The hesitation in Link's heart did not last long.
Soon, his tightly furrowed brows relaxed.
The aura emanating from that doorway was indeed quite strange, but in fact, Link had not sensed the slightest hint of danger.
Link fully trusted his own perception.
This was mental perception at the high-stage Legendary level!
With his mental power reaching this level, Link could almost be said to possess a precognitive ability with an accuracy of nearly one hundred percent.
And at this moment, Link's mental power was not only giving him no warning at all, it even carried a faint sense of eager excitement.
This was enough to show that whatever was inside the door not only posed no threat to Link whatsoever, but also held tremendous benefits for him. It was something with a very high possibility of satisfying one of Link's desires.
Since that was the case, there was no reason to hesitate.
Link chuckled lightly. With a flicker of his body, he charged straight through the door.
BOOM!
The world inside the door was blood-red!
And at the deepest part of the doorway, a huge mass of blood-red matter was hidden.
It, or rather, He seemed to be the only tangible thing in this space besides Link.
From the instant Link entered the doorway, the surrounding red energy, along with the blood-red matter itself, launched a crazed assault on Link.
Unfortunately, everything they were doing was completely useless.
Around Link's body was a layer of crimson divine light driven by the King's Blood.
Earlier, outside the door, Link had already sensed that the crimson divine light restrained this kind of blood-colored energy.
And now, this restraint was displayed even more clearly.
Almost all of the blood-colored energy rushing toward Link completely collapsed the instant it came into contact with the crimson divine light, transforming into the purest magic power. Most of it surged into Link's body, while the small remainder scattered into the surrounding space.
The influx of massive amounts of magic power caused the crimson divine light to grow stronger and stronger, while the range it could affect continued to expand.
This in turn accelerated the slaughter of the blood-colored energy, forming a virtuous cycle.
Of course, to the blood-colored energy, this was completely a vicious cycle.
Yet even when faced with such a situation, the blood-colored energy showed no intention of stopping or changing its approach.
It was like a defense system without intelligence. It could only mindlessly attack Link, the outsider, using the most primitive method.
This process lasted for nearly ten hours. Link calculated this by counting his pulses.
During these ten hours, Link's already ridiculously massive amount of magic power increased nearly thirtyfold, to the point that even Link's body, which had reached the high-stage Legendary level, felt a distinct sense of fullness.
Meanwhile, the blood-colored energy in the surrounding space was completely exhausted.
Only that tangible blood-colored matter remained at the very center of the entire space, constantly rotating and pulsing.
From Him, Link could sense an intense fear.
He was afraid of Link. He was afraid of death!
This left Link very puzzled.
After all, according to the information provided by Norton and Dumbledore, this thing he had seen after entering the doorway was the God of Death.
But wasn't this God of Death a little too weak?
As if it had heard Link's thoughts, the blood-colored matter in the distance suddenly accelerated toward Link.
Its speed was extremely fast, almost exceeding the limits of Link's reaction. In an instant, it slammed headfirst into the crimson divine light radiating from Link's body.
Then, under Link's slightly astonished gaze, its entire body exploded, transforming into the purest magic power just like the ordinary blood-colored energy.
This magic power did not directly surge into Link's body. Instead, centered around Link, it continuously circled and intertwined, replacing the crimson divine light and becoming Link's protective shell.
At the same time, with the 'God of Death' gone, the entire world instantly became pitch-black.
But strangely, the surrounding environment was exceptionally comfortable.
The temperature, humidity, touch, smell, and even the atmosphere.
Everything was so suitable.
As for the darkness, it had also lost its sense of mystery to Link at this moment, instead giving Link a very reassuring feeling.
This feeling was like returning to the womb.
Link relaxed without realizing it. Then, after who knew how long, a faint light suddenly burst open before him!
...
"Ugh! It hurts like hell!"
Link struggled to push himself up from the tabletop.
A dull pain came in waves from his head along with his pulse, while his arm was completely numb. After relaxing it, it felt as though countless ants were crawling all over it.
This familiar feeling instantly helped Link find his bearings.
At this moment, he was inside a café.
The record player in the corner was playing an old, boring English song.
The singing mixed together with the conversations of the other customers, the sound of the coffee machine working at the counter, and the footsteps and greetings of the servers, forming the best lullaby.
"No wonder I fell asleep."
Link muttered to himself as he shook his head, trying to suppress the dull pain in his head.
But this action only made the pain worse.
The good thing was that it also made his groggy mind much clearer.
Link grimaced as he picked up the coffee, which had already gone cold, and drank it all in large gulps. Only then did he let out a long sigh and collapse onto the not-so-comfortable sofa in the café.
He was actually a private detective.
Well, a third-rate one.
In fact, given the current social environment, his job was not easy to do. Most of the work he received was helping rich women catch their lovers cheating on them, or helping rich men catch their wives cheating on them.
The pay for this kind of work was indeed much higher than that of ordinary jobs. But years of working day and night, along with frequently being given a hard time by clients and the authorities, had left him physically and mentally exhausted. He had already begun considering whether he should simply go home and honestly take the exams to get a stable government job.
"Sigh..."
Link let out a long sigh. Life was just this difficult.
The only good news was that he had just had a good dream.
Although he could not clearly remember what had happened in the dream, the feeling it gave him was so wonderful.
It made him somewhat want to go back to sleep.
If he did, maybe the dream could continue.
Just as Link was hesitating, his gaze happened to fall on a seat by the window. A handsome and adorable white boy was chatting and laughing with his mother.
They had ordered a huge pile of food.
The little boy was eating happily, a blissful smile spread across his face, with a dark-blue little snake wrapped around his arm.
One moment he would bury his head and eat ravenously, the next he would exchange a few jokes with his mother, and then he would tease the little snake with a few "hiss hiss hiss" sounds. He looked extremely happy.
His mother, meanwhile, did not touch the desserts on the table. She simply watched her son with a smile, occasionally taking out a handkerchief to wipe the chocolate sauce from the corner of his mouth while scolding him playfully a couple of times.
It was obvious that this was a mother and son with a very good relationship.
The place where the mother and son were sitting was somewhat secluded. Link had noticed them purely because of his keen perception as a private detective.
And their appearance caused Link's brows to furrow deeply.
Link hated that little boy.
It had nothing to do with his skin color, nor was it because he had brought a rare pet like a snake into the café.
Link simply hated this person. He even felt like he wanted to go over and punch him a couple of times.
It was an indescribable feeling, as if he had a blood feud with this boy.
Taking a deep breath, Link suppressed his disgust and turned his head away from the mother and son.
No matter what, hitting a child would be too much.
That crossed Link's moral bottom line.
But the instant Link turned his head, the mother's originally warm smile suddenly became as ferocious as an evil ghost.
She abruptly stood up and pointed at the little boy, roaring, "Tom! Why don't you look anything like your father!? Why did you disappoint my expectations and become so ugly!?"
The enormous voice drew everyone's attention in the café, and Link turned his head back as well.
The little boy looked as though he had been frightened silly. He held up the half-eaten piece of cake, his mouth slightly open, and only after a long while did he manage to say, "Mom..."
Slap!
The mother directly slapped the little boy across the face. "Don't call me Mom! You're not my son! You little bastard!"
The mother roared as she rushed out of the café.
The little boy covered his face, large tears continuously sliding from the corners of his eyes, looking pitiful.
"Hehehe...."
Several soft laughs suddenly rang out, then abruptly stopped.
Link awkwardly touched his nose. He really had not meant to laugh out loud, but he simply could not hold it back.
He did not know why, but seeing that little boy having bad luck made him especially happy.
Link uneasily swept his gaze around.
He was somewhat worried that he would draw the contempt of the crowd. After all, his schadenfreude just now had been rather embarrassing.
However, only after looking around did he discover that, faced with such a pitiful little boy, not a single person in the entire café had stepped forward to comfort him.
Even the servers showed no reaction.
Almost everyone was like Link had been earlier, covering their mouths and secretly laughing gleefully.
Especially the family sitting at the table near the counter. The man of the family was laughing with an arrogance that was simply outrageous.
This family was also made up of foreigners.
The man of the family was very short, probably only around one and a half meters tall. However, he had a muscular build, a scar on his face, and one blind eye, making him look like someone who was not to be trifled with.
Sitting opposite him, however, were two beautiful, tall women wearing spring clothes.
Judging by their appearances alone, it was almost impossible to tell their ages. Both were equally youthful and beautiful, which was truly rare among white people, whose youthful period was so short.
However, the two had slightly different temperaments. The blonde woman on the left should be the mother, while the black-haired woman on the right should be the daughter.
Ever since Link noticed this family, his gaze had been firmly stuck on them, unable to move away.
It was as if there were some kind of magic about this family that made Link involuntarily want to approach them.
Even the one-eyed dragon of a man with the ferocious expression seemed intensely familiar to Link.
As they chatted and laughed, they seemed to notice Link's heated gaze as well.
The beautiful blonde woman was the first to turn her head toward Link.
There was light in her eyes as she waved repeatedly at Link.
This gave Link courage.
He nervously swallowed, hurriedly straightened his somewhat messy clothes from sleeping on the table, then got up and walked toward the family.
He walked very slowly.
Because he was thinking about how he should greet this family.
He genuinely wanted to get close to them, yet he was also afraid of being rejected. It was an extremely complicated feeling.
However, just as he approached, before he could even speak, the black-haired girl beside them excitedly waved at Link and said, "Ah! Link! You're finally here!"
The familiar voice made Link's eyes redden, and his originally stiff expression immediately relaxed.
"Yeah, I'm here. Emily, Mom, and old Klyde, I'm here!"
As Link spoke, he sat down between Mrs. Flee and Emily.
Emily wrapped her arm around his.
Mrs. Flee grabbed his shoulder, smiling as tears streamed down her face.
Arkham and Yo-Yo also crawled out from his collar.
As for old Klyde, he simply stood there with his arms crossed, looking at him and laughing happily.
Not far away, Snape sat upright beside the counter, dressed in a black robe.
Watching this scene, the corners of his mouth also rose uncontrollably.
What none of them noticed was that.
While they were laughing, the boy abandoned by his mother had already left his seat and walked out of the café with difficulty.
He seemed to want to find his mother, but his mother had already disappeared around the corner.
The boy searched for a long time but still found nothing, which made him completely despair.
He turned his head and looked back at the café, a poisonous hatred surging into his innocent eyes.
But in the very next moment, a translucent, pure Fiendfyre suddenly emerged from his forehead and began burning his soul and body.
Terrible pain descended in an instant.
The poisonous hatred in the boy's eyes completely faded, replaced by pure fear and despair.
He wailed miserably, but his voice was simply too weak, and was almost instantly drowned out by the laughter inside the café.
Suddenly, Link turned his head and looked at the little boy outside the café.
The corners of his mouth lifted into a vicious grin.
"After the experience last time, if you want to be freed this time, it won't be so easy."