Siren Blade

Chapter 61
"Once the demons that are active in the dense fog are eliminated, they will turn into mist and return to the body of the fog demon, becoming the hatching material for new demons. But if they are eliminated by you, they are truly eliminated." The hunter explained, "Although the tentacle demon will not pose a fatal threat to the main body even if it dies, she believes that if you are allowed to continue to move, sooner or later it will develop into a serious problem for her."

Maybe the succubus can also try to order the demons not to approach me.Since she is now the Demon of Mist, then things of this level must be possible.But in her territory, there is someone she has to detour, which must be intolerable to her.

What's more, the dense fog that fills this land is still her own body.In other words, when I swing the ax in the dense fog, it will also cause slight damage to her body.This is simply a thorn in the flesh in the literal sense.

In fact, even if I swung my ax until I was exhausted, it would be impossible to pose a fatal threat to the Demon of Mist's unusually large body in this way.Just by slashing the mist, he couldn't feel that he had absorbed any spiritual fragments.But that's what my family knows about me.When she found that the Siren Blade could cut away the fog itself little by little, what uneasy associations would she have?
At the beginning, she didn't know that those demons were not only eliminated by me, but also swallowed by me, so she took the initiative to attack.That kind of ability has never been shown in my past five years as Majin Lido.So she only finally found out after watching my fight up close...wait...

close range?I suddenly noticed something was wrong.

Isn't she the Demon of the Mist now?In other words, I am in her body, is there any closer distance than this?

Why did she need to fight me "close range" before she could see that I could absorb spirit fragments?

I feel like I've caught something very crucial.

"In the end...why did she invade Bairi Town?" Joan couldn't help asking, "Since she has merged with the Fog Demon, does that mean that her goal has been achieved? Then it's better to just get out and leave."

"She has fused with the Mist Demon, and a dozen people are only enough for the 'starting fee'. To fully integrate, more people need to be sacrificed." The hunter replied, "Although she has completed the fusion now, she will have to fight again in the future. Other law enforcement warlocks who came to attack her. In order to recharge her energy, she should try to devour the surviving residents first."

"The assistance from the Security Bureau has not come yet, is it because the time inside the thick fog is inconsistent with the time outside?" I asked.

"Yes... no matter how much time passes here, it is only a moment to the outside world. But it is still important to maintain the feeling of time. It doesn't matter whether you think it's days or weeks or even months, But it's best not to let yourself become ignorant of how much time has passed. Otherwise, even if you leave the fog, you may not be able to return to the correct time." The hunter said, "In addition, this thick fog also has the effect of hindering perception .People with high awareness will not be able to perceive their surroundings normally, while those with low awareness will get lost in the thick fog. It should be difficult for you to meet other people, because they are all lost, but the two of you are not."

"Do you know another warlock named Saber Tooth?" I asked. "He seems to have a way of finding lost survivors."

"...I know him." Hearing the word Saber Teeth, the hunter paused, and then said, "He managed to actively lower his awareness and make himself lost. Although doing so will become more than normal It is difficult to maintain the sense of space, even the normal sense of time, but in that state, you can reach other lost people."

No wonder Saber Tooth reacted so slowly to danger before... As I thought about it, I said, "He probably did this to save those residents."

"Yes, he also built a stronghold of survivors in the town." The hunter closed his eyes in pain, "And I attacked there..."

"What?" Joan was surprised, "Why did you do that?"

"Because he has the poison against the fog demon." The hunter said, "Although he can't kill the fog demon, he can stop it for a day and temporarily dissipate the dense fog... However, it can't be done now."

"Why?" I asked.

"He has consumed most of the poison, and the remaining part is insufficient. Moreover, I can tell that the poison is first injected into the demon that is the tentacles of the devil of mist, so that it can infect the devil of mist's whole body. But This method only works for the original irrational Mist Demon, but now the Mist Demon is a succubus, and she immediately separated the infected tentacles after being poisoned, so the poison was wasted." The hunter said, "But The succubus is still worried that Saber Tooth has other means, so it sent me to attack there."

"Speaking of other means..." I said, "Where is the wooden box used to seal the fog demon?"

"It has been destroyed by the succubus herself, she can't keep the kind of props that can be used against herself," said the hunter.

It is true, although she is not a person who is good at scheming, but she is not so stupid as that.

Saber Tooth's poison tactic failed, and the wooden box I was counting on was also destroyed, and now it's a dead end again.

I tried asking about the investigator again.It's the investigator I came into contact with when I first entered White Day Town, whose body was torn open by a demon.He was apparently also killed by the Fog Demon.

"The investigator once asked me for help. He had a nightmare about the fog demon and realized that something bad was going to happen in Bairi Town, so he contacted me, the resident. Sometimes there will be something like him Although the gray people cannot learn spells, their perception is stronger than ordinary warlocks. Presumably his perception is warning him in the form of precognitive dreams." The hunter said with great guilt, "I obviously knew ...But any matter involving demons, even just dreaming is very dangerous, especially a demon as powerful as the Mist Demon. I am afraid that when the Mist Demon was dreamed by him, he implanted his tentacles through the dream into his body."

His voice became more and more self-hatred, "But I lied to him and told him nothing would happen. I even wanted to kill him in advance, but I didn't want to do anything extra."

"You did that because the succubus controlled your mind." I said, thinking at the same time that the investigator might not fully trust the hunter.

That's why he insisted on handing over the information he got about the whereabouts of the succubus to me face to face, probably because he wanted to consult me, a foreign law enforcement warlock, for my opinion.However, the situation deteriorated faster than he had imagined, and there was probably no room for him to change his mind and report the situation directly to the Security Bureau.When I arrived, he had already been tortured by the demons in his body and lost his basic ability to take care of himself.

"That's right, I was brainwashed by the succubus with the power of charm. I did it because I was dominated by my mind... I am not responsible, I am not wrong, I have nothing wrong... I really didn't kill them. It's..." He held his head in pain, almost tearing off his scalp.How ugly, I thought.But still the same sentence, I don't know what kind of life he lived before being charmed, and how he personally destroyed his own life after being charmed, let alone experience his heartache at this moment.Therefore, I would not presumptuously assert that he was a weak man.

His voice was extremely hoarse, "Why...why my mind is still so confused when I think about her..."

"This is a sequela of mental domination, and it will heal after a while." I recalled what Lie Que and Qingniao once said to me, and then said, "But just in case, you should not participate in the future." Into the battle against the succubus."

"...I know you, Demon Li Duo...you were also brainwashed by monsters and forced to do many heinous things...how did you solve this problem?" he asked in a low voice.

Without hesitation, I said, "I have not been brainwashed."

"What did you say?" He stared at me dumbfounded.

"I have not been brainwashed," I repeated, then added, "I committed those crimes myself."

He seemed to be involuntarily got up and left his seat, backed away as if he couldn't accept it, and asked in disbelief: "You, you...you actually said that...are you serious? Why..."

I got up too, and said, "You should know how to get to Saber Tooth's stronghold, take me there."
-
The hunter walked ahead in dismay, leading Joan and me.

I watched his behavior without saying a word, and at the same time I looked into my own heart.Could it be that the reason why I didn't kill him was not only because I wanted to obtain information, but also because I wanted to know how he would examine himself after he woke up?
From myself as a demon to myself as a law enforcement warlock, I think my thoughts have always maintained continuity.So, even though others said I was brainwashed, I felt unacceptable.However, assuming that I have really been brainwashed, is the so-called "continuity of self-thought" just an illusion brought about by brainwashing?It's like in a dream, many things that I thought were logical are actually illusions, and only after I really wake up can I realize my mistakes? ——No, let’s stop first.

You can't think that way.Even if you adopt a "hypothetical" thinking, you should not think in the direction that you may have been brainwashed.I'm just human, easily depraved, dependent on good possibilities.

"Li Duo..." Qiao An looked at me from the side. From just now, he was always hesitant to speak.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"No, I..." He hesitated for a while, and finally said, "Are you really going to Saber Tooth?"

"He's helping survivors now, so I have to help too," I said.And when it comes to dealing with the succubus, I also have some ideas of my own, and I may need his assistance.

It seems to me that the succubus probably didn't really become a mist demon.

Looking back, there are really many suspicious places.

For example, since the thick fog covering the town of White Day is her body, why does she need to squeeze out a humanoid body to fight me?If the humanoid body is just an insignificant tentacles compared to her huge body, why don't you take out a few more of these "tentacles" to besiege me?
Why didn't the succubus try to stop or silence me when I lifted the hunter's enchanted state, and when the hunter revealed important information to me?Since we are all in her body, she should be able to control our every move, right?

She even needs to observe me closely with her pinched body before she can see that I can absorb the fragments of her spirit body.

All kinds of signs seem to point to the fact that her consciousness is still the original consciousness, and has not changed due to the change of body.Therefore, she can neither completely control the entire body of the Mist Demon, nor can she fully connect with the Mist Demon's proper perception.

Was it because her ritual of fusing with the Mist Demon had failed?Probably not.She must have succeeded.It is only debatable on the standard of success.

Changing the body means changing the organs of thinking and perception.If human beings do not think with biological brains, but with computer chips, there must be a big difference in the composition of personality.

And the difference between her and the Mist Demon is also huge. Once she completely changes into the Mist Demon's body, her original personality will be eliminated, and what will be born after that is only a new personality that has little connection with her original one.Maybe it can't even be called a "personality", it's just a brand-new consciousness of the devil of fog.

From a purely technical point of view, it must have been a successful fusion; but from her own point of view, it was undoubtedly a failed fusion.

I think, somewhere in White Day Town, her original body should be existing in the form of the central organ of the Mist Demon.Only by doing so, can she not only retain her original personality, but also merge with the fog demon.From the perspective of the Mist Demon, this is probably a failed fusion.The original mist demon was harmless, but now it has a fatal weakness of succubus for no reason.

Moreover, the succubus in this form should not be able to transfer to the random ruins alone, just like the heart cannot leave the body and escape by itself.

Thinking of this, I have the intuition of "hitting the bull's-eye", and it seems that this conjecture is likely to be correct.

I tried asking the hunter to see if he knew where the succubus was, but he didn't know anything about it either.

He didn't even think that the fusion of the succubus and the fog demon was not complete.It's no wonder that he is still suffering from the sequelae of succubi, so he seems to avoid thinking about things related to succubi.Moreover, in the eyes of the succubus who has lost her charm, the hunter is a character who will betray her sooner or later, so she will not reveal all her secrets.

Fortunately, the hunter still proved my speculation, that is, the reason why the succubus was able to lock me and the exact location of Saber Tooth was not using the fog demon's perception, but the hunter's tracking ability.It can be seen that the succubus really does not have a clear perception of this fog.

After a while, we finally came to the survivor stronghold.

It was a supermarket, and there must have been a lot of supplies in it, so it was perfect as a base.According to the hunter, it is the biggest supermarket in Bairi Town.I saw two people guarding the entrance, so I stopped at a distance out of their sight.

"In the beginning, he took a few people to use a small convenience store as a base, but later he rescued more and more survivors, and he had to spend a lot of time leading the team to move here." Hunter said, "He is still deploying here. An enchantment was created to prevent the fog from invading the supermarket, and the current succubus cannot invade at will. Moreover, if you are here, you will not get lost, and you can get in touch with other survivors."

As a wild person like me, I can't do any barrier setting, but for a real warlock, setting barriers seems to be a basic skill.

"I'll stop here, just go in with the two of you." The hunter hesitated, "I attacked here before, some people recognized my face, and I wounded the saber teeth..."

"No, you have to act with us." Who knows if the current succubus has other means of deceiving people, and he is still suffering from the sequelae of charm, I can't rest assured that he can act alone.

When we came to the entrance of the supermarket, the two guards were on alert immediately, and they didn't relax their vigilance even when they discovered that it was a human being.

But none of their eyes turned to the hunter, who had silently kept himself inconspicuous.This level of "hiding" is the basic skill of a warlock, even I can use it.

One of them looked at me twice more, and then his eyes widened.

(End of this chapter)