The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 520: Mother Nature

Chapter 520: Mother Nature

Where is this?

Valen blinked dazedly, looking around. The forest? He frowned when he recognized the trees and the flow of mana. But why didn’t he recognize it immediately?

Valen looked up, and what he saw was...darkness.

Where was the moon? The stars? Where was the freaking sky?

The top of the forest was completely dark, as if it was shrouded in a massive black veil. That was why Valen couldn’t recognize where he was. The lakeside forest, even at night, was not dark. Moonlight shone through the thin foliage, glowing mushrooms climbed the trees, and unique plants from the realm of nature shone like scattered candles.

But this time, not even those little mushrooms and flowers shone, as if lights were getting sucked by something. It was like how a Nightmare fear would induce cold even in the middle of a Salamander’s volcano.

"What...what is happening?" Valen gasped in bewilderment. "Why is the forest like thi--ughh!"

He gasped again, hard, and clutched his chest. His heart was beating even faster, and it felt hot too, searing, like a machine going through overdrive. A crying voice; a scared little crying voice, resounded on the back of his skull.

"Shwa--"

And then, a scream. And not from his mind.

The green eyes opened wide at the sound that was too vivid to be a mere imagination or a soul call. "That’s--"

"Someone is screaming," the Salamander confirmed it, flicking Valen’s left shoulder. "From that way."

Valen turned his head to the left, but another loud voice was coming from the right side--one filled with pain. "Huh..." Valen turned his head to the other side, and this time, another scream came from behind. "What..."

What is happening? Why are people screaming? Who is screaming?

Valen wanted to scream himself from the shock and confusion, which did not bode well with the current condition of his head; muddled and struck by dizziness. The confusion made him freeze in place with an empty mind.

[Papa!]

"Wake up, Valen!" the Salamander slapped his shoulder with its tail. "You can’t stay here! Remember why you are asking to go here in the first place!"

"What? But..." Valen looked around. "Shouldn’t we...shouldn’t we help?"

"What are you talking about?" the little lizard in Valen’s shoulder blazed. "Scream means danger! And who do you think the danger coming for?"

As if giving affirmation, the three fairies that brought Valen there buzzed in urgency again, pulling on the half-druid hair and nightwear.

"Shwa..." Valen’s breath grew quicker as his hazy mind returned to his child. His little flower. "Shwa!"

With an urgent shout full of conviction, Valen pulled himself up and ran across the dark forest with his bare feet.

* * *

"Weak," the Spectre said disdainfully as a shadow moved on their order and choked one of the guards patrolling the forest.

If Nightmare’s specialty was enhancing one’s fear, Spectri could shroud things in darkness and temporarily seal the space, giving no chance for the ambushed guards to make any contact with the outside.

The Spectre, who were part of the first race to be called the Nightwalkers, had faced annihilation and race cleansing at the hand of a Nightmare who they had scorned since his birth. Funnily enough, no one truly minded seeing the Spectri erased from the Realm of Demon, which only heightened their anger and deepened their grudge. Those who managed to survive and ran away were gathering their power again and bidding their time for revenge.

And the time was finally there.

Killing Ra Natha? The Spectre did not want that. They wanted the Nightmare to suffer; to see his castle crumble and his treasure stolen, destroyed in front of his eyes.

But the Spectre knew Ra Natha, despite becoming the Lord of Greed, did not really care about his worldly possessions. It was infuriating for them, the people who would like to see the Nightmare’s downfall.

That was, until the news about a lover came to their attention. A lover he treated like his most precious treasure. And now...

The Spectre threw the lifeless guard to the side like trash, their glowing eyes beneath the cloak looking in a certain direction; where the surrounding mana was concentrating. They snarled and hissed, flicking the air to send their shadow toward the incoming guard.

A child...

"You should never sire a child, Ra Natha!"

The Spectre howled as their shadow gripped the guard and crushed the demon’s skull. This one didn’t even have the chance to scream.

But no matter. The forest was filled with more screams now, as the others attacked the many patrolling guards.

None of those screams could be heard from the outside, not even if someone stood at the pavilion on the lakeside.

"Let’s stop playing around," the information broker called Ocla, who had been following the Spectre, stepped lightly on the forest bed. "The Nightmare will be returning soon."

The Spectre hissed. "So what?!"

"I told you to keep your emotion, tsk--" Ocla shook his head exasperatedly. "You said you want to make a show. Then, shouldn’t you get the goods quickly so you can wait for him in the castle? That way, he can see everything crumble the moment he steps inside the Castle."

The Spectre didn’t like this broker, as much as he disliked the traitorous succubi. But they had to admit that the demon said reasonable things.

The cloaked swayed as the Spectre cocked their head. "Lead the way."

The two of them continued the journey after getting rid of the guards foolishly trying to block their way. How stupid. They should have just run. Although they wouldn’t be able to go out, they might be able to live for a few minutes more.

The Spectre sneered at the futile attempt. From the sounds, one side seemed to have a prolonged battle--to their disappointment. As expected, the others were useless.

But no matter; they would take this treasure or child or whatever themselves, and kill those useless pawns afterward.

"Haa...this annoying illusion," the broker clicked his tongue and took out an ancient artifact he stole in the black market a few years ago.

He heard it belonged to the fallen kingdom of druids, and what do you know--it worked well against this spell that made them keep going in a circle since earlier. As the spell unraveled in front of their eyes, Ocla let out a satisfied, mocking cackle.

"Wouldn’t that Nightmare’s husband throw up some blood if he knew we were using his inheritance to steal his possession?" the broker laughed mirthfully.

"Nothing will be their possession anymore after this."

"You’re right," the broker clapped his hands with a big laugh. "Oh, seems like we found a path."

In front of them, a small road emerged; clear of weeds and flanked with glowing flowers that were struggling to shed any light. The two demons scoffed. "How childish," the Spectre spat with disdain. "A nightmare playing romance..."

They stepped into the path; the Spectre’s shadow crunched the swaying flowers as they passed. Gradually, they saw a silhouette of some kind of structure at the end of the path.

"What’s this?" Ocla frowned in confusion. "A shed?"

The Spectre and the broker looked at each other with narrowed eyes. "Is this the real place? Or a feint?"

The broker took out a small notebook filled with coded information, and shook his head after reading it for a while. "Nope. There’s only one building here. Well..." he looked at the shed again. "It can be a form of feint too. You know, just looking like a shed from the outside?"

"Hmm..."

"Anyway, we’ll know when we broke it down, won’t we?"

Rather than agreeing with words, the Spectre raised their hand and hurled a mass of shadow toward the door.

"Whoa, whoa..." Ocla chuckled as the shadow struck the door. "Be careful not to destroy the whole building. We still want to get the good intact, ok...ay?"

The broker’s voice faltered when the mass of shadow, instead of destroying the door, was disappearing. No--rather, it seemed like the shadow was getting sucked. The Spectre frowned deeply and hissed in reflex, glaring at the shed that didn’t seem like a shed anymore.

"Ha!" Ocla clapped his hands. "This is just telling us they hide something very special inside."

The Spectre clicked their tongue. "Hah! Let’s see how much this thing can block."

With that, they raised their arm again and a mass of shadow began to gather on top of them. Different from the mass before, which was only as big as a throwing ball, the Spectre let their energy accumulate. The mass became bigger and bigger that Ocla decided to scoot away in case he would be impacted.

"Hey, just be careful about destroying it..."

"If it’s destroyed, then it’s destroyed," the Spectre growled. In their petty anger, or perhaps just a bruised ego, they forgot about the original objective anymore.

It wouldn’t matter to destroy something they were planning to destroy anyway.

They exhaled harshly and twitched their fingers, getting ready to throw the mass of wriggling shadow. At that moment, the shed seemed to rattle slightly, as if responding to the energy, and the Spectre smirked.

In their mind, it was the sight of a Nightmare getting rattled.

"Just di--"

CRASH!

SLAM!

A storm of fire struck the side of the Spectre, and a fierce blow of wind scattered the mass of shadow. The ground cracked and thick roots pierced into the sky, chasing the surprised broker. With the force of a falling meteor striking their side, the Spectre flung into a tree--or so they thought, before a boulder sprouted from the ground in their path, crashing into the Spectre’s flinging body and would have broke several bones and cracking their skull if they weren’t quick to cast a barrier.

"Who--!"

"How dare you!"

Standing on the path they used earlier, a human stood with fire and lightning crackling around him; green eyes gleamed as sharp vines and tree roots danced around him. Every pore of his fair skin exuded pure mana; every strand of his hair flowed with magic.

And every spark of that power was pointing at the two demons; the wrath of the forest, the force of nature.

"How dare you lay a hand on my child!"

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