Stray

The hotel of Ramon's house is still lively. After becoming a wanted criminal, Oliver was deprived of his master status. I don't know which one in the town took over it, but he didn't use it for other purposes and continued to operate.

Originally, the hotel has no name, which saves the trouble of changing the signboard. Not to mention the cook who usually comes to help, not even the gardener hired for the small garden. If anything - the handsome and enthusiastic boss is buried in the public cemetery next to his long-dead wife. There is no young figure running back and forth in the hotel, and there is no good-hearted person who plays the ukulele from time to time in the tavern in the town.

That's all.

Fortunately, the new owner is not going to deal with the giant sequoia in the backyard. Nemo shrank like a shadow on the top of the tree, looking at the huge devil's cocoon not far away.

The dark red meat cocoon is dozens of meters high, like a small mountain. Numerous translucent fascias wrapped it, and the ends were twisted into meat ropes, extending in all directions. Their ends are not attached to the surface, but penetrate into the space cracks suspended in the air, and at a glance, they disappear halfway. Ominous firelight was being cast through the tiny cracks.

Nemo can feel his own power pulsing in his cocoon and is extremely unstable.

Under the instruction of the preceptor bishop, the trial knights have never stopped exhorting the commoners. People of all religions are organizing their own gatherings around the cocoon, trying to figure out what it really is.

However, there may be only one person in this world who knows the truth of it.

Nemo knew very well that sooner or later that thing would blow up, and it made no sense whether people would evacuate. Some middle-level demon who had lost his head should have swallowed that arm. There was only one reason why it hadn't blown up. At the beginning, he was fully convinced that he was just an unlucky ordinary person, and he didn't have any specific way of "giving up". concept, the lost piece of flesh and blood can only be regarded as a half-hearted gift of power. It is both a miracle and a poison, and the demons should have sensed this instinctively.

But one of them overcame the instinctual warning and swallowed it.

But if it did explode, dozens of nearby towns would not be spared.

Nemo knew this very well, but there was nothing he could do. At present, he can only do his best to suppress that power and try to use it to understand the narrow starry sky in his mind. But the state of that thing was too dangerous, like a crumbling poker tower. He didn't dare to push too hard, he could only rack his brains to grasp the delicate boundaries.

Three days without any progress.

No miracle happened, no flash of light in chaos - the world around him was moving fast, only he stopped. Every minute and every second was a jagged blade, cutting his nerves. His progress shouldn't be so slow. Oliver is likely to die in his quest for answers, Nemo knows that.

First right next to the cocoon, then the edge of Signpost, and finally here. He watched as he quietly went to despair, and finally stretched out his hand to the only relief—

There is a way to rescue Ollie, literally in front of him.

Nimo hugged his knees, buried his face between them, and said nothing. The backyard of the hotel was extremely lively, and the warm lights illuminated the night sky, but they could not illuminate the high tree tops. The laughter and singing of the people came from under the trees, and as the cocoon continued to remain silent, the town of Signpost became more lively—the sound seemed to come from another world.

When he was far in the depths of the abyss, he firmly believed that these vague voices could be traced, he just stayed away from them. The singing, the laughter, Oliver's voice. As long as he keeps going, he will surely get there.

How close he is to them now, Nemo thought. But he was completely separated from them.

And "his corpse", the thread that can restore all his memories, lies not far from him - Ulysses' terrifying skull is still there, lying not far away A bouquet of completely dry and rotten flowers. The skull was clearly broken, and Nemo guessed it was a bone fragment that had been cut off earlier. The half-human-high skull just stared at him with empty eye sockets, which was extremely absurd.

Nemo knew it had all the answers he wanted to know.

The solution to the current situation, the secrets of the stars, and the long and dark memories. Yes, when he was still "normal", there would be various discomforts every time he approached this place. I thought it was a coincidence at first, but now Nemo finally understands—

It was his subconscious resistance.

"Nimo Wright" is not a complete demon, just a short-lived vision. The phantom refuses complete recollection and wants to exist in vain, taking short decades from the long darkness.

But since it is an illusion, "Nimo Wright" is destined to disappear.

Nimo didn't dare to look at it, he sat three or four steps away from the skull, accepting the mockery of his own corpse. An incompetent, confused, demon king who holds strength but is at a loss. His companions are running for him, his hometown is about to be destroyed because of his unintentional actions, and his lover... suffers far away.

He's wasting his time here without any success. Every second that passed screamed his failure.

Restore your memory and master it all. A brain cluttered with anxiety and eagerness roars. Just to rescue a human being, that self with all the knowledge and memories can definitely do it.

Nimo gritted his teeth, he tasted a little blood in his mouth. The pain is so real and deep, he thought desperately. If he really recovered all his memories, would he give the surface a moment of mercy because of these pains? Or would he, having completely recalled everything, laugh at these weak feelings and bring real disaster to the surface?

Of course, he may not do anything to restore his memory. Or, his recovery and awakening itself will bring a huge energy shock, triggering disaster in advance. It may save all, and more likely destroy all.

The power to save Oliver is right at his fingertips.

Nimo raised his head and looked at the huge skull again.

He didn't reach out.

Retrieving the memory of this gamble is too dangerous, he smiled weakly. Nemo Wright of Signpost likes to run away, but this time he can't run away from despair. They had agreed that they would never leave each other behind. Oliver must be alive, he must believe in it.

Oliver won't give up, so he shouldn't - can't deceive himself into ignoring the risks, can't give up on himself wishful thinking.

The lights went out and the voices dissipated. The black-haired youth sat motionless in the same place, blending in with the darkening night. Keep thinking. Nemo held the staff tightly in his arms, biting his lower lip unconscious. He has to keep thinking.

until a flap of wings broke the silence.

Something stopped on the huge skull, and a pitch-black bird turned its head and stared at Nemo through three pairs of eyes embedded in the bird's beak, Then he tilted his head at him. It hopped twice on its skull with its only foot, let out a gruff retching sound, and spat out a cylindrical copper letterbox.

It's the corpse bird, a message from Duran Fergil. Mr. Cross had specially contacted the exorcist before, and the news of Virgil came much faster than they thought, as if they were prepared.

Nemo hurriedly grabbed the letterbox in his hand, his hand shaking as he unfolded the letter.

The first sentence made his heart drop. Nemo took a deep breath and continued reading.

Nemo stopped his gaze. Maybe Oliver didn't remember it, but he remembered it very clearly. Noel's tavern by the river, that joking canonization ceremony.

Nemo clenched the thin sheet of paper in his hand. What are the criteria for determining the knight's oath?

A leader or king who is clearly defined by most cognition, ritual, trust in each other. The contract elements are indeed complete, he thought in a trance. But he didn't know who he was at the time...

No, no excuses. He wasn't completely ignorant—his cognition was just sleeping, not non-existent. That battle with Witherspoon was enough to prove it.

This is not the time to question, the contract is theoretically established and clearly a given. Even if it was unintentional, in the final analysis, it was himself who caused it all. No wonder Oliver was able to infiltrate the Silent Church smoothly, he thought that the other party used some method that he did not know. Thinking about it this way, there was no need to specifically mark the transaction for the other party at first.

The contract between them has always existed.

etc.

Nemo stopped breathing. If the pact between them has always existed, then Jesse Dillon's words...

He originally thought that those stars represented only demon believers, demon warlocks and demons who had clearly used abyss spells with "demon breath". But if he could detect Oliver as well, the reason could only be the knight's oath. This is not natural, Oliver himself should have no knowledge of that contract, let alone actively use its power. Strictly speaking, Oliver is still a pure human, not even a demon believer.

I haven't used abyss spells, and I don't know about the contract. If this can be included in the "starry sky"...

Just because it has something to do with you? But he can't have a contract with every demon, let alone those humans who are close to demons. If it was a belief or something else... He could even feel the spider dog in the forest, but he didn't believe that there was any religious belief in that thing.

If what it perceives is not a simple "demon breath", then what is it? Nemo looked at the cocoon again. The stars that belonged to the cocoon were dazzlingly bright and kept flashing. Writhing under his careful control, and continued to overflow. Those forces drifted aimlessly beside his binding spells, not only not attacking, but making his binding spells more stable.

Stop thinking about "devil's breath" and put aside all established cognitions. Stripped of all concepts, the scene is a bit anachronistically comical - the wafting power keeps coming, and Nemo just feels like he's shaving a sheep that keeps growing wool.

Not true.

Nemo frowned, and for the first time let his mind go, and devoted all his power to perception.

It's not overflowing, those powers are aimed at him.

…it is returning power. After identifying the demon king's suppression of the superior demon, he originally thought that it was just an ordinary power overflow that was robbed by himself, and he did not think deeply. If this "star" is like this, what about the others? Nemo quickly turned his attention to the other creatures in the forest, especially the low-level lower class who had little intelligence, and the demon followers who had not been infected by demon flesh.

They are doing the same thing.

Although it is so faint that it is almost imperceptible, it needs special exploration to find it. But they were doing exactly the same thing - they were no doubt feeding him a steady stream of power.

And they have only two things in common. They are alive and have the ability to directly use abyss magic—whether by virtue of their own talents or acquired contracts.

It has nothing to do with race, strength or ancestry, only those two things are similar.

Nimo stood up slowly, a conjecture gradually formed in his mind. It's crazy and absurd, but the last thing he lacks right now is absurd reality. So everything makes sense. Whether it's Jesse Dylan's ability or the unnatural power of the Demon King.

Then only validation remains.

Nemo kicked the branches and leaped towards the Devil's Cocoon. And after his figure left, another figure jumped onto the branch. Jesse Dillon patted Ulysses' skull with a helpless expression on his face.

"I thought I would meet an old acquaintance." He said regretfully, looking in the direction Nemo left. "...I really can't guess what you're thinking, alas."

As soon as his voice fell, the ground trembled violently. The sleeping meat cocoon suddenly wriggled, and then simply burst - followed by a mournful howl.

At this moment, the deformed superior demon finally broke out of the cocoon.

"You really caught up, if you slow down a few minutes... I'm afraid only the two of us can 'survive'."

(m..=)