From the end of the world

Chapter 502 Moonlight
I felt as if all the muscles in my body were injected with concrete and I couldn't move. My vision quickly became dim and breathing became difficult.

Tan Xiang who fell to the ground looked like a stiff corpse. Only through the cold sweat on his face, blinking eyes, moving lips and other details could one tell that he was still alive.

"Is this... poison?" My vocal organs were obviously also severely affected.

The cartographer took out a small glass bottle from his arms, which still contained some translucent liquid.

"I poisoned the food before."

He spoke in a calm tone, as if he was talking about something insignificant, "Don't take your strength lightly - did I tell you that?

"I've clearly warned you that some treacherous survivors will not fight you fairly, but will sneak up behind you and take your life unexpectedly, but you still don't know how to be vigilant. The power of fire is indeed powerful, but as long as you are still a mortal, even if you can destroy a city with one blow, there are still ten thousand ways for you to end up in defeat.

“Originally, I was planning to take you outside to deal with it. After all, if something unexpected happened, the two children might be hurt. But since you are so careless, maybe I don’t need to be cautious from the beginning.

"You look like a dead person right now. You have been deprived of your ability to think normally. You can't see your surroundings clearly, let alone tell which direction I am in."

That’s not the case.

I really didn't expect that the food was poisoned. From a general perspective, one's vigilance should not be lowered to such an extent that one would not doubt the food served by strangers in such a dangerous environment. But my situation was special after all.

After becoming the Great Impermanence, I have become more and more accustomed to thinking of myself as a walking flame, rather than a human with flesh and blood. In the past, I would make a special distinction between my normal form and my fire elemental form, using the former in daily life and the latter in battle, but recently I have gradually stopped distinguishing between the two. The boundary between the two is gradually blurring in my mind.

Who would have the temerity to suspect that someone might poison a flame?

The symptoms of poisoning I feel at this moment are nothing more than the physiological reactions mimicked by my body. In the past, I would have diarrhea when I accompanied Ma Zao to eat ice cream, which was also the result of my body's automatic mimicry. This body's reaction in this situation is reasonable - that's all.

Of course, my consciousness will not be truly affected by this simulated physiological reaction, and it is possible to selectively block it.

The cartographer's evil plan failed from the beginning.

Rather than fighting back, I now want to know why he did such a thing.

His reasons for inviting Sandalwood and I to become partners were completely reasonable, and it was an act of solidarity that would help us survive. But now, attacking us, especially me, a "Flame Blessed Monk", is an act where the risks and benefits are completely disproportionate.

Is there some common sense about the apocalypse that I don't know?
Or... is he crazy?

"What is your purpose?" I asked.

“You still have the energy to speak…” The cartographer looked at me.

"Why would you do such a thing... didn't you say you wanted us to be partners?" Tan Xiang also said intermittently, "You protected those two children and didn't even give up on your crazy partner... but you poisoned us? Why..."

"I am not doing this because I have a deep hatred for you, so before I kill you, I don't mind letting you die knowingly. If you can rest in peace after listening to me, that would be the best." The cartographer said calmly, "First of all, let me clarify a misunderstanding. The madman upstairs is not my partner, and he is not crazy.

"I captured that blessed monk from outside while he was seriously injured. Originally, I wanted those two children to eat him and complete my transformation into a demon together with me. Who knew that he had a very special power of immortal body blessing? No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't kill him, and the flesh I cut off would turn into phantoms and disappear.

"If he can't kill people effectively and devour them, he can't be considered a 'karmic demon' and his transformation into a karmic demon can't be accelerated. Having said that, I can't let him go either. I have no choice but to drive a few nails into his brain tissue to prevent him from regaining his normal thinking ability, and then lock him up on the second floor."

"What..." Tan Xiang made an unbelievable sound.

He grasped the most important part of the information the other party had given him. "You...want to become a demon? How is that possible..."

In his opinion, the cartographer's claim might sound like the villain in a zombie movie suddenly revealing that his goal is actually to "become a zombie."

"Karma demons don't need to eat, nor do they have complicated thoughts. They are pure beings that are free from all troubles." The cartographer looked down at Tan Xiang with cloudy eyes, "Is it strange to want to reach that level?
"Perhaps this is an unreasonable choice for a naive person like you who doesn't know what the end of the world is. However, you haven't experienced as much unbearable despair as we have.

"Countless terrors and hunger, unreasonable disasters and deaths, repeated spiritual death in madness, not even knowing if I will be myself when I wake up tomorrow, wandering around in a daze like a zombie... How can someone like you who knows nothing understand our pain and troubles?

“It is better to become a part of hell than to suffer and struggle as a living being in hell.”

Tan Xiang wanted to curse loudly, but she lost the strength to do so. She could only curse in a low voice: "If you want to turn into a monster...then do it yourself! Don't involve others..."

At the end of the sentence, he seemed to realize something and shut his mouth.

Combined with the information I got before, I roughly understood the cartographer's specific plan.

Of course, if you just want to become a demon, you don't actually need the ritual of "imitating a demon". You can just find a place to be alone, and under the influence of madness, you can gradually forget yourself and become a real monster.

But the cartographer obviously wanted more, and he also planned to "save" the two children around him.

He wanted his two children to become karma demons with him, to escape from all hunger, terror, and troubles.

Leaving the two children alone in the outside world might cause them to die at the hands of monsters before they transform into demons, so it is necessary for the cartographer to capture survivors like Sandalwood from the outside world so that the two children can transform into demons safely under his supervision.

Perhaps killing the two children himself is also a way to help them free themselves from hell, but as a survivor, their desire to survive is beyond our imagination. It is also possible that they have accumulated a lot of sunk costs in order to survive, and dying has become an increasingly difficult decision. So the cartographer chose to become a demon.

In addition, I noticed that although Tan Xiang's emotions were filled with fear and shock, he had not yet fallen into despair.

He seemed to have some solution for this desperate situation.

What kind of countermeasures could an ordinary person who was dragged to the ground by the poison come up with when facing a blessed monk like the cartographer? I couldn't help but feel very curious. As for the cartographer's words, the two children just stood there in silence, as if they had completely accepted the advice of the person who protected them.

"That's it, Sandalwood. I'm sorry, but please die," said the cartographer.

Tan Xiang suddenly roared: "What a joke!"

As he spoke, he actually jumped up from the ground, as if the poison had no effect on his movements.

This was really unexpected. Although it was clear that he was not desperate, I didn't expect him to be able to move. After he stood up, he made the second unexpected move.

He did not run away immediately, but picked up the chair beside him and threw it at the cartographer.

Undoubtedly, this was a stupid decision. Although he would not be able to escape if he ran away directly, it was even more hopeless to harm the cartographer. The most important thing he should do now was to kidnap the two children as hostages.

In fact, I could vaguely read Tan Xiang's intention to kidnap the two children from his emotions. But for some reason, the decision he made in reality went against his will.

Facing the chair thrown at him, the cartographer stood still and let it hit him. The next moment, something incredible happened again. After the chair touched the cartographer, it was like an animation played in reverse, hitting Tan Xiang's body at the same speed and along the same route.

Tan Xiang was knocked to the ground, and immediately took action again despite the pain. He obviously didn't bother to analyze the phenomenon that violated his common sense, and hurriedly stood up and tried to escape towards the window. Then, for some reason, he turned around and attacked the cartographer again.

His face was full of astonishment, and he punched the cartographer in the chest. The cartographer was as still as a wall, and he stretched out his finger and slowly pointed at Tan Xiang's forehead.

At the same time, I also observed that the cartographer's soul underwent strange changes.

If the soul of a normal person is white, the soul of the cartographer, as a doomsday survivor who has been immersed in madness for years, is gray. Then now his soul is like being splashed with ink, and it quickly turns black.

He is determined to kill us and eat our flesh, and he is putting it into practice. This conscious inhumane behavior is likely to be a ritualistic behavior that will have a negative impact on his soul.

The relationship between the blessed monks and the demons is a two-sided one. Perhaps, if the person concerned not only does not curb his own thoughts and behaviors, but also steps on the accelerator, the process of becoming a demon will be greatly advanced, just like jumping off a cliff, just like this moment.

All the tiny scars on the cartographer's face actually split open, and a large amount of blood flowed out, washing his face with blood. All the tiny wounds began to wriggle, and densely packed small eyeballs emerged from them, peering in different directions.

He was rapidly degenerating into an inhuman form.

This is destined to be a one-way street. He can choose to accelerate his transformation into a karma demon, but it is impossible for him to regress from a karma demon back to a human being.

Seeing this, Tan Xiang showed an extremely panicked expression, and then was hit on the forehead by the cartographer's finger.

"--ah!!!"

Tan Xiang let out a sound of extreme pain and fell to the ground as if he had been electrocuted.

I finally figured out what the cartographer had done before.

The reason why Sandalwood made two stupid decisions in a row was not because he suddenly acted stupidly, but because the cartographer's "guiding direction" power was taking effect.

The cartographer changed the direction of Sandalwood's decision from "attack the child" and "escape" to "attack himself".

The reason why the chair just now flew back as if it was upside down was because the cartographer reversed the direction of the chair's movement.

The ability of "guiding direction" is far more versatile than what he introduced before.

As for now, what he is doing is...

"I slightly manipulated the direction of the blood and electrochemical signals in your body." The cartographer said, "This level is not fatal, but it's time for you to give up hope.

He gestured to the boy and girl, "Kill him, boys, and eat his flesh."

The two children moved towards Tan Xiang as if they were being controlled. I also understood why they could still be obedient despite the severe symptoms of madness infection. They must have been affected by the power of direction. Since this power can deeply affect human psychological and physiological changes, it can probably also affect the progress of the toxin attack. The reason why he snapped his fingers and caused the poisoning symptoms of Tan Xiang and me to break out was probably because of this.

Perhaps because they had made the decision to kill, the two children's symptoms of madness infection seemed to have entered the next stage. Their eyes and the colors of their souls became extremely turbid, as if they were on the verge of becoming a demon.

As the two children walked towards Sandalwood, the cartographer's demonization progress seemed to have advanced to a new stage.

He stretched his arms toward the ceiling in a trance, and a muddy voice that was hard to recognize as a human came out of his throat. Although he was clearly indoors, a violent wind blew around him inexplicably. The tables and chairs were dragged and flew around by the rapidly accelerating airflow, and the windows were broken under the wind pressure.

Originally, his soul was at most at the Living level. As his transformation into a demon deepened, his soul became increasingly corrupted and turbid, but it was also strengthened to the Achievement level.

Then, even the ceiling on the first floor and the building structure of the second floor of the safe house were torn into pieces by the mysterious force, and were swept into the roaring whirlwind.

The space above became very open, and the night sky of doomsday was exposed to everyone's eyes without any obstruction.

The cartographer looked up with lifeless eyes at the endless dark night sky, and the two children also looked up, as if they were looking at something that I could not see.

"Ah... the moonlight is so bright tonight..." the cartographer murmured, "I can't see anything clearly..."

He slowly closed his human eyes, then lowered his head, and all the countless small eyeballs on his face looked at me.

(End of this chapter)