Black Magic Rose Chapter 25
byChapter 25: Only You to Fall With
The icy rain was like bullets pouring from the sky, violently lashing the jagged rocks on the cliff edge, and also lashing Wen Jingheng’s already numb body. He knelt on one knee in the mud, his right hand tightly gripping the longsword that once symbolized glory and protection, but was now covered in cracks. He was barely holding himself up from collapsing completely. The wound on his left shoulder was a ghastly white under the washing rain, no longer bleeding much, with only the bone-deep agony and biting cold reminding him that he was still breathing.
Behind him, the footsteps of the elite encirclement team from the Supernatural Administration Bureau were drawing closer. The humming of energy weapons locking onto their target mingled with the wind and rain, like the whisper of the Grim Reaper. Before him was a bottomless abyss, swallowed by the downpour and the darkness.
At the end of the road.
This phrase had never been so tangible as it was now. The abandonment by the Wen Family, his father’s killing blow, the encirclement by the Supernatural Administration Bureau, the cold stares of former comrades… everything he had once protected was pushing him completely to the brink of Annihilation today. The Chaotic Energy within him was close to losing control after a series of fierce battles and intense emotional shock, rampaging through his meridians, bringing waves of tearing pain, yet also granting him the last shred of strength to stand.
“Wen Jingheng! Cease resistance! This is the final warning!” The commander of the encirclement team shouted through a megaphone. The voice was slightly distorted by the wind and rain, yet still carried a standardized coldness.
Wen Jingheng slowly raised his head, the rain instantly blurring his vision. He looked at the bottomless darkness, and a strange sense of calm rose in his heart. Jump. End all of this. This hypocritical world, this endless betrayal, this life that was destined to be a lie from birth… what was there left to cling to?
He released his grip on the hilt, and the blood-stained longsword clattered onto the rock. The sound was faint, yet clearly reached everyone’s ears. He staggered to his feet, facing the abyss, and spread his arms. It was like an embrace, and also like a farewell.
It was over.
Just as he was about to leap—
“Giving up just like that? My dear… ‘husband’.”
A lazy and familiar voice, carrying a hint of a smile, pierced the dense curtain of rain and clearly resonated above the cliff. The voice wasn’t loud, but it seemed to possess a strange magic, causing the howling wind and rain to pause, and making all the encirclement team members instantly freeze!
Wen Jingheng spun around abruptly!
On the edge of the cliff, where the wind and rain were most violent, a black parasol had appeared, opened. The surface of the umbrella was made of an unknown material; the rain that fell upon it did not stick at all, silently sliding off. Beneath the umbrella stood a tall, slender figure.
Ink-black long hair flew wildly in the gale, like living shadows. His crimson eyes glowed startlingly bright in the dim, rainy night, as if condensing all the world’s strangeness and splendor. His delicate features were faintly visible in the shadow cast by the umbrella’s edge, his lips curved into a half-smile, carrying a careless mockery, and also a trace of… an indescribably complex emotion.
It was Shu Yijin!
He was still wearing his signature scarlet robe, the hem flapping fiercely in the wind, yet spotless, forming a stark contrast to Wen Jingheng’s disheveled state. He stood there leisurely, as if he were not in a life-or-death encirclement, but taking a stroll in his own backyard.
“It seems this world… truly doesn’t want you, Wen Jingheng.” Shu Yijin’s gaze swept over Wen Jingheng’s body covered in wounds and his desperate expression. A fleeting light flashed in his red eyes, too fast to discern if it was pity or pleasure.
The encirclement team was on high alert, all weapons instantly changing direction and locking onto this uninvited guest! The commander’s voice was filled with dread and forced composure: “Evil God Shu Yijin! You dare to walk into our trap! Take them both down!”
Shu Yijin seemed not to hear the threats. His gaze remained fixed on Wen Jingheng, carrying an assessment like that of an object, yet mixed with something deeper. Holding the umbrella, he walked towards Wen Jingheng step by step, unhurriedly.
Rain and energy beams were silently Annihilated as they approached within three feet of him, as if hitting an invisible barrier. He ignored all the muzzles pointed at him, ignored the enemies standing ready, as if the entire world only contained him and the precarious man on the cliff edge.
He stopped one step away from Wen Jingheng. The edge of the umbrella lifted slightly, revealing his complete, mesmerizing face.
“See,” Shu Yijin tilted his head slightly, his voice soft as a lover’s whisper, yet carrying a power to bewitch hearts, “The humans you protected, the family you served, the man you called father… all they gave you was betrayal, exploitation, and… utter destruction.”
His gaze swept over the wound on Wen Jingheng’s shoulder. The complex emotion in his eyes seemed to deepen for a moment, but was quickly replaced by a profound strangeness. He slowly and elegantly extended his hand towards Wen Jingheng. The hand was fair and slender, seemingly emitting a faint glow in the rainy night, forming a cruel yet beautiful contrast with Wen Jingheng’s hand, which was stained with mud and blood.
“Wen Jingheng,” Shu Yijin’s lips curved into an extremely enchanting, yet fatally attractive arc. His crimson eyes tightly locked onto Wen Jingheng’s hollow gaze. “This world is unworthy of your protection, and it cannot tolerate your existence.”
His voice paused, as if savoring the extinguishing of the last flicker of light in Wen Jingheng’s eyes. Then, in a tone that was almost a chant, full of temptation, he softly asked:
“Are you willing… to come with me?”
Come with me. Leave this world that betrayed you. Go to the abyss together, fall into the darkness together.
The rain grew heavier. The wind howled mournfully, like the cries of ten thousand lost souls. The warnings from the encirclement team, the humming of condensing energy, all became a blurred background noise.
Wen Jingheng stared blankly at the hand before him, staring at Shu Yijin’s red eyes that seemed capable of devouring souls. He had fought this person to the death, and in that endless sleep, he had regarded this voice as the only light in the darkness. He had hated him to the core, and yet had been moved and confused by him. And now, when he was abandoned by the whole world, standing on the cliff edge at the end of his life, the one reaching out to him was his destined mortal enemy.
Absurd? Ridiculous?
Perhaps. But Wen Jingheng no longer cared. Hope, faith, bonds… everything that had sustained him was shattered. He was tired, weary, with nothing left to cling to in this world.
And Shu Yijin’s invitation was destruction, it was degradation, but it was also… the only door, even if it led to hell, that was open to him right now.
He looked into Shu Yijin’s eyes. In the depths of that crimson, he saw no false pity, no calculating exploitation, only a kind of frank madness and… a loneliness he could not comprehend, as if it had waited for billions of years.
It turned out that they were both solitary souls exiled by the world.
This realization strangely soothed the last struggle in his heart.
Wen Jingheng pulled at the corner of his mouth, trying to smile, but the movement tugged at his wound, triggering a violent cough. He raised his trembling hand, stained with blood and rain, and without a moment of hesitation, firmly grasped Shu Yijin’s clean, cool hand.
The moment their skin touched, a warm current surged from their clasped hands into his chilled body. It was not healing, but a deeper, power-fusing tremor. The Black Rose mark on his chest burned hot, and the invisible connection between him and Shu Yijin instantly became incredibly clear and solid.
He looked up at Shu Yijin. The last trace of the “Savior’s” light in his eyes was completely Annihilated, replaced by a resolute madness that merged with the other man.
“I am willing.”
Two simple words, using up his last bit of strength, yet ringing out clearly.
Shu Yijin smiled. It was a genuinely pleased, breathtakingly enchanting smile. His fingers tightened, firmly clasping Wen Jingheng’s hand in return.
“Very good.”
Before the words fully faded, the black parasol in Shu Yijin’s hand suddenly spun, and the canopy erupted in darkness as thick as ink! This darkness instantly swallowed the space where the two stood, forming a massive, rotating vortex! A powerful suction emanated from it, tearing at everything around them!
“Attack! Don’t let them escape!” the commander roared in terror.
However, all attacks that entered the darkness were like stones sinking into the sea. The next moment, the vortex violently contracted, and the two figures beneath the umbrella vanished without a trace.
On the cliff edge, only the raging wind and rain remained, along with the stunned encirclement team members, and Wen Jingheng’s broken sword abandoned in the mud.
It was as if they had never been there.
Only in the air did a faint, lingering cold fragrance remain, along with a heart-pounding aftershock left by the forcible tearing of the world’s rules.
The abyss still gaped beneath their feet, but the hero betrayed by the world had been taken by his mortal enemy to another unknown destination, one destined to be accompanied by Annihilation.
Only you to fall with.
This was the only redemption after betraying the world.