Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 117: Night Attack
In the end, Salaar didn’t take away that Night Scourge Journal. Instead, he took a will.
[I’m very curious what that “Salaar” looks like. But Aufon is too far away, and the Night Scourge is too long. I don’t think I’ll have the chance to see him. I hope the world after death is bright.
— Désiré Nebra]
The handwriting in this line was neat and clear, the wording plain. It looked like it came from a youth’s hand.
This fully met the Karns family’s requirements, and the supervisor “Peyton” had no objection. To be precise, he couldn’t have any objections.
Salaar didn’t take away any documents that mentioned the “Celestial Canopy.”
“A wise decision.” Kai was in complete agreement, though he reluctantly marked the location of this Middle Finger Tower.
“Everything else is heavy and troublesome,” Salaar shrugged.
As for the truth, they were actually all clear about it.
The Celestial Canopy’s existence had been deliberately erased, yet this tower had successfully remained. This was enough to prove that no matter how mighty the force that erased the Celestial Canopy was, it still had its oversights. At least, it had not discovered this Celestial Canopy’s tower hidden near the Crimson Marsh.
Better not to attract unnecessary attention, Myss thought. Otherwise, who knew what new trouble they might bring upon themselves.
Just as reluctant as Kai was the priest, who hugged the Night Scourge Journal and refused to let go.
The phrase “May His Veil shroud you” appeared more than a dozen times in this Night Scourge journal. Its use wasn’t frequent enough to be considered devout. Rather than a prayer to a god, it was more like a blessing Celestial Canopy members used for one another.
“You, uh, do you know what this is about?”
Before letting go of the journal, Father Kalen asked Salaar very anxiously. “If you truly are that Saint Salaar and are this familiar with the Celestial Canopy’s legacy… then you should know…”
“I vaguely heard of this saying. It wasn’t popular in Aufon. Perhaps it came from some small religion at the time.” Salaar answered ambiguously. “I can only assure you that the ‘Order of Shadows’ isn’t another name for the Celestial Canopy.”
Father Kalen visibly wilted a little. He gathered his emotions and turned again toward Kai, who was madly flipping through files.
Unfortunately, he didn’t get the answer he wanted from Kai either.
“Order of Shadows?”
Kai shook his head. “Personally, I have only heard of the Celestial Canopy. The Order of Shadows isn’t one of our research topics, and I have never seen records about the Lord of Shadows either. Apologies, no offense intended.”
Father Kalen’s large body swayed lightly like a balloon, as if he would deflate in the next second.
After experiencing a string of strange adventures, only to gain so little in the end, he was truly somewhat depressed.
Tass comforted the dejected Kalen. “It might also be a sect like the Stargazers Society, one that believes it inherited the Celestial Canopy’s spirit… Look, you also do work opposing anomalies.”
The moment he heard his own church compared to the Stargazers Society, Kalen let out a great sigh, almost blasting out his lungs.
“At least three hundred years ago, the Order of Shadows definitely existed.” In the end, he comforted himself this way.
The instant everyone left the Middle Finger Tower, the tower once again vanished into the air. Everyone stood on empty wet mud, as if everything had changed, and yet nothing had changed.
Only Myss turned his head and looked toward the place where the tall tower had originally stood. His pupils faintly dilated, absorbing the already faint light.
……
Near the Crimson Marsh.
This year’s “Journey to the Old Lands” had gone especially smoothly. Earl Nebra hummed a little tune as he rested inside his exclusive tent.
According to the customs of the Journey to the Old Lands, after the adventure ended, they needed to resupply at the Crimson Marsh and then return to Serpentis through the teleportation array. Now the team was only half a day away from Serpentis, and he had already begun looking forward to a hot bath piled with bubbles.
“Did you hear, Earl? Those people from the Karns family have been found.”
His assistant entered from outside the tent, carrying freshly roasted cured meat and sliced fruit in his hands. “They contacted Serpentis not long ago. They said that after the teleportation error, they found an unknown ruin themselves.”
“Karns… Karns…”
Earl recalled for two seconds. “Peyton Karns isn’t bad, but unfortunately, he got saddled with two deadweights, Kendrick and Owen. That guy is really unlucky.”
As an elite of the Nebra family, Earl looked down on Kendrick and Owen quite a bit.
Toward Peyton, he retained basic respect, but only the bare minimum. He couldn’t understand why someone would give up such astonishing talent and spend every day obsessed with ascetic practice.
“They are also heading toward the Crimson Marsh now. We might run into them.”
The assistant said cheerfully, stuffing a piece of fruit into his own mouth. He came from the Manning family, which couldn’t compare with great families like the Karns and Nebra, and originally had no qualifications to participate in the Journey to the Old Lands.
The Nebra family giving him an assistant slot counted as pulling him up. He and Earl had known each other for a long time, and Earl didn’t treat him like a servant either.
“…Should we go say hello, Earl?”
“Let’s talk after entering the city.” Earl thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Owen is one thing, but Kendrick isn’t quite right in the head. Better not to provoke him voluntarily.”
“Good idea,” the assistant said.
“Right, later, come patrol with me and scatter exorcism powder while we are at it.” Earl closed the book in his hand. “Even if we’re not far from the Crimson Marsh city area, we can’t lower our guard.”
“Understood.”
At this moment, it was already dark outside.
The Mondicia region already grew dark early, and with the dense forests near the Crimson Marsh, it was even dimmer outside. Although the sun had only just set not long ago, the visibility outside was already no different from midnight.
Annoyingly, certain wandering alchemical creatures only showed their traces after night fell. The beginning of night was the best time for defense, so Earl could only go out at this time.
Earl cautiously picked up the magical lantern. A bulging bag of exorcism powder hung at his waist, and the longsword that served as his wand was tightly gripped in his right hand.
His assistant carried a giant hammer inlaid with gemstones, wearing heavy armor as he followed closely behind. He was large in build, yet he alertly looked around in all directions, ensuring that if danger appeared, he could block in front of Earl immediately.
All things sank into darkness. Night was like cold water, soaking the soles of their feet numb. They stepped through the wet mud one footprint at a time, their patrol speed far slower than walking on flat ground. The squelching sounds were much like raw meat rubbing together, making one’s whole body uncomfortable.
“What is that?” The assistant suddenly spoke, pointing the giant hammer in one direction.
Between two clumps of blackened bushes, a snow-white thing flashed by.
That thing was about as thick as a human neck and bore a striking resemblance to one. It was smooth and hairless, with only pale skin, and even carried faint traces of neck lines.
To be honest, Earl would rather it be a strangely shaped scaleless snake.
Unfortunately, that thing had something no normal snake would ever have. On both sides, every forearm’s length or so, there grew a pair of symmetrical human hands connected to its body. Like an insect’s short limbs, they waved their ten fingers as it advanced.
Its fingertips were covered in mud, its nails cracked. Several fingernails had even flipped backward, making one’s skin crawl.
Earl reacted extremely quickly. He immediately hissed and scattered a handful of exorcism powder mixed with coarse salt, silver filings, and fragrant wood around them. The two froze in place, waiting for that deformed alchemical creature to pass by.
However, that thing’s body seemed to have no end. One pair of hands after another crawled past that bush at an unhurried speed. The moment its body touched the light from Earl’s lantern, it immediately vanished into the light. Only in the darkness did its deathly pale outline appear.
As more and more of it disappeared, the rustling grew closer and closer. Earl suddenly realized something was wrong. “It’s running around us and shrinking the encirclement as it runs!”
Once this thing completely hid inside the light, this bit of exorcism powder wouldn’t be enough to defend them. Earl made a prompt decision. “Run!”
…This was the last thing in his memory.
So he didn’t know that after he lost consciousness, a pair of feet stopped beside him.
Above those feet was a cloak that wrapped the entire body. Not a single bit of skin was exposed anywhere on that person. Beneath the cloak was a mask painted with a moon emblem.
Had Myss been here, he definitely would have recognized that this person was exactly the same as the “Stargazers Society leader” they had met in the Sea of Concepts.
That person extended a hand wrapped in a black glove and pressed it onto Earl’s head.
“Kalen…” Behind the mask, the person released a soft sigh.
Not far away.
Kai bowed to them. “Many thanks for everyone’s assistance. This place isn’t far from the Crimson Marsh, so I’ll take my leave first.”
Myss snorted. He could tell that Kai was impatient.
The moment he thought of the Stargazers Society about to peel open that Middle Finger Tower for research, he felt inexplicably displeased. That tower had been built by the Celestial Canopy, had been formed by them to oppose the Night Scourge, and the Night Scourge existed because of him. By rough calculation, that meant the tower belonged to him.
Forget it. In any case, he had already seen what he needed to see.
Compared to those long-winded journals and wills, Myss cared more about the extraction magic of that strange machine.
If he could successfully combine Mina’s magic with the extraction magic, he would be able to secretly drill into Salaar’s memories and see that guy’s past clearly from beginning to end.
Along the way, Myss had rehearsed it in his mind for a long time. He was waiting until after nightfall, so he could make a night attack on Mr. Saint Salaar.
Now, the moment was almost here.
Since his identity had been exposed, Salaar no longer hid anything and openly gave Owen a full set of memory distortion.
In Owen’s memory, he had been knocked down by defensive magic the moment he entered the tower and remained unconscious until everyone left the tower. Even now, he was still dizzy and unable to tell east from west and could only let the “kind” “Peyton” take care of him along the way.
Tonight, naturally, they would stay in one tent.
Father Kalen used branches and leaves to build a meditation tent, expressing that he needed to properly sort through his thoughts.
The Dragon Fae moved passionately into his pocket watch nest. Tass gloomily said that he also had a huge pile of thoughts to sort through, mainly about Salaar’s identity.
…In the end, Myss and Salaar shared the sole remaining tent.
The tent was prepared by the Karns family and was much better than the one previously distributed by the circus. Its light-blocking and soundproofing were first-rate. Inside, it even came with matching soft blankets, soft pillows, and a compressed mattress.
Logically speaking, after being tossed around all the way here, Myss should have been sleepy, hungry, and exhausted, directly toppling over and falling into deep sleep. However, his plan to night-attack Salaar was truly invigorating. Myss watched a certain someone without blinking, his eyes brighter than magical lightbulbs.
Salaar seemed utterly unaware. He took out some supplies and cooked two bowls of thick porridge with cheese and bacon. After the simple dinner, he allowed Myss to press onto his chest and closed his eyes quite steadily.
Almost in the next second, Myss immediately widened his eyes and stared intently at Salaar. He used his body to feel Salaar’s breathing and heartbeat, making sure this person had truly fallen asleep.
In the darkness, his pupils slowly scattered outward, almost completely swallowing the blood-red irises. Countless magic threads reached out from his skin and surged onto Salaar’s body.
Then the magic threads gradually dissolved, turning into rolling mist. They gently brushed over Salaar’s skin and mixed into Salaar’s breath.
This time, Myss didn’t search for the Magibase as he had before. Instead, he learned from that mysterious giant machine and slowly soaked Salaar’s spirit with magic.
Perhaps because that hurried glance had been too rushed, the process was even harder than Myss had imagined. According to the revelation from that machine, extracting a person’s memories should be like straining away the water after boiling potatoes.
Right now, however, it was more like he had grabbed an unreliable broken net and wanted to fish beneath a sea with unfathomable depths.
Fortunately, in a daze, he dredged up a few fragments.
He saw the frigid north, night and falling snow mixed together, both hands reaching toward the darkness as if longing for an embrace. He saw a smoking oil lamp and ink-stained hands, a fountain pen wearing thick calluses into the fingers. He saw sparks flying, a hammer striking red-hot iron again and again, coarse hands covered in burn marks.
In first-person memories, he saw descending darkness, saw the dawn after the Night Scourge. He saw people gnawing on charred corpses, saw people kissing each other’s tears.
…As expected.
Even if he couldn’t grasp those complete key memories, these fragments were enough to prove it. Inside Salaar’s head, there undoubtedly existed other people’s memories. The hands he saw were all different. They couldn’t possibly belong to the same person.
Could it be that the Celestial Canopy extracted the memories of its dying members, separated away personality and emotion, and stuffed all of them into Salaar?
…No, that wasn’t right. If they did that, what would happen if Salaar died?
Salaar had managed to swagger all the way to today only because Myss was cautious and hadn’t crushed this little pest to death. If Myss had ever acted on a whim and squashed Salaar with a tentacle, wouldn’t all their efforts have gone to waste?
Besides, Salaar had come to seal him in order to delay time. He had never intended to return alive.
Myss couldn’t quite understand.
He wanted to fish up more memories, but Salaar’s memory depths far surpassed ordinary people’s, and Myss truly couldn’t strip Salaar bare. As magic churned, a twisting pain hit Myss’s head, so painful it made his stomach turn, and the area beneath his nose vaguely grew warm.
Myss dazedly wiped at it and came away with a burst of rich, sweet blood.
The moment he moved like this, Salaar opened his eyes.
He looked at the nosebleed on Myss’s face, looked at his own chest where blood had dripped, then looked at Myss.
Salaar: “?”
Kinky Thoughts:
This arc was quite good. I didn’t expect such a twist at the end.
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