Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 156: Twisted Authority
A true god.
For an instant, Kalen looked bewildered. He shifted his gaze from the monster outside the window to Myss, then back to the monster outside.
Before this, those two had indeed used miraculous powers. Once Kalen learned that Salaar was the legendary Saint Salaar, nearly all his doubts had vanished immediately.
Perhaps magic from the era of the Night Scourge was simply that powerful, he thought.
But a true god? …That kind of monster?
Myss didn’t waste even half a second wavering.
Salaar was Salaar.
The human Salaar with brilliant golden hair, the wandering soul Salaar inhabiting the body of a Karns descendant, or even this… mutating Salaar before him.
Even if Salaar turned into a damn gooseberry bush, he would still be Salaar.
Without hesitation, Myss swept past the stunned Lawler and lunged at Marcela again.
This time, it wasn’t only a black blade that struck. Countless black threads of magic erupted from the ground and twisted themselves into a gigantic birdcage on the spot. Marcela, who had lost both arms, hunched her back and looked like a crow with a human face.
Countless magical threads shuttled through the gaps of the black cage and pulled taut. Several pitch-black strands pressed against Marcela’s throat like piano wire.
With a single thought, Myss could strangle this strange fog-person into literal fog.
“Explain,” Myss said. “Now.”
A discordant smile spread across Marcela’s face. “By the time I… finish explaining, that child will be… fully ripe.”
“Salaar is an outrageous bastard, but he’s not stupid enough to offer no resistance at all.”
Myss didn’t look toward the monster outside the window again. If Salaar capsized in a gutter like this, he wouldn’t deserve to be Myss’s opponent.
Time was limited. He had no energy to guess what was going on inside Salaar’s twisted head. He had to squeeze out information as quickly as possible so he could regain control of the situation.
“Since you… want to hear.”
Marcela’s face twisted.
“Human magic… dry grass. A god’s power… lamb. Eat grass… always hungry. But grass… can feed lamb.”
“I am only… hungry.”
She spoke in broken fragments, her voice carrying a scorched, desperate anticipation.
Kalen scratched his hair in confusion. He couldn’t understand what this thing was saying at all.
But Myss understood.
Rather than saying he was quick-witted, it was more accurate to say his instincts understood her meaning instantly.
Gemstones, Divine Blood, Magibases. Magibases already counted as one of the things with the highest magical concentration.
But compared with an Abnormal Fruit containing divine power, those things were nothing more than tasteless scraps, not worth eating yet too wasteful to throw away.
Even humans wouldn’t mind exchanging leaves and grass roots for delicious lamb. If those useless materials could be piled up into a single Abnormal Fruit, Myss would absolutely be willing to sacrifice them.
So that was it.
He, Salaar, and Kalen were unharmed because they had all been touched by divine power.
Whether that divine power came from outside or whether they themselves had crossed that threshold, they were all the “lambs” Marcela had been waiting for.
She intended to use this strange fog to fatten them. Unfortunately, Myss was already mature, while Kalen himself had no magic. Only Salaar, this young godling, had been caught perfectly.
Myss raised his eyes, his pupils rapidly diffusing. Within those quickly shifting pupils, Marcela’s rigid face was reflected.
Marcela was hungry.
…Marcela was in poor condition and had no companions supporting her.
Marcela was eagerly waiting to plunder Salaar.
…Marcela understood nothing about Salaar’s abilities and had failed to recognize the Chaos Archdemon standing in front of her.
Marcela was weaker than him. It was worth the risk. The predator’s instinct flooded Myss’s heart.
Myss endured the strange stabbing pain and concentrated all his power into his eyes, slamming it against that bizarre layer of protection.
As expected, the damned barrier remained extraordinarily resilient.
This body didn’t contain enough power. Myss felt as though he were trying to pry open a hard oyster shell with his fingertips, forcing until his nails bent upward and the sharp shell sliced his skin bloody. Something warm trickled down Myss’s cheek. It smelled like blood.
His vision repeatedly went black, like a photograph burned through by fire.
Marcela clearly noticed something was wrong. She raised a hand, preparing to cast a spell.
Myss immediately raised both hands in front of himself and made a closing motion.
Under that terrifying stare, the magical threads tightened and the cage shrank. Marcela didn’t know which side she should respond to first. That brief distraction gave Myss the perfect opportunity.
Crack.
His bloodied fingers pried open the oyster shell, revealing the essence of Marcela’s magic unfolding rapidly before him, so complex it was almost dizzying.
Compared with it, every magical formation Myss had seen before looked like a crude child’s doodle.
Marcela’s power was orderly, intricate, and incomparably vast. It was like forcing an enormous whale crammed into a human skin.
Salaar’s judgment hadn’t been wrong.
Compared with a human, this thing really did resemble an Archdemon far more closely.
Even if all the “gods” they had encountered were added together, their divine power had never been this… advanced.
Unfortunately for Marcela, her condition truly was poor. Countless large and small gaps riddled those beautiful, complex magical circuits, like a soldier lying half-dead on a battlefield.
Myss couldn’t be bothered wiping the blood off his face. He raised both hands. The black birdcage instantly distorted, and with the magical threads slicing through it, directly cut toward Marcela’s weakest magical nodes.
Marcela didn’t yield. Realizing Myss’s combat strength was in no way inferior to hers, she sent her magic toward Salaar outside the window without hesitation.
The surrounding fog churned violently like grinding fangs. But the instant it touched Salaar’s body, if that monster could be counted as part of his body, it was violently thrown back.
“Can’t… move.” Marcela’s expression changed. “Why… isn’t he… mature yet?”
“Because you’re not qualified to be his enemy.” Myss bared his teeth and crossed his hands.
Marcela let out a furious roar. Before the birdcage and magical threads could crush inward, her body rapidly disintegrated into clumps of black fog.
Those masses of darkness crawled swiftly along the floor. With wet, sticky sounds, they rushed out through the window and into the night.
They fled so quickly that scraps of clothing remained on the floor, along with purplish-red chunks of flesh underneath. The flesh twitched weakly, then quickly turned into mist and disappeared where it lay.
Kalen flailed helplessly at the side. He wanted to help, but he simply couldn’t gather up the fog scattering in every direction.
Seeing Marcela escape, Myss remained remarkably calm. He reached the window in a few strides and looked toward Salaar outside.
“Uh, what’s going on?” Kalen asked cautiously.
“That Marcela is only an avatar of ‘something,’” Myss said, too lazy to explain much more.
Just as Myss had used the body of a nameless slave, Marcela had done something similar. Her weakened true body was probably hidden somewhere, while the avatar existed only to mislead them.
If Myss hadn’t been capable of seeing through magical essence, they could only have attacked Marcela uselessly, wasting precious time striking fog without harming her in the slightest.
“All these abnormalities are her doing. Destroy her true body, and all of this will end.”
Kalen seemed to understand, but his gaze still kept drifting toward the window.
“But… but she just said ‘a true god’…”
“Shut up. This isn’t the time for rambling.” Myss clicked his tongue sharply without even looking at Kalen.
Marcela had fled into the fog, yet Salaar’s condition hadn’t improved. He was still maintaining the last trace of a human form, and his eyes remained unfocused.
Human power was grass. Grass could feed a lamb.
Salaar was absorbing the power of this place and being induced to transform into a god. Myss had no doubt that the instant Salaar truly gained a divine body, Marcela, hidden somewhere within the fog, would devour him completely.
Mental instability, abnormal obsession, forced absorption of external magic.
Then becoming a god and gaining a distorted divine body… It sounded terribly familiar. It was basically a less portable Abnormal Fruit.
Myss tightened his grip and crushed the window frame with a crack.
Kalen’s tone grew even more cautious. “If you need our help…”
“Yes, I do,” Myss said. “I need you and Lawler to come with me.”
“But Mr. Kai and Mr. Earl…”
“Whether anyone stays beside them or not, if we don’t kill Marcela quickly, they’ll only live for less than a day,” Myss said. “You’re at least somewhat useful, and Lawler knows that thing. Maybe he knows something.”
“Come with me. Now.”
Kalen pursed his lips and didn’t delay any longer. “All right. I’ll explain the situation to Mr. Kai. That professor needs to know about this.”
Myss gave a grunt, climbed straight over the window, and jumped from the second floor to the ground outside.
He would use his eyes to track Marcela, execute her, and end all of this. That was the cleanest solution he could think of, provided that…
Splat.
Myss’s feet landed in the mud. Dirty golden light poured down from above, and the muck reflected sharp fragments of light.
Provided that the delirious Salaar didn’t get in his way.
Light swallowed Myss. The rolling fog looked like cotton soaked in pus, crowding together around his feet. The enormous monster emitted a strange humming sound and slowly approached him.
Salaar’s slime-smeared face held no expression. Those empty eyes looked down at Myss, and the stare immediately made irritation flare in his chest.
He tilted his head back in displeasure.
“Listen. I know you definitely have something planned.”
“According to our contract, you’re definitely going to follow me. So don’t get in my way later. I don’t care what arrangements you’ve made. Right now, I need to go kill Marcela.”
Salaar didn’t seem to understand; he tilted his head slightly. The brilliant golden slime inside the horizontal hourglass slowly shifted, producing a thick, sticky friction sound.
That strange, sickly-sweet smell filled Myss’s nose. But after the ordinary sensory impression passed, Myss caught an extraordinarily wonderful scent beneath it.
A long time ago, back in Rosha City, he had once smelled an unripe fragrance on Salaar. Now that scent had become heavier and richer, like freshly ripened raspberries, sweet cream, and heated syrup.
Myss’s pupils twisted violently. They seemed ready to slip beyond his control and lick this immature “lamb” with their gaze. Myss bit down hard on his tongue, forcibly tore his eyes away, and stared at the mud-stained toes of his boots instead.
A moment later, he began walking.
Boom.
A lump of slime fell from the sky and landed beside Myss. He nimbly jumped aside, dodging the splashing liquid, but the substance seemed to defy gravity. It slowly gathered itself together again in the mud, becoming a perfectly rounded mass before shooting toward Myss.
Based on three hundred years of experience tangled up with Salaar, this bastard was definitely up to no good!
The surroundings were far too open. Myss gritted his teeth and retreated, sprinting along the base of the wall.
Kalen had just finished explaining things to Kai and was preparing to take the dazed Lawler outside when Myss came charging back through the door and knocked them inward again.
“Spare the door!” Kai cried miserably.
After that, Kai no longer had time to complain. Two or three slime spheres, each the size of a human head, followed Myss inside and relentlessly chased him.
“Salaar has gone insane!”
Myss grabbed the unconscious Earl from the chair and held him directly in front of one of the slime spheres. The slime instantly wrapped around Earl like resin swallowing an insect.
Myss stopped moving.
Once encased in the slime, Earl really did become like an insect trapped in amber. His heartbeat and breathing stopped completely.
Strangely, the fragile human was still alive. Perhaps because the slime had isolated him, his magic actually stabilized.
It was almost like… Time had stopped.
[I’m going to make all of this stop…]
Those had been Salaar’s final words to him.
That had been his most instinctive desire while delirious. Perhaps it had also been a clue.
Damn it. Salaar’s talent was obviously healing. How had it become twisted into something like this?
Myss exhaled heavily, directly transformed Fork into a crossbow bolt, and used magic to shatter the few slime spheres.
“Kai!” he shouted. “Smear it over your cracks!”
Kai couldn’t sense Earl’s magic. He hissed through his teeth, “W-will that actually work?”
“Who cares?” Myss looked completely unconcerned. “Then stick your broken puppet back together with it too. Try it!”
Kai was speechless.
If it were not for… If Professor Gentry hadn’t told him to follow these two, he would rather die than obey such an absurd instruction.
The slime spheres were only pursuing Myss, who was daring left and right around the living room, trying to fend off their pursuit.
Seeing the anger on Myss’s face growing fiercer by the second, Kai still tremblingly scooped up a little brilliant golden slime and smeared it over the cracks on the back of his hand. It felt a little like chilled honey, carrying a faintly sweet fragrance without being overly sticky.
The instant he applied it, Kai experienced an extremely strange sensation. The part touching the slime ceased to exist.
It wasn’t the feeling of numbness caused by “loss of sensation”. He could still command those parts, but it felt like commanding a phantom image. Even their sense of weight disappeared, as though they had been completely exiled from the world.
At the same time, however, the weakness caused by his strength continuously draining away vanished as well. It was as though he had gained a new hand made entirely of air.
Kai swallowed and rapidly smeared the substance over his hands and feet.
Then he hurriedly took out the Divine Blood Puppet and used the slime to stick its shattered pieces back together.
As the creator of alchemical magical devices, his ten fingers were quick and precise. Kai discarded the fragments that were too finely broken and managed to reconstruct most of the puppet.
Only then did Myss rush out of the house.
“You’re coming with me too! Bring everyone else!”
Kai nodded and murmured an incantation. The puppet transformed directly into spider form.
The priest held the stunned Lawler in one hand and used a rope in the other to drag Earl, who was wrapped inside the slime sphere, then cleanly jumped onto the puppet.
Kai was the last one aboard. Magical light flashed, and he even removed the door itself and brought it along.
Myss: “…”
Forget it. Hopefully Professor Elephant could still contact him.
Myss flashed aside from another slime sphere. He deliberately controlled the distance between himself and the puppet, ensuring that the people riding it had their vision blocked by the fog and couldn’t see the golden monster inside the mist.
“Aren’t you coming with us?” Kai shouted once they were ready.
“Keep your locating communication device on and head east first! Let that Law-something guy guide the way!” Myss shouted back.
There was a faint trace of Marcela’s aura in that direction. He could distinguish it.
…He needed to move just a little more slowly.
Myss raised his head and looked toward Salaar, around whom countless slime spheres floated. The spheres varied in size, but every one of them was perfectly round.
They slowly revolved around that monstrous divine body, making its distorted sacred aura grow stronger and stronger.
“I’ll catch up in a bit.”
He stared fixedly at the “enemy” before him and declared his victory in advance.
The author has something to say:
Salaar definitely wouldn’t be defeated without a fight, but Lord Myss clearly needs some practice using his brain.
Mr. Hero: It’s fine. If we evolve together, then that’s the same as neither of us evolving. [starry eyes] 👍
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