Chapter 579: Carnival of Desire [11]

Ringmaster Jack’s chalk-white, heavily powdered face tilted upward. His bloodshot pupils, streaked with cracked veins of blood, reflected none of the fear of a man on the verge of death. Instead, they blazed with a deranged light, a fanatical obsession so intense that it seemed to warp his very features.

He stared fixedly at the slender, elegant hands held before him, at the golden radiance still clinging to every lock of Adrian’s hair and his graceful shoulders. The vivid red lipstick on Jack’s lips trembled violently, stretching all the way to his ears. He completely ignored the pain from his torn-open throat, as well as the number -999 violently cracking apart before his chest.

"Perfect... Absolutely perfect..."

Jack whispered in a ruined, rasping voice. His gaunt hands, thin as dead branches, trembled as they reached into the air, struggling to embrace Adrian’s legs but not daring to touch them. He pressed his face, mottled with rotting flesh, against the sand beneath Adrian’s feet, greedily inhaling the sacred, ethereal fragrance that had just dispelled all the miasma from the circus tent.

"This power! This speed! This majesty that devours the entire space!"

Jack’s eyes rolled upward, streams of pitch-black blood tears running down through the moldy powder caked on his cheeks. He giggled, the laughter transforming into a frenzied, arrogant howl: "That’s right! This is the performer I’ve been waiting for all these hundreds of years! My script isn’t terrible... it was simply missing a God like you to rule over the stage!"

He crawled another inch forward. His gaunt hands trembled as they groped inside the pocket of his bloodstained tailcoat, pulling out the Satisfaction Commemorative Coin, which emitted an eerie silver glow. But instead of offering it up in fear, Jack pressed the coin against his own chest, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Adrian with the most pathological devotion imaginable:

"Come here! Turn this performance into an eternal masterpiece! Use your noble hands to tear my throat apart, turn my flesh and bones into the most brutal props on your stage! Together, we’ll create the greatest performance in the history of the Night Circus!"

He threw his head back, his deformed smile stretching as wide as it could, deliberately offering up his throat, reeking of rotting flesh, toward Adrian, yearning to die at the hands of this exquisite creature as though it were a sacred sacrificial ritual.

[...]

[Actually...]

[If you’re about to say they make a good couple, you’d better shut up.]

[Hee hee hee hee]

[Adrian is smiling! Adrian is smiling!!!]

[I wonder, does Adrian really not smile at anyone? Him smiling is what’s normal!]

[Looks like Ember and Nick aren’t quite that optimistic, hahaha.]

Over on the other side, Ember could only be seen with a face as dark as the bottom of a cooking pot. Nick stared at Jack, secretly shuddering a little.

He wanted to kill this thing himself instead of letting Adrian do it.

In stark contrast to Jack’s pathological fervor, Adrian’s sapphire-blue eyes remained utterly undisturbed.

He smiled faintly, tilting his head slightly.

He did not even give Jack the chance to finish his second frenzied scream.

Snap!

His outstretched hand drew back slightly, and the crisp sound of his fingers snapping rang out clearly.

A razor-sharp streak of golden light tore through space. There was no response, no hesitation, not even the slightest wavering. The golden magical power condensed into an icy blade and swept cleanly across Jack’s throat.

Ringmaster Jack’s chalk-white, powdered head froze midway. The fanatical smile on his lips had not even faded when his head slipped from his neck, fell onto the sand, and rolled several times before coming to a stop right in front of Adrian’s leather shoes.

His gaunt body crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut. Immediately afterward, it transformed into countless dazzling golden stars. Even his death was more beautiful than his existence, and he vanished without leaving a trace.

The Satisfaction Commemorative Coin was flung into the air, spun several times, then landed neatly in Adrian’s waiting open palm.

TING!

[System]: Congratulations to player Adrian and his teammates for successfully completing the emergency event in the Night Circus Sub-District!

[System]: Ringmaster Jack has been eliminated! Quest item obtained: Satisfaction Commemorative Coin!

[System]: The confinement status of the entire sub-district has been lifted!

Adrian pulled a snow-white handkerchief from his pocket and slowly wiped the silver coin he had just obtained clean. Then, with a gentle flick, he tossed the handkerchief, still stained with a little ash, onto the dying embers at his feet.

He turned around, his golden hair stirring gently in the breeze drifting through the charred-open ceiling of the circus tent. His sapphire-blue eyes swept over the group of players from the Themisia Guild, who were still sprawled on their knees in the stands, exhausted.

Lily struggled to her feet, her hand still gripping the hilt of her short sword tightly. She looked toward the three people before her with a complicated expression. She took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil in her heart, then descended the wooden stairs that had been half-scorched by the flames.

"Thank you for lifting the restriction," Lily said coolly, doing her best to keep her voice from trembling, "but you took this sub-district’s Satisfaction Commemorative Coin. According to the park’s rules, every team must have enough coins before they can enter the central area."

Ember swung his whip back behind him and folded his arms across his broad chest, curling his lips into a mocking smile. "So what? Looks like surviving death has only made you people greedier, huh?"

He scratched his head, looking at them with some annoyance before turning toward Adrian. "You shouldn’t have let them live."

"You...!" One of the Themisia Guild members behind Lily angrily stepped forward, but she raised a hand to stop him.

Nick, standing nearby, could not help but advise Ember, "What matters right now is continuing to play the game..."

Lily looked at Adrian, who was casually rolling the silver coin between his fingertips.

"We have no intention of going to war with the Erebus team," Lily said calmly, her icy eyes fixed directly on Adrian. "However, the next area—the Mirror Maze—is not a place that can be cleared through sheer strength alone. If we cooperate, we can provide the map information that the Themisia Guild has gathered in advance."

Hearing this, Adrian stopped spinning the coin. The corner of his lips lifted into a meaningful curve. He slipped the coin into his pocket, his elegant gaze gliding over Lily’s resolute face.

"Map information, you say? That doesn’t sound too bad..."

A glimmer appeared in Lily’s eyes, but before she could even feel relieved, Adrian waved his hand and ordered, "Ember, go. Capture them."

[...]