Silent Crown

Chapter 99 This Is Avalon

"Hush, hush, no one can see you…" Ye Qingxuan murmured as he cradled his head and carefully crawled forward. Under the stress caused from both Flow and Haze, and performing precise manipulation, his face was almost green.

After fleeing past another corner, sure that no one had discovered him, Ye Qingxuan collapsed onto the ground. Flow and Haze stopped immediately, and sweat poured out like a faucet. A damp print appeared on the ground beneath him quickly. He looked at the pumpkin he had forgotten to throw, and tossed it angrily at the wall.

"What just happened?!" It was a bright and clear day. He had just gone to buy marbles and groceries, but instead he had been chased by people with axes and bows! And treasure? What treasure?!

Ye Qingxuan felt around his body. The only thing valuable on him was his leather wallet! And he had bought it for twenty-some dollars. What were they after? What?! After thinking for a long time, Ye Qingxuan had a headache, and the only conclusion he could come to was that those guys were crazy.

"I’m so unlucky." He sighed and got up. Giving up on the marbles, he just wanted to get back to the academy quickly. Why did he run into such weird things whenever he left the school?

But as he stood up, he felt wind above his head. Goosebumps rose up all over his body. He rolled on the ground without thinking, and heard a clang behind him! The stone ground cracked under the flame-shaped sword.

"You re-really did run away!" Covered in blood, Werner panted for breath. His eyes widened under his horned helmet, gazing at Ye Qingxuan with wild joy. "I’m so lucky…hand over the treasure!"

"What treasure?!" With a flying scissor kick, Ye Qingxuan kicked the pumpkin at Werner. But the man raised his sword and slashed the pumpkin in midair. The pumpkin exploded, pieces of pumpkin and juice flew everywhere. Ye Qingxuan’s neck grew cold.

The flame-shaped sword was a heavy duty weapon that required handles on the blade. Its power did not come from the blade, but from its own weight. Only Werner, famous in Asgard for his inhuman strength, could wield the sword so effortlessly. It moved in his hands like a windmill. Each slash left behind deep cuts in the ground.

Ye Qingxuan stumbled back but Werner was right at his heels. Werner was a dwarf but he moved so quickly that his legs were a blur. This type of sword required one to be steady and stable with a strong core. His feet moved like wheels. The short figure rushed forward, and he swung the sword down!

Ye Qingxuan jumped back at the last moment. He felt the blade slice past his forehead, cutting two strands of hair.

Hoisting up the sword, Werner had a sinister and weary smile. "Since you won’t open your mouth like a crab, I’ll just have to search your corpse!"

"What crab? It should be a clam, okay?" Ye Qingxuan retorted in panic. "I have no respect for you thugs. You aren’t cultured at all!"

Werner froze. His face reddened before darkening in anger. "You’re asking for death!" With that, he swung the sword down.

"Hey, let’s discuss this! Don’t get angry, alright?" Ye Qingxuan really wanted to cry. "How about I teach you some grammar and you let me go?"

"In your dreams!" Werner scoffed. "All of downtown wants your life. If you want us to all let you go, you’ll need to teach a big grammar class."

"What do you even want?!" Ye Qingxuan asked, suddenly angry. "I’m just one person. There’s not even enough of me for you all to stab! What do you get from killing me? I’ll let whoever answers correctly to kill me, how about that?"

"Stop playing dumb. The treasure to enter Avalon’s Shadow is on your body!"

"Do I look like I have a treasure on me?"

"I don’t care! I’ll see after you’re dead! Try hiding again, huh?" Werner smiled menacingly as he brought the sword down. Gritting his teeth, Ye Qingxuan felt repressed anger and aggravation rekindle inside of him.

"Does your brain work? Can you not understand the human language? Can you not understand?! All you think about is killing, killing, killing. Won’t your mom be disappointed in you?" In his anger, the effect of Flow was pushed to the max. He did not dodge or retreat. Instead, he walked over, stepped on the lowered blade and sprang into Werner’s arms. Ye Qingxuan punched the only part unprotected by the helmet—the nose!

Crack! The fist slammed into the horned helmet, and Werner cried out in pain. The sword fell from his hands as he tried to hold onto his nose. But Ye Qingxuan did not let him go so easily. Stepping on the tortoise shield, he flattened the man on the ground. He repeatedly punched the nose until he heard the sound of bone cracking, and his hand came away bloody.

Furious, Werner ignored his wound and grabbed a dagger from his waist, stabbing Ye Qingxuan’s arm. Ye Qingxuan retreated as soon as he heard the sound of a blade unsheathing, but he had still been slashed in the arm. Nothing had gone smoothly ever since he had come to Avalon!

Ye Qingxuan quickly began chanting a basic rune in anger—instantaneous rune! Following Abraham’s deciphering method, he skipped more than half of the syllables. A solid coldness enveloped his hand, following his palm. This was the rune that Edmund had used to fight him last time—Frost! If he pressed down on Werner’s face, the aether would explode and turn half of his brain into icicles. But Ye Qingxuan hesitated at the last second. His hand moved and he pressed down on Werner’s hand.

Werner whimpered as his arm suddenly went numb, and he could no longer feel his palm.

"Don’t move!" Ye Qingxuan aimed his clenched fist at the palm. "Otherwise I’ll punch downwards and your right hand will shatter. If you don’t move now, you can go find a Chorale musician at the church, it might be cured…"

"Haha…can’t believe I lost to a kid who’s too scared to kill." Lying on the ground, Werner laughed at himself, his weary smile showing through the blood on his face "What’s the use of letting me go? You think I’ll let you go just because you didn’t kill me? Don’t be na?ve…everyone in downtown wants you!"

"I’m innocent!" Ye Qingxuan roared.

Werner scoffed. "And innocent people can’t die?"

Ye Qingxuan froze.

"I’ve heard these words so many times before. The people who don’t want to pay, the people who broke rules, the people who were sold by others, they all say a bunch of pretty words before death, but it can’t save them. Where do you think we are? This is Avalon!" Werner licked the blood on his face and laughed. "You won’t be able to escape as long as you have the treasure."

"You lunatics." Ye Qingxuan punched his face one last time and stood up. The murderous cries were getting closer, and he did not want to waste anymore time on this psycho.

But behind him, Werner with a frozen hand laughed coldly. He grabbed a small dagger from his boot with his left hand and aimed the green blade at the youth’s back. The Indians were not the only people who knew how to use poison.

But then a commotion rushed past. Stunned, Werner felt the world grow dark, and the wall beside him suddenly collapsed. Before he could even scream, he was buried in the rubble.

The loud crash made Ye Qingxuan jump in fright. When he turned around, all he could see was red, and the bloody beast. The street behind the collapsed wall was covered with corpses. They were scattered all over, and all of them were mutilated. Standing above the fallen bricks was a wild figure covered in blood—the Bloody Butcher!

He had followed the youth’s scent here, massacring everyone in his path. Now, his blood-soaked apron had new liquid from the sewer. The bone saw in his right hand was filled with dents. Ye Qingxuan did not want to know what he had been hacking in order to have dented the bone saw. In his left hand was a severed head. It seemed to have been carelessly yanked off of someone. There was still vertebrae connected to the head.

--

In the stillness, he tossed the head away and roared! Following it was faint singing like the cries of an angry spirit. The bulging muscles on his red arms pulsed according to his heartbeat and faint runes glowed. The runes lit up, attracting a tidal wave of aether. They entered his body turning him into a true beast!

His heartbeat turned into drum beats, and the sound of blood pulsing turned into chanting. The screams in the air became the rhythm, and his breathing turned into a wild chorale as the aether grouped inside him, "God, please give me mercy. I kneel in the river of souls, attempting to wash away the dirtiness!

"God, please give me salvation. I am waist-deep in curses. Can you hear my pleas?

"God, please give me your blessing. I am neck-deep in blood. I beg for relief."

Blood surged, and transformed into a menacing face. He cheered like a child along with the singing, "Lalala! Lalala! Lalala! The god in the song, take me back to heaven!"

--

"What…what is this creature?!" Ye Qingxuan muttered. He stumbled back in disbelief, the hair on the back of his neck rising in fear. The beast had turned his own body into alchemy equipment, an entire music score was tattooed on his skin! Only an inhumanly strong body could withstand the consumption of a music score. Hariti’s implants were nothing in comparison to this.

Now, aether flowed through his vessels, turning into a power wilder than blood, hotter than fire, turning him into something not human. He was not a demon. His wild murderous intent made him something more terrifying than a demon—he was a killing machine!

Amidst the crazed and painful singing, the Butcher raised his head. Two bloodshot eyes stared at the youth from behind the mask. The bone saw was raised. "The hunt is here. Are you praying?" he seemed to ask.