Chương 136: Leave Me Be

The smell of rot permeated his very being. June was in no position to commit to a subtler approach, given that his presence was most likely already known. He stopped at a door sectioning off a part of the sewer that he had yet to approach; it was composed of vertical, silvery-rusted iron bars, with the frame and wall itself that blocked off the other side made of the same worn bars.

Besides the sectioning door's built-in lock, a secondary dilapidated padlock clipped a rusty chain through the doors' bars and the walls' bars. The smell of iron lingered on the old padlock; June grabbed the lantern from his sinew-threaded belt and tore it away with a swift motion, disregarding his sinew as it tensed and pulled apart like fibers before snapping with a quiet twang.

He clenched a fist, nearly driving his shell fingers through its gauntlets and drawing blood; the shell was still his flesh, his vessel, its pain and his were one and the same while they were intermingled. June lifted the lantern closer to the padlock, silently studying it in the waning lamplight; the longer he spent in the sewers, the less light he would have to navigate. June began to feel a bit anxious; there were no second attempts in reality.

He took this quest woefully underprepared; he understood little time was left until the games began, but to die for a gift would be a disappointing end. He had no spare fats or oils to refuel the lantern, and his singular wick was almost burned out. He took a deep breath in and quelled his anxiety. He looked at the positives of the situation; he felt alive instead of his usual stupor when he was contained with his family. The Nightrealm provided more favorable options than being in their presence.

He sighed and lifted a hand with the intention to slap himself awake, but stopped himself, not wanting to damage the shell from pointless gestures. He moved the lamplight to the door and studied it. June noticed an odd dotting pattern of rust along the wall and door bars. He looked past the bars and at the floor underneath him, and gritted his teeth in realization.

'The rust looks thicker on some points, like droplets… Water! and oxygen… That's blood summed up to my knowledge… and those two things can also cause rust to form…. Someone… or… several people were dragged through here.' Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Silently cursing to himself, June laid a hand on the old padlock and tugged at it, snapping the rusted chains off the door and allowing access to what his stalkers were afraid of.

'Turns out that I'm getting myself into some bullshit today! Why am I even deciding to do this?'

The Nightrealm had an interesting effect on June. Likely a side effect of his abilities, but before June was able to Flesh-Shape, he had a heavy apprehension of danger; he considered it cowardice, yet that cowardice was the reason he was still around today. Fights were another thing that June had adopted after arriving within the Nightrealm.

He was a pacifist at heart, mainly because he acted with aftermath in mind before committing to any decision and partially because he was the type that was difficult to properly agitate. Only a few people have ever managed to truly agitate him, and those people were also the same ones that brought his mind to the brink, yet even then, June's idea of a fight was one that ended with a clear winner, which, to put simply, meant that the winner kills, or breaks the loser in order for a secondary fight to never happen.

However, law came into place, personal ethics came into place, and other bothersome elements came into place if he simply chose to break or remove someone who truly bothered him. The Nightrealm, on the other hand, released those restraints; if someone were to truly agitate him the same way the few have before, he could thoroughly break them, of course not before several attempts to verbally solve the problem. The Nightrealm allowed June to let his demon out of its bottle.

Strange thoughts clouded his mind with certainty occasionally; normally such thoughts would be considered intrusive thoughts and swiftly forgotten. Yet, within the Nightrealm… He could be human. A monstrous, horrifyingly human. He was allowed to feel natural emotions like sadness or even anger without being forced to repress them. Who could have known that the closest that he would ever come to being a human at heart was when he was allowed to wrap a jagged whip made from a spine…

his own spine, around a crazy man, and allow the whip's Will-hardened transverse processes to flay his skin like a fish. June could feel anger boiling from within, but his eyes were widened, bloodshot, and his mouth hidden within the bowels of the shell was curled into the widest smile he had ever put on; he laughed, he laughed so incredibly loudly without even infusing Will into his voice. His helm had fallen off, and no head was in sight.

Even then, his deranged laughter still roused a chorus of laughter from dozens of children, adults, and even pets alike as they watched the one who took them unravel and fall apart into chunks in a single smooth motion. It was insanity at its finest! This was being human!