Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 119 - 23 Snake Spirit Disease

Chapter 119: Chapter 23 Snake Spirit Disease

Aske was completely fed up.

Medea’s alter ego was definitely crazy.

Indeed, being tainted by Purgatory Will as a new attribute could bring Medea an enormous boost in abilities.

Normally at Lv.3 (Flame I + Mind I + Desire I), the unsealing would elevate her to Lv.7 (Flame V + Mind I + Desire I), and with the ability to absorb pain for enhancement, she could achieve up to a 300% increase in lethality (estimated based on her description).

However, it required torturing enemies and causing them significant pain to achieve this.

Therefore, the crazy lady proposed to Aske voluntarily to allow her, using Medea’s body, to join the battles when the team encountered enemies in the future.

Just like how Alexander the zombie did back then, mercilessly torturing enemies with high-temperature flames.

Of course, she would incidentally absorb a bit of the pain, as her reward for assisting.

Considering the team’s morale and stability, Aske naturally rejected this request.

Torturing, if seen by others, would at the very least cause Eleanor, the Justice Knight, to explode on the spot.

Since it wasn’t possible to torture the enemies, the crazy lady came up with another plan.

She would torture herself.

Before the battle started, she suggested that Aske beat her up and accompany it with some malicious verbal abuse.

As long as she was well-fed, the crazy lady could unleash 300% of her flame power.

This... although probably no one would object, Aske couldn’t bring himself to do it.

After all, he didn’t want to awaken some weird fetish.

Thus, they ended up at a stalemate. According to the crazy lady, killing itself creates pain, and seeking to minimize pain in killing is just as absurd as "taking off your pants to fart" (her exact words).

Aske pointed out that they were a mercenary group, not a band of robbers. Some abnormal things just couldn’t be done.

Whether torturing enemies or abusing teammates, both were abnormal.

The crazy lady then said fine, since you are not willing to treat me harshly, a relatively gentle approach would also do.

Like holding hands, a light kiss, anything that would trigger the crazy lady would suffice.

That surge of hating men and the pain would become her source of power...and her spiritual nourishment.

Aske naturally refused again, since he had no interest in becoming barbecued.

The crazy lady sighed and said, then how about this.

I’ll harm myself, okay? Carry a few daggers, stab myself a few times before the fight, then turn the enemies to ashes.

Aske collapsed, are you that ruthless, does your primary personality know about this?

After all, it’s her body being used!

Can’t you just be a normal masochist or sadist? Like, try reading similar novels, watching small films, and get the pain energy "normally" through empathy and fantasizing?

The crazy lady mentioned she had been watching small films for over twenty years already (heaven knows who she empathizes with), and really couldn’t muster any interest in art anymore; hence her hope for real combat opportunities.

Aske then realized that this alter ego was truly crazy.

It seemed the only option was to eliminate methods one by one:

Killing enemies was out, it would upset the teammates;

Torturing herself wasn’t acceptable either since the body belonged to Medea’s primary persona.

Could it be that he always had to go into battle himself, risking getting roasted, to offer her the "reward"?

At this point, the crazy lady smirked and said, no physical contact needed.

There are many ways to play. Expand your mind, like borrowing clothes from Aske that smell like him; just the scent could feel like being tightly embraced by him.

Astonished, Aske stood agape, you’re actually a freak!

——————

Several weeks later, the SUV arrived at Thessalonica.

As the East Solomon Empire’s second-largest city (second only to Constantinople, the Imperial City), Thessalonica housed a large number of war refugees, the makeshift migrant structures crowded both sides of the road.

Everyone was waiting in line to enter the city.

Of course, based on different levels of optimism about the war, some people had already grown weary on their journey here and had attempted to settle in the city, while others merely planned to resupply before continuing south.

Regardless, this had caused a massive traffic congestion at the city gate.

"This has been blocked for almost three hours now!" Nora shouted, hitting the steering wheel.

In front of the car, a flock of sheep was slowly moving across the road, herded by a shepherd, bleating softly.

"I can’t take this anymore." Nora said tearfully, "I’m going back to the island to rest for a while."

So she teleported back to Fire Island. Eleanor, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was idly looking at the distant shabby buildings, the walls of Thessalonica, and the overcast sky.

It looked like it was going to rain soon.

As the only entrance to Fire Island, a book called "Absurd Dreams" was fixed in a leather case next to the roof light. Although it didn’t look significant, there was still a risk of it being stolen if the car was left unattended.

Therefore, there must always be someone in the vehicle to watch over it.

Eleanor was daydreaming when suddenly someone knocked on the window from the right side.

She looked outside and saw a dirty little girl standing beside the car, looking pitifully at her.

Her gaze lingered on the little girl’s hand covering her stomach.

So Eleanor took a cup of instant noodles from the bag behind her seat and handed it out the window to the little girl.

"Wait a moment, sister has some boiling water for you," Eleanor said as she took out the electric kettle, only to see the little girl run away as fast as she could.

Her small body clutched the cup of noodles tightly, as if it were some precious treasure.

Eleanor watched her running figure and seemed to want to say something, but eventually, she just sighed deeply.

She couldn’t help but guess that the little girl’s family was probably no longer around. Otherwise, why would they let her beg out of hunger without even speaking a word to plead?

"Oh my, is it going to rain?" Medea, who had teleported from Fire Island, poked her head from the back seat, looking at the sky outside.

"Yes, you..." Eleanor only then noticed that she wasn’t wearing her usual attire but was simply dressed in a white T-shirt and jeans.

"Oh, these are Aske’s clothes," Medea said, looking at herself.

"You can’t light a fire in the car," Eleanor said tactfully.

"It’s just clothes, I’m not going to imagine anything weird," Medea replied.

Actually, she didn’t know what agreement the alter ego and Aske had reached, but according to Aske’s response, it should be fine, right?

Though she still felt a bit of instinctive unease, at least Aske seemed relatively trustworthy.

As for why the alter ego wore Aske’s clothes... could it be...

Is the alter ego a cross-dresser?!

Hmm. Medea bit her finger. If it’s a weirdo, then won’t I get infected with its weirdness if I merge with the alter ego?

She looked conflicted and helpless, which stunned Eleanor a bit.

Medea’s expression seemed reluctant. Was she forced by Aske to wear his clothes?

Is the squad leader a weirdo with strange habits? Pondering this, Eleanor started feeling goosebumps.

"It’s raining," Medea suddenly said, looking at the droplets on the car window.

Eleanor turned on the windshield wipers.

The rain grew heavier, quickly blurring the view through the windows as water droplets obscured the glass. People in the crowd ahead began to panic, some sprinting towards the makeshift buildings while many others ran for shelter in the nearby woods.

Thus, the road quickly emptied.

"I’ll go call Nora to drive," Medea said, returning to Fire Island.

After a moment, Nora returned to reality and restarted the SUV.

The vehicle moved forward again, this time with no sheep, refugees, or tents blocking the path.

Eleanor leaned against the window, her mood seemingly a bit lifted from the long wait.

Suddenly, she saw the body of a little girl lying by the roadside, the pool of blood around her diluted to a faint red by the rain.

That was...

Eleanor noticed next to the body, the shards of a torn-up cup of noodles, the noodles inside completely gone.

Her limbs turned ice-cold.