TBR CH72

Chapter 72: The Uninvited Guest

Tar had briefly used this secret residence as a stopping point, but the incantations on the door were not left by the young demon. Those complicated and tortuous magical formations were actually the work of Tarksius.

The power of a god is unbreakable. If one were to ask which place in the capital was the safest and most secret, it would undoubtedly be here.

However, this door had recently shown signs of being opened.

Even without using magic to investigate, for Tar, this fact was as clear as day.

The demon had mastered the hundred common senses of tracking and anti-tracking during his long journey of escape. The person hiding inside had not bothered to put on any disguise. The dust near the door hinges and handle was obviously a layer thinner than elsewhere.

As Tarksius applied a slight force, the door slid open silently. Under the slight vibration, dust floated in the air and sunlight.

Now the Dark God no longer looked like the obedient and considerate little demon in front of Edwin.

The god’s raven-like eyelashes cast a shadow over his scarlet eyes. A ruby hair tie bound the Dark God’s hair. The thousands of pitch-black strands were now as quiet as unmoving blades, revealing a dangerous and malicious emotion. He cast his dark red gaze, full of pressure, towards his long-unseen residence.

Under his gaze, the “uninvited guest” in the house looked like he wanted to run away, extremely embarrassed, but he still tried his best to put on a confident expression, trying to make himself seem less in the wrong.

However, his slightly guilty eyes couldn’t stop drifting towards the inner room behind him.

“…Adelaide,” the god accurately called out his name.

As the Dark God took a step forward, the youth transformed from an abyssal dragon couldn’t help but take a step back. Adelaide knew what the Dark God was like when he was displeased, especially when he was displeased with him. Tarksius even deigned to show a hint of a sarcastic smile, his voice low and dangerous as he uttered his name, “Now you can start explaining why you are here, and what you plan to do to compensate after you broke my temple.”

Adelaide was the only existence before the Dark God who could barely be called a friend, though it was generally a one-sided belief on the black dragon’s part.

Tarksius had saved the life of this most precious descendant of the dragon race, although for him it was just a matter of convenience. But this action had earned him the unconditional support of the entire dragon race, and the harassment that the abyssal dragon called “visits.”

The history of the dragon race was almost as old as this continent. Even if their power was not enough to match a god, the gods couldn’t help but be wary of the power they possessed to manipulate time and space. There were rumors that the death of the space-time dragon, Fia, stemmed from the God of Light’s fear and jealousy of her potential. Otherwise, how could the Holy See have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles for no reason to kill a creature “rumored to have caused harm.”

And Adelaide was the kind of young dragon who had been raised in a honeypot.

He had lost his mother at a young age, so his clansmen unconditionally pitied and doted on the last remaining royal bloodline in the clan. He had never suffered any setbacks.

It was precisely because of this that he was stupid enough to dare to sneak out of the Dragon Mountains alone before coming of age, travel a long distance to the human capital, and break into the Holy See of Light, intending to avenge his mother.

The Holy See at that time was still in its prime. The priests prayed for the God of Light to bestow a blessing, and subdued her child a hundred times more easily than capturing Fia. Adelaide had never encountered such malice. He was usually lax in practicing his power and not smart enough to deal with traps, so he quickly lost his ability to resist.

This was simply an unexpected joy for the church. His dragon bones could be used for alchemy, his dragon blood for making medicine, and his dragon skin could be made into the toughest armor. By killing him, the Holy See’s reputation would not be at risk. After all, he had foolishly delivered himself to their door.

His soul was dangerous and useless, but according to convention, the Holy See would throw Adelaide into the silver holy bottle passed down by the Holy See. Soon, the dragon would disappear without a trace.

If not for… he had happened to luckily catch the moment the silver bottle shattered.

The priest, as always, carefully took out the bottle from the heavily guarded secret room of the Holy See. He, as usual, pulled out the yellow wax that sealed the mouth of the bottle. Adelaide tried his best to shrink back. He was dying, covered in wounds, yet he could instinctively feel that this seemingly ordinary bottle the Holy See had taken out was an extremely terrifying thing, capable of easily taking his life.

What terrified him the most was the faint, familiar aura emanating from the bottle.

It was his mother’s bones, bones used as a tool by the Holy See, bones that had not been buried for thousands of years.

All struggle was futile.

Adelaide was firmly bound in place by Light magic. He was so anxious he shed tears, yet he still followed the priest’s movements and saw the dazzlingly bright opening of the silver bottle. A grim, unstoppable force pushed him. He was dragged towards the mouth of the bottle, very close, so close that he could feel the holy light flowing within it was like lava, scalding his skin.

Until the next second, the bottle shattered from the middle.

The crystal-clear material exploded in the air, creating a cloud of silver-white dust. In that instant, no one reacted to what had happened. The sound of the explosion was like a thunderclap, like a sharp thorn piercing the hearts of every living creature present.

At first, what flowed in the air was still the remnants of holy light. Then, the bright and holy light was gradually gnawed away by a deep black mist. Everyone present was shrouded in the mist, feeling their blood vessels freeze into ice, their hearts gripped by an unseen hand. Only by trying their best to open their eyes could they see the new god in the mist.

That’s right. It only took one glance to understand that only a god could have such power.

The god lowered his eyes, surveying everything around him, his newly freed self, and his wantonly extending power. His long, raven-black hair hung down, like a spider in the center of a web, its sharp threads piercing the air. He had a pair of dark red eyes. Everyone who saw them would be startled. It must be the color left after layers upon layers of blood had dried.

It had been too long.

The demon Tar had finally shattered the bottle that had shackled him for countless years.

Adelaide curled up in a corner of the black mist. The dragon’s hard skin had helped him resist some of the damage, preventing him from being directly destroyed and knocked unconscious by the terrifying pressure like the other creatures present. However, he felt even more uncomfortable at this time. The pain all over his body had intensified. The situation was still like being in a fog for him. He could only cry out in grievance.

The immeasurably long wait had made Tar cold and gloomy, filled with malice towards the world, and only disgust for the past. He looked down at his hands, paler than before, yet with just a slight lift of his fingers, he could summon the power to destroy everything.

He walked out slowly. The only conscious creature around was Adelaide.

The god sighed, indifferently turning his pupils. He asked Adelaide what era it was now.

The dragon answered, sniffling.

So many long and terrible years had passed.

And the flow of time in the bottle was different from reality. Sometimes, only a day had passed in the outside world, but in the bottle, Tar had carved scratches on his skin time and time again. He had counted the days, and finally found that numbers no longer had any meaning for him. Even if he had now left the shackles and regained his freedom, the memories that had once been so important to him had already faded.

Dates had no meaning for him.

The people he knew had long since died, including his mother, and the Demon King whose head had been cut off by the Saintess’s own hands. Those who had judged him, tortured him, killed him, no matter how glorious they had been in life, had now long since become names in history books, a sigh in the endless years.

Meaningless. The god concealed the crimson malice in his eyes, the deep mockery, towards others, towards his past self. But he always had to get some compensation. The terrible, endless time had made the blood in his newly freed veins congeal with sweetness and bitterness. The buildings of the Holy See bent unbelievably in his hands, like a child’s toys. He killed the people around him, those who had profited from the demon in the bottle in their short lives. Then he quickly grew tired.

Destruction, under the god’s fingers, between his poison-smeared lips.

The bottle that had confined him, the people who had confined him, the Holy See that had confined him, the world that had confined him, everything was trampled under Tarksius’s feet, and at the same time, it cut the god’s soul like shattered glass. Revenge did not make him feel happy. He seemed to have lost the ability to perceive positive emotions. The god squinted his eyes slightly, but realized he would not feel disappointed because of this.

He was about to move his fingers and wipe Adelaide’s existence from the world as well.

But the black dragon foolishly turned its head and suddenly asked if he knew his mother, which was why he had come to save it.

The bottle Tarksius had been trapped in was made from the bones of the space-time dragon, Fia. The Holy See had imprisoned the young demon, and had also made the once-famous dragon race be endlessly used even after death. Just because of this thought, the god’s action of caressing the back of his hand paused for a moment. He looked at the wretched black dragon, and for a moment thought of himself back then.

Just by a hair’s breadth, its life was saved.

The Dark God’s momentary compassion had brought him a lot of trouble, mainly because Adelaide was indeed uniquely naive and stupid. Because he had brought back the future’s only young master of the dragons, the elders of the dragon race were grateful to the newly risen god, declaring they would unconditionally stand on the Dark God’s side, hoping Adelaide would build a good relationship with the god. For some reason, this ordinary and proper suggestion was understood by Adelaide as becoming friends with the Dark God.

And he even skipped the “making” step and unilaterally declared that he and the Dark God were already friends.

Tarksius had once temporarily stuffed the dying black dragon, who had been tortured by the Holy See, into this old residence in the capital to prevent it from being hunted. So it could now swagger in uninvited, looking like it had already established a small base here. The most crucial thing was that this place was indeed very convenient for him. For example, it was very easy to hide a human who had lost his foothold in the capital.

Tarksius once again let out an imperceptible sigh, a thought flashing in his mind: would it have been better if he had killed it back then?

He took a step forward, and Adelaide nervously took a step back. Even if he wasn’t very smart, he knew he seemed to be in a not-so-good situation at this moment. Forced to the door of the room behind him, the black dragon had no retreat. His hands were behind his back, trying his best to squeeze out a friendly smile. “Tarksius…” he said, a click of a door locking sounding from behind him. “I didn’t expect you to come back. It was wrong of me to use your residence. Isn’t it just that it’s not very convenient to find a place to stay in the capital?”

Tarksius almost laughed in anger. Locking the door right in front of him, this was simply afraid that others wouldn’t see his guilt, that he was hiding something in the room that shouldn’t be discovered. The god lowered his voice and asked with a suggestive tone, “What are you doing in the capital?”

“That’s of course to find the one I like…” Adelaide suddenly felt something was wrong. He finally opened and closed his mouth, looking a little comical, then firmly shut his mouth, forcefully stopping his words. He must have remembered the dragon elders’ earnest hope that he could be prudent in his words and actions.

“Move,” Tarksius said in a low voice. His patience had always been very limited, and at this time he didn’t want to talk too much with a childish black dragon. The most crucial thing was, although he had long guessed, seeing Adelaide appear here at this time still made him feel very disgusted. He and Edwin, after the Sunday morning prayer—which could totally be considered a date—in this situation, he wanted to resolve everything as quickly as possible.

The Bishop silently walked in. In the presence of an outsider, the soft qualities he only showed to Tar quietly faded away.

The black dragon clearly saw Edwin, but he couldn’t think that much at the moment. He just opened his arms and firmly protected the door behind him, like protecting jewels in the dragon’s treasury by spreading his wings. This action had a bit of the tragic feeling of a moth flying into a flame, at least in front of the Dark God. So much so that Adelaide tensed his expression, feeling a bit of self-satisfaction of succeeding or dying.

“There’s nothing inside—” Adelaide said, without much confidence. And the Dark God had already launched his first attack without hesitation. Considering its special identity, Tarksius only let the terrifying blade condensed from darkness graze Adelaide’s neck and nail him to the door.

Edwin placed his hand on the ruby inlaid on the scepter. The brilliant light of the carnelian, like pigeon’s blood, soaked his palm. His light gray pupils reflected the youth in black clothes and with black eyes without any emotion. Although he didn’t know his identity, he would not hesitate to do anything Tarksius needed him to do.

“I’ll give you one more chance.” The Dark God tilted his head slightly, his hair falling before his eyes, dividing the black dragon’s body into two. Even though the dragon race had powerful and mysterious powers, and Adelaide had worked hard for a short period of time after that incident and had improved a lot, if he were to forcibly contend with a god, even if Adelaide didn’t die, he would have to face the huge risk of being injured to the point of near death.

“I…” The black dragon trembled with fear under the god’s pressure. His outstretched arms also couldn’t help but droop, like a bird with its feathers wet by the rain. But soon this concession made him feel extremely aggrieved.

Undoubtedly, Noah was in the room behind him. Adelaide thought, the youth had suffered so much. He had clearly sacrificed so much for his god, yet the God of Light still punished him based on some groundless suspicions. The black dragon itself had no good feelings for the God of Light, so it easily believed the Holy Son’s words.

Noah was a smart person.

When he escaped from the Holy See through the secret passage, he did not relax for a moment, but began to think, who should he go to to maximize his interests and provide him with the most sufficient protection now. The abyssal dragon was simply a tailor-made answer for this question.

Adelaide was simple-minded, or it could be said, foolish, so it was easy to believe anything he said.

Noah knew the dragon’s territory was far from the center of the continent, and it wouldn’t be too disturbed by the God of Light there.

A dragon could only choose one partner in its life. He tried his best not to think of the situation as too bad, but if it really got to that point, Adelaide at least had an obligation to be responsible for him.

Also, in their previous interactions in the capital, Adelaide’s residence was the most hidden. The dragon could always cause a big commotion. He even often appeared at the “Blue Mystery,” looking like a rich fool, very suitable for being extorted. But no one had succeeded in following him to his residence. Even Noah couldn’t. Adelaide claimed he couldn’t expose his residence, so he always arranged a meeting place with him.

But, if he were dying and in urgent need of help, the situation would be very different.

Noah pulled his cloak tight, hiding his face under it. He tried to call the system, but got no response. At that moment, his face turned pale. This was simply a nightmare come true. But he quickly comforted himself that even this was already very good.

Before the system had time to react, and while the charisma halo was still on his head, he casually grabbed a male passerby and asked if he could borrow his cloak, because his ex was looking for him around, and he hoped to cover his face to hide himself. Noah smiled sweetly at him. The man looked like he couldn’t wait to spend money to buy a new set of clothes for Noah, so naturally, there was no reason to refuse.

Noah walked forward with his head down under the cover of the cloak’s hood.

Perhaps the situation was not as bad as that. Noah tried to struggle and finally began to negotiate with the system. He told the system that the only one it could rely on now was him. As long as there is life, there is hope. No matter how unsettling the current events were, look at the progress he had made before. Was it really worth giving up such an excellent host—

“You think you can still fool me?” the mechanical voice answered so.

Noah suddenly felt a chill in his heart. This tone made him start to feel uneasy. The system didn’t seem too surprised by what he was doing now. The Holy Son’s heart sank heavily. Could it be that earlier, the system had already seen through his tricks?

Impossible. Noah bit his lip. Impossible. The luck was almost there. The villain’s luck in this world was the driving force for the system to escape to the next world. He didn’t believe the system could leave him. They would at least perish together.

He was just that kind of person. At this moment, it would be best if he could drag the system down with him to die. If the system’s charisma halo could last a little longer, then he could definitely hide himself, accumulate a large amount of wealth, and find a reliable shelter. The Holy Son’s steps froze for a moment.

He raised his hand in disbelief to touch his own face, and then his vision went black, almost screaming. He forced himself to calm down, but, the blackness in his vision later proved not to be the effect of emotions, but something that had actually happened to him. Noah’s vision gradually faded. He opened his mouth, his vocal cords tearing in vain, unable to make any sound.

A little faster.

The “Blue Mystery” was probably in this direction. Noah gritted his teeth and walked forward, tearing off a piece of his inner garment to use as a veil, covering his face which had begun to turn red and wrinkled.

He had even forgotten to call the system again. So he of course would not know that when he was unconscious, the system had already noticed something was wrong.

For the system, Noah was really not a qualified host. If it could choose, it would rather choose those foolish and frivolous souls, and would absolutely not tolerate a host riding on its head and acting tyrannically. At that time, the mechanical brain was also thinking nervously. It needed Noah. The progress of capturing the God of Light was stuck at the very last part. It could not successfully escape with its existing energy.

Then, looking down at the unconscious youth from another space, another answer suddenly appeared before the system.

Yes, the world’s luck.

What it needed was something so simple. And the host before it was foolishly sleeping, completely unaware of the fate that was about to befall him.

The Holy Son’s identity, the adoration and support the Holy Son received, the valuable luck of this small world that the Holy Son possessed. By rights, one could not strip a human of their luck without capturing them, but Noah was an exception. His soul only existed here under the protection of the system. It was very easy to strip him of his things.

Before the God of Light had a change of heart—

Energy could only be injected into each world once. The system seized the time to inject the existing luck into its program, and at the same time stripped the host of the luck as the Holy Son of the Church of Light. This would undoubtedly make things worse for Noah, but the system didn’t care at all. If it hadn’t reacted in time, the luck belonging to the God of Light would probably have been completely lost. It had already sensed an abnormality.

And its host opened his eyes, and the first words out of his mouth were deceitful. Noah was indeed smart, but at this moment, smarts only delayed himself.

The system’s brief stay was only to extract the luck from the youth.

Then, what happened to the youth’s fate, it didn’t care at all.

Adelaide was also very conflicted at this time.

The dragon race was loyal in love. Each dragon could only have one partner in its life. When Noah found Adelaide, he desperately gestured to the confused dragon and prevented it from seeing his face, covering it tightly with cloth. The black dragon almost didn’t recognize the person before him as his lover.

But soon, the God of Light’s curse had spread throughout the capital.

It was only then that Adelaide had a slightly clearer idea of the situation. The black dragon fretted over the youth before him, and finally decided to take him back to his secluded place. After all, the other was the partner he had sworn his life to. The moment this thought appeared in his mind, Adelaide felt a chill down his spine. He had never thought of himself as a scumbag dragon before, but—

But, for some reason, looking at his suffering lover, the first thing he felt was not pity. On the contrary, a strange sense of disgust suddenly welled up in his heart. The previous attraction seemed to have completely disappeared. The person before him had been so important to him, but at this moment, the feeling that “he is very important” suddenly dissipated, as if it had been fake all along.

How could he have such an irresponsible thought!

So he still took the youth back and used the most precious magic treasures of the dragon race on him. With those magical instruments, Noah could at least speak and barely see something. But the effect on his face was irreversible. The youth was very sensitive about this and wrapped his face with gauze every day. And Adelaide couldn’t help but feel aggrieved in his heart.

He had been so fond of Noah precisely because he was very good-looking.

…But now he wasn’t good-looking anymore.

Adelaide stood in front of the door. While he was berating himself for being fickle and disloyal in his heart, he couldn’t help but timidly lower half of his arm under the terrifying pressure of the Dark God.

It seemed, perhaps, compared to his own life…

Maybe love wasn’t that important?

The black dragon began to think about the situation before him with his not-so-sufficient brain. His biggest problem was thinking when he shouldn’t be thinking. For example, now, he both wanted to protect the youth and fulfill the dragon’s responsibility to its partner, and did not want to die at the hands of the Dark God now, a complete coward. At this moment, he saw the Bishop behind the Dark God.

The Bishop was a human.

Although he had been severely tricked by a human once, Adelaide had practiced many times after that. Occasionally, some bold humans would break into the Dragon Mountains with the idea of “slaying a dragon,” and were all easily dealt with by the black dragon. Therefore, in his perception, humans had once again become less worrying, fragile, and harmless creatures.

Edwin looked a little scary. Although this thought flashed in Adelaide’s mind, it was soon overcome by his own stroke of genius. He even began to feel he was a genius.

The dragon quickly transformed its tail, which was covered with hard, sharp scales, and with a light and fast posture, bypassed the Dark God in front of him, and from an unguarded angle, wrapped the needle-like sharp sting behind the Bishop’s neck.

“You, you—” he blushed, clearly feeling his own behavior was not very decent, but still said with a stiff upper lip, “Tarksius, you brought this human here. If you care about him, don’t come any closer, or I will hurt him!”

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