CHAPTER 413: CHAPTER 253: THE SILENT DECAYED DOMAIN

David was quite suspicious that Snail Shell Ships were just variants of Spirit Suckers; like their main brain, they would start to stiffen and harden shortly after death.

He had exerted a great deal of effort to extract his dragon father, Attilicia, from the creature’s carcass. Attilicia then looked at him, full of hope, and David asked, "How is it?"

Greed.

"Uh..." Attilicia instinctively opened his mouth but couldn’t utter a word. He even vaguely felt his throat and vocal cords trembling with an primal fear. How could he not understand that this young Spirit Sucker was terrified of David?

Attilicia could only give a thumbs-up, then used his unpracticed Magical Messaging to convey, "There was a bit of an accident, but I’ve secured it in a demiplane. It got half-cooked by your Dragon Breath. I’m not sure if it’ll survive. Do you need to take it out and check the merchandise?"

David, however, surveyed the silent and oppressive wasteland and shook his head, saying, "No need. The main brain isn’t that fragile. Even if you died, it wouldn’t necessarily go extinct. If worse comes to worst, we can always catch a few more Spirit Suckers, chop off their heads, and toss them in to keep it going."

Just like adding a few more mining cards to a mining rig.

"Besides, this is the Grey Wilderness of Hades, one of the main battlefields of the Blood War. Suddenly pulling out a brain so rich in psionic energy... who knows what that might attract. Let’s wait for Christoph and the others to return. We’d better leave here first."

This was the trouble with traveling to the Outer Planes. It was like a small marble dropping into a spinning roulette wheel; as long as one wasn’t too concerned about the specific destination, it was easy to go but hard to return!

Hades, located at the lowest point of the Lower Planes between Barto Hell and the Abyssal Depths, was a place where one could often see enormous Demon Armies and equally massive Devil Armies locked in battle.

The perpetual Blood War and the accumulated corpses, combined with this place’s unique geographical position and planar rules, caused the souls fallen here to coalesce into a potent, unconscious psychic force blanketing the Grey Wilderness of Hades.

Here, even the extreme Wrath of the Abyss and the cunning schemes of the Nine Layers of Hell had to bow to Despair.

This place was the true burial ground of Hope.

Though troublesome, this place wasn’t entirely a point of no return. If truly cornered, one could choose to traverse the Grey Wilderness. By following the Styx River upstream against its quiet current, one could ascend to the familiar territory of the Chromatic Dragons—Avernus, the first layer of Barto Hell.

It would just be time-consuming and extremely dangerous.

David, absorbed in his thoughts, suddenly sensed something amiss. His dragon father, who was usually exceptionally talkative and loved to play the teacher, was unusually ’quiet’ today. This made David somewhat uncomfortable, and he asked, "What’s wrong with your throat?"

"...I was also wondering how to explain this to you. COUGH, COUGH, COUGH."

Attilicia had just tried to use his own voice when he broke into a violent coughing fit, as if suffering from severe pharyngitis.

It was as if a minuscule tadpole, already fused with his throat, had wrapped its tail around his uvula, its constant swaying a desperate plea for him not to expose its presence.

"’He’ll definitely pull me out and crush me... Please, Father...’" Perhaps from ingesting a significant amount of Silver Dragon blood, this young Spirit Sucker had even learned to ’whimper’ and feign weakness.

Father? Attilicia was dumbfounded by this address. A Spirit Sucker calling a dragon ’Father’? If word of this got out, it would be utterly unbelievable!

He was instantly reminded of the horrifying image of David jabbing his tail tip into Attilicia’s mouth and callously stirring it around.

That rebellious son of his, David, would definitely do something like that!

Attilicia’s mind raced, desperately trying to devise a plan that would satisfy everyone.

"Who are you talking to?" David, with his frighteningly sharp perception, noticed the anomaly in their communication instantly—even faster than the Spirit Sucker Governor had. However, being in the Grey Wilderness, David merely assumed his dragon father had encountered some ’unclean’ entity.

This startled both Attilicia and the young Spirit Sucker, making them flinch.

Just as Attilicia was about to speak, a whistling shriek tore through the sky above.

BOOM! With a thunderous crash, Christoph returned. He was holding a stiffened legendary Spirit Sucker in his mouth, which he casually tossed before them, a triumphant look on his face as he said, "This fellow actually spaced out for a moment! Daring to lose focus while fighting me, Christoph! I gave him a solid hit, and he couldn’t move an inch after that. I hear the heads of these things are quite valuable to the Githyanki. I wonder what Brittany would be willing to trade me for it."

David, however, taunted mercilessly, "Hmph! She’d just beat you senseless and then snatch your spoils of war."

"’True that! DAMMIT.’" Christoph, the old rogue, surprisingly didn’t retort. He had clearly learned firsthand how formidable Brittany was and didn’t even bother to argue.

"Don’t just stand there," David said. "You’re always mucking about in the Lower Planes, so are you familiar with this area? Hurry up and find a way back. Getting swept into the Blood War would be a massive problem." David definitely didn’t want to endure another desperate flight from the Blood War.

"Why else would I be hanging around a desolate and dangerous place like this if I wasn’t familiar with it?"