Xie Yuduo had just responded when, before he could comfort the garrison troops of the fortress, Sylph’s communication device rang.
“Chief! This is Jiang Sheng. Just now, His Highness Ryann entered the underground chamber beneath the Stele of Heroes, where Mingming’s remains were—”
“Now the chamber has directly collapsed, and this whole area has been covered by His Highness’s true crystal. The crystals are still growing!”
Xie Yuduo and Sylph exchanged a glance. It was indeed at the location of the remains…!
“Let’s go.”
At this time, it wasn’t yet dawn, but it was close. The two immediately rushed towards the Stele of Heroes at top speed. Along the way, there were spreading true crystals everywhere, as well as bewildered soldiers.
“How could this happen!?”
Xie Yuduo said anxiously, “Wasn’t there hope for the Little Excellency’s situation? Why would His Highness at this time…”
Sylph: “I don’t know, but Major General, please prepare yourself mentally.”
Even with this warning, when they arrived at the secret chamber, Xie Yuduo was still shocked.
That area of the ground had indeed completely collapsed. Crimson golden crystals were everywhere. Flame-like crystal bones had burned through from underground, emitting terrifying pressure and heat.
“Chief, Major General Xie!” Jiang Sheng, with a pale face, was guarding there. “I’ve tried, but the automatic door is deformed and won’t open. My crystal bones can’t pry apart this true crystal either…”
“Stand back.” The chief said without hesitation, pulling out several miniature demolition charges for true crystals from under her black robe.
Xie Yuduo: “It won’t work, His Highness’s true crystal can’t be blasted open by ordinary new crystal weapons…”
Jiang Sheng cried out in anguish. “Chief! You can’t blast it, you can’t! My Mingming is still inside!!”
Sylph: “I don’t expect to blast it open. I’m knocking.”
“!?”
Before the two could react, the chief threw the demolition charges.
After an ear-splitting boom, scorching wind blew in their faces, blinding them.
A few seconds later, when they looked again, the crystal bones entrenched there were unscathed, but seemed to have been awakened and started moving.
Jiang Sheng couldn’t help but widen his eyes… Using explosives just to knock, how terrifying were the Crown Prince’s crystal bones…
They saw Sylph shout “It’s me” and “Open up” a couple of times, but the crystal bones had no reaction. Sylph then said she was just here to check on the safety of Little Excellency Jiang, calling out several times before the crystal bones reluctantly opened a small gap.
The chief revealed her crystal bones and directly tore off the collapsed and deformed automatic door.
The three rushed into the secret chamber. In an instant, Xie Yuduo and Jiang Sheng simultaneously widened their eyes in disbelief!
“This…!?”
They first doubted themselves.
They doubted their eyes and brains, even doubting whether they were in some absurd dream.
The secret chamber had completely changed.
Everyone who entered would inevitably be shocked by the majestic crimson gold color at first glance; but looking closer a second time, they were bound to feel a chilling horror—
The walls were covered with large patches of crystalline substance. The crimson gold color spread from a central point in all directions, like a giant blooming man-eating flower, reaching the ceiling of the chamber at its highest point.
A being that seemed human yet inhuman was entangled, suspended in the center of this crystalline substance.
Ryann’s appearance could hardly be called human anymore.
He hung his head, his face obscured by long hair. Crimson golden crystalline substances were continuously growing from his chest and back. His limbs were gone, their ends completely crystallized and expanded, spreading wildly.
Beneath those transparent crystals, one could clearly see the structure of human flesh, blood vessels, and bones.
They seemed to have come alive, writhing slowly, rubbing against each other. Thus, the walls were also twisting, as if the entire chamber had become the stomach of some living being.
“Your… High…”
Xie Yuduo’s throat was dry. His lips moved twice before he could produce a sound, “Your…Highness?”
“What’s going on? Is that… is that really His Highness the Crown Prince?”
Jiang Sheng stared blankly, his voice trembling. “Just an hour or two ago, he was still talking to me?”
— Two drastically different life forms had been fused together, creating a visual effect that was too nauseating. Aside from heretic or monster, there were no other words to describe it.
Sylph slowly closed her eyes, shaking her head with a sigh.
“Yes, it’s really hard to explain, but that is indeed our His Highness Ryann.”
The glass coffin and one smart lamp were shattered, but another survived, still floating in mid-air.
So the faint lamplight illuminated the floor, and every shard of glass reflected this eerie scene.
Suddenly, Jiang Sheng’s face changed, and he blurted out. “Mingming!?”
Xie Yuduo looked up at the sound, and only then did he realize in shock that there was another human figure in the center, just obscured by the bizarre flesh-crystal bones and Ryann, making it difficult to see clearly at first.
The Major General’s scalp tingled.
It was Jiang Jianming’s remains!
Several crimson golden soft crystal bones crossed over the young man’s waist, shoulders, back, and knees, holding him suspended in mid-air.
This posture caused the remaining human limbs and head to hang naturally, like a puppet out of control. The neck was bent backwards at a large angle, exposing the fragile Adam’s apple like white porcelain.
Under the force of gravity, his lips unconsciously parted slightly; his eyelashes, like raven feathers, were coated with a layer of silver light. His eyelids were also forced slightly open, revealing dilated black pupils.
Ryann pressed his cheek against Jiang Jianming’s forehead, expressionless, just quietly leaning like this.
And those bizarre crystal bones that had differentiated from his body were slowly crawling up the limbs of the remains, roaming back and forth over every inch of skin.
The dark space, the soft white high-tech floating lamp, the shattered glass, the flesh-encasing crystals growing…
The dead human, delicate and handsome, was unaware and unfeeling no matter how he was manipulated; while the living monster, huge and bizarre, greedily devoured that tiny body bit by bit.
All of this intertwined in a suffocating silence, presenting an absurd scene, perhaps with a hint of indescribable morbid beauty.
Suddenly, a wail broke the silence.
“Chief! Chief!!”
Jiang Sheng shook his hands in grief and anger, obviously focusing on different points than ordinary people. “Even if he is the Crown Prince, he can’t mistreat my Mingming like this! He, he, he — Chief, look at what he’s doing—”
Sylph: “…Please stay calm. What should have been mistreated was done long ago. What shouldn’t be mistreated, His Highness won’t do now either.”
Xie Yuduo felt his temples throbbing. “So what do we do now!?”
“There’s nothing we can do for now. Do you think you can do anything to the being in front of you?”
Sylph looked unperturbed, even finding a corner to sit down, lifting her black robe: “The fact that knocking could open the door proves he hasn’t completely lost his mind. Let’s inconvenience the Little Excellency for a while, and let His Highness vent for a bit.”
“Chief!?”
“Both of you should be content. Such a monster, after revealing its true form, whose instinct isn’t to kill or destroy, but only wants to hug another human and nuzzle…Isn’t that already quite manageable?”
“When you put it that way, it does seem to make sense—”
…the hell! Xie Yuduo was on the verge of breakdown. The problem was that it shouldn’t be a monster, it should be their Crown Prince!
Why wasn’t the chief panicking at all, and could even joke about them so calmly!?
Just then, the chief’s communication device rang again.
“Sylph…Sylph!”
This time, it was surprisingly the female emperor’s voice. Lin Ge was yelling frantically. “What happened to that little brat? His body lost control again, didn’t it!? Let me tell you, the true crystals have grown all the way to the White Jade Palace—now all nine star cities are being affected!!”
“I told you back then not to use 000’s data when creating the Base Body, you stupid girl. You insisted on listening to him instead of me, saying he knew what he was doing? Bah! What the hell could he possibly know!?”
Sylph: “Are there any casualties?”
Lin Ge: “Not yet, but that’s not the point! After revealing the truth, if our His Highness Ryann doesn’t come back to hold things together, this whole thing will definitely fall apart. I order you to resolve this immediately, immediately!”
Sylph hung up the communication without mercy.
Under the indescribable gazes of the two men behind her, she raised her head and looked towards the center of the chamber.
In such a short time, Ryann’s form had changed again.
His face was beginning to melt into crystalline substance from where it contacted Jiang Jianming, and his chest was splitting open even more, as if about to swallow his lover whole.
He was getting further and further from the concept of human.
…
Outside the fortress, the horizon was gradually brightening.
At the starship port, the Golden Sun Wheel was lined up outside the ship, waiting to return to the capital with the Crown Prince to report their mission.
“Why is there still no order?”
“Neither His Highness nor the Chief has come…”
Time passed anxiously, and the soldiers whispered among themselves. The originally neat formation began to loosen.
After an abrupt tremor, the fortress returned to calm. Major General Xie immediately sent a message saying it wasn’t an enemy attack, there was no need to panic. But the appearance of the crimson golden true crystals still made the army uneasy.
Just after losing His Highness Jiang, if something were to happen quietly to the Crown Prince as well, no one could bear it.
The soldiers didn’t know that their Crown Prince, whom they were so worried about, had completely changed his appearance by now.
Deep beneath the Stele of Heroes.
By now, it had been nearly an hour since Ryann’s transformation. He had completely lost his human form, turning into a mass of flesh and crystal.
And Jiang Jianming’s remains had been entirely engulfed by the crystalline substance.
After being manipulated and caressed for about an hour, the disabled human finally solidified into a half-curled posture, eyes closed and brows lowered, like a small insect eternally sealed in amber, or like a fetus sleeping peacefully in the protection of the womb.
“His Highness Ryann”—that is, the mass of flesh and crystal—stopped moving.
Finally being able to protect the fragile loved one deep within itself, this state brought it immense satisfaction.
“This…”
Xie Yuduo and Jiang Sheng looked up at the crystal and the figure inside it, breaking out in cold sweat.
“No matter if it’s the Crown Prince…”
Jiang Sheng stared blankly, muttering woodenly. “He can’t just eat my son because he’s too lovable, right? Right, Major General Xie?”
Xie Yuduo responded with the same wooden expression. “…Your Excellency Jiang, if you remain silent now, no one will mistake you for a mute. Otherwise, why don’t you try to dig out the Little Excellency?”
— This was, of course, nonsense. Throughout the entire empire, no one could do anything to an altered Super S-class crystal bone. In the current situation, unless Ryann willingly “spat out” Jiang Jianming’s remains and obediently transformed back into a human body… no one had any solution.
But given the circumstances, could he really change back?
It was at this moment.
Sylph glanced at the time on her wrist device and stood up.
“Your Highness, dawn is approaching, and the army is still waiting for you to lead them out.”
The dark room fell silent.
The crystalline substance showed no reaction.
The chief shook her head, “I know Your Highness is grieving.”
She glanced at the shattered wrist device on the ground. The small machine had also been engulfed by crystals, its virtual screen still flickering between those few frames mid-projection.
“In the two days since watching the surveillance footage, I’ve been thinking… why did the consciousness of the crystal bone ring only fully awaken that day?”
“If it possessed the power to revive the dead, why did your original consciousness allow the Little Excellency to suffer from chronic crystal disorder for so long, even letting him approach the brink of death?”
The massive crystal monster before her finally showed a slight reaction.
Crack… crack. Its crystal fragments began to grow again, wrapping Jiang Jianming’s core even more tightly, the grating sound of friction resembling a sob.
Sylph said, “Just now, I figured it out.”
“Crystal disorder can accumulate crystal particles in a person’s body and keep them highly active. Without developing to the middle stage of chronic crystal disorder, there wouldn’t be enough crystal particles to nourish the human body.”
“The Little Excellency’s crystal disorder wasn’t a repetition of past mistakes, but a journey through death to life. You asked him to overcome suffering to reunite with you, and he did it. You did it too.”
The black-clad chief walked towards the monster. She removed her black armored glove and placed her wrinkled palm on the crystal.
“So… try a little harder, don’t despair.”
In the dimness, those strange crystals remained silent. Through the transparent skin, one could see the chunks of flesh and blood vessels pulsating inside.
Sylph patted the crystal block under her hand.
She sighed. “Otherwise, do you want to stay like this forever?”
“Ryann” slowly extended a limb.
Beneath the transparent skin, human cells rapidly divided and combined, forming two strip-like pieces of flesh – vocal cords.
The crystal bones reluctantly assumed the role of teeth and tongue, vibrating together to produce a sound.
“… For… ever…”
That was an utterly hair-raising voice, yet it bore some similarity to Ryann’s original voice.
Sylph said: “Yes, forever. Until the seas dry up and the stones crumble, until humanity perishes and stars turn to corpses. You too will be assimilated by crystal particles, becoming a cluster of crystals devoid of emotion and self, eternally sleeping in the universe with the little excellency.”
The crystalline substance writhed, its internal cells also squirming. As if unable to control its own disorder, it formed two more human vocal cords.
The three vocal cords vibrated simultaneously, emitting a bewildered sound:
“… For… ever…”
Dozens of crystal-like filaments hung down like rain, falling on Sylph’s face and shoulders. One even coiled around the chief’s neck.
“Chief!” The two men behind paled.
Shadows engulfed Sylph, who simply reached up to remove her mask, letting it fall with a “thud” at her feet.
The giant monster lowered itself, inching closer.
The three vocal cords morphed into twisted nodules, consumed by crystals. Cells divided and proliferated anew, this time forming a green, jade-like, fist-sized eyeball.
Sylph smiled wistfully, her eyes filled with tenderness as she nodded gently. “Yes, yes… I understand. Loving someone isn’t easy, is it?”
“Being a human who can love and hate, experience joy and sorrow…”
“Living through such a turbulent, brief, and involuntary insignificant life…”
“It’s not easy, is it?”
Sylph lowered her eyes, allowing time to etch fine, soft wrinkles at their corners.
She stroked “Ryann’s” crystalline body as if soothing a lost child, gently coaxing. “But you know…”
“The colorful flags and white doves in Aslan Star City’s central park, every soldier waiting for you at the starship port, the names buried in this Stele of Heroes and the starry sky above… Oh, and the alien sunrise four years ago, the ring you gave and the person wearing it.”
“Don’t all these together outweigh forever?”
In the dimness, something flickered.
The monster quietly hid its disabled human deeper inside, tucking it away where light couldn’t reach.
But a tear welled up from its jade-like eye, sliding down the golden-red crystal.
For the first time since Jiang Jianming’s death, Ryann Kaios wept.
He knew.
Of course, he had known all along.
The human hidden within his body had died, an unfulfilled and unhappy death, yet had loved to the very last moment.
Loved this ephemeral and inconstant world like morning dew, loved all the ordinary beings in it, and among them all, loved that one person alone.
If he weren’t human…
Even if he achieved eternity, how could he love Jiang Jianming, how could he accept Jiang Jianming’s love?
The crystal particles inside him grew frenzied, shrieking in the depths of his soul. That noise polluting his spirit seemed to drag him down to the bottom of a chaotic abyss. Countless phantoms and spots flashed before his eyes, trying to corrode and assimilate him.
Yet amidst this chaos, a faint consciousness whispered to him.
I won’t allow you to lose your sanity and ability to love and hate, to become a monster.
— Suddenly, a sharp shattering sound echoed through the underground chamber.
“Chief, be careful!!”
Xie Yuduo rushed forward, his crystal bones extending to shield the chief. The next moment, countless crystal shards rained down on the major general’s crystal bones.
The mass of flesh and crystal occupying the dark room suddenly expanded. Its crystalline outer skin burst open, blood spilling everywhere, and frantically growing nodules filled the cracks — from those bulging lumps of flesh, no less than a hundred jade-green eyeballs sprouted.
Along with teeth, tongues, fingers, organs or half-organs… various human tissues, both recognizable and unrecognizable to the average person.
Xie Yuduo: “… F*ck.”
Chief: “.”
“…”
Jiang Sheng’s face had turned deathly pale, clearly having struggled for a long time to suppress the urge to vomit.
With an extremely conflicted expression, he carefully said while shrinking his neck. “Your Highness, although we shouldn’t judge by appearances, this child can be quite looks-conscious at times…”
The monster remained silent for about half a minute, apparently not having expected things to turn out this way.
It awkwardly tucked Jiang Jianming deeper into itself, barely controlling its newly grown vocal cords to ask the chief. “How…to be…human.”
Sylph: “Figure it out yourself.”
The monster: “…”
“Don’t stare at me with so many eyeballs, Little Highness. I’ve never transformed into this kind of form, and no one else has relevant experience. You’ll have to make an effort to change back on your own.”
“Don’t worry, your original self went through this too, so theoretically it shouldn’t be a problem — theoretically.”
