Book 3: Chapter 308: Faint Light in Desperation

Deep underground, the originally interconnected tunnels and halls had almost completely collapsed. Even if anyone had miraculously survived the earlier battle, under such violent tremors and cascading earth and rock, their chances of survival were extremely low.

Waves of pain brought Anari back to consciousness. Residual blood serpent venom still lingered on her body, making it difficult to control her movements.

Groping around, she barely managed to command one of the specters to retrieve a spare antidote potion from the pocket inside her collar. She bit off the stopper and poured it into her mouth.

As time passed, her previously numb body finally regained a bit of sensation.

Afterward, she slowly pushed herself up from the ground and surveyed her surroundings.

She was still in the same underground tunnel as before, though now both the passages ahead and behind were buried under earth and rock, making travel impossible. She turned her gaze to the side, saw Luke's corpse, and hurried over with some tension.

After a thorough examination, Anari let out a relieved breath. The gem in Luke's mouth remained intact, steadily protecting his soul without incident. As for his body...

Anari took out another bottle of faintly glowing perfume.

[Spectral Illusion Perfume · White Tea Musk] (Fourth Tier · Rare)

"Can keep a recently deceased body fixed in a fresh, non-decaying state. Effect lasts three to five days."

Twisting open the perfume bottle, a faint white tea fragrance wafted out. Under Anari's guidance, it coiled around Luke's body, enveloping him, with part of it entering through his mouth and nose to maintain him in that fresh, preserved state.

This type of perfume was quite popular among schools that dabble in the "Death" Aspect. Whether used to preserve fallen companions' bodies for resurrection, or to keep powerful enemies' corpses for later dissection and experimentation, it had excellent effects. Any Transcendent walking the path of "Dead Embers" would keep some on hand.

After finishing, Anari wiped the dust and sweat from her forehead, finally letting out another sigh of relief.

Though trapped underground, she wasn't particularly panicked. For someone skilled at commanding specters, rock and earth posed no real obstacle. Given enough time, finding a passage to crawl out wouldn't be difficult.

Once she'd recovered some strength and power, Anari again commanded her specters to scout the area, searching for traces of Oren and the enemy.

A few minutes later, through her specters, she sensed the sounds of fighting still echoing from a tunnel over six hundred meters away. When a flash of golden lightning suddenly flared, she finally caught sight of Oren's figure in the darkness.

This companion's situation was dire indeed. One arm hung broken and limp at his side, while his other hand clutched the Codex. He dodged the enemy's attacks as best he could, occasionally summoning thunder and lightning to strike at the blurry figure deep in the tunnel.

Following Oren's line of sight, Anari sent her specter creeping forward and finally got a clear look at his opponent.

It was that same bizarre Sixth Tier enemy from before, but now only his head remained. His neck had transformed into a long spine wrapped in twisted flesh and sinew, slithering along the ground. Scorch marks still lingered on his forehead and face.

It seemed the secret art Oren had unleashed after unsealing the Codex had dealt him tremendous damage. But the man was ferocious, having survived even that magnificent, terrifying sea of blazing light and fire, though most of his body had been ruined.

For a Transcendent of the "Bloodline" Aspect, wounds like these looked frightening but weren't fatal. Given time, recovery wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, Oren wouldn't give him that time or chance. He knew clearly that once the enemy recovered, they would all be dead for sure.

Both sides were now nearly spent, barely holding on through sheer will to survive.

In the midst of battle, Slando, now just a head, leaped up again and whipped a bone segment off the spine beneath his neck. It flashed through the tunnel, shattering the barrier Oren had barely managed to raise, then struck his collarbone, leaving a coin-sized bloody hole.

That blow broke Luke's collarbone. The tearing sensation as flesh was pierced almost made me black out. Worse, that bone segment the enemy had fired seemed to carry some strange venom. I noticed strange granulation beginning to grow at the wound, and something inside my body felt like several great serpents slithering around. It made my skin crawl. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"This is lethal." I shouted, pulling out my last large orb. The golden crackling electricity within exploded, surging into my body and frying all those slithering flesh worms into charred husks. But as the price, Luke's own internal organs suffered severe damage, and I could barely stay standing.

"Heh heh, what a decisive and ruthless child. I really dislike people like you." At the bottom of the tunnel, Anari raised his head like a serpent, gazing at the struggling Luke with a horrifying smile.

He had found a buried apprentice's corpse, then severed its head, allowing his own spine to attach to it.

Before long, he controlled this new body, staggering to his feet. His previously depleted strength recovered somewhat.

"Wow, what a stroke of luck."

"Look at you. I survived that terrifying heroic chorus, then found a sliver of life right at the moment of death. Tell me, doesn't that count as a genuine 'miracle'?" His voice shifted, turning as cold and sinister as a serpent's, whispering right by Luke's ear.

"How brave and magnificent. If I were younger, I might have been moved by your heroics, perhaps even wanted to go on adventures with you."

"Tsk tsk."

"A pity. I came too late for that sort of thing. I have no interest in young people's games anymore." As he spoke, he transformed one arm into a twisting blood serpent, coiling it around Luke and dragging him close.

Facing imminent death, Luke struggled desperately. But unfortunately, he was never a pure warrior, just a mage with decent physique and combat skills. Already weakened and wounded, he simply couldn't match the enemy in raw strength.

The blood serpent formed from that arm coiled and squeezed layer by layer, crushing the bones of his wrist until they snapped with a crack. The Codex he'd been holding fell to the ground.

"Oh, oh, oh. Such an important thing. If it were lost, how would the story continue?" Slando wore an exaggerated, mocking expression as he picked up the Codex.

He wouldn't kill this young man right away. Watching the despair in his eyes, tormenting him bit by bit until he broke, brought a twisted kind of pleasure.

What a delightful way to pass the time, this feeling.

Though he'd stepped into the Sixth Tier long ago, he'd been stuck at this position for nearly a century, still unable to find the way to the Seventh Tier. This long-suppressed frustration and resentment, impossible to vent no matter what he did, burned at his heart like fire.

Until today. Though this young man had nearly turned the tables on him, victory after such a perilous battle was like honey, bringing a certain satisfaction to his parched soul.

Killing Luke too quickly would be far too wasteful and unworthy.

This sense of victorious fulfillment, he wanted to savor it longer.

On the other side, Anari knelt on the ground. Before her lay a newly drawn ritual magic array with several precious gems placed within it. She pressed her palms together in prayer, chanting the ritual incantations taught by her school in a low voice.

"We beseech the spirits that wander in peace, the gods of undying flame. May Your will be made manifest, awakening the lost and wandering souls."

A faint white light emerged over the ritual magic array. Then the purple gem at its center radiated a soft glow. Above the array, the forces of "Death" and "Luminous Moon" interwove, and a vague, hazy figure gradually began to take shape.

...

Slando watched Luke writhing and wailing on the ground, a grin spreading across his face, revealing those deathly pale teeth. He snapped one of Luke's legs again, holding it in his hand, tossing it up and down, watching the light in Luke's eyes slowly drown in the darkness of despair.

"No way, no way. Giving up this quickly?"

"A hero can't be begging for mercy at a time like this. Tsk tsk."

"I originally wanted to try something more interesting, but the way you look, I doubt you'd last until then." Slando's tone carried disappointment.

His eyeballs rolled, glancing at the leg in his hand, then he made a show of sudden realization.

"Wow, I just remembered an idea. I played this one thirty years ago, but never really used it since."

"How about you give it a try?" He slowly walked toward Luke, watching the man drag himself across the ground with his one remaining arm.

"It's simple. I'll attach your leg to that broken arm of yours. What do you think? That way you're whole again. See how good I am to you."

Such hair-raising words were delivered in a slow, teasing tone, and both of them knew it was no joke. He truly could and would do such a thing.

"Hahaha, what a dull expression. Just like a bad apple."

"Why a bad apple? Because good apples get eaten, while bad apples become toys in children's hands, squeezed and mashed for their juice."

"Children can be so cruel, tsk. In a way, that's rather innocent too."

"Look, purity looks like this. I'm actually quite innocent myself. I just want to fulfill my childhood dream."

"You might not believe it, but when I was young, I wanted to be a great physician. The kind that heals the sick and saves lives, then earns everyone's love and admiration."

"But being a doctor is frustrating too. Patients never want to die, and I could never find a way to keep them alive."

"Finally, luck came my way. I met a like-minded fellow who recognized my medical skill and invited me to do some research together, so we could all live longer."

"Those were wonderful times. There were always endless living subjects on the dissection table. I felt my medical skills improving faster and faster, and I saved quite a few patients too."

"Though after I saved them, some of those fellows complained. Saying things like 'it's so terrifying' or 'it hurts so much.' Such demoralizing words."

"Eventually I got tired of hearing it, so I simply removed those troublesome heads of theirs. As long as the body could still move, that was enough."

"Unexpectedly, that worked quite well. Without the head interfering, controlling those bodies became much easier."

"A pity, truly a pity. Many of those patients I cured died in that storm of wind and fire you unleashed earlier. They were all innocent lives, and you killed them just like that."

"I think you need to take responsibility for that. You definitely can't just die so easily." Slando was in a fine mood, but Luke on the ground had reached his limit. His consciousness finally shattered, and he fell unconscious.

"Tsk tsk." Slando looked at the unconscious Luke with considerable regret.

"I wanted to play a while longer." With that, he prepared to scoop up Luke's body and merge it into his own flesh.

At that moment, a gauze-thin blade mark slashed out from behind him, cleanly severing his head from his body. The still-standing form collapsed like mud.

The head fell through the air, and as it hit the ground, Slando hastily extended his tongue, flicking his head back up, then swiveled it to look behind him.

But there was nothing there. As Slando continued searching, another gauze-thin blade mark descended silently from above.

A crackling sound echoed from the skull. This attack failed to break through Slando's head, only carving a fissure into the bone and shattering a portion of it.

After two consecutive ambush attacks, Slando's wariness hit maximum. He opened his mouth, letting out a strange, terrified cry. The ripples from it could reverse the blood flow of living creatures nearby, squeezing their hearts.

At that moment, Luke, who had been unconscious, was jolted awake by intense pain, his body twisting and writhing on the ground.

Fortunately, such indiscriminate attacks weren't aimed at him, and since Slando was reduced to just a head with limited ability, otherwise in his current state, he would have died instantly.

Under this attack, aside from Luke's pained reaction, no other sound emerged from the surrounding space. When Slando thought his attacker had used invisibility to flee, a heavily charged, magnificent blade arc descended, aimed directly at the highly vigilant Slando's head.

Sensing the attack, his head suddenly launched itself into the air, narrowly dodging. But then the magnificent blade arc that had just fallen turned illusory, and another blazing sword light struck from the side, carrying a terrifyingly fierce momentum that sent Slando's heart racing again.

In this desperate situation, he couldn't make major adjustments mid-air. He could only twist slightly, trying to present the sturdiest part of his skull toward the incoming attack.

Just as he thought he could withstand it, a third lightless, soundless blade arc materialized beside his head, cutting through the fissure carved earlier like a hot knife through butter, splitting his entire head apart.

Then the blade light danced rapidly, slicing and shredding the vulnerable exposed tissue within the skull. The condensed, murky oppressive presence became disordered and chaotic.

Shattered red and white flesh and tissue scattered across the stone walls and ground, still writhing like worms, attempting to regroup.

At that moment, a wrist painfully picked up the Codex from the ground. Golden flames spread outward, incinerating all the flesh and blood fragments in the tunnel into ash.

Minutes later, the flames died out. The tunnel fell pitch black once more, and everything returned to silence.

Time passed. Several hours later, a cascade of rubble and mud tumbled down from one side of the tunnel. Then Anari walked in slowly, holding the soul-summoning lantern aloft. Her gaze searched around, and when she found Oren, who had lost too much blood and fallen unconscious, she finally let out a relieved breath.

...

Two weeks later, Mage Alliance, Sephone College

Luke leaned against the entrance of the college restaurant, asking if they had any liquor for sale.

"Tell me, what's the most expensive wine you have here? Can it give a person a brand new, dreamlike experience?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but this is a college restaurant. We don't offer an extensive selection of alcohol. As for the dreamlike experience you mentioned, you might consider purchasing the school's 'Dream Journey Potion.' It's a special potion that lets one experience the sensation of the soul leaving the body after death."

"Oh, that stuff." Luke sighed and shook his head.

"That's exactly why I'm asking you for alcohol. Because not long ago, I died just like that, and my soul left my body to fight the enemy. That experience was so astonishing that even now, I still feel dazed."

"I need to find something stimulating to experience more of, otherwise I'll be terrified of dreaming every night. That kind of experience was just too incredible."

After speaking, he chatted with the restaurant staff a bit more, then bought a bottle of special "Absinthe," said to have a bitterness that keeps one's consciousness extraordinarily clear.

Returning to the table, the other two were discussing matters. Among them, Oren had one arm and one leg wrapped in bandages, eating with his single hand while continually marveling at how delicious the food was.

"So tasty. Something this warm." He had never realized simple food could be this delicious. Perhaps it was a change in his state of mind.

During the meal, he set down his spoon and told the other two about the reply letter he'd received today.

"I've temporarily stored the Codex with my sister. I didn't dare tell my family directly about this experience. I'm afraid they'd desperately try to stop me from going on adventures in the future."

"But I did write to them about some of the situation, as well as what we discovered on the ice plains."

"This secret organization seems to be connected to the 'Twin-Snake Cult.' That fellow we killed had been seduced by the Twin-Snake Cult in his youth, learning many forbidden arts."

"However, they don't fully worship the 'Twin-Headed Serpent.' Rather, like those madmen centuries ago who chased the alien star, they hope to steal the secret of endless devouring and evolution from the 'Twin-Headed Serpent,' to obtain eternal life and tremendous power."

"Based on deciphering what we found, they confirmed a location last year where a 'Blackquis Juvenile' was sleeping. Many members of the organization went there to capture it and conduct their final experiment."

"We got pretty lucky too. When we arrived, their main forces weren't there. Otherwise, we really would have been screwed this time."

"Pfft, what do you mean 'would have been screwed'? We WERE screwed! Screwed so badly we don't even know where we ended up! I damn well DIED!" Luke protested loudly. It was rare to see him this agitated. His usual carefree, couldn't-care-less demeanor was completely gone.

"If it weren't for Anari dragging the two of us back, we'd have been finished for real this time. I swear, I will never go on any adventure with you again, ever." Luke raised his finger, then made a rude gesture.

"Don't be mad. You were pretty heroic that day too. Even after dying, Anari managed to raise you back up using the ritual to awaken the spirits of the fallen, and you kept fighting. How about next time we run into an unstoppable enemy, we do the same thing? First, we let you enter a death state, then your soul leaves your body to fight." Oren rubbed his chin.

"Screw you. No way. There's no 'next time.' I'm never teaming up with you again." Luke shook his head vigorously.

"Some things only need to be experienced once. Experiencing them again would probably leave a lifetime of trauma." With that, he twisted open the bottle and poured the liquor into his mouth, savoring the stimulating bitterness. That astringent, sour bite once again gave him the vivid thrill of being alive.

Listening to the two of them bicker, Anari quietly ate her lunch, shaking her head slightly. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she told them both.

"Oh, right. I received a letter from Sister Hedra. She said she'll probably return around year's end with the group attending the Silver Bell Festival, but this time in a special capacity."

"Oh, Hedra?" Luke recalled that evening years ago, when he'd crossed blades with that young woman in the twilight breeze.

"What's the reason for her return?"

Oren was curious too. His sister Aurora had told him that Hedra was currently holding an important position at the Hidden Grove. Why would she suddenly come back?

"Apparently it's related to the disaster caused by this plague. The Alliance's official authorities have sent invitations and requests for aid to other factions. Quite a few schools specializing in pharmacology and medicine have sent their representatives." Anari explained.

"The 'Flesh Plague.' They still haven't found its exact origin, and much about its mechanisms remains unclear. If it isn't resolved quickly, it may spread to even more places. By then, other factions will be in trouble too."

These sixteen years of the Sinking Fog season have truly been fraught with disasters...