Divine Lord, Abide with Me

“The night of October 24th, light rain. Today’s situation remains dire. Perhaps due to the restructuring of the soul, those memories bound to the soul still need to be reorganized.”

A fountain pen, continuously leaking black ink, wrote these words on the brownish yellow pages of a notebook. The hand holding the pen trembled slightly. This hand was pale and slender, with blue veins visible beneath a layer of thin skin.

“My physical condition is worsening... Clo says it is because of the ‘pollution’ I mentioned in the past. ‘Pollution’? It is such a familiar word, yet I cannot quite remember it...” The trembling of the small hand grew more pronounced, causing some of the handwriting to become blurred.

“What is required to maintain sanity and power? The flesh and blood of magic users... I do not really care, but Clo cannot accept it.” The last word of the diary entry was nearly smudged together. Li Yue lifted her hand, only to feel waves of weakness wash over her.

“Tsk...” Li Yue frowned. The passenger ship was drawing closer to the continent where the Royal Court was located. Perhaps in just a few days, she would be able to set foot on that land again. It used to be her kingdom, though now, it was hard to say.

“I brought some food from the dining hall. Fresh fruit has started to be rationed. It seems that storm had quite an impact.” Clo placed a bowl of thick orange red soup beside Li Yue’s hand. Steam rose from the black bowl.

“You aren’t even wearing your bathrobe. Aren’t you afraid of catching a cold?” Clo took off her own outer coat and gently draped it over Li Yue’s shoulders. On Li Yue’s shoulders, thighs, and neck, there were patches of pinkish hickeys. Without thick clothing, they would all be exposed.

“How could I possibly catch a cold?” Li Yue set down the pen and put on Clo’s light grey coat. Her hand was still trembling slightly, but she feigned composure as she grasped the spoon, attempting to drink the soup as she usually did.

“The missing gentleman was ultimately declared to have wandered onto the deck while intoxicated and accidentally fell into the sea. The current conclusion is that his whereabouts are unknown.” Clo glanced at Li Yue’s trembling hand and could not help but bite her lip.

She can wield a heavy sword made of blood crystals, yet she cannot even hold a soup spoon? Tsk...

A fragment of memory from that day resurfaced in Li Yue’s mind. The intense scent of blood cleared her consciousness once more. She remembered the heart still beating in her hand that day and instinctively swallowed hard.

“A Yue...” Clo looked at Li Yue’s slender fingers. They seemed even paler than before. Although her pitch black nails had been trimmed just last night, they had already grown a centimeter in a single day.

“I have read in novels that lovers always feed each other. Do you think doing that would give off that sweet, romantic feeling?” Clo smiled and took the spoon from Li Yue’s hand. “Come, open wide.”

“Perhaps... it would.” Li Yue ate absentmindedly. She felt an inexplicable sense of listlessness. She knew Clo was trying to take care of her emotions, but she had never imagined she would truly see such a day.

“Clo... I seem to have become weaker. If I do nothing, it feels like every day I am weaker than the day before.” Li Yue murmured. She still craved power, but now she could not remember why she wanted to reclaim that former strength.

Was it to protect Clo? No... or rather, not just that. There were more things... things I need to do.

“It is all right.” Clo used a fork to pick up a small piece of pink and white shrimp meat and fed it to Li Yue. “Once we find a cure, we can just go live a peaceful life. It does not matter if you do not have magic in a life like that.”

“And if that happens, my power will be superior. Next time, you will be the one pinned down beneath me. Hehe.” Clo smiled slightly, revealing a little devilish grin as if to comfort Li Yue. Li Yue smiled back and lightly scratched Clo’s nose with her index finger.

“How could that be allowed?” Li Yue glanced at her fingers. Her nails were long; she had only trimmed the nails of her right index and middle fingers last night. “I have to trim my nails again tonight...”

Clo puffed out her cheeks. Seeing Li Yue’s relaxed smile, her own mood lightened considerably.

Li Yue glanced out the window. Her gaze pierced through the layers of mist over the sea. Faintly, she could see the silhouette of a continent. This was the end of their journey, the kingdom of death, the Royal Court, Limbo.

Inexplicably, a sense of anger rose within her. The source of this emotion was mysterious; it did not stem from anything happening before her eyes, but felt like a sudden, baseless flame.

She was lost in thought, so much so that the spoon Clo held to her lips had to poke her several times before she opened her mouth.

...

“Move faster!” A magic user dressed in robes and holding a staff stood on high ground. Within his line of sight, groups of sturdy men in tattered clothes were using long ropes to pull giant statues, moving forward with great difficulty.

Statues of various sizes pressed deep indentations into the ground. Some of the extremely heavy ones even required several magic users to cast gravity magic and use wooden poles to move them.

These were magnificent snake shaped statues. Occasionally, there were smaller ones carved in the image of a woman. Some were carved with exquisite beauty, while others had their lower bodies depicted as snakes. They wore crowns, and their eyes held a look of disdain.

Before them was a massive waterfall. Blue water plunged down, crashing into the sea below and creating clouds of white foam.

“Heave ho!” Several sturdy men shouted in unison as they pushed the statue they were dragging off the waterfall. Then came the second, the third... Statues of all sizes plunged one after another into the depths below.

When the God of Death first established her kingdom, people had pushed the statues of the old gods off this very spot. That era had come to a complete end at that moment. The waterfall, exploding with the sound of crashing water, seemed to still be recounting the history of that Twilight of the Gods.

And today, what is it recounting? The dawn of a new era, the witnessing of a so called darkest hour, or... singing a dirge for that monarch in her twilight years?

If such a song truly existed, its lyrics would surely be 《Divine Lord, Abide with Me》.