Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 66: The Double Doors
Lynx, gray wolf, hyena, fox, cheetah.
With one glance, Myss saw that these people’s Magibases filled the already sizable room to the brim. They were the real deal, all outstanding in their own right.
He shifted slightly on instinct, about to use magic to snap the chains, but in doing so, brushed against Salaar’s warm body.
Salaar’s back wasn’t drawn especially tight, which meant the situation wasn’t too dangerous. So Myss didn’t hurry to break free. He kept silent and waited with unusual patience.
Within that warmth behind him, something cool slipped into his sleeve. The instant they had been bound, Salaar had flicked his snake staff, turning Knife back to normal.
“Leave it to Salaar for now,” Knife whispered.
Seizing the moment while the others were distracted, it slipped into Myss’s messy long hair and quietly bit off Myss’s communication badge.
“We’ll contact the Professor.”
The young man tore the badge off Salaar’s collar, then tugged at Myss’s collar and chest as well. Unfortunately for him, he was a step too late and failed to find the badge on Myss, so he had to give up.
His fingertips were cold. Myss gave him a sideways look.
The young man had filthy black hair and pale green eyes. There was barely any color in his face, and his breath carried a damp, unpleasant odor, like a mud pit filled with rainwater.
“We got separated from Professor Gentry and the others, got captured by those rabbits outside, then snuck out.” Salaar continued earnestly, “Since the misunderstanding is cleared up, could you untie us now? This gentleman—”
“Sean.” The gaunt young man introduced himself curtly. His lynx Magibase sat quietly at his feet.
“All right, Mr. Sean.” Salaar remained good-natured. “What exactly are you still worried about?”
Sean gave the remaining four people a meaningful glance. The woman with bandages wound around her neck, the one whose Magibase was a fox, nodded to him.
“I told you, we’ll contact Professor Gentry.” Sean said stiffly, “But until we see Professor Gentry with our own eyes, you two are staying here.”
‘These humans certainly are cautious,’ Myss thought.
If he and Salaar had hostile intentions and had given that badge the false hope of being able to contact Professor Gentry, then the badge itself could have become something like the moss flower potion, making the survivors believe they were speaking to Gentry.
“I get it. You mean the miraculous ‘dreams come true’ power in this place. You’re afraid that badge might be fake!”
Salaar sounded absurdly carefree. “That really is a thing. There are a lot more people on the surface now too. Apparently, just by standing on this patch of land is enough to turn everyone’s luck.”
Sean’s stiff expression shifted. More than amazement, it looked like some kind of sorrow.
The others also stayed silent. They merely watched Myss and Salaar by the door, showing no real interest in talking.
“…But after seeing you, I started thinking this ‘dreams come true’ thing has limits too. If dreams really came true, you would have untied us by now, haha.”
Faced with the icy atmosphere, Salaar kept talking as if it didn’t bother him in the slightest, every bit the thoughtless young man in his early twenties.
“Personally, I don’t mind. But we still have two companions in the cells. If we don’t go back for too long, they’ll worry.”
“No. The danger level here far exceeds what you can imagine.” Sean said flatly, “If Professor Gentry really came, he’ll find his way here soon enough. You won’t lose much waiting a day or two.”
Salaar fell silent for a moment. “We remember the route out. We could quietly lead you out and rendezvous halfway. If Professor Gentry has to come in personally, wouldn’t that just put him right under the rabbits’ noses?”
The woman with the fox Magibase spoke up. “Roman still hasn’t come back. We can’t leave Roman behind, and the professor will understand that.”
“We’ll explain everything once we see Professor Gentry.”
All right. So they meant to keep them locked up here until Gentry and the others arrived.
Myss felt a little annoyed. Not because of the ropes, but because if this kept up, he wouldn’t get to use his “hero cushion” tonight.
Fortunately, the Divine Realm answered this tiny wish.
After giving them a brief explanation, Sean dragged the two of them to the storage room by the servants’ quarters and locked the door securely.
Before shutting them in, Sean didn’t forget to search them. But aside from the emergency rations and raspberry candies in Salaar’s pockets, he found no threatening magic artifacts. Knife and Fork had already slipped away into the shadows.
Chains rattled into place outside the storage room door. Then the thin chains binding the two of them snapped on their own and crawled out through the gap under the door.
The storage room was extremely cramped, though fortunately the ceiling was high enough that it didn’t feel oppressive.
Shelves made of rot-resistant wood lined the room. The woven baskets on them had rotted beyond repair, and the cloth inside crumbled at a touch. Brightly colored mushrooms grew in the corners, and soft moss covered the wood, making the decay look oddly cute.
Sean had left them two mushroom oil lamps, ensuring the interior remained brightly lit.
“Looks like they don’t have much malice. After being trapped in this hellhole for over half a year, they still didn’t touch our rations, and they even knew to untie us.”
Salaar rolled his wrists, casually tossed Myss a raspberry candy, then dropped a soundproofing spell on the door.
“They don’t need to. They’ve got the magic mushroom meals.”
Myss caught the candy in three moves and touched the red marks on his wrists. “So what now? You’re not seriously planning to wait here for the professor, are you?”
Salaar shook his head and snapped his fingers.
Knife crawled obediently into his palm, carrying the communication badge it had bitten off Myss. Salaar activated it and contacted the priest first, but—
Static crackled.
For the first time since they entered the Divine Realm, the communication device malfunctioned.
Even when Salaar switched to contacting the professor, the badge still gave no response at all.
Myss arched a brow. “The ‘dreams come true’ around here is getting more watered down by the minute.”
Their team had first fallen underground, and now the communication device was acting up. Were the lucky rabbit feet they bought even useful? This Abnormal Fruit’s power seemed way too weak.
Salaar examined the communicator for a while and found no sign of damage it should not have had. But unlike what Myss had expected, there was no panic on Salaar’s face.
“Forget it. Let’s rest first.”
Salaar tucked the badge back into his pocket.
That’s it? He’s not going to worry about the priest and the Dragon Fae?
Myss leaned toward Salaar and glared at him. To be honest, he didn’t care that much whether Tass lived or died. But the priest was one of their Abnormal Fruit workers; Myss didn’t particularly want anything bad happening to him.
“Don’t forget. Besides using divine power for divination, Kalen can conceal his presence, and Tass can hide inside a gem. As long as they behave themselves, they’re safer than we are.”
Salaar gave Myss an amused look.
“And so far, Sean hasn’t done anything to them. If I’m not mistaken, they made contact with Professor Gentry’s side without trouble.”
…Of course, whether the survivors believed it was really Gentry on the line was another matter.
Salaar could tell that after being trapped here for more than half a year, the survivors understood at least a little about the Divine Realm’s “dreams come true” power. Yet they had revealed very little about it.
These were the world’s best adventurers. Salaar could understand their composure. But toward two “younger helpers” who had come to rescue them, their attitude was a little too cold.
What exactly was going on in this Divine Realm?
Salaar lay down in a ring of mushrooms carpeted with thick moss, resting his head on a relatively soft cap. He concentrated, and before long the mushroom under his head softened until it felt like a goose-down pillow.
Mm. This kind of tiny dream was still possible.
Seeing Salaar lie down, Myss’s eyes lit up. He pounced with practiced ease and sprawled across Salaar’s chest, almost swallowing him whole with his warm body heat.
He was deeply dissatisfied with Salaar’s dirt-streaked shirt. With brisk efficiency, Myss pulled the front of Salaar’s shirt open until his whole chest was exposed. Then he rubbed his head against it and let out a satisfied sigh.
Mm. This kind of tiny dream was still coming true.
From this angle, they looked submerged in a mushroom forest. The mushroom oil lamps dimmed on their own, and faint green motes drifted through the air, making everything look dreamlike.
Myss’s head was heavy on his chest. His damp breathing brushed over Salaar’s bare heart. That gray-white hair spread out like water, and a few stray ends slipped into the opening of his shirt, making him itch.
Salaar quietly lifted a hand and rested it on the back of Myss’s head. Heat seeped through the strands, mixing with the cool, smooth feel of his hair. The sensation was strange in an unexpectedly pleasant way.
Myss immediately lifted his head, as if out of habit, about to shake the hand off. But just as his body tensed, his eyes shifted, and he gradually relaxed again.
Salaar’s palm slid smoothly from the back of his head down to his back, then to his hair ends. He caught the sidelong look Myss threw him and could practically hear the Archdemon’s thoughts. Myss was clearly waiting to see if Salaar would build up enough love on his own.
Salaar gently stroked the most formidable enemy he had ever faced in his life.
The steady, gentle touch made Myss drowsy. His eyelids drooped, and his breathing softened. A tiny green mote floated onto the tip of his nose. Myss wrinkled his nose in response, tilted his face upward, and let out a sneeze.
The faint light illuminated that young, beautiful face, and for a moment, Salaar found himself completely entranced.
He had never cared about the concepts of human beauty or ugliness. Under the swallowing force of the Night Scourge, aside from the relatively well-groomed rich, everyone wore haggard faces. Yet, even among the wealthy, the constant anxiety born of darkness and the unknown left them wearing expressions of perpetual misery.
When he absorbed Kendric Karns’s memories, there had been the face of a slave in them. Even such a striking face hadn’t moved him in the least.
But with this same skin being used by Myss, it felt completely different. Salaar couldn’t say exactly how.
He only thought of the pitch-black world outside that small window long ago.
The gaze of the Chaos Archdemon had poured down from the highest reaches; Its heartbeat had drowned everything like an ocean.
The tentacles on the ground had always been hard and tough, as cold as the gravel floor. Back then, he had no idea how vast his enemy truly was. Those few tentacles were the only part of It he had been able to touch.
…Did all of this count as another small dream?
Salaar shifted his right hand, his knuckles brushing Myss’s warm cheek.
Myss gave a sleepy hum, frowned a little, but still didn’t dodge. Salaar let his knuckles trace over his cheekbone, the corner of his mouth, and his jaw.
His hand came to rest at Myss’s neck, gently rubbing. Beneath the soft skin, he could clearly feel the pulse of life. Myss blew softly through his nose and still did not resist.
This feeling was really…
“Myss, Myss! I’m back!”
Fork squeezed in through the crack under the door, calling cheerfully.
Myss woke up at once. He sprang to his feet and slipped out from under Salaar’s hand.
Salaar’s chest suddenly felt empty. The heat and weight vanished together, and his heart skipped a beat with them. Keeping his thoughts composed, he calmly pulled his tunic back together.
“So? How did it go?” Myss scooped up the triumphant Fork.
Not long ago, Knife had entered the storage room ahead of them carrying Myss’s badge. Fork, meanwhile, had stayed outside and eavesdropped on the survivors’ private discussion.
“After they locked you up, they immediately put up a soundproofing spell and contacted Professor Gentry.”
Fork swished the tip of its tail smugly, like a wagging finger. “That conversation went pretty smoothly. Beverly and Asp practically cried. Professor Gentry said that, thanks to the information provided by the survivors, they’d be able to locate this place soon.”
At this point, it gave its tail a little suck. “Compared to those wailing students, the Professor was remarkably calm. He first checked a few private matters only the people in their group would know… Those survivors seem genuine.”
“Then what?” Salaar turned onto his side, listening with keen interest.
Fork tilted its head, its pomegranate-seed-like eyes staring at Salaar for a while.
“The survivors said they actually know where Roman is.”
“They said that if they abandon Roman, they won’t leave either, and begged the Professor to help them rescue him.”
“…They said Roman was captured by a monster and has become part of it. That he’s completely lost his mind.”
……
Shadowing the priest, who had fused with the rabbit, Tass beat his wings with mounting dread.
This environment wasn’t friendly to a Dragon Fae. There were no gems at all in the prison area, so he could only skim close to the shadows, hiding from time to time behind mushroom stalks.
The priest moved ahead calmly, as though he knew this terrain inside and out, without triggering a single trap. The rabbit, Jinx, remained attached to his body, murmuring in bliss, “So nice, so nice.”
With every step the priest took, the amorphous mass of rabbit flesh swayed with him, looking like a dollop of soft, melting cream.
In all his years as an assassin, Tass had never seen anything this horrifying. By comparison, human magic, even the most brutal form of torture magic, felt downright normal by comparison.
Worse, he tried again and again to follow the flow of power and still couldn’t understand what spell had taken hold of the priest. He couldn’t even think of a remotely similar case. If this Divine Realm was also V.O.R’s handiwork, then that thing was even more ominous than his worst fears.
Tass swallowed hard. “Your inheritance really isn’t enough to cover the commission after all, stupid Antis.”
“I’ll just count it as another discount for you. You’d better pray for me properly from the other side…”
Grinding his teeth, he kept following.
With that rabbit lump attached to him, the priest made it to the castle hall without trouble.
The busy rabbits showed no surprise at his appearance and kept doing their work. Only when he passed did they briefly pause, lower their heads, and close their pink eyes slightly, as though paying their respects.
The hall was astonishingly empty, though a few gemstone decorations appeared here and there. Mustering all his strength, Tass darted like lightning across the area teeming with rabbits.
“Please come this way!”
An adorable lop-eared rabbit hopped forward and led the priest through the renovated hall, past vividly colored paintings… and deeper into the darkest part of the ruins.
The priest’s pupils widened slightly, but his steps never hesitated.
Tass made a rough estimate. The castle from three hundred years ago and the current one weren’t that different. Judging from the direction, that rabbit was taking Father Kalen straight toward the castle’s core, the living quarters of the Hope family.
Past the entrance to the residential area, the corridors branched in every direction.
The instant the priest stepped inside, a series of mushroom oil lamps lit one after another, forming a bright path all the way to the master bedroom.
Tass hesitated.
The rabbits had shown no hostility, the magic flow seemed stable, and he was flying above the ground, making it hard to trigger any trap.
Fairly speaking, his hesitation had no concrete basis. It was purely instinct.
And yet he had become Tass Ga the Unfailing… or rather, the Only-Failed-Once. He knew this kind of intuition at the last second had saved his life on more than one occasion.
Tass stopped in the shadow of a gilt candlestick and watched Kalen walk farther and farther away.
The priest’s back faded in and out in the firelight, like black candlelight burning from a wick.
A few minutes later, that figure wrapped in a priest’s robe disappeared beyond the line of lights, behind a pair of massive double doors—
On either side of the doors stood two armored figures holding giant axes. Through the narrow gaps in their black helmets, several irregular red points of light blinked without end.
They moved with eerie agility and pulled open just a small crack for the priest. The opening was controlled with perfect precision, only wide enough for him to slip through sideways.
Not a single ray of light penetrated from the gap; there was only darkness so thick it seemed utterly impenetrable.
Yet in the few seconds those doors opened, a gust tinged with magic blew out.
It carried the damp smell unique to fungal slime, the cloying, metallic tang of decaying blood, and some kind of deliberate, utterly pure sense of oppression.
Tass darted behind a corner, clutching the wall as he retched violently.
The magic spilling from beyond the door hit him like a blow to the stomach, nearly smashing his organs apart. He felt an overwhelming repulsion. It was unquestionably aimed at him, like ten thousand beasts hissing at once, the air reeking of death.
As the doors shut, that skin-crawling pressure disappeared with them, leaving only a sheen of hot sweat on his back.
Without hope, Tass pulled out the badge and tried once more to contact Salaar. The other end still gave only static.
Fine. He would have to find Salaar and Myss himself and tell them what had happened.
Tass wiped the sweat from his forehead. His heart was still pounding furiously, hammering against his ribs with every beat.
Whatever was behind those doors, it was definitely not something to handle lightly.
The author has something to say:
Salaar: pet pet
Myss: If I let him pet me, Salaar might fall in love with me and get super scared
Salaar: pet pet pet pet
Myss: If I let him pet me… Salaar… zzzZZZ
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