Chapter 572: Carnival of Desire [4]

Julian’s head was pressed hard against the edge of the wooden horse’s jaw, lined with razor-sharp bone teeth. The stench of rotting frozen meat rushed straight into his nostrils, accompanied by the horrifying growl rumbling from deep within the monster’s throat. The humiliation and the sense of imminent danger made the veins on Julian’s forehead bulge violently.

"Get off me!" Julian roared furiously.

His pupils suddenly flashed with a vicious silver light—the energy unique to him. Instantly, a colossal illusionary balance made of cast metal materialized above Julian’s head. The concept of ’Balance’ was activated, unleashing an overwhelming gravitational pressure that crashed down upon the surroundings, intending to crush Adrian’s arm and hurl him away.

Yet Adrian’s hand, which was clamped around his neck, did not move even an inch.

Julian’s terrifying gravitational pressure slammed into Adrian’s body like water poured over a smooth-scaled back, simply sliding away without leaving the slightest trace. Along Adrian’s neck and the edge of his cheek, shimmering golden snake scales began to creep beneath his fair skin. They radiated the brutal pressure of an apex predator, completely crushing the silver glow of the illusionary balance!

Julian’s eyes widened, his pupils contracting to the size of peas. The force pressing down on his neck was now as hard as cold steel, completely exceeding his expectations of the so-called "foppish priest" of the Erebus Guild.

"Oh, your ability is rather interesting, isn’t it?" Adrian chuckled softly, his whisper beside Julian’s ear as light as the hiss of a snake in the darkness of night. "But in an amusement park, you have to play by the rules, Julian~ Do you really want to shatter the balance you’re always so proud of?"

SWISH!

At the same time, on the other side of the carousel, Ember had also planted himself firmly on the back of his wooden horse. He couldn’t be bothered with any fancy skills. He simply swung his massive iron staff upward and brought it crashing straight down onto the head of the writhing mutant!

BOOM!

The mutant’s head, with its murky gray eyes, exploded on the spot, sending countless colorful sugar crystals and candy fragments scattering across the carousel floor. The wooden horse beneath Ember’s feet cracked through its gray frame from the impact, let out a painful screech, and then froze completely in place.

"What a nuisance." Ember snorted coldly, raising his heavy boot to brush the sticky candy residue from his ankle, his rugged face not showing a single drop of sweat.

Thanks to Ember’s brutal strike that tore through the rules and Adrian’s absolute suppression of Julian, the carousel’s mechanism was severely disrupted. The violin wailing through the speakers shrieked out one final high note before choking off with a grating zzzt... zzzt... sound.

CLACK!

The iron barrier automatically sprang open to both sides. The preliminary game officially came to an end, and the carousel slowly came to a complete stop.

The members of the Themisia Guild waiting below immediately rushed forward in panic, dragging Julian—the man who was gasping for breath, his face ashen and a vivid red mark around his neck—backward. Julian looked up at Adrian with a gaze filled with both wariness and hatred, but faced with the overwhelming disparity just now, he clenched his fists and did not dare utter another word of provocation.

Adrian leisurely jumped down from the carousel platform, moving as lightly as a cat. He raised a hand and brushed down the neat hem of his priest’s robe. He walked toward Ember and Nick, who were waiting outside, his face bright with a cheerful smile.

"Well? I didn’t do too badly, did I?"

Nick silently looked at him, then glanced over at Julian, who was being helped away by his teammates. He let out a faint sigh, clasped his hands in front of his stomach, and this time his tone was genuinely sincere: "I believe that as long as I stay with you, I won’t die."

Adrian could not help raising an eyebrow, not expecting that this young man was quite fond of strong people.

"They’re boring." Ember walked closer, clicked his tongue, and shot Adrian a sidelong glare with his amber eyes. "A waste of time."

"Oh my, since when did you become so arrogant, Ember? I really miss the Ember from when we first met." Adrian sighed.

The corner of Ember’s eye twitched, though his disgruntled expression had yet to disappear. When he noticed that Julian’s group was still staring at Adrian, he glared right back without the slightest hesitation.

[Oh my God, those golden scales just appeared on Adrian’s face!! That’s so damn cool!]

[Julian from the Themisia Guild used even his Artist ability and still couldn’t make Adrian budge?]

[Adrian doesn’t even hold a grudge, but Ember has definitely taken a grudge against Julian’s group!]

[Don’t get cocky. You can’t compare them when Julian’s group is only a bunch of underlings from the Themisia Guild, while Adrian’s group consists of the top members of the Erebus Guild. I heard Adrian is even the Guild President!]

Natalia smiled as she glanced over at Adrian’s group from the side. Although this preliminary game was hardly dangerous, seeing the members of the Themisia Guild run into a brick wall genuinely pleased her.

Just then, a shrill sound suddenly rang out.

CLACK... CLACK...

The section of rusted iron fencing behind the Carousel slowly split apart to both sides, revealing a wider stone-paved path that led straight toward the heart of the amusement park.

And right at the entrance to that path, a small figure had been waiting there for who knew how long.

It was a stuffed rabbit about one meter tall, dressed in a worn burgundy brocade vest, with a crooked black bow tie around its neck. Although it was merely a stuffed animal, its round head could actually rotate a full 180 degrees with a series of dry clicks. The stuffed rabbit’s dark-red button eyes slowly swept around, passing over every player who had just survived the carousel.

Rrrt... rrrt...

From a small tear in the stitching on the rabbit’s stuffed belly came a crackling metallic voice, simultaneously gloomy and bizarrely welcoming:

"Welcome, brave visitors who have passed the initial health inspection... I am Bunny, the official guide of Carnival of Desire~"

The stuffed rabbit bent forward in a classical aristocratic bow, its round head rotating with another series of clicking sounds. When it raised its head, its thin stuffed arms pointed toward the neon-lit path glowing blue and red behind it:

"Please follow me... The main feast of the amusement park... is ready to be served. Don’t keep the dishes waiting too long..."

Adrian raised an eyebrow as he looked at the stuffed rabbit before him, finally shifting his gaze to its chest. There, it also had a ticket displaying happiness just like theirs. And the number on it sat there brazenly, making no attempt to hide itself: [-99].