Chapter 1137: 124. Beauty and Destruction

The entire world fell silent.

It was as if everything had been struck by a pause button. On this bloody, brutal battlefield, whether it was the Pioneers pushing forward with their lives on the line or those evil believers who had long since fallen, all of them stopped their attacks and stared blankly toward the divine throne.

Everyone had heard the Goddess’s roar, and everyone had heard the Goddess’s cry of grief.

At that moment, all of them realized the same thing in their hearts.

“No!”

A terrifying aura was released. Upon the false divine throne, before Marcie even had time to feel the joy of victory, she was violently blasted away by the power bursting out from within the Goddess’s body.

Once again, she crashed to the ground in a sorry state, covered in dust and dirt.

Landa on the other side was even more miserable. She had already been badly wounded, and after being hit like this, her originally delicate little face had turned pale as paper.

For the moment, Marcie had no time to care about any of that. She did not even have the mental space to check her body, which had clearly broken who knew how many bones. She abruptly lifted her head and stared fixedly at the divine throne.

On the surface, she forcibly pretended to be calm, but in her heart, she was panicking like crazy...

No way...

She had already done exactly what the kind Goddess said. The sacred artifact had already completely pierced into the Goddess’s body, and just now, she had also felt the powerful force bursting out from inside the sacred artifact...

Could it be that even after reaching this point, the Goddess still had strength left to resist?

But if the Goddess did not die, then did she, and everyone else, still have the leeway to organize another all-out attack?

Marcie swept a glance around her. The bloody scene was even more tragic than she had imagined.

Of course they did not.

So, please...

Please let this far too long story end here...

Marcie had never believed in any god, but at this moment, from the bottom of her heart, she prayed to the Goddess of Light whom Grandma had always believed in.

Goddess of Light, please...

“No...”

After the Goddess of Night finished roaring, she actually struggled to stand up from the divine throne. From the very beginning until now, this was the first time everyone had seen her make such a large movement, and they could not help but break into a cold sweat.

Marcie’s heart practically leapt into her throat.

Fortunately, the Goddess of Night staggered and swayed, but before she could even take her first step, she collapsed back down in defeat.

On her body, the cracks became even more obvious.

“No... cannot...”

As if that Goddess of Light, whose existence no one knew was real or not, had truly manifested a miracle, the Goddess of Night’s aura weakened at a speed visible to the naked eye. She was like an old tree after winter began, the few remaining leaves symbolizing vitality withering under the bone-piercing cold.

She no longer had any ability to resist.

Her lamp oil had completely run dry.

At last, the being named the black night, the existence revered as a Goddess, lowered her head and stared at everyone. She said nothing more. The anger and madness were gradually settling, only that expression... was incomparably sorrowful.

But that sorrow flashed past, and was then filled by joy.

“Wonderful. As you wished... the light you longed for has arrived.”

Marcie was still staring warily at the Goddess when she suddenly felt heat on her forehead.

Was her head wounded and bleeding too?

She subconsciously touched the top of her head, but did not feel any wound on that warm place. Only, when her little hand touched it, her head was no longer warm... this time, the warmth was on the back of her hand.

“This is...”

Marcie’s delicate body trembled.

With difficulty, and slowly, she lifted her head. She still seemed unable to believe that such a thing had happened, and did not dare confirm it directly. Instead, she first looked toward the other people around her.

She looked at the others, but the others were all staring at her.

Or rather, they were staring above her head.

Joy? Shock? Confusion?

The gazes of these people were all very complicated, but without exception, they seemed nailed in place, unwilling to move away even for an instant.

Like dying travelers in the desert who had finally found a pool of clear water, from the depths of their souls... they longed for it.

Marcie took a deep breath and calmed her shaken emotions.

Then, gently, gently, she raised her head.

“Ah.”

Dazzling light instantly poured into her eyes, making her, who had already grown accustomed to darkness, instinctively close them.

Through her eyelids, everything was bright red. Through her skin, she could feel warmth becoming ever clearer.

Marcie lifted her hand and gently caught that beam of light in her palm. Ignoring the stinging pain in her eyes, she forced them open and looked toward the heights.

At some unknown point, the fog surrounding this place had dispersed.

Through the gaps between her fingers, she could see very, very far away. So far... all the way to the horizon.

The sky had originally been pitch-black and deep.

But now, it was as if a gap had been torn open in it, and that gap was still expanding rapidly. The rich night color faded at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the light falling into Annabawei grew brighter and brighter. A clear blue sky appeared in Marcie’s vision.

Like a sheet of glass so beautiful it made one’s heart tremble.

At last, there was the sun. It appeared in Marcie’s field of vision, so dazzling, and yet so gentle. And the moment it appeared, it drove away all the night as a matter of course.

Tears instantly slipped from the corners of Marcie’s eyes.

Day had broken.

...

...

“Day broke?”

Theresa stared wide-eyed at that sun, ignoring the tears streaming down his face from the stimulation, still somewhat dazed.

Although this was exactly the moment he had been waiting for, when the black night was broken and true daylight arrived, he still felt a sense of unreality.

After all, that far too long black night had already covered Annabawei for several hundred years. In the past few days, there had not even been a trace of light. Everyone’s heart had nearly been crushed by this black night that perhaps would never end.

Therefore, when the daylight he had yearned for descended like this, ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) even someone as strong-hearted as him would naturally suspect whether he was dreaming.

No, with his current condition, dreaming was already impossible.

So... was this an excessively beautiful hallucination before death?

Theresa touched his severed abdomen...

Hiss! It hurt!

This was not a hallucination!

“It’s actually real?”

Theresa grinned. He wanted to laugh loudly, but just as the corners of his mouth pulled up, he found he could not quite laugh. Instead, a certain sourness surged into his heart, making him want to wail and cry even more.

Fortunately, he held it back. Although there were no few people around him wailing and crying, he was still the mighty Bear King after all. At a time like this, when he was about to die, of course he had to preserve a little different kind of bearing.

—Among all the people crying, he was the only one who did not cry.

If future history books could record that stroke, just thinking about it made him feel he could die without regret.

“But... I never thought I’d actually be able to hold on until a time like this.” Theresa looked at the bloodstains in his palm that had not yet dried and smiled thankfully. His brows finally spread completely, no longer needing to remain tightly furrowed.

With such heavy injuries, he had thought he would have croaked long ago, that he would no longer have the chance in this life to see Annabawei endure through the long black night.

But perhaps because his obsession was too powerful, he had actually managed to stubbornly hold on until now.

It was simply a miracle.

“Yeah, isn’t that the truth?” Beside him, a voice spoke faintly. “I never thought I’d actually be able to hold on until a time like this either. Looks like the anger in our hearts really is hard to swallow down.”

“You’re fucking still alive?” Theresa stared at the person beside him. A small half of your chest is gone, and you can still breathe?”

“Aren’t you fucking the same?” That Pioneer laughed and cursed. “Your lower half is mud, and you can still sit here running your mouth.”

“...”

The two fell silent.

Then sighed.

“Not dying... really is great.”

“Yeah... not dying really is great.”

So was this also the result of them training day and night as Pioneers?

Precisely because they possessed such tenacious vitality, they had been able to see such a beautiful scene.

Being alive really was the best thing in this world... no, the second-best thing.

As for the best... of course, it was the sunlight falling at this very moment.

One with only half a body left, one with his chest pierced through—two gravely wounded people, including many around them who had clearly collapsed completely but still had one breath left, all thought so with such relief.

If only this beautiful scene... could continue forever.

No, their spirits lifted... the Goddess had already been defeated. It would definitely continue from here on!

...

...

Broken walls and ruined buildings, a complete mess.

The former City of Adventure and Freedom had, under the ravaging of the evil believers, long since become a heap of ruins.

Who knew how many people here had faced the threat of death, and who knew how many people had been buried beneath the rubble.

This city had used the strength of the entire city to hold back the majority of the evil believers, and only then had the possibility of victory appeared on the other side.

In the end, at the center of the ruins, before the broken building that no longer bore any trace of the Pioneer headquarters’ small building, only the lonely Theodore remained, along with that candle flame that still had not gone out.

Although the candle flame had never been extinguished under everyone’s protection, the city that had once been brightly lit had only this single candlelight left.

All the others had already been extinguished by the evil believers.

Fortunately, at a time like this, candlelight was no longer needed.

Little by little, Theodore dragged his body, which had already reached its limit and was on the verge of death, moving himself from the shadow beneath a broken wall to the outside.

A clear trail of blood dragged across the ground. His entrails were also constantly flowing out from the large hole in his abdomen, but he did not care in the slightest.

Just a small wound, wasn’t it?

Only when there was no longer anything obstructing the area where his whole body lay did he stretch his body out as much as he could, like a flower that had endured through the long night and could finally bloom beneath bright sunlight.

“So this... is what sunlight feels like...”

Covered head to toe in blood, Theodore felt this warmth he had never felt before and smiled like a child.

In the past, at the moment he became president, he had once made an oath that sounded somewhat laughable at first.

—If he did not save Annabawei from the black night, he would never expose himself to sunlight.

At first, many people had only thought it was a joke. But when he shut himself in his office day after day, rarely showed his face, mostly chose nighttime for travel, and even when it was unavoidable, would open a black umbrella, everyone finally knew he was serious.

Only, perhaps no one could have imagined, not even Theodore himself, that such a laughable oath would actually have a day when it could be fulfilled.

“Teacher, and everyone...”

Theodore reached his hand toward the figures buried within the ruins, who at this moment were likewise longing for sunlight.

“I did not fail you...”

“Annabawei finally has a bright future...”

...

...

The little mountain village.

The short trees of the forest farm swayed, greedily bathing in the sunlight that had not arrived for so long.

Inside the old earthen house, the white-haired old woman lit a candle with trembling hands.

Light seeped down through the cracks in the earthen house’s walls. The old woman gazed at that light, gazed at the candle flame, and could not help revealing a satisfied smile.

“Marcie... my dear little Marcie, you finally succeeded. You truly did not waste the road I paved for you for so long.”

Behind her, several sinister shadows shifted indistinctly, whispering among themselves.

“Quiet.”

The old woman scolded them. Then she clasped her hands together and began to pray... reporting this joyful news to the Goddess of Light whom she believed in.

Wonderful.

A full four hundred years...

Annabawei was finally about to... be completely destroyed.