At the next day's routine event, the Archon's report at the hall, Eric was surprised to see Xiu's seventh feather. The governor, sitting on the seat of honor, blew his top because the Archon of the Fifth Layer had turned over a sufficient amount of light elements but had not given them any extra treasure chests as a bribe.
"I think the Archon of this Layer should be replaced." The governor pointed at an aide and said: "You – you can take over his position and make sure you perform better."
The Archon, who had suddenly become the ex-Archon, was frozen. The promoted aide knelt down to the governor in a grateful manner. The governor grunted. He glanced at Xiu and paid special attention to his extra feather but did not say anything and just turned away.
Eric, who had been looking at Xiu and Du Ze, did not approach them or try to speak to them. Du Ze did not know whether it was because Eric didn't want to confront them knowing that his words would just backfire on him, or because Eric's fragile glass heart was still broken by the knowledge of the gay romantic relationship between the god of light's chosen savior and the heretic.
They went to the carriages as usual to prepare for their departure but saw that there was now a change in their circumstances. There was a more magnificent carriage next to the small carriage that the three of them had shared. Based on the angel bodyguard's explanation, Du Ze understood that this new carriage was for Xiu. Now that Xiu's qualifications are higher than Eric, Xiu's privileges should not be the same as Eric's.
It seems that there are really distinct social classes among the angel race. Du Ze climbed up the new carriage and looked at the beautiful decorations with delight.
A silly, cute person was very happy that the 3Pcarriage.avi won't be playing this time. Every time he got on the carriage he was in unspeakable pain as his moral integrity went into the negative numbers and he wanted to recharge it right away.
Xiu's dragon form's sense of personal space is particularly strong. Each time Du Ze sits on Xiu's lap, the Moe Lord will hold his own silly, cute person very tightly in his arms, so Du Ze loved to sit on Xiu's body, erm, it was quite okay compared to the alternative.1
At this time, Du Ze could not help but think of a song: Lying down like a bow, standing like a pine tree, in stillness not swaying, sitting like a bell ...2
Even if a silly, cute person knew how to sit still like a bell, the carriage ride was bumpy, inevitably resulting in movement between Xiu and Du Ze's bodies. Because of the carriage's strong and forceful motion, Du Ze felt a certain change in Xiu's body. Du Ze's stiff facial expression was like a person who was aware of extreme danger. Xiu did not restrain his reaction at all. Xiu buried his head in the hollow of Du Ze's shoulder and used both his arms to clasp Du Ze's body, making their □ fit together even more tightly. Du Ze even felt as though the Moe Lord would have come inside if their pants had not been there. Each time that a bump made him move up and down, it made him feel as if he was on top.
****, this disgraceful behavior is too much!
Fortunately, Xiu did not fully indulge himself; he still had some scruples so all he did was to lick Du Ze's neck. He did not give Eric, who was opposite them, an educational live version of the doujinshi's teachings.
However, Du Ze thought that even if they did, Eric would not have seen anything. The rival was always acting as though he was blind to their antics. Either he was resting quietly with his eyes closed or he was gazing into the distance, not paying attention to the two gay people who had no sense of right or wrong. Although most of the time Eric did not look at them, occasionally their eyes would meet, which made a silly, cute person's heart tremble.
The eyes of the son of god were very sad and pained – you act so gay here, does your family know?
... This little student's heart aches so much. QAQ
In front of Du Ze was the rival who wanted to bring them to justice while behind him was the Moe Lord who wanted to execute him on the spot. The poor reader was sandwiched between them, crying a river of tears in his heart.3
Fortunately, this is all going to end today. The new carriage was a standard double carriage, although it is not large. Du Ze sat at ease on the soft velvet seat. He was so happy he was almost bubbling over with satisfaction.
Xiu put Old John back into storage. As Xiu closed the door, the inside of the carriage became a somewhat narrow enclosed space. This greatly satisfied the dragon race's desire for being in a space that is entirely under one's control and Xiu did not hide his pleasure at this new arrangement.
"That unsightly man is finally gone."
The silver-haired dragon sat on the other seat and called out to his treasure: "Come here."
Du Ze automatically answered that call. It was only after he got up that realized that something was wrong – two people are riding on a two-seater carriage, why do they have to sit together in one seat? A silly, cute person's eyes roamed around the closed carriage in a circle and suddenly thought that perhaps he had celebrated this change in the situation too early.
In the past – sitting on someone's lap during a bumpy carriage ride – moving that way... now that there were only two people in the carriage ... Moe, Moe Lord ... is this the place where he will be pushed down for carriage play?
The carriage started moving. The vehicle's jolting movement made Du Ze fall back down to his original position on his seat, but how could it be that easy to escape from the Moe Lord? A silly, cute person was sitting down when Xiu got up and pressed the black-haired youth back against the wall of the carriage behind him.
Xiu's j□j was between Du Ze's legs in a suggestive position. When Du Ze almost jumped up in fright, Xiu kissed him on the lips so that Du Ze had no chance to escape. "Let's try doing it here once."
It wasn't a request, it was Xiu saying "This will be great, let's do it." Du Ze was almost in tears. Just when he thought he had gotten rid of the 3Pcarriage.avi, the Moe Lord said he wanted to try "carriage play" with him – why is his life full of shame play events?
"There are people outside..."
"They won't hear you." Xiu bit Du Ze's ear. He said in a low, hoarse voice: "Every time we were in the carriage you stimulated my **** but I couldn't find release, it was very uncomfortable ... do you understand?"
Wait a minute, is that this little student's fault?!
"I'll do it with you," Xiu said. Du Ze was pressed down on the velvet seat, listening to the silver-haired dragon's forceful demand that was impossible to deny: "Now, right away."
Finally, they climbed down from the carriage with Xiu carrying Du Ze in his arms. A silly, cute person thought about this situation for just half a second then immediately decided to close his eyes and pretend to be dead – he accidentally fell asleep so the Moe Lord was kind enough to carry him out of the carriage. That was the pure and chaste image he wanted to present to the world.
As to why the sleeping person had purple love bite marks on his neck ... Please pay no attention to such small, trifling details!
Du Ze originally wanted to just pretend but he unexpectedly fell asleep for real. When he woke up, his view was full of silvery scales. He saw the teardrop-shaped scales that were folded outwards and the silver dorsal fin on the silver dragon's long neck. Du Ze's eyes met Xiu's eyes that looked like top quality rubies and he realized that Xiu had changed into his dragon form.
"Where are we?"
"The Palace." The silver dragon folded its wings and said: "They prepared a separate room for me."
It seems that because of the difference in their seniority, the Moe Lord no longer has to play with Eric. Du Ze propped up his upper body; his lower half was still a little weak. He looked up at the sky, puzzled – it shouldn't be night-time right now? His headphones have electricity so originally he thought that the current time was after his 0-point restore but his limp body told him that it was not so
Du Ze asked Xiu: "What time is it?"
"It will be dusk soon."
It's the afternoon? A silly, cute person was shocked. The outside looked the same as night-time, all things were covered in darkness and the brightest thing in the room were the seven feathers on Xiu's body – wait, seven?!
"You didn't collect light elements today?"
Xiu's red eyes narrowed: "No."
Huh? Du Ze was gently caressed by the silver dragon's paws as he listened to Xiu explain what had happened. After the Fifth Layer's Archon was removed from his office, when the governor and the others arrived at the palace, the Archon of the Fourth Layer immediately handed over a chest to curry favor with them. The governor was very pleased. He took the chest without further ado and took all of the light elements.
[System: Ding! The governor's feathers have increased by +1. He is rank one. You still need to acquire 16 feathers before you overtake him.]
WT*! This little student and the Moe Lord ran around for a day collecting light elements to produce half a feather but that tsundere just has to throw a tantrum to get someone to give him more light elements?!
"We had to run around too much before, so our collection speed was slow," said Xiu. "This time I asked the soldiers to collect all of the light elements of a region then move on, but they said that they would need the governor's permission to totally exhaust the light elements in an area."
Xiu seemed to be dissatisfied with using his paws. The silver dragon's touch is a little insensitive because his skin is covered with hard scales so instead Xiu used his tongue to touch Du Ze. The silver dragon is huge compared to Du Ze and his tongue was half the size of Du Ze's body. Du Ze was licked by the soft tongue and his entire body immediately became wet. The slick fluid had an almost musky odor but the feeling of wearing wet clothes was uncomfortable. Du Ze grabbed his pants that had almost been licked off and tried to continue chatting: "Then what happened?"
"That person wouldn't give his permission so I'm not going." Having confirmed that using the tongue is better than the claw, Xiu quickly ended the conversation then used his claws to remove Du Ze's wet clothes and carefully licked his own silly, cute person.
Du Ze had been licked by the silver dragon before, but it was too dark to see anything that time. Now, Xiu was surrounded by a halo of light from the feathers. Du Ze was frightened when the silver dragon open his mouth – it was big enough to swallow him whole.
The dragon's one-meter-long tongue wrapped itself around Du Ze and licked him up and down. Du Ze's whole body became slippery as Xiu kept on licking him until every bit of his skin was wet. Whenever a part of his skin was about to become dry, Xiu would thoroughly lick it again. His skin was licked until it was pinkish all over but it seemed as though Xiu still wasn't satisfied. A silly, cute person thought that the look in the silver dragon's eyes was that of an extremely hungry person, as if he wanted to gobble up this treat.
At that moment Du Ze fully understood why the Moe Lord didn't use this form when it would have been very convenient in the past trials. This form has no moral integrity at all! Even though the demon form was also difficult to handle, at most the demon would bully him, but the dragon form will absolutely not stop!
Probably because he knew that he had been quite ruthless with Du Ze during the carriage ride, or because the exercise in the carriage today had made the Moe Lord contented, the Moe Lord licked until he had tasted enough then let go of a silly, cute person.
Being licked until he was covered in a clear musky liquid made Du Ze feel as though he would slip and slide if he tried walking. In addition, he was mentally exhausted from the double **** stimulation and his body had not recovered yet. Tired, Du Ze pillowed his head on the silver dragon's long neck then closed his eyes and fell asleep.
The report on the second day went as usual and there were no problems. The Archon of the
Fourth Layer did not take out an extra treasure box but the governor did not say anything because he had already received a chest of light elements.
Eric seemed a bit preoccupied. Du Ze couldn't help but look at him a few times but snapped back his head whenever Xiu noticed him looking.
"Don't worry about him," said Xiu. He made a hmph sound. "That trash followed me yesterday. I left with the soldiers but came back without having collected anything."
Du Ze looked at the dark daytime sky. Due to the excessive harvesting of the light elements, even though noontime should be the brightest time of the day, the Fourth Layer's sky was dim as though it was just after dawn. The collection of light elements and the constant spread of the darkness, forcing tower climbers to gain glory by writing it in the blood of others – this must be torture for the virtuous son of god.
As they prepared for departure, the angel guards came to tell Xiu and Du Ze: Since the Second Layer is closer to them than the Third Layer, they are going to the Second Layer first.
Du Ze didn't feel much at first but when they crossed the white wall to enter the capital city, he realized that there was a huge difference between the Fourth and Second Layers.
If the Fourth Layer looked like it was dawn during noontime, the Second Layer looked like it was the darkest night before dawn. Dark elements covered heaven and earth. The sun in the sky was like the moon; wherever it went it gave off light and heat, but it only illuminated a small area near it. His field of vision was full of darkness that gave a person a very depressing feeling. He occasionally saw dead trees from his carriage window. Seeing such a scene, Du Ze's breathing became heavy with dread – can people really live in such a place?
In order to see the road, the carriage guards cast a light spell to disperse the darkness. Du Ze, who had been looking out of the window, suddenly saw several shadows flashing by, and he leaned out to see more clearly. In the darkness there came a soft shuffling sound, like soles rubbing against stone and a rustling sound like robes brushing against something.
In the darkness, a multitude of shadows approached the sides of the carriages. When the carriages' light momentarily overcame the darkness that surrounded it, Du Ze opened his eyes wide, trying to adjust his vision to see into that darkness. After a while he saw the shadows more clearly and forgot to breathe because of the shock.
Those large and small shadows were wearing cloaks. People? Du Ze wasn't sure if what he saw were really living things. Those figures were wearing tattered cloaks and their hands were as thin as broken twigs. They stumbled as they followed the carriages and the wind blew open their cloaks, revealing dry, emaciated bodies that were so thin that you could count their ribs – the people who chased the carriages were like skeletons covered by rotten, dead skin.
Du Ze was quickly pulled back by Xiu who unhappily stroked the black-haired youth's slightly reddened skin – the dark elements outside were strong enough to erode a person's skin if he stayed outside too long.
Du Ze stared blankly at Xiu. His thoughts were still on that scene: More and more people gathered around the carriages and a man's hood accidentally slipped down, exposing a putrefying face. The man looked at the carriages as though he was Kuafu chasing the sun;1 his cloudy eyes were filled with an endless desire for light.
"Do you think ..." When Du Ze opened his mouth, he found it difficult to speak. "What are those?"
Xiu spread a potion on Du Ze's reddened skin. "The common people here."
Without light, surrounded by corrosive dark elements... Du Ze could not imagine how the Second Layer's people lived. Although he had known what the collection of the light elements did to the environment, seeing with his own eyes how the light and vitality of the earth had been drained and how these pitiful creatures came stumbling after every little bit of light that they saw made Du Ze feel extremely bitter.
The carriages jolted to a stop. The people who had been following them stood quivering at a distance from the convoy, watching them very carefully
The capital city wasn't any better than the rest of the area. It was also covered with a thick shroud of dark elements. Du Ze saw that there was a group of cloaked people who were waiting for them. Compared to the people behind the carriages, the cloaks of the people in front were not so shabby though they also showed signs of being eroded by the dark elements.
Everyone got out of their carriages and the governor made no secret of his dislike for the Second Layer. When the Archon came forward to kneel to the governor, he said disdainfully: "You will take out the light elements and present them to me now. I don't want to spend another day in this hell hole."
The Archon, who was still kneeling on the ground, trembled then looked up, revealing an emaciated face.
"Your Excellency, you can see for yourself that we really have no light elements to give. If you take more of the light elements, the darkness will cover the Second Layer completely and it will become a land of death like the First Layer." Tears fell from the Archon's eyes. "Will you please show us a bit of mercy?"
The governor was totally indifferent to the Archon's humble plea. This scene was too much for the virtuous son of god to watch in silence any longer. Eric walked towards the governor, his young and handsome face full of anger.
"Why are you doing this?" Eric's eyes moved from the white carriage to the people in the distance. His clenched fists involuntarily tightened. "We have so many light elements, why not give them a little instead of exploiting them like this?!"
Amidst the light emitted by the feathers, the governor seemed to have a slight, scornful smile on his lips.
"It's very simple." The governor spoke very slowly, each word stabbing Eric straight through the heart. "Only we who are chosen by2 the god of light can enjoy the light; all other creatures are unworthy."
This answer was too bizarre and beyond Eric's capacity to understand. Eric lost some of his composure and his extreme fury made his voice distort: "They're all going to die!"
"So what?" replied the governor, without a hint of emotion. "What does it matter to us if all of these lowly creatures die?"
As spoke of "these lowly creatures," the proud and lofty eyes of the angel showed his contempt.
The other's tone was too natural and unforced, as if he had the absolute sense of superiority and rightness on his side. Eric stood still for a long time and said nothing as the governor spoke those mocking words then said to the Archon: "I will leave tonight so before that, turn over the light elements."
The Archon was silent for a moment then he slowly rose and raised his left hand. An invisible force came out from a void and carved a symbol of a broken wing on it. The angel's symbol is normally a wing and a broken wing seemed like an ominous sign. Seeing the Archon's gesture, the soldiers behind him and the people in the distance raised their left hands which were also marked with the broken wing symbol.
The angel guards took out their weapons. The governor, protected by the guards, said in an arrogant way: "You have all become fallen?"
"... We don't want to die, that's all," said the Archon, his eyes kindling with a deep-seated hatred.
Du Ze had not yet figured out what had happened when he saw the Archon raise his weapons and attack them. Wait – isn't violence forbidden in the angel trial? The sounds of battle destroyed Du Ze's beautiful, peaceful fantasy. The angel guards also drew weapons and the people from the Second Layer engaged them in hand-to-hand combat.
The outcome of the battle was clear from the start. The angel soldiers were well equipped while the civilians were nearly exhausted by the lack of light, so even if they had superior numbers, they would surely be slaughtered.
"Stop it!" Seeing that the angel guards ignored him, Eric drew his sword and pointed it at the governor. "Make them stop!"
The angel was quite dismissive of his demand: "You can say those words again when you have more seniority than me."
Eric stabbed his sword forward by an inch but the sword was like a shadow that simply pass through without penetrating the governor's body.
Du Ze was shocked at the scene he was watching. They now seemed to be divided into two camps: one side was the side of the angels, while the other side was that of the fallen. Eric's actions showed that they are still unable to do harm to people from their own side.
The battle soon came to an end. The fallen were slaughtered one after another. Even so, those people did not flinch; they seemed to be close to madness. Like moths to a fire, their longing was such that they desperately rushed towards the light. Their hatred of the angels was extreme, as though they were willing to die just to do a little damage to them, even if all they could do, lacking weapons or strength, was to bite the angels with their teeth.
At the end of the battle, the bodies of the fallen were all on the ground while only one angel was killed. The dark elements clung to the corpses, slowly eating away at their dead flesh that slowly lost their heat. Those who had lived their lives in the darkness were buried in the darkness even after their death.
Eric stared at the pile of corpses and a look of pain flashed through his face.
Du Ze saw Xiu walk to the Archon's corpse. He examined the broken wing symbol on the Archon's left hand and raised his left hand in front of the Archon.
The Tower did not give Xiu a broken wing symbol. Xiu did not seem to care; he lowered his hand then rose from the ground to give Du Ze a smile.
"We'll be out soon."
********
The author has something to say:
Protagonist: Monday: Gnome
Tuesday: Human
Wednesday: Undead
Thursday: Elf
Friday: Beastkin
Saturday: Demon
Sunday: Dragon.
Author: What about the angel?
Protagonist: The angel form will have to be scheduled separately, how delightful it will be!
Reader: What's so delightful about it!? (╯╢□′)╯︵┻┻
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