EnCoffin Me Chapter 18
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 18
It turned out that at this point, the lunatic's arrows already possessed such speed and power.
Alexio had previously been weakened quite unceremoniously. Caught off guard, he nearly allowed a griffin to become a kill for the lunatic. However, he had now adapted, and there was no way anyone would snatch a griffin from him!
The training ground was originally shrouded in a gray veil protecting the vampire, but the griffins' fiery blasts had already created several breaches. Alexio was pursuing one griffin too closely when a beam of light came straight at him. After a quick calculation, he twisted to dodge and teleported to close the distance again. Another griffin let out a low roar and dropped.
That was the last one.
Alexio didn't slow down. He glanced at the saint on the ground and began to descend faster and faster. His eyes grew brighter—
He was determined to scare off this troublesome guy!
His intention was far too obvious. Lucius was highly vigilant, all his senses frantically on alert. A phantom flickered in front of him, but he spun sharply. The vampire who had teleported behind him clicked his tongue in annoyance. In an instant, he switched places with the phantom. But the saint was incredibly sharp. With his back to Ellie and the adjutant, he raised the modified rifle's muzzle. The vampire didn't dodge or avoid. Instead, a faint smile appeared in those deep rose-colored eyes.
It was almost as if he was about to throw himself into his arms…
In a split second of distraction, Lucius knew he had lost all initiative. The vampire teleported a second time in less than a second, patting his shoulder from behind.
“Won!” Alexio cheered, quite pleased to have won a round back.
“This shouldn't be…” Lucius finally showed a flicker of emotion. “Even a high-ranking vampire can't teleport twice in such a short time.”
“…There's no rule saying vampire can't use spatial magic, right?”
“……”
The mystery was solved. Spatial magic combined with teleportation made closing the distance quickly absolutely unbeatable.
The saint truly began to seriously consider what he had relied on in the past to fight the vampire to a standstill.
Since the lunatic had mastered that annoying domain magic, Alexio hadn't won in this kind of contest for a long time. Now, he wished he could beat drums and gongs to announce to the world that after hundreds of years, Alexio had finally won again in the shoulder-tapping game!
Right! Ellie was livestreaming just now! His heroic figure shooting down the griffins, as well as the lunatic's defeat should all have been recorded!
Should… have…
Alexio stared blankly at the camera cradled in Ellie's arms. The transparent hemispherical lens was dimmed. He had learned a bit about filming during this time, so he naturally knew this meant the camera hadn't been working.
“…Ellie?” Alexio held onto a last shred of hope. “Since when did it stop working?”
“When you jumped from the ground to chase the griffin at the highest point,” Ellie answered firmly.
“……”
The military cleanup crew had already rushed into the arena, collecting the unconscious griffins that had fallen. Alexio watched silently when suddenly a cautious voice came from behind him. It was the adjutant.
“Prince Alexio,” the adjutant addressed him respectfully but nervously, “I witnessed the entire incident. Would you mind seeing the Marshal now?”
Alexio, still feeling down over the failed livestream, glanced at the adjutant. The adjutant instinctively straightened and stood at attention. Only after completing these actions reflexively did he realize he had unconsciously treated Alexio as if he were the old marshal himself.
“Of course,” Alexio said calmly. “I want to hear the old marshal's opinion on this attack.”
The adjutant immediately saluted and respectfully led Alexio to meet the marshal. The military personnel dealing with the aftermath had more or less caught the tail end of Alexio's battle with the griffin legion. As Alexio passed by, they too straightened up instinctively to see him off.
“Prince Alexio… Alexi.”
Alexio turned back to see Ellie, the caretaker who had devoted herself to him from the start. She hesitated for a moment, then bowed deeply.
“Thank you for saving me!”
She saw Alexio seemed to smile faintly and gave a casual nod. Under the watchful eyes of the military staff, he disappeared with the saint through the griffin training ground's entrance. Ellie watched for a while longer before pulling out her personal lightbrain and scrolling through several recent posts.
She deleted a few of them.
The conversation with the old marshal lasted until evening. Alexio learned that the attackers were likely from a secret organization known as the ‘Thorn Society.’ Unfortunately, the group remained deeply hidden, so much so that even their name was just a military codename, based on the thorn tattoos each member bore on their shoulders. The old marshal advised Alexio to maintain normal routines for now. They would launch a thorough investigation in the area tracked by Pupil.
Alexio glanced at the lunatic beside him. Although his face appeared expressionless, he was clearly deep in thought.
On the way, after bidding farewell to the old marshal, Alexio stared hard at the video of the saint drawing his bow and releasing arrows. His teeth itched with anger.
In the end, it was the lunatic who got to show off and look cool! How infuriating!
Just as he was about to block all the videos that angered him, a message suddenly popped up. Alexio was puzzled. He looked at Ellie beside him, who was busy handling PR for the incident, chatting animatedly with staff from the conservation center. Then he glanced at the lunatic in front of him, who was resting with his eyes closed. Sensing Alexio's gaze, the lunatic subtly glanced back.
Alexio: ?
So far, he only had two friends added: Ellie, for daily contact, and the lunatic, solely for quick money transfers and speed contests. Who else could be sending him a private message?
He opened the message. It was a map. Alexio wasn't very familiar with the Federation's geography. One area was marked in red. Below the map was a single word—
【Enemy.】
The sender was Pupil.
In other words, the mastermind behind the recent attack had been caught on Pupil's radar. But why send the map to him? Sending it to the marshal or even the conservation center would be more useful… Wait.
The map Pupil sent included a 3D terrain projection. Alexio activated it, and a pale blue model quietly hovered before him. After ten thousand years, the landscape had changed so much that Alexio barely recognized it anymore. Still, he fixed his gaze on the red-marked area. Within it was a place where waterways converged like thorns, surrounded on three sides by low hills, with the southern side opening like a golden gate bathed in sunlight.
“Lucius,” he called to the saint ahead. Lucius turned at the sound, and Alexio showed him the map.
“What do you think this looks like?”
At the sight of the map, Lucius's eyelashes trembled.
“…The location of the Holy Temple,” he said.
The unexpected revelation cast a heavy silence between them.
Back at the conservation center, Alexio felt something was different from before. He flipped through some interesting news for a while, then listlessly put down his lightbrain. He looked up at the crisscrossing beam overhead. The vampire rarely flew, so these supports were mostly unnecessary.
Alexio leapt onto the lowest beam, climbed higher, and finally stopped near the top. Darkness enveloped him completely. He pulled up the map again. The thorny rivers, the golden gate. He refused to believe this was mere coincidence.
If there were still believers of the ancient Holy Temple ten thousand years later, they surely wouldn't hold warm feelings toward dark creatures. More likely, they would advocate using them for their own purposes.
But Alexio didn't know whether the current lunatic wanted to return to the Holy Temple.
A soft knock came. Startled, Alexio jumped down from the heights to open the door. Outside stood the saint in white, quietly watching him.
“How much of the past history have you revised?”
Almost none! Because he couldn't remember much at all!
Alexio's gaze shifted slightly.
“The primordial era… I've finished revising it…”
“Forgive me for being blunt, but the primordial section is only one page.”
“……”
“But even just the primordial part is fine. I don't expect much efficiency from vampires,” Lucius said as he took the thin sheet from Alexio's hand. Now it was two pages. The added page was almost entirely about the dark pantheon, something he didn't delve into much. Some of his own theories needed this for confirmation.
“Why the sudden interest?” Alexio tried to find a topic to ease the awkwardness.
“A specialist contacted me. I sent them the part I had previously organized. They said it will soon be widely shared with the public,” the zaint said. “The initial focus is on the primordial section. Pupil seems to be involved as well.”
This made Alexio genuinely curious.
After saying this, Lucius nodded slightly and prepared to leave.
“Wait,” Alexio called out. “Are you going to try sleeping in the coffin tonight? You're still having insomnia, right?”
The lunatic wasn't allowed to be more than a thousand meters away from him. If needed, Alexio could accompany him to the room where the coffin was kept.
“I've already asked the center to move it to a nearby empty room. It won't be more than a kilometer away,” Lucius replied.
“…That's good.”
“……”
“……”
“Please speed up the progress a bit. Don't expect much efficiency from vampires… that's your own words.”
“……”
Alright then.
There was a subtle shift in the atmosphere between the two ever since that place, suspected to be the Holy Temple, appeared. Originally, they had both woken up in this era ten thousand years later, knowing nothing, forced to coexist peacefully to maintain the balance of light and darkness. But now the lunatic had another choice, and Alexio couldn't be sure what was really on his mind.
Would he go to that place that seemed to be the Holy Temple to look for his comrades, and then continue a life he was more familiar with? That would be much easier than before. The current dark creatures were all naive and harmless. As for whether this broke the law, the hidden Holy Temple probably wouldn't care about that.
It wasn't only Alexio thinking about these things. The saint who had submitted his manuscript and come to the coffin room was also lost in a jumble of thoughts. He glanced down at the articles he'd brought to read before sleep. Most of them were related to the balance of light and darkness. Having learned much recently and combining it with fragmented memories of the past, it seemed he had finally grasped the loose end of a tangled thread.
About the origin of the Great Firestorm…
Lucius temporarily set aside his thoughts, touched the coffin, and lay down inside, hoping to sleep smoothly in the place where he had rested for ten thousand years, just as Zhuo Heng had suggested.
He closed his eyes, and his consciousness immediately sank, but he knew this was not sleep, but a memory.
His mentor, once the most powerful hunter of the Holy Temple, was giving him a lesson. Nearing the end, he emphasized the topic that was repeated every time.
【Lucius, he is your enemy.】
He heard himself respond respectfully in the memory.
【Yes, Alexio is my enemy.】
Today was a bit different. The mentor said more, mentioning the second-generation vampire who was nominally Alexio's father.
【That is an extremely vile fellow, with a lack of empathy for others ingrained in his very bones, just like any other vampire.】
【The vampires know we are specifically training hunters. They know you. I even know how the second-generation vampire will introduce you to his child, just as I am teaching you now.】
【He would say…】
The elder vividly mimicked a malicious, teasing expression.
【Alexi, he is your…】
The last word was spoken with a sly bite between lip and teeth.
【…playmate.】