After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 97.2

Ayni giggled, playfully poking her cheek with her finger, saying. “Don’t worry, I’ll go find Sister Paimon!”

When Marbas heard this, His heart suddenly jumped, and He hurriedly asked. “Do you know where Paimon is?”

Ayni nodded smugly, answering. “Of course I know! But I won’t tell you, hehe. I’m going to find Sister Paimon, and I don’t care about any of you.”

After saying this, Ayni turned and ran, Her footsteps as light as if She were dancing, quickly running into the spatial passage, Her figure gradually disappearing from Marbas’s sight.

“…”

Marbas’s expression changed slightly.

“Going to find Paimon, huh.”

“That’s fine, it’s indeed safe by Paimon’s side.”

A few minutes later, Marbas turned to look at the center of the Emerald Lake, His eyes revealing traces of anxiety. So many days had passed, why hadn’t Samikina found Lelagin yet?

A sense of unease welled up in His heart, and He began to worry.

There was actually another possibility – Samikina had found Lelagin, but the latter was no longer the Lelagin they once knew, so He refused to come out with Samikina.

Marbas took a deep breath, trying hard to calm His emotions, but could only trust in Samikina now.

To be honest, He had sensed it long ago – those born after Him were probably consciousness of gods drifting in the abyss, not originally born from Father’s hands.

Among them, some siblings didn’t care about this, like Beelzebub, while others cared deeply, like Lelagin.

Lelagin had always been sensitive and introverted since childhood, with delicate thoughts, always overthinking. The more He valued a relationship, the less He would allow any flaws in it. This almost harsh requirement was both His pursuit of perfect relationships and a reflection of His inner fragility and insecurity, which was why He obsessively got stuck on things.

“This isn’t easy to handle.”

Marbas felt somewhat depressed.

****

Meanwhile, on the Island of Elves.

In the magnificent great hall of the Elf Palace, a huge transparent cube floated in the air.

It rotated slowly, its crystal-clear surface reflecting dazzling lights of various colors, having gathered an unknown amount of magical power.

Around the cube, magical power, divine power, mental power, and other forces transformed in an extremely intricate way, displaying the incomparable beauty of energy transformation.

Looking closer, this cube had three hundred and sixty-five faces, and each face was scrambled, not forming a complete picture – you needed to rotate them one by one into their correct positions.

Just one glance would tell you that solving this cube was practically impossible, requiring computational power beyond the limits of any intelligent being. Even with sufficient computational power, it would take a very long time to complete.

Who would challenge such a troublesome task?

However, in the great hall, a young man in black quietly raised His eyes, gazing deeply at the transparent cube suspended in the air.

He raised one hand, His finger gently tracing through the void, drawing a trajectory of magical power in the air.

Following the movement of His finger, a section of the cube seemed to be pulled by some invisible force, slowly rotating to the left.

Samikina was determined to rotate this cube to its correct position. For this, He had put in countless hours of effort.

There was no choice. This palace had set up a puzzle. Without solving this puzzle, one could not meet the palace’s master.

He knew that Lelagin had completely obtained the power of the Elven Ancestor God, but for some unknown reason hadn’t appeared, instead setting up such a puzzle for Him.

Samikina had calculated that it would take a year to rotate the cube to its correct position. If time in this domain matched the outside world, that would be too long. However, there was no way to speed it up.

He had sent multiple messages into the palace, but Lelagin hadn’t replied to any of them.

The previous Lelagin wouldn’t have ignored Him, so something must have happened, perhaps He had become the Elf Emperor and forgotten everything from before.

Thinking of this, Samikina’s expression darkened, thinking that no matter what, as Lelagin’s brother, He had the responsibility to find Lelagin and tell Him about His matters.

****

Meanwhile, a young man stood silently on the highest level of the Elf Palace.

His figure was tall and graceful, His skin as fair as jade, emanating a faint luster as if containing the vitality of nature itself. His eyes were as deep as stars, and His snow-white hair flowed like a waterfall, interwoven with strands of emerald green. His robes swayed gently in the breeze, His entire being both magnificent and elegant, possessing both the dignity and solemnity of a ruler, while retaining the mystery and spirituality of an elf.

If anyone were to look closer, they would notice His gaze was ethereal and detached, pure and clear, without a trace of darkness, as if fallen into nothingness.

Empty, without any visible emotions.

He had been in this state for who knows how long, any movement outside unable to cause even a ripple in His heart.

He seemed to be waiting for someone.

Waiting for a very long time, yet that person never returned.

“…”

He remained silent, originally facing the hall, suddenly turning around. The elemental energy around Him rotated with His movement, like countless miniature fireworks, blooming on an extremely small scale.

Gold, wood, water, fire, earth, light and darkness, even other composite elemental energies, displayed multicolored lights around Him.

Those familiar with Him would know this was a manifestation of His power.

Lelagin, the Elven Ancestor God, possessed the powers of [Elemental Force] and [Energy Conversion and Control]. These were two of His three essential settings.

His third setting was [Endless Vitality], stemming from His Father’s blessing and wishes.

That person had hoped He would be a child born of nature, beloved by nature and life.

But now He no longer remembered.

He wasn’t even aware that “He had lost His memories,” only feeling an emptiness inside, knowing He needed to find something, yet not knowing what it was.

Perhaps the visiting being knew what He wanted to find, yet He had hesitated for so long, delaying in asking that being.

Why?

He questioned Himself internally, and received an echo.

—Because He feared hearing what He least wanted to hear.

****

Meanwhile, in the subspace.

Amon floated in the air, eyes slightly narrowed, alone facing the massive chaos entity.

A moment later, He suddenly reached out toward the chaos. A force rippled from His fingers, as if triggering the space opposite, causing large waves in the chaos.

He attempted to control the chaos but failed. After multiple attempts, He gained some experience while also accurately measuring the difference in power levels.

Seconds later, He concluded that the chaos was even more difficult to deal with than they had imagined.

As Amon was deep in thought, a voice suddenly sounded behind Him.

“You’ve been acting alone quite often lately.”

Amon turned His head unsurprisingly, His gaze falling on Botis.

Botis smiled slightly, His eyes somewhat unfathomable, dangerous and secretive, like a snake lurking in the darkness.

“I came out for intelligence.”

Amon replied indifferently.

Botis understood, turning to look at the chaos, “I know that, of course, but you keep doing this, I’ll suspect you have some dealings with the chaos.”

Amon laughed at His words, saying coldly. “What dealings could I possibly have with chaos? Don’t tell me you’re suggesting I’m connected to the mastermind.”

Botis shook His head, but asked a question that instantly froze the air.

“Amon, between existence and nothingness, what lies in between?”

Amon remained silent, his eyes quietly fixed on Botis, not speaking for a full three minutes.

Botis was also impressive, showing no reaction even under such scrutiny. After Amon shifted his gaze, he opened his mouth and said. “Are you not going to answer?”

Amon gave Botis a subtle glare and dropped these words. “Don’t think too much.”

“…”

****

In the Oedipus Empire, around 7 PM, meowing sounds filled the bookstore.

Passersby couldn’t help but feel surprised, glancing once or twice at the bookstore entrance.

Then, they saw it.

It turned out to be a group of cats doing a big cleanup!

They moved nimbly, with agile hands and feet, wearing aprons to protect against dust. Cat shadows darted between bookshelves, some carrying books on their heads, quickly moving and organizing.

This unprecedented scene shocked countless passersby, making them doubt their eyes.

Until a cat firmly closed the bookstore door, they suddenly snapped out of it.

“What… what did I just see?”

****

They wouldn’t understand that it was a group of cats helping their father clean up.

During the day, the short-legged cat had worked hard cleaning, continuing until night, when other cats saw this and joined in.

After huffing and puffing for a while longer, they finally completed their great task!

****

Xiu Si in the study didn’t know what They were doing outside.

He was currently researching the transformation between matter and energy, and sure enough, had reached an impasse, muttering some words.

“Matter is energy, energy is matter, they’re just different ways of saying the same thing.”

“Don’t get confused by concepts, many things originally had no distinctions until concepts created them.”

“Sometimes, so-called distinctions, so-called differences, come from illusions created by language.”

As he muttered, he suddenly stopped writing, letting the pen tip rest on the paper, continuously blotting it.

He had a bit of a headache.

Xiu Si rested his arm on the desk, pressed both hands against his temples, rubbed for a while, then did some eye exercises.

He had read somewhere that some headaches were called ophthalmologic headaches.

Excessive eye use would stimulate the nerve endings in the eyes, transmitting signals to the brain, causing headaches.

He had read too many books today, indeed his eyes were overused, and he needed to rest or he wouldn’t be able to continue.

Xiu Si thus put down his pen, organized the notes on his desk, then slowly got up, tidied up the bed to prepare for sleep.

Where were the children?

He turned to look and found They had all returned to their cat beds.

They were so well-behaved today. Xiu Si couldn’t help but smile, taking an extra look at the three cubs’ cat bed.

This morning when he picked up the three cubs, he was caught off guard and almost threw out his back.

Perhaps it was due to sitting too long recently, affecting his spine health, making it easy to strain.

As their father, barely being able to hold his children was truly worthy of reproach.

Xiu Si thought for a moment, stroking the white cat’s head, thinking to himself, “Third cub, you’re over thirty jin now, you can’t get any fatter. If you get any fatter, you won’t be able to walk, understand?”

But the white cat was sound asleep, how could it hear his thoughts.

Xiu Si laughed inwardly, then turned to sleep, and the room darkened.

Half an hour later, there was almost no movement in the room.

One hour later.

Suddenly, a cat pushed open the room door, tiptoeing into the room, eyes gleaming brightly as it looked toward the bed.

It was the Siamese cat Botis, who, due to excessive longing for Father, couldn’t sleep at night and needed to go home and stick close to Father to fall asleep!

It quickly ran to the bedside in a few steps, cat paws quietly lifting the blanket, successfully burrowing into the covers.

It was happy, but the happiness didn’t last long. After crawling just a few steps, a pair of green eyes suddenly appeared before it.

Why are you here too?!

Both cats almost cried out simultaneously – appearing before the Siamese cat was none other than the big orange cat.

Just as They were staring at each other in bewilderment, They turned their heads to see yet another pair of green eyes.

It was a gray cat.

My goodness, Inpos, you came too!

Inpos choked up, “What… what a coincidence.”

All three cats were shocked, but it wasn’t over yet.

They heard a rustling sound, and turning their heads again, discovered it was actually a silver cat.

Beelzebub, of all days you had to come today too!

Under the covers, the silver cat was stared at by several pairs of eyes, instantly greatly shocked, then pointed its paw toward the front.

They turned their heads to look again, and surprisingly discovered a Chinchilla cat.

Amon, sure enough you appeared too!

Amon’s mouth twitched, thinking what day is this, a collective operation or what.

Fortunately, this bed was big enough, otherwise it really couldn’t fit all of you.

Then, Botis, who was the first to sneak in, actually had the nerve to get angry and question, “Amon, what are you doing here, didn’t the history assignment just get passed to you!”

Amon replied righteously. “I had a premonition that it would get cold today, so I specially came to warm Father’s bed. As everyone knows, cats’ body temperature is higher than humans’ and we’re fluffy, making us the best natural heating pads!”

Bah! Even looking up information beforehand and using scientific evidence, who doesn’t know your calculations.

Botis’s vertical pupils were practically glowing, gaze fierce.

However, Amon questioned Botis, lifting his chin saying, “Why are you here then.”

Botis was equally righteous, “I’m here to stake out Second Brother!”