Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 111: The Love at the End of Life

‘Thank God,’ Nemo thought. Oliver had metal armor on his arms, so he couldn’t feel the cold sweat on his palms.

He tried his best to look like he was in control, but his neck seemed to be rusted by anxiety, making him unable to look back at Oliver’s face. No matter how harmless he tried to find an explanation for himself, the facts were always contrary to his expectations. Nemo didn’t know what expression was on his face right now, but it was far from “calm”.

This was the third time he had directly confronted a real superior demon.

The first time was when he faced Pandorater. At that moment, he only heard the other party’s call for help, and he didn’t have the slightest idea of his identity. The opponent gave up their attack, and the whole event passed in a daze. The second time was when he faced Witherspoon. At that time, his state was delicate, and he had no impression of how to use his “powers”.

This was the third time.

This time, he was extremely sober and determined that everything at this moment was of his own volition. Because of this, he felt more deeply about how unnatural the current situation was.

To crack a spell, a normal mage must analyze every feature of the enemy’s magic array, step by step, and then make the most appropriate response in time during the process of cracking it. Just like chess players, they carefully calculated their opponents’ intentions and all possible future moves, and finally mobilized their remaining pieces to win the game. To do this, knowledge, experience, and strength were indispensable.

But the world he saw was completely different.

What was in front of him wasn’t chess pieces and a chess board, but stone and trees, which could easily be overturned by just a raised hand. Those abyssal magic had no resistance to his behavior. No matter how Nemo avoided this matter, he could see that it was abnormal. If it weren’t for the concern of the demon’s poor physical condition, he could even ignore those changing magic arrays and break through forcibly and move directly to the source of the magic.

No book had recorded this situation; not even the collection in the Abyssal Church. Whether it was abyssal magic or surface magic, the rules and restraints within it were like truths that couldn’t be broken.

However, he did do this. There were no arrays or formulas. He just needed to feel and dominate.

There was only one piece of conclusive evidence he needed. Nemo’s chest felt blocked. He didn’t want to test that possibility. The word “Demon King” was like a thorn that could bring out the pain of a cut across his mind. When this matter was over, he must talk to Oliver about it.

The memories on the side continued.

“Revenge.” The legendary “Superior Demon Slayer” repeated Colestoro’s answer. “…I respect your choice.”

Aurorae took out a small communication crystal from the bag at his waist and casually threw it at the pale demon. His voice wasn’t bitter or light. “If you change your mind, just use this to contact me.”

“You’re much different from the rumors.” Colestoro stuffed the crystal into his pocket. “I thought you would kill me directly.”

“Rumors? Ignore them… It’s just that you remind me of someone. Unfortunately, I owe him.” Aurorae’s voice came from behind the squirming helmet, and there was a rare sadness in his cold tone. “Now enjoy the rest of your life, my compatriot.”

Aurorae sighed in a low voice, turned around, and gallantly walked away.

Nemo clenched Oliver’s wrist and accelerated his steps. This was already the shortest route. After all, now was not the time to stop and peer into people’s memories. They didn’t have much time.

It wasn’t easy to step over the junction of memories. It felt like a person struggling through a thick skin film. When they entered the next memory, Nemo almost stopped subconsciously. Oliver apparently stopped for a moment, and Nemo had almost dislocated his wrist.

Seeing that the season should be spring, they saw Duran Virgil in the forest.

It was just an extremely thin Duran Virgil. Mr. Virgil looked like a dead branch that had completely lost moisture. This dead branch was sitting in front of an easel, awkwardly sketching the skeleton of a monster in the distance. Yes, only a skeleton. At present, there was no shadow of the Church of Silence, which meant this was at least 600 years ago… The appearance didn’t even remotely look similar, but Nemo was sure that this was their client. Even if he was too thin to look at, the details of his face were all there.

In this way, Duran Virgil was a demon warlock who had lived for at least 600 years.

His outfit was still familiar to them, but the big bags were placed on the ground to one side. The linen clothes he was wearing were soaked in sweat, revealing his spine and ribs. A young man in a dazzling white robe stood beside him.

Colestoro stood silently beside Virgil, crossing his arms and staring at the canvas.

Virgil was talking in a rambling manner, with a wry smile in his voice. “…I knew I should have quit sooner. Alas, that’s how people are. They always think they still have a lot of time, you know? Before, I’d been bored in a closet-like room, dealing with data and samples all day long. To be honest, I didn’t like my work very much.”

“Duri,” Colestoro said while holding a bloody animal limb in his hand. “You should eat something.”

“It’s Duran,” Virgil corrected him patiently. “I don’t eat raw meat, thank you. I’ll clean it up in a bit.”

Colestoro frowned and said nothing. He moved his gaze away from the canvas and stared at Virgil, who was nagging him while painting. His eyes were burning as if he was looking at prey.

Nemo thought it wasn’t difficult to understand. Duran Virgil had good qualifications. His limbs were intact, and he was sane. Although it wasn’t clear why he looked so weak, for a superior demon—even a dying one like Colestoro—human diseases had never been an issue.

Colestoro stared at his prey like a real leopard, waiting for the opponent to reveal the most vulnerable moment and planning to kill him with one blow. After all, the place here was remote, and the scope of personal activities of someone with an incomplete contract was small. It was hard to come across a body with an acceptable qualification, so the opportunity was extremely rare.

The deathbed of the superior demon was long, more than decades. Colestoro seemed patient. It was imperative to make a contract with the human in front of him. Nemo could see his strategy. The superior demon decided to accompany the weak human first to gain his favor and trust. Unfortunately, Colestoro couldn’t get much effective information from his current body filled with brain lesions. His kindness was too awkward.

The white demon was sullen and stuffed the bloody raw meat into Virgil’s face.

Virgil pushed the hand away with a smile, coughed a few times, and continued to smear paint on the drawing board in front of him.

“The painting is wrong, human.” Colestoro’s kindness was rejected, which made him quite dissatisfied. “Stop painting. I said you should eat something.”

“What’s wrong?” Virgil raised his brows.

Colestoro unceremoniously grabbed the brush and quickly painted across the board.

The crooked and clumsy paintings disappeared. The demon’s brushstrokes were rough, but the shaping was accurate. Virgil smacked his mouth loudly. “Would you like a drawing board?”

“Why?” Colestoro’s tone became more dissatisfied.

“Because I want to change this one back to its original appearance.”

“But that’s meaningless.”

“…Look at my current situation.” Virgil’s eyes bent slightly due to his smile. “Does it seem like I’m pursuing some ‘meaning’? I just like painting.”

The demon stared at him quietly as the raw meat in his left hand was still slowly dripping with blood.

“I’ve spent my entire life searching for the ‘meaning of life’, Colesi,” Virgil said softly. “Work step by step and live according to the expectations of my elders, but I have only now discovered… The ‘meaning’ of others has no value to me.”

“I don’t understand,” Colestoro said in a deep voice. “You are in pain and you’re suffering for a purpose.”

“No,” Virgil shook his head. “Live naturally, die naturally. This is good.”

Nemo held back the desire to stay. He pulled Oliver forward, leaving the two phantoms behind.

In the next memory, Virgil looked weaker. He curled up his tall body and trembled from the pain. Colestoro still stood beside him in silence with a twisted expression.

The forest in the summer was full of vitality. The sound of cicadas could give one a headache. Virgil held his brush and painted clumsily.

“Don’t you have any wishes, Duri?” Colestoro asked. He was carrying a piece of meat with bones in his hand, but this time the meat was burnt black. “Do you want to talk?”

“…It’s Duran.” There was an unpleasant phlegm in Virgil’s low smile. “Wish? There are many. The world is beautiful, isn’t it? If you ask what I want the most… I want to go to the end of the world to see the glaciers. I have been bored with city life all my lifetime. I’m really at a loss.”

“Oh,” the white demon said, falling into contemplation. “I don’t think it’s pretty.”

“You don’t need to agree with me.” Virgil glanced at the piece of meat, and the smile on his thin face became wider. “Colesi, what about your wish?”

Colestoro looked away, almost crushing the bone in his hand into powder. “I want to be free without pain,” he said, trying his best to suppress the hatred in his voice.

Nemo could hear Oliver sighing behind him. They were very close to the source of the magic, and the fragments of memories were passing by much quicker.

The last memory was probably on an autumn day. Most of the lush forest turned into gold and red, but this time there was no erected easel. It fell to one side and was buried under the fallen leaves. Virgil was half-lying on the ground. He had become almost skeleton-like as his body leaned against a tree. His skin showed abnormal green and gray colors. He looked as if he could die at any moment.

“Colesi,” he murmured. “Are you still there? I can’t see you anymore.”

The demon jumped from a nearby tree, still without any expression on his face. He was still carrying meat, and it looked like it was roasted just right, but he threw it aside casually.

“Here,” he responded hastily.

Virgil smiled weakly. The flesh on his face shrank and collapsed, and the smile even looked a little terrifying.

“You’re going to die,” Colestoro commented calmly.

“Yes.”

“Then make a wish,” the white demon said. “I am a superior demon, and I can keep you alive—Duri, you still have a chance to see the glaciers at the end of the world.”

“I know. I’m sorry for hiding it from you for so long… I have indeed been huddling in a small place, sorting out data and samples—as an exorcist’s assistant,” Virgil said with a sigh. “Colesi, I know what you want.”

“Yes, I am a despicable villain,” Virgil said. “If you want to do something ‘meaningful’… I should pretend to be ignorant, leave your area, and inform the nearest army. Then they will… solve the hidden danger.”

Colestoro looked at him quietly.

“But I know what happened to you, Mr. Mountain Nightmare Leopard.” The thin man coughed heavily as dark purple blood dribbled down from the corners of his lips. “You didn’t do anything wrong… and I know how desperate it is to be trapped in a dying body.”

“…I don’t need human pity.”

“No, maybe I’m too sentimental.” Virgil’s voice was very low. “I move myself on my own initiative. I ran away and waited to die on my own initiative. I liked it on my own…”

Not knowing if it was because of pain or something else, he stopped talking and took a few deep breaths.

“I want to make a wish to you.” When he spoke again, Virgil’s voice became even smaller. “I want to make a wish to you.”

“And that wish—you’ll be able to realize,” he said. “I’m sorry. I have a position as a human, but there’s one more thing I can do… My wish is, ‘please don’t indiscriminately kill innocent people’.”

His body twitched a few times as he gasped for a while. “You can take this body, and then go anywhere—even to the Abyss to cut yourself off… You just need to swear to me…”

Colestoro was silent for a long time before he finally spoke, “I see.”

Virgil’s arm moved, as if he wanted to make a gesture of raising his hand, but in the end, he didn’t succeed. He lowered his head and bowed, as if accepting his fate, and fell into a lingering lethargy.

Colestoro once again approached with meat, but the dark purple flesh was still pulsating. It was his own flesh.

The white demon pursed his lips tightly and slowly painted a magic array. On the other side, the pulsating flesh seemed to have gained life. It wrapped around Virgil’s neck and pierced the back of his neck. Dark blood flowed out slowly.

“You should keep painting,” he said to the unconscious human. “You paint terribly.”

Colestoro straightened up and stood expressionless for a while. He then turned around and walked towards the bones of his body without looking back. Nemo could clearly see the cold sweat oozing from the demon’s forehead and the slightly trembling body. After consuming this piece of flesh, his strength could no longer suppress the pain. Now it was all coming back.

“Lord Aurorae,” the white demon activated the communication crystal, “I changed my mind.”

“Seal me… The sooner the better.”

“…What did he do?” Oliver’s voice came from behind Nemo. It sounded unpleasant.

“Ollie, just like I told you before. In theory, there’s also a rare situation that can produce a demon warlock.” Nemo found that his voice was also extremely dry. “A superior demon gave up the contract and voluntarily gave away its strength.”

They gave each other their freedom, but no one really succeeded. Considering the complexity and obscurity of the erosion spell and the ancient passage that was secretly broken underground in the church, Virgil should know the Church of Silence like the back of his hand…

As far as the current situation was concerned, Duran Virgil didn’t gain true freedom.

“He’s fulfilling Colestoro’s wish.” Oliver’s voice was soft. “Do we really want to intervene? Isn’t it rude to Mr. Virgil?”

“I don’t know,” Nemo said. His voice was trembling. “But in theory… there is indeed a better way.”

Generally speaking, Virgil’s choice may be the most reasonable. Nemo took in a few deep breaths, trying to make himself think as calmly as possible. If his conjecture wasn’t wrong, if he really had that terrifying unknown power…

Then another option was viable.

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The author has something to say:

Nemo set up a huge flag* for himself.

*Hint/foreshadow.

Virgil and Colesi… blurry double arrows*√

*Refers to an ambiguous (blurry) requited love (double arrows).

————————

In fact, after thinking about it carefully, it was quite embarrassing to be honest.

Nemo: (bitterly) Ollie, I think I am the Demon King.

Ollie: (thought he was joking) Huh? If you’re the Demon King, then I might be the hero.

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Kinky Thoughts:

Oh… Colesi’s and Virgil’s story hurt my heart. They deserve happiness too! All these side characters deserve happiness!

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 110: Severe Pain

To Nemo’s surprise, Oliver took the lead this time. Instead of attacking, he extended his hand and twisted a leaf in the decorative potted plant on the side of the stone steps. As white light was injected into the leaves, the veins of the leaves flashed with a faint silver light. Oliver released his hand, and the leaves drifted towards the weird, misplaced forest without any wind.

Then it automatically split into several pieces without moving forward, and a few pieces disappeared out of thin air.

“…” Oliver’s expression became stiff. “I’m starting to think about whether the sentence ‘I can’t find you’ means something else.” He grabbed another leaf and threw it in the same position, but this time the leaf moved further away.

“The attack mode of this thing is constantly changing,” Nemo said, tearing off a piece casually. Unlike Oliver’s situation, the leaves withered directly in his hands, but the dead leaf was unexpectedly lucky. It jumped up and down around the space in front of them and circled the field slowly before returning back to its original place. It didn’t even break the edge.

“Uh… but its attacks seem to only be aimed towards surface magic,” Nemo added dryly as he stepped off the stone steps first.

This nightmare leopard was on the verge of death. Not to mention a human body, the power from its actual body was already dwindling. Nemo didn’t think it could cause him any substantial harm. At that moment, the owner of this dreamland was already delirious, and the uncontrolled abyssal magic was surging frantically, instinctively guarding the consciousness of the nightmare leopard, but when those violent forces hit him, it only brought a soft touch of warm water that flowed through his fingers.

Nemo reached out his right hand and pressed it into the air. At that time, countless runes unfolded in front of the two of them, flashing and beating from time to time.

“Here’s the identification of the aura of the abyss.” After dispersing the runes, Nemo breathed slowly. “Cognitive interference is also attached.”

“In other words, I have to find a way to get in.” Oliver wiped his face. He was able to cheat the two rows of corpses at the front entrance. Considering the uncertain identity of visitors, it was reasonable that there would be some leeway. But this was the stronghold of the Abyssal Church. Its defenses couldn’t be that simple. “What is cognitive interference?”

“It’s hard to explain. You can experience it for yourself later.” Nemo stretched out his hands towards the back of his neck and untied the gold pendant he was wearing. He threw it at Oliver, who subconsciously caught it.

“This is…?”

“We all know that it’s very valuable to me.” Nemo’s voice was clear and serious. “Oliver Ramon, I’ll now lend you this valuable item. You’ll need to return it to me when we leave here.”

Oliver instantly understood. “Okay, I promise you.”

Suddenly, his left forearm burned, as if someone had cut his skin with a hot blade. After the burst of pain, a faint burning sensation lingered. Oliver took off his armor to confirm it. A complex and bizarre engraving appeared on the inside of his left forearm, burning quietly near his left wrist.

“This is a trade seal of a superior demon, similar to that of Mr. Cross.” Nemo smiled dryly. “As an ‘aura of the Abyss’, this should qualify.”

Oliver walked down the stone steps in the direction of Nemo. After officially stepping into the weird nightmare forest, he immediately understood the actual meaning of “cognitive interference”. He was sure that he was moving at a more stable pace, but it felt extremely weird, as if he was squeezing through invisible narrow tubes at different speeds. The scenes around him that were already distorted became even more distorted, passing by quickly and slowly.

He even had a strong nausea when he stopped, as if the carriage he was riding in suddenly stopped while traveling at high speed.

“It’s interfering with our perception of time.” Nemo grabbed Oliver’s arm, who shook his head and closed his slightly dilated pupils. “Sorry. Considering the physical condition of this demon… I can’t interfere with it rashly or I’ll hurt it.”

“But there doesn’t seem to be any problem with Virgil’s movement.” Oliver stood firmly. “Even if you want to move forward in a place like this… If I’m not mistaken, you can only cooperate with the environment. His situation doesn’t seem right.”

“That’s right,” Nemo nodded. “He should be the demon warlock of this superior demon.”

“But you said, ‘its body is sleeping’.” Oliver moved carefully, turning his head to avoid the twisted branches floating slowly. “If he’s a demon warlock, shouldn’t the will of the superior demon be in his body? Is it possible that other demons besides Telaranea could split their soul—”

“No.” Nemo immediately shook his head and stretched out his hand again. “In theory, there’s another case of producing a demon warlock, but it’s very rare.”

“What do you mean?”

“Even if I can’t stop the cognitive interference, I can restore the elements of these dreams. You know, it can’t create such a thing out of thin air. This is all based on its memories.” Nemo didn’t look at Oliver. “Perhaps we can see it.”

Black filaments emerged out of Nemo’s shadow and poured into the darkness behind the peeling crevices. As they slowly closed, the black forest in front of them seemed to be smashed into pieces by an invisible mortar, and then gradually bonded. Everything around him was quickly restored, giving Oliver an uncomfortable feeling. It was like watching a plate of applesauce turning back into a complete apple, and they happened to be submerged in that plate of sauce. This definitely wasn’t a good feeling.

The twisted nightmare and the weird floating trees were gone, and the surrounding scenery quickly reorganized. The scene in front of them had become a complete and normal night view of the forest, with stars twinkling in the night sky, and the air was fresh and cold.

Listening to what Nemo just said, this should be the basic element of that nightmare, the memory of the superior demon.

“Follow me closely.” Nemo grabbed Oliver’s arm again and walked in front. “Don’t stop.”

Oliver stared at the hand with complicated eyes, then moved his gaze to the back of Nemo’s head. Nemo had become different, and he seemed to be desperately downplaying this. When he did things that the “Nemo before” couldn’t do, there would always be some unintelligible embarrassment in his voice.

Oliver didn’t specifically point it out. He had an inexplicable confidence that Nemo would never hide anything from him. If the other party didn’t want to talk about it, he naturally wouldn’t force it. He just stared at Nemo’s hand that was holding on to him; those slender and fair fingers squeezed tightly around his wrist.

This scene was a bit familiar, Oliver reminisced. A few months ago, it was also the same scene—but at that time, he was the one leading the way, and they were clueless, scared, and flustered.

But that was when they were equally ordinary.

Now, he didn’t say it, but he knew Nemo’s strength had left him far behind. He didn’t feel envy, rather only a deep sense of powerlessness. It surged repeatedly along the way, wantonly inflecting pain and bitterness in his blood. Nemo had been protecting him, guiding him, and he couldn’t do anything to help in return.

He didn’t like the feeling of being protected unilaterally by Nemo.

Oliver bit his tongue fiercely, forcing himself to focus on the present. It wasn’t the time to be irritated. Someone had appeared from the ‘memories’.

A group of people had appeared, walking in a strange, winding way. Not far away was a huge skeleton that seemed to pierce the sky. There were still traces of flesh and blood between the white bones. The smell of decay penetrated his nose and a strong sense of vomit came. The smell seemed to be pulling his stomach through his nostrils.

Oliver reluctantly held back his steps.

On the other side, people in simple cloaks approached the skeleton. They knelt in front of the half-mutilated body and smashed their foreheads into the mud religiously. They dressed very old-fashioned, and they didn’t look like demon worshipers. This should just be a group of… ordinary people.

After kowtowing, they untied the people on their backs and carefully placed them on the grass.

The unconscious people wore white clothing painted with distorted blood characters. The place had not become a desolate area yet; the grass and leaves were still verdant. Those who were placed on the ground were no longer vibrant. Their eyes opened blankly, their pupils were extremely dilated, and their eyeballs seemed to have lost the ability to move. These people were still breathing faintly but had no other reaction.

Trent Plague.

The time period should be seven or eight hundred years ago. A plague had emerged, causing people to respond in a special way. They would put on white clothes covered with blood runes for the sick, trying to drive away the disease with various sacrifices. The characteristics of the patients were also fully in line with the symptoms. Considering the current geographical location, Oliver was confident in his judgment.

The leader yelled something loudly and raised a sharp machete. After more than a dozen prostrations, he cut off the remaining flesh between the bones and fed it one by one to the patients lying flat on the ground.

Indeed, they were seeking any cure. According to records of that period, many people were driven crazy by the inexplicable plague. They would search for all kinds of incredible “medicinal cures” and make unreasonable “sacrifices”. Some even dug up coffins and ground the hair of the sick and dead corpses into powder for other patients to take, just to get a glimmer of hope.

The current leader’s approach initially seemed to be effective.

The limbs of the patient who swallowed the demon’s flesh began to twitch, and two even showed signs of awakening. It was a pity that the good times didn’t last long. Black blood gradually gushed out of their mouths, and their bodies began to rot rapidly, quickly turning into a mass of black and rancid mud. People began to scream and stagger away, and fragments of their offerings and extinguished torches fell to the ground.

But… Not all the patients’ flesh rotted.

After everyone fled, a white figure slowly stood up among the pile of rotting corpses. He looked at everything under him blankly, then squatted down. As if he had found his voice for the first time, he let out a mournful and painful scream.

“Those patients didn’t have enough magical qualifications,” Nemo added without looking back. They left in the night and stepped into the forest in the daytime. The scream still lingered in their ears. “They were careless, leaving one behind.”

“It’s Trent Plague, right?” Oliver said softly. “Can such a possession succeed? If I remember correctly, patients with this disease… Their brains begin to shrink and rot. If the foundation of the contract of a superior demon is a wish, then this contract is impossible to fulfill. It’s impossible for humans who have completely lost consciousness to make a wish.”

“Yes, so this contract was not completed.” Nemo’s voice was a bit bitter. “He couldn’t get a complete contract; thus, it stands to reason he couldn’t leave too far from the noumenon.”

The sun was gradually shining. Only two people appeared in the memories this time.

Oliver saw the body of the superior demon clearly. Its body was suffering from a lack of pigment. The color of its hair and skin was surprisingly white, and the face was beautiful and thin. His face was very calm—not the good kind of calm, but closer to ash-like numbness than “calm”.

His lavender eyes were staring at the person opposite of him.

No, that may not be a “person” either. The other party looked like a warrior, but it didn’t have a human appearance at all. He had a terrifying helmet buckled on his face that seemed to be alive, as the holes had obvious biological characteristics. The wrinkles on it were constantly distorted. The warrior was carrying a big sword behind him, and the texture of a spine protruded from the brown sword. The entire sword looked like a withered skeleton of some kind of monster.

“You can’t kill me,” the ghostly pale superior demon said slowly. “Why?”

“The part of you on the surface is dead,” a low, muffled voice came from the helmet. “The part of the Abyss can only be killed if you’re in the Abyss. Even if I kill your body, your consciousness will only return here.”

The warrior pointed with his hand wearing leather gloves to the rotting skeleton in the distance with his fingers.

“…The pain will not go away but will only worsen. You’ll only waste a piece of flesh in vain. Now you can’t afford any more loss of flesh, Colestoro. You should use all your strength to suppress the pain.”

Colestoro didn’t speak; his face was still expressionless like a corpse.

“Two options. You can consume part of your flesh and change your body to gain ‘freedom’.” The warrior’s tone was flat. “Of course, you know the result of excessive wear and tear. You will become a monster, tormented by pain and then destroyed by instinct. I will eliminate your body and you will return to that rotten corpse and die in madness and severe pain.”

“Option two. I can give you a seal when you can no longer bear it. It won’t eliminate the pain, but it will put you to sleep. Although it still hurts, it will always be better than waking up. You will die in your sleep.”

“Choose. Revenge, or wait quietly for death? The former is actually quite cost-effective. I won’t take action against you if you only kill 10,000 or 20,000 people. You’ll still have time to take a group with you to your funeral.”

“Revenge.” Colestoro raised his eyes, and his voice was calm. “I choose revenge, Lord Aurorae.”

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 109: The Black Forest

Sitting still behind the dead shrub, the Knight of Judgment, Parish, was tying his horse to the scorched trunk. After Oliver left, they didn’t talk anymore until…

“Your choice is very wise,” the female warrior said suddenly. She tied a bag of preserved fruit to the back of the fuller goat. “Cooperate cordially to gain our trust, kindly bring us here, then wait for our combat power to disperse… Can we have a temporary truce? I quite like this goat.”

Parish’s movements of fixing the reins became rigid.

“Quietly remove the guardian array and let me and it ‘accidentally die’.” Ann patted the area between the two corners of the goat’s head. She was still in the rippling barrier, but the barrier had been separated from the Knight of Judgment. There were only two light balls on Parish’s candlestick. “I guess it’s not that easy to meet a second Cross… Ahem. You Knights of Judgment are always like this. Of course, so I understand.”

Parish Sherman took advantage of Ann’s laxness to remove the barrier between her and the fuller goat, but the barrier didn’t disappear immediately. The female soldier maintained it by herself and didn’t instantly rot and die from shock. The expression on Parish’s face disappeared, and all the original helplessness and smile turned into vigilance. There was a brief metallic scratching sound as he pulled out his silver sword.

“Are you sure you want to fight?” Ann continued nonchalantly. “You can’t pretend that it was all an accident?”

“For the glory of Zenni,” Parish took in a deep breath and clenched his hands tightly. “I’m very sorry, miss, but this task cannot be lost. I must eliminate all unstable factors.”

“It seems that you’re pretty sure that our leader won’t be able to come out in time. How interesting.” Ann twirled her spear in the air. “Would you be interested in another exchange of information, Mr. Upright Knight?”

This time, Parish ignored her request. The Knight of Judgment stuck the candlestick firmly to his waist, raised his sword, and attacked directly. His offensive was fierce and firm, and there was no hesitation in his movements. The spear and the sword collided. Ann deliberately adjusted the angle of her hunting spear, causing a string of sparks to appear between the metal. The lightning climbed up along the silver sword and was immediately shattered by the light array that covered the blade.

Ann whistled.

Parish’s movements didn’t stop. The silver sword pierced the throat of the female warrior, and the latter narrowly dodged. The blade left a shallow blood mark on the side of Ann’s neck, but the Knight of Judgment paid a greater price. Ann’s attack arrived almost at the same time, forcing him to avoid it. His eyes were scorched by the lightning and injured his forehead, leaving a terrifying scorched black mark.

Holding his sword in one hand, Parish continued to attack the fragile female warrior’s leather armor while he quickly drew a magic formation with his other hand, but Ann was faster than him. The same white magic array hit the air, showing the obvious gap in their powers. Then, Parish took two steps back, but he lost his balance. He tried his best to regain it by tumbling, but a small mistake could be fatal in front of an equally matched opponent.

The female warrior stepped on his throat and wiped the blood flowing down his neck casually. Lightning gleefully exploded sparks along the armor of the Knight of Judgment.

“Even if you kill me, there will only be new people—” Parish hissed.

“I know. If it was really more cost-effective to kill you, I would have done it as soon as our captain left.” Ann raised an eyebrow. “I just want to make sure of one thing. You told us the content of your task, but you never said that you’re a recorder. You’re also not wearing the silver badge of a recorder. So…” She quickly pulled open the buckle of the cloak on the Knight of Judgment and looked at the hidden array below, “it turns out to be Mr. Inspector from the heresy court. How rude.”

“You seem to know the Laddism Church very well.”

“What happens next is just my personal guess,” Ann ignored him and rubbed her chin. “Your story doesn’t sound like it’s fake. According to the temperament of those old farts of the Laddism Church, they will certainly secretly record the battle between Aurorae and the Abyssal Church.”

“But you’re an inspector of the heresy court, and at the same time, for your so-called ‘stability’, you didn’t hesitate to kill a Black Chapter… How interesting. Is it because they wanted you to do it?”

Parish stared at her from the ground, expressionless.

“It seems that my guess is right,” Ann hummed, and moved her foot away from the neck of the Knight of Judgment. “Still, would you like to do another exchange of information, Mr. Upright Knight?”

“…Are you insane?”

“Like I said, it’s not cost-effective to kill you. Besides, the top will only send new people immediately. I saw you were carrying a sacrificial dagger. Isn’t this a big deal?” Ann remained vigilant with her hunting spear. “You’ll sacrifice your body for the teleportation coordinates, and I can’t stop that.”

“You… What do you want to know?” Parish clenched the sword in his hand. He couldn’t guess what purpose the woman in front of him had. If she was from the Abyssal Church, what she knew was enough for her to go back to report, yet she didn’t seem to have any intention of that at all.

“Aurorae is weakening, right? You want to take advantage of the opportunity and when they are both defeated and injured, take them out.”

“This doesn’t seem to be what you want to ask.”

“That’s right.” The smile on Ann’s face disappeared. “My question is, which side will be coming from the Laddism Church, Alban or Garland?”

“…Where are your chips?”

“If you tell me,” the female warrior stood upright, exuding a more awe-inspiring aura, “I swear not to disrupt your action against the members of the Abyssal Church.”

Parish laughed. “You?…Although it’s a bit rude to say, you’re only a single person.”

“A single person teleportation is fine, but if you plan to use the coordinates of your corpse to provide the army with a teleportation destination, you must match it with the corresponding magic array.”

“Yes, but those arrays will never leak to—”

“Even though I don’t know which one it is,” the female warrior said solemnly, “they don’t require much magic, so I can afford to try them one by one.”

Behind her, countless small white arrays were suspended in the air. Parish’s eyes widened and his lips quivered. The blood all over his body seemed to be filtered by ice as it became instantly cold. He clearly saw the pre-arranged signal array in them, and there were even many he had never seen before. According to the composition of the mantra, those strange magic arrays were by no means fabricated out of thin air.

“The leader is the Preceptor Bishop of Alban,” Parish quickly explained.

The face of the female warrior suddenly became very ugly. She didn’t even bother to mask her expression, allowing vigilance and worry to mix on her face.

Parish thought that this woman was too dangerous. Their plan couldn’t be broken by an inexplicable Black Chapter. Her focus was also oddly strange. Generally speaking, even if she knew who was in charge, it wouldn’t have had any impact on their upcoming crusade.

He had exposed an insignificant piece of information and this Black Chapter—

“Look at me,” the cold and hoarse female voice suddenly sounded. Parish subconsciously raised his head and clenched the hilt of his sword. He had been trained thoroughly, so the charm technique would not work on him, and she couldn’t play any other tricks.

However, he was stunned.

All the white formations behind the female warrior disappeared, replaced by a huge pattern. It emitted a soft light on the dead ground, a light he was well acquainted with… Impossible was the word that was left in his mind.

This is impossible.

“I order you.” The female warrior took a few steps forward, grabbed the hair on the back of Parish’s head, and kept her gaze firmly in contact. “Parish Sherman, inspector of the heresy court. I order you to forget everything—like your mission went smoothly; you have not encountered any Black Chapters; and the wounds are all caused by a demon guard. You will continue to stand by and wait for the horn of war.”

“…Yes.” The eyes of the Knight of Judgment gradually became blank.

At the same time, on the upper floor of the catacombs.

“He’s going to kill it… That makes sense,” Oliver said after thinking about it for a while. “I suggest taking a look first. What are your plans?”

They passed through the high platform and drilled out of a small collapsed gap. The entrance of the cave was only half a person high, as if it was forcibly broken apart a long time ago, and thick dust and stone debris were scattered everywhere.

“Just like you, one step at a time. After all, if it’s completely hopeless, it’s just the difference between ‘now’ and ‘decades’ later,” Nemo said. “This is indeed not something we can intervene in rashly.”

Which side was the true goodwill, saving or killing? Only the demon itself could decide. After all, they were only bystanders and had no right to intervene on behalf of others.

There was a strong miasma outside the entrance of the cave. Oliver frowned. Nemo immediately grabbed the armored hand and was dissatisfied with the cold touch. “Don’t force it.”

“It can’t hurt me. It’s just the smell is too strong,” Oliver said. “I’m not made of glass. Don’t worry. If you look like that again, I can’t help but break off these thorns on your armor.”

Nemo stared at the long thorns, looking very approving.

“Mr. Virgil will be suspicious,” Oliver added, but couldn’t hold back the smile in his voice.

Things in front of them quickly erased the smiles on their faces. In the tumbling miasma, brown-yellow bones were formed into neat, tall cubes, and sporadic jewels flickered among the bones. A tall and thin shadow squatted next to the cube of bones, stroking the skull one by one with scary translucent fingers, as if counting. Its movements were slow and focused, and it had no interest in the light reflected by the torch.

“Leave it alone,” Nemo said, lowering his voice. “We’re not here to rob the tomb. It will not take the initiative to attack us.”

“Then the enemy that Mr. Virgil said… Ah, I see.” Oliver sheathed back his Rest in Peace. “What are these things?”

“Remnants,” Nemo said bitterly. “They’re lower-level demons and aren’t very strong.”

The remnants after the completion of a large-scale sacrifice. They weren’t ghosts of the dead, but the product of the remains of the living body being dominated by abyssal magic…

A mass of shriveled flesh wriggled in front of them. It was like someone roughly connected human hands, feet, and heads to pieces of meat and made them rot in a pile. It—or they—stretched out their hands to them, making vague groans with their mouths. Before it had time to move, it was pressed and torn into pieces by another remnant.

The deformed shadow picked up the scattered limbs on the ground and carefully stuffed them into the cube of bones. Nemo exhaled slowly as the remnant suddenly screamed and crawled away in a weird pose.

“…Isn’t the defense here too loose?” Oliver didn’t have time to act. He had probed around but found no living things other than long shadows and remnants. There wasn’t even a demonized mouse.

“Virgil’s passage should avoid most of the guards outside,” Nemo said. “After all, it must be opened at least once a month. I think the focus of the security is at the lower entrance.”

As if in response to their words, the torch suddenly accelerated and moved forward at full speed. Oliver put on his helmet, and the two of them hastily followed the torch. After not knowing how many cubes of bones they had crossed, they finally arrived at their destination.

A group of weirdly dressed people… or something, wearing large cloaks and metal pointed hats that covered their heads, were circling around the room. In the center of the circular room was a fuchsia heart tied by a thread that was still pulsating slowly. As soon as Nemo stepped into the room, they instantly stopped moving. Countless tiny smelly tentacles stretched out from under the cloak and shot at Nemo like arrows.

It made sense why Virgil wanted them to avoid this. If he was just an ordinary demon worshiper, if he had to face one of these things head on, he would be grinded into meat sauce right about now.

Just as Nemo was thinking about how to respond, the heart in the center of the circle pulsated extra hard a few times. The tiny tentacles turned around and then leaned towards the heart in the center, touched it for a few seconds, and finally drilled back into the cloak figures, like a living snake.

The group in the room began circling again.

“What do you need me to do?” Nemo glanced at the heart, trying to make a look of uncertainty.

“I held them off for the time being. Don’t worry, the heart of the bitter salamander can last for at least an hour. This is the inspiration you gave me.” Virgil was neatly dressed, but his forehead was full of shiny sweat. “I need you to use abyssal magic with me, Mr. Light. At least two people need to be present to open it.”

He threw a ball of paper over, on which was a simple magic array. Nemo wiped it with his hand. The ink stain was still new. It should’ve just been drawn—which meant, it was deduced on the spot.

“No problem.” He nodded, without asking more questions.

“After the formation is completed, you’ll wait on the stone steps and don’t go anywhere,” Virgil exhorted. “This isn’t a joke, Mr. Light. Just remember that there’s no danger on the stone steps of the entrance.”

Following his words, the room gradually rotated, and the door at the original entrance turned to the other side, exposing the entrance to the lower level.

There were more than ten stone steps down, and the place where the stone steps led was difficult to describe in words.

Judging from its constituent elements, it was probably a forest, but to be more specific, it looked like a nightmare. Everything didn’t obey the laws of the surface. The space was distorted, and trees grew in all sorts of varied directions. The trees themselves seemed to be roughly spliced together after being crushed. Common sense was completely broken, and the sense of distortion made people’s internal organs tight. Looking at the scene for too long would make people dizzy. There were still unnatural vacancies in many places, like peeling walls with pure darkness behind them.

Nemo sat down obediently on the stone steps while the “Knight of Silence” stood idly beside him. The room behind them rotated back again and the entrance disappeared.

“Don’t walk around or I won’t be able to find you,” Virgil exhorted again, trying to show a smile. “I… Five hours at most. You only need to wait for me for five hours.”

He then stepped into the weird distortion without hesitation, and within a few seconds, his back was completely engulfed by the floating dark forest.

Duran Virgil’s smile had always been sincere, but there wasn’t much positivity in that smile just now. It couldn’t even be called a smirk as it only conveyed a lifeless sadness. In all of Nemo’s memories, he had never seen such a desperate expression.

Oliver took off his helmet, and this time he fixed it directly behind his back. Nemo recognized the momentum; Oliver became serious. He also clenched the useless staff tightly and stood up.

“Should we follow?” Oliver scratched his head.

“Follow and look,” Nemo said. “Maybe there’s something we can do to help.”

“What a coincidence. I was thinking the same thing.”

---

The author has something to say:

When I chose the name of the chapter, I wanted to eat black forest* for a moment…

*Unsure if she’s referring to black forest ham or black forest cake or something else entirely.

I have to say that the most magnanimous identities in the whole team are the knight commander and the gray parrot.

————————

Knight commander: …Your circle.

Gray parrot: No, I’m just a little parrot!

Oliver: I didn’t mean to hide it.

Nemo: I didn’t mean to hide it.

Ann: I’m sorry, I concealed it on purpose.

Jesse: …Concealment makes me happy!

---

Kinky Thoughts:

So… out of all the “normal” people, it seems Adrian is the most normal?

---

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 108: Rescue and Kill

The library was on the ground floor, and on the next floor was the dungeon where the sacrifices were held. The room where Nemo was imprisoned was directly below the dungeon. Nemo tried to continue to dive down, but his perception began to be distorted by the cracks in the law. It was like a hazy black mist, or the air tumbling desperately at a high temperature. What he discovered began to distort and eventually disappeared into the darkness.

There was only a rough outline of the mountain nightmare leopard and a very weak life response.

Virgil walked in front to lead the way, followed by Oliver, disguised as the Knight of Silence, and Nemo. Things went smoothly along the way as they didn’t encounter anyone else. Occasionally they ran into a few wandering demon worshipers, but after seeing the “Knight of Silence” among them, they would lower their heads, speed up their steps and quickly leave.

However, Virgil, who usually joked and was talkative, remained silent the entire time. In the gradually dark passage, he lit a weird white torch, but he didn’t look back at Nemo and the Knight of Silence once as he walked with his head buried in his hands.

Virgil’s momentum changed. Nemo recalled it for a long time before he found a similar feeling in his memory. It was an old aura that was very inconsistent with Duran Virgil’s appearance.

Quiet and gloomy.

He took them to the end of a narrow dead end, bit his fingertips, and smeared a weird and complicated blood array on the stone wall. With the completion of the array, the bloodstains were sucked into the stone bricks. After the last touch of red disappeared, the wall slid away silently, and a strong smell of staleness blew on their faces, as if they were sniffing mold.

White firelight illuminated the things behind the wall; a circular space about twenty square meters with rough stone steps that didn’t have guardrails hanging across. Unknown reddish-brown water stains flowed on the stone steps, creating a slippery and precarious scene.

Virgil pursed his lips and nodded at Nemo with a complicated gaze that scraped across his face, as if to determine whether Nemo still wanted to move forward. Nemo answered him with action as he followed him without hesitation.

The stone wall closed automatically behind them, and the entire space became darker in an instant. Virgil threw his torch into the middle of the space. It stretched out several slender feet, like a ghost spider, grasping the side of the spiral stone steps as it slowly descended, matching their speed.

Nemo didn’t dare communicate with Oliver secretly. Their footsteps echoed harshly in the silence; every breath was like a hurricane, and every drop of water was like an explosion. The downward stone steps seemed endless, as if they led into the Abyss. How unnecessary, he thought. They could use a flying array. He didn’t even mind drawing one on everyone’s soles. It would be much quicker to jump directly into the hole in the middle than to advance using the steps.

As a demon warlock, Virgil must have thought of this, yet he continued walking down the steps as if it was the only possibility. Their client was turning everything into a rather odd ritual. What exactly was he planning?

“How much longer?” Nemo hesitated for a moment before he spoke. His voice echoed repeatedly in the narrow space.

“Half an hour.”

“We’ve been walking for a while now.” Nemo cleared his throat. “There’s no teleportation array in this church. Are you sure we can escape smoothly?” Although this wasn’t a problem for him, who could split space, he had to make sure Virgil wasn’t lying from the start.

“You and your captain are lovers, right?” Virgil didn’t answer his question, but instead threw back the question at him.

This question was so straightforward and unexpected that it made Oliver’s steps a bit heavier and caused the armor to make a loud clatter.

“Yes,” Nemo responded clearly, “but this has nothing to do with the current situation.”

“As I said, I will send you out no matter what,” Virgil said. There was no disdain or disgust in his tone; quite the opposite, it sounded sincere. “Trust me, I’ll be able to do it.”

Nemo doubted this. In terms of magic strength, Virgil wasn’t strong. As a demon warlock, he was about a grade away from Hagen. He himself should be the type who wins from skills and experience, but he didn’t have the strength to wield spatial magic.

However, Nemo could only remain silent for now.

Just when Nemo wondered if they would really walk into the Abyss like this, Virgil stopped. The spiral stone steps eventually ended and plunged into a reddish-brown sewage. Virgil stepped out first. The water wasn’t deep, just past his calves.

Nemo struggled inwardly for a few seconds as he held back the urge to cast a spell before he stepped directly into the sewage. The sticky and cold sewage went straight into his boots, causing him to feel an unpleasant and greasy touch that wrapped around his toes. Thankfully, it didn’t have a strong smell; the rotten smell was unique, like something after a while of aging.

The torchlight stretched out from his slender feet and staggered in front of them. After advancing for about ten minutes, Virgil took out a thick chain and directly hit the first platform they encountered.

“We may need to fight next, so I’ll go first.” Virgil climbed up the iron cable skillfully, half kneeling on the high platform. “…The opponent is not strong, and you also have a Knight of Silence on your side, so there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Isn’t it unwise to split up?” Nemo immediately asked.

“I’ll leave the torch with you. When I’m done there, it will take you to me,” Virgil sighed. “There’s a strong guard at the entrance and I’m very familiar with it. You don’t need to fight Mr. Light. It’s dangerous for you to be by my side.”

“Okay.” Nemo swallowed silently. “Then you go first.”

Virgil gave him a somewhat difficult smile and left the high platform, quickly disappearing into the darkness.

“He probably wants to hide his strength,” Oliver finally got the chance to speak. He took off his helmet and took a deep breath. “God, the field of vision of this thing is too narrow. I almost tripped over myself at least eight times.”

“Don’t be nervous. I’ll follow you.” Nemo breathed a sigh of relief. He ignored the chain and jumped directly onto the platform. He then took off his boots and began dumping all the sewage out of them. “It’s a good thing to be separated. At least we can talk now.”

“Yes. Speaking of which, I thought he planned to steal research materials on erosion spells.” Oliver jumped onto the high platform with the same ease, and the torch climbed up tremblingly at the same time. “…But now it seems that he’s not lying.”

“I care too,” Nemo murmured. “Mr. Virgil didn’t seem to be lying just now. He really doesn’t have any intention of dragging me down.”

“What do you think is in the catacombs?” Oliver’s emerald eyes gleamed under the light of the torch.

“According to the records of the Abyssal Church, the catacomb has two floors.” Nemo didn’t intend to hide the knowledge he had gained from him. “We should be on the upper level right now, which is theoretically used to store the bones of believers. There’ll be a miasma in a bit. Do you need my help?”

“I can hold on… But Nemo…” Oliver switched to holding his helmet in his left hand and drew out his Rest in Peace; it was inserted into the rough-fine hilt of the Knight of Silence armor. At first glance, there was nothing wrong with it. “Can you feel the presence of other superior demons? There seems to be a very powerful one sleeping here.”

Good question. Nemo scratched his nose. “Yes.”

“Can you feel where it is?”

“…Don’t you want to ask if the body is still a human that’s possessed by its flesh?”

“Is this a question that needs to be confirmed?” Oliver’s voice suddenly became a bit dry. “Shouldn’t it be…”

“Its body is half rotten. The Church of Silence is supported by its bones. This is the part I can feel,” Nemo also replied dryly. “Furthermore, its body is in the lower layer of the catacombs, which is recorded in the Abyssal Church literature.”

It took Oliver a full three minutes to digest this fact. The expression on his face changed for a while before finally fixating on blankness.

“Nemo…”

He knows. Nemo took a sharp inhale. He thought he knew what Ollie wanted to ask—how did he detect the demon, or how he was able to pry into the literature of the Abyssal Church. If Ollie really wanted to know the truthful answer, he might be able to tell him now…

“Should we increase the price?” Oliver said nervously. “Although Mr. Virgil is a good person, this situation is too much.”

“…” Nemo was silent for a few seconds. He wanted to take advantage of the situation to explain his conjecture, but now the atmosphere was lost. “Probably,” he replied blankly. “Don’t you have any other feelings?”

“Not really,” Oliver said abruptly, shaking his head and frowning. “No, I do have a question.”

It’s coming. It’s coming. Nemo mustered up his courage once again…

“Won’t it hurt?”

“…Huh?” Nemo didn’t react for a moment.

“It’s a bit unnatural.” Oliver weighed the helmet in his hand. “I got some information here. The Abyssal Church has been trying to awaken this demon so that it can become an important part of their might, but according to you, they built their important main church directly on its bones… Then I can only imagine what will happen once they awaken this demon.”

“It’s quite rude to build a house on someone else’s half-rotten body, right? It sounds like it’ll be pretty painful, so will it really cooperate with them when it awakens?”

“Yes, but I think I can explain.” Nemo tried hard to find the words in his head. “When they found it, its body was sleeping.”

“Then what?”

“They held a grand sacrifice and got ‘acquiescence’,” Nemo sighed. “Well, unilaterally determined ‘acquiescence’. After all, they decided that this demon was full of hatred for the surface, and it was already experiencing enough pain that it wouldn’t care if there was only a little more.”

“……”

“It was forcibly dragged up by the ‘Gatekeepers’ more than 700 years ago. Do you remember Pandorater from the Black Chapter’s test, Ollie?”

“Of course.”

“At that time, there should be a group of people studying the weaponization of superior demons.” During the test, the desperate plea for help from the baby demon came to his mind, and it felt as if a piece of lead had suddenly dropped into his stomach. “This should be… the product of a failed experiment. It barely managed to save its life, but…”

It was also relatively weak and docile. There was only one key difference between it and Pandorater. This mountain nightmare leopard was already an adult.

The Gatekeepers forcibly pulled part of its body to the surface, but they were unable to completely destroy its will, and they didn’t know the method of sending a superior demon back, so they had to destroy it. In other words, they unilaterally identified it for ‘elimination’. The vitality of a superior demon had always been strong, and the part that was pulled out of the surface didn’t have its heart, so it survived and could only be counted as “alive” for the time being.

Those who had to die in despair instead survive.

“In short, no matter how weak it is, much of its body was exposed outside… Just like the original Pandorater, its magic will be stronger than most of the superior demons on the surface.” Nemo didn’t want to discuss this topic. “You should know about Aurorae. It’s normal for Aurorae to keep an eye on it.”

“They decided that it will take revenge,” Oliver thought for a moment, “so the Abyssal Church thinks it will ‘absolutely ’ cooperate with them. But something’s still wrong. Even if they manage to stop Aurorae—”

Hagen said so not long ago.

Was the new moon sacrifice really just a simple killing to “pay tribute to the Demon King”?

It was too unnatural. More than 700 years had passed. Even if Nemo didn’t know the specifics at the beginning, in any case, a sleeping mountain nightmare leopard couldn’t last so long on its own. There had to be an external factor forcing it to hang on, in order to wait for its revenge after it “wakes up”.

Judging from Duran Virgil’s performance, he wasn’t the type who was looking forward to chaos in the world.

An exorcist who was very good at erosion spells…

“Ollie,” Nemo said softly as he looked at the soft white light from the torch. He realized for the first time that it looked dazzling. “I think… I know what Mr. Virgil’s purpose is, and he really won’t ‘take’ anything.”

“…He probably went to kill it.”

---

The author has something to say:

Nemo, who was very bad at climbing a city wall at the beginning, can now directly fly up.

————————

Gloomy catacombs.

Virgil: Let’s split up.

Nemo: … (If this is a horror story, we’re doomed.)

---

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 107: Waiting to Die

“More important things?” Nemo’s attention quickly shifted. Since Oliver followed him, it meant that it wasn’t a matter that could be procrastinated. For the time being, after this day’s experience, he couldn’t imagine what more serious thing could happen.

“Mr. Virgil is good at mind control, but we all know he can’t control you.” Oliver stretched out his left hand, which was covered in metal armor, and awkwardly straightened the armor around his neck. “Our side… Um, we got some information. He’s especially good at erosion spells. If he finds out you have the strength of a demon warlock or higher, I don’t know if he’ll try to exorcise you.”

“I just met Dylan and Mr. Cross in the nave, and they didn’t say anything about it,” Nemo said, pulling the mask to the right side of his head.

“Actually, I tried to inform them, but… Their luck seems to be pretty bad. They’ve been in constant battle, and the magic interference to call them is too high. It’s safer for me to come in person than to wait,” Oliver poured out the words like he was spilling the beans. “Don’t worry. Ann’s also providing support outside. I gave her a communication crystal that can receive messages. Those disposable crystals can still be used—what are you laughing at?”

“No,” Nemo couldn’t stop himself from smiling. I thought one of these explanations would be ‘I wanted to see you’.”

Oliver suddenly choked. His face flushed suspiciously. He was silent for a few seconds, then silently buckled his helmet back on his head.

“…But this is indeed a problem.” Nemo changed the subject empathetically. “If this happens, I can’t deliberately let him control me.”

“That’s right,” Oliver said. “The way he behaves is completely different from the rumors. You have to be careful. And you need to move faster because Au—”

“Aurorae is coming, and the Church of Silence will be sealed soon,” Nemo took over smoothly. “If necessary, I’ll try my best to suggest it to Mr. Virgil to act in advance.”

Oliver’s stiff chuckle came from his helmet. “Well, let me guess. Dylan and Mr. Cross should be looking for the human sacrifices, right?”

“That’s right, captain,” Nemo said, his voice lighter.

“I should let you be my vice-captain.”

“There are only five of us! ……So what are you going to do now, Ollie?” Miraculously, Nemo found he was quite calm.

“I haven’t thought about it yet. It’s imperative to solve the potential danger of mind control.” Oliver’s equally brisk voice came from the armor. “Well, let me think about it… Have you found Bagelmaurus? We can add ‘uncontrollable’ to one of its talents.”

“Yes, but it’s following Mr. Cross.” Nemo scratched his hair. “After all, you can’t use the communication crystal, but at least Bagelmaurus can always find me… Ah.” He suddenly stopped scratching his hair.

“Do you have an idea?”

“You can go with me, Ollie.” Nemo reached out and tapped the metal armor on Oliver’s chest lightly, avoiding the dangerous thorns. “But I may have to wrong you.”

Duran Virgil was making final preparations.

He unfolded a tool bag. The badly worn buffalo skin emitted a faint smell of blood. Inside was a whole row of brushes, each of which was well maintained, and the wooden brush holder had a warm luster. Virgil brushed the pens with his fingertips, as if he was counting silently.

After he retracted his hand, he was in a daze for a while. He then carefully took out a delicate crystal bottle from his pocket and put it together with the brushes. They were neatly arranged and dim in color, inexplicably like a funeral procession.

This day had finally arrived.

The relaxation and depression that the goal was about to be achieved rushed into his throat, but there wasn’t any emotion related to joy in the mixed feelings. Truthfully, Duran Virgil didn’t care about the incoming Aurorae, but he wanted to take care of things before the place was completely sealed. To say the least, even if the Church of Silence was sealed up, he believed that, with his own understanding of this place, it would be easy enough to save a demon worshiper in the chaos.

Virgil raised his hand. He saw the cocoons full of eyes, and the smell of death that would never be washed away lingered between his fingers.

He knew what his reputation was, and he had no intention of accepting it. Duran Virgil had never been a silent hero who “guards the people”. These hands had indeed ended countless troublesome demons, and even several “compatriots” who were also demon warlocks, but that wasn’t out of any virtue, and he knew this very well.

The root was just a very selfish and cold wish.

He puffed up his chest and sucked in as much air into his lungs as hard as he could, as if he had never really breathed before. He stared at the brushes and “paints” on the wooden platform. They were once his last warmth, which he had turned into weapons of murder with his own hands. The tall man lowered his head and slowly rolled up the leather bag, moving softly and carefully.

There was only one last step left.

However, Virgil’s “last step” brought him a lot of surprises. The seemingly honest demon worshiper came back soon after sunset, which was what he expected, but Virgil never thought…

“Are you…?” Virgil held his brush and looked at the person behind him. A Knight of Silence was following the handsome black-haired young man step by step, who hung his head slightly and was dressed as a believer of the Abyssal Church. It was just that he didn’t wear his mask seriously, while he held the black staff firmly in his hand.

The bone ball at the top of the staff floated with his movements.

“Mr. Virgil. My disguise was discovered by a Knight of Silence, so I had to mind control him,” Nemo’s voice wasn’t loud, and his speech was vague and brief. “As for bringing him back… I think he should be of some use to your plans.”

Knights of Silence were usually demon worshipers, but after swearing loyalty to the Bishop of the Abyss, they could gain dangerous spells and transform their physical body. Strength was an important indicator of the success of mind control. Although the Knights of Silence weren’t as powerful as a real demon warlock, they would never be controlled by an ordinary demon worshiper.

There could only be one answer. Virgil had a bad hunch—if that staff was a mind control weapon…

It wasn’t impossible. Virgil’s mind was spinning. No matter how inconspicuous the strength of a single person was, this Black Chapter team was snake-level. Besides, his teammates also mentioned that his staff wasn’t ordinary.

“It’s really useful,” Virgil said, in a deep voice. “…But are you sure he won’t break away from your control?”

“No,” Nemo looked at the floating bone ball. “I’ve controlled something stronger than him, and it hasn’t failed.”

“I see.”

“Although it’s not a good weapon, it…” Nemo weighed the staff in his hand and his tone became a little stiff, “has seventeen mind drain arrays, five exploration runes, and eleven control immunity arrays. Will this convince you? You must have done extensive research on abyssal magic if you are familiar with the Church of Silence.”

Vergil thought, judging from his stiff tone, that the demon worshiper seemed to be a little unhappy. He roughly estimated the attributes provided, and the design seemed intentional. From his many years of experience, although this kind of ratio was extremely rare, it was feasible. Light shouldn’t be talking nonsense. After all, it took a frighteningly large number of calculations to design a reasonable array to make it a suitable weapon.

Unless the other party knew his strength in advance, it would’ve taken at least a month to complete the calculation adaptations for the weapon designer rather than just a single day.

Things were getting troublesome. If this thing was in Light’s hands, he wasn’t sure if he could successfully control him. There were also the exploration runes. Once he failed to mind control him, Light would immediately find out. Rather than trying to get rid of the staff… It was better not to offend this demon worshiper before reaching his destination. 

“I understand.” Virgil’s expression calmed down, and he nodded. “I believe you.”

The demon worshiper took out a klebator salamander’s heart from the bag at his waist and slowly stuffed it into his mouth. The Knight of Silence behind him shook slightly, and a roll of black smoke on the edge of his cloak made a trembling mark in the air.

“The information on my side is almost the same.” Virgil pinned the rolled belt of items around his waist. “I’m afraid we have to act tonight, Mr. Light.”

“Isn’t the defense at night tighter?”

“It happened suddenly. By sunrise tomorrow, it’s estimated that martial law will be imposed here,” Virgil sighed with melancholy. “It can only be tonight. I can talk to you slowly about the details on the road… To be honest, things will be much easier with an obedient Knight of Silence. I have to thank you.”

“…Nn.” Nemo responded.

“Let’s go. When we get there, you can contact your team captain.”

“Don’t you need to prepare something?”

“No need.” Virgil reluctantly tugged at the corner of his mouth. “I’m all ready.”

He did make all the preparations, just like many years ago. Was it hundreds of years ago? Virgil couldn’t remember.

He was also dressed like this back then. He was alone, with a large bag on his back, and his whole body was covered with traces of paint. The easel and the drawing board were tied to his backpack, and the brushes and paints were hung on his wide belt. It was just that those packages were not full of murderous drugs and materials; rather, they were filled with dried food.

At that time, although he was tall, he was abnormally thin, and his fingers could detect the obvious depression in his cheeks. There was no smell of other people’s blood on his body; only his own. Roscoe’s forest was vast and beautiful. It was a suitable place to die quietly—especially for a person who was being corroded by the toxins from the Abyss.

The memory was too early. He may not be as free and lax as he remembered, but he was determined to refuse to die without dignity on a hospital bed.

Time flew by so fast. Virgil grinned at the old stone bricks on the soles of his feet. When he first came “here”, there wasn’t even a shadow of the Church of Silence. There was only a huge, slowly decaying skeleton.

And a single person.

Even if all other memories faded, only this one would not blur or disappear. At that time, he probably had just fixed the easel into the soil, or he might have sat on a tree stump and looked at the weird skeleton, calculating its proportions with a brush. A voice came from the tree, cold and unhappy. The pronunciation was weird and wasn’t normal…

“Human,” a strange young man leaning on a tree said. “What are you doing?”

“Painting.” He raised his head and replied obediently, deciding not to care about any special pleasantries.

“What else?”

“Waiting to die,” he continued to answer. “What about you?”

“…Me too.”

---

The author has something to say:

Virgil: I don’t think you know my abilities.

(Really know)

Virgil: It shouldn’t be calculated on the spot.

(Really calculated)

Virgil: Light’s tone is a little stiff. He should be unhappy.

(Really nervous)

Oliver, who was watching, wanted to laugh hysterically, but as a Knight of Silence he couldn’t make a sound. It was really hard.

---

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 106: The Fake Knight

It was just a question, Nemo thought. It shouldn’t be difficult.

He had escaped many things previously. After embarking on this journey, he became accustomed to forcing himself to take the lead before retreating. He still remembered the simple and casual life he once had, but that was more than half a year ago. The memories of Roadside Town had shown him what it meant to be separated from the world.

He felt melancholy thinking about the life of counting copper coins to calculate his tight budget as he would bargain with the bakery before dark.

“You’re asking the right person,” Jesse didn’t hesitate to answer. He scooted over in Nemo’s direction and sat next to him. “Although Adri is in front of me… Well, this isn’t very good, but I’m not a man who will deny my past. My dear Nemo, you may have forgotten, but we did have a sweet time in the past together—wait—wait, don’t do that.”

Nemo moved his gaze away from the statue of Ulysses, raised his finger solemnly, and cut it across his neck, showing a raw threat towards Jesse.

“Well, I do know who you are,” Jesse sighed reluctantly. “If you can ask this, then I believe you also have some understanding of your situation now.”

Nemo’s expression didn’t change as he nodded lightly.

“Do you know?” The smile on the blond young man’s face faded a bit. He raised his head and stared at the darkly painted dome of the Church of Silence. “People often say, ‘it’s a good thing to keep hope’, even if it’s unrealistic and stupid. You’ve always liked this idea, and I hope you’ll keep it.”

“You don’t want to tell me,” Nemo concluded in a low voice as he clutched the corners of his robe tightly. The person sitting next to him knew the answer, which made him anxious.

“Because it’ll be a lot less fun.” Jesse shrugged. “Besides, you won’t torture me for the answer to this question. Don’t be disappointed. I can answer your other question.”

Nemo turned his head; his silver-gray eyes stared through the gap in the mask at the blond young man’s fluttering lips.

“Why do I insist on joining? Why did I approach such a danger… Hmmm.” Jesse’s smile was mixed with a little malice. “What I said just now isn’t a joke. We did have a ‘sweet’ past—a wonderful deal that’s still in effect.”

“…But you can rest assured,” Jesse pushed back strands of his blond hair behind his ear. “I’m not here for you.”

Nemo took a deep breath and tried to gauge Jesse Dylan’s strength again, but even when he realized that he was “an ominous monster”, he still didn’t get any results. The other party sitting next to him had a strong heartbeat and a normal human body temperature. That was it.

He had a vague idea—crazy in fact—but it didn’t hold water. Nemo hesitated for a few seconds, concentrated all his strength, and carved a magic array on the cookie tin. He opened his mouth, intending to ask another question when the door of the nave suddenly opened, and a neat line of Knights of Silence slid quietly into the church.

At the same time, a relatively powerful demonic aura was approaching. If his judgment was right, Hagen Ingram was heading in the direction of the nave, and it wasn’t a good idea to use this makeshift disguise while she was around.

“I’ll retreat first.” Nemo stood up and didn’t look at Jesse again.

“Contact?” Jesse raised his eyebrows.

Nemo solemnly stuffed the cookie tin into the arms of the blond young man and patted it. “Cover its aura,” he warned earnestly.

Jesse looked speechless for a moment before he opened the cover of the tin and glanced inside, then let out a laugh.

“I see,” he said. “The location of the sacrifice?”

“Engraved on the lid of the tin.”

“…Take your time.” Jesse also stood up. “My sweetheart and I will go and see those poor sacrifices.”

Nemo chose a different route and quickly left the nave. He hastily walked to his and Virgil’s room. His brain was buzzing, and God knew how much he wanted to spare a few days to shrink into a corner and sort out all the information that made his stomach churn, but he didn’t have time now. The rapid passage of time was dragging him like a wheel. He hadn’t even digested Jesse Dylan’s astounding speech and abnormal performance, so he’d rather face the exorcist instead.

As if there were countless small needles poking his nerves, Nemo clung to the staff tightly wrapped in his robe. He found a dark indoor pillar and leaned against it, trying to control his breathing.

His test was undetected, and the feedback appeared earlier than he thought.

He did his best to add a highly concealed seal on the cookie tin. It was extremely sensitive to magic. If he found that the other party failed to open it successfully the first time, he could directly remove it from a long distance. It was a harmless little test. Jesse Dylan had opened it easily, and the seal broke without leaving a trace behind, failing to bring even a moment of stagnation to the blond young man’s movements.

Nemo pressed his hand on his left chest. He could feel his heart pulsating violently under his ribs. The brilliance of the setting sun leaked in through the narrow windows, leaving a blood-red light mark on the stone tiles.

This proved his conjecture—Jesse Dylan’s strength was comparable to “him now”.

Nemo looked at his hands. This discovery didn’t make the current situation much simpler, but if there was a trace that his guess could be right…

Then everything may be more complicated than he thought before.

Nemo buried his face in his hands and smiled bitterly between his fingers. He had never imagined that one day he would have such ridiculous and dangerous expectations. Whether it was him or Dylan, it was better to be an unknown superior demon from the Abyss.

That would be great.

Nemo stared at the sunlight for a while, until the light gradually faded. Seeing that the wheel of time was about to roll on his neck, Nemo finally decided to put everything behind him and complete his current task. First, he had to make up a sufficiently credible lie about the entire afternoon…

The clinking sound of armor was heard not far away, causing Nemo to quickly recover. He forgot to look around when he was distracted, and a Knight of Silence was already too close. In desperation, he could only try his best to eliminate his aura and hide himself behind the pillar.

Wrong. Nemo suddenly recovered. Why would a Knight of Silence make such a loud sound when moving?

Nemo looked suspiciously into the dim corridor and saw a Knight of Silence walking… awkwardly. The effect was a little funny. Either the knight himself suffered from severe arthritis, or the horribly distorted armor was rusty. The other party moved forward slowly. For a moment, it was completely silent and cavalier. After a while, he relaxed again and moved casually, making the armor clink again. 

As if perceiving his sight, the knight suddenly stopped moving. The helmet turned directly in Nemo’s direction. Shit. Nemo decided to give up hiding his aura and move to knock the opponent out and lock him up in a utility room. He licked his lips nervously, and the array in his right hand was ready to go at any moment.

The Knight of Silence stretched out his hands, but instead of drawing his sword, he took off his helmet…

“Come out, Nemo,” Oliver’s voice was filled with joy. “I see you.”

Nemo almost lost control and the array in his right hand almost exploded. He thought he might be going crazy. Not to mention Jesse; even Oliver could see through his disguise.

“…Your ponytail is exposed,” Oliver added thoughtfully.

Nemo chuckled. He shook his head and strode out from behind the pillar and rushed towards Oliver, trying to give him a strong hug but the long thorns of the Knight of Silence armor dispelled his thoughts. Nemo stopped in front of Oliver and opened his arms a little embarrassedly and began to think about how to put them down without making it awkward.

Oliver clung to his helmet with one hand, and his emerald eyes were full of warm smiles. The dark and creepy knight’s uniform didn’t match his gentle face at all, creating a stark contrast. He quickly reacted to Nemo’s stiffness and raised his brows towards the long thorns on his armor. He then stretched out his other arm and gently lifted the weird mask from Nemo’s face.

Oliver took in a breath, leaned forward slightly, and tentatively kissed Nemo’s lips.

“I’m looking for you,” he said.

“Oh, it’s been a long time since I saw you.” Nemo smiled back at Oliver. Those heavy thoughts no longer seemed to be as piercing as before. Oliver Ramon would always be there when he needed it the most and could easily bring him back to the state of mind when he was in Roadside Town. “Why are you here… No, how did you get in? Those two rows of corpses have already let three groups of people pass them. Are they really useful?”

“Oh, this… It’s a long story.” Oliver scratched his head. “I have more important things to tell you.”

In fact, it was closer to “confusing” than “a long story”, Oliver thought helplessly.

Half an hour ago.

“I can only bring you here,” Parish, the Knight of Judgment, said solemnly. He carefully held a delicate silver candlestick in one hand and clenched the reins of the white horse in the other. Rather than candles, there were five dazzling white balls of light on it. “We are even now, miss. For Zenni’s sake, don’t mention that bowl of soup anymore.”

Three people, a horse, and a goat—five living creatures were squeezed together into a ball covered by a transparent barrier with ripples.

“They installed that kind of thing.” Ann curled her lips at the stone steps in the distance. Even though it wasn’t close, it was enough to see the corpses hanging from both sides of the stone steps clearly. “Now things are troublesome.”

“…Wait. You want to go in?” Parish raised his voice. “I can say very affirmatively, unless you’re a demon worshiper or a demon warlock, this kind of thing—” he glanced at the fuller goat. “Impossible.”

“Besides, you don’t have any demonic aura,” he added. “Forget it.”

“What about sneaking in with that?” Oliver stretched out his hand and pointed to the Knight of Silence patrolling not far away.

“…No one has tried it, but…”

Before Parish finished speaking, Oliver had already made his move. A soft light cable lashed out, directly covering the sole patrol knight, and dragged him into their protective barrier. The Knight of Silence, who was dragged in, immediately fainted. Although the light cable didn’t damage his armor, the flesh inside the armor made a subtle hissing sound.

Parish took a deep breath. He wasn’t wrong.

Oliver awkwardly stripped off the knight’s armor and carefully put it on himself.

“Are you thinking straight?” Ann frowned. “There’s no demonic aura on this armor, Oliver. It may not work like this.”

“If it doesn’t, we’ll run away,” Oliver said. “Didn’t we see another team on their way just now? We walked a bit faster than they did, so I’ll try to catch up. At least I have enough confidence I can escape.”

“Then I’ll stay here and support,” Ann said, glancing at Parish unabashedly. “But to be honest, I really don’t think it’s feasible. Did you memorize the protection array? Remember to make a few rounds before you come back.”

However, her warning wasn’t needed.

Oliver followed the tail end of the Knights of Silence team and carefully stepped on the stone steps.

“The smell of the Abyss.” The bodies shook gently. “Qualified. Qualified.”

---

The author has something to say:

Oliver is here!

……It was said that only one person was dispatched, and now they officially invested 5/6. Tumbleweed is very cost-effective, Mr. Virgil.

————————

Nemo’s test was successful, and Jesse’s about to say goodbye to his beloved melon field…

Nemo: …Come on, hurt each other!

---

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 105: Sheep and Poetry

This was a genuine provocation.

If one were to say this elsewhere, although it would be annoying, it wasn’t a problem in a strict sense. The current major religions were more lenient. If a religious person were to hear it, they would give a stern glare. Jesse Dylan wouldn’t be burned at the stake, nor would he be hanged by a noose and tarred and feathered.

However, this wasn’t a bustling tavern nor a crowded street at dusk. It was the nave of the main church of the Abyssal Church.

Adrian stood quietly besides Jesse, slightly lowering his upper body, like a leopard waiting to pounce. The demon warlock behind the sermon table was silent for a few seconds; a few tentacles stuck out of his cuffs, pointing straight in the direction of the blond young man. The color of the tips of the translucent tentacles gradually turned black, like the eyes of a snail sticking out.

“Please continue,” the demon warlock said politely, but his tone was much colder than before. “Forgive me for not understanding your point of view.”

As a preacher, this response was truly qualified for the position he held. Adrian, however, didn’t plan to let down his guard. He stared at the swinging tentacles and clenched the metal bow in his hand.

Jesse let out a long “oh”, and the glee in his tone became a bit heavier. “According to what you just said, you seem to be pretty sure that your enemy… Well, humans have turned their backs on your God.”

“You’re right,” the demon warlock responded. The tentacles sticking out of his cuffs move slowly. “I was also a human once, and I was blinded by the various religions. Demons are evil and need to be exorcized. This concept has been deeply rooted in people’s hearts, and the opposite of the Demon King is God—who regulates all this? Few would seek the truth.”

“After thinking one step further than others, do you think that what you see is the ‘truth’?” The blond young man sneered. Adrian could hear the sarcasm in his voice. “It’s better to say, you hope that it’s the truth—I have read your teachings, the Demon King… Oh, sorry, your God is the image of a victim. It endured betrayals and killings but didn’t say a word. What a ‘kind’ and ‘great’ sacrifice.”

“Now that you have an understanding, then you should know very well. It was a miraculous life, and surface creatures—especially humans—fed themselves with this miraculous remnant. They consciously isolated demons and excluded those of us who wanted to worship and stand on their side. Evil? We are just following the laws of nature, working to overthrow this unnatural…”

“This is the question I want to talk about,” Jesse interrupted unceremoniously. “Do you think you are important?”

Adrian’s brows slightly furrowed.

Over the years he had been on the battlefield, he had gained confidence in reading people. This was also the reason why he didn’t take Jesse Dylan’s love bullshit seriously. This man was full of lies and the smile on his face could hardly reach the bottom of his eyes. The beautiful words in his mouth were like a script, and after stripping them off, they were simply full of banter and indifference. Long gone were the days when he was a teenager. As a warrior who had seen enough blood and fire, it was impossible for him to be confused by that beautiful face.

He was suspicious and vigilant about every word that Jesse Dylan’s mouth uttered.

But now Dylan’s momentum had changed. The casual look on the surface was still there, but Adrian suddenly felt that what Dylan was saying now did have some seriousness behind it.

“Of course, it’s a bit rude to say that. After all, you’re not the only one with this problem. Let me avoid it. In view of the fact that humans have the most religions, human beliefs, human love and dedication, will always be extremely important to the so-called omnipotent ‘Gods’. And mankind’s virtues… Ha, ‘virtues’ always apply to said Gods, don’t they? Even for most humans, they can’t even agree on the standards of virtue of their own ethnic group more than a hundred years ago.”

“And the appearance of God… Well, let me see. Zenni taught by the Laddism Church, is a wise and majestic old man. Unfortunately, Celestine, the God of the Forest, is the image of a female elf. Mansfield, the God of Fire, has a beard that all dwarves envy, while the Dragon God Dimitrius has the most noble golden scales.”

“This just shows their superficiality and arrogance,” the demon warlock said as his tone became icier. The tentacles continued to stretch longer, and their tip was no more than an arm’s length from the blond young man. “Those are all imaginary gods who have never appeared before. Our God exists—”

“Indeed, and it happens to be the appearance that is ‘closest’ to you and ‘most beneficial’ to your cause.” Jesse clapped his hands. “Is there any difference between you and other races from the perspective of believing in ‘being loved by God’?”

“This is pure sophistry. It’s the inevitable result of my God’s protection.”

“If you need all sheep to love and respect you from the bottom of their hearts when shearing wool, then imagine yourself as a sheep, and you can continue to think so. Wool is exchanged for gold coins, and gold coins are exchanged for poetry, but can a sheep really imagine human poetry?” The blond young man showed a perfect smile. “…Even if the sheep disappear from the world one day, it’s still fine to raise other livestock and grow more crops. What do you think? At least that’s what I think.”

Adrian suddenly felt a chill on his back inexplicably.

“If that’s your argument, then you’re in the wrong place.” The demon warlock walked out from behind the sermon table and showed a weird smile on his face. “You should go to the ’Gatekeepers’ for a long talk. They’ll welcome you.”

The other party didn’t have the attitude for any more equal talks. The demon warlock decided to take the lead and teach this ignorant madman a small lesson. However, the next moment, he was horrified to find that his human body was completely unable to move, and only the part mixed with demon flesh could still struggle.

Without hesitation, he directly activated the alarm array on the sermon table. At the same time, the outstretched eyes on his tentacles stared straight at the dangerous uninvited guest and saw the other party’s blue eyes turn golden.

As soon as the word “charm” crossed his mind, his thoughts turned blank.

When a Knight of Silence guard arrived, there was already a peaceful scene in the nave. The preacher was still preaching calmly, and a beautiful blond young man was sitting on a bench, listening very seriously.

“An unexpected magic diffraction.” The demon warlock behind the sermon table turned his head. “It’s just a false alarm. Don’t mind.”

“What’s the origin of magic? We have reason to think…” After that, he continued his preaching.

When the alarm sounded, Hagen Ingram was making final preparations in her room.

The alarm lasted for a very short time, and she carefully explored it at that time but didn’t find any hostile magic fluctuations. The Knights of Silence could handle it, she thought as she dragged out a huge python suitcase from the dark cabinet with great care. The suitcase that was carefully taken out was then levitated by a spell and landed firmly in the magic array.

A series of small magic arrays instantly floated above the suitcase, and as Hagen’s fingers crossed, they burst like bubbles one by one. It seemed whatever was inside had noticed the disappearance of the shackles and it started to struggle frantically. It impatiently opened the lid of the suitcase and gushed out the window.

“Go,” she said softly, cocking the corners of her mouth slightly. “Help me record everything, my lovely children.”

When the first surveillance bug flew out the window, Nemo was rushing to the nave of the Church of Silence. After the short alarm sounded, he subconsciously moved his attention to the nave and then found a new visitor at the Abyssal Church.

It wasn’t Oliver. He was depressed for a few seconds, but decided he had to count on Jesse Dylan for the time being. No, it wasn’t just Jesse—Adrian Cross’ aura was also there in the same place as him. He should be concealed under some kind of illusionary spell. Nemo glanced at the cookie tin in his arms and decided to find a chance to practice his illusionary skills from the abyssal faction.

He was startled when he saw a swarm of surveillance bugs flying over from outside a window.

They looked very similar to the surveillance insects he saw during the Black Chapter’s test, though they looked a bit different. The surveillance insects of the Mercenary Guild had a fat abdomen covered with stripes, but these insects had that replaced with an eyeball. After retracting his gaze, Nemo immediately hastened his steps. From what he read, the rituals of the Abyssal church didn’t include this step.

Fortunately, meeting his teammates went smoothly.

The sun was about to set, and there were a few more wandering demon worshipers in the nave, which allowed him to mix in easily. Nemo sat down not far from Jesse, and Jesse recognized him instantly by his iconic ponytail.

“Darling… Sorry, Mr. Light.” Seeing Nemo cracking his fingers, Jesse wisely changed his tone. “Are you alright? Did you find anything?”

“Aurorae is coming early,” Nemo whispered, even discreetly adding a confounding effect. “They want to advance the sacrificial time.”

“…Do you remember what your goal is?”

“Mr. Virgil and I have to get things done as soon as possible.” Nemo hesitated for a while, not thinking this was the right time to discuss the truth about this church. “If I’m not mistaken, you came here because…”

“Because Duran Virgil’s details are unknown, and my sweetheart Adri knew enough about this goddamn place.” Jesse spread his hands and glanced at the cookie tin Nemo was holding. “The captain decided that we should keep up as support in case something goes wrong on your end. In a sense, I’m merely a bonus, so don’t mind me.”

“Just in time.” Nemo cut to the chase. “As usual, they have a group of civilians as sacrifices. If you can… I want to help them escape.”

“Now? It’s not impossible, but I have to say—”

“Not now,” Nemo sighed. “I have to act with Virgil, so I need someone to help me pay attention to the movements over here. Once they decide to use the sacrifice, you can notify me in time. Uh, find a way to delay if necessary. If it’s Mr. Cross—” he had no intention of hiding it and looked directly at the position where the knight was standing, “There should be a way.”

“Your tone is becoming more like that of the captain of the team.” Jesse raised an eyebrow. “…But the captain will at least explain to us the entire picture of the plan.”

Nemo was silent.

“I’ll tell you,” he said succinctly, “but not now.”

“You can’t do this! I don’t like being stringed along.” Jesse showed an expression full of grievance, while Adrian remained suspiciously silent. “Well, if you’re willing to give a tiny piece of debris to the captain—”

“Aren’t you a diviner?” Nemo glanced at the blond young man. “Guess it yourself.”

“You’re so cold,” Jesse muttered.

“I have more important questions to ask than this.” Nemo raised his eyes and looked at the statue of Ulysses again. He suppressed the convulsions in his stomach, forcibly ignored the constriction in his throat, and asked his questions as calmly as possible.

“Considering your abilities, Dylan, did you know my identity earlier on? If you have a definite answer, I want to know,” he asked bluntly. “And if you really know, then who are you… and why do you insist on joining us?”

---

The author has something to say:

It’s not a very traditional Western fantasy worldview. _(:D”∠)_

So magic has nothing to do with faith, and laws don’t exist out of nowhere (?

————————

Nemo: If you don’t understand, just ask. That’s the job of a librarian.

Jesse: ? (Hold on to the melon in his hand)

---

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 104: The Atheist

At this moment, Nemo seemed to have swallowed a sharp piece of ice. Its edges and corners scratched his esophagus, leaving behind an icy temperature that triggered a series of uncontrollable convulsions. Nemo felt nauseous, but he stabilized and forced himself to continue peeping.

No, there was still a difference. This demon didn’t struggle as painfully as Pandorater. It remained motionless, and the cross section bound by the law revealed dry and rotten flesh. However, because the law wasn’t a thing that existed in a physical sense, the scent of rancidity smelt only a bit and wasn’t very strong.

Except for an extremely weak multiple heartbeat, it was no different from a corpse.

Nemo could estimate the strength of this demon and its vigor wasn’t strong. At most it was a little stronger than Pandorater. It now seemed to be exhausted and had even stopped breathing.

He recognized this thing now.

This was a dying mountain nightmare leopard. They lived in the upper and middle layers of the Abyss where the hunting area was very narrow. They sleep most of the time, so they spend more of their lives in dreams than in reality. The racial strength belonged to a miserable category of superior demons, but these lazy and evasive creatures didn’t care. The racial characteristics of the mountain nightmare leopard were similar to Pandorater. They disliked disputes and were relatively pacifist in the Abyss.

Nemo carefully explored its physical condition. The reality in front of him aggravated the cold feeling in his stomach. It was hopeless. Even now, he couldn’t save it. Its organs had withered and most of them had long been lost. It could have been saved hundreds of years earlier, but now death had onset and it couldn’t be reversed.

It would continue to survive this terrifying pain for decades, and then die completely. This mountain nightmare leopard was most likely aware of this, as its consciousness wasn’t in its noumenon. It was like…

Wait a minute.

If he changed himself… Nemo subconscious thought. Since it had to endure this kind of torture when it was awake, if he was the mountain nightmare leopard, there was only one best choice. If it couldn’t die quickly, then it would separate its consciousness from the body and rely on external forces to make the consciousness fall into deep sleep.

“…Bagelmaurus. Let’s go,” Nemo murmured. He prayed slightly bitterly, hoping that the reality was not as he had guessed.

“What?” The gray parrot stopped pecking at the cookies. “Go?”

“First, we have to find a way to let go of those sacrifices.” Nemo’s voice was a little unstable. “Second… It seems that I really do need to go to the catacombs.”

“What are you talking about? Are you dreaming—uh, excuse me. As you can see, the magic array in this room is very strong. It didn’t even respond to my attack at all. Even if you’re a complete…”

“No.” Nemo raised his hand with a solemn expression. “All ‘impossibilities’ have a ‘limit’ as a prerequisite.”

He stretched out his slender fingers and drew a few imaginary lines in the air. Oliver’s assistance wasn’t needed this time as the empty space cracked open, revealing a gap large enough for one person to pass through. There was a simple room on the other side of the gap, with all kinds of debris piled on the neatly placed wooden frame.

“I’ll steal some clothes first.” Nemo spoke quickly. “Magic can trigger their attention. Since I’m not very skilled—can you camouflage yourself with magic?”

“…If I meet a demon warlock, I’ll definitely be seen through!”

Nemo looked around the room and finally found a cookie tin on top of the cabinet. He stood on tiptoe, hooked it with his staff, and then poured all the cookies inside out onto the tea table.

“Go in,” he said solemnly, pointing to the empty tin. “I’ll cover—at least I can hide your aura.”

The gray parrot looked at him angrily for a few seconds, then sighed before mentally giving up. It squeezed into the tin honestly. Nemo took the tin into his arms and crawled into the hole made by the crack in space.

The messy decoration on the gray parrot’s body clattered against the wall of the tin, which really made it sound like a tin of cookies.

On the other end of the crack was a small warehouse with various items. There was no security. The robes of the believers in the church were stacked into neat squares, and the masks with uniform styles were buckled into a tightly sewn pile, all neatly stacked on a wooden frame against the wall. Nemo took off his black robe and quickly changed into a believer’s robe. After carefully smoothing out the unnatural wrinkles on the robe, he tied his hair into a short ponytail again and took the mask and put it on his face.

After repeatedly confirming that there weren’t any exposed places in the outfit, Nemo wrapped the staff with his old robe and hugged it in his arms with the cookie tin.

The small warehouse was above ground. When he walked out, he saw that it was a bright afternoon.

Nemo was aware that Virgil had returned to his room, and that no one had followed him. It seemed that his speculation was correct. Virgil was currently regarded as a ‘demon worshiper who serves a superior demon’ by the Abyssal Church. However, the actions of a superior demon had always been willful, so it was common for them to disappear for days, even weeks, for no reason, so there was no need to deal with its believers who served them particularly.

It was still early, so he could still gather information first. When the next sunrise came, he would ask Oliver for support. At the very least, he couldn’t get the sacrifices out “inconspicuously” and “foolproof” by himself. The space gap he created was too rough, and only those with high enough magic could pass through alive. Nemo didn’t think those human sacrifices had this qualification.

Nemo tightened his arms around the staff and cookie tin.

He didn’t know why, but at this moment, he especially wanted to say a few words to Oliver—any words would do.

He wanted to hug him and vent furiously. After this was over, he probably needed to increase the frequency of their practices… When the time came that he got enough conclusive evidence, he would be the first to tell Oliver.

[If one day I find out that everything is a lie and he really intends to harm innocent people, I will personally kill him—even if I die. Before that, I will stand by his side and move forward with him.]

Oliver once promised Adrian Cross this.

I will not lie to you. Never. Nemo glanced in the direction of the sun, but his eyes didn’t feel a slight tinge of pain from the strong light.

…I hope you will still move forward with me.

Nemo took a long breath, lowered his head, and continued to walk towards the central area of the church.

It just so happened that his support was there.

“We have to find a weakly guarded place.” Adrian looked at the stone steps covered with corpses on both sides. At this moment, his monk uniform was full of holes and black spots from bloodstains. His face was covered in grime, making him look quite pitiful. “First, think of a way to get in—”

“Why?” Jesse asked rhetorically. He looked no better than Adrian, as his long blond hair was a mess. “Just enter directly from the entrance.”

The knight commander glared at Jesse from head to toe, giving him a look that said “are you crazy” before silently pointing to the two rows of corpses and then pointing to the monk’s uniform on his body.

“But we’ve already met tons of guardian demons along the way!” Jesse shouted. “I don’t want to move anymore!”

“So you’d rather commit suicide?” Adrian calmly concluded.

“Don’t underestimate me too much, baby.” Jesse shook his fingers while he used his other hand to dig deep into his pocket. “I got a lot of good things from my old employer. These two rows… Uh, of things, mainly identifies by smell.”

“You can’t just get a demon’s flesh on your body.” Adrian frowned. “They only judge two things—a demon’s flesh that’s integrated into the body or a demon’s contract, and we have neither.”

When he said this, his eyes stared straight at the beautiful blond young man, but the other party didn’t show any unnatural mood.

“Oh, I found it!” Jesse held up a sealed black vial like it was a treasure. “A good thing for disguising your aura—er, don’t look at me like that. You don’t want to know what it’s made of.”

Adrian narrowed his dark brown eyes. He had never heard of such a thing on the market.

“It’s just an unorthodox gadget.” Jesse seemed to read his thoughts and  shrugged generously. “After all, the noble Knights of Judgment have always rushed head-on and wouldn’t dabble with this kind of stuff.”

Having said that, he bit open the stopper and poured the contents of the vial directly into his mouth.

The knight commander looked at the small bottle’s opening that was currently stuffed into Jesse’s mouth with disgust. He took a step closer and reached out to grab it from Jesse.

However, Jesse didn’t hand him the bottle.

Instead, the blond young man directly grabbed the front lapel of the monk’s uniform and kissed Adrian on the lips. Adrian’s first reaction was to break free and punch his opponent unceremoniously at the same time, but Jesse raised his free hand and had unknowingly grabbed his wrist. The strength was amazing. He had a strong physique as a Chief Justice of the Knights of Judgment, which he had trained for many years, yet he couldn’t break away from Jesse’s grip.

At the same time, an indescribable liquid passed over into his mouth from Jesse’s tongue.

Adrian frowned tightly. After swallowing a mouthful of the astringent and sweet liquid, he bit down hard with his teeth as Jesse released him at the same time, took a step back, and successfully kept his tongue.

“Don’t be angry,” the blond young man said lightly as he wiped his lips. “This thing deteriorates very easily and isn’t suitable for exposure. I can’t help it. You see, now we’re even. This thing is worth a lot of money, so count it as my contribution to the team.” He stuffed the empty bottle back into his pocket and repeatedly sighed. “Its time limit is very short. How about we move forward first, Mr. Consultant?”

Adrian took a deep breath. He glared at Jesse Dylan coldly before he raised his foot and stepped onto the stone pavement.

The two rows of corpses hung quietly, without the slightest reaction, like they were real corpses. Strangely, he hesitated for a few seconds. In his impression, even if they disguised their aura, these things shouldn’t react like this…

The former knight commander glanced at the blond young man behind him and decided not to worry about this detail for the time being.

Jesse Dylan, on the other hand, was thinking about something else…

Cheap gooseberry wine didn’t taste very good. Jesse shoved the empty black vial back into his pocket with dissatisfaction. If he had known, he would have chosen something that tasted better. He glanced at the corpses on both sides again. They seemed very aware of the current affairs and remained motionless.

They soon reached the entrance of the Abyssal Church.

“Do you want to cover your face, love?” Jesse said sweetly. “You’re very famous, aren’t you?”

Adrian ignored him. The spiritual sacrifice was still in effect, so he simply drew a few magic arrays to completely hide himself. In an instant, the blond young man was left in place by himself.

“You’re using a high-level illusion spell that has high magic consumption? ……I see, you’re quite angry.” Jesse hung his head pitifully, while his hand was unceremonious. He pushed open the door full of eyes and entered the nave of the Church of Silence in a dignified manner.

Adrian hesitated for a moment before he whispered, “It’s you who needs to cover your face. Only demon warlocks and superior demons can show their faces here.”

“I think my face is pretty good,” Jesse whispered back confidently. “It would be a pity to cover it up, right?”

Adrian didn’t respond to him.

There was only a demon warlock who had only a mouth on his face and was still standing in front of the stage. It was afternoon, and there were no audience members, but he still spoke to the air, in a gentle tone and full of emotions, as if the place was full of believers.

“That’s a demon warlock. It’s best not to attract his attention,” Adrian whispered coldly. “Let’s go find Mr. Light.”

“How? Knock on each door one by one and ask? You’re so direct that it’s cute.” Jesse inserted a finger in his ears, then waved his arms and greeted the demon warlock that was onstage. “It’s Light who needs to reduce his sense of presence—why don’t we go ahead and wait for him to come to us.”

“How will he notice…”

“Oh,” Jesse said, showing a bright smile “he’ll notice.”

The demon warlock who was preaching on stage politely returned Jesse’s greeting. Jesse picked a chair casually and sat without any formalities with his legs crossed.

“What is the origin of magic? We have reason to believe that the Abyss is the origin of magic. The superior demon provides flesh, and the demon warlock can use both surface magic and abyssal magic. However, the experimental records of the ‘Gatekeepers’ have proved that the reverse is not feasible.” He paused and turned his face that only had a mouth towards Jesse’s direction. The blond young man was resting his elbows on his knees, holding his cheek with his right hand and had a cynical expression.

This new visitor looked calm and didn’t seem to be surprised by the content of his sermon.

“This is not a gap in strength,” the demon warlock continued. “It’s enough to prove that there are remnants of circuits of abyssal magic inside the human body, but they abandoned it and took refuge in a brand-new magic system. Of course, it’s a choice of free will, but what did they do next? They returned to the bottom of the Abyss, plundered our original Gods and suppressed our former brothers. Why? So, they can monopolize this power.”

Jesse still maintained his original sitting posture, but he raised his left hand high.

“Just a little question, my dear friend.” He raised his unblemished face.

“Why do you humans… Oh, sorry, your type and humans, like to take yourselves so seriously?”

---

The author has something to say:

…I like to put a disclaimer that this has nothing to do with any religion that actually exists!…

————————

Knight Commander: …Sure enough, I’d better find a chance to fight Dylan.

Jesse, as the only evil camp of the team (?) I really tried hard (X

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Kinky Thoughts:

Very interesting development between Adrian and Jesse…

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 103: The Living Building

“If you think that Aurorae will still come at the original time, you are dead wrong—”

“Aurorae?” Oliver paused and held his spoon in his hand for a few seconds. “Who’s Aurorae?”

“…” The Knight of Judgment narrowed his eyes, squeezed the edge of the soup bowl, and studied his opponent’s reaction. It was a pity that what discouraged him was that the reaction didn’t seem to be false. “Are you really here just to do a general task?”

“Mm-hmm.” Oliver scooped a bowl for himself and stared carefully at the movements of the Knight of Judgment, ready to release icicles at any moment. “Either way, you can tell me more, and I’ll give you some information about our mission. The records of the Mercenary Guild can’t be falsified. How about it?”

“How about starting with your name?”

“Let’s start with something else,” Oliver laughed. After all, their consultant was once famous, and no one knew whether he, as the leader of the team, had been blacklisted by the Laddism Church. “You see, I’m also a Black Chapter, so I don’t want to be on the Knights of Judgment radar. You guys don’t get along with us little people.”

The fuller goat behind Oliver stretched out its tongue and began chewing on Oliver’s hair.

Parish Sherman, the Knight of Judgment, held his forehead weakly.

Although he personally hated the Black Chapters, if this team had no intention of disrupting the game, he really had no need to fight against such opponents. On the other hand, it seemed that the equipment of this team was extremely poor. They didn’t look powerful at all. When was the last time he saw a regular team transporting the entire team’s supplies using a fuller goat? Ten years ago?

The young man in front of him seemed to be the leader. He didn’t look old and didn’t put on any airs—rather than air, his tone was a bit too cautious. He also seemed proficient at cooking, so it could be seen that he does a lot of chores.

Snake level. Parish frowned. He had attacked them first, and considering this person easily repelled him, nothing was making sense at this moment.

These two people were completely different from the arrogant and domineering Black Chapters he had encountered before. They were frighteningly low-key and didn’t seem to have a strict hierarchy relationship. At present, the two leisurely Black Chapters were minding the pot of soup carefully, as if it was the most important thing in the world. He could almost believe that they were tourists who seemed to have gotten lost.

What the hell is this team up to?

“In fact, I don’t know much about Aurorae…” Ann soaked the bread in the jerky soup and ate it. “I remember that he’s not an enemy of the Laddism Church. What’s he doing here?”

“Information for information.” Parish sat upright as he drank the soup solemnly.

“You first.”

“Why?”

“That soup is ours,” Ann said solemnly. “And the soup contains our most expensive jerky.”

“…” Now Parish was pretty sure this Black Chapter team really didn’t have anything like ‘pride’.

“Knight of Judgment, Parish Sherman. I’m here to record the battle between Aurorae and the Abyssal Church.” He held the soup bowl in both hands and carefully placed it to the right of his body. “Now your turn.”

“We’re here to accompany someone sightseeing.” Oliver considered his words. Mr. Virgil’s task was public, so it shouldn’t be a problem to reveal tidbits of it… He activated the black badge, used his magic to cover up key information, and briefly showed the content of the task to Parrish. “Our client wants to enter the catacombs of the Abyssal Church… Er, you can look for yourself. He designated one of us to accompany him.”

“Are you joking with me?” Parrish took a deep breath. “If you’re using magic, I have to say…”

“No, Mr. Virgil, he really—”

“Who?” Parish shouted suddenly causing the fuller goat to take a step back in fright.

“Duran Virgil.” This time it was Ann’s turn to frown.

“Describe what he looks like.” Parish stared into Ann’s eyes.

“Information for information.” Ann shrugged. “You scared our goat.”

The Knight of Judgment was silent for a while before he seemed to make up his mind. “What do you want to know?”

“Before you said that we ‘sure know how to pick the time’. I hope you can explain why.” This time, Oliver spoke before Ann. “And— If Mr. Virgil is the person who you’re thinking of, are you after him?” A Knight of Judgment wouldn’t lie, which was quite advantageous in negotiations.

“No,” Parish replied quickly. “If it’s really that person, then it’s just a personal matter of mine. It has nothing to do with the Laddism Church. I swear to Zenni that unless he starts killing humans indiscriminately, I won’t act against him.”

“Well, we’ll tell you the appearance and characteristics of Mr. Virgil.” Oliver put down his bowl of soup. “After you.”

“There is a powerful superior demon sleeping in the Abyssal Church, and those crazy cultists have been working to awaken it,” Parish snorted. “Although Aurorae is also a superior demon, it has been committed to eradicating unstable factors that ‘may cause mass destruction’, so it’s on our amnesty list. According to records, it comes here every three hundred years to strengthen the seal of the superior demon.”

“Then there’s conflict within the Abyssal Church,” Ann answered.

“According to the text, this has been the case in recent times.” Parish’s tone was serious. “I need to observe and record the process and the result of the conflict to ensure that no accidents occur.”

“I was under the impression that Aurorae was known as the ‘Superior Demon Slayer’,” Ann raised her brows. “Wouldn’t it be better for it to just kill the superior demon in the Abyssal Church?”

“It’s probably because the one in the Abyssal Church is too powerful.” There was more disgust in Parish’s voice. “Otherwise, it wouldn’t be worshiped by those lunatics. They’re counting on it to wake up and realize what they call… ‘the sky will fall, and the Abyss will rise’,” he sneered. “Aurorae will arrive early in the next few days. If you’re not here to muddy the water, then you’re simply too ignorant—It seems like you’re the latter.”

“That superior demon… It’s not sleeping in the catacombs of the Church of Silence, right?” Ann murmured, throwing the last piece of bread into her bowl of soup.

“I’m not certain of that.” Parish shook his head. “Our intelligence isn’t as detailed.”

Despite what the other party said, an ominous premonition crawled over Oliver’s back in an instant. “The Mr. Virgil who entrusted us… is more than 1.9 meters tall, with brown skin, short brown-gray hair, and brown-yellow eyes. He carries a lot of things on his back, looking like a painter,” he described skillfully, omitting the part about the “demon warlock”.

“It’s him,” Parish sighed. “Damn it, he definitely has a purpose.”

“Why do you say that?”

This time, Parish didn’t plan to haggle with them with trading information. “He has sneaked into churches of various religions several times to steal research results on erosion spells, but he has also been committed to exorcizing demons. His enthusiasm is frighteningly high, so everyone generally turns a blind eye to him. I just don’t think he’s a bit pleasing to the eye, but in front of his merits… I have no position to be hostile to him.”

“Does the Abyssal Church also have research on erosion spells?”

“Yes,” Parish said, answering Oliver’s question. “Sneaking into the catacombs may just be a cover. Virgil’s strength is mind control. Whether it’s a human or a demon, as long as their strength is lower than his, they can’t escape… What’s with the expression?”

“Oh, nothing. Continue,” Ann coughed.

“…Can’t escape his control. You shouldn’t be nervous, though. Your teammate isn’t a demon warlock.” Parish seemed to be holding back an eyeroll. “I hope I didn’t make a mistake in my judgment—you don’t seem to be lying. Since you have no plans to get in the way, I have to continue to move on.”

“Do you mind if we go together?” Oliver stood up while Ann raised one of her brows.

“What?”

“Our client seems to be hiding many things,” Oliver said slowly. “Before the task is completed, I have to tell him in person that I’m considering raising the price.”

‘No wonder,’ Oliver thought. ‘I hope this ‘enthusiastic’ exorcist will not try to control Nemo.’ He wasn’t too worried that Nemo could be controlled. The issue was the chaos that was about to happen.

Nemo’s identity couldn’t be exposed. Mr. Cross and Dylan hadn’t arrived yet at the Church of Silence, and no one knew if they could get to Nemo in time. The disposable communication crystal in his hand was one way, and there was nearly an entire day before sunrise tomorrow. If something went wrong before then, they needed to ensure that all their combat power was present.

It was only the first day. He adjusted his breathing. There was still time.

The person that Oliver was worried about was currently looking at the special dungeon he was assigned to by the Abyssal Church with interest.

This was more like a high-end room than a prison—if he ignored the tapestries painted on the walls full of imprisonment arrays and the wallpaper inlaid with erosion spells. It almost felt comfortable in a way. Nemo picked up a few cookies from the saucer on the tea table and started chewing on them, and was relieved to find that they were better than dry food.

The long-lost sweetness calmed his mood a bit.

The Abyssal Church was very cautious. There wasn’t even a surveillance array from the outside world, eliminating all possibility of any two-way influence. Unfortunately, this was just a room for a “piece of flesh from a superior demon”. No matter what his race was, this couldn’t possibly stop a complete superior demon. Rather than letting the Abyssal Church monitor him in fear, it was better to let them think that he’d been locked up tightly.

“Bagelmaurus,” Nemo whispered as he took another cookie. “Attack the wall… Don’t shiver. ‘Please’ attack the wall.”

The gray parrot still shivered and spewed out a dark ball of light, which blasted towards the wall but dissipated seconds before hitting it.

“Um, seriously. Don’t shiver. Would you like some cookies?” Nemo felt a little helpless. He even missed the strutting of “Lord Bagelmaurus” for a few seconds.

“Lord Bagelmaurus” didn’t touch the cookie in Nemo’s hand. It trembled and pecked the cookies in the bowl instead, almost pecking them away.

“Weaken, imprison, and erode.” Nemo recognized the reaction of the magic array. The construction of it was very delicate, and this room couldn’t have just been prepared. In other words, it wasn’t prepared for him. A church that believed in the Demon King had carefully set up a special cell for a superior demon. Looking at the reaction of the Bishop of the Abyssal Church, they seem to have a lot of research on how to deal with superior demons.

If he wasn’t mistaken, the Abyssal Church’s expectation was that the last “guest” for this place should be Aurorae.

However, he wasn’t sure if he would become a sacrifice. Nemo rubbed his chin with his fingers. Superior demons who were imprisoned for no reason would indeed feel angry, but there were many superior demons behind the Abyssal Church who secretly supported them. Ordinary superior demons wouldn’t offend their compatriots on the surface just because they lost some face.

He had to make sure that Hagen wasn’t lying. After all, it could affect their next plan.

Nemo opened his lips slightly and took a deep breath.

Jesse Dylan once told him that he was “just bound by cognition”. He now knew that there wasn’t anything wrong with what he said. The cognition of ordinary mages would be bound by power, and their limited power would prevent them from doing things outside the scope of their abilities. He was the opposite. His power growth depended on the cognition that came from his own heart.

If he thought he was an ordinary person, then he was an ordinary person. If he firmly believed that he was a demon warlock, he could indeed exert matching power, and now…

Imagine. There were no spells, no runes—imagine and turn it into reality.

Nemo closed his eyes as he frantically drew out his own power. Invisible peeping nets suddenly spread out. He wanted to see every detail of this church, and then…

He gasped, causing the cookie to fall to the ground.

He found something more compelling than the location of the human sacrifices, or the military division of the Church of Silence, or even the mysterious catacombs. Since he stepped into the Church of Silence, all the details of incongruity had been answered.

The distorted asymmetrical shape, the strong incense and vaguely rancid smell, the slightly higher temperature in the room.

It was alive.

He saw something in the stone bricks. This huge and magnificent building was built on the bones of a giant beast. Those solid bones became the most reliable pillars of the church, but this was only part of it. Nemo could see more at this time.

The scene before him was no stranger. The situation of this superior demon was exactly the same as Pandorater, who was bound by the Mercenary Guild during the Black Chapter’s test. Part of its body was exposed to the surface while the other parts were bound by the law of the abyss, stuck in the cracks. Unlike Pandorater, the parts above ground were almost just bones. It was dying, rotting alive, every minute and every second.

……But it was still alive.

---

The author has something to say:

Oliver is going to rush over XD

————————

Parish: ? Don’t be nervous. Your teammate isn’t a demon warlock.

Ann: Ummmmmmmmmm

Oliver: …

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 102: Imprisonment

The afternoon sun was warm and dazzling.

Virgil retracted his hand. He wasn’t wearing a mask, and his plain and hearty smile disappeared without a trace at that moment. The tall man lowered his head and looked coldly at what was struggling on the ground…

It was the demon warlock they ran into when they first entered the church. He had basically lost his human appearance and was closer to a large ball of tar. The deformation was so severe that only his human-like head was retained, while other parts were completely distorted into dark and viscous oil.

At that moment, he was dying, and his shrill screams were bound in a small space covered by a mute array.

“Exorcist!” he roared. His moist body was melting and oozing out blood that had a fishy smell. “How dare you… How can you use a corrosion spell! You filthy traitor!”

“Because it’s very easy to use,” Virgil’s tone was mixed with a sneer. “It’s also suitable for torture.”

“So you’re…!”

“Yes, but I’m not the same garbage as you who prey on children, ‘Pied Piper*’. Even human hunters know that hunting cubs is an unwise choice.”

*Based off the legend describing a Piper dressed in multicolored (“pied”) clothing, who was a rat catcher hired by the town to lure away rats with his magic pipe. When the citizens refuse to pay for this service, he retaliates by using his instrument’s magical power to lure away their children.

“You…” The demon warlock who fell to the ground couldn’t speak anymore. His deformed body had turned into pus and blood. The remaining head was like ice soaked in hot water. His mouth began to melt and deform, so he could only open his bloodshot eyes in vain.

Soon, the head disappeared completely, leaving only a dirty and greasy pool of blood behind.

Virgil slowly opened a vial and sprinkled some white powder on the blood. With a shrill hissing sound, the only trace that was left by the demon warlock disappeared from the world. He glanced at the position of the sun and briefly estimated the time. Shortly after noon, the inquiry went smoother than he thought.

Next, he just needed to find some small fries to confirm the information. Virgil put on his mask again and stroked the rough wall of the church.

“Colestoro,” he murmured. “Wait a bit longer for me, alright?”

In the third room of the library.

There was a small tea table and two chairs in the center of the room. Nemo pulled one of them away in silence and then pressed all his weight on it. He gripped the armrest and stared at the hanging lights on the walls around the room. Since they were located underground, this narrow room had no windows. In addition to the hanging lights, the roof had a concave circular structure, and its edges cast soft, warm light.

It wasn’t dim there, but Nemo only felt thick black shadows that submerged his knees and froze his calves.

“Bagelmaurus.” Nemo, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke. His voice was low, as if he was talking to himself. “Since you have already run away before, why do you want to check on me? Is it because you’re unsure about my race?”

The gray parrot hesitated.

If it was like the past, it would spout its conjecture mercilessly, but now Nemo Light wasn’t in the right state. His tone had a strong negative intonation, as if he was aware of something close to an answer, and he didn’t like the sound of that answer.

Bagelmaurus racked its brain.

“Because of the aura.” It finally chose to speak truthfully while remaining cautious, unsure whether Nemo was testing it in bad taste. “You… Your aura doesn’t seem like that of someone who has never experienced battle… So what you said at Nadine’s side…” Doesn’t hold water, it answered the rest in its heart, daring not to say it aloud.

“So you think I might be lying?” A wry smile appeared on Nemo’s expressionless face. “Well, I can understand why you ran away.”

“But I’m not lying,” he added with difficulty, as he stared at the wooden grain on the tea table.

Nemo scanned the books of the Abyssal Church. He thought that such a huge amount of information would take at least a few days to sort out. Unexpectedly, it was like a fine stone thrown into the lake; the collection of books in the three rooms didn’t add much burden to his brain. If the author of those books wasn’t spouting nonsense, then there could only be two answers about his “race”.

Either he was a humanoid wanderer who had never been recorded and ran contrary to all known laws of nature. There were records of all types of powerful demons in the Abyss, but only the wanderers at the bottom were still unknown. Maybe he just sealed his memory on his own so that he could climb out of the Abyss and look at the surface. This possibly wasn’t zero, but it was miraculously slim. It was like hoping to find creatures that exactly matched humans but came from the deepest depths of an unreachable trench.

Or maybe he was a creature they called the “Demon King” of this world.

He desperately looked for exceptions and counterexamples in those documents, trying to overturn this conjecture about the “Demon King”. He did unearth more details, and those details, without exception, proved the rationality of that absurd conjecture.

Nemo inserted his fingers into his black hair and held his elbows to the edge of the tea table. He had never really expected a miracle, but now he needed it badly for the very first time.

It was okay if he wasn’t human. It was okay if he was a superior demon that no one had ever seen before. Any kind of monster would do. In this way, his behavior could be chaotic, aimless, or even completely out of curiosity.

But if… If it’s the “Demon King”…

The arrival of Bagelmaurus, Oliver’s abnormally overwhelming power. Was this all truly “coincidental”? What if all their encounters had been arranged in advance?

Nemo stretched out his hand and grabbed the fabric of his robe tightly around his chest. He suddenly felt difficulty breathing. His body dutifully imitated humans, and his head became dizzy from all the blood that was rushing into his brain.

Assuming the “Demon King” was really “one” creature that continuously evolved and had existed for tens of thousands of years, he was still “Nemo Light” currently, but once his hidden memories surged up, would he still be “himself”?

He had never been able to truly fear death and could give up everything in front of him casually. If it was all because he subconsciously knew that he wouldn’t really die, ultimately, he would be “indifferent” to everything…

Nemo opened his hands and slapped himself fiercely, creating a loud “pop” sound. The gray parrot, who was engrossed in observing him, was so frightened that all its feathers exploded.

“It’s all assumptions—” Nemo said to himself sternly, forcing his mind to cut off such thoughts. “There’s no evidence.”

“Did you get what you wanted?” A sultry female voice sounded in the direction of the entrance of the room. Nemo raised his head abruptly. His contemplation had occupied all his attention so that he didn’t even notice the arrival of the Bishop Hagen Ingram of the Abyssal Church.

“Don’t be surprised.” Hagen pulled away a chair opposite Nemo, straightened her dress, and sat down neatly. “I just confirmed with Lord Telaranea that you’re not this servant.”

She didn’t come alone. Two strangely dressed knights stood silently on both sides of the small tea table. They were dressed in dark matte armor. He didn’t know what material their cloak was made out of, but there was thin black smoke rolling from the irregular ends.

The Bishop of the Abyss made a gesture to the two knights, who then took off her exquisite black veil.

Nemo blinked.

Her head was indeed multiple times larger than the average person’s, but her appearance was beautiful… If there was only one face on it. About five beautiful faces were squeezed together on her head, even occupying the space of her scalp. Five pairs of eyes stared at Nemo at the same time. If it had been at a normal time, Nemo’s tension level would have surely doubled.

However, currently, Nemo had completely lost his nervousness. He just stared straight at the other party with a wooden face.

“I’m not mistaken. You’re really an interesting person.” Hagen raised her hand, and a book that hadn’t had time to climb up the wall bumped into her palm. Tender white fingers with bright red nails pinched the flesh of the book. “These books have been… Who are you?”

Bagelmaurus quietly hid behind Nemo.

“Which one are you referring to?”

“If you can open these records related to the Demon King, you are most likely a demon warlock or higher.” She tilted her head. This could be seen as a flirtatious move, but given her appearance, it only exuded terror. “And your deformation is too small and your movement while holding the staff is too jerky. That’s not an issue that a powerful demon warlock will have. Lord Bagelmaurus’ reaction to seeing you was also very interesting. It’s not surprise, but fear.”

In the church that worships the Demon King, Nemo smiled bitterly in his heart as clouds of wistful thoughts rolled through his head. He hoped that the Demon King had some unique mark or characteristic so that he and the Abyssal Church could give each other a satisfying answer. Out of some strange state of mind, Nemo found he could never find his nervous state again. He even thought the current situation was quite humorous.

At this moment, Nemo only had one exact thought left in his mind—she had noticed him and he had to deal with it. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have a way to explain this to Mr. Virgil.

It may be that Nemo’s silence was misunderstood. Hagen paused for a moment and then said again, “Since you didn’t enter your name, can I presume… you’re not here to cooperate with us?”

“I’m just here to find some information,” Nemo responded cautiously. “I don’t want to attract extra attention.”

“Then you really chose a bad time.” Hagen put on her veil again and let out a sigh. “Can we talk?”

“Please,” Nemo replied quickly, while carefully observing the other party’s reaction. Hagen should know that he’s a superior demon by now, but her attitude didn’t soften. Rather, she seemed even more at ease.

“I have dealt with quite a few capricious Superiors,” she said diplomatically, “and to be honest, I do not wish to interfere with your actions. Even if you don’t regard us, to us you are an honored messenger from the Abyss. However, the current situation is indeed special… You may not be aware, but Aurorae is coming, and you would not want to meet with him.”

Nemo rummaged through the name in his mind for a moment, and the first things that came out were “Superior Demon Slayer” and “The Guardian of Order”.

“He will only appear at your new moon sacrifice,” Nemo said slowly, “but that’s still two weeks away.”

“But, I don’t know why… He’s already moving in this direction. If our information is correct, he’ll arrive here in two days.”

“So you plan to sacrifice in advance?”

“To be precise, it’s not that ‘Aurorae will only appear during the new moon sacrifice’, but ‘because he will appear that there is a new moon sacrifice’. Now you know the situation.”

She crossed her fingers and placed it on the small tea table. “Would you like to help us repel him, dear Lord?”

“What if I refuse?” An idea suddenly crossed Nemo’s mind as he replied in a deep voice, carefully showing a little momentum.

“Then please leave at once.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t plan to obey a demon warlock.”

“Then there’s no other way.” Hagen stood up and took two steps back and saluted. “Pardon our rudeness.”

A complex magic array instantly appeared on the originally empty stone floor. The magic array was specifically used to restrain superior demons, something that was freshly acquired in today’s harvest as Nemo recognized it instantly. It could make any superior demon incapacitated for a short period of time. Nemo quietly moved his finger from an angle hidden from Hagen’s view. It obviously didn’t work on him.

But he pretended and didn’t move.

The two knights stood beside him as two pale bone swords crossed his chest in a cross shape. A small white array floated along with the bone sword.

“An erosion spell,” Hagen kindly explained. “Please don’t move. I think you know what this is… After all, it’s a once-in-three-hundred-year event. Even if you’re a distinguished guest, we don’t want you to cause any trouble.”

The gray parrot shivered and stood on Nemo’s shoulder consciously. Hagen glanced at it, and a few chuckles leaked from behind the black veil.

“I didn’t expect you to learn from surface religion… You don’t have to pretend to be so polite,” Nemo said quietly, as he tugged at the corners of his mouth. “If I remember correctly, whenever Aurorae arrives, you will sacrifice a piece of flesh of a superior demon to the Demon King.”

“You’re going too far,” she replied, with a smile. “A demon warlock also has the flesh of a superior demon in his body, so naturally we won’t attack you. We’ve just 

wronged you temporarily. Please don’t mind.”

“Bring our guests into the dungeon,” she ordered. “Give him the best room.”

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The author has something to say:

In fact, I know that at the beginning, Ollie and Nemo have similar personalities. In these two arcs, they are about to start to differentiate slowly. _(:D”∠)_

People grow up after going through tribulations (?)!

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Bishop of the Abyss: Lock up this friend.

Nemo: Ummmmmm

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