Chapter 47: The Runaway Queen (Part III)

A slight chill touched my hand. When I looked down, Albus had already slipped the silver ring onto my right index finger.

The moment the ring was on, the night sky that had been full of stars just a second ago suddenly grew dim. Countless dark clouds rolled in from the distance, devouring the starlight bit by bit.

"Go, now." Albus looked up at the sky, his brow furrowed. "Samael must have realized he can no longer sense your presence. He will be after you shortly."

I took a step back, covering my right hand with my left. "But Alastor said..." Alastor said he would come for me; I had to wait for him.

"Why do you think Samael has not emerged until now?" Albus interrupted me, his voice flat.

"You mean..." I gasped slightly.

"He is holding Samael back to buy you time to escape the Demon Realm."

"What? That idiot! Samael will kill him!" I cried out, preparing to rush back toward the castle.

Albus raised his hand to block my path. "Go. Immediately."

"I can't let Alastor get hurt because of me! I can't live with that! I can't live with it, don't you understand!" Ignoring everything else, I looked up and roared at him.

"He said that since it was his own hand that dragged you into this chaos, even if he cannot personally return you to where you belong, he can at least win you the time to leave," Albus recited expressionlessly.

As he finished, he waved his hand. Ignoring my struggles and protests, he grabbed me and stood us at the entrance of the gateway.

"Don't you understand? I can never go back! Whether I am Aurora or Lilith, I am no longer who I used to be!" I shook off his hand, gritting my teeth.

"Alastor told me to tell you: once you go to the dark kingdom, you will never see the person you want to see again."

I froze.

"Even so... I cannot be that selfish."

Just as I spoke, a sudden "bang" echoed, and thick smoke billowed everywhere.

From behind the smoke, a tall figure gradually emerged.

Inky black hair, inky black eyes—it was the terrifying version of Solano, the Great Demon King Samael!

And... Alastor, who was clinging to Samael like an octopus. His face was covered in black and blue bruises; it seemed he was heavily injured, otherwise, with a vampire's healing abilities, he wouldn't have let himself look like a bruised mess.

"You dare to flee?" A gloomy voice sounded as if it came from the depths of hell. Samael ignored Alastor, who was desperately tugging at him, and walked toward me step by step.

There was no escape...

"Go, quickly!" Alastor screamed.

"You idiot, let go already!" I looked at the battered Alastor, caught between laughter and tears.

Clearly injured to such an extent, yet still refusing to let go—what a fool.

"Go! Don't you want to see Cass?!" Alastor roared at the top of his lungs, his refined image completely gone. "Go!"

"You look so ugly," I whispered, my lips curving slightly.

"Argh! Who do you think I'm doing all this for?!" Alastor was nearly driven insane by my reaction.

"You're disfigured," I said, my eyes filled with a cold, smiling light.

"Just go, I beg of you!" Alastor was at his wit's end.

"Stupid, let go, or you'll die." I raised my hand, intending to pull off the silver ring.

A cold hand covered mine. "I will go. You leave."

After Albus spoke, a cluster of ghost-blue nether-fire in his palm lunged straight for Samael, while his other hand pushed me into the gateway.

His attack was like striking a bottomless abyss—it didn't even cause a splash—but under the force of his push, I tumbled into the portal.

Samael glared at me, his fury reaching the heavens. A dark aura instantly blanketed the entire sky, hiding even the faintest sliver of moonlight. A cruel smile played across his lips as he slowly raised his hand, a ball of black fire condensing in his palm.

"Alastor, let go!" I screamed.

The black fire did not hit Alastor; instead, it unexpectedly struck the gateway.

"Aurora!"

The last thing I heard was Alastor’s voice, filled with sheer terror.

"Do not dream of escaping me..."

In the darkness, a somber voice drowned out everything else.

I struggled in the darkness for a long time. Everything was black—a darkness so thick it felt solid.

It smelled terrible...

A pungent stench jolted me back to some degree of consciousness. I forced my eyes open, but it was still pitch black—a darkness where I couldn't even see my own hand.

Where am I? Am I back in the human realm?

"Alastor! Alastor! Albus? Little Mountain..." I tried to stand up, but found my body completely devoid of strength.

Only darkness remained around me. There was no sound at all; the silence was terrifying.

I sniffed the air and nearly choked. This smell... it was a strangely familiar stench.

In my memory, I had smelled this before.

Where was it?

Of course, where else besides a junkyard would there be such a "magnificent" odor? And speaking of junkyards, only the one on Happiness Street could smell this classically bad.

Back then, this was the very junkyard where Cass picked me up and took me home.

Curled up in a pile of trash, I kept my eyes open, feeling the boundless darkness.

In the distance, the sound of footsteps approached.

I pricked up my ears; my hearing was incredibly sharp. It seemed to be a human, and more than one. The footsteps drew closer and closer, finally stopping right in front of me.

"Mama..." A tender, crisp voice. A child.

"What is it, sweetie?" A woman's voice.

"There's a really, really pretty doll here." A chubby little hand pinched my cheek.

"Don't touch it, it's filthy."

Immediately, I realized a terrifying fact: they could see me, but I couldn't see them...

My eyes... am I blind?

It must have been because of that final, furious strike from Solano.

"But it's really pretty!" the child grumbled reluctantly.

"A doll?" The woman’s voice moved closer. A sharp fingernail poked my face. "It's probably an inflatable doll. It's made so realistically."

An inflatable doll... what on earth is this woman thinking!

Before I could burst out into a string of curses, a heap of trash was tossed onto me, the smell nearly causing me to faint.

"Come on, sweetie, let's go home."

The footsteps gradually faded into the distance.

I lay curled in the pile of trash, unable to move, feeling utterly depressed.

Suddenly, the rotten banana peel covering my face disappeared. The soda can pressing against my neck was moved aside. I blinked, then became alert. Someone was there!

Who? I hadn't even heard their footsteps?

A pair of warm hands gently brushed over my cheeks, and then I was lifted into a warm embrace.

"Who is it?" I instinctively clutched his clothes.

The person seemed to freeze for a moment. There was a long silence.

A faint sadness filled the air.

Suddenly, warm and soft lips lightly touched my eyes. I blinked foolishly, but I still couldn't see a thing.

Even though I was blind, I could feel that he was grieving.

"Who are you?" I cupped his face, slowly tracing his features.

He remained silent.

The familiar contours, the warm body temperature... I blinked, and a cold liquid slid from my eyes.

"Cass..."