Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 154: Abnormality
Myss tightened his grip on the Dragon Fae without hesitation and waved him back and forth through the gap in the door.
Tass forced his feverish body to endure it, passing in and out of the fog with question marks practically covering his head. He smacked Myss’s thumb webbing repeatedly. “What is wrong with you?”
But neither Myss nor Salaar responded.
Because the instant Tass’s body touched the fog, it turned into that blackish-purple mass of flesh. The lump of meat squirmed faintly, vivid black spreading across its surface as though someone had spilled ink over it.
The blackened parts touching the fog hissed like broth splashed onto a hot pan.
And the moment that lump of flesh left the fog, it instantly turned back into the delicate, beautiful Dragon Fae, as though what they had seen inside the mist had been nothing more than an illusion.
Fortunately, the candles had already gone out. Only the faintest glow from the fog illuminated the gap in the door, so no one else saw the bizarre scene.
Myss: “…”
While Tass was inside the fog, Myss’s hand could even feel that slick, sticky texture.
He carefully thought back. Not long ago, when he had dragged Salaar out of the fog, there had been nothing unusual about the way Salaar felt.
For the first time, Myss experienced the sensation of running across a bed of fragile eggs.
If he rashly started a fight with Lady Interesting without knowing what she really was, Salaar would be affected. If he simply ignored everything, it didn’t matter if the others died, but Salaar would still be affected. And…
Myss raised his eyes. Salaar had stopped moving and was stiffly bracing himself against the doorframe, breathing somewhat heavily.
…And Mr. Hero was in terrible condition. His brain might not even be functioning properly.
Myss had to make a decision quickly, and brute force wasn’t an option. If he chose wrong, he might lose his enemy.
Myss’s anxious gaze swept back and forth before abruptly fixing on one point.
A line of words was slowly appearing on the door in front of him. It was as though an invisible person were writing heavily right beneath his nose with a pen that had no ink, leaving deep indentations behind.
The writing was neither too large nor too small. One had to stand about half a step from the door to read it clearly.
[Don’t act rashly. Respond if you can see this.]
Myss’s brow twitched.
Before the other side had even finished writing, he reached out and carved a single word into the door with his fingertip.
[Who?]
The writing stopped abruptly.
After a long while, the previous line was rapidly smoothed away by magic and replaced with a new one.
[Mr. Salaar? Mr. Myss? I’m the professor from the Rabbit Hole.]
The professor from the Rabbit Hole. That was the Gen… Gen-something Colossal Elephant. Anyway, another Kingdom Archmage. Could things really be this coincidental? They had only just found Lady Interesting, and then Colossal Elephant followed right behind them?
Myss glanced at Salaar, whose consciousness seemed somewhat blurred, then wrote quickly.
[I’m Myss. What’s going on?]
[I don’t know, but Marcela is extremely dangerous. She once caused six highly talented young people to disappear. I suspect they encountered something similar to what you are experiencing.]
Professor Gentry wrote even faster than Myss. The words appeared and vanished almost at the same time.
[This is urgent, so I need to explain something. Kai is one of my best unofficial students. Please, both of you, make sure he stays safe. I will owe you a great debt.]
Myss couldn’t care less about Kai’s fate. Besides, they had already known that those two were suspicious.
Still, he patiently scratched words into the door, quickly explaining the abnormalities affecting everyone inside, especially Salaar.
He was indeed extremely sensitive to fluctuations in power, but Myss knew very well that he lacked the wealth of experience Salaar and Professor Colossal Elephant possessed.
Seeing that even the legendary “Divine Favorites” had no idea what was happening, Gentry’s frantic writing stopped for quite a while.
After some time, he finally responded hesitantly.
[At present, I can only confirm that the space you are in isn’t a Divine Realm. There are no Divine Realm fluctuations there. That environment is more unusual than we thought.]
[As for the abnormalities, I haven’t seen them myself, so I cannot judge them very well. However, I have recorded similar conditions before. This is a classic case of Mana Plundering. More precisely, what is actually being damaged are gemstones, Divine Blood, and Magibases. These things all contain extremely high concentrations of magic. The damage to human bodies should be a secondary effect of the destruction of their magic.]
[The greater the efficiency of the plundering, the faster the damage progresses. Based on your description, you have less than twenty-four hours. Please act quickly.]
Plundering? …The greater the efficiency, the faster the damage?
Myss’s fingertip paused.
To carve faster, he had stuck a trace of annihilation magic onto his fingernail—the kind of power that could instantly destroy anything without leaving a trace.
According to Gentry, the strange force here seemed to be an extremely degraded version of annihilation magic. Its aura was well concealed, but its “plundering” was exceptionally slow.
…Right. Salaar had also said this place reminded him somewhat of the Chaos Archdemon.
Could the thing causing trouble here actually be one of his own kind? Myss thought uncertainly.
[That theory explains the humans’ abnormalities. What about Salaar and the Dragon Fae’s symptoms?]
Myss drew in a breath and decided to continue asking about the important part. As for the energetic priest, he couldn’t even be bothered to ask.
[I’m sorry. I have never encountered a case like this. I can only tell you one thing: the effects produced by a single force will not be overly complicated. There must be a simple, clean rule behind it, just like a beautiful mathematical formula.]
Gentry responded as politely as possible.
Myss didn’t understand mathematics. He didn’t know formulas either. And he had no idea what was supposed to be beautiful about those things.
But he more or less understood the point. That force hadn’t “plundered” the four of them, and there had to be a simple reason for that. As for the illness, the Dragon Fae had already been sick before coming here. The only one who had truly developed a new abnormality was Salaar.
“…Looks like we reached the same conclusion.”
The moment Myss’s gaze stabbed over, he saw a faint smile on Salaar’s face.
Myss hadn’t deliberately hidden the exchange from Salaar. Mr. Hero had forced himself through the discomfort and silently watched their conversation. Now he extended one cold hand, and a thin line of golden light swept over the wooden door.
[I’m Salaar. Thank you for the information. We’ll protect Kai as best we can.]
After writing that, he quirked the corner of his mouth toward Myss. “Since we have time, let Father Kalen look after everyone here. The two of us can go outside and explore.”
“You’re not worried about me anymore?” Myss raised a brow.
“Because I agree with Gentry’s deduction. That force is temporarily leaving you alone. And…” His voice dropped into a hot whisper. “Your annihilation is stronger than this half-baked plundering.”
That’s more like it. Myss gave a low, affirmative hum.
Compared with confronting Lady Interesting, who possessed a brain, head-on, the mindless fog was safer. At least, safer for Salaar. If things went wrong, they could still run back.
“I’ll keep an eye on you.” He glanced at the dazed Salaar. His expression was casual, but his tone was solemn.
Half an hour later.
Salaar privately explained Gentry’s situation to Kai and told him to guard the door. Then he entrusted the entire room full of unfortunate people, including the Dragon Fae inside Myss’s pocket, to Father Kalen.
“Salaar and I are going outside to take a look and find a way out,” Myss said.
Earl was no longer clear-headed. It was hard to tell whether he was sleepy or terrified. Without this fussy man around to object, no one else had any issue with the decision.
From the few magical devices he had left, Kai selected a communication device that wasn’t too badly damaged and handed it to Myss and Salaar.
“This is a special emergency version. It barely contains any gemstone structures and can be powered directly with magic,” he said. “Even if it can’t communicate normally, you can still use it as a locator to find the house again.”
Myss nodded and clipped the device that resembled a tie clip onto his collar. Then he supported the weakened Salaar, took a deep breath, and opened that damned door.
Gray-blue fog rushed toward them. The night mist was as thick as dirty water mixed with paint. It was even denser and damper than Myss had imagined.
For a second, Myss even had the illusion that he was choking on water.
Salaar simply coughed twice, faint pain audible in the sound.
Forget the surrounding scenery. Even though they were right beside each other, Myss could barely make out Salaar’s expression.
“Are you all right?” Myss stopped and asked stiffly.
“Worried about me?” Salaar asked hoarsely.
“Don’t get glib at a time like this.” Myss pulled a long face. “I’m only worried you’ll get in the way. You’re getting heavier and heavier. Don’t you dare pass out on top of me.”
Salaar gave a quiet hum.
The ground was equally damp, like mud after a torrential downpour, squelching beneath every step. The farther they went, the faster the magic flowed. Yet Myss couldn’t find any direction that felt sufficiently unusual.
Fortunately, once infused with magic, the locating communication device on his collar still worked. So Myss simply picked a direction and walked straight ahead.
But beneath their feet there was only mud—endless mud. More unsettlingly, there were no stones, broken branches, or rotting leaves anywhere in it. The mud was absurdly clean, giving everything an unnaturally unreal quality.
“…Myss.” After they had walked for who knew how long, Salaar suddenly spoke.
“If you have something to say, just say it.”
“I’m a little uncomfortable,” he sighed softly. “I want to catch my breath. Could you carry me for a while?”
Myss tugged at Salaar’s hand with an expression that said he had something to say but didn’t know where to begin, making sure this bastard hadn’t secretly been swapped with someone else.
Normally, Myss had no doubt that even if Salaar were so exhausted he had to crawl on all fours, he would never say something like that.
But things had already come to this…
Myss scrunched up his face and let out a heavy sigh, nearly choking on the thick fog again.
He hauled Salaar onto his back. “Fine. Tell me when you’ve rested enough.”
“…Mm.”
Salaar’s weight itself wasn’t a problem. His size was the troublesome part. Myss awkwardly leaned his body forward before barely managing to keep his balance.
Feeling Salaar’s warm, heavy body against his back, Myss couldn’t help grumbling inwardly.
If someone had told him a hundred years ago that one day he would carry a weakened Salaar on his back just so the man could rest… He would have thought it was absolutely absurd.
Myss would sooner have believed a meteor shower would fall upon the human world.
Reality proved that the human world truly was an absurd place beyond measure.
Whether it was his imagination or not, Salaar seemed to be getting heavier and hotter. Myss hooked his arms beneath Salaar’s strong legs, his heart full of misery.
“…Myss.”
“What now?” Myss frowned. “If you can’t take it, we’ll go back right now…”
“I don’t want to go back.” Salaar’s voice was blurred, like delirious nonsense spoken through a high fever.
“I wish this moment could last forever…”
“I still prefer the Blind God’s dream to a soggy mud field.”
Myss muttered, “You left so decisively last time. Why are you saying this now?”
“I didn’t want to leave last time either…” Salaar’s voice grew quieter and quieter. “That’s right. I know. I’ve always known…”
Suddenly, his voice cut off.
Don’t tell me he died. Myss’s body jolted. He was just about to turn his head…
When his back became empty.
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