Abyssal Chronicles

Chapter 538 - 539: Gradually Sprouting [2/2]

"Stay safe, Vinarola..."

Watching Vinarola speed off, Meliora quietly said to herself, worried. She really wished Vinarola wouldn’t go. The Sword Demon was super dangerous, and even going to help could turn bad. But knowing how stubborn Vinarola is, all Meliora could do was watch her go and hope for the best.

Meliora had thought about unleashing her own power to protect Vinarola, but the thought of her identity being exposed at Luminous made her shudder. She had to admit, she was full of fear right now. She didn’t dare to go back to Luminous; she wanted to keep as far away from that evil woman as possible.

But then again, if that evil woman really wanted to catch her, hiding here wouldn’t make much difference, would it?

’Sigh, the future doesn’t seems good’

’But why is Sword Demon here? And why attacking the Girl of Destiny?’

In Meliora’s view, the black-haired girl must be the Demon who killed her before, most likely the puppet master behind the Demon Lord if she is not the actual one. So… Sword Demon must have acted on her orders, and the target was to kill the Girl of Destiny.

’But why go through such trouble?’

’If she wanted to kill the Girl of Destiny, couldn’t she have done it herself? She was already in the academy. With her strength, no one could save the Girl of Destiny from her. So why send Sword Demon?’

’Strange... really strange...’

"Ugh..."

The more Meliora thought about it, the more confused she became. She couldn’t help but hold her little head in her hands, shaking it from side to side. For some reason, ever since her rebirth as a dragon loli, thinking had become something Meliora was averse to. Whenever she tried to think too hard, she felt dizzy.

However, just as Meliora was feeling puzzled, a weird tremor suddenly surged within her, causing her light golden eyes to narrow sharply.

’?!?’

’What, what is this?’

Breathing heavily, Meliora quickly placed her hand on her chest.

"Why’s my heart beating so fast all of a sudden?"

Feeling the "thump-thump" vibrations coming from her chest, the girl’s light golden dragon eyes were filled with confusion.

She couldn’t understand why her body was having such a strange reaction.

’Was it because I had retreated too quickly earlier? Or could it be the soul-body rejection that Mokaro had mentioned earlier? That I shouldn’t exert too much power before the complete fusion of soul and body?’

Either way, she felt really bad and started to sweat.

Meliora continued to channel her energy, trying to suppress the weird reactions within her body. The strange agitation clashed with her holy energy, causing her adorable face to contort in discomfort. To preserve her dignity as the Dragon King, Meliora quickly hid herself away, crouching painfully among the ruins of a city wall.

"Ugh... this feels awful..."

Tears welled up in the dragon loli’s eyes, and she let out pitiful moans.

...

Not far away, Mokaro, who was directing the crowd to a safe place, glanced back at the ruins where Meliora was. And a mysterious smile crossed his face.

---

Elsewhere, after being comforted by Archbishop Mokaro, Mengxi was soon surrounded by a group of familiar church members. These were people Mengxi had known when she was with the ’Sunlight’ squad. Faced with their old captain and a girl of high standing within the church—the Girl of Destiny—the crowd couldn’t help but express their concern.

"Captain, how are you? Did you escape from Luminous? Are you injured?"

"Did you get affected by the Sword Demon’s power?"

"Mengxi, there’s blood on you. Are you injured? Do you need medicine?"

...

Faced with everyone’s questions, Mengxi gave her usual sweet smile, waving her hand to indicate she was fine.

"I’m okay, just some minor scratches. But why are all of you here?"

"We’re about to retreat," a young pink-haired priestess spoke up.

"Archbishop Mokaro has ordered most of the units to fall back. It seems that numbers are meaningless against Sword Demon; we’d only serve as live targets. Besides, we newcomers who just got promoted don’t have the ability to fight. The only thing we can do is help evacuate the civilians during the retreat."

"An order to retreat?"

"Yes, except for some elite units, everyone else is pulling back."

"What about the Pope?"

"I’m not sure about the Pope, but he should be in the Central Cathedral... Mengxi, you should hurry and retreat with us!"

The pink-haired girl glanced nervously at the dark purple light in the distance and the terrifying energy emanating from the battlefield. Even at this distance, the aura of Sword Demon was unsettling, with occasional bursts of terrifying sword energy reaching them.

"Archbishop Mokaro told us to take you with us and leave Anvika as soon as possible."

"Leave?"

Mengxi looked unsure for a moment.

The young priestess noticed this right away.

The young priestess, thinking that Mengxi wanted to fulfill her duty as the Girl of Destiny by fighting the Sword Demon, immediately showed an anxious expression and hurriedly advised:

"Mengxi, don’t do anything risky! You have to leave! Archbishop Mokaro and all of us think that Sword Demon is mainly after you. You can’t take chances. If something happens to you, who will lead us against those abyssal demons? Plus, you can’t really fight something as strong as Sword Demon right now!"

"I understand," Mengxi replied, clearly aware of Sword Demon’s strength—a creature from the abyss so powerful that it could single-handedly destroy an entire empire. She knew her own limits. She couldn’t even defeat lesser abyssal demons, let alone challenge the Sword Demon.

Reluctantly, she smiled at the priestess, "Don’t worry, I’m not that overconfident."

Her hesitance to leave wasn’t because she wanted to fight Sword Demon, but was concerned about another person...

"Yumo..."

Mengxi turned her gaze toward the distant, chaotic battlefield, her feelings mixed as she clenched her fists. The dark-haired girl, Yumo, was what worried Mengxi the most. Everything that happened today went beyond her expectations—the vibrations from the teachers’ apartment, the missing Yumo, and the sudden appearance of Sword Demon. All these made her feel uneasy, and strange thoughts began to emerge in her mind.

’Was Sword Demon here not just for her, but also to harm Yumo? After all, in the eyes of abyssal demons, Yumo was a ’traitor’ who betrayed the Demon Lord to help her. Could it be that Sword Demon was sent to eliminate Yumo? Did Yumo hide because she realized this?’

’No, that can’t be. If Yumo knew about the danger, she wouldn’t have left me in the dark, making me vulnerable to Sword Demon’s sudden attack.’

’Could it be that Yumo also encountered some kind of trouble? ’

Thinking about the strange events at the teachers’ apartment, Mengxi felt more and more worried as she clenched her fists tightly.

"Sister, where... where have you gone?"