This was an abyss whose bottom could not be seen; what was once Abdullah's heaven had now become his nightmare.
The pungent smell of blood filling the alley made it almost impossible to breathe.
Several arms of varying thickness and length were carelessly thrown into the muddy water, and the door panels on both sides were splattered with mottled bloodstains. An eyeball rested in a mass of slick, pink organs, like a pearl atop a crown.
Fingers whose owners could no longer be identified rolled scattered across the ground. Blackened fingernails were buried in the bloody mud, and stark white bone fragments poked out of the skin like barbs. In the empty space at the corner of the alley stood a wall of bloody thorns made of human flesh and bone.
The disturbing screams erupted briefly, then quickly subsided into silence.
Abdullah's four limbs had vanished, leaving only his torso connected to his head, leaning crookedly against the steps. Hallucinations flickered in his vision—the wails of countless girls pierced his eardrums like shards, followed by chaotic gasps, and... an endless, surging, wave-like sense of terror.
He wanted to scream like those girls before, but a different kind of majesty held him firmly in place. Everything around him was still, including himself.
Clack, clack.
Heels struck the stone steps.
The girl looked down from above at the organs and severed limbs covering the ground, squinting her eyes, trying to find a complete human head for eye contact and questioning—
Finally, she met Abdullah's eyes.
A few drops of fresh blood stained the back of her small, soft hand, making it appear even paler. Her foot slowly approached in Abdullah's line of sight, and then, the tip of her shoe nudged him—kicking his head straight.
"Excuse me, how do I get to the residential area for the mine workers?" The girl thought for a moment: "The place where those Children live?"
Abdullah gasped 'hoh-hoh' for a long time before he could barely make a sound. The girl didn't have the patience to wait. After repeating the question with confusion, her eyes turned to disappointment. She took two steps back, lifted the cloth sheet splattered with blood, and took the small handbag back into her hand.
"I want one—" The girl reached her hand into the bag, stirring it with a rattling sound, and then pulled out a gummy candy—wrapped in gray paper.
Seeing the gray color, the girl seemed dissatisfied: "I didn't pick the one I like."
Abdullah finally realized he could speak, though a cool stream of air was constantly dissipating from his body.
"Please..."
"Ugh, don't spray blood on my shoes!" The girl stomped her foot in disgust, dodging a few pink and white intestines: "Turn around and talk."
A Shadow flashed by, leaping agilely down from the eaves, avoiding the bloody organs scattered across the ground.
"Why do you make such a mess every time?" A frustrated female voice followed: "Planeswalker, can't you have a little innocence appropriate for your age?"
The black cat lightly stepped over several incomplete, fragmented corpses, its feline face wrinkling in a very human-like expression as it looked at Abdullah with distaste.
"Hi, Butt Demon." The girl greeted happily, standing on her tiptoes.
"Shut up! I am Bastet! Bastet! Goddess of War! Guardian of the Home! Forever—"
"—The Black Lightning Who Licks Her Butt."
"Sen! Get! Susa!"
Crunch, crunch.
"I'll bite you! I'll bite you!"
Watching the black cat, which had started venting its anger on its own left front paw again, Mori Tsukisa smiled, picked it up, and hugged it close.
"Did you come to play with me?"
The black cat struggled for a long time before barely managing to squeeze its head out, its four small black paws pushing hard against the girl with their pads.
"I'm dying, I'm dying, I'm suffocating—" It meowed twice, and its cat body visibly stretched, revealing its tiny black nose: "Ah..."
"You almost suffocated me!"
Bastet discontentedly pushed away the finger reaching for her chin, while the girl's 'tsk tsk tsk' teasing sounds lingered in her ear: "Don't let your cafeteria come closer! Wait... don't move, I actually need to talk to you."
"Hmm?"
"Them." The black cat, talking to itself, clung to Mori Tsukisa's arm, resting its head on the girl's forearm, and pointed with its paw pad at Abdullah and the others'... severed limbs.
Mori Tsukisa hesitated: "They aren't... your relatives, are they?"
"They are heretics." The cat's eyes glowed green as it stared at Abdullah, uncharacteristically ignoring Mori Tsukisa's joke, and its voice carried a hint of gritted teeth.
"Heretics?" Mori Tsukisa tilted her head in confusion, looking at the cat: "So?"
"I hope you eliminate them—"
"They have the right to that." Mori Tsukisa tilted her head: "Other religions aren't allowed here? I recall that monotheism didn't exist in Ancient Egypt's religious history, right?"
Bastet the cat sighed: "I don't care if they die, but they shouldn't incorporate the Sun God into their self-created religion."
After saying this, the black cat began to adopt its unique, theatrical style of speech again, which was both awkward and strange.
'Ra is the evil walking the world, his venom becoming the sea. The One God watches from the heavens, and all who follow his will are my brothers and sisters.'
After reciting a few lines, the cat's head was so angry that the tiny black hairs on top stood up: "How dare they... how dare they...!"
Mori Tsukisa blinked and rubbed the small head a few times with her palm.
"So, I stumbled upon this by coincidence?"
The black cat purred and grumbled a few times, extending sharp claws from its bare front paws, carefully avoiding Mori Tsukisa's arm, and fiercely scratching towards Abdullah a few times.
"Help me eliminate this blasphemous organization."
"All of them."
Bastet habitually adopted a commanding tone, just as She had dictated to Her followers for thousands of years.
"Oh." Mori Tsukisa didn't care about heretics. Cupping the cat's head, she refused: "No, my fatigue level has already reached its limit for today."
Bastet huffed and lightly bit the soft pad of the girl's finger with her small, sharp teeth: "I even helped you look for dragons!"
"That was the last transaction." Mori Tsukisa still shook her head hard: "Besides, they might not even be there."
"Oh really?" The black cat suddenly blinked cunningly, stretched comfortably in the girl's arms, and chuckled fearlessly: "Yes, it's possible you won't find anything. But... what if you do? How do you plan to identify them? Little girl, you don't think the eggs of these creatures can be scooped up and taken away all at once, like fishing with a net, do you?"
"I remember your kind of creature has that thing... is it called 'Earth'? The source of energy?"
"How much energy do you have? And you want to take them all?"
"Can't I?" She tilted her head, looking at Bastet strangely.
Bastet slapped her irritably.
"Then... please tell me?"
Bastet tucked her paws in, changed position, and adopted a learned demeanor: "Fire Dragons, Boulders, Sharp Blades... in short, the Seven Great Dragon Species, the Three Major Biological Classes..."
"Some can breathe fire; some can manipulate ice and snow; some even have skin as tough as—"
Before the knowledgeable cat could elaborate, Mori Tsukisa bounced in the blood water, grabbed Bastet by the scruff of her neck, and shook her vigorously!
"I want the White ones! Pale purple is acceptable too!"
She actually cares about the color... Bastet, swimming mid-air while being pinched, curled her tail helplessly.
"Hmph, White..." The black cat flipped over, hugged Mori Tsukisa's wrist, lightly kicked twice with its back paws, stepped on the girl's head, and jumped onto her shoulder, looking at the cheering Mori Tsukisa with a complicated expression.
Was it a New God's intuition or a Walker of All Realms' perception of magical rhythm...?
"In short, without me," Bastet hugged Mori Tsukisa's neck, her tail sweeping back and forth: "You might hatch a... sorry, what color do you hate the most?"
"Hmm... gray?"
The black cat nodded: "Without me, you'll go back and hatch a whole bunch of gray little whelps."
Mori Tsukisa kicked away someone's skull under her foot, becoming completely energized: "I'll go deal with that organization!"
Bastet squinted, speaking sarcastically: "Didn't you say your fatigue level had reached its limit for today?"
"I bought a new tube!"
The excited girl stepped over the piles of severed limbs and walked toward the end of the alley. The black cat on her shoulder flickered in and out of sight, and the conversation between the person and the cat gradually faded into inaudibility.
"Egyptian Gods are bad liars."
"That is disrespecting the divine!"
"But you didn't tell me the species types before, you are a Liar God."
"I'll bite you!"
"If you bite me, I'll pull your black, short tail!"
"It's super long!"
"No. It's very short... can't you see it yourself?"
-------------------------------
Hope you enjoy this fanfiction if you do and would like to read the next 30 chapters in advance, pls do check out my Patreon.
patreon.com/TLScarlet
Also don't forget to give me a Power Stone if you do like this fiction. Your support really motivates me to continue doing my best in translating, Thanks!!