Whispering Verse

On the top of Mount Sikar, due to the eruption of the volcano, the ring warlocks of the Orthodox Church who were originally stationed here have already evacuated. Either he went into the mountains to fight the evil spirits trying to enter the city, or he went into the city to maintain order, or he joined the battle in the sky above the city.

The eruption of the volcano, the gods striking the mountaintop, and the silver moon sinking into the mountain pass completely destroyed the appearance of the mountaintop. Although the volcano has been extinguished, there are only a few sparse trees left on the top of the mountain, and the lake on the top of the mountain has turned into an abyss leading to the ground.

Countless white lights and shadows walked out of the abyss and headed toward the starry sky along the silver path of broken light. On the side of the mountain top, a sudden cliff extends slightly above the abyss.

The wind was strong and the late autumn night was also very cold. No one noticed that a ray of silvery white light fell from the sky, and then Shade landed on the cliff on the top of the mountain.

He curled up and fell on the uneven ground, with the starry sky above his head. Under the starry sky, four Vientiane cards swirled and landed beside him.

"oh!"

Shade was groaning in pain. It wasn't that he didn't want to go to Lake Bena, but that the excessive use of power was just enough to land him here at the moment.

It was as if all the muscles in his body were melting, and his soul seemed to be shattered into fragments, with moths gnawing on each fragment. After burning his divinity last time, he fell into a coma until he was rescued by Iluna and Luvia. But last time, he still had the "divine overflow" state after swallowing the second drop of the [Lord of the Blood Feast]'s divinity, and the divinity in his soul could still protect him.

But this time, the divinity obtained from the vampire god was used to defeat the evil god, and then transformed into the dark moon to guide the thousands of souls in Hazama to truly leave. He no longer has divinity at this moment. Although he will not die at this time, the painful torture makes the outsider truly feel that life is worse than death.

Miss Feliana said a long time ago that even if Shade's soul can carry divinity, there will always be a price to pay for burning divinity in a mortal body.

Because of the severe pain, Shade fell into a semi-conscious and semi-conscious state. Pain and emptiness tormented him, and he lay curled up on the ground, with black blood flowing from the corners of his mouth. The body seemed to be being burned by flames, but it also seemed to have been thrown into an ice cave in the far north. It seemed like there were bugs eating away at his internal organs, but it also seemed like someone was cutting his muscles piece by piece with a knife.

The night is very quiet, and the mountain pass just around the corner is the soul walking towards the starry sky along the path of broken light. Shade, who was sweating profusely, was on the verge of collapse. If the pain was bearable, then the extreme emptiness of the soul was unbearable even for Shade, who claimed to be strong-willed.

His soul and body had ascended to extremely high latitudes, but in an instant they fell to mortal status again. Without another drop of divine support in the body, this sense of emptiness that penetrated deep into the bone marrow and soul made Shade feel that his soul was becoming pale and his body was about to disintegrate into pieces of flesh.

【Do you regret it? 】

In my daze, I saw many hallucinations and many people, but the voice in my ears was the clearest.

"No regrets."

The vague consciousness gave the answer, and his misty eyes looked at the starry sky above his head, looking at the light belt walking in the starry sky:

"At least I can't die now. I volunteer to help these souls."

[Outlander, you are really stupid. 】

"She" was chuckling, and under the sea of ​​stars, Shade, who looked up at the moon, actually saw a double image of the silver moon at the end of the sea of ​​stars, splitting into three red, silver, and yellow moons.

He closed his eyes in pain, his body was twitching and still unable to move, and he didn't even have the strength to reach out for the [Eternal Youth Leaf].

And "she" was singing softly. It was the hymn just now, a wild and primitive song praising the moon.

Half asleep and half awake, a gentle body seemed to embrace him. In the embrace, his consciousness sank deeper, but he also felt that the embrace was so warm.

But when he tried to see who was hugging him, he was still lying alone on the cliff at the top of the mountain. In the sky above the distant city, the sound of fierce fighting resounded again. The four-color aura combined with the completely indistinguishable high-circle thaumaturgy fought against Hazama's last power. He even saw the ancient phoenix falling on the giant beast's body. In the mouth.

But these things have nothing to do with Shade.

I don't know how long it took, maybe just a few minutes, maybe a few hours. When Shade was finally able to control his arm, he tremblingly took out the pocket watch from his pocket. He tried several times to open the cover of the pocket watch, but when his hand trembled, the pocket watch fell to the ground again.

His fingers frantically groped on the ground, trying to pick up the pocket watch, but footsteps came from the direction of the stairs going up the mountain.

Shade tried to stand up, or at least crawl, but in the end he just went from lying down to lying on his stomach.

He didn't know who came here, but the footsteps indicated that only one person had arrived.

A pair of white hands was at his side and picked up his pocket watch, but did not hand it back to him. Then, bright flames lit up around them, and someone lit a bonfire.

On the mountaintop cliff in the late autumn night, the flame is so warm. When the warm firelight illuminated half of Shade's body, he realized that although the horrible pain and emptiness were still there, he could at least hold his body up.

At this time, he was lying on his stomach. He tried to stand up with his right hand on the ground, but failed.

But at least he saw who it was at the campfire.

It was Sister Devlin, still wearing a black and gray nun's robe made of silk, with a shawl of the same color on her shoulders, and a silver crown-style eye mask that reflected light in the bonfire.

The nun slowly squatted down until she knelt on one knee in front of Shade. Behind her were Helen and Grace who were lying by the bonfire, and little Mia also ran over happily. Seeing Shade's appearance, she called "Meow~" again, her voice full of sadness. .

It seems that Sister Devlin went to the lakeside down the mountain and brought them all with her.

"City. Above"

"That's my clone."

"Sister, please give me the pocket watch."

He lay on the ground and could only see the stones on the ground, the nun's left knee and robe that were in contact with the ground.

The white hand that took away the pocket watch appeared in the field of vision through the firelight. The pocket watch was placed in front of Shade's eyes. The small shadow of the pocket watch jumped in the firelight:

"Help me. Open it."

"No."

The nun refused. Shade wanted to raise his head in surprise, but the severe pain made him almost unable to control his body. Mia has now come to Shade's side, rubbing her face against him and meowing as if she wants to help him get up.

"Why?"

"Shad Suellen Hamilton, will you accept the power of the First Fire?"

A cold and serious voice asked.

"What?"

"Not everyone can accept the power of the First Fire. But you have proved in death that you can. This power can support your empty soul and partially fill your missing strength. Now, you only need to Reach out to the flame I hold, and you will inherit the power of this ancient fire."

Sister Devlin knelt on one knee by the bonfire, holding her hands in front of Shade, and the slender flame appeared.

"Sister, you lent me power in death, and then appeared again at this time. Why, how could you be planning step by step, planning to let me, let me touch you?"

He spoke intermittently, and even just speaking this sentence took a lot of energy:

"Sister Devlin, what do you want to do?"

"Looking for a hero who can afford the first fire, and work with him to collect the kindling and light the firewood, so that the flame, which has become extremely weak, can continue to burn."

"you"

"It is indeed a despicable act of mine to propose such conditions when you are so weak. But the fire of civilization has weakened to the extreme. If nothing is done, the world will decline earlier. Sorry, favored one by the moon."

"What do you want?"

"Everything must eventually perish, even the world is no exception."

The nun's voice was very soft. She kept kneeling on one knee in front of Shade, but did not try to help him up:

"All things will eventually perish, and the death of the world is actually not far away. From the ancient first era to the present, the extraordinary power has continued to decline, and the scope of the material world has continued to shrink. I, who inherited the responsibility of guarding the First Fire, think that perhaps, the third The sixth era is the last era.”

Shade was lying on the ground, no longer wanting to speak. There was the light of the bonfire on the side, and the cat was already lying next to him. He wanted to lie down like this forever, instead of thinking about whether the world would be destroyed after a big battle.

"Maybe I am wrong, maybe this is just my illusion. However, the exuberance of the First Fire can feed back civilization. Although this is not the decisive factor, it can at least make this world last longer.

Shade Suellen Hamilton, at this moment I am the mean one and you are the noble one, I beg you, I implore you, touch this flame, even if it is just with one finger. "

For a moment, Shade thought Sister Devlin had gone crazy because her words were trembling.

He struggled hard on the ground, trying to rely on his own strength to sit up on the ground, but still failed. Sister Devlin was right in front of him, her head slightly lowered, and firelight danced on her fair face; she knelt on one knee and held the slender flames in her burned hands.

To the side of the two people was the silver-white path of broken light leading to the sea of ​​​​stars. The souls did not pay attention to this scene at the mountain pass, and quietly rushed towards the end of the moon.

The wind on the top of the mountain was very strong. Shade, who thought everything was over tonight, never expected that something like this would happen again:

"Sister, you could just tell me directly. Why are you doing this?"

His voice was still trembling, but "she" had already given a hint. Touching the flame and absorbing part of it could indeed effectively treat his current condition, especially the emptiness of his soul. Even though the First Fire is far inferior to the power of divinity, it can at least temporarily restore that terrible feeling of emptiness to normal.

"Because not everyone wants to take responsibility. I'm a scoundrel and I'm willing to make it up to you any way you can."

The fire moved closer to Shade.

"No, it's just that after this incident, you have to tell me in detail what's going on with the Spiritual Cult, the First Fire, and the end of the world you guessed."