He and It Chapter 147: The Serpent of Pharisee (13)

Chapter 147: The Serpent of Pharisee (13)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

Echidna’s lair was already high and open, with huge stone pillars staggered in it, like ancient trees standing in the sky. At this moment, as soon as the three majestic shadows crowded into the nest, Xie Ning immediately felt the cramped space, and an overwhelming sense of oppression came over him.

A smell of sulfur, blood and **, accompanied by a breeze that came from nowhere, blew to the end of Xie Ning’s nose, strongly diluting the scent left behind by Echidna.

The demons walked with heavy steps, and every step they took caused a far-reaching tremor in the depths of the underground palace. The first demon to enter was almost as tall as the giant of Arima, he walked like a man, but had the head of a lion, his body was covered with downy wool, his feet were the hooves of a goat, and in the place of his tail there was a boa constrictor with a wide bloody mouth. Right now, the snake’s head and the lion’s head both had open scarlet pupils, looking around curiously.

At the same time, another shadow gradually emerged from the edge, a lion with a human face and wings on his back, even for those who were not familiar with the myth, they were able to name Sphinx off the top of their heads. ¹

The last demon, even more hideous than his first two companions, had nine serpent heads that looked like fluttering seaweed, casting tangled shadows on the stone wall. This monster actually also manifested the appearance of a person walking, in addition to the many snake heads, he was covered with green and black scales, sharp claws, feet like hooks. ²

As soon as these three heavyweights hit the stage, Xie Ning wanted to pass out.

Chimera, Sphinx, and Hydra. The legendary biological children of the snake demon who have been known to wreak havoc in all directions. These were Echidna’s visitors today? 

“What a change from my last visit.” Chimera tilted his head back and looked up at the stars in the ceiling with both his lion’s eyes and snake’s eyes. “When did Echidna have the leisure to learn these hypocritical techniques? What else does he want to do? To set up temples in the earth’s palace so that those who worship him may obtain the supreme welfare of all?” 

When the demon had finished those mocking words, he laughed roughly. Sphinx said softly, “Do not be carried away, Chimera. Can you stand against the power of Echidna? He was banished here by Olympus, yet his power is still greater than thine or mine. Let him not chastise thee as he chastises a young child! Then, too, our faces will be dishonored.” 

“We just want to get out of here.” Hydra’s nine heads bobbed together. “Because it would be unwise to enter His territory without authorization.” 

The demons murmured while Xie Ning watched and listened with trepidation.

In Echidna’s body, there was an abundant and barbaric life force that added a hint of divinity to his aura, so it was more appropriate for him to be called a Demon God. However, those heirs of the Demon God he saw were so devoid of divinity and so full of devilishness that he could tell with a single gaze that they must be cold and cruel beasts.

He wanted to run away, but as soon as he took a step back, one of Hydra’s heads spotted something strange.

“What’s that?” Hydra yelled. “Hey, Sphinx! Chimera, look! Could that be the human that Echidna keeps?” 

When he heard those words, Chimera threw off his hesitations. His hooves crushed the skeletons of many bronze oxen as he walked towards Xie Ning, while at the same time he stretched out a claw since he wanted to grab the human by the waist for a closer look.

Xie Ning panicked and retreated. Chimera missed the first time and tried to grab him again.

“Don’t move!” Xie Ning shouted. “This is not your home! Please get out!” 

Sphinx was surprised. “Hmmm? What language is he speaking? As knowledgeable as I am, I have never heard such strange pronunciations. Did Echidna teach it to him?” 

Xie Ning was stuck for a moment. People have inertia of thought. He and Echidna had spent a lot of time together, and gradually he no longer bothered to think about learning the local language. Anyway, he could understand Echidna’s words and Echidna could also understand his, so he was happy to speak Mandarin.

However, since they lacked Echidna’s divinity, those monsters naturally couldn’t understand what he was saying. Xie Ning hurriedly switched the local language in his mind, and while holding his head and running around, he stammered loudly, “Don’t. Touch me. Please. Get out!” 

Chimera bared his bloodstained fangs. He seemed to find the situation very interesting, as he bent down his body, and carefully examined Xie Ning.

“You weakling!” He let out a loud laugh, and from his throat came a gust of strong, hot, fishy rotten wind, as if a whole mass grave was buried in the back of his throat. It made Xie Ning’s knees crumble, and he gracelessly fell to the ground.

“Who gave you the audacity to command us? To command the blood of Gaia, the Earth Mother? Even if I kill or wound you, what will it matter? Will Echidna be bent on reckoning with His own kind? Perhaps I should crush you, or else the Gods of Heaven and all the world will laugh at me for being a coward. Subject to the dictates of such a weakling!” 

Just then, Hydra spotted the album which Xie Ning had placed on the golden easel. With one paw, he picked it up in wonder and said, “Behold! How exquisitely it is painted, and how much it seems to be alive! Alas, Chimera, thou shouldst not kill him. Echidna hath kept an artist in his lair, which, in my opinion, is a skill which not every man can have.” 

Chimera’s attention was caught by his brother’s words, so he temporarily pulled back the claws that threatened Xie Ning, and moved over to look at the sketchbook Hydra held.

The paper was so fragile compared to the demon’s fangs and claws that it didn’t take much effort to puncture a few holes in his sketchbook. Xie Ning’s heart stopped for a moment, then he scrambled up from the ground, as his hair stood on end. “Put it down! Put it down! Put it down!” 

But the more anxious he was, the more energized the monsters were. Chimera let out a rumble of laughter, Sphinx watched with cold eyes, and the nine heads of Hydra each had different expressions, but mostly just squinted at Xie Ning, as if they wanted to say something, but couldn’t be bothered to say anything.

When he was in elementary school, Xie Ning was bullied by his classmates for a long time because of his good looks, quiet personality compared to other boys, and his fondness for drawing at his seat. When some boys passed by his seat, they would suddenly snatch away the blank workbook he was drawing on and throw it to their peers who were standing far away, making Xie Ning red in the face from running around chasing after them to snatch it.

As an adult, he didn’t have to cry at the bullies like he did when he was a child, but the current situation still made his eyes red and his cheeks bloodshot. He wanted to grab a hobby knife and stab them all on the spot.

As Xie Ning was hissing, his eyes glazed over with anger, the brass door to the nesting chamber was roughly pushed open once more, which caused the stone walls on either side to wail loudly.

–Echidna stood there, his tail coiled, and his black hair like a burning flame that danced wildly in the reflected firelight.

When the snake demon saw the scene in front of him, his fangs sharpened to the point of cracking. He was so angry that he couldn’t speak, while across from him the three demons couldn’t help but straighten up and look at him sheepishly.

“…Ah, there you are!” Echidna’s black tongue trembled, and the golden tattoos on his body appeared and disappeared, like pieces of light reflected in rippling water. He gritted out the words, “Tell me…why are you here?” 

Sphinx, the master of riddles, and always the wisest of them all, recognized the danger that lay ahead and rushed to his own defense.

“Echidna, we did not ask you to slaughter the bronze bull to delay you. Since we are here, how could we ignore the recent gossip? You know, even the flowers on the roadside tell stories about how you have favored a human being. We came here simply to satisfy our curiosity. If there is anything wrong, please forgive us as much as possible for the sake of our kinship!” 

No matter how politely and reasonably the other spoke, Echidna simply turned a deaf ear.

His venomous heart was about to be broken into ten million pieces by Dorus’s plight. He saw Dorus with his hair in disarray as he shouted in rage. How small and pitiful he looked in the midst of those huge demons! And his treasured sketchbook was being rudely passed around in the hands of the intruders.

Did they not laugh at Dorus’ helplessness? Had they not rudely invaded his and Dorus’ love nest, and now they were abusing his humanity? 

…Why was I foolish enough to listen to their pleas, and give them an opening? 

The more the snake demon thought about it, the more furious he became. He swallowed and sneered as if nothing had happened. “Put down the human’s things. Chimera. Hydra.” 

Hydra hurriedly put down the too-small-for-him album. He intended to place it on the gold easel, but his failure to control his strength toppled the easel onto the floor.

Chimera didn’t take it very seriously. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t visited the dungeon over the years. Before, Echidna never cared for the fate of human slaves. The snake demon single-mindedly hated the Gods of Mount Olympus, and only wished for more miserable deaths of their favored humans.

“I don’t think you blame us, Echidna!” Chimera said grumpily. “We didn’t do anything to your human. I didn’t even make him bleed. Of course, it was our fault that we entered your lair without authorization, and for that, I will give fifty bulls, eighty black sheep, and as much gold as necessary to beg your forgiveness.” 

Echidna hissed and spat. The starlight above his head glowed and brushed lightly on his shoulders. The snake demon held back his fury like never before for he could not destroy this place, and the fires of the demonic battle, moreover, would reach Dorus.

“Fine,” he whispered grimly. “Leave my lair. Let us go out to talk. Perhaps I can accept your offer of compensation.” 

Without questioning, the demons walked out of the door of the lair, although Sphinx, the last one, did so with misgivings.

When the three demons had finally left, Xie Ning rushed over and emotionally hugged his sketchbook. Fortunately, he had asked Echidna for an extra layer of cowhide and cut a thick book jacket for it. Even with that, the cover was still deformed by the tip of Hydra’s claws, and several layers of the paper were pierced and torn.

He was so distressed that he almost lost his breath, but at that moment, outside the door there was a sudden explosion of earth-shattering noise, like thunder, that shook him to the core.

Xie Ning got up, went to the heavy doorway, and subconsciously peered outside.

He saw Echidna roar and in a flash of rage, he clutched Chimera’s mane in his hand, and slammed him into the solid and steely surface of the mountain rock!

The rock crumbled and the earth shook. His tattoos glistened and Chimera roared, but before he could retaliate, the snake demon opened his bloody mouth and nearly tore off half of his lion’s face in a single burst of blood, which instantly sprayed on three of Hydra’s snake heads.

Sphinx screamed in horror, but Echidna’s retaliation did not end there. He swung his impenetrable tail. It cut through the air as if Zeus were hurling thunderbolts from his hands. Chimera desperately tried to surrender, but without waiting for a word or for him to clasp Echidna’s hands in supplication, the snake demon violently sealed his fate, and ripped off part of Chimera’s python tail.

In an instant, only part of Chimera’s lion’s head and the snake’s head survived as Echidna threw him mercilessly into the corner of the palace, where he struggled for breath.

“If any of you have any delusions that you can challenge my majesty and ignore my taboos, you are sadly mistaken!” The Demon God roared in an unnamable ancient language. “Do you really think that you are immune to my punishment? Did you really think you could walk out of Arima unscathed? I will cut off your hands and use that to warn you that this is the price you pay for dishonoring Dorus!” 

With that, he rushed forward like the wind. Three of Hydra’s snake heads hissed in fear, three tried to bluff their way out of the battle, and the remaining three were desperately trying to bore their way to the exit of the tunnel.

Echidna seized the three heads that were ready to challenge him as they spewed out a torrent of venom, then broke their necks, one after the other, which caused Hydra to scream in pain.

Finally, Sphinx, deeply fearful of the monsters’ progenitor’s harsh punishment, hastened to humbly prostrate himself on the ground as a sign of his innocence.

“I am not guilty!” Sphinx pleaded. “I spoke out against them when they entered the lair, and I was not complicit in their rampage. You see my innocence, Echidna, my only fault is that I did not prevent my brothers from doing evil, but can you blame me for that? I am a Sphinx, and it is in my blood to be cold and cruel.” 

Echidna’s anger was still fresh, and he circled from side to side, as he sized up Sphinx, as if considering where he would prefer to attack.

“Speak to Nemesis,” Echidna muttered hoarsely. “I love Dorus with all my heart, and you have cut my heart to a thousand pieces by bullying him, so I will repay you in kind!” 

Sphinx immediately and cunningly said, “Then you should check on your human first to see if he was hurt in the chase with Chimera.” 

The demon’s body lurched. Sphinx’s words immediately aroused his concern, and made him want to turn back immediately to see how the teenager was doing.

However he couldn’t stop there. He grabbed Sphinx’s eagle’s wing, where there was sharp pointed armor embedded deep within, and used his poison to corrode the feathered wing and make it rattle.

“Take your brothers and get out of my palace at once,” Echidna said grimly. “And don’t let me see any more of you three sneaky little men. I’ll never agree to anything you have to say. Be gone, be gone!” 

Sphinx bore the venomous agony without a word, for he knew that he was many times more fortunate than his two blood relatives with their miserable conditions.

With the unconscious Chimera and the wilting Hydra in tow, Sphinx made a quick escape from Arima’s palace. The winds, from east to west, south to north, all noted their miserable appearance.