novelraw Chapter 188 : Chapter 188
Chapter 188 : Chapter 188
Chapter 188. A Great Transformation Unseen in a Thousand Years
“Speaking of that…” Logaris suddenly cut her off, his expression turning grave. He raised his right hand, palm upward, as though recalling the heart-pounding sensation from last night. “Aside from the bloodline, there is something else that concerns me.”
“During the battle last night, it felt like something extra appeared in my mind. I had obviously never learned that language before, but my body instinctively knew how to pronounce it and how to direct my mana.”
As he spoke, Logaris drew in a deep breath, his gaze sharpening. He did not recite the complete incantation. He merely forced out a single obscure, ancient, malevolent syllable from deep within his throat.
“‘Ash…’”
Bzzz—!
Just one syllable.
The space inside the meeting room instantly twisted violently. The air above Logaris’s palm seemed to be savagely crushed and kneaded apart by an invisible giant hand.
“Stop! Stop right now!” Alice shot to her feet. For the first time, genuine shock appeared in her red eyes, along with a trace of utter disbelief.
Logaris dispersed the energy in his hand and frowned at her. “What was that?”
“High Demonic Tongue—or what is also called True Speech.” Alice sat back down in her chair, staring at Logaris as though he were some kind of freak. “That is a language that directly pries open the rules themselves. But what surprises me is not that you can use it. It is that… you can actually use it in this world.”
“What do you mean?”
“This world is protected by the World Laws and has extremely strong rejection toward power from other realms,” Alice explained, her tone turning serious. “A pureblood demon like my father, even if only an avatar descends, would still suffer the world’s ‘silencing’ punishment if he tried to speak True Speech.”
“But you are different.” Alice looked Logaris up and down, as though she had finally worked out some crucial points. “That syllable just now caused a spatial disturbance, but I did not sense any backlash from the World Laws against you.”
Logaris fell into thought. “Because I only have half-demon blood?”
“Very likely.” Alice nodded. “That half-human bloodline of yours is the perfect disguise and pass for this world. In the judgment of the World Laws, you are a ‘local,’ so they tacitly permit your actions. At the same time, the other half of your bloodline, your demon blood, provides the power source to drive True Speech.”
“You are basically exploiting a loophole in the rules of the world,” Alice concluded. “You possess the violent privileges of a demon, while also holding the legal identity papers of a human.”
Logaris looked at his own palm and said nothing.
Exploiting a bug in reality? That was not exactly a bad thing.
“As for Astaroth…” Alice pulled the topic back, a trace of complexity flashing through her eyes.
“He disappeared more than a hundred years ago. Some say he died after failing to break into a higher realm. Others say he got bored out of his mind and ran off to travel to other planes. In any case, his territory has now been carved up by the other Grand Dukes. It is almost entirely divided, and the place has become a complete mess.”
“As for my dear father, Ifreles…” A flicker of hatred flashed through Alice’s eyes. “He did not call me back for any touching father-daughter reunion. He simply needed my blood to open some ritual.”
“Wait.” Alectos, who had been silent until now, suddenly cut in. He sounded genuinely indignant. “Even if Hell has a… simple and rugged culture, even a tiger does not eat its own cubs! Last night, Ifreles really meant to kill you! What about your mother? Is she not going to do anything?”
In his straightforward sense of values, a father could be a bastard, but a mother ought to protect her child.
Alice turned her head and looked at him, a mocking curve lifting the corner of her mouth.
“Mother?”
She let out a quiet laugh, and there was not the slightest warmth in it.
“I do not have a mother.”
“Huh?” Alectos froze.
“I am a product of alchemy.” Alice calmly dropped this bombshell. “I was created from a single drop of Ifreles’s blood, combined with Hell’s highest-level alchemy and biotechnology, and grown in a cultivation vessel.”
“He made a full hundred ‘children’ like me.”
“I was simply luckier than the others. Or perhaps more ‘complete.’ That is why I survived.”
The meeting room fell utterly silent.
Even Leonard, who had long since seen life and death in all their forms, could not help knitting his brows. This had gone beyond cruelty. It was outright blasphemy against life itself.
Logaris looked at Alice.
When the girl spoke those words, there was no expression on her face at all, as if she were recounting someone else’s story.
Alchemy. Biotechnology. Artificial humans.
Those words circled in Logaris’s mind. It suddenly dawned on him that the enemy he was facing was not merely a group of terrifyingly powerful monsters, but a horrific civilization whose technological tree might be even more advanced than that of the present world.
That suffocating silence lingered for a while, until Logaris tapped the table and forcibly dragged the discussion back to tactical matters.
In the end, after another brief review concluded under that oppressive mood, everyone gained a clearer understanding of just how dangerous the forces of Hell truly were.
But once that heavy topic came to a temporary end, certain people could no longer stop their attention from drifting back to the greatest “surprise” of last night.
“Well… may I take another look?”
Leonard rubbed his large hands together. That old face, usually as imposing as a true lion’s, was now piled high with a smile so eager it bordered on perverse as he stared fixedly at Alectos.
“Uncle Leonard, this is already the fifth time you have asked.” Alectos gave a helpless sigh, but still obediently rolled up his sleeve.
At a single thought, the skin on his arm rapidly hardened. Fine golden scales emerged layer by layer, until his arm transformed into a ferocious dragon claw brimming with power. His fingertips lightly brushed across the redwood tabletop, and the hard wood split open with several deep marks as easily as tofu.
“Perfect… It is simply a perfect masterpiece!”
The old lion was so excited that even his beard trembled. He was looking not at a hand, but at a long-lost imperial heirloom of the Demi-Human Empire. “This is atavistic reversion! No—this is a miracle that surpasses atavistic reversion! As long as you stand before the army and reveal those scales, that usurper Remington’s claim to legitimacy will be as fragile as wastepaper!”
“It is not that exaggerated.” Alectos withdrew from the dragonized state, his face still somewhat pale. “That complete transformation from last night was an explosive burst fueled by my life force. At my current level, I can at most maintain partial dragonization—something like transforming a claw, wings, or covering myself with a layer of dragon-scale armor.”
“That is enough! More than enough!” Leonard laughed loudly, the joy in it utterly genuine.
Seated at the head of the table, Logaris did not join in their excitement.
A steel pen spun in his hand as his gaze swept across everyone present before finally stopping on the gloomy sky beyond the window.
From the growing number of cults, to the Grand Dukes of Hell crossing over from other realms, to the reappearance of ancient dragons in the present world—
All of these things, which should have existed only in myths, legends, or the dust of history, seemed as though they had made an appointment with one another to emerge all at once within the span of just a few short months.
“Everyone.”
Logaris suddenly spoke. His voice was not loud, but the noisy meeting room fell silent at once.
“Whether you are willing to admit it or not, the era ruled by the old order may be coming to an end.”
He tossed the steel pen onto the table, where it struck with a crisp sound.
“The gods are awakening, demons are watching, and dragons have returned to the mortal world. This is not merely a crisis for the Northern Territory. This is the greatest transformation the continent has seen in a thousand years. If we do not want to be smashed dead on the shore by the coming tide, then we must prepare in advance and unite!”