Chapter 1125: 112. Emotions

“Mm? I haven’t thought about that question yet...”

Theresa froze, then frowned and said, “Didn’t Theodore say before that the Goddess has suicidal tendencies? Could she be doing it on purpose?”

“The one with suicidal tendencies is the personality that hasn’t gone mad, not the current deranged one.”

Muen shook his head.

“Then... I don’t know.”

Theresa scratched his head. “Is that question very important?”

“Of course it’s important. After all, if the evil believers and the Goddess in her mad state value the light in the night so much, then it must have some extremely important... Forget it.”

Muen suddenly shut his mouth.

He suddenly realized there was no use asking.

This sort of thing could not be proven. Even if he got an answer, it would not necessarily be true. And on top of that... this Lord Bear King did not look very reassuring when it came to matters of the brain.

Rather than ask him, he might as well think more for himself.

“Hey, brat. I always feel like you’re thinking something rude.”

Theresa’s eyes widened. He was not smart, but as the man who came and went like the wind through all of Rabuya City, his sharpness had reached the point where he could tell what someone was thinking with a single glance.

“No, I was thinking very seriously about how to find the Goddess as soon as possible.”

Muen looked innocent.

“After all, look at Miss Landa and Marcie. They’re already this tired. I don’t matter, but if they keep going like this, it’ll become troublesome...”

“Haha, that’s true. Rest as much as you can. Right now, we don’t have the conditions to waste time.”

“Let’s rest for five more minutes. Five minutes later, we’ll...”

Hm?

Something was wrong.

Muen suddenly glanced toward Marcie beside him and narrowed his eyes.

After walking all this way, Marcie was already somewhat out of breath. At this moment, she was sitting on a stone nearby and resting.

The little girl beside Theresa, Landa, was the same. The intense exercise had left her cheeks somewhat flushed. While resting, she even took out a potato and gnawed it in small bites.

It looked very normal, but...

Had their exercise really been intense along the way?

They had not encountered evil believers. They had not encountered obstacles. They had merely been hurrying along.

Although they had already advanced through the mist for a full two hours, still... he did not understand Landa well, but for Marcie, was two hours really something so difficult?

One had to know that when they had been rushing toward Rabuya City a few days ago, this girl had walked nearly twenty hours in one breath.

Twenty hours had not exhausted her, yet a mere two hours made her start gasping?

“We need to leave quickly.”

Muen abruptly stood up. At some unknown point, a deep blackness had flashed through his eyes, and the mist around them took on a different color in his vision.

It was like ink staining white paper, those filthy things becoming incomparably clear.

“Didn’t we agree to wait another five minutes? I can see the two little girls still haven’t rested enough.”

Theresa frowned.

Although he had just suffered a spiritual whipping, one had to admit that Theresa was a fellow with plenty of experience and great concern for those around him. Even with the situation urgent, he could still distinguish priorities.

Theodore’s side was indeed dangerous, but if their side could not face the Goddess in the best condition and caused the plan to fail, then that would be a total loss.

“This fog is wrong. It’s absorbing our stamina!”

Muen interrupted Theresa, then waved his hand casually. A shock wave swept out, scattering the surrounding fog.

As the fog around them dispersed, Marcie’s breathing visibly steadied quite a bit. On the other side, Landa even let out a long breath of relief.

A trace of confusion appeared in both of their eyes. Clearly, the fact that they were tiring so quickly should have been very easy to notice, yet they had not sensed it at all.

“Holy shit! It’s actually true!”

Theresa also reacted and widened his eyes.

“The fog in the Fog Wall doesn’t have this ability. And we never discovered anything like this when we came here before either...”

“Looks like that mad Goddess has been forced into a corner and has no choice but to use this kind of underhanded trick.”

Muen gave a soft snort.

This stamina absorption did not seem to affect him very much. Perhaps under those unimaginable trials of the past, his stamina had already become unbelievably strong, so having a little bit absorbed was no problem.

Bear King Theresa often “came and went like the wind,” running naked through the streets... no, sprinting wildly. He would be fine over a short period as well.

But Marcie, Landa, and even the other Pioneers were different.

According to his calculations, the longer they stayed in this fog, the more stamina would be drained away. Resting would not replenish their stamina; instead, it would increase their consumption.

Not only would this consume the Pioneers’ combat strength, more importantly, it would waste time. Once they stopped moving, the additional consumption would definitely make the Pioneers find the Goddess even later.

If one had to describe it in a single word, it would be—delay.

Even a mighty “Goddess” was resorting to delaying tactics. It seemed Theodore’s plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain really had begun to make her panic.

“From that perspective, this counts as a good thing? It proves our direction is correct.”

Theresa also thought of this point and gave a cold chuckle.

“Let’s go.”

“All right... Eh? How did you become the one giving orders? I’m clearly the senior here, all right?”

Theresa looked displeased, but he did not mind it too much. He called Landa and prepared to continue hurrying along.

But Landa made no movement and remained obediently seated in place.

“What’s going on?”

Theresa turned back, cursing, and reached out to pull her up along the way.

“You girl, aren’t you usually pretty good at enduring hardship? How come at a time like this, you can’t even handle this little bit of tiredness...”

“...”

Theresa’s voice abruptly stopped.

Because what his hand touched was not the familiar warmth, but a patch of ice-coldness.

An indescribable chill spread through his entire body from the place where he had touched Landa. He felt as though he had touched some terrifying existence, and the hair all over him instantly stood on end as his body stiffened.

“Lord... Bear King...”

Landa, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke. But her voice was trembling endlessly, even carrying a sob.

“Run...”

Theresa’s pupils contracted sharply. He realized something, bit the tip of his tongue, and the intense pain freed him from the erosion of that chill. With his other hand, he drew the longsword at his waist and was about to slash toward the direction the cold was coming from.

But the moment the longsword was raised, it froze in midair and could not advance another inch.

Or rather... he did not dare advance another inch.

“Heh-heh... Right now, this girl... is in my hands...”

Behind Landa, a snake-like monster slowly crawled out. That long, thin body extended downward, wrapping around Landa’s neck again and again.

And above it, the serpent monster’s head was a face shaped like an infant’s, yet covered in wrinkles. That face split open in a grin, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth, hideous and terrifying.

“Funeer!”

Looking at that face, Theresa froze slightly, and shock flashed through his eyes.

“Aren’t you already dead? And why have you become like this?”

Titled Dwarf, identity code 02998. To Theresa, this was a Pioneer from the previous generation, someone whose qualifications far exceeded his own. He had even taught Theresa quite a lot as a teacher, so even after more than ten years, Theresa’s impression of him was still extremely deep.

“Ke-ke... In order to complete the Goddess of Night’s long-cherished wish... in order for this Annabawei to continue existing within the darkness, the great Goddess granted me a new body...”

The serpent body twisted. The madness in his vertical pupils had not lessened in the slightest. The former Pioneer named Funeer opened his mouth, and his overly long tongue licked back and forth across Landa’s cheek.

“A very fine body, isn’t it? Much stronger than my previous aged flesh... Not only can I run faster, I can hide deeper too... Look, I taught you before, didn’t I, Theresa... You must never ignore what is behind you. This mistake, you made again.”

“Uu...”

Landa trembled all over. In Annabawei, she had never seen anything like a snake, but that did not stop her from feeling physical discomfort and disgust.

Not to mention, the fear of death occupied her heart, making her unable to move.

“You fucking...”

Rage burned fiercely in Theresa’s chest. They had not even seen the Goddess yet, but had suffered a sneak attack from the enemy. It made him feel humiliated.

“Let her go first.”

Theresa gritted his teeth and forced himself to calm down. Landa was his assistant. He did not want her to die just like this.

“Let go? Ke-ke, no... I’m completely unsuited for fighting head-on now... In order to complete the Goddess’s long-cherished wish... I can only do this...”

“You used to be a Pioneer of light. Doing this... how can you be worthy of the honor on your body?”

Theresa angrily rebuked him.

“Honor? Ke-ke... An erroneous honor is meaningless to me. Only after returning to the Goddess’s embrace... did I understand what truth is...”

Funeer turned his head and stared at Landa. Hatred flashed through those serpent eyes.

“All of you who defy the Goddess’s will... must die!”

“You’re the one who dies!”

Theresa’s figure moved, wanting to attack Dwarf Funeer’s serpent body from a tricky angle where it was not wrapped around Landa.

And Funeer understood precisely that point. Before Theresa’s attack could arrive, his serpent body abruptly twisted, once again placing Landa in front of him as a shield.

“Damn it!”

Theresa was so angry the blue veins on his forehead jumped, but he still had no choice but to stop his attack.

Too despicable, this bastard!

“Come on, attack!”

Funeer provoked him.

“Either rush up and kill me, or go kill that man behind you. Otherwise... she is going to die.”

“You...”

“Lord Theresa, don’t worry about me...”

Tears filled the corners of Landa’s eyes as she shook her head hard.

“Attack!”

“How could I possibly...”

Theresa stomped in anger.

“Come on, kill me, hahaha...”

“Lord Theresa!”

“I... I can’t do it!”

“Haha, Theresa, you’re just a coward, a weakling!”

“Lord Theresa...”

“Don’t force me like this...”

“You’re still so useless, Theresa...”

“Lord Theresa, actually... I love you... I never had the chance to say it... Now that I’ve said it... I can die with no regrets!”

Landa finally lost control of herself, tears pouring down like a spring.

“Attack me!”

“What?”

Theresa looked as though he had been struck by lightning.

“Haha, now this is even more interesting.”

The chaotic back-and-forth among the three of them continued.

Funeer swayed his snake head. Theresa’s pained appearance filled his heart with pleasure. Killing intent toward Pioneers flooded his heart, but he still knew how to deal with this brat.

Too simple. It was truly too simple to deal with these people. Why had the great Goddess said this side was the most troublesome? As long as he forced Theresa to act, then even if that outsider was a little stronger, so what?

He couldn’t possibly...

Clang—

In a daze, it was as if a faint radiance flashed past.

Funeer’s smile was still left on his face. His mad consciousness made his mind extremely disordered, but even within that disorder, he could clearly feel heaven and earth spinning around him.

Eh?

What happened?

Why did he feel so dizzy?

And... why was his neck cold?

With Funeer’s current brain, he was completely unable to understand everything that had happened before his eyes in a short time. It was not until he felt his head fall heavily onto the ground and roll several times that his viewpoint finally stabilized.

He saw Theresa. Just now, Theresa had been so furious he seemed as if he wanted to eat him alive, but at this moment, his expression was blank.

He saw that little girl named Landa. She had been wrapped in the serpent body and should have been trembling in fear, but now her face was full of confusion.

Finally, he saw himself.

The long, thin serpent body was spasming, twitching, black blood flowing everywhere...

Eh? Why, why did that serpent body have no head?

At last, he saw that outsider whom the Goddess had specifically emphasized walking over slowly. Without giving him any chance to speak, the flash of the blade from just now swept past again.

...His consciousness vanished completely.

...

“This guy really talked too much.”

Muen twirled the pure-white short blade in both hands and put it away.

Then he looked at the two people beside him with blank expressions, curiously touching his chin.

“You two... were performing a play?”