Bear School Astartes

Accompanied by the words of Gremman, who spoke while white smoke from roasted entrails spilled from his mouth, the flower sea and the entire space around it underwent a momentary change.

A deep and fundamental transformation.

In the sky, the moon that originally corresponded to the serene and pure flower sea, bright and luminous, began to shed light that slowly changed from tranquil white to threads of blood-red.

Previously, under the bright moonlight, even as Lann and Maria engaged in high-speed battle amid the chaotic light and shadow, the scene felt deep and tranquil.

But when the moonlight turned from white to red, the once serene scene and shadows immediately took on a heavy and ominous aura.

Having reloaded the Roar of the Roaring Dragon and put it away, Lann frowned, sensing something as he gazed at the surroundings.

Yet Maria, whose blade flames had extinguished with the end of the battle, remained oblivious.

She only stared in disbelief at Gremman, who lay on the ground, with blue-purple flames emerging from his wounds.

”What do you mean?” she stiffly asked, ”What do you mean by those words?”

Clearly, when they met before, he seemed utterly indifferent to his student and to anyone else’s life.

Unconcerned with the sordid secrets of the Healing Church, he even lent a hand.

Why now, does he appear so suddenly enlightened?!

Earlier, if Gremman’s actions were all done out of ignorance, Maria might have felt pity for both her teacher and herself.

But Gremman’s demeanor was one of ’I know everything, but I don’t care,’ wasn’t it?!

So what now? Even in death, he wishes to deceive his apprentice?

Maria’s mind was now a swirling chaos, her nerves stretched taut.

She stepped forward, seemingly oblivious to the Flame of the Flame Empress Dragon still smoldering inside Gremman, and even considered pulling him up to question him.

But then suddenly...

Behind Maria, a hand wrapped in heavy armor silently reached towards her.

With a ’thud,’ Maria’s unguarded nape was struck by a precise force, and the accomplished Hunter immediately rolled her eyes back, and with a ’thump,’ fell onto the soft flower sea.

Scattering loose petals.

”That’s what he means, Maria.” Lann murmured, having just knocked out his comrade, ”Some things in Yan’an are best left unseen.”

The beautiful Blood Nobility lay unconscious among the flowers, as the moonlight above grew increasingly blood-red, casting shadows that became darker and more frightening.

Like twisted, deviant demon silhouettes.

In this deepening blood-red moonlight, Lann looked down at Gremman, whose body was half-consumed by the Flame of the Flame Empress Dragon.

”I vaguely recall... is it because you’re about to die?”

The Demon Hunter spoke suddenly, seemingly out of context, yet the Old Hunter, his eyes previously blank, seemed to understand and chuckled.

Lann’s hand, clad in Dragon Scale Hand Armor, touched his own neck as if dredging up old memories.

”You once beheaded me... in a dream.”

”That was my first dream in Yan’an.”

Lann calmly recounted his beheading experience.

The scythe blade had sliced across the neck of his former self, when his body’s muscles and bones had not yet undergone surgical enhancement, lacking semi-biological steel cables in his tendons.

His mind had no extra glands, his chest only contained two hearts without the Belisarius Furnace.

Thus, the Funeral Blade easily, like cutting through butter, penetrated his skin, muscles, blood vessels, and bones of his neck...

He seemed to have even seen his own headless, fallen corpse.

”But in retrospect, you seemed off even then, Gremman.”

The Demon Hunter murmured, seemingly indifferent to the increasingly bizarre and intoxicating blood-red moonlight bathing the land.

”Back then, you suggested, or your master behind the scenes proposed, injecting me with Yan’an’s Blood. Just like your current suggestion: one drop, just one drop is enough.”

”Yet in that dream, while you overwhelmingly outmatched me, you didn’t administer the injection directly, but instead hastily beheaded me, sending me out of the Dream Realm.”

”Given the recklessness of such actions, I can only speculate...”

The tall figure knelt by Gremman’s remains, softly posing the question.

”Were you, perhaps, resisting Them too? Whether in small measures or ineffective ones... at least, you made an effort to resist, right? Like decisively chopping off my head that time?”

The blood-red moonlight grew heavier, casting shadows before Lann deeper and darker.

But beyond the human shadow, a chaotic, strange, gigantic silhouette emerged from the blood-red moonlight.

That indescribable shadow gradually clung to Lann’s back, eventually enveloping his entire being.

Yet the Demon Hunter seemed unaware, only bowing his head as he questioned Gremman.

By now, the Old Hunter was nearly burnt from the inside out, even the Flame of the Flame Empress Dragon dwindling for lack of fuel.

He did not explain his actions to Lann, as if utterly exhausted.

His head, facing upward, turned slightly to glance once more at his unconscious student nearby, her beautiful face obscured under disheveled white hair.

With a regretful smile, his dry, raspy voice left behind a final sigh.

”The night and nightmare... have lasted too long...”

Afterwards, the blue-purple flames within his body, like his very life, burned out silently.

Lann did not receive an answer, but he nodded with understanding.

Amidst the clattering of armor, the Demon Hunter who was half-kneeling rose to his feet.

Maria didn’t understand the matters concerning her teacher, but he had already comprehended.

Perhaps on the true timeline, the ’past’ Old Hunter was also initially ignorant and bewildered, only working with the Healing Church, later gradually discovering the truth and being filled with regret, but by then the damage was done, and it was too late.

In the end, he became a mere pawn for some higher existence, unable to overturn his fate.

But Maria comes from Yan’an’s ’past’ nightmare, where the Gremman in that nightmare was a Gremman who arrived from the ’future’.

Thus, Maria couldn’t see the confusion and inner conflict of her teacher on the true timeline; she only saw a Gremman who had already experienced everything, indifferent to life, slaying god-child, and transferring curses.

With that, the image of her teacher that Maria held in her heart crumbled.

And after everything that has happened now...

”Playing with dream realms and time, treating this Old Hunter as a toy in hand.”

As Lann spoke, he turned with heavy footsteps weighted by scale armor in the sea of flowers, seeing the true form of that eerie and profound shadow.

”It’s you.”

At this moment, the once-large and perfect moon had completely turned blood red.

And on that blood-red large moon disc, a dancing figure occupied the full moon phase, drifting downwards.

It’s hard to describe exactly what that thing was.

A twisted, humanoid skeletal frame, but it was only a skeleton.

No skin, fat, or muscle covered its body.

Only string-like strands of flesh hang from the skeleton, resembling minced meat, making it look like a poorly cleaned, blood-stained, grotesque skeleton.

Yet its head and tail were like flexible limbs resembling squid tentacles.

The entire face was distorted, as if it were an abstract painting by Picasso.

A hollow mouth opened vertically, occupying most of the face’s area.

It was unclear if the two hollow eyes had been pushed to the far left side.

On the entire oval face, there were only these three hollows.

Lann looked up at it, at this ugly creature descending into the mundane world against the backdrop of the blood-red moon.

It was so ugly, so twisted.

But at the same time, it was... so holy.

The floating creature was so bizarre and... sacred.

Blood-red moonlight shone from behind it, and even this ominous, gloomy color was reflected by it to resemble the light and warmth of a sunset.

It was like the overall aura of the city of Yan’an.

Gloomy, strange, yet revealing a solemn holiness amidst it.

So... perfect!

[Moon God]

This was indeed an unadulterated Ancient God! An undeniable higher being!

Lann’s amber-colored cat eyes became dazed and distracted.

He reached out his hand towards the descending figure in the sky, as if humbly seeking the touch of this noble creature.

Like a lost lamb, praying for the mercy and guidance of a higher power.

All his toughness and persistence seemed to be completely dissolved the moment this figure appeared before him.

After all, those emotions and feelings were merely human things.

Small and shallow, their vision narrow.

But this creature descending from the blood moon was so noble, so far-seeing.

Fascination was only natural.

Lann’s face was full of intoxication and shock.

Until the creature had floated into the sea of flowers, its limbs crouched down, and with two gigantic forepaws, it grasped his entire body like a rag doll.

His expression did not change in the slightest.

The creature descending from the moon quietly picked up Lann, bringing him to its distorted face.

As if using eyes that might or might not exist to confirm what exactly it held.

Then...

As if confirming its target, the creature holding Lann entirely in its hands suddenly pressed the Demon Hunter in its grasp onto its bizarre and twisted face!

As if it couldn’t wait to kiss this adorable and shallow human!