Chapter 1627 - 119: Sacred Sunfire

When Melissa crawled out from the ruins, all that met her eyes were those colossal petals that had cleaved the battlefield, rising from the corner of the Butcher’s Pit like the stone circles of some ancient rite.

"I...I’m actually still alive."

After a brief daze, Melissa patted herself all over; aside from a few scrapes, she was more or less unharmed.

A few minutes ago, Melissa had still been in the cell, ceaselessly preaching the doctrine of the Blazing Sun to the others, when a sudden quake struck. Falling bricks and stones buried many people, yet Melissa, relying on her frail body and years of experience living amid rubble, somehow clawed her way out of this desperate dead end alive.

She looked around; she could see shattered corpses hanging from the tips of the petals. From somewhere out of sight, crazed howls and violent tremors rose without pause, as if two Celestial Gods were locked in combat there, their unseen shockwaves rippling outward.

Steadying herself, Melissa fished a tattered book out of her pocket. Gazing at those crooked characters, a strange, inexplicable joy welled up from her heart.

Plainly, Melissa had been saved. Not only had she escaped the cell alive, but the Blood Tax officers and Bloodthirsty outside had also been buried in swathes beneath these towering, overlapping petals.

Within Melissa’s twisted worldview, she naturally attributed this stroke of fortune entirely to the book in her hands—to her faith in the Blazing Sun.

She carefully pressed the book against her chest, and as if in a hallucination, Melissa could actually feel pulses of warmth seeping into her.

Yet once she tore herself free from the rapture of faith, Melissa’s gaze suddenly grew lost and unfocused.

Melissa was free. And then what?

In this despairing Land of Eternal Night, where was she supposed to go?

"H-help...help me..."

A hoarse voice rose from beneath her feet. She lowered her head; through a crack in the rubble she could vaguely make out a man wedged in the debris.

Melissa crouched down and, using her slight frame, wriggled in bit by bit. In the gloom, the man’s features gradually sharpened into clarity.

She gasped in delight, "Devon!"

Not everyone had been as lucky as Melissa. When the petals thrust from the ground, Devon had, most unfortunately, been crushed under a collapsing wall. Fortunately, there weren’t many bricks weighing down on him; after a laborious round of hauling, Melissa managed with great effort to shove aside several large chunks of masonry, finally giving Devon’s body a little room to move.

After another bout of struggling, Devon dragged himself out of the ruins in a wretched state. Unlike Melissa, he was covered in broad patches of abrasions, and a jagged piece of metal had pierced his shoulder, blood soaking one side of him.

"Thanks...really, thank you, Melissa," Devon panted. "Never thought there’d be a day I’d be saved by you."

"No, it wasn’t me who saved you."

Melissa shook her head with devout earnestness. "It was the Blazing Sun. The Blazing Sun let me survive, so that I could save you."

"The Blazing Sun?"

Devon frowned. As a Blood Tax officer, he naturally knew of this faith that circulated among the blood-born, yet in his memory, Melissa had never had any contact with such things. And yet in just a single day, she had become a fervent believer in the Blazing Sun.

"We need to get out of here."

Devon glanced around. As one of The Imperfect from the Land of Secrets, he knew all too well what was happening in the Royal City right now. Terrifying Ether reactions were colliding like storms; the once-dreaded Bloodthirsty, before this power, were nothing more than tame little dogs.

"It’s not safe here. We need to find some kind of shelter."

As he spoke, Devon grabbed Melissa’s hand, trying to lead her away. In the past, Melissa always listened to him, but this time she stood rooted atop the rubble, unmoving.

"What’s wrong?"

Melissa didn’t answer. Instead, she stared past the many petals.

Devon followed her gaze. In the distance, countless thorns covered the ground, scarlet blood running like streams between them. Suddenly, a rapidly rising High Tower thrust up from the briars, and a faint firelight began to coil upward from its spire.

Bologue had raised his domain to its highest point. Crossing his Sword Axe before his chest, metal clanged against metal, scattering dazzling sparks, and then that frail spark completely ignited the Light-Burning Fire.

Using Bologue’s Ether as fuel, the Light-Burning Fire flared into full blaze.

In an instant, a whirling fireball gathered behind Bologue’s back, then, with the Ether’s output surging higher, it swelled at breakneck speed. Very soon, that blazing radiance had grown to span several meters across.

A resplendent blazing sun, hanging high overhead.

From afar, Melissa watched this scene, her whole body turning rigid, frozen in place like a sculpture.

She murmured, "Is...is that the Blazing Sun?"

Unlike those few fortunate enough to have seen the Blazing Sun, Melissa had been born in this damp, lightless Land of Eternal Night. From the day she drew breath, words like Blazing Sun, sun, and daytime were nothing but a vague, ungraspable mirage to her.

Melissa could not imagine things she had never seen. No matter how hard she tried to magnify a feeble candle flame in her mind a thousandfold, ten thousandfold, it still could not imitate the true Blazing Sun in the slightest, let alone conjure the sight of its light flooding the land.

But today, in this very moment—

When the Light-Burning Fire gathered into a burning sphere and plummeted from the heavens, it was as though Melissa’s mind slipped free of its shackles. From that searing radiance, she could finally, just barely, imagine the Blazing Sun in outline.

Tears brimmed in her eyes as she cried, "Look, the Blazing Sun’s messenger, the Angel bearing the Fire Sword!"

Devon too was struck dumb. He wanted to refute her, to tell her this was no Blazing Sun, only Ether distorting reality—but as he realized this "sun" seemed to stand against the Night Race, a possibility surfaced in his mind, one that the ordinary Devon would never have dared to even think.

Someone had come. Someone had come to save them—to scour this blood-soaked Hell clean, and bring warm daylight back to the earth!

"I’ve always hated religious nonsense," Devon whispered, eyes wide, "but this time...your faith seems to have worked. The Blazing Sun really has appeared."

Melissa was trembling with excitement, "Right? Right?"

Devon nodded, then shook his head again, and said apologetically, "Sorry, but that’s not the true blazing sun. The true blazing sun is a hundred, a thousand times larger than this, enough to illuminate the entire world."

That was only a mass of fire, a mass of lethal fire.

A distant booming rolled in from afar; Bologue’s Light-Burning Fire exploded in midair, and a rain of fire descended upon the world, mercilessly incinerating the torn flesh and limbs and the overgrown thorns on the ground.

The brilliant radiance warmed this frozen world. Light fell across Melissa’s face, reflected in her eyes, and an irrepressible smile blossomed upon her features.

She stared without blinking and said, "No, Devon, this is the true blazing sun."

Successive detonations rang out, the burning light raging unchecked, turning the blood-soaked earth into a sea of fire. Amid the rolling flames, the silhouettes of monsters collided with one another, continuing their unfinished slaughter.

At last, Melissa tore her gaze away and said with firm resolve, "It’s just that, for now, our faith in the blazing sun is still not enough."

"Exactly," Melissa was no longer lost; on her somewhat childlike face surfaced an indescribable demonic allure. "It’s just that the souls sacrificed to the blazing sun are still not enough."

Devon instinctively backed away a few steps, his heartbeat accelerating... Melissa had frightened him, this pathetic little girl had frightened him.

Those were eyes ruled by faith, by obsession, by fixation, by madness.

"Listen closely, Devon." Melissa cupped a hand to her ear as if listening. "Do you hear it? The agonized groans beneath the ruins."

Devon asked, "What are you going to do?"

"What else would I do? Of course I’m going to save them."

As Melissa spoke, she pulled an iron pipe out of the rubble and used it as a lever to pry up stones. "And then... then I’ll tell them of the blazing sun’s sanctity."

Before, Melissa hadn’t understood the old man’s words. Clearly he’d said she could fulfill her wish, yet he’d also said her soul was not enough. Now Melissa understood; she understood what the old man meant, and she understood her own mission.

Melissa would save more people, lead them to give themselves to the blazing sun’s embrace. She believed that heaps of souls would surely let the blazing sun burn to its fullest.

Devon stood there in a daze, simply watching Melissa dig. Even when her hands were already slick with blood, she still refused to stop.

He asked, "Is the blazing sun really that important?"

Devon had never been able to grasp why Melissa would fight so desperately for a sun that was nothing but a fantasy.

"Of course," Melissa replied without even looking up. "I’m not like you, Devon. You come from outside; you’ve seen what they call the sea, the city, movies, novels, and even the sun. You’ve had a life utterly different from mine, incomparably blessed."

"Do you know what I feel every time I listen to you talk about those things?"

Melissa’s voice began to tremble, as if from pain, or from sorrow.

"You think I’d be happy, happy that I’ve learned about the world beyond?"

No, Devon, I’m miserable, so miserable I could die. Even if I rack my brains at night, I still can’t picture what the ocean looks like, can’t imagine the feel of sea wind brushing past me. I don’t know what sweets taste like, and I don’t even understand what the movies you love are—can people really be sealed inside time itself for the audience to watch?"

Melissa cursed as she hammered again and again at the unyielding stone.

"I keep asking myself: why do I have to bear this kind of fate? Why was I born into this world? Did I do something wrong? Why me of all people? On what grounds?"

She stopped, raised her head, and looked at Devon. Only then did Devon realize that tears had already flooded Melissa’s face.

"Do you know how much I envy you, Devon? We’re both trapped in Hell, yet you’ve seen the beauty of the world, and all I have is pain."

Melissa’s body shook uncontrollably as she poured out every dark thought in her heart.

"My Envy for you drives me insane, Devon. There are times I almost want to kill you."

Melissa lowered her head and fell silent. In the distance, the violent explosions and sounds of battle continued, like a noisy backdrop.

She slid her hand into a crack between stones and moved again, straining to shift the rocks aside.

"I don’t care about anything else. I’m not asking for much. I just want to see what the blazing sun looks like. I want to stand openly beneath the daylight. That’s my wish."

Melissa swore viciously, "If that costs me my life, then let it take it. If it demands my soul, I’ll gladly offer it."

"I will not live as livestock for some damned Night Race anymore. I’m going to live for myself. I’m going to let that warm sunlight pour over every inch of me!"

Devon reached out, as if to stop Melissa’s digging. Melissa instantly spun around and shook off his arm, warily lifting the crooked iron pipe and pointing its tip at Devon.

"Don’t stop me. I really will kill you."

Melissa looked at Devon, her eyes brimming with tears, and cursed, "Devon, this is all your fault! Ever since you told me about the world’s beauty, I’ve never again been able to live muddled and numb."

If she could do it all over again, Melissa would rather never have met Devon. In this Hell, to live blindly was a kind of happiness.

Devon didn’t answer. Instead, he pushed the iron pipe aside and moved to Melissa’s side. He bent down and effortlessly lifted stones that, to Melissa, were unbearably heavy.

One stone after another was shifted out of the way, and the gap within the ruins grew wider. When the building collapsed, it had left a slanted pocket of space, and many bloodfolk were crammed in there, surviving by luck.

They scrambled to stick their heads out, staring at the two who kept clearing the stones. Farther off, the sea of fire raged unchecked, dyeing the sky a dark red, as though a sun were about to rise from the horizon line of the earth.