Destroyer of Ice and Fire
Chapter 168: The meaning of being alive
"What does that mean?"
"Why’d that guy suddenly become like this?"
"What has he done? He actually had to kill others, kill his own family, eat their corpses in order to survive?"
Ayrin stared blankly at Lotton. "Did he become so afraid because he remembered all those he killed? Has he always lived with such a fear inside him?"
"I’m going to kill you two!"
"All of you are my enemies. I can only live if I leave none of you alive."
Lotton’s trembling suddenly stopped. He lifted his head once again, terrifying pale-white particles starting to emerge on his entire face.
"Be careful!"
Ayrin suddenly pushed Charlotte fiercely away, sending her flying backward.
In the same instant, Lotton had already appeared near Ayrin.
His entire body was already covered with pale particles. These particles were constantly wriggling, looking like pale maggots, looking very terrifying.
"Puff!"
The pale-white particles on the surface of his body suddenly sprayed outward, covering Ayrin whole as well, as though he’d suddenly joined together with Ayrin.
A golden hue was already emerging on Ayrin’s skin. However, as though the pale particles had the power to directly corrode the arcane energy from Dragon Scale a.s.similation, they immediately penetrated inside.
"Puff!" "Puff!" "Puff!"
Countless such pale particles suddenly pierced Ayrin. From his body covered whole in such particles suddenly erupted a mist of blood.
"Ayrin!"
Before she could even stand firm on her feet, Charlotte shrieked as though she’d gone mad.
A body was pierced by countless tiny particles, was it any different from a shattered body?
From the battle at the water tower up until now, Ayrin had always stood like a s.h.i.+eld in front of her, desperately fighting. Ayrin’s att.i.tude even helped her not to be as fearful of Lotton as she’d been at the start. She felt confident when she looked at Ayrin’s figure, felt as though she herself would become stauncher.
Her whole being crumbled now that she saw Ayrin’s state. The only thought filling her mind was to pounce forward and fight with Lotton to the death.
Lotton was in an inexplicable state at this time.
He didn’t look like a man anymore. Instead, he looked like a beast of death who only knew to kill.
The instant the pale particles had pierced Ayrin, he’d already brushed past Ayrin, his vision landing on Charlotte, his eyes filled with an insane desire to slaughter.
"Don’t even think about it…"
But just then, an Ayrin he’d thought definitely down for the count, an Ayrin he thought would certainly topple over and die suddenly roared.
"Boom!"
Ayrin’s punch landed ferociously on his head, hitting him so hard even his neck made a cracking sound, so hard even the pale-white particles covering him splashed away patch after patch.
"How’s that possible!"
Lotton started recovering some semblance of awareness while flying away to the side, his body totally out of his control.
At the periphery of his vision, he saw Ayrin covered from head to toe in small holes, his body appearing to have completely broken. He was also trembling nonstop, looking like a frail snowman about to crumble at any moment.
But Ayrin still didn’t fall over.
"I’ll never let you kill Charlotte… I must knock you down at all cost!"
Ayrin was also feeling as though his entire body had fallen apart, as though it didn’t obey him anymore. But a strange, inexplicable conviction still made him roar in a tremendous voice once again.
"Why can you still fight in this state? Why!"
Lotton started to feel an acute pain coming from his heck, as if Ayrin’s one punch had cracked all the bones in his neck.
This pain he hadn’t felt for a long time caused the feeling of disbelief and fear to once again emerge in his mind.
What caused him even more fear and disbelief was, he could feel the connection between him the greater part of his body’s strength being severed.
Meanwhile, Ayrin seemed to have directly "eaten" the pale-white particles that’d stabbed into him!
The feeling of being deprived of the greater part of his power, of having it "eaten," even made Lotton sluggish at this time, made him incapable of showing any reaction.
"Boom!"
Amidst Charlotte’s crazed shriek, her presently tiny war avatar crashed against Lotton with all the might it could muster.
"It hurts!"
Although this impact once again sent Lotton splas.h.i.+ng away in the air, it couldn’t give him a mortal wound. But at the same time, the pain in Lotton’s neck became even more acute. Under the force of the impact, the bones that were already cracked started to genuinely shatter.
"I can’t collapse!
"I must fight!
"I must beat him down!
"I have to protect Charlotte!
"I absolutely… absolutely can’t admit defeat!"
Ayrin was already incapable of moving after firing his punch, but after shouting to himself in his mind like this, again and again, he actually, his face thoroughly twisted, his body covered in blood, abruptly lifted his head!
Lotton’s breathing suddenly stopped.
Ayrin shot an Evil Flaming Eye from his hand and struck Lotton with it.
In ordinary times, Lotton would have entirely disregarded an Evil Flaming Eye launched with the power of Ayrin’s arcane particles. But the present Evil Flaming Eye was incomparably frightening in his eyes.
"Boom!"
Almost all the pale particles covering Lotton seemed to be scattered away by the shock. The explosion sent his body directly flying beside the wall, cras.h.i.+ng on the ground.
"Crack…"
Lotton clearly heard the sound of cracked bones coming from his neck.
He couldn’t lift his neck no matter how hard he tried, while he’d lost all feeling from his lower body.
"Ayrin!"
Charlotte saw Lotton crash violently on the ground, unable to get back on his feet.
Her face was completely covered in sweat and tears by now. Throwing caution to the wind, she rushed beside Ayrin.
Ayrin softly topped over just then and fell in her arms.
Ayrin was still looking at her, saying, "I must have won now, right?…" as though he was going to laugh.
Hugging Ayrin, Charlotte could feel Ayrin’s blood soak her clothes. Almost wailing, she yelled, "Kill him!"
The war avatar reached Lotton and landed an unending rain of blows on him.
"Ayrin, don’t die!
"Don’t close your eyes, you have to hold on!
"Ayrin, don’t fall asleep no matter what! If you fall asleep, I’m going to be afraid staying by myself in a place like this!"
She didn’t even know what she was shouting. She merely hugged Ayrin, trembling all over, shouting at the top of her lungs, afraid Ayrin would never wake up again if he ever fell asleep.
"I won’t let you by yourself in a place like this."
Ayrin struggled to open his eyes. He realized he had some trouble clearly distinguis.h.i.+ng Charlotte in front of him. He said, "Charlotte, I won’t die."
All of a sudden, his head dangled down.
Charlotte froze.
"Ayrin! Don’t! Don’t leave me!"
"Ayrin, come back to life, come back to life! I’ll stop being so shy, I’ll stop hiding from you like I used to!"
"Ayrin, you promised me you wouldn’t die, how can you die just like that?"
Charlotte’s tears feel on Ayrin’s face, drop by drop.
"Eh, I’m not dead though…" She suddenly heard Ayrin’s weak voice then.
"Ah?" Charlotte stared.
"I’m just tired, I feel like I have no strength left, so I want to be a bit more comfortable," Ayrin said in a weak voice.
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d, be tired if you’re tired, why did you hang your head down like this? Don’t you know how scared that’d make me? Ayrin, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
Charlotte swore at Ayrin at the top of her lungs. She couldn’t help wanting to smile, yet, with a "Wah," started to cry.
"You can actually swallow someone else’s arcane particles?"
"That’s the real reason why you… only have one open gate… but can still launch so many skills…"
"What on earth is your bloodline… it’s actually powerful enough… to compare to the Evil Dragon’s bloodline…"
Just then, a weak, lifeless voice suddenly came to their ears.
"Lotton isn’t dead yet?"
Charlotte suddenly looked in his direction. She realized her war avatar had vanished entirely, while Lotton lay in the shadows of the wall, not moving a finger.
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d… Idiot… Why the h.e.l.l do you fight? Is it so you can live? Then for whose sake are you living, what’s the dream you’re fighting for?" His vision a little blurry by now, Ayrin struggled up from Charlotte’s arms as though he still wanted to stand up and fight.
"You have no friends, no dreams, only live to kill. You live in fear’s shadow and memories. Is there any sense to it? You might as well directly kill yourself."
Lotton’s lifeless voice mingled with Ayrin’s words: "If you have an enemy, but you simply can’t fight him, if he even controls your entire life in his hands, what can you do?"
"Then find a way to break away from his control! Then fight him! The one who doesn’t even think about fighting him is the true coward, the true idiot," Ayrin said, struggling to talk. Yet, his stone was very firm and certain.
Lotton didn’t speak any longer.
The cervical vertebrae in his neck were fractured. There wasn’t anything he could do to move.
He was even beginning to wait for death to come, wait for the arcane particles barely remaining inside him to fall still. But just then, the arcane particles started flowing inside him again.
Pale particles appeared anew on his skin. He stood up like a zombie propped up by countless pale-white maggots, started moving.
Charlotte shuddered. She wanted to fight.
However, Lotton didn’t walk in their direction. Instead, he walked toward a tunnel behind he’d previously blocked.
His body embedded itself into that tunnel; the particles covering him corroded the debris in this blocked tunnel. A human shape appeared in the pile of debris, while his figure very quickly vanished from Charlotte’s vision.