Mystery: The Last Shepherd

Chapter 260 Father, where is the lamb that will sacrifice for the Lord?
"What the hell are you talking about?"

Mr. A's words startled Lu Ze, who subconsciously asked a question in return.

He could understand Mr. A's hatred for him, but he couldn't understand why Mr. A spoke of Cecilia in that way. Although he claimed to be a transmigrator, this body was undoubtedly connected to Cecilia by blood. Moreover, he had long since accepted this sister from the bottom of his heart; how could Mr. A, a guy whose brain had been damaged by believing in evil gods, have the right to question him?

Could it be that he's deliberately saying strange things to distract me?
Lu Ze watched Mr. A warily, shielding the girl behind him.

"hehe."

Across from him, the smile on the handsome Mr. A's face grew even wider, and he finally shrugged and laughed out loud.

"So that's how it is. You've fooled yourself! How ridiculous! I thought you were some important person, but you're just a self-deceiving lunatic! Hahahaha!"

His laughter was extremely hearty, yet it was also filled with obvious malice.

Amidst the laughter, a strong sense of unease gradually welled up in Lu Ze's heart. Mr. A's laughter was so genuine, it didn't seem like he was faking it at all; it was as if he had truly discovered something wrong with his sister.

wrong!

Cecilia is my sister... Don't listen to that madman's nonsense!

"boom!"

A bullet was fired, and the loud gunshot interrupted Mr. A's laughter.

"Stop laughing!"

Lu Ze gritted his teeth and said, "I know, you're deliberately lying to mess with me, aren't you!"

Behind Mr. A, Ms. M's figure slowly emerged. She quietly gazed at Lu Ze, her golden eyes seemingly filled with sorrow and helplessness.

"Ah"

Mr. A slowly stopped laughing, straightened up, and looked at Lu Ze with disdain.

The battle between the two had dragged on for quite some time, and he was showing signs of fatigue. However, when he spoke to Lu Ze, his voice remained as frenzied and cold as ever:
"You may have a sister, or you may not, I don't know and I don't care. But if you're going to call that thing your sister, you're talking complete nonsense. You yourself are the shepherd, haven't you realized it yet?"

Stop talking! Stop talking!
A part of my soul was screaming, as if it had already foreseen Mr. A's next words and was utterly unwilling to hear them. At the same time, some memories that had been locked deep within my mind were slowly surfacing.
"Shut up!"

Lu Ze roared angrily.

Cecilia is right here, right behind me!
He should protect his sister, not listen to this madman spouting nonsense!
"boom!"

A towering crimson flame engulfed Mr. A, completely consuming his body and setting him ablaze. Bathed in the fire, Mr. A's mouth continued to open and close, saying:

"Your so-called sister is clearly just a flesh and blood puppet! Perhaps ordinary people and other low-sequence extraordinary beings can't detect it, but you and I are both shepherds. Are you still going to pretend in front of me? You probably killed your own sister!"

"Fuck you!"

Lu Ze angrily retorted, "What are flesh puppets? Don't you know? Those puppets have no will of their own, how could they behave like normal people? Cecilia's appearance, expression, and way of speaking are exactly the same as Tingen's, and she can even use extraordinary abilities. Mr. A is lying!"
"Then I'll prove it to you."

"Thus said Mr. A amidst the flames."

He extended a finger toward the girl behind Lu Ze.

"Release!"

Mr. A spoke in Hermes, his voice light and airy, mingling with the sound of the flames burning.

As a fellow "shepherd," Lu Ze was very knowledgeable about flesh magic and knew that this was the incantation shouted when releasing control of a flesh puppet. This incantation had no effect on normal people, but for some reason, he suddenly and subconsciously straightened up, using his back to block the direction of Mr. A's finger.

However, the sound easily bypassed his body and echoed around him.

In that instant, Lu Ze and the black-haired girl locked eyes. He saw innocence and confusion in her eyes, her rosy lips slightly parted, as if she didn't know what to say.

The girl collapsed in the next instant.

"Wow."

That delicate face and beautiful body easily turned into a pool of blood and flesh, falling onto the dirty, snow-covered ground, with only a black robe that allowed for easy movement slowly drifting down.

“Cecilia?”

Lu Ze stood there, stunned, reaching out his hand as if he couldn't understand where his sister had gone. She was perfectly fine just a moment ago, how could she have disappeared in the blink of an eye? Had she hidden in some shadows?

The flesh and blood on the ground trembled slightly; he could feel a connection between them and himself. He remembered—this flesh and blood came from within his own body, flesh he had separated himself to create something.
My flesh and blood?
Where is Cecilia?
Lu Ze's brain seemed to suddenly become incredibly dull, completely unable to comprehend the current situation, or rather, refusing to comprehend it.

"tread."

Until a white-robed phantom appeared before him, stepping on the black snow.

Ms. M watched him quietly until this moment, when she finally spoke.

"Feel sorry."

She said, "Cecilia is already dead."

Lu Ze stared blankly at her, then staggered back a step, as if after a long time, he finally understood the meaning behind her words.

"boom!"

A grand, mysterious voice resounded in his mind. It was the dialogue of two people, one voice aged, the other youthful. They spoke like this:

"Father."

“My son, I’m here.”

“Father, look, here is the wood and the fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice of the Lord?”

The child's voice was light and energetic, cheerfully asking his father questions. The old voice, however, was heavy and hoarse, and deep within it seemed to lie endless despair and grief.

"Where is the lamb that was sacrificed for the Lord?"

Lu Ze repeated blankly.

"Wow!"

His body suddenly disintegrated, scattering on the ground into a strange pool of flesh. This pool of flesh writhed continuously, with thick, dark shadows lurking between the gaps. He had completely lost his human form; only his face remained intact, floating on the surface of the flesh, filled with pain and confusion.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"!"

Lu Ze opened his eyes and sat up abruptly.

He found himself sitting in a soft chair.

The chairs on both sides, in front and behind, were the same type of chairs with armrests, stretching all the way to the end. The side aisle, the huge stage at the end of the seating area, the heavy curtains, the VIP boxes above, and the luxurious dome—all of these things made up what he saw.

A theater?
It seems to be the grand theater in Tingen.
Luze recalled that the interior decorations he had seen when he took Cecilia to see a show seemed to be exactly the same as here.

The theater was empty at that moment; there was no audience member present, only him sitting inside.

Oh, right, I was outside just now.
"come out!"

He leaped up, scurrying through the aisles and between the seats, roaring and searching. His angry voice echoed amplified in the empty theater. This must be my hallucination, Ms. M, that damned woman, she must be here!

Sure enough, a figure appeared amidst his roar. She was dressed in white robes and stood before Lu Ze, her eyes as gentle as ever.

"Go to hell!"

Lu Ze roared, shoved her into a seat, pulled a dagger from his pocket, and viciously stabbed it into her chest.

"Where's Cecilia? Where's my sister?!"

Warm blood flowed down the dagger, soaking his wrist. Lu Ze's eyes were bloodshot as he roared at the woman, "Did you kill her? Ms. M, why don't you just die!"

The woman looked at him, breathing heavily, then reached out and stroked his face.

"Speak! Speak up!"

Lu Ze stared wide-eyed, his voice hoarse and strained.

Then, the red-haired, golden-eyed woman spoke.

"I am not Ms. M. The real Ms. M is long dead."

she says.

"You're lying, trying to fool me!"

Lu Ze screamed like a madman, twisting the dagger in his hand back and forth in the other man's abdomen, "You're just like that Mr. A, spouting nonsense! Your Aurora Society is a bunch of lunatics and liars!"

"I did not lie to you."

A hint of sorrow even appeared in the red-haired woman's golden eyes. "I am the personality that split off from you when you were in extreme mental anguish. I am a part of you."

"Split personality?"

"Nonsense!"

"If my personality had already split, if I had suffered extreme mental anguish, how could I not remember?!"

"You're still lying to me!"

Lu Ze roared in fury.

“I didn’t lie to you. You begged me to help you lock that memory away.” The woman looked directly at Lu Ze, her chest rising and falling with her words, her fingers lightly touching Lu Ze’s.

Have I locked away my memories?
My extremely painful memories?

The woman's words exploded in Lu Ze's mind like a thunderclap. He released the dagger from his hand and slowly backed away until he bumped into a chair on the other side of the aisle.

"After those memories were sealed away, you were indeed no longer in pain."

The woman pulled the dagger from her body and stood up. The crimson stain soaked her pure white robe, revealing a cruel beauty. "I've been trying to prolong this time, but unfortunately, you met Mr. A. This memory can no longer be sealed away."

Lu Ze was unable to answer. Somewhere deep within his heart, fragments of memories were surging up, confirming the other person's words.

But, but...
Without warning, grand music suddenly filled the theater, and the theater came alive. The heavy curtains were drawn, obscuring the view from the stage. The once empty theater was now teeming with audience members, just like the night he had taken Cecilia to the performance.

The audience laughed and chatted, ignoring Lu Ze and the woman present, and found their seats.

In a daze, Lu Ze saw the faces of the guests.

—Sirius, Hynas, Captain Edward, the other members of the Enmat Port team, Mrs. Sharon, Captain Dunn, Capin, Silas, and many more. Familiar and unfamiliar, those he killed, those who died because of him, those whose names were known and those whose names were unknown—these dead came back to life, filling the theater, waiting for the performance to begin.

Then the curtain was drawn back.

The stage setting is a cemetery, with a red moon hanging high. The public cemetery is cold and quiet, with countless tombstones standing silently. Suddenly, one of the graves shakes, and then something bursts through the soil and emerges.

It was a hand, a hand without skin, covered in blood.

After the hand reached out, a grotesque and twisted body emerged next. Lu Ze, watching from below, saw his crazed and contorted self push aside the coffin and grave soil, bathed in moonlight. When he realized he was still alive, for some reason, he appeared to be in immense pain.

No, it should be described as extremely painful.

He pounded his still-healing head against the tombstone, beat himself, and struggled on the ground. The pain wasn't physical; it was more spiritual, stemming from the vision he saw before death.

"why why!"

Luze saw himself on the stage, desperately asking himself and calling out his sister's name, "Cecilia! Cecilia!"

"Stop, don't think about it anymore! I don't want to be in so much pain."

"Hey!"

Suddenly, his fingers dug deep into his own skull, tearing it apart. From the rising steam of flesh and blood, a phantom sound of ocean waves echoed. The waves surged, revealing his own illusory form, which he grabbed and tore off a piece!
"what!"

The tearing pain inflicted on his mind caused him immense suffering, yet he did not cease his actions. The illusory fragment detached from its original form, drifted to the ground, and soon, wriggled, transforming into a completely new illusory human figure.

—Red hair and golden eyes, wearing a white robe, resembling Ms. M.

"That's how I was born."

Lu Ze heard the woman beside him say, "Subconsciously, you shaped my image into this form. It's probably because you think that someone who looks like this has extremely strong mental control abilities."

The performance on stage continued. After the figure that looked exactly like Ms. M appeared, Lu Ze did not stop. Instead, he continued to tear his own body apart, using the torn flesh to create a girl's body with precise proportions, exactly the same as Cecilia's.

However, the body appeared stiff and eerie, possessing only vitality but no soul.

A woman resembling Ms. M assisted from the side, her golden eyes glowing. A seemingly illusory sound of ocean waves could be heard, and a transparent shadow slowly formed in the air, falling into the girl's body. As a result, the previously stiff girl quickly became lively, like a doll that had come to life.

"Her personality was created based on your memories, through the power of that sea."

The woman's voice continued to ring out from below the stage.

On the stage, the girl stood up and helped the exhausted Lu Ze.

"elder brother."

She said the voice was exactly the same as Cecilia's.

No, you're not.

Upon hearing this, Lu Ze on the stage appeared extremely distressed, shaking his head repeatedly. He turned to Ms. M and said to her, "Let me forget these things, let me forget them!"

The performance came to an abrupt end, and the curtain slowly closed.

However, the audience had no intention of applauding, because this was only the first act of the story, and there were more important plot developments to come.

　Thank you to reader Psyduck with furrowed brows for the generous donation of 1100 Qidian coins.

　　The third of Lu Ze's three prototypes is Agni from "Fire Fist".

　　
　
(End of this chapter)