EnCoffin Me Chapter 42
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 42
Lucy bought a roasted chicken from the cafeteria. After separating the meat from the bones, she placed it neatly into a gift box. She gave a slight nod, satisfied that this was a perfectly appropriate gift. The wolf cub, attracted by the scent of the chicken, also nodded slightly, thinking it was absolutely wonderful.
The two of them carried the gift box and followed in Zhen's footsteps to visit Zerita.
Zerita's temporary caretaker stood by the door. When she saw Helgodon and Lucy, she immediately smiled. Glancing behind them, she asked with a cheerful tone, “Did anyone else come along?”
Lucy shook her head while holding the gift box. Helgodon stood at her feet, instinctively entering a state of empathy. Zerita's caretaker was someone he had never empathized with before, and that made her especially intriguing to him. His ice-blue eyes suddenly turn inward, becoming cross-eyed. He had grown used to this process. It now only took a brief moment for him to perceive fragments of the other person's past emotions.
Resonance occurred. Helgodon saw a world bathed in blood-red. Startled, he took a step back, unable to believe what he had just witnessed.
Up to this point, he had empathized with many people in the conservation center. Most of them carried bright emotional colors, and even the more troubled ones merely showed a hazy gray. But the blood-red vision he had just seen was a shock to his mind. He gave a slight shake of his head, only to find the caretaker had quietly crouched down in front of him.
“What's the matter, Mr. Helgodon?” she asked with a faint smile. “Miss Lucy has already gone inside.”
Helgodon looked up at her upon hearing this. The door was wide open, and the young lich girl had already reached the edge of the pool. Strangely, Zhen was nowhere in sight. He turned to the caretaker with a questioning look.
The caretaker looked surprised.
“Mr. Zhen waited for you for a while, but then he said he was going back to find you. Didn't you run into him on the way?”
Helgodon shook his head blankly. They hadn't seen Zhen, though it was possible they had simply missed each other due to the complex layout of the conservation center.
Still, something felt… off.
“Aren't you going in?”
Hearing the caretaker's voice, Helgodon instinctively moved forward. He completely trusted the staff at the center. He had never doubted them because the center existed to protect them. The staff always wanted them to be healthy and lively. With that in mind, the blood-red vision he had just experienced was probably just… a trick of the mind?
A familiar pain seemed to shoot through his cheek. Helgodon suddenly remembered playing with Alexio. Alexio had told him to stay in state of empathy. If, during that time, Alexio's aura appeared black to him, he would pinch Helgodon's face. But if it was white, he'd give him a pat on the head. The vampire had played this game with him again and again, getting him used to increasingly complex switches. In the end, Helgodon had collapsed to the floor with his tongue lolling out, while the vampire gently patted his head.
【Remember, Helgodon. Even I might trick you into coming here just to pinch your cheeks, but your empathy will never deceive you.】
The vampire had seemed a little nostalgic as he said that.
【Do you know what your ancestors used to do with this ability on the battlefield?】
In the memory, he had made a confused little awoo, and the vampire had simply laughed. That laugh had been filled with pride and reminiscence, admiration, and a quiet sorrow.
【The werewolves would point out which direction held the enemy and where the killing intent was strongest, then unleash a roar in that direction. We absolutely trusted their judgment, and we compared this process to—】
【Blowing the clarion.】
Inside the room, the lich girl had slowly bent down, seemingly to help the water nymph put on the new hair accessory. Helgodon's gaze rapidly flicked back and forth between the lich and the smiling caretaker. He couldn't settle his thoughts. Years of being protected had made it difficult for him to make decisions on his own. To decide meant to take responsibility for everything that would happen afterward, and ‘responsibility’ was precisely the word furthest removed from dark creatures.
His body tensed, every muscle taut. The blood-red vision kept flashing before his eyes. Beside him, the caretaker seemed to notice something was wrong as well. The smile on her face gradually faded.
“Mr. Helgodon…?”
【Your empathy will never deceive you!】
The fur on Helgodon's back stood on end. To him, it felt like an eternity had passed, but in reality, it was only a fleeting moment. Suddenly, his front paws slammed against the ground as he let out a fierce, juvenile roar toward the room!
Their long training together had honed their reflexes. The lich froze at once, instinctively raising a bone shield in front of herself. In the next moment, a flexible net slammed against the shield. The person who set the trap clicked his tongue and lunged forward, trying to seize the lich immediately!
Another bone shield was cast in an instant! Lucy realized something was wrong. Using the shield as cover, she turned and sprinted toward the door. But behind her, the attacker lunged, grabbed the hood of her cloak, and yanked her back, only to meet the lich's soul flames burning in a pair of pitch-black eyes—
Intimidation! Intimidation! Intimidation!
A barrage of three consecutive negative mental spells forced the attacker to release Lucy's arm. She didn't even dare to look back at what was happening behind her. With her head down, she bolted toward the door, intent on regrouping with Helgodon!
But just as she reached the exit, the caretaker standing there let out a cold snort. The fake smile had vanished from her face. Wearing the same gentle appearance of a caretaker, she rested her hand against the door and sneered maliciously.
“Bye-bye, Miss.”
The door, a symbol of hope, slammed shut right in Lucy's face. She froze for a second, stunned, then heard curses coming from behind her.
“Damn it… my head's still ringing…”
Panicked, she stumbled back a step and watched as the man rose to his feet again. His aura was now openly hostile. He drew a short hunting knife and stared at her with a gleam of vengeance in his eyes.
“The higher-ups said not to cause too much of a stir yet, but a bit of blood is fine. Then we'll teleport you over.”
Meanwhile, just on the other side of that door, Helgodon was facing the greatest danger he had known since birth. He crouched low, baring his fangs and growling in a deep, threatening tone.
But the man before him was still wearing the face of the caretaker. First he let out a chuckle, then a full-blown laugh. He laughed so hard he couldn't even stand straight.
“How ridiculous! A little wolf cub… threatening me?”
Once he had laughed enough, he straightened up and deactivated the disguise device, revealing the face of a young man.
If Zhen had been there, he would've recognized him at once. It was Zhu Qing, who had left earlier after receiving orders.
“But I can't just let you leave yet. Our people haven't fully secured the place.”
Zhu Qing didn't draw a weapon. Instead, he pulled out a miniature camera. He even casually fiddled with it a few times, adjusted it to some good angles, then smiled at Helgodon.
“You dark creatures should be familiar with this thing, right? One or two of you just stream yourselves sleeping and get so many fans. I thought, why not leech off your popularity?” Zhu Qing kept grinning. He didn't turn the camera on immediately. He was waiting. Then, with a soft chime from his lightbrain, confirmation came in. Their team had taken full control of the building, inside and out.
Still smiling, he turned on the camera and logged into a privately built livestreaming platform. Facing the lens, he gave a casual wave.
“We're live! Start sending gifts! What I'm streaming today is definitely going to blow your minds!”
At first, only a few scattered viewers stumbled across the platform. Then, as word spread, more joined. Comment after comment began flooding the screen, asking why the background looked so much like the conservation center, and what had caused the faint explosions in the distance. Most viewers thought it was a prank and even threatened to report the streamer.
Zhu Qing burst into laughter. He wasn't stingy about letting these Federation viewers feel the deepest despair and fear.
He turned the camera towards the wolf cub opposite him, still calling out with enthusiasm, “Totally unprecedented! This stream's got content like nothing you've seen before! Today, I'm streaming…”
He bared his teeth in a malicious grin.
“How to kill a dark creature.”
“The teleportation array from that night is still active. I'll use it to go in,” Alexio said quickly. When he saw Lucius also preparing to move, he gave a slight shake of his head.
“The situation's unclear. One of us should stay outside.”
Lucius understood what he meant. But…
“You knew?”
He knew the one-kilometer restriction had been lifted? When had he realized?
Alexio let out a short laugh.
“You study me every day like it's your job, can't I study you a little in return? You're such a pain to deal with, I've had to stay on full alert just to keep up.” He glanced at the expressionless face of the lunatic and added, a bit smugly, “I've been testing the distance every now and then to see if you'd still pass out when I moved away. Turns out you don't anymore. I'm guessing the restriction was lifted when I went out to sea to meet Ceto? I'm not sure of the exact time, but you've been clinging to me like a coquette.”
The word ‘coquette’ made Lucius pause for a moment. He decided he would be far more careful and discreet in studying Alexio in the future. For now, the situation took priority.
“To be safe, let's avoid using modern communication.”
Alexio nodded as well. They were thinking the same thing. “It might be intercepted, or even blocked outright. So let's establish a direct communication contract. Highest-level permissions, just between the two of us.”
He raised his hand and traced a sequence of characters in the air with practiced ease. Lucius mirrored the motion at the same time. Their eyes met briefly before Alexio gave a nod.
“I'm ready… I call upon my god, Freyna…”
Lucius lowered his gaze slightly. “I call upon my god, Galotti…”
The two sequences merged, and the contract burned away in a burst of flame. From that moment on, no matter how far apart they were, they could speak directly through thought alone. Without wasting another second, and with nothing else to prepare, Alexio stepped into the teleportation array.
He didn't know what was happening, but years of experience had taught him to face a series of unforeseen events with the highest alert. Fortunately, he and the lunatic trusted each other now. With Lucius outside to cover communications or provide backup, Alexio could operate inside the conservation center without hesitation.
The teleportation was smooth. In the next instant, Alexio stood inside a room. He immediately picked up on the scent of smoke in the air, as well as the invasive, hostile presence of intruders that clung to every surface like a foul mist. A cold, angry smile crept across his face.
Fools who didn't know their place.
He flung the door open and came face-to-face with a man in mercenary gear standing in the hallway. The mercenary looked stunned. This room had already been cleared, so how had another dark creature suddenly appeared? And stranger still, this one looked… vaguely familiar…
Despite his confusion, instinct kicked in. He raised his lightblade, switching it to stun mode, intending to knock the creature out and send him away via the water nymph's teleportation array.
Before the mercenary could even swing his weapon, the vampire had already brushed past him. The next second, searing pain exploded through his body. Trembling, the mercenary reached for his abdomen, where a through-and-through wound was gushing blood. But before the blood could hit the floor, it coiled upward and vanished, drawn into the fingertips of the dark creature before him.
The mercenary toppled forward. The vampire's hand covered his head, forcibly extracting the memories from the past few hours. It was a draining spell for Alexio, whose mental strength was geared toward offense. If a fully matured lich had performed it, the process would've been much easier. Still, he managed to learn this man's personal mission and how he'd infiltrated the center. With that, Alexio began to reorder his priorities.
He glanced at the lifeless staff member's body slumped in the corner. Walking over, he gently closed the man's eyes. When he stood up again, his red eyes flashed, now utterly devoid of mercy.
The mercenary's corpse shriveled slowly as every ounce of energy from his blood was transfered into Alexio's body. This was the terrifying endurance of vampires, especially when facing creatures with blood. They could replenish themselves endlessly through each kill.
These low-level grunts didn't know much, but even scraps of information were useful.
Alexio lowered his eyes and sent a telepathic message to the lunatic.
“There's been a breach at the center. Contact the military and Andrei immediately. I suspect there were already multiple moles inside the center, which is how it fell so quickly.” He paused, then added, “I'm going to check on Pupil's safety first. On the way, I'll try to rally whatever internal armed forces are left and have them help evacuate the other dark creatures and staff.”
“Alright.”
“Also, I'm sending you Zhen's red string,” Alexio said. The string vanished from his palm and reappeared in Lucius' hand.
Lucius heard the vampire chuckle softly from the other end of their link.
“Go after them to their headquarters. You think you can do it, hunter of the Holy Temple?”
At those words, Lucius' lashes quivered slightly.
“How polite. I expected you to call me ‘dog of the Holy Temple,’” he replied coolly, showing no shame toward the derogatory title. His hunting blade and firearm were already secured on him. He tightened his cuffs, letting his cloak of silver and pure white fall to one side. The golden embroidery of thorns gleamed brilliantly, proclaiming the doctrine of the old Holy Temple.
Discipline, asceticism, endurance, and the hunters' unspoken…
Endless entanglement until death.