Chapter 56 Part 1

“…” Ode was a little surprised. “I never imagined you’d comfort someone like that. Did I miss something?”

【I can’t think of anything else. Even that tramp statue—I can guess what happened there.】

【Reid didn’t have much status in the annex, right? Since he knew what happened on the day Morgan made the deal, it means he must have been there. You can imagine who got sent out as the errand boy to scout the town’s situation in the end.】

【I’d bet anything that he got caught by an Elder God while snooping around outside the town. They dragged him home and gave him that whole scare. I’d say getting scared senseless was lucky—after all, the people of Dreamcatcher Town can’t even die if they want to. Which reminds me of something else that makes me happy.】

“Hm?” Ode hummed in confusion.

【Some of the townsfolk you rescued joined the logistics department. The rest, after some discussion, decided to have their memories of the monsters wiped and enter normal society in 1980. They’re at the surface church right now, getting ready to head out. Want to go see?】

【Go take a look. See what you’ve brought to this world.】

·

Standing at the edge of the outpost, watching the people at the church door in the distance embrace each other goodbye, shouldering their packs as they set off one by one—it was a feeling too hard to put into words.

“You know,” Little Qianning’s voice came from behind Ode. Ode turned around and caught the can of ice-cold beer Little Qianning tossed his way. “Back in university, I used to watch movies with my classmates all the time.”

“Those films were always the same old thing: the hero runs into danger, the hero saves the day… and in the grand finale, the hero stands alone or with his buddies, watching the people they saved hug each other and walk off to new lives.”

“I knew it was formulaic, but every time, this soothing sense of fulfillment would well up inside me.”

Ode eyed the canned beer curiously—it was something he’d never tried before. He popped it open with a hiss, then fumbled to slurp down the foam. The cool, malt-scented brew slid over his taste buds. “Same here. I even joked with my classmates that we’d end up as the classic government villains in those American movies—you know, the ones spouting endless jargon and bureaucratic nonsense to get in the heroes’ way. But who’d have thought, just three months after graduation, we’d end up here? It feels like…”

“Like what?” Little Qianning asked, one hand tucked in the pocket of his jeans as he glanced back at him.

The cocky playboy vibe from his student days had completely faded from that face. He didn’t have Old Qianning’s refined scholarly air from poring over books, but the shrewdness of the Qian family blended with Pharaoh’s wild defiance to create a unique charisma all his own.

Ode couldn’t help thinking how these three months had truly changed so many fates. He quickly masked it by chugging down several gulps of the wheat beer. “Like being back in the manor study. Grandfather sitting in his chair, me curled up on the windowsill reading in the sunlight… It wasn’t exactly joy, just… contentment.”

Ode tapped his chest. “This spot right here felt so full, like the whole world and everything I could ever want was right there in front of me—”

Ode stared toward the church door, his words cutting off abruptly midway.

“? What are you staring at?” Little Qianning followed Ode’s gaze in confusion. “Abel? What, first time seeing Chief Eva’s legitimate partner and shocked he’s such a bookish pretty boy?”

“…Hold this for me. I need to talk to Abel.” Ode shoved the beer into Little Qianning’s arms and strode toward Abel, who stood at the church entrance.

“??” Little Qianning looked down at the can thrust into his hands, then couldn’t hold back and yelled after him, jumping up. “Hold your what?! You’re already done with it! If you don’t wanna throw out your own trash, just say so!”

Ode ignored him completely. His gaze sharpened only on Abel at the door, who pursed his lips in that familiar expression Ode had grown used to over the past half month—a mix of hesitation and softness in his eyes.

Ode’s sudden approach wasn’t part of Vicky’s team’s plans at all. They moved to block him before he could cause trouble by showing up rashly, but Ode pushed through the crowd first and grabbed Abel’s wrist. “Abel, right? Can we talk in private?”

“Wait—” Vicky’s team started to intervene, but Ode shoved them aside.

Ode fixed Abel with his stare. “Or we can talk right here. I don’t mind.”

“…” Abel opened his mouth as if to refuse, but met Ode’s unwavering gaze and finally yielded. “Fine.”

Two minutes later, in Abel’s office.

“I can hardly believe it… Chief Eva—the one we’ve been dealing with for the past half month—was you in disguise?!”

Ode didn’t even wait to ask Abel. He pinned it down the moment he walked in. “Don’t bother denying it. I knew it—Eva’s style suddenly turned hesitant and mild? Telling me not to eat recklessly because of the extracted gray mist? That’s not something Eva would say. She’d just want to stuff me in a lab, feed me precise doses, and squeeze out more research data.”

“I’ll admit, there were a few seconds where I wondered if you’d attacked the real Eva… but today’s Eva was very much ‘Eva,’ so this whole impersonation was planned between you two? Why?”

“…” Abel stayed silent.

Ode waited a moment longer, then tapped his earpiece. “Don’t pretend you’re offline. I’ve switched to private channel. Or do you prefer I flip back to team freq?”

【No.】 Eva finally spoke up. After a pause, she couldn’t hold back her irritation and tsked. 【Sometimes I really wish you and Faust would turn into total airheads…】

【Remember that mission in the South Pacific? Faust’s guess was right. I did make a deal with Khirra. While everyone else was back at the rest point recovering, I fished Khirra out of the ship—】

“What?” Ode’s brow twitched. “What did you want with Khirra?”

Eva paused, then said: 【Fusion.】

Ode: “?? Fu—”

【Let me finish!】 Eva’s voice sharpened sternly. 【We both know it! With our current power, we can’t beat the enemy. Sometimes you’ve got to take a desperate gamble! Go preach ‘even in a hopeless battle, we fight fair and square’ to those saints! I don’t have that kind of morality.】

Ode: “This has nothing to do with morality. Didn’t you hear what I said about everyone who touched taboos and failed in the end—”

【Exactly because of your description!】 Eva’s voice cut like a guillotine, clean and sharp. 【Think about it—in that future where the Great Race of Yith possessed everyone, why did I still have my own consciousness? Didn’t you find that off?】

【The Great Race of Yith’s possession swaps their soul with the target’s. So why did my consciousness stay?】

【Because I succeeded! This fusion experiment! The Yith couldn’t displace my soul! Your description proved the experiment could work!】

“…” Ode’s mouth hung open, struggling to accept Eva’s logic. He’d been desperately proving he wasn’t a monster, and here Eva wanted to fuse with one on purpose? He didn’t even know if she’d already succeeded!

It took him a while to find his voice. “So what? Even if you succeeded in that loop, we still lost.”

【That’s the second warning your description gave me.】

【War isn’t a stage for individual heroics, Ode. Maybe the strong survive to the end, but what’s the point of facing a shattered world alone?】

【We need more standardized weapons. Khirra, your blood, plus that chunk of Cthulhu’s severed limb in the Sahara outpost… Imagine what we could do with them.】

【A whole batch of weapons fueled by replicated Cthulhu flesh, effective against Great Old Ones, without polluting the users.】

“…” Ode froze.

Wasn’t this exactly what he’d once wanted?

More, stronger weapons.

Eva’s voice lowered. 【Only God knows how impossible victory is for us. Only the enemy knows how vast the gap is between us and Them.】

【We’re fighting gods, Ode. You want to lecture the divinities who treat Dreamcatcher Town’s residents like consumables about morality?】

【Don’t fear the taboo, Ode. We’re here to kill it.】

“…” The Ode from half a month ago might have rejected Eva’s plan outright, but after piecing together those mad memory fragments, he knew all too well the desperation they faced. “How do you plan to break it to Faust?”

【Honestly? I was going to find time in the next couple days, but with your background coming out… I’ll wait a few more days for the right moment. Besides that, I need more samples from you.】

Ode fell silent for a moment. “Don’t get me wrong—I’m not refusing. Just… this fusion comes with no cost? I don’t buy it.”

“Tell me, Eva. How much time do you have left?”

Eva said: 【Enough to see the big battle through, then light some fireworks together. Or walk with you into the next loop.】

Meanwhile, at London Cemetery.

Faust used the handkerchief from his chest pocket to wipe his wife’s tombstone clean. He squatted in front of it, staring at the black-and-white photo for a long moment. “…I’ve found this brat lately. Sharp as a tack, you know? Even when emotions run high and he’s crazy enough to go down with the enemy, he still calculates the optimal plan. More than once, I wanted to slap the table and cheer, but I couldn’t— he’s already hard enough to rein in. Encourage him a few more times, and the kid’ll get completely out of hand?”

The tombstone, of course, didn’t answer. Faust blinked rapidly. “And he’s gorgeous, too. Sometimes I think—if you were still here, our child might’ve turned out like that: sharp like me, beautiful and stubborn like you…”

Faust couldn’t go on. He cleared his throat hard against the lump. “I know I swore in front of your body that I’d hunt any monster that crossed my path. Because I didn’t want the tragedy that hit me to hit anyone else. Because I wanted revenge for you. But I might… have to break that vow.”