I write obituaries for the gods

But when her usually clumsy older brother so bluntly asked Xileina this question...

The girl noticed that her heart seemed to be beating.

Tick-tock...tick-tock...like an alarm clock, reminding her that something had been forgotten behind her.

“It’s time to go,” Xileina whispered. “Time is running out, we need to get ready.”

After saying that, she abandoned her brother and rushed to her bedroom like a fleeing deer.

......

In the driver's seat of the Toyota, Jiang Zhengge closed his eyes to rest.

It was pouring rain outside the window. It was dusk, and the golden light was shattered by the rain, scattering in the puddles along the street.

Jiang Zhengge disliked this atmosphere: it was desolate, and the stagnant air exuded an eerie feeling.

He was constantly worried about his parents' safety. He had never been so anxious when dealing with cases of unusual erosion before, but this time was different. His father had asked him to come home for drinks the night before last—today was his parents' wedding anniversary.

Jiang Zhengge didn't understand what his parents' wedding anniversary had to do with him. After bringing his parents to Yudu, he didn't really communicate with them except for sending them money.

After all, those two old guys came to Yudu hoping he would take care of them in their old age, and they rarely called him except to ask for money. So why did his father suddenly call him just the day before yesterday?

Jiang Zhengge now desperately wanted to go to this drinking session, even though that damned drunkard had never given him a kind look since childhood.

Damn it, why did he have to disappear right after making the call?

"Depend on!"

Jiang Zhengge slammed his fist on the steering wheel, breathing heavily.

The car was poorly soundproofed, and the rain felt like it was hitting his face; the icy chill seeped into his entire body.

After composing himself, Jiang Zhengge pressed the earpiece and said softly:

"That thing opens the door at midnight. Are you ready?"

"All in position. Investigators have been deployed at all possible openings in the ruins. We will enter immediately as soon as the doors open."

"Cheer up," Jiang Zhengge raised his voice, "Operation code name: Sailor."

"Section Chief, should we contact the Rom Hunters?" Wu Hao's voice came through. "There are a few risk zones in the Liberty District; maybe they can help."

Rom hunter...

Jiang Zhengge's mind flashed back to tide Leina's smiling face.

“No,” he said. “Let them stay safely at home. Leave the professional work to the professionals.”

"receive."

Boom!

Amidst the symphony of lightning, Xileina led the Rom hunter into a secluded alley.

In the center of the alley, a manhole cover stood abruptly open, emanating a dark aura.

“This is it,” Xileina put down the crystal ball. “This is currently the only passage into the ruins.”

"Are you sure, Rombarlo?" Chaco asked, frowning as he carried a silver sword.

“At least until midnight,” Xilena whispered. “At midnight, the ruins will be infinitely close to the real world, countless entrances will appear, and its tentacles will emerge simultaneously.”

“If things get to that point, the Bureau of Investigation should cover for us,” the brother said in a low voice, “but they don’t understand Katrina, they have no experience with her.”

“If too many people enter at once, it will wake it up prematurely. Let me handle it,” Xileina said softly. “You just follow behind and cover me. I’ll deal with it.”

"Be careful, Xileina." Her brother gently patted her shoulder.

tide Lena drew a silver dagger from her waist and kissed the blade in the rain.

Then, with a light leap, she was the first to enter the ruins.

The moment you pass through the well opening, the surrounding space seems to shrink rapidly as if compressed, and then stretches out in an instant.

When she came to her senses, Xileina found herself standing in a sewer.

She had barely landed when she heard a rustling sound—

"Chirp chirp chirp..."

Xileina gazed into the boundless darkness, where she saw coiled tentacles crawling across the ceiling, eyeing her like hungry predators.

"..." Sensing the familiar aura, a flash of anger appeared in tide Leina's eyes.

"Long time no see."

"boom!"

The raging wind instantly tore the tentacles apart, and they burst open one after another, the purple liquid that splattered out quickly condensing into ice crystals that fell to the ground.

The ice crystals flew into the darkness ahead, clearing a path for Xileina.

......

Interlude: Past Events, Continuous Rain (Part 2) (Fifth and Sixth Updates)

In the dark sewers, Xileina felt as if she had returned to that rainy night.

At that time, she was still an ignorant girl, unaware of what the scent in the air symbolized, or where the faint blue light came from.

Now she knows.

That rainy night seemed to have descended once again: eerie blue fireflies floated in the sewers, and tentacles attacked from all directions, like the claws of evil spirits.

Among those tentacles, Xileina saw corpses, most of them having lost their flesh, leaving only skeletons that looked like they had been eroded by seawater.

Their clothing came from various gangs in the Liberty district, while some were ordinary residents.

They are the victims.

"boom!"

As Xileina's eyes flickered, a gust of wind tore a crack in the wall of tentacles.

The Rom hunters fired repeatedly from behind with their silver pistols, clearing out any blind spots that Xilena couldn't reach, creating the perfect environment for her.

The tunnel was so long that Xileina found it unbelievable: the thing had managed to pull almost half of the Liberty District's sewer system into the subspace in such a short time, and every time she looked at the crystal ball, the calculated depth was deeper than before.

If it weren't for the crystal ball's guidance, the Rom hunters might have gotten lost long ago.

"boom!"

When Xileina manipulated the liquid inside the tentacle once again, causing it to burst open, a huge sewage confluence area came into view.

Guided by the crystal ball, the entity was right in front of them.

"..."

Xileina glanced at the hunters behind her. Most of them were in pretty good condition, with only a few suffering minor scratches from the fetuses, which had all been bandaged.

“We’ve been in the ruins for a while now,” Xileina said softly. “Take the elixir.”

Everyone took a small medicine pot from their waist, which contained elixirs made from various herbs.

This potion can resist evil, in other words, it can resist subspace erosion.

Jiang Zhengge even laughed at tide Leina, saying that her idea was definitely unreliable.

tide Lena drank the potion in the small bottle in one gulp, and then took the lead in stepping forward into the pioneering area in front of her.

Dozens of sewage channels converge in the space before us, and the arched room is full of gaps, like a haphazardly pieced-together model.

A stench permeated the space, and pitch-black sewage flowed into the deep well in the center of the room, the viscous black liquid humming within it.

"Gaga gaga gaga..."

Sensing the arrival of the Rom hunters, tentacles descended from the ceiling.

“Cover me.”

tide Lena took two steps forward, raised her hand, and a deep blue light shone in her eyes—

"boom!!!"

The wind suddenly swept across the roof like a blade, like a sharp razor scraping against a stubble-covered chin!

The tentacles all fell off and exploded amidst the roar of the wind blades!

Some tentacles attacked Xilena from tricky angles, and the Rom hunters immediately stepped forward and fought them with their silver pistols and silver swords.

"Sizzle!"

"Click-clack!"

Within five minutes, all the sub-entities in the arched room were rendered harmless.

tide Lena reached out and took the crystal ball from her brother's hand, then jumped down.

She slowly approached the dark well, her eyes gleaming with a ghostly blue light.

“Katrina,” Shireina whispered, “I’ve come to find you…”

As Xileina drew closer, the dark well began to boil, as if something was eager to try something.

tide Lena suddenly waved her hand, and the wind pressure fell from the arch, pressing down hard on the deep well, turning the boiling black liquid surface into a mirror.

Behind Xileina, her brother softly chanted a prayer, concentrating his mind, his eyes gleaming with a deep blue light.

A deep blue light emanated from the crystal ball in Xileina's hand—she intended to use it to contain the entity before her and then neutralize it!

At that moment, a glimmer of light caught tide Lena's attention.

She looked down at the crystal ball: the impurities and patterns inside the crystal were illuminated by a faint light, like a dazzling nebula.

Amidst the ever-changing nebula patterns, eerie omens are flickering.

The sound of whales.

Xileina seemed to be floating in space, listening to the whale calls in the deep sky.

Something fell like a torrential rain, followed by the shattering of the entire world—

"Click click click!!"

Amidst the fragmented outlines, Xileina seemed to be staring into the eyes of something enormous.

No... those are only two of its eyes! Its eyes stood before Xileina like a wall, and alongside them were a second eye... a third eye... and countless more eyes...

"tide Lena..." Her mother's whisper came from beside her ear.

When Xileina regained her senses, she found herself lying on the ground.

Screams echoed in her ears, accompanied by the sounds of flesh being torn apart.

She looked up and saw countless enormous tentacles rising from the deep well, with eerie blue eyes interspersed among them.

The tentacles grew like a giant tree all the way up to the top of the arch, and then hung down like willow branches, constantly twisting.

The Rom hunters were being hung among those branches.

Xileina saw Chaiko: he was only left with his upper body, the outline of his cross-section merging with his tentacles, and he was wildly swinging a spine, constantly whipping his companion.

The companion screamed as he fought with "Chaiko," and with a flash of blood, the silver sword in his hand flew out.

Chaco picked up his companion, and several other tentacles quickly gathered around, splitting his companion into white and red pieces that scattered in all directions.

"tide Leina..."

The whispers came from a great distance, yet seemed so close.

Still somewhat dazed, Xileina looked up and saw the giant tentacle tree in front of her slowly splitting apart, with black pus flowing out of the gaps.

Amidst the pus, a familiar face gradually emerged.

“Mom…” tide Lena’s heart skipped a beat.

Grandma was hanging there, looking down at Xileina with a kind expression.

“Mom…!” tide Lena’s voice trembled.

She raised her hand, instinctively reaching out to her mother, but suddenly countless fragmented images flashed before her eyes.

The Tower in the center...

"..."

Tears welled up in Xileina's eyes. She suddenly waved her hand, manipulating the raging wind into wind blades, and slashed at her mother—