Chapter 319 No Fairness <TOC> Chapter 321 Rescue
Translator: SumTLMan
“I’ll give you five years. If you can come up with 300,000 magic crystals within that time, you can take him with you,” Lydia said.
For a promising alchemist, 300,000 magic crystals were not an unattainable number. As for the five-year time limit, it served as a driving force for him. Lydia’s conditions seemed to take various factors into account and did not genuinely put him in a difficult position.
Without hesitation, Angel agreed.
“I’ll wait for you here, and I hope you’ll keep your word,” Lydia said before leisurely flying into the air.
Angel took Toby out of his pocket and whispered, “Wait for me outside. I’ll be back soon.”
Toby chirped loudly in discontent twice, then flew outside the mist first, waving his wings towards Angel, clearly not wanting to be left alone.
Angel didn’t want Toby to stay outside either, fearing Lydia might do something despite the presence of Mirror Lady and Tree Spirit. After thinking for a moment, Angel asked Sanders, “Mentor, can Toby enter?”
It took Sanders quite a while to reply, “I don’t know. However, there shouldn’t be any danger with you.”
Reassured by the answer, Angel called Toby over to stand on his shoulder. With Toby around, he could react faster than Angel in case they encountered a parasitized mutant, allowing more time for him to respond.
Together, the man and the bird slowly walked into the thick fog.
Watching Angel’s figure disappear into the mist, Mirror Lady asked Tree Spirit beside her, “Aren’t you going in with him?”
Tree Spirit shook his head, “Not to mention whether Sanders would allow me to enter, I don’t want to go in myself.”
“Why?” Mirror Lady inquired.
Tree Spirit’s smile was radiant, “Because I have high hopes for Angel. His growth potential shouldn’t be exhausted in its infancy. If I go in, even though I won’t help him, the lack of worries in his mind might not push him to grow.”
……
The fog was dense, with visibility less than an arm’s length. With mixed feelings, Angel slowly entered this fog-shrouded city that seemed abandoned by time.
It was already early morning in the underworld, and after the calamity, no streetlights were lit in Shadow Demon City. Therefore, not only was the fog heavy, but it was also pitch black. Angel could only rely on his mental tentacles to barely discern the surrounding terrain and blindly enter the city gate.
In the darkness of the fog, where one couldn’t see their hand in front of them, it was inevitable to think of malicious ghosts and ghouls, especially in this area filled with parasitic madmen. Just the thought of madmen lurking in the darkness was spine-chilling.
The thoughts above were those of an ordinary mortal and a concern Angel initially had. However, as he delved deeper into the mist, he was astonished to find that his worries did not materialize.
His mood was serene, without any fear, and even felt a sense of delight, as if he were a fish in water.
This was not right. Angel knew it was not right, but the joyful feeling kept bubbling up inside him, as if the darkness could not restrain the unbridled horse in his heart, which saw the mist as a lush meadow to gallop through.
Angel knew there would be no danger in the next step, but he still walked very slowly, like an old man shuffling along or a babbling baby.
It was not that he was unwilling to walk faster, but there was an intense battle within him.
His rationality told him that everything was wrong. But his instincts were elated, telling him that the mist was a paradise, a pure land.
Rationality urged him to stop, while his instincts prompted him to move forward. Under these circumstances, how fast could he walk?
The narrow buildings and densely packed elevated corridors of Shadow Demon City appeared like ferocious monsters ready to devour those who ventured into the mist.
Any person, even an ordinary one, would be on guard when facing the shadowy mist. But Angel was not. He looked at the shifting shadows as if they were two adorable black kittens, playfully calling out to him.
Angel continued to walk forward, taking the main road to avoid being surrounded by mutated people. Although it was not very spacious, it was much wider than the alleyways.
As soon as he stepped onto the main road, Angel was captivated by a bizarre melody.
“I’m a happy little worker, transforming the streets diligently. The Queen, the Queen is arriving, witnessing the great change of the streets.”
Though Angel could not understand the melody or the language, he grasped the emotions expressed by the tune. When he had finished processing these emotions, his face immediately fell: “Just as I thought, it’s that Queen again!”
At that moment, two strange shadows suddenly emerged from the front. Angel stopped in his tracks, clutching his golden revolver in his hand. Toby lowered his chest, assuming an attack posture.
When the two peculiar shadows emerged from the mist, Angel’s brow furrowed. The duo was a pair of typical lower class males, with shorter statures and disproportionately long limbs.
Just as Lydia had described, they wore brightly colored clothing; one donned a red-green checkered onesie with a red hat, while the other wore a gradient purple polka-dot hoodie.
Their movements were strange, like marionettes, their limbs swaying in ways incomprehensible to ordinary people. Under this odd movement frequency, their speed was not only unhindered but even quite fast.
Brightly dressed, with crazed eyes and bizarre behavior, they met all the criteria for being parasitized. Undoubtedly, these two had already mutated.
As they approached, Angel was prepared for battle, waiting for them to enter his attack range to deliver a fatal blow.
However, at that moment, they saw Angel and came to a halt from a distance.
The peculiar singing also ceased.
Bowing to Angel from afar, they displayed the manners of a circus clown taking a bow, then slowly retreated back into the mist, gradually disappearing.
During this process, their song changed in style, no longer praising the Queen, but extolling Shava.
“Faraway lies the homeland of the noble Shava. In place of the Queen, her eyes are stars, her gaze is starlight. Shava, Shava, the honorable Lady Shava, basked in the glow of fortune.”
With their fawning song, the two parasitized individuals left Angel’s sight.
At this point, Angel could no longer deceive himself. First praising the Queen and then extolling Shava, they all reminded Angel that these mutated people were his “masterpieces” after opening the Nightmare Plane.
Along the way, Angel encountered several more groups of mutated people, but these “clowns” all behaved like madmen in his presence, as respectful as commoners meeting nobility.
Despite their respect for Angel’s “Shava” identity, whenever he tried to communicate with them, whether through language or emotions, they gave no response. They would vanish into the mist as soon as they saw him approach. Angel tried to follow them but was unable to keep up due to the obscuring fog.
“Something is very wrong,” Angel thought. From the psychological delight upon entering to the mutated people bowing respectfully, everything seemed absurd.
Sometimes, Angel felt that those people were not really in awe of him but in awe of an entity named “Shava.” But who was Shava? Angel had no clue.
Angel stopped in a residential area on the outskirts of Shadow Demon Castle. There was a fountain statue of a bow-wielding goddess.
Before Angel’s arrival, nearly a hundred people were indulging in revelry before the statue, singing and dancing like a devout ritual. But as soon as he approached, they praised “Shava” and slowly retreated. By the time Angel reached the statue, not a single person was left, and the surroundings were as quiet as a graveyard.
“Why are you hiding from me?” Angel shouted, “In the name of Shava, I command you to come out!”
No one responded.
Angel wanted to be angry, to release the pent-up rage, but he was too immersed in the tranquility, solitude, and inner peace of walking through Shadow Demon Castle. It relaxed him, creating a contradictory emotion.
Angel leaned against the statue, somewhat dejected.
“What are you doing?”
A long unheard, hoarse voice broke the tranquility in Angel’s heart, appearing out of nowhere beside his ear.
“Mentor, I have a very bad feeling,” Angel whispered his inner thoughts, “I should be afraid, angry, ready to fight. But I can’t muster the energy, this place makes me feel at ease, as if, as if, as if my soul is being soothed too.”
Sanders remained silent for a long time before saying, “Don’t let baseless emotions affect you. The reason you feel uneasy is simply because your rationality is restraining your instincts. Relax, you can treat this place as a paradise if you want.”
“However, always remember that a paradise is ultimately someone else’s paradise. Children can have fun and play in a paradise, but after playing, they still have to return home.”
Upon saying this, Sanders’ voice softened a bit, “Relax, Shadow Demon City being described as fallen and haunted by Red Lotus is not accurate. The reason I haven’t contacted the outside world for a long time is not that I can’t, but because I know this matter isn’t as difficult as imagined.”
“Angel, do you know why I called you here?”
Angel stammered, “Because I caused this place?”
Sanders replied, “Of course not. Not every reason leads to an inevitable result. Not every coincidence has a genuine cause. Even if the initial source was you, after half a month, various non-essential conditions are not enough to make you the cause of this disaster.”
Angel seemed to understand, yet not completely.
“I called you here because only you can awaken them. All those who have been parasitized are not dead; they are just asleep. The parasites have taken over their actions but have not killed them, for once the host dies, finding a new host and performing mental integration is not easy for the parasites.”
“If you can awaken them, this will not be a disaster. In fact, it could be a blessing because the parasites have enhanced their host’s physical constitution.”
Those mutated people are not dead? They are just waiting for him to awaken them? Upon hearing this, Angel’s first thought was not to let go of his psychological burden but… with millions of people in Shadow Demon City, wouldn’t he be exhausted from Awakening each one of them?!