Blade Dance

Chapter 44

Roy stood in front of Harlan, but didn't completely block him.Harlan was out of breath, and the violent movements made his injuries seem to scream all at once.He had to raise one hand and grab Roy's shoulder to support the weight of his body.

Roy felt a heavy weight on his shoulders.Harlan's breath came from behind, mingled with the smell of blood.

Lucas' eyes fell on the two blue warblades, staring at them.The corners of his mouth twitched slightly.

"It's really ugly."

Harlan stared at him and said suddenly, "I'm sorry."

Lucas' brow furrowed, and Harlan quickly went on:

"Although I didn't betray Roy as you thought, I'm sorry for taking away excellent soldiers from the Illidari, and I'm sorry for taking a piece of strength from you who fought against the Legion. This is I'm sorry for everything."

He lowered his head and raised it after a moment.

Lucas' gaze moved to his face, which darkened.

"The punch just now," Harlan stared into his eyes, "was for you to abandon Roy."

It didn't feel good to expose someone's wounds, but he had to say it.He looked at the fragile and painful expression on Lucas's face, and felt sore in his heart while expressing his opinion.

"For whatever reason, you failed to save him. And I did."

The tears had dried on Lucas' face.Tears crawled all over his cheeks, like ripples in the desert.

He looks down.Roy also put down the war blade.They waited quietly for this silence, no one spoke or moved.Harlan glanced at Roy's back, as well as the tight shoulders still held by him, and couldn't help but imagine his expression at this moment.That must be the expression he hadn't seen for a long time, and the expression he couldn't deal with the most.

He suddenly felt extremely regretful.

"Lucas..."

"Don't call me by my name."

Lucas still bowed his head, his voice seemed to melt.

Roy frowned.

"Lucas, I—"

"I said don't call me by my name!" Lucas raised his head and shouted, "You are not allowed to call me by my name!"

Roy was stunned for a moment.

Harlan let go of his shoulders and took a step forward.He seemed to want to say something, but before that, Roy suddenly handed out the war blade in his hand to Lucas, and the action was decisive.

"I no longer belong to the Illidari, and I am no longer worthy of Warglaives. Please..." His voice was extremely dry, "Please bring them back to the temple."

Lucas was surprised at first, then he stared down at "Reincarnation" and suddenly sneered.

"Stop putting on airs. Let me take them back? This is disgusting."

The corners of his mouth twisted, revealing an expression of disgust, as if he was staring at two wriggling maggots instead of war blades.

"I don't want to see anything about you anymore. No one wants to see it. The traitor's warblade will only desecrate the temple. You really don't belong to the Illidari anymore." He raised his head and stared into Roy's eyes, "You already dead."

Roy stared at him, silent for a long time.

"Feel sorry."

"for what?"

"all."

Lucas laughed, and then he let out a few maniacal laughs.

"Is this included too?"

He went straight to Roy, who didn't move.Lucas reached out to hook his neck and leaned forward to kiss his lips without hesitation.He tasted Roy's tightly closed lips, sucking hard on both of them, pressing harder before he could react and back away, wrapping around his stiff neck to keep him from flinching.Their lips pressed together like a passionate farewell kiss.

He didn't forget to glance at Harlan out of the corner of his eye, and admired his hard eyes with satisfaction.That must be him pretending to be calm.

He quickly let go of Roy and took a step back, like a water bird that plunged into the water and rushed out the next moment.

Only splashes of water are left, and circles of ripples are left on the water.

Roy's lips were dripping with blood.

Lucas wiped the blood from his lips vigorously and looked at him.Roy didn't respond, as if he had experienced a surprise beyond his tolerance.Or it was indifference at all, from Lucas approaching unexpectedly just now, to kissing him, to biting his lip and then backing away, he only saw him frowning slightly because of the sudden pain.

Like a stupid piece of wood.It's always like this when facing him.

"Same as last time. You didn't react at all."

The palm still has the warmth of the skin.He clenched his fists.

"At that time, I was just afraid that it would be the last time I saw you. When you ordered me to go, I seemed to see the collapse of the temple." His voice was full of memories, "So scared that I—"

He chuckled lightly.

"Now I just hope this is the last time I see you."

He turned to look at Harlan.At that moment, even though his eyes were covered with a dark cloth belt, Harlan still felt that his face was being cut by countless tiny blades.

"You'll never understand. You saved him and killed him at the same time. It's a far worse thing, and it won't take long to break your heart. The Illidari are the reason all demon hunters live, yes The meaning of our lives, from the beginning to the end of everything. Without the Illidari, we are nothing."

Harlan stared at him fixedly, with no expression on his face, nor did he intend to refute.Roy, too, stood silent, as if Lucas was talking about someone else who had nothing to do with him.

But Harlan knew he'd figured this out a long time ago.

"None of us regret it," he said.

Lucas made a sneering expression.He put the war blade back and turned to Roy, his voice became cold and weird:

"You'll come back, tired of it all, begging to come back. Our lives are long, and I'll be waiting for that day. When the time comes, I'm looking forward to what you'll do to prove yourself again."

He took a few steps back, then turned around and walked away without looking back.Demon wings spread in the air, and he quickly disappeared into the mushroom forest.

The next moment, Roy dropped the warblade, and almost at the same time, Harlan fell over to him.He reached out to catch him, but unexpectedly he put all his weight down, and they fell together.He hugged Haran and fell down on the gravel defenselessly, a burst of numbness spread all over his body immediately.

Harlan put his head on the side of his neck, looking exhausted, the cut on his forehead scabbed with blood, and his clothes on his back were wet.Roy wrapped his arms around him, sat on the ground holding him like this, and patted his back gently.For a long time, they just leaned together like this, and neither of them said anything.The regular chirping of insects and the rustling of the grass and trees can be heard from all around.

"I'll take you in," Roy said, feeling a tingle on his lips.

Harlan didn't respond.Just when Roy thought he was asleep and was about to pick him up, he spoke softly:

"Sit like this for a while."

Roy sighed, reached out to comb his hair, and wiped the dust and blood on his face with his knuckles.He longed to apologize, and the longing came from the bottom of his heart, all the way up his throat.But when the words came to his lips, he realized that no one would want to hear the three words "sorry" again, so he just said:

"it's already over."

It's all over.

Perhaps sensing his heavy emotions, Harlan suddenly laughed.

"Lucas thinks I seduced you. It's not fair to think so," he said.

"why?"

"I didn't do anything."

Roy lifted his jaw and kissed his lips.Harlan tasted the blood on his mouth.

"Even if you're not doing anything, your very existence attracts me all the time." Roy paused, then added, "Especially the eyes."

"My eyes? They don't burn."

Roy laughed.

"But they make me shiver with cold."

"Did you freeze?"

"No. Because I rekindled them."

Harlan suppressed a smile.

"So it's true that I seduced you?"

"Yes."

"Then you must be an idiot."

"You're not much better either."

He looked up at Roy, without continuing.

When they talked to each other and met frankly, he never thought that when he thought he saw through Roy every time, Roy also saw through him accurately.His hesitation, retreat, resistance, all the factors that allowed Roy to catch up with him after wandering between life and death.That was all so heavy that the way they now go back in this playful way of talking comes from that heavy.Not because the heaviness needs humor to temper, but because of the twists and turns of emotion and desire, the mixing and balancing of all the elements of life, which are all too complex and deep to be conveyed only in jokes in the end.

It was a chaotic time, Harlan recalls.At that time, I must have never dreamed of such a scene at this moment.He can imagine the violent eruption, the once and only fanatical physical love, but it is by no means such a peaceful one—they are leaning together, their bodies and minds are soaked in happiness, and the heartbeats that are attached to each other and the bodies that are gently rubbing each other make them feel happy. This feeling is passed on to the other party.

Under such circumstances, he couldn't help being a little surprised to hear Roy bluntly express his opinion of him for the first time.

He suddenly wanted to say something, like retaliation, or to prove that he has the same sensitivity only for each other.

"how about you?"

"What's wrong with me?"

"When I first saw you. You didn't want to live, and you instinctively didn't want to die."

Roy was stunned, and Harlan's words made memories flash back in front of his eyes.

The deep twilight, the damp fern, the sudden darkness after another, and the deft hands that control the dagger with the horn handle.There he found the light.

How do you know it so accurately?Is it not because I have felt the same way before?

"Am i right?"

"There's a little more part about not wanting to die," Roy said, "especially after seeing the beauty."

Harlan laughed.

"You know you need me," Roy said.

"I didn't say that."

Roy showed a disapproving expression.

"You need me—maybe not me, you need someone, and that person can be me," he said. "Although you insist on denying it, you also know that we need each other. So much so that every time you see me , although you are all stern-faced, the desire in your heart is almost burning you through."

Harlan stared at him, feeling his cheeks burn, and he wasn't sure if he was blushing.But he still looked at Roy coldly, as if nothing had happened.Has this become a habit?Even though they've grown so close, he's used to hiding himself.

So he laughed, broke his indifferent expression, and greeted the past with a smile.For those moments of thumping, dilemma, and desperate moments, those sinking, wandering, depression and impulsiveness, he still can't see where the future is, but he wants to pay tribute to the past first.

From that moment onwards, the Illidari had completely become a thing of the past.Lucas' surprise visit sparks a grand farewell.He brings the pain of the past, and he takes the pain with the past.

Only then did Harlan truly feel that he was in the present moment.He could feel happiness gushing out from the bottom of his heart, causing a shock, pervading every cell in his body.The blood stopped flowing briefly, just to stop and enjoy the aftermath of the shock.

I don't know if Roy thinks so and is relieved.Or did he unilaterally get rid of everything in the past long ago.At least he wasn't troubled by pain, there wasn't a trace of gloom on his face at the moment.

"Let's go in," Harlan said.

Roy smiled, but didn't move.Just when Harlan couldn't help looking at him and smiling, he put his hands in his arms and hugged him tightly.

He was pushing so hard it hurt Harlan.

But he didn't say anything.He listened to Roy's heartbeat, and for some reason, suddenly he only felt a kind of profound joy and pain intertwined coming from there.

And until he stretched out his hands and hugged Roy back, their chests pressed together, the complicated emotions didn't disappear.