Chapter 62: Duckweed and the Gentle Breeze

The withered thing and half a face vanished completely, leaving only a single old boot sitting alone in the middle of the altar; at the same time the altar seemed to have fulfilled its final duty, its radiance fading in the blink of an eye, several of the thinner bones even inexplicably catching fire and turning to ash in an instant, the rest of the thick, large bones and the deep red stains alike all cracking, turning into a floor of crushed debris in the space of a breath.

In the end only that boot remained perfectly intact, toppled over in a pile of trash.

The originally peaceful ancient castle suddenly shuddered, just like a person seized by a cold chill.

Luge looked at the handsome youth.

"Our world is gone, the father I relied on has also vanished, just like this ancient castle," the youth who had lunged at empty air grew calm again, "seemingly sturdy, yet collapse comes in a single instant, because we are rootless, insubstantial things, superfluous in this world; the peace gained in weakness, the beauty painstakingly maintained, are all incomparably fragile, just like our world — many people don't know that it was actually just a very, very large refuge."

Luge had heard the succubus mention their plane world's past.

"I really envy you, Wizard; you can choose your own path, live the life you choose..."

The handsome youth at this moment actually felt undisguised envy toward the little kobold before him, disheveled and missing patches of fur.

"I can still hold on for a while, let you leave at leisure; I just didn't expect my corpse could still make one final distant cross-realm journey."

As the youth spoke he also began stepping outward; his phantom body's movements were just like a real person's, though there were still no footfall sounds, he climbed upward step by step.

"I also want to go out and take a look, see what the Abyss is like; I've already been here over three hundred years," the handsome youth paused on the steps and looked back, "Rest assured, Mr. Wizard, I won't let myself fall into hysterical madness during these precious final moments; maintaining the Steel Family's final dignity until the very last moment in this world is already the only thing I can do."

The youth finished speaking and continued upward.

"However, the choice you made isn't entirely wrong either."

A sentence drifted down from the steps above; looking again, the youth's figure was nowhere to be seen.

Luge did not rush to leave.

Seeing he was the only one left here, he immediately tried to open a spatial door, even finding a wall after a long absence to cooperate with his imagined concentration.

The spatial door, long absent, successfully appeared again; he had no tears welling up, but was quite excited — the sense of security from a successfully opened retreat cannot be described in words; at the same time this trip's greatest harvest was letting the inexperienced him learn that a spatial door can also be directly suppressed by powerful types, suppressed to the point of being difficult to open.

He leapt up the stone steps in a few bounds; with no more rearward worries, his thoughts naturally grew lively.

He ran in great strides back to the library, looking at row upon row of bookshelves, eyes shining; as long as it was Abyssal Language, not some minor language of that plane world, he could consider pocketing it all. The books here clearly had some kind of protection; picking one up at random and flipping through it, he found they were all preserved remarkably well.

After an initial careful search, he quickly changed strategy, beginning to spot-check by sweeping through areas of several shelves at a time; the Abyssal Bedroom Space was large, but it didn't collect everything — many books were just nobles' pedantic, affected works, which to him were not even as good as that shelf of monster novels he had put away earlier.

What he truly wanted were books on supernatural knowledge; those were his priceless favorites, especially since this was one hundred percent pure foreign goods.

Luge moved swiftly, spot-checking; he had even collected half a shelf of architecture books, but the supernatural knowledge he imagined would broaden his horizons was nowhere to be seen, not a single volume.

A heart-palpitating feeling; the spiritual light flickered.

He knew he could not be greedy any longer; a plane world noble's open library should by rights be approached with a certain restrained expectation.

So he put strength into his legs and ran toward the treasury that legend says every great noble house possesses; although there was certainly also a secret little treasury hidden away with the most precious items, this grand treasury used to reward retainers, even letting meritorious people enter and choose, was equally tempting.

He ran a few steps, recalling the map, suddenly stopped, then turned and rushed toward the ancient castle's main gate.

This map came from the succubus scholar's hand; if no accident had occurred, she had certainly already acted, and likely even picked out the best items.

Luge panted heavily, arriving before the ancient castle's great gate.

The black curtain outside the ancient castle was slowly fading; the ancient castle also began to tremble.

"I knew you were still alive," Luge said.

"Don't think about hitting on my ideas," the succubus walked out from the shadows nearby, "This is all the reward I should have gotten over three hundred years."

She actually still had a bundle on her; clearly her storage ring was already packed full.

"From now on I'll have to survive in this Abyss; there will never be this kind of opportunity again."

She spoke as if very regretful, but her feet always kept distance from Luge; once the distance widened, she stared unblinkingly at the fading black curtain outside, soon she would be able to see the Abyss's lifeless sky.

Rumble—!

The ancient city began to quake.

Luge stared at her, deciding that if danger arose he could discretionarily offer help, for example sharing the luggage.

Regarding the succubus's words, he deeply agreed; back in the Ground, such opportunities would be few and far between.

Suddenly the black curtain trembled, and Old Butler Izel's face could actually be seen from above; he seemed extremely angry.

"Don't keep struggling to hold on," a loud shout rang out from afar; the handsome youth grew more solid, standing on the ancient castle's small square, "I know you're already very tired; the castle's remaining origin has already been used up by me; rest a bit, Uncle Izel; I've used all my strength, now you can definitely see me, hear me, even if you don't want to."

The black curtain that had shrouded the ancient castle for three hundred years, keeping it from seeing the sun, yet also protecting it for three hundred years, just happened to reveal unsustainable fluctuations at this very moment.

The entire ancient castle began to sway; huge rocks began to collapse and fall.

That young master was still speaking loudly with Old Butler Izel; the surrounding changes seemed unable to interrupt him — even though his voice was completely drowned out by the environment, he still did not stop speaking.

As for the succubus, she had already nimbly been the first to leap out, her slender little tail swishing under her robe.

Luge glanced back, then followed close behind; his mindset was extremely calm, even holding a book on architectural aesthetics in his hand.

"Haha! I'm finally out! Abyss," the succubus scholar shouted loudly after escaping the ancient castle's range, not looking back even once, "This is the Abyss, the place where ancestors were born, the place ancestors fled from."

Luge looked toward the ancient castle's position; that was precisely a cracked ground fissure, the ancient castle sat in it like a bottle stopper, and now its collapse perfectly filled it, just like the original earth backfilled.

He also saw that immovable spatial rift; originally in the young master's room, now with the ancient castle vanishing like a brittle biscuit, it too left the room's enclosure, but was soon submerged by falling rubble.

"The commotion here will soon attract some troublesome things; let's leave first."

The succubus scholar turned her head and spoke; she still maintained a certain distance from Luge.

Luge, however, did not move.

"I'm leaving," he said.

"Boring."

She spoke and stepped forward, but suddenly stumbled and fell.

"Ugh—"

She hurriedly took out a bottle of silver potion and poured it into her mouth, making a strange sound.

Luge did not move rashly; he could see her cracked palm begin to recover after drinking the potion, but then immediately crack again, fine fissures quickly spreading across her whole hand.

He looked at the book in his hand, raised his hand lightly, and the thick volume turned to flying ash.

This was not time's erosion, nor the Abyss's curse, and certainly not damage from improper storage; this seemed to have a certain connection with that world's destruction.

"Are you alright?"

Luge stepped forward and steadied her.

The succubus scholar was at this moment crawling with all her strength toward the direction of the Ancient Castle ruins.

Seeing this, he reached out to support her and sprinted back to the front of the ruins.

The succubus scholar's symptoms immediately eased, but it was only an easing, and the easing crack speed then gradually grew faster; he took out some Dragon Blood again, but she did not even glance at it.

Without a word, she merely lay there, staring blankly at the sky.

"You go, in a while there may be Demons appearing that you cannot handle... the Good Things are all here..."

Upon hearing this, Luge looked toward the distance, and when he turned back, the succubus had at some unknown time turned into a ground full of Debris, with only a single Ring tracing an arc as it flew over.

He spread his palm to catch the Ring, but before he could grip it steady, that Ring also went with the Wind.

(Chapter End)