He and It Chapter 74: Dark Sky Sanctuary (9)

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Chapter 74: Dark Sky Sanctuary (9)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

Bloody Butcher returned, completely refreshed. The cleansing spell, encouraged by death, had done a good job of cleansing the remnants of flesh and blood that had pooled in the harness, but…

Bloody Butcher wagged his tongue in displeasure. Demonic wizards were a bunch of freaks who had mutated to the extreme in order to gain even more magical power, and naturally, they didn’t taste very good.

Look at the hooves, look at the hooves, I will show the human my hooves! Full of joy, he ran with easy, broken steps, and clattering to the spot from where Falchion had delivered his message. The herd had found a new hiding place.

Hm? Why was there no sign of the other horses?

“Over here.” A lazy voice sounded from above. “I’m pissed off at your smug look, so I didn’t leave you a way out, just jumped up here.”

Bloody Butcher looked up with his teeth bared, the flames on his mane licking the air in displeasure. “Ether? What are you doing here?”

“Keeping an eye on the house.” The demon horse, Ether, grinned a mongrel, almost grinning until he grimaced, fangs showing and glistening. ” Do you think they’re all like you? Just got the spell nails lifted and can’t wait to run off and show them off.”

“Are you jealous?” Bloody Butcher narrowed his eyes, and scowled maliciously at it. “Who told you not to have the guts to do it? What’s that word used by humans? Oh, yeah. Who told you not to be the first horse to eat a crab? You look pretty upset that I took the top spot.”

Ether raised his head and snorted with laughter, then hissed disdainfully, “Go ahead and be a tail-wagging, unsuspecting dog! When that human of unknown origin reveals his true purpose, the fools will know what betrayal feels like.”

Bloody Butcher took a step forward and was about to lash out, but suddenly stopped as he looked oddly at the white crumbs along the edge of Ether’s mouth, “Hey, what are those things?”

“Which one do you mean, idiot?”

“The crumbs on the side of your mouth.” Bloody Butcher looked at Ether, whose demeanor had suddenly changed, and all of a sudden it dawned on him. “Ha! The human fed you his little pies!”

Ether’s ears popped straight up as he stood up in annoyance, the flames of his mane burning at once to the hottest white-gold temperatures, which caused the air in the cave to wiggle and wail.

“You! How dare you say that–”

“I said it. How? Seeing you force this different look, it is indeed even funnier than a court jester!”

Sensing that a fight was about to break out, the head of a demon horse poked out behind Ether and helplessly said, “Don’t make a big commotion, Ether. The chief is calling for you, and it’s your turn when Striker is finished.”

Ether froze and involuntarily flicked his tail. He thought for a moment, then showed his sharp teeth proudly to Bloody Butcher beneath him, then turned his head and ran inside.

Bloody Butcher was really pissed off now. “Hey! The human said he’d look at me! Iron Scepter, what’s going on?!”

“You came back late,” the demon horse Iron Scepter defended seemingly faithfully. “The human was waiting for you for ages, and then he said that he was just sitting around anyway…”

Bloody Butcher easily jumped onto the high platform and sulked his way inside. Iron Scepter advised, “You shouldn’t fight Ether either. How long has it been? And you’re still feuding like it’s the first day.”

“He’s got a mouth on him,” Bloody Butcher said without looking back.

A bunch of ingrates, he thought to himself, acting like nothing’s wrong on the outside, but in his heart he doesn’t know how jealous he is of me, does he? And now they’re actually working together to ostracize me, okay!

He went in with a great deal of resentment, but somehow, as soon as he saw the human carefully repairing Striker’s hooves – with a clear gaze, a serious look, and beads of shiny sweat on his forehead – his anger was like ice and snow that had met a flame. It suddenly melted away without a trace, and he just stood there staunchly, staring at Yu Mengzhou.

Yu Mengzhou was scrutinizing Striker’s hooves. It was the youngest demon horse, but the pain and suffering he had endured was no less than his predecessors. Compared to other demon horses, Striker’s hooves were a bit flatter, because the bottom of his hooves were struck by four irregularly shaped sharp copper cores, which almost split his hooves into a forked shape like a cow’s hooves, while the spell nails penetrated deeper into the flesh and blood, and straight into the bones.

“Well?” Falchion asked softly.

Yu Mengzhou hastily wiped away the sweat and shook his head wordlessly.

“Striker was born when Angola was already having trouble with the power of the herd’s polymerization,” Falchion whispered next to his ear. “So he didn’t show mercy, and the torture he inflicted on Striker was no less relentless than that inflicted on the Demon Horse before him.”

“I’ll do my best,” Yu Mengzhou said briefly. “Trying my best not to upset him too much.”

Striker twitched his ears nervously, but still whispered to Yu Mengzhou, “It’s okay, I’m tough!”

Yu Mengzhou laughed a little and touched his ear sympathetically. He leaned down and followed the old procedure. He first cleaned the blood crust and dirt around the copper core. He switched to a sharper, double-sided edged hoof trimming knife, and wandered along the edge of the copper core, first cutting away the slate-crusted scabs, and the blackened crusts of mud. After he lifted them off the hoof surface, he cautiously went next to the spikes of the core and hollowed out a tiny slit.

This job had to be done very carefully, otherwise the slightest mistake would split the entire sole of the hoof in half, and even if he was a demon horse, he would have to suffer a good deal, Yu Mengzhou wasn’t willing to let him suffer from that sin.

As the tip of the knife penetrated deeper and deeper, there was already a small amount of pus and blood, which spread out along the cracks. Yu Mengzhou pinched the tip of the copper core through the gloves and gently shook it. However, the horrible torture device was still tightly stuck inside, and there was no loosening of any kind.

If I dig any deeper, I’ll have to touch the flesh…

Yu Mengzhou inserted his knife into his pocket and replaced it with a sturdier single-sided knife, determined to pry it straight out. The pain would be temporary. If it was dry and fixed inside, that would be the end of it.

“I’ll try to pry it out.” He urged, “Just bear with me. It might hurt.”

“I’m not afraid!” Striker insisted.

Yu Mengzhou smiled slightly. The smile was fleeting, and soon his expression returned to stony concentration. He dug down hard and deep with his blade. The pus and blood came fast and furious, as it overflowed along the blade, and the foul odor of decay filled the cavern. He finally found a more solid pivot point, and launched himself into a prying motion.

The sound of the alloy blade rubbing against the copper core was sharp and ear-piercing, and the horse’s hooves “crunched.” Striker inhaled long and hard, and sweat poured instantly from his body.

Yu Mengzhou clenched his teeth. He pushed harder. The sound of blood and flesh being torn apart was unbearable, but half of the copper core came out at once. Yu Mengzhou hastily pulled out the blade, grabbed the spike with his hand, and slowly pulled out the stinking monster.

The moment it was completely dislodged, Yu Mengzhou frowned abhorrently. The thing had the appearance of a small wolfsbane, ¹ leaving a hollow, huge bloody hole at the bottom of the horse’s hoof, even the process of removing the spell spike wasn’t that twisted compared to it.

“Is it done?” Striker asked in a whisper.

“Almost,” Yu Mengzhou flung the copper core aside and patted its neck in relief. “Don’t worry, you’ll heal.”

After he removed the copper core, the five spell nails also landed on the ground one by one. Striker hadn’t been confined for long, so his reaction to the spell nails wasn’t as intense as his predecessors.

“Help me with the bottle, would you?” He turned to Falchion, and the demon horse nodded slightly. When he returned, he gently placed the stoppered bottle in Yu Mengzhou’s palm.

“Thanks.” Yu Mengzhou bit the cork off the bottle. In Hell, water was the least available precious resource to be found, so it was a good thing that alcohol also had a disinfecting effect. It could also slightly rinse out the bloody hole that was overflowing with pus.

The deep red liquor flowed down. Yu Mengzhou used the blade of his knife to flick out the dirt inside while he rinsed. The bottle of wine was almost gone when he finished rinsing. 

Falchion, who had observed him from the side, suddenly said, “There’s no need to save. We still have plenty of things like wine.”

Yu Mengzhou smiled as he slightly trimmed the shape of the hoof, then applied a layer of medicine before wrapping the hoof, which was about to split in half, with knots.

“Aside from the medicine, the bandages are running low,” he said. “You’ll have to keep an eye out for that when you’re looking for supplies.”

The herd stared at Yu Mengzhou’s movements. They had collectively forgotten how to speak, so the only sound in the silence was the Demon Horse Leader’s muffled reply, “Okay. I’ll keep that in mind.”

It was time to fix the second hoof. Yu Mengzhou guided Striker to stand properly as he lifted the other leg. If it weren’t for his natural strength, three grown men wouldn’t have been able to pry away that foreign object that ran across the surface of the hoof and had long since grown into the hoof cuticle.

With a sticky sound, the second copper core was also picked out, then lay in the garbage with the spell nails. Falchion was in charge of handing out bottles of wine at his side, while Yu Mengzhou meticulously cleaned the wound, emptying the bottle of wine, then took unused cloths to soak up the residual wine and pus, and wiped the big hole on the bottom of the hoof clean.

By the time the remaining two had been repaired, Striker was shivering, and the sweat on his body had already gathered into a bright red stream, so much so that his mane was drenched. He hung his head, unlike his usual noisy behavior, he never called out or moved a bit.

Yu Mengzhou was heartbroken and couldn’t stop stroking his belly and withers, as he coaxed and praised him in a low voice. Striker turned his head back and grunted, as he rubbed against his shoulder.

“So good, so good…” Yu Mengzhou pressed against the demon horse’s cheek. “Go rest, you’ll be fine soon.”

Striker snorted comfortably and wanted to rub it in a bit more, but Bloody Butcher immediately recognized the opportunity and grabbed it before Ether, as he announced loudly to Yu Mengzhou, “I’m back!”

Ether rumbled in a low growl, while Bloody Butcher let out a smug chuckle in his mind, not caring how annoyed he was.

“Ah,” Yu Mengzhou turned his head in surprise. “How was it? Were you hurt?”

“I…”

Bloody Butcher was about to reply when he heard Ether say quietly from the back, “How could the first demon horse to have lifted the spell spikes be injured on the battlefield? Even though there is a possibility that we might lose. However, it is already completely different from before.”

Yu Mengzhou looked at Ether, only to see the demon horse stubbornly turn his head towards a shadowy corner, and refusing to allow him to see his expression.

Bloody Butcher froze. What kind of retreat-for-advancement ploy was this?

“It’s okay!” Yu Mengzhou patted Striker’s head, then rushed over to comfort the lost demon horse. He scratched behind his ears in a friendly manner. “I will definitely cure you all. It’s only a matter of time, don’t be sad…”

Where Yu Mengzhou couldn’t see, Ether aimed a sneering and vicious silent grin at Bloody Butcher.