Stray

Adrian was the first to come around. He took a step back and ended the bloody kiss—or rather bite.

“Mr. Ramon.” He bent down and stretched out a hand frankly. His normally light-colored lips was still tinged with a bit of blood.

Oliver spat out a few more bits of sand, his eyes still a little confused, as if he had just woken up from a long sleep. Although he cleared his throat vigorously, his throat still sounded like sandpaper. “It seems that I am still alive.”

He didn’t hold the hand but fell back into the sand and looked at the sky.

Then slowly showed a smile.

“Is this within your plan?” Jesse snorted with his nose.

“How could it be. I thought I was dead,” Oliver muttered. “I just, uh… tried my best and just succeeded.”

But his plan did have another ending in mind.

Oliver continued to stare at the sky, holding a handful of sand in his hand. The delicate grains of sand kept passing between his fingers, eventually only leaving a little bit behind.

Then he put his clenched fist to his lips and kissed gently.

Oliver had a very deep impression of the great desert near Heilem— This was the first time in his memory that he was dying.

It was also the place where he fell in love with Nemo, or rather, the place where he fell in love with the Pillar of the World itself.

The legendary Demon King, a terrifying behemoth curled up in the ground. The life that propped up the surface kissed his forehead here, pulling him back from the edge of death.

For the Pillar of the World, it may be just a whim, but from that moment on, the world he saw would never go back to the past— The object of his heart was not only Nemo Light, who was a “human” from the beginning. He loved his lover, and the huge unknown behind him.

He never doubted this.

It was like Oliver was willing to blindly believe that, at least here, he was immortal. Just as he was willing to rely on intuition to persist, the Nemo Light he knew was still waiting for him in the depths of the Abyss.

It wasn’t a prayer, but just a persistence in his foolish love.

If he was unlucky and couldn’t match against the Pillar of the World in the end and perished here, then it was also the most suitable place… This was the grave that he planned for himself.

The weather was clear, and although the nearby desert was messed up by them, it was quiet and peaceful at the moment.

The world still went on, and for most people, this was just an extremely ordinary day in their lives.

That’s great.

Oliver took a deep breath. His throat was still aching and building this circuit had exhausted his last ounce of strength. Although he could barely act, he didn’t want to go anywhere now.

The newborn God was found persistently paralyzed in place, pretending to be a sun-dried jellyfish. Jesse shook his head and walked forward, no longer hiding his complicated expression.

“Drawing power within safe limits, creating entirely new energy circuits right under the noses of the Pillars of the World, and to top it off, you’re actually pretending to be a human with common sense in front of me.”

He squeezed those words out with difficulty but the smirk on his face almost fell off.

“Telaranea is 10,000 times more disciplined than you— How do you feel now, huh?”

“Not much has changed. I just feel that I’ll die from exhaustion in the next second,” Oliver responded drowsily. “I succeeded, didn’t I?”

“Yes, according to human standards, you are fully qualified to be called a ‘God’.”

Oliver didn’t respond.

At the moment he heard “yes”, he fell asleep, with traces of a smile left at the corner of his mouth.

Jesse took a breath and cracked his wrists hard.

Lord Zenni never liked surprises, let alone fear— Jesse seemed to want to grab this ungrateful guy and wake him up. It was best to shake out all the subsequent plans the other party had.

Unfortunately, his two ill-intentioned hands that had just stretched out was pushed away by Adrian.

“Mr. Ramon hasn’t slept for nearly a week. Let him sleep. Since he can fall asleep safely, he must be very confident in his next plan.”

Adrian put Oliver’s arm around his neck and carefully pulled him out of the sand. He glanced at his eyes and retracted his hand. Jesse, who was full of dissatisfaction, shook his head helplessly.

“…Now we must get out of here quickly. The movement made by you two isn’t small. Compared to the Pillar of the World, Garland’s defenders will arrive sooner.”

Jesse let out a loud “tsk”.

He stretched out his hand, patted Adrian’s face ambiguously, and tied the cloak wrapped around his body back to the opponent’s armor. Then the beautiful blond young man took a few steps back and turned into a huge white beast again.

The blood had long since disappeared, and Jesse lowered his body slightly, shaking his fur uncomfortably, throwing the last bit of sand and dust away.

He glared at Oliver, who was sleeping, and got down reluctantly.

“Try not to be conspicuous, okay? In Ramon’s condition, we’ll have to deal specifically with teleportation checks. Come up, I’ll take you straight back to Alban,” Jesse said impatiently. “Hold on to yourself, I don’t want to bother taking care of you two while we move forward.”

Adrian gently placed Oliver on the back of the behemoth and cast a fixation spell— The sleeping leader of Tumbleweed was almost submerged by the soft long fur.

Then he hesitated for a few seconds and jumped up again. It was just that the former knight commander didn’t apply any spells to himself but firmly hugged Jesse’s neck.

Powerful magic waves exploded under the claws of the behemoth, and a soft white light shot straight into the sky.

When the defenders who reacted finally arrived nearby, only gravel and sand were left in the empty desert, as well as the remnants of palpitating spells. They found nothing else.

Jesse’s progress was much smoother than that of the teleportation array, and the speed was just as fast.

Although he said that he didn’t want to bother, Adrian still noticed the invisible protective cover around the behemoth— It was to resist the strong wind that was too cold in the sky, and he didn’t think Jesse Dylan himself would care about it.

Adrian Cross has never looked down at the surface at this height.

The dark green forest was like moss on a stone, and the river was too thin to see clearly. The sparse village was no bigger than a button, and the tiny houses were like brown sugar sprinkled on a clean tablecloth.

This was the world he vowed to guard.

Adrian subconsciously clenched the long soft fur in his hand. Even in the cold air at high altitude, the faint warm fragrance still existed. Wrapped in the aroma and warm body temperature, he raised his head and looked at the clear sky.

Adrian wasn’t completely unaffected. The second he noticed that the darkness swallowed the sky, out of the instinct of a warrior, he immediately made a defensive posture, but wonderfully, when those twisted thin limbs wrapped the bloody beast not far away, he couldn’t feel any fear.

On the contrary, he had never felt so relieved.

The cruel God he believed in slept there, twisting, floating, and slowly stretching his body in a world he couldn’t see.

Just as the falling snow finally reached the ground, night finally fell, and the tired traveler closed his eyes and breathed long and evenly. The world was as cruel as he had imagined, but there was indeed a trace of gentleness.

‘He should be afraid,’ Adrian thought to himself, but his fear seemed to have been exhausted with his recent death.

For himself as a human, it was indeed a “monster”— Without a doubt, a monster.

…But that’s about it.

The cold, capricious but occasionally soft-hearted miracle, finally shed the last bit of hazy fog, revealing its true face. The world was no longer a misty mirage, only a solid wall, and a fortress full of order.

There was also a liberating calm.

“Jesse, in your opinion, what is our fate?” Adrian took the initiative to speak. “Mr. Ramon was considered a human before, but you can’t seem to be able to accurately predict his actions.”

“Although Light’s existence made all this difficult to infer, at the beginning, when I first observed the son of Flint Lopez, our Mr. Ramon was destined not to live long— The powerless Lopez was seriously injured by a demon and Ramon would follow his instructions to kill him and was therefore designated as a murderer.”

“In my initial calculations, Oliver Ramon should have fled alone and soon died quickly from his naivete. Unfortunately, Bagelmaurus, who possessed the power of the Demon King, and Nemo Light himself weren’t within the scope of my predictions.”

“Ann Savage will spend this life in hiding and die alone. Her brother, Prince Eldric, was supposed to inherit the throne of Alban.”

The behemoth snorted.

“And you, you should have died a long time ago.”

“I know.”

They were a team that shouldn’t exist.

“As for now… peace from the Pillar of the World is a big premise and until the thoughts of the Pillar of the World is determined, I can’t calculate anything.” When he spoke, the behemoth’s ears drooped a little.

Adrian rubbed the warm fur under his palm. “I can understand.”

“…Don’t worry,” after a pause, he added.

He didn’t know if it was because of the wind or something else as Jesse gently twitched his ears. The speed of the behemoth’s advance slowed down and then slowly stopped in mid-air.

A slightly tingling stream of heat suddenly surged in my heart. The power flowed to his eyes. With his strong willpower as a knight commander, he endured the urge to reach out and rub his eyes…

Adrian blinked hard, and it took a while before he regained his vision.

In his sight, the advancing behemoth skimmed countless thin limbs. The indescribable creature was entrenched in the sky with unparalleled clarity. It was sweat-inducing, spectacular, treacherous, deceptively grotesque in its beauty.

Manipulating his power a little jerkily, Adrian retracted the heat flow. The appearance of the monster immediately disappeared, and the clear blue sky returned again in his view.

But Jesse made a point of showing this to him, probably not to pick this time now to teach him how to use his power. Adrian thought for a moment and decided to keep the power within his eyes for now. He retracted his gaze from the monster covering the sky and looked at the beast.

“Hey, Adri.”

It was a familiar flirtatious tone, but the owner of the voice’s furry head was facing straight ahead without turning around. “Do you like me a little bit today?”

The familiar question, but the questioner was no longer the beautiful and illusory young human being. After a long time, Jesse Dylan asked the question again— The weird and magnificent life above his head was seeking answers from him through the mouth of a beast.

“Maybe,” Adrian replied, magnanimously facing the sense of prying eyes that wrapped around him.

His God was silent for a long time.

“Nn.” Finally, Jesse turned his head slightly. “Well, I may well fail again. At this point in time, I can’t think of anything else that could sway you for the moment.”

The icy blue pupils of the beast flickered slightly, as if the sky was the only thing in the world. Under the huge monster, this somewhat untimely thought crossed Adrian’s mind.

“Shaken?” He repeated.

“Yes,” Jesse admitted. “So I need to tell you my decision.”

“Nn.”

“I don’t think this is the end. If the world isn’t destroyed— I am willing to take a little time to observe you and act with you. I’m quite bored anyways.”

Adrian didn’t answer but listened patiently.

“…After all, I gave you my heart.”

The spindle-shaped pupils of the beast shrank, and the behemoth emphasized it. Translucent limbs brushed Adrian’s monk’s uniform, dancing like weeping willows and dead branches.

“Unfortunately, Adrian Cross. Before I die, you cannot age or die. We have a long time… If you eventually become boring, I will kill you and get my power back. If you don’t want to continue, I can also help you end your life.”

Jesse Dylan’s tone became extremely familiar, as relaxed as discussing dinner recipes.

“You’re human after all. As time goes by, sooner or later you will see all this clearly, and eventually you will be disappointed or tired. Until then, I will stay by your side— I want to witness that moment.”

“Nn.”

“…And promise me that you won’t die easily. I don’t want to say it a third time.”

“Okay.”

“What are you laughing at? I’m not going to hide it from you now. I have no love for you in the human sense. I hope you won’t misunderstand—”

“Maybe.”

The annoying believer replied so.

Jesse turned his head a little sulkily and rushed towards the Alban’s royal city. Behind him, the half-asleep Oliver smacked his lips, covered his ears with the white fur, and decided to continue sleeping for a while.

Unfortunately, Oliver couldn’t sleep peacefully for long. The tremor of the giant beast landing had just passed and before he could regain his senses, a pair of claws stepped on his face.

“Ramon is dead! I can’t feel his breath! My god, Ramon is dead—” the gray parrot squawked in horror, stepping on his face pathetically.

“What to do!”

It planted its ass on Oliver’s face.

“…Hey, there’s still breath.” A few seconds later, the demon moved its ass away suspiciously. Bagelmaurus lowered its head and saw a pair of green eyes full of helplessness. “Why? What’s going on? I can’t perceive you anymore!”

Oliver sighed, grabbed the gray parrot on his face, and jumped off Jesse’s back.

Then he raised his head and looked at the magnificent royal palace in front of him.

“Jesse. If your date with Mr. Cross is over, I think we can officially start—”

Wiping the remaining blood stains on the Rest in Peace, Oliver’s tone wasn’t brisk, but there was no longer confusion in it.

“Next, let’s visit the Pillar of the World.”

The author has something to say:

Nemo: Come, please be sure to come.

The side CP Is one goal ahead again. Oliver, come on, keep up—

————

Jesse: Something is wrong with this human being.

Jesse: Let me see.

Jesse: Let me see…

Jesse: ……

Jesse: I really don’t believe it! He will be shaken!

Jesse: …Forget it, it’s faster for me to shake him myself (?