When you gaze into the abyss, it seems you cannot help but gaze back.
In that deathly darkness, Li Yue could see the wailing forms of countless dead. She remembered the faces of some; others, she couldn't even recall if she had been the one to kill them.
A sailor she had met only once, a guard with a hideous face, that high-spirited captain—she could see them all clearly within. She narrowed her eyes, searching for a single figure in the depths.
...
Fortunately... Mr. Roland isn't here.
Let it end... No one needs to suffer anymore.
She took out her scrolls and magic book, chanting the incantations recorded within. Her blood-red mana melted into the earth, and towers began to rise one after another from the ground.
One tower represents power, two represent control, three represent imperial power, four represent order, five represent Human Reason, and six represent Supreme Art... These all seemed to be techniques of her predecessors. With her own ability, she didn't know how many towers she could forge.
The mana of the Death Abyss began to be suppressed. As if sensing something, it seemed to develop a strong dependency on this mana. Under the suppression of the towers, the fluctuations of its mana became increasingly violent.
“Quite restless...” Li Yue frowned. “Why is this?”
It shouldn't be possible. Once the seal is set, everything should be fine... Why is it like this?
The cracks in the black ice grew larger and larger. A crimson net woven from the tops of the towers descended, covering the area below.
“Crack.” Like the sound of ordinary ice shattering, she somehow felt a surge of intense resentment and resistance. That powerful aura seemed to be rushing toward her.
“Bang!” The black abyss soared into the sky, tearing through the ground and engulfing the ten towers. The power of the seal began to fail rapidly, and everything seemed to be on the verge of collapse. Within this overwhelming might, she felt as if she were experiencing the weight of an entire world.
A storm seemed to be brewing.
“Boom!” One tower collapsed, smashing heavily into the ground and shattering a massive section of ice. Immediately after, another tower rose again, the two forces locked in a fierce struggle.
“How can this be...” Li Yue staggered. The ground beneath her feet also began to break apart. The black abyss started surging from the ancient depths toward the surface world.
She leaped high and landed on a distant ice floe. The ten towers surrounded the center of the Death Abyss, but the scope of the abyss was clearly far greater than the area they enclosed.
Like a massive black wall rising from the ground, the world before Li Yue turned pitch black. The sealing towers were swallowed in an instant.
“How can there be such powerful resistance? What on earth stimulated it?” Li Yue clenched her fists. She felt a chill in her soul. The black wall seemed to be attracting her, a faint pull dragging her toward the abyss.
“My heart, my blood crystal, my soul...” Li Yue hugged herself. “Why are they trembling? Why are they resonating!”
“No... I don't want this...”
“No... I can't, don't... I can't go over there.” Li Yue knelt down in pain. “If I go in... I might never come back...”
Images flashed through her mind. These weren't things she should be able to see; it was the perspective of the Death Abyss. In this region, she saw herself, saw the extreme cold passing through like a storm, and saw struggling souls, trudging along the gap between life and death.
“I don't want to... even for their sake... why me... I finally... finally felt like I wasn't a monster anymore!”
The black tide beneath her feet hooked onto her arm, as if gently pulling her.
“If I do nothing... if I run away...” Li Yue whispered softly. “Could I still live like a human being?”
Her voice was trembling.
“But everyone will die... This range is enough to affect Parvati...” She looked back. “I want to run away so badly, but if I do, I'll definitely live the rest of my life in unbearable guilt...”
“No... No... Why... I just wanted everyone to stop suffering...” She collapsed to the ground, shaking with a total breakdown. “Let me run away... let me run away...”
Her body shook, and tears flowed from the corners of her eyes. Countless images flooded her mind, all seemingly persuading her to accept the Death Abyss, to resolve everything, and to make those painful images disappear.
“There are no other spells... Why resist so strongly at a time like this? Why must it choose me!” Li Yue roared at the abyss. “I am a monster! Don't try to blackmail me with these things!”
“Why... at a time like this, am I always not selfish enough... not hypocritical enough...” Li Yue wiped her tears and took a deep breath, her eyes slightly red.
“I did so much just to barely consider myself a good person... but none of it matters anymore.” Li Yue gave a bitter smile. “Thinking about it, the purpose of my actions is still utilitarian—to consolidate my own self-perception... whether it's saving people, killing people, or stopping the cold wave...”
“I'm just a hypocritical monster, good at pretending...” Li Yue slowly stood up. Black threads wrapped around her fingers, slowly pulling the ice floe beneath her feet.
She watched the slowly approaching black wall, and the sense of resonance deep within her soul grew stronger and stronger.
Will I become more like it, or will it become more like me?
What a stupid question... In the end, I'm just a filthy and lowly soul... Aside from Clo, probably no one can accept me...
Her hand touched the black wall. It felt as if another hand was interlacing fingers with hers. Her body slowly merged into the abyss. She looked back at Yakutsk, at Parvati, and finally took a long look toward the south.
Will I die? Or turn into a monster?
If that's the case, then it's better to just die. I won't resist anymore. That way, the only one who will be sad is Clo. I'm sorry, even though we were perhaps just strangers whose paths crossed by chance.
Her body sank into a complete darkness. At that moment, the Death Abyss seemed to fall silent. The black wall slowly descended, merging back into the ground bit by bit, and the abyss that had spread to the far distance also curled back.
The extreme cold vanished, and the cold wave disappeared. The ice began to break apart. In this late autumn, a warm wind seemed to slowly begin to blow.
People walking in the snow were moved to tears by the warm breeze. They took off their hats, unwound their scarves, and removed their gloves and goggles. Shaking, they looked at one another, their faces filled with disbelief. They didn't know what had happened, but this unprecedented warmth was enough to make two strangers embrace each other in excitement.
On this day of falling leaves, would those who had struggled so hard see the withered yellow leaves drifting onto the water, creating ripples in the long river?
Perhaps they would. But the late autumn of Yakutsk was ending, and the first winter was about to arrive. This might be a warm winter.
Winter has come; can spring be far behind?
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