"Kassan... Kassan..."
Xiao Na’s eyes were bloodshot, and her entire body was trembling.
Her gaze lost focus as blood streaks gradually appeared in her eyes.
The hunger, the desire innate to the Soul Clan, was driving her to do things she did not want to do. She moved slowly, her cells seeming to resist every step.
Her look towards Kassan held affection, but also an uncontrollable yearning.
Finally, she reached Kassan.
Kassan slightly lifted his head, his face covered in blood.
He looked at Xiao Na, whose eyes were red, and smiled.
The dagger was still in his hand, he should still have had a chance to fight back.
But at this mont, he just tossed it away lightly, abandoning his last asset, and closed his eyes.
...There was never an option that could bring happiness to both of them.
If he killed Xiao Na, he could survive. If Xiao Na killed him, she could be reaccepted by the Soul Clan.
So if there was a way for one to live on by the death of the other...
...in truth, both sides had made a choice for the other.
And he wanted the other to live, to let others tread over his dead body first.
No matter the deceit.
No matter the race.
As Xiao Na approached Kassan, she trembled violently.
Instinct was like an invisible hand tugging at her arm, it felt as if she was tug-of-warring with her own body.
"...Why must the Soul Clan live in obedience to their physiological desires," she murmured to herself.
"Because there’s no way to live in peace without ’harming,’" Kassan softly answered her.
She bit her teeth.
Tears slid down her cheeks as the somber pressure around her grew more palpable.
The cheers of the Soul Clan filled her ears—this race, which called itself "beautiful and powerful," was slowly killing their brethren in a gentle way.
Her eyes brimming with tears, she suddenly turned and threw herself forward.
Hunger dominated her senses, and in the whole hall, there were only two sources that could quell her hunger.
The scent of food, bewitching her, enticing her, and driving her mad, was coming from two directions.
Besides Kassan,
there was only the young man standing behind that old gentleman...
To protect her lover, she chose to extend her claws toward another person, completely unrelated to her.
Su Ming’an watched as she frantically threw herself at him.
"Enough," he said.
Archilev tilted his head slightly, sowhat puzzled.
"What’s the point of such behavior?" Su Ming’an said, extending his hand.
He had cut off his connection to Bright State while watching the scene unfold. When facing the stumbling Xiao Na, he simply pressed on her shoulder, then leaned forward, pushing her to the ground.
Maybe it was because the collision was too harsh, but Xiao Na passed out on the spot.
"—Because of war."
Chad, wearing the blood-red mask, slowly turned his head.
In his eyes, glinted a starlight as if beholding a precious treasure.
"You are new here, perhaps you don’t understand," Chad said with a hint of amusent, "We are cherished by the world, a race that stands above humanity, and we should bear this mindset.
"If every Soul Clan mber were like Karina, getting along with humans, our front lines would beco unstable, and the war waged in the na of race would be like child’s play.
"There would be Soul Clan mbers fighting for humans in Pulaya... or humans fighting for the Soul Clan. They would communicate secretly for personal desires, pass information, beco traitors, undermining our battle lines from within.
"...Only by annihilating the other side, or enslaving them, can we completely resolve this long-standing predicant.
"We must nip this disaster in the bud.
As Chad spoke, his tone beca increasingly strict, his voice growing louder, like he was delivering a speech to all the brethren of the Soul Clan in the hall:
"Humans can be our food, our pets, our slaves... but can never be our lovers.
"Karina made a mistake, an unforgivable mistake.
"I must make her sever this mistake with her own hands.
Chad said this, then suddenly his expression hardened, "...Outsider from the Soul Clan, what are you laughing at."
Chad heard the laughter of the young man with the white mask before him.
The laughter carried a hint of irony, which annoyed him greatly.
In the quiet, desolate hall, only the other person’s mocking laughter echoed.
"Your ideology is truly pitiful." Having finished laughing, Su Ming’an stated coldly.
Chad’s eyes were bloodshot.
"Archilev!" he shouted, "Control your charge!"
Archilev shrugged, "He’s not under my control... Besides, Chad, you might as well listen—what the kid says is quite interesting."
"—I don’t need this suspicious fellow to question ," Chad said angrily.
"So, fundantally, you are no different from that Lucia who stord off in a huff," Su Ming’an said, losing his smile.
"You..." Chad took a step forward.
"—To reach a conclusion befitting a faction leader, you should at least take in the whole situation," Su Ming’an said, locking eyes with Chad’s blood-red ones. "But...your theory is incapable of revealing the individual’s heart and soul, nor is it able to engage in a dialogue with the despair currently faced by the Soul Clan.
"You are rely... stubbornly seeking stability, with the attitude of a pure Soul Clan nationalist, looking down from on high at this world that has always despised you.
"With a slight change, an unexpected event, your so-called ’war’ concept would collapse completely... In the grand sche of things, you are purely ’sealing off’ the battlefield of the faction, rather than seeking perfection.
"There has never been ’since ancient tis’, nor is there ’it ought to be so’.
"Your greatest tragedy—
"Is the uncontainable pursuit of an ’absolute demarcation’ that can never be achieved."
Having finished speaking, Su Ming’an turned his head to look at the old man beside him: "What do you think? Archilev, or do you agree more with this pure Soul Clan nationalist’s viewpoint?"
In the astonished gazes of the other mbers of the Soul Clan, Archilev slowly nodded.
"You’re right," he said.
A smile appeared on Su Ming’an’s face.
In his view, Archilev’s favorability had already soared to sixty.
Right when the hints began, he had noticed that Archilev’s initial favorability towards him was not low, at thirty.
After he had challenged Lucia’s speech, the other party’s favorability had directly soared to forty-five.
After he finished speaking, the other party’s favorability climbed another step.
This Archilev...
Appeared to be a unique existence among the general Soul Clan mbers.
"Chad." Archilev spoke up, "Let this human male go."
"You..." Chad stood there, stunned, as if he had not anticipated the group leader making such a decision.
"Love is sacred and should not be the reason for their life and death separation," Archilev said. "Karina deserves punishnt, but not in this cruel way. Preventing them from eting again is already enough to cut off this love. Let everything return to its rightful path."
As if his words were set in stone, Chad’s face twitched, clearly reluctant.
But still, he stepped back silently, moving away from the blood-covered Kassan.
"If you want to escort him, then see him off," Archilev said to Su Ming’an.
"Is your assembly over?"
"More or less," Archilev said. "Everyone’s quite hungry now, and the vice-leader has left; there’s no need to waste more ti here. Now is a good ti for hunting."
"Understood."
Su Ming’an stepped forward and helped Kassan up.
Kassan’s leg seed to be broken, as he stumbled when he tried to stand.
He looked towards the unconscious Xiao Xiao lying on the ground, as if imprinting her in his mory for eternity, carefully etching her image with his gaze.
"Ming’an," Archilev called out from behind him. "I will wait for you at the entrance of the house. Rember to co back after you have sent him off; I have sothing to tell you."
Su Ming’an did not respond.
He escorted Kassan to the stairs, then abruptly turned back.
From his hand flew two white solids.
The solids, one to the east and one to the west, flew towards the Soul Clan mbers’ seats, like two white pills.
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