Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 273: Ten Years Later — Part 1

Jude Major leaned triumphantly against the wall and gently stroked the head of his new demon.

During the reign of the Blood Queen Andrea Alastair, Alban changed a lot of draconian laws against demon worshippers. If the partner is a subordinate demon, as long as you honestly go to the designated demon laboratory to register, after it is determined that it wasn’t too harmful, the servant can use them for legal purposes.

At least in terms of garbage disposal and pest control, they were much more efficient than surface organisms.

Unfortunately, there was something to be said for it.

Demon worshipper Jude Major touched the beard on his chin and tsked regretfully.

Speaking of more than ten years ago, he had met Ann Savage, who hadn’t become queen yet. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to develop any relationships.

Although she had been queen for about seven years, the Queen of Blood dragged her knights out of the palace and lived an adventurous life again. She wasn’t as crazy as the rumors were—Alban’s control over intermediate demons was still very strict, the procedures for registering intermediate demons were much more cumbersome than lower-level demons, and the deposit required was more than ten times higher. More harmful varieties were still prohibited from entering into contracts.

It would be great if that woman went a little crazier.

Jude shook the wine in the jug and sighed pretentiously…

Anyway, he won’t pay a deposit of thousands of gold coins for his new baby. Not to mention, his newly obtained intermediate demon wasn’t in the category that Alban allowed to register at all.

The demon who had made the contract with him was lying on his shoulders. Its translucent purple-black body was squirming slowly, and its slippery, soft skin glowed with water.

The Hitz, an extremely poisonous squid, was highly toxic and its combat power was particularly outstanding; it almost wiped out all his wealth, but no matter. It would soon earn back those glittering gold coins.

The best thing was that its toxicity was very difficult to detect, and the cause of death of the victim could easily be recognized as accidental consumption of moldy food.

What’s more, the target age this time was quite old.

Jude turned around, leaned his back against the blind corner of the balcony, and glanced at the old lady in the room, holding an herbal medicine and burying her head to quickly write.

There was no better place to start than an inn.

Five years ago, Godwin Lopez, who was in his prime, awarded his commander position to Victor, his deputy commander at the time, and retired from the front line. People have speculated that this “real Hero” would turn to the path of politics. Unexpectedly, Godwin had simply liquidated all his properties, ran to the remote town of Roadside Town, and bought the only inn in the village.

He kept the name of the Ramon Inn and began to try to operate it.

When this legendary hero first arrived in this small place, he caused an uproar. People from nearby towns came to watch, and many even came from other countries thousands of miles away to see the excitement, so the business of the Ramon Inn became prosperous.

Almost everyone agreed that Godwin Lopez was just taking a short break and taking advantage of the peace of the world to change his mood.

However, year after year passed, and Mr. Lopez’s third child had already learned to walk, and the famous Mr. Lopez still didn’t mean to give up the inn at all, and even seemed to be enjoying it.

For some reason, the new queen of Alban acquiesced to such behavior. At first, everyone was betting on when the envoys from the capital would come to recall him, but five years passed, and no one came.

It wasn’t bad, Jude rolled his eyes.

He just needed to wait for Lopez to leave the hotel and kill the old woman.

So what if he was a Hero? That silly old lady had just finished her breakfast, and when she was eliminated with no traces of evidence, Lopez wouldn’t be able to refute anything even if he tried. Once the statute of limitations had passed, the demon’s toxin would be completely decomposed, and even if Lopez investigated this matter deeply, he would most likely only get the result of food poisoning.

Not to mention that failure to find the murderer would tank Lopez’s business and drag down his reputation. On the whole, Mr. Hero won’t get any benefit at all. Who would do such a stupid thing?

Anyway, such a great person must be used to seeing life and death and wouldn’t make a fuss about the death of some old lady.

Jude pricked up his ears, pretended to taste the wine in the jug, and carefully eavesdropped on the conversation between Mr. Lopez and his beautiful wife downstairs.

“Ten years, Godwin.” Mrs. Lopez shook her head and huffed. “You can’t keep going to Ollie’s for get-togethers. We should hold a family banquet here or something.”

Godwin Lopez snorted solemnly, but this solemnity didn’t bring him much authority—Not far away, two little boys were fighting with tree branches.

The youngest girl rode on Mr. Lopez’s neck, pulling on the blond hair hard and giggling.

“They just came back from a trip last week, and this time they will probably stay in peace for a few more years. How about inviting them over to dinner this time?”

“We can go to the tavern together.” Mr. Hero’s voice was a bit uncomfortable.

“What did you say?” Mrs. Lopez crossed her arms with amazing momentum. “That skull has been in this yard for so many years. My eldest brother’s visit will not cause any natural disasters. What’s more, this is Ollie’s—”

“Okay, I admit I’m still psychologically challenged, but you think those brats would have started to remember.” Godwin rubbed his temples. “We have to figure out how to explain now that they can still remember ‘Uncle Ollie’. In another ten years, we have to explain to them why Uncle Ollie became Ollie’s brother. Debby, your older brother looks even better than you now—”

“Hmm?” Debby raised her tone.

“Older than you…”

“Hmm???”

“…Nothing.” Godwin coughed twice, swallowed the second half of the sentence, and quickly changed the subject. “Olivia, don’t pull daddy’s hair so hard.”

“Okay, let’s talk about this after dinner. You, first go to the next town to bring back the new dishes, and when you come back for dinner in the evening, I’ll go to the orphanage to tend to it.”

“Okay.”

Very good. Jude tightened the lid of the jug and wiped his mouth as he watched Godwin Lopez leave the Ramon Inn in a carriage.

Now the owner of the Ramon Inn was just a beautiful girl and her kids. There was nothing to worry about—Godwin Lopez had done at least one thing logically. He married a lady who was quite good looking.

Jude heard someone talk about Mrs. Lopez while drinking, but unfortunately, he was too drunk at that time and didn’t hear much, but it didn’t matter. It was just a woman that could be easily taken care of.

Making sure that the carriage had disappeared into the depths of the woods in the distance, and counting the time, Jude neatly pried open the balcony door and entered the room. Before the old lady had time to express her surprise, she just screamed a little, and fainted to the ground from the demon’s poisonous gas. Turning over the old lady’s eyelids and determining that the toxin had reached a lethal amount, Jude hummed happily and turned to the balcony—

Mrs. Lopez was squatting on the high-rise balcony in a standard mercenary posture; her eyes were cold.

Fearfully, her eldest son, with a branch in his mouth, jumped up just as awkwardly.

“Abyssal magic… I thought it was a registered demon worshipper, but it doesn’t seem to be anymore. Eddie, go and inform the garrison.”

“Okay, mom.” The boy narrowed his eyes and disappeared off the edge of the balcony. Jude was pretty sure he didn’t hear the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground.

“Motherfucker!” Jude took out a weird fruit from his pocket and smashed it directly to the ground.

Suddenly, a thick yellow gas full of pungent odors filled the room.

Debby chanted, waved away the thick smoke, and rushed to the old woman who fell to the ground. Healing spells and detoxification spells were quickly completed in the air, but unfortunately, the old lady was weak, and the demon toxicity was really too strong—Thankfully her life was still safe, but Debby didn’t have time to chase the murderer.

“Mom!” her little daughter yelled angrily below. “Someone is running away into the woods; Rennie is going after him!”

“Catch your second brother!” Debby shouted downstairs while adjusting the healing spell. “It’s okay, he can’t get away!”

“Lies! He obviously ran away!” her youngest son screamed hard, sounding like he was struggling.

“There’s only one place the demon worshipper could go if he’s fleeing, and that’s to Noer.” Debby cleared her throat. “Just leave that asshole alone. Go to the basement and get some marigold powder and snake blood vine. Uncle Nemo will take care of this matter.”

“……Hmph.”

At the same time, Jude was running wildly in the Border Forest.

Hell, seeing that Mrs. Lopez was young and beautiful, he didn’t do an in-depth investigation. Rich enough and with a good face, Godwin Lopez obviously didn’t lack beautiful playthings that would be obedient… Is that man a masochist?

It seemed that with Mrs. Lopez’s posture, this task was probably going to fail.

But it didn’t matter. Jude took two breaths.

Garland’s attitude towards demons was still much looser. As long as he mixed into Noer before the garrison of Roadside Town released the news, he could escape the possible pursuit.

He had been walking outside for the past few years, and it was time to go to the Dawn Tavern for a drink and buy some new information from his colleagues.

About twelve years ago, the original owner of Dawn Tavern, Talbott Vance, disappeared. As soon as the two-and-a-half-year retention period passed, two wealthy young people bought it.

Jude happened to not be nearby during that time. When he stepped into the tavern again, the two young bosses were no longer in the store, and he heard that they were on a long-distance trip.

Fortunately, although the decoration style has changed a lot, Dawn Tavern still didn’t exclude guests who were close to demons. Although it was a pity that there wasn’t Vance who he could exchange information,

Jude used magic to speed himself up desperately, and when he got under the walls of Noer, he panted like an old dog with lung disease.

However, he was not panting alone.

Not far from him, a man in a black robe took off his hood, bent down, and held his knees with both hands, panting as if he was about to suffocate on the spot in the next second.

The man looked to be in his thirties. His black hair was stuck to his face by sweat, his skin was unhealthy pale, and his eyes were an ominous dark red. The man’s face was handsome and elegant, with a hint of arrogance. It was just that the arrogance was swallowed up by his current demeanor.

There is a tin badge pinned to the man’s black robe. It looked like it was quite old as the pattern was somewhat faded.

Although this person didn’t bring a demon, he was quite sure that this wasn’t a good sign. Jude sniffed. He was pretty sure he smelled the soil from graves, skeletons, and strong potions.

For a moment, the two looked at each other in silence and awkwardness. The black-robed man was the first to stop panting. A series of spells smashed down. Numerous stone platforms floated out from the walls, and the other man climbed up first.

Jude tugged at his gray beard and decided to take advantage of it. He grabbed the protruding small stone platform and climbed up after the man, happy and relaxed.

The strange man glanced at him in confusion with red eyes, and then leaned against the wall and looked around nervously, as if he was on guard for someone.

This guy was probably in the same situation as himself, and he was probably an unlucky fellow who had failed his dirty work and had been discovered. Jude smacked his mouth, climbed onto the wall, jumped over first and ran towards the Dawn Tavern in his memory.

And the black-robed man trotted beside him, taking the exact same route.

They glanced at each other embarrassedly again.

It seemed that he may not be able to get rid of his relationship with this kid. Jude patted his demon and ran faster.

The Dawn Tavern wasn’t in the center of the city. It had also been expanded by an extra floor, which made it very easy to find. There was no sound of armor clashing from soldiers running around. It seemed that he had escaped fast enough. Jude breathed a sigh of relief, walked into the tavern carelessly and touched the butt of the waitress in the shop…

As a result, before the hand could touch the waitress’ black skirt, the waitress with braided hair squeezed his wrist tightly. The cute girl with freckles looked at him with weird eyes and increased the strength of her hands with a smile.

Jude screamed and struggled desperately. Seeing that the woman finally let go, Jude cursed a few swear words secretly, rubbing his sore wrist bitterly. There was no waitress at the Dawn Tavern before, so he thought he could skim some oil off the water* to comfort his injured heart.

*Metaphor referring to taking advantage of others in public.

His luck was simply terrible today.

The black-robed man who came in with him had already rushed to the wooden platform and spoke hurriedly to the young man in the waiter’s uniform behind the wooden platform.

“Mr. Light, can I borrow your kitchen to hide for a while?”

“Yes, it’s okay…” The waiter was a beautiful young man with black hair tied behind his head in a ponytail, and he looked a little inexplicably familiar, but Jude was very sure that he shouldn’t have met such a young guy before.

“Thanks.” The man in the black robe didn’t say much, and hurriedly rushed to the back kitchen.

The young waiter looked a little helpless. He picked up a book and sat back in his seat.

Jude brushed past, and before he could order a drink, he heard the growing clamor outside.

“…A person from the Laddism Church…”

“Why is the commander of the Knights of Judgement here?”

“Shh, shh, keep your voice down!”

Jude’s heart thumped. He glanced nervously at the dangerous demon on his shoulder and swallowed.

Whether they were after him or not, it was too late to escape now, and it was better to not attract too much attention to himself.

“Mr. Light,” Jude imitated modestly. “Can I borrow your kitchen to hide for a while?”

The young waiter raised his eyebrows, looked at him up and down, and then smiled.

“Of course you can,” he said with a smile.

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 272: Home

“…Jesse, get out of the bathtub.”

“This is the guest room. You said I could use it casually!”

“That’s because you said you wanted to take a hot bath. I have to remind you that the average hot bath doesn’t last for five hours. Now you look like you want to stew in your own soup. Of course, if you really have this idea, I’m willing to help—” Nemo cracked his knuckles.

“I like this bathtub,” Jesse said.

He especially shrank his beast shape a little bit so that he could stuff himself into a large round bathtub. The long white fur floated on the hot water surface, emitting hot steam, and the shrunken beast put its long mouth on the edge of the bathtub and squinted its blue eyes comfortably.

Not far from the bathtub was a window that had accumulated a thick layer from the swirling snowflakes that floated onto the windowsill. Jesse hummed comfortably, and even added a circle of insulation runes to the bathtub for free.

Nemo took a deep inhale. “…Mr. Cross!”

Hearing the call, footsteps sounded from the stairs. Ten seconds later, Adrian Cross pushed the door in.

“…” After glancing at the scene in front of him, the former Knight of Judgment pinched his brows. “How long has he been soaking?”

“More than five hours.”

“I suggest you just directly use a freezing spell,” Adrian proposed politely.

“Less than five hours!” Jesse protested. “Adri, my heart is breaking. How can you be so cruel—”

“It’s been five hours and seven minutes since you said you were going to take a hot bath,” Nemo interrupted cruelly. “Debby did your share of work for you. Jesse, don’t tell me you’re just going to go down to dinner like this later.”

“Strictly speaking, our friendship has been for tens of thousands of years, right? My dear Pillar of the World, you don’t care about these short five hours—”

“Then you can choose not to eat later.” Nemo rubbed his hands slowly. “I’ll tell Debby to stop picking thornberries and turn the rest into jam because the fresh thornberry cake she had specially prepared for someone is no longer needed.”

Jesse shook the tips of his ears.

“By the way, we can add a dish to dinner, stewed wolf broth. Anyway, the ingredient has already washed itself very clean.”

“…You know, I’m not a wolf.”

“It’s okay, the guests don’t.” Nemo straightened his sleeves and smiled, and he stepped out of the bathroom with one foot. “I’ll leave it to you next, Mr. Cross.”

Jesse huffed back, “Okay, okay. Give me ten more minutes, and I’ll go down and pick those damn thornberries.”

“Ten minutes might be too late.”

Adrian picked up the bath towel, wiped the beast’s head, and covered its two-pointed ears with the bath towel.

“Miss Light used it to feed Bagelmaurus as she picked them. In ten minutes, there may be nothing left. I suggest you get out quickly and use a drying spell.”

The cool black nose poked out from under the bath towel and poked the side of Adrian’s face. Adrian stopped the movement of his hands and kissed the bridge of the beast’s furry nose lightly. “Stop it, Jesse…Okay, Lord Zenni.”

Only then did Jesse step out of the bathtub with satisfaction and change back to human form.

“After all, it is an important day for those two.” Jesse lifted up his long golden hair and steamed it dry by himself. “I will make up for the lost progress. Don’t worry.”

Nemo walked out of the guest room on the second floor. Instead of going downstairs, he walked to the top floor of the house.

The ceiling on the top floor was very high, but it was just the beveled roof style of a wooden house. More than half of one wall was covered with glass windows, and the view was surprisingly good. The balcony outside the small door was covered with thick snow, and under the action of the magic array, the interior was as warm as spring.

This room was only arranged today.

The soft sofa was placed in the middle of the room; the wide wooden table in front of it was equipped with a tablecloth printed with a heat preservation array, and the teapot on the table was still spewing hot air from its spout.

The fire in the fireplace was burning vigorously. The carpet was fine and thick enough that it was very comfortable to walk up barefoot. There were warm-toned landscape oil paintings on the walls, and Nemo knew very well that there were countless Tumbleweed mission photos hidden behind them—even if they were sealed in a solid stone box in advance, he and Bagelmaurus took a lot of trouble to get them out of the bottom of the Abyss.

Not far from the corner of the painting stood an elegant bird stand, with a nest covered with soft velvet. Lord Bagelmaurus wouldn’t be able to pick anything wrong.

They covered it with a cloth and decided to use it as a surprise.

The large bed was hidden behind a semi-enclosed partition, covered with brand-new soft sheets. The vase on the small wooden table at the head of the bed was filled with fresh flower branches, and the two water cups were attached together and placed next to the vase.

After coming out of the bottom of the Abyss, he bought a lot of books, and now they were neatly placed on the bookshelf not far from the bed.

Stuffing the few books scattered on the table back into the bookshelf, Nemo poured himself a cup of hot tea and looked out the window at the lively scene…

The late winter celebration was approaching, and the entire city of Noer was covered with all kinds of lanterns, flashing warm flames in the gradually dimming night. Most of the nearby houses had only one or two floors, and the roofs were covered with frosted snow.

People carried bread and mulled wine, talking and laughing, and returned home, while children screamed and laughed, rolling around in the snow.

Unconsciously raising the corner of his mouth, Nemo walked to the other side of the room and added some milk to the tea.

The back of the house could be seen here.

He and Oliver built a small garden at the back, which was now also buried by heavy snow. However, the necessary roads had been cleaned out, and the exquisite lanterns had already been hung up.

Oliver’s black horse was freely walking around in the small garden, as if it was spreading joy while the fuller goat honestly stopped in its comfortable shed and chewed fresh forage leisurely.

A pair of warm arms circled his shoulders from behind.

“Someone’s being lazy.” Oliver kissed his ear from behind.

“Two minutes ago, I just scared our great God out of the bathtub.” Nemo pushed down the muscular arm and turned his face sideways. “That’s worth a cup of tea.”

“I saw Jesse. He just caught up with the cleaning work.” Oliver contentedly put his chin on his lover’s shoulder. “You know, Jesse is enough for one person for this job, and he wanted everyone to take a break, so he dismissed them. Now, only Mr. Cross and Bagelmaurus are still with him on the first floor. Wait, you wouldn’t have guessed this before you just—”

“I’m done eating anyway!” The shrill scream of the gray parrot came from the first floor. “Do you want me to spit it out, huh? You won’t eat the thornberries I spit out, Dylan. Don’t think you… Ahhhhhh! I apologize, I apologize. Don’t do it—!”

Then an ear-splitting sound of tables and chairs banging to the ground resounded.

“…Is he really cleaning up?” Oliver choked. “I’ll go down and have a look.”

“Commander, wait. Commander, you can’t just—” Debby’s voice came from the door, getting closer and closer.

“Okay, I won’t go.” Oliver changed his words solemnly, speaking quickly.

As soon as Nemo put down the teacup in his hand, Oliver stuffed himself into the closet and carefully pulled the door closed.

The power of this newborn God was getting stronger. If it weren’t for seeing Oliver get into the closet, it would be difficult for Nemo to notice that a living thing was inside at first glance.

As soon as Oliver hid himself, there was a heavy knock on the door.

“Come in.” Nemo coughed dryly. They could all feel the powerful aura of the visitor—the guest didn’t bother to hide it.

“Where’s Ramon?” Seeing Nemo, Godwin subconsciously put his hand on the hilt of the sword; his expression was completely blank.

The leader of Horizon was wearing ordinary clothing that covered his eyes and ears and a funny cloth hat that was buttoned onto his head. There was still a lot of half-melted snow left on it. Godwin put his right hand on the hilt of the sword, holding an invitation tightly in his left.

“Long time no see, brother.” Nemo’s tone was very pleasant.

Hearing this address, Godwin sighed fiercely as if he had a toothache. He took a half step back, grinded his teeth, and repeated in a flat tone, “Where’s Oliver Ramon?”

Debby looked around and decided to stand between Nemo and Godwin, trying to block her eldest brother, who was much taller than herself.

Godwin Lopez, who he hadn’t seen for more than half a year, had slightly longer hair, and his tone didn’t sound like he just wanted a brotherly hug.

“The commander of the team is very angry,” Debby poked Nemo’s arm and whispered. “At first, he was going to publish the killing of the ‘Demon King’ as a collaboration and take our investigative information to clear the name of the ‘almost total sacrifice’ of Tumbleweed to reverse the notoriety.”

“Then what?” Nemo asked back in a low voice.

“Ollie must have said something underground, and almost everyone decided that he didn’t have time to escape, as Godwin said, but stayed back ‘for the bone jade’. The proof materials prepared by the commander were also taken away in advance, and I guessed who did it when I thought about it—”

“Oh, I probably know what Ollie was thinking…”

“I also know what he’s thinking.”

Godwin gritted his teeth and joined the conversation.

“If this kind of thing was said in advance, I would never agree to it. Yes, I know that concealment will be more low-key, but the comments outside are really… His name deserves to be remembered by the world! I warned Mr. Ramon a long time ago, ‘Don’t lie to me anymore’. Now I’m here to beat someone up. I hope he’s ready.”

“Commander!”

“I can’t even explain too much for him!” Godwin shouted, subconsciously trying to insert the sword in his hand into the ground. As a result, the leader of Horizon glanced at the thick and soft carpet on the ground, and bitterly retracted it from the scabbard. “Every time I explain—”

“…Poor Mr. Lopez, who was robbed of the name of the Hero by his own blood relatives and excusing that bastard in this way.”

Debby interrupted Godwin’s words, took out her handkerchief, pretended to wipe away tears, and deliberately raised her voice, thin and sharp. “He’s really too good. Miss Light, can you help me deliver a love letter to him?”

“After such a trip, the one who contributed the most was obviously from Horizon. Oliver Lopez just grabbed the last blow… As a result, in order to steal the bone jade, Tumbleweed, with the exception of Savage, was obliterated. He really deserved it!” Nemo cooperated with Debby and imitated it with interest.

“You two know very well that I can hear you, right Lights?”

Godwin took a deep breath. “And, Mr. Light, think about your identity. Don’t talk about the last blow—I’m pretty sure you two are immortal now.”

“Speaking of which, Godwin, do you want bone jade? I can grab a piece for you.”

“…Stop talking.” Godwin rubbed his temples as if he had a headache. This topic had brought up his stomach pains again.

“Oliver is in the closet over there.” Nemo smiled and shook his head, and there was a muffled scream in the closet.

Godwin walked to the closet mercilessly and opened the door.

“Nemo,” Oliver slowly pushed himself into the back of his clothes, his voice aggrieved.

“You can’t hide from him for the rest of your life.” Nemo picked up the teacup. “Would you like a cup of hot tea, Debby?”

“Considering that today is your wedding, Mr. Ramon, I won’t punch you in the face.” Godwin punched Oliver in the stomach without a smile.

“It’s been a long time since I saw you. I miss you too, brother.” He didn’t avoid that fist and was punched in the abdomen. Oliver bent over like a shrimp, and he didn’t forget to pat Godwin’s arm on his hand.

Godwin’s facial muscles twitched, and he let out a long, cold snort.

“Don’t be fooled by that stinky face. He brought a gift, and it’s downstairs.” When Oliver straightened up, Debby stood on tiptoe, trying to get her face over Godwin’s shoulder to mouthed words to Oliver.

“Having said that, since you are ready to carry the stigma all the time, I thought you wanted to keep a completely low profile.” Godwin didn’t notice Debby, who was doing little tricks behind his back. “Why did you choose such a place?”

Oliver was startled.

“The scenery is pretty good and the whole town can see it. I heard that you repaired this house this year, and it seems that there’s even a garden behind it.”

Godwin looked meekly out of the window into the garden, and then quickly took his gaze back from the black horse that was trotting around.

“Since the third floor has been added, why not just raze it and rebuild it? It’s faster that way. We just glanced at it, and the second floor basically maintained its original layout.”

“An old friend’s house.” Oliver smiled, glancing at Nemo, who was drinking tea in silence. “We don’t want to damage those rooms.”

“Debby once told me that you directly bought the Dawn Tavern and the land. Old friend… Do you know the former owner of Dawn Tavern?” Godwin raised his eyebrows.

“Nn,” Nemo responded. “…He’s a good friend of mine.”

Godwin opened his mouth, obviously wanting to ask again. As a result, the gray parrot rushed into the room, covered with mud.

“Ready!” Bagelmaurus flapped its wings and quickly flew to Nemo’s shoulders, pretending that nothing had happened. “Banquet, banquet! Free banquet! There are a lot of people looking around at the door!”

“Where’s Ann?”

“She came a long time ago and brought Delia. Her picky knight just wiped down every table again. It was terrible. I just plucked a thornberry from the corner of the table and planned to eat it, but he directly burned it with a spell! Isn’t it just a little dirt?”

“……”

“Can I beat him up?” Seeing Nemo’s helpless expression, the gray parrot jumped eagerly a few times.

“Strictly speaking, Ann is our largest benefactor. Her knight does have the right to supervise.” Nemo scratched the feathers of the gray parrot. “I’ll buy you some fresher ones tomorrow.”

“…Tsk, okay.”

Seeing Oliver next to him walking towards the door, Nemo put the teacup aside, put down his rolled-up sleeves, and smoothed the folds of his cuffs.

“At any rate, it’s the first day of the Dawn Tavern’s re-opening.”

Stopping at the door, Oliver put on his formal clothes and stretched out his right hand. His face was full of smiles, and the ring on his left hand looked like a warm star under the yellowish indoor lighting.

“Even if it’s a wedding between two male shopkeepers who are ‘not blessed by God’, I don’t think there will be too few guests.”

“That’s right.”

Nemo raised the corner of his mouth and stretched out his left hand, wearing a ring.

“Take me away, my knight.”

From time to time, noisy laughter came from the first floor, and the deep winter festival in the center of the town had already begun. The snow was blown by the wind, and the fireworks that couldn’t stop burning brightened the dark winter sky.

The lights on the third floor of the Dawn Tavern went out.

The moment its new owner closed the door, the brilliance of a spell jumped out of his fingertips and lit up gently. The branches in the vase by the bed stretched out in an instant, and more than a dozen small, fragrant flowers bloomed in the dark.

The tiny flowers were illuminated by the fireworks in the distance, flickering in the dark.

When the owners of this room return again, the name “room” may no longer be appropriate…

In this case, people usually like to call it “home”.

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The author has something to say:

Happy New Year everyone!!!

They got married in the New Year—! From now on, they are legal husbands(?) (*/ω＼*)

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 271: A Summer Day

Nemo, who was lying on Oliver’s lap, stopped poking the tip of his lover’s nose. He spread the five fingers of his right hand and rubbed Oliver’s cheek.

The cacophony of cicadas came from the trees above their heads, and the air was filled with the scent of fresh bark and ferns after being exposed to the sun.

Feeling the heat from that hand, Oliver moved the palm of his hand covering his eyes away, revealing little red circles around his eyes.

Nemo’s body temperature had always been slightly higher than his own, and he liked it very much. Oliver opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but his choked throat couldn’t squeeze out the slightest sound.

Under the sun, Nemo stared at him seriously and intently. The familiar yet unfamiliar pupils maintained the inhuman demon-shaped cross, and the warm eyes were full of smiles.

Oliver subconsciously grabbed the gold pendant hanging close to his chest, but the hand that was reaching for it suddenly changed direction halfway.

A cleansing spell removed the sweat, blood, and dirt from the two of them. Oliver then opened the pendant on his chest and took out the ring.

His Demon King blinked, turned his head, and his scattered black hair rubbed against his legs, without the slightest intention of sitting up.

Oliver twitched his nose and grabbed the hand that was still stroking his cheek. However, the freshly baked Mr. Hero grabbed an empty space and instead his wrist was squeezed.

Nemo curved his eyes with a smile. He released his right hand and finally propped up his upper body—the great Demon King propped up Oliver’s thigh and his right hand spread out with his palm pointed upward.

On top of the fair skin, two simple and generous rings were lying quietly together. One of those rings was just on his ring finger a few seconds ago. Oliver didn’t even notice how the other party managed to snatch it.

“Do it again.” The noon sun was extremely strong, and a spot of light swept across his eyes as Nemo narrowed them slightly.

“Your Majesty, you’re pressing on my leg. I can’t get down on one knee.” Oliver’s voice was still a little muffled.

“Who said I wanted you to propose? You have already asked, so now it’s my response.” Nemo’s face got closer. “Give me your hand, Ollie.”

Oliver raised his left hand obediently. The hand armor had been completely shattered in the fierce battle a while ago and was missing. His slender fingers were full of small blood gashes that were healing—concentrating all his energy to heal Nemo, he completely forgot the small pain between his fingers.

Nemo grabbed the hand and imprinted his lips on the fingers. The tip of his tongue poked out slightly, and the hot and humid touch brushed against his wounds and made Oliver’s back numb.

Then his Demon King kissed the back of his hand, and slowly and solemnly put the ring on the ring finger of his left hand, as if it was the most important thing in the world.

At this angle, Oliver could see his lover’s drooping eyelashes, and the top of Nemo’s hair was also very close. The subtle scent of that heartwarming smell once again burrowed into his nostrils.

“Okay, my fiancé.” Making sure the ring was in place, Nemo raised his head.

Since they met, Oliver had never heard Nemo speak in such a tone—it was smooth and bold, with reassuring confidence and power, but strangely mixed with a lot of restraint and shyness that belonged to “Nemo Light” alone.

Oliver grabbed the other party’s hand. His right hand, which was holding the ring, slightly trembled. This hand never deviated halfway when holding a sword, but now it took several tries to put the ring on his lover’s finger.

The black gem embedded in the ring had been carefully processed and polished to a pleasant roundness. The simple and elegant ring shape, complimented by Nemo’s slightly pale skin, made the scene perfect. His lover cocked the corners of his mouth. Nothing in this world could hurt them anymore.

Oliver’s eyes were a little sour again.

It was just that this time, rather than covering it with the palm of his hand, he chose to hug Nemo abruptly and kissed him fiercely.

Nemo didn’t force himself to maintain his balance. His back fell to the soft moss, his fingers dug into Oliver’s soft light brown hair, and he responded to the kiss with all his strength.

The warmth and shudder brought by the tongue sweeping across the gums was tantalizing, causing Nemo to press the other person tighter into his arms. His black robe that was turned into a cloak became tattered in the battle, and he didn’t have time to repair it, and now it was making an unbearable tearing sound, but he didn’t worry about it. He simply tore off the broken armor behind Oliver with his fingertips and rubbed his fingers slowly on his lover’s smooth and strong back.

Just sticking skin on skin and exchanging their body heat induced a trance—bringing with it a sense of satisfaction.

Unfortunately, the passionate lovers didn’t get to do anything further, so they had to stop moving.

“There’s a carriage coming towards us.” Nemo clearly heard the creaking of the spokes and the rustle of semi-dry leaves being run over.

Something flew out of the carriage and flew straight towards Nemo’s face. Nemo didn’t stand up but stretched out his hand and grabbed it.

It was a worn-out water bag, bulging inside, shaking and clanking.

“I arrived earlier than planned, and it seems that this decision was correct.”

A familiar voice sounded. Ann Savage, dressed as a warrior, jumped out of the carriage and waved to Marshal Gallagher, who was driving the carriage. Standing firmly on the ground, Ann’s sharp gaze swept past the two people who were not neatly dressed, and she tsked loudly.

“If I had come a little later, I probably would have seen something I shouldn’t have… And then have to go to a nearby inn with Mr. Mad Dog for a few days and wait until you two are done with your ‘long awaited reunion’ before we get down to business.”

She aggravated the pronunciation of “long awaited reunion” and made a lewd gesture from an angle that her knight couldn’t see.

Oliver’s face was a little red, compared to Nemo’s, who was much calmer.

“Ann.”

His robe was full of holes and one shoulder was exposed, revealing the beautifully shaped clavicle, but this obviously didn’t weaken the majesty of the Pillar of the World.

“Now you can settle accounts with me,” Nemo said softly.

“Oh, the thing about Abbas.” The smile on Ann’s face disappeared, and then she cleared her throat. “I do plan to deal with it. As I said before, I can’t just laugh it off… Even for you now, a human judgement may be just small and ridiculous.”

Nemo didn’t make a sound but looked seriously at the female warrior standing opposite of him.

Ann closed her eyes. “Nemo, as Andrea Alastair, my verdict is as follows—according to Alban’s law, prisoners who kill important members of the royal family need to be beheaded and all property confiscated. Relatives within three generations will be deprived of their citizenship and exiled abroad as refugees, and their heirs aren’t allowed to enter Alban. Once found, if they return, they will be punished according to the severity of the situation and expelled again.”

“The beheading part, per ‘Ulysses’ has already been done. As for Alban’s citizenship, you and Oliver have long since disappeared. In the end, your mimicry is perfect, and I don’t think you and Oliver will have any heirs. Then under the laws implemented by humans, I decree—Nemo Light and his fiancé Oliver Ramon will be banished from Alban and will not be allowed to do any work in Alban.”

“Ann…” Oliver was just about to say something but was stopped by Nemo’s raised hand.

“Just now you said, ‘as Andrea Alastair’, what about as Ann Savage?” Nemo nodded and asked calmly.

Ann took a long breath and looked at the woods around her with nostalgic eyes.

“As Ann Savage, let me see… You helped me save my lovely niece, stopped the prince’s comprehensive war plan for Alban and Willard, ended the expedition so that we no longer have to worry about the bone jade being further weaponized. These are great kindnesses to me, and my answer is already in that water bag. Don’t worry, I will give you a large remuneration, which will be paid out of my private account.”

Hearing this, Nemo untied the water bag, poured out the copper cylinder inside, and carefully unscrewed it. Oliver leaned over quickly, put his chin on Nemo’s shoulder, and stared at the small print on the parchment.

“…This is the proof of citizenship of Noer,” Oliver said softly.

“Nemo Light and Oliver Ramon. I didn’t change your names.” Ann shrugged. “Of course, this thing comes from, uh, my channel as a Black Chapter, which is not very formal, but I guess you two don’t want to go off and be some kind of big shot.”

Having said that, she didn’t hold herself tight, and laughed without any irony.

“What everyone knows these days is Oliver Lopez. No one cares about proof of identity for the little guy, do they?”

“I accept.” Nemo lowered his head a little and saluted.

“Ann, I’m sorry. ……This is not an apology for killing your brother. A fight is a fight. But as a friend, I’m sorry for the sad memories you have.”

“Okay, okay, I’ve already dealt with you two.”

Ann snorted softly and twitched the corners of her mouth.

“It’s not like I’m the one that wants to live with you. What else can I do next but to secretly scold you a few times in my heart and then think about how stupid you are starting to look. That is until I wake up one morning and no longer actively think about it.”

The Queen of Alban approached with great strides and patted Nemo on the head.

“Oh, don’t forget, remember to call me… Mr. Light of Garland at the wedding.”

Then she sprinted neatly and jumped into the carriage.

“See you in Noer!” The carriage began to rumble forward again as Ann put her hand to her mouth and shouted loudly. “Cross and Dylan are probably almost on the surface. I’ll go and see what’s going on over there! Next, please feel free to—”

“Let’s go to Noer.”” Watching the carriage disappear among the trees, Oliver weighed the worn out water bag with a lot of emotion in his tone. “First check in, and then—”

But before he finished speaking, he was tossed to the ground by his fiancé.

“Nemo?”

“Staying at an inn won’t do.” With black hair hanging down his cheeks, Nemo looked down at Oliver from top to bottom and spoke solemnly. “We haven’t seen each other for a very long time, right? I’m afraid I can’t control my power well. Noer is a small place. If it attracts attention too early, the identity Ann arranged for us will be in vain.”

“Uh, it’s still daytime—” Oliver swallowed, his tone uncertain. His shame as a human in the face of the happiness that almost burned his brain, inexplicably weakened.

“I like the sun.” Nemo lowered his head, put his lips to Oliver’s ears and breathed on his lover’s ear, which was getting redder. “…Your eyes look the best in the sun.”

Oliver held his breath for a moment.

His Demon King was flirting raw and awkwardly, and he found that this approach was really effective on him.

In the next second, Nemo’s back slammed into the leafy grass behind him, and the emerald eyes that had just been shrouded in the shadow of the Demon King looked down from above—Oliver wrapped his legs around Nemo’s legs, his arms exerted force, and pressed his lover under his body.

“If you think about it this way, it is indeed better during the day.” Oliver lowered his head and put his hand into the severely damaged black robe. “I haven’t seen your expression in the sun for a long time, Your Majesty.”

“And we have an agreement, right? I need to help you get your shame back,” he added in a low voice.

At first it was a soft kiss like a feather, like a butterfly perching at one’s fingertips. Then there was lingering licking and sucking, and finally it turned into a crazy eagerness to bite.

Nemo raised his head, letting the sweet pain flow through his nerves. His fingertips moved dexterously on the other party’s skin, from his arms to his back, to his thin and sturdy waist. From smooth and flat skin to raised scars, Oliver’s skin gradually became damp, and his muscles gradually tightened.

He relaxed his body, his chest fluctuated violently, letting his knight tear the remnants of the black robe. The tips of his black hair were wet with sweat and swept across his shoulders. The left hand wearing the ring was tightly held by Oliver’s right hand, with ten fingers clasped, firmly pressed against the grass.

The sun swept across the shiny sweat on Oliver’s cheeks, and his emerald eyes were incredibly green.

In the midst of scorching gasps and frantic mutual demands, Nemo licked the corners of his mouth, stretched out his arms, and exerted a little force—he sat up, wrapped his arms around his lover’s shoulders, and maintained a dangerous sitting position.

“Is that okay?” Oliver chuckled. “I heard the sound of a carriage.”

“It’s a caravan.” Nemo’s voice habitually brought out a little discomfort. “But don’t worry, they won’t see or hear anything—”

However, his hand that was about to cast a spell was suddenly clasped by Oliver.

“At this distance and forward trajectory, even if they don’t cast a spell, they can’t see us.” Oliver bit Nemo’s earlobes lightly, without pausing in his body movements. “As for the sound… I think it’s fine.”

“Nice try.”

Nemo tensed his back, and in the gradually increasing pleasure, the blood seemed to turn into magma. His ears buzzed, and his voice let out soft moans.

“But Ollie, you… That’s a big caravan. They brought… hunting wolves…”

“I don’t think they can beat Your Majesty.” Oliver’s voice was also intermittent.

Nemo chuckled a few times, leaving an ambiguous bite mark on the other party’s shrugging shoulder.

“Of course.” The pale cheeks were slightly red, but the calmness in Nemo’s voice wasn’t broken. He kissed those emerald eyes and moved cooperatively. “If you want to ‘dominate’ me, you still have a long way to go… my Sir Knight.”

The eyes and smell of wolves were countless times sharper than those of humans, and the one guarding the caravan was naturally no exception.

It lifted its nose and was pretty sure it smelled something similar to a human. The wolf stopped hesitantly, focused its magic on its eyes, and looked at the source of the smell…

It looked like two humans. They had almost no clothes left on them, and they were busy with… something it couldn’t understand. The young man with a darker complexion was facing him with his sweaty back full of deep scars, posing at an angle suitable for attacking.

And the other young man sitting on him had pale skin and black hair scattered on his shoulders.

The black-haired young man held the other man’s shoulder tightly with one hand, pressing his fingertips into the strong muscles, while the other hand was slightly raised. His index finger was pressed to his lips, which looked like a human gesture of ‘be quiet’.

The silver eyes were like melted silver in the sun, and the cross-eyed pupils were particularly dazzling.

The sense of oppression suddenly slammed into its head, and the tail of the wolf suddenly drooped down. Anyway, these two humans weren’t planning to come over, so it turned its heads with limited capacity and decided to pretend that it hadn’t seen anything.

The driver tugged at his beard and smacked his mouth.

“Just now, that wolf stopped for a while. Will it…”

“It’s daytime now. Why care so much? I heard that the expeditionary force is coming back. This is a good opportunity. If we get there late, the good items will be robbed by those old foxes—when the time comes, everyone will come over, and there will be nothing to sell. Then we’ll be hung by the boss in front of the store.”

That’s right. The driver glanced at the wolf again. Except for the tail sandwiched behind it, it didn’t show much abnormality. Thus, he just shrugged, yawned, and sped up the carriage.

The sun was shining, and there was no trace of clouds in the sky.

This was just an ordinary summer day, no different from the past.

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The author has something to say:

Let me turn off the lights for the two newlyweds on the last day of 2018*—·*·: ε(ε:)

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Kinky Thoughts:

Well, this was much more descriptive than the previous scenes, so worth it.

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 270: The One Who Ends It All

“We’re almost there.”

Jesse sniffed the air and wagged his tail to the other side of his body.

“The arrangement of the temporary teleportation array has been completed. However, once the magic array is activated, even if we don’t activate it, the shortest-acting material can only remain valid for five hours… Mr. Ramon and Mr. Light have been fighting for more than seven hours. Maybe we should finish it later.”

“Don’t worry, love. They’re not going to dawdle and make fools of themselves in such matters. Surely they will act for real. Wait for my signal. After all, we have to send these two to the surface before we can slip away.”

Jesse huffed his moist nose.

“I wonder how our Godwin Lopez is progressing now?”

Not far from the center of the city.

Godwin Lopez’s heart was blank, but it wasn’t in a bad way.

In addition to the strength of the fighters themselves, the real battle was influenced by countless factors—from the environment, weapons and equipment, the possible follow-up effects of war, and the humidity of the air, mood, and tension.

Individual combat power was just a simple part of this complex formula.

This was Godwin Lopez’s first time exposed to such a battle.

There was no hatred, no worry, and no terrible responsibility to shoulder. He only needed to control the team in the right position, and at the same time attract the attention of the so-called “Demon King” in front of him.

Even if he knew in advance that what was in front of him was not the real Demon King, he couldn’t help but get serious.

For the first time since entering the Abyss, Godwin’s blood began to boil. He no longer needed to look forward and think about other things. Those intricate situations, the worrying past and future, all disappeared in his mind at this moment.

Along the way, he did have a headache because of Oliver’s and Debby’s undisguised beaming, but if that was the price of joining this battle, it was quite worth it.

The body of the holy sword, which had cut the Demon King twice, trembled. The strange beast in front of him let out an earth-shattering roar. The green feathers on the edge of its black wings cut four dazzling arcs of light in the dim battlefield.

The most powerful and… safest enemy in the world.

This wasn’t for others. It wasn’t a task, but just to “help”. He finally left everything in the world behind and the unprecedented sense of peace and happiness wrapped around Godwin.

It was just a simple, unforgettable battle.

He didn’t know if it was Nemo Light’s advanced arrangements, as all the attention of the “Lord of Illusion” was focused on Godwin. The rest of the members of the expeditionary force rarely attacked, as only the strongest of humans could withstand such a concentrated attack…

An attack spell grazed his body, and the sharp blade that counterattacked opened its scales. Godwin no longer had time to think about “what he looked like”. He only knew that the blood was rushing to his head and every one of his pores was dilating. His body was freed from his mental shackles, and he felt as light as a feather.

The sword in his hand had never been so obedient to command. The pains that ran through his life were thus brought to a close and relegated into memories one by one.

He was simply enjoying it, and Godwin couldn’t help but feel ridiculous.

Behind him, the dragons returned to their original size one after another and continued to bombard the relatively soft abdomen of the strange beast with magic, helping him control the “Demon King” in a certain area. Debby used magic to support an extremely strong protection. The shiny green barrier protected the weakest parts of the army to ensure that he wouldn’t be distracted by the safety of the people below.

The elves surrounded the outermost side to ensure that the golems wouldn’t disrupt the army’s formation. The one-eyed dwarves jumped around and laid brief forbidden magic arrays at the feet of the Demon King, eliminating the possibility of the Demon King summoning giant golems.

All races performed their duties and formed a huge orchestra with blades and spells as musical instruments, playing a symphony of blood and fire without any chaos.

The soldiers looked at their leader, the strongest human in Horizon, like a conductor. The orange-red light that broke out around Godwin Lopez’s body almost turned into gold, devouring the waves of incoming darkness…

Even if the enemy was outrageously terrifying, perhaps… they could survive and win.

It wasn’t until the scenery began to change rapidly that Godwin realized that the “Demon King” in front of him was retreating towards the center of the city.

[Nemo planned everything in the city.] Oliver’s voice in his memories awakened him from that wonderful sense of happiness. [His creation has no thoughts. Perceiving Nemo’s weakness, it will instinctively retreat towards the center of the city.]

[At the moment when Nemo is “dying”, I will do my best to trigger a power impact, so that his body… Uh, so it will think the Demon King is dead and there will be a, uh, moment of relaxation. With the power of Jesse and Adri, they can make a very powerful teleportation spell to the surface, and they can teleport me and Nemo out at that moment.]

[Let’s not mention all the “uh’s” you’ve been saying or how bullshit the whole middle part of your plan sounds, especially since it looks like you’re just making it up on the spot.] That was how he responded at that time. [What about the expeditionary force? What are you going to do about them?]

[Nemo has already calculated it. With the guidance of Telaranea, you’ll have time to return to the teleportation array the same way.]

[What about your companions?]

[Telaranea will bring my horse and goat back. Jesse and Adri are strong, and they can leave on their own. As a demon, Bagelmaurus only needs to fly away from the bottom of the abyss in advance.]

[One more question, if you take Light away, what will happen to the fake Demon King Light made?]

[It will disintegrate.]

[Then the expeditionary force will think I killed it, right?]

[Uh, yes. But this is not something I can decide on my own, so I want to discuss this with you—]

[I refuse.] Godwin shook his head firmly. [I don’t need this fame. I’ll let you follow your father’s path by doing the same thing. Since the fake Demon King will retreat to the center of the dead city by itself, you should have time to finish it off before you leave. I want this as part of our cooperation.]

And this cooperation was finally about to begin.

The soldiers in the expedition weren’t like sheep who would follow the leader. With the battle underway and the “nineteenth generation” in front of them so terrifyingly powerful, the fighting style was much more defensive, and they couldn’t help but constantly retreat.

Although the battle in front of them was approaching to a hot point, many people’s attention began to turn to the direction of the Demon King’s retreat, attracted by the abnormal energy radiating from the center of the dead city.

The elves, who like to act in groups of two or three, had already risen into the air, trying to discern what the ominous ball of energy expanding outward from the center of the dead city was. Several Gatekeepers had even left the team and marched towards the center on their own.

It should be time.

Godwin, who had been attracting most of the attention of the “Demon King”, avoided a black flame, waved his sword in his hand, and severed one of the wings of the beautiful creature. The strange beast in front of him let out a roar, raised its other wings while spraying out black blood, and finally rushed towards the city.

However, everyone in the expeditionary force wasn’t overwhelmed by the immediate victory in front of them. The representatives of various races wouldn’t be stupid enough to quarrel at this time. With almost no casualties, the soldiers gathered together more cautiously and didn’t break their formation.

Horizon, as the vanguard, chased the fastest speed. After more than ten minutes, all the troops rushed to the middle of the dead city and were immediately held firmly in place by the scene in front of them.

The nineteenth generation Demon King was collapsing.

The huge beast gradually melted in the literal sense, and the hard black scales turned into a thick black liquid.

It was stepping on a huge, unseen magic array under its feet. There was vigorous surface magic power running in the magic array, and the brilliance of the magic array was becoming stronger. Perhaps the Demon King’s weakness was due to this magic array. The dazzling white brilliance swallowed all the dark shadows laid by the Demon King.

Near the Demon King, Godwin Lopez seemed exhausted, and half knelt on the ground.

Oliver Lopez was holding a figure tightly in his left hand, with a weird smile on his face, and the aura around him could be described as terrifying. The ominous brilliance on the bone sword in his right hand became stronger as if it was another Demon King.

The young Debby Light suddenly covered her mouth with both hands, and a little tear flashed in her eyes. There were a few curious Gatekeepers who wanted to get close, but they were so overwhelmed by the aura that they couldn’t move.

Whatever that move was, it must’ve accumulated to its limit.

“No!” someone subconsciously shouted. “This bastard wants—”

Unfortunately, that simple shouting couldn’t stop what happened next.

A beam of light shot out.

An uncomfortable gray light penetrated the head of the “Lord of Illusion”, and the Demon King’s huge body stagnated in place. Just like the countless previous Demon Kings in legends, it began to collapse rapidly, turning into a translucent black liquid, releasing countless miasmas.

It stood to reason that now the expeditionary force should leave here immediately and look for the bone jade that would appear nearby.

But no one cheered, no one cried, and no one could even recover.

Compared with the previous months of battles, this time the expedition only lasted for about a day. It went too smoothly, as if it was a trap, and no one subconsciously was willing to buy it. This directly caused no one to accept the reality that had just happened in front of their eyes until the tremor brought everyone back from their stupor.

With the death of this generation of Demon King, the bottom of the abyss didn’t calm down, but began to tremble more strongly. The dead city began to disintegrate, and the sound of explosions sounded all around.

Countless huge stones fell from the sky above the bottom of the Abyss, and the battlefield instantly turned into a tomb that was about to be filled.

“Retreat!” Godwin Lopez’s voice was hoarse. He used his magic to amplify his voice to the maximum and then stepped off his equally exhausted mount and rushed to the tail of the army.

“But bone jade…” The human powerhouse closest to him spit out half a sentence of doubt.

“Withdraw now—!”

The shocking facts were in front of them while the deadly crisis was behind them. No one wanted to doubt the Hero’s words—it was just a teleportation to the shallow depths of the Abyss. Besides, they had plenty of remaining supplies, and they could wait for the inexplicable collapse to end before exploring for the bone jade.

The expeditionary force quickly changed its formation and withdrew to the previous teleportation gateway as quickly as possible.

Shamelessly snatching the final blow, Oliver Ramon, who would be awarded the title of “Hero”, was still standing in the dazzling white formation, motionless.

Godwin Lopez didn’t intend to care about him, but the Gatekeeper who had just returned from the slaughter made a sound.

“Oliver Lopez, it’s time to leave.”

“I want to guard my treasure.” The leader of Tumbleweed’s voice is so brisk and annoying. “Get lost.”

“Treasure? Do you want to take the opportunity to hide bone jade for yourself? …Your greed will kill you.”

“Someone once said this to me, but obviously, I am still alive and well.”

Oliver Lopez didn’t deny the speculation. The smile on his face became brighter, but the intimidation in his mouth became colder.

“Well, if you still stay here and plan to obstruct me… I may have to clean you up as well.”

Several Gatekeepers glanced at each other, ignited a parchment spell, and disappeared into the air.

Oliver breathed a sigh of relief as he knelt and sat on top of the formation.

Since the end of the battle with Nemo, he had been transferring his power into Nemo.

Before Nemo completely entered a near-death state, he couldn’t risk withdrawing the power that protected the last bit of life. This piece of flesh was like a bottomless pit, and he must be prepared for the final burst. He couldn’t tolerate the slightest distraction.

Fortunately, the battlefield was finally empty again.

In the increasingly intense white light, in the gradually intense miasma, among the collapsed ruins, he leaned the head of his lover in his arms on his shoulder.

Oliver kissed Nemo’s slightly cold ear, carefully staring at the huge beast that was melting in the array.

In front of him, the huge false creation finally melted completely until there was no black scale left.

The Demon King’s dying moment had arrived.

Oliver didn’t make a sound to remind Jesse and Adrian, who were hiding in the dark. He had a more direct way…

The last of his power exploded in the body of the newborn God, and after a steady stream of delivery, the terrifying power of the death of the flesh was perfectly simulated.

Since Godwin arrived, the magic array that had been shining brightly had finally been activated.

It was just an instant.

At the bottom of the Abyss, there was no longer a single figure left on the collapsed battlefield.

At that moment, everyone on the edge of the great teleportation gateway could feel the emptiness under their feet. It was as if the illusion of falling when they fell asleep as the ground under their feet seemed to be shrinking inward.

The bottom of the Abyss was collapsing at a terrifying speed, but no one was in the mood to consider whether this was normal at the moment.

“Quick!” After Godwin commanded Horizon, one person dropped out of the team.

“Telaranea… Telaranea!” Godwin roared, kicking the last member of Horizon into the array. “It’s about to collapse!”

“I know.”

The gray parrot had already dragged the goat away through the teleportation array, and the girl with the braided hair had led the horse into it, but she was still standing outside the array.

“I knew it. You wouldn’t be kind enough to come down and show us the way,” Godwin panted wearily. “No matter what you want to do, follow me first… If something happens to your shell here, Oliver will definitely—”

“I won’t do such stupid wasteful behavior.”

The girl with the braided hair looked at the bottom of the Abyss that was gradually shattering.

“…Godwin Lopez, did you know? For every human that I make a deal with, I will ask them a question. ‘What is the last thing you regret in your life?’”

“What the hell are you…”

“Until now, I haven’t been able to understand all the information because the answers given to me by many of them are trivial. It was obvious that such long and rich lives would go through countless twists and turns of fate—One of those idiots even told me that the last thing he regretted was that he didn’t give his child a parting kiss before he left home many years ago.”

“I don’t have time to talk this nonsense with you. Come here quickly!”

Telaranea pierced her own chest with one hand, bloodily breaking it open and pulling out a bright red eyeball. Then the demon untied the orange crystal on her chest and wrapped it around her eyeball.

“If I had given him a little more strength at the beginning, maybe the result would have changed… Now I can more or less understand those inexplicable answers.”

The eyeball flew away with the pendant, overwhelmed by endless darkness and dust.

“…It’s okay now. Let’s go.”

The girl with the braided hair turned her face, which had a calm expression. She picked up her skirt and stepped into the teleportation array without looking back.

In this way, after the last expedition member left, the teleportation array finally dimmed, and then was instantly buried by countless falling boulders.

At the same time, somewhere in the Border Forest between Garland and Alban.

The Rest in Peace lay quietly on the grass on one side, and its owner still maintained a kneeling posture.

Oliver’s arms were not empty.

…They succeeded.

After leaving the abyss, he began to desperately heal his lover, who had a small breath left. Now Nemo’s chin was still resting on his shoulder, sleeping very heavily. His heartbeat was weak but regular.

It wasn’t until his breathing began to fail that Oliver realized that he was already in tears.

The black armor was so damaged that there was not much left, and he shakily held Nemo as he leaned against a nearby tree. After adjusting his posture with difficulty for a while, he sat down against the tree and let his lover’s head rest on his leg.

After doing all this, he covered his eyes with one hand and stopped controlling the tears.

Sunlight penetrated through the gaps in the leaves, leaving patches of light on the grass. The leaves were green, the birds sang softly, and the air was humid and warm, just like the summer when their escape began three years ago.

“Good morning, Ollie.”

A weak but gentle voice sounded in his ears.

“’No matter how bad things are, I will always greet you with a smile. At least I won’t cry like the first time.’ …Who said this again?”

His Demon King stretched out a blood-stained hand and poked the tip of his nose in revenge.

“Also, where is my ring, Mr. Hero?”

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The author has something to say:

Back to square one!!!

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Kinky Thoughts:

Reunited on the surface!!!!

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 269: Fight

The corpses of demons that have been silted up at the bottom of the Abyss for many years were missing. The air underground was cold and dry, and it smelled like snow that had been frozen for a long time near the roots of trees.

The white behemoth drew a track of faint light in the darkness. Jesse sprinted quickly between spells, his paws occasionally stomping on the skulls of demons fluttering in the air, changing direction sharply.

Considering that it took more time to prepare in advance, it was too unnatural for the three of them to disappear together. Taking advantage of the play performed by Bagelmaurus, they left the expeditionary forces to engage in fighting a “demon” in advance, then Adrian and Jesse headed in the direction of Nemo Light.

It was different from the weak appearance when guarding the reconnaissance team two years ago. Adrian’s fingertips plunged into the hot white fur. Skimming the soft fleece close to the skin, he could feel Jesse’s undulating breath and the vitality that flourished beneath the skin.

It seemed that Jesse was in excellent physical condition, and Adrian breathed a sigh of relief.

Feeling the touch of the person behind him, the behemoth turned his head and licked the fur next to his mouth. “Adri, we’re working right now. If you touch me like this, I can’t help but slow down—”

Adrian glanced at the smoke and dust exploding in the distance, skillfully ignoring the other party’s meaningful subtext. “Mr. Ramon should have left.”

“Mm-hmm, I can feel his aura.”

Jesse twisted his head straight. His claws crushed a huge floating skull, and the bone fragments splattered with the illuminating liquid contained in it. By using this as a springboard, his speed became a little faster.

“Why, Adri, are you worried that those two will end things too soon? Not to mention that they will definitely have a serious fight, even if the Devil King stands still and lets Mr. Ramon fight. This battle will take a lot of time. After all, this is the territory of the Pillar of the World.”

“I know, but we must be ready at any time.” Adrian rubbed the soft fur under his palm.

“You sound in a good mood,” Jesse hummed.

“They will succeed.”

“Maybe, maybe Ramon’s hand will slip—”

“Isn’t that what you prepared for beforehand?” Adrian was at peace.

The white behemoth shook its ears.

“There were many ways for Mr. Light to find out about his identity in the first place, but you guided them to the Eastern Witch Nadine. Without that, the two of them might not be able to find a solution so quickly.”

“Oh, you always like to think of me very well, my dear Adri,” Jesse said in a particularly hypocritical tone.

“With Horizon watching, most humans would choose to stay out of the way and stand idly by. It’s not like I can predict the fate of those two. Strictly speaking, they saved themselves. I’m just trying various possibilities—such as letting two young people meet and seeing what would happen.”

“Maybe.” Adrian smiled and shook his head.

There was a trace of order mixed with ruthlessness, and the other party was never willing to admit this.

“Since your faith is still so firm.” The tips of Jesse’s ears drooped a little. “Then why don’t you want to— I mean, even once— call me Zenni in bed? Won’t you try it?”

“No.”

“How stingy.”

“……”

Adrian grabbed the fur a little harder, and there was a faint smile in his sigh. “If everything goes well.”

The white behemoth tightened its neck, and its speed immediately increased a bit faster.

Less than an hour later, the open space in the middle of the dead city.

“I’ve been waiting for two years, Ollie.”

The black-robed Demon King’s tone was peaceful and gentle, as if they had never been separated.

Oliver’s nose is a bit sour.

This was the first time they really met after learning of Nemo’s identity.

Unlike when they first met, today’s Nemo was still flesh and blood, but had lost his initial restraint and panic, like a swaying reed turning into an ancient tree with roots deep in the soil. The beautiful silver pupils of his eyes smiled mildly. The cold inhuman feeling was a few times heavier, and the faint sense of detachment had completely disappeared.

The confusion dissipated, leaving everything under control; the calm and quiet that belonged exclusively to a higher power. The plain original stone was finally deftly carved, and Oliver couldn’t take his eyes off that luster.

This time it wasn’t a phantom or a voice. In front of him was his lover, with a true body temperature and the master of the world beneath his feet.

He thought he should have mixed feelings, mixed with awe or something in his emotions…

But now, Oliver realized that there was only one kind of feeling left in his heart, rich and ordinary.

He raised his hand.

An ice layer lifted from the battlefield layer by layer, and the originally dry air was suddenly filled with ice flakes. Nemo’s shadow blade lingered but attacked mercilessly, breaking through the hard and thick ice—but the center, guarded by the petal-like ice layer, was already empty.

Nemo reacted quickly, and the shadow shield was immediately erected. The Rest in Peace passed over the shadow shield, leaving deep traces of bubbling edges and a series of hissing sounds.

Shadow thorns rose mercilessly from the ground, and several large formations bombarded down from the sky.

A cool fingertip swept across Nemo’s cheek before the blade passed over, barely making contact.

“…I miss you so much,” Oliver said softly, jumping back, perfectly avoiding the shadow thorns exploding on the ground.

The other party’s body temperature was still on his fingertips, which should have been warm, but his fingertips were on fire.

The majestic gray mist suddenly rose, corroding all the large formations that had been smashed, and a circle of storms burst out in mid-air. The dead city around the two of them became ruins in an instant, and the rubble shattered into dust and exploded all around.

“Me too, Ollie,” Nemo responded with a gentle smile, but his offensive was even fiercer.

His Demon King was very serious, and there was no sign of letting up.

‘How wonderful,’ Oliver thought to himself.

Although the effect of the contract was there, the Pillar of the World would not really do anything to the surface, but considering the way they came to break through the Pillars of the World instinct, Oliver didn’t want to do it unilaterally.

Something brushed his cheek, causing warm blood to trickle down the side of his face. The corners of Oliver’s mouth rose higher. The overwhelming sense of oppression made him recall the battle with Jesse Dylan more than two years ago, but now he didn’t feel any despair or pain.

Even if the next shadow blade directly cuts off his left arm.

This time there was no bleeding from the fracture. His left arm turned into a gray mist and quickly returned to its position with the ring on his left finger still intact. Unfortunately, the sleeves of the clothes and the arm armor fell to the ground, but Oliver didn’t bother to direct the gray mist to pick them up.

It should have been painful, but it felt as if he was paralyzed by the joy of reunion, and Oliver’s movements didn’t stagnate at all.

The Demon King’s fighting spirit spiraled upwards. A condensed shadow dragon rose into the air, and black flames came down on his head.

On the other side, sharp ice blades gathered together and became a giant eagle entangled in the gray mist. A weird array flickered and rotated around the slender ice cone. These cold murder weapons continued to lase towards the shadow dragons, one of which couldn’t be dodged and pierced through its throat, causing it to roar and scatter.

Nemo’s chest was pierced by an icicle the moment Oliver’s right leg was burned by the black flame. But his lover merely raised an eyebrow, his rib cage quickly closed, and the icicle turned into powder.

“You stayed your hand. Just now you clearly could have attacked my head.” Nemo wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, but there was not much blame in his voice.

“Young people are just inexperienced, Nemo. You have to be fair.” The burned foot was also recovering rapidly, and Oliver grimaced a little jerkily.

“Who was the one who screamed, ‘I don’t want to hurt you unilaterally! It’s better to take this opportunity, fight in a dignified manner, and let me prove myself completely—’” Nemo vividly imitated Oliver’s tone in his memory. “You’d better hurry up. If you make a fuss like this, Jesse and Mr. Cross will get tired of waiting.”

“…I didn’t scream at that time!”

“The volume was very loud and the voice was very sharp. It was like a scream to me.”

Oliver blinked pitifully, stepping on the trembling earth.

The gray mist swept up, swallowing all the ruins around, leaving no trace. The Rest in Peace, controlled by the gray mist, pointed straight at the Demon King, but its owner sounded like he was bickering childishly.

“You can’t say that. Do you have the heart if you were me and had to beat an unarmed me until I was almost broken?”

“…” Nemo didn’t turn away.

“Don’t look at me like that. I feel terrible.” Oliver picked up the tip of his sword, and the rapidly circling gray mist immediately engulfed Nemo’s figure.

“Then you should be more straightforward and give me a hard time.” Dragging his mutilated body, which quickly recovered, Nemo finally unconsciously accelerated his breathing. “Of course, I won’t hold back either. In terms of heartache, we’re even.”

Somehow, the black shadow thorns spread over the ground and wrapped around Oliver’s heels. The thorns quickly bloomed with strange black flowers, and the long and narrow petals flew up like they were incredibly sharp blades that could saw off bones.

Oliver sucked in a cold breath, wiping the blood from his eyes.

The tremor of the earth under his feet became more severe.

“Are you so distressed that you’re shaking?”

“…I was just thinking, when will this lovely human bring me back to the surface. I can’t wait.”

“Where’s the ring?” Oliver commanded his army of gray mist while dissipating his breath and lending cover to get closer to Nemo.

“Even if you don’t give it, I can take it. But look, you’re still wearing it properly, and I don’t think you have any intention of backtracking.”

It was hard to tell day from night in the Abyss. The long and bloody dance spanned time, and the rhythm was getting faster.

In fact, regarding the return to the surface, he and Nemo discovered the solution almost at the same time.

Three years ago, when they were still in a small village in the desert, trying to save the witch Nadine, Nemo wasn’t wrong about Woodruff’s theorem.

[“Once a two-way connection across space is established, it can only die out naturally in accordance with the rules. The connection itself cannot be destroyed”… The surface contract of a superior demon also conforms to this theorem, and I suspect this is the reason I know it.]

[That’s indeed why I know it.] On the night when he re-established the knight’s oath, Nemo talked about this. [To be precise, this is the biggest theoretical basis for me to successfully send Aurorae to the surface.]

[It seems that we thought of the same thing.] Oliver, at the time, replied like this.

Nemo climbed to the surface for the first time, relying on eliminating his own cognition. He asked Flint Lopez to take away his skull, thereby causing a memory disorder that would last for decades or even hundreds of years, and successfully deceived his subconscious. It was like a human being who successfully hypnotized himself.

But Oliver didn’t want to cut off his lover’s head with his own hands and spend years waiting for the next Demon King to arise naturally.

Since they had to do it anyway, they had to find a better way.

They had done the exact same thing – tricked the cognitive instincts of some massive creature.

The root system of the Eastern Witches had no brains, and the consciousness of the Pillar of the World was in Nemo’s body, retaining only biological instincts. The situation they face was very familiar.

At that time, Oliver first put forward his own idea.

[If your flesh is on the verge of death, then let’s simulate the energy burst brought about when the flesh disappears. Can this fool your instinct…? I mean, if your body thinks that consciousness is about to return for a moment, it will definitely react a little bit, right?]

[Yes, I will relax for a moment, waiting to receive the information brought by the flesh. At least at that moment, the fence that Jesse and I erected will fail. The body of a superior demon is very large, so that moment is not enough for them to pass]

[But you can.]

[I can’t do this alone.] Nemo’s voice in memory wasn’t distressed. [Let me think about it, I was relaxed at that moment, and my enemy might have taken the opportunity to kill me.]

At the end, his voice even brought a smile.

[…Well, maybe I should change my statement. We can. But Nemo, in the end, Nadine lost her power as a result, would you—]

[No, the root system and the Eastern Witches are not considered the same as me. Their association is much weaker. I only need to pull away for a moment. That’s it.]

Yes, they only need that small moment.

Nemo stepped over the dark shadow and rose into the air. Oliver hid in the gray mist, patiently waiting for the opportunity to attack.

Consistent breathing, consistent heartbeat.

It was now.

It was more like a hug than an attack—the pale bone sword pierced Nemo’s back, covered with blood. The erosion spell that surrounds the sword devoured the flesh and was hissing.

Everything was quiet in an instant.

The body of Oliver’s sword was smooth and didn’t tremble at all.

He put his spare left arm around Nemo’s waist and hugged his lover tightly. Embracing the sweet pain, feeling the life rapidly flowing inside each other.

“Nemo…”

“Shh, my knight.” Nemo grabbed the hair on the back of his head and leaned his blood-stained lips up. “Be ready.”

The other party’s body temperature was as beautiful as a dream.

Oliver let go of the hilt of the sword and kissed his lover with all his strength. His eyes were sour, and the hair on his arms almost stood up. He tasted the sweetness, the bloody aura, and the unique taste of Nemo that had appeared in his dreams countless times—a faint cold fragrance, like the ashes of fragrant wood after burning.

He tightened his arms, eager to embed the opponent directly into his body, and used all his strength to keep his mind clear.

He was kissing his world.

Nemo’s body was getting cold and his body temperature was dropping. The other party’s breathing slowly stopped, and the hand holding his hair slowly lost strength.

The outbreak of power before the collapse of flesh was right in front of him. Oliver moved his lips up and put them on his forehead.

“Let’s go.”

He whispered softly, completely letting go of the restraints of power and pouring all of them into Nemo’s body. While retaining the last vitality, it simulated the terrifying power of flesh erupting on its deathbed.

“…Let’s go home.”

---

Kinky Thoughts:

Ahhhh *crying*. They deserve happiness!!!

For those confused or forgotten, basically what they are trying to do was what they did during the witch’s arc. Since Nemo regained his memory and was now cognizant of his identity, he could no longer leave the Abyss. To get around this “law” they were going to simulate his death. At the moment of his death, his consciousness would return to the Pillar of the World, and at that moment was when they could bypass the “law” and get Nemo back to the surface because he no longer had his cognition. This was like how they dealt with the root system of the Eastern Witch that was draining Nadine. After basically faking her death, the root system thought she was dead and no longer was attached to drain her, thus freeing her of the curse.

---

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 268: Lord of Illusion

Parish Sherman, a Knight of Judgement who specializes in spying, was in poor shape.

In the destruction battle against the Abyssal Church headquarters, he personally ignited his flesh and used his body as coordinates for the army. This spell was extremely dangerous. Fortunately, the Church of Silence sank to the ground and the remaining Abyss worshippers were easy to clean up—the battle went smoothly and didn’t require long-term guidance. He barely managed to save his life before it completely burnt to a crisp.

As one of the few seriously injured and the only guide, Parish received a generous award.

He had been recuperating for more than two years. Perhaps affected by the rumored “miracle of the God of War”, his originally hopeless body returned to its peak state perfectly, and he just happened to catch up with the expedition.

However, unlike those guys who weren’t firm in their beliefs, Parish didn’t intend to believe in any “God of War”. Even if there was such a gentle miracle, it was definitely a blessing from Zenni.

But when he first recovered, there was always something unclear in the depths of his mind. It felt like he hadn’t slept well the night before or had forgotten something irrelevant.

In the past two years, as a member of the Knights of Judgment, he had naturally glanced at the information about Tumbleweed. Whenever he saw Alban’s Queen, Ann Savage, and the notorious “Knight of Ash”, Oliver Lopez, the feeling of forgetting something became stronger.

Not to mention Ann Savage, Parish always had a strange intuition—Oliver Lopez may be a clever liar who deliberately misled public opinion. The notoriety circulating around him always made him feel that something was off.

However, a little sense of inconsistency wasn’t enough for Parish to leave his job and obsess over finding out. Now that the opportunity had come, perhaps on the way of a smooth march, he could observe the situation of Tumbleweed more carefully.

Having said that, it was a shame.

Before Parrish turned his gaze from the back of Godwin’s head to the leader of Tumbleweed, he couldn’t help but lament quietly in his heart.

Since Adrian Cross’ apostasy, the position of the Chief Justice of the Knights of Judgement had been vacant. The strength gap between the candidates was very narrow, and infighting among the various factions had erupted. Now, several candidates were acting very actively as nominal “lieutenants”.

Pope Quinn had turned a blind eye to the vacancy of the position in the past two years. It wasn’t as if the matter couldn’t be solved quickly. Parish simply suspected that this old man had decided to watch a good show and was looking for the opportunity to sort out the scattered power that had accumulated in the Laddism Church for hundreds of years.

It would be great if Godwin Lopez’s faith was firmer.

At least for now, it seemed that regardless of strength, reputation, or image, even if it was just an honorary title, Godwin was more suitable for that position than all the candidates in the Laddism Church.

If it weren’t for the past two years that Godwin Lopez’s enthusiasm for the Laddism Church not only didn’t increase but actually decreased, even Parish himself would want to try and lobby for that great Hero.

Godwin rode his white horse quietly, his dark red cloak blowing in the wind. The orange-red halo of the holy sword, Breaking Dawn, spread through the air, and it easily defeated the magic golem that was stuck in a ball that didn’t seem to have any life.

They were made of black shadows sticking stones together. From the edge of this dead city to the center, they writhed and fell in increasing numbers from the stone wall that was seemingly glued together.

To be fair, normal intermediate demons were better to deal with—living things at least had a minimum of fear and a little temperament of life. At that moment, these terrible assassins didn’t even need to breathe.

There was no fixed form. They could easily pretend to be part of the huge dead city, slowly crawling out of any nooks and crannies.

Fortunately, this wasn’t a desolate and empty ruin but a maze of stone forests. These things were useless and were crushed in great quantities in this space. For warriors with sufficient experience, as long as they made good use of the terrain, the magic golems weren’t enough to become a deadly threat.

But as long as they were still moving forward, these things would continue to come.

Even if it was okay to deal with it at first, compared to the tireless stones, the flesh and blood would eventually become exhausted.

It seemed that Godwin’s and the one-eyed dwarf’s judgments were correct. This expedition was completely unsuitable for a prolonged war.

Horizon’s deputy captain, Warrior Victor, quickly received instructions to lead the human elites to disperse these slow-moving enemies and ensure that the vanguard formation of the expeditionary force wouldn’t fall apart.

It was rare for the chief mage of Horizon not to control the formation with the deputy leader.

At this moment, Debby Light seemed like she was a scout. Her chestnut horse almost overtook Godwin several times, and Godwin had to helplessly call her back to his side.

The elves dexterously got into the gap, and the rain of arrows, amplified by a magic array, firmly nailed the squirming darkness to the ground. The one-eyed dwarves set up a defense, smothering the advance, while the dragons simply regained their form, and directly used their claws that was painted with erosion charms, and trampled without mercy.

In the human team, the sounds of metal and stones colliding and spells exploding were endless. Compared with the sudden bloody rain and wind and the screams that cut through the air, this dull suffocation was even more unbearable.

Parish breathed slowly and released a small group of insect bugs with crystals embedded in their abdomens to the southeast, vigilantly watching the feedback of the crystals in his hands.

Everyone was busy, except for Oliver Lopez, not far away.

The leader of Tumbleweed didn’t even draw his sword. He rode leisurely on a black horse and was talking to the girl with braided hair sitting sideways on the back of the goat. His eyes were full of the unique smiles of men in love.

His own idea that “Oliver Lopez wasn’t that bad” was ultimately an illusion. Parish gritted his teeth.

An endless golem army surrounded them, and the terrifying pressure of the nineteenth generation Demon King was in the distance. The entire army was straining every nerve in the shaking dead city, and he didn’t even dare to breathe unnecessarily. Yet this bastard still had the mind to flirt with women.

It wasn’t just the lives and deaths of unrelated people; the leader of Tumbleweed obviously didn’t even care about his own companions.

After all, not far away, the giant snake demon that made people tremble on both legs roared loudly. Its stout tail swept across the dead city, and the smoke from the collapse of the stalagmites was like the smoke of a forest fire. Cross, the apostate, was using power that he didn’t know where he stole from, trying to use strong light to limit the demon’s actions.

The giant snake straightened its body and crushed it hard on the ground, causing the ground to tremble.

The dull sound climbed up along the boots and rushed straight to the head. Parrish stopped observing Oliver Lopez, vigilantly lowered his body’s center of gravity, and moved to the other side of the team until the giant snake disappeared from his vision.

Oliver Lopez straightened his waist at this moment, no longer posing as if he was idle and had that indolent look. For some reason, Parish always felt that he looked a little nervous.

In the next second, a sudden change happened.

The sky above his head was still dark, and the flying illuminated demon skull suddenly accelerated its speed of shuttling between the stalagmites.

The cold sand under people’s feet turned into grass and stone roads, and the temperature suddenly rose by a lot. The chill around them was no longer so unbearable.

Without warning, a dark, dead city was resurrected.

The black stones were like shrunken grass that regained moisture, gradually expanding, becoming flat, and possessing a regular shape. Immediately, bright-hued paint and tiles diffused from the flat surface, forming buildings well-known to all races on the surface.

Giant trees that shouldn’t have existed here rose from the ground, and buildings belonging to various races and styles blended strangely and harmoniously. Looking at it in the limited light, it looked like the most prosperous cities on the surface have been cut out of small pieces and then cleverly mixed together in one place.

But the more familiar the scenery became, the more obvious the horror caused by the darkness above the head and the floating skull.

Parish, the Knight of Judgment, swallowed quietly, drew out his sword, and scanned around vigilantly.

Something wasn’t quite right… It was too… quiet?

The moment he realized this, Parish’s back exploded in hot sweat and drenched the lining of his armor.

The giant snake being handled by the two villains of Tumbleweed was behind the expeditionary force was supposed to be struggling, but at this moment everything was silent. The figure of the nineteenth generation Demon King should have been a good distance away from them…

The Demon King wasn’t where he should be.

They were distracted by the appearance of their hometown, transformed from the dead city, and made a fatal mistake.

Less than a second after the change was over, overwhelming magic pressure bombarded down, causing the Knight of Judgement, who wasn’t weak himself, to suddenly vomit a mouthful of blood. The huge head of a strange beast stretched out from the darkness not far away, and that head alone was half the size of the original body of a dragon.

Its sharp fang was a thick as a bell tower flickering in the darkness and the cold, emotionless eyes tightly locked on the expeditionary army that suddenly looked small compared to it. The dark scales were glossy and thick, and the edges rolled over with streams of light. Parish was a little unsure whether his sword could even pierce the scale armor.

The facts were worse than they thought.

They had been completely and utterly reckoned with.

That giant snake and this city were definitely part of a trap—the nineteenth generation was undoubtedly an insidious and smart demon. After being disturbed by the giant snake, they subconsciously believed that it was the Demon King’s guard, thinking that the Demon King would obediently wait for them in the middle of the city, as was in the legends.

Most likely it was a conspiracy when the Demon King of this generation deliberately imitated Ulysses’ aura two years ago. It wasn’t to show off its strength, but to lead them to make a wrong judgement, thinking that it was comparable to Ulysses.

Parish had never been in contact with Ulysses, but as far as he remembered Ulysses’ information, the new Demon King in front of him was more than ten times larger.

…And Ulysses had destroyed the surface elites four times…

We’ll die here.

Instinctive thoughts came out of the bottom of his heart uncontrollably. Parish trembled for a long time under the impact of the seemingly boundless magic pressure.

And he wasn’t the only one. The Knight of Judgement was pretty sure he heard a few desperate sobs.

Only two people returned from the last expedition, and Oliver Lopez killed one of them. At present, the only one with expedition experience was Karapan of the Mooney Sect. Most people didn’t know how it felt to face the master of the Abyss…

It was pure, unadulterated terror.

As one of the Knights of Judgment who were loyal to the gods and had firm faith, Parish couldn’t even spare a thought for prayer or remorse.

This time it was still Godwin Lopez who moved first.

Like all the heroes in religious legends, the leader of Horizon seemed to be missing the feeling of “fear”.

With the strong light of a magic array, the white horse stepped onto the illusory array, and at the behest of the owner, he rushed directly towards the terrifying beast in front of him…

Accompanied by the admiration that almost made him cry, Parish finally recovered from the state of horror to immobility, and subconsciously turned his gaze in a different direction to the other Lopez.

Only the figure of the girl with the braided hair was left on the black horse.

He didn’t know when, but Oliver Lopez disappeared. Most likely, he saw that the situation had changed, and the odds of winning were small and unprofitable, so he slipped away quietly.

Fuck Oliver Lopez.

Parrish completely abandoned the inexplicable tolerance, cursed from the bottom of his heart, and then set up the formation with the vanguard team around him.

The palms of his hands were full of cold sweat, and the illuminated defensive formation finally allowed him to breathe again. The follow-up expeditionary forces quickly came, and the formation was constantly being replenished.

Under the leadership of Godwin, the expedition against the nineteenth generation Demon King officially kicked off…

No one noticed a gray parrot sneaking past in the dark.

“Ramon! …Oh, so you plan to walk over.”

Bagelmaurus stopped in the air on a stone road in the fantasy realm, raising its voice in joy.

“Well? How was my performance just now?”

“Very impressive.” Oliver raised his arm, let the parrot stop on his wrist armor, and poked the fluffy parrot with a smile.

“Cross and Dylan took a detour to go first. They’re already getting ready.” The gray parrot used its beak to groom its feathers skillfully. “Godwin has also made his move… If it weren’t for finding a peaceful place to stop, my body would’ve found you sooner!”

“It’s fine.” The smile on Oliver’s face was getting stronger. “I know the way.”

On both sides of the stone road were sweat-inducing streetlights—they were both old and new, and the styles were from many civilizations of different eras, but they all emitted a cold white light.

Like a scene in a nightmare, they lit up one by one, as if to show him the way.

“Bah,” the parrot spat in dissatisfaction. “I don’t care about you anymore! The great Lord Bagelmaurus is ready to go back to the goat. Anyway, Telaranea will bring it back to the surface, right? ……Tell me, you didn’t eat all the almond cookies while I was away.”

“Don’t worry, there are two bags left.”

“Oh.” Bagelmaurus raised its head arrogantly. “Then I’ll go first.”

“See you on the surface.” Oliver flicked its head lightly.

Soon, he was alone again.

At first, Oliver took advantage of people being distracted by the illusions and directly opened up a space tunnel and quickly broke away from the team. Although he couldn’t move in an instant like Nemo, he could also figure out an efficient and safe way for himself.

But as the nostalgic aura was right in front of him, Oliver couldn’t help but slow down, choosing to move forward slowly with his feet.

Holding the Rest in Peace tightly in his hand, Oliver stepped on the stone road step by step. This twisted road that made people’s hair stand upside down seemed to have no end, but it made his heartbeat faster and faster.

Finally, the road came to an end, and the lights stopped turning on.

This was the center of the dead city, and the open space that had been deliberately delimited was orderly and empty. In the subtle light shed by a skull, a figure stood quietly in the middle of the clearing.

When he was still a dozen steps away, Oliver stopped.

Rough black robe, broken staff. In front of him, the real Demon King raised his eyes full of smiles.

“Good evening, Ollie,” he greeted him casually.

Oliver’s lips trembled slightly, and he should have responded equally as casually, but the long-standing thoughts were thicker than he had imagined.

After a long silence, Oliver licked his dry lips and finally opened his mouth: “Nemo, considering the need to ensure the integrity of the ring. Before I give you the ring—”

“Hmm?”

“Can I ask you to dance for a song?”

The knight, who was no longer human, didn’t stretch out his hand. He raised his sword, and the gray mist suddenly swayed, full of fighting intent.

“Of course.”

Nemo’s voice was also full of laughter. As soon as the staff was raised, countless dark shadows rose from under his feet, heading straight towards his lover.

“…I’ve been waiting for two years, Ollie.”

---

The author has something to say:

Fighting but actually flirting!

————

Ollie: (≧ω≦) I’m going to see Nemo!

Debby: (≧ω≦) Yes, big brother is coming home!

Godwin: I tried my best. I really can’t get up. I really tried my best… With these two guys next to me, there’s really no tension! _(:з”∠)_

————

Ollie: (≧ω≦) I’m going to see Nemo!

Tela: …Shut up.

---

Kinky Thoughts:

Reunion!!! I’m so happy for them!

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 267: Deep in the Shadows

In the past two years, the seven sets of large teleportation arrays that had gradually deepened have been repaired by experienced experts. While repairing the two sets of arrays closest to the bottom of the Abyss, the cold, sweat-soaked mages were preparing to escape every second.

However, the nineteenth generation Demon King was unexpectedly quiet. Except for the occasional rumbling sound from a distance underground, no sense of oppression leaked out.

Although scholars couldn’t determine whether the rumble was the migration of the lantern blind bugs or originated from other things, the Demon King didn’t come near the teleportation array, as Karapan from the Mooney Sect said, which was considered to be a good sign.

[While they were gathering for dinner, I asked Bagelmaurus to change the coordinates of the teleportation array. The teleportation array would take the expeditionary force to a more suitable location. The underground stone city has a lot of sharp corners, and I don’t really want to see a bunch of people falling from the sky and skewering themselves bloody on them.]

In memory, Nemo’s voice came from the phonetic crystal extremely clear, with a little bit of helplessness.

[Humans are relatively disciplined. Remember to keep an eye on the elves, and don’t let the Gatekeepers run around.]

His lover instructed in a rambling manner, his voice a bit vague. His Majesty the Demon King’s words were mixed with whispered crisp chewing, as if he was gnawing on fresh fruit.

In the past two years, a lot of images, sounds, and photos have been exchanged, but no kind of magic could replace the body temperature that the other party couldn’t touch. The longing didn’t diminish as a result, but only became heavier.

Oliver took a melancholy bite of a raw carrot and stuffed the leftover part to the black horse. The black horse raised its lips, sprayed its nose on the carrot in disgust, and then turned its head resolutely.

Oliver had to throw the carrot into the wide stone crevice in the distance and watch a small group of abyssal insects carry it away with joy.

Unlike the escort mission two years ago, this expedition would inevitably include top knights of various religions, as well as powerful mounts that were connected to their hearts. Not to mention the black horse or the fuller goat, even if the notorious Tumbleweed led a goose down, the human team could only turn a blind eye and didn’t bother to argue with such gangsters.

At present, the expeditionary force had just passed through two large teleportation arrays and was resting in a calm, windless zone. Looking down from the protruding cliff, the armies of various forces even had regular meals.

Of course, it was natural to ignore Tumbleweed that slipped onto the cliff.

“How are you feeling?” Adrian Cross patiently broke open a piece of soft cake sprinkled with sugar and handed the larger piece to Jesse Dylan.

“Well, just like I said before—Our Pillar of the World is awake, but he doesn’t regard me as a hostile object now. I’m so comfortable that I can sleep.”

Jesse chewed the soft cake and looked into the bottomless Abyss. “Is that parrot ready?”

“Bagelmaurus will not make mistakes on this kind of thing.” Oliver still stared at the organized army below.

“Don’t look. They won’t take the opportunity to get lost quickly if you turn away for a few seconds.”

“Anything can happen in reality,” Oliver responded worriedly. “It’s not convenient for us to let go of our aura, in case we suddenly encounter a demon similar to Witherspoon…”

The girl with braids sat in the distance snorting coldly. She played with the bagel in her hand casually, without meaning to eat it. “I have checked. There are no powerful demons that would threaten the army within 30 kilometers. In the past few hundred years, the route of the expedition has been relatively fixed, which isn’t unreasonable.”

“By the way, Witherspoon has moved to the area farthest from the scope of human activities.” The slender fingers poked into the hole of the bagel and spun it in circles at will. “I guess he hasn’t figured out what the hell’s going on with that flat snake. Well, his muscle brain will barely be able to discover anything—don’t worry about him suddenly popping up.”

However, these words didn’t have a practical effect, and Oliver still looked nervous. The fierce leader of Tumbleweed carefully rubbed off the mud spots on his armor while checking the surrounding conditions.

“I think our Mr. Ramon is nervous for other reasons.” Jesse dragged his cheeks with one hand, still holding the soft cake in his mouth. “Leave him alone, lovely lady.”

Telaranea thought for a moment and decided to pretend that she hadn’t heard anything.

The cliff was full of the smell of a picnic, and in the tent under the cliff, Godwin mechanically stuffed soft-boiled jerky into his mouth, devouring lunch like he was chewing wax.

“This afternoon, we will advance to the vicinity of Phantom Throat. If there is no reaction from the Demon King when we get there, I suggest an immediate retreat.”

The leader of the elves tapped his finger at a certain point on the map of the Phantom Throat, and a golden fork was left on the paper.

“It’s impossible for the nineteenth generation to fail to perceive the activation of a large teleportation array near the bottom of the Abyss. It would be more prudent for the army to retreat, with some of the scouts bringing along mages who are good at illusions to take the lead in feint attacks.”

“It will waste a lot of supplies to retreat!” The representative of the one-eyed dwarf screamed against it, “Judging from the changes in the landscape at the bottom of the Abyss, this may be a prolonged battle. Even if the supplies are sufficient, we must consider—”

The male elf leader next to him didn’t look very good. “To gamble with the lives of expeditionary warriors for a little bit of supply?”

“Since we are all here, whether for fame or profit, there will be no shrinking wimps!” There was a hint of mockery in the voice of the one-eyed dwarf. “Excessive caution equals cowardice, and we can certainly consider other solutions. As soon as we’re here, we decide that everyone should retreat… Ha.”

Godwin sipped the hot jerky soup from the bowl in silence.

There were a lot of people in the huge tent. Just as there were several powerful humans from various countries and political backgrounds sitting behind him, whether elves, dwarves, dragons, or other intelligent races, behind the silk threads were countless forces involved.

Of course, no one would really be timid, but no one wanted to be this heroic bird of prey.

If he didn’t know the situation of the Demon King at the bottom of the Abyss and was still himself a few years ago, he would probably need to use all his strength to suppress the boiling hot blood and the excitement inside, however…

Godwin gulped down a mouthful of soup. The sound wasn’t loud, but it was particularly clear in the silent confrontation. Although this was a nominal lunch gathering, in fact, he was the only one who was eating politely.

Everyone swept their eyes over it in an instant. The elf who had just spoken narrowed his eyes and looked up and down at the power man on the human side with a boorish gaze.

“You seem quite sure of yourself.” The voice of the male elf was very pleasant to the ears.

In the eyes of most humans, elves were undoubtedly beautiful, although their appearance was far from that of humans.

This woodland race had finer and softer hair than humans, with a soft glow like fine satin. The elves’ limbs were longer and slimmer, their noses more protruding, their large, moist, beautiful eyes tilted to the sides of their heads, and their eyelashes long and thick, full of the fragile beauty unique to herbivores.

Although elves and humans were more similar in size than the one-eyed dwarves or dragons, they preferred flexible and strong enchanted leather armor that didn’t make a sound compared to the cold armor of humans.

As an omnivore, Godwin Lopez slowly swallowed the bacon in his mouth and coughed. “Yes, Phantom Throat is still some distance from the bottom of the Abyss. Since many arrangements have been made at the bottom of the Abyss, I don’t think the Demon King will act so early—but this is just my guess. I understand your love for your people very well.”

The male elf blinked, obviously not buying this conciliatory speech.

“Then we see eye to eye,” he said coldly. “As agreed at the beginning, the plan must be adjusted accordingly according to the situation underground. I think this is the right time to adjust the plan.”

 “Perhaps a portion of the delegates can take the lead and the rest of the troops will follow in a triangle formation.” The dragon, who had remained silent, finally joined the conversation.

“The triangular formation must require a head formation. This brings us back to the topic just now, doesn’t it? No one wants to suffer.” A swordsman behind Godwin spread out his hands and swept the spoon toward the commander of Horizon in dissatisfaction.

“Just screen it according to the proportion. It’s the fairest way.”

“…We can transport most of the expedition warriors. Rashly putting dragons in the position of scouting is a bit inappropriate. The one-eyed dwarves focus on intelligence reserves and spell responses, while elves and humans are the most flexible races.”

“We are good at long-range attacks and are accustomed to acting in groups. Individual soldiers are only used for surprise attacks.” The male elf took a sip of leaf tea. “If you are not willing to mobilize manpower…”

“I am willing to take Horizon to the forefront.” Godwin put down the spoon and sighed.

“Lopez!” The mercenaries of Horizon were calm, while the other powerful men from other mercenary groups and organizations raised their voices in opposition. “You have to think about—”

“It will be fine.” Godwin waved his left hand; his tone was flat and determined.

With a spoon in his right hand, he stirred the cold broth. The commander of Horizon suddenly felt a little tired facing the forces surging in the peaceful atmosphere in front of him.

Unfortunately, the people following behind didn’t think so. Everyone present was a smart person who was proficient in human affairs. It was impossible for them not to hear the confidence and certainty in that sentence. It wasn’t blind confidence in his own strength. Godwin Lopez was very sure he could handle everything.

Maybe this was the real strength gap. With a hint of awe for the stronger, the part of the human warriors with impure intentions began to readjust the proportion of the interests of all parties in their hearts and pressed a few weights to Horizon’s side.

When the expedition army arrived at Phantom Throat, this indescribable sense of awe reached its peak…

The magnificent white ground of Phantom Throat was completely buried by black gravel. Here, they could even see sharp stalagmites from the bottom of the Abyss emerging from the gap.

Godwin Lopez didn’t show half a worry, as his command was calm and steady. All the way to the final large teleportation array, they didn’t know if it was a coincidence or the blessing of God, but they didn’t encounter any demons that could be considered opponents.

Facing the large teleportation array leading to the unknown, the leader of Horizon didn’t hesitate to advance, and according to the agreement, he took the lead in stepping in.

“The Pope of the Laddism Church won’t admit it, but I think he’s probably the swordsman of the prophecy.”

“…At this time, no matter what you say, we should let the Lopez of Tumbleweed go in first.”

“If Tumbleweed really fornicates with the Abyss, the situation over there would be difficult to control. There’s no problem with Godwin’s decision. Moreover, he himself rushed ahead. If he needs Tumbleweed, they have no way to directly refuse him—Those bastards have indeed done a bunch of appalling things, but cowardice has never appeared.”

The mercenaries’ guess was quickly “fulfilled”.

After crossing the final teleportation array of Phantom Throat, the army finally reached the bottom of the Abyss. And the moment they stepped on the ground and saw the scene in front of them clearly, almost all creatures shuddered…

Contrary to the previous peaceful and abnormal atmosphere, the fighting spirit and sense of oppression here was so heavy that people couldn’t straighten up. Unlike any previous expedition record, this time there was light at the bottom of the Abyss.

The skulls of hundreds of superior demons were bloomed with silver light, hovering over the bottom of the Abyss. The dark stalagmites were facing straight towards the surface, and the top couldn’t be seen. The black stones formed a weird lair, and the teleported army was in the center of a deliberately enclosed open field.

This site was square, and it wasn’t naturally formed no matter how you looked at it. The sense of horror that fell into the net was too strong, and several visitors who were relatively mentally fragile and were more like commanders than warriors softened their knees and sat directly on the ground.

Although Godwin Lopez showed a bit of surprise, he didn’t even frown.

The black-toned lair in front of him had a weird beauty, like a bustling town had died and dried up into a dark corpse.

The high “city wall” surrounded everyone’s sight, and under the light of the wandering skull, the solemn atmosphere made people unable to breathe. Coupled with the magic pressure poured from the distance, the expedition army froze in place for more than ten seconds.

Godwin drew out the holy sword, and the blade lit up with a hazy, warm halo. The Hero stepped forward indifferently, observing the terrain.

And as soon as he stepped onto the ruins, the entire ground trembled violently.

An exceptionally huge serpentine demon raised its head from the corner of this weird dead city, spitting purple-black flames, and the blood-red sparks flashing between the scales were almost connected into a line…

It opened its mouth and let out a sharp and unpleasant roar. Accompanied by the gas explosion generated by the sound waves, the poisonous smoke swayed around it, and stone debris instantly crumbled, creating dust everywhere.

There were no other tiny creatures living naturally in this dead city, and no one would think that this superior demon just happened to pass by.

“Oliver Lopez.” Godwin took a breath and immediately ordered. “This thing is yours. Can you handle it?”

“I said that Tumbleweed wouldn’t accept commands.”

“I’ll allow you to choose reinforcements. If you can kill it, its body will be at Tumbleweed’s disposal.”

“Well…”

The villain, who was wandering at the end of the team, finally pulled the reins and approached closer on his black horse. His tone of arrogance was as offensive as possible. “It’s not impossible if everything goes to us.”

“I need a more definite answer.”

“Yes.” The leader of Tumbleweed tightened the skeleton helmet on his head and glanced at the turbulent expeditionary force behind him. “But I don’t need reinforcements. Cross, Dylan. I’ll leave that thing to you. Go early and return early. Remember to bring back the most valuable part.”

“Yes, captain.” Jessie the viper blew a kiss. His voice was sweet and greasy. “Let’s go, darling Adri.”

“Two people?! Even if it’s Tumbleweed—”

However, before the human team had time to raise objections, a greater crisis came.

Behind the ominous serpentine demon, a larger demon appeared in shadow. It was still far away from them, but it was extremely large, and people could see it quite clearly in the dim light.

The four alien wings were spread wide, and the edges shone with an icy glare. The black beast bent its neck and let out a series of low growls in the direction of the expeditionary army. A hurricane with cold wind instantly rolled over, and the lights, which weren’t bright to begin with, dulled by even more.

Like a sponge soaked in water, the fear engraved in instinct was wrenched out of all the living creatures present by this roar. Several younger soldiers even peed their pants.

Compared with that aura, the extremely powerful serpentine demon in front of them became like a decoration.

“It’s the nineteenth generation Demon King.”

Whispers passed between the gaps of the army.

“…It’s the Lord of Illusion.”

But most of the people present were strong men who had been tested by life and death. Even under the pressure of this mind-swelling horror, the soldiers still barely maintained their formation and clustered together vigilantly.

There was still some terrifying calm on Godwin Lopez’s face. He shook his head and whispered in the ear of the leader of Tumbleweed, looking a little tired, but without the slightest fear.

After saying that, Godwin neatly adjusted the direction of the march, avoiding the serpentine demon, and leading the army in another direction.

In the mouth of the bard decades later, that whisper was the last warning to Oliver Lopez, who was hopeless as a blood relative.

However, in fact, Godwin’s words were unexpectedly brief.

“Take care of your parrot,” he muttered dryly.

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The author has something to say:

Godwin: I’m tired and don’t want to accompany the performance, but considering the peace on the surface… ugh. (dead eyes)

Expeditionary Force: Calm and composed, without fear! This is a real powerhouse.

Oliver on the other side: Cross, Dylan. That thing (Bagelmaurus) is up to you. Go early and return early. Remember to bring back the most valuable part (the flesh in the parrot). (We really can’t give that thing snacks and fruits in that size)

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