Chapter 510 - 300: I Lost a Friend (Double-Length)
Chapter 510 - 300: I Lost a Friend (Double-Length)
"Oh, Mr. Doyle, you really know how to joke, I’m a worm, a noble Lie Worm, why would I want to be like a human?"
"Tsk... I’m just eroding your soul, not your brain... why would you ask such a foolish question..."
Argongos sneered, mocking his intelligence.
Doyle: "..."
Damn it, this bug actually makes some sense.
"Then let me put it another way, when can we stop... backstabbing each other? We’re so close, arguing in my head all the time is quite exhausting."
Doyle had long grown accustomed to Argongos eroding his soul, but now he just wanted some peace.
"Stop backstabbing each other? Please, Mr. Doyle, we’re enemies, I want your life, do you still want to be friends with me?"
Argongos shrugged, though as a worm, it had no arms for now.
Doyle stroked his chin, "Maybe it’s not impossible, as long as you can be a bit quieter."
"Very well." Argongos nodded without hesitation, "Since that’s the case, then help me find my missing part. Once that’s done, I’ll be your friend, it’s a deal."
Its expression was very sincere.
But Doyle was all too familiar with that face, which clearly had one sentence written all over it — "I’m lying to you."
Clearly, it didn’t hold out hope, more like it was mentioned in passing.
But Doyle was deep in thought.
...
"How did you find it?"
Argongos suddenly awoke and shouted as it returned to its senses.
Yet, the voice it once knew had long blurred, leaving only the last sentence.
"Sorry, I lied to you too..."
"...That roast chicken you recommended... actually tasted pretty good..."
The surroundings were silent.
Argongos couldn’t seem to find the source of the voice no matter what.
Doyle’s soul had completely vanished.
"Damn it!"
Argongos gritted its teeth, a complex emotion surged in its heart at that moment, somewhat... a mixed feeling?
Looking at that familiar body, it remained silent, not immediately carrying out its plan.
After a moment of internal struggle.
It sighed, "Argongos, you idiot, you must have gone mad."
Opening its mouth, it spoke a sentence in a remarkable syllable and language only it could understand.
"You... won’t die."
As the words fell.
An invisible force burst forth from its body, swiftly heading to an unknown space...
Lies would bring it strength, but its true power lay in altering "truth."
But compared to the "lies" that could strengthen Argongos, speaking the "truth" was instead a great harm to it...
...
"Hmm... since it wanted to save you, why didn’t it stop eroding your soul before it disappeared?"
Rogel stroked his chin and raised a precarious question.
Doyle was stunned, not expecting Rogel to ask this question first, but he still replied honestly, "Because that method of eroding the soul was prepared before it separated the body and soul, it couldn’t be stopped."
Rogel nodded as he pondered.
"So... it saved you because of this reason?"
"Argongos, that guy, deceived so many people without feeling guilty, why did it only..."
He was somewhat puzzled, and as he spoke, he squinted at Doyle.
Hmm... it’s not impossible, after all, the two were truly living together day in and day out...
One person, one worm... isn’t impossible either...
Doyle seemed to catch Rogel’s meaning and twitched the corner of his mouth, "Don’t get any wrong ideas."
"Argongos truly is a natural bastard, from the memories it left me, I knew I was overthinking..."
He couldn’t help but smile wryly.
Although he never thought of having Argongos save him, he did want to guide Argongos to be a good worm... after all, it was using his body!
However, Argongos, being the natural bastard it was, under normal circumstances... would likely have mocked Doyle’s final actions as foolishly naive, saying it was impossible to save him.
But this special circumstance did exist.
"This guy once offended someone... uh, better not mention Him... anyway, it was a serious offense."
"Therefore, although that being eventually couldn’t find Argongos, they used some special means to exile part of it to a corner of this world, and set a curse that would render it asleep if it ever approached the missing part..."
"And its missing part... is the evil inherent in its nature."
Upon hearing this, Rogel raised an eyebrow.
He subconsciously thought of Aitar: "Did this thing eventually turn into a kid called Aitar?"
Doyle nodded slightly at the words: "It seems so, Argongos is most concerned about it, aside from you."
Rogel scratched his head.
Argongos had initially told him that Aitar was also part of this play.
Hmm... Was that a lie or the truth?
What role did that kid play in all of this?
Was it related to the blue droplet that inexplicably disappeared from the balance before?
Rogel felt a bit of a headache.
He decided to ignore this for now: "So, because the evil in its nature was expelled, it pulled you back from Hell and repaired your soul?"
Doyle nodded: "Yes, back then, I decided to guide it towards goodness before I died because, after spending a long time with it, I realized it wasn’t completely beyond saving as a... worm."
When he encountered Argongos, this guy was already a worm lacking "innate evil."
It wasn’t surprising that he made such a judgment.
Rogel frowned slightly: "And it..."
"It died."
At this point, Doyle sighed.
"That balance, that thing of rule-bearing might, the chips for each trade are always absolutely fair... and the cost was its shell and soul."
At this point, Doyle’s expression turned gloomy.
"..."
Rogel was silent for a moment.
"... Why did it have to involve me?"
Hearing this, Doyle exhaled: "With its own power, Argongos could only ensure that the little bit of my soul left wouldn’t perish..."
"But what it wanted was not just that."
"It wanted to resurrect me and give me the powerful force to change this world, to compensate for the regret I had when I died..."
Saying this, he looked at his palm, his eyes complex.
Thanks to the power brought by the Judgment Balance, this human body actually condensed the power of a Demigod, which was unbelievable to think about.
"That balance is very special."
"It only had one use left, and to use it, there’s a special condition..."
"That’s the possessor of the balance cannot conduct transactions on it."
"In other words, only someone else holding this balance can make the trade you want."
"But not everyone is qualified to pick up this balance..."
"Argongos itself is special, stained with certain rules itself, so it could pick up this balance."
"And besides that, the one person who could pick it up and qualify to become its master, Argongos..."
At this point, Doyle looked at Rogel, taking a deep breath.
"... Only found you."
Hearing this, Rogel immediately frowned.
This explained why Argongos absolutely had to involve him in this matter.
But strangely, why was he the only one qualified?
"Stained with rules... you mean authority?"
To this, Doyle shook his head: "Argongos made a clear distinction between the two, they’re entirely different concepts, otherwise it wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to find you."
Pausing, he added: "What was left after the balance shattered is its gift to you."
"... Of course, it actually wanted to take it back, but couldn’t." Seeing this memory, Doyle couldn’t help but smile.
"Argongos, that guy..."
"Crafty, deceitful, full of lies, stingy, selfish, and capricious..."
"But I could sense that after losing the evil in its nature, it was also reflecting on itself..."
"At least it did tell me the truth later, like saying the spiced roast chicken tasted good... though I didn’t believe it at the time, haha..."
Doyle slowly stood up.
Rogel remained silent at this point as well.
He also recalled the first time he met Argongos.
The two were in a restaurant, eating spiced roast chicken.
Honestly, it tasted good.
Doyle looked at the empty crystal in front of him and reached out, lightly patting it, as if patting an old friend’s shoulder.
A moment later, he sighed softly; his outstretched hand paused for a long time, as if he had a lot to say...
"In any case..."
"I lost a friend..."
20demayo