Chapter 121: Light and Dark (18)
“Peh, peh! Peh…”
After clearing the sand from my mouth, I lifted my head.
Before me was a wall with a huge hole smashed into it, bits of brick and dirt still pelting down like a bad rain. Amidst the swirling dust, the small house’s furniture was all overturned and broken. In one corner, a couple stood frozen — the man clutching a screaming woman, his face a portrait of panic.
“Stay back!”
He bellowed at me as if trying to summon courage, brandishing a kitchen kn*fe with a flourish. Despite his bravado, he looked more like a startled chicken than a menacing warrior.
Just your average civilian hiding out at home…
I quickly raised my hands, “I’m sorry! You guys… cough cough, hurry and hide! Don’t go outside!”
With that, I paid them no more mind, dusted off my skirt, shook my head, and bolted towards the exit.
Suddenly, a familiar presence wafted through the hole in the wall, a chill breeze tickling my face.
I was momentarily dumbfounded.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of black mist darting across the sky outside, and my heart began to race.
Oh no, oh no, oh no…
“Run!”
As I shouted with all my might, my feet exploded into action, “Boom!” I stomped so hard the floor cracked, my frost-covered figure barreling toward the hole as the Power of Order erupted, solid ice walls shooting up from outside.
But it was too late.
The suffocating dead smoke had already crept in through the hole, smashing the windows, that familiar and comforting power enveloping me as it brushed past. The swirling black mist whirled quickly around, zooming around the room, sending splintered wood and paper flying, eroding everything in its path, and in a flash, it escaped outside, vanishing from sight.
“Help…”
“Ahhh—”
A piercing scream echoed in my ears.
I turned to see the man’s outstretched hand withering like a flower, his terrified face frozen in shock alongside the woman’s face, which transformed and crumbled into ashes before my eyes.
Two streams of bluish-white smoke arose, trailing after the black mist as it shot out the window into the sky.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle…
Crash crash crash…
The house, now tainted with dead smoke, began to teeter precariously, bricks and stones raining down from above, bouncing off my armor and making me wobble, but I felt no pain. With a deafening crash, half the house’s wall collapsed along with the roof, thin rays of sunlight spilling onto my face.
“Cough, cough…”
The smoke was choking.
From the distant south, chaotic shouts could be heard echoing.
I gazed up at the ruins, neither angry nor sad.
In the dim sky, countless strands of dead smoke swirled beneath the dark clouds, continually diving down into the city below, only to rise again with a few flashes of light smoke. The streets sank, houses crumbled, a continuous rumble echoing, black and bluish-white colors swirling everywhere. I couldn’t see the monsters, but then suddenly, a chillingly strange female voice echoed from somewhere.
“‘Abyssal Speech’ Oblivion.”
As the words fell, a dazzling red light bloomed quietly from a point in the sky, followed instantly by darkness as thick as night.
The transformation happened in the blink of an eye.
The entire city seemed to be shrouded in an inky blackness, the sun, which faintly shined behind the clouds, vanished in an instant, replaced by a bl**d-red full moon slowly rising, hanging in the sky.
At that moment, I was still stuck on, “Those two people are dead; Iliush devoured the civilians.” My limbs felt numb, frozen in place, and my head was spinning with pain. Indescribable, complex emotions began to rise from the depths of my chest.
Then they ignited, morphing into a raw, fierce grief filled with rage.
“Ah…”
I slightly opened my mouth, issuing a soft sigh that sounded more like a groan.
My head hurts so much…
I should have killed her.
I should have done it a long time ago.
In a daze, the screams and shouts surrounding me gradually transformed from a vague background noise into a chilling reality.
“Pepé, why are you here?!”
A familiar voice called out from not too far ahead.
Who…?
I squinted, trying to focus, and saw, outside the collapsed house, across the wide street, countless panicked civilians running for their lives. Among the fleeing crowd, my gentle and dignified mother appeared in a white dress, a warm fur shawl wrapped around her, her face reflecting joy and urgency as she ran toward me.
“…Mom?”
???
What…?
My brain couldn’t process it for a moment.
The next instant, someone suddenly rushed to her side, wielding a cold dagger. In the midst of my mother’s bewildered expression, he plunged it into her abdomen.
Then he pulled it out and thrust it again.
bl**d stained her skirt as my mother crumpled to the ground.
I widened my eyes.
“Ahhh—”
At that moment, it felt like my heart was gripped in a vice, an instant of pain stole my breath away.
“Mom!!!”
I let out a heart-wrenching scream, hit the Moon Step, and in a burst of wind, my figure shot forward, right in front of the guy with the kn*fe who was busy wiping away the bl**d, my blue-glowing hand seizing his neck.
Then I saw his face clearly.
…Edward!
The supposedly dead Edward was now staring at me with a creepy grin.
“Long time no see, my queen.”
“Your what?!”
No way…
This can’t be!
Mom can’t be here… Edward is dead… this is an illusion, just an illusion… I need to calm down.
I tried to quell the burning emotions in my chest, not daring to look at my mother sprawled at my feet, nor at Edward’s infuriating face. Instead, I turned my attention to the panicked civilians shouting as they ran by, taking deep breaths.
Inhale… exhale…
“Ugh…”
My head was splitting.
I couldn’t help but smack my forehead with my other hand. That “Edward” kept babbling on and on, his voice sounding distant and hazy, my murderous thoughts impossible to suppress. My head throbbed like it might split open, my brain was a chaotic mess, and I felt icy cold.
…This is getting worse.
Not now… don’t turn into that!
In the next moment, I wore a fierce expression, suddenly biting my tongue. The sharp pain shot through my brain, the faint, salty taste spreading in my mouth.
My mind cleared a bit.
Suddenly, I heard a calm voice whisper in my ear.
“‘Abyssal Speech’ You, temporarily depart.”
Buzz buzz buzz…
Everything turned white.
I shut my eyes, then reopened them. The blurry vision gradually became clear.
The sky had returned to its earlier bright and hazy self; the mysterious night vanished in an instant, the bl**d moon that had haunted my nightmares also ceased to exist, and there was no mother lying in a pool of bl**d at my feet. It was as if everything that had just happened was merely a nightmare.
The fleeing civilians continued to rush past me, and I stood at the edge of the street, staring blankly at several partially collapsed houses.
The illusion had vanished…
I’m back!
My nerves were still on edge, but the pain in my head was gradually easing.
“Please… don’t k*ll me…”
?
A weak plea snapped me back to reality, my vision sharpening as I focused on the front—there lay a face with rolled-back eyes, tongue lolling, filled with agony and utter strangeness.
“Who…”
I instinctively asked, then saw my hand still clutching his neck, a faint ice mist spreading from my palm, almost covering half his face, frosting his hair and eyebrows.
“Ah!”
I jumped back in shock, quickly releasing him. “Sorry! Uh, how are you?”
“Cough cough, cough cough… ah, ahh!”
He coughed violently, his pale face twisted in horror, hands clutching his throat, issuing hoarse cries. He didn’t even dare to look at me and stumbled away.
I watched his retreating figure, brow furrowing for a moment before relaxing. Oddly, I felt a bit lighter overall.
Is he okay?
I almost killed him… almost… he was so scared, I really feel bad… but his running was so silly; I can’t help but want to laugh!
“Giggling.”
Such fun.
My head finally stopped hurting.
I also didn’t feel cold anymore; instead, I felt a warm fuzziness, quite comfortable.
In the chaotic city, shouts echoed from all directions.
So loud… so annoying…
I looked up.
Not far in the sky, that butterfly-like demon flapped its wings, and countless light smokes still rose from various points, gathering toward the monster. Maybe because it had devoured a good amount of white smoke, the frostbite on its body had quickly healed.
So kind of it to let me out of the illusion…
Is it planning to avoid a fight with me?
But hey… I remember.
That last hit you gave me? It hurt a lot.
Whoosh—
Two-meter-wide flaming wings erupted from my back, and fierce flames shot upward.
In the next moment, a smile crept onto my lips.
“Iliush, why have you become so ugly…”
As the words left my mouth, wisps of black mist spread from my feet, and the flaming wings on my back slowly lifted… and then suddenly swung down.
Boom—
My petite figure shot like a cannonball into the sky, racing toward the monster!
