Myths Reawakened

Suburban Londan.

A battered car rattled along a crumbling road. Wayne was at the wheel. William, built like a brick wall, rode shotgun. Anastasia and Filomina sat in the back. All of them were Wayne’s lovers in the surface world, bound by the exchange of hundreds of millions. He knew every nook and cranny of their bodies.

Um, not William, but he didn’t need to know him.

“Wayne, do you really think that Auston won’t kill himself?” William asked suddenly.

“...”

“Say something, Wayne!”

“I don’t know...”

Wayne shook his head. In the surface world, Auston considered Megan family and would choose to keep living as her pillar, but not so much in the inner world. The negative information in the world drove everyone to destruction and self-destruction. Twilight Despair shielded Auston from the worst of it, but not completely. He had had his revenge, and no longer with any purpose in life, who knew whether he would choose to live for Megan’s sake.

Auston might have said nothing when they parted because he knew that with Wayne watching him, he couldn’t die even if he wanted to. Thus, he pretended to have found a reason to go on, only to commit suicide once Wayne was gone. If that was the case, both Auston and Megan would be gone by now, and Londan would once again return to Queen Sophelia’s rule.

The topic was too heavy, and Wayne didn’t want to dwell on it. This wasn’t his world, and he couldn’t make their decisions for them.

Even with the three in the car, he could at most offer them a hand, but he wouldn’t stay in the world and spend the rest of his life with them. That was impossible. The inner world was going to explode sooner or later.

All he could do was make sure that before this damn world blew up, they could be as happy as possible.

Realizing his own insignificance as he helplessly watched everything unfold, he felt a rising hunger for power. He wanted to be stronger. He wanted power that could change everything. He wanted the world to revolve around him!

Bam!!!

A thunderous explosion tore open the road ahead. The earth roared and shook as a massive fissure split the ground, ripping outward into a chasm that cut off the battered car’s path.

A gust hit them like a shockwave, shattering the car’s only windshield. The car died then and there, unable to start again.

The four jumped out. Wayne stared up at the sky with wide eyes as a colossal green dragon over three hundred meters long flew toward them from the horizon. Fireballs shot out from its maw, obliterating forests and collapsing the ground, destroying everything in sight.

“Nature Knight!”

“Senna!”

William and Anastasia exclaimed at the same time, their voices thick with hatred but also a note of surprise. Neither knew why their enemy had come here. As the strongest knight, Senna should’ve been enjoying the worship of Nature’s followers in Ostarrichi.

Rumble!

Dragon wings covered the sky and cast vast shadows across the land as Senna flew over. Her overwhelming presence thickened the air, instilling the urge to kneel and grovel before her.

Boom!

The dragon landed, scattering a curtain of dust. Her crimson eyes swept over the wrecked car with gleaming viciousness. She opened her maw and spat out several figures. In the settling dust, the green dragon and her crushing aura vanished at the same time.

A fierce wind surged, scattering the dust to reveal the figures standing within. The leading woman was strikingly beautiful, tall, and slim, with exceptional appearance and figure. Her delicate face radiated confidence and ambition, with three parts arrogance, three parts contempt, and ninety-four parts domineering authority that allowed no opposition.

Senna.

Dressed in an ornate Pope’s robe, she carried herself with regality. Whether it was the uniform or the fact that she had become the Pope and the Nature Knight, her proud bearing added allure to her already captivating presence, making Wayne feel a stir.

He wanted in!

Those who had appeared with her were all women from the Church of Nature, most of whom were Gold-ranked mages. They were the Pope’s bodyguards and attendants. Senna likely had no need for them, but as the Pope, she needed an entourage. Doing everything on her own wouldn’t fit her current status.

“Sun Knight, Anastasia, fancy seeing you in Londan.” Senna scanned the two with her red eyes, paying attention only to William. “I didn’t expect this, but all the better. Saves me the trouble of hunting you down one by one.”

When she stormed the Church of Darkness’s headquarters, she had fought past the defenses to kill Ivan and used a tracking spell on Anastasia’s puppet shell. She was in no hurry to kill her old friend just yet. Like a cat toying with a mouse, she planned to drag it out until the woman broke down completely before swallowing her whole. She hadn’t expected Anastasia to show up with the Sun Knight.

She ignored Wayne and Filomina since they were clearly the driver and a mere eye candy, both useless deadweight. The driver, especially, hadn’t looked away from her with those shifty eyes since she appeared.

Senna shot him a glare and condensed her thoughts into a lance, thrusting it into his brain to reduce everything in his skull to a pulp. However, the mental attack vanished like a stone tossed into a deep lake. Wayne merely shuddered.

Senna stared in surprise, alerted. It seemed that she had to take the mysterious stranger seriously. “Senna, Pope of the Church of Nature and the Nature Knight. Who are you?”

“The Moonlight Knight.”

“Garville... You’ve defeated him?”

Senna was genuinely surprised. She knew that the divine artifacts of the inner world would select new knights, the criteria unknown. However, she had never heard of any knight actually getting replaced.

“Garville...” Wayne frowned. “Who’s that? I think I’ve heard the name before.”

“Garville was the previous Moonlight Knight,” Filomina murmured.

You obstinate woman. Can’t you see that I’m posturing on purpose?

Wayne hadn’t familiarized himself with the High Reverend of the inner world, so he had no chemistry with her. Even if he had, it wouldn’t have helped. His bond with the Filomina of the surface world had been forged over countless nights. The seamless understanding between degenerates couldn’t be developed overnight.

He huffed and pressed on anyway, “Oh, that’s why the name rang a bell. You’re talking about the dust I brushed off my sleeve without a thought. I remember the smudge a little.”

The posturing wasn’t as effective as it should’ve been due to Filomina’s interruption.

Senna’s expression didn’t change. She calculated her odds of defeating two chosen knights at once. After a moment, she said, “Moonlight Knight, I’m here for the Sun Knight and the Holy Maiden of the Church of Darkness. Are they your friends?”

“Yes, they are my lovers.”

“...” xN

Those from the Church of Darkness fell silent. They had heard about Windsorian tolerance and inclusivity, and today, they witnessed it in person.

The Sun Knight was a real man with arms thicker than a regular person’s thighs. Fine, at least there were points of entry on his body, but Anastasia was a magical puppet!

Senna’s eyes twitched. The topic was so scandalous that even she, who had become the Pope through slaughtering people and shedding others’ blood, was left speechless.

Wayne shifted his gaze away from the Pope’s magnificent landscape with difficulty, scanning the beautiful female mages to confirm if there were any familiar faces. There was.

“Flora?”

The former Holy Maiden of the surface world stood obediently by Senna’s side. Though her eyes were red, the deferential look on her face clearly showed that she had been tamed.

He hadn’t expected Senna to be capable of that. Was it a skill exclusive to the inner world’s Senna, or had the Senna of the surface world simply not demonstrated the skill?

“Wayne, is she your girlfriend, too?” William asked.

Why are we meeting your girlfriends whenever we go? Everything else aside, how do you have enough time for everyone?

“No, there’s nothing between Flora and me. She’s only one body count.”

“She’s one in your body count?[1]”

“Yeah.” Wayne nodded, not voicing his relationship with the Senna of the surface world. The Senna of the inner world had done everything inhuman under the sun, slaughtering the Church of Sun and killing Ivan, the Pope of the Church of Darkness. She was William’s and Anastasia’s mortal enemy. Though she was incredibly alluring now and aroused Wayne’s urge to make her into a cream puff, a villain was a villain. He didn’t want to whitewash her.

Her track record was too bloody. She should just die here!

“Moonlight Knight, what would be the price to make you walk away? Name it,” Senna said bluntly.

Bluntness was the inner world’s language. The ugly aspects of human nature were always on display. It all came down to price.

If Wayne stayed because of his girlfriends, she could give him her entourage. Flora, especially, had kept her purity as the former Holy Maiden. With a little guidance, she would make for a capable and accommodating servant. Wouldn’t she be more appealing than a hulking man and a puppet?

“Well, I do have an idea...” Wayne stroked his chin and raised an eyebrow. “Spend a month with me. That’s my price.”

“So there’s no room for negotiation?”

“You’re the one who doesn’t want to negotiate. Don’t put it on me.” Wayne shrugged, haggling like a merchant. “If Your Holiness thinks my price is too high, we can bargain. Twenty days will do if you think a month is too long.”

“...”

“And don’t be so quick to dismiss the proposal. You’ve underestimated me. Perhaps at the end of the twenty days, you’ll want another twenty.”

“Well said!” William nodded vehemently, indicating that he was available to assist.

Anastasia was speechless, and Filomina rolled her eyes, once again questioning exactly what her other self saw in Wayne.

What baffled them the most was the Goddess of Darkness. If they were blind, fine. They were mortals, and mortals could experience occasional lapses in judgment. But a goddess? What hadn’t She seen? How had She fallen for Wayne? Was it because of his youth, or his stamina?

If so, the surface world was even worse than the inner world!

“You have quite a silver tongue. I’ll keep it as a souvenir.” Senna’s eyes glinted viciously.

“Don’t say that. My girlfriends can hear you. You’re making them angry.”

Wayne kept riling Senna up. Seeing her eyes turn red with fine dragon scales surfacing on her cheeks, he reached into the Void and drew White Night Creed, transforming into the Moonlight Knight.

William followed suit, turning into the Sun Knight.

“Ana, Filomina, William and I will slay the dragon. The rest are yours.”

Wayne raised his bow and nocked an arrow. After a flash of moonlight, he was suddenly right in front of Senna.

1. The original is literally “the relationship of a human life”, which can either mean killing or getting pregnant. I tried to preserve some of the meaning with a slightly different innuendo. Body counts can be both the number of people you’ve killed and the number of people you’ve had sex with. ☜