Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 86: No Other Choice?

Father Kalen remained crouched for quite a while. Just as Myss was about to reasonably suspect that his legs had gone numb, the priest took a small tulip-like bell from his pocket.

It was the summoning magic device Redding had given him before leaving.

The priest fiddled with the bell hesitantly for a while, then shook it with a clear ding-a-ling. The bright ringing echoed through the simple-doodle world. This time, no sound of paper tearing appeared again.

After half a minute of ringing, no one appeared.

The priest smiled apologetically. “I just wanted to try…”

“Oh my!” Brief suddenly cried out.

He pointed at a blank space not far away. Several lines had appeared there out of nowhere, forming a plump little robed figure. The little figure wore a black pearl brooch like an ink dot, and its short hair looked somewhat like Mag’s.

“Wonderful, wonderful. The space is actually still connected.”

Stick-figure Mag spoke quickly. “These are lines I drew with Divine Blood. It really worked!”

Myss glanced at that excited clump of ink lines and pointed upward. “Then can you draw us a ladder?”

“There isn’t that much Divine Blood. Restoring contact is already the limit.”

Mag smiled bitterly. “This ‘me’ can’t do anything except speak.”

Her actual body was still outside the book. This simple-doodle image was more or less a strangely shaped communication magic device.

“With an expert like Giant Lady here, I feel much better!”

Brief said politely, then explained the previous situation as well.

He didn’t even hide the matter of the priest preparing to jump and almost tearing apart the picture-book world. Of course, he didn’t say it in an accusatory tone. He earnestly described every detail, striving not to miss any clue.

Brief firmly believed Mag was an extraordinary researcher and had no reservations or defenses against her at all.

“You chased in specially to help them, didn’t you? I’ll work together with you so everyone can go home.”

Brief said sincerely.

Myss could now see that this little thing was actually not much like Salaar.

Bedsheet Archdemon was utterly dim-witted, and Brief was equally guileless.

“Brave Salaar” was, after all, a fairy-tale character. He was more like a combination of the “poetic imagery sang by bards” and the “hero in children’s hearts,” with a level of wariness comparable to a human child.

Faced with these words, however, Mag listened intently.

After hearing everything, she thought for a long while, then glanced at Salaar. “You helped Professor Gentry before, and the situation is special, so I won’t hide it from you either.”

“In my view, this is a little like an unformed ‘Divine Realm.’”

After saying this, she deliberately paused for two seconds to let them digest this staggering revelation.

Myss: “…”

They had already set foot in three Divine Realms. If they counted the sealed lair of the Chaos Archdemon, then they had seen a full four.

“Still, is this really a Divine Realm?”

Myss couldn’t help muttering. “If these guys who ran out are creations of the Divine Realm, then this Divine Realm is a little too exaggerated. The Prisoner of Dreams only sent some rabbits outside the Divine Realm, and that nearly drained it dry.”

The priest was still crouched in place. “Exactly. If every book contains a little world, the magic consumption must be absolutely staggering.”

“Putting those details aside, the effects caused by ‘Divine Blood’ and ‘Abnormal Fruit’ seem rather similar. That’s the key point.”

Salaar finally ended his suspicious silence. “Let’s return to the essence. Someone in the United Library was contaminated by an external power, gained near-godlike power, and constructed a unique Divine Realm.”

“There’s no point just guessing here. Let’s head toward the title page first.”

Mag: “?”

Leaving aside these strangers of unknown origin, since when did Kendrick understand these things?

The existence of Divine Realms and their origin were known outside only to the Kingdom Archmages and their genius students.

Mag herself knew about it because of the United Library’s own special nature. Even so, not many people within the United Library knew the truth.

In Mag’s own impression, this cousin of hers was only obsessed with heretical theories and unofficial histories, single-mindedly wanting to obtain a Magibase through living sacrifice. Kendrick couldn’t possibly have come into contact with knowledge at this level. Earlier, the fact that he was connected to Professor Gentry had already shocked her enough.

“Kendrick, did Professor Gentry teach you this?” Mag’s words grew serious.

“To be precise, Father told me,” Salaar shrugged his cotton shoulders and readily told the truth… Well, part of the truth.

In any case, even Mag didn’t know what the Order of Shadows was, so there was no way to pursue that line of conversation any further.

“I hope so.”

As expected, Mag gave a dry laugh. “If you’ve gotten involved with the Stargazers Society, then I can only join the ranks of those trying to eliminate you.”

……

For the following stretch of time, everyone rode the two snakes and crossed page after page of the story. The giant priest walked at the very back. Never in his life had his steps been so light.

They crossed sunny days colored warmly and stepped over night skies scattered with enormous five-pointed stars. The passersby came and went, looking at them curiously, but their reactions weren’t especially intense. Like background characters in a fairy tale, they were happy to accept all bizarre occurrences.

“Once we cross that mountain, we’ll see the foreword! Before the foreword is the title page, and the ink hole is over there!” Brief announced excitedly.

Myss raised his eyes and looked at that mountain. These two pages were the beginning of the story, depicting the scene of the rising sun.

If he remembered correctly, in an ordinary room, “Brave Salaar” had been born crying loudly in his swaddling clothes.

He wondered what his Salaar had looked like when he was born.

Was Salaar also born under the sunlight and gently wrapped in swaddling clothes? …Or had that guy been born in the frigid darkness of the Night Scourge. It certainly would explain why he latched on to Myss so tenaciously, refusing to let go.

Myss stared at the Salaar doll swaying back and forth in front of him, his thoughts flying wildly.

Salaar’s reaction when he saw the Divine Blood had been a little strange, and the Divine Blood was a creation of the Night Scourge era. Perhaps this thing was related to Salaar. Otherwise, Myss couldn’t explain that strange sense of familiarity.

Flap!

The Salaar doll turned around and threw himself onto the Myss doll, using his soft body as a shield. Fork, which they were riding, made an emergency stop. “What is that?!”

Something stood up from among the mountains filled with light, literally stood up. He looked about the same size as Father Kalen, with short walnut-brown hair and freckles scattered on either side of his long nose.

“Found you.”

Redding smiled brightly, revealing snow-white teeth.

Knife retreated warily. Mag, riding on Knife, looked shocked, and even her ink-dot eyes widened by several degrees. “You are… Redding? Why are you here?”

“Oh, dear Lady Mag, that’s my line. You shouldn’t have appeared here.”

Redding sighed. “For Lady Mag’s sake, I’ll give everyone a chance. Leave this place. Go back. Find a way to return the same way you came.”

“Then hand this picture book over to me and stay obediently until the abnormality disappears… How about it? Not hard to do, is it? So far, we do not have any ill will toward you.”

“Redding, what’s going on? Who is ‘we’?”

Seeing that there was a problem with her subordinate, Stick-figure Mag’s hair practically exploded. A tiny anger symbol burst out on her forehead. “I’ll give you a chance too, a chance to confess on your own. Explain clearly, right now!”

“It’s precisely because I don’t want to explain that I advised you to turn back. Right now, I’m speaking nicely purely out of politeness.”

“If you are unwilling, then I can only start from this page and slowly destroy this book.”

Redding carelessly strode across the mountain range. His steps were neither light nor heavy, each one just enough to produce the sound of paper rubbing.

For a moment, the scene was utterly silent, and even Myss didn’t make a sound.

No one present had magic. And in this fragile world, Father Kalen couldn’t unleash the strength he was so proud of.

Redding had no such qualms. In order to stop them from advancing, he could simply destroy this book. The fact that this guy was still willing to communicate with them could indeed be considered “polite.”

Sweat broke out on Brief’s forehead. One hand gripped the still-dizzy Bedsheet Archdemon, while the other reached for his sword hilt. His red cape swayed lightly, like a beating heart.

Father Kalen stepped directly past them and blocked the very front. He put away his gentle expression and looked at Redding with a grim expression.

The small bell Redding had given him was crushed out of shape in his palm. How pitiful. He could block every attack from the other party, but he couldn’t control where that other party’s foot came down.

Rip.

Seeing that everyone didn’t retreat, Redding exerted a little force with his right foot. Along with the sound of paper tearing under pressure, the world trembled.

“A story can still be a story, even if it’s missing its beginning.”

Redding said thoughtfully, “Then let’s start from this page. ‘On a clear and beautiful morning, Brave Salaar was born in…’”

Rip!

Brief looked as if he was about to rush forward, but Mag beside him grabbed him hard. He was so anxious, his body trembled. “Let me go, Madam!”

Brief’s face flushed bright red, and Bedsheet Archdemon, who was beside him, finally came back to himself, howling in panic.

Bedsheet Archdemon was extremely fast, and Mag didn’t manage to stop him. He skillfully circled around Father Kalen’s legs and charged straight to Redding’s feet, using his body to slam into the back of Redding’s knee.

Bedsheet Archdemon didn’t possess Myss’s power of annihilation, but his strength couldn’t be underestimated. However, Redding seemed to feel nothing and still stood perfectly upright.

No matter how one looked at it, other than retreating, they had no other choice. Either they retreated in humiliation, or they retreated in a miserable state.

Myss didn’t want to retreat. He hated this feeling of having to be controlled by someone else. Salaar was one thing, but where had this wild human named Redding popped out from?

What did a Divine Realm count for? What did another god’s rules matter? Since other gods could project their power beyond the confines of their own realm, why couldn’t he? …His true body wasn’t dead yet!

Myss closed his eyes and felt this tottering world with all his strength.

Come. Let him watch a Divine Realm be destroyed by external force. Let him see how the boundary collapsed, how the power dispersed. Let him personally feel—

“Wait.”

Salaar suddenly spoke.

“I think there may be some misunderstanding between us.” The tiny doll took two steps forward, its mouth opening into a semicircle.

“We’re also Stargazers, just like you.”

“If I’m not mistaken, you came to check the results of the ‘Divine Blood experiment,’ didn’t you?”

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The author has something to say:

Myss: There is no such word as retreat in my dictionary! [cat paw]

Salaar: There is no such word as retreat in my dictionary! [thumbs up]

And so, the two stubborn mules glared face-to-face, butting heads for more than three hundred years. [dog head]

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