Read Novel Full Chapter 768: Elysium 2
Chapter 768: Elysium 2
『 Elysium 』
In a deserted street blanketed by knee-deep snow, a young girl opened her golden eyes. She blinked at first, confusion filling her eyes as she tried to remember where she was right now.
She scratched her glossy black hair ####
No. How could she have glossy and well-groomed hair? Lowly dreg of society as she is?
She scratched her frayed and greasy hair, perfect for a lowly human without any home to call her own.
Her clothes ####
She wore nothing but rags that were clearly about to give out, as a lowly human without anything, even having what she had was a blessing.
Her face was covered in grim and dirt. Her nails were dirty. Her body was short and scrawny, her ribs showing briefly through the rags she called clothes.
She observed her surroundings. The cold was not a problem after all, she was protected by a spell ####
For someone like her, a lowly mortal human with no powers, the cold was deadly and dangerous. Exposed too long, and she would slowly succumb to the embrace of death.
Cool and chilly winter— it was the season she absolutely abhorred.
With snow and ice blanketing everything her eyes could perceive, it was so difficult to fall asleep on the naked, freezing ground.
In the first place, she did not even dare to sleep out of fear of never being able to wake up again, the ground’s cold embrace taking her in her sleep.
How many vagrants died in their sleep during winter? The number was incalculable.
At last, she was able to clue in on her identity. Insignificant as it was, it did not serve anything but to fuel her despair.
The slums. A place abandoned by all, where only the poor and criminals rallied.
She perfectly remembered who she was, what she represented, and how insignificant her existence was to the world.
She had no name. Unless Bitch and Stupid Girl could be considered names. Her parents never bothered to give her another name.
Finally, she remembered the situation she was in.
“... I’m hungry.”
She unconsciously put her hand in her pocket. What she felt was a piece of bread that had hardened over so much due to the cold that it was harder than stone. Looking closely, it had something blue growing on the sides, too. Undoubtedly, that would be mold, the bad kind.
Despite its condition, it was the girl's last bit of precious food. Even though hunger kept tempting her, she had to endure. Judging by today’s situation, it was clear that she would not be able to earn even a single coin today. No one would take her insignificant self to work in this weather, and she did not have any fixed work she could do for income.
If she ate her last piece of food now, how would she get through the night?
Though she hated the cold, what she hated even more was sleeping with a hungry stomach. The hunger one felt when trying to sleep, but the pain in their stomach not even letting dreams take them, was a pain that she was not willing to face again. Not anytime soon, at least.
She needed to sleep well to work hard and earn money the next day. If she failed to do so, she would make a mistake and might even get her next pay docked. For someone like her, not even being able to earn the meager thing she did, enough to survive the day, was nothing short of a death sentence. It was more favorable to commit suicide than to die by starvation.
A doubt settled in her mind, however. Was this really what she should do?
Of course. What else would someone like her do?
Should she not be fighting right now? Was she not facing a go####
What a silly dream! The highest rank in the Mortal Realm is held by the Khan, and he is just a King.
Then— it was nothing but a dream?
That is right. A beautiful dream. One filled with adventure and wonder. A dream that you have to wake up from to face your reality.
In reality, she was but a child. A poor child who was hated and beaten by her parent. One that could not even read, much less throw a spell.
Sighing, she approached one of the groups huddled in front of the fire.
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Memories of her past started flooding in, but—
Why care about the past? She should be content with her situation. Why think about unpleasant things to only prolong her pain?
She gritted her teeth. Her golden eyes### her brown eyes### Her golden eyes flashed.
This was a dream, and she needed to wake up.
This was reality, and she needed to stop dreaming.
“Fuck you.” Ambrosia cursed at the top of her lungs.
You wake up from a dream.
.
.
.
.
In a deserted street blanketed by snow, a young girl opened her BROWN eyes.
She scratched her frayed and greasy hair, perfect for a lowly human without any home to call her own.
She wore nothing but rags that were clearly about to give out, as a lowly human without anything, even having what she had was a blessing.
Her face was covered in grim and dirt. Her nails were dirty. Her body was short and scrawny, her ribs showing briefly through the rags she called clothes.
For someone like her, a lowly mortal human with no powers, the cold was deadly and dangerous. Exposed too long, and she would slowly succumb to the embrace of death.
This was why she needed fire.
Sighing, she approached one of the group huddled in front of the fire. It was a group of young vagrants she was familiar with.
This was a day like any other. A day no different from usual. All she had to do was continue her everyday life.
* * *
You wake up from a dream.
* * *
You wake up from a dream.
In a cell where light could hardly enter, a young black haired boy was tending to his wounds.
His golden eyes###
His red eyes squinted as he examined his broken arms. The flesh was already squirming and healing. So all he had to do was to correctly align the bones; otherwise, he would have to break his arm again just to mend it the way it should be placed. Healing was such a chore sometimes; it healed everything, but did not align the bone to its original position, ending up in some nasty deformations if not handled correctly.
The air stank of sweat, rust, and dried blood. Chains rattled somewhere beyond the corridor, followed by groans, whispers, and the occasional scream.
He ignored it all.
The young man’s red eyes flicked toward the other cells across the narrow hall. In each, he could make out silhouettes— men and women crammed together, their faces gaunt, their bodies marked with bruises and lash scars. Some murmured prayers to Invidia— the Goddess of Envy. Others sharpened scraps of metal against the stone in grim silence.
Most of them were demons. A few were beastmen. But there were no humans in the cells. Humans were just too weak for anyone to give them their attention. Even a cell was a waste of space for a species so useless. In general, humanity was the plaything of all races, just a comedic act for the amusement of the crowd before the true fight was about to unfold. They were on a different floor.
His cell was larger, isolated from the rest by reinforced bars thicker than a man’s arm. There were no companions to share the darkness with him, no voices to trade despair. The guards called it the Champion’s Cell. A mockery of his royal self, nothing more.
“Here, your food, Prince Anubis.” A guard struck the door of the cell and pushed the food. Something too vile to deserve such a name, but he had long since learned that refusing to eat would only bring him death— a death that his enemies wished and prayed every day to come to him faster.
Anubis frowned. He was a prince no longer. He had long since discarded ###
Indeed. He was a prince. A discarded prince. A bastard born from royal blood and thrown into a sick game created by his detestable father.
All the other demons on this floor were his siblings. A bastard like him forced into a deadly game.
They were all promised freedom and true princehood if they won a hundred victories. However, they all knew it was a place without hope.
In 500 long years, only three bastards succeeded while thousands of others helplessly died.
Anubis was at his ninety-first victory. Only nine more and he would be free. The difficulty from here would increase tremendously, and most people lost their lives right around this spot.
He was not worried, however. After all, he had the Book of ###
He was worried. He had nothing to rely on outside of his somewhat elevated talent. A trifling thing against the true extent of challengers awaiting him.
Anubis stopped tending to his wounds and sighed to himself,
“I have to admit, this is truly a powerful illusion. Basing your attack on the past and trying to distort only minimal elements. Truly wonderful execution.”
“....”
“Nothing to say, huh. Well, I admit that I might not be able to escape myself. But, well, it doesn’t matter. You will realize soon that you have made a terrible mistake.”
Anubis' golden eyes shone with absolute mockery.
“You really shouldn’t have added that crazy woman into the mix.”
Anubis’s red eyes dimmed and closed. It was time to sleep.
Tomorrow, he would fight his 91st combat. If he won— he would have 91 victories and only nine more left for freedom.
* * *
You wake up from a dream.
“How could you even understand my dreams?”
Echidna waved her hand away at the illusory words. The power, trying to gnaw at her mind, helplessly failed in pushing deeper into her psyche.
Had she so wished, she could have even escaped already. But she judged that this was not the most optimal move.
You wake up from *Crack*
Standing alone in a dark void, Echidna bristled as she watched the void try to coalesce in what should have been a dream.
Sadly—
“You failed again. This is the 7th time now, right?”
You wake up ***
“Stupid, I was never asleep in the first place.”
She laughed.
It was a Law, an absolute power of a god. One that could even put Ambrosia and Anubis in a dangerous situation.
But for her, such laws meant absolutely nothing. Only there to serve her amusement or annoyance.
[I gather that you are the so-called crazy woman?]
“Speaking now, are we? From your words, I suppose Anubisis is also proving to be a tougher bone to chew than you expected.”
[The Supreme Witch and the Necromancer King are both impressive individuals. Trying to rewrite the story of such people is proving to be rather complicated. But you are on a whole other level.]
Echidna could only shrug nonchalantly at his words.
Hypnos had been trying to rewrite her memories or stories, as he said, but it was proving to be useless, and now she was consuming the power of the dream, devouring it to add it to her repertoire.
Anubis was right. Adding her had been a mistake.
[If that's the case. Chimera Queen, let me propose a deal. One that may interest you just enough to consider my words.]
****
Meanwhile, outside of Elysium… In the real world,
“You are not affected?” Euphoria could only direct an incredulous glance toward the nonchalant Lilith.
“Too long I have been living in the past. Dreams can affect me no more. For someone whose whole life has been a hazy dream of recollection and misery, these tricks hold no value. No, I have simply severed that ignoble power. It can not affect me. Nothing of your ally can.”
Lilith adjusted her sword. The blade did not gleam under the sunlight. Rather, it absorbed all light.
It was a blade that was abyssal black. Darker than black, representing an all-encompassing void that reality itself could sink into. With time, of course. It had not fully matured yet.
It was a blade that severed all of existence and non-existence. It was the embryo of the Law of Absolute Severance.
“You will curse the day you decided to affect this wedding.”
Lilith wanted to kill. To sever the hateful being before her and her blade hummed in glee and agreement.