Two Cities, I build mecha in Picheng

Chapter 206 Shadow Gate, the darkness that comes like a shadow

On the way to Drop Street, Caitlin looked worried.

Li Lin raised her eyebrows, she didn't look like this when she went out this morning, "Are you worried about Valentina?"

"It's not just her, there are other things." Caitlin opened her mouth and said with a little hesitation, "I don't know if I should tell you about this kind of thing..."

Li Lin shook his head, unfolded the armor on his right hand, and gently took her slightly cold left hand, "No matter when, no matter what difficulty, I will face it with you, as long as you need me."

Caitlin's heart warmed up, her slender five fingers stretched apart, clasped together with Li Lin's right hand, and her melancholy eyebrows stretched out.

"Thank you...it's nice to have you by my side."

And Kai'Sa who was following them blinked her moist eyes, her little face flushed, and her purple pupils showed great doubts.

What did they say?This is the street, how can you be so intimate...

Caitlin pursed her lips and remained silent for a few seconds, quickly organizing what she was about to say: "Actually, Valentina's state makes me feel familiar."

"You mean... about the alchemy potion?"

"No, it's just her state." Caitlin's tone was a little uncertain. "She said that she has been having nightmares for a while, and she also feels that there is some horror in the shadows that follows her everywhere. This is not a normal phenomenon."

Li Lin felt a little surprised, "Huh? Isn't it because of the influence of the alchemy potion that she had hallucinations?"

He stared sideways at Caitlin's exquisite side face, thought for two seconds, and immediately realized: "What you want to express is... Recently, you have a case similar to Valentina's current situation?"

Caitlin nodded slightly, her expression became serious, "A few days ago, a little boy named Abel approached me and said that his father suddenly disappeared."

"Missing? What's the specific situation?"

"Abel is an 8-year-old child, his mother died young, and his father named Selwyn, 47 years old, a watchmaker, they lived in the commercial street in the southern city, where they opened a watch repair shop.

"Abel said that his father loved him very much and told him bedtime stories every day. According to my investigation, their family conditions were acceptable. After your mechanical watch went on the market, the father and son quickly got rid of their debts and are now Get on track.

"This ruled out Selwyn's abandonment of Abel. The second explanation is the kidnapping case in Zaun... But as I went deeper into the investigation, I found that this matter had nothing to do with the kidnapping at all."

Caitlin paused for a moment, her expression a little complicated, "Abel said that Selwyn had nightmares for several months before he disappeared. Selwyn didn't mention what the content was, but it seemed to be related to some shadow... It's also about fear."

"..."

Li Lin's heart twitched suddenly, and a deep sense of uneasiness came to his mind.

When he mentioned fear, he suddenly remembered the matter of Nocturne, the eternal nightmare.

In the original worldline, it did come to Piltover through nightmares, attacked a family, and ended up devouring someone.

Li Lin had already passed the specific details, but after hearing what Caitlin said, he recalled that it seemed that Nocturne attacked a father and son...

"Your face is not pretty." Caitlin noticed the change in Li Lin's expression, "Have you thought of anything?"

Li Lin shook his head, "You haven't finished talking yet, have you? Are there any more details? For example... have you found anything?"

"If you want to say it, it's a very weird horror story book called "Shadow Gate". It looks like it's been a few years old, and the binding style is in the style of Ionia. It's not even sold in the largest bookstore in the upper city. .

"This book tells the story of a young squire who stands up to a malevolent king to prevent him from bringing darkness to the world, with a happy ending.

"Looking at historical events, there should be legends referring to the Shadow Wars at the end of the Rune Wars.

"I promised Abel to help him find his father, and then started to collect clues, but after a while, Abel also disappeared suddenly.

"I reported this matter to Sergeant Grayson and asked her to send law enforcement officers to search for their traces. However, Abel seemed to have evaporated... There is no clue, and this matter has no further details."

After Caitlin finished speaking, Li Lin became more certain that this matter was caused by the shadow demon Nocturne.

"—Hiss!" He couldn't help but gasped, his face became extremely ugly.

Nocturne is a product of shadow magic.

At the end of the Rune Wars, secret groups in each country sought various ways to suppress the enemy in order to snatch the world's runes and win the war by all means.

Later, someone discovered the existence of shadow magic.

In the following years, countless shadow mages who abandoned their physical bodies and escaped into the spiritual realm hunted each other, shaping various realms composed of their own subconscious, thoughts and emotions.

Shadow magic was abused, and negative emotions affected almost all of Runeterra's humans, giving birth to a disembodied demon incarnated by fear - Nocturne, the Eternal Nightmare.

In order to prevent the world from being destroyed, at the end of the Rune Wars, almost all shadow and spirit mages fought against Nocturne and sealed it in the spiritual realm.

Afterwards, the once powerful shadow mage disappeared almost overnight, while other mages made a convention to list shadow magic as a taboo technique and forbid everyone to use it.

Although sealed into the spiritual realm, Nocturne can still affect the physical realm through people's sleeping dreams, especially nightmares, and feed on the fear brought about by nightmares.

Judging from Caitlin's statement, it is a certainty that the father and son will be swallowed by Nocturne.

And she said that Valentina's symptoms were similar to those of Selwyn described by Abel...

Maybe, Valentina's feeling is right, there is indeed a terrifying monster lurking in the shadows, a demon that feeds on nightmares and fear!

After careful consideration, Li Lin felt that his conjecture was closer to the truth.

In the original world, Valentina just disappeared suddenly, and no one knew where she went.

Looking at it now, she was not dealt with by an alchemy baron bought by a certain family.

After all, they also wanted the miniature Runeterra technology, but in the end it became a scrap decoration that lost power in the unknown square.

Perhaps it was because of the influence of the "mental confusion potion" that Valentina had hallucinations, fear and was tortured by nightmares.

Under the combination of various circumstances, it is normal to attract Nocturne.

But if it was really a demon making trouble, with Li Lin's current technology and strength, there was nothing he could do about such a demon who came and went without a trace, had no entity in the material realm, and would attack people while they were dreaming.

Noticing Li Lin's obvious abnormality, Caitlin looked puzzled, and even Kaisha couldn't help asking, "What's wrong with you?"

"This matter may not be as simple as we thought..."

"what?"

The two were speaking Piltover just now, and Kaisha didn't understand the cause and effect, her little face was full of doubts.

Li Lin didn't explain to her the conversation he just had with Caitlin just now, but the language he used was changed to Shurima.

His brown-black pupils turned, and he looked at Caitlin's jewel-like eyes with a very serious expression: "Do you still remember the story of ancient fear that I told you halfway?"

Caitlin raised her eyebrows, and immediately understood Li Lin's meaning, "You mean...these things are related to demons?"

"That's right, that's why I didn't say the name of the fearful demon you asked me before."

Li Lin took a deep breath, and said slowly: "Everything that has something to say must be known. This is true for those demigods born in the original era, and their age is similar to them, and this is especially true for demons who are incarnated from the negative emotions of living beings."

"But... aren't demons legends? They really exist?"

Born in Piltover, influenced by her family education, Caitlin has always believed that seeing is believing.

The most recent legend of Janna, the Goddess of Wind who is passed down by a small number of people in Zaun, appeared once more than 200 years ago when the excavation of the Grand Canal failed, and she never showed up at all for so many years.

Maybe those beings revered as demigods or demons are just powerful mages, like the Ascended in Shurima.

Li Lin knew Caitlin well and knew that she held a conservative attitude towards these things.

If it is like the earth without any magic, those legends are really just legends, stories passed down from generation to generation by the working people through their own artistic processing.

But in this kind of magical world, those legends may be the real things that happened.

Although there may be elements of artistic processing, you can't believe it all, but you can't completely believe it.

"They do exist, Kate." Li Lin sighed, "The ancient fear is the incarnation of the fear in the hearts of all creatures in Runeterra, and this demon, which was born later, is the product of the Rune Wars."

"Are you... are you talking about demons?" Kai'Sa couldn't help interjecting.

Li Lin and Caitlin looked down at Kai'Sa who was pale.

She hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Dad told me a story about a demon that ravaged the Targon Peak area, and was called the sleepy woman by the locals.

"It will take away people's most important abilities, steal the wisdom of the wise, and the strength of the strong, and feed on people's pain, doubt and misfortune."

After finishing speaking, Kaisha was afraid that Caitlin would not believe it, and immediately added: "This is real! In our village, there was once a guide who went on a pilgrimage to Mount Targon, but the trapped woman stole the ability to walk and was paralyzed at home. Can't go to the ground for several years!"

"This..." Caitlin turned her complicated eyes back to Li Lin, "If it's really demons, we can't deal with them at all, right?"

She bit her bloodless lower lip tightly, with a very tangled expression, "But... we can't just leave Valentina alone."

Li Lin pondered for a moment, "The demons don't have a physical body, and there is no way to deal with them in the usual way."

"However...Professor Heimerdinger has witnessed Rune Wars, and he may have a way to deal with demons.

"But before that, we have to solve the problem of the Alchemy Baron and the mastermind behind it."

(End of this chapter)