A flash of surprise appeared in Evangeline’s eyes, then her lips curved. "Of course."
’The problem with Nix and Loras... I’ve sorted out the main threads for now, but I can’t solve it. It’s better to keep them close, observe them carefully, and study them whenever I can. I’ll probably have to start with Loras.’
"When are we leaving?" Nix tilted his head slightly, his long lashes casting a shadow beneath his eyes.
"When your wounds have healed." Evangeline’s gaze swept over his ravaged body. Old and new injuries crisscrossed his skin like cracked veins on a flower petal. She pursed her lips and turned to go make food.
Nix watched her back, a faint light rippling in his purple eyes.
At night, a torrential rain began to fall, pouring from the sky.
Nix’s eyes snapped open, eting Evangeline’s cold gaze.
"Blood." A sinister chill swirled in his purple eyes.
"Sothing’s happened at Blackwater Swamp."
In the dark of night, the swamp was shrouded in a curtain of rain. The stench of rot and blood grew thicker.
"It’s too quiet." Evangeline stared at the deathly still Blackwater Swamp, her expression tranquil.
A dark light glowed in Nix’s purple eyes. He looked down at the swamp and lifted a finger. Vines shot out from all directions as if they were alive, burrowing deep into the muck.
A mont later, thick, large bubbles rose to the surface, and a horrifying GURGLE echoed from the swamp.
Suddenly, the entire Blackwater Swamp began to tremble violently.
Corpse after corpse, gnawed clean, was forcefully dragged from the mire by the vines. Countless swarms of insects were devouring the remains, their mandibles opening and closing, crushing bone and creating a soft, crunching sound.
The faint CRUNCHING sounds rged together, exceptionally clear in the dead silence of the swamp.
Evangeline frowned as she looked at the bizarre insects.
She grabbed Nix’s wrist with a reverse grip and leaped into the air.
Abruptly, the BUZZ of the swarms’ vibrating wings filled the air!
Dozens of vines shot up from the ground, weaving into an impenetrable barrier at Nix’s fingertips, shielding Evangeline completely behind him.
"HISSS—"
With a soft sound, venom spilling from the insects’ mandibles grazed the back of his hand. His flesh lted away like wax, exposing stark white bone to the damp air. Nix didn’t even flinch.
Evangeline pulled Nix back to the front of the bamboo house. Without a word, she grabbed his hand and looked at the bleeding bone on his long hand, corroded by the venom. Her brow furrowed deeply as she took out a dicinal powder and carefully sprinkled it onto the wound.
As the powder touched his flesh, it stung like a thousand needles.
Nix’s knuckles instinctively tensed, turning white, but he remained silent.
His gaze fell upon her taut profile. He said softly, "I’m not..."
"What have I taught you?" Evangeline snapped, her eyes as sharp as blades.
Nix’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He lowered his gaze and stood still, obediently falling silent.
In the night, the rustling of the crawling insects began to rise. The swarm was massive, like a tide, and in an instant, it had surrounded the front of the bamboo house so densely that it was suffocating. The sheer black mass was overwhelming.
Tens of thousands of compound eyes stared at the two of them, enough to make one’s hair stand on end.
Yet Evangeline didn’t even bat an eyelash. She focused only on the grueso wound on the back of Nix’s hand, her fingertips moving with extre gentleness, as if terrified of hurting him.
Nix, too, ignored everything around them, his eyes lowered as he quietly watched her focused profile.
"So, the way you treat your own Beast Husband... isn’t entirely cruel and ruthless after all."
The voice was like a thin, cold line of ice, carrying a kind of suppressed, chilling brutality.
As footsteps approached, the dense swarm of insects retreated like a tide, rustling as they parted to form a path, as if welcoming their king.
Evangeline’s fingers looped a bandage around Nix’s wound, tying it into a small bow.
Only then did she slowly raise her eyes to look at the figure in the darkness.
The curtain of rain was like gauze, obscuring everything.
Only a pair of eyes seed to pierce the watery mist, clashing with Evangeline’s gaze.
They were a pair of magnificent, iridescent eyes, as if a shattered rainbow were imprisoned within their pupils.
Evangeline watched quietly for a mont before saying softly, "The Everwake."
"Tch." A disdainful sneer sounded, and the insect swarm suddenly grew agitated.
Nix shifted slightly, but then saw a cluster of golden fla leap to life at Evangeline’s fingertips.
The fla was barely an inch tall, but the mont it ignited, it vaporized the rain into mist and tore the darkness and shadows to shreds. The area in front of the bamboo house beca as bright as day!
Ten paces away, a tall figure stood silently in the rain.
Black beast skin was wrapped around his lean, powerful body, outlining the graceful lines of his muscles. His long, ink-black hair trailed to the ground, mingling with the strange, colorful butterfly-like markings on his cheeks and adding to his feral appearance.
Most captivating of all were those rainbow eyes, swirling with seven different colors.
’Every ti one of these male leads appears, I just want to drag the original owner of this body out for a whipping,’ Evangeline thought, feeling a bit emotional as she stared at The Everwake’s figure. ’How could she bear to ruin such top-tier n?’
’These were all devastatingly handso n she had wronged.’
’However, The Everwake’s appearance was vastly different from when he was enslaved in the Oasis Tribe.’
’His blond hair, perhaps due to his chrysalis-like rebirth, had turned ink-black. Even his pupils were now stained with all the colors of the world, making him even more bewitching than before.’
Evangeline tilted her head slightly. The fla danced on her fingertips, its light causing her narrow eyes to flicker between light and shadow.
Her lips curved into a smirk. "Are you here to kill ?"
The Everwake took a few steps forward, slowly approaching Evangeline.
The swarm surged forward, their mandibles opening and closing with a chilling, crisp CLACKING sound.
"Kill you?" The Everwake suddenly let out a low laugh.
He stared at Evangeline, the seven colors in his irises swirling strangely. "Wouldn’t that be... letting you off too easy?"
Each word sounded as if it were being crushed between his teeth, wrapped in hatred. The butterfly markings on The Everwake’s cheeks seed to pulse with his emotions, shimring with a phosphorescent light.
At that mont, Nix grabbed Evangeline’s wrist and pulled her behind him protectively.
His purple eyes glowed with a deathly chill as his gaze clashed with The Everwake’s, refusing to back down.
The Everwake’s gaze swept over the nine-star pattern on Nix’s forehead, the light in his eyes faltering for a mont.
He raised a hand and gently stroked the butterfly markings on his own cheek, then chuckled softly. "How interesting. How much ti has passed? Soone who suffered the sa humiliation as in the Oasis Tribe has actually reached the Nine-star Extre Realm."
"Loras... the way you’re protecting her now, it reminds ..."
"...of you, locked deep in that cave. Bound tightly by vines, covered in blood, begging her for rcy."
The Everwake gently lifted a finger, and the swarm suddenly seethed, surging as if it had a mind of its own.
Tens of thousands of venomous insects climbed over one another, reorganizing themselves until they gradually ford a vivid, lifelike scene.
In a dark, gloomy cave, a stark-naked, pale-skinned youth was curled up in a corner. His shattered Star Pattern flickered erratically, dimming bit by bit with each of his pained gasps.
"Do you rember?" The Everwake’s voice was laced with gleeful amusent, his seven-colored eyes growing even more brilliant.
Evangeline’s brow furrowed. ’Another lunatic.’
’I feel like I could open my own asylum just to lock them all up!’
Nix’s gaze swept over the image of the boy woven from insects, not a single ripple of emotion in his purple eyes.
"Evie, get back."
His voice was soft, yet it instantly threw the interwoven swarm of insects into a restless frenzy.
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