Stray

Ann didn’t answer. As if she hadn’t heard what he said, she walked straight to the corner of the abandoned house and opened the rotted cellar door.

“Go down,” she said. “Let’s go.”

After that, she jumped down first, and the remaining three men looked at each other. Adrian was second to go. The chain didn’t seem to cause him much trouble. His movements were neat, and his landing sounded light and steady. Nemo looked into the cellar and could see only darkness. Oliver hesitated for a moment before grabbing the edge of the cellar with both hands, then cautiously let go.

The first thing Oliver did after landing was cast an illumination spell. Soft light instantly lit up the cellar, which looked even more dilapidated than the room above. Nemo secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then followed Oliver’s movement and tried to touch the ground in a safe position. As a result, he completely underestimated his brand-new grip strength, causing the rotten wooden board to collapse into pieces between his fingers, and he fell on his back in disgrace.

Fortunately, the ground in the cellar was composed of soft soil. Nemo sniffed the strong odor that filled his nostrils and sneezed fiercely. This time, Oliver quickly stretched out his hand to help Nemo get rid of the mud and dry moss on the ground, along with a few mice bones.

“There’s a sewer connected here.” Ann kicked open a crumbling stone wall. “They are probably busy blocking the wall at the moment. The sewer is safe for the time being. They won’t send too many people here in the beginning.”

Nemo had to agree with her assessment. He was almost suffocated by the smell in the air. Except for mice and cockroaches, no creature would take this kind of place as their first choice. He had already begun missing the clean and comfortable room at the inn they stayed at.

“Let’s untie Mr. Cross’ chains first,” Oliver suggested. “He agreed to help us complete the task. I believe he will not break his promise.”

“…Are you still thinking about the mission?” Ann cried in disbelief. “Do you know what’s going on now?”

“Well, things have already reached this point, so we might as well see it to the end.” Through the collapsed stone wall, they were advancing along a dark underground river. Every time he retracted his foot, there would be an unpleasant sticky feeling. Nemo didn’t want to know what he had stepped on, so he had to distract himself by adding topics. “How did it go on your end?”

“Mrs. Edwards may…know.” Oliver’s eyes quickly scanned Adrian. “I don’t think she seems to be controlled by that…”

“Telaranea.” Adrian helped him by completing his sentence.

Ann stopped, while Oliver and Nemo looked at the former Knight Commander at the same time.

“I thought you knew who your enemies were,” Adrian sigh. “My mistake.”

“Since you know the identity of the superior demon, how can you still… Er, be in this situation?” Nemo chose his words cautiously, trying to save some image— provided if he had any image of Adrian Cross.

“Telaranea is good at illusions.” Adrian was not as reluctant to explain things as Ann, or to ignore objectionable questions. He simply answered Nemo.

“Fabricated illusion doesn’t make people see things they don’t want to see.” Ann joined the conversation with a bit of mischievousness, not intending to hide her desire to make Adrian stumble. “In other words, for the lovely citizens, they want you to be the wicked man more than Cahill Edwards.”

“That’s true.” Adrian’s expression was calm, and he even nodded. “I’m not surprise.”

“Then to continue the topic just now,” the other party’s calm attitude made the female warrior’s tone a little for frustrated, “I don’t want you to have any strange expectations of me. Even if the world ends, that has nothing to do with me. I’m not interested in some prophecy. Why am I following these two boys? Because it’s my problem this time, otherwise, I would have tied them up and hung them at the door of the church to apologize. I’m well aware of my own conscience, but at least I have face.”

Oliver and Nemo silently distracted themselves from her and fell behind Adrian.

“…But I’m curious. Isn’t the person in the prophecy already determined?” Ann rolled her eyes as the two of them retreated.

“I am not that person,” Adrian said in a deep voice, “and neither is Godwin Lopez.”

“Oh? Your evaluation of the leader of Horizon is so low?” Ann crossed her arms. “What are you trying to say? Oliver— yes, the boy who just talked to you— is a possibility?”

“His talent is just as good as Lopez.”

“They said Lopez,” Nemo caught a certain key word and couldn’t help whispering to Oliver. “The head of Horizon is Lopez? Does he have anything to do with Flint Lopez, the leader of the Tin Soldiers—”

“I’m more curious about the prophecy than this… How come I feel like I’m the only one who hasn’t heard of it?”

“You haven’t heard of it?!” Nemo raised his tone in surprise causing Ann and Adrian to stop talking and cast them a complicated glance. “…Sorry, sorry. You guys continue.”

“Actually, I can’t remember too much.” Nemo lowered his voice again and explained to Oliver whose expression was blank. “I just remember that it’s not very human.”

“It’s not very human…”

Perhaps it was because he couldn’t stand the casual attitude of the two people had towards the prophecy, but Adrian brows furrowed. As soon as he was about to speak, a female voice sounded first.

“Born from death and betrayal, stepping over the bones of loved ones, shattering curses and embrace the Abyss.”

“A knight who follows the king’s guidance and is blessed by God. He follows the stars and comes like winter.”

“His sword will bring the real end.”

Ann cleared her throat. “…Just a few words. Honestly, I don’t think it looks like human text. If I was the Pope, I definitely hope that the prophet could accurately pinpoint the place of birth of such a guy, better yet determine what street.”

“…No, I mean,” Oliver looked a little tangled. “What is this prophecy about? It sounds a little, uh, negative.”

“Who knows. The popular saying now is ‘the most promising swordsman who has the best chance of leveling the Aybss, the true savior’…. And so on.”

“I think Mr. Cross is quite in line with it,” Nemo whispered, “especially the line ‘comes like winter.’”

The mentioned Knight Commander glanced at him coldly.

“Are you sure it’s leveling the Abyss and not the surface?” Oliver also muttered back in a low voice. “Doesn’t the person in the prophecy sounds a little too miserable?”

This time Adrian coughed heavily a few times.

“Anyways, it’s definitely not me, Mr. Cross.” Oliver quickly explained. “I had a very happy childhood. I never met any king, let alone a knight. I don’t even have any faith!”

Nemo nodded sympathetically. As far as their current experience is concerned, not to mention being blessed by God, it was more in line with being rejected by God.

“I just compared the strength of you and Lopez. Objectively speaking, it’s a possibility,” Adrian responded expressionlessly. “Lopez hasn’t been officially recognized yet and I don’t think he will be either. That’s all.”

As soon as his voice fell, the unbearable rancid smell in the air suddenly became intense. Ann’s hunting spear instantly covered the array in an instant. She stabbed Adrian with a spear, causing the latter’s chains to burst into several sections in an instant. A swollen corpse fluttered into the air. It shook a few times and just as it was about to adjust its movements, it was severely strangled by the white chain. Adrian grabbed the newly broken silver chain and turned it into a deadly weapon.

He clenched the chain and tightened his arm, almost twisting off the head. The floating corpse opened its mouth full of carrion and let out an angry roar. It then turned its neck for half a full turn before stretching out its head and bit Adrian. Ann used her spear to stab at the floating corpse’s head and shattered it with lightning, causing the swollen body to limply fall back into the sewage. It left behind a black and green brain matter with a scorching smell.

The difference between soldiers and ordinary people was cruelly revealed. At the end of all this, Oliver had just put on his fighting posture, while Nemo had just finished sneezing for a second time, trying to resist the urge to retch from the stench that almost formed solid.

Adrian silently withdrew his gaze and put away the chain in his hand, but Ann didn’t put down her hunting spear, so he sighed and threw the chain into the thick sewage. When she saw this, Ann put away her spear.

“I hope you can understand,” she said coldly. “Just in case.”

“I promised the young man,” Adrian said, expertly moving his joints that were stiffened by being bound for too long. “I won’t lie.”

Nemo on the other hand had finally managed to calm down. He almost began to doubt that those two had real noses. He wanted to share this conjecture with Oliver but found that Oliver was staring at his hands. The illumination spell was still maintained, but it had dimmed by a lot. Oliver was distracted.

Nemo put away his jokes. Oliver’s face was a little pale, and his other hand that wasn’t holding the illumination spell clenched into a fist, and Nemo knew that this wasn’t because of the rancid smell or due to fear.

“Ollie?” he asked worriedly.

Oliver reluctantly smiled, and the light on his Illumination spell slowly recovered. “I’m fine,” he replied gently, but he turned his face away.

“Ann, how long do we need to stay here?” Oliver asked loudly in Ann’s direction.

“At least for tonight. If it goes well, tomorrow afternoon—”

“If possible, can I ask that you not take action right away?”

Ann let out a long, interested “oh”. She stopped and looked Oliver up and down.

“You don’t have a sword,” she concluded. “I probably know what you’re thinking, but it’s not a good idea to force yourself.”

“I know,” Oliver said, taking a few quick steps and walking at the front of the line with Adrian.

“You can put away the shield,” the female warrior leaned close to Nemo and patted him on the shoulder abruptly. The latter was literally startled before a light sound of something breaking in the dark sounded. “Oh, well. It’s okay to keep supporting him. You can keep practicing your control of it— since you want to protect him so much.”

At this distance, Oliver couldn’t hear what the two of them were talking about, but at this moment, when the floating corpse attacked, the dark shadow behind him trembled. He was instantly aware that it wasn’t just pure darkness casted by the sewer tunnel and there was only one person who could control the Shadow Shield.

And this cognition made his heart sour…

Something was roaring in a low voice in front of him. He carefully controlled his power, copied Adrian’s actions and attacked the source of the sound—

A little stronger. He took a breath and the cold air condensed into thin layer of ice on the surface of the sewage.

He needed to become stronger.

The author has something to say：

Personally, I firmly believe that if you like one person, you will want to become better for the other person XD

So Oliver has completely planted it……

Nemo: tentatively on the verge of falling down.jpg

Kinky Thoughts:

There’s nothing wrong with growing stronger to protect the one you love~