Chapter 236: The Town Where Memories Are Forbidden

Chapter 236: The Town of Forbidden Memories

The ability wielders of the Fate Domain have always possessed exceptionally keen senses and intuition.

At this moment, the sense of danger from being locked onto by the "Reversal Spear" surged through Lena’s entire body. Her pale silver pupils constricted into pinpoints, focusing intently on the overlapping shadows of the houses on the street, tracing the path of the invisible spear.

Lena remained abnormally calm in her heart.

It was as if she had faced and dealt with similar abilities many times before—her understanding of her lifelong nemesis’s abilities was second only to her own “Fate Weaving.”

Without even needing to think, Lena could recite the characteristics of the Reversal Spear:

Firstly, the spear can reverse the flow of time, erasing the “past” of its target at the “present” moment;

Secondly, once the spear locks onto a target, it will inevitably hit, regardless of spatial distance or obstacles.

In other words, the trajectory of the spear is flexible and unpredictable; Lena couldn’t avoid it with simple evasion.

But...

Isn’t the characteristic of “100% hit rate” essentially a form of causality?

And under Lena’s scissors, any thread of causality could be altered, severed, or redirected.

Thus, before the chaotic time could catch up, Lena cut the thread linking her to the spear and connected it to the corpse of a small man nearby.

As the target changed, the spear, formed from condensed time, seemed to pause for an instant, then swept past Lena, piercing straight through the chest of the corpse.

The spear had no physical form and left no visible wounds on the surface of the corpse—it merely reversed the time of the corpse.

Lena witnessed a series of changes in the corpse.

The corpse resumed its pre-death breathing, but this was no blessing, for he had no time to savor the reclaimed life; the time on his body continued to rewind.

His already small stature rapidly shrank, growing shorter and shorter...

His limbs became short and thick, the calluses and scars on his fingers faded, and his face, marked with fine wrinkles, grew tender until it transformed into a wrinkled, crimson infant's face, yet the regression did not stop.

In an instant, the unsupported clothes collapsed, piling up on the ground;

Within the clothes lay a bloody fetus, still attached to the umbilical cord, vaguely discernible as the outline of an infant.

"...Tch."

With the extraordinary hearing of an Ability user, Lena heard a familiar yet strange grunt from across the street, "Missed again."

For some reason, the moment she heard the voice, a surge of inexplicable anger rose in her heart, and she instinctively clenched her fists.

Lena looked up and saw a tall woman walking slowly from the other end of the street.

She must not be human, standing at least two meters tall, with skin that had a metallic sheen of pearl black. Paired with her long, agile limbs, silent and graceful gait, and eyes that shone like turquoise, she resembled a dangerous large black cat.

Strangely, despite the mild climate of the town, she was wrapped tightly from head to toe, even her hands covered by leather gloves, leaving no part exposed.

The woman stopped not far away, squinting as she sized up Lena, seemingly considering whether to take another shot, but ultimately abandoned the idea, complaining without context, "I hate your Ability."

It was her nemesis.

After all, no matter how sharp a spear might be, if it cannot pierce the enemy's heart, it is nothing more than a useless piece of metal.

The confrontation with Lena was always the most frustrating experience in the woman's memory.

"Look, ever since you chased me into this town, how much trouble have you caused me?"

While complaining, the woman took out a wooden box and placed the fetus, which was the transformed short man, inside it.

Weighing it a few times, she said with a half-smile, "I wonder if such a small prey can satisfy that snake’s appetite."

Lena looked at her coldly and suddenly spoke, "You’ve been preparing prey for the snake, feeding it willingly? Why?"

"Do you think I enjoy it?"

The woman shot Lena an irritated glance. "It’s all because of your uncontrollable habit of praying to deities and their children, manifesting that monster—here, can such a level of terrifying existence be casually summoned?!"

"The pollution from forbidden knowledge involving deities, combined with the peculiar nature of this town, triggered an unprecedented mutation, creating a monster devoid of humanity or reason, possessing only absolute power and an insatiable desire for slaughter. I even suspect that the town itself can no longer contain it; it surpasses everyone’s expectations..."

"The snake has no natural predators here, treating the town as its exclusive hunting ground, maintaining a regular hunting pattern. If I don’t prepare a suitable prey for it every day, it will hunt on its own, bringing fatal danger to everyone!"

Lena snorted. "So, you decide who gets ‘sacrificed’ each day?"

Lena was amazed by the woman’s shamelessness.

Clearly a self-preserving act at the cost of others, yet the woman could justify it as “preventing danger for everyone.”

No wonder she had always disliked this person...

Lena pursed her lips in frustration.

From the woman’s incessant chatter, Lena could easily discern the truth: the one who had been secretly harboring those rat-eyed people was none other than this woman, who must have stayed in the town for quite some time.

Perhaps the woman's talkativeness also stems from her long-term seclusion in the shadows, isolated from the world and lacking opportunities for conversation—simply put, she was "driven mad by boredom."

However, Lena still had her doubts: over ten days ago, before she arrived in town and before the threat of the snake, what was the woman's purpose in intervening early to influence the mortality rate of Rat-Eye and his gang?

What could be the reason for the woman voluntarily staying in this desolate and dangerous town?

Could it be that she is a fugitive wanted by some church, forced to hide in the Shadow Realm to evade capture...

Of course, Lena wouldn't voice these questions; she didn't think the other party would seriously answer them.

Although the woman seemed quite talkative at the moment, there was no way they could truly get along amicably—had the woman harbored any goodwill, she wouldn't have thrown that air-splitting Reversed Spear at Lena.

The woman put away her box and waved goodbye to Lena in a show of formality.

They turned and walked in opposite directions, one heading deeper into the alley, the other walking down the wide street.

On the surface, everything seemed harmonious, and their encounter had been peaceful.

As Lena took her steps, she silently counted down:

Five, four, three, two, one...

In the next second, Lena sharply turned her head, dodging a metal spear that whipped through the air. Though it was just an ordinary weapon, under such immense force, it still had great lethality, creating a dense web of cracks on the ground as its heavy body sank deep into the center of the fissures.

Without even turning her head, Lena aimed her silver scissors behind her with a click, attempting to sever the woman's control over her limbs.

"Hmm," the woman's voice came from behind Lena, laced with amusement, "We still have good chemistry, don't we?"

Lena wanted to retort, who is "we" exactly?

The impact of this address on Lena was more nauseating than swallowing a hundred mosquitoes alive!

Furthermore, sharing such unspoken coordination to ambush one another at the same moment—could this truly be considered a positive development?

"Are you cursing me in your heart again, little Lena?" the woman said, "I thought that after losing your memory, even if you couldn't make the snakes disappear, you might become a bit cuter... but you're still so hateful."

"Take your box and get lost!"

Lena restrained herself for a moment before asking in a hostile tone, "By the way, what's your name again?"

The woman laughed, "I'm called Tivana. Remember it—your enemy."

...

When Lena emerged from the next indoor attraction, she found the sky over the town shrouded in dark clouds, lightning snaking through the heavy layers, and rain pouring down in torrents.

The sea of balloons floating in the streets became wet, sinking closer to the ground, hovering low and casting a large, oppressive shadow.

The weather simulation was quite realistic.

Lena caught a few raindrops in her hand and thought to herself that if she were trapped in the town for a long time, the boundary between the material world and this place would likely blur gradually.

Suddenly, a thunderclap made Lena look up sharply.

Amidst the thunder, there seemed to be other sounds as well.

Lena focused her gaze into the distance. At the edge of her vision, she watched as an entire street bulged up, the paving stones lifting, and the exposed soil beneath writhing like living creatures, causing the neat rows of houses on either side to tilt and collapse...

It was as if some unknown giant beast had awakened beneath the ground—moving toward the surface, making the earth part for its passage.

Bricks and earth crumbled away, revealing a sliver of silver-white scales as sharp as blades. These fine scales fluttered like gills, exposing the pairs of golden, vertical pupils beneath.

The gold was dazzling, like starlight, piercing through the misty rain to etch itself into Lenna's eyes.

It saw her too.

Lenna instinctively took a step back, wanting to flee from the colossal creature that loomed like a mountain, but she realized the giant beast had merely glanced at her before focusing its attention elsewhere—

From there came Tymasha's indignant shout: “Damn it, why isn’t it chasing you?”

“Even if today’s prey is a bit small and not to its taste, it doesn’t need to try to kill the feeder! Bad snake!”

Her curses did not hinder Tymasha’s movements.

She darted through the streets, occasionally flipping onto rooftops and ridges, her slender and tall figure leaping and bounding with dizzying agility, more nimble than a monkey in a circus.

The snake emerged from the ground, raindrops striking its body, washing away the dirt and mud, polishing its scales to a snowy brightness, radiating a chilling gleam.

Its tail could easily crush houses, and the smaller snakes emerging from beneath its scales slithered between buildings, moving as deftly as if they were swimming in water.

Lenna had been a bit puzzled about why the snake would emerge from underground, but now she was certain.

Because it was so enormous—only beneath the earth could it find refuge.

During the day, outsiders moved about the town, their footsteps treading on its scales through brick and soil; at night, everyone slept, oblivious to the heartbeat beneath them.

It had become the true master of the town.