?
What kind of scandalous talk was this!?
A massive question mark practically materialized over Leon's head. His face twitched, and he began to stammer:
“W-wait, wait, wait! What do you mean by ‘sleep’? What does ‘sleep with me’ mean? Isn't that a bit...”
“Hmm?”
Seeing Leon’s panicked state, it was Alicia’s turn to look confused. She tilted her head and said:
“Just... sleep.”
As she spoke, she pressed her palms together and rested her cheek against them in a universal “sleeping” gesture.
“Oh, so you meant that kind of sleep.” Leon wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Alicia tilted her head again, still looking puzzled.
Leon didn't say anything more. For a moment, he had worried that someone had led Alicia astray, filling her simple mind with the wrong ideas.
Now it seemed that Alicia was still the same innocent, world-ignorant girl she had always been.
Leon took the teddy bear pillow and looked at her, asking, “Is the bed uncomfortable? Is it too hard? I’ll have someone replace it tomorrow and get you a softer one...”
Alicia shook her head.
“Not... the bed.”
“It was... that... kind... old... man... who said.”
“Need... to find... someone... close... to sleep... with...”
A kind old man?
After listening to Alicia's explanation, Leon understood.
Alicia had been about to go to bed tonight, but before she fell asleep, the God of Thieves had suddenly sent her a message.
The gist of it was to have Alicia sleep near someone she felt close to tonight.
Aside from Old Hunter, who was halfway to being a friend, Alicia’s only other close friend was Leon.
Naturally, she had come to Leon, wanting to sleep near him.
“A direct instruction from the God of Thieves...”
Leon fell into thought.
A command from a deity was certainly out of the ordinary.
But... why specify the details of her sleeping arrangements?
This was too strange.
Leon stared at Alicia, and noticing his gaze, she turned her head to look back at him, her eyes filled with curiosity.
She seemed to be asking, “Aren't we going to sleep?”
After watching her for a while and seeing nothing unusual, Leon could only bury his doubts for now.
He led Alicia to his own bedroom. Fortunately, the bed was large enough to accommodate two people with room to spare.
Alicia lay down, clutching her teddy bear pillow, and quickly fell into a deep slumber.
Leon pulled a corner of the blanket over her stomach.
One could leave anything uncovered, but never the stomach.
Leon lay on his back, watching the sleeping Alicia with her eyes closed. He still couldn't find anything wrong.
Just as his eyelids grew heavy and he was about to give up his observation, a cold ripple suddenly radiated from Alicia. It was like a piece of ice brushing against his skin, jolting him awake.
Leon’s eyes went from drowsy to serious. He grabbed his priest's scepter from the bedside and backed away slightly, staring at her.
At that moment, as Alicia slept, her body began to uncontrollably emit Bronze rank arcane power.
The arcane power manifested as ink-black shadows, gradually spreading outward from her chest. Soon, it had covered her torso and limbs.
Leon frowned as he watched, wanting to wake her and interrupt the mysterious spreading shadows.
However, he remembered that Alicia was the chosen of the God of Thieves. Since the deity had instructed her to sleep by his side tonight, he must have anticipated this.
If he were to wake her prematurely, it might cause irreversible consequences.
After a moment of thought, Leon raised his priest's scepter and lit a Light Prayer Orb.
The warm light from the orb shone upon Alicia, and healing energy with the Overflowing trait enveloped her body.
“Whatever the case, I’ll stack the healing first. If anything goes wrong, I can heal her immediately...”
Leon gripped his scepter and watched her intently.
The shadows formed by the arcane power spread further, resembling a black cocoon woven from spider silk, slowly enveloping Alicia completely.
The scene looked very much like a caterpillar about to break out of its cocoon and transform into a butterfly.
Leon continued to watch the black cocoon. After an unknown amount of time, a “click” sounded, and a tiny crack tore open on its surface.
With the appearance of the first crack, a second, a third... hundreds of cracks burst open simultaneously. The threads of shadow snapped and disintegrated, revealing Alicia’s form within.
“P-pink?”
As Alicia emerged from the black cocoon, Leon noticed that her originally long black hair had suddenly turned a brilliant, vibrant pink, possessing a magnificent and strange texture.
“This is... my... destiny. Must... go.”
At that moment, the pink-haired girl in her sleep, eyes still tightly shut, suddenly spoke.
Her voice was unlike her usual slow, dazed tone; it carried an ethereal, airy quality.
The pink-haired Alicia suddenly furrowed her brows, her face contorted with an intensity of pain that seemed barely suppressed.
“Hungry... so hungry... can... they... be eaten...”
“They... smell... so good... the meat... smells... so good...”
“Run... run away... I’m... so hungry... run...!”
Hearing Alicia’s unconscious muttering, Leon tried to piece together any clues.
But her words were too fragmented and low on information to form a clear picture.
Leon scanned the room and saw the lollipops sitting on the bedside table.
He grabbed one, tore off the wrapper, and stuffed it into Alicia’s mouth.
“Don't be hungry, don't be hungry. Have a lollipop! You won't be hungry if you eat a lollipop!”
A second later, as she tasted the sweetness, the look of pain on Alicia’s face vanished, and her furrowed brows gradually relaxed.
Leon breathed a sigh of relief. “The lollipop actually worked—”
Whoosh!
Before he could finish his sentence, Alicia’s eyes snapped open. Her originally emerald pupils had turned a haunting, eerie crimson.
The moment he met those crimson eyes, Leon felt as if he had been struck by lightning. His mind roared with chaotic, bizarre whispers, as if a giant spike was being driven into his head, bringing an uncontrollable, searing pain.
At the same time, Leon felt as if he had fallen into freezing seawater, his body sinking toward the ocean floor uncontrollably...
After an unknown amount of time, the weightless sensation of sinking vanished, and the unbearable pain rapidly subsided.
Leon threw his eyes open, only to find that he was no longer in his room at the Rose Cathedral. He was standing in a vast, boundless wilderness.
Leon looked down but couldn't see his own hands or body.
“It’s like a first-person perspective in a game... have I been dragged into a dream?”
Finding himself in this situation, Leon surprisingly felt no panic. Instead, he was extremely calm.
He was so calm that he could even notice how abnormal this level of composure was.
“This way. Come.”
At that moment, a group of figures appeared before Leon without warning.
Despite the vast, open plain around them, this group seemed to appear out of thin air, standing directly in front of him.
Leading them was a young woman with long, bright pink hair. Her appearance was strikingly similar to Alicia’s, like an adult version of her.
Behind the pink-haired woman followed a dozen children, each appearing to be seven or eight years old.
She led the children toward Leon, yet she seemed completely oblivious to his presence, as if he didn't exist at all.
“It is coming.”
As the group passed by Leon’s side, the pink-haired woman suddenly stopped and looked back.
Leon followed her gaze. On the horizon behind her, a massive, sky-obscuring black cloud was sweeping toward them. It covered an area of over a hundred kilometers, bringing with it a thick scent of blood that rapidly closed in on them.
The pink-haired woman immediately bent down and gently stroked the head of a girl beside her, whispering instructions:
“Bemis... take... everyone... and keep... going... this way. I... will... be back... for you... soon.”
The girl named Bemis nodded obediently, then led the other children forward as instructed.
The pink-haired woman turned around, her cold eyes staring at the surging black cloud.
She suddenly raised her wrist and made a grasping motion, her fingers curling inward.
In the next instant, the magical elements within a radius of tens of thousands of meters went into a frenzy. They were forcibly drawn in like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, frantically converging and compressing into her fair palm, eventually forming an elemental black hole capable of swallowing even light itself.
The pink-haired woman lightly raised her hand, and the elemental black hole shot toward the oncoming black cloud.
“Eradication... of All Things.”
Rate on N.U.
