TBR CH39

Chapter 39: The Abyss Dragon

At the center of the Holy See, layers upon layers of pure white curtains shrouded the central spring. The youth with a face as delicate as a rose opened his eyes. Seeing the empty space beside him, a barely perceptible trace of disappointment flashed in his eyes.

That’s right, he was the noble figure, the Holy Son Noah, whom the church had exhausted all its efforts to save.

At this moment, the youth’s brows were slightly furrowed, making him appear even more fragile and in need of protection in the eyes of outsiders.

But there was clearly no one beside him.

Noah asked the system in his mind, “Is He gone?”

The system’s inorganic, mechanical voice echoed in his mind: “The God of Light has been detected to have left. Also, Host, I must remind you that the God of Light is not part of this conquest mission. Please do not divert your energy. The key right now is to figure out why the Dark God attacked you.”

Noah bit his lip until it turned a beautiful red.

He had to admit that the system was right in some aspects. But he was not willing to completely acknowledge the system’s authority.

Just now, in his near-death, half-dreaming state, the tall and handsome god he had seen had a flash of amazement in his eyes the first moment he saw him. He wouldn’t have missed it.

Even the God of Light could be influenced by the harem system.

And conquering such a noble god of the highest status was an irresistible temptation for Noah.

Noah’s real name was, of course, not Noah. He came from another world but was bound by the “Save the Villain System” after his death. The system promised him that if he completed the so-called conquest missions, he could be resurrected in his original world.

Of course, if he was willing to stay in the so-called conquest world, or continue on to the next world, it was also his choice.

For Noah, he had naturally and directly given up the first option.

In his original world, he had been sentenced to death and his reputation was ruined. Many people hated him to the bone. If he were to be resurrected, it would be almost entirely without benefit.

His original job, to sum it up, was fraud: using sweet words to swindle money from people, using tempting words to earn huge interest… Therefore, he also considered himself to have experienced the most decadent side of that world and had reached the highest point.

He liked to walk on the edge of this kind of excitement and prided himself on his outstanding abilities. Unfortunately, he had left a flaw in the end and was imprisoned.

This was not his fault.

It was only after getting the harem system that Noah finally understood he had just lacked a perfect tool to display his talents.

This was the most ideal means of fraud. He could satisfy all his desires without paying any price, without even having to use his brain.

But the system had many restrictions on him. He could clearly have all the people around him wrapped around his finger, squeezing their family fortunes dry, yet he had to follow the system’s instructions, being urged to conquer the so-called designated characters one by one.

Noah closed his eyes again and said to the system in a low voice, “You never mentioned what would happen if the mission failed, but when the Dark God attacked me, you sounded very terrified, and even wanted to escape at one point.”

“My guess is, you’re not afraid of me being killed by the Dark God, but of the intervention of some external forces. But you didn’t really run away. Why is that?”

If the system had a face, it would probably be horrified right now.

“The current situation should be very bad for you, right?” The harem system, of course, could not affect the system itself. At this moment, looking at the youth’s somewhat distorted face, it couldn’t help but feel that the situation was sliding in a direction it had not anticipated. “You are very weak. Of course, we should cooperate, but I hope you admit that at this moment… the dominant power is in my hands.”

If the World Consciousness knew that its nemesis was also facing the dilemma of an uncooperative teammate at this moment, would it feel a trace of comfort?

But Tarksius… no, the demon who now called himself Tar, was still at ease.

The summoning he had spoken of had not yet happened. The black book anxiously flipped its pages back and forth, even though there was no wind at all in the temple.

A contract, an existence directly imprinted on the soul, could even escape the prying eyes of the world’s origin.

“Don’t be anxious,” Tar comforted it. “Besides, we still have a guest coming to visit.”

A guest? The black book finally quieted down a little, then frantically flapped its pages and flew before the demon’s eyes.

It probably hadn’t paid attention to other things before, but for it, the world was a conveniently searchable book, so it only took a slight look to know who the visitor the Dark God was talking about was.

The color of the ink was so deep it almost bled through the back of the paper.

“The black dragon Adelaide is about to arrive at the dark temple?!”

That’s right, the upcoming guest was one of the Holy Son Noah’s previous conquest targets, the immense existence known as the dragon from the abyss, Adelaide.

Legend had it that as long as Adelaide spread its wings, the surrounding twenty city-states would immediately lose the daylight, completely shrouded in shadow.

The church could not hide the news of the Holy Son’s attack. After all, he had teleported to the holy hall in broad daylight. Although most were church personnel, there were always some outsiders who were also permitted to pray here.

This news had now flown to every corner of the continent.

Of course, bound with the news was also the information about the attacker that the Holy See had hastily released: a pure dark power, as the Holy See described it, belonging to the head of evil, terrifying.

The direction was very clear.

To be honest, the Dark God Tarksius had been the scapegoat for many things that had nothing to do with him, but he didn’t really care.

However, this matter was indeed his doing, and it would continue to create a chain reaction. The black dragon rushing aggressively to the dark temple at this time was a typical example.

From its perspective, the Holy Son had long been its lifelong partner, just that he couldn’t truly be by its side due to his status. Now that its partner had been attacked, how could it not come to find the legendary culprit for an explanation, or even a fight?

Sigh.

A hint of indifference and mockery appeared in the demon’s red pupils. This was also something this stupid dragon would do. Knowing full well it couldn’t win…

Looking down at the black book, large drops of ink soaked the writing. The World Consciousness seemed to have been hit by this news and was a little slow to react. After a long while, it finally wrote: “When meeting the Child of Luck’s conquest target, one should be cautious and use various methods to make them discover the outsider’s true face…”

The great gate of the dark temple was slammed open with a boom, making a tragic collapsing sound.

The black book’s writing paused, somewhat unable to continue.

Tar comfortingly stroked the pages. He smiled at the black book, a cunning and confident smile. “Adelaide appearing here at this time is also beneficial to us. Besides, weren’t you worried about whether I could act well—”

“I’ll act it out for you now.”

The dragon swept its tail. The scales on its tail were packed together, sharp as knives. Almost no magic could penetrate this thick-skinned shield. Its huge body was not easy to pass through the door. At this time, it angrily swung its tail, and another section of the temple wall collapsed.

Following that was a clinging binding spell. This was built by Tarksius for the temple before. He didn’t like to be disturbed.

However, the formation, which hadn’t been given much thought, only trapped the dragon for a short while. It still squeezed and scraped past a lot of things, and finally angrily smashed open the door of the main hall.

Naturally, once here, even Adelaide had many things it couldn’t destroy.

Considering the possibility of receiving guests, the space of the dark temple stretched infinitely in all directions. Tall pillars supported a pitch-black sky dome. This finally made the black dragon no longer feel cramped, and it could even fully stretch its wings.

It roared menacingly, although with a hint of bluff.

“Tarksius, I heard you—”

Those golden vertical pupils rolled, searching for the Dark God’s shadow in the hall, but the moment it finally saw his current appearance, it suddenly stopped its voice, and the dragon’s face twitched.

Adelaide was currently in chaos, one could judge.

What was going on? In the palace of the dark temple, the high and mighty, ill-tempered god was nowhere to be seen. In his place was a low-level demon.

“Me?”

The young demon with soft black hair stood there stunned. The demon’s eyes were exactly the kind the dragon liked most, like sparkling garnets. He looked so good…

No, Adelaide began to feel confused. He had never seen this demon before, but there was an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

And the demon pointed at himself and asked with some uncertainty, “My name is not Tarksius, Your Excellency. My name is Tar. Are you looking for me? Perhaps you know why I am here?”

Wh-what?

The dragon roared in confusion. It leaned forward and sniffed the demon who called himself Tar. The dragon’s breath was like a small storm, scraping one’s face like a knife. Fortunately, Tar managed to stand firm.

How to say, this smell was both strange and a little familiar, which made it deeply confused. However, it found something else.

The sulfur-like smell flowing in the air, wasn’t it a relic of a time magic?

Adelaide was a black dragon from the abyss, and its ancestors had dealt with the Time Lord. This black dragon’s mother was the famous Time-Space Dragon Feya, who unfortunately had died in the siege of the human race. But her child still inherited her talent for time.

Only the dragon race could accurately detect the traces of the Time Torrent without any instruments. For others, what sulfur-like smell? The smell of dragon’s breath, on the other hand, was not so pleasant.

But Tar was still polite. He seemed to ask very friendly, “Perhaps Your Excellency can help me sort out the current situation?”

When the dragon got closer, its tail shrank back. Adelaide stared at him uncertainly. The beast’s vertical pupils were very close to him, unblinking, as if studying some dangerous item.

“Have you ever heard the name ‘Tarksius’?”

“I quite like that name.”

There was no follow-up.

The demon did not hide his confusion. Thousands of years of life told Adelaide that no matter how weak a demon seemed, one had to be cautious when dealing with them. What’s more, if the demon before him wasn’t some illegitimate child Tarksius had gotten from somewhere, plus the traces of the Time Torrent, then there was probably only one terrifying possibility.

He was… the Dark God from a certain moment in the past.

Adelaide had never heard of the Dark God’s past. Of course, they had dealt with each other and were barely considered acquaintances. Perhaps the black dragon had slightly overestimated their friendship.

But there were countless legends about the Dark God’s birth. None of them truly explained his appearance, nor was there a truly recognized, reasonable past.

He seemed to have suddenly appeared one day, with a divine personality, a god, with unparalleled strength, and a very bad personality. The dark temple, mixed with immeasurable magic, slowly rose to the sky, and from then on, the Light was covered with a layer of haze.

Although he had originally come to seek revenge for his lover, Adelaide was now attracted by something fresher. What great news, the Dark God had been chosen by the Time Torrent, becoming the first unlucky god in hundreds of years to be sent back to the past.

And at this time, he wasn’t even a powerful demon.

Out of some mentality, the dragon stretched out its claw to try and hold Tar down, but was nimbly dodged by the demon. Although it hadn’t been serious, Adelaide still felt a little annoyed by its failure. He was clearly a weak existence now…

A hint of red spread in Tar’s eyes. Dodging the dragon’s attack had clearly cost him a lot of energy.

He showed a wary and hostile gaze.

Adelaide sheepishly retracted its claw. He didn’t want to take advantage of someone’s misfortune and instead cause trouble, waiting for the Dark God to recover and come back to seek revenge.

And it wasn’t very keen on the plan to kill the Dark God, although if this news were known, many people would probably think so.

Tarksius had once done it a favor. It wouldn’t repay kindness with enmity.

Although its revenge plan had been inexplicably interrupted like this.

“Uh,” the black dragon rolled its pupils, and still asked reluctantly according to its original plan, “Have you seen a very good-looking human? He has the aura of light on him.”

“…I have.”

Not expecting to actually get such an answer, Adelaide was completely stunned. After a while, it continued to ask, “You, it wasn’t you who injured him, was it?”

Tar looked a little troubled. “I don’t know him, but he suddenly appeared in front of me. Of course I attacked him. I think that’s a very normal thing. After all, the power of light is not very pleasant for our race.”

Well, that’s true too.

The full-blown frustration seemed to have no outlet. The black dragon impatiently flapped its wings, but heard the demon in front of him add in a low voice, “But my power seemed very strange at that time.”

Strange?

Adelaide was just about to ask in detail when the demon suddenly showed a confused expression.

“Wait,” he said, “Is someone summoning me?”

About a second passed after that.

A dazzling red light flashed. Tar instantly disappeared from the dark temple, without a trace.

“Wh—”

The black dragon looked at the empty temple, suddenly feeling like it wanted to cry but had no tears. It sorted out its messy thoughts and guiltily looked back at the destruction it had caused here.

It was as frustrating as drawing water with a bamboo basket.

It squeezed back out through the hole it had come from without looking back, then flapped its huge wings and flew in a certain direction. That was, of course, the center of the human capital, the location of the Church of Light, known as the crown of the world.

As a responsible partner, Adelaide absolutely could not be nowhere to be found when its lover needed it.

At the same time, those few who held the same idea as him were also on their way to the Holy See.

Although this posed a certain risk for them, the Holy Son had also tearfully told them that out of responsibility, Noah could only secretly promise them his life, until his duties at the Church of Light came to an end.

But, even just to see him once would be good.

With such thoughts, the uninvited guests arriving in the capital were enough to brew a storm across the entire continent.

Support me on Ko-fi