Bizarre Honkai, a Wife-Chasing Crematorium

If the Bizarre rule judged Khorne Pardofelis to be weaker than you, her attacks would inflict no damage at all.

Conversely, if the Bizarre rule judged her to be stronger, her attacks could only be taken head-on. No matter how fast you reacted, you could not dodge them.

It was an attack based on causality.

To fight back, the only way was to increase your own strength.

And that strength was clearly determined by one's Corruption level.

"Tsk..."

"Do I have to use my last life...?"

Li Mo wiped the black blood from the corner of his mouth, hesitating.

Previously, he could only enter the Third Death State. A third death would push him into the Fourth, turning him into a full-fledged Ghost. Although Dr. MEI had never explicitly stated it, Li Mo knew that when he dealt with Khorne Pardofelis the first time, he had entered his fourth death state—the state of becoming an Bizarre.

He didn't know how he had come back from it. Perhaps it was because of Elysia's power, coupled with the fact that he had only just turned. She had managed to drag him back from the brink.

But things were different now. With Bizarre Mei's left hand, he wouldn't immediately become a Ghost even if he entered the Fourth Death State.

However, the rate at which his Corruption accumulated would increase dramatically. Even without taking damage and regenerating, or using his Bizarre abilities, time alone would cause his irreversible descent into madness within half a month at most. Only under specific conditions could the spread be halted, such as within the world of the cursed blade, or by Elysia's side...

Li Mo gazed eastward, toward a direction where the familiar aura still lingered.

"I'll risk it."

Li Mo pointed the cursed blade, Akazome Sakura, at his own forehead and thrust it in.

In that instant, the eye on the blade quivered frantically, bulging and bloodshot, until it began to spurt blood. It was the first time the cursed blade had ever shown such a state.

One by one, the other eyes on the blade began to burst, but Akazome Sakura's Bizarre rule continued its work.

"Ngh!"

Li Mo felt something pulling at his soul—the very essence of his being. A body could be replaced, consciousness could be copied, but a soul was unique to a specific point in spacetime. It was the only way to distinguish oneself from a Imposter.

"Just... a little longer..."

Li Mo bit through his lip, his teeth grinding into dust. The broken fragments didn't fall but dissolved into the blood. He couldn't let his soul be completely devoured by the cursed blade's world; otherwise, he wouldn't be able to restart, nor could he escape. It wouldn't matter which of them, he or Sakura, survived in the end. To be unable to escape the cursed blade was the gambler's ultimate ruin.

Time blurred, each second slipping away into silence. His consciousness grew faint, his soul ceased its struggle, about to be consumed by the cursed blade's rule.

At that very last moment, Khorne Pardofelis's final attack descended, striking his soul directly.

However, since Li Mo's soul was already under the jurisdiction of the cursed blade's rule, the attack couldn't harm him. But it wasn't entirely without effect.

The cursed blade's devouring process stalled. Its rule clashed with Khorne Pardofelis's soul-targeting rule. The stalemate lasted for a long, long time. Three months passed, and the deadlock remained unbroken.

Previously, Akazome Sakura's integrity and Corruption level had been far greater than Khorne Pardofelis's. After all, back then, Pardo hadn't killed many people before she drove Li Mo into his Bizarre madness. With Elysia's help, Khorne Pardofelis had been reverted to her original form, her Bizarre Corruption suppressed.

But now, after slaughtering nearly the entire planet's worth of flesh and blood, Khorne's integrity had reached a new level, rivaling that of Akazome Sakura. The rules of both were remarkably similar, both centered around "conflict."

On the 100th day, Li Mo's soul finally began to fade.

Killing himself was much harder than he had imagined. An instantaneous attack from the cursed blade was trivial to his semi-Bizarre state; only its devouring rule posed a real threat. In contrast, once a bullet from the Bizarre Pistol hit its mark, it would burn until the target was dead, barring any outside interference.

Even though the Bizarre Pistol's integrity was far less than Akazome Sakura's, it was the perfect tool for initiating a restart.

Unfortunately, the notebook, the thermometer, the Bizarre Pistol—all these Bizarre items were waiting for him in another spacetime, for him to pick up after a restart.

On the 179th day, Li Mo's soul vanished between the two conflicting rules.

A gentle breeze blew past, rustling the corner of Li Mo's clothes.

There was no heartbeat, no pulse. His empty eyes scanned his surroundings, his expression completely detached.

"Restart successful," Li Mo stated calmly, his voice devoid of any emotion. The grief he'd felt before was like a fleeting cloud, vanished from the clear sky of the new day.

The only thing that remained was his right hand, still clutching the broken black-framed glasses. The frames were shattered, covered in a web of cracks like writhing earthworms, and carried the faint, metallic scent of blood.

"..."

"..."

Soon, he would encounter three Ghosts hiding in a corner on the next floor, which would attack when he got close. Then, on the seventeenth floor, he would be ambushed by Khorne Pardofelis.

After a brief silence, Li Mo continued along his original path without hesitation.

The three Ghosts that had required his cursed blade to dispatch last time didn't even manage to touch his shadow this time.

The moment he reached the seventeenth floor, Li Mo stopped abruptly, completely defying inertia, and snapped his head around.

"Found you."

In the next second, Li Mo vanished, reappearing directly in front of Khorne Pardofelis.

Moonlight filtered through the narrow alley, dappling the ground littered with the corpses of cats. These innocent lives, once playful and cute, now lay still, their fur matted, their eyes closed, as if crying out in silent sorrow. An indescribable stench of rot and blood hung in the air.

At the end of the alley, a familiar figure slowly emerged from the shadows. A grotesque smile hung on her face, her heterochromatic eyes disturbingly bright under the moonlight.

Upon spotting Li Mo, Khorne Pardofelis stood frozen in place, but her rule had already been triggered. The first attack descended.

Yet Li Mo's body remained completely unharmed. Judgment: Failed.

The second attack descended. A Misfortune Ghost let out a piercing curse, its sound echoing endlessly, but his consciousness was untouched. Judgment: Failed.

The third attack never came. Li Mo was already in front of Pardo, his left hand grabbing her head and smashing it repeatedly against the ground and the walls.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The immense force caused their spatial positions to continuously drop, and all the buildings in Nagazora City began to collapse. Windows rattled, and glass screamed as it vibrated. With a cataclysmic roar, the ground split open, giant fissures swallowing roads and buildings like black holes. Dust and rubble filled the air, obscuring the moonlight and stars.

The regenerative ability of an Bizarre being was terrifying; even being shattered to pieces meant recovery in seconds.

However, Pardo's head hadn't been whole since the very first impact. Her eyeballs were squeezed out and popped, nerves dangling in the air. Her skull, half-reformed, shattered again and again into the cracks of the earth below.

A mist of blood and brain matter filled the air. A look of terror appeared on Pardo's face. It was Khorne's unique rule: awe in the face of a superior power.

"Don't—"

"Please don't—"

"Help—"

"I surr—"

Khorne Pardofelis begged for mercy based on her living instincts, but under Li Mo's frenzied assault, she couldn't even form a complete sentence.

Not until the entirety of Nagazora City had become a sea of fire and sunk into the earth did Li Mo, holding the now-dormant Pardo, run toward the safe zone to the east. The only way to silence Khorne was to crush her with absolute power.

However, this was only a temporary fix. As time went on, she would inevitably become Bizarre again. Before, she had been suppressed by Elysia's power. Now, every time Pardo became Bizarre, Li Mo would have to inflict this extreme punishment on her again. It was the only way.

"「Usurp」."

Li Mo stole Pardo's memories, but limited by his own Corruption, he only managed to take a fraction of them. If he tried to forcibly take memories related to Ghosts, his own Corruption would likely overload.

Fortunately... Shigure Kira had returned to her own world. She wasn't here.

In his Fourth Death State and with a purpose, a journey of several hundred kilometers was but an instant.

Just before reaching the safe zone, Li Mo stopped. He saw that the zone's light had vanished. What he had seen earlier was just an illusion.

Li Mo reached out, feeling the remnants of "the brilliant light that illuminated the earth."

"It disappeared completely a day ago, but only nearby Ghosts can sense its disappearance. Those farther away are still deceived by the illusion."

"..."

Li Mo said no more and walked forward slowly, trying to sense the life and death within the former safe zone.

Living people, yes, there were some. There had been many before, but now only a handful remained.

Ghosts, yes, there were some. There had been very few before, but now they were everywhere.

After losing the protection of the light, it had taken only one day for humanity in this area to be almost completely wiped out.

Reality was as cruel as ever. Faced with vast numbers of Ghosts... humanity had no way to fight back.

Suddenly, his Ghost's vision fed Li Mo a... painfully familiar scene.

"Don't be scared! As long as we keep looking at that Ghost, we can get away! I'll count to ten, then I'll close my eyes. You open yours and stare at it for a count of ten, then I'll open mine again. We'll take turns. We can definitely get out of here!"

In his Ghost's vision, a basement.

A Ghost and two living people were in a standoff.

The Ghost resembled a grotesque, peanut-shaped old man. Its body was bloated, with only a single eye, and its skin was completely rotten. It was staring intently at the two humans, motionless, as if playing a game of statues.

Li Mo saw the two living people.

A teenage boy and a girl of the same age.

The boy stood in front of the girl, his right hand gripping hers tightly. They huddled together, backing away from the Ghost.

The girl's eyes were closed, her face as pale as paper, tears streaming from her shut eyelids.

The boy was gasping for breath, his calves trembling uncontrollably, his entire body shaking. Despite this, he mustered his courage and met the Ghost's gaze.

"Eight... nine... ten! Xiao Wan, open your eyes!" the boy shouted, and the girl immediately opened them. The boy glanced away and closed his, and they continued to retreat cautiously.

Meanwhile, Li Mo had already arrived beside them, shrouded in shadow, not making a move.

This Ghost posed no threat to him; he could save them with a flick of his wrist. But for some reason, he wanted to keep watching...

Li Mo didn't know why he was doing this. It was strange, bewildering. The most efficient course of action was to kill the Ghost and find the source of the faded aura.

"..."

Thud!

Disaster struck. The basement was dark, and as they backed away, they both tripped, their gaze breaking from the Ghost.

The moment they fell, the boy hugged the girl, shielding her with his body.

Its rule triggered, the Ghost teleported behind the boy, and a pair of shriveled, corpse-like hands sprouted from its bloated body.

Before the hands could wrap around the boy's neck, the crimson light of a blade illuminated the dim basement.

Just before the corpse hands could reach out, Li Mo stepped out of the shadows and into the light. He closed his eyes, triggering the Ghost's killing rule himself.

The Abyss Flower could bind his body, preventing him from saving others, but he could save himself. Let the Ghost target him, then kill it with Akazome Sakura.

"If you want to live, run in that direction. Don't try to follow me. You'll die faster that way."

Li Mo pointed east, then vanished from the basement.

He didn't have the time to protect two ordinary people. They weren't valuable enough for him to protect.

"..."

"..."

There weren't many Ghosts along the way. Perhaps they feared the residual "divinity" of the light, so most chose to hunt in areas lit by ordinary lights.

After a short journey, Li Mo arrived before a corpse that was continuously emanating a faint light.

She was leaning against a dilapidated, gray-black wall. A cluster of white flowers had bloomed beneath her. Her eyes were gently closed, her expression as serene and tranquil as if she were asleep. The young woman lay amidst pure white flowers, a symbol of death and sacrifice.

Though she was surrounded by rubble and piles of corpses, her mere presence seemed to bathe the ravaged scene in a sacred glow.

"Elysia..."

Li Mo recognized her.

Her face was like that of a delicate porcelain doll, fair and fine, now smudged with too much blood and grime. She wasn't in her Herrscher of Human form but was wearing a simple, pure white dress.

"..."

Li Mo's eyes were cold and empty as he gazed at her.

"Little Mo, don't I look pretty? This pink dress suits me so well!"

"It's okay. You look good in everything."

"So, should I get the pink one or the white one?"

"Get both. It's not like we're short on money."

"Hmph, Little Mo, you really don't understand a girl's heart, do you? Your reasoning is so straightforward. You should say... 'Elysia, you look beautiful in everything, and I love them all!'"

"Well, that's true, but... I think things that are too flashy don't look as good. Maybe my tastes are just different. I think simple is best."

"Simple?"

"Yeah. Like that pure white dress from before."

"No way! Elysia has to be dazzling and beautiful! White is too plain. A shimmering white and a rainbow-hued black are the best!"