He and It Chapter 90: Dark Sky Sanctuary (25)

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Addis note: This book ends with chapter 104.

Chapter 90: Dark Sky Sanctuary (25)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

Yu Mengzhou said, “You have to help me.”

The Weaver’s laughter stopped. “Huh?”

“You have to help me!” Yu Mengzhou rushed up, grabbed the hood by the collar, and shook him. “I can’t stay here. I have to go back! Things can’t go on like this!”

The Weaver’s eyes fell out of his head as he shook him. Even though Yu Mengzhou had no intention of harming him, the burning sensation of being in such close contact with a sinless soul was suffocating him.

“Wait, wait, wait!” The Weaver struggled as hard as he could. “What do I have to help you with?”

Yu Mengzhou stared at him. “You’ve been hiding in my memories for so many years, so it’s about time you paid the rent for being a cockroach, right? I have to go back. You’re a demon, isn’t there anything you can do, like letting me return to my physical body for a bit?”

“Are you kidding!” The Weaver exclaimed. “Your flesh has long since been burned to a puddle of ash by Angola’s poison! Where am I going to find you a physical body to return your soul to?”

“Then think of another way!” Yu Mengzhou yelled at him. “Think of another way to get me back!”

The Weaver had to give in. If he continued to be dragged around like that, he would end up not much better than Angola.

“All right, all right! It’s not like there’s no other way, just let go and listen to me!” The Great Demon humbly and stiflingly retrieved his collar, as Yu Mengzhou finally let go of him.

“–You can go to hell.” After taking a breath, the Weaver said solemnly.

Yu Mengzhou’s fists slowly clenched.

“I didn’t tell you a joke!” The Weaver said hurriedly. “You died, and now you’re in a soul state, so you’ll either go up to the Immaculate World, or down to Hell where demons reside. But since you’re a sinless man, and you single-handedly slaughtered Angola, any demon that has the eyes to yank your soul downward will probably need to be stronger than 100,000 thunderbolts, so you’ll have to voluntarily fall into the Demon Realm.”

“Then?” Yu Mengzhou asked skeptically, as he temporarily relaxed his fists.

“Then, human souls falling into the Demon Realm won’t turn into their pre-birth appearance at first, but will be shrunk into a guilty form by the energy of the Demon Realm and become what we often refer to as the Frightened Lesser Demon. After tens or hundreds of years, or after a Frightened Lesser Demon has eaten enough other demonic creatures, it will begin to change, possessing the qualifications to regain its own appearance and memories…”

Yu Mengzhou’s fists clenched again.

“You mean you’re not only going to make me turn into a disgusting version of Pokémon, but you’re going to make me wait another couple decades before I can change back into my human form?”

The Weaver muttered a little, not daring to nod.

“Well, that’s debatable…” The Weaver stammered. “Or, I could just take you to the royal capital. Even if you’re in the form of a Frightened Lesser Demon, the Emperor will immediately imbue you with magic power and turn you into human form. How about that!”

“I want to go in human form, and come face to face with him,” Yu Mengzhou said slowly. “Do you understand?”

The Weaver froze in awe.

Forget that he’d overthrown the first Prince, did this human want to be righteous and overthrow the second, proper, Hell Monarch? Good lord, this was a god of war sent by the angels.

“What about your magic power?” Yu Mengzhou said coldly. “Can’t you give me your magic power and let me return to human form for a moment?”

The Weaver said incredulously, “Do you realize how much power that would take? My subordinates are gone, my followers are gone, and my domain and lair have been torched. I’m all alone now, and you’re going to take away my magic?”

Yu Mengzhou calmly said, “When I make things clear with them, I’ll give you a piece of land to retire on. Do you want to do it or not?”

The Weaver, “Do it.”

One person and one demon quickly agreed on the details. Yu Mengzhou understood that demons couldn’t be trusted, but things wouldn’t wait, and he couldn’t find a better person or method to do this for him immediately.

At the opening of the memory dream, The Weaver stretched out his withered and charred fingers and traced the shape of a door on the ground.

“This is it, jump,” he said. “I’ll keep pouring magic into you as you fall, so that by the time you hit the ground, you’ll still be in your human form at that moment. However, seeing as how I’ve come to hide with you for so long, I might as well give you a free piece of advice.”

The ancient demon turned his head, and numerous pairs of bright green eyes flickered in the darkened slits of his hood.

“Do not venture near the Emperor,” said The Weaver. “He is long past the Demon Horse you knew, and the oath of alliance between the herd has long since fallen apart. If you see the black and red flag of the King fluttering across the land, then you had better run fast, or…”

He paused, and said meaningfully, “…Otherwise, I’m just afraid that you’ll never be able to see the outside sky again, or smell the sulfurous scent that freely spreads in the wind.”

Yu Mengzhou paused, nodded at him, and then, with determination, leapt toward the open door.

He didn’t know how much time passed as he fell, nor did he perceive any sense of weightlessness as the wind slashed his face and his blood flowed backwards. He felt very light, as light as a piece of cotton wool, and as he floated, he followed gravity to the ground with the waves.

He opened his eyes and sat up on the crimson earth. As he looked left and right, Yu Mengzhou knew he had finally returned to the world he had been away from for hundreds of years.

He raised his hands and realized that he was still wearing the same clothes he had worn when he landed on the Demon Realm that day, and, probably because it was his spiritual body, a faint white halo could not help but seep out from under his skin; bright and out of place in the dark and silent wilderness.

Strange.

He walked a few steps, interested to see what little demons, little ghosts and other things were around, but the plains were empty. There was a dead silence like a thousand year old deserted no man’s land.

…Although Hell was originally quite desolate, but the last time he fell down, at least there was a group of Frightened Lesser Demons that ran over to harass him. Now he looked again, and the only thing around was the pale skeleton of the giant beast, quietly half buried in the bright red sandstone, with snake-like black withered branches high up in the sky and swinging in the bleak swinging.

No sound, no living creature, Yu Mengzhou trekked alone over a thousand miles of bare ground. He looked up at the sky, far into the interior of the year-round black clouds. There was no more thunderous, colorful lightning. The clouds were like a thick barrier, heavy and low below the dome of the sky.

“No one?” he muttered to himself incredulously. The Weaver couldn’t have shaded him! What kind of shithole realm had he sent him to? Hadn’t he blurted out something about there being a war in hell every day?!

Luckily, he was a soul in a remodeled body. He wouldn’t be tired, nor would he be thirsty or hungry, but he couldn’t keep wandering around this place. He had to find a place to hide, didn’t he?

At that moment, the clouds in the distance suddenly cracked.

That was right, cracked. The thick clouds melted like snow and ice, and radiated through them was a bright and dazzling golden aura, that in the dark plains formed almost solid columns of light. Something was flying down against the light, huge and holy, as if an angel had descended to earth from the end of time.

Yu Mengzhou looked at the other party with his mouth open.

That was…That was a centaur.

Unlike Angola’s bone-winged, scorpion-tailed form, it…His appearance was so familiar that Yu Mengzhou’s heart was shocked. The fur of the horse’s body was red and rich, with hooves that bore feathered wings, while the human body was robust and powerful, with skin as pale as ivory, and draped in jewels and ribbons.

The visiting centaur had the beauty of a god and the terror of a demon, as he held a coiled and twisted spear of bone. His long hair of pure gold flew in the wind, while his horns were sharp on both sides of his deep handsome face.

“Hui, Radiant Angel?” stammered Yu Mengzhou.

The sound of the bone spear smashing to the ground shook the earth, but before Yu Mengzhou could react, he was firmly embraced by two hot and strong arms. Radiant Angel’s force was so strong that he seemed to want to crush him. If Yu Mengzhou wasn’t in a spiritual body, he would probably have broken his bones already.

“It’s really you…” Radiant Angel fell to his knees with a loud bang, as his voice shook and his body shook as well. “It’s really you! You’re back!”

“Uh, cough!” They embraced for several moments, while Yu Mengzhou dealt with the size difference between a human and a centaur. He pulled his arm out with difficulty, his vision full of sparkling loose gems and Radiant Angel’s skin that was reddened with excitement – like there was tumbling lava inside him.

“I’m losing my breath. First let me…” Yu Mengzhou pretended to spit out his tongue then clicked his tongue, and coughed twice.

Radiant Angel hurriedly let go of him, but immediately took a tight grip around the human’s waist. Yu Mengzhou saw that the other party’s face was red, his eyes were red, and in his expression it was hard to hide his apprehension, while his body couldn’t stop shivering as if he was sick.

He originally wanted to laugh and say, “I lied to you,” but when he saw Radiant Angel’s unforced tears, he couldn’t laugh or say it anymore.

“Um…I…I’m sorry,” Yu Mengzhou said guiltily. “I made you wait too long, and I had a hard time getting rid of something called Memory dreams, so I rushed down here to find you…”

“Your soul,” Radiant Angel murmured as if possessed. “Your soul is still here! We searched for you for a long, long time, thinking we couldn’t even save your soul! Memory dreams…How did you break free? Did anyone help you? Is there anything uncomfortable in your body right now?”

Hundreds of years had passed, and he had long since ceased to be the deeply tormented Demon Horse that was content as long as he could fly in the sky again; now he wore a crown on his head and ruled the sky as his kingdom, as he harnessed the frenzied tides of thunder and lightning. However, just by looking at Yu Mengzhou, he could return to that journey again, the happiest time of his life.

Yu Mengzhou was overcome with emotion. He smiled and shook his head. “It’s a long story. First I want to know, are you all alright? How did you become like this? I heard people say that you guys had some internal strife. That the herd split into two sides. True or false?”

Both sides had countless questions to ask after a long time, but Radiant Angel’s ecstatic eyes immediately changed at the mention of the infighting.

He couldn’t let go of his hand, so he rubbed the tears out of the corners of his eyes on his shoulder first, then took off into the air on all four hooves.

“Let’s go back first. We can’t stay here for long.” He swept a gloomy glance into the distance, but when he faced Yu Mengzhou, he once again had the expression of a curved brow and an eager soft smile. “Too many things have happened over the years. I’ll tell you about them all…”

Yu Mengzhou was uncertain, but like a whirlwind blowing by, he was impatiently carried away by Radiant Angel.

“Falchion has gone mad,” Radiant Angel said off-handedly after going up to the clouds. “He intends to use the souls and blood of the entire realm to force his way into the Heart of the Demon Realm, to sacrifice–”

“Sacrifice them for me?” Yu Mengzhou interjected.

Radiant Angel laughed a little. “No. Your body was…dissolved. And your soul was nowhere to be found. What he’s doing is a sacrifice to summon the fourteenth Demon Horse, a fellow symbol of ‘time’.”

“Then he’s going to disrupt the timeline and rewind everything to that night, before you were captured by Angola.”

 

Author’s Note: 

Yu Mengzhou: *dies and comes back to life* Aha! Look who’s back!

Radiant Angel: *was cruising the skies when he suddenly spotted a lone Yu Mengzhou. Shocked, in tears, and afraid to step forward* Oh my god, is it really him, or is it just my hallucination?

Yu Mengzhou: *too dangerous to be alone on the road, decides to pick up a stick taller than a man for defense*

 

Radiant Angel: *cries out in affirmation* That’s right! It’s him!