The Prophet Didn’t Mean to Fall in Love! [BL]

Yue stared at the bloody where the arrow had struck and rather than feel shocked, he just felt kind of numb. This was the realistic outcome of any expedition and it was the realistic outcome of going to a ruined country. Everyone was probably prepared to lose some comrades, but for the 1st tier team who hadn’t lost a single student, it was a bit shocking. Ava and Anika froze as they heard the sound and both were shocked. They had lost even more classmates.

“Yue. Help the people who are having trouble. I’m starting a spell.” Viktor said and appeared closer to the group. He had been pretty far ahead of the group like Yue had been before he jumped back to help Mai. He summoned his grimoire into his hand and it automatically flipped to the page he wanted and he started his spell.

Yue did as he was told but he was definitely glancing over at Viktor curiously. He was curious about what spell Viktor would use since that was Viktor’s new grimoire. He held off the skeletons for a while as Viktor prepared his spell.

A white magic circle was appearing throughout the land around them as Viktor quietly chanted his spell. It was over 300 meters in diameter and reached past the teleport pad.

“I won’t allow you to do that.”

Another magic arrow appeared, much faster than the others. It was clearly aiming at Viktor who was completely defenseless while he was completing his spell. Yue panicked, he was very far from Viktor at the moment. He wouldn’t be able to make it without using his abilities as Azure Dragon. He knew Viktor wouldn’t die but he also knew it was very possible that he could be seriously injured by the arrow.

‘There’s no need.’ Viktor said to Yue through telepathy. The arrow that was approaching him disintegrated as the spell fully activated. The magic circle disappeared and the ground where it had been was covered in white flowers. The skeletons also disintegrated and any skeletons that stepped foot in the white flowers met the same fate.

“What!? He skipped a verse!”

“W-W-Why didn’t you do that from the beginning?!” Yue exclaimed and went over to Viktor.

“It doesn’t work on things that aren’t made of negative energy...it wouldn’t have helped when we were dealing with the other monsters...It also takes a lot of mana.” Viktor murmured and kneaded his forehead a bit.

“Oh…” Yue mumbled and held all the mana crystals he could find in his pockets out to Viktor.

“It’ll last a couple of hours but they can still find a way to attack,” Viktor warned and used one of the mana crystals. He turned and looked at the area he had specifically avoided in his spell. It was where the arrow that killed the 4 students was. It would’ve disappeared if he hadn’t made the spell avoid it.

It was a gruesome scene, William and Elizabeth had been very close together so it pierced through William and then through Elizabeth. The 2 other students died from the impact of the arrow hitting the ground right beside them.

“It’s a good thing we cut the other arrows down before they hit the ground the last time...these arrows are set up so they can’t be dodged...that’s why the other two died…” Viktor murmured and touched the arrow while using insight.

He stopped touching the arrow and turned to Yue.

“How long would it take you to run 20 kilometers? At your top speed.” Viktor asked.

“Uh...around 20 minutes” Yue responded after thinking about it a bit.

‘Now is that your actual top speed or are you trying to make it seem more normal…?’ Viktor wondered.

“It’s already almost sunrise...I’ll explain the plan to you later…” Viktor said and moved his hand, making the spell extend to where the arrow was. The arrow disappeared along with the blood from the 4 students. The students were still dead but the injuries on the students were no longer gruesome and instead they looked peaceful as they laid still on the white flowers.

“What if they don’t stop attacking…?” Yue asked and pointed to the skeletons that seemed to be trying to step on the flowers to try and create a path for the next skeletons.

“...We’ll figure it out,” Viktor murmured.

“Your highness. We found the dungeon.”

Viktor looked around as he heard this, it was telepathy from the survey team but he didn’t see them around. He thought the survey team had stopped looking for the dungeon for the night so he was a bit confused.

“Where—”

A large crash cut off his thoughts, just outside of the area that had been purified by Viktor’s spell a large golem leaped onto a bunch of skeletons, squashing them.

“Tell Mark to get rid of the golem immediately.” Viktor sighed and rolled his eyes.

“As you wish.”

The golem disappeared and the survey team walked into the field of flowers. Mark immediately rushed over to Viktor and Viktor just stopped him before he even said anything.

“Just go report to my father already,” Viktor said and clicked his tongue, turning away from Mark.

“We can help until sun—” Mark started with a smile.

“Leave.” Viktor was much more curt than usual and it surprised Mark.

Yue didn’t know what they were saying but Mark’s expression became a bit sad and somehow that made him really happy. He slipped over to Viktor’s side and handed him one of the mana crystals that he still had in his hands. Viktor looked at Yue and almost chuckled at Yue’s expression.

Mark was being dragged to the teleport pad by the survey team leader as he watched Yue and Viktor with an expression that looked both confused and angry. The team teleported back to Belarus before he could lash out though.

“...How annoying.”

The skeletons started leaving, giving up for the day as the sun started to rise. Yue relaxed and turned to Viktor.

“So what is the plan?”

“...When they come back, I’ll cast this spell again but a bit farther out. The person who cast the spell is within 20km so I want you to essentially run out there and deal with them. If you take flowers from the spell you’ll be protected from negative energy for as long as the spell is active and you won’t have to worry about the rest of us.” Viktor whispered in Yue’s ear.

“Uh, c-could you repeat that thr-through telepathy instead…?” Yue stuttered with bright red cheeks, he was caught off guard when Viktor started whispering in his ear and just couldn’t pay attention.

Viktor chuckled and repeated his words through telepathy.

“It’s a bit dangerous though..” Viktor murmured.

“No, it’s fine!” Yue said with a smile. He was definitely fine with the plan. If he was 20 kilometers away and knew that everyone was safe he could use his power as Azure dragon without worrying. He would have to bring some bandages or something to hide his eyes from his opponent but he was certain everything would be fine like that.

Viktor figured Yue would agree. As much as he wanted to see Yue’s true power he knew Yue would do better if he was fighting alone and wouldn’t be able to use his true power if people were around.

After a couple of minutes, Viktor stopped his spell and turned to the 4 bodies. The other students and Mr. Wagner also made their way over.

People were crying and looked very distraught but Yue just felt awkward. He felt bad for not feeling bad about William dying. He felt bad about the other 2 and even about Elizabeth but toward William, he felt nothing. Perhaps it was because he almost ended William’s life himself not too long ago but he honestly couldn’t bring himself to care.

“I’ll deal with it. You all can go rest.” Mr. Wagner sighed and ushered the students back to camp.

“Well. Maybe I jinxed it.” Mr. Wagner said to Yue and Viktor.

“...The mage was probably aiming to take out our strongest mages and since Yue and I just destroyed his arrows and Yue protected Mai, they decided to go for the next strongest, which was William,” Viktor said and sighed.

“Don’t blame yourself, sir,” Yue added.

--

Yue stared at the plates in front of him and looked confused. He had just woken up and it was around 1 pm and Mai handed him more than double the food he usually gets. It all looked delicious but Yue definitely couldn’t eat it all. If it was just Mai telling him to eat he would’ve been able to say that he couldn’t eat that much but essentially the whole group was standing around him essentially pushing him to eat.

“You’re going to need calories to run 20 kilometers, Captain! Eat up!” Annabel said and smiled.

“I can’t eat--”

“You’ll definitely do well Captain!”

“This is too much foo--”

“Please come back, safe Captain!”

Yue couldn’t even find the chance to mention that he couldn’t eat all that food and decided to give in, bracing himself for his upset stomach.

“She’s gonna have an upset stomach if you feed her that much…” Viktor said as he returned from opening up the bathhouse in the city. He saw everyone huddled around Yue who looked queasy before he even started eating.

“...That’s what I’ve been trying to say,” Yue murmured, glad he didn’t have to force himself to eat much more than he could stomach.

Viktor removed the extra plates from in front of Yue and chuckled a bit, “She’ll do fine with just what she usually eats.”

Mai was giggling as Viktor told everyone to just go back to their usual places. She stayed sitting right beside Yue and grinned.

“I was just teasing you, but everyone joined in and I was curious about what you would do.” Mai laughed, “I guess you’re lucky Viktor came and saved you.”

Yue was embarrassed and just silently ate.

“You always act so prim and proper but you’re actually just shy. It’s cute.” Mai giggled as Viktor sat down beside Yue.

Yue stared at Mai for a second after hearing that. Viktor seemed to agree since he just smiled and didn’t add anything. Yue was a bit confused, he’d never been called shy before. Quite the opposite really. Fei Xiang and Guiren would call him a social butterfly and wondered how he managed to leave such a good impression on people without even showing them his face. He looked down at his food a bit wondering if his change was for the better.

'Making fewer friends would probably be best anyway... Fewer people to worry about...'

--

"Are you ready for this?" Viktor asked, watching Yue stretch as the sun started to set.

Yue nodded silently. He didn't know if he could really say he was ready but he was confident he could do it. At least he hoped he could. Thinking of using his true power for the first time in so long was bringing up bad memories and thinking about what kind of person could be waiting for him 20 kilometers out there only brought up worse memories. He knew it was unlikely that it was someone who knew about his true identity but the thought was scary.

"If they're too strong, just call out to me." Viktor said and smiled, kissing Yue's cheek, "I'll protect you."

"Are you trying to say you're stronger than me?" Yue asked, completely serious

"No, I think that's just you being competitive." Viktor laughed, pinching Yue's cheek a bit.

"In terms of core level, I probably am though," Viktor added sneakily when he saw Yue relax. Yue's expression was comically angry but he relaxed and rolled his eyes after a second. He knew it was probably true but he didn't mind it too much.

The sun fully set and immediately Viktor could see skeletons starting to arrive.

"Let's get started," Viktor said to everyone and summoned his grimoire. He and Yue walked outside of the barrier and Viktor used a mana crystal before he started setting up his spell, he couldn't skip any verses this time because he needed the spell to spread out as much as possible so Yue was tasked with protecting him until he finished the spell.

The mage noticed this and sent out a couple of arrows at him but Yue was ready for them and cut them down without a single wasted movement. He was saving his energy for fighting so he didn't move carelessly.

"Damn it!"

Viktor finished his spell after a while and picked some of the white flowers from the ground and placed them in Yue's blazer pocket and gave him some more to just have in the pockets of his pants since he knew the others might fall out easily. He also pulled a winter coat out of his storage ring and handed it to him.

"Good luck." He whispered and smiled.

Yue nodded and put on the coat as he went on his way. He didn't start running immediately, he just jogged until he left the radius of the spell. After leaving the spell he started running, avoiding the skeletons that were trying to go after him.

He ran until he couldn't see the camp anymore before he raised the hood of his winter coat and took a deep breath. There were some skeletons around but he didn't mind them as he let his mana out. The wind picked up a bit as it became infused with his mana. His eyes were glowing and looked like they had when he and Huy met in pairs. His eyes looked much more dragon-like than usual and he had some blue-green scales around his eyes.

He started running again, much faster than he had been running before. He knew he could run faster if he transformed more but he if started transforming more he knew he'd have to take a couple of minutes to hide his features. Right now the hood of the coat he was wearing was enough to hide his eyes but not his horns or anything like that.

Yue continued running until he caught the scent of fresh corpses. He rushed over in that direction, it was the same direction Viktor had pointed out to him anyway so he didn't worry about being sidetracked.

He found a small village, somehow it was relatively untouched by monsters. He was confused but immediately put his guard up as he saw a person in a black cloak standing at the entrance to the village.

"Hello there." The cloaked person said and turned to Yue. Yue could almost hear the smile on their face.

He didn't respond and just unsheathed his blade.

"Hmmm? I know you're a student from over there but now that I feel your mana..." The cloaked person said and took a step closer to Yue.

"It seems like you're the person they call 'Qinglong'.¹Azure Dragon"

Yue didn't know how to express the fear that spread throughout his body as he heard that, he almost attacked carelessly but held himself back.

"I'm from a certain organization. But we've never met directly before." The cloaked person said and moved their cloak so Yue could see the red insignia on it. Yue recognized it immediately and decided to stop being rational. He rushed forward and attacked.

“I’ve always wondered how strong one of the Four beasts is...Especially after the state you left Li Chaoxiang in.” The cloaked person said and dodged Yue’s attacks.

Yue was gonna push closer to attack again but he was suddenly attacked by 2 wax skeletons. Yue immediately used his sword to destroy one of the skeletons’ cores and simply pulled the other out with his hand. Just mentioning Li Chaoxiang’s name ignited a rage in him.

“Just a few hours ago those were living, breathing humans, you know?” The cloaked person said and looked on with awe as they watched Yue. They summoned more Wax Skeletons and normal skeletons from inside the town and had them all attack Yue.

Yue didn’t mind their words at all, it wasn’t like they’d be alive if he tried to purify them anyway so he destroyed the skeletons’ cores without thinking twice.

“You seem angry. Is it because I mentioned Li Chaoxiang?” The cloaked person said and had a skeleton hand them a sword. Yue almost growled in response but he held himself back, he didn’t want to show that he was actually getting agitated by their words.

He cleared through the skeletons quickly, not even caring when his hood was knocked off or when a Skeleton who had lost their weapon grabbed at his hair and pulled out his hair tie. He cut off the skeleton’s hand and pulled the hand out of his hair and then threw it at another skeleton in a fit of anger, it actually managed to knock the other skeleton’s head off.

Yue figured that he had exhausted the cloaked person’s supply of skeletons since he suddenly started fighting by himself with his sword. Yue easily managed to block and attack but ever when his attacks seemed to get close the cloaked person didn’t react. Yue was confused but continued to attack until he caught a glimpse of the cloaked person’s wrist. There was no skin, just bones. He was caught off guard and barely dodged the cloaked person’s next attack, some of his hair was cut off in the process but Yue couldn’t even think about that.

“Ah? You noticed?” The cloaked person laughed and pulled down their hood. Yue was shocked and disgusted.

The person only had little bits of skin on their face, the rest was just bone. They looked just like a skeleton.

“I am called the Undead Mage by my colleagues. But I believe the term Lich is much more fitting.” 

A strong feeling pulsed through Yue. It felt like his own feelings but it also felt incredibly foreign to him, like someone else’s feelings. ‘That is something which should not exist’ or rather ‘That is not something a human should achieve’.

Their fight went on for a long time, they weren’t equal in terms of sword skills at all but the lich wasn’t out of skeletons and he used them on Yue even while Yue was distracted by their fight.

“I’m quite the amazing mage but I owe this all to you.”  The Lich said and watched Yue get mobbed by skeletons again. 

Yue didn’t even try and fight back, he pulled off his coat and let the skeletons attack since they would be instantly destroyed by the flowers in his pockets when they did. He glared over at the Lich, he was going to ask how they had anything to do with one another but the Lich answered the question before he even asked.

“I gained this form after I completely revived Li Chaoxiang.”

For Yue time froze as he heard that.

“He wasn’t a skeleton. He was completely revived at the cost of my flesh. All that was left was a scar.” The Lich said and watched Yue’s eyes fill with genuine terror.

The Lich was going to attack Yue while he was panicking but they also had to freeze. 

Multiple strong presences appeared suddenly and one of them was so overwhelming it made Yue snap out of his trance.

“...That is not someone I can rival.” The Lich said and raise their hood once more. Suddenly the whole town behind them disappeared.

“Qinglong. Your core will definitely be mine so look forward to our next meeting.” The Lich said before disappearing.

Yue almost fell to his knees when the Lich disappeared, he was shaking and almost crying. 

Li Chaoxiang couldn’t be alive, It absolutely couldn’t be true.

--

“Viktor,”  Andrei said and turned to Viktor whose expression was clearly unhappy.

“Father,” Viktor said with a smile so fake the 5 lords almost laughed.

Andrei had teleported to the teleport pad with the 5 lords and was surprised to see Viktor’s spell. He had definitely taken it the wrong way since he seemed rather touched.

“Greetings, Your Highness.” 4 of the 5 lords said and bowed, the 5th was Alexei²Viktor's brother-in-law if you forgot, who just smiled.

Viktor’s smile was more genuine when he looked at Alexei.

“Go on. You have a dungeon to raid.” Viktor said, becoming cold again as he looked at his father. 

Andrei just nodded and they went on their way.

Viktor groaned when they went away, hoping that they didn’t cross paths with Yue. He didn’t want to talk to Yue just so he didn’t distract him from a fight but he was starting to worry, he had been out there for a little over an hour now and the flowers activated a few minutes ago.

Viktor tried to not get anxious and waited quietly as another half an hour passed by.

“Are you sure he’s okay? The skeletons all disappeared a while ago.” Mai whispered to Viktor.

“I don’t kn--!”

Viktor watched Yue appear in the distance, walking toward them with an empty sort of look. Mai noticed and ran over to him since Viktor had to stay within his spell. She noticed how cold Yue was and how he had no particular reaction when she grabbed him and became concerned. She dragged him into the radius of Viktor’s spell and to Viktor.

“What happened?” Mai asked, she didn’t expect Yue to actually answer since he seemed so out of it.

“They ran away a while ago,” Yue murmured. He didn’t have any major injuries but Mai checked anyway.

“Sorry about the coa--” Yue started to apologize to Viktor for losing the coat. He didn’t actually lose it but it couldn’t be considered a coat after all the holes in it.

“Oh my god, your hair!” Mai shrieked as she noticed the place where Yue’s hair had been cut by the Lich. It was a small section of hair, only around two fingers wide but Mai was treating it as if it was the end of the world.

Mai hurried and used a spell to try and make it grow back. Yue just let her do as she pleased and finished his sentence.

“The coat doesn’t matter. Are you okay?” Viktor asked and touched Yue’s face, his eyes were a little red and his body was cold and pale.

“I’m fine, just cold,” Yue mumbled, looking away from Viktor’s gaze.

“Viktor! Why is it growing back white!?” Mai exclaimed and made Yue actually show some emotion as he looked at his now white chunk of hair.

“How should I know? You’re the one casting the spell…” Viktor murmured, touching the section of hair that had completely turned white.

Yue looked confused by his new streak of white hair, his hair had grown back but not now it was white. It was peculiar enough to keep his mind off of what he had been worrying about so he didn’t feel angry at all.