A Cure?
Hiro’s POV:
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After falling for more than twenty minutes, with no wind to resist, we crashed into the hard ground. We had no idea how many kilometers deep we were, but the air here felt stagnant and lifeless. Large rocks of Abyss Stone fell after us, hitting our scale-covered body. Luckily for us, these kinds of things had no effect on our bodies at this point.
Only non-physical things could hurt us. Moving the large rocks away from our body, we stood up and dusted off ourselves. It was really lucky that we didn’t die from this fall… Looking around, we realized that we couldn’t see shit.
This wasn’t the kind of darkness which made from the absence of light. This place was made to be dark. Honestly, I swear that if we were to separate, I wouldn’t be able to see Alice if she stood further than a meter.
[And? What now?] Alice questioned, feeling a little stressed out. This place had a weird effect on us. We felt so uneasy and insecure… something we hadn’t experienced in a very long time. Suddenly, we saw a sun-like light far away in the sky. Frowning, we focused on it, trying to see what it was.
[Are those… people?] I talked to myself upon seeing tiny figures. Considering the size of those explosions, I didn’t even dare to think of their levels. Even when we used our Twelve Chains of Bane at our current level, it didn’t have such an effect. Using our mind powers, we felt nothing but an infinite emptiness all around us.
Every attack we saw were like when stars were going supernova. As space was so stable down here, it was impossible for the attacks to affect it. As we kept wondering about this place, we felt a terrible aura rushing through our bodies. We felt like little kids in its presence.
Turning around, we saw weirdly glowing green lines. Furrowing our brows, we didn’t understand what it was. We heard tapping sounds as if someone was walking… Seeing the green lines coming closer, we realized what was in front of us. Looking down at our own body, we couldn’t help but smack our forehead.
The energy flowing among our scales had the same kind of color. The difference was that the person in front of us was like a torch… This was a lizard kind… and a True Divine Beast at that. As the person came closer and closer, its aura felt heavier and heavier, making even breathing hard. Closing our eyes, we focused on each other. Calming down, we sighed loudly.
As we opened our eyes, we saw a blonde haired, green eyed, handsome guy in front of us. After a quick check, we were sure that he was a Dragon God.
Looking at us silently, he nodded as he sat down on the ground. Placing his hand under his chin, he kept observing us as if we were a new species. [We are…] Alice remarked in my mind, almost making me chuckle loudly. But I didn’t find the moment to be right.
“Hello…” we said, looking at him, not knowing what to do.
“Hello. Why don’t you sit down? Is it better to talk while standing?” Raising a brow, he questioned us, his aura disappearing at the same time.
“Fine,” we said, sitting down, and separating.
“Oh! That’s an interesting sight! A dragon and a hydra?” he asked, making a wondering face. Seeing us staying silent, he didn’t talk either… We were sure that he was at the tenth level. Gaia’s and Anthony’s presence was nowhere near close to this guy’s.
“What is this place?” Feeling curious, we tried striking up a conversation.
“This is the Pit. The bottom of the Anchor. The place where only people at the tenth level go,” he said with an amused face, adding, “And I have no idea what you are doing here…”
“Ehm… there was an accident. Two Phoenix were chasing after each other and destroyed the ground under us and… that’s how we got here,” I replied, feeling rueful when thinking of this turn of events.
“That’s an interesting way to get here… I usually use the tunnels or just teleport here,” he replied, chuckling. He was visibly ridiculing us.
“Is this really the bottom?” Alice couldn’t help but ask, unbelieving.
Making a thoughtful face, he looked into her eyes as he replied, “Actually, no. There are five levels of the Abyss. This is the fifth. But there are another five for the creators. They have different things to fight for.”
Hearing his reply, we were left flabbergasted. This guy was like a library of knowledge! We truly felt like extracting his knowledge. But what he said was dependent on his personality…
“Is there a way to get out of here?” I asked the most important thing.
“Without dying? No. At your current level, you would be killed tenfold on the previous two floors,” he said, shaking his head sideways. Gulping loudly, we looked at each other, making him laugh for some reason.
“This isn’t funny, for fuck’s sake! I came here to have a child! Not to die here!” Alice shouted, feeling annoyed by the behavior of this guy. She wasn’t even pregnant yet, but her behavior was changing… I’ll have a hard time, it seems.
[No! I’ll behave and be a good wife!] She quickly denied my words, looking at me with a panicked face.
Haha, it’s fine, I replied, laughing at her.
“I-Is that so?” the guy replied, his brows twitching.
“Yes!” Alice shouted out of reflex, surprising him.
“You have an interesting wife there,” he remarked, looking at me with inquiring eyes. Understanding his meaning, I introduced ourselves.
“Hiro and Alice Ourichi. I’ll remember your names. I’m called Bayezinth,” he said smiling.
“Why don’t you kill us?” Alice asked with a serious face.
Looking at her with a serious face, measuring her up, he finally talked, “Why would I? Those who come here want to kill each other for points and understanding. I wouldn’t get any of those by killing you. You are nothing but mice, in the wrong hole. But you see… I finished a very long battle not long ago and I haven’t seen anyone friendly in a long time. You are even of a similar kind, so why would I take away my own amusement?”
Hearing his speech, we found it reasonable. “And what do you plan to do with us, in that case?” Raising a brow, I asked.
“I don’t know. Nothing? I just want to talk. I told you that it’s been a long time. You see, loneliness is sad drink when you taste it for too long. You came at the best time. Seriously,” he said laughing.
“If you say so… But we would like to ask for your assistance in that case,” Alice pointed out shamelessly.
“With your child? Why don’t you… just do it?” Raising a brow, he questioned her.
“Are you stupid? Of course, we did it… But True Divine Beasts can’t have children-” interrupting her, Bayezinth asked, “Who said it?”
“The Abyss,” I chimed in, having a sudden thought. It didn’t dare, did it?
“Don’t tell me that it lied!” Alice questioned with gritted teeth.
“No, it didn’t lie. But there are very few things that are impossible,” seeing the look on our faces, he cleared his throat. Scratching the back of his head, he continued, “Ehm… but you know that. Right, you came for the solution. I’m sorry, it’s just that there was this case, which won’t leave my mind.”
After saying that, he turned the conversation around and started telling us tales and his past. He was switching from one topic to the other, always evading the solution to our problem. We knew what he wanted, so we stayed silent and listened to his stories. Two days later… he’d finally run out of stories.
“Haah- This was wonderful. Thanks for listening to me for so long. It must have been rough to hear all of my stories through two eons…” he said as he stood up, dusting off his bottom.
“It was our pleasure… but could you tell us what we need?” Alice asked persistently, not backing away from her own kind. Dragons tended to ignore requests and do their own things. Unless I was the person in question, Alice tended to do the same.
“So impatient! Always this questioning,” shaking his head sideways, he remarked as he warmed up his body.
Seeing that she wouldn’t get anywhere like this, Alice calmed down. Seeing her sighing loudly, Bayezinth nodded with a smile on his face, saying, “Yes. That’s the right way. Don’t let your emotions control you. You should be the one controlling them.”
Looking at Alice’s face, I saw her brows twitching. She was clenching her fists and gritting her teeth angrily. Although she wasn’t as good at it as me, she had no problems normally. It was Bayezinth who angered her by evading the topic and talking about his own stuff. Not to mention, that she was frustrated since we failed at having a child.
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She didn’t mind if we lost and had to run away. She didn’t mind if we weren’t the cleverest or if we weren’t the richest or even the best looking. This was the only thing that hurt her the most. So I understood why she behaved as she did. Seeing that she was about to cry rather than burst out angrily, Bayezinth raised his hands with a panicked face.
“Hey, hey! Calm down! It is fine! I’ll tell you, okay? I didn’t know that this was such a sore spot for you. People at these levels usually don’t bother with these kinds of things. I’m sorry, it was my misunderstanding,” he exclaimed, calming down Alice. Moving my left hand, I showed him a thumbs up.
He looked at my finger with a confused face, not understanding my meaning. It seems like this isn’t a thing here… I thought as I pulled back my hand, my face stiff.
[Hahaha, it surely isn’t,] feeling better, Alice laughed at our little play. Seeing her feeling better, I smiled at her before looking at Bayezinth with inquiring eyes.
Sighing loudly, he finally spilled the beans. “It is an item one level above this. You can buy it in the Trading Room. But there are many people at the tenth level, those who don’t dare to come here and even more at the later stages of the ninth level. If you were to go there now, you would be killed by a malicious person. There are those who spend their boredom with killing… And to be honest, I did it as well. You are lucky that you are a dragon.”
“Would you be so kind to guide us? In turn, we will give you something which might be worth more than you think,” I asked him nicely.
“Hahaha, what can you give me that I don’t have?” He questioned me, laughing loudly. His voice echoed in this eternal darkness, but this place felt much comfier for some reason.
“Emotions and love,” I replied with a smirk on my face, making him turn silent. Seeing my serious and unshaken face, he nodded, asking, “And how do you do that?”
We told him about our ability and how we got it. We also brought up examples to prove that it was working. After making a thoughtful face, he replied with a nod of his head, “I will try out this ‘other half’ of yours. It’s not like I can lose much.”
Hearing his reply, both of us felt happy. We sprung up from the ground, ready to leave. Flying and teleportation were restricted to levels, most likely… Unlike we, he just swung his arm and all of us disappeared. In the blink of an eye, we found ourselves in front of a Trading Room. There were fewer people in this one, meaning three. As we entered, we were surprised to feel that we didn’t lose our strength.
“Oh? We have visitors?” A female asked, appearing in front of Alice. She put her finger on Alice’s chin, raising her head.
“Go away, wimp. Do you think that you can touch a mighty creature like a Dragon God?” Stepping through the doorway, Bayezinth kicked the woman in the side, making her crash into the wall on the other side. I felt terrible… I couldn’t protect my woman! This place was everything but good! Damn it… Once we get back, I’ll be sure to work like a slave until I reach the tenth level! I thought, feeling fired up.
Alice was already looking at the items. Stopping behind her, I coiled my arms around her waist and looked at the list. In the middle of the list, our eyes were stuck on a name.
#Name: Conceiving Pill
#Cost: 5 000 000
#Effects: With the help of this pill, no matter what kind of creature you are, you can get pregnant.
It was just a simple pill, but its effect was what we most desired. Our trip here, killing the cultivators at the eight level and our two million points from the control of our territory only add up to four million points! Seeing the difference in the numbers, we felt more than crushed. If Bayezinth didn’t help us out or help us in coming back, we would have to delay this for months! It wasn’t something we wished to do.
[Unless…] looking at the people in the room, Alice thought with a dark face. Killing them normally would be impossible. But if we were to use curse of our martial art, these people might just die. They were at the middle stages of the ninth level. If Gaia and Anthony were here, they could have a go at it, but we wouldn’t gain anything from that.
As our gazes met from the corners of our eyes, we nodded at each other. We merged and transformed into our monster form.
“Oh! Is this a new species?! I’ve never seen it before!” Bayezinth said with wonder on his face, clapping. Not bothering with him, we used all of our heads to use Destiny’s Breath, gaining twelve stacks instantly.
Laughing at our attack, they just shrugged it off. “Laugh now, bitches,” Alice remarked, using Wind Magic to speak. We released our attack with thirteen stacks… going beyond the ‘maximum’.
“What the fuck?!” Bayezinth exclaimed, jumping back a few kilometers in his surprise. Our attack struck the woman in the middle, causing her body to explode. Reacting quickly, the other two used their energies to defend themselves, escaping with a few shallow wounds.
Using Soul Eater, we stored the soul of the woman we just killed. Once we have the time, we will soar with these souls! “You whore!” the woman who was kicked by Bayezinth before, shouted angrily. But she was surprised to feel her strength slipping away. Our curse destroyed the cultivation of the affected people, turning them weaker and weaker. This was from my input.
Meanwhile, Alice’s Martial Art provided the other effect, which caused instant destruction. With the mix of our Martial Arts, this curse turned into an unimaginable one. The remaining two, fell to their knees, coughing blood. A green light shone around their bodies, as they used their energies to heal themselves. But as they were continuing to get weaker, their cultivation soon fell to the peak of the eighth level.
It continued to creep downward, reaching the middle of the eighth level. Seeing us walking towards them, they forced themselves to stand up from the ground. Releasing powerful attacks towards us, half of our body was destroyed. But with our powerful regeneration, it grew back in but a moment. Standing over them, we growled in a deep voice as we assaulted their bodies. Our jaws tore off their limbs, bloodying the ground and our monster faces.
Gulping down large chunks of meats, we cleaned up the place in a few seconds. Storing away their souls, we hurriedly looked at our points.
#Cultivator (mid): 385 000 (Two levels above. Legendary performance)
#Cultivator (mid): 400 000 (Two level above. Legendary performance)
#Cultivator (mid): 390 000 (Two level above. Legendary performance)
Seeing the numbers, we rushed towards the hole and bought the pill instantly. Storing away the Conceiving Pill, we changed back into our human forms and hugged each other in happiness. With our biggest problem solved, we felt a huge stone lift from our hearts.
“That was… crazy!” Bayezinth exclaimed as he stood right behind us. His sudden outburst scared the shit out of us, as we almost jumped through the ceiling.
“Damn it! Don’t interrupt the scene!” Alice turned around, reprimanding a Dragon God at the tenth level. It was hilarious, to say the least. Bayezinth was just looking at her, not knowing whether to laugh or to cry.
“Nah, enough of you, woman! Take me to my sweetheart!” He put his hand on Alice’s face, pushing her away, demanding his ‘sweetheart’. Laughing at him, we guided him through the Abyss. Entering a new universe on the third level of the Abyss, Bayezinth frowned.
“Here? But this place is very dangerous. Not even I’d dare to stay here for long,” he said unhappily.
“Eh? Why?” Looking at him with a surprised face, Alice asked.
Looking at us, he started explaining, “This place is called the Dead World. I’m guessing that you think that this is another universe. But every universe is connected to the Abyss on the first level. If you find another one at the deeper levels, it is a Dead World. But the truth is that… the owners of these worlds are alive. They just opened a portal to it.”
“It isn’t impossible. Above the eighth level souls, worlds, and space are flowing into the same thing. Now the problem is that these people could die anytime and they spit on the normal ways of cultivation. You might just find life in their world, even though it shouldn’t be possible.”
“A-Ah… Is that so?” Alice asked with a stiff face, knowing all too well that our world was filled to the brim with life. Intelligent at that… “Let’s be quick,” he said with a serious face. Spreading our mind powers, we felt everything in this world. It wasn’t as big as ours, which wasn’t surprising. Teleporting there, we found a locked up woman. She was quite short and had a petite body. She had blue hair and was a dragonkin.
Looking at Bayezinth’s face, we found him being mesmerized. “You love your race, don’t you? Going as far as to have your dream woman as a far relative of yours,” Alice ridiculed him with a smirk on her face. Talking seriously, “let’s release her and leave this place,” I said.
Bayezinth nodded before appearing in front of the cage, surprising the woman. “W-What do you want? Don’t hurt me!” She shouted fearfully. Opening the cage, Bayezinth grabbed her hand and teleported away, along with us. Leaving that strange world, we found him hugging his half as if it was his life.
Looking around with a surprised face,“A Dragon God? Wait, t-two?!” she said with a small stutter, her eyes bewildered.
“You warmed up to her real fast…” Alice remarked, looking at Bayezinth with her brows raised, her hands on her hips.
Smiling with a stiff face, he loosened his embrace on the woman, saying that he did. “But this is strange. I’ve seen her in my dreams, which I had for some reason… I never knew that she was a real person!” he added with a bewildered face.
“Even this shows that our concept of the law of space is perfect. You dreamed about it and it’s there. Or to be correct, she is there…” Alice mumbled silently, her head hung. The blue haired girl was looking back and forth between Alice and Bayezinth, not understanding anything. Her face was getting redder and redder, showing her annoyance, until…
“WHO ARE YOU?! WHAT’S GOING ON?!” she shouted, her face enraged. The top of her head hit Bayezinth’s chin, making him bite his tongue. After laughing at him, we stayed silent, wishing to hear this woman’s story.
“I’m Bayezinth and these are just two unimportant people. You don’t have to mind them. Especially that guy with the brown hair,” he said to the girl with a smile on his face, pointing at me. Looking at each other, we found our faces twitching. “Could you tell me your name?” he asked with a gentle smile.
[Sugarboy! That’s it! I’ll call him sugarboy!] Alice shouted in her mind out of nowhere, startling me for a moment. I knew that she would do it…
“I-I’m called Sugine Penlith,” she replied with a meek face, accepting Bayezinth’s embrace. Being a Dragon God helped a lot.
“And why were you locked up here?” Bayezinth asked, pointing at the gate. He was looking deeply into Sugine’s eyes, taking away her breath. Even her chest stopped moving for a short time, before she turned away, regaining her focus.
“A-Ah! I’m sorry. That is something personal which I don’t wish to share with you,” she replied, bowing her head. They looked like a nice couple. The woman, resting her head on the guy’s chest, who was hugging her.
“Is that so? That’s really sad. I was merely curious…” Bayezinth said with a sad face, scaring Sugine.
“I-I’m sorry for disobeying! The truth is that I have a split personality and the other me is always bloodthirsty!” Shutting her eyes, Sugine said it all in one breath. Not wasting the misunderstood chance, I asked, “And? Is that the reason why you were locked up?”
“Mostly… I went on a rampage and killed the test subjects of the world’s owner. She sealed me away for many years. I have no idea for how long I was in that formation before she let go of me... After locking me up, she said that she conduct new tests on me,” Sugine replied hurriedly, fearing a beating.
“Listen. None of us will hurt you, okay? You don’t have to be afraid of us. You are one of us. I’ll protect you, so don’t be afraid!” Bayezinth replied, looking into her eyes… possessively. He was the owner type… just like I and Alice. We too were quite possessive of our love interests, but Bayezinth seemed to be beyond anything we have ever seen.
“O-Okay,” Sugine said with a meek face.
“Do you know how strong the owner of this world was?” Bayezinth asked out of curiosity, his head tilted to the side.
“Somewhere at the eighth level, I think...” she replied.
“I’ll find that bitch and kill her, okay?” he asked with a murderous look on his face, waiting for a yes. Seeing her nod, he smiled happily, adding, “You know. I too had a split personality back then. But thanks to my understanding of myself, I was able to cure myself of it. You should look for the answers in yourself, you little angel!”
He was grinning like a goofy idiot, patting Sugine’s head. “Really?” she asked with a bewildered face, her mouth and eyes opened widely.
“Yes! One of them was a proud dragon while the other one was a meek weakling. Unfortunately, the latter was most prominent when I was young. After seeing the death of a few dragonkin friends of mine, I forced myself to abandon that weak personality. And see? I am here! I changed quite a lot since then, hahaha. But it was worth it. Would you come with me? I’ll be sure to help you, okay?” He told his tale to Sugine, smiling honestly the whole time. Showing his hand to her, she grabbed it after a few seconds of thinking.
“SUGARBOY!” Alice shouted as soon as she saw that these two were in sync, even though they had met not long ago.
“Grr, Woman! I’m not sugarboy! My name is Baye-” he tried to protect his dignity, “Who cares? Let’s go already!” but Alice interrupted him, turning around to leave.
“You should spank your wife… she needs to be controlled! Dragons are very much unruly!” Looking into my eyes, he advised with a serious face. My brows twitching, I said that I was seeing to it. You are no different! I shouted in my mind.
After telling him where to go, he teleported all of us away.
Our city appeared in front of us, but there was something…
Wrong!