The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 1083: Pride of Heart

The last ray of light sank below the horizon, and night descended.

On the clearing before the dried well, the 2.5D drawing wobbled and rippled before assimilating with the three-dimensional world. Wang Zikai, wholly unscathed, "walked" out of the drawing and stopped beside Gao Xinxin, looking up at the night sky where Heavenly Dog had vanished with her. The night wind sang a melancholy, bleak tune. After thirty seconds, Wang Zikai took off his jacket and tossed it to Gao Xinxin.

She caught it, putting it on and zipping up. The jacket covered her petite frame from the knees up. The silver scales covering her body receded, revealing her fair skin.

“Why let them go?” Wang Zikai asked with a hand in his pocket. His voice hadn’t changed, but there was an added hint of derision and indifference. “You’re quick enough to catch up with them.”

Gao Xinxin huffed. “I’m not you. There are a lot of them. I might not be able to defeat them even if I caught up with them.”

“You could just buy time until I was freed. It’d be so easy.”

Gao Xinxin shrugged. “You’re my brother’s best friend. How should I know which side you would be on—”

With speed she couldn't react to, Wang Zikai clutched her frail neck, lifting her off the ground. To him, Gao Xinxin was as light as a rag, her neck as fragile as styrofoam.

“Do you take me as a fool, Envy? Do you think I didn’t know you let Gao Yang go on purpose?”

Gao Xinxin showed no fear even as she dangled like a piece of dead meat, her smile ruefully sarcastic. “Who are you to judge, Pride? Didn’t you pull your punches as well?”

The angry look on Wang Zikai’s face slowly dissolved. When he let go of Gao Xinxin’s neck, she didn’t fall, but hovered and slowly descended to the ground.

They stood in silence for three seconds.

“The fuck is this development?” Wang Zikai cursed under his breath.

Gao Xinxin suddenly broke into tears and bawled.

Startled, Wang Zikai hesitated before going up to pull her into his arms, stroking her head and patting her back gently.

“Alright, stop crying already. You’re a death monster. This is unbecoming.”

Gao Xinxin trembled all over, speaking in starts and stops. “Wang Zikai, do we, do we really have to kill Gao Yang...?”

“You knew the answer already.”

She stopped crying then. When she looked up once more, her eyes were pure black, and a blazing determination replaced the tears of heartbreak. “Then I’ll be the one to kill him personally!”

Wang Zikai's voice turned cold. “I’ll let you do anything, Gao Xinxin, but not this. I will be the one to kill Gao Yang.”

“No!” Gao Xinxin shoved Wang Zikai away and staggered two steps back, wiping her tears roughly. “Gao Yang’s mine! No one’s taking him from me! Not even you!”

“Gao Xinxin, stop being stubborn.” Wang Zikai scowled. “I’m not a patient one.”

“I don’t care! Gao Yang’s mine! You’re not taking him away!”

Scales grew to cover her body once more. She angrily cast the jacket at Wang Zikai. “Take your dirty jacket!”

“Gao—”

She soared into the sky without letting him finish, cracking the ground. The resulting current swept back Wang Zikai’s blond hair.

He smiled wryly and sighed.

Hands in his pockets, he strode up to the dried well in the center of the clearing. Stepping on the edge of the well, he looked inside and clicked his tongue in disapproval.

Three bone stings protruded from the back of his hand. He sliced his left palm open, letting the crimson blood drip into the well.

In ten seconds, the cuts on his left palm healed.

Wang Zikai turned and walked away as the ground tremored. With the dried well as the center, cracks spread like an earthquake was wrecking the land. A few seconds later, crimson mist rushed out of the well like red petroleum gushing out of an oilfield, splattering red on the deep blue canvas of the night sky.

The blood mist condensed into rocks and transformed into sharp red spines, shooting from the ground to form a massive palace. Though newly formed, it bore the weight of ancient ruins, gloomy and worn.

Wang Zikai stopped walking. The ground beneath his feet rose until forty-nine stairs led to his elevated platform, forming what resembled the throne room of an ancient emperor.

Blood mist had crafted a throne, behind which loomed a large abstracted heart of the same substance. Its two atriums spasmed with each beat, while crisscrossing blood vessels at the bottom took root in the platform like a tree. From afar, the heart appeared as a massive fruit born from the throne platform's branches.

Three crimson thrones lined each side of the stairs, each adorned with a large symbolic artifact created by the blood mist.

Behind the first throne on the left were six thin, intricate crimson wings. They looked soft yet sharp, harmless yet insidious. They spread toward the sky, as if scratching it but would just as soon pierced it.

Around the second throne on the left, numerous crimson vertical eyes of different sizes hovered, like shards of a red mirror. One large, dour-looking eye floated above the throne imposingly, while the others darted about, surveilling all directions in quick succession.

The third throne on the left sat encircled by a python with crimson scales, though it possessed no head—all tail. Like a hibernating serpent, it writhed and shifted with dangerous leisure.

The first throne on the right rose among countless horns emerging from the floor, each curling into distinct shapes that signified their bestial origins. From the seat's back protruded the largest: a twisted thing resembling a unicorn's horn. It thrust toward the sky, hardy and fierce, bleeding without end.

The second throne on the right sat within a large maw filled with crooked fangs. Crimson fluids dripped from the teeth like saliva overflowing from a mouth gripped by extreme hunger.

The third throne on the right perched above a pool of thick, viscous blood. It fluctuated and rippled, bubbling ceaselessly. The bubbles burst upon surfacing, revealing brief glimpses of abstracted figures—men and women locked in eternal fornication.

Six thrones, each resonating with its master and summoning them:

Envy of Wings.

Greed of Eyes.

Sloth of Tail.

Wrath of Horn.

Gluttony of Teeth.

Lust of Blood.

Soon, the six death monsters would gather here—it was the first order the Pride of Heart issued after awakening. None could disobey.

A hint of exhaustion flashed in Wang Zikai's eyes. He took two steps forward and claimed his throne. Pressing against its cold back, he lounged with one hand propping up his head while the other retrieved a rectangular gift box from his pants pocket, idly turning it over in his fingers.

Thump, thump, thump.

The giant heart behind the throne pounded, lonely yet powerful, like the pulse of the world counting down to doomsday.