"What is this thing!!!"
"How is this possible?!!!"
"Yu Jin bro, don't scare me!"
"Holy crap!"
Not only were Alex and the others shocked, but Yu Jin himself was also startled.
Previously, he hadn't carefully looked at the Deep after it transformed into him, so he had never paid much attention to the Deep becoming him.
But looking at it now, the Deep was clearly tarnishing his image! Was he really that messy?
Yu Jin always cleaned up all the blood and grime after every battle. Leaving it like the Deep did was simply impossible.
After all, the smell of fresh blood wasn't that pleasant.
"How did you turn into me?" With others present, Yu Jin began to care about his image.
"Besides you, have I seen anyone else?" the Deep answered Yu Jin's question without moving.
It remained in a posture of looking up at the sky, but paired with its words, it carried a hint of desolation.
But Yu Jin quickly shook his head, casting the absurd thoughts from his mind.
This guy, pitiful? Yu Jin would believe rot before he'd believe the Deep. It didn't seem pitiful at all when it and Frenzied Flame were bullying rot.
"I forgive you! Just don't talk much later!" Yu Jin instructed the Deep. He wasn't entirely clear about the Deep's true nature.
But from their years of interaction, it was probably as erratic as him.
Just as the Greater Will wondered why The Lands Between had become so frivolous, Yu Jin also wondered why the Deep could become so unreliable.
But to this day, neither Yu Jin nor the Greater Will had found answers to these two questions.
Seeing Yu Jin's initial exclamation followed by silence, everyone involuntarily held their breath. A normal person encountering another, opposite self, looked like a prelude to a major battle.
Recalling the abilities Yu Jin had displayed earlier, everyone had already begun to consider how to pick a good posture to lie down in.
In a battle of Yu Jin's caliber, if they got involved and Yu Jin had no intention of saving them, they wouldn't be able to escape even if they wanted to.
Yu Jin came back to his senses and saw Alex and the others subtly retreating. He pressed his hand down, saying, "They've come out to meet us; wouldn't it be a shame if we didn't go and greet them?"
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone felt the pressure on their bodies suddenly increase, and they began to fall rapidly from high in the sky.
"Ah—"
Bayeta's scream instantly echoed through the sky, its sharpness and high volume a testament to her being a woman.
Yu Jin dug at his ear. Why hadn't she screamed so loudly those previous times?
The speed of descent was much faster than ascent. Soon, amidst Bayeta's continuous screams, everyone quickly landed next to the Deep.
A gentle and immense power appeared out of thin air, lifting Alex and the others who were falling. Standing on this space felt as stable as standing on solid ground.
"Cough... cough cough!" Bayeta, now stopped, bent over and coughed heavily a few times. She hadn't felt anything while screaming, but now that she'd stopped, her throat felt a burning pain.
"Why didn't you scream so loudly before?" Yu Jin walked over and patted Bayeta's back. He didn't know if it helped, but Yu Jin was just imitating what he'd seen others do.
"Be... before, there was no... no time to scream at all." Bayeta wiped away the tears from her eyes caused by coughing, speaking breathlessly.
Yu Jin's hand, which was patting her back, paused. So, she was too weak before, and was hit before she could even react.
"Hey! What exactly is this guy?" Alex slowly crept up behind Yu Jin, pointed at the Deep not far away, and whispered.
the Deep hadn't made any movement from its appearance until they landed. Coupled with its bloody and dark appearance, the invisible pressure it exuded made fine beads of sweat appear on Alex's forehead.
"Him?" Yu Jin looked up at the Deep, and the latter met his gaze.
Through the armor, Yu Jin saw a mass of wriggling sludge within. This sludge clung to the inner walls of the armor, controlling the body.
As Yu Jin observed the Deep, the Deep was also observing Yu Jin. But just like its usual peeking, the Deep only saw a suit of armor standing before it.
Beyond that, it saw nothing else.
Yu Jin secretly muttered, "So ugly," then he looked solemnly at Durin and said, "Life that was not allowed to be born, if you truly see yourself that way, then look at him."
Saying this, Yu Jin came to the Deep's side. He looked at Durin and said, "Your despair, your madness, what you consider taboo, how does it compare to him?"
Hearing this, the Deep turned its head and rolled its eyes at Yu Jin. What kind of comfort was this? Bringing out someone even more miserable to compare with someone who was already miserable?
Then telling him: Look! There's someone more miserable than you, so stop complaining.
This didn't solve any problems at all! If the Deep, the "more miserable" one, didn't care about these things, it might have fought Yu Jin to the death.
But surprisingly, this method of comfort was remarkably effective, especially for a dragon like Durin, whose mind was immature and who was prone to self-pity.
Durin recalled the scene it had witnessed earlier. The darkness beneath the earth, the humanoid figures wriggling in the depths—various horrifying scenes echoed in its mind like a slideshow.
But now they were all gone; all the terror was condensed, finally converging into the existence before them.
Involuntarily, Durin took a step back. It shook its head and looked at Yu Jin, saying, "Yu Jin bro, my head is throbbing right now."
"Fear..., despair..., taboo..., what exactly is it? What exactly am I?" Durin had thought it was special enough, but it hadn't expected an even more special existence to appear now.
Below the abyss, there was another abyss; within the taboo, there was another taboo. Layers nested within each other, seemingly endless.
This plunged Durin into deep self-doubt. Since its birth, everything about it had told it how unique it was.
Its mother had showered it with the most fervent praise. But now, that specialness had vanished.
Besides confusion, there was also a hint of secret joy in Durin's heart that it had not even noticed. Perhaps it was because it knew it wasn't alone, that there were even more taboo beings walking the world.
"Despair, fear, taboo—this is because you know too little and possess too little power."
"The more you know, the more you possess, the more the taboo will become ordinary. Isn't that how your mother is?" Yu Jin looked at Durin. The power that forged Durin's body came from the abyss.
"And you, Durin, in my eyes, are nothing more than a young dragon with a thin, prickly shell, nothing more."
After listening to Yu Jin, Durin's heart unexpectedly quieted down. It knew very well that even in its state five hundred years ago, it was no match for him in a single move.
Perhaps it truly was just a young dragon in Yu Jin's eyes. Durin looked at Yu Jin with a complicated expression. Probably only he in this world would see it that way.
As for its mother? Durin could only try not to think in a negative way.
"As for it? Let it explain itself." Yu Jin thought of Durin's last question. He stepped back, making space for the Deep.
Everyone stared intently at the Deep. The reason why taboo was taboo was because it was both deadly and captivating.
"Me?" A hoarse voice, completely different from Yu Jin's, emanated from beneath the Deep's faceplate.
If Yu Jin's voice was like that of a perpetually aspiring youth, then the Deep's voice was like a chorus woven from the murmurs of countless people.
Vague and indistinguishable in origin.
the Deep made its first movement. It stepped forward, raised its hand, and its gaze swept over everyone in turn. Then it slowly said,
"I am all of you."
The familiar wriggling sound and damp sensation enveloped them once more. the Deep extended its arm, and three distorted faces gradually solidified upon it.
They were Alex, Bayeta, and Durin.
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