Demilo, the shepherd, rode on the snake-scorpion dragon, commanding the legion to enter the 73rd compound resource point – the cave.
Arriving at the entrance, there was still no sign of the ferocious wolf dragon, it should have been ransacked.
Was it a passing sorcerer, or a nearby wandering crystal dragon?
Both were possible, anyway, the troops sent to guard the resource point were destined to be on the list of expenses to be written off… How many snake-scorpion dragons should be left here to guard this place?
Seemingly aware of an imminent personnel transfer, the snake-scorpion dragons became restless, while the thousand-feather bird dragons stood nonchalantly on one leg, resting, and even had the leisure to groom each other – as the only long-range follower force under Demilo’s command, they naturally enjoyed treatment comparable to that of lovers.
Arriving at the hall of the cave, Demilo waved his hand, instructing the snake-scorpion dragons to move the supplies.
The clever children all felt that the results of their upcoming work would determine whether they would stay and rot in this cave or continue to live the high life with the shepherd. Instantly, their morale soared as they searched the cave, their scorpion tails raised high.
Demilo could clearly feel the change in the emotions of his followers, but he didn’t care, gesturing for his mount to sit down. The snake-scorpion dragon obediently lowered its body, its scorpion tail curving into a roller coaster-level arc, the tip landing perfectly on its back, serving as a pillow for Demilo.
Demilo closed his eyes, selecting leisurely moments from his memory album. But as he looked, his gaze fell on the dream that he had already browsed through a thousand times, but seemed destined to view a thousand times more.
It was the most miserable moment of Demilo’s life when he was 13 years old.
Demilo was born into the Lieba family, a surname that meant nothing, because when he was 11, the family was exterminated due to the corruption of his uncle, and his parents were also implicated. In that era, nobles and the royal family were like playing a game of cat and mouse, seeing who could embezzle faster or who could catch the other faster.
The young Demilo managed to escape the legal sanctions by hiding in the maid’s house, and then, taking advantage of the situation, he went from being a noble young master to an orphan taken in by the maid, living in the dirtiest and smallest utility room. He quickly became sensible, eating less, working more, keeping his head down, and within two years, he had repaid double the suffering he had endured in the previous ten years.
Clearly, fate was a harsh loan shark, and double was just the interest. In that year when he was 13, the maid said she had found a suitable apprenticeship for him and had two burly men who looked like blacksmiths take him away, and the destination was the local famous “Pigeon Fish Cage.”
It was a place for buying and selling sex.
Male workers called it white pigeons, female workers called it grass fish, and at that time, Demilo didn’t know the origin of these names, but he soon understood.
When the malicious boss told Demilo the truth, Demilo didn’t feel fear or any other emotions, but accepted the fact calmly. Perhaps when he heard the increasingly frequent complaints from the maid and saw the husband’s malicious expression, and the maid’s apologetic eyes, he anticipated that fate wanted to take back his principal this time.
As a fugitive, he had the freedom to choose to agree or die.
The boss also told him the scope of his future work: a slightly attractive young man like him could not only sell his body, but also gather intelligence, assassinate important people, frame others, and if lucky, be bought by some wealthy man who lusted after his beauty… Clearly, working overtime was the norm here, so even if he was caught by the police department later, he couldn’t claim to be innocent.
With the hope of being able to survive and become someone’s bedding in the future, the teenage boy in distress walked into one of the rooms on the top floor of the Pigeon Fish Cage, which was the staff dormitory.
The warm yellow walls, the crackling fireplace, several tasteless red and black sofas, and snacks and drinks scattered on the low table. Because it was the highest floor, the warm light of the stars shone unreservedly through the balcony French windows, providing a stage for the dancing dust.
But the floor was very clean, probably cleaned often.
“Hey, your skin is so fair!” A tall, plump girl approached Demilo, reaching out to touch the precious legacy left by ten years of noble life: “So smooth and tender, oh…”
“Finally, a new person?” Another seemingly younger and cuter boy jumped up, clenching his fists in excitement: “Am I finally going to be a senior?”
“No, you still seem to be the youngest.” Sitting on the far side of the sofa, the quiet girl put down her book, “Drink more milk and grow up quickly.”
Demilo glanced over, and there were no words in the quiet girl’s book, only blood-boiling images… Studying hard after work?
The cute boy looked distressed: “But milk tastes fishy…”
“Oh, I forgot!”
The balcony French windows were pushed open, and a beautifully sculpted figure walked into the room, wearing loose-fitting shirts and short shorts, carrying a plate of freshly dried clothes, exuding a homely atmosphere yet extremely alluring.
The orange-yellow warm light lingered on him, giving him a sacred color.
Was he a man? Or a woman? Gender seemed to lose its meaning in an instant.
“The boss only told us this morning that there would be a new person in the dormitory, and we didn’t have time to prepare food. But we only start work in the evening, so how about we have a welcome party in the afternoon?”
“Is this something worth celebrating?” The quiet girl said what Demilo also wanted to say.
“Yay, a party!” The tall girl and the cute boy cheered together.
“Are we living together with men and women?” Demilo asked the first question after coming in.
“Yeah, the boss said it’s too troublesome to have all men or all women, but living together means we can supervise each other, at least there won’t be so much trouble… He also said this is his management secret!”
But the risk of living together with men and women… Right, they didn’t care about that risk here.”Alright, it’s time to move on to the next step!” The beautiful woman casually placed the basin of clothes down. “Let me help you choose a nice and suitable name for the newcomer!”
“Here we go again…” The other three people sighed helplessly.
“It’s true that we should choose a new name to break away from the past,” Demilo nodded. “After all…”
The beautiful woman smiled and shook her head. “No, a new name is not to abandon the past, but to embrace the future. Think about it, our original names were not chosen by us, but our names are supposed to accompany us for life. It’s unreasonable. Choosing a new name represents that we want to take control of our own future and say goodbye to the fate that we dislike!”
If it weren’t for the staff at the pigeon cage’s dormitory, Demilo might have agreed.
“So, are you willing to let me choose a name for you?”
“Whatever you want.”
“Great!” The beautiful woman took out a book from the bookcase, a book that seemed to have been frequently read and had pages falling apart.
“What book is this?” Demilo asked.
“‘Collection of Stars’.” The beautiful woman said, “A poet has given a name to every star in the sky and has assigned various meanings to them. The names in there are just perfect for reference!”
“Every star… Aren’t there thousands of them?”
“Even more! So, any good name can be found. For example, Anlielian, meaning the ink fragrance of the page.”
The quiet girl tilted her head.
“For example, Luoya, meaning the joyful sunlight.”
The cute boy raised his head, emitting a warm aura even though he wasn’t in the sunlight.
“For example, Shiliana, meaning the colorful butterfly.”
The tall girl tiptoed and spun in place, her dress twirling, fitting her name.
“And then… ah, I’ve decided, it’s going to be this one, Demilo! You will be called Demilo from now on!” The beautiful woman hastily decided on someone’s lifelong name.
“Is there any meaning to it?”
“Demilo, meaning the reef in the rapids,” the beautiful woman smiled. “It means you will never be knocked down by fate.”
“And what about you? What’s your name?”
Anlielian, Luoya, and Shiliana showed a look of “finally, it’s coming.”
“And I’m amazing!”
The beautiful woman jumped onto the sofa, striking a pose as if she were about to transform. “Representing the ‘Fus’ of domination, and the ‘Loda’ of conquest, my name is Fusoya, meaning to dominate fate and conquer everything!”
It was indescribably foolish. Demilo and the other three exchanged glances, reaching a unanimous consensus with the strangers they had just met.
“Anyway.”
The beautiful woman came over and hugged Demilo intimately, giggling, “Demilo, welcome.”
Two years later, Demilo once again experienced the warmth of an embrace, and his face, which had been completely numb from the torment of fate, softened slightly for the first time.
Fate took away all his capital, but then approved a loan for him with negative credit.
This was the first meeting between Demilo and Fusoya, and the most important moment in Demilo’s life.
Hiss, hiss, hiss—
The sound of the snake-scorpion dragon rubbing against the ground disturbed Demilo’s beautiful dream. He opened his eyes and saw that his right hand was raised, as if trying to hold onto something intangible.
Soon, he thought, he would know what he was feeling at that moment.
He was about to regain his heartbeat.
Demilo touched his chest, which was empty, with nothing inside.
This was the toll that must be paid to pass through the six levels of hell. All souls would be washed of all emotions in hell, and only pure memories could reach the virtual realm. And they, the souls ‘activated’ by the gods, were nothing more than crippled lives born from memories.
Because they had never had a body, naturally they had no heartbeat, and no emotions.
Even if he looked through his memories over and over again, he could not truly understand Demilo’s true feelings, as if he were trying to feel true happiness by picking someone else’s nose.
Between him and his memories, there was a curtain of death.
The only solution was to retrieve the fragments left in hell, fill the gaps in the soul, and make the rotten heart beat again.
And this kind of miracle, undoubtedly, only the gods could do. So, from the moment of his birth, he had been fighting for the gods.
Six levels of hell, six fragments. He had accumulated enough merits to exchange for the first fragment, and then he would probably understand why Demilo attached so much importance to the first encounter with Fusoya.
Soon, it was almost time. In a few decades, it would be almost time. After all, it had been over a thousand years…
Demilo turned his head and found that the snake-scorpion dragons seemed to want to rebel— they hadn’t even brought over a single common resource. How daring.
No, it was only at this moment that the Star Shepherd raised his mind to observe the surroundings, and found a thin layer of powder on the ground, with no trace of any materials around the cave, and the entire family of the ferocious wolf dragons had disappeared neatly. This could only lead to one possibility— the materials had been taken away.
Had an enemy legion sneaked in to raid? But this was their Star Hall’s territory. Weren’t the other legions afraid of being wiped out? Or was this the prelude to a large-scale invasion?
And the closest hostile force to this place was… Blood Tomb!
Could it be those annoying lunatics from Blood Tomb? In the previous two Six Nations Wars, Demilo had dealt with the tomb keepers of Blood Tomb. Clearly, everyone was a broken soul, but for some reason, the tomb keepers seemed to be missing a brain, and coupled with the ghouls that seemed to have fermented in the sewers in Blood Tomb…
Buzz, buzz, buzz!Suddenly, an unheard roar of steel echoed from the entrance of the cave. Demilo turned his head and saw a steel beast charging through the entrance like a storm, its sharp front blades slicing through the armor of the serpent-scorpion dragons as if cutting through warm butter, instantly crushing the makeshift defense line composed of serpent-scorpion dragons and barreling towards Demilo!
A thousand feathers shot forth!
With a thought, Demilo commanded the thousand-feathered bird dragons to take flight, their dense feathered arrows preemptively targeting the empty space in front of Demilo. Containing the ‘Piercing’ Sorcery Spirit within them, each volley was capable of annihilating a large number of knowledge creatures!
However, the steel monster abruptly braked to a halt, its brake pads screeching, emitting a tar-like fragrance. The intense inertia drew a doughnut-shaped arc, stopping just in time before the rain of arrows.
Only a few sparse feathered arrows landed on it, but they were blocked by a transparent protective barrier, safeguarding the manipulator inside the beast.
The serpent-scorpion dragons quickly formed a defensive line in front of Demilo, as protecting the commander is of utmost importance in legion combat.
The Star Shepherd gazed at the three individuals inside the steel monster, and in the moment their eyes met, both parties recognized each other’s identities.
Are they Sorcerers… So, is this steel monster a miraculous creation? Mechanical? Alchemical? It could also be biological, perhaps a modified mount from a cuttlefish dragon…
Many thoughts flashed through Demilo’s mind, but they did not hinder his command. With a mere thought, the serpent-scorpion dragons and thousand-feathered bird dragons formed a pincer attack from all directions, surging like waves towards the three Sorcerers who had taken a wrong turn.
He had no desire to engage in conversation with his juniors.
Even if the other party, like himself, was a seeker of the Virtual Realm, even if the deity had not imposed any communication restrictions on him, Demilo still had no interest in exchanging even a few words with people born a thousand years in the future, even though he knew that revealing just a hint of the secret of the heroic spirit could cause a huge uproar in reality.
The only desire of the heroic spirit was to complete its own imperfections; beyond that, it sought nothing else.
As for the real world above hell, the heroic spirits treated it as one would a lover with whom they had broken up and blocked on all social media—stingy with even a fraction of their thoughts. No expectations, no hatred, only indifference; they did not care how the world they once lived in had changed.
Return to your place, the living.
Faced with the oncoming horde of monstrous creatures, the steel monster roared again, extending five pipes from its rear, from which explosive sounds emanated. The pipes spewed out a venomous green gas, the malicious fumes almost instantly threatening to engulf the entire cave!
Facing the exhaust pipes of the sports car, Demilo was directly sprayed in the face, his hair blown back!
Buzz—Buzz—Buzz—
Amidst the heavy roars of the steel monster, a sentence in the clear and standard language of Sorcerers was intermingled: “Ah, the feeling of letting one rip and then running away is truly exhilarating~”
Awakening from the Eternal Dream after a thousand years, this was the first human speech Demilo heard.