Chapter 105: The crest (5)
''BANG!''
"Ugh--! What was that just now!?" Luke shouted, taken aback by the sudden explosion sound that came from the ever-expanding void in front of him.
"Huh?" He raised an eyebrow when he noticed that the sound didn''t exactlye from the void, or rather, from the inside of the void. Instead, the source was much closer than expected. His arm.
A sizzling sound that followed and the smoke that slightly wafted in the air made him realized what just happened.
"... So you''re gonna y hard to get, huh?" Luke smirked as he rubbed his charred arm.
The foreign void in front of him had denied his entrance, and gave him a subtle greeting in the form of a lightning zap. That one little gesture sure caught the humanoid serpent off-guard, but he didn''t look bothered, not even one bit.
"Let''s see..."
Luke closed his eyes as the air around him began to fluctuate, bringing the hem of his robe and his flowy blue hair up in the air, floating gracefully.
"... You''re not like me," he slowly opened his eyes and tilted his head, "then what the heck are you? How can you upy this mana space by force?"
After waiting for a response that never came, Luke sighed, and decided to try a different approach.
"Okay. I have no idea what''s happening, or if you can understand me at all," he sat down on the floor, directly facing the dark, expanding void that was looming over him, casting a purplish shadow over his figure.
"But if you really insist on staying here, then let''spromise and be good roommates, yeah?"
After saying that, Luke leaned back and sighed, observing the void''s behaviour. He wasn''t scared at all, nor was he too bothered about it, despite already being zapped once for an unknown reason.
He wasn''t exactly fond of having a roommate, but as long as he could keep Chaerin''s mana core safe, it was enough for him. At least, that was his top priority for now. Although he seemed to be just chilling, doing nothing, he wasn''t sitting down just to simply watch as the expanding void devour this ce.
Luke was sitting down so he could concentrate better, and control the mana flow around him that was still under his control. Even though he couldn''t get rid of the unknown void, he could, at least, sync the mana flow around them so the damage wouldn''t be too bad.
"You little rat, you better thank me after this..."
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That grumpy snake Luke better thank me after this.
... Weird. ording to Firiell, didn''t she say that those new owners felt as if they were being reborn? This ce didn''t look like my mother''s uterus to me, but okay.
The moment I filled that creepy heart with my mana, I lost my consciousness for like, a second at best, before waking up to this depressingly bleak white room. Well, this probably wasn''t even a room, to be honest. I was just floating around, doing absolutely nothing.
I had tried swimming back up, opening my status and skill window, calling Luke, but none of them worked, nothing, nada, zilch.
I knew for sure though, that roughly an hour had passed. I was already used to estimating the amount of time that had passed the moment I ended up somewhere unfamiliar to me. But the fact that there wasn''t anything that I could use as an indicator was starting to mess with my head.
"Yooo, if this is where I meet someone, then give me a siiiign..." I half-shouted without much energy, because I was starting to lose hope of seeing any progress. Was this how being a damsel-in-distress feels like? So powerless that you had to wait and rely on someone else? Nahh, not my kinda jam.
"Hello? Is this like, a test ce? Do I need to pass some kind of test to wake up?" I called out once more, "ack! This is wasting my time!"
After ruffling my head and messing up my hair, I tried to calm myself down and think of a way to escape this situation. C''mon, Chae. Find something from Firiell''s words. Or that freaky king''s words. This whole situation was weird, anyway. I was sure that cunning king knew that there was a high chance of us betraying him. And yet, why would he purposely send us off?
... Did he, perhaps, figure out the fact that we would activate the crest ourselves? Did he deliberately send us on a suicide mission?
Ack, that would be a really good n if it was true, though. It would get rid of his brother without putting the me on him, and we humans would get painted in a bad light because not only did we set their entire forest on fire, but we would also be the ''thieves'' who stole the precious royal crest.
The elf vigers wouldn''t even care that we helped prevent the coup, and the me would be all on us, which meant that they would have a valid reason to dere war against the humans, our group of humans, not the other.
Ugh.
This did not sit well with me at all.
Well, first and foremost, I wasn''t nning on dying because of this crest. I was gonna pay a surprise visit to that smug king and strip him off of his title.
"Oh, wait..."
At that moment, I realized something.
That king was able to be so sure that one of us would die because the elves had been conducting several tests with the crests on humans, right? That would mean that they had injected royal blood into humans before.
That meant that although I may be able to activate it myself, there was indeed something that I would need to ''pass'', and that ''something'' was a guaranteed failure for humans... But why?
Well, maybe, the first thing I had to worry about was how the heck do I trigger this ''something''.
"... Perhaps?"
Upon the sudden realization, I brought my thumb to my mouth and bit it hard until blood was dripping from the wound.
"Hello? Can I start now? I got the ticket here?" I asked into nothingness as I waved my bloody finger around. That should be it, right? The royal blood ticket? No?
...
So it was a no.
[O, little princess of nature. The crest has acknowledged your presence, and acknowledged your desire to understand another life force.]
UM!? Creepy!?
[So heed my words, O lost little princess, and bear witness to your heart''s desire.]
... Who was this poetic dude...?
"Uh?" I felt like I saw something sh behind me, and so I turned around to check. Was it the creepy voice, perhaps?
"Whoa!? The heck!?"
I yelped in surprise when I see that the white nothingness behind me hadpletely turned into a small,fortable apartment roomplete with neat furniture alreadyid out, and most importantly, a fluffy white bed with a freshly-washed bedsheet that smelled like flowers. On top of it was a medium-sized ugly hamster doll that was kinda getting cuter the more I looked at it.
[Now look at the honest desire of your heart, and see that it is there.] The voice continued.
... I desired an apartment? What? I sounded like a middle-aged old man who had just lost his 9-5 office ve job and was left with just a box of cup ramen tost for a whole month, on top of getting chased out of his ce for not paying rent for over 3 months, but okay. Perhaps I was the one misinterpreting this whole thing.
[Open the door, O young princess of nature.]
I gulped, andnded myself on the room''s floor. Now that I could walk and wasn''t floating anymore, my feet brought me to the small door beside the cupboard. Kinda felt icky to be called young princess of nature, but alright, mysterious crest dude. Whatever floats your boat.
''Click!''
As soon as I twisted the doorknob, my ears twitched upon hearing the sudden influx of background noises. I could faintly hear people talking,ughing, and screaming in the distance. Illusion? Or other people?
"W-wha--!"
I gasped and stuttered the moment I fully opened the door.
In front of me, was a whole-ass D*snend, with its various attractions and food stalls, and evenplete with lots of visitors, too. I immediately looked above to check if we were still indoors, and surprisingly, the blue sky was above me.
"What the hell is happening here..." I frowned and frantically looked around, observing my surroundings. It was then that I noticed something amiss.
The faces of all the people here were blurry.
Not only that, but the attractions were also pretty blurry and they seemed to be stuck in a weird, off-sync loop for some reason. Man, this felt like something straight out of horror movies.
"Hey, voice dude! What do you want from me by showing this?" I asked while rubbing both of my arms from the goosebumps I got.
[Feast your eyes, O princess of nature. And see that all you desire is futile.]
Sounded like a typical propaganda speech, but alright, continue.
[Now, avert your attention from the temptation of your heart''s desire and focus your eyes on your King.]
I looked around once more, trying to find the ''King'' he mentioned, but so far, I saw no changes whatsoever in my surroundings. Not a single person appeared.
[Do you see your King before you now, O princess of nature?]
... No? Was I supposed to see someone? System error? Hello, your ''King'' character didn''t load properly, perhaps?
[Bow down before your King, and listen to his request.]
"What." I let out one word which exined pretty much what was going on in my mind right now.
[Now that you''ve heard His wish, O princess of nature, you have two choices.]
... I did not hear any wish, but go on. Perhaps a certain King character was supposed to appear before me, and give me an order, but that character didn''t load? Geez, that was why you need to patch your system every week, dude. This was he buggy.
[Choose now, O princess of nature, to keep what your heart desire, or to grant what your King desires by killing yourself.]