Ren continued walking in the rain, water soaking through his Umbral Gentleman attire until the fabric clung to his skin. He didn't give a shit about whether he was going to get wet or not. The physical discomfort was nothing compared to the storm raging inside his mind.
A lot of topics began to run through his head as he walked. Questions about the soul ocean, about what he had become, about whether Lu Changcheng knew the truth of what lay beyond death. Questions about the monsters feeding in that realm of dissolved humanity, about his own transformation, about whether anyone else had ever escaped that place. But all of it ended in questions, and not even one answer emerged from the chaos of his thoughts.
The city lights continued to shine through the rain, their warm glow reflecting off wet pavement in streaks of gold and white. The bustling sound of cars running through puddles filled the air, their tires hissing against asphalt as they carried their passengers to destinations that seemed impossibly normal and mundane.
Around him, he could see scenes of people talking and laughing with each other. Couples sharing umbrellas, friends ducking into cafes to escape the downpour, families hurrying home with their children. They all looked so blissfully unaware of what awaited them after death, so innocent in their ignorance of the cosmic horror that lurked just beyond the veil of mortality.
"How I envy them," he whispered, his voice lost in the sound of falling rain.
This burden of knowledge was hard to bear. To know that every person he passed on the street was destined for the soul ocean, that their laughter and love and hope would eventually dissolve into that liquid mass of suffering. To understand that death wasn't a release but a transformation into something worse than life could ever be.
Ring ring.
The sound of his smartphone vibrating in his pocket cut through his melancholy. He took it out and looked at the screen, water droplets immediately beading on its surface. The caller ID showed Lu Changcheng's name.
Ren stared at the phone for a moment, his thumb hovering over the answer button. His sworn brother was probably worried about him, probably wanted to check on his recovery and make sure he was adjusting well to being human again. But how could he explain what he had seen? How could he tell Lu Changcheng about the soul ocean without sounding completely insane?
He pressed the decline button.
"I don't want to talk to anyone right now," he muttered, sliding the phone back into his pocket.
Ren continued to walk aimlessly through the rain-soaked streets, his feet carrying him through neighborhoods he didn't recognize. The city seemed endless, stretching in all directions with its maze of roads and buildings. He had been drifting for hours now, and the sky had already darkened from gray to deep purple as evening approached.
But as he walked, he began to feel something weird. Like something was calling to him, tugging at his consciousness with invisible threads. The sensation was subtle at first, easy to dismiss as his imagination or the aftereffects of his traumatic memories. But it grew stronger with each step, guiding him to turn left here, right there, follow this street until it became that alley.
He found himself walking further and further from the main roads, deeper into narrow alleyways and side streets that seemed to exist in the gaps between the city's more traveled paths. The buildings around him grew older, more atmospheric, as if he was moving backward through time with each turn.
Then he suddenly noticed that it was too quiet here.
The sounds of the city had faded away gradually, so slowly that he hadn't realized when the last car had passed or the final voice had echoed off the walls. Now there was only the sound of rain hitting pavement and the soft whisper of water running down gutters. He began to look around and realized there wasn't a single living being around him. Not even a fly or an ant, no pigeons sheltering under eaves, no cats slinking through shadows. The absence of life was so complete it felt like stepping into a vacuum.
He finally arrived at his destination, drawn by the invisible force that had been guiding his steps.
There was a strange bookstore nestled between an expensive cigar shop and a high-class suit shop. Both neighboring establishments looked elegant and modern, their windows displaying luxury goods with tasteful lighting and sophisticated arrangements. But the bookstore looked completely out of place among its upscale neighbors.
If he had to describe it, it looked like a three-story haunted house that had somehow been transplanted from a gothic novel into the middle of a commercial district. The building was narrow and tall, with dark wood siding that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it. The windows were tall and arched, filled with diamond-paned glass that was too old and too thick to see through clearly. A wrought-iron fence surrounded a small front garden that was overgrown with plants that seemed to thrive in the darkness and rain.
The sign above the door was carved from what looked like black marble, with letters that seemed to shift and change when he wasn't looking directly at them.
"The Library of Levi," it read in script that belonged to an earlier, more mysterious age.
"Fuck it. There's some power that pulled me here anyway. The store's appearance is the least suspicious thing about it," Ren muttered, approaching the front door.
Ring.
The sound of an old-fashioned bell echoed through the interior as Ren opened the door and stepped into the bookstore. The contrast between the cold, wet street and the warm, dry
Then a voice greeted him from somewhere in the depths of the store.
"Welcome, my dear patron, to the Library of Levi."
The voice was cultured and smooth, with an accent that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. It carried the authority of education and the warmth of genuine hospitality, but underneath it was something else. Something that suggested its owner knew more about Ren's situation than any normal person should.
"My name is Levi Warwick. I'm the librarian and the master of this place," he continued, approaching Ren with a smile that was both welcoming and knowing.
He stopped a few feet away and tilted his head slightly, studying Ren with those unnaturally green eyes. When he spoke again, his voice carried a note of familiarity that made Ren's skin crawl.
"So how may I help you, Doctor?"