Rivers of the Night

Chapter 825: Spine

Theron composed himself and ignored Daisy, walking to Ayame’s side.

“If you’re not comfortable, you should go,” he said calmly.

Daisy’s eyes narrowed, but Theron didn’t hide his voice at all regardless of her presence.

Ayame looked to him. To her credit, her expression had been unreadable for a long while now. She seemed to have also forgotten that she was angry with Theron. A part of her wondered if her actions had gotten Theron exposed ahead of time, even if she knew that was unlikely to be the case.

Theron looked like he had already expected all of this to happen from the very beginning. He just hadn’t cared because he was also sure of how it would end.

Someone like General Ameridia wielded a great deal of power, and there were any number of things she could do to make his life a living hell. But she would be unlikely to be able to do any of them out in the open.

But this was completely unexpected for Ayame. She didn’t know what to do.

If she gave up now, didn’t that mean her journey for revenge was finished? It wasn’t like the Demon Corps gave second chances.

On one path was giving up everything she had ever worked for, and down the other was death.

Which would she pick?

“I’m not going anywhere,” Ayame said coldly.

Theron’s gaze flickered and then he chuckled. His hair danced in the wind for a moment and Daisy’s entire body tensed. But when she looked over, the phenomenon had already vanished.

What no one noticed was the fact Ameridia had also looked toward them. Her eyes looked sharp, her hand twitching. Her spear spun in the skies beneath her feet as though she had just been on the verge of unsheathing it. But in the end, she relaxed just a bit.

She also noticed that whatever was radiating from Theron had suddenly vanished.

“I like you,” Theron said after a while.

Ayame’s gaze flickered and she looked toward him. Then her eyes seemed to drift over to Lyra a bit hesitantly. As for Theron, he had already looked away as though the words didn’t mean much to him.

Theron smiled at Lyra. “I like you too.”

Lyra blushed down to her collarbone.

“Shameless,” Daisy squeezed out from her teeth. Theron seemed to take this as a challenge, though.

“I like her a lot,” Theron said, his gaze gesturing toward General Ameridia.

Daisy almost fainted. She skipped anger and went right to apoplectic. Her blood vessels burst and her vision went from red to black instantly.

Even in the commotion of people turning to leave, Bamby somehow managed to hear Theron’s words.

“My hero,” he gasped out.

…

Daisy got away from Theron as quickly as she could, appearing on the city wall at some unknown point. In the end, there were only five people that remained from the thousands that had come.

Theron. Ayame. Lyra. Bamby. And a certain youth riding on the back of a white fox.

Even Theron didn’t expect this many people to leave. It seemed that the matter of Bloodline Sampling was more of a sensitive topic than he knew.

If it was like that, just by virtue of staying at all they were quite suspicious.

“Since the five of you have agreed, you may enter the city now.”

An arch manifested right into the body of the city wall like it had always been there.

‘Fascinating. What an interesting formation.’

Theron nodded to himself. It seemed his scope of thinking was too narrow.

He had thought that if there was no gate, the only other way in was teleportation. But he had neglected such novel methods.

‘Interacting with the world is definitely important too. I can only learn so much from the wilderness just reading books.’

Societies were the product of the foundational concepts Theron learned of in his books being applied directly. That was to say that just by hanging around cities and people, he would be able to connect dots he hadn’t before.

This was what wise men called experiencing life.

Theron smiled to himself.

…

Soon, the five of them were in a military tent with ceilings that were over three meters in height. It was quite grand for a mere tent, but it also made Theron realize that this was no normal city. If they were in a civilization, why use a military tent?

‘Moving fortress?’

“Kenton Stillveil. You will be the first.”

The youth slid down the side of his snow fox, landing on the ground deftly and stepping forward. He reached out an arm toward Daisy who sat behind a desk, but she shook her head.

“No. Your spine.”

Kenton’s gaze narrowed. But ultimately, he turned around and pulled his upper robes down until they rested around his hips.

His expression looked steely. He hadn’t spoken a single word since all of this began, but the moment something pierced through his back, his head tilted up and he roared.

The tent shook, the ground wavering.

“Holy shit…” Bamby said softly.

He had known Kenton since he was a child. The bastard was arrogant to a fault. If he could have gone through it all without making a sound, he definitely would have, especially with an audience.

Bamby’s face couldn’t help but pale.

Luckily, it was over relatively quickly. Kenton collapsed to his knees, panting for breath.

Daisy held what looked like a small silver bowl with flowing golden liquid within. It shimmered as Daisy tipped it over into an etched formation on the table.

It glowed bright and fiercely, then a large stone by the side lit up.

It pinged upward until it radiated the aura of Higher Titan. A strong Bloodline to be sure.

But then the blood began to separate, spreading out into what looked like the branches of a tree, radiating with a subtle but strong might.

Then, as though meeting resistance, some of the branches began to collapse as though imploding.

The picture became more and yet less complex at the same time.

Daisy nodded and then opened her mouth to speak.