"Hey! Lad, come over here. I've put up ads for so long, and you're the very first person to show up."
"Lad, what's your name?"
"Abbas, Abdullah Abbas."
"Good, Abbas, come inside the house. I'll pour you some hot water to soak your feet."
He seems like a rather nagging old man, Abbas thought, and he looks just like a quail.
"Hey, Abbas, it's already very late. Stay here for the night."
"Hey, Abbas, would you like to come build a snowman with me?"
"Hey, Abbas, bring your brothers along too. It's too wasteful for an old man like me to live in such a big house; a few more kids will make it livelier."
What a noisy quail, Abbas thought, though having a place for a free meal and a free roof over his head wasn't bad either.
"Hey, why are you kids back so late today? Did you run off to play wild again?"
Dusk was falling. Eight children with twigs they had scavenged walked through the ankle-deep snow, the setting sun stretching their shadows long and thin. The quail-like old man stood guard at the courtyard gate, waving vigorously at the children returning late.
"I must say, why take in these stray-dog-like kids? Sooner or later they're going to stir up trouble!"
"You know, I'm a man growing old and close to death. Only stray dogs keep company with a dying man like me."
"If they stir up some massive trouble, you won't have an easy time cleaning it up!"
"Forget it, I'm already this old. What could I possibly fear?"
What a gossipy town mayor, Abbas thought. Just wait until we smash your windows.
"Hey, Abbas, do you want to join their band? I can help you."
"See that, Abbas? This is the birthday gift I bought for you. Listen up, all you little brats—I'm good to Abbas because Abbas is the most obedient. Whichever of you listens to me best gets a gift too."
Such an annoying old bastard, Abbas thought. He just wants us to stay and keep him company, what's there to be so smug about?
"Hey, Abbas, come with me. I have a secret to show you."
Acting all mysterious, what is he up to? Abbas thought with disdain. Trying to use something else to win me over so I'll keep staying here and keeping him company?
"See? I really do have a lot of money. I can send you to university in the outside world, and even put out a record for you."
Oh, Abbas shrugged. Ghost if I believe a word you say, you just want to trick me into staying.
"Don't you guys know? The director hides gold bars right there in his bedroom safe." Abbas mentioned the gold bars to his brothers, and they exchanged startled glances.
The eldest boy propped his chin with his hand and paced back and forth, then suddenly stopped, turned around, and flashed Abbas a flippant smile.
"Hey, I say, let's steal the old man's gold bars and run away."
"Run away? Where to?"
"To the outside world. I hear the outside world has everything. Once we have money, all of that will be ours. Do you really expect us to spend our whole lives in the mountains keeping an old man company?"
"Hey, once we have money, we can go to the outside world. The outside world is so much more fun."
"Hey, then let's go take the old man's gold bars. Are you coming?"
That sounds great, what a brilliant idea, Abbas thought. Do I really want to spend my whole life in the mountains keeping an old man company?
But the old man only showed his gold bars to me, wouldn't doing this be terribly unfair to him?
"Let's forget it," Abbas shook his head and said softly, "Don't do this."
The leading big boy shrugged and said nothing more.
Yet the director's cries of agony ultimately rang out from the bedroom. Abbas didn't dare go in, nor did he even dare cast a single glance inside.
"Listen, if you dare scream or say a word about this, we'll bury you in the cellar too!"
Abbas was terrified. He ran out all by himself, running with every ounce of strength he had toward the town. He didn't know why he was running back to the town—perhaps to escape those kids, perhaps to escape whatever was about to happen, or perhaps simply because he had nowhere else to go. The only places he knew were that house and that town, so he could only run there.
Snow fell across the vast earth. From afar, a massive fire could be seen burning in the forest; the dark shadow amidst the flames was the house he had lived in for so long.
Even on a snowy night like this, shouldn't that house be burned down to literally nothing? Abbas stood in a daze, staring blankly at the firelight, the blazing inferno reflecting in his green pupils.
Fortunately, fortunately I ran out, Abbas thought.
Yet the next moment he froze, because he suddenly realized he didn't know where to run next. He had run out of that burning house, he had escaped those kids, but where was he supposed to go from now on? When the time came that he wanted to run away again, where could he flee?
There originally was a place he could have fled to, but now he had already escaped from it.
And that very place was now burning in flames!
Abbas panicked. He truly panicked. For the first time in his life, he realized he was about to lose something important. He was about to lose that house, he was about to lose that old man, he was about to lose the place that might have been called "home"!
He ran back like a madman, running desperately, losing count of how many times he fell in the snow, but every time he scrambled up and kept running. He ran all the way back to the house, but the house had already been reduced to ruins.
He knelt blankly in the snow, feeling for the first time as though something inside his heart had been lost—it felt hollow, and somewhat painful.
Warm, damp liquid streamed down his cheeks. In a daze, he wiped his face and stared blankly at his palm.
Probably melted snow, right? he thought. Tonight's snow is really heavy.
Yet his chest felt so stuffed, a suffocating sensation, and his vision blurred.
"Ah!——" He suddenly roared up at the sky. His green pupils transformed into the lava-like gold-red, instantly swallowed by a blinding white. Wild dancing arcs of lightning burst from within his body, instantly sweeping away all the accumulated snow around him.
He slowly bent his body, supporting himself with both hands as his ten fingers dug deeply into the soil. Warm, damp liquid dropped onto the earth.
So they were tears after all, he thought.
So when he lost that old bastard, his heart really would ache.
...
Abbas snapped his eyes open. The room was deathly quiet. He wiped his face and felt wetness on his palm.
So many years had passed. He had entered Kassel College, served as the president of the Lionheart Club, and become the elite among the elites of the Secret Party's younger generation. In the eyes of others, he was noble, elegant, calm, confident, powerful, and profound—like a lone tiger walking among a crowd. You had to revere him and respect him, but you could never truly see through him.
Only he knew that no matter how many years passed, there was still a stubborn little kid inside his heart who could never run out of that snowy night's forest. Later, he never mingled with wild kids again, never smashed anyone else's windows, and never snatched anyone else's food. His bloodline awakened on that snowy night, as if the gods had bestowed upon him the power of vengeance. Afterwards, he found Kassel College on his own, becoming one of the most promising trainees in the Secret Party's new generation.
He had once wondered: if he truly was something born after the causal threads were distorted, could these memories of his be fake as well?
Yet every detail in his memories was so real, except that he couldn't clear their faces.
Until he saw that figure in white in the painting, something deep inside his mind suddenly loosened.
Whether that was a god, a Dragon King, or something else entirely, he had a premonition that the figure in white would give him some answers.
Outside the porthole, the night sky suddenly appeared. The submarine had quietly surfaced to the sea.
Christmas Eve was almost here.
Abbas glanced at the time; there was still an hour until December 25th.
"We aren't far from those coordinates now. At our current speed sailing on the surface, we can arrive right on time."
The gentle sea breeze ruffled the hair of everyone on deck as the first mate pointed out the direction for them.
"Keep your weapons ready," Schneider said. "Maybe Leviathan is nearby."
"Kamaitachi" silently activated. Caesar stood at the very front of the deck with his eyes closed, the biting sea breeze freezing his blond hair into icicles.
"Are we not going up to take a look?" In the room on the lower deck of the submarine, Finger was gnawing on a piece of bread while Mai Sakatoku sat in the corner of the room looking out the window.
"If Leviathan unleashes a Spiritual Word right now, the ones standing on deck will be the first to die." Mai Sakatoku shrugged. "I actually thought you were quite afraid of death."
"I am a bit scared," Finger scratched his head, "though if I could die alongside a beauty like you, it doesn't seem quite as scary."
Mai Sakatoku shot him a cold glance. "Then when I die, I'll definitely kick you away first."
"Hey now, come on, we've been through life and death together several times already. Why don't you trust me?" Finger wore a look of aggrieved indignation. "Showing such distrust for a teammate will drastically lower our combat effectiveness as a team!"
"It's not that I don't trust you. It's just that whenever I put my finger under your nose and confirm you're breathing, I know for a fact you're a scumbag."
"Hey, you're degrading me way too much by saying that. Even if I'm not breathing, it doesn't mean I've got any morals left!"
"When it comes to having no morals, you must be the genuine S-class!"
"The prerequisite for rating me as S-class is that S-class is the highest rank available!"
Truly, if a person has no face, they are invincible under heaven. Mai Sakatoku couldn't help covering her face, not wanting to talk to him anymore.
Finger suddenly stood up and began putting on his coat, looking as though he wanted to head up to the deck.
"I am definitely not going with you," Mai Sakatoku said lazily. "By then you'll just have to die alone."
"Then I'll risk my life to run back before I die." Finger looked dead serious. "I just hope you're still taking a bath when I run back, so I can die without regrets."
"Get lost!" Mai Sakatoku kicked Finger right in the backside, sending him flying straight out the cabin door.
"Yare yare, what a naughty fellow." A tiny figure jumped down from the bed and stood beside Mai Sakatoku.
Mai Sakatoku lowered her head. "The Boss."
The Boss raised his arm and patted Mai Sakatoku's shoulder. "I rushed over this time because some problems are about to arise. Lu Mingfei hasn't reached his Throne yet, and the challengers are already waiting on the journey... If a fight breaks out later, I won't be able to rush over again, so while there's still time now, let me come over and give you a buff."
Hearing this, Mai Sakatoku understood immediately. "A new Dragon King is going to appear?"
"The old king is destined to be killed by the new king, but who can become the new king remains to be seen," The Boss said. "Our Lu Mingfei is currently in a period of confusion. I have a premonition that the final day is not far off."
Mai Sakatoku froze for a moment, then thought of something and asked in a low voice, "Ragnarok?"
"When the devil is no longer satisfied with a delusional reality, it will break through that cage of happiness, and the world will become its stage. A wildfire named loneliness will shroud heaven and earth," The Boss said indifferently.
"That would be the end of the world, then," Mai Sakatoku sighed softly. "Will there still be a savior?"
"Hard to say. Though if the end of the world you're referring to is something else, Potato Chips has already created an end of the world," The Boss shrugged. "Although the scale was a bit over the top, it gave me new inspiration."
"Still going to keep protecting Lu Mingfei?"
"No... I can already faintly see that Throne. Our good actor Lu Mingfei has grown up; some roads he needs to walk by himself," The Boss said. "When he wins the final challenge and walks before the ultimate Throne, the entire world will usher in a new era."
The Boss pushed open the cabin door. The patrolling soldiers in the corridor seemed completely unable to see him. With his hands clasped behind his back, he walked through the corridor, softly humming an ancient opera tune.
The small katana at Mai Sakatoku's waist vibrated gently, as if it could burst into flames at any moment. She knew that the next time she drew her blade, she would possess invincible power.
The time had finally arrived.
On the distant land, the bells of Christmas Eve chimed. The children had already entered sweet dreams, waiting for Santa Claus's gifts to be placed in the stockings at the head of their beds. The Christmas trees glowed with lights under the night sky, gift boxes piled beneath them, and snowflakes fell in a flurry, washing away the clamor of all things in the world.
The temperature plummeted abruptly. A dazzling aurora lit up the sky, and the entire sea area began to freeze, the ice layer climbing upward along the outer walls of the submarine.
Caesar opened his eyes. "It's here."
Not far away, Rybalko gripped the AK47 in his hands. Whale songs, inaudible to ordinary people, drifted across the sea surface, and a massive dark shadow passed beneath the deep water.
"There!" someone suddenly shouted. Everyone turned their heads in unison, seeing an island reflected in the distant waters—that mausoleum-like island!
"Prepare to submerge." The first mate called for everyone to return to the submarine; if they didn't submerge soon, the vessel would quickly be frozen onto the ice surface.
"If we go from underwater, we should be able to enter Avalon," Caesar whispered into Schneider's ear.
Schneider nodded silently, his fists already clenched. Caesar felt as though the man beside him were burning.
Strangely enough, it seemed not only Schneider was burning, but also the perpetually silent Abbas.