Chapter 663: Words of the past
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
However, Sheyan’s nudges were futile. Mbenga’s lifeless eyes remained dull and his body limp. One could describe his condition as akin to gossamer, or a flickering candle in the wind, extinguishable at any second.
"Ahhhhh!" Sheyan couldn’t resist himself from slapping Mbenga’s face, as 5 clear fingerprints formed. Blood trickled slowly out Mbenga’s nose as Sheyan roared furiously.
"You can’t die yet! Not until you see this for yourself!"
Unbeknownst why, while he was roared furiously, his nose turned sour and turbulent emotions flooded his chest. At this moment, he subconsciously recalled that stormy night, when he was pursued to the brink of desperation right before he entered the nightmare realm.
Without the fate of encountering the nightmare realm, he would be just like Mbenga; carrying a deep-seated unwillingness as he departed from the world...
Sheyan forcefully propped up Mbenga’s nose and drowned the ‘Endless Spirited Vodka’ down his throat. Though his mouth overflowed with vodka, Sheyan could clearly notice Mbenga’s Adam’s apple throbbing slightly. That indicated Mbenga had at least drank down a mouth of ‘Endless Spirited Vodka’, and perhaps, a tiny portion of his HP would be swiftly restored!
Gradually, Mbenga’s lifeless pupils contracted, followed by a slight twitch of his finger. Finally, he observed Sheyan with clarity and cast his trademark silly smirk
"You…...you’ve obtained the ‘Stairway of the Sun’ ?"
Sheyan’s eyes heated up. Even with his current condition, Mbenga was still concerned about him acquiring the ‘Stairway of the Sun’! Sheyan sighed sentimentally and earnestly answered.
"You did it, Mbenga, you did it. You personally killed Guarba and avenged your clansmen! Look!"
Listening to his words, Mbenga became momentarily dumbstruck. Sheyan then dragged him over and supported his shoulder up, allowing him to personally witness the corpse of the dead Guarba.
"Yes, you did, it! You ended him with a single stab!"
Dang clank! A gently metallic ringing resounded, as Mbenga subconsciously dropped his pike to the ground.
All of a sudden, a lightning jolted through the sky. The floodgates of torrential rain finally poured down. Mbenga panted heavily as he lifted his face towards the sky. His closed eyes brimmed with water droplets; who could tell, whether it was rainwater or tears….
"Kuria..."
His thick lips mouthed out a syllable. Scenes of the past rapidly flashed through his mind.
A blessed family. An adorable child. A woman he secretly fell for. Mindless massacre, cruel tortures to the death as his hair stood in anger. A hundred heads rupturing in unison, a despairingly sorrowful sight to unleash a soul-shattering curse. The anguish of his soul being ripped asunder...one by one, till the concluding finale of today.
"Thank you!"
Two words that bore the meanings of joy, anger, and sorrow in life. Mbenga struggled free from Sheyan’s embrace and staggered forward. Eventually, he gently leaned against the Coiled Serpent Statue. Though his chest undulated violently, his face displayed peace and serenity; a sentiment of being relieved from an immense burden.
"I’m finally freed. My friend, thank you for fulfilling my lifelong wish. It is time for me to reunite with my family. Therefore, my heart’s, no, the greatest secret of Port Qom and the Coiled Serpent tribe shall belong to you. My only recompense to you..."
A minute later, beneath the giant Coiled Serpent statue, Mbenga/Gundazan breathed his last.
Aged 37, he died in peace with a gentle smile on his face. Like a slumbering reverie, death, to Mbenga who shouldered far more than he could, was an escape.
Sheyan heaved a despondently deep sigh. He stood up but his countenance was riddled with astonishment.
"The truth…..was actually like that!! If not for Mbenga still retaining a fragment of Gundazan’s memories, then…...even I would find it absolutely impossible to believe that the truth I’ve been painstakingly looking for, actually lies in the beginning!"
************************
The pouring rain showered down with immeasurable melancholy, seeking to drown out the whole earth; painting an illusion of the wet season arriving prematurely.
At present, Sheyan smeared his body with the ‘Tigfog’ aura masking herb medicine again. With his arm fully rejuvenated and with the aid of his ‘+7 West’, climbing back up the cliff of this Kingdom of ruins wasn’t an arduous affair. While traversing the labyrinth of tunnels, due to the heavy siege of mutated beasts recently, the grounds polluted with blood and fluids were the best indicators.
Along the way, Sheyan cleverly evaded zones still plagued with intense fighting. Then, he finally drilled his way out through a hole dug opened by a certain biohazard creature. If his conjecture wasn’t wrong, he had returned to the misty inner core reaches.
All of a sudden, a tremendous threat surged towards him from the side. His senses tightened as he immediately darted to the side while covering his head with his arms.
Boom! A sonorous reverberated resonated. A perfectly intact archaic wall was smashed into smithereens, as bulks of rock fragments scattered about with dust soaring up.
A scarlet vile Licker tyrannically smashed a Sun subtribe guardian to the ground.
Its monstrous strength evidently widely surpassed this Sun subtribe guardian. Its terrifying razor-sharp claws inched down bit by bit. The sight of its skinless flesh was truly petrifying. It seemed as though within any second, it would succeed in severing the carotid artery of its foe, allowing warmth and wondrous blood juices to gush out.
Sheyan recalled about the Sun subtribe guardians he saw back at the bonfire plaza. An extremely domineering bunch, not one bit inferior to Mbenga.
In the face of his opponent’s descending threat, that Sun subtribe guardian issued a beast-like snarl. His head crooked above his shoulders, as his muscles swelled like rocks. Then, his entire body deformed slightly and expanded. Evidently, he should be a trusted aide of Guarba, one that had touched upon the secrets of the ‘Stairway of the Sun’.
His eyes were bloodshot as he pummeled his wooden shield forward. After obtaining a tiny buffer, he immediately rolled away, before pulling out a sharpened single-handed stone hatchet from his waist. With a loud cry, he lunged forward and viciously hacked the Licker’s exposed brains!
A Licker’s weakest point was its head. With the decomposed state of its skull, its brains were mostly exposed to the atmosphere. In addition to the numerous injuries it sustained earlier on during battle, it released a mournful bellow. Brain pulp and tissues splattered everywhere like tofu, as ash-grey substances splashed against Sheyan’s face. A piercing foul stench almost made Sheyan vomit.
Knowing the Licker’s brain carried the highest concentration of toxins, Sheyan naturally didn’t dare to leave such substances on his face. He immediately picked up stony fragments and scrubbed these incomparably vile substances off his face.
The stubborn vitality of a Licker was truly astounding. Right before it perished, it unexpectedly spat out its enormous tongue towards the Sun subtribe guardian.
The Licker’s tongue was its most lethal offense, having no equal. Under the accelerated stimulation of its arteries, that enormous tongue surpassed the speed of a bullet. Only a red flash could be seen, before a large hole punctured through the Sun subtribe guardian. The enormous tongue then rolled back with a large chunk of mangled flesh.
The barbaric nature of this Sun subtribe guardian flared up upon receiving such a grave wound. With a frenzied howl, he pounced towards the Licker. Locking its neck with his brutishly thick arms, the guardian ruthlessly pulled!
Crack! The freak’s neck was instantly twisted and slouched to one side. One could observe few protrusions of its spinal column. Its enormous and terrifying tongue dangled down sluggishly, amidst the intensified convulsions of this freak. Evidently, it no longer had any chance of surviving.
But it didn’t stop there. The injured Sun subtribe guardian was utterly berserk, as he hacked his stone hatchet wildly onto the Licker’s brains. Blood and brain juice splattered everywhere, and he only ceased when most of its brain had been minced.
Still, he couldn’t be blamed for such an enraged insanity. This Licker had just butchered two of his clansmen and heavily wounded him. Since then, his vendetta for vengeance had scaled to a reckless, frenzied state.
After venting his anger, this Sun subtribe guardian mounted the Licker and gasped heavily for breath.
Suddenly, he swung his gaze towards Sheyan’s direction. Sheyan was instantly stunned. He was already bent on leaving this place, yet that warrior just had to start brawling with a Licker and obstruct his path. Moreover, the stern patrolling of other Ndipaya guardians make it exceedingly difficult for him to retreat either.
The nostrils of this Sun subtribe guardian twitched a little. Gradually, his crestfallen eyes regained an unparalleled wariness. His eyes turned bloodshot again
Sheyan immediately perceived that though he hadn’t tested the 3 meters limit of the herb medicine, the splashing of Licker’s brain matter onto him, and his subsequent actions had probably revealed his location.
Exhibiting extreme decisiveness, he immediately brandished ‘Ambition’ at the sight of abnormality. After triggering ‘Rum & Songs’ and stunning him for 2 seconds, Sheyan sprinted wildly to escape.
Meanwhile, he tossed behind a flask of agility curse-mix, as mild greenish fumes enveloped the battlefield behind him.