The hostess is coming on this cold afternoon.
The pencil made a rustling sound as it swept across the paper, and lines of varying depths extended and connected on the paper as if they had their own life, gradually forming an image. Richard devoted himself to this "welcome", and a feeling of security and anticipation gradually filled his mind.
Unconsciously, the cold faded away, and the inexplicable feeling of emptiness that had appeared from time to time recently also disappeared. A smile appeared on his face, and there was only one thought and one picture left in his mind - she was coming.
He admired the beautiful lady, the hostess he had never met, and looked forward to her visit with great joy... Would the hostess like this place? Would she like her own decoration? Would she smile and reward the doll's loyalty
Rustle... The pencil swept across the white paper lightly, and the hostess's gentle eyes came from the paper, looking at him with a smile.
Richard was filled with excitement, but his hands were steadier and faster than ever before. He couldn't even remember when he had acquired such high painting skills, and could draw these beautiful lines so quickly. In the end, he even picked up the pencil with his left hand, and there was a faint afterimage when his two hands were waving so quickly...
However, footsteps suddenly came from the direction of the corridor, dong dong dong, dong dong dong, as rapid as a heartbeat, bringing a disturbing distraction.
"They're coming for you, my lovely doll..."
The gentle voice in my mind blew by like the wind, carrying with it a faint noise.
That annoying, familiar feeling of cold came again, and Richard felt a wave of irritation rising in his heart. Someone was coming to disturb him, to interrupt his meeting with the hostess. They were almost at the door - but he hadn't finished painting yet.
He quickened his pace once more, waving his hands above the paper as if dancing, but the annoying footsteps came earlier than expected.
The footsteps stopped at the door, and almost without delay, someone knocked on the door.
The banging on the door seemed to be knocking directly on the heart, echoing in this small room. It was gentle at first, but became rapid in the blink of an eye.
"Richard, are you in there?" Someone's voice came from outside the door, sounding a bit nervous and awkward "politeness". "The Saints have called a meeting and asked everyone to go to the assembly hall."
"Don't go, it's a trap."
Richard heard a warning ring out in his mind for a moment, and he could no longer tell whether it was the rabbi's voice or his own thoughts - he naturally ignored the sound at the door and continued to immerse himself in the painting in front of him.
The silence in the room brought more urgent knocks on the door. A series of bangs soon came from the door. The person in the corridor banged on the door and raised his voice: "Richard, we know you are in there. This meeting is very important. You are not still sleeping in!"
Almost there, almost there.
Richard frowned tightly, and his arms trembled as if in a spasm. The hostess blinked at him. In the picture outlined by black and white lines, her eyes were as lively as a living thing.
But he still had a little time left to complete the most important parts...
The knocking on the door suddenly stopped, and after a brief pause, there was a loud bang.
“Bang—clang!”
The thin wooden door was violently pushed open, and Richard froze for a moment—and in that brief moment, someone rushed into the room, and a gigantic Deep Hound swooped down from mid-air and knocked him to the ground.
Is the final stroke in the right place
Richard struggled hard to look up, but the power of the Deep Hound made it impossible for him to move. He tried to support his arms, but only hoarse and strange grumbles and growls came out of his throat, and resentment filled his head.
He hated the Deep Hound. He hated this rude and violent monster.
Someone grabbed his arm from the side and quickly tied a rope around it, and then another person blocked his mouth to prevent him from using the power of the spell. The intruder dragged Richard up from the ground, snatched his pencil, and dragged him roughly towards the door.
Richard gave up resisting the moment he left the room. His thoughts seemed to be interrupted, and his mind was as muddy as if it was stuffed with cotton. He was held on both sides by several "compatriots" like a walking corpse, walking silently in the corridor.
"Wait," an Annihilationist who was holding Richard's arm suddenly stopped and looked up at another cultist walking beside him, "What was he doing when we rushed into the room just now?"
"He seemed to be drawing something," another Annihilationist frowned as he recalled, "There was a large piece of paper on the bed, but I couldn't see what he was drawing."
“… Something’s wrong. I’ll go back and take a look.”
The Annihilation Cultist who spoke first said something quickly, then turned and ran back to the room they had just left. He stepped over the broken wooden door, walked quickly to Richard's bed, and looked at the large piece of paper spread on the bed.
It's just a blank sheet of paper.
The Annihilation Cultist frowned, feeling a little uneasy for some reason. Driven by this uneasiness, he raised his head and quickly observed the situation in the room - but found nothing.
The cultist uttered an indistinct murmur in his throat, then out of caution, he bent down, picked up the piece of white paper, rolled it up, and returned to the corridor with it in his pocket.
“It’s just a blank sheet of paper,” he told the others waiting in the hallway, “Let’s go.”
A blank sheet of paper.
Richard, whose shoulders were held down and movements controlled by his "compatriots", raised his head slowly, with confusion in his eyes, as he looked at the blank paper roll in the hands of the vaguely familiar person opposite him. After staring blankly for a while, a smile finally appeared on his face.
However, no one noticed his smile.
The chaotic footsteps faded away from the corridor.
More footsteps soon appeared in other parts of the ship.
The Annihilation Cult members who received the instructions from the saints have already taken action. These priests are now walking through the long and dim corridors. They hold the lists they have just compiled in their hands, and they knock on doors hurriedly, taking away every "compatriot" who has ever entered the dream of the nameless one.
A tense atmosphere began to spread throughout the ship. Some people noticed something was wrong, while others realized that the ship had stopped sailing at some point. Those who had not been taken away quietly gathered in the room, nervously discussing and speculating about what had happened. Those who had been taken away had already arrived at the assembly hall one after another.
The saint fell into a brief trance on the high platform in the center of the hall. His mind was exhausted from spying on fate for a long time. He suddenly missed the past, the time when he still had a human body. Although that body was dirty and weak, he could still lie comfortably on a bed at that time, and his mind was not always filled with all kinds of obscure whispers and chaotic roars...
He sank in this trance, and his memories gradually weaved into a hazy curtain. Deep in the curtain, it seemed that eternal peace was beckoning to him.
That "peace" is a tall shadow burning with a dark green flame.
The saint was suddenly awakened by this warning from fate, and every nerve and blood vessel twitched with a burning pain.
"Your Excellency Saint," a voice came from the side, a senior priest was reporting the situation to him, "I have brought the people you requested."
The saint raised his eyestalks and glanced at the believers who were gathered in the meeting hall, some fearful and some confused.
An impenetrable shadow enveloped the entire hall.
The shadow of fate obscured all his vision.
"Intruders are aboard!"
…
After everyone left, a barely perceptible air current suddenly appeared in Richard's room—and then a figure suddenly appeared next to the bed.
It was as if a "picture" that was originally lying flat on a certain plane suddenly "turned over" and "stood up", and Lucrecia's figure emerged from the air.
She had been standing in front of the Annihilation Cultist, only about half a meter away at the closest point - but she was standing sideways.
The picture has no thickness, and the eyes in three-dimensional space cannot see an "image" parallel to the line of sight.
Lucrecia exhaled softly, looked at her hands, then picked up a pencil thrown beside her and drew two random strokes on her palm.
Then she waved her hand, and the "thin" figure turned from a picture without thickness into a normal entity.
She turned her head and glanced at the empty floor. "Rabbi, I know you are in the room."
Almost as soon as she finished speaking, a shrill voice like that of a little girl suddenly rang out in the room: "Hey, hey, hey! The hostess is here! The rabbi will be out soon!"
Along with this shrill and tender voice, countless white flocs suddenly appeared in every corner of the room!
In the shadows of the corners, the gaps between the furniture, the holes in the roof, the cracks in the floor, in all places that could be used to hide the "fibers", countless cotton wool began to swarm out, as if the room itself was frantically expelling foreign matter. In the blink of an eye, the cotton wool filled Lucrecia's vision, and then they quickly gathered in the center of the room and gradually turned into a rabbit without a "skin", formed entirely by cotton balls.
Then, the rabbit-shaped ball of cotton wool began to "flip" from the inside out, and colorful fabrics came out of its belly, wrapping it up in an instant, turning it into a large rabbit doll with a strange and scary shape.
The scary doll shook twice on the spot, and then rushed towards Lucrecia happily: "The Rabbi is here, the Rabbi is here! Welcome, welcome, warmly welcome..."
"Shut up," Lucrecia said coldly as she grabbed the rabbit that was flying towards her in mid-air. "Keep quiet."
(End of this chapter)