Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 174 - 165: The Song of Death

"Feel a bit disappointed?" Beatrice folded her hands behind her back. Blue-green blood dripped from her black nails, flowing over the torn cheeks of the Fishmen. Her blood-red pupils flickered in the night, transparent as the light shining through a glass of red wine held aloft. She leaned her chin on Alianna’s slender shoulder with a mischievous smile, eyeing the creature before her.

"I never imagined the Sirens to be so... ugly." Beatrice emphasized the word ’Sirens’ heavily, her playful tone as if she was about to plant a kiss on Alianna’s face.

In front of the two sisters sat the monstrosity in its damp lair, bloated and massive. Its lower body was a fat serpentine tail, or perhaps saying it resembled a stretched maggot was closer to the truth. Scales the color of gravelly dull yellow covered its back, and its body was smeared with foul muck. The humanoid upper body appeared ludicrous against its obese lower half; its face was like those of the ugliest merfolk, with a protruding tentacle like a bulbous anglerfish dangling in front of its swollen, white-rolled eyes, illuminating the large mouth hidden in the dark, resembling shark teeth forcibly assembled together. Fishmen and humanoid sea monsters surrounded her, like stars encircling the moon.

Alianna looked into those turbid eyes, devoid of any aesthetic appeal, realizing the monster’s inner emptiness; its hollow soul incapable of composing music, and her own thoughts dashed once again.

"Let’s go, Beatrice. There’s no need to stay here any longer."

"It seems they have no intention of letting us leave, dear sister," Beatrice said with a smirk, the blue-green blood being sucked from the corpses at her feet, gathering into a sphere of blood in her palm.

Alianna disliked how Beatrice was controlled by her bloodthirsty impulses and decided to make the first move.

"Monosyllabic Resonance." Waving her wand, she summoned a wailing ghost. Its screeching created sonic waves like invisible blades, slicing the charging Fishmen to pieces.

"Let’s go, Beatrice, or you’ll be drinking again."

Beatrice casually dusted off her hands, "Well, this level of fighting isn’t worth celebrating with a drink."

The sisters turned to leave.

A melodious, enchanting voice reached their ears, as if a moon had risen in their hearts. The sweet sound cleansed the weariness of the listeners and twisted their wills.

Both sisters turned in unison, facing the source of the voice, the bloated banshee.

"If I’m not wrong, sister, this brazen Siren is trying to enchant us. Should I take this as a challenge to Naslan’s daughters?" Beatrice’s eyes gleamed with malice, "May I discipline her?"

Alianna was still recalling the compelling song she had just heard. "She seems capable of communication, Beatrice."

"Communication is based on mutual willingness, sister. I don’t think..."

Before the sisters finished their dispute, the Siren Banshee began to move. It wasn’t an attack; she moved slowly, dragging her corpulent body toward Beatrice step by step.

Beatrice’s sharp nails flashed, but Alianna stopped her in the end.

"Sister?"

"We back away, Beatrice."

With Alianna’s silent consent, the Siren Banshee slithered out of her cave. She stood on the beach, the frenzy from the dark cavern now absent. Her grotesque head gazed at the sea, as if recalling something, she turned to look at the towering structure on the cliff behind her, its tall spire connecting to the thick clouds, casting shadows over the entirety of Hamlet.

A moonbeam struck the banshee, her bloated body emitting smoke under the glow, transforming her into a different appearance.

"A human?"

A long-haired woman in a drenched gown, her hair interwoven with seaweed, her rough skin marked by time, and a pair of gentle eyes.

Her appearance couldn’t be called beautiful, but her features bore a kindness that the world had twisted into horror, only returning to their natural state under the moonlight.

The long-haired woman bowed to Alianna and Beatrice, her impeccable manners indicating she had once been well-educated.

Her voice was somewhat hoarse and trembling, as if chilled to the bone.

"I’m very sorry for the harm I have caused you. Many times I cannot control myself, and my mind is filled with other, insane voices." The woman said, clutching her head in agony, a muffled groan escaping her as a dark red spike emerged from her shoulder blade, mutilating her wretched body.

After several deep breaths, the woman finally freed herself from the agonizing rending of her body and returned to lucidity.

She looked at Alianna with a strained smile. "Please leave quickly, while I haven’t changed, while I haven’t hurt you."

"Are you a human?"

"I once was..." the woman looked at the silent Alianna, "You seem to be disappointed..."

"I want to find a way to improve my singing abilities, so I am searching for a real Siren Banshee."

"Could you show me? Your voice." The inhuman woman revealed a smile, perhaps loneliness from her prolonged monster state had taken its toll, or maybe she was just naturally kind-hearted. "I underwent a period of music practice once, decades ago—human practice. Perhaps, the beautiful memories that linger in the corners of my mind could still positively influence your singing technique."

Alianna recalled the moving song she had heard not long ago and nodded to this former human.

Her hands folded in front of her chest as she looked at the moon revealing its profile behind the clouds.

Alianna began to sing.

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Lyle curled up in the bandit camp’s tower, facing the campfire, when suddenly, he clutched at his chest.

"What’s wrong, Lyle?"

"My heart fluttered for a moment."

"...I hope there’s nothing wrong with your heart, that it can settle down." Kevin’s look of concern turned into disdain as he crawled back under his own blanket.

"It’s true, I have a premonition that something has happened."

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In the bay, the Fishmen who were still conscious scrambled to flee back into the water, leaving the rest unconscious on the ground.

Beatrice, covering her ears, squatted to one side while the woman struggled to get up from the ground, looking at the white-clothed girl before her in amazement.

Her body’s malformed bone spurs twitched, and, adhering to the principle of seeing things through, she listened to Alianna’s entire song.

It nearly ended her monstrous life.

Patting her brain, which felt like paste, she spoke with difficulty.

"You... you’re not a living being, are you?"

"Yes, I am a Lich, but what does that have to do with my singing?"

"There’s an absurd legend among human musicians, that a perfect singer, upon death, will be favored by the Grim Reaper, and she will continue to sing in the realm of the dead, for those obsessed deceased."

"Her voice will become the sound of death, awakening the most primal perception of life."

"That is, torment."

"The dead will rejoice for feeling the sentiments of their former life, while the living will endure an unbearable torture."

"Madam, your voice is a melody too exquisite for the living to bear. No matter how much you refine it, it’s futile. It belongs only to the dead."

Alianna felt as though she had been struck.

"It, only belongs to the dead?"

"He, doesn’t belong to the dead?"