Myriad Devils-Chapter 86: Do you love me?

Time passed.

What happened to Andrew, the duo did not truly know. But was it not the same for Natalia, and the other inheritors. Was it not the same for Felix and the other geniuses?

Possibly, they were still fighting; it was highly unlikely they had escaped with their lives.

Most probable, they had escaped from this hell, as in, lost their lives and escaped the living world.

Death was all but certain.

Who had lived, and who had died, neither Catharina nor Anon knew. More importantly, did they have the luxury to care about others? The dangers of the Blood-Drip Jungle remained as high as it ever was.

And to add to that, there was a one-winged monkey horde that had suddenly entered the frame. And as if that wasn’t enough, there was probably no student who knew exactly how many waves of one-winged monkeys resided in this horde.

The limits of their power were yet to be known. So, currently, both Catharina, and a struggling Anon, refused to utilize their principle aas drawing in stellar cosmic energies from the surroundings through their spirit alerted and attracted nearby beasts. If they were unlucky, of these beasts, they might just alert those damnable one-winged monkeys.

Even as they escaped into a dangerous territory, their every move needed to be calculated with due caution. And yet, it almost appeared as if that was simply impossible. At least, Anon situation didn’t appear to allow this.

Not just the gashing wound on his chest, that instead of healing thanks to his superb regenerative abilities, had worsened, but to add to that, there were new wounds, new gashes across his entire body. His clothes were torn and shredded, revealing the horrid situation of his body. His very existence appeared to be a direct lure to nearby beasts, attracting them to his bloody stench.

But more than that, as more and more blood left his body...

Bam!

As the duo maneuvered through the forestry, the trees slowly became more and more dense. There were many long, thick roots running across the earth that, for Anon, served as a great tribulation. With his foot hooking on one of these tree roots, he tripped, stumbling across the dirt before slamming face first onto the earth.

Though he attempted to stand to his feet, he was simply too weak to get up. Catharina saw this, pain evident in her eyes, but what crushed her heart even more was the scene to follow.

As Anon clenched his jaw muscles, under the pressure he exerted, the sound of his teeth cracking reached Catharina’s sensitive ears, and yet, Anon made no sound as he attempted to stand to his feet.

’The pain he’s enduring must be unimaginable...’ Catharina thought this whilst helping him to his feet. Though it felt as if someone was peeling her heart akin to peeling the skin of an apple, due to how much he resisted showing weakness, she played along, acting as if she didn’t see anything.

’I know I should tell him we need to take a rest, and yet, the one-winged monkeys might be following us.’ Catharina thought: ’Anon can’t die. I’ll make sure he doesn’t die.’

But as her thoughts reached here, a self-deprecating smile etched onto her lips: ’Am I lying to myself...? Anon can’t die... Am I just telling myself that...?’ Rather than it being, Anon couldn’t die, they couldn’t stop because she didn’t want to die.

Even if Anon was in pain, even if he was suffering from injuries both mentally and physically, they couldn’t stop because the monkey horde could reach them and kill her...

’No!’ Catharina inwardly retorted her own thoughts: ’If I was so scared to die, I would simply leave him for the dogs. Technically, he’s slowing me down.’

Anon’s arm that was around her shoulders, helping him move forward, was like a massive mountain of guilt weighing at her. Catharina’s thoughts once again changed.

’Slowing me down? I’m just using him so that if the monkey horde does find us, I’ll have a second world stellar genius to risk his life for me? If he strains his spirit, the amount of power he’ll draw out might just wipe out the entire wave, right? I’m banking on this, aren’t I?’

As she lost herself in her own thoughts, justifying her actions whilst simultaneously finding faults, her mental turmoil in the face of adversity and death would be forced to come to a halt as Anon limply leaned over, as if falling unconscious.

Luckily, she held on to him, preventing him from crashing into the ground.

"C-Catharina..." Anon weakly signaled for her to allow him to sit, pointing at a nearby tree.

As he leaned his back against the tree, Anon’s golden amber eyes, previously containing a resplendent light, was dim.

Still, his eyes were wide open as he stared into Catharina’s crystal blue orbs.

The latter was slightly taken aback by his gaze, but she was more worried about his mental and physical state.

Leaning back onto the tree trunk, she slowly took her seat right next to him, releasing a deep sigh.

More than just desperation, Anon could even feel the hopelessness and confusion in that sigh.

"By now, do you think that the military academy has realized that something is wrong with this year’s exam?" Catharina asked with a defeated tone.

Her voice was weak.

Clearly, she didn’t believe much in her own words.

’The military academy?’ Anon chuckled inwardly: ’They loaded us with information about the one-winged monkeys before sending us here. This was obviously all predicted. Those bastards... Are they planning to see all their students die? Heh, my father is indeed something.’

At this time, he coughed a couple times.

His voice was hoarse as he glanced at Catharina: "Can I ask you something?"

Catharina turned to Anon, meeting his gaze. Though Anon had made some movement, Catharina failed to react even though Anon’s movements were slow due to his weakness.

As his right hand caressed her cheek, Catharina’s thoughts churned chaotically: ’He’s injured badly. Is he thinking straight? What is this? Is he really...? Am I taking advantage of his situation...?’

And yet, even in this situation, her heart thumped rapidly.

Death was so close to them, and still, to her, it felt so far away.

The situation had just abruptly changed into one that utterly left her confused.

On the other hand, hearing no reply, Anon asked her: "Do you really love me?"

Saying this, he leaned in...

As their lips met, Catharina didn’t realize when their tongues made contact with each other.

The bloody taste that assaulted her senses, thereafter, mixing with her own saliva, made her feel as if her heart would burst out of her chest.

’Do I love you? What kind of question is that?!’ Catharina closed her eyes as time melted away.

Their despairing situation melted away.

The infinite worries melted away.

Her clothing melted away...

As Anon caressed and pecked at her skin, her desirable moans entered the nearby surroundings.

Even when she couldn’t tell if it was Anon’s blood or her own, she wasn’t worried.

As warm blood spilled into her surroundings, she refused to worry, she did not desire to believe.

In fact, Catharina had already chosen.

From the instance the situation had become like this, she had unconsciously given up on everything else.

And as the cold truth slowly unraveled itself, she detached herself from truth.

Rather than the torturous truth of reality, the falseness of delusion was the best.

In her last moments, Catharina opted to live out this delusion, smiling even in death, a certainly demonic death.

Very carefully, as he embraced her, Anon’s left hand slowly detached itself from Catharina’s back.

In his hand, Catharina’s heart still thumped whilst her teary eyes stared into his dim amber orbs.

A warm smile was plastered on her face.

Slowly rising to his feet, Anon’s left hand flung Catharina’s heart away, akin to throwing away rubbish, whilst his right hand grabbed hold, very tightly, of what he truly desired.

"How laughable." Anon grumbled under his breath.

He walked away from Catharina’s corpse without a care whilst observing the necklace now in his possession: "Did she really think that just anyone could acquire the Human Lord’s seed?"

Anon held no qualms with blood, pressing against his own face with his bloody left hand as he growled in a low yet deep tone: "How laughable and disgustingly ignorant!"

Anger?

It couldn’t accurately describe his emotions towards Catharina.

It wasn’t that he scorned her or found her disgusting either.

His current feelings were complex to describe, so much so that it wasn’t exactly inaccurate to say that he felt nothing really.

Simply put, he desired the necklace around her neck, and at the same time, found her now useless to him.

Rather than help, she was a burden that opted to get rid of.

The same was with Andrew.

Was he truly placed in such a difficult situation by a single one-winged monkey?

So much so that he was sent uncontrollably flying into two more one-winged monkeys?

Of course not, but no way in hell was he going to risk his life to protect those two.

Rather, with Andrew’s personality, it was quite easy to predict his actions.

’Banking on Andrew’s talent, it came as no surprise to me that he could strain his spirit to that extent. Impressively, he broke into the second world but squandered his potential to do so. Well, it is to be expected. I too will forget about the future if push comes to shove. Potential only matters if one can live to fulfill it in the first place.’

As for Catharina?

’The weaker a genius, the greater the chance that, when straining their souls, they’ll explode with sudden and foreign strength. Sometimes, one may strain their spirit and get nothing in return, but it’s different for geniuses. It was simply too dangerous to act on the battlefield, after all, if I was caught, things would get complicated...’

Obviously, he was confident that he could directly confront Catharina even if she exploded with foreign strength.

But, she already had a disgustingly obvious weakness towards him...

Rather than use stellar cosmic energy to kill her, the route which he took was much easier.