Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 75: A Dark Interlude

Tass dipped a piece of soft cloth in clean water and began happily wiping his wings.

Father Kalen felt guilty because he had “performed poorly” in the Divine Realm. Tass, on the other hand, had no such concerns at all. As a Dragon Fae assassin who took money to do a job, he wouldn’t give his clients excessive goodwill. At least, that was what Tass himself believed.

He had thoroughly enjoyed this underground adventure. No one in the team had died or been injured, not even losing an arm or leg, and they had also obtained new information about V.O.R.

At the moment, the priest was taking a nap in a nearby bush, while Tass was using the dozing priest as a seat.

A few wild rabbits curiously ran over and looked the priest up and down, completely ignoring Tass.

Perhaps magical lifeforms were more special. Small animals were generally uninterested in Dragon Fae. Antis had once explained to him that, in the eyes of flesh-and-blood animals, a “Dragon Fae” was closer to a magical phenomenon.

But life itself was also a natural phenomenon; Tass remained unconvinced.

He hummed a little tune as he wiped his dark red, pearlescent scales and the delicate tips of his wings. The sunlight was just right, and his fine scales shimmered with a perfect color, like a noblewoman’s finest silk.

As he wiped, Tass’s brows began to furrow.

His wings seemed to have turned black. The color of those scales had darkened slightly, though their beautiful luster remained the same.

Tass used more force with his hand, but the soft cloth was still perfectly clean… What was going on? Was he sick?

Although such dark scales were undeniably beautiful, Tass felt somewhat uneasy.

Dragon Fae scales came in as many colors as flowers, and even pink and pale green individuals were fairly common. Tass’s wings were a deep crimson—an intense shade of blood lilies—a red of absolute purity.

But now they were somewhat blackened… Since records began, there had never been a black Dragon Fae.

It just so happened they were going to Serpentia, so he could contact his kin at the capital’s jewelry shops. Tass dispiritedly put down the soft cloth and looked toward the gradually darkening evening sky.

He didn’t care about Divine Realms or gods. His own health was the most important thing!

…Speaking of which, human courtship activities really were troublesome. The circus should have ended long ago, but Myss and Salaar still had not appeared.

Bored out of his mind, Tass took out a fried bean and crunched on it, glancing at Father Kalen from the corner of his eye.

After being put through that ordeal by the Prisoner of Dreams, Father Kalen was somewhat weak, with symptoms a little like excessive blood loss. At the moment, he wasn’t sleeping peacefully. His brows were tightly furrowed, and he was murmuring something.

“Hermit,” the priest murmured. “Hermit…”

Father Kalen’s tone was uncharacteristically strange. It was suppressed and bitter. “Brother… The Order of Shadows… you madman…”

Father Hermit, Father Kalen’s brother, had disappeared because of V.O.R. Tass knew about this. But in his impression, this hulking priest had always been deeply dependent on his older brother.

What, then, was with that strange tone?

Tass reflexively thought about it for a few seconds, then decided to politely stay away from other people’s family matters.

When he finished eating the fried bean, Salaar and Myss finally returned from their courtship activity. The sunset on the wasteland had painted a bloodstain-like band of light, and the two of them were walking over from within that smear of blood.

Salaar was easily carrying the sleeping Myss on his back. Myss’s gray-white braid slipped down from his shoulder and drifted lightly in the wind.

Seeing Tass’s hesitant expression, Salaar said, “He’s too tired. If I wake him up, I’ll have to listen to him mutter the whole way.”

Tass: “…”

Too tired? Isn’t your healing magic incredibly potent, kid? Why pretend to be innocent?

Human courtship activities really were too troublesome, and the Dragon Fae was too lazy to expose him. He stared into Salaar’s eyes and deliberately slowed his movements, then ruthlessly pinched Father Kalen’s nose.

Father Kalen woke up at once.

The wild rabbits beside him woke up too and fled in a panic until they disappeared.

“How was the circus?” The priest wiped his face and stood up.

“Not bad. We saw some novel things.”

Salaar spoke softly, still not putting down the sleeping Myss.

In his sleep, Myss’s arms were tightly wrapped around Salaar’s neck, as if he wanted to imitate a collar with his arms.

The priest smiled gently. “As long as it went smooth—”

Before he could say the word “ly,” Tass cried out loudly.

In the deepening dusk, more than a hundred pitch-black points of light rose.

With Myss as the center, they hovered around the two of them within a radius of about ten meters. The black points flew around casually like living things. Sometimes they twisted into fine threads, sometimes they formed black webs, and some condensed into lumps, becoming four-legged monsters resembling headless rabbits.

“What’s going on?”

In the suddenly dense magical turbulence, Tass choked and coughed twice. “Damn it, can’t we get something normal for once—”

The instant his words fell, those things that seemed to be headless rabbits rapidly melted, turning into eyeless crows of normal size. They flapped their wings and hopped around the four of them. “Salaar, hateful! Salaar, soft!”

The crows occasionally forgot they were crows, and their wings and heads would be misplaced for an instant. Fortunately, their memories were decent enough that they didn’t end up sprouting body parts belonging to other animals.

“Salaar, noisy! Salaar, warm!”

The crows called out in voices that strongly resembled the rabbit Jinx.

Salaar: “…”

Salaar looked at the crows hopping at his feet. “This is our little secret, so be quiet.”

The crows: “Oh—!”

They stopped speaking. They only hopped in circles around Salaar, who was carrying Myss. The sky grew darker and darker, and this bizarre scene began to challenge the nerves of everyone present.

A thin layer of sweat broke out on Father Kalen’s forehead. “The divine power of dreams? But this is clearly Mr. Myss’s power signature!”

“He may have been contaminated by the power of the Divine Realm. We have to wake him up quickly!”

Salaar made a sound of thought and blinked. “I’ll handle it. Just in case, you two should keep your distance first.”

“No. Perhaps my experience can help.”

The priest seized this chance to make up for his mistake. Tass had just flown a few steps away, and at the sight, he awkwardly stopped in midair.

Salaar shook his head firmly. “I understand Myss. I’ll handle—”

Halfway through, the corners of his mouth rose. “I want to be alone with him.”

The moment he finished the final word, the crows all turned their heads in unison, their sharp beaks pointing toward Father Kalen. The priest looked at those eyeless birds, becoming even more convinced of his own view. This was simply like a recreation of the rabbits in the Divine Realm, only more grotesque and crude.

Could there also be an Abnormal Fruit on Myss? But he hadn’t discovered any sign of it…

The priest thought for a few seconds, and when he returned to himself, the two people were already gone.

“Salaar runs faster than a rabbit,” Tass mercifully added. “That guy doesn’t count as reckless. Occasionally, you should trust the young ones a little. Elders who interfere too much will be disliked.”

“If you absolutely have to do something, help me check this. My wings changed color, and I suspect it’s related to the Divine Realm…”

……

Salaar carried Myss on his back and walked beneath the night sky. His back was to the sunset as he lifted his head and stepped forward into the mouth of night.

The crows lined up behind him in a row, staggering along with quick little steps.

“Salaar… Salaar!” they called quietly.

Myss was still sleeping soundly on his back, more deeply than usual. The night wind was cold, but Myss’s body was warm, even warmer than usual. Salaar’s back was slightly damp with sweat.

His spine was pressed tightly against Myss’s chest. Myss’s body twitched from time to time, and his mouth made soft murmuring sounds. He was dreaming.

Myss’s power was changing along with his dream, evolving like an instinct.

Perhaps interrupting this process would be a good idea. As long as Salaar released his hands, Myss would wake in the fall.

But Salaar didn’t. He merely slowed his steps and waited for those hopping crows to catch up to him and surround him.

He still wanted to see more, to know more.

“How astonishing… After only experiencing it once, you can actually do this much.”

Salaar was skilled at analyzing all sorts of magic, whether human or “divine.” As long as he could personally come into contact with those powers, he could reproduce them.

For example, the previous “Song of Motherly Love” and “Song of Perfection,” as well as the “Song of Luck” he had just obtained from Roman.

…But Myss’s “imitation” was different.

It wasn’t a one-to-one replication, but rather an approach that utilized his own unique methods to achieve the same effect. Just as horses and wooden carts could both carry luggage home, yet they were absolutely not the same thing.

Myss had no interest in understanding the myriad emotions of humanity, but he was learning knowledge from the outside world and doing it at a remarkable speed.

Perhaps Myss’s judgment hadn’t been wrong. This “body-swap ritual” of unknown origin would only bring the human world an even more terrifying enemy.

Salaar still believed that the survival or destruction of the world was everyone’s business, not something that rested only on his shoulders. The problem was, he couldn’t use that as an excuse to shirk responsibility and simply wait for Myss to become stronger.

“I also have to find a way to take another step forward.”

Salaar bounced the sleeping archnemesis on his back slightly. “Otherwise, I’ll have to look up to you all my life again…”

“Salaar, smaller than a sesame seed!” The nearest crow agreed.

Salaar raised his eyebrows at it. “Well said. Then can all of you turn into, uh, Myss’s true body?”

“Not showing, not showing!” the crows cried contemptuously.

What a pity. It seemed this power wouldn’t unconditionally realize everything. Even asleep, Lord Archdemon’s mind wasn’t so easy to fool.

“At least don’t look like crows.” Salaar said sadly, “We’re in our own little world here. Crows always make me think of Kalen.”

The crows froze.

“Didn’t look carefully at rabbits, don’t remember.”

“Bards say birds are good, snakes are bad.”

They chirped and muttered explanations, sounding extremely aggrieved.

“Forget those bards, for heaven’s sake.” Salaar laughed despite himself. “If you want me to be deeply attracted to you, you only need to be yourself.”

The crows fell silent.

Their forms melted again, becoming crawling tentacles.

Soft, glossy tentacles gathered in groups of three and five, extending their tips from the grass and swaying gently together. Under the moonlight, they seemed to be standing in a field of black lilies.

The rabbits on the wasteland were badly startled by these strange things and hurriedly fled.

Salaar stopped walking.

In the distorted sea of flowers, his eyes stung slightly and his throat felt dry.

At this moment, that pitch-black and hopeless world completely overlapped with the quiet wasteland.

Compared to the nap at the circus, this illusion personally created by Myss felt more like that nonexistent peaceful ending… A languid god basking beneath the moonlight; the apocalypse that had never descended, a scene Salaar didn’t dare to imagine and couldn’t.

“Hehe…” Myss laughed smugly in his dream. “Flowers… good…”

The smile on Salaar’s face vanished without a trace.

He did want to see more, but he shouldn’t have seen this. A dream mixed with deadly poison, a wish that made him unable to help sinking into it.

“Look…”

On his back, Myss was still murmuring, his damp, hot breath brushing past Salaar’s ear.

“Look… at… me…”

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