The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 813

Chapter 812
Raging Pomanach

There was a strong, pure hostility that sent shivers down one’s spine.
The moment killing intent surged within Red Phase Pomanach, Alistair felt her scalp tingle.
Her heart felt as if it were being clutched by an unseen hand…
Suddenly, Alistair reacted.
—No, it wasn’t an illusion.
Just gazing at the enraged Red Phase Pomanach, her heart felt like it would explode!
In the next moment, Alistair’s body suddenly disintegrated into numerous illusory bats, re-gathering behind her.
She extended her right hand forward, and brilliant rainbow ice rapidly grew and shaped itself from her palm, forming a semi-transparent umbrella made of rainbow ice.
Alistair held the umbrella over her head, slightly obscuring her vision.
The light from above cast down through the colorful umbrella, like sunlight through the stained glass of a church. This cast a brilliant, star-like, colorful rainbow light onto the lower half of Alistair’s face and even her upper body.
As Alistair gently turned the umbrella handle with one hand, the rainbow starry sky reflected on her body also spun rapidly.
“What, are you in a hurry?”
Alistair calmly said, unhurriedly, “Did I hit a nerve? Then I apologize.
‘—After all, we, the Children of the Moon, have our souls bound to this immortal shell. We cannot ascend to the Dream Realm without becoming Perfect Beings.
“But you’re quite lucky…”
Alistair’s lips curved slightly, and she tilted the umbrella up. The halted rainbow light, along with the purple glow, reflected in her pupils. In the dim atmosphere, her eyes seemed exceptionally bright—
Her violet eyes, without glasses, sparkled with a rainbow glow akin to a starry sky.
“If you weren’t a natural Child of the Moon, perhaps Valentin I would have met ‘another you’ in the Dream Realm…”
Alistair lowered the umbrella, using it as a shield to block the wine bottle and table thrown directly by Red Phase Pomanach in his rage.
Her sharp words continued unabated.
“—The ‘real’ you, the true Pomanach.”
The tall girl with long black hair, after lowering the ice umbrella, reopened her closed eyes. Her pupils, which had reflected the rainbow light, now shone with a pure purple brilliance once more.
And at this moment, Pomanach’s hand, poised to throw the wine glass, froze in place.
An eerie rainbow ice spread across his skin, and his pupils momentarily became completely hollow.
Pomanach saw—
He saw himself, after a fierce and arduous battle,Killing Countess Beyad here. He saw her bone ashes dissolved in holy water; he saw the completion of the Ouroboros Ring ritual, the Fallen Heavenly Envoy indeed pulled down by the Demon Scholars, and he obtained power from the ritual, reaching the Sixth Tier and achieving the ritual of the Perfect Being.
He saw himself become a Perfect Being—unlike the shameful and incompetent Perfect Being of the Church, he gained unparalleled power.
He became the King of the World and rebuilt the Hrasal Empire. Decades passed in the blink of an eye, and soon he felt bored. So, with his Perfect Being’s body, he directly stepped into the Dream Realm. After a difficult and long adventure, he found his close friend again.
The only one who understood him, the only one who could walk alongside him.
Not disgusted by him, nor mocking him; not worshipping him, nor blindly following him. A friend who treated him as an equal, an unforgettable person…
“Valentin I, Basil Valentine. Knight of Gold and Stone, Creator of Star Antinomy…”
Pomanach sighed softly, walking forward slowly. “As I promised long ago, I have donned the crown and become the King of this world…”
He had now become an apostle of the Ring Heavenly Envoy, with a radiant golden halo above his head. His face was as handsome as a celestial being.
He was no longer stubborn and willful like he was when he was old and dying, annoying like a common mortal, but had returned to his youthful appearance.
That was his most beautiful era.
Pomanach’s desires were extremely strong, and as the fusion of the six personalities of his entire family, he was inherently bisexual. However, he had never made a move against Basil, who held his life in his hands.
Because Pomanach had a premonition that if he made a move against him, their relationship would change.
To preserve that “feeling”… to engrave the youthful memories of their days building the nation together, he always kept his distance from Basil.
And now…
Valentin I heard the voice and turned his head slightly.
He looked at Pomanach, his eyes filled with a confusion and distance that terrified him.
Apostle Basil asked somewhat puzzled but very politely,
“…Excuse me, do we know each other?”
In that instant, suffocation and fear overwhelmed Pomanach. He felt as if he were frozen in ice, sunk in the sea. He even forgot how to breathe, how to think. A cold numbness spread from his spine to his entire body, making his fingers twitch with a creaking sound.
—No, this isn’t real!
An extremely strong sense of rejection surged within Pomanach.
He firmly believed that everything before him was false.
Since he could never be wrong, it was the world that was wrong!
Anger, rage, even madness—the flames that burned through his thoughts spread unrestrained, yet his brain became incredibly clear.
The matters he had overlooked in the past replayed one by one. Memories from decades, even centuries ago, flashed by in an instant. Finally, he caught a detail filled with a sense of incongruity.
—Why hadn’t Black Phase intervened when I killed Beyad in the Spirit Tower back then?
Because that old fellow’s presence was too low and he never intervened, so I often forgot his existence. But thinking back now, this matter is clearly illogical.
Or rather, it was a “potential error” that his subconscious avoided in order to allow him to live reasonably.
If I had fought Countess Beyad in the Spirit Tower, it’s very likely I would have been killed by Black Phase in the end.
That day was the day of the Winter Maiden’s sublimation. Heavy snow greatly weakened the immortality of the Children of the Moon. Moreover, it was inside the Spirit Tower, the old skeleton’s home turf. If I had intended to fight to the end, I would likely have been killed…
—It was for this reason that I [hoped] Black Phase would not intervene.
Because I longed for that outcome, the more logical outcome did not appear!
Everything before him was merely a dream.
Then wake up!
“Beyad…”
From the completely frozen Red Phase ice sculpture, a deep voice echoed as if from the abyss.
A creaking sound arose—the rainbow ice sculpture made a noise, but it did not shatter.
Pomanach, encased in ice, suddenly opened his eyes!
“—Beyad!”
His scarlet gaze fixed on Countess Beyad outside the ice layer, his voice, indistinct like a ghost’s whisper, rumbled in his throat. “I’m back!”
“Oh?”
Alistair looked with interest at the Red Phase, who was frozen by her but had suddenly regained consciousness. “I thought you would be lost in illusions forever… What made you wake up? And what made you realize it was just nothingness?”
“—Because I’m going to come back and kill you!”
Pomanach exerted force again, and the rainbow ice shattered apart!
In an instant, countless shards of ice, brilliant as stars, flew everywhere!
He no longer concealed his killing intent—his entire body dissolved like an evil spirit, transforming into a scarlet water elemental giant two to three meters tall, lunging towards Alistair!
The corrosive blood destroyed everything it passed, and a sea of blood, more than ten times its size, surged within it, filling the entire room in an instant!
Alistair was about to retreat, but blood seeped through the wall behind her in the blink of an eye, then congealed into a wall full of spikes. She was instantly sent flying backward, directly into the side of the blood behemoth!
The immortality of a Child of the Moon was meaningless to a higher-ranking Child of the Moon.
But just as the blood behemoth was about to grab Alistair and crush her, directly integrating her into its body…
He noticed that Alistair’s face showed no fear or worry.
In an instant, Pomanach’s internal alarm bells rang.
—At this moment, a dim yellow light suddenly flashed by.
Time seemed to freeze.
And when the dim yellow light receded and dissipated, Alistair, who had been sent flying backward, had vanished into thin air!
(End of Chapter)