The Reckoning

Inside the dim hall, Li Yue stood in a pool with her eyes half-closed. Everything below her ankles was submerged in the silent, eerie blue water. Ripples carried her magic, spreading outward in concentric circles. The entire hall was empty, with only countless magic formations resonating with her power.

Li Yue's body was hidden within a deep, deathly blood mist. Her consciousness radiated across the entire world; she could feel countless versions of herself walking upon the earth, performing the witnessing she was meant to complete.

Outside the hall, numerous envoys from other nations stood in a line amidst the vast, fine rain. Because magic was not permitted within the palace grounds, their expensive robes and gifts were slowly being soaked. Every member of the royal family in this palace had been sent back to live among the commoners, granted a free life without worry for food or clothing. This was Li Yue's stance.

This magnificent palace no longer held so many beauties or schemes. There was only one powerful and cold, dictatorial monarch. She thought in solitude and issued many decrees that left others baffled.

In places unseen by the masses, Li Yue's figure had already spread across the continent. Countless versions of her walked the lands inside and outside the Royal Court. She moved through the gaps in time, watching the world's momentary changes with an expressionless face. Inevitably, she felt waves of disappointment.

She was the deity of Death. She had witnessed too many silent passings. To her, true death was nothing more than being forgotten. She hated seeing humans vanish as if they had never existed, but that was the way of the world. She no longer had the strength to make superfluous changes.

Under a dim moon, in nameless dilapidated houses, amidst countless ruins, or at brilliant banquets—she walked the secular world, observing all the changes on this land over the past few centuries. From these subtle shifts, she began to search for things capable of changing the world.

She appeared in silent, uninhabited forests, unearthing a heart-shaped green gemstone from deep underground. In a corner of a banquet, she took away a wine cup that looked as ordinary as could be. She took a pen that had run out of ink from a writer's pen holder, next to which lay countless scattered, messy sketches and a broken pencil. A woman with disheveled hair lay powerless on the ground. On one of the sketches beside her, Li Yue's face was clearly drawn, though the artist seemingly never had the chance to show it to the world.

She took the most inconspicuous coin from a merchant's collection of countless ancient coins. From a museum, she took a simple stone tablet with nearly illegible text, which recorded the world's earliest laws. She took a silver spear symbolizing a knight's honor; its owner seemed to have lost the ability to refuse...

She was everywhere, even appearing in the highest-level meeting center of Karl Romon Academy. She stood leaning on the hilt of a sword, her mere phantom deterring anyone who harbored hostility toward her in that moment. She placed the stone tablet on the table, and the council members began to swear their oaths upon it one by one.

In a small boat on the sea of Eternal Night, Archbishop Osiris of the Specter Church drifted through the air. She floated above the grey sea, as nimble as a silver fish. Her fair feet were like a fish's swaying tail, and her trailing garments made her body appear incredibly fluid.

"With so much faith gone, my body feels exceptionally free," she said with a faint smile. Ever since she had seen that blood-red scene within the countless silks of fate, she had left without hesitation. Unquestionably, she was fleeing her fated death.

"As long as this body has not died, the revival of the Divine Lord will succeed sooner or later." She smiled thinly. Although everything had happened outside her expectations, she was fortunately without major losses. Without so many companions, she actually felt a sense of relief.

She took out a fishing rod and cast the bait into a small patch of eerie blue water within the boat. She dangled her bare, fair feet, immersing her entire being into the moment. Holding her breath, she felt the momentary silence between the tides.

She could feel something she had never encountered before beginning to rapidly approach her. It came in a form she had never seen and with a posture she had never witnessed.

Her hands trembled slightly. In a daze, she felt her body grow weak. Dark shadows seemed to entwine her frame, and her body, once as nimble as a silver fish, no longer had the strength to struggle.

She slowly opened her eyes, her pupils quivering as she felt a gentle caress. She fell into those tender arms without resistance. Her breathing grew slightly hurried, seemingly due to an unspeakable mix of fear and release.

She felt that nimble hand wandering over her body. She slowly let go of the fishing rod, unable to stop a soft groan from escaping her lips.

"How... truly... a miscalculation..." she sighed softly. Her feet paddled slightly in the water, but they failed to kick up even a single splash.

Her hand hung limply. She watched the pool water slowly turn red. Her lips strained, but she no longer had the strength to move. She watched the hand stroking her lower abdomen slowly sink into it, searching within her body. Then, that hand pulled out a crystal boat. She felt the world before her begin to turn black.

"So... you found me after all..." Her breathing grew more ragged, and her body trembled involuntarily. She curled up in a physiological reaction before stretching out limply once more.

Her hand dropped heavily as her body slowly began to lose its life force.

"You are... even greedier... than I imagined..." She tried her best to turn her head to look at the pale white figure whose hand was submerged in her body. She weakly coughed up a mouthful of blood, and her vision began to fade to black.

"Unfortunately, the deity who chose you went mad long ago. You were getting close as well." That voice sounded incomparably cold. She struggled to turn her head, her light grey hair spreading messily across the deck. She wanted to grab that blood shadow, but she no longer had an ounce of strength.

The light in her eyes slowly vanished. Those eyes, so beautiful they could intoxicate, finally closed in silence, unable to see the blood shadow leave.

Her body bobbed up and down with the rising and falling of the waves. In this place where the deep-sea tides connected to the River of the Dead, Li Yue had long ago opened the gates of the Underworld for her.

On some rainy night, she would sink into this sea. Finally, this magic user who had sent countless souls to their ends would have her own soul—which had already been torn apart by Li Yue—calmly merge into these waters. In an era forgotten by people countless years later, she would find her redemption.