Chapter 298: The Emotionless Little Girl Avena (2 in 1) |
Crackle—
Crackle—
In the center of the village sat a tall, withered skeleton. Its flesh had been almost entirely consumed by fire, leaving the exposed bone fragments charred black.
From the severed neck of an obese corpse, a wick-like spine extended, crowned by a flickering green flame. The light was incredibly weak, looking as if a single breath might extinguish it.
Surrounding the corpse, dozens of people lay curled in disarray, huddling as close to the fire as they dared. Among them was a severely deformed child, their body little more than skin and bone, save for a grotesquely swollen belly.
These people lay so motionless that it was impossible to distinguish the living from the long-deceased. The air was thick with a silence of absolute despair.
In the darkness beyond the firelight's reach, unspeakable monsters crawled. Their throats emitted sizzling sounds as they stared greedily at the vast expanse of prone flesh.
At the outermost edge of the crowd, a figure shrouded beneath stitched rags stood holding a rusted wood-chopping knife. She stood side by side with several subhumans whose faces were a mass of multiple eyeballs, appearing no different from the monsters themselves.
She gripped the knife in her left hand and slowly raised her right, pressing it against her chest—where a rune stone hung from a bone chain. Touching the stone, she lowered her head in prayer.
A threatening hiss emerged from the darkness. Perhaps because of this sound, the flame on the spinal wick of the obese corpse flickered, nearly dying out.
"Cough, cough... we have to get back to the well... our water is running out..." a middle-aged man who had lost both arms said through his coughing, "The God of the Dead Star... He’s reaching His limit..."
The middle-aged man slowly raised his head, looked at the figure shrouded in the tattered robe, and sighed softly.
Ever since the God of the Dead Star fell into a state of functional death, the village chief had begun leading the survivors to compress their living space, trying to allow as many people as possible to survive.
With only the God’s corpse and a few divine envoys remaining, they were unable to explore the outskirts as they once did. All survival resources had been strained to their absolute limit, and the few places where water could be obtained were now almost entirely cut off.
Once the God of the Dead Star died, this was essentially a death sentence for everyone. There was no point in continuing to endure; extinction was only a matter of time...
That was how it was supposed to be.
However, the girl before them had become a symbol of hope for most. It wasn't because she possessed the power to protect everyone, but because of that divine envoy of a foreign god from many years ago—the one who, just days before the God of the Dead Star’s death, had declared she would pierce the sky.
That departing back had left a sliver of hope in the originally hopeless village... even though the vast majority of people had already died due to monster attacks, resource scarcity, or even voluntarily giving up their resources for others.
Those still alive now basically spent their time continuously sacrificing their own flesh and blood so the divine envoys could use it to manufacture "wax"...
But as the flame burning on the God of the Dead Star’s body dwindled further, the last source of water was cut off by the darkness… hope seemed utterly severed.
The continuous fading of the God of the Dead Star and the steady encroachment of the darkness—this pressure, like a countdown to death, had driven the vast majority of people into complete madness. Most of those still alive and sane were children born during the Dark Age.
They had never seen light, so they could better endure the darkness. Those who went mad were the ones who had seen the light.
At this moment, Heini’s mind was in a state of mental disorder. Unknown whispers were constantly torturing her spirit... especially as the darkness drew closer step by step, the lack of response to all her prayers pushed her spirit to the brink of collapse.
Her mouth trembled as she seemed to repeat the whispers in her mind, speaking characters she completely failed to understand.
"(Ansu) She is... the manifestation of the future's phantom mirror..."
"(Ansu) She is... the echo of the empire of the old days..."
"(Ansu) She is... this moment when the pendulum is suspended..."
Amidst her continuous prayers, her emotions seemed to enter a state of bizarre calm. She seemed to perceive a faint humming coming from a certain direction.
"Heini... don't go over there!"
The village chief shouted in Heini's direction. His call drew the attention of most of the people, and they all looked at the back of the figure walking toward the edge of the darkness.
Plop—
At the very edge of the darkness, Heini unconsciously fell to her knees, her eyes fixed on a certain spot.
In the vague unseen, a calling voice reached her from that direction. Even the terrifying creatures stirring in the darkness seemed to cease their movements at this moment.
"What is... that?"
The raspy voice of a divine envoy broke this eerie silence.
At this moment, Heini’s sunken eye sockets were brimming with tears.
In everyone's field of vision, across the seemingly eternal, all-consuming dark sky of the perpetual silence, a beam of silver light flashed in the extreme distance.
Rumble—
The ground began to shake… No, it wasn't the ground shaking; it was the entire sky.
Silver cracks began to appear in the distant black sky, spreading rapidly. Amidst the violent tremors, countless stones came crashing down.
A rift was torn across the horizon by these silver fissures—a beam of orange-red light shone down through that tiny gap in the sky.
The fissure grew larger and larger. Almost the entire Abyssal Ruins could feel the terrifying vibration. All creatures stared in shock at the continuously expanding rift. The light, reminiscent of scarlet blood, surged along the fissures and spread, washing over the entire Abyssal Ruins in a red glow.
Dark creatures screamed and roared; to them, this light was an absolute natural enemy. Some, caught directly in the light, were torn apart, their flesh and grease igniting into a violent blaze until they were incinerated.
The Abyssal Ruins, sealed beneath the earth, were for the first time completely exposed beneath the true sky.
...
「Detected: Host sanity corruption has reached its limit. Forced withdrawal from the Old Days initiated.」
「Detected: Mental pollution level will severely impact reality. Initiating random jump to an intermediary timeline for cleansing.」
「Jump initiated—Past Days—Random Date—Day 3210」
「Past Days」
「Holy Year 732, October 11, 11:00 AM」
「Countdown - 23:59:59」
Black, silver, and red—the three colors swirled before Ciel's eyes.
At this moment, she felt as if she were completely intoxicated. [Calm Mind] only ensured that she was currently thinking, but she didn't even know what she was thinking about.
"You, you, you... who are you?!"
A startled cry rang out by Ciel’s ear. She squinted her eyes with all her strength, catching sight of the system panel before her.
Her energy was currently insufficient to deal with the commotion over there. Her gaze was entirely drawn to the interface, and she even began reading through it subconsciously.
Forced withdrawal from the Old Days...
At the final moment, she had used the overlimited Deadly Blood Roland to blast apart the flesh and blood blocking the rift…
She felt only that the rift was like a scarlet vertical pupil watching her, but soon, she lost all perception. The chaotic whispers in her mind had reached a peak of disorder, and she directly lost consciousness…
Until she was pulled out, Ciel had not been able to see what was actually above the sky.
Did I change reality… did I successfully leave behind my own path…
In a daze, Ciel slowly closed her eyes. She felt the firelight in her mind that symbolized the altars; when she saw them, her heart sank slightly.
Of the original three flames, only two remained…
Had Heini failed to pass the altar down…?
This result left Ciel feeling disheartened. She slowly opened her eyes and took a deep breath to compose herself.
Soon, she noticed a strange, blonde little girl standing before her.
This is...?
A Past Days simulation?
Day 3210? Nine years ago?
"You... who exactly are you?" The blonde little girl’s eyes were filled with fear. After meeting Ciel's gaze, she turned and ran out of the room without hesitation. "Daddy! There’s a bad person in my room..."
The little girl’s loud voice faded as she ran further away. Ciel scanned her surroundings.
She... seemed to be in a room.
She walked to the window and looked outside.
At this height, she was probably on the third floor... this place is...
Ansu City?
If it was a Past Days simulation, nine years ago, she shouldn't be in Ansu City.
And this location, the familiar buildings around... this was clearly the room on the third floor of Adele's house nine years later, except at this time, other people were living here.
Is it the coordinates from before I entered the Old Days...?
Ciel had no intention of lingering here. She had some things she wanted to verify.
She glanced at a full-length mirror nearby and saw her current appearance.
Her clothes were still the ones from before she entered the Old Days, and the wounds on her body had vanished, though the places where she was previously injured still throbbed with a dull ache.
Confirming that her attire wouldn't be too conspicuous, Ciel directly pushed open the window and flipped out.
Thap—
Ciel landed steadily on the ground, turned, and walked quickly toward the direction of the Church of the God of Order in her memory.
She needed to find the materials she had once read... she wanted to see what parts of this world had changed because of her actions, and she wanted to see if her actions had caused the original history to deviate...
Ciel moved quickly through the streets. Over these nine years, the streets in Ansu City had remained almost unchanged, though some buildings had not yet been constructed. It wasn't enough to make Ciel lose her way.
Soon, she arrived at Westminster Square and saw the See of the God of Order, which had barely changed at all.
Ciel crossed the square and walked directly toward the entrance of the See. At this moment, there was almost no one else in her eyes. She had even somewhat forgotten her goal and was just walking numbly.
The aftereffects of the Old Days pollution were quite severe. Even with the system’s help in repairing her, it wasn't something that could be fixed in a short time.
It was clearly noon, a rare sunny day in Ansu, yet everything before Ciel’s eyes flickered between light and dark. Every shadow in her vision seemed to teem with unspeakable monsters, hissing at her from the darkness.
"Miss, entry is forbidden ahead... Miss?"
"Please step back! Someone call the Templars over here..."
"If you don't stop, we will open fire!"
The voices beside her were completely drowned out by the chaotic whispers. She didn't hear anyone speaking to her at all, keeping her steps directed toward the interior of the See.
But at that moment, a figure caught the corner of her eye—one that made her stop dead in her tracks.
She turned her head blankly and looked at the figure.
Only now did Ciel’s scattered spirit begin to coalesce, and the whispers in her mind eased slightly.
It was a little girl with bright purple eyes. Her long hair, parted in the middle and combed behind her ears, fell like a silky waterfall that reached almost to her knees. She was wearing a high-waisted black dress with white lace, covered by a white linen apron with embroidered flowers on the edges to protect the expensive dress.
At this moment, she was tilting her head slightly, studying Ciel with curiosity, seemingly not understanding why this "strange person" was suddenly looking at her.
Ciel instinctively took a few steps toward the little girl.
"Be careful! Young Mistress Roswell!"
A guard wearing silver-white armor lunged forward to intervene, but the moment he made contact with Ciel's gaze, he froze in place.
The resonance of the Old Days was a terrifying echo that surpassed the Other Side for Transcendents.
Little Avena looked up with wide eyes at the strange, red-haired young woman before her. She tilted her chin up slightly and asked, "Who are you…?"
Though her voice was still a babyish treble, Avena's distinct vocal tone could already be heard. The current little Avena was still expressionless, appearing even a bit dazed, completely lacking the pride she would display in the future.
But when the slightly nearsighted little Avena saw Ciel's face clearly, she took a small step back instinctively and looked away.
Ciel's fingers twitched. She desperately wanted to give Avena a hug, but she knew that for a child who was likely only seven years old, a sudden embrace from a stranger might be frightening.
She simply raised her hand slowly, placed it on little Avena’s head, and gently rubbed it. Doing only that made Ciel’s spirit significantly calmer.
Suddenly, an intense, almost murderous gaze was directed at Ciel. She slowly looked up and saw Charles Roswell, his temples not yet graying.
Charles seemed to have come to the See of the God of Order on business, but upon hearing the commotion outside and learning that a madwoman was holding his daughter hostage, he had immediately rushed out, abandoning his meeting.
And just now, during the meeting…
Forte had actually screamed and crumbled into ash right in front of everyone. Before turning to dust, his body had been etched with the name "Ciel," and his final, furious words were a curse upon someone of the same name…
Troubles came one after another, but now, he had to focus all his energy on rescuing his daughter. Nothing was more important than that.
"I am Ciel." Ciel half-knelt, leveling her gaze with little Avena, and smiled softly as she answered her question. "Someone you will know in the future…"