Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 144: Hermit
“Huh?” Myss said.
When he and Salaar woke up, they happened to catch Sogné just as he appeared.
Sogné had inherited Salaar’s brisk, straightforward style. He got straight to the point and told them the story of how he had been rescued by someone “suspected to be the Lord of Shadows,” as well as the current whereabouts of Father Kalen and Tass.
Myss didn’t even get the chance to praise his own skill at shaping a human body before Sogné’s little story stole his attention.
“You’re saying that guy dug you out from underground while badly injured, taught you how to establish the Secret Garden, told you some strange little story, and then just left?”
Myss leaned against the wall, looking boneless while playing with the ribbon tied to the end of his braid.
Putting aside whether that masked man really was the legendary “Lord of Shadows,” Myss felt that there was definitely something wrong with his head.
After going to all that trouble, he still refused to explain things clearly. Myss found the whole thing extremely suspicious.
If Sogné hadn’t lacked a heart back then, functioning merely as a flesh-and-blood machine carrying out a mission, there was no telling whether he would even have obeyed.
Compared with the masked man, Salaar was more concerned about something else.
“You lost contact with the Celestial Canopy?” He stepped half a pace forward, the candlelight casting a crack-like strip of shadow.
“Yes. Approximately eight years after you left.” Sogné sat on the empty altar table inside the confession chamber and answered earnestly. “After you left, the Celestial Canopy infused me with newly extracted memories every year. But in the ninth year, they didn’t appear.”
“After that, I remained trapped in the darkness for roughly ten years before I encountered the masked man. Around twenty years after you left, I formally established the Secret Garden… That happened to coincide with the beginning of the Magic Enlightenment. I could use my power freely, so the Secret Garden grew rapidly.”
Sogné didn’t seem particularly accustomed to the reality that he actually possessed a “heart.”
Whenever he stopped deliberately acting like a child, his tone became quite stiff, every word pronounced with meticulous precision.
Myss looked mockingly at Salaar.
Less than ten years after Salaar left, while Salaar was still leading his army inside the seal and roasting mushrooms, something had already happened to the Celestial Canopy outside.
If that strange masked man hadn’t interfered, Sogné would simply have remained trapped beneath the ruins, knowing nothing, slowly rotting away until both he and the “Celestial Canopy” were buried by history.
…Still, Myss had observed Salaar’s army before.
Even the weakest-willed members of the Celestial Canopy could endure for more than a decade.
No matter how much the Celestial Canopy declined, there was no way it would run into trouble in less than ten years, much less casually abandon a major research achievement like Sogné.
Rather than internal collapse, it seemed much more likely that the Celestial Canopy had been attacked by an outside force.
The organization had been completely destroyed, its records thoroughly erased. Sogné had been hidden extremely well, which was the only reason he survived. That hypothesis was obviously far more reasonable.
Salaar fell into deep thought and only spoke again after quite some time.
“All these years, did you never consider using the Secret Garden’s power to investigate what happened to the Celestial Canopy?”
Sogné shook his head. “To become your successor, my highest priority was to ‘be born.’ Before completing that mission, I wouldn’t leave the underground… However, I did expect members of the Celestial Canopy to eventually come here and investigate. I never saw them.”
Salaar’s brows drew tighter and tighter, his face becoming so tense that even Myss could no longer comfortably enjoy the spectacle.
Myss curled his lip.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Salaar glanced at Sogné, then moved closer to Myss’s ear and lowered his voice.
“I’m thinking that, according to Sogné, that masked man possessed power approaching that of a god. Yet an existence like that was wounded badly enough to fall into despair… which means someone even stronger defeated him.”
“His wording also bothers me. ‘You sealed away something enormous and dangerous, a calamity that was about to be born.’ That should refer to me sealing you away. Then who are ‘those who fear you’ supposed to be?”
Myss scratched his head and tried hard to remember.
The “Age of Magic Enlightenment” that had suddenly appeared not long after the sealing…
The “Celestial Canopy,” which had pressed forward through suffering and sealed the Archdemon with mortal strength. Both the knowledge it had accumulated and even the very fact that it existed had been erased as thoroughly as pulling weeds up by the roots…
And there was V.O.R, whose strength remained a mystery, wandering through the human world and spreading Abnormal Fruits everywhere…
Those scattered puzzle pieces were beginning to connect in a twisted way.
Myss had to admit that he was currently in the weakest state he had ever been.
And from everything they had seen, anyone talented enough to touch divine power was entangled with the Abnormal Fruits somehow.
Geniuses were tempted by V.O.R, consumed by curse-like obsessions, and eventually transformed into twisted, fanatical monstrosities.
Even after Salaar, generations of geniuses had come and gone in the human world, yet no true “god” had ever been born.
Of all the beings they had encountered so far, the clearest-minded and closest to a genuine “god” was actually Sogné, who had miraculously survived disaster.
“…To be honest, I think everyone should be afraid of me, so I have no idea who those people are.” Myss shamelessly whispered back. “But I have to admit, both the human world and I are at our weakest right now.”
“Seriously, if some other ‘Archdemon’ took advantage of us both being weakened and arranged to stab both of us in the back, that would be hilarious.”
After saying that, he curiously watched Salaar’s reaction. Salaar couldn’t even destroy him, the Chaos Archdemon. If another Bomb-Disassembly Archdemon or Magibase Archdemon appeared, wouldn’t the brat’s nerves snap entirely?
Salaar: “……”
Salaar rubbed his face and laughed. It was not a bitter laugh born of helplessness or despair. It looked more like relief.
“You’ve finally gone insane?” Myss clicked his tongue in wonder.
“No,” Salaar said softly, sounding almost happy. “If that’s really the case, then it means our decision to prioritize investigating V.O.R was correct.”
“We’ve already saved Roman, the ‘Prisoner of Dreams,’ Payton, the ‘Redemption Puppet,’ and now Sogné, the Blind God. All three retain a certain degree of power and have regained some clarity.”
“And beside us, we also have Father Kalen, the suspected successor of the Lord of Shadows.”
“Most importantly, you’re standing beside me now… I’m a remnant of the Celestial Canopy that those people fear. Surely you wouldn’t just stand there and watch some other ‘Demon God’ kill me?”
“Impossible!” Myss blurted out.
Salaar’s survival or death, his hatred or his love, all of it had to belong to him.
Damn it. If someone else got there first and destroyed the human world right in front of Salaar, how was that any different from someone eating every raspberry off a cream cake right in front of him?
Just imagining it made him furious.
Seeing Myss’s expression suddenly darken, Salaar smiled even more brightly. Taking the opportunity, he tilted his head and gently kissed Myss on the forehead.
“I knew it,” he said.
Myss finally realized what had happened.
“I mean, they’re obviously hostile toward me. For my own safety, of course I’d prioritize killing anyone more threatening than you…”
Salaar still wore that infuriating smile.
“Mm-hm, mm-hm. I understand.”
Myss: “No, you—”
“It’s nearly dawn.” Sogné coughed. “You two should prepare for the Eye-Opening Ceremony as soon as possible.”
Salaar immediately picked up the conversation. “You said you returned the thighbone to Father Kalen. What do you plan to do next?”
“The concealment divine power remaining at the bottom of the pit will last me for a while longer. Rather than helping me hide more effectively, I would prefer that your companion become stronger.”
Sogné awkwardly twisted the corners of his mouth into an unpracticed smile.
“With that power, Father Kalen will surely be able to help you.”
……
“Kalen!” Tass flew behind Father Kalen’s head, shouting anxiously.
After traveling together for so long, he had never seen Father Kalen this agitated. The priest went straight for Egan’s room.
Sure enough, the door had been left slightly ajar, as though waiting for someone to push it open. Kalen extended a trembling hand and gently pushed the door.
The room was dim, and a distinct human shape lay on the bed. Egan appeared to be asleep, his body rising and falling gently.
Kalen suppressed his excitement. He decisively released his concealment and reached toward Egan…
“Wait!” The Dragon Fae dove down and wrapped himself around Kalen’s finger.
“Tass?”
“The smell is wrong,” Tass said. “And the magical fluctuations here are extremely strange. There are traces of blood magic!”
Kalen lowered his eyes in confusion, and his overheated mind cooled slightly. “Blood magic…”
“I told you before, humans love using blood magic to impersonate other people. The people I hunted were especially fond of that trick.” Tass shook his head vigorously. “Egan went to the sanctuary just now, but he didn’t pick up the sanctuary’s scent. And this room has an extremely strong residue of blood magic.”
“Someone used a spell to alter their appearance here only a few minutes ago!”
“You mean the Egan we met…” Kalen forced the words out with difficulty.
“Most likely wasn’t Egan himself.”
Tass flew to the side of Egan’s pillow, poked his neck, then lifted one eyelid. “Just as I thought. This kid isn’t ‘asleep.’ He was knocked unconscious.”
Kalen turned and left.
He returned to the corridor and jogged uselessly through it, trying to find the disguised person who had only just departed.
“Young people these days…”
Tass casually cast a sleep spell on the real Egan and flew after Kalen again.
Fine beads of sweat appeared on Kalen’s forehead. The winding corridor was filled with identical doors. Searching them one by one was impossible.
He didn’t possess Tass’s keen senses. Salaar and Myss weren’t here either…
Dawn was approaching. There wasn’t enough time. The hidden divine power was useless for this…
Kalen lowered his head and looked at the ring on his left hand.
The left hand foretold ill omen.
Truthfully, it was an extremely vague ability. Until now, it had possessed only one function: divining whether a particular location or event would bring Kalen danger.
He wanted to find someone. His target wouldn’t bring him ill omen. But Kalen had no magic. This was the only ability he possessed that could possibly “search” for a target.
Kalen steeled himself and tried to activate the ring, concentrating its newly acquired power.
…Oh God, I do not seek Your admonition.
…Oh God, I pray for Your mercy and Your guidance.
…Oh God,, I wish to see that person once more, that child who recovered Your lost glory.
Buzz…
The ring suddenly grew scorching hot, nearly burning Kalen’s finger.
Under the Dragon Fae’s astonished gaze, dozens of distorted pale-golden characters flickered beside the ring. They clung together, their shapes continuously changing, until finally they condensed into a golden thread as fine as spider silk, extending toward the end of the corridor.
The thread flashed once and vanished into countless motes of light, yet Kalen seemed to sense something. He strode toward the far end of the corridor.
Once again, he stopped in front of an utterly ordinary door.
“Strange. There’s no aura inside at all.” The Dragon Fae scratched his head repeatedly. “Are you sure it’s here?”
“We are both followers of the Lord of Shadows,” Kalen murmured. “Of course our god would protect him as well.”
The door appeared tightly shut, but the instant Kalen placed his hand on the handle, it almost eagerly slid open.
A familiar figure stood inside.
The person wore a black robe, and a twisted silver moon was painted across the black mask.
They had seen this figure in the Sea of Concepts. It was, or rather, they had assumed it was, the nameless leader of the Stargazers Society.
Just as Kalen hesitated over whether to release his concealment, the person moved. He slowly raised a hand. Gloved fingers hooked under the edge of the mask and lifted it away.
Flaxen hair identical to Kalen’s, though slightly longer at the ends.
Aquamarine eyes identical to Kalen’s, now curved slightly in a smile.
…Beyond that, however, the face bore no resemblance to Kalen at all.
It was an extraordinarily handsome face with features entirely different in style from Kalen’s, carrying a somewhat irreverent, roguish air.
Two horrifying scars crossed the man’s face, forming a slightly crooked cross that nearly spanned the whole thing, lending his handsome features an almost sinister quality.
Kalen abruptly appeared.
It was difficult to tell whether he had deliberately dropped his concealment or simply lost the concentration needed to maintain it.
He swallowed hard, his voice terrifyingly hoarse.
“…Hermit.”
<<< || Table of Contents || >>>
