Stray Ch142

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 142: Escape

Telaranea didn’t seem surprised. He didn’t panic at all, as if he wasn’t about to encounter trouble. He even titled his neck and adjusted to a relatively comfortable posture.

“Good evening, Mr. Light.” His tone was polite. “How are you… No, I’m afraid it’s not appropriate to say that.” The demon’s smile became stronger.

Nemo stared at him coldly, without saying a word. He just floated in midair, clinging to the front lapel of the demon’s red robe.

“How interesting. You know who I am.” Seeing that the other party didn’t want to speak, Telaranea spoke on his behalf. “It seems that I completely misjudged your abilities. Mass curses, wiping memories, and even no need for spells. Beautiful. But you missed me. I’m guessing it’s not because of feelings for your compatriots?”

Then he frowned slightly. The smile on his face faded a little. The demon retracted his gaze from the raging gray mist around him and turned to Nemo’s expressionless face.

“I can’t contact my main body anymore,” Telaranea said softly. “What a refreshingly new situation.”

“I’m not stupid enough to let you delay time and spread more information,” Nemo finally spoke. “A pity.”

“Well, what do you want?” The demon curled his lips. “I assume you know what happened. If you just want to vent your anger, that’s enough just now. You should understand that human laws and morality do not apply to us.”

“And not so long ago, your team ruined my valuable contract. Now, at best, we’re even.”

“Of course, I know you have no obligation to help me.” Nemo clenched his teeth. “So let’s solve this problem in a more ‘demon’ way—I can’t let you spread Ollie’s information.”

“You should worry about yourself even more.” Telaranea narrowed his eyes. The eyeball that originally belonged to a human turned strangely red. “I’m very interested in you now. To be honest, I never thought you could bring me new surprises—”

Before his voice fell, a worm-like shadow blade hit the back of Nemo’s head. Nemo was still staring at his opponent’s mouth, as if all his attention was focused on his words. The sharp and strong shadow blade should have penetrated Nemo’s head, but unlike what Telaranea speculated, it didn’t thrust out of his opponent’s delicate face, bringing out brains and flesh.

It disappeared, like a snowflake against the heat of a blacksmith’s furnace.

Nemo’s expression became a little colder, while Telaranea’s was just the opposite. The demon’s red eye suddenly lit up, and countless attacks poured in. Telaranea gestured excitedly while painting runes, but everything was all in vain.

All his attacks disappeared.

Nemo didn’t even bother to move his gaze away. He stared at the demon in front of him in silence, thinking carefully.

“I see.” Telaranea’s attack stopped abruptly. The face on the human shell rose into an abnormally exciting blush. “No wonder Ramon was able to resolve the curse of the Trent Plague. No wonder the Demon King’s flesh didn’t cleanly corrode you—dissolve everything and return to its source. Yes, this is the characteristic of its origins.”

He stared at Nemo fascinatedly, causing the latter to almost get goosebumps from that gaze.

“I have investigated. Your origin is unknown, but Ramon definitely grew up in Roadside Town. Ramon, the knight who couldn’t find the source of his oath… Now that you have obtained the power of the source, to whom did you give your allegiance? Or rather—”

“It’s me,” Nemo replied quietly. “He is… He was my knight.”

“It’s not impossible,” Telaranea whispered, speaking extremely fast. “After all, you’ve been staying on the surface honestly and have never been inside the Abyss—but when it comes to the king involved in the origin of abyssal magic…”

He suddenly couldn’t go on.

“It’s what you think,” Nemo said, pulling the corners of his mouth together. “Like I said, let’s solve this problem in a more ‘demon’ way.”

The Sage of the Abyss had never hated such a situation before. He held the key to the puzzle he had always dreamed of, but he couldn’t convey the news. He could only stare at his opponent’s silver eyes and successfully find the hostility in them.

Nemo Light did it on purpose.

No, the Demon King did it on purpose.

“This is the answer you want. Take a good look.” The once-shirking Black Chapter newcomer raised his empty left hand and waved it back vigorously. Countless flashing runes, magic arrays, and formulas instantly covered the sky. Telaranea raised his head and saw the undiscovered knowledge that he had solved, tried to solve, and those that hadn’t been discovered. They floated under the stars, changing at an alarming rate.

He thought to himself, “It’s so beautiful.’

“It’s settled,” Nemo whispered, pulling the immersed demon back to reality.

“What?” Telaranea responded almost subconsciously. He was distracted by the incomparable joy he was feeling. People’s wailing turned into pleasant music, and the heatwave set off by the flames was like a gentle touch. He had never been so—

“Your circuit.” Nemo took a deep breath. “You possessed too many flesh. It took me some time.”

Bad.

A layer of cold sweat instantly oozed from the demon’s back.

From the start, he wasn’t the only one who was stalling. Telaranea instantly reacted to what the other party was going to do. The shadow blade reappeared, but this time it slashed at the body he was using.

However, it wasn’t fast enough.

He collected enough information and was only one step away from the puzzle he had studied for many years. The door to the truth was slowly opening for him. Countless fresh pieces of information were wrapping him up, which should have been a supreme blessing, but before he had time to savor a few more seconds, he was directly choked by a hand around his neck.

The hand wasn’t forceful, gentle even, but the sudden surge of despair was strange and cold. The demon’s vocal cords seemed to be frozen at that moment, and he couldn’t say anything.

“Forget it,” Nemo exhaled. He carefully controlled his anger while maintaining a stiff tone. “Everything about the Gatekeepers, all the knowledge you got here, all the memories—forget it all. There’s no brain in your skull, unlike humans, so you can withstand this kind of impact, right?”

“…But please, remember this despair and remember it well.”

The despair of getting what you love and then seeing it disappear in front of your eyes. It had nothing to do with human pain or joy. Just as a nominal kinship—he would return the despair engraved in his bones.

The spell extended to the demon’s magic circuit, quickly impacting this body to the body in the Abyss, then it spread to every body on the surface. All information related to the Withered Castle was completely wiped from the memory of the Sage of the Abyss and would never return.

Nemo let go of his hand. The sky full of knowledge dissipated, and the sloppy middle-aged man lost consciousness and fell back into the gray mist like a puppet. He didn’t look at him again and instead rushed directly to Oliver’s direction.

Oliver remained in the same place. It was just that this time he no longer stretched out his arms. Instead, he was barely maintaining a half-kneeling position, with both hands trembling on the Rest in Peace. The burning ruins had disappeared, leaving behind a bottomless, huge crater. The gray mist still hovered around him, but the movement became more restless. Nemo had a faint inkling he was going to lose control, not because of how intense Oliver’s emotions were, but because he was familiar with this kind of atmosphere.

Only the gray mists holding the prisoners and Gatekeepers were still stable but quivering badly. His lover was too tired, too jerky. He could no longer control this new and violent power.

Not far away, a large number of life reactions appeared one after another.

The Withered Castle was just an institution used by the Gatekeepers to do live experiments and train death row soldiers. Other institutions of the Gatekeepers probably noticed the anomaly, and considering the accumulation of this organization for thousands of years, there might be armies of various countries among the people coming.

They had to leave immediately.

“Ollie, that’s enough.” Nemo stopped in front of Oliver. He knelt down without hesitation, caressing Oliver’s face while staring at the dim emerald eyes. “Look at me. You can control it!”

This time it wasn’t an invisible hug. Their faces were extremely close. Nemo could see clearly. Oliver’s lips were full of blood, and his face was smeared with dirt and tears.

His Oliver.

There was no shattering agony in his heart. On the contrary, it seemed to disappear directly from his chest, leaving only a continuous, dull pain. Oliver didn’t respond to his call. Nemo trembled and breathed out. He took off the skeleton helmet covered with bloodstains and pieces of flesh.

The power was almost out of control, almost hurting others. He also had such moments. And just as Oliver did for him, Nemo thought…

I can call Oliver back myself.

But Nemo wasn’t as gentle as Oliver. He stretched out his right arm and directly hooked the other’s head and neck. It could be said that he kissed fiercely, tasting blood at the same time. The moist tip of his tongue scratched Oliver’s chapped wounds on his lips and then pried open his teeth.

A deep predatory kiss.

There was no time to be reserved. No time to think about other things. He would tell Oliver everything after the dust settled, and this could be their final kiss.

This thought made him despair.

The dark clouds dissipated, and the starry sky became clear again. A few flashes of fire sparked at the bottom of the deep pit from time to time. The gray mists slowly drifted down, placing the unconscious Gatekeepers and prisoners on both sides of the pit, and then dissipated. The gray mist raging nearby also stopped in an instant, no longer making tearing and chewing noises. The army in the distance was approaching rapidly, and the sound of their armor floated in the wind.

Oliver finally blinked. He loosened the hilt of the sword, put his arms around Nemo’s waist, and resolutely deepened the kiss. It was more like swallowing and biting than an affectionate kiss between lovers.

It was painful, sad, and sweet all at the same time.

“Nemo.” The long kiss made Oliver’s brain dizzy. He pushed the other away reluctantly, took a few deep breaths carefully, and his eyes became a little brighter for the first time. He struggled to move the already stiff muscles in his face and pulled out a smile. “…You’re here.”

“Don’t smile if you don’t want to.” Nemo wiped the blood from Oliver’s forehead that was starting to cake. The other’s smile was no longer what he was familiar with. It made him completely unable to breathe. “I’ll take you away. Let’s go now.”

“’No matter how bad things are, I’ll always greet you with a smile.’… This is what I promised you,” Oliver murmured. “Yeah, let’s… The two of us, together…”

He tightened his arm around Nemo’s waist, but his body jerked forward uncontrollably. Nemo hugged Oliver and almost froze in fright. It took a few seconds before he realized he had to confirm Oliver’s breathing and heartbeat.

Oliver fell asleep.

Nemo inserted his finger into Oliver’s blood-stained hair. It now felt rough and sticky to touch, no longer soft and smooth.

He sighed tremblingly again. He could now see the reflection of flying flags and armor from the reinforcements. He picked Oliver up, as if the heavy armor had no weight.

A rift appeared in space. Fresh and moist air poured through from the other side. A little light could be seen between the dark bushes, calm and warm. The edges of the rift in space squirmed, accompanied by a Gatekeeper’s crying in his sleep, and the sense of dissonance reached the point of alarm.

“You two,” Nemo hugged his sleeping knight tightly and turned to the strange man and woman stiff like stone statues, “with your strength, there should be no problem passing through this—”

“Let’s escape together.”

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The author has something to say:

Nemo: Me! Super attack!

……

The last glory of Nemo.

Naturally, it is impossible to succeed in leaving the team, and it is impossible to succeed in becoming the attacker*(?).

*The author is making a joke here. Nemo is the shou of the novel, but the first line is “super attack!” (referring to how he aggressively kissed Oliver to calm him down and how he attacked the Withered Castle). While that attack was successful, him being the attacker (gong) will not.

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The assassin couple… In spring, they stuffed Ollie full of dog food*, and in autumn, Ollie gave them a waterfall-like dog food in return.

*Refers to when couples show their affection to each other in front of others. || Ollie ate dog food previously, and now these two are eating a ton more dog food in this chapter.

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Kinky Thoughts:

AHHHHH. This chapter is everything!! Nemo returning Ollie’s kiss to calm him down. If I didn’t know any better, I say he’s the gong from this chapter alone hahaha. Just make them reversible! I dig it.

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I’ll start doing arc summaries just so we’re all on the same page and you can always refer back to them:

Oliver was captured by the Knights of Oath from the Mooney Sect and was sent to the Insular Court for trial. There he met a man named Micah, who informed him of the ins-and-outs. Normally he would get a trial and be sent back to Alban for his crimes if convicted, but he had caught the eyes of the Gatekeepers.

He was then sent to do a truth test where it was revealed that he was a knight to a king. Oliver had no recollection of this, but due to him wearing a Knight of Silence uniform, they chalked it up to him being a knight who had sworn his allegiance to the Demon King.

He was then bought by the Gatekeepers, who moved him and other prisoners to an area to “test” them. During this move, he tried to escape and, feeling pity for Micah, whom he had recently met, let him in on the plan. Micah betrayed him and Oliver was adorned with a stronger collar that sucked out all his magic, giving him only barely enough energy to move.

During this time, he also met Randy, another prisoner who wanted to cooperate with him during their “test”. It was revealed that this test was to weed out the strong from the weak and those who killed would be sent to the mobile barracks for training to become part of the Death Row Legions (reminder this is the army that Adrian Cross’ army fought against during the war when they were trying to seize the dragon breath stone mine) that were sold to the other countries.

Oliver and Randy refused to kill anyone and instead were transferred to the Withered Castle. This castle tests the limits of humanity by pitting people to fight against each other and rewarding or punishing them based on their point values on their tag. It was divided into two groups: the combat zone and the test zones. Those who succeeded in the combat zone got a second chance to join the Death Row Legion, while the test zone was reserved for experimentation, to awaken the blood furnace.

During a match, Oliver was “killed” and it was revealed that he had three forces inside his body: he was suffering from the Trent plague (a curse of the Abyss), an unknown force that was isolating the plague to keep him alive, and his own magic. This also triggered a fourth force when he was “killed” (abyssal magic from the knight’s oath he made to Nemo, which is also the reason Nemo could find him). With all this combined, suddenly Oliver powers up.

Oliver refused to give in despite all the torture, but eventually almost succumbed when he was finally matched with Randy. On the cusp of giving in and killing Randy, he chose to admit defeat and was swallowed by the blood furnace. This satisfied the condition the Gatekeepers needed to mold a “God” that could break the limits of surface creatures “potential”. They needed someone whose will they could break so that when this new being was created, it could be controlled.

Meanwhile, Nemo, who found out his true identity as the Demon King, was in distress. He wanted to confess his findings, but Oliver was no longer there. All of Tumbleweed were desperate to find him and used various methods to locate where he was.

During their progress, news came from Roadside Town that a demon cocoon had appeared and was close to hatching. It was the product of Nemo’s arm that was bitten off by the ratcliff wolfhound during the prologue and was eaten by another demon who wanted to save its own species.

Jesse hinted to Nemo that this was the clue he needed in order to find Oliver. Nemo then realized that since acquiring his newfound knowledge, the “stars” he saw in the “starry sky” of his mind weren’t just demons. It was anything that wielded abyssal magic. As the Demon King, he was the source of abyssal magic, and they were making “trades” to use this source; in return, they provided him with energy. This was the trade that Jesse spoke of during the Bluebirds arc. He also realized he could locate Oliver because Oliver made an oath to him (albeit jokingly and unknowingly at that time). Using this, he’s able to locate the Withered Castle and find Oliver.

At this time, Oliver was sent into the furnace and was about to be consumed by it. However, he didn’t give up hope and somehow absorbed the furnace and super levels up. He and Nemo were reunited, and he said to Nemo “I love you”. Then they dealt with the Gatekeepers and destroyed the Withered Castle.

Side characters: Randy and Mora were assassins who were cursed by Telaranea so that they couldn’t touch each other. They deeply loved each other and wanted to find a way to lift this curse. Following clues, they found that a superior demon inhabited the Withered Castle. Thus, they set up a plan to let Randy get captured so Mora could find the demon and hopefully break their curse. Unfortunately, they found out the truth: Telaranea was the original one who cursed them, and he refused to lift it. As they made their escape, they encountered Nemo, to whom Randy relayed Oliver’s last words to him and led him to where Oliver was, as Nemo could no longer locate Oliver’s “star”.

Other important things to note:

Aurorae is Oliver’s father’s mentor, and Nemo (or rather the Demon King) is Aurorae’s father. Aurorae trained Piper Ramon/Flint Lopez so that he would be able to slay the Demon King and put him to sleep longer. Contrary to his expectations, Flint cut off the Demon King’s head and brought it out of the Abyss (which Aurorae thought he did out of vain pride).

Bagelmaurus got its powers back.

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Alright, that sums up everything. Let me know if I missed anything important. Stay tuned for the next arc~

I really love/hate this arc. I think chapters 137-139 were beautifully written. The emotions and pain were so heart-wrenching. So much abuse, but it was so worth it for their reunion.

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