Our Turn

Rayan dissipated. Neo did not remain where he was to process or nurse his emotions. Instead, his body immediately dissolved into black mist and drifted down the mountain. Lango had not mobilized the troops, and with the Lost on the island being gathered up, Mipos Main Island felt quite empty now. It was no longer fraught with danger as in recent days, merely somewhat quiet. Rather than rushing back to the cellar hideout, Neo first stopped before a pharmacy—not a point coupon pharmacy, but an ordinary one. After all, locations tied to core church areas had undoubtedly been placed under watch or looted long ago. Stepping inside, Neo did not spare a glance for the medicines on the outer shelves. He headed straight into the depths of the shop and quickly found a hidden compartment containing a good number of contraband drugs. If even a fruit stall outside a church hospital in York City could accept point coupons, there was no reason a pharmacy inside sacred grounds would not sell illicit drugs under the counter. After looting every illicit potion within, Neo left and entered another shop, where he gathered some maternal and infant supplies, picking up a children's toy along the way—a plush puppy. Before taking them out, he deliberately piled everything together, raised his hand, and performed a round of "Order Purification" over them. ... "Who is it?" Richard rose guardedly. "Me." Hearing Neo's voice, Richard relaxed. Moments later, Neo's figure materialized. He handed one of the two bundles to Richard, lay down on his own bedding, picked up a syringe, drew up three small vials of potion, and injected them into his arm. This was not a narcotic; it was not addictive. It was extracted from fish that appeared near the Mipos Archipelago only at a specific time each year. These fish were usually vibrant and beautiful, yet their flesh concealed a terrifying neurotoxin. Every year, quite a few people were poisoned by accidentally consuming them, either losing their lives or hallucinating wildly, shouting and sprinting through the streets. Having injected the toxin into his body, Neo waited in silence for its effects to spread. Yet after waiting a good while, the desired hallucinations still failed to appear. Looking down to check his arm, he realized the toxin had been instinctively wiped out by the power of Light inside him shortly after entering his body. "Fuck!" Neo cursed, rested his head against the pillow, and closed his eyes, intending to sleep. Hearing Richard cooing at Little Elisa in another corner, he muttered irritably, "Keep it down." The noise promptly diminished, and Neo fell asleep. ... When he woke, he had no idea what time it was. Neo sat up, grabbed the water flask beside him, and downed half of it in one breath, yet his thirst remained unquenched. He licked his lips. Right now, he desperately craved blood. Neo did not reject this "desire." Instead, he treated it as a special emotion beyond his conscious control, nursing it carefully. Some enjoyed the pleasure brought by indulgence, believing it to be the true release of stress. In truth, sheer indulgence required neither effort nor threshold; afterward, it yielded only greater emptiness. The disciplined, on the other hand, liked seeking stimulation by "tormenting" themselves. Both were forms of "harm" inflicted upon oneself, neither superior nor inferior, differing only in their thresholds. Neo simply sat there, watching the thirst for blood welling up in his heart as if teasing a puppy. An old face materialized before him and spoke rather helplessly. "Doing this makes me feel like I have no dignity at all." "At a time like this, only you can make me smile." "Is the great bloodline of the bloodthirsty aberrant demons something for you to toy with like this?" the old face grumbled in deep displeasure. "Also, next time you want to stimulate the bloodline, could you not just call me 'old thing'? You could easily call me 'Great Progenitor.' See? It's only one more syllable." "Sure thing, old thing." "Still, you struck it rich this time. I can sense the overflowing power of Light in your body, though you'll need some time to digest it. I told you long ago: those who truly believe in the Light are madmen by nature." "Mad in a rather endearing way." "Yes, indeed. In the past, I also met a very endearing Light Knight. A female knight, heh-heh." Neo remained silent. The old face urged, "Aren't you going to ask me what kind of person she was?" Neo stayed silent. The old face huffed, "Fine, then I won't come out to chat with you anymore." Neo sighed. "The love-hate drama between vampires and human women has been played out far too many times in novels and movies. Even if you're one of the progenitors of the blood clan, I doubt your romance could hold a candle to those of your descendants." "Most of theirs are fabricated! Mine is real, and I was actually there!" "A lot of things are least credible when coming from the person involved." "You make a good point, but that's not me. I have no reason to deceive you here, do I?" "Fine, go ahead. I'll pretend to listen attentively and play along." "That female knight was actually quite plain-looking. You know how it is—those who tread the martial path can't possibly have great skin. It won't be delicate, and they might even be tanned dark, with breasts turned into pecs. You know what I mean?" "Mm." "Yet I just fell for her. When she brought her mount to bathe by the river, I crouched in the grass nearby and watched her. I thought she was so beautiful. I suppose that was love at first sight." "Was she wearing clothes?" "Oh, damn it, you brute!" "Was she?" "Of course not! I saw everything, heh-heh!" "Heh-heh." "Then she spotted me and came at me with her sword to kill me. Afterward, she told me she knew there were traces of an aberrant demon nearby, so she deliberately used that method to lure the target in. Back then, I told her: did she really think she looked like those women from the Church of Mills, trying to fish with bait like that? Only an idiot like me would be blind enough to crouch there watching the whole time." "And then?" "The first chase, or after I said those words?" "After you said those words, probably." "She threw me to the ground and forced me to go three more rounds that very night." "Ah, so that's where the setup was heading." "We were already together by then, haha." "Fast-forward. I want to hear the tragedy." "Why must it be a tragedy?" "Because comedies don't provoke a desire to pour one's heart out. Given your long lifespan—no, given the immense duration of your existence, it wouldn't be worth remembering to this day." "Yes, a tragedy. She and I lived together for half a year. We traveled to many places. By day, she was the knight and I was the squire; by night, she was still the knight." Neo could not help but urge, "Fast-forward." "Can't you let me savor it a bit longer?" "Looking at that old face of yours, I can't immerse myself in this story at all." "Heh, I was exceedingly handsome back then, looking quite like that psychiatrist teammate of yours. Wait, why do you always keep your memories of him sealed off from me? What's going on with him that I'm not allowed to know?" "Done talking, are we?" "No, let's talk, let's talk. Those six months were very happy. I accompanied her to many places, slaying many aberrant demons that harmed ordinary people. She even issued me a Light Squire certificate. Then, at an inn in a small town, just as I finished bathing and was about to head downstairs to feed the horses, the ordinary residents of the town had all donned white robes of Light. Just like that, I was captured." "She betrayed you?" "No, her heart always belonged to the Light." "She knew early on that you weren't an ordinary bloodthirsty aberrant demon." "Yes. She always knew I was deliberately hiding my strength. Though I was still young then, my bloodline talent was extraordinarily high. You understand—otherwise, I wouldn't have elevated my bloodline to such heights that later generations revere me as a progenitor." "Deliberately hiding?" "In front of a woman he likes, a man can never quite suppress the urge to show off. The slip-up was probably something I gave away on purpose." "You were taken away?" "Mm. The forces arrayed that night were massive. I was no match for them." "You didn't run?" "When she drew her sword and pointed it at me, all of a sudden, I didn't want to run anymore." Neo assessed, "Idiot." "Who hasn't been young? Who hasn't been an idiot? Didn't an idiot like you wait for the peace talks to conclude, hoping they'd issue you rest fluid for Elisa to drink? And what happened?!" "Yeah, I'm an idiot too," Neo admitted freely. "A massive idiot." "That's more like it. Without foolish youth, how could maturity ever come? That's how life evolves, step by step." "And after you were captured?" "I was locked up. Imprisoned for a very long time, sliced up and studied every day by people from Light and Principle. Fortunately, I was quite cooperative and too lazy to resist, so I got along pretty well with everyone in there. They frequently held little wine parties and would invite me to join, even taking off my shackles to make me more comfortable. I made many friends there. Some later became high officials in the two great churches of Light and Principle, and one even entered the Temple of Light to become an Elder of Light. He and I researched ways to merge the power of Light into blood. It was just an experiment back then, but to our surprise, he actually pulled it off, forcibly condensing a godhead. Though tiny and fragile, he succeeded. If the Church of Light hadn't fallen, he'd probably be very famous—the sort held up as an archetype of a talentless, grassroots dullard rising through sheer diligence and piety." "Mm, I can picture it." "I stayed in the Dungeon of Light for many years. I won't deny that my later achievements were largely due to meeting so many exceptional friends there back then. I made tremendous progress and gained a great deal during that time." "What happened after?" "After what?" "What about her? Did she marry? Have kids?" "No. Capturing me earned her a promotion in the church, and she eventually reached the position of Vice Commander of the Light Knight Order. She never married." "She was still thinking of you?" "I don't know." "You don't know? You didn't see her again?" "I did, when her hair was gray. Light Knights generally don't live very long, as their style of fighting tends to overdraw their life force. She came to find me. She said she could find a way to let me out, that she wanted to leave with me. She said she had finally understood, and wanted to relive those wonderful six months together." A faint smile appeared at the corner of Neo's mouth. The old face caught it and demanded, "What are you smiling at!" "I doubt it was because she still loved you." "Indeed. She felt her life withering away, and her talent could never allow her to condense a godhead in her remaining days and enter the temple to extend her lifespan. She wanted me to grant her the First Embrace." "How did you feel at that moment?" "Nothing." "Nothing at all?" "Right, nothing. After all, decades had passed. When I saw her again after so many years, she was old, her hair gray, her skin wrinkled. Truth be told, she wasn't that pretty when she was young to begin with; seeing her again, she had become so ugly." "Oh, is that so." "What else? Back then, I only looked slightly more mature. In reality, I was still considered young for that stage of bloodline among bloodthirsty aberrant demons." "Mm." "She was no longer the person she used to be. I think, if she had come merely to see me one last time, to tell me she never regretted putting me away, to tell me her faith in the Light was to purge all filth and evil so this world could forever be blanketed in gentle light... I think I might still have felt something for her. Because the memories were never erased. But she had fallen. She had lost her way. She was no longer the one washing her warhorse beneath the afternoon sun, no longer the female knight I had watched from the grass." "And if she hadn't changed?" "If she hadn't changed, who knows? But was that even possible? She was human, a living being with her own conscious will. Besides, even if she hadn't changed, I had changed long ago. It's nothing rare. How many youngsters love to death in their first romance, but when middle age hits and they see that so-called first love again... sigh, it just feels like nothing special anymore." "I'm curious: how did you escape?" "Because of a turmoil. Actually, by that time I had already noticed deep-seated problems within the Church of Light. From the outside, they looked mighty, but from within, their internal conflicts had long grown razor-sharp. The 'Holy Grail Turmoil'—heard of it?" "I know of it." "I escaped during that turmoil. Actually, I didn't want to leave at first. I thought the place was pretty nice—doing research together, exchanging insights, and occasionally resting on a bed while letting them study me. That life was quite pleasant. But back then, the Prison of Light was about to sink, so I had no choice but to escape. Not many prisoners made it out, though; most were buried there. If you want to go check it out, I can give you the coordinates." "Fine. Give them to me later." "As for what happened after getting out, it's rather boring. The usual routine: founding a family, branching out, advancing the bloodline rank, becoming revered by descendants as the progenitor of this branch—dull and tedious to the extreme." "Mm." "Actually, I think Order is almost there too," the old face suddenly remarked. "That topic is out of bounds." "What, you have taboos about that?" "Not a taboo. It's just pointless." "Oh, true enough. Still, there's one thing I've been wanting to tell you, Neo: you are exceptionally talented." "Isn't that just a fact?" "Do you know where your talent lies?" "Elaborate." "Your body and soul possess a formidable ability to absorb the things integrated into them: me, Philias, that Last Pope, and even Rayan, who just tossed in his luggage without moving in himself." "All right, I thought you were going to say something else." Just then, Little Elisa lifted her tiny hands, rolled over on the blanket, and smiled toward Neo. Neo smiled too. He got up and walked toward Little Elisa. At this moment, the woman and Richard were still sound asleep. "Oh, she really is adorable. And fate bestowed such a name upon her. I'm truly grateful to that descendant of mine named Elisa; if she hadn't granted you the First Embrace, I would never have found someone I could talk to normally. Sometimes communication and calling out are just instincts, but most of my descendants went mad before they could even hear what I wanted to say. Quite a few of the more talented ones committed suicide the day after speaking with me. Neo, you're the only fellow who has talked with me this much and is still alive and well. To be honest, I get lonely too—dreadfully lonely." Little Elisa looked at the old face floating beside Neo, smiled, and reached out her hands as if wanting to stroke it. The old face said, "Look, she likes me too." The old face drifted down of its own accord, letting Little Elisa's hands pass through it again and again. "Neo, shouldn't you consider granting her a bloodline?" Neo squatted down before Little Elisa. Looking at Neo before her, Little Elisa beamed and opened her arms, asking for a hug. Neo raised his hand and brought it before Little Elisa, crossing his thumb over his ring finger, then flicked his ring finger against her forehead. *Bop.* Little Elisa's body tilted backward, and she fell unconscious into deep sleep. "Oh, gods, you're a devil, Neo! How could you have the heart to treat an adorable child like that? And she even shares a name with your wife!" "She's too noisy. More sleep is good for kids." "You truly are cold-blooded. Has your heart never been warmed?" "I saved her because she is named Elisa. I dislike her also because she is named Elisa." Neo then looked at the old face and continued, "Furthermore, don't think I don't know what you're scheming. You want to possess my body, and I want to find the place where you're sealed to obtain your origin blood." "Is there a chance I might follow Rayan's example?" "The moment you say you'll follow his example, it's impossible for you to ever become him." ... "Oh! Land! Land!" Purr sat on Karen's shoulder, looking at the land emerging ahead, and cried out excitedly, "After drifting across the vast sea for so long, it's finally our turn, meow!"