Chapter 1139: 126. Fireworks

Hand?

Before the Goddess on the divine throne, who was herself pitiful yet gazed at him with an equally pitiful look, mentioned that word, Muen had felt nothing.

What was there to feel?

The brave man Alan had already been defeated. The evil believers around them, perhaps because the Goddess was about to die, had each lost their ability to move. It was even more impossible for anyone to ambush him.

At a time like this, what problem could there possibly be with his hand?

But when the Goddess mentioned his hand, Muen did indeed notice that something was wrong with one of his hands.

So he lowered his head.

And then it was as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

Because at some unknown point, terrifying Pollution had already attached itself to his palm. It was guiding his flesh and muscle into an unimaginable mutation. By the time Muen looked down, his hand almost no longer looked like a hand.

His skin peeled open by itself. Flesh writhed and tangled together. His five fingers twisted like snakes. At the very center of his palm, a mouth-like split slowly opened, revealing a curve toward Muen that looked like a sneer.

Utterly disgusting.

“Hey, are you done asking?”

Marcie suddenly came over with a cheerful grin and slapped Muen directly on the shoulder. After her injuries had healed, all she had left now was overflowing happiness. Even the little bit of unfamiliarity she had originally felt toward Muen before had completely vanished at this moment.

She came over laughing and fooling around right away.

“I checked just now. Those evil believers seem to have lost the support of the Goddess’s power, and every one of them is dying. There’s no need to bother with them anymore. Everyone’s discussing cleaning up the battlefield quickly and going back for a huge meal. After this, there’ll be normal day and night again, and grain can be grown easily, so everyone’s going to take out the food they stored up to get through the Long Night Period and hold a huge celebration. You’re going to join too, right?”

“...”

Muen did not answer.

“What’s wrong? Did the Goddess say something strange to you?”

Marcie leaned closer and looked Muen over oddly, worried that Muen might also have been bewitched by the Goddess. After all, there was already the precedent of the brave man Alan.

As she looked, Marcie naturally noticed Muen’s hand.

“Huh? Your hand!” She was instantly startled too.

Muen’s current hand was far too frightening. It was not just a simple twisting of flesh and blood. The Pollution had produced an unimaginable mutation on his hand, and as it continued spreading, that malformed limb was actually trying to separate itself from Muen’s original body.

“Did you touch those evil believers? Ah, seriously, you knew you couldn’t touch them and still went and touched them. You’re way too careless!”

Marcie hurriedly took out linen cloth for bandaging and wrapped those malformed, twisted clumps of flesh tightly in one motion, trying to help deal with it. “Don’t move. I’m not afraid of the evil believers’ Pollution. I’ll help you... huh?”

But as she worked, Marcie’s movements grew slower and slower.

Gradually, she let go of the linen cloth and stopped trying to bandage him. Instead, she took two steps back, carefully stared at Muen’s mutated hand, then looked doubtfully at her own hands.

Below Muen’s forearm, the flesh was hideously savage. Just now, it had only been the flesh on the surface, but now even the bones had begun proliferating. Long, thin bone spurs pierced out, making the whole thing even more terrifying.

Marcie’s own hands were very rough from doing farmwork since childhood, but they were also very normal.

The one being corroded by Pollution was Muen’s hand, yet her brows knitted little by little in confusion.

“Why is it that the more I touch... your Pollution, the worse it gets?” Marcie did not understand.

To test it, she had released her hand.

And then, just as she had guessed, the moment she let go, the speed of that flesh mutation clearly slowed.

“That’s so strange.” Marcie scratched her head.

Speaking of which, it seemed she had never really had physical contact with him before. Because Grandma had said that the more handsome a man was, the more likely he was to deceive people. Before confirming that the other party did not harbor bad intentions, one absolutely could not touch him lightly.

She had always strictly abided by that point.

Muen had also never been rude. Even when he had used her as a weapon and swung her around before, he had only grabbed her by the belt.

The first time that counted as real physical contact was...

Just now.

“Ha, haha... The more I think about this, the more wrong it feels. Why does it seem... like I’m the one who polluted you? How could I possibly pollute you? I’m not an evil believer...”

Marcie pretended to joke, lightly punched a part of Muen’s arm that had not mutated, then lifted her head with a smile, feeling certain that this had to be a joke Muen was deliberately playing on her.

That’s right. A joke. This guy’s personality really was that rotten!

He always liked messing with people!

“This really is just a joke... right?”

Marcie’s smile gradually disappeared.

Because she saw that Muen, at this moment, had an expression she had never seen before. An incomparably serious, incomparably grave... and incomparably gloomy face.

He kept staring at her, the light in his eyes flickering uncertainly.

“M-Muen?”

Marcie grew afraid and subconsciously stepped back several paces. “You don’t really think I polluted you, do you... H-how is that possible? Something like this... there has to be some other reason...”

“...”

Muen still did not speak.

He stared at Marcie, not because he was thinking of directly humanely exterminating her, but because one question after another that had occupied the deepest layer of his mind, never receiving an answer... or rather, that he had deliberately ignored, finally had answers now.

Answers he had no choice but to face.

For example... why could the people here ignore the evil believers’ Pollution?

At first, Muen had thought they had evolved some specialized ability to resist Pollution. But after spending so long with them, and even after reading the books preserved by the City-State United Pioneering Association before their departure a few days ago... there had been no record of how this ability to resist Pollution had been born.

It seemed that to the people here, this was something they had from birth.

But when facing terrifying Pollution from beyond this world, from an Evil God... how could there be innate immunity?

If that were the case, then there would basically be no need to fear any apocalyptic crisis. Wouldn’t everyone simply achieve herd immunity together and live in friendly harmony with the Evil Gods?

So that was it...

“They’re all the same.”

In Annabawei, whether evil believers or ordinary people, they were all the same.

All of them had already been polluted long ago.

With a long sigh, Muen looked toward the Goddess again.

The words she had just spoken surfaced in his mind once more.

I am not mad.

The mad one is the other one.

Judging only from outward behavior, this seemed entirely like the nonsense a mad Goddess used to deceive others. She was so insane, so illogical. No wonder the people of Annabawei would not believe her.

But from another angle, what exactly was the definition of mad and not mad?

Discard the words. Discard the outward behavior.

Judge only by essence.

To go against one’s true heart was madness.

To hold fast to one’s true heart was not madness.

And over these four hundred years, the one who had truly been protecting Annabawei was actually...

“She has come...”

The Goddess of Night raised her head, tears of pain flowing from the corners of her eyes.

“After hiding from her for so many years, in the end, she still came...”

...

...

“Ah, things are so slow over there. Marcie and Mr. Muen, what exactly are they doing? What is there about that damned Goddess worth lingering over?”

At the very center of the valley, the sunlight was brightest.

The remaining Pioneers had already gathered together, treating injuries, collecting their companions’ corpses, and handling those fallen evil believers.

Of course, the most important thing was naturally celebration.

Celebrating the sunlight.

Celebrating new life.

Celebrating... a bright future.

“I have fireworks! I brought fireworks! They’re in the box over there. Hurry up and get them out for me!”

Theresa, who only had half his body left, was still stubbornly wriggling with impressive resilience. Beside him, Landa helped treat his wounds while stopping him... She understood that these wounds were already fatal. It was simply that Theresa’s willpower was firm, and he had lived longer than imagined. But that still could not change the outcome.

But after they had come this far, she was unwilling to give up so easily no matter what... At the very least, she wanted him to leave this world more satisfied.

Landa secretly wiped away her tears, then hurriedly got up and brought Theresa’s box over. Earlier, she had thought there were supplies or something inside. She had not expected it to contain something as completely irrelevant to battle as fireworks.

“Fuck, Old Bear, where did you get things like fireworks?”

“Heh heh, Theodore taught me. He has an ancient book over there, and it specifically talks about making this kind of thing. Speaking of which, you bastards don’t even read books?”

“With supplies so scarce before, even if someone read books, who would spend effort on this kind of thing?”

“That’s why none of you have any great ability. I possess foresight. I had already thought long ago that this moment might come, so I made some in advance!”

The things in the box were taken out, and sure enough, they were a few bundles of simple fireworks. Although they were Pioneers, supplies had always been scarce. To be able to save materials from between his teeth to make fireworks... in a sense, he really had possessed foresight.

“Hey, I wasn’t that stupid. Back then, I was thinking that if I didn’t get to use them, I’d leave them for my successor. If my successor didn’t get to use them, he’d leave them for his successor. Passing them down generation after generation, sooner or later, they would be useful.”

“You’ve got a lovely dream there, but can fireworks even be stored that long? They probably stop working after ten-some years, don’t they?”

“...Right.”

Theresa froze. “Something like fireworks really can’t be left for too long. They can’t be passed down generation after generation... Looks like my luck really is very good.”

He revealed a very punchable smile and laughed loudly. “Haha! I have no regrets left in this life. Come on, come on, time to set off fireworks!”

The fuse was lit. In this world filled with bright light, they no longer needed to worry about firelight.

Whoosh—

Several seconds later, amid everyone’s expectant upward gazes, a bundle of fireworks flew into the sky, drew a moving arc, and then exploded at the highest point.

Crackle, crackle, pop.

The fireworks Theresa had made himself were not especially beautiful. They were just oversized sparks, and in this daylight, they were even hard to see clearly.

But everyone watched with great relish.

Because after several hundred years, this was the first time Annabawei had lit fireworks.

“Again!” After one bundle of fireworks went off, everyone shouted excitedly.

“Again!”

New fireworks rose into the sky once more.

Crackle, crackle, pop.

Crackle, crackle, pop.

Crackle, crackle, pop.

The fireworks rose very, very high, almost into the clouds.

The sound they made was also very loud. In Annabawei, where there was little background noise, it could travel thousands of miles.

In the distance, in every place, many people lifted their heads, either enjoying the sunlight or striving to gaze toward the faraway fireworks.

They seemed to be infected by this atmosphere as well, every face brimming with a happy smile.

Wonderful.

The black night would no longer last forever.

From now on, there would be so many more good days like this...

“Huh?”

Just then, someone suddenly cried out in shock. “Why is the sky getting dark again?”

Everyone was confused, thinking, could it be that the Goddess had not been completely defeated?

No, that was not right.

People soon discovered that this time, it was not that night had fallen.

Rather, in a very distant place, at the end of the sky, beyond the curve that resembled a dome, an enormous shadow was approaching.

That shadow came from the other side of the Fog Wall, rapidly drawing closer. Before the people in Annabawei who noticed this scene had time to react, they saw that enormous shadow attach itself to the edge of the horizon, as if searching for something.

Crackle, crackle, pop.

In the hands of those who had not yet realized what was happening, one unfinished firework rose into the sky, appearing especially bright beneath the shadow’s cover.

Very quickly, the shadow seemed to be attracted by the light and sound here... and swiftly became solid and heavy.

Crack.

A fissure split open in the sky.

Then.

The sky brightened once more.

Because another sun had risen.

It was a golden sun, blazing bright... yet not warm at all, high above everything, coldly gazing down upon all of Annabawei.

“Found... you...”

Behind the [N O V E L I G H T] blazing “golden sun,” a cold voice rang out, spreading across all of Annabawei in an instant.