Chapter 115

Chapter 115: Indescribable Invaders

Invaders.

To be honest, even before he heard those three syllables, Yu Sheng’s heart had already begun to churn. After learning that Dark Angels could appear in the real world, and after hearing the words “another planet” from Song Cheng, he had realized those twisted beings might be far stranger and stronger than he’d imagined. He hadn’t expected that they might be invaders from beyond the world itself.

He had always thought they were like Entities in the Otherworld, just another strange phenomenon in this world, at most a more dangerous “super Entity.”

“No wonder Little Red Riding Hood told me to avoid Dark Angels as much as I can,” Yu Sheng muttered under his breath.

Song Cheng heard his whisper but said nothing. He simply set more files on the coffee table: “I brought dossiers on several other Dark Angels, but not all of them. Some Dark Angels have the trait that even speaking their names causes a ‘leak,’ so they can only be discussed and studied inside the Special Affairs Bureau’s safehouse. Others are taboo for different reasons, and even I don’t have access. These, however, you can look at. Reading them by itself won’t do any harm.”

This time, Yu Sheng didn’t reach for the files right away. Instead, he suddenly asked: “Why are you so invested in me? I’m guessing you don’t give files of this level to other Spirit Realm Detectives, even when they’ve already had contact with Dark Angels.”

After thinking for a moment, Song Cheng said: “Because we suspect you have the power to drive away an Angel.”

Yu Sheng sensed that might be part of the reason, but not the whole reason. [There had to be something more.] Still, he didn’t dig into it. He answered seriously: “That big eye in Night Valley wasn’t driven off by me. It left on its own.”

“But it left after seeing you. There were other people there, but you were the most unusual one,” said Song Cheng, sounding a bit helpless. “I know that’s not very convincing, but the truth is we have no real way to deal with Dark Angels.

No one has summed up their weaknesses or patterns. No one can communicate with them. Up to now, worldwide, inside and outside the Borderland, successful cases of forcing a descended Angel to leave are very few, and they give us nothing to compare. Every time an Angel leaves, it seems like it just ‘got bored and went away’ on its own. So we can only try our luck. Maybe that eye’s departure had nothing to do with you, but… what if it did?”

He paused, then added: “This is also Director Bai Li Qing’s judgment. Without her approval, I couldn’t have brought you these documents.”

“Bai Li Qing?” Yu Sheng raised a brow, then finally lowered his eyes to the new files.

He didn’t read closely. He just skimmed.

“They really are all kinds,” he said, looking at pictures so strange they bordered on abstract chaos, along with the notes under them. “A shadow, a ball of fire, a huge silent cube gliding through the night… and why is there a sphere?”

“Its diameter is about four thousand kilometers.”

Yu Sheng went blank for a second: “…what?”

“You heard right. The ‘Heka Youth Form,’ named after the first discoverer and victim, is about four thousand kilometers across. It’s the largest Dark Angel confirmed by physical size so far. Its surface is neatly covered with countless lattice like hexagonal honeycombs. Inside, it shows a strong life reaction. It suddenly rushes into star systems that have life and keeps ‘broadcasting’ strange radio signals from a safe distance. We don’t have direct proof, but we believe the Heka Youth Form’s broadcasts cause intelligent beings to slide into madness. Quite a few notorious wars and terror coups are likely connected to its approach.”

Setting the files down, Yu Sheng stared at Song Cheng in disbelief and said: “You expect me to fight that? Seriously?”

“No, of course not,” said Song Cheng quickly, waving his hand. “You can’t ‘beat down’ something on that scale. We just hope you’ll learn more about Dark Angels. Maybe it will help someday.”

Yu Sheng curled his lip and moved on: “Talk about something else. What else do you know about these Angels?”

“About their effects,” said Song Cheng, face turning solemn. “Although Dark Angels are wildly varied and their traits differ, nearly all share a common point: their connection to the Otherworld and their impact on it.

Like I said, even though Dark Angels can appear in the real world, they more often descend in the Otherworld. Under their influence, an Otherworld that an Angel ‘parasites’ will be activated. Entities become more dangerous and violent. The very rules of that Otherworld can change, and even its depth can shift. You should still remember what happened in Night Valley.”

“We remember all too well,” said Yu Sheng with both hands open. “In theory, only one Hunger Entity spawns at a time, but suddenly they were everywhere. By the end, the whole valley had become one giant ‘Entity.’ Lucky for us, we had good fortune.”

“In most cases, people trapped in an Otherworld don’t have that luck. Very few who meet Dark Angels survive. Even if the Angel itself doesn’t attack them, they die because of the catastrophic environmental changes caused by the Angel’s Descent, whether at the hands of Entities or the rules of the Otherworld,” said Song Cheng. “We’ve been studying the patterns of Dark Angels. As for why they show up in the Otherworld far more than in reality, some scholars guess the Otherworld ‘attracts’ them, or…”

“Or?”

“Or because the Otherworld is itself a kind of ‘thin structure in spacetime’ within our world. In the Otherworld, the power of order is weak, which gives these Angels a chance to slip in. I just said Dark Angels are invaders from outside our world. They punch holes in our world, and for them, the Otherworld might be a kind of natural hole.”

Yu Sheng grew thoughtful. After sitting quietly for a long time, Irene suddenly spoke: “Then tell us about the Angel Cultists. Why would a bunch of lunatics willingly follow these twisted Angels? Angels like that can’t communicate, and they probably don’t answer a devotee’s prayers, right?”

“We’ve captured many Angel Cultists. You might not believe it, but those ‘lunatics’ are spread much more widely than you think, not just in the Borderland. Basically, wherever a Dark Angel has descended, you’ll find frenzied followers under its influence,” said Song Cheng, his expression turning clearly darker. “Some people fall because they crave power and secret knowledge, but the core, most fanatical group insists they were ‘guided.’”

“Guided by who? These…” Yu Sheng pointed at the files on the coffee table, “these abstract Angels? They can’t communicate, can they?”

“They can’t communicate, but the cultists insist they can truly hear the voices of Dark Angels, and not meaningless static, but real ‘guidance’ and ‘teaching.’ I’ve interrogated the stubborn ones. Most of them describe the ‘guiding voice’ like this:

‘Gentle, tolerant, full of love and mercy. The voices show them the end of everything in the universe, yet firmly encourage them, telling them how to look for a way out, and how to be with an Angel, working side by side to seek salvation.’”

After choosing his words, Song Cheng continued: “By analyzing the cultists’ mental states and using hypnotic induction, we can roughly reconstruct the process by which Dark Angels affect them. That ‘guidance’ seems deeply immersive. Huge, sustained hallucinations drag a person’s mind into a nonhuman ‘perspective’ and make them live through long ages from that view. An ordinary mind can’t bear it. When the guidance ends, they’re fully converted. They still look human on the outside, but their minds have already become nonhuman.

This is what puzzles scholars most. Dark Angels are all different in power and form. They don’t look like a single species. Yet Angel Cultists, no matter which Dark Angel they follow, seem to hear almost the same ‘guidance’ when they’re influenced. It always includes a ‘dim doomsday’ and ‘a path to salvation,’ and many details in those two parts are highly consistent. That forces us to reconsider two questions: do Dark Angels have reason, and are Dark Angels actually a unified group?”

“Sounds like research in this field is pretty dangerous,” said Yu Sheng with a sigh.

“Yes, very dangerous. The biggest problem is you can’t study Dark Angels too deeply. If you stay shallow, you can’t uncover their secrets. If you go too deep, you’ll be influenced without noticing. Even contact with the cultists can make you accidentally ‘see’ the ‘guidance’ in their minds. Many scholars who once fought Angels were quietly converted into new Angel Cultists this way.”