Volume 13, Chapter 9: Kill No More
This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, and StellarAshes.
“I lost? I lost… hahaha!”
The Dragon Emperor seemed to be on the verge of insanity. His smile looked crazed, completely losing his usual elegance and calm. He screamed on the top of his lungs, “I did lose. Then, kill me, and you better do it quick, because if you don’t, I will use this body to hide in everywhere you go, and kill every last person you care about!”
“Let’s start with my own child. I’ve been holding my anger back from Cappuccino for a long time. He will be the first!”
“Shut up! You are not allowed to say that!” Liola roared loudly, with his face rigid, because he believed the Dragon Emperor would do whatever he said, this made Liola feel afraid. He did not worry about his own safety, but he could not allow those whom he cared to be in danger because of him.
“Then, it will be Lanski, your twin sister. Then, Kaiser, that damned descendant of Gle’s descendant; I will tear his mouth apart!”
“Shut up! Shut up!” Liola walked up to him, and swung a few punches at the Dragon Emperor, trying to shut him up.
“Softness will make you unfit to be a good Dragon Emperor; you will understand that soon enough.” The Dragon Emperor said lightly. The bruises on his cheeks were obviously not enough to stop him from talking, “In time, you will become as cold as I am. Only a cold and cruel king could lead his people to the most glorious place.”
“No.” Liola declined decidedly, “I don’t want glory. I just want everyone to laugh happily, and that is enough!”
“Is that so? You really have no ambition, my child.” The Dragon Emperor glanced at Liola with discrimination.
Liola turned his head to look at other people: Kaiser, Daylight, Meinan, and Purity, were all smiling and did not say a word. They were all willing to let Liola decide what he should do.
Seeing this, Liola’s heart felt some peace. He calmly said to the Dragon Emperor, “Now, return my father, Caffey, to me. It’s already impossible for you to conquer the world, and he is therefore no use to you anymore.”
The Dragon Emperor’s body went rigid, and a long while passed before he showed a malicious smile and said, “Too late.”
“What did you say?” Liola asked with a stiff face.
“The moment Susanna died, Caffey’s consciousness had already been destroyed, and there is nothing left now.”
“No, it can’t be, you’re lying.” Liola’s heart began to panic. He had once promised Mocha he would definitely save Caffey, but if Caffey had been gone for twenty years, what could he possibly do?
“It’s true. If you don’t believe, touch my chest; do you sense two hearts, or just one?” The Dragon Emperor smiled lightly.
Liola reached out his trembling hand, and pressed it against the Dragon Emperor’s chest. Indeed… indeed it only had one heartbeat!
“Caffey… is dead?”
Liola’s eyes suddenly darkened. This person in front of Liola… because of him, Liola was bereaved of his loved ones: his father Caffey, mother Susanna, and older brother Mocha! If none of these happened, Liola would have been a part of a happy family.
Revenge! If father was no longer there, he could not let the Dragon Emperor go! Liola flattened his lips, reached out his left hand to hold the Dragon Emperor against the ground, and took out Broken Silver with his right hand. The cold and sharp light reflecting off Broken Silver was an announcement to everyone, its master was going to kill again.
“Father Caffey, brother Mocha, I will avenge you both.”
Liola raised Broken Silver, and aimed it at the Heart that had lived for thousands of years. Though looking at Caffey’s face, he was still hesitant, but the thought of revenge grew in his mind, and Broken Silver still jabbed down in the end…
“Stop!”
A yell could be heard from afar, but Liola’s Broken Silver had already landed, making the sound of a sharp blade inserting into another object.
Kaiser and others turned their heads to look, noticing the person yelling was actually Yizhou, and Yiyu was following behind him while trying to catch his breath.
“Is it too late?” Yizhou asked with a pale face. His eyes were able to vaguely see the hilt of Broken Silver, and the other half was already…
Tears streamed out of Liola’s silver eyes, dropping to the chest of either the Dragon Emperor or Mocha. He trembled and said, “I can’t do it… No! I must kill him, or how could Caffey and Mocha’s deaths be avenged?”
Hearing this, Yizhou looked carefully, realizing Broken Silver had not pierced Caffey’s chest, but the grass next to him. But now, Liola raised Broken Silver again, and this time, his eyes were even more firm, filled with even more rage…
“Stop him, hurry!” Yizhou said as he quickly walked up to try and stop Liola from killing the Dragon Emperor.
“What are you doing? Whether he’s going to kill or not, it’s Liola’s decision, and none of your business.” Kaiser blocked Yizhou’s path, and yelled at him.
Daylight also raised his sword to stop Yizhou dead in his tracks.
“You don’t understand.” Yizhou said nervously and anxiously, “He’s not Liola now; or I should say, he’s not just Liola now.”
“What are you talking about?”
Kaiser was thoroughly confused, but for some reason, he suddenly had a bad feeling. After a bit of hesitation, he still turned towards Liola and yelled, “Hey! Liola, you wait a minute, don’t kill him yet.”
Liola, however, raised his head, and his eyes had a terrible resentment, enough to drive fear to his companions. He said with incredibly toxic tone, “No! He must die; I will kill him, and avenge my father and brother!”
Originally, Kaiser was simply thinking the Dragon Emperor could not run away, so it did not matter if they stopped to listen to what Yizhou had to say. However, Liola’s eyes and words now caused him to feel something was indeed wrong, for Liola would never exhibit such malice.
“Stop him!” Kaiser no longer blocked Yizhou’s path. Instead, he yelled towards Daylight, whom was also puzzling over Liola’s strange actions. The moment he heard Kaiser say so, he immediately ran towards Liola without hesitation.
“Don’t even think about stopping me.” The Broken Silver in Liola’s hand again jabbed down towards the heart…
Mizerui, who was standing by the side, also realized something was wrong, and threw a gravity ball towards Liola. Being unprepared, the gravity spell hit Liola and sent him flying a good distance before he was finally able to stop himself. He stood up slowly, and eyed everyone coldly. His tone was filled with rage, “Is that so? Even you want to stop me from avenging my family? I will not forgive you… Anyone who dares to stop me from revenge will not be forgiven!”
Kaiser used even louder voice to yell, “Liola! What the hell is wrong with you?”
The roar was loud enough to resound in the entire stadium. Hearing his name, Liola paused, and he felt skeptical. What was he really doing right this moment?
Yizhou finally had a chance to speak, and he said calmly, “He’s being affected by the Heart of the Dragon Emperor.”
“What did you say?” Kaiser suddenly turned his head, and asked in complete disbelief.
Everyone froze, especially Liola himself. He was affected by the Heart? How could that be possible? The Dragon Emperor had lost, and he was lying still on the ground.
“I don’t know… What I could possibly do for the successor with my lowly skills,” Yizhou’s face looked a bit embarrassed, “So I casually looked around in the royal library, to see if I could find something to help the successor.”
“Casually looked around? You call looking around without resting after the match that almost killed you ‘casually looking’?” Yiyu grunted.
“I found Caffey Highness’s diary hiding inside the library.” Yizhou took out a crumbled, aged book, “It detailed the long journey of struggle he had with the Heart, and in the end, he even had an analysis about the Heart of the Dragon Emperor.”
“Heart of the Dragon Emperor, is not truly a heart.”
Yizhou said calmly, but every word he said blew everyone’s minds.
“It’s a strong body of collected hatred over the years,” Yizhou glanced at the Dragon Emperor, and continued, “So the Dragon Emperor would only have one kind of heartbeat in his body, not because Caffey Highness had been destroyed, but rather because there has always been one heart.”
“What are you trying to say exactly? Can you just get to the point?” Kaiser’s feeling of forebodement grew in his mind. He did not care about anything else — he just wanted Yizhou to finish quickly.
Hearing Kaiser’s demand, Yizhou said directly, “Last night, the Dragon Emperor went to see Liola, right? That was the time when the Heart was no longer in the Dragon Emperor, and it was in Liola’s body instead.”
What?!
Everyone was silent for a while, before Kaiser smiled dryly, “Yizhou, this joke isn’t funny at all.”
“Liola did not eat the Heart of the Dragon Emperor, so how could it be in his body?” Mizerui asked in disbelief. He was there last night, and he could see everything clearly. The Dragon Emperor did not touch Liola’s body, so how could the Heart have moved?
Yizhou shook his head, and said, “The Heart of the Dragon Emperor is not a real heart, and the ritual of eating the heart was simply to make the next Dragon Emperor more fragile, so the Heart could take over the body faster.”
Making him more fragile? Mizerui’s expression changed, remembering what the Dragon Emperor said to him last night. Could this be the reason why he thanked Mizerui for making Liola fragile?
“Are you kidding me?” Kaiser felt a sensation of suffocation. If everything Yizhou said was true, then the whole entire match was a ploy in the beginning? The Dragon Emperor never planned to win this match honorably?
‘Damn… Is this the reason why he didn’t seem to care about the match today at all? Because the Heart had already successfully transferred into Liola’s body, so the match today was meaningless.’ Kaiser shook his head, ‘No! It can’t be like this! If the Heart still took Liola over, then what was the point of everyone, including Baolilong, doing their best to try to stop him?’
Not seeing even the slightest hint of a joke on Yizhou’s expression, Kaiser grew angry, “Stop being ridiculous. If the Heart is already in Liola, why hasn’t the Dragon Emperor turn back into Caffey?”
“He already is Caffey,” Yizhou answered calmly, “Just under Idojin’s hypnosis. I’ve already spoken to Idojin — my fists and Yiyu’s hypnosis forced him to tell us.”
Yiyu took a step forward. As an apprentice of Idojin, he should know how to undo a temporary hypnosis. He was not able to break Liola’s hypnosis because it was a complete and permanent one, but because they lacked time, he believed his master could not have completed a full hypnosis.
Yiyu began chanting a spell, and the Dragon Emperor suddenly grabbed his head in pain, but he did not seem to struggle for long. It was probably because Idojin was beaten to a pulp by Yiyu, and therefore did not have much power to maintain the hypnosis, so it was easily released by Yiyu.
He raised his head blankly, and the expression on his face was no longer that of the cruel yet elegant Dragon Emperor. He looked around in confusion, and finally found a familiar face, then he yelled loudly,
“Little Mi!”
[T/N: Nickname for Mizerui.]
Mizerui’s body froze, but he did not know whether he should believe this person was Caffey, or if it was the Dragon Emperor toying with him again.
“Why are you the only one here?” Caffey’s expression made it even more clear; he had a confused look. He scratched his face and asked, “Where’s everyone else? Where’s my wife?”
Mizerui was a bit speechless. It looked like Caffey had not the slightest memory of Susanna’s death.
“Is he Caffey?” Kaiser tried to ask Mizerui.
Mizerui paused as he looked at Caffey’s eyes, those clear yet confused eyes; his face had a hint of skepticism yet it always had a slightly idiotic smile, and even his body language changed from the arrogant Dragon Emperor with his head held high, to a lazy look with his shoulders down and his back slightly hunched forward… This was Caffey, definitely! This was Caffey!
“You are Caffey.” He called out lightly, feeling the wetness in his eyes. It had been a long twenty years, ever since Susanna’s death, he had never seen the true Caffey again.
“Hmm?” Caffey blinked, unsure why Little Mi would call him and not answer his questions.
Hearing Mizerui’s call, everyone’s face changed. If Caffey was back, then it meant the Heart of the Dragon Emperor would be…
“What about me?” Liola suddenly spoke, and asked blankly, “Who am I?”
Liola’s gaze crossed paths with everyone present, then he smiled sadly.
“Am I… the Heart of the Dragon Emperor?”
Silence befell the place. Everyone were shocked by the change, and no one knew how to react. They all stared at Liola blankly, trying to find the trace of the Heart on his face.
But no matter how they looked, it was still Liola they saw! Kaiser locked his eyebrows, and checked Liola up and down. The more he looked, the more he thought Liola did not change at all! He walked closer unconsciously, trying to examine Liola in detail.
“Don’t get close to me!” Liola shouted towards Kaiser as he raised he raised his head, and Kaiser was shocked and stopped.
Liola said with a hurt look in his eyes, “I don’t want to harm anyone, especially you guys…”
“Susanna~ so you’re here, why didn’t you call out to me?”
Before Liola had a chance to finish, Caffey rushed up to him, and hugged him tightly. He said happily as he rubbed his body against Liola’s, “Susanna, I think you’ve gotten thinner. Your muscles don’t seem as obvious anymore, hehe, you’re now more huggable than before.”
‘Damn, Liola is a guy…’ Everyone’s face suddenly turned strange, ‘How muscular could your wife have been?‘
“Caffey, that isn’t your wife!”
Mizerui reminded hurriedly, but it was too late. Caffey, who mistook Liola for his wife, had already pecked him a few times on the face. Liola was in a bit of trance, and he did not wake up from it until his cheeks got kissed a few times. Then, he saw Caffey made a kissy face and about to kiss him on the lips…
Liola was shocked, and an Assassin’s instinct made him jump backward. Before his biological father’s lip got close, he gave him a super slap, and the force made Caffey spin a few complete turns where he stood.
Liola tried to catch his breath in shock, and suddenly remembered he had just slapped his own biological father. It seemed like something he shouldn’t do? He looked at the ground worriedly, only to notice, Caffey had already reached his thighs, rubbing his face against them as he sighed, “Wow, honey, even your legs got long and thin. How did you take care of them so well?”
Liola’s face suddenly changed, and couldn’t help using his other leg to give Caffey a kick… However, one kick was not enough to get rid of the Koala on his leg, so he then threw out a series of kicks!*
[T/N: This sentence refers to Chun Li’s lightning kicks.]
Mizerui said calmly, “Liola is indeed Susanna’s son, he even beat Caffey in identical ways. Caffey turned exactly three and a half rotation after getting slapped, and their kicking patterns are both very rhythmic. However, Susanna usually kicks harder, and screams while beating Caffey, usually something like ‘Go to hell,’ etc.”
Everyone heard what Mizerui said while looking at Liola desperately trying to kick Caffey off, but Caffey held on firmly and would not let go. He then tried climbing even further up Liola’s leg.
Kaiser and others could do nothing but make a face.
“What the hell, I can’t really have a serious or angry mood now.”
Kaiser threw his hands behind his head. Heart of the Dragon Emperor or whatever, who the hell cares! What kind of problems did the Troublemaking Squad had that weren’t earth shattering? In any case, they would always find a way to resolve it!
“Kaiser, hurry and help me.”
Liola dragged the Koala on his leg as he ran towards Kaiser and others, completely forgetting he had just told Kaiser not to get close to him moments ago.
“Hahaha! No, thanks.” Kaiser bursted into smile, and turned to Daylight, Meinan, and Purity, and said, “Don’t you dare intervene in the touching reunion between father and son! The heavens would smite us if we did.”
Daylight, Meinan, and Purity all nodded as they tried to hold back their laughter.
Liola ran towards the three, as he shouted with an almost helpless tone, “Kaiser~~”