Meanwhile, in Nevick's luxurious villa, Chu Xi, her hands and face stained with blood, sensed someone rapidly approaching.
The eye that wasn't mechanical squeezed out a line of clear tears. With a violent yank, she tore off her left arm, then collapsed to the floor, closing her eyes.
She wasn't ready for a confrontation with Lumine just yet...
-
Outside the villa, Lumine sprinted ahead, with Paimon, Navia, Melus, and Silver hot on her heels.
As they neared the villa, Lumine caught a thick, metallic scent of blood, intensifying her foreboding. Her pace quickened, showing no signs of slowing even as she approached the tightly shut main gate.
Lumine clenched her fist, a dense surge of Geo Element coalescing around her right hand.
"Yaah—!"
With an enraged punch, she blasted the gate open and charged straight up to the second floor without pausing.
"Damn it! That's the smell of blood! Those wretched bastards!" Navia's usually cheerful face hardened completely. How strong this stench is! What vile deeds have these monsters committed? Unforgivable!
Melus and Silver exchanged grim glances, both seeing the gravity of the situation reflected in each other's eyes.
They quickened their steps, positioning themselves beside Navia, their senses on high alert.
-
Player World.
The players were also caught up in the tense atmosphere, their hearts pounding with anxiety.
Night, a kidnapped girl, the smell of blood... These clues were enough to fuel their imaginations into concocting a gruesome drama.
[Lyney and Lynette's ordeal already made me think there were plenty of scumbags among Fontaine's wealthy. I never imagined the situation was this dire!]
[The kidnapped girl has likely already met with a tragic end!]
[Could it be that the so-called Serial Disappearance Case isn't about dissolution after all, but rather about being...]
[No, it must be two separate groups!]
-
Lumine had barely reached the second floor when she was confronted with a scene that shook her to her core: corpses everywhere, blood splattered across every surface, and the dead lying in gruesome disarray, limbs severed and strewn about.
"Lumine!"
Paimon fluttered up from behind. Lumine whirled around and quickly covered the little sprite's eyes.
"What's wrong? What happened here?"
"Paimon, don't look! You'll have nightmares!"
Lumine clamped her hand firmly over Paimon's eyes. The tiny companion initially struggled, but after hearing Lumine's warning and catching a whiff of the nauseating stench of blood, she quieted down. Without Lumine's help, she turned away and retreated, covering her own eyes.
"Partner, this place..." Navia began, but the sight before her forced the words back down her throat.
"Young Miss!"
"Watch out!"
Melus and Silver swiftly moved to Navia's side, positioning themselves as protective shields on either side of her.
"What on earth happened here?!" Navia demanded, her voice trembling.
As the current President of the Spina di Rosula, Navia had witnessed countless horrors, but nothing she had ever seen could compare to the sheer brutality of this scene.
The room, splattered with blood, littered with severed limbs and viscera, turned her stomach.
Gah~
Unable to bear it any longer, Navia turned away and grabbed the railing, retching violently.
Melus and Silver were equally disturbed, but Lumine, her face as cold as ice, began pacing the room, carefully examining her surroundings.
Suddenly, Lumine's eyes were drawn to a patch of white beside a sofa. It seemed to be a girl lying on the floor, wearing a large white hood.
Lumine approached cautiously and gently nudged the white figure lying face down on the floor.
There was no response. Moreover, the figure's texture... didn't feel human.
Slowly, Lumine turned the figure over. The instant she saw the face, a thunderclap seemed to explode in her mind, her eyes widening in shock.
"Chu... Chu Xi?!"
How could it be Chu Xi? Why was she here? And what were those... mechanical parts... on her body?!
Lumine's mind reeled with questions, but this wasn't the time for answers. She swiftly scooped Chu Xi into her arms, glanced around anxiously, and finally laid her on a relatively clean sofa.
Navia couldn't bear the scene and had already gone downstairs with Paimon.
If Paimon were still here and heard Chu Xi was here, she wouldn't care about whether she was having a nightmare or not; she would immediately open her eyes and rush to Chu Xi's side.
Beside the sofa:
"Chu Xi, how are you? Are you alright?" Lumine whispered, but Chu Xi didn't respond.
"Your arm..."
Chu Xi's left arm was gone, the mechanical parts still sparking intermittently. Lumine frantically groped around and discovered that, aside from her head, Chu Xi's entire body was almost entirely mechanical.
The Doctor!
Lumine gritted her teeth, her eyes burning with hatred.
She should never have let Chu Xi seek out the Doctor in the first place. If Chu Xi hadn't gone looking for him, she wouldn't have ended up like this now!
That damned Doctor! I'll kill you!
Lumine clenched her fists so tightly that her knuckles cracked.
At that moment, Chu Xi slowly opened her eyes and immediately saw Lumine. "Traveler..."
"Chu Xi!"
"Traveler, it's really you! I'm not dreaming..."
"It's me, Chu Xi. What's wrong? What happened?!"
"I..."
Chu Xi gripped Lumine's arm tightly with her unbroken right hand. "The Doctor tricked me. I shouldn't have trusted him. He transformed me into this... It's so painful. I barely managed to escape..."
"I heard you were in Fontaine, so I came to find you. This body... I can barely control it. I'm so weak. They captured me and locked me in the basement. They wanted to... to..."
A tear of anguish streamed from Chu Xi's right eye. "I didn't want to kill them. I just wanted to escape. I can't control this body! I swear, I didn't mean to kill them... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."
Lumine pulled Chu Xi into a tight embrace, her own eyes red-rimmed.
"It's okay, Chu Xi. They deserved it. They all deserved to die. You did nothing wrong. I'm here now. You don't have to be afraid. You don't have to be afraid..."
Chu Xi buried her face in Lumine's arms and wept softly.
-
[ Live Stream. ]
[ Doctor, you truly deserve to be sent to the eighteenth hell! ! ! ]
[ Waaah, my precious Chu Xi traveled across nations to find us, only to encounter this?! ]
[ Good! Good riddance! These disgusting Fontaine Nobles should have died long ago. Chu Xi did well to kill them! ]
[ I can't take it anymore! When is the Doctor finally going to show his health bar?! ]
-
Inside the villa, first floor.
Lumine carried Chu Xi downstairs, while Paimon continued patting Navia's back. When she saw Lumine descending with a girl in her arms, she flew over.
"Lumine, is that the kidnapped girl...? Huh? It's Chu Xi?!"
"Mm-hmm."
Chu Xi had cried herself into unconsciousness. Since the second floor wasn't suitable for recovery, Lumine had carried her downstairs.
Besides Chu Xi, Lumine had also found Chu Xi's severed mechanical arm on the second floor.