EnCoffin Me Chapter 58
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 58
Alexio felt a bit embarrassed.
He had thought about covering up the evidence, but with his fangs still lodged in the lunatic's wrist, any attempt at concealment was hopelessly futile.
After a moment of silence, Alexio loosened his bite, making sure not to draw too much blood. He still had to try hard and use all his mental power to release his grip, while attempting to change the subject.
“Do you know who attacked you? Actually, I'm a bit surprised. This is the first time since I woke up that I've encountered an enemy with divine favor,” Alexio said, his expression growing slightly heavy. “It seems to be a spiritual domain, but how could it affect you without a medium…?”
“There is a medium.” Lucius lowered his eyes to the bite mark on his wrist. “He sent me some messages.”
That familiar method reminded Alexio of—
“Theo?”
“Mm.”
Never daring to confront head-on, always nagging behind the scenes, it had to be Theo. Alexio's heart filled with fresh grievances and old hatreds. He even thought about rushing to the Thorn River he'd seen on the map earlier, directly unleashing his domain, and flattening that entire mountainside to see where Theo and the Holy Temple could run!
Lucius knew him too well. Seeing his fangs exposed, he instinctively wanted to stop him.
“Calm down. The Holy Temple has been operating for years…”
But just as Lucius' thought to stop him arose, Alexio's expression turned like he had seen a ghost. His reaction was swift and fierce. He immediately tried to open his domain to counter the lunatic's domain. But it was too late. The shadow roses had barely appeared before they quickly faded away. He realized he was about to repeat the same old mistakes from tens thousand years ago!
He was trapped inside this damn thing by the lunatic again!
“I'm not going to the Holy Temple! Really not going! You need to control yourself! Now!”
Lucius' expression grew serious. “I'm trying to control it, but it's not working well.”
He didn't understand why he had a domain, but it probably had something to do with the extra bird on his shoulder. Lucius could sense that his domain was some kind of ‘barrier.’ Like when he resisted Theo's attack earlier, as long as he refused, the attack would be blocked outside his domain, and inside it, everything would vanish equally.
The half of a chair leg disappearing next to Alexio was a good example.
But why—
Was Alexio perfectly safe inside his domain?
He looked up at the vampire, who sat expressionless after hearing his answer. After the initial shock and confusion, the vampire reacted quickly, as if he had done this many times before, with such practiced ease that it was almost painful to watch.
Alexio fumbled around for the boundary of this domain. It was spherical and not very big. He pressed his hands against it, nearly in tears.
“Let me out! My takeout is about to arrive! I ordered barbecue, lamb chops, potatoes, and flatbread! Let me out!
“Trapping me again! Lunatic, you have no heart! If you've got the guts, wait until I open my domain and see whether you eat away my domain first or I kill you first!”
It seemed Alexio had a deep psychological shadow over his domain.
Lucius calmly tried again but still failed. What was worse, he realized they were sinking.
Literally sinking. After the destruction of a chair leg, his domain began to eat through the floorboards. The wooden floor vanished beneath them, and now they were falling through the skeletal framework of the house’s structure, until finally, they crashed from the second floor down into the first-floor living room.
Alexio made no sound when he landed. He looked completely withdrawn.
“Do you want me to message the delivery to delay?” Lucius suggested, trying to control the domain, but Alexio just shook his head silently.
“It's useless. Your domain rejects everything, even sound and signals can't get out,” he said flatly. “I'm thinking…”
【Unknown damage to your property detected. Automatic alarm initiated. Do you wish to terminate?】
The smart housekeeper issued a warning, and the two people still in the domain responded in unison—
“……”
“Why don't you just reject me?” Alexio said bitterly. “Since ten thousand years ago, I'm the only one locked inside, every single time. Shouldn't your domain be more decisive and reject everything except yourself?”
“It's annihilation,” Lucius quietly corrected.
“There's also a rejection mode, the kind that even forces your griffin to leave. I've seen it.” Alexio hugged himself, breaking down. “But that mode never rejects me! Let me out! Forget the delivery, the alarm's about to go off!”
【Automatic alarm countdown—】
【Five… Four… Three…】
At this point, there was no chance to salvage the situation.
“Look on the bright side,” Lucius said. “Tomorrow's headlines will definitely be about us.”
Alexio almost cried out loud. He didn't want to be in the headlines for this. He'd rather be the innocent bystander with a pixelated face interviewed by reporters!
“Every single time…” he murmured, “You come through the city gates without knocking. You just make a hole in my wall. Then the roads, the streets, the roses, even the air, it all disappear, completely gone…”
Alexio's domain, thousands of years ago, was truly top-tier. The【Red Moon Royal City】had ever-changing forms and hidden dangerous traps. Some said that as long as Alexio established the royal city on the front line, it would be impenetrable, because no one could get through the massive city to face him directly, let alone fight one-on-one.
But the lunatic from ten thousand years ago had a domain that rejected everything. He always used the ‘annihilation’ or ‘repulsion’ properties of his domain to pass through Alexio's perilous royal city, and then activate another property, ‘sealing,’ to greatly weaken Alexio's close-combat abilities. Of course, if he couldn't close in quickly or failed to seal off some of Alexio's abilities in time, that led to another outcome. Against the lunatic at his prime, the odds were about fifty-fifty.
Alexio had the painful experience of being engaged in close combat while simultaneously having his black scythe, bat wings, and one hand restricted.
The lunatic's domain wasn't invincible either. Its speed at annihilating living things was relatively slow, and its sealing property required extreme precision. If Zhen, at his peak, with the【All Beings Possess Spirits】domain, fought the lunatic, the situation might be somewhat better than with Alexio's domain, which was filled with inanimate objects, but not by much. After all, this lunatic was a master of both magic and martial arts, skilled in offense and defense at all ranges, while Zhen's close-combat abilities were rather tragic.
The transparent sphere continued to sink. Alexio couldn't hear the sounds outside, but he boldly guessed the police had arrived and were investigating the hole. Probably the delivery guy had also shown up, standing confused by the cordoned-off house, repeatedly messaging him.
“……”
What a truly desperate situation.
“I think I found a trick. I'll try it,” Lucius said after a pause. Alexio's instincts screamed danger. Eyes widening, he tried to stop him.
“Wait—”
The lunatic had probably set the ground to be rejected. The sphere they were in shot upward at a terrifying speed. Alexio lurched violently toward the lunatic and nearly slammed his head against the boundary. Fortunately, the lunatic grabbed him, causing his head to bump against the lunatic's shoulder. Lucius looked serious. Just as they were about to crash into the first floor ceiling, he shifted again, creating a hole and passing into the second floor. After several more rapid transitions, they finally came to a bumpy stop.
The spherical domain was lifted. Alexio felt dizzy but was relieved it was finally over.
“Did you get hurt? We were bouncing around a lot just now…”
“No, and it seems no alarm went off either,” Lucius said as he stood up from the floor, feeling utterly drained. It seemed the domain was a powerful weapon but couldn't be used indefinitely.
“How is that possible? The smart housekeeper should have called the police immediately… Housekeeper? Housekeeper, are you there?”
Only silence responded to Alexio.
It was as if Alexio understood something. He slowly turned step by step toward the lunatic.
“You didn't actually want the alarm to go off just now, did you? So you actually rejected the housekeeper's alarm function. Did the housekeeper die in the line of duty?”
“……”
Lucius remained silent. He looked around and indeed couldn't find the smart housekeeper's external unit. He'd just have to retrieve backup data from the cloud and then buy a new device.
Alexio's phone finally rang. He immediately answered and apologized to the delivery service who had been calling multiple times. Then, as he prepared to get up and grab the food, he felt his right hand being grabbed, frozen mid-air.
What a familiar feeling! His wings, his hands, and feet had endured this ruthless treatment before!
He paused for a moment, then began struggling violently.
“Let go! I want to eat my late-night snack!”
“Calm down, I'm trying.”
“How do you already know this skill? Have you really just started opening your domain? Let go!”
“Don't struggle. The more you struggle, the more I want to suppress you.”
“……”
Alexio fell silent, then opened his eyes wide in panic.
“What kind of lunatic are you? You're finally losing it, aren't you? Is this even human speech?”
He didn't wait for the lunatic to release him. His black scythe appeared in his left hand, swung in a half-circle, and instantly shattered the domain binding his right hand. This small-scale destruction wouldn't harm the lunatic. Alexio flexed his newly freed right hand with pride as he looked at him.
This was the difference in strength!
“So it can be shattered?”
“Of course.”
The saint surprisingly didn't retort but instead thought for a moment and showed a faint smile.
“Impressive.”
Alexio puffed up at such sincere praise.
“But if both hands are controlled, wouldn't it be much harder to break free?”
“Yes, without the scythe, it's a bit troublesome to get free.” After being praised, Alexio provided the answer readily.
Lucius realized this. Watching Alexio happily head downstairs to get his late-night snack, completely forgetting what he had just said, Lucius thought maybe Alexio's guard was a little low. Perhaps he could try to gain a bit more?
He glanced at the battered room. Repairs would have to wait until tomorrow.
More than an hour later, Lucius lay quietly on the living room sofa. Beside him was the deep hole.
It still wasn't enough. He needed more time.
Time…
He raised his right hand. A faint shadow of dusky purple coiled around his ring finger. Even when suppressed by his domain, it kept tugging at his thoughts. The faint buzzing noise was just like the one he'd once heard in a dream. After hearing the vampire's cautious use of the word ‘playmate,’ he shouldn't have been having that dream anymore.
【In this world that reveres dark creatures, only the Holy Temple would help you kill him, right?】
【Kill him, and from life to death, he would belong to you.】
Slander roared in his ears.
【From life to death!】
The dusky purple shadow slowly crawled upward, even tentatively spreading outward. Lucius remained motionless, letting the shadow crawl closer to his ear, whispering ever more tempting words. He listened quietly, until out of the corner of his eye, he saw the shadow nearly touching Alexio's coat casually draped on the sofa.
He grabbed the shadow in one hand. The shadow screamed in a mournful howl but was not destroyed. Lucius knew well that to lure that coward Theo, he needed a bait sweet enough.
“Don't presumptuously insert the Holy Temple between my name and Alexio's.” He said softly. “Regardless of life or death, it is solely a matter between him and me.”