EnCoffin Me Chapter 109
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 109
Alexio gradually came to understand that this was something that had happened ten thousand years ago. The Holy Temple, in order to destroy Qizhi, had extended its reach toward Beizhu City. The lunatic had quietly infiltrated the city, waiting for the right moment to sabotage the Holy Temple's plans.
Where had he been at the time? He seemed to have been gathering various dark creatures, preparing for a final battle with the Holy Temple.
He looked at the saint walking beside him. The saint's expression was blank. This wasn't the relaxed indifference he had shown after his resurrection, but a heaviness and exhaustion that weighed him down completely. Alexio lowered his head and reached out to touch the saint's fluttering cloak, but his hand grasped only air.
This was a dream, a record of what had once happened.
He could only continue walking silently beside the lunatic. Time within the dream shifted abruptly. After a flurry of chaotic images, the scene became the saint and the imperial son facing each other. The imperial son sat atop a stone coffin, his former look of restraint and timidity gone. His features were relaxed, and the tips of his fangs were faintly visible at the corners of his lips.
“They've already figured out the pattern of Qizhi's descent,” the imperial son said, with little sign of fear in his expression. “What do you think?”
“It was only a matter of time,” the saint replied slowly. “Qizhi can't be protected. This world is going to be destroyed.”
“Is the Holy Temple still going to press forward?”
“Unless the outcome is placed right in front of them, they will never repent.”
The imperial son chuckled softly. He spread his wide sleeves, and a breeze drifted in from outside the palace, sweeping past layers of accumulated clouds and swirling around his chest. After a long silence, he finally spoke again.
“Go. I'll stay behind. Carry out your second plan. Take the spark and begin a new era.”
The one who stayed behind was destined to perish with this world. Yet the imperial son said nothing more.
“…Inform Qizhi to descend ahead of schedule.”
The imperial son nodded. “I'll pass it on. It will descend upon the royal court in three days. You'll need to move quickly.”
The saint then no longer lingered. In his hand was the compass left by the lich. After meeting with Qizhi, he would set out to find the spark.
On the third day, the god of the eastern faction descended upon the royal court. The Holy Temple, like hounds catching the scent of blood, swarmed in from all directions. Before they arrived, the saint faced a beautiful white bird with long tail plumes. He pressed his fingers into his left eye, pulling out the hunter's binding chain imposed by the Holy Temple. In that instant, all the pain marked as forbidden left him completely.
Now, whenever he thought of Alexio, his heart was filled with quiet peace.
Finally, the saint looked up and spoke to the white bird.
“My left eye remains vacant.”
The dream ended there. Alexio was ejected and dropped back into the dream woven by the night mare. Lukewarm stream water flowed around his feet. He trembled all over, as if waking from a terrible nightmare.
At some point, without his knowledge…
“Alexio?” the night mare looked at him with concern. Alexio closed his eyes, steadied his breathing, and when he opened them again, his red eyes seemed to burn with intensity.
Just then, the dream began to tremble, followed by the distant noise of voices from outside. They had arrived at their destination.
Even with some mental preparation, the night mare still grew tense. He instinctively looked toward Alexio, his four hooves wavering between the dream and reality. But Alexio didn't hesitate. He stepped out of the dream with the night mare and landed directly in the shadow of the outside world.
The chamber slowly opened, and fully armed personnel appeared beyond it. As planned, Brendan feigned unconsciousness, allowing them to transport him, along with Alexio hidden within the shadow, into the breeding farm. To these staff members, his purpose had already been fulfilled. He was once again just a consumable night mare, assigned to the farm.
Alexio watched coldly from the shadows. The location seemed to be a small valley nestled among mountains, surrounded by dense vegetation, deliberately designed to disorient anyone. But Alexio wasn't worried. He carried Pupil's clone with him, which had already infiltrated the farm's system.
His feelings toward Pupil were now more complicated. It was the eye of Qizhi, preserved only because the lunatic had hidden it in his own left eye. With this eye, the new era wouldn't die in its nascent stages of rebirth. And in exchange, the lunatic had lost his own left eye.
…Wait.
Didn't the lunatic's left eye look perfectly fine?
Alexio didn't dwell on the question for long. After all, the lunatic had once confided in him about the apocalyptic prophecy, which should have drawn divine punishment. Yet here he was, alive and well, crawling out of a coffin with him.
Maybe Pupil had helped him, or maybe it was a miracle born at the turning of an era. Either way, as long as the lunatic was still alive, that was enough.
As he was thinking that, Alexio and Brendan were placed in a separate enclosure. The night mares in the adjacent pens craned their necks to look, but the staff lashed out with light whips, silencing any curiosity. One by one, the night mares lowered their heads, not daring to make a sound. The only noise in the breeding farm came from the beeping of monitoring devices. The night mares themselves made no sound, as even a whisper could earn them a brutal beating.
The drug was probably wearing off. Alexio nudged Brendan from within the shadow, and Brendan slowly stood up. By now, night had fallen, and most of the staff had gone home. From the neighboring pens, several heads with single horns gradually gathered closer, hesitantly and cautiously asking, “Brendan?”
“It's me,” Brendan answered at once, touching horns with a night mare from the next pen. “I'm back.”
“Unbelievable!” the night mare exclaimed. “Where did you go? What's it like outside?”
More and more night mares gathered at the fence, their eyes wide with curiosity, eager to hear about Brendan's strange journey.
“No rush, I want to show you something first,” Brendan said, shaking his horn. At that moment, the boundary between dream and reality began to blur. One night mare suddenly cried out, realizing its four hooves had stepped into warm stream water. In the distance was a large lake, with a bright moon upon it, and beyond that, a wonderfully exhilarating wilderness.
“What is this, Brendan?” the night mare called out. “So much warm water. Can we drink it? It feels better than what we usually get!”
“This is a dream,” Brendan explained. “This is a stream. The place with lots of water far away is called a lake. And above the lake…”
“I know! It's the moon!” a still-childish night mare shouted, and the others around him burst into laughter.
They tentatively touched the stream, trotted through the fields, or began to make their way toward the distant lake. Brendan had never seen a real lake himself, so there was no true lake in his dream, just a vague image in the distance. But the nightmares didn't seem to mind. Perhaps, to them, the act of chasing the vision mattered more than whether it truly existed.
“Remember this feeling. It's an ability we night mares are born with,” Brendan said as he stood in the stream. “We can weave dreams and move freely within them. We can also bring other night mares and feed on the fear of dreamers.”
The night mares listened, but Alexio, perched silently on Brendan's back, knew they were still lost in confusion. He said nothing, only listened as Brendan repeated the same words to his kind over and over until his throat was dry. Alexio closed his eyes. He knew they needed something stronger to break free, something harsh enough to jolt them out of their captivity-shaped mindset.
The miniature communicator Alexio carried gave two soft beeps. He glanced at it. On the other end, the lunatic informed him that military forces were now mobilizing toward this location and would arrive by tomorrow.
Alexio replied with a confirmation. He stared at the communicator. His claw hesitatingly hovered over a cluster of reaction stickers. Distracted, he tapped one by reflex, then jumped slightly when he saw what he had sent.
【Alexio: Cat with drooping ears.jpg】
He stared at the ‘sent’ indicator on the screen, wondering how to undo it. But before he could come up with anything, the other side quickly replied with a new sticker that was clearly fresh out of the oven, with some lines still not properly erased.
【Lucius: Patting cat.jpg】
It was just a sticker, yet Alexio could somehow feel the other's hand actually land on his head. It pressed down his ears, then ruffled his fur, traced along his jaw, down his back, and over his wings. Within seconds, he had melted into a floppy cat pancake.
Alexio the pancake.: ……
Aaah, the lunatic's stickers really were dangerous!!!
Alexio spent the entire night silently cursing the lunatic in his heart.
The next day, it seemed the breeding farm staff had received new instructions. They gathered outside Brendan's enclosure, whispering among themselves. This night mare had once left the farm and endured rough travel. He no longer met the breeding standards for horn harvesting. Keeping him alive would only waste resources. It was better to kill him now and take his horn, which would be classified as a lower-grade product anyway.
Brendan sensed danger immediately. He shifted uneasily inside the pen, hooves pawing at the ground. But he had been taught well. He was brave. As the light whips snapped toward him, he leapt away with sharp agility, snarling at the approaching staff.
“You want to kill me, don't you?!”
The surrounding night mares watched him. Alexio was already prepared. He was proud of Brendan's courage, and more than willing to support it. Buying time until the military arrived was not a difficult task for him.
Sensing resistance, one of the staff raised a whip and brought it down hard. Brendan cried out in pain and rolled to the ground. Some of the night mares immediately turned away, unable to watch.
But soon, he tremblingly rose to his feet. Another whip struck, knocking him to the ground, and this time it took him longer to get up.
One by one, the night mares began to gather at the fence. After last night's dream, they looked at Brendan with newfound trust and concern.
The third lash landed. This time, the staff was certain he wouldn't get up. One of them was about to enter the enclosure to drag him out. But Brendan's horn gave a stubborn twitch. His whole body shook as he pushed himself upright again.
One night mare whimpered. The sound quickly spread, echoing across the entire farm.
Alexio closed his eyes, a faint smile on his lips.
Night mares who had seen a dream would never allow themselves to be slaughtered again.