Autophagy

*Thud

"Damien..?" Song Lei muttered absent-mindedly. When he diverted his eyes from Damien's hands and lifted his head up to look at his face, he realized that it wasn't there anymore.

*Thud

Hearing another one of those weird thuds, he once again lowered his head to comprehend what was going on.

It was there.

Damien's head rolled on the ground and hit the nearest wall, leaving a trail of blood behind. Seeing this, Song Lei's mind went blank. He felt cold sweat pour out from his forehead and back. His body shivered with a strong sense of grief as his eyes moistened. When he took a step back, Damien's lifeless body fell to the ground with another thud.

At the same time, Song Lei fell on his butt. All the times he spent with Damien, his jokes, and his awkward personality resonated in his head. That cheerful and energetic Damien's face was now completely empty of emotions, something Song Lei had never seen before. He felt like those empty eyes stared right at his soul, asking why he hadn't helped him in time.

"I'm sorry..." Song Lei muttered. Before his moistened eyes could overflow with tears, he felt something snap in his mind. "I'm sorry..." He once again muttered. He didn't cry, however, sat there silently, in grief, now almost completely alone in the New World.

He had met Damien in the meeting he first had with the Hammer Branch. At that time, he had killed one of their members and was being questioned. During the voting, Damien was one of the three people to stand against his punishment.

They then quickly became friends. They would occasionally spend time together. Damien's bright personality made him a pretty good friend to have around in the New World.

"They're gone..." Song Lei muttered as he got up. Wiping the moisture in his eyes with the back of his hand, he walked towards the corpses of the Soul Masters from the Secret Blood Order. After searching them, he found two black-colored talismans with red writings on them.

[You've picked up a special item! You've found a portable cloaking talisman.]

Pocketing the talismans silently, Song Lei picked Damien's body and head into his hands.

He didn't know what to do with them as he couldn't bury them anywhere. Just as he was about to go to Old Wolf's side. He heard a faint clicking noise.

"What happened here..?" Wei Zhong asked. He looked around confusedly and spotted Song Lei, carrying Damien's corpse with an emotionless face.

"You were late..." Song Lei mumbled. "Can you help me..?" He asked.

"You are..." Wei Zhong muttered confusedly, taking out a crumpled paper from his pocket. He then stared at it for a few seconds. "Song Lei..?"

"Mm," Song Lei nodded.

"You were attacked?"

"Mm."

"Secret Blood Order?"

"Mm."

Hearing Song Lei's monotonous voice and seemingly emotionally tired state, Wei Zhong sighed deeply. He knew that it was hard for young people like Song Lei to handle the death of their close friends.

Walking to Song Lei's side, he held his hand out.

"I'll take care of his corpse for you," he said. As Song Lei had no way of doing that himself, he handed Damien's body alongside his head.

"What about the others? What happened to this person named... Ming Lei?"

"Ming Lei..? Oh, you are talking about Old Wolf... He is dead too," Song Lei answered calmly as if nothing was wrong with the situation.

"Wait... Are you the only one left here?" Wei Zhong asked. "Then how did you deal with those Secret Blood Order members?"

"With this..." Song Lei mumbled as he pulled out a little bit of soul energy from his tired soul. Although this made him feel a stabbing pain in his head, he ignored it.

"You... You awakened?" Wei Zhong muttered dumbfoundedly. Seeing Song Lei not respond, he continued by saying, "Let's talk about this after I burn your friends..."

"So we can't bury them?" Song Lei asked. Wei Zhong shook his head in answer.

"The soil won't accept Lost Ones."

"I see..."

After that, they didn't talk. They picked up the corpses of the remaining members of the branch and carried them to the entrance.

"I will take them to the roof of the apartment and burn them there. Do you want to come along?" Wei Zhong asked.

"Will I be able to come out?"

"You took those talismans from the cultist's corpses, right?" Wei Zhong asked. "Use one of them. I'll carry you there."

"Mm," Song Lei nodded. He took out one of the talismans and injected a tiny bit of soul energy into it. The talisman instantly crumbled into pieces before turning into smog and enveloping Song Lei.

"Still, be careful out there," Wei Zhong said. "I'll have to make three trips up and down to carry all of them there. Let's get you up there first."

After telling Song Lei about what he would do, Wei Zhong opened the door of the apartment. In an instant, a black smog started pouring in. The whole street was covered by that black smog. Watching it a bit more carefully, Song Lei realized that those were the combination of countless different ghosts and horrors. If he were to go out there with his current power, he would be instantly devoured by the endless amount of horrors.

After quickly leaving the apartment and closing the door behind them, Wei Zhong held Song Lei by his waist. The black smog was avoiding him as if it was scared of Wei Zhong.

Taking a few steps forward, Wei Zhong held Song Lei in a princess carry and crouched. Shortly after, as if an explosion had happened, Wei Zhong jumped. Before Song Lei could comprehend what had happened, he realized that they were flying. They had instantly flown up to the top of the 29-floor apartment.

Gently landing on the roof, Wei Zhong lowered Song Lei.

A raged wind roared past Song Lei's face, making him close his eyes and protect them with his hands.

When he finally managed to get up and look around, Wei Zhong had already gone down again.

So instead, he lifted his head and looked up to the sky.

The sky was covered by dark yellow clouds. They were literally everywhere, blocking anyone from seeing past them. They only let a little bit of light past them, making the whole world be dimly illuminated. Not being able to see the blue skies made Song Lei shiver slightly. He then lowered his eyes a little bit to see around him. When he did so, however, he was dumbfounded.

"What is this..?" He muttered in confusion. Wanting to see his surroundings better, he jumped up as high as he could.

Around him, countless apartments of different heights spanned all across the earth. Wherever his eyes could look, he would see apartments, made from the same white concrete. There were also no changes in the landform. No hills, no mountains, only apartments...

Those apartments were all neatly arranged with the same sized streets between them. The streets were all covered by the black smog that Song Lei had seen before.

When he tried to look further, he noticed a yellow-colored mist in every direction, blocking him from seeing further away from about three kilometers.

"So this is the City of Horrors..." Song Lei muttered. Getting annoyed with the wind flailing his hair around and blocking his sight, he turned towards where the wind came from. When he did so, far far away from where he was, behind that yellow mist, he noticed the gigantic silhouette of an abhorrent, eldritch being with tentacles flailing around its body.

It was so big, so majestic that its upper body would surpass the dark yellow clouds. If Song Lei had to compare, the size of the 29-floor apartment below his feet wouldn't amount to a hundredth of the monster's size.

As Song Lei kept turning and looking around, he realized that the eldritch being wasn't the only one. He could see countless different beings such as giants, wolves, trees, and such. He could even swear that he had seen a chess piece in the distance

"Majestic, right?" Wei Zhong suddenly asked. However, obviously, Song Lei had already felt his presence. He had already brought the corpses of Old Wolf, He Lingxin, and Damien.

"Mm... Are those like illusions or..?"

"Yeah. They are real," Wei Zhong said. "Some call them the 'Unseen Ones'. Some call them 'The Beings'. There are a lot of different iterations..."

"And we call them 'The Pillars'," he said. Not waiting for Song Lei to ask, he continued by saying, "They look like pillars, don't they? Standing so tall and strong, holding the yellow clouds from falling down on us."

"What do you mean?" Song Lei asked.

"Once, the leader of the Heaven Alliance faced off against one of those," Wei Zhong said. He rested against the railings of the roof and folded his arms in front of his chest. "He won. He beat The Pillar after about fifty subsequent attacks. I wish I could see that too..."

"And when he killed that Pillar, the sky collapsed. Those yellow clouds aren't actually clouds."

"Then what are they?" Song Lei asked.

"They're boundaries," Wei Zhong said.

"They're boundaries that separate us from 'The Outside'...."