Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 606 Above the Shadows
early morning.

Nanwei City Wharf.

Enid stood with her hands in her pockets, waiting for the cargo ship on the sea to dock.

The fact that law enforcement officers personally greeted the smuggling ship was rather ironic.

...

In the distance, on the deck of the ship, Milo and Rebecca had already spotted Enid waiting at the dock.

“She’s starting to look more and more like you.” Milo tilted his head, looking at Enid standing on the shore with her back against the railing in the distance, then glanced at Rebecca beside him, and said, “She’s starting to look more and more like you.”

A little over a year ago, Enid had long, light brown hair and wore her school uniform most of the time. Her delicate face, coupled with her cute little tiger teeth and her aloof and ruthless behavior, made her seem like a spoiled cat most of the time.

But back then, Milo certainly couldn't have connected Enid's face with the dashing black trench coat she wore now.

It's clear that she's deliberately imitating some of Rebecca's behaviors. Not just Rebecca, but all the "experts" in the law enforcement system. This is probably the positive effect of an object of worship.

However, imitation is one thing, but some innate, ingrained traits cannot be erased in a short period of time.

Just like her face, even without makeup and with most of it covered by the shadow of her tricorn hat, at first glance she does have a slightly bitter and resentful air about her as a law enforcement officer. But once she grins, her two little tiger teeth immediately shatter all the cold and stern illusions she has created.

And that mouth of his—it could make the suspect laugh even during interrogation.

...

As soon as Rebecca of Milo reached the shore, Enid stared at her intently for a moment, then uttered something startling:

"You two slept together!"

That loud voice seemed to want even deep-sea divers to hear it.

Milo really wanted to give this silly kid a look that made his head roll back.

If she had said that to Emma, ​​Milo would have at least exclaimed, "A woman's intuition!" But to Rebecca, it was utter nonsense.

"What are you thinking about all day long?"

Milo reached out and pulled Enid's head down, then shoved Rebecca's heavy weapon case into her hands.

Enid pushed the brim of her hat, which was covering her eyes, back up and leaned close to Milo, saying, "You still say no? That's just Xingai's hairstyle."

After hearing this, Milo couldn't help but turn around and glance at Rebecca.

Indeed, that red hair did look a bit messy.

But Rebecca appeared perfectly normal in every way. Apart from the heavy weariness between her brows from the long journey, her injured face seemed to say, "Is this ever going to end?"

It's easy to see that even women made of iron need rest.

Milo was in a hurry to get home, so he only whispered an order to Enid:
"She's injured. I'm giving you a chance to get her bandaged and have her dressing changed. Make the most of it. I have to go now."

Upon hearing this, the person immediately revealed a lewd and cunning smile.

...

……

After leaving the dock.

Milo did not head straight home.

The moment he stepped onto land, he already knew that Emma had returned home safely, so he naturally didn't need to rush back to confirm.

In fact, if your senses are sharp enough at this moment, you should be able to smell something discordant in the air.

The "disharmony" mentioned here does not refer to the malice of any particular individual, but rather to the disharmony in order. Something else called order has appeared in the originally agreed-upon and mature rules of the clear world order.

That was the chaotic order from the abyss.

This was the inevitable consequence that Milo had to face after making that decision. But in any case, the apocalypse did not unfold as rapidly as he had anticipated. Although the stars in the sky were distorted, the oblivious people did not even notice it. As for the so-called abyss, no one knew anything about it.

...

The source of that smell is next to Innsmouth Station.

However, when Milo arrived in that area, he did not find the rift from the abyss, the kind that carried the already formed chaotic order, emitted a dark light, and floated there.

On the railway tracks, Milo was certain that he was standing in the exact spot where the chaotic order he had first sensed had appeared.

The surroundings are very "clean" at this moment...

...

However, Milo quickly took a few steps forward and squatted down, almost touching his face to the ground. Only then, from a side view, did he see a faint, smoky light floating on the mud and sand. And in just a few breaths, the light completely dissipated.

At this point, the traces of the chaotic order that Milo had previously sensed completely disappeared.

"That's strange."

For some reason, when it comes to the so-called arrival of the Grim Reaper, Milo always imagines a bizarre scene: a baby crawling out of a crack and running wildly through the streets.

However, the truth is that no one knows what Mego looks like. Even his creators, the Sumerians, could not know, because at any point in the past, Mego had never been born.

The black stroller and the ten-year-old boy are just figments of my imagination.

He might not even be a humanoid creature; maybe he's just a squid...

...

As Milo squatted by the railway tracks, lost in thought, he turned his head and found that the Scarlet Witch had appeared behind him, leaning on her withered wooden cane.

"You're awake."

Milo glanced indifferently at the vertical knife scar on the Scarlet Witch's chin, which was visible beneath her tattered hood.

He then threw the "meat slices" of Horthus that he had brought back from the abyss at the old witch.

This guy must have come looking for me by following the scent again.

The latter didn't say a word, and even temporarily threw his cane aside. He crawled on the ground like a wild beast and used his two withered, tree-root-like hands to grab Horsas's flesh and start gnawing on it.

Whether it's due to insufficient healing or something the Temple of the Golden Law did to the Scarlet Witch's other half of her body, the skin color of the two parts of the Scarlet Witch's body is now completely different; one side is pale, while the other is extremely dull.

However, this phenomenon was visibly restored after the Scarlet Witch swallowed the green crystals that Milo had brought back.

As her breathing gradually calmed down, the Scarlet Witch seemed to regain her senses.

"Holy Communion...delicious Holy Communion...it tastes like the Old Gods, well done, well done..."

She licked her fingers again and again until she had swallowed all the taste of Holsas, and kept sighing:
"Holy Old God, inviolable Old God, supremely beautiful..."

Milo sat on the tracks, patiently listening to the Red Witch's rambling for a while, before finally shrugging impatiently and asking, "Just eating and not doing any work?"

However, the moment his hand reached out, the Scarlet Witch grabbed it with lightning speed.

She pulled Milo's hand close to her face, almost touching it, as if examining a rare treasure. As she studied it, a sharp, unsettling laugh escaped from beneath her hood: "Hehehe... an arm drenched in the blood of Outer Gods and Old Gods—there must be no more terrifying curse in the world. With this, your preaching in the Dreamlands will be much smoother...hehe...heh..."

Milo remained silent, simply staring coldly at the Scarlet Witch.

In the end, it was the Scarlet Witch who took the initiative to cut open her wrist with her broken fingernails and give Milo the blood obtained from the Holy Communion sacrifice.

That powerful, forbidden force surged into every inch of Milo's body, and some mysterious material entanglement was silently taking place.

The power gained from the Eucharist sacrifice is quite different from the bloodstains on one's hands. Bloodstains are more like a mark of sin, while the Eucharist clearly has a background that was established in ancient times, containing deeper religious metaphors and profound principles.

...

Regardless of their faction or nature, all flesh and blood within this system are nothing more than wine and cake.

Keep in mind that these are the Old Gods and Outer Gods, the known beings standing at the top of the order. Even Milo, who has his own halo, the flesh and blood he harvested all came from the half-finished incarnations forgotten by the Outer Gods, and the extremely weakened will of the Old Gods after falling into the abyss. To put it bluntly, they were all old, weak, sick, and disabled, and it was a combination of taking advantage of loopholes and sheer luck.

The person who created the Holy Communion sacrifice could never have relied on luck for its origin; it must have been based on the fundamental prerequisite of possessing the power to slaughter gods, which led to the development of this system of power exchange rules...

……

Then Milo suddenly asked this question—

"So what lies above the shadows?"

"Above the Shadows, your fate is determined by your followers. Your nature, your title, the strength of your power—all are decided by them. You must seize everything on the battlefield, a battlefield known in human prophecies as the end times." The Scarlet Witch's hoarse voice revealed some unknown secrets:
"Heroic spirits, ancient lords... all titles are meaningless... only the ancients who are remembered have the opportunity to become gods, and be reborn in the continent of the Dreamland in a more magnificent form, just like that golden tree. Those who are forgotten by all living beings, even if they are ancients, even if they are shadow-level ancients, will one day lose their divinity. When they have completely forgotten themselves, they die. Gods are the same; being completely forgotten is the interpretation of their death."

"That's why Imnar went to great lengths to retrieve his divine status and devised the Foolish God Plan. It wasn't just for that thing underground, but also to plunder faith. No, if Nanwei City is replaced, those things that the fractals imitated will naturally be his followers..." Milo suddenly realized.

Imnar was audacious because, as a forgotten ancient being, it was on the verge of "death."

So, strictly speaking, Ithaca the Windrunner, who was "not seen on the totem," is actually dead, and Wendigo is the one who is alive now.

...

The above section is the Scarlet Witch's explanation of the Shadow's path to advancing in life level.

Although her wording was somewhat convoluted, it was still full of valuable information, and she also explained why she chose to "preach" to Milo in those lands abandoned by the gods in the Dreamlands.

Perhaps the apocalypse was already within the Scarlet Witch's expectations, or perhaps it had nothing to do with the apocalypse. If Milo, who was already in the shadows, wanted to go further, he had to take the path of missionary work.

Because only those who are believed in and remembered can become gods.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why ancient books exist.

Those ancient texts, which contain forbidden knowledge, record information about all these ancient deities unknown to the general public. In a sense, isn't this also a way for the deities to perpetuate their divine status? After all, as long as the texts exist, there will always be a group of people who thirst for truth and ancient knowledge and offer their fervent faith in a certain deity mentioned in the texts.

At this point, the fear inherent in human nature can cause "fanatics" to turn into "madness," leading to destruction.

This seems to confirm, from another perspective, the idea that fear is a shackle imposed on humanity by the gods.

To some extent, this is also an effective means of preventing lower-ranking Great Old Ones from plundering faith.

……

(End of this chapter)