Chapter 123: Purple Eyes
Night had a dream.
It was a Nightmare.
In the dream, he held the dead body of a woman he cared a lot about in his arms.
The dream played on repeat.
Every time he experienced it, he would cry until his voice went hoarse, until no more tears would come from his eyes. He would only stop when he finally lost consciousness.
When he woke up, the dream would simply repeat itself.
Cry then sleep...
Again.
Again and again.
And
Again, the exact same thing happened.
At some point, he forgot why he was even holding a corpse. But whenever he laid his eyes on her, he would cry.
This cycle of dreaming continued until he became numb.
Until he could no longer feel his own emotions.
He would simply stare blankly at the body until he lost consciousness from sheer exhaustion.
Then he would wake up and repeat the same process.
He didn’t feel like moving. He felt it was not nice to disturb her; she looked so peaceful as she slept in her eternal slumber.
At some point, Night felt a voice call out to him...
At first, it was faint, but as the dreams repeated, it became louder.
Loud enough for him to hear what it was saying...
Wake up...
It seemed the voice wanted him to wake up? But wasn’t he already awake? Maybe they were asking the corpse to wake up?
Duh... corpses don’t sleep, so they don’t need to be woken up...
Confused, he focused on the voice. This time, he heard it clearly...
Wake up, Night. Sara and Blade are fine.
What?
Something inside him moved
Inside Night’s Soul Space,
Night finally opened its eyes.
....
Outside, The cocoon of Nightmare Mist cracked, and Vivianne’s body floated out as the misty remnants were absorbed into her skin.
Vivianne opened her eyes and immediately became excited.
Just as she had expected, her body had retained the foundational strength of a Devil Monarch (Rank 7).
Even though her strength had been temporarily forcefully raised by Alze-beus, it still counted as her own realm, and all the issues that would normally have occurred from such a forced rankup had been fixed by the mist.
Though her levels had fallen back down, she was confident in recovering them quickly since she already had the past experience of reaching that rank.
But before she could bask further in her excitement and praise her own smartness, a small problem occurred.
Thud.
Right in front of the group of summons, the almighty Devil Empress who had almost easily revived Sara and Blade fell flat on her face against the ground.
They quickly rushed over.
Death picked her up, supported her with one arm, and asked, "Are you alright?" It was weird; until now, Death had only ever cared for Night. This genuine concern for someone else was entirely new to her.
Vivianne tried to move her body, but it refused to respond. All she could move were her eyes.
Lucy connected to her using telepathy. "Are you unable to move?" she asked curiously.
Vivianne replied mentally, "It seems my body is paralyzed."
Lucy mused, "This is a first..."
Lucy didn’t know why this was happening. Zero had not experienced anything like this after her transformation.
Is it because she was too strong?
Or is it related to the desperate reason she joined them in the first place?
Lucy thought, Maybe this is the side effect of all of it.
Vivianne, who was hoping this was just a rare scenario, had her hopes dashed when she heard Lucy’s uncertainty.
It had been a long time since Vivianne had felt this vulnerable, and she didn’t like being vulnerable at all.
It brought back many unwanted memories.
Lucy asked, "Is there any internal damage or any instability?"
Vivianne checked her body again and replied, "No... in fact, my body has never felt better. It’s just..."
Lucy finished her thought. "You are unable to move it..."
"Yes," Vivianne said, thoroughly depressed.
She knew she would have to pay some price for everything that had happened today, but when the price came so suddenly, she found herself in denial.
When you have strength, you take it for granted. And only when the strength is gone do you realize its true importance.
Lucy smiled reassuringly. "Don’t worry, we will find a way."
She then looked at Death. "Pick her up. She can’t move her body."
Death nodded, carrying her easily in a princess carry, and started moving toward the core.
The others followed.
They moved toward the center. When they reached it, they saw that Night’s core, the plant, was vanishing together with the black blade.
They looked at one another in shock.
All of them had the same thought: He woke up...
Death throne, which was now empty. Suddenly, the throne shifted.
Its size reduced, taking the form of a chair with wheels that helped people move around when walking was difficult or impossible.
The seat and backrest had a cushioned, supportive place to sit. It had two large wheels in the back for moving the chair, and two small front wheels, casters, to help steer. The armrests and footrests were positioned to let her rest her arms and feet safely while sitting.
A wheelchair?
They were all confused.
Eve said, "Maybe you should place her in the wheelchair."
Death carefully placed Vivianne in the chair.
Once she was seated, the wheelchair disappeared, taking Vivianne with it.
A dark, swirling portal then appeared before the summons, and they all walked in.
After which, the massive Nightmare Mist in the outside world finally started to shrink.
...
In the Void Battlefield.
Alze-beus and [Zethe-thoth] were having a life-and-death battle.
Alze-beus was going all out, though [Zethe-thoth] looked like he was simply having a bit of fun.
Alze-beus still couldn’t understand how [Zethe-thoth] could fight him so effortlessly despite being a full rank lower than him.
Throughout his entire life, Alze-beus had always been the one fighting people above his own rank. For the same thing to happen to him was a bitter pill to swallow.
Suddenly, both of them paused as if someone had pressed a stop button.
Alze-beus and [Zethe-thoth] hadn’t been paying full attention to the outside world because of how intense their battle was, but they had still kept a small fraction of their awareness outside.
Because of this, they immediately noticed when the blackish-purple mist began to disappear.
Stunned, [Zethe-thoth] immediately left the Void Battlefield, followed closely by the raging Alze-beus in his giant form, who was pissed off upon noticing the plant had vanished.
[Zethe-thoth] and Alze-beus watched as the blackish-purple mist shrank rapidly. In its place, the body of a young boy could be seen floating silently in the air.
Alze-beus, who wanted to lunge toward the boy immediately, paused when he saw [Zethe-thoth] standing still.
[Zethe-thoth] looked at the boy and asked aloud, "I clearly severed the divine connection. So mind answering how this is possible?"
At first, Alze-beus didn’t understand what [Zethe-thoth] was blabbering about, but then he understood. He looked at the floating body of the boy warily.
"God Descent..." he muttered.
[Zethe-thoth] nodded. "It seems it is unproductive to fight amongst ourselves with such a dangerous variable close by."
All the eyes on Alze-beus’s body blinked at once. "You want to team up?"
[Zethe-thoth] nodded. "If you play nice, I might even be willing to share the plant with you afterwards."
Alze-beus was stunned. He thought to himself, Do I really look that gullible to you?
But he still nodded in agreement.
It was much better for them to fight together right now. This was highly likely the God Descent of the Primordial God [Blaze], who was renowned for his fighting prowess. Even if the vessel was weak, they couldn’t afford to be careless.
But as they waited, the boy showed no movements.
He simply stayed there, floating silently in the air.
...
At the edge of the Cosmos.
[Blaze] and [Zethe-thoth]’s main original body were having a tense staring contest.
Both of them could see the events unfolding back on Earth.
[Blaze] really wanted to interfere and help Night with the unfair battle, but no matter how much he tried, he could not form any connection to his Chosen.
When Night had gone berserk and switched to his real form, [The Sleepless Sword] asked, "Is this his real body?"
[Blaze] answered, "It should be... I am seeing it for the first time too."
[The Sleepless Sword] nodded. "As expected of a Unique Being, it is pretty strong, though I think most of its strength comes from the boost it is receiving from the planet. He is too compatible with the rules of this world, which is currently dominated by the Nightmare Aspect."
"Though it is worrying how his race name as a Unique Being and the unfathomable Death Zone No.1 match up perfectly."
[Blaze] agreed grimly. "The Nightmare Domain..."
There was something fishy going on, and he didn’t like where things were heading. Night felt more and more like a vessel for the Dead God residing in Death Zone No.1.
A God who should be dead beyond a shadow of a doubt, since the System had confirmed them as such.
Still, nothing was absolute. Looking at how [Zethe-thoth] had blocked the System from reaching Night before, [Blaze] realized the System was not as omnipotent as it made itself out to be.
There were ways to exploit it, if one knew how to do so.
...
Down on Earth, [Zethe-thoth] finally lost his patience.
Before Alze-beus could do anything, [Zethe-thoth] moved fast and punched Night’s body.
Instead of what he expected, the boy didn’t burst into blood and gore. He dodged the attack in mid-air by slightly tilting his body.
Annoyed, [Zethe-thoth] threw a kick. Again, the body dodged the attack just as effortlessly.
Alze-beus watched as the boy’s body kept dodging the Void God’s relentless attacks with the minimum amount of movement required.
As [Zethe-thoth] kept attacking, Night’s eyes opened just slightly.
But this time, his eyes were not blue. They were purple.