Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 109: A Swift Strike

“Peyton,” no, perhaps now he should be called “Kendrick,” raised the whip again.

The tail of the whip formed from magic rushed straight toward Myss, clearly curling toward Myss’s right arm. Controlling the body that truly belonged to Kendrick, Myss dodged somewhat awkwardly, not forgetting to grab Salaar behind him.

…Peyton was actually Kendrick?

Then what exactly was this damned body? Could it be put on and taken off at will like a wool coat?

Myss didn’t think Kendrick was deceiving him. If “Peyton” wanted to trick them, there was no need to fabricate such a horrifying and incomprehensible story.

Within the span of a single heartbeat, Myss rapidly recalled Kendrick Karns’s past.

Kendrick Karns had been born without parents, cold-blooded and cruel since childhood. Around the age of fifteen, he wounded his own older brother, Peyton, and at sixteen, he was sent by the Karns family to Ring Town.

He lived in near isolation in Ring Town for four years. With the butler’s assistance, he continuously bought slaves for living sacrifices. At the same time, under the name of “Pilgrim,” he wrote many letters and discussed forbidden magical knowledge with numerous lunatics.

Salaar had once mentioned that after he received Kendrick’s body, he discovered that this body’s memories were broken and chaotic. At the time, Salaar firmly believed it was because Kendrick had taken too many haphazard alchemical potions… On the surface, everything made sense.

Except for the suspicious summoning ritual.

Regarding Kendrick himself, there had been only one mystery they couldn’t understand.

Why would V.O.R., who clearly only took interest in geniuses, write letters to Kendrick, who had no magical talent whatsoever?

At this moment, Myss vaguely touched on something.

It was because of Peyton.

As long as V.O.R. had noticed Peyton Karns, the genius, discovering Kendrick’s existence was only a matter of time.

And before that erroneous summoning ritual, V.O.R. had already written letters to Kendrick.

That guy wouldn’t write to a mediocre lunatic for no reason. Most likely, the matter of Kendrick and Peyton swapping bodies couldn’t be separated from V.O.R.

But judging from the past, V.O.R. had always used an Abnormal Fruit to fulfill a genius’s wish. Now, it seemed instead that Kendrick’s wish had been fulfilled. He obtained the ability to exchange bodies and spirits, while Peyton’s whereabouts became unknown.

What exactly had happened back then?

Myss’s thoughts spun faster than a windmill in a hurricane. He could almost hear his brain matter churning and frothing.

“It was you.”

While thinking, Myss pushed Salaar farther behind him.

“So that’s how it is. You deliberately entered the tower first and took the opportunity to swap our bodies, then used ‘the ruin’s defensive magic’ as cover.”

“When you hear something as bizarre as ‘body swapping,’ you don’t look very surprised.”

When his first strike failed, Kendrick neatly drew back the whip. Behind him, pale-blue flames leapt endlessly.

“That’s right. Monsters like you, who steal other people’s bodies, are naturally familiar with such methods.”

“You’re calling us ‘monsters who steal other people’s bodies’?” Myss laughed. “What, then who was trapped inside your body before? Your unlucky older brother, Peyton?”

“You trapped your swapped older brother in Ring Town and played ascetic in the big city. Compared to that move of yours, we’re practically saints.”

Kendrick froze for a brief moment, as if Myss had said some nonsensical gibberish.

Myss didn’t let this opportunity go. Relying on Salaar’s large body, he threw himself toward Kendrick. He swung at Kendrick’s right hand, the one holding the whip, while also shoving him toward the fire pit.

Kendrick had no choice but to dodge sideways. Myss grinned and followed his movement, slipping behind him and continuing to grab for the whip’s handle.

“Salaar!” Myss shouted.

As long as Salaar pounced forward to cooperate at this moment, they had a chance to seize Kendrick’s short whip wand. Myss didn’t know whether Kendrick was strong enough to cast without a wand, but this was worth the risk.

But Salaar didn’t follow.

He merely stood where he was, both hands behind his back, as if he didn’t understand Myss’s intention in calling him. They should have been able to cooperate perfectly… Damn it, the one who cooperated perfectly with him was adult Salaar, Myss thought through gritted teeth.

Why had he subconsciously called Salaar? It would have been better to call Tass.

Tass, at least, was self-aware. Discovering that Salaar hadn’t followed, he hesitated for only half a second before abruptly pouncing over.

Unfortunately, Kai’s body was truly too large and uncoordinated for him. Tass started too quickly, and the tip of his foot tripped over a raised piece of floorboard. He fell flat on his face on the spot.

Kendrick came back to himself, and pale-blue magic wrapped around Myss’s hands. Immediately after, he seized Myss’s arm with a reverse grip and clumsily threw him forward, slamming Myss’s entire body onto the floor.

Boom.

Kendrick had definitely enhanced his physical strength with magic. The wooden floor was smashed apart by the throw, and even the stone layer beneath was smashed into a pit of moderate size.

A sweet, bloody taste surged into Myss’s throat, and his chest and abdomen twitched strangely. His organs seemed to have been injured.

He had no time to confirm his wounds. He immediately rolled his body on the spot and swept one leg toward Kendrick’s lower body. Unfortunately, Salaar’s legs were too long and heavy. They couldn’t keep up with his will in time, and Kendrick easily dodged.

Kendrick scoffed. The whip turned in his hand. Pale-blue magic gathered again, forming around the short whip and revealing the shape of a sharp blade.

Facing the body that had once been his own, Kendrick raised the blade without hesitation.

At this instant, Salaar suddenly moved. He stuck his fingers into his mouth and blew a sharp whistle.

With his movement, warm droplets splashed onto the side of Myss’s face. They smelled faintly metallic, like blood. While Myss had been tangled up with Kendrick, Salaar had quietly broken his wrist and drawn an unusually complex pattern on the back of his hand.

Myss couldn’t understand it, but it was similar to the contract magic circle Salaar had once drawn. It was probably a form of ancient alchemy.

The magic circle used that blood as a magic source and lit up with a dim glow. The whistle carried faint magical fluctuations that were barely perceptible, yet undeniably real.

As the whistle sounded, Salaar’s body moved at the same time. Using this unfamiliar body, Salaar did only one thing. He threw himself onto Myss and used his body to block the blade that was about to fall.

Gray-white long hair fell down, swaying along the side of Myss’s face. For one brief instant, Myss had the illusion that he had returned to his original body.

Salaar’s complexion was terrifyingly white, and his body trembled faintly. Paired with Myss’s gray-white hair, he looked almost like a human figure cast from white wax. Casting with an unfamiliar body seemed to exact a heavy toll on him.

Myss worked hard to twist his head and stare into Salaar’s eyes. Perhaps it was his imagination, but although Salaar’s face had no particular expression, the instant their gazes met, there was a trace of barely perceptible laughter in Salaar’s eyes.

“Even with these eyes, you still look at me that way.”

His lips moved soundlessly.

“…How wonderful.”

Squelch.

More, warmer blood splashed out.

Kendrick didn’t care who he was cutting. He merely adjusted the angle, and the blade came down calmly. The blade formed from magic hacked into Salaar’s shoulder, and the blood that splattered out soaked the lapis-lazuli blue hair ribbon.

Salaar didn’t dodge. He only tilted his body with the momentum, letting the blade slant along the bone so that it failed to cut off his arm.

Kendrick withdrew his hand without hesitation and raised the blade again. This time, several pale-blue blades of light appeared out of thin air, each aimed at Salaar’s hands and feet.

Salaar supported himself against the floor with one hand, shielding Myss beneath him. His other hand was still in his mouth, blowing intermittent whistles.

Amid the short, rising and falling whistles, there came a sharp scraping sound from the floor.

In the next instant, Kendrick’s magic blades crashed into a sheet of deathly white.

What sounded this time wasn’t the dull noise of sharp blades cutting into flesh, but the sharp ringing of hard objects colliding.

In the blink of an eye, the ancient puppet abandoned its fight with the priest more than ten steps away and almost flashed in front of the two of them. Kendrick’s lashing blades didn’t leave the slightest wound on it.

A few seconds later, Father Kalen staggered over and dragged Myss and Salaar out of the battle area.

The ancient puppet was exactly like an aging hound. After blocking the blades for the two of them, it twisted its deformed body and leapt back to Salaar’s side.

That tall body circled around Salaar. Its inhuman face gently rubbed against his blood-soaked shoulder, releasing mournful whimpers.

Salaar’s wound was still bleeding, directly leaving a trail of blood on the floor. All the thoughts spinning around in Myss’s head turned blank. He reached out to support the weakened Salaar, so anxious that bitterness filled his mouth.

Kalen nervously guarded them from the front. Facing Kendrick, whose magic was unusually abundant, and such a narrow battlefield, Kalen, who couldn’t use magic, was at a severe disadvantage…

“Kalen, do you have medicine? Throw some over. I’ll stop his bleeding!”

Tass rushed to their side in an uncoordinated way. “That cut was too deep. He won’t last like this!”

Yet when these words entered Myss’s head, they became meaningless noise.

…Why had young Salaar suddenly gone mad and saved him? Weren’t they enemies?

…Damn it, why couldn’t he use Salaar’s healing magic?

…If this continued, what if Salaar died?

Too many mysteries, too many questions. They assaulted Myss’s mind all at once. Immediately after, they vanished one by one, like bubbles bursting in boiling water.

Myss’s face was covered in Salaar’s blood, and everything around him seemed to turn blank. His cheeks and lips went numb, and the sounds of his breathing and heartbeat were magnified countless times, shaking his eardrums until they hurt.

After countless thoughts exploded apart, only one thought remained in Myss’s head.

…Must heal Salaar.

…Must heal Salaar.

…Must heal Salaar.

In his daze, Myss suddenly touched that door again. Once more, he grasped that strange and hazy state. Only, this time, he had no energy to investigate it deeply and even forgot about returning to the darkness.

He obeyed his instinct and guided that thread of inspiration toward what he wanted most.

Between Myss’s ten fingers, a brilliant golden glow faintly ignited.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>