The Final Protectors

It was difficult to describe Aldo’s expression, even if he looked as expressionless as he can be—Jel just felt that sheer pressure of standing next to a volcano close to eruption. He suddenly felt conflicted. Jel knew that as a hunter loyal to the Temple, he should not suspect this great elder, but… he did catch a few real tinges of danger emitting from him.

Was the Temple a thousand years ago… a wrestling ring to struggle for power?

Also, was it really a good thing to let that foolish man who felt like an extra nephew of his interact with Aldo?

Aldo walked straight into Karlos’s room—the blankets were cold, so he must have been gone for a while now. The bedside lamp was turned on, and his clothes and sword were missing, but his shoes were still here.

Aldo stood by the bed, touching the mattress that Karlos slept on—even if it was a grave matter of life and death, it was unlikely for Karlos to head out without his shoes.

He tried to calm himself down, but the difficulty to do that was far too high.

As for how to obtain this person, Aldo had actually devised a plan in that very moment Karlos had turned his back to him and left the Temple. How he should get closer to him, how to carefully sidestep his limits, how to slowly keep the two of them tangled together, how to give others the feeling that the two of them should be together in the first place—these were not so difficult. After all, they both came from the same time period.

If everyone believed they were together, then, even if Karlos was against the idea, he would inevitably be influenced by it as long as he lived under this environment.

Yet, when he was only on the first step of his plan, this person vanished into thin air and instantly destroyed all of Aldo’s schemes—Yes, he had discovered his Achilles’ heel. If Karlos disappeared, what was he to do? If, just like when he left in the past, he was gone for a whole ten years where no one could find him. Or if he disappeared like the time he went missing in the war, and was gone… for a thousand years.

No one could bear losing it again after seeing the light of dawn. Aldo could feel his wildly beating heart—he would go crazy.

“The windows are firmly shut.” Jel wiped the window glass and seeing the thin layer of dust on his finger, he interrupted Aldo’s thoughts.

“Give me a glass of water,” Aldo suddenly said.

After Jel gave him water, he waited to see what this great spellmaster would do, but found that Aldo’s hand that held the cup remained suspended in the air without moving. His fingertips even began to quiver.

“Your distinguished self?”

Aldo sighed softly, turning to give the cup back to Jel. “Hold this. Do you know what a reverse spell array is?”

Jel blinked. “I’m sorry. I’m afraid I’m not too knowledgeable in spells…”

A Golden Emblem hunter excelled in every subject, but unfortunately in front of Archbishop Aldo, no one dared to describe themselves with the three words, “knowledgeable in spells”.

“Strictly speaking, it’s not a spell array, but a small group of incantations,” Aldo said. “Come, follow what I say. Combine the ‘First Defensive Rule Incantation’ and ‘Illumination Incantation’ while pouring the water on his bed.”

Naturally, Jel knew this incantation. The former was a defensive incantation that could prevent weaker physical attacks and invasion of the Dark to a degree. It was very basic and had its limitations, so it was rarely used on the job. The latter was only a trinket that could serve as a light source.

He had never known that these two incantations could be integrated together. But Jel was an outstanding hunter who understood easily, so without needing Aldo to explain further, he was already chanting a combination of these two incantations seamlessly. At the same time, he slowly poured the purified water on the bed.

Only to see that water spilling on Karlos’s mattress got caught by something and remained suspended twenty centimeters above the mattress. Led by an unknown power, the water drew out a very small magic spell by itself, its lines growing faintly under the illumination spell.

Although Jel did not know of such an old spell, he still voiced his speculation after studying it slightly, “Is this a teleportation spell?”

“Yes.” Aldo instantly exhaled a sigh of relief. “It’s a teleportation spell he drew himself.”

Jel was surprised. “How could you tell?”

“His affinity to light. So, his mana distribution of spells differs slightly from others. In theory, this reverse spell can detect traces of mana that’s from his only.” Aldo bent down. He had rapidly calmed down, and so his ability to think and make judgements had returned. In just one look, he understood the use of the spell and the trigger condition.

It was a spell combination that was specifically to search for Karlos… Jel was flabbergasted. “This reverse spell is your distinguished self’s…”

“It’s my creation. And it has never been recorded.” Aldo admitted it easily. “It was made for those days where I searched for him. This is a ‘protective’ teleportation spell. The trigger condition is when the target’s life is endangered. No matter when or where they are, it will send him to their side…”

Jel’s brows furrowed suddenly. Then, as if something came to mind, his face paled.

The scope of people Karlos knew was limited. And within this group of people, the only one whom he would worry and protect like this was…

“It’s my mother!”

Jel immediately took out his phone to contact Mrs. Shelton. The line was busy. Next, he called Roy, but the line was busy again.

“Where are they?” Aldo asked. “Alright, Mr. Shelton, the spell is still in effect, which means both parties are still connected. Your mother is still alive.”

“State of Sellute,” Jel swiftly answered. “We’ve never seen this Decay before, so we sent two Golden Emblem hunters and over ten hunters to investigate, with Roy as the leader. They’re staying at my parents’ place. I’ll call for backup right now.”

Aldo nodded. “I’ll go with you.”

Jel glanced at him. “What do you need?”

Aldo commanded succinctly, “Let them get ready in the shortest time possible and reach the destination in the fastest way. Everyone is to bring their weapons. Allocate some healers to follow us as soon as possible.”

Leo Aldo had been the Archbishop for over ten years and experienced the most brutal war and the hardest period of recovery after that. He had never been and could never be as close to the people like Mr. Good because he was a totem that had been placed on a pedestal. Only distance, respect and unconditional belief of being seen as a God  allowed the people under his protection to live through those difficult days.

Solemness and power were etched in his bones that allowed not another word. And together with Jel’s ability to get things done and almost unbelievable reaction speed, they headed straight to Sellute.

Karlos had a special way of sensing time that let him know that he had already circled about with the Decays in the fog for a night now. But his surroundings were still dark as night with no sign of daybreak at all. Evidently, he had fallen into the Decays’ ‘field’.

But Karlos was sure that a Drummer and Pearl-hiding Clam could not form their own ‘field’, which was why they were only a level 2 Decay. He still wasn’t certain if there’s still a third Decay around.

The unknown Decays hidden in the thick fog grew even more cryptic.

Over ten hours of high-tension search did not make him too drained, but the spell lines on the back of his hand were growing dimmer. This meant that the connected person’s life was disappearing… This can’t go on.

Karlos stopped in his steps, sword tip dragging on the ground lightly. Let’s give it a try. His finger curled in front of him. Theoretically, this incantation cannot be used in a ‘field’, and he was not sure if the hunters a thousand years later could understand such an ancient signal from a comrade.

A spark of fire burst at his fingertip but vanished in the blink of an eye. As expected, the area in a ‘field’ had been corrupted by the encroachment of Dark energy.  Ordinary signals can’t be delivered.

Karlos paused for a moment and pulled out his greatsword. Standing in the center, he drew a perfect circle around him.

This was the first stroke of a standard spell array, called “a spell ring”. Normally, only a novice student would draw an outer circle so dutifully—its function was to prevent mana from leaking out, and if the spellcaster stood inside, the “spell ring” would sense the mana type of the caster and adjust itself accordingly.

A spell array normally had three types of medium: solid, liquid and gas. Of the three, liquid was the most common, solid was the most stable and most basic, but evidently the most time-consuming . A liquid spell array’s difficulty was dependent on the power of the liquid, while a gas spell array basically existed only in legends. Even for Mr. Good, if he hadn’t had witnessed Karlos and Aldo’s sparring in the Temple by chance, he would have never seen gas being used as a medium for a spell array either.

In truth, although Karlos’s level cannot be compared with Aldo’s, who immersed himself in learning spells for half his whole life, he would never fall into the level of drawing a spell with the basic medium and to even draw a spell ring.

Yet, at this moment, moving his sword tip on the soil was unusually difficult. There seemed to be a strange barrier on the soft ground. From the first stroke to the last, the veins on the back of Karlos’s hand bulged. The strokes did not end prematurely, but sweat did appear on his forehead—If someone who was knowledgeable in spells saw this, he would find that every stroke of his was drawn in reverse.

Karlos heaved. An abnormal scarlet red appeared on his pale lips, making him seem sickly. The spell under his feet looked unconventional, emitting an eerie light in the dim forest and letting out the same wicked stench as the entire ‘field’ from beneath the ground.

With a “bang”, a scarlet firework exploded above his head. But before Karlos could let out a sigh of relief at his success, the spell array under his feet was ignited!

“Oh, fuck!”

Karlos jumped out in a flurry, slapping the pants leg that was caught on fire in panic. Burnt blisters formed on his ankle and swiftly turned mangled—shit, his first hit today was actually a self-inflicted injury!

As expected, that person was right. “Light affinity” was really a handicap in another sense—for instance, he would never be able to master this damning reverse spell array.

The Decay, waiting to mount a sneak attack this whole time, did not miss this undeniable great chance. A sharp gust of wind came from behind Karlos. Without even a thought, he moved the greatsword behind him. It hit a sharp object with a clang. Karlos knelt on the ground with one knee, his waist suddenly bending backwards in an impossible angle. The sword swung upwards and collided with the opponent’s weapon for the second time.

Then, they saw each other clearly.

It was a thin man with bloodshot eyes and terrifyingly pale white pupils. His bones seemed to be distorted. He had two pairs of extra upper limbs, one pair curled at his abdomen while another turned into gigantic claws. The nails looked no different from metal, over a meter long and glinted coldly.

He… Or it, was not a Pearl-hiding Clam or a Drummer, but a fusion of the two!

“Oh, now that’s new.” But Karlos seemed to be getting excited. He muttered, “I’ve never heard of two Decays fusing into one body when this only goes against their purpose. Say, have you guys finally accomplished the impressive feat of cross-breeding, huh, bastard Decay?”

The deep green eyes met the pale whites. The Decay emitted a sharp growl, saliva dripping out of its mouth.

“Eyes that have seen evil”… It had never seen anything that captivated it more than this fragrance that emitted from the pair of dark green eyes.

The Decay landed at a spot not far away. Its three pairs of limbs shuddered in excitement—hunger or lust were the most basic driving force for humans, and similarly, they were Decays’ living instincts. Even if they had unsurpassable intelligence, even if Karlos’s unconcealed light affinity terrified it, it could not resist its overwhelming hunger.

Karlos laughed coldly. “Do you know? Unless the mouth that’s watering at me without my permission belongs to a beautiful lady, I’ll normally make all of their teeth drop on the ground. Wanna have a go, buddy?”

The two pairs of limbs curled on its abdomen suddenly sharply hit its own belly. The “drumming” inaudible to humans brought an immense destructive power that came at Karlos, bringing down the giant tree and its roots behind him. The body of a stiff squirrel[1] in winter hibernation fell down, internal organs already ruptured.

The defensive magic spell that Karlos had already set up was like a transparent protective shell that collided heavily with the “drumming”. The ground had already been uplifted from the impact, exposing the rotting plants and bare rocks underneath.

“Is this your only attack?” Karlos’s sword swung at the Decay who swiftly evaded it, but one of its “Drummer” arms was still chopped off. Black blood spilled out and a horrifying growl quaked the world. Karlos’s lips stretched into a wide grin. “Send my regards to your ravenous mother. How very sad that she didn’t teach you and give you two more hands, bastard Decay!”

The Decay leaped quickly on the tree branches, screaming shrilly.

Without any sense for environmental protection, Karlos chopped down the tree truck and dashed straight for the Decay that jumped off the tree. The hunter and prey switched roles in an instant. But at this moment, rustles came from the forest. Quiet, stiff steps came from all directions and straight up made Karlos tense.

A human shadow leaped at Karlos at a speed barely visible to the human eye, breaking off his attacks. The air shrieked as it aimed for his neck with his claws. Karlos ruthlessly kicked swiftly at the increasingly dense fog and accurately hit its waist. With a low thump, that “thing” was sent flying. Two scarlet eyes scraped Karlos’s pants and fell on the ground.

“What the hell!” Karlos jerked—He accidentally used his injured leg. His blisters probably popped. The pain practically numbed his senses.

He could see it clearly now. The person that he kicked was the hunter’s cold dead corpse that he found earlier.

Karlos took half a step back. The surrounding black shadows revealed themselves in the fog—He was surrounded by the corpses, and the Decays were cackling cruelly in the depths of the fog.

What was this? The great transformation of stiffened corpses[2]? Resident Evil? Karlos glanced at the thin line attached between the corpses that was practically invisible, and despite the situation, he immediately remembered that noisy movie that he watched with Mike.

What? Did the Decays also borrow ideas from fictional stories?!

That was too shameless…

Right at this moment, a golden arrow came from behind the Decay as if shattering the night sky. Like a meteor, it flew towards the Decay’s back. The Decay whose excitement had almost become misery crouched down immediately. The arrow grazed its body and fell onto the ground, leaving a ferocious bloody cut where it touched, as if it was burnt.

Karlos’s eyes lit up—that was the Temple’s fire arrow!

Translator Note:

 [1] The raws actually used 松树 sōng shù (“pine tree”) but it’s likely a typo for 松鼠 sōng shǔ (“squirrel”)

[2]僵尸大改造: The name more literally means “the great transformation of the jiangshi”, but given the western setting of this novel, the characters, especially Karlos, would not be so familiar with the concept of a jiangshi, and thus it has been translated as such.