Chapter 148: Someone Get Judge Huohuo a New Skirt
The Foxian girl's scream tore through the dead silence of the courtyard. It was a terrifyingly high-pitched shriek, sharp enough to be heard well beyond the walls of the Garden of Serenity.
Huohuo squeezed her eyes shut, her fluffy fox ears flattened against her head in sheer terror. She gripped her command flag with both hands, waving it wildly in place like a panicked, headless fly.
"Hehehe… Little snack, it's useless no matter how loud you scream." Stelle's voice dropped into a low, menacing growl. "I eat three hundred little morsels like you for breakfast every day!"
"Hey! Which one of you two—!"
Mr. Tail, the fiery spirit attached to Huohuo, was suddenly snatched out of the air by Rekka. Just as he was about to lash out with a burst of spectral flame, he met the calm, unwavering gaze of Rekka's golden eyes.
Oh. Suddenly, he wasn't feeling so tough anymore.
"Crybaby! What are you standing there for?! Run!" Mr. Tail yelled.
"Run?" Stelle took a long, deliberate stride forward, her shadow falling over the trembling girl. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Don't eat me, don't eat me! I don't taste good at all!" Huohuo wailed.
"Your own fire is about to go out, and you still have time to worry about her?" Rekka mused, looking down at the ball of flame held fast in his hand.
Even while gripped by a terror that felt capable of crushing its very soul, Mr. Tail's mouth remained surprisingly stubborn. It forced a sliver of malevolent energy from the depths of its being, attempting to prick Rekka's palm.
"Do you have any idea who I am?! Let go of me this instant! Otherwise, I'll—!"
A stubborn mouth, indeed. Rekka's response was simple. With a soft crack, he tightened his grip, compressing Mr. Tail's spectral form until it was nothing more than a tiny, dense sphere of light in his palm.
"M-Mr… Tail—!"
The sight was too much for the little judge. Her eyes rolled back, and she promptly fainted.
"So easily frightened."
Rekka casually opened his hand, decompressing Mr. Tail.zip back into Mr. Tail. The moment the Heliobus expanded back to his original size, his entire fiery form was trembling violently.
"Do you know who I am?!" Mr. Tail's voice suddenly boomed, and his flames shot three feet into the air with a furious whoosh.
Rekka didn't even bother to lift an eyelid. He simply let a fraction more of his Path of Destruction aura leak out, a subtle shift as effortless as a sleeping giant turning over in its slumber.
Mr. Tail's bravado was instantly extinguished. The towering flames shrank back down, and he hovered warily in front of the unconscious Huohuo, his gaze flickering between the two intruders. The oppressive pressure emanating from the Astral Express's twin stars of Destruction was dialed to the absolute maximum.
While Stelle kept an eye on their surroundings, Rekka quickly explained their 'accidental' intrusion. In truth, it wasn't an accident at all; they had simply seen what looked like a haunted house and decided to hop the fence for some fun without buying a ticket.
Cirrus, the other Heliobus Rekka had captured, had been trying to slip away in the chaos, but he was swiftly snatched up again. Once in their hands, how could he possibly escape?
The little wisp of green flame didn't want to die, at least not before fulfilling the grand obsession of its original, complete self.
"I'm begging you two," Cirrus's voice squeezed through the gaps in Rekka's fingers. "You walk the Path of Destruction, can't you act like it? You should be out there blowing up planets, dismantling star systems, and competing with Phantylia for work!"
"Why do you only mention Phantylia?" Rekka asked, a flicker of amusement in his tone. "She's not the only Lord Ravager."
"Because among all the Heliobi I know, Phantylia is the most capable," Cirrus answered honestly, before adding with a sneer, "but I still look down on her."
"You're just a fragment, and you're looking down on her? She's an Emanator. What are you an Emanator of?"
"What is she? She doesn't even dare to fight head-on! We," Cirrus boasted, his flame puffing up with pride, "were once a Heliobus that fought General Tengxiao to a standstill!"
"Then why are you so pathetic now?"
Rekka's simple question left Cirrus utterly speechless. The green flame flickered violently between his fingers, like a cat that had just had its tail stomped on.
"We were sealed in that Creation Furnace by the Xianzhou people for so many years! Our power has long since scattered! Anyway, if I could just swallow all the other Heliobi in this place, I could easily go fifty-fifty with General Tengxiao again!"
Cirrus was so supremely confident that even Mr. Tail, floating nearby, was rendered a bit speechless. As another fragment of a greater Heliobus, he wasn't quite as foolish. To be precise, his time with Huohuo had already transformed him into the spitting image of a kind but stubborn and inarticulate old father.
Cirrus noticed his silence. "What right do you have to laugh at me when you've become someone else's tail? Tell me, old man, how does it feel to dangle behind a little girl's butt all day?"
The two Heliobi immediately began to bicker.
Meanwhile, Huohuo had just begun to stir, only to be scared right back into playing dead by the terrifying scene before her.
"Stelle, go give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," Rekka said casually.
"M-me?" Stelle blinked. "I don't know how to do that. I thought you knew how."
"It's… not convenient for me. I'm a guy. You do it. Just blow into her mouth, and whatever you do, don't use your tongue."
"Ah? You don't use the tongue? Wait, am I a girl?"
"You… forget it." Rekka sighed, looking at the super-talented individual beside him.
"You, you, you! Don't come over here!"
Huohuo shot up, her hands held tightly over her chest as she scooted backward across the ground. She had been playing dead quite convincingly, but the moment she heard something about using a tongue, she was so horrified she forgot to be scared and immediately abandoned her act.
After finishing his argument, Mr. Tail grumpily explained to Huohuo that Rekka and Stelle were just people who had accidentally entered the garden and had happened to catch a stray Heliobus along the way. Only after multiple confirmations did Huohuo finally relax, her body going limp as she plopped onto the dusty ground.
If she got scared a few more times like that, she really was going to need a change of skirt.
"I really thought I was going to become a little snack," Huohuo muttered, her voice barely a whisper.
"We were just teasing you," Stelle said, not sounding particularly apologetic.
"Tea… teasing me?" Huohuo's ears twitched, her eyes still brimming with unshed tears. "I almost just—"
She almost had to go change her skirt.
"Sorry," they both said, though it was clear they would absolutely do it again.
"I just saw the atmosphere was right," Stelle explained. "If I didn't play the villain according to the script, it would have been a waste of this courtyard's gloomy winds."
Huohuo sniffled and reached up to messily wipe the tears from her face, her green-tipped fox ears drooping pitifully.
Stelle took Cirrus from Rekka's hand and applied a bit of pressure with her fingers. The Heliobus immediately let out a shrill cry.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch! Take it easy, you two ancestors! I'm going to be squeezed to pieces!"
Squeezing Cirrus was surprisingly stress-relieving. If you were in a bad mood, you could just give him a few pinches to vent.
Stelle tightened her grip a little more. "Rekka, by the way, what did we come here for again?" she asked, turning to look at him.
"Passing through," Rekka said succinctly.
"Right, passing through." Stelle nodded sagely. "Just passing through, and seeing if there's anything fun."
Suddenly, a familiar scream echoed from deeper within the garden.
"GHOSTS—!!!"
At the sound, Rekka's head snapped up.
"Stelle, I think I heard March's voice."
"Yeah, sounds like it."
"March seems to be in danger."
"I know."
"How about we just blow this place up?"
"My thoughts exactly."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait! What are you two planning to do?!" Cirrus shrieked from within Stelle's fist.
"Feel the pain…" Rekka murmured, his knuckles cracking.
"Hands above your head," Stelle added, her expression turning cold.
"Something must have happened to March. Let's prepare a wreath for her later."
Rekka shot her a look. "March is still alive."
"I'm just trying to liven up the atmosphere."
"Not funny."
But having a companion captured was nothing short of a direct provocation to the two of them.
Rekka's lips curved into a thin, dangerous smile. "Then again, they've been provoking us this whole time."
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