Chapter 114 Experiment
When alone, especially when he left White Tower University, Nova could vaguely sense a kind of prying gaze around him. Obscure, fanatical, and sticky, it reminded him of the fervent joy of the "Son of Life" before his death, as if all the imperfections of his life were complete because of it.
But whenever Azuka was around him, those glances disappeared completely.
After solving the problem of the cold, the professor boldly went out to wander the streets, and even deliberately found excuses to get away from people and be alone - but the owners of those gazes never appeared in front of him, as if they were afraid of something. The only proof that what he perceived was not an illusion was the corner of clothes that flashed in his peripheral vision, the sudden footprints on the street corner, or the ashes that disappeared from the brick wall.
But when he asked the one favored by God whether he had discovered anything, he was rudely grabbed by the back of the neck.
"...So this is the reason why you've been asking me to do odd jobs so frequently recently?" Azuka stared at the bastard in front of him who didn't seem to think he had done anything wrong, and felt his teeth itching.
He went to the west of the town to send and receive letters, and halfway through, he suddenly used the "multi-function communicator" to ask him to go to a designated store in the east of the town to buy a certain brand of ink. On the way back, he was asked to go back to the north of the town to buy some snacks. The professor always liked to be efficient. Azuka even suspected that he had planned his daily schedule as quickly as possible down to the minute. He never expected that he would be so good at making trouble for others.
The guy seemed a little angry. Nova was a little distracted. He thought for a moment, slapped his hand away, and praised him seriously and solemnly: "You are great, you are my best assistant coach."
"And I'm also calculating their approximate movements." The professor quickly lifted a complicated piece of scratch paper from his desk and slapped it triumphantly in his companion's face. "This is my estimate of the snoopers' daily itinerary—you see, according to estimates, they frequently gather at an abandoned landfill in the north of town late at night. I suspect that's their temporary meeting point."
Azuka: “…”
He slowly uncovered the rough map covered with complex equations and lines, and sighed softly, "Have you never considered the danger you might encounter?"
"I have a gun, and I'm also covered in the protective spell you cast." Nova gave him a puzzled look. "Besides, those people are clearly wary of you. I never stay too far away from you, so they don't dare to attack."
"And you clearly spotted that group of people too." He rebuked with some dissatisfaction, "You don't want to alert them, and neither do I. We clearly have the same goal and similar methods, yet you're mad at me?"
Then someone pinched the back of his neck again - this time the other party used some force, and the faint soreness and swelling in the back of his neck suddenly became obvious. Nova hissed subconsciously, and angrily grasped the other party's forearm, and found the position where the ulnar nerve should be and pressed down without hesitation.
"—Let go! What kind of crappy habit is this?"
As a result, a fight broke out naturally - to be more precise, he was looking for opportunities to attack with great momentum, while the other person was defending and resolving the situation calmly. After a few rounds, Nova began to feel bored. The guy was just teasing him. He couldn't just pull out a pistol and put it to the other person's forehead - but just as he was about to signal a ceasefire, his foot suddenly slipped, and Azuka immediately put his hand on the professor's waist, and the back of his hand hit the edge of the desk with a dull thud.
"...or was it bumped into?" Seeing the man suddenly silent and with an ugly expression, the savior frowned and tried to help the man up.
In the end, the guy just closed his eyes and replied concisely: "My waist is sprained."
Azuka: “…”
He was at a loss for words for a moment. Before this, he had always thought that such words would only come from the toothless mouths of the elders in the tribe.
"Let me see." The savior sighed, held the man's shoulders and pulled him up from the table. Without waiting for the other party to refuse, he quickly unbuttoned his heavy coat, and through a layer of inner clothes, he placed his palm on the other person's lower back.
Through the thin inner garment, Azuka could clearly feel the warmth of the human body, as well as the stiff tension and fragile trembling of those slightly thin muscles. If he exerted a little more force, he could even feel the concave arc created by the most fatal bones of the human body.
He paused, then calmly raised his head slightly, trying to cover the tips of his ears which were a little hot - but he allowed the other person to breathe all the warm breaths, which were rapid and slightly disordered due to the pain, into his collar.
"...Don't touch me, let me relax." His nemesis grabbed his forearm tightly, his fingers turning blue and white due to the force, and he almost squeezed out a few words from between his teeth.
"I know you don't like being touched here," the Savior coaxed softly, "...but please be patient for a moment, it will be over soon."
The warm fingers moved and slowly located the part that was still spasming and throbbing.
Then Nova heard the other person's voice sink darkly, carrying a message that he couldn't understand, like the wind coming from an unknown distant place: "...If it hurts too much, you can bite me."
——In the end, he almost bit someone.
The scorching heat of his palm felt like a fire running up his spine. The excruciating pain made him break out in a cold sweat and nearly groan. The veins in his forehead throbbed, but someone held his back firmly with their other hand, preventing him from moving. When the other person finally let go, Nova felt a bit dazed, as if his soul had become light and airy.
"Are you okay?" The man gently brushed his sweaty hair back with his fingers, his blue eyes filled with genuine concern. "Are you still in pain?"
The professor glanced at him gloomily, wanting to scold him, but he couldn't find any mistakes in him. After all, after the severe pain in his waist disappeared, he really felt relieved.
...So why on earth did he want to fight this guy? Nova suddenly doubted his own clever brain—it was so childish and ineffective, yet nothing good happened every time.
Finally, he angrily decided that this time he would not say thank you to anyone, never.
"...Professor?" Seeing that the man remained silent, Azuka frowned, wondering if the sprain was really serious. Then he heard the man say coldly, "Let's get back to the topic."
Perhaps because he was pressed against the desk, the guy simply supported himself on the table with one hand and flipped over the corner of the desk. He seemed to be as agile as before.
"It's known that those people fear you, but they have designs on me." The professor tapped his desk indifferently, signaling the teaching assistant to come back to his senses. "Why? If we are both chosen by God, what is worthy of my claim, and what is worthy of your fear?"
Azuka stood there, looking at him gently and tolerantly - but this seemed to annoy the other man a little, and he didn't wait for his answer and continued talking to himself.
"You know what I'm thinking of? Son of Life," the professor asked himself, answering. "For some unknown reason, those people believe you're the resurrected Storm God Utosca, so naturally they don't dare to become an enemy of a god. But why would a god associate with a human? Am I the key to your 'resurrection'? Naturally, they're interested in me."
"Those who have come to White Tower aren't just followers of the God of Life and Joy," Azuka added calmly. "The recent arrivals have come from different faiths and schools of magic. I've already seen followers of at least four gods, including Apatara, the priestess of the Temple of Eros, who is also coming to White Tower."
Nova was silent for a moment, then slowly raised his head and stared into the savior's eyes expressionlessly: "...Then there is only one possibility."
"—Those cultists who engage in human sacrifices are merely a cover to attract attention. The 'Son of Life' is a puppet pushed forward by the forces behind them."
The professor sneered sarcastically, "If I'm not mistaken, the major temples have all secretly conducted experiments attempting to 'resurrect' or 'awaken' the gods, while those shameful tasks like capturing sacrifices and crafting human magic tools were all left to the so-called 'cultists.'"
The Savior's pupils shrank noticeably.
"They should be a large, complex, and systematic faction. At least they have a certain amount of power and influence within the major temples." Nova frowned in disgust, and rarely used words with strong emotion. "It's a pity that in your previous life, you acted too quickly and killed too thoroughly. You missed the opportunity to learn the truth and completely eradicate and clean up those filthy creatures."
Seeing the other man's expression suddenly become unusually gloomy, he paused and then spoke to comfort him, "This is not your fault. If it were me, I would also find it difficult to control my emotions after suffering the inhumane torture of those lunatics."
"……No."
Nova was stunned.
He was suddenly hugged by someone, so tightly that he could clearly feel the dull pain in his ribs being squeezed, and the slight trembling that seemed to destroy everything with every heartbeat and every breath of the other person.
"...After I killed all the Children of Life, I also tried to look through their experimental records. Among them, a sacrifice they called 'the Sun' caught my attention."
The other party's condition was obviously not right, so Nova did not struggle for a moment, allowing those fingers to gradually close along his back and clasp, as if hugging a dying child with a bullet in the chest.
"For some reason, those madmen valued this sacrifice so much that they couldn't bear to see it die easily. They even recorded many disgusting experiments, but I never found anything more valuable..." The Savior's voice grew softer and softer. "But later, I accidentally heard the word 'sun' from several priests of the Church of Radiance... They said, 'The sun is dazzling and powerful. When its radiance shines, my god will return to the world.'"
The words flowing out of his throat were trembling, and Azuka felt that he was trying to completely engulf the other person's body with his body temperature, as if seeking some kind of redemption.
"I didn't think too much of it at the time, thinking it was just an ordinary prayer—but if the Church of Radiance and the Son of Life were secretly colluding, they also hoped to use human sacrifices in exchange for the return of the God of Light to the world... If theologians, including you, were arrested and imprisoned by the Inquisition, and your whereabouts were completely disappeared afterwards..."
Unprecedented pain crushed the hero's back, and he could almost hear the soul's wailing.
"—Then who is the 'Sun', the 'Sun' who once struggled on the torture bed enveloped by the world's most disgusting malice and pain?"
It must have been a very bright, dazzling, and powerful soul—like the soul he was holding tightly in his arms at this moment.
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