He and It Chapter 154: The Serpent of Pharisee (20)

Chapter 154: The Serpent of Pharisee (20)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

It was as if a parched traveler in the desert, having endured a long period of penance, suddenly saw a pool of fresh water. Xanthippe’s expression became immensely complex. There was joy akin to a reprieve, mingled with perplexity and disbelief, all accompanied by an unspeakable wariness.

“Do you…?” she hesitated, her words stumbling. “Do you really mean it, kind soul?”

Xie Ning chuckled softly, his expression betraying no emotion. “What could I possibly not mean?”

At this moment, his mind was terrifyingly calm and clear, like an outsider observing the impending revelation of a secret. His spoken language, therefore, flowed much more smoothly.

“But after this, you cannot stay here,” Xie Ning said. “Whether it’s Mount Olympus or the secular kingdom, leave Arima and live in the sunlight. The demands of the Gods upon you will only become more unreasonable with time.”

Xanthippe hesitated. “But…”

“No ‘buts,'” Xie Ning shook his head. “Once you’ve told Echidna my secret, run. Escape from the palace. You can tell the Gods you fled from the pursuit of the demon.”

Xanthippe’s lips moved slightly as if she wanted to say something more, but seeing Xie Ning’s gaze, she closed them tightly.

Finally, she rose, holding her skirt, and said gratefully, “Dorus, you truly possess the soul of a sage! May the Goddess of Benevolence and Dignity bless you. I will not forget you, and I wish that the good and just are rewarded.”

With those words, she removed her cloak and walked out, her head held high.

Xie Ning watched her departing figure and then turned to his drawing paper. He had little white paper left, so he had carefully stored away what remained, since he had smooth and delicate parchment to use. 

After a moment’s thought, he turned to a blank page, took hold of a piece of charcoal, and began to draw. However, his lines trembled.

Taking a deep breath, he changed his position and started again. This time, his strokes were firm and swift, hastily outlining a form. In the silent room, only the sound of scratching could be heard. But as he drew, the rhythm grew more chaotic, and the depiction became increasingly meaningless.

Xie Ning stopped his hand. He stared at the paper, feeling as though he were looking at a pile of rubbish.

He sat motionless for a long time, then suddenly reached out, tore the paper off, crumpled it in his hand, and threw it away.

Forget it, he thought, no more drawing.

In the palace where day and night could not be distinguished, with no clocks to mark time, Xie Ning stared at the wall. In his mind, he imagined a ticking clock, each second marked by a small, crisp sound.

How long has Xanthippe been gone? Xie Ning asked himself. Ten minutes? Twenty minutes? It’s a pity. I feel like I’m experiencing years, unable to discern whether time is passing…

Embarrassed, he realized that the first twenty years of his life had been barren yet easy. Apart from school, training, and exams, there were no memorable or thrilling events. The only thing that perhaps matched the current situation was the night before his exam results were released – the summer evening breeze had lingered, the asphalt road was still hot, the bricks retained the heat of the day. Just as you put one foot down, you couldn’t wait to lift the other up. Groups of prospective university students gathered at the school, eager to see their exam results.

But even then, he wasn’t as nervous as he was now.

Xie Ning didn’t smile. His face was like a frozen pale mask, unexpectedly solemn from the side view.

The mental clock in his mind ticked once more. He had been sitting for too long, and his limbs were damp with cold sweat. It was deathly quiet around him, almost as if he could count his own heartbeat and feel the blood flow in his veins.

In the stillness of time and space, Xie Ning seemed to have lingered for a hundred years. Apart from his breathing and heartbeat, he finally heard another kind of movement. It was a long and coarse sound of friction, the result of the snake’s tail colliding with the bronze floor.

Echidna had arrived.

The snake demon came in a hurry and burst into the quiet room in a flash. In the panic, he couldn’t articulate meaningful sentences, only repeatedly calling Xie Ning’s name, “Dorus!”

Xie Ning stood up. His sitting posture had caused his blood flow to stagnate, which made him limp as he walked.

He leaned against the door frame, and looked up at the irritable Echidna. “…Yes. I’m here.”

“Dorus, did you hear what that despicable creature said?” The demon accused loudly, as he twisted his tail in agitation. “She spread rumors about your origins, saying you are not from this world and that you will eventually return home. How could such a thing happen? How can I not severely punish her and make her understand the urgency of my lesson!”

Xie Ning stared at him, his face devoid of color, his lips trembling involuntarily. However, Echidna was immersed in frantic anger and didn’t notice.

The demon continued to rant furiously, “She pledged her life to request that I come to you for confirmation, claiming that everything she said was true. Tell me, how should I deal with this deceitful liar?”

Xie Ning looked into Echidna’s eyes. Suddenly, the surroundings became quiet, the previous cacophony vanished. His heartbeat, blood flow, and breathing…Xie Ning spoke, concentrating so intensely that he could only hear his own voice.

“She is not wrong,” he said looking at Echidna intently, his mind completely blank. “What she said…is not wrong.”

Echidna was stunned.

The snake demon hesitated as he cautiously extended his forked tongue, attempting to sniff out lies, jests, or any falsehood in the air. But all he could taste was bitter saltiness, the taste of heartbreak.

“…I live in the twenty-first century. I’m a student at an art school. I have parents, grandparents, and some friends. I’m twenty-one years old this year.” Xie Ning lowered his head, laying bare everything, even though every word trembled, he still spoke as clearly as possible; enunciated every word distinctly. He didn’t want to reiterate those dissected truths again.

“In my time, there are no gods, and no demons. Olympus’ Gods, like you, are characters from mythological tales. I don’t know how many years separate this place from my time. Perhaps thousands, maybe tens of thousands of years…As for why I came here, that I still don’t understand. I only remember the day when I visited an exhibition on Ancient Greek culture. I closed the bathroom door, and when I opened it again, I found myself in a forest.”

Xie Ning didn’t look at Echidna’s expression. He dared not.

“After I came to this world, the King of Iolcus found me first. He thought I was a messenger of Pan or some kind of demigod, so he brought me back to his country and allowed me to stay in the temple. However, three months later, my identity was uncovered by the princess there. Since Cilicia demanded human sacrifices, the princess had me taken aboard a ship under cover of night and sent me here.”

He said it all in one breath. Xie Ning’s throat felt sore. Then he continued, “And what happened next…you already know.”

Echidna remained silent, as still as a sculpture.

This silence felt like a steel knife cutting through bones, and made Xie Ning restless. He took a breath and hoarsely said, “I’m sorry, I lied to you. My family didn’t die, they’re still alive, but they exist in another timeline…a timeline I cannot reach.”

They stood face to face. Xie Ning lowered his head, arms wrapped around himself, his head hanging down. Even if a guillotine were to drop from above at that moment, he would still maintain his posture without complaint. The air was as still as unmelting ice, yet it burned fiercely at the same time.

“Dorus,” After an unknown period of time, Echidna spoke.

“Dorus, look at me.”

The tone of the demon was so cruel! It was a tone he had never used towards Xie Ning before, as if giving orders to a dead object.

Xie Ning trembled violently. He hugged his arms tighter. The pressure in the demon’s tone felt like a chain around his neck that forced him to slowly raise his head and meet Echidna’s gaze.

…It’s strange, Xie Ning thought dazedly, there was no expression on his face, just like that blank sheet of paper.

“Now tell me,” Echidna said, the sharp golden spikes on his lips appearing like additional sharp fangs, gleaming in the air. “Are you joking?”

Xie Ning trembled even more.

“Look at me, then say to me…” the demon’s voice was very light, yet he seemed to be chewing on each word, “…’I’m joking, none of this is true.'”

“I…” Xie Ning struggled to hold his gaze. He swallowed and almost choked on his words. “Are you…are you going to hurt me?”

“No, Dorus,” Echidna said. “You understand my intentions. Even if I have to tear open my own chest and dig out a still-beating heart, I won’t hurt you. I just need you to tell me one thing. Just one thing.”

Under the demon’s expectant and menacing gaze, Xie Ning said with a trembling voice, “I’m joking…”

The demon’s pupils tightened involuntarily. However, Xie Ning couldn’t bring himself to repeat the rest of the sentence.

“…This isn’t a joke,” he sighed dejectedly. “I’m sorry, really sorry…I lied to you. I’m sorry.”

At that moment, Xie Ning truly thought Echidna would kill him, that he would tear his body apart in a fit of rage, and crush him like an insect. However, Echidna didn’t do anything. He just said, sounding infinitely exhausted, “Dorus…”

This single utterance made Xie Ning lift his head. He saw scalding tears flowing down the demon’s cheeks. Echidna seemed to be utterly defeated, his vision blackening, his robust bones no longer able to support his steel-like shell. He was only able to crouch down deeply, as he trembled and gasped for breath.

“So, everything she said is true?” Echidna’s shaky hand pressed against Xie Ning’s chest. It trembled as he tried to feel Dorus’s heartbeat as closely as possible, as if he feared he might disappear in the next second. “You’re destined to return home to your parents one day?”

Tears also streamed down Xie Ning’s face but he continued to answer harshly, “Yes, it’s true.”

“Dorus, Dorus!” The demon sobbed and repeatedly called out this name, as he pulled him into his embrace and tried to make the human change his mind. “I beg you, have mercy on me. I beg you! Can you really bear to leave me? Leave me alone here?”

“If I can’t have your hand, your voice, your smile, and your soul, then let me die here. You can take my life with you!” he said as he kissed Xie Ning’s fingers, lips, hair, and chest frantically. The snake demon cried in despair, and wished he could devour Dorus. Even if he couldn’t laugh or speak again, it would still be better than living his eternal moments without him!

Xie Ning cried as well, “The reason I didn’t tell you my true feelings before was because of this. I must go back, no matter what it takes. As long as there’s a glimmer of hope, I have to return to my time, to my parents, to my family…I can’t leave them, I really can’t…”

“I love you more than my own eyes, more than my own heart, Dorus!” Echidna cried out in agony. “How can I let you go? How can I let my eyes, my heart, leave me? I can give up my dignity, my honor, anything. I can’t kneel like a man, but I can lower myself to the dust and beg at your knees! Don’t leave! Don’t you love me? I beg you, don’t go!”

Listening to his heartbreaking words, Xie Ning felt a near-shattering pain in his chest.

He hugged Echidna’s neck and pressed his tear-stained face against the demon’s cold, disheveled hair. He sniffled as he spoke, “Listen to me…listen to me. I’m sorry for deceiving you, but we were unlikely to have a future from the start. Wherever I come from, I’m just a human. I can only live for a hundred years at most, but you, you’re a god, your lifespan is so much longer than mine. My family are also mortals. I can’t spend my life here. Without me, their hearts would ache. I can’t even see them for the last time…”

“Then you shouldn’t have come here! You shouldn’t have let me see your face, hear your voice!” Echidna held him tightly, his eyes flashing with a hint of madness. “But it’s too late now, Dorus! You praised my beauty, depicted my face and body, and aroused such desires and longings in me. Can all of that be erased with a stroke of a pen? Now you tell me that this happiness and joy have a time limit, that when the time comes, you’ll cruelly take them away! My heart isn’t made of stone. Look at it, it bleeds, it hurts, it beats with joy because of your words. Do you want to see my heart? I can dig it out for you to see!”

Xie Ning trembled all over. He covered his eyes, his voice barely coherent, “Listen to me! My family…I can’t leave them. They lost their child, their grandson for no reason. Sometimes, when I think about how they must have searched for me over there…without hope, crying for me, their hearts aching, their hair turning white, my chest hurts so much I can’t sleep. I can’t! I have to find a way back.”

The snake demon’s crying and wailing sent shockwaves throughout the underworld, stirring up unexplained fear. Echidna exploded with questions, “Then why do you want to tell me now? Why not continue hiding it from me? I’d rather you deceive me, Dorus, I’d rather you lie to me!”

Thinking back to how he had planned with such certainty before, that if Dorus wished to return to his hometown, he would build his nest in Iolcus – now, the thought seemed naive and laughable. Dorus’s hometown wasn’t even in this time, but countless years in the future.

“I can’t keep hiding it from you forever,” Xie Ning said through his tears. “I have to be honest with you…”

Echidna stopped crying, and his face gradually turned as cold as steel. The demon said bitterly, “I won’t let you leave, Dorus. If you want to escape from me, it is an impossible fantasy. How Argus guarded Io, then turned into a cow, I will guard you even more rigorously, a hundred times, a thousand times more. There won’t be a Hermes to bring you out this time. I want you to stay by my side forever!” ¹

In the previous days, Xie Ning had simulated in his mind a thousand times how Echidna would react after he confessed. Although the demon’s reaction was within his expectations, he couldn’t help but feel a chilling sense of dread.

“I think we should both calm down,” he sniffed, as he slowly released his embrace, as he tried to meet Echidna’s eyes. “We’re both very emotional right now, the things we say might not be rational…”

“Don’t rush to oppose me, Dorus!” Echidna hissed. “Reason is the retreat of cowards, I have never needed it! I’ve said it, so I’ll do it. If you think I’ll let you go, you’re mistaken.”

Xie Ning felt uncomfortable, but he still tried to calm Echidna down. He said, “If you truly love me, please consider my reasons. I don’t want to leave you either, and besides, time travel, I don’t even know if I can find a way to do it. Let’s calm down and don’t say such things, okay?”

Echidna was both afraid and resentful.

He was afraid that his human would really leave him and go to a world he couldn’t find. He hated the fickle fate goddesses, tormenting him so harshly – although they were relatives of the same generation, he knew in his heart that the fates had never shown mercy to any god or human.

“I won’t listen to you!” he snarled, teeth bared, his tone menacing. “Dorus, whatever you say, I’m willing to fulfill your wishes, but this one thing, and anything related to it, I completely refuse to agree with!”

“And then what?” Xie Ning retorted. “Are you planning to lock me up until I die in this dungeon, never seeing sunlight, cut off from the outside world? If you do that, our love will eventually wither away and even turn into hatred. Is that what you want?”

The snake demon shouted venomously, “I want to, and I can! I have a thousand, ten thousand ways to keep you here, and you won’t be able to resist, Dorus! I’ll chain you with snake sheddings, inject you with venom, and cloud your mind. You will forget everything except that I am your one and only. Where is the difficulty in that? I am a primal demon. My power is beyond human imagination! I will keep you here, even if I have to seek the help of the Olympian Gods I abhor. If I have to bow to them, I will do it!”

“Stop threatening me!” Xie Ning’s eyes widened, his voice grew stern. “I love you! I’ve never been afraid of you!”

The room fell silent. There was only the heavy panting of the two, one after the other, intermingled.

Xie Ning trembled with anger. Without a word, he pushed and shoved Echidna’s arms, and tried to break free of the demon’s grasp. With a resolute attitude and fueled by anger, he even wrestled Echidna’s sharp claws with his bare hands, and got three deep bloodied gashes in his palms.

Echidna screamed in horror, and quickly let go of his hand. Luckily, he usually restrained his poisonous nature around his human. Otherwise, Xie Ning would have been corroded to nothing by his snake venom in an instant.

Blood dripped down, and the wounds quickly bruised and turned black. The demon was terrified. He immediately grasped the injured hand, and leaned in to suck away the poisoned blood, redirecting the toxins away from the other until the wound turned white and the bleeding stopped. Only then did he dare to breathe a sigh of relief. ²

“Do you really hate me this much, Dorus?” Echidna spoke hoarsely, still feeling dizzy from the scare. “Death was so close to you, I could almost see the hem of its robe, faintly appearing near the edge of your clothes! Do you hate me so much that you’re willing to embrace death just to leave me?”

At this point, Echidna’s heart was filled with bitterness, as if a thousand knives were cutting through it. He stood there dumbfounded, thinking of Dorus’s eyes from earlier – so cold, so full of resentment. He looked at him as if he were an enemy!

Echidna trembled all over, at a loss. He hung his hands like a child. Unable to suppress the overwhelming sorrow any longer, he cried out in pain.

When he saw him like this, all of Xie Ning’s anger was transformed into bitterness.

What did he know? He was so naive. When a beloved toy is lost, all one can do is cry. When a beloved person is about to leave, all one can do is cry. From the beginning, he never possessed those precious things.

Xie Ning softened. He gently grabbed Echidna’s hand, then embraced the demon’s neck. The two held each other tightly, as they shed bitter tears, embraced each other in sorrow, and cried for a long time.

“In fact, the reason I had Xanthippe tell you about this,” Xie Ning sobbed. “Was because I was jealous of her. I saw you take her statue, and then you invited her to our table for dinner. Everyone says she’s better than me. I was afraid you’d feel the same way in the end, since her talent is stronger than mine…”

Echidna choked on his breath. “How could you think that! I took her statue because I wanted to see what secrets it held, to see how it made you feel so lost. But I could not see anything, and I was embarrassed to tell you. As for inviting her, it was for your sake! I was afraid you’d think I wasn’t hospitable to a person you were friends with! I truly love you, Dorus. I don’t think anyone’s artistic talent is better than yours. I do not understand theirs, but I can feel happiness and love in your creations. How could you be jealous of her?”

After a brief and intense dispute, they reconciled once again. Xie Ning cried until he was out of breath. Letting go of Echidna was as painful as cutting his flesh with a knife, but he had to do it.

They hugged each other for a long, long time until their moods calmed slightly. Echidna silently kissed his swollen eyelids, and finally broke the long silence.

He struggled to speak softly, “Dorus, for you, I’m willing to request Gaia to seek out her elder brother. You must know that of all the gods throughout history, only the primal god of the universe, Chaos, ³ has the power to control time and space. Maybe he can come up with a solution for you. But as an exchange, I ask you, if Chaos can’t solve this problem for you, or if we can’t meet his conditions, you must stay here with me.”

Pausing, he asked, “Is that okay?”

Without hesitation, Xie Ning nodded solemnly, his voice hoarse. “Yes, I promise you. Let’s do it this way.”