Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 25: A Contract Between Enemies
“I don’t know,” Kalen said.
Then it has nothing to do with you.
Myss couldn’t even wait to take it back. He opened his mouth to bite—his head just halfway forward when a pair of hands reached from behind and fixed his head in place.
Myss struggled forward with all his strength, his face stretched and distorted. Then, remembering he had hands, he tried to snatch the thing. Kalen stepped back two paces in surprise and held the black lump high.
“Don’t touch this. It’s very dangerous. Let me handle it,” he said with complete sincerity.
Those hands restraining Myss—Salaar’s hands—shifted and pulled Myss back into his arms. The great hero wasn’t in good shape; most of his weight was pressed down on Myss, making him feel as if he was being used as a crutch.
Just as the Demon Lord was about to explode, Salaar asked, “You don’t know what this is, but you know it’s dangerous?”
Kalen nodded solemnly. “Yes. I once saw it flatten an entire village.”
Myss immediately softened his struggling. The thing smelled so delicious it made his head spin, but he didn’t want his mouth blown off.
Seeing that Myss had calmed down, Salaar loosened his arms.
Myss’s clothes had been corroded into shreds, but parts of it were still being held up by his belt, so he wasn’t stark naked. Salaar’s clothes, however, had been reduced to pathetic strips, making him look rather unpresentable.
“It’s not convenient to talk here. Let us return to the church.”
Kalen took off his last remaining shirt and handed it to Salaar to cover himself—after all, there was a clear-headed little girl inside the church.
A few minutes later, inside the church.
“She’s Scintilla.”
Seeing the mutilated unconscious girl, Hailey recognized her at once.
Upon entering the church, Salaar had casually torn a piece of white silk from a statue. With quick hands he had fashioned a simple white robe for himself, making him look less miserable.
He then carried Scintilla onto a bench and skillfully cast healing magic. The pale red threads and memory fragments on her body hadn’t vanished, but her face regained some color and her breathing gradually steadied.
Hailey hesitated, then followed Kalen’s example, taking off her outer cloak to cover Scintilla’s curled-up body.
Myss didn’t care who Scintilla was. His gaze stayed hooked on that mysterious object, like a fishhook luring a fat fish.
Salaar sighed and clung close to Myss, prepared for any eventuality. He looked at the unnatural darkness outside the door and then at Kalen. “Would you mind explaining?”
The pale red threads had all broken and Mina was gone, yet that dreadful darkness still remained.
Even without eyes that could see through magic, Salaar could guess the core of this anomaly was not Scintilla or Mina but that strange lump—
Kalen was holding it carefully with both hands and now set it down gently on a flat ritual stone table.
“This time, thanks to you two, the disaster was lifted. Naturally, I owe you an explanation.”
After making sure the thing was safely placed, Kalen let out a long breath. “You two seem quite interested in the strange illness. In fact, Rosha isn’t the only place with ominous outbreaks.”
“In recent years, several places have experienced similar odd events—someone suddenly mutates, then drags everything nearby into hell. Those who mutate often have this thing on them.”
“At present it seems to be highly concentrated pure magic. The more grotesque the host’s mutation and the greater the number of people affected, the purer the magic power extracted into this thing.”
“It sounds like rose essential oil.” Salaar thought of the Magibases engulfed by the pale red threads. To get one gram of rose essential oil one must distill tens of thousands of roses. Then how much magic must be drained to form this?
No wonder Myss only found normal Magibases faintly fragrant yet couldn’t resist this “extracted essence” at all.
Kalen smiled. “Ah, my brother used a similar comparison. He also gave it a name: ‘Abnormal Fruit’.”
“He taught me the trick to dealing with Abnormal Fruit.”
“Deal with it? How?”
The moment the keyword came up, Myss’s ears perked up.
“There’s only one known solution: consume it using harmless magic until it is gone. Only when the Abnormal Fruit disappears will the anomaly fully dissipate,” Kalen said. “But the Abnormal Fruit is highly unstable. If someone tries to cut it or take it by force, it will explode on the spot.”
Myss’s face went pale, and he let out a sound almost like a sob.
Salaar forced his mouth into a flat line. He still had many questions but talking too much might push the Demon Lord into losing control again.
But one thing was certain, he couldn’t let Myss eat that thing.
If Myss got blown up, he might return to his original form; but if he absorbed all that magic, the balance of strength between them would shatter.
“Myss, don’t risk it this time. Its origin is strange. What if it’s poisonous?” Salaar whispered as he steadied a hand on his shoulder.
“Let us do as Kalen said and use a magic spell to consume it. While it’s being used up, you and I can watch carefully.”
Myss’s heart was shattered—yes, what else could he do but make it disappear from sight?
Calming down and thinking it through, earlier he and Salaar together barely subdued that monster… Even if this thing wasn’t toxic, its power was formidable; his human body might not endure it.
Until they found a safe way to handle it, it wasn’t worth dying for a taste.
… But it smelled so good. Damn it, he was starving.
Myss covered his face with both hands and slowly squatted down, not wanting to say a single word. He tried to hide his nose to block out that deadly scent.
“If you two have no objections, I’ll begin eliminating it,” Kalen said. “Please step back a little.”
Salaar didn’t move. “Must it be consumed by a specific magic? Would other harmless spells work?”
Kalen scratched his head. “As long as it is not destructive magic, theoretically yes… Would you like to try?”
He stopped moving and looked at Salaar inquiringly.
Salaar thought for a moment, broke off a small piece of white stone from the statue, and began drawing a magic circle on the floor.
Seeing Salaar, who usually cast spells barehanded, actually drew a proper magic array, Myss couldn’t help raising his head and secretly peeking through his fingers.
That guy must have borrowed Lord Karns’s knowledge. The circle looked decent and contained many runes Myss had never seen.
“Myss.” Salaar seemed aware he was peeking and spoke without looking up. “Don’t you think there’s a problem between us?”
Myss frowned. “Hmm? Is there a problem between us?”
Then he had better quickly address any gaps.
Salaar glanced at him and whispered, “Fine, let me rephrase. Earlier in the fight you got distracted. Were you doubting me?”
Salaar knew he had made mistakes while in his support, but he hadn’t expected Myss’s reaction to be that big. He thought Myss had long since engraved ‘Salaar is untrustworthy’ into instinct.
This realization left him feeling… complicated.
Myss didn’t reply.
Being distracted during battle was humiliating but having your archenemy guess the reason why was even worse. He decided to play dead on the spot.
“I know what worries you. You fear I’ll discover the truth first and stab you in the back. But if we’re always on guard, we can’t fight at full strength. That’s a serious problem.”
Salaar tapped the ground with the stone. “We don’t need to talk about meaningless ‘trust’. Let us just make a contract—using the Abnormal Fruit as material, the magic effect will be absolutely guaranteed.”
A contract?
Myss finally lifted his head and raised his eyebrows.
“Before uncovering the truth about the body-switch ritual, you and I must share all related information and can’t lie or hide anything.”
“Before uncovering the truth about the ritual, you and I must guarantee each other’s safety and can’t act passively.”
“Before uncovering the truth about the ritual, you and I must stay close and can’t leave without permission.”
Salaar stated each clause emphatically while he fixed his gaze directly at Myss, as if he was trying to catch every smallest reaction.
“…Well? This way there’ll be no ‘I found the truth but kept silent.’ After the truth is known, who lives or dies will depend on skill.”
Myss thought for a while, then stood up. “Fine.”
Good enough. The Abnormal Fruit would stay with him in another form; his pent-up grievance eased considerably. And he truly didn’t want to be constantly suspicious, with his mind always on Salaar. A contract would make things simpler.
“But I’ll cast with you. You’d better not pull any tricks.” Myss pointed at his eyes. “I can see things very clearly right now.”
Salaar smiled back.
“Have you two decided?” Since they had lowered their voices, Kalen had politely kept his distance.
“Done, Father.” Salaar patted the white stone dust off his hands. “Please bring the Abnormal Fruit here and teach us the process.”
It turned out to be much simpler than they expected.
Kalen only asked where the center of the array was, then placed the plump Abnormal Fruit right on top.
“It’s a bit like a lost ancient alchemy. I heard this kind of magic is extremely complicated.” He peered curiously at the array. “Are you an alchemist?”
“No. I’m just a scholar who likes researching history,” Salaar said calmly.
At the edge of the round-table-sized array, Salaar and Myss stood facing each other. Salaar extended one hand and chanted a long incantation that Myss couldn’t understand.
The array lit with a gentle, brilliant gold glow, and the pitch-black Abnormal Fruit gave a slight wriggle.
Wave after wave of magic surged out like a tsunami, blowing both their hair sideways.
Countless gold motes danced above the array, drifting around the two of them and forming a splendid band of light like a Möbius strip.
Soundless information flooded into Myss’s mind. It was the three terms Salaar had just stated.
Salaar hadn’t tampered with it. The information was even more precise and detailed than his spoken wording, watertight in every respect.
If either of them broke the contract, their power would vanish immediately and wouldn’t return until the other party chose to forgive them.
“…Contract confirmed. Offer perfect metal imbued with essence,” Salaar intoned.
What’s that supposed to mean? Myss looked at him, puzzled.
Salaar didn’t bother to explain. He took out the ritual dagger made of pure silver and sliced open his own palm. The silver-white blade, covered in blood, dropped into the gold light of the array.
It didn’t hit the ground but melted into a small silver-white sphere and floated slowly on one side of the array.
Myss suddenly understood. He felt around in his shredded clothes and pulled out the nearly ruined silver dining fork.
The warped fork pricked his arm, then fell with his blood into the array and immediately became a silver sphere of the same size. The two spheres orbited the array, circling closer and closer. The Abnormal Fruit dissolved at high speed, and the two spheres grew ever more dazzling.
At the instant the fruit disappeared, the spheres merged into one and turned into a silver… egg.
Myss: ?
Crack.
The array slowly dimmed. The silver egg split open in front of him and two tiny silver snakes crawled out. They floated in midair and slithered toward Myss and Salaar respectively.
Myss instinctively held out his hand and allowed the snake to coil around his right arm. It had eyes like garnet, its skin shone with a dark silvery gray, and it carried a faint metallic texture.
Just looking at it gave Myss a strange sense of intimacy, as if it was a part of him.
The other snake flew into Salaar’s hand.
With a flash of silver light, that snake turned into a single-serpent staff. Its length matched an ordinary walking stick, its color a subdued silver gray. A slender silver snake coiled at the head of the staff, its eyes like inlaid lapis lazuli.
“The air outside is really fresh.”
The snake, which looked like a mere ornament, actually opened its mouth and spoke.
Myss stared at it in shock, then looked at his own snake. His snake was busy yawning, exposing tiny fangs, with no time to talk.
“This is the embodied symbol of the contract. In a sense, it is one with us,” Salaar said. “I thought the Magibases were an interesting idea, so I tried something similar.”
“You can turn it into a weapon, like this—”
Salaar flicked the serpent staff. The snake instantly formed a hilt-like structure at the head, while the lower half of the staff was wrapped in brilliant gold light and became a slender blade.
A delicate lightsaber appeared before Myss. The power of the Abnormal Fruit had fused into it perfectly. A faint pressure emanated from it, far stronger than that ritual dagger had ever been.
Tap. Tap.
The tip touched the floor twice. The gold faded at once, and the lightsaber returned to a plain serpent staff.
“That tickles,” the snake said again.
…This is amazing! Salaar actually had such a miraculous use for it!
Myss immediately looked at his own snake and began considering what to make it become.
A dagger?
No, not quite right. He mainly used magic to eliminate enemies, so a wound from the slightest stab from a dagger was negligible. The earlier use of a dining fork had only been to provide an anchoring point for his magic.
A bow and arrows?
That would fit his ranger persona, and long-range attacks suited him. But a longbow was bulky, and drawing and shooting was troublesome. Myss felt a headache just thinking about it.
If only he could combine the two.
In a flash, the image of Salaar raising a dagger and firing flames crossed his mind.
The silver snake moved on its own, coiling around Myss’s right wrist. A moment later it fixed its body in place, its head resting on the back of Myss’s right hand.
At first glance it looked like a silver bracelet in the shape of a serpent. Myss, however, caught the idea at once. It was essentially a refined wrist crossbow.
He lifted his hand and moved his will. A jet of pitch-black magic shot from the snake’s mouth like a viper spitting venom.
The shot grazed Salaar’s foot and ate a bottomless little hole into the floorboards.
Myss and the silver snake both cried out “Wow!” at the same time.
This thing was even more handy than he expected, and its attack coverage was quite flexible. In close quarters he could even have the snake bite directly.
“How is it?” Salaar winked at him.
“I’m naming it ‘Fork’.” Myss stroked the silver snake in satisfaction. Its touch was cool and silky, and it gave off a faint pleasant scent.
Fork narrowed its eyes at him and said in a shrill voice, “Your taste in names is awful.”
Myss narrowed his eyes right back. “If you want to live, keep quiet.”
Salaar chuckled and coughed twice, then waved his own serpent staff. “Then I will call this one ‘Knife’. It’s basically a knife transformed.”
Knife: “That’s truly a… unique name, beyond my comprehension.”
Salaar: “Really? Thank you for the compliment.”
Clap, clap, clap.
Kalen applauded from a few steps away, wearing the same astonished look as Myss.
“This is the first time I have seen such wondrous alchemical magic,” the priest exclaimed. “Congratulations on successfully, uh, giving birth to new life…?”
Myss and Salaar both fell silent.
After a few seconds, Salaar gave a dry laugh, thanked him, and used magic to erase the traces of the array on the floor.
“But the anomaly here hasn’t disappeared,” Kalen said, glancing toward the door. “Sir, did you overlook something?”
“No. There’s indeed a tiny remaining portion of the Abnormal Fruit. Only a very, very small bit,” Salaar said, then produced a candy ball as if by sleight of hand.
Myss couldn’t fathom it. This man’s clothes had nearly fallen apart earlier. The ritual dagger was one thing, but this was somehow still around.
He was in no mood for such details now. From that candy he smelled an extremely alluring fragrance.
It was the scent of the Abnormal Fruit. It wasn’t as intense as the fruit itself, but exactly the same in flavor, most likely the residual crumbs of the contract magic.
“Eat it,” Salaar said, tossing it to him. “In such a tiny amount, even if it is poisonous, it won’t matter.”
Myss popped the candy into his mouth without hesitation.
Curiously, his sense of taste didn’t react. The fragrance felt more like a guide, as if his instincts had borrowed human senses on purpose just to secure his attention.
As the fruit’s magic seeped into him, Myss felt vividly and unmistakably alive. It was an incomparable comfort, like a newborn taking a first breath.
In truth, Myss could more or less guess Salaar’s motive.
If he kept brooding over this, it wouldn’t benefit anyone. The great hero was cooling a powder keg. Myss couldn’t resist such bribery though. The contract first and the candy after; Myss’s dissatisfaction vanished to the sweetness.
“I’ve decided not to resent you for now.”
Myss devoted himself to savoring the magic. His whole body tensed, and the corners of his eyes grew faintly moist.
“That’s truly my honor, My~ss~,” Salaar said cheerfully.
……
The candy melted, and the illusion quietly collapsed.
Faint voices drifted from the nearby street. The damp, fishy odor fully dispersed, and the air turned dry and clear.
The church was still the same church, but the sky outside the door had brightened at once. Myss looked up and saw the spire intact, all the damage from the battle gone without a trace.
The hot, rank air, the membranous sheath covering the city, the windows lit from within—all of it had felt so real. Yet the twisted monster nurtured there had never managed to be born.
Only the contract’s silver snake still lay on the back of Myss’s hand. Its cool, slippery touch told him the past events hadn’t been false.
At last, the Abnormal Fruit’s remnants were completely digested by Myss. Mina’s distorted memories faded, leaving only a light impression that could no longer stir any emotion.
In the very end, Myss seemed to hear a soft sigh.
“Who goes there?!” A roar followed at once, making Myss jump.
—People in disheveled clothing had appeared in the church, creating quite a suspicious scene. The night watchman swung his lantern and shouted them out.
Scintilla, whose appearance had grown abnormal, was wrapped in silk and was being floated by Salaar. Huey was still unconscious and was carried on Kalen’s back.
Hailey ran ahead to lead the way. She moved through the night with practiced ease and guided them straight to the Hammer Tavern.
Since the bird-beaked demon had appeared, the tavern had far fewer guests. Even so, at the sight of this particularly strange group, a wave of whispers and exclamations rose. Hammer silenced the curious patrons with a look and pointed upstairs.
“I’ll get you something to eat in a bit. Tell me what herbs you need,” he whispered.
…And just like that, Scintilla and Huey took the beds that should have belonged to Myss and Salaar.
Myss was in a good mood, savoring the candy, so he decided not to pursue the matter for now. He leaned against the corner and watched the busy humans.
Perhaps because he had newly gained the fruit’s power, Salaar generously cast cleansing spells and removed all the grime from everyone.
Earlier, to attend the exorcism and blessing, Salaar had only worn a loose old outfit. Now he pulled out that dark-blue formal suit again and changed quickly in the corridor. Paired with the newly acquired serpent staff, he looked even more like a proper scholar.
“Mr. Huey has nothing serious. His magic fluctuations are a bit weak. Slow recuperation will suffice.”
After carefully checking Huey’s condition, Kalen looked relieved. A few more crows had gathered outside the window, hopping along the sill and gently tapping the glass with their beaks.
Kalen smiled and waved to them, then went to check Scintilla on the other bed. At the sight of the girl’s terrifying alteration, that trace of relief vanished at once.
Half of Scintilla’s body was gone, leaving only pale red threads tangled into a mass. They drooped dryly like plant roots withered by drought.
Myss narrowed his eyes, trying to observe the Magibase inside Scintilla. He found only a broken, indescribable clump of something. It was less like a living thing and more like scraps of meat on a butcher’s board.
Salaar stood beside him and watched in silence as well.
“Miss Scintilla’s situation isn’t optimistic.” Kalen sighed. “Forget recovery. I have never seen someone altered like this return to human form. Mr. Myss being able to separate her human body at all is already an extraordinary feat.”
Salaar looked at him noncommittally. “So?”
“So I’ll look after her until the very last moment,” Kalen said softly. “How about I take her home, and you two look after Mr. Huey and Miss Hailey. If anything else comes up, find me at Scintilla’s house anytime.”
“The Abnormal Fruit is gone, and the strange sickness won’t recur. Your investigation can be wrapped up.”
“Is that so?” Salaar crossed his arms. Knife flicked its tongue.
“I never said our goal was to investigate the ‘Lower City plague’.”
“As it happens, when I last visited Scintilla’s home, something seemed to be missing from her table… Of course I don’t mean the lantern.”
“Father, what’s that letter in your pocket?”
The author has something to say:
The pets are here!
Yes, I declare they have two children, blood-related (…)
Two adorable contract snakes to make up for the fact that neither of them has a Magibase, and they even come as a matching couple—
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