Chapter 416 Place of Belonging (1/2)
CHAPTER 416
PLACE OF BELONGING
The crumbled mountain ring lay barren and ruined inside a wide, desecrated valley. Droplets of rain soon began pounding against the cracked stone as overhead, black clouds surged together. A downpour commenced soon after, dousing the holes till they formed small ponds, linked together through tunnels formed due to pieces of rocks piling on top of each other under strange angles.
From an elevated end, it poured down like a waterfall, slowly filling up all the gaps. Hundreds of corpses lay exposed, buried either beneath the stampeded grass or pieces of debris. Some headless, some limbless, some whole, some scattered in pieces – it was truly a ghastly sight to behold, seemingly even for the heavens who began washing away the scene with their tears.
The space above the scene of destruction ripped open roughly half an hour after Lino, Hannah and the rest departed. Through it, four figures walked through, quickly taken aback once their eyes landed on the scene down below.
Six could feel his throat slowly close up as his fingers curled up into fists; bodies were everywhere, or at least pieces of them. The mountains were no more, just the ravaged landscape of horror and dread. Bloody streams surged from down below, trailing off through the crushed grass, winding up somewhere inside the earth.
”… we've miscalculated.” Four said as the four figures descended down, landing near the small pile of corpses. ”Terribly.”
”Six, didn't you say he wouldn't retaliate like this?” Fourteen, a middle-aged woman of starkly cyan hair and a pair of brilliant, twilight eyes asked the old man.
”… I didn't think he would,” Six replied, shuddering in chilliness for a moment. ”I… I honestly thought he didn't have it in him.”
”Most of the wounds are bladed,” Sixteen, a young-looking, handsome, bald man walked up to the pile and inspected it deeply for a moment. ”Eight must have dragged them all into the Mortal Reality.”
”So… this is his capacity while acting the role of an ordinary mortal?” Fourteen said, seeming somewhat shocked. ”What the hell…”
”Clean up,” Four said after a short silence. ”And don't spread the news. Looks like we really are at war.”
Six withdrew slightly, gazing away from the corpses toward the ever-darkening sky. He sighed lowly, his eyes turning somewhat teary. I'm sorry, Lino, he thought inwardly as his body slowly began to vanish into a spatial rip. But… I can no longer help you…
**
”Y-y-you… you're pregnant?!!” Lino exclaimed, his somewhat downtrodden expression lighting up as though it was dawn.
”Yeah.” Hannah replied, smiling freely.
”Oh my god!!” lunging over, he fell on his front as he reached out with his right arm and pressed it against Hannah's belly. ”I-I'm gonna be a dad?”
”Yeah…”
”I'm gonna be a dad!!” Lino's eyes glimmered, though only for a moment; suddenly, a shift that startled Hannah occurred, whereupon they were drowned in panic. ”Holy fucking shit, I'm going to be a father!! I can't be a fucking father!”
”E-eh?! Honey—”
”That kid will look up to me and ask me stuff – how can I tell him not to kill people? Or drink? Or do plentitude of other psychotic shit I do – we fucking do – on a daily basis?! Or, or, oh my god… what if it's a girl?!! Fuck, what if it's a girl Hannah?!!”
”I'm a girl—”
”I can never let her have sex!!”
”Oi—”
”And, and, because I won't be around often, she's gonna have so many issues – so many issues, Hannah!! What if we don't give her enough attention and she decides to punish us by sucking every cock in that fortress?!! Oh my god, why am I talking about my daughter sucking cocks, what the fuck's wrong with me?!!”
”So many things—”
”And, and,” Hannah's eyebrows twitched as she found herself growing more and more annoyed by second. ”What if it's twins, huh!? Did you think about that?! That's twice the fucking problems! Fucking hell, who told me I'd be a great dad?! Lies! Fucking lies! I can't be a dad—”
”Fucking idiot!!” Hannah suddenly squarely flicked his forehead as he cried out lowly in pain. ”Stop spiraling for the love of god and just shut the fuck up for a moment, you absolute fucking bundle of issues.”
”… ouch.”
”You had it coming.”
”… yeah, yeah. I can see how that could be a conclusion.” Lino nodded, seemingly having calmed down. ”You… you really are pregnant? I'm really going to be a dad?”
”… yeah,” Hannah's expression mellowed as her lips curled up into a smile. She nudged herself over closer to him and pulled her arms around his back, bringing him into her chest. ”And you're going to be a fantastic one. So long as you stop the whole spiraling nonsense, of course.”
”… I'm still trying to process how can you be happy over bearing my kid. You just know that little fucker's going to be one hell of an asshole.”
”Ha ha ha, yeah, of course he will,” she chuckled, trailing her fingers through his hair. ”I mean, it is you and me. I imagine that, by the time she's four, his vocabulary will consist of nothing but curses and swears.”
”Good god… the poor thing stands no chance.” Lino said, chuckling.
”Yeah… she'll just have to find someone as equally insane as—”