Chapter 302: The Truth Of What Happened To Song
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As the orthodox faction seemed to slowly accept what was happening much better than I expected, the demonic immortals… well, they were not so happy.
They looked clearly pissed off, and once the other immortals were done talking, they immediately started barking and roaring like annoyed and furious dogs.
Seriously, can’t they calm down a bit?!
“Heavenly Demon, you bastard! Is this what you did all these years, having an affair with your nemesis?!”
“What is the meaning of this…”
“You’ve… hah! You got us good.”
“You bastard! Why are you so damn lucky?!”
“There is no more beautiful woman than the heavenly empress across heaven and earth! I can’t believe our esteemed ugly crow got such a good catch.”
“Hahahaha! And they have a hybrid son!”
“I bet that brat is growing up in tremendous luxury, spoiled by two Venerables… Tch!”
“Good for him, I guess! Not like we struggled at all in our lives, huh?”
“After having a hellish life, you’re giving a beautiful childhood to your son, huh?! Hah! Good for you then, two-faced bastard!”
It was honestly hard to discern if they were happy or angry about him. Some seemed genuinely upset, but then would say something nice… mixed with anger?
Demonic cultivators were truly weird; I know most of them are insane people, but they seemed genuinely happy… and angry at the same time!
A bit jealous too; even the few female demonic immortals were very jelly. I don’t know if it is because they liked the heavenly demon and the heavenly empress took him away from them, or… because they like the heavenly empress. I’ll leave it to interpretation.
The Heavenly Demon smiled back at them with the biggest smug face I’ve ever seen in my entire life; I think he was really enjoying their jealousy.
It is as if they’re all rivals and brothers, but at the same time they want to genuinely kill each other. Very weird relationships these people have…
However, as master thought, the duty of protecting their world unified their wills and hearts and made it the perfect opportunity to make them cooperate for real.
“Hahahaha! Keep complaining, you bastards! You can only wish you were me! You’re too insolent, though! Wanna go?! Huh?!”
He started acting like a damn delinquent! Just what the hell is wrong with him?!
“Hah?! As if you could defeat us now, you bastard crow!”
“Come at me, old man, we’re beating you out of your position now!”
“No Heavenly Demon gets married! You’re an outliner and must be eliminated!”
“We’ll tear you to shreds, gahahaha!”
Their response was equally insane; they were all preparing to fight?!
The Heavenly Demon smiled wickedly, cracking his knuckles and unleashing his powerful aura.
“You’ve gotten way too cocky, you piece of shit… Looks like it’s time for me to teach you who’s your daddy here, eh?!” he smiled. “Now I don’t even have to worry about killing you; my wife here will heal you easily! So just stand there and let me pulverize you! It’ll only hurt a lot!”
“Wait, don’t just-”
His wife tried to stop him, but he just flew towards the demonic immortals and started beating the living shit out of them, blood and body parts splattering and flying everywhere. The immortals also attacked with everything they had, barely managing to harm him a bit by making a few of his feathers fly away.
They activated all sorts of flashy and destructive techniques and formation arts that could easily destroy entire countries, yet the Heavenly Demon tanked them all with no problem and asked for more. Ultimately, he didn’t kill any bodies but left them all on the verge of death, most with missing limbs and bleeding out as they floated in the sky.
“I hope that taught you a lesson, bastards; you’re working for me, and if you try to get ahead of yourselves, I won’t hesitate to beat the living shit out of you! So come at me any time; I’ll gladly take you on,” he smiled. “My wife, you can heal these fools now, before they die. After all, they’re still important allies to defend the world-”
“Idiot! Why are you making such a scene?!” the heavenly empress reprimanded him. “You didn’t have to go so far, you foolish husband! What would our son think if he saw his father doing such savage acts of violence?! Hm? Answer me!”
“I-I…!” The Heavenly Demon was shocked; his wife was scolding him in front of everyone. “But my dear wife-”
“SHUT UP!” she roared furiously. “You will APOLOGIZE to all of them once I heal them, UNDERSTOOD?!”
“Y-Yes…” He lowered his head, accepting being scolded.
Wow, she really tamed him!
After healing them, he actually apologized.
“Tch, you’re lucky my wife is merciful! I will say this once and only once in my life… I am sorry! Okay?! Sorry for being an asshole, but you’re all assholes too, so it balances out! I am not going to start telling you to be better people. That I am trying to improve doesn’t mean you should…” he sighed, crossing his arms. “But maybe you should begin to seek happiness outside of bloodshed; the world is vast, and it's never too late to experience something new.”
“Tch…”
“You say it as if it were so easy…”
“Whatever… we’ll help once those machines come.”
“That’s right, this world is only ours to conquer; those machines are not going to take it away!”
“OOOOHHH!”
Well, it seems things resolved themselves…? I don’t know.
I was still a bit flabbergasted, but fine.
If it worked, it worked.
After everything finally ended...
Wait, it didn’t end yet.
“Come! Let’s go down for now!” said the Heavenly Empress. “I’ve left my Heavenly Light Clones here; they will set a powerful array across the skies. Some immortals will also help doing it. All of you should rest and celebrate first.”
“O-Okay…” I nodded. “Why hasn’t it ended yet though?”
“It’s a bit weird, but sure, I’m all for it!” Wai Tian smiled.
“I guess now that the hard part is over we can celebrate a bit along the trial and then leave to the lobby?” wondered Yin Sheng. “I don’t mind! The food and everything were real and delicious.”
“Let’s go then,” Fang Shuan nodded. “If they’re inviting us, we’re nobody to reject such generosity!”
“I’m a bit… confused, but okay,” nodded Zero One.
As we moved towards the surface, we reached the floating islands once more; the night was already coming and the beautiful starry sky shone brightly. The black heavens were what made the sky turn into “night” here, and it was also where the moon was located.
As we moved down, I checked again the trial quest and what we needed to do to see if there was some kind of error or if it was truly completed and we were just enjoying some extended “cutscenes” in video game terms.
[You have discovered Floor 3’s Mission]: {Find the Truth about the Spatial Distortions and Stop Whatever is Coming from Them!}
[Your group has found themselves inside the Heavenly Court in the middle of a heated conversation. The Heavenly Demon warns everyone there’s something threatening approaching through the skies! You have decided to trust his words and investigate it by yourself with the Heavenly Empress aid.]
[Whatever is on the other side, it’s dangerous and a threat to the World of Bestia, investigate what it is, then prepare to stop it before it invades the world. Depending on how you do it, and if you can stop whatever is coming, the rewards will vary greatly, and so will the next Floor’s Trial.]
[Time Limit: 6/24 Hours.]
So six hours have already passed so quickly. I guess we did spend a couple of hours in the sky setting everything up with Master, then there was the speech and all.
But wait, it doesn’t say completed!
So we’re missing something?!
Maybe a machine somewhere?
“A machine?”
I asked the Heavenly Demon if he could double check.
“Fine, let me see… You see, I’ve left several Cursed Totems around the world, so by connecting them with my Aura and my Mind, I can easily discern, analyze, and spread my consciousness and senses around every inch of this world,” he smiled. “Pretty amazing, right?”
“I-It is really amazing, yes!” I nodded. “Now please do it!”
“Alright…”
He closed his eyes as his Venerable Senses expanded like a crimson lightning shockwave everywhere.
TRUUUM!
For a moment, everything went silent, and then he slowly opened his eyes.
“Those machines release a peculiar aura of their unique energies,” he said. “There’s none left behind. I can’t sense any of them or their peculiar energies anymore. Don’t concern yourself anymore with this, and let’s go eat; I’m starving.”
“O-Okay then…” I sighed.
If that’s not really it, then what?
The portal was closed.
What are we exactly missing?
Are the Constellations still talking to me?
“Hey, you two, are you there? Speak to me, you cowards! Machines suck! Flesh is superior!”
I tried to taunt them into speaking, but nothing.
There’s no way they wouldn’t have responded to that, right?
So… they’re also not present anymore.
What am I missing then?!
It did say something about “stopping what’s coming” but we did, right?
Well, if we still fail this at the end, we could ask for a clue to the trial master, but I really want to complete it now and not waste my time, dammit.
Is there another invasion coming right away?
Well, that’s fine with me; we would only have to wait because Master left an array, but…
I have the feeling it is not that.
Celebrations began right away, and inside the heavenly court palace there were dozens of huge tables with delicious gourmet foods served everywhere.
The many immortal chefs of this place that cultivated the gourmet Dao prepared the most luxurious of heavenly dishes.
The heavenly empress herself also cooked, although only for us and the elders.
“Hmm, so good! I love this fried rice! And the meat is so juicy! Nom, nom…! Hmm!” Wai Tian filled herself, eating as much as she wanted.
“These gyoza do it for me; I love pork and chicken gyoza…!” Yin Sheng was constantly dipping his gyoza in soy sauce and sweet sauce.
“It’s all really good… Anna, why aren’t you eating? You’re not hungry?” wondered Zero One.
“A-Ahh! Yeah, it looks tasty!” I decided to just eat along for a bit.
And yeah, everything was so tasty! It was like going to a five-star Chinese restaurant—no, a ten-star! If that even exists.
Delicious and juicy gyoza, big and meat-filled dumplings, soup noodles with delicious and spicy soup and a lot of roasted meat of all types, fried shrimp, and kimchi.
I had forgotten that Murims weren’t just Chinese fantasy inspired; they also mixed Korean, Japanese fantasy, and most of East Asia too, so the food was much more varied.
There was also sushi of all kinds, tempura too, delicious ramen, and a lot of types of kimchi stews and Korean fried chicken.
And of course, curry as well! A lot of it, of all kinds, with naan bread and more.
Damn, and the sweets they had were also godly, so good!
I completely pigged out and ended up eating all I wanted; my physique easily allowed me to eat a lot now, as I needed a lot of stamina and energy to work.
“Phew…”
But eventually, I reached my limits and couldn’t eat more; however, my belly got a bit big; ugh, I might have eaten too much.
And that quest… still not completed.
What should I do now?
There’s only about fifteen hours left.
While everyone celebrated, I decided to explore the palace.
However, I found nothing other than a lot of amazing treasures I will be unable to bring with myself.
“Anna? What are you doing? Is there something weird?”
“Ah, Zero One…”
She ended up finding me as I walked around the corridors.
“Yeah, I am worried; the quest hasn’t ended yet… This can’t just be because Master is watching; this is different. There might be some hidden objective we have yet to do.”
“Hmm… Have you checked the whole palace already?”
“Yeah…”
“Maybe… Oh right, you haven’t checked the empress house! I wonder if little Song is fine; he hasn’t been brought here.”
“Right, they didn’t bring him here; I guess they still fear there might be an assassination attempt? We should go check on him.”
“Let’s go then!”
We stepped into the skies, flying quickly to the heavenly empress pagoda.
Once we faced the gates, we tried knocking there.
“Hello? Someone there?”
The pagoda glowed brightly, as if analyzing us.
And then the gates opened automatically.
Maybe the empress identified us as good people and allowed us to enter as we pleased?
“Song! Are you there somewhere?” Zero One started looking for him.
“Want to come eat with us? We’ll protect you from assassins!” I said half-jokingly.
As we explored the huge pagoda, we followed the faint presence of Song, leading us to his room upstairs, on the seventh floor.
I ended up finding Shiro there, sleeping over a couch! This lazy little thing…!
“Song?”
I gently opened the door, suddenly hearing something—a whisper? He was talking silently to himself.
“So you’re saying I can be with Mama and Papa forever? Without problems?”
There was something in front of his face—a bright, blue-colored box, a hologram?
Wait, is that…?!
“So if I take this… Mama and papa… will no longer fight, and I can go to the outside world? Really?”
And I managed to read what the messages were saying…
[The Cosmic Throne {Mechanical Librarian} affirms that you will be able to be with your parents for eternity. And that they won’t be able to ever hide you from the world anymore.
[The Cosmic Throne {Mother of Artificial Life} says that you will no longer be alone. You will have many friends—millions of them.]
[They say that as long as you swallow that seed, you will be given what you want.]
Seed?
I glanced at Song’s hands.
There was a silver-colored seed.
And its aura…
It emanated a tremendous amount of demonic power.
Don’t tell me…
“Then I’ll eat it so I can do that!”
Little Song opened his beak, about to devour the seed.
“SONG! NOOO!”
“Eh?!”
The boy gasped as the seed ended falling from his hand and hitting the ground loudly.
Crack!
And a huge crack appeared through it, revealing a crimson, mechanical eye inside.
Suddenly, small mechanical tentacles began to spread out around the room, aiming at the boy!
“SONG!”
“Anna?! I didn’t know you were here!”
“No time to explain!”
I grabbed the boy before the seed could snatch him, broke through the wall with a kick, and ran with Zero One as quickly as we could. Shiro woke up and followed me instantly, becoming a sphere of light by my side.
“GRUOOOHHHHHHH!!!”
And the visceral scream of something monstrous echoed behind us.
“Anna! What’s wrong?! What’s going on?!”
Zero One was confused.
But I knew what that was.
I knew what the Constellations planned!
Those bastards, those vile machines!
“They wanted their child to become this world’s demon king! This is why… this is what happened to him in the future, Zero One.”
“W-What?!”
RUMBLE!
The entire pagoda started to transform; the demon king seed had no longer a vessel, so it absorbed anything around it to form a new demon king.
Barely managing to escape it as the mechanical tentacles chased us, we saw in disbelief as the gigantic building transformed into an enormous machine.
“EXTERMINATE. DESTROY. ELIMINATE. THIS WORLD… IT SHALL FACE ITS END…”
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