"Why, are you scared?" Kalinger asked with his head raised. He still looks like a human, but the projection of the blood pool shows the posture of a giant bone-winged beast.
"You are..." Rime's voice trembled, "You are... you..."
"Yes, yes, I'm not human. You didn't notice it, did you? This is normal. I didn't realize that you are not an elf at first. It's fair for us to deceive each other."
The bone dragon stared straight at him for a while, perhaps because the broken bones could not support itself, and it fell back into the pool of blood not long after. The splashed blood splashed on Kalinge, but Kalinge didn't mind.
Kalinger took a step forward: "How about it, are you willing to consider my proposal? Let the element cluster break through the crystallization, and I will deal with it. I will eat it."
The bone dragon itself was unable to speak, and the corpse of the elf under the crystal wall also remained silent for a long time.
Kalinger continued: "Frankly, I wanted to do it. After solving the miscellaneous things outside, I wanted to come back and do this."
The voice of rime finally came from below again: "Even if you are... Even if you are an abyss creature, you can't deal with such a powerful cluster of elements. Don't think about it, you can't eat it, but you will be swallowed by it."
"That's not necessarily the case," Kalinger said. "I thought about it for a long time before, thinking about how to do it. I also know that I may not be able to do it, so it's quite annoying... But it's different now, with you Help, it's easier for me."
"I..." Wu Ri was silent for a while, and suddenly, he understood the meaning of the creature in front of him.
Kalinge smiled and said clearly: "Just let me eat a little too. I will be careful to control the degree, and I won't let you die, and I won't let myself be poisoned to death."
As his words fell, the blood pool rippled again.
The demon's shadow was shattered by the ripples, and the fragments gradually floated up from the water, rising into the air, and disturbed back and forth around Kalinger and the bone dragon, like a swarm of black insects.
After circling a few times, the swarm began to gather towards Kalinger's body. They got under his feet, stuck to him, and covered his face... The human body was wrapped up little by little until it was completely hidden in the black swarm.
And the swarms gathered more and more, and a small black mountain was piled up in the blood pool. They slowly sorted out their bodies, stretched out their limbs, spread their wings, and gathered their heads. The trembling fragments on the surface slowly solidified, forming Irregular horns and spines.
Now the swarm was gone, and so was Kalinger's figure, replaced by a huge and complete abyssal creature. There were several blood slits on its pitch-black head, and the slits were split open, forming facial features that overflowed with red light.
A demon's voice came from deep within its body.
"I haven't had such an opportunity for a long time. Oh, it's so comfortable, it's like returning to my hometown."
Rime was just surprised, but not afraid of the creatures of the abyss. The bone dragon's eyes were always facing the devil, and the flames in the eye sockets fluttered back and forth, as if observing the various appearances of the devil.
"Where do you want me to eat?" the demon asked.
"It's up to you," Bone Dragon replied, "Even if you want to destroy me completely, I can't resist. There is no other choice but to follow your preferences."
"Why do I think you're angry?"
"Nonsense. I have been fighting against the elements of the abyss, but now I have to trust a creature from the abyss."
The demon arched its back, lowered its body, and extended its arms to support it in the blood pool. The wings formed by bones and firelight hung down and stood on the side of the bone dragon, covering the bone dragon in its own shadow.
"I'm a bounty hunter, and I'm here to work," the devil said in a familiar sentence, "Maybe you don't believe me, but I'm a recognized expert in the bounty hunter guild, and I can perfectly complete tasks that others dare not take on." .My employer is often the sheriff, the leader of the chamber of commerce, the lord and other big figures, and the salary is not a problem at all. I receive money to do things and work hard, isn't this justified? Why don't you trust a hunter? "
The bone dragon was silent for a while, and the voice of rime said: "Did you deal with demons like this before? The low-level monsters are not scared to death."
"No. I have been working in the appearance of a human being, honestly using weapons and armor. In this plane, we cannot act in a complete form. The composition of elements here is different from that of the abyss, and we will be forcibly compressed into humanoids The size of the creature. Thanks to the extremely thick abyssal elements under the Moonfall Tower, otherwise, I would not be able to return to this form."
While he was talking, the thorns on some parts of his body turned into insect swarms again, sticking to the keel below him, from the root of the broken wing bone to the spine, and then slid along the spine to the ribs and the remaining limbs.
The fire in Bone Dragon's eyes trembled, and his head hung down. The demon's black palm rose from the bloody water, holding the bone dragon's head and keeping it above the liquid level.
"Why did you come here?" Wu Rime asked softly.
"Didn't you say it just now?"
"No, I mean, why did you come to this plane?"
A small friction sound gradually sounded between the demon and the skeleton. It's like thousands of snakes and scorpions crawling on dense grass, and it's like countless teeth grinding gravel.
The swarm of black insects swam back and forth on the keel, looking for any part that was easy to bite without causing too much damage. When they find the place where they want to bite, the insect swarm will form tentacles protruding from the devil's body. The top of the tentacles splits bloody seams, opens a mouth of the same color as the eyes, and sticks out fangs similar to thorns.
The pale keel was lying in the bloody water, the whole body was wrapped in jet black, only the head was exposed. The fire in the eye sockets trembled violently at first, and then instantly shrunk into small red dots.
It was just a skeleton, with no muscles or cartilage in its whole body. When it moved violently, the bones rubbed against each other to make a sharp sound.
As if to comfort the bone dragon, or to distract it, the demon began to answer the previous question: "If you want to say why I came to this face, the reason is very simple and stupid."
"I'm listening..."
"To explain this, I have to say something else. When I was traveling around as a bounty hunter, I heard that in some areas people like to keep alligators. They use it as a status symbol, to show that they are rich and bold. , atmosphere. But in fact, not everyone has the conditions to raise crocodiles at home. Even rich people may not understand the habits of crocodiles at all, or even how to protect themselves. The rich and powerful guys will take a group of people to catch them. A crocodile, you bring it home and show it off, and then you don't know what to do with it."
There was a dull crackling sound in the air, first once, then continuously. The rubbing sound of the keel became more and more frequent, and the skeleton was trembling because it was in great pain.
"Go on..." Rime's voice came from under the crystal, "And then, how did they deal with the crocodile..."
The question he asked just now was obviously why the devil came to this plane, and now he heard the topic of raising crocodiles, and he seemed quite involved.
Callinger's voice said, "After showing off to the guests, they throw the crocodile away. Like in any river farther away, and some even throw it into the sea. If the crocodile dies, it dies. If it is alive, there is nothing it can do, just live as much as possible... It was put in a strange river far away from its habitat, so it can only live in this river. It is almost impossible to return to its habitat, it is just a Innocent little crocodile."
"Are you such a crocodile?"
"I am," Kalinger said, "You should know the researchers of alienation very well, right? Many years ago... I'm not sure how many years, anyway, a long time ago, for researchers of alienation, Successfully summoning alien creatures is a symbol of their success."
"Who is the mage who summoned you?" Wu Song asked.
"Don't worry, it's not your teacher Jinghu, I don't know Jinghu."
"I didn't say it was him. I'm asking you, who is that mage? What happened afterwards?"
"He died, but I didn't kill him." The demon's eyes narrowed, and the thin slits curved into arcs. "At that time, I didn't know what happened, and I didn't even know where I was. When I understood When I came here, the person who summoned me had already fled."
"Escape? You just said he was dead..."
"I played in this plane for a while, and decades later, I found him along the soul path when I was summoned. He was too old to recognize me, and he couldn't even recognize his own wife and children. Then he died not long after. I couldn't go back to the abyss, because teleportation is still a rare thing. Especially because I lived here for so long, it was like growing up in a narrow mouth bottle Like a fish, I'm stuck here."
A sigh came from below the crystal wall. In the blood pool, the sound of gnawing continued, and the skeleton of the giant dragon trembled again and again, as if it might fall apart at any time.
A black claw grew from the demon's wings, and it stroked the keel's head gently, like a shadow swaying back and forth on it.
Silence will focus on the pain, better to talk more nonsense.
"Golem, golem, why are you silent? Are you sympathizing with me?" said the demon in a laughing voice, "Don't, it's not good to abuse compassion. You still have to work and live by yourself. But if it’s worse, you’re still worse. You have the body of an ancient dragon, but in essence it’s not a dragon at all, it’s just a golem. Your teacher made you and taught you how to use it. This kind of knowledge, cultivate you like an apprentice, just to send you to die one day."
Bone Dragon immediately retorted: "The teacher couldn't predict that the experiment would fail..."
"Well, if it fails, I will take you to deal with the risk."
"It's not the teacher's compulsion...it's my own will."
The devil's eyes were facing the eye sockets of the keel: "How do you know it's your own will? The mage controls a golem, how can the golem know whether it is willing or not? You say you are voluntary, how do you prove it?"
"How do I know!" Wu Rime's voice was a little louder than before, "If you want to eat, continue to eat, why are there so many nonsense, I feel so uncomfortable, you still scold my teacher, you must be sick!"
Kalinger was suddenly pleasantly surprised. This is the first time Rime has confronted others face to face. Not writing letters, nor reading from spherical quadruped golems. Although the tone is still a little soft, it is far worse than the strength of writing a letter.
Rime's voice was obviously crying. A small part of it is because I don't want to hear bad things about the teacher, and the more half is probably because of the pain that is everywhere.
The devil said: "If you want to verify whether you are voluntary, I have a way, do you want to try?"
"you say."
"According to Jinghu's meaning, you will eventually be melted into your body by this pool of blood and infiltrated into crystals. The element cluster will be greatly satisfied, and at the same time will lose its activity. Jinghu has arranged everything for this, He obviously hasn't considered a plan to let the elemental cluster die and keep you alive... Don't shake so hard, relax, it's almost over. Listen to me first, I'm just telling the truth, I didn't insult your teacher.
"Jinghu didn't arrange a way out for you in the future. If you don't have the right to choose freely, and he ordered you to die for this, you can only die, even if I am here now.
"Well, now let me make a proposal. After I solve the cluster of elements, you have to leave the Moonfall Tower alive. Continue to live with this elf's body. Do you think it will work
"If you can't do it, it means that Jinghu has controlled you with magic. You think it's your own choice, but it's not at all. If he didn't control you, but just educated and guided you like human parents You are nothing more than you, then you can definitely do what I say."
Rime did not answer. In the bone dragon's eye sockets, You Huo suddenly dimmed, and then resumed beating immediately. At the same time, there was a burst of noise from the huge crystal.
First there was a deep and distant sound, like icebergs colliding slowly, and then there was a nearby cracking sound, spreading from the inside to the shallow layer.
After a few seconds, the crystallized surface was completely cracked.
The crackling sound of the crystal cracking continued, the blood pool began to become shallower, and the blood poured into the crack at an accelerated rate.
The demon grabbed the bones in his arms and jumped up. During a brief hover, he spread his wings.
This pair of huge wings is not the same as before: the firelight between the skeletons is getting denser, it is no longer translucent, but forms a deep red solid wing membrane, and on the edge of the wing membrane and the skeleton, some tiny And the sharp thorns, from a distance, look like the membranous wings of a dragon and the wings of a bird combined into one.
The demon dived down, and at the same time, the huge crystal shattered into several irregular pieces around him. The fragments didn't collapse down, but turned into light spots in the air little by little, and then disappeared completely.
The demon found the dirt floor lower down. He had been here not long ago in human form. Through layers of light spots, he saw the elf's corpse curled up on the ground.
He set the Skeletal Dragon down next to the elf's body.
The bone dragon stretched out its hand bones that were eroded and covered with scars, dragged its body with difficulty, approached the elf, and protected it under its own head and chest cavity.
After all the light spots in the air disappeared, the demon finally saw the whole picture of the element cluster.
Its color is variable, its surface wriggles and changes constantly, sometimes it is completely black, sometimes it turns gray or white, at this time it crouches on the distant stone wall, covering a huge area, at first it looks like a ball of slime, and then it gathers together , protruding out like a head and limbs protruding parts.
It mimics the structure of a primate, but its limbs move erratically, unlike any known animal.
It pays attention to the bone dragon on the ground, and that tempting smell is obviously still tempting it all the time.
When it jumped from the rock wall and rushed towards it, the demon also tightened its wings and rushed towards it.
The two collided together, and a scorching impact erupted to the surroundings. A burning smell spread in the space. The smell was stronger than any campfire or even the scene of the fire. The wildfire roared and rose, rushing from the bottom of the tower to the Sky.
The cluster of elements stretched out countless tentacles, tightly entangled in the body of the demon. The gray lines are wrapped around the blood-red and pitch-black colors, and they are constantly tightening, sticking together, and invading under the skin.
The demon didn't struggle, but instead spread its wings to enclose itself with these gray lines. The tiny spines on the wings connect with each other, and the wings on both sides eventually close together to form a huge cocoon.
The outer membrane of the cocoon was dark red at first, and then turned into a flowing flame. This huge group of flames was just suspended in mid-air, and the Moonfall Tower suddenly became very quiet.
A few seconds later, a high-pitched howl broke the silence. The sound penetrated the mountain, startling countless birds in the forest, wild beasts running away, and countless insects falling from the trees.
The flame changed. First, several spikes pierced through, and then the black was flipped out from the inside, and the red was re-entered inside.
Extending to the sky are two black wings, and hanging down to the ground is a long tail. The demon stretches his whole body again, a striped road appears on the black skin, and hot lava flows in the lines.
The gray that had been entangled on the surface of the demon's body had disappeared.
The demon descended slowly, and the hot air around him was constantly dancing, scraping the rock wall like tongues of fire, greedily licking all the remaining abyssal elements.
His feet touched the ground, and at that moment, the huge black alien creature disappeared, replaced by a bounty hunter wearing worn leather armor.
The hem of the clothes fluttered with no wind at first, and then fell down with a "pop", returning to its usual appearance. Kalinger took a deep breath, his eyes still a little dazed.
"Oh, I can't maintain that comfortable form anymore," Kalinger licked his lower lip. "There is no way. The abyssal elements here are no longer enough."
The fire that burns up the oxygen will itself be extinguished. After eating up the power of the surrounding abyss, the demon itself had to obey the rules of the plane and was compressed back into a humanoid form.
The bottom of the Moonfall Tower is now dark, but Kalinger doesn't need lighting.
He walked towards the bone dragon, knelt down beside the head, and observed its holey eye sockets. The flames in the eye sockets were so weak that they could hardly be seen clearly.
Kalinger tried to call it a few times, but the ghost fire didn't respond, and it was even darker than before.
When Kalinger clenched his fists and frowned in silence, the long hem of his clothes was gently pulled twice.
When he turned his head, the elf rime was lying on the ground without even raising his head, but stretched out an arm with difficulty, grabbing the tattered edge of his hem.
TBC