On the way to Drop Street, Caitlin looked worried.
Li Lin raised his 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 slight hesitation, “I don’t know if I should talk to 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 what time, no matter what difficulties, I will face it with you, as long as you need me.”
Caitlin’s heart felt warm. She spread her slender fingers and clasped them with Li Lin’s right hand. Her melancholy eyebrows stretched.
“Thank you…it’s nice to have you around.”
Kasha, who was following them, blinked her moist eyes, her face flushed red, and her purple eyes revealed great doubts.
What on earth did they say? This is the street, how can you be so intimate…
Caitlin pursed her lips and remained silent for a few seconds before quickly organizing what she wanted to say: “Actually, Valentina’s state makes me feel familiar.”
“You mean…the problem with 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 felt that there was something terrifying in the shadows following her. 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 caused her to hallucinate?”
He stared sideways at Caitlin’s delicate profile, thought for two seconds, and immediately reacted: “What you want to express is… you have a case similar to Valentina’s current situation on your hands recently?”
Caitlin nodded slightly and her expression became serious, “Some time ago, a little boy named Abel came to me and said that his father suddenly disappeared.”
“Missing? What are the specific circumstances?”
“Abel is an 8-year-old child. His mother died young and his father is Selwyn, a 47-year-old watch mechanic. They live in the commercial street of the south city and open a watch repair shop there.
“Abel said that his father loved him very much and told him bedtime stories every day. According to my investigation, the conditions of their family were pretty good. After your mechanical watch was launched, the father and son quickly got rid of their debts and are now in full swing. On track.
“This rules out the situation where Selwyn abandoned Abel. The second explanation is Zaun’s kidnapping case… But as I investigated further, I found that this incident had nothing to do with the kidnapping.”
Caitlin paused for a moment, her expression slightly complicated, “Abel said that Selwyn had nightmares for several months before disappearing. 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 strong sense of uneasiness came to his mind.
When he mentioned fear, he suddenly remembered the eternal nightmare Nocturne.
In the original world line, it did come to Piltover through nightmares, attacked a family, and finally devoured someone.
Li Lin had already passed the specific details, but after listening to Caitlin’s words, he recalled that it seemed that Nocturne was attacking a father and son…
“You don’t look good.” Caitlin noticed the change in Li Lin’s expression, “Did you think of something?”
Li Lin shook his head, “You haven’t finished speaking yet, right? Are there any details? For example… have you found anything?”
“If I have to say it, it’s a very weird horror story book called “Shadow Gate”. It seems to be a little old. The binding style has an Ionian style. It’s not even sold in the largest bookstore in the city. .
“This book tells the story of a young knight’s squire who fights against a vicious king to stop him from plunging the world into darkness, with a happy ending.
“Looking at historical events, there should be references to the legend of the Shadow War at the end of the Rune Wars.
“I promised Abel to help him find his father, and then started collecting clues, but then some time passed and Abel suddenly disappeared.
“I reported this matter to Sheriff Grayson and asked her to send law enforcement officers to search for their traces. However, Abel seemed to have evaporated… There were no clues, and the matter was not followed up.”
After Caitlin finished speaking, Li Lin became even more certain that this matter was caused by the shadow demon Nocturne.
“——Hiss!” He couldn’t help but gasp, and his face became extremely ugly.
Nocturne is a product of shadow magic.
At the end of the Rune War, secret groups in each country used all means to seize the world’s runes and win the war, and found various ways to suppress the enemy.
Later, someone discovered the existence of shadow magic.
In the following years, countless shadow mages who abandoned their bodies and escaped into the spiritual realm hunted each other and created various realms composed of their own subconscious, thoughts and emotions.
Shadow magic has been abused, and negative emotions have affected almost all humans in Runeterra, and gave birth to an incorporeal demon incarnated by fear-the eternal nightmare Nocturne.
In order to prevent the world from being destroyed, at the end of the Rune War, almost all shadow and spirit mages shared the same enemy and fought against Nocturne and sealed it in the spiritual realm.
After that, the once powerful shadow mage disappeared almost overnight, and other mages made a convention, classifying shadow magic as a forbidden art, prohibiting everyone from using it.
Although sealed into the spiritual realm, Nocturne can still affect the physical realm through people’s dreams, especially nightmares, and feeds on the fear caused by nightmares.
Judging from what Caitlin said, it was a certainty that the father and son would be devoured 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 more and more that his guess was closer to the truth.
In the original world, Valentina disappeared suddenly, and no one knew where she had gone.
Looking at it now, she was not dealt with by an alchemist baron bribed 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 due to the influence of the “Confusion Potion”, Valentina had hallucinations, fears and nightmares.
Taking all the circumstances into consideration, it is absolutely normal to attract Nocturne.
But if it were really a demon causing trouble, with Li Lin’s current technology and strength, he would be completely helpless against such a demon that came and went without a trace, had no entity in the material realm, and would sneak up on people while they were dreaming.
Noticing Li Lin’s obvious abnormality, Caitlin looked slightly confused, and even Kasha couldn’t help but ask: “What’s wrong with you?”
“This matter may not be as simple as we think…”
“ah?”
The two of them just spoke in Piltover. Kasha didn’t understand the cause and effect, and her little face was filled with doubts.
Li Lin did not explain to her the conversation he had just had with Caitlin, 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 half of the story of ancient fear that I told you?”
Caitlin raised her eyebrows and immediately understood what Li Lin meant, “You mean… these things are related to demons?”
“Yes, that’s why I didn’t tell you the name of the fear demon when you asked me before.”
Li Lin took a deep breath and said slowly: “Everything you say must be known. This is true for those demigods who were born in the original era. This is especially true for demons who are similar in age to them and are incarnated from the negative emotions of living beings.”
“But… aren’t demons legends? Do they really exist?”
Born in Piltover and influenced by her family’s education, Caitlin has always believed that seeing is believing.
The most recent legend of Janna, the mythical wind goddess passed down by a small number of Zaun people, was more than two hundred years ago. She appeared once when the construction of the Grand Canal failed, and then did not show her face at all for so many years.
Maybe those beings revered as demigods or demons are just powerful mages, just like the Ascended Ones of Shurima.
Li Lin knew Caitlin well and knew that she had a conservative attitude towards these things.
If it were like an earth without any magic, those legends would really be just legends, stories passed down from generation to generation by working people through their own artistic processing.
But in a magical world like this, those legends might actually be what happened.
Although there may also be elements of artistic processing, I cannot believe it entirely, but I cannot believe it entirely.
“They do exist, Kate.” Li Lin sighed, “The ancient fear is the embodiment of fear in the hearts of all creatures in Rune Land, and this demon was born relatively late and is a product of the Rune War.”
“Are you… talking about demons?” Kasha couldn’t help but interjected.
Li Lin and Caitlin simultaneously looked down at Kasha, who looked a little pale.
She hesitated for a moment, then said: “Dad told me a story about a demon that wreaked havoc in the Mount Targon area, and was called Sleepy Heart Po by the locals.
“It takes away people’s most important abilities, steals the wisdom of the smart, robs the strength of the strong, and feeds on people’s pain, doubt and misfortune.”
After saying that, Kasha was afraid that Caitlin wouldn’t believe it, so she immediately added: “This is real! In our village, there once was a guide who went to Mount Targon on a pilgrimage, but was trapped by Xinpo who stole the ability to walk and was paralyzed at home. I haven’t been able to move in the field for several years!”
“This…” Caitlin’s complex gaze returned to Li Lin, “If it is really demons that are causing trouble, we are completely unable to deal with them, right?”
She bit her bloodless lower lip tightly, with a very troubled expression, “But… we can’t just leave Valentina alone.”
Li Lin pondered for a moment, “The demons have no entity. If we use ordinary methods, there is no way to deal with them.”
“But… Professor Heimerdinger has witnessed the Rune War, and he may have a way to deal with demons.
“But before that, we have to solve the problem of Alchemy Baron and the mastermind behind it.”
