CHAPTER 63

  ABANDONED CHILD

  A youthful man hung over clasps, his head lowered, arms raised up above his back, broken where they latched onto the shoulders completely, his whole skin infected with deep, crossing wounds . They bled profusely, filling up the small pond beneath him with scarlet blood . His breathing was low, almost inaudible, yet it was there . Smite was conscious, too afraid to fall asleep as it could signal his death .

  He’d only spent five hours here, yet it felt like a whole lifetime . He was on the verge of crying out, of breaking down, yet he endured . He knew that, after him, they’d go after others . Fish and Kraval could endure some time themselves, but those mercenaries they brought along would die within minutes . A sound of approaching footsteps startled him, causing him to look up .

  His eyes immediately widened as he gnashed his teeth, ready to leap forward like a rabid dog . Standing a few feet away, looking down on him was a thin, extremely pale woman, currently smiling . She wore barely any cloth to cover herself, yet one could hardly call her beautiful; her skin folded over her bones, the latter clearly visible throughout her body .

  Her cheeks were sunken, eyes even more so, wholly gray as though she were blind, and her hair half-gone, shimmering in ugly gray . She was currently smiling as she began circling Smite, rather slowly .

  "Cultivators are really something else," contrary to her appearance, her voice was rather melodic and warm . "Enduring for so long, still able to bare your teeth at me . "

  " . . . " Smite didn’t reply, merely following her by the sound of her footsteps .

  "You’ll make a fantastic corpse, you know? So just give up . It’s over . "

  " . . . go to hell . " he managed to squeeze out, spitting out a mouthful of blood .

  "Hell? Ha ha ha," a shrieking laughter echoed out, bouncing against the wall like a sound wave, assailing Smite’s eardrums . "Oh, dear, how uncouth of me . Hell is where I was born . And I certainly do not have any intention of returning . I’d very much like to take you there one day, to show you what sort of a place you wished for me . It should be quite an eye-opener . "

  " . . . you’re awfully chatty . Running out of ways to torture me?" Smite taunted, grinning .

  " . . . you’re really childish, aren’t you?" the woman sighed, shaking her head . "Do you think I don’t know why you’re fighting back so hard?" Smite’s heart froze for a moment as he perked his ears up . "Putting knives into you and scalping your skin is fun and all, but watching your expression as I do all the things I did to you to them . . . damn, I have a feeling I’d orgasm . "

  " . . . " seeing Smite’s panicked reaction, the woman indulged into yet another bout of laughter, heaving her head back in an unnatural way .

  "Haah, perhaps this is even more fun . Just teasing you . Playing around . "

  "Thank the fuck you guys are complete arrogant morons . "

  "Huh?" as the woman tried to shift her head sideways toward the source of sudden newcomer, she felt something cold pierce her heart directly . A moment later, a face of a young boy came into view, his eyes barren and cold staring deep into hers .

  "Have fun going back home, you bitch . " Lino mumbled as he twisted the spear and forcibly ripped it upward, cleaving the woman in half from waist up . Rather than red blood and organs, black blood and mucus spilled out in droves, some nearly falling all over Lino who quickly backed away, panicked look on his face . "Holy shit, warn me you’re made out of crap dammit!" he cursed out as the scene settled . He then finally remembered that Smite was tied up and looked at him, feeling a deep sting in his heart . "Damn, you look even worse than her . " he said as he walked up to him and cut the chains binding him, helping him stand .

  " . . . why the hell are you the one saving me?! I don’t want to owe you one!" Smite cried out, causing Lino to roll his eyes .

  "You know," he said as he heaving Smite over his shoulder and began walking . "This rivalry that you’re trying to drag me into is kind of dumb, you know?"

  "You’re saying our love for her is dumb?! Put me down! I’ll kill you!"

  " . . . no, I stand corrected . You’re the dumb thing here . " Lino said as he scurried through the corners and began walking down a dimly lit hallway . "Where are the others being kept?"

  " . . . walk down this hallway . They’re in one of the chambers on left side . How’d you find us?" he asked .

  " . . . long story . " Lino said . "I’d offer you something to heal up, but I’ve literally got nothing . "

  "Just get me out of here . "

  "How’d you guys get caught anyway?" Lino asked .

  "We were fine at first," Smite explained . "But then some Mythic Realm woman showed up and, well, she was much, much stronger than we were . "

  " . . . that’s good to know . " Lino grumbled as he slowly injected some of his own Qi into Smite, hoping it would speed up latter’s recovery as he realized fight was inevitable . And he could hardly afford any distractions if he were to fight a Mythic Realm cultivator . Shortly after, without even realizing it, Smite began feeling better as his wounds slowly closed up, crests appearing on his skin .

  "This one, I think . " he said as Lino stopped next to a thick, steel doors . Without trying anything else, he circled Qi into the sole of his right foot and banged it against the doors, crushing them . Behind, several people jolted onto their feet, startled expressions on their faces . When Fish and Kraval saw Lino, both heaved in relief, while three other men next to them still remained tense

  "Relax," Kraval said . "He’s with us . "

  "Eh?" one of the three men exclaimed, glancing between Lino and Kraval . "You sure?"

  "Yeah, we’re sure," Fish replied . "You’re late, you bastard!"

  " . . . maybe I should just leave . " Lino said .

  "Nope, being here is great . Don’t you just admire the architecture of this place?"

  "Save the bickering for late," Lino said as he handed Smite over to Kraval . "You guys need to boot it . "

  "What about you?" Kraval asked, frowning .

  "Well, I’m fairly certain we’ve already been made," Lino said, smiling faintly . "And, not to be brutal or anything, but you guys would only speed along my death if you stayed to fight . So, you know, get lost . "

  " . . . that actually hurt . " Smite cried out lowly while Fish nodded . Kraval merely looked deeply into Lino’s eyes for a moment .

  "Stay safe . " Kraval said as he walked out, others quickly following after him .

  Lino stared at their backs for a moment before departing the other way . He already knew where the Mythic Realm woman was, and he was fairly certain she knew where he was as well . His steps were even and confident as he ran through rather confusing labyrinth of hallways that led around in circles .

  It took him almost five minutes until he finally reached the massive gates, nearly ten meters tall . Just as he stopped in front of them, trying to figure out how to cross to the other side, they opened on their own . There was no blinding attack of light, nor foul stench . Eerie sounds cried as the gates grated the floor beneath .

  Lino walked into a spacious hall, decorated with one macabre item after another; coffins, skeletons, decaying corpses, mummified corpses, sculptures of agonizing deaths . . . he immediately realized this hall along denoted everything the whole Necropolis stood for . On the far other end, he immediately spotted a woman cloaked in black, enrobed in thick shadows .

  She lacked eyes and instead had two scarlet spheres rotating in thick darkness where a face is supposed to be . On each of her sides was a skeletal hellhound, baring their teeth at him . Besides the four of them, the rest of the hall appeared barren .

  Above the woman was a makeshift plateau atop of which a single statue stood erected, surrounded by heap of corpses . It was a seemingly middle-aged man with unwound book in one of his hands and a human heart in another, his features hidden behind a thick veil of darkness . Lino found it rather chilly inside, as though there were countless arms reaching out from beyond and gripping at him, which caused his approach to drop down in pace .

  " . . . " he stopped at the fifty meters mark away from the woman who merely stared at him, without saying anything . "’Sup?" Lino asked, grinning and stretching out his arm, whereupon a familiar feel of steel inched against the palm of his hand . He whirled the spear around for a moment as though to warm his arm up .

  "Empyrean," a cold, hissing voice bellowed out, echoing out through the hall . Lino’s heart froze for a moment as he grasped his spear ever-so-tightly, moving it forward and pointing it at the woman . "You ought to not be . "

  " . . . " Lino remained silent, on full alert; he had no clue as to how she knew who he was, but he knew it wasn’t a good thing she did .

  "Yet you are . How . . . miraculous . "

  " . . . "

  "Writs remain ashened in Firmament," the woman said as she slowly got up onto her feet . "In their fires heart’s frost repeatedly birthed . "

  " . . . Eshen . " the robotic voice spoke out from Lino, startling him even more than the woman . He barely held back from cursing out yet again . "It is time to go . "

  " . . . wait . You know her?" Lino asked, rising his brow .

  "I am his failed child," the woman replied, chuckling morbidly . "Unlike you, he abandoned me . "

  " . . . you knew I was an Empyrean because you are one too?" Lino asked, growing ever more confused .

  "I knew you were an Empyrean because your stench burst my heart apart . " the woman said . "Why else would I wait for you here? In my home?"

  " . . . oh, fuck me . Did you purposefully withhold information from me again?!" Lino asked, but the only reply was silence . "Oh, goddammit!!"