18~I’m waiting for the day we reunite.
Everything happens for a reason.
“Guhahahaaa!” Black mist streamed into Capoli’s orifices, his cries of agony warping and crumbling into something no longer human—like a roar clawing its way out of the abyss.
“Captain, Captain??” The sudden change threw the empire soldiers and mages into a panic, momentarily forgetting Tillysha and Yimi entirely.
“Today is shaped by yesterday, and tomorrow will be sculpted by today. All causes must bear fruit.” Pian closed her eyes, murmuring softly amidst the chaos as the wind brushed through her pristine silver hair.
“The day the bucket overflows is inevitable, and so too is the eruption of accumulated errors.”
“No one escapes the tides of history. Even great empires crumble, given time.”
Sensing the danger, Tillysha grabbed Yimi, lightly leaping off the ground, using the shoulders of several flustered soldiers as stepping stones until she reached Pian. Without a word, she wrapped an arm around Pian’s waist and, carrying her with ease, leapt gracefully to a distant dune.
“Heresy! Quick, capture the heretics!” The second-in-command snapped back to reality and issued commands to the soldiers. However, before he could finish, a clawed hand smeared with corpse spots and oozing black bl**d reached out from behind, seizing his entire head.
Frozen in his final moments of terror, the second-in-command’s head was cruelly ‘plucked’ off his neck like rotten fruit.
The grotesque monster that was once Capoli dribbled a syrup-thick liquid even more vivid than bl**d, devouring the head like it was a snack, shoving it into his gaping maw.
Even these hardened soldiers, seasoned in bloodshed, stood dumbfounded at such a scene.
With their leaders gone—one turned into a monster, the other seemingly gone mad—the troops were leaderless, morale shattered. The sight of their commander meeting such a ghastly end, his headless body spurting bl**d, caused panic and disarray.
Capoli, now a monstrous amalgamation, was twice his original size. Mounted on his steed, his legs were no longer visible—it seemed the horse had fused into him.
His body was pitch black, covered in spines, his hair bristling like a porcupine’s quills. Hardened black keratin-like plates grew from his chest, abdomen, and skull, akin to armor. His eyes were gone, replaced by hollow sockets.
His expression still bore the last moments of agonized d*ath, his face contorted and rigid, radiating an aura of despair. His features were so hideously deformed that he resembled a nightmaredoll come to life.
His steed had undergone a similar transformation, exuding a similar sense of dread, spreading despair to those around.
In short, they were both wearing the “face of sorrow.”
Tillysha set Yimi and Pian down. Yimi, while shaken, seemed to be holding it together relatively well, but Pian, previously at the epicenter of the storm, remained poised, hands clasped in prayer, as though the disaster always lingered just out of reach.
“Miss Pian, you really do stay calm under pressure,” Tillysha remarked, tone neutral. “That monster’s spear was less than three centimeters from your head back there.”
Pian opened her eyes, watching the monster as it began its spree of slaughter. “Miss Dillin, are you concerned for my safety?”
“Why else?”
“Why should you be worried about me?” Pian seemed genuinely confused. “I’m far from completing my mission; d*ath is not imminent for me.”
“The real danger lies with you people.”
Well, Tillysha was pretty much getting used to Pian’s cryptic statements by now.
Beneath them, Captain Capoli, possessed and transformed by the Necrotic Bloom, turned on his own troops indiscriminately—a chilling spectacle.
The ominous aura emanating from him made Tillysha’s skin crawl.
“Miss Pian, why did the imperial officer turn into a monster?”
“He shattered the Necrotic Bloom,” Pian explained succinctly. “No one forced him to do so, nor led him to that choice. His actions were his own fault.”
“His arrogant, crude behavior was bound to lead to problems eventually. Today, his d*ath is inevitable.”
“You never told me the Necrotic Bloom could turn people into monsters.”
“That’s true,” Pian conceded. “But you wouldn’t have done such a thing, would you?”
“The dangers posed by the Bloom’s destruction far outweigh its preservation.”
“How long can that creature live?” Tillysha watched as the man-horse monstrosity carved a sea of corpses and bl**d in mere minutes. To let something like this linger on the continent was a serious threat.
“If not killed, I imagine it could rampage across the entire land.”
“Since he didn’t just grow into it but unleashed the vast reservoir of hatred stored within the Bloom, there’s no hope for him to retain any semblance of rationality. At best, it’s just a monster governed by overwhelming negativity.”
“Such monsters are the most troublesome—unresponsive to pain, incapable of bargaining, ruled by the torrent of hatred until their d*ath.”
“Is being governed by hatred that frightening?”
“It seems Miss Dillin still misunderstands,” Pian said, glancing toward the distant fortress. “Humans have emotions—anger, despair, sorrow, and grief. The reason negative emotions don’t linger forever is because something slowly consumes them.”
“Our world was formed from the remains of the Seven Saints, possessing a self-regulating mechanism. The Necrotic Bloom exists to absorb these negative emotions.”
“This Bloom has grown undisturbed for centuries. Can you imagine the sheer amount of resentment, injustice, grievances, and regrets it contains?”
“Such a vast reservoir of negative energy is far beyond the scope of any individual, or even a city or force to control. It’s an ‘amplifier’ driven by the laws of the world—not something any one thing can oppose.”
“An amplifier? Amplifying what?” Tillysha asked.
“Who knows? Maybe it’s merely accelerating the fall of the human empire, or perhaps it’s targeting the entire Light Race’s demise.”
“Much like how the Demon Race invasion ended with the total defeat of the Light Race.”
“Back then, they had room to rise again. This time, who knows?”
Tillysha clenched her fingers slightly. She couldn’t leave such a dangerous thing as this unchecked.
But this monster might be impervious to ordinary means.
If that’s the case……
Tillysha thought of [Holy Oblivion]. Could it annihilate something that shouldn’t exist?
“I see you’re considering interfering. I’d advise you against that.”
“This is a result of the world’s rules; attempting to stop it would be akin to defying those laws,” Pian said casually, as if she saw through Tillysha’s thoughts immediately. “Stopping this monster is a dangerous task.”
At this, Tillysha glanced at Pian with a touch of surprise.
Since meeting the enigmatic silent girl, Tillysha always felt she remained absolutely unaligned—like an observer, only offering opinions without making any moves that might alter history.
“There might be a way to defeat that monster, but destroying its body alone is meaningless. Without the Necrotic Bloom as a vessel, the vast hatred will seek a new host—possibly even you next.”
By now, the man-horse monster had thoroughly cleansed the site, not a single soul spared, from the highest-ranking officers to the lowliest cooks, all slaughtered.
Yimi looked at the scene, her complexion pale. Though she knew the soldiers weren’t good people, and their captain was an absolute scumbag, the raw violence still made her feel queasy. She turned away, clutching her forehead.
Now devoid of living targets, the monster roared, its hooves wreathed in infernal flames as it charged toward the distant fortress. It left streaks of afterimages on the plains, the sound of its roar deafening.
Then, a thunderous crash echoed through the air as the distant fortress crumbled into dust, collapsing like a castle in the sky bereft of support. The noise reverberated across the heavens.
The remains of Furnace City were now completely ruined, with hardly a wall left standing by the time Tillysha’s trio arrived.
The monster was nowhere to be seen.
This vast nation was about to face serious unrest.
Snap.
Suddenly feeling her hair being pulled, she winced slightly and turned back to see Pian standing behind her, having stolen a strand of her hair without notice.
“You have a white hair; I pulled it out for you.”
“????”
Faced with Tillysha’s expression of “Do you think I’m foolish?” Pian quietly pocketed the hair, pretending as though nothing happened.
Do elves even grow white hair??
In all her years, Tillysha had never heard of any species of elf, except perhaps Moon Elves and Grey Elves, growing white hair.
Though she thought to say something, seeing Pian’s poker face and attempt to escape detection, she decided against it.
“What do you plan to do with it?”
“This strand turned white.” Pian offered a deadpan response.
“…….Fine.” Just a hair—it wasn’t worth the fuss.
“Miss Pian, your little wooden hut is no longer safe. Would you like to come with me?”
Pian shook her head. “I can’t leave; my mission is incomplete.”
Even now, Tillysha still didn’t understand what Pian meant by “mission”. She knew asking would only yield more cryptic words.
“You will understand.”
“When you’ve met all the ‘me’s,’ you’ll see. But by then, I may no longer be me, and I may forget everything that happened between us.”
“All the ‘me’s’?” Tillysha seemed to catch onto something, but not quite. Before she could ask further, Pian turned to leave.
“We will meet again. Farewell.”
“Miss Pian, could you tell me how to release these grudges?” The empire’s survival meant little to Tillysha, but she felt an inexplicable connection to something familiar from long ago.
“……If it’s you, you’ll understand.”
“Me?” Again, this vague statement left Tillysha utterly baffled.
Pian had already walked away, leaving Tillysha and Yimi.
“……We should leave too.” Despite still wrestling with numerous doubts, Tillysha took Yimi’s hand once again.
Yimi glanced back at the retreating figure of Pian, then looked at Tillysha.
This journey wasn’t just about Tillysha recovering some of her memories; Yimi felt she’d gained some kind of insight.
This supposed traitor of the elf clan didn’t quite fit the mold—she intervened in injustices, becoming despondent over the deaths of mere humans, which didn’t feel fake.
The question lingered: could such an elf truly betray her own kind?
Gold Elves value their kin. This act should’ve seemed completely absurd.
Yimi began to doubt if she’d mistakenly identified the wrong person.
But……
Why were these memories of betrayal so vivid and clear?
Though the matter remained unsettled in her mind, as she gazed at Tillysha, Yimi knew her feelings toward her had undergone a drastic change.
Perhaps these two really were the last of the Gold Elves. If that was the case……
Their figures gradually faded among swirling sands, disappearing into thin air.
And what they didn’t realize was that far away, Pian, who acted as though walking away without a look back, turned the moment they turned.
Her typically impassive, stoic eyes softened with affection, gazing longingly at the distant silhouette.
She clutched the strand of golden hair she’d procured from Tillysha, raising it toward the blazing sun.
“Ah… so you’ve reincarnated three times throughout the ages, haven’t you?”
The silver-haired girl’s gaze brimmed with unprecedented tenderness.
“Never would I have imagined our reunion would come in such circumstances. Our paths will surely cross again one day, but neither of us is yet whole.”
She held the golden strand to her chest, as if embracing someone she’d not seen in a thousand years.
“Perhaps she’s met with the other ‘fragments’.” The silver-haired girl slowly lifted her eyes. “That day won’t be far.”
She paused at her spot for a while, reluctant to depart but finally turned and moved on.
“Hmm?” Tillysha, already away from the Furnace City ruins, glanced back, though she saw nothing.
“What is it?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head at Yimi’s inquiry, continuing her journey forward.
“Where will you go next?”
“……To seek answers.” Tillysha gave a vague response. She now had a goal, yet felt like a lost traveler in the desert, blindly searching for the answers she sought.
