Is this a mask?
Byrne had his doubts because, in his eyes, the appearance of this object was so strange that he couldn't be sure. It didn't have the regular silhouette of an ordinary mask; instead, it looked like a lump of black mud that had been kneaded and flattened. The size of the black mud was roughly equivalent to an adult's face, yet no eye sockets, nose, or mouth were visible.
Furthermore, the surface of this black mud was not smooth, but covered in dense, tiny protrusions. Suppressing his internal discomfort, Byrne leaned in for a closer look. Those tiny protrusions were actually miniature human faces, each with a different expression.
Some were twisted and hideous, some were weeping bitterly, and others were numb and hollow, as if carrying countless kinds of extreme emotions. They squeezed against each other, forming a spine-chilling, eerie mask.
This thing looks way too creepy.
To be safe, Byrne didn't reach out to touch it directly, choosing the more stable psychic threads instead. The moment the threads touched the surface of the black mud, Byrne's brow furrowed sharply. The texture of this thing was odd; it wasn't dry and coarse like clay, nor wet and sticky like slime. Instead, it felt like a layer of warm, elastic living flesh.
Even more surprising was that the moment the psychic threads entered, the static faces on the black mud mask seemed to come alive, all writhing frantically. The mouths of every face on the mud opened and closed simultaneously, emitting a faint, fragmented whispering. This whispering was chaotic and disorganized, as if countless people were making noise at the same time.
There were the roars of men, the sobbing of women, the playful laughter of children, and the sighs of the elderly...
Initially, the whispering was very faint, like the buzzing of mosquitoes. But in the blink of an eye, it became increasingly clear, and its volume rose steadily, merging into a noisy torrent that flooded into Byrne's mind.
Byrne gasped and immediately severed the connection with his psychic threads. He retreated several steps, his right hand instantly gripping the Blackfire at his waist. The eeriness of this mask far exceeded any heretical creation he had seen before. Even the quill pen he had seen through the live recorder a few days ago didn't have such a horrifying visual impact.
However, unlike the previous incident in the storage room, the whispering that influenced his mind showed no signs of fading even after Byrne cut off his psychic perception. Besides the lingering whispers in his ears, the scene before him began to distort. The outline of the iron cabinet, the scattered tools, and even the unconscious shop owner on the floor all transformed into hideous human faces at that moment.
These faces were layered upon one another, their mouths opening and closing, the sounds they made intertwining with the whispers in his ears. Byrne felt his consciousness being pulled away, as if he were falling into a boiling purgatory of emotions.
Just then, the energy that had just settled within his body stirred once more. This time, the energy didn't turn into a warm current but exploded directly deep within Byrne's sea of consciousness, turning into thousands of tiny golden points of light.
These points of light, as if possessed of life, rapidly spread across his conscious level, forming a net of pure light that firmly trapped the eerie whispers and distorted illusions invading his mind.
Hum!
A faint hum sounded in Byrne's head. It wasn't perceived through his ears but acted directly upon his soul. The moment the energy net tightened, the frantically writhing illusions of faces melted away like snow under a blazing sun, and the noisy whispers in his ears stopped abruptly.
Byrne snapped back to his senses, panting heavily.
That energy again. This is the second time.
For some reason, whenever Byrne fell into a fatal crisis, this unknown energy would wake up of its own accord. It was like a guardian with its own consciousness, silently lurking within Byrne's body to save his life at the most critical moments.
"What exactly is this energy..."
Initially, when Byrne detected this energy hidden within him, he was very worried, fearing that this unknown power might one day harm him. But now, especially lately, he had encountered one crisis after another and ended up relying on this energy to escape danger.
Whatever. I don't know where it came from, but at least I know it bears me no ill will.
Byrne shook his head, temporarily suppressing his thoughts about the unknown energy. The priority now was to deal with the mess in front of him, especially that black mud mask still emitting an eerie aura in the iron cabinet.
Forcing himself to endure the discomfort, he looked at the iron cabinet again. The black mud mask had reverted to its original appearance, the miniature faces on its surface no longer writhing, as if the previous eerie scene had been nothing but Byrne's hallucination.
Squelch!
Squelch!
Just then, Byrne heard several strange noises behind him. He looked back immediately and saw that the fleshy growth behind the curtain had finally collapsed, revealing the passage to the storefront.
As soon as the passage cleared, two figures rushed in—Renee and Selena.
Selena came up to Byrne and asked with concern, "Byrne, are you okay?"
Byrne waved his hand. "I'm fine, just a bit drained. I pressed the pager a long time ago, why did you guys just get here?"
"Actually, we arrived a while ago, but the passage was blocked by that growth as soon as we entered."
While Selena explained, Renee walked over to the shop owner, pulled out a tablet-like device, and scanned him. After seeing the feedback, Renee turned and looked at Byrne in surprise. "This is a Grade 2 Blood-Rotten. You actually took it down by yourself?"
Byrne asked in confusion, "Is a Grade 2 Blood-Rotten very strong?"
"Of course. A Grade 2 Blood-Rotten is very powerful; it requires at least a late-Delta level psychic strength to handle alone."
Seeing Renee's scrutinizing gaze, Byrne's heart skipped a beat. His eyes darted as he immediately made up an excuse, saying the opponent wasn't in top form and that he had only won by luck with the help of the Blackfire.
Then, to prevent her from overthinking, he quickly changed the subject and pointed to the iron cabinet. "By the way, I found several heretical items in that cabinet."
This tactic worked. At the mention of "heretical items," Renee's expression immediately became serious. She walked quickly toward the iron cabinet. The blue light at her brow grew more intense as she pushed her psychic detection mode to its limit.
However, she stopped before reaching the cabinet doors. Suddenly, the psychic fluctuations around her became violent. Her bangs were lifted by invisible energy, and the blue light at her brow shone so brightly it almost seemed solid.
Renee stared fixedly at the iron cabinet, her voice grave as she spoke.
"What terrifying Chaos aura... The things in this cabinet are at least ten times more dangerous than that Grade 2 Blood-Rotten!"