Stray

The corpses of demons that have been silted up at the bottom of the Abyss for many years were missing. The air underground was cold and dry, and it smelled like snow that had been frozen for a long time near the roots of trees.

The white behemoth drew a track of faint light in the darkness. Jesse sprinted quickly by spells, his paws occasionally stomping on the skulls of demons fluttering in the air, changing direction sharply.

Considering that it took more time to prepare in advance, it was too unnatural for the three of them to disappear together. Taking advantage of the play performed by Bagelmaurus, they left the expeditionary forces to engage with fighting a “demon” in advance, then Adrian and Jesse headed in the direction of Nemo Light.

It was different from the weak appearance when guarding the reconnaissance team two years ago. Adrian’s fingertips plunged into the hot white fur. Skimming the soft fleece close to the skin, he could feel Jesse’s undulating breath, and the vitality that flourished beneath the skin.

It seemed that Jesse was in excellent physical condition, and Adrian breathed a sigh of relief.

Feeling the touch of the person behind him, the behemoth turned his head and licked the fur next to his mouth. “Adri, we’re working right now. If you touch me like this, I can’t help but slow down—”

Adrian glanced at the smoke and dust exploding in the distance, skillfully ignoring the other party’s meaningful subtext. “Mr. Ramon should have left.”

“Mm-hmm, I can feel his aura.”

Jesse twisted his head straight, his claws crushed a huge floating skull, and the bone fragments splattered with the illuminating liquid contained in it. By using this as a springboard, his speed became a little faster.

“Why, Adri, are you worried that those two will end things too soon? Not to mention that they will definitely have a serious fight, even if the Devil King stands still and lets Mr. Ramon fight, this battle will take a lot of time. After all, this is the territory of the Pillar of the World.”

“I know, but we must be ready at any time.” Adrian rubbed the soft fur under his palm.

“You sound in a good mood,” Jesse hummed.

“They will succeed.”

“Maybe, maybe Ramon’s hand will slip—”

“Isn’t that what you prepared for beforehand?” Adrian was at peace.

The white behemoth shook its ears.

“There were many ways for Mr. Light to find out about his identity in the first place, but you guided them to the Eastern Witch Nadine. Without that, the two of them might not be able to find a solution so quickly.”

“Oh, you always like to think of me very well, my dear Adri,” Jesse said in a particularly hypocritical tone.

“With Horizon watching, most humans would choose to stay out of the way and stand idly by. It’s not like I can predict the fate of those two. Strictly speaking, they saved themselves. I’m just trying various possibilities— Such as letting two young people meet and seeing what would happen.”

“Maybe.” Adrian smiled and shook his head.

There was a trace of order mixed in ruthlessness, and the other party was never willing to admit this.

“Since your faith is still so firm.” The tips of Jesse’s ears drooped a little. “Then why don’t you want to— I mean, even once— call me Zenni in bed? Won’t you try it?”

“No.”

“How stingy.”

“……”

Adrian grabbed the fur a little harder, and there was a faint smile in his sigh. “If everything goes well.”

The white behemoth tightened its neck, and its speed immediately increased a bit faster.

Less than an hour later, the open space in the middle of the dead city.

“I’ve been waiting for two years, Ollie.”

The black-robed Demon King’s tone was peaceful and gentle, as if they had never been separated.

Oliver’s nose is a bit sour.

This was the first time they really met after knowing Nemo’s identity.

Unlike when they first met, today’s Nemo was still flesh and blood, but had lost his initial restraint and panic, like a swaying reed turning into an ancient tree with roots deep in the soil. The beautiful silver pupils of his eyes smile mildly, the cold inhuman feeling was a few times heavier, and the faint sense of detachment had completely disappeared.

The confusion dissipated, leaving everything under control; the calm and quiet that belonged exclusively to a higher power. The plain original stone was finally deftly carved, and Oliver couldn’t take his eyes off that luster.

This time it wasn’t a phantom or a voice. In front of him was his lover with a true body temperature and the master of the world beneath his feet.

He thought he should have mixed feelings, mixed with awe or something in his emotions…

But now, Oliver realized that there was only one kind of feeling left in his heart, rich and ordinary.

He raised his hand.

An ice layer lifted from the battlefield layer by layer, and the originally dry air was suddenly filled with ice flakes. Nemo’s shadow blade lingered but attacked mercilessly, breaking through the hard and thick ice— but the center, guarded by the petal-like ice layer, was already empty.

Nemo reacted quickly, and the shadow shield was immediately erected. The Rest in Peace passed over the shadow shield, leaving deep traces of bubbling edges and a series of hissing sounds.

Shadow thorns rose mercilessly from the ground, and several large formations bombarded down from the sky.

A cool fingertip swept across Nemo’s cheek before the blade passed over, barely making contact.

“…I miss you so much,” Oliver said softly, jumping back, perfectly avoiding the shadow thorns exploding on the ground.

The other party’s body temperature was still on his fingertips, which should have been warm, but his fingertips were on fire.

The majestic gray mist suddenly rose, corroding all the large formations that had been smashed, and a circle of storms burst out in mid-air. The dead city around the two of them became ruins in an instant, and the rubble shattered into dust and exploded all around.

“Me too, Ollie,” Nemo responded with a gentle smile, but his offensive was even more fierce.

His Demon King was very serious, and there was no sign of letting up.

‘How wonderful,’ Oliver thought to himself.

Although the effect of the contract was there, the Pillar of the World would not really do anything to the surface but considering the way they came to break through the Pillars of the World instinct, Oliver didn’t want to do it unilaterally.

Something brushed his cheek causing warm blood to trickle down the side of his face. The corners of Oliver’s mouth rose higher. The overwhelming sense of oppression made him recall the battle with Jesse Dylan more than two years ago, but now he didn’t feel any despair or pain.

Even if the next shadow blade directly cut off his left arm.

This time there was no bleeding from the fracture, his left arm turned into a gray mist, and quickly returned to its position with the ring on his left finger still intact. Unfortunately, the sleeves of the clothes of the arm armor fell to the ground, but Oliver didn’t bother to direct the gray mist to pick it up.

It should be painful, but it felt as if he was paralyzed by the joy of reunion, and Oliver’s movements didn’t stagnate at all.

The Demon King’s fighting spirit spiraled upwards. A condensed shadow dragon rose into the air, and black flames came down on his head.

On the other side, sharp ice blades gathered together and became a giant eagle entangled in the gray mist. A weird array flickered and rotated around the slender ice cone. These cold murder weapons continued to lase towards the shadow dragons, one of which couldn’t be dodge, and pierced through its throat, causing it to roar and scatter.

Nemo’s chest was pierced by an icicle the moment Oliver’s right leg was burned by the black flame. But his lover merely raised an eyebrow, his rib cage quickly closed, the icicle turned into powder.

“You stayed your hand. Just now you clearly could have attacked my head.” Nemo wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, but there was not much blame in his voice.

“Young people are just inexperienced, Nemo. You have to be fair.” The burned foot was also recovering rapidly, and Oliver grimaced a little jerkily.

“Who was the one who screamed, ‘I don’t want to hurt you unilaterally! It’s better to take this opportunity, fight in a dignified manner, and let me prove myself completely—’” Nemo vividly imitated Oliver’s tone in his memory. “You’d better hurry up. If you make a fuss like this, Jesse and Mr. Cross will get tired of waiting.”

“…I didn’t scream at that time!”

“The volume was very loud and the voice was very sharp. It was like a scream to me.”

Oliver blinked pitifully, stepping on the trembling earth.

The gray mist swept up, swallowing all the ruins around, leaving no trace. The Rest in Peace, controlled by the gray mist, pointed straight at the Demon King, but its owner sounded like he was bickering childishly.

“You can’t say that. Do you have the heart if you were me and had to beat an unarmed me until I was almost broken?”

“…” Nemo didn’t turn away.

“Don’t look at me like that. I feel terrible.” Oliver picked up the tip of his sword, and the rapidly circling gray mist immediately engulfed Nemo’s figure.

“Then you should be more straightforward and give me a hard time.” Dragging his mutilated body that quickly recovered, Nemo finally unconsciously accelerated his breathing. “Of course, I won’t hold back either. In terms of heartache, we’re even.”

Somehow, the black shadow thorns spread over the ground and wrapped around Oliver’s heels. The thorns quickly bloomed with strange black flowers, and the long and narrow petals flew up like they were incredibly sharp blades that could saw off bones.

Oliver sucked in a cold breath, wiping the blood from his eyes.

The tremor of the earth under his feet became more severe.

“Are you so distressed that you’re shaking? ”

“…I was just thinking, when will this lovely human bring me back to the surface. I can’t wait.”

“Where’s the ring?” Oliver commanded his army of gray mist while dissipating his breath and lending cover to get closer to Nemo.

“Even if you don’t give it, I can take it. But look, you’re still wearing it properly, and I don’t think you have any intention of backtracking.”

It was hard to tell day from night in the Abyss. The long and bloody dance spanned time and the rhythm was getting faster.

In fact, regarding the return to the surface, he and Nemo discovered the solution almost at the same time.

Three years ago, when they were still in a small village in the desert, trying to save the witch Nadine, Nemo wasn’t wrong about Woodruff’s theorem.

[“Once a two-way connection across space is established, it can only die out naturally in accordance with the rules. The connection itself cannot be destroyed”… The surface contract of a superior demon also conforms to this theorem, and I suspect this is the reason I know it.]

[That’s indeed why I know it.] On the night when he re-established the knight’s oath, Nemo talked about this. [To be precise, this is the biggest theoretical basis for me to successfully send Aurorae to the surface.]

[It seems that we thought of the same thing.] Oliver at the time replied like this.

Nemo climbed to the surface for the first time, relying on eliminating his own cognition. He asked Flint Lopez to take away his skull, thereby causing a memory disorder that would last for decades or even hundreds of years, and successfully deceived his subconscious. It was like a human being who successfully hypnotized himself.

But Oliver didn’t want to cut off his lover’s head with his own hands and spend years waiting for the next Demon King to arise naturally.

Since they had to do it anyway, they had a better way.

They had done the exact same thing – tricked the cognitive instincts of some massive creature.

The root system of the Eastern Witches had no brains, and the consciousness of the Pillar of the World was in Nemo’s body, retaining only biological instincts. The situation they face was very familiar.

At that time, Oliver first put forward his own idea.

[If your flesh is on the verge of death, then let’s simulate the energy burst brought about when the flesh disappears. Can this fool your instinct…? I mean, if your body thinks that consciousness is about to return for a moment, it will definitely react a little bit, right?]

[Yes, I will relax for a moment, waiting to receive the information brought by the flesh. At least at that moment, the fence that Jesse and I erected will fail. The body of a superior demon is very large, so that moment is not enough for them to pass]

[But you can.]

[I can’t do this alone.] Nemo’s voice in memory wasn’t distressed. [Let me think about it, I was relaxed at that moment, and my enemy might take the opportunity to kill me.]

At the end, his voice even brought a smile.

[…Well, maybe I should change my statement, we can. But Nemo, in the end, Nadine lost her power as a result, would you—]

[No, the root system and the Eastern Witches are not considered the same as me. Their association is much weaker. I only need to pull away for a moment, that’s it.]

Yes, they only need that small moment.

Nemo stepped on the dark shadow and rose into the air. Oliver hid in the gray mist, patiently waiting for the opportunity to attack.

Consistent breathing, consistent heartbeat.

It was now.

It was more like a hug than an attack— The pale bone sword pierced Nemo’s back, covered with blood. The erosion spell that surrounds the sword devoured the flesh and was hissing.

Everything was quiet in an instant.

The body of Oliver’s sword was smooth and didn’t tremble at all.

He put his spare left arm around Nemo’s waist and hugged his lover tightly. Embracing the sweet pain, feeling the life rapidly flowing inside each other.

“Nemo…”

“Shh, my knight.” Nemo grabbed the hair on the back of his head and leaned his blood-stained lips up. “Be ready.”

The other party’s body temperature was as beautiful as a dream.

Oliver let go of the hilt of the sword and kissed his lover with all his strength. His eyes were sour, and the hair on his arms almost stood up. He tasted the sweetness, the bloody aura, and the unique taste of Nemo that had appeared in his dreams countless times— A faint cold fragrance, like the ashes of fragrant wood after burning.

He tightened his arms, eager to embed the opponent directly into his body, and used all his strength to keep his mind clear.

He was kissing his world.

Nemo’s body was getting cold and his body temperature was passing. The other party’s breathing slowly stopped, and the hand holding his hair slowly lost strength.

The outbreak of power before the collapse of flesh was right in front of him. Oliver moved his lips up and put them on his forehead.

“Let’s go.”

He whispered softly, completely letting go of the restraints of power, and pouring all of them into Nemo’s body. While retaining the last vitality, it simulated the terrifying power of flesh erupting on its deathbed.

“…Let’s go home.”

Kinky Thoughts:

Ahhhh *crying*. They deserve happiness!!!

For those confused or forgot, basically what they are trying to do was what they did during the witch’s arc. Since Nemo regained his memory and was now cognize of his identity, he could not longer leave the Abyss. To get around this “law” they were going to simulate his death. At the moment of his death, his consciousness would return to the Pillar of the World and at that moment was when they could bypass the “law” and get Nemo back up the surface because he no longer has his cognition. This was like how they dealt with the root system of the Eastern Witch that was draining Nadine. After basically faking her death, the root system thought she was dead and no longer was attached to drain her thus freeing her of the curse.