Chapter 2190 Cat and Dog <TOC> Chapter 2192 Two Shadow Boxes
Translator: SumTLMan
Kolokcro arrived only after the last wave of little brothers had left, and compared to when it was first seen, Kolokcro’s size had shrunk by half. Its slender legs supported a massive ball of flame, and even when standing upright, it only reached Angel’s knees. This was a stark contrast to the half-human height of Kolokcro initially, making it appear much smaller.
While Angel was observing Kolokcro, Kolokcro took the initiative to report on its missions over the past few days:
“Sir, I, I have already, completed the tasks given by Dangros. All the, little brothers have already… arrived.”
Kolokcro struggled to speak, stuttering more as it hurried to finish, turning a simple sentence into a lengthy effort.
Angel looked skeptically at Fespanray, who whispered, “Kolokcro stutters a bit.”
Upon hearing Fespanray mention its stutter, Kolokcro’s flames turned a brighter red, and it didn’t know where to look, ashamedly lowering its head.
Angel nodded, showing no outward concern, but felt a slight regret internally. Stuttering wasn’t a major issue, but if Kolokcro were to be persuaded to join him for cross discipline training in fire in the future, communication could be challenging if Kolokcro couldn’t speak fluently, possibly leading to frustration.
However, this was a minor flaw, not beyond remedy.
Moreover, Kolokcro already possessed wisdom and the ability to communicate with others in its elemental sprite phase, which was far better than other unintelligent elemental sprites. Perhaps by the time it matured, the stuttering would disappear.
Thus, Angel didn’t dwell much on the stuttering, considering it premature to worry about such future uncertainties.
Angel looked at Kolokcro with a smile, pondering how to persuade it.
“You’ve done a great job with your mission. I’ve seen many interesting fire elemental talents, which was quite enlightening. However, I’m also quite interested in your talent,” Angel said, focusing intently on Kolokcro.
Kolokcro, feeling nervous, attempted to explain hastily, “My, my talent… it’s, it’s a bit…”
Angel calmed its anxiety, “I understand, I’ve already seen your talent before, which resembles elemental self-explosion.”
Kolokcro nodded, swallowing the words it had meant to say.
“I’m really curious, after self-exploding, how you can still consolidate your consciousness and reunite. There must be a fascinating process behind it. May I learn about it?” Angel inquired.
Kolokcro was unsure how to respond, as a deep understanding would likely require a demonstration of self-explosion, which it currently couldn’t do.
Angel seemed to understand Kolokcro’s concerns, saying, “Dangros has informed me about your current situation, and I won’t ask you to self-explode. You can just tell me about the process.”
Kolokcro: “But, my speech…”
“No worries, we can communicate slowly, there’s no rush,” Angel reassured with a smile. “Why don’t you stay here? We can have a good conversation. Do you need me to adjust the environment for you, since it’s a bit cold here?”
Kolokcro instinctively answered Angel’s latter question: “No need.”
Angel: “Then it’s settled.”
What’s settled? Did I agree?
While Kolokcro was still dazed, Angel turned to Fespanray, “Keeping it here shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
Fespanray’s gaze was calm yet profound, glancing at Kolokcro as if discerning Angel’s intention.
After a moment of silence, it spoke, “Yes. However, Kolokcro is still in recovery. It would be best to return it to Mentor Magu at night for rest. The environment here is not suitable for Kolokcro’s recovery.”
Angel nodded with a smile, “That’s fine.”
Kolokcro, somewhat bewildered, stayed in the illusionary cottage, while Fespanray gave Angel a deep look and elegantly turned to leave.
Angel led Kolokcro into the cottage, cheerfully conversing with it.
Although Kolokcro stuttered a bit, they could still communicate slowly. Their discussion revolved around Kolokcro’s self-explosion talent.
Angel was not lying; he was genuinely interested in this talent. How, in the midst of a powerful explosion, did Kolokcro manage to retain its sense of self?
Besides discussing talents, Angel also touched upon human world topics, occasionally mentioning the beauty of the outer world and revealing some broader and more bizarre pan-dimensional situations.
These topics were naturally to spark Kolokcro’s curiosity about the outside world… However, since Kolokcro was entirely enveloped in flames, its emotions were inscrutable.
The day passed in this manner, and as dusk approached, Angel took Kolokcro to the lava lake and agreed on a time to meet the next day.
On his way back to the ice fire cave, Angel encountered Phoenix descending from the sky.
The Phoenix approached with a fierce battle intent, directly targeting Eremy.
Angel, not wishing to engage in an unwarranted battle, tricked it into believing Eremy was ill and suggested postponing their fight. The Phoenix, not seeing Eremy around and believing it to be true, left somewhat disheartened.
As for fighting Angel? The Phoenix knew Angel was adept at confusing tricks and the outcome of such a battle was uncertain. However, the Phoenix preferred straightforward battles like those with Eremy, over cunning fights.
After sending the Phoenix away, Angel felt as if he was being watched closely.
Turning towards the source of the gaze, he saw a huge shadow slowly rising above the lava lake, its eyes burning fiercely, quietly watching Angel.
Angel recognized it as the Flame Giant… Duroche.
Its look carried a hint of hostility. Yet, it made no move, just watched Angel from afar with a piercing intensity.
Duroche’s power seemed even greater than a few days ago, indicating it must have benefited greatly from the elemental tide.
Even Eremy, hidden in the shadows, began to warn Angel.
Angel understood that Duroche, like Phoenix, probably wanted to reclaim its pride from Eremy. Now that Eremy was hiding, they were unlikely to act.
After all, Angel was received by Magic Fire Midir and Magu. Unless Magic Fire Midir ordered otherwise, they should not attack him.
With this thought, Angel ignored Duroche’s gaze and continued towards the ice fire cave.
The prickly sensation disappeared as he moved away from the lava pool. Looking back, Duroche had sunk back into the lake, presumably to guard Dangros.
Shaking his head, Angel walked on the scorched path where dusk could not be seen, returning to the cave.
Two days passed.
Over the past two days, Angel focused primarily on Kolokcro.
During this period, Angel noticed that due to its stutter, Kolokcro rarely expressed its opinions unless necessary, but its inner world was richer than he had imagined.
Moreover, Kolokcro’s passive acceptance of many things did not mean it lacked personal opinions; it merely suppressed them.
Realizing this suppression, Angel discovered Kolokcro’s emotions were deeply hidden and noted that Kolokcro didn’t have a very favorable impression of him.
It just didn’t show it.
If Kolokcro inherently resisted persuasion, winning it over would be difficult. Thus, Angel’s main goal over these two days shifted from persuasion to closing the distance between them.
At least, he aimed to eliminate Kolokcro’s wariness and bring their relationship back to a normal level.
However, because Kolokcro was exceedingly introverted and thus more sensitive, any overt attempts to close the distance were easily detected. So, Angel subtly worked on reducing its defenses through almost imperceptible details in their daily interactions, effectively keeping his intentions unnoticed.
This approach indeed prevented Kolokcro from sensing his ulterior motives.
But there was a minor downside: the process was inefficient. Although Kolokcro began to lower its guard gradually, fully doing so and successfully winning it over still required a long journey.
And since Angel couldn’t stay there too long, this situation was somewhat troubling for him.
…
As night fell, as usual, Angel returned Kolokcro to the lava lake.
Just as Angel was about to leave, Toby, perched on his shoulder, suddenly cried out towards the sky.
Looking up, Angel saw a flame sparrow, trailing burning tail feathers, flying from the distant horizon and landing in front of him.
“We meet again,” Angel nodded slightly to the phoenix.
This flame sparrow was none other than Fespanray, who anthropomorphically used its wings as hands to gesture a salute: “Mr. Pat, the king has concluded his retreat and wishes to invite you for a talk. Are you available now?”
Angel nodded indifferently: “Sure.”
He was going to meet with Magic Fire Midir again anyway, and he was also curious about Magic Fire Midir’s stance on humans entering the Tidal Realm in the future.
Angel patted Toby, who immediately understood his intention and transformed into a fire griffin vastly larger than Fespanray.
With Fespanray looking on in astonishment, Angel sat on Toby’s back and signaled: “Let’s go.”
“Please follow me,” Fespanray said, still in a daze.
As they flew towards the volcano, Fespanray occasionally glanced at Toby, curiosity and skepticism evident in his eyes.
“Are you curious about Toby?”
Caught off-guard, Fespanray nodded somewhat sheepishly: “Although I had a glimpse during the Voice of the World event, this is the first time I’ve seen a member of the Kalomaches tribe so closely… Truly powerful and majestic, just as Magu described.”
Toby, flattered by Fespanray’s compliment, cried out proudly. However, Toby forgot that its current form was that of a griffin, and its cry, much louder than when in seabird form, created ripples of sound waves that attracted the attention of many nearby fire elemental creatures.
Angel even noticed disturbance in the lava lake below, revealing the form of Duroche.
Angel glanced at Duroche, withdrew his gaze, and casually said, “Toby is very happy with your praise.”
Fespanray seriously replied, “I’m just stating the facts.”
Hearing this, Toby let out an even more excited roar.
Angel stroked Toby’s mane, signaling it to calm down first; otherwise, they would indeed be surrounded by spectators.
To avoid being surrounded, Angel simply changed the topic: “By the way, how is Dangros recently? Is Duroche still guarding him?”
Mentioning Dangros, Fespanray’s face showed sympathy: “Yes, Dangros is still cowering at Mentor Magu’s place, afraid to show his face.”
“Does Duroche hate it so much? Could it be that Dangros did something utterly vile to it during Duroche’s period of clouded consciousness, causing Duroche to not swallow this grievance even after regaining its sanity?”
Fespanray shook his head: “That’s not it. With Dangros’s capabilities, it couldn’t have done anything too evil. The main reason is that Dangros used to brag about Duroche being its little brother to oppress other elemental creatures, causing a lot of trouble.”
“Moreover, although Duroche benefited from a misfortune this time, it doesn’t negate the fact that Dangros’s wrong judgment and actions led to the damage to Duroche’s core.”
“That’s why Duroche is holding onto it.”
Angel nodded in understanding, in short, one cannot use a good outcome to negate the wrong actions that led to the current situation.
Fespanray: “However, Duroche doesn’t really want to harm Dangros. It’s more about showing an attitude. After all, having been oppressed by Dangros for so many years, it’s natural to want some retribution. I guess it will continue for at least another month or two; Dangros will have to hide for a while longer… It’s better this way, with Dangros laying low, everyone else is happy for the peace.”
Angel: “From what you’re saying, Dangros isn’t well-liked?”
Fespanray shook his head: “Not exactly, it’s just that it was born from the ashes of Kalomaches, so everyone is more tolerant of it. After being tolerant for so many years, everyone naturally welcomes a break.”
As they were chatting, the huge contour of a volcanic crater had already appeared below them.
Fespanray then stopped: “His Highness is waiting for you below; I won’t go over.”
Angel nodded, patted Toby, and with a dive, rushed into the volcano crater shining with a red glow.
On a man-made platform inside the volcano crater, Angel saw the Magic Fire Midir, which had grown a size larger. It still bore a demonic appearance, with two flames forming horns that were larger than before, spiraling upwards; although its wings were not spread, its aura was already very imposing.
Angel let Toby practice in the volcanic lava, while he himself approached Magic Fire Midir and performed a greeting with a slight bow.
Chapter 2190 Cat and Dog <TOC> Chapter 2192 Two Shadow Boxes