It was a bright, sunny day like always. And the greatest of tragedies often happen on the best of days. The people were going about their own business, and the city had a very peaceful atmosphere in the wee hours of the morning. But this tranquility was shattered by sudden cracks appearing in the middle of the street. People poured out from them and began attacking the citizens with different elemental spells. Soon, several people had died, and the rest were running around, creating chaos.
Even Lyria, who was sitting in her regular place, felt unusual ripples in the Void Realm all over the city. Just as she was about to use her senses to scan the city, a terrifying pressure descended over the Cathedral. All the security mechanisms of the Cathedral activated at full power. She had an inkling of what was happening.
A person wearing a metal mask covering his whole face, with a metallic left arm and carrying a two-meter-long blood-red sword on his back, appeared above the city. Just as he looked down, the space in front of him tore and a punch was thrown at him. He lightly raised his left hand and blocked the punch. The space around him was completely destroyed and broken like crystal glass, but there was not a scratch on him.
Seeing her punch blocked, Lyria Pierre Luciana moved back several steps. The man observed the woman in front of him. She looked just like the Goddess of Light he had seen all those years ago, but was incomparably weak. Now he completely understood why they hadn’t had any information on this girl. Being able to embody the Goddess was more than enough for the Church of Light to completely erase all traces of her. If one day the Goddess were to fall, they already had a replacement ready. It was a good idea for him to come here in person.
Looking at the person in front of her, Lyria Pierre Luciana recalled all the Ascenders among the followers of Death. Matching them, her expression turned grave. There was only one among them who carried a blood-red sword and covered his face with a silver mask. His name was Azure, and he was the leader of that damn cult praising the God of Death. He was a Rank One spellcaster who had reached the limits of humanity, standing just below the gods.
Just as she was contemplating what to do, Azure moved. Before she could react, the left half of her body was destroyed. Relying on her fighting instincts, instead of retreating, she attacked back with her intact right hand. Due to the unexpected maneuver, Azure had to take a step back. Using this moment, Lyria’s body had already recovered to its previous state through There is Light.
Then, without a second thought, she activated Her Light. Her body began to glow, and all the elemental energy came under her control.
Azure looked at her with a grim expression. He had first thought that the Church of Light had just somehow made a copy of the Goddess, but looking at this, his thoughts raced. If she was already able to create a domain which represented a god’s passive ability, then it meant even if she was currently only Rank Three, with just the authority of the god, she could directly become a god herself. She must be killed here and now, otherwise there will be endless trouble for us in the future, he thought.
He then tightly gripped the handle of the red sword on his back. Just as they were both about to attack, they felt a familiar pressure envelope them and were ejected from the material space of the world into the Void Realm. Already anticipating this, they both launched their attacks with full power.
Normally, Azure would have no problem dealing with Lyria, but the environment in this world was different. The Church of Light had set up a spell covering the whole world that increased the power of the Light element and suppressed other elements. And this also worked in the Void Realm surrounding the world. This was the main reason why they had been completely eradicated from this world.
He lightly countered the beams of light thrown at him, deflecting them with his sword. Seeing that precise attacks wouldn’t work, Lyria raised her hand, and elemental particles of light gathered around it, forming a fist dozens of meters large. She punched out with full power. Azure had to take the blow head-on and was thrown back. But he suddenly appeared above Lyria and slashed down with his sword, cleaving her in two.
Yet, through There is Light, she reappeared several meters above him and threw several beams of light from her fingers, which hit him directly. However, when she looked again, there was only his silhouette.
When Ascenders fight, even the weakest Rank Three Ascender has the ability to thoroughly devastate the environment. Therefore, the will of the world ejects Ascenders from the current plane of space into the Void Realm when it perceives a high threat level. For an Ascender, it is very important to learn how to fight in the void, where all the rules are twisted. However, since this was Lyria Pierre Luciana’s first real fight, she was completely on the back foot. Even with the advantages from the World of Light’s spell, she was still not able to scratch Azure. If not for There is Light, she would have died dozens of times by now.
But looking at how Azure was only attacking her and letting her get away easily, she started to have doubts. Being a Rank One, even if restricted by the spell, he should still be able to mop the floor with her. And yet he was leaving her some leeway. She soon discovered why: the rate of her regeneration from There is Light was slowly decreasing, and she was taking more time to heal. It was definitely not due to her inability to supply enough power. That meant Azure had used his spells and was trying to reduce her regeneration to zero, essentially killing her completely.
After her ascension, this was the first time she felt the fear of death. She began to recklessly use her power and attack Azure, but just when she thought she had him, he disappeared and reappeared elsewhere. Even with her domain, she was unable to keep track of him. This process continued, and she was starting to find it difficult to even regenerate. Her body was filled with lethargy. Even the elemental energy stored in her Nexus Rings was running out.
Just when she felt this was her last moment, she heard a familiar voice.
“Let me?”
She simply replied, “Okay.”
And she lost control over her body, becoming just a simple bystander.
Just as Azure was about to deliver his final blow, he sensed the atmosphere around the girl change. Suddenly two fingers shot up and caught his falling sword between the index and middle fingers. The sheer amount of elemental energy concentrated and compressed was more than any attack which was done before. Feeling something around him, he jumped back. The place where he had just been was embedded with several spears made of light. Soon, they dissipated into small particles and disappeared.
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Looking at the girl, she now had a playful smile on her face and her eyes had turned red. And he was well acquainted with the owner of that smile and those eyes.
Gritting his teeth, he said, “Vela.”
“You still have the bad habit of gritting your teeth. Even if they regrow, you should still take care of them.” Then, looking at his hand, she remarked in her cheerful voice, “It still seems you haven’t gotten over the beating that young Frost Wolf gave you. If only you had listened to me back then. Hah, men.”
“Shut up!” Azure growled and swung his sword. Whenever he talked to this form of Vela, she had a tendency of getting on his nerves.
But this time, the one who was currently inhabiting the body was Vela. And she was clearly much more proficient in combat. She lightly flicked her hand, and several chains of light appeared around Azure, binding him. Although he was stopped for only a moment, it was enough for Vela to get away from the attack.
“No matter how much you try, you’ll still be one step below me,” she chuckled.
Vela, The Eyes of Light. This title wasn’t just given as a show of honor, but because all her Ascender spells focused on sight. There were many restrictions on her spells, but whenever the conditions were met, they could change the landscape of a large-scale battle. Her first spell, Eyes of Light, allowed her to observe everything going on in the whole world. Her second spell, Spectrum of Light, allowed her to split herself into several versions, each with a different personality but with less power than her complete self. Her third spell, Reflection of Self, allowed her split versions to descend into the body of anyone in her sight who agreed to it. These three spells complemented each other, allowing her to maintain full watch and coordination throughout the whole World of Light during any emergency.
The Vela present here was the cheerful Vela.
Azure took a deep breath and stood his ground. “Do you really think we don’t have backup plans at other places?”
“Well, I am currently dealing with them, so I think it will be fine very soon.”
“Then do you not feel anything while the people there are dying?” Azure said while peering through the layers of space, at the killings happening throughout the city. There, he saw a young boy running while carrying his sister, with a Paragon chasing after them. In another place, several people tried to fight back but were completely burned by a Rank Seven Awakener. Such tragedies were happening throughout the city.
Vela replied in her cheerful voice, “I feel sad for them. But that’s all there is to it. You haven’t forgotten how you guys literally wiped out half the population of this world two centuries ago, just to help an Ascender move to Rank Two. And that was with you guys still having Rings of Ascendance.”
“Only results matter in the end. And death is a kind of liberation for the people living in this world.”
“Well, only you lunatics say something like that.” Vela scoffed at his words.
While they both stood there without moving, Vela suddenly made a dumbfounded expression and, looking at Azure, said, “You really are a crafty bastard as always. I thought you would target the major Cathedrals, but you went after the minor ones and even sent the Relics of Death. Let’s just move everyone out. Oh, and now they’ve gone into the treasury and took out the inconspicuous locket we had ignored until now. Ah, I can’t stop them due to the Relic of Death, and they’ve escaped.” She continued mumbling to herself.
Azure let Vela ramble on. Even if he attacked, it would have no effect on the other selves of Vela. Moreover, with Vela present and the effect of the spell, he didn’t think he would be able to kill that girl. He would have to leave it for next time. At least he had gotten the information; if someone weaker had come, they would have most likely died.
Soon after, his bracelet, which had been silent until now, began to vibrate. It meant that the mission, Crucifix, was over. He then took out a scroll, tore it, and disappeared.
Vela also came out of the void and, with one swipe of her hand, released thousands of beams of light, dealing with the remaining stragglers. Then, Lyria Pierre Luciana regained control of her body. She heard Vela’s voice: “Rest for now. They have completely retreated and won’t be able to do something similar for quite some time.” Lyria just nodded. She was about to say something when she felt a slight, unknown fluctuation coming from inside the barrier of light.
Turning her head, she saw a familiar ten-year-old girl trying to move out of the barrier, being tightly held by several Priestesses. The fluctuations around the girl grew stronger and stronger until a beam of light shot into the sky, surrounding her.
Lyria was completely dumbfounded at this moment. She had heard about this phenomenon from Vela: the regression of the bloodline, when a descendant awakens their ancestor’s bloodline and gains immense talent. But the feeling that the light gave was similar to the Goddess. The Goddess was celibate and had no descendants, so it could only mean the girl was a descendant of the previous God of Light. But she had not felt anything whenever she interacted with the girl.
Then she remembered her conversations with Evan.
“She likes to play with me a lot. Maybe she’s just more dependent on me.”
“She is healthier than kids her age and also more intelligent. Sometimes I think she also remembers her previous life.”
“She doesn’t react to elemental energy.”
Normally, the girl would have been born with immense energy, impossible to be contained in her body. But what if it was transferred to Evan, who just leaked out all the energy and operated as an energy inhibitor? The girl had instinctively learned to transfer all her energy to Evan since birth and hence had no energy herself. But somehow, the seal on her bloodline had broken.
She hurriedly used ‘Her Light’ to mask the energy with her own. After some time, the pillar of energy died down, and the girl fell unconscious, surrounded by several unconscious Priestesses.
Then she tried to sense her specially made spell given to Evan, but it was nowhere to be found. A realization struck her.
From now on, there would be no Evan in this world.
High above in the clouds, in a space completely separated from the world, lay a beautiful house sculpted with white marble. The house was surrounded by a large garden filled with different plants from different places, all existing peacefully.
In the middle of the garden was a garden pavilion, and sitting inside it, the Goddess of Light was comfortably drinking tea. Opposite her, the current God of Death was standing. After the mission Crucifix was completed, he turned to leave.
Goddess of Light Luciana raised her head and said with a smile, “I should at least do the duties of the host.” Suddenly, the whole space warped towards the God of Death. Being in the World of Light, even his power faced restrictions, but being a God, this was nothing for him. Raising his hand, he easily spread his domain and stopped the attack in its place. Then, bowing to Luciana, he disappeared from his place. The whole space also reconstructed itself to look like it did before. There didn’t seem to be a single difference from before.
The Goddess got up and was about stroll when she felt a familiar but unexpected energy fluctuation from her world. Peering down, she first saw a young girl radiating the aura of her foster father, and some distance in front of her, a blue string was pulling away a soul. She lightly uttered the word “Neva.”
