NOVEL NEXT Chapter 83: She and Him
"Damn it! Evil God! Lord of the Blood Feast..."
If it hadn't been for the experience of facing a Saint before, upon the appearance of that figure, Shard would certainly have fallen.
His vision blurred, a buzzing in his ears, disturbed sense of smell, loss of taste, disoriented balance, disappearance of touch, fading memory, emotional disorder.
Shard wanted to burst into laughter, wanted to scream in tears, wanted to kneel and pray, and also wanted to curse the heavens.
Although his mind was abnormally calm, his body was already completely out of control. The shadow from the moment before the appearance of a higher-dimensional existence, had almost driven this body mad.
This was not possession by borrowing; this was the direct descent of the Evil God during the state of a Saint.
"No, how could I go mad so easily? The doctors are still waiting for me to lead them away, Miss Annette is still waiting for me to safeguard her token, Mia is still waiting for me to come home!"
The Foreigner had once been terrified in this world, but he was never cowardly. Human courage is a hymn, he scarcely had anything in this world, making him cherish everything he possessed even more.
A stubborn will persisted, making him bite his tongue to wake himself with pain, but more crucially, the protection given by the Creator of Innocence exerted its last power at this moment, finally allowing him to roughly control his own body.
The mere arrival of that blurred figure had almost driven Shard mad; the deities of this world truly originate from a higher-dimensional existence.
"This really is a mess now."
Shard thought to himself. The Blood Feast had begun, and the other living sacrifices in the room had completely lost their sanity. They tore at each other, and at the moment the shadow of the deity had stepped in here, they had already walked towards death.
[Since you are awake, should you escape?]
The woman whispered, her voice brushed past his soul, unexpectedly making his conscious clearer. At this moment, Shard felt a separation between body and soul; his body was mad, but his soul remained stable.
"Even if I could escape, what about here? What about the doctors? What about this city? I'm not some Emissary of Justice, but no matter what, I can't leave now."
The dancing shadows of the monsters were intermittently visible in the blood mist, and the human limbs served in silverware and goldware on the dining table, all beckoned Shard to taste them.
He dragged his uncontrollable body, approaching towards the slightly clearer figure in the red robe, The Great One.
[You still have a way.]
"Even if I die, I cannot die fleeing. I still have a crazy idea, though it's just a Scribe Level [Relic]."
[But it is your only idea now.]
Shard nodded reluctantly amidst his trembling, bracing himself as he put on the [Vampire Ring].
The ring could touch humanoid creatures to absorb their blood and help heal itself. All the living sacrifices had died, the twisted monsters within the blood mist surely didn't count as humanoid creatures. But besides Shard, there was another.
His vision thickened with illusions, the Blood Feast featuring hanging blood corpses was almost completely overlapping with the banquet hall of the Lakeside Manor. The shadow of the Evil God had fully descended, next would be its true body.
Supporting himself on the long table, he tried not to touch the empty chairs and the fine dining ware on the table. With each step he took, the real banquet hall disappeared a little more, and that illusory, bloody hall became a bit more real.
By the time Shard, nearly unable to hold on, reached the banquet hall's main seat, the only golden chair at the end of the long table, he even began to suspect that his entirely new life had also been a dream.
"Sorry, if I die, you'll probably disappear too."
[Do you finally believe that I am you?]
Impulse made Shard want to collapse right there, but the courage and resolve in his heart still made him extend his hand wearing the [Vampire Ring], touching the still very illusory red-robed pre-descending reflection of the Evil God in front of the golden chair.
His consciousness was about to fade, the blood mist damaging his body. The Great One's reflection was right in front of him, he was finally about to fail. He felt like he was trying to touch the abyss, and the abyss was devouring all of him.
"Whether you are me or not doesn't matter anymore. Sorry, I couldn't show you more stories, more journeys."
At this moment, Shard really understood; whether she was him didn't matter, but having someone accompany him at the last moment of life, that was important. She really had always been with him, even now.
The Old God's reflection trembled slightly, turning towards the man about to collapse beside it. The monumental pressure made him shake, the protection from the Creator of Innocence was about to fade, and once he fell in this Blood Feast, he would, like those living sacrifices, become part of the feast.
His finger moved forward slightly, in his blurred vision, there was only an inch left between his finger and the shadow of the Evil God. But with a light cracking sound, amber cracks appeared on the ring's surface, the ring could not endure the close proximity to the deity.
"Indeed," a Scribe Level (Level 4) "Relic" could not possibly be of use to a Deity.
He fell toward the ground, covered with a writhing, blood-red fungal carpet.
"Of course it's useless in the hands of others, but you are different, Foreigner, because..."
"Sorry."
"Why apologize?"
A soft and warm female body embraced him from behind, steadying his stance. The woman's head rested on Shard's shoulder, her long hair gently brushing against his cheek. Was this reality, or an illusion? Shard could no longer tell.
"Do you still refuse to accept my existence?"
She whispered in his ear.
"Are you really me?"
He whispered in front of her.
"What does it matter? You came here, you were supposed to accept all of this. If you can't even accept the current situation, how can you accept yourself?"
She asked softly.
"Will you always be by my side?"
He asked with what remained of his consciousness.
A light laughter reached his ears, her hair touching his earlobe.
Her hand took his hand, but Shard, barely able to open his eyes, could not see what that arm looked like.
"Of course, Foreigner, I am with you."
The two of them reached their hands forward together, and they whispered together:
"You are me..."
"...I am you."
Shard's hand touched the still-forming shadow of the Old God "Lord of the Blood Feast". The ring on his finger, cracked and drawing power, then the amber of the ring face shattered into dust, and the ring quickly corroded and split.
As the corroded metal fell from his finger, the ethereal shadow of the Evil God was absorbed into Shard's palm. He felt as if a mountain had been stuffed into his arm, a twisted and violent power surged through his soul.
The Blood Feast before his eyes became even more blurred, his soul seeming to instantly swell to its limits, twisted creatures that may not have really existed roared in the blood mist, and for a moment, he actually saw himself sitting on that majestic golden throne.
But he also felt an endless void in his stomach and heard the woman's pleasurable light laughter:
"You have touched the shadow of the Old God 'Lord of the Blood Feast'."
"Born in the endless feast, immersed in desire and pleasure, taboo and desecration. In the twilight of bygone days, hiding in the shadows of human hearts, rampant at joyous banquets."
"You have heard the tale of the Old God 'Lord of the Blood Feast', you have learned of the miracles of the Old God 'Lord of the Blood Feast'."
"Foreigner, you have engraved the silver Desecration Spirit Rune - Gluttony."
The endless hunger allowed Shard to break free from the nearly dead illusion, the power extracted from the shadow of the Evil God restored his severely injured body and the insignificant price paid for writing the script.
Behind him, the bell tolled, steam whistled, steam surged, and hammers pounded.
The rotating Brass Life Ring appeared again in the material world, on it, a silver Spirit Rune "Gluttony" dripping with blood manifested.
At the same time, a drop of golden liquid silently permeated into the Life Ring.
"Shard, perhaps, this is the welcome to your Blood Feast."