Chapter 24: Do Your Chariots All Emit Light Cannons?
Rast’s vision gradually faded to darkness, a chill enveloping his body as the shadow of the God of d*ath loomed over him.
Yet, even in his dimming sight, Rast still saw that beam of light… a piercing light that cut through the rain, illuminating the heavens with fierce and clear starlight.
The sounds vanished.
Following that, the colors disappeared.
The world became silent, remaining only the surging, searing starlight.
The flowing brilliance stirred countless whirlpools, swallowing the pitch-black tide formed by the Iron Cross in front of the ruins.
The bodies of the Iron Cross were instantaneously obliterated in the light, leaving behind only the momentarily molten earth and the white ashes remaining after their flesh had been burned away.
The girl with light brown eyes and a slender sword landed in front of Rast. In the darkening vision, her flowing chestnut hair was dazzling, surrounded by a silvery-blue glow.
Hiltina took out three emerald green crystals and placed them on Rast’s torn chest, while reciting an ancient syllable once more:
“Heal.”
The crystals shattered instantly, transforming into countless glimmering emerald shards that fell upon Rast’s bloody wounds.
In a daze, Rast saw ripples of water; he was bathed in warm spring water, the darkness in his vision was dispelled by light, and the cold was driven away by warmth.
The ebbing vitality in Rast halted, as the flickering flame of life, like a candle in the wind, stopped wavering, and his wounds began to heal slowly.
Having completed this, Hiltina squatted beside Rast and supported him on her shoulder.
“The timed bombs have all been installed; where do we go next?” Her voice was like a melody: “Shall we take the vent pipe we came from?”
“No, it’s too late to go through the vent pipe now. We can’t leave the port area before the explosion occurs.” Rast struggled to get his halted brain to start functioning again, adapting and thinking about everything happening in front of him.
“According to the original plan, you should have been halfway through the escape route by now, not appearing here.”
Hiltina’s voice was free of gloom: “So where are we going now?”
“Actually, I do have a backup plan, but I can’t guarantee safety.”
“Speak.”
“Instead of going through the vent pipe, we’ll head to the lookout tower in the port area. If we turn left into the factory, there’s a shortcut.”
Hiltina grabbed Rast’s arm, and with a powerful stomp of her knight’s boot, she leaped high into the air.
In midair, Rast saw the molten path that cut through the earth; the magma flow violently tore the tide of the Iron Cross surrounding Rast in half, the sand and gravel along the way evaporating into white crystals due to the high temperature.
The surviving Iron Cross looked at Hiltina’s figure in midair, even forgetting to sh**t.
Seconds later, Hiltina appeared on a higher platform in the factory, carrying Rast, and then she began to sprint.
Although her figure was so slender, her grip on Rast was incredibly strong; throughout this process, Rast felt like a kite, and Hiltina was the little girl running with the kite.
“Sixteen hundred Kerl.” Hiltina said.
“What?”
“Sixteen hundred gold Kerl; Kerl coins are the currency in our world.”
Hiltina did not look back: “Just now, to save you, I activated the secondary ability of my Night Blade, releasing the true name of ‘Flickering Morning Star.’ The cost is that my weapon was half ruined after releasing its true name.”
“Sixteen hundred Kerl is for fixing my slender sword, plus the total price of the three instant healing crystals that I couldn’t bear to use myself… remember to pay me back when we leave the Night World.”
Rast noticed the shattered scabbard at Hiltina’s waist, where the crystal-like silver slender sword was in tatters; that earlier power to tear the earth apart had indeed come with a price.
He paused in silence: “You know very well that I couldn’t possibly have your world’s currency.”
“Then work to pay me back; bartender, sculptor, stylist, veterinarian, or go to that shop and do whatever… didn’t you love doing these things?”
Rast remained silent.
Role-playing games and being forced to work to pay off debts were two entirely different experiences.
It was like players who joyfully played “Shawarma Legend” wouldn’t really go to a Turkish BBQ restaurant to work rolling wraps.
But he remained quiet; Rast knew this was the proud knight expressing her dissatisfaction with his earlier self-serving decision to stay behind.
Seemingly due to Rast’s acquiescence, Hiltina did not linger too much on the topic of debts.
So Rast was dragged by Hiltina, sprinting through the factory, each jump covering dozens of meters as the scenery of steel and steam boilers rapidly changed around them.
He looked at the vanishing Iron Cross emblem on his body: “Aren’t you afraid I’ll bring the Iron Cross Plague outside and unleash disaster in your world?”
“It doesn’t matter; when the historical echoes are cleared, the Night World will purify all pollution.” Hiltina’s steps did not falter: “As long as you still have a breath left then, everything can return to its pristine state.”
“You shouldn’t concern yourself with me.” Rast said: “According to the original plan, you had successfully evacuated, but now both of us could very well d*e in the port area.”
“Your life has only one life, and I will also have to plunge back into the long and hope-less cycle of restart; this is a blind and irrational choice.”
“I know.”
“But just as you persisted through countless failures without giving up due to some form of resolve… I have my own resolve, an unwavering resolve.”
Hiltina’s voice was clear, reminding Rast of the sound of wind chimes at midnight: “The family motto of the ‘Ranger’ family—”
“As a noble, one must protect their subjects at all costs, even at the cost of their life; as a knight, as long as one breath remains, one must never let a companion d*e before them.”
Rast sighed: “Sounds like a rather rigid, cliché, and foolish rule that doesn’t allow for adaptation.”
“You’re not the first to complain like this; my father and sister have said similar things.”
Hiltina smiled slightly, her smile free of any shadow: “So I hope you won’t be the last.”
Next to Rast and Hiltina, the monotonous scenery of steel and steam boilers disappeared, replaced by a one-way road, with a towering lookout tower at the end.
The moment they burst out of the steel factory, the two heard the crashing sounds of roaring waves.
The sea was merely separated from them by that lookout tower, the sound of the tide echoing between heaven and earth.
(End of Chapter)
