

Dean suddenly understood that this inner self referred to the "soul".

"I could only watch my friend, floating on the surface of the lake... Whining... I'm sorry..."

He cried like an abandoned child, and at the same time, the pale blue eyes on the ice sculpture behind him were stained with a layer of water and mist.

Smack.

A few diamond-like tears dripped down.

"Oh my God," Shaun slammed his forehead and looked at his companion in disbelief, "So our investigation went in the wrong direction from the start?" It wasn't the thing in the lake that killed Martha at all, but the thing in the fog that was the real culprit? ”

Dean nodded heavily.

The doubts in my heart are easily solved.

Before, he always felt that the lake monster had waited for half a year to bring Martha a happy time, and it was too redundant to kill her, and it was a big fuss to deliberately create a fog for such a little girl.

Now there is a reasonable explanation, the lake monster does not want to hurt Martha at all, and the fog has nothing to do with it, but has another origin.

But there is a causal relationship between the lake monster and Martha's death.

If it weren't for their agreement to meet every night, Martha wouldn't have rushed to the lake late at night and had the mist of having her soul taken away by the creatures of the mist.

Eighty percent progress was reached.

……

This paragraph of explanation, as the effect of licking the memory, turned into a vivid picture, skimming Dean's mind.

Sure that the mysterious creature was not lying, he raised his hand and snapped his fingers into the air, and the white solid ice withered like petals of osmanthus in late autumn.

Bang!

Water splashes.

The behemoth fell back into the lake.

But it didn't dive to the bottom of the lake to escape, the snake's neck swung through the air, its soft and moist chin rested on the ice, and its big transparent eyes stared at Dean without blinking, while Billy the Water Man stood under the head, his hands on his chest and pleading,

"Help me, you are the most powerful being I have ever seen, you will definitely help me bring back the soul of my companion, Marsha."

"Please, I'm willing to agree to anything."

……

Agree to any conditions?

Sean next to him clenched his fists, moved his lips and said,

"Man, I think I should help it. Although it is a monster, it is much more than many humans... Humanity..."

Dean was lost in thought.

He had a strong instinct that now he could get the Syrent rune he had been dreaming of as long as he took the lake monster and handed it over to Mrs. Carmody in the antique shop.

The old lady didn't mind if the lake monster was the real murderer, maybe the lake monster's body had some special purpose for her.

It's a pity that Dean can't do such an unprincipled thing.

"Martha's soul was taken away by the monster in the mist, and the chances of survival are not high. But I'll try to help you find her, and I'll make amends for misunderstanding you. ”

This is also to complete the event.

"Woo buzz", "woo bum"...

The lake monster was so excited that it played with the lake water, and the clumps of colorful tail fins swayed like large mushrooms, and its body began to magically flash blue light.

Dean changed his words, "To save her, you must first find out the origin of the white mist,"

"I only vaguely feel the white mist drifting from Shiling Town, or Harrison Town, or Naples Town, I have never seen that kind of white fog in the two years since I was born," the round head on the snake's neck slid struggling from side to side on the surface of the ice, and the mouth with a short beak like a beluga whale and a wide lip line opened and closed to reveal a strange whisker tooth, which was entwined with emerald green aquatic plants, "As soon as it appeared on the surface of the lake, the surrounding air, the current, the earth, and the fish in the lake began to violently repel it, as if this white fog was not a product of nature. ”

Shadows passed through the lake monster's royal blue eyes.

"I even have a vague feeling that the evil hidden in it is more terrifying than the most terrifying thing I have spied into the hearts of the townspeople by the lake."

"It is not the evil of our world!"

……

Di's head froze.

Isn't the white fog of this world, is it from another world?

And how did it invade the shores of Long Lake a month ago, and there is a spatial rift around it?

Dean couldn't be sure for a moment, but looked up and down at the miraculous lake creation, and slowly walked towards it, snakes began to emerge from the Mexican's face.

"To investigate the source of the fog and rescue Marsha, we need a closer connection to facilitate the exchange of information and the meeting."

"I... I agree. ”

"You may feel pain and discomfort and you will be under my control. But I promise you'll be set free when it's over. ”

"Do you agree to cooperate?"

"I do!"

Let's go!

A wet, chubby, wet foot over a meter long broke through the water and lifted it onto the ice.

Dean shook it lightly and made a deal with it.

The soft, smooth, elastic touch made his eyes narrow.

In the next second, grinning and baring its fangs, a gray-black snake of power popped out of his throat like lightning, and bit the lake monster's neck.

The Edict of the Serpents was laid.

(End of chapter)