The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 524: Just like the first time

Chapter 524: Just like the first time

Things had been going wrong ever since Natha came to visit the warzone.

The Lord of Wrath had been especially stubborn, but not because he was rebelling against Natha or anything. Natha could tell from the Lord’s thoughts that someone was riling the Lord, baiting his ego and fueling his annoyance. He wanted to bulldoze through the border straight to the palace, to crush the humans who kept on taunting him about how he could do anything against the Goddess’s protection.

It was particularly annoying because the humans sent such taunts from afar while hiding behind the magicians.

It was hard even for Natha to convince the young Lord to not go overboard and lose his fighters uselessly like the previous Lord. It took hours and hours of conversation, back and forth between giving advice and pacifying a tantrum child, all the while trying to figure out who had been railing this demon’s temperament.

It was tricky enough doing it when he was in good condition, but trying to be the calm one when his heart was filled with anxiety and his mind kept running to his beloved sweetheart was frustrating.

Haa...Natha could only helplessly grit his teeth. If he stormed out in anger, it would only mean he wasted the time he already spent coming there, so he forced himself to endure it.

Thankfully, the servants reported that Valen ate his dinner well and fell asleep while watching their child’s recording together with his two companions. Natha promised himself to take a few days off and pampered his husband fully once he got back.

Which he needed to do as soon as possible, but what the hell was wrong with these humans?

"They threw everything in their arsenal as if it’s the last battle," Eruha narrowed his eyes as they watched the battlefield from the Res Fortress. It wasn’t just the intensity, but also time--it was almost midnight already. An attack during this hour usually only happened during an ambush, not a regular skirmish. "People only do that when they are desperate, but we are still fighting at the border. There’s no need to be that desperate yet."

"So why do you think they act like that?" Natha asked with a suppressed annoyance.

Eruha stroked his lips for a few seconds before replying dubiously. "If they’re sure they will win."

"How can they be so sure? The only reason they won the last time is because that Hero and our young master took down the previous Lord," Lesta said with a frown. "The Lord isn’t even in the frontline right now..."

As Lesta’s voice faltered in the end, they looked at each other and witnessed the same suspicion in their eyes.

"Call him," Natha ordered swiftly, and Lesta was already on it before the nightmare even finished activating the communication orb.

Eruha had no apparent change in his expression, but his mind churned fast in wonder. If what they were suspecting was true, why now? Why did they push all this chaos when another Lord was present?

"I can’t get through," Lesta said. "As a matter of fact, I can’t get through any channel of communication, even emergency one."

"What? How..." Natha paused. The show was suddenly no longer important. He took out his communication orb--the one connected to his husband’s--and activated it hastily.

Nothing. It wasn’t just no answer; it was no connection. Natha kept trying, using another communication orb to call the Castle. But it was still nothing.

He cursed loudly that the Fortress staff nearby flinched from the cold blasting from the nightmare. Before the fear could inflict some damage, Eruha clutched Natha’s shoulder. "Please return immediately, my Lord. We’ll check on the Lord of Wrath ourselves."

Lesta stood up and nodded. There was nothing Natha could do in the fortress while his mind was on his husband and his husband only.

"Thank you."

Natha only uttered one word quickly and disappeared. The inter-realm portal would not work if the communication was blocked. Even if it worked, the situation wouldn’t allow him to use the portal quickly.

Thankfully, whatever used to jam the communication mana line did not work on his teleportation. Still, he couldn’t jump from the Red Fortress to L’anaak Eed in one try. There was a lot of interference in the air, so he could only do short-distance teleports to avoid any mishaps--at least until he was out of the Wrath territory.

And it was frustrating--so frustratingly slow--but his communication orb was finally accessible once he passed the desert.

To be exact, it was blazing. No, they were blazing. It wasn’t just one communication orb. Three of them inside his storage ring glowed and one even screeched in warning.

But none of them came from the one exclusively connected to his husband.

He frowned and naturally took the one connected to the guard that should be protecting Valen. He did ask them to report every two hours, so he wouldn’t get alarmed normally. Normally. If it wasn’t for the other two communication orbs blinking at the same time.

"What happened?"

[My Lord! Oh, it’s connected! My Lord!]

Strangely, it was Dhuarta instead of the guards who spoke. But she sounded out of breath, as if she was in the middle of running. [My Lord! Young Master vanished from the bedroom--]

"What?!"

[We’re on our way to the forest right now, but something’s weird, and...]

Natha had to stop to listen to his vassal’s explanation because he couldn’t do it while teleporting, but each second passed made him itch to move again. Each word made his blood boil and drop into an ice pool incessantly. At the edge of the desert, he was trembling all over, and his surroundings were almost frozen from the drop in temperature.

[...Lady Zia received a call from Madam Aleena, something about finding a trace in the border--]

Before she could finish her words, Natha had already teleported, and thus disconnecting the call. But he didn’t need it anymore. He cursed and cursed; he cursed at his enemies and cursed at himself for leaving Valen. He was so angry that he teleported all the way to the lakeside.

And he cursed everything again.

The guards and the vassals arrived just a few seconds before Natha, but they didn’t even flinch from the spreading cold and intimidating fear. All of their attention and sense were focused on the forest.

The forest that was wriggling as if it were alive.

Initially, the forest was shrouded in a veil of darkness that prevented them from sensing anything amiss. But as they ran through the garden, the trees suddenly swayed and wriggled. When they ran through the bridge, screams and shrieks echoed as the veil was getting shredded by the wriggling trees. The sound of quake and storm assaulted the air and prompted them to halt their step at the edge of the forest, left staring at the rampaging forest.

"What--"

CRASH!

Suddenly, something got thrown out of the forest like a catapulted stone. It landed not far from them, accompanied by the sound of bone breaking and choked gasp.

CRASH! SLAM! BAM!

More and more figures were catapulted by the trees like trash disposal. Some of them still writhing, some of them no longer moved, and some were folded in half.

Not that Natha cared.

Instead of relief, he felt dread. There was only one reason why the forest could move like this, and the answer was Valen.

His sweetheart, who barely had enough mana to function properly.

Fear blasted from him and made the still-conscious enemies seized. The guards and vassals finally realized their Lord’s arrival. "My Liege--"

Natha couldn’t hear anything at that point and merely rushed inside the forest. He couldn’t care less if the trees attacked him’ all he could think about was getting to Valen as fast as he could. He didn’t even have room to think about what kind of torture he would grant these people who dared to do all this.

No; his priority was to find Valen and stop him.

Fortunately, the forest recognized him. The trashing trees calmed around him and gave him a path straight to the shed. He ran and ran, trying to sense everything. Where is Jade? Where is Ignis? Those two were supposed to stop Valen from overexerting, but if they didn’t, it meant the situation was that worse.

A Spectre. He knew what it was when he looked at the leftover veil of darkness. Of all things, it was his nemesis.

Which meant everything...everything was his fault.

But he would scold himself later. He would punish himself later. For now, he should find Valen first. He would shred the Spectre later when he--

Crunch!

He heard the sound of a closing maw and stopped in his tracks. A shriek full of pain and anger could be heard from a thorny cocoon before him. A sliver of thin shadow tried to escape through the jail of vines, but it instantly got pushed inside by another vine that closed the tiny gap. The cocoon wriggled as the shrieking sound continued until it gradually turned quiet.

The cocoon stood still, not opening, and the forest promptly stopped moving. Natha moved his gaze, looking up at the pair of emeralds shining beneath the moonlight. They were cold and ruthless, but when they caught the sight of him, the gaze shifted.

"Nat..."

A soft voice came out; not from the forest, but from the human. Like a light out, the shining jewel in the middle of the crown faded. The vines and flowers retreated from the human’s body, and the throne of roots and stones crumbled.

And he fell. Right to the cold embrace that put a smile on his face.

"You came," the green eyes curled; weak fingers touched the tears upon the pale blue cheeks. "You carry me again, just like the first time."

In the silence of the forest, the green eyes lost their brilliance as they closed and embraced the dark.