After receiving news of the Order Court's intervention, members of other guilds also began to move; aside from Winter Dawn led by Perseus and Daybreak Elegy led by Li Liujin, most faced ambushes to some extent and suffered certain losses.
Some of these ambushes came from Light-Chaser Garden, while others were from different guilds, but compared to Golden Navigator, these guilds were well-prepared and did not suffer devastating losses.
Thousands of people marched toward the palace in a grand procession, like a pressing dark cloud; the scene was incredibly spectacular.
The final moment of the decisive battle was fast approaching.
...................
The badlands, Pangard.
A girl wearing a large hood stopped outside the palace; several figures fell before her eyes, their gazes wide and fixed in a gruesome death.
"Hey, you down there, oh right, Starry Witch, that's what they call you, isn't it?" came the youth's flippant tone.
Sevia looked up, meeting Sirius's gaze.
'He hadn't noticed me before, and I've been using starry magic to conceal my presence; how did he suddenly learn my identity?'
"I can't just let you in. That pig-headed king and his queen are having a grand time with the gnawing parasite; I can't let you spoil their fun."
Sevia's eyes flickered slightly before returning to a state of calm.
Presumably, the joy of such primal desires was the key to keeping the gnawing parasite willing to remain in the mortal realm without falling into an out-of-control state.
"As I thought, you understand this contaminated knowledge," Sirius said.
"So? How do you plan to stop me?" Sevia's tone was calm.
"In these vast badlands, everyone in the city of Pangard is my hostage!" Sirius spread his arms wide.
"Look at the gruesome deaths of those before you, look at these innocent people!" Sirius laughed with a crazed expression as his subordinates pushed many men, women, and children against the wall; Sevia could clearly see the terrified looks of these innocents.
Right before her eyes, Sirius drained the blood of a young girl and licked it off a spiked pole.
"Leave Pangard right now, and nothing will happen, my dear Miss Starry Witch. Otherwise, I will kill them all one by one in the most cruel ways possible. Guess just how many innocents my people have under their control?"
"Look at them, kind singer, look at their fearful faces. Some are just children, and look at these elderly folk—do you have the heart to watch them die in agony?"
Sevia did not speak; the shadow of her hood hid her face, making it impossible to see her expression.
Sirius flashed a predicted smile and leaped down. In his palm, a colorless crystal emerged; it was a clear hexagonal prism, each side smooth and orderly, with no impurities within, as clear as a piece of clean ice.
Sevia could sense no aura from that crystal, and she couldn't even determine if it truly existed; it was too pure, mysterious, and profound, as if it were not a product of this world.
"It's best if you don't move, or I'll start with that girl in the prime of her youth," Sirius said. "For instance, by gouging out her eyes and tongue..."
Just as he held the colorless crystal and chains of restriction began to faintly form in the air, intending to approach the girl, a bloodied gash suddenly exploded on his shoulder; one of his arms flew into the air before his stunned gaze.
Sevia raised her eyes and tilted her head. "And?"
"!" Meeting the girl's gaze, which was as cold as snow, Sirius felt as though he had fallen into an ice cellar; he instantly lost his footing and took a step back. "This isn't what they agreed upon; this person is a lunatic!"
Before he could issue orders to his subordinates above, a bloodied gash erupted at his throat; his body was instantly sliced into a thousand uniform pieces by a single glance from the girl, and the colorless crystal in his hand fell to the ground, shattering into powder.
Giant hands of shadow extended from Sevia's hem into the ground, quickly crawling up the walls; several nearby wizards were crushed directly into a bloody mist.
"Kill them! Kill them all!"
A resurrected Sirius screamed with maddened eyes, but the water in the air was omnipresent, seeping into his seven orifices and flooding his lungs; in the blink of an eye, he died of suffocation.
This Archbishop of Wrath was drowned as soon as he resurrected, over and over, dozens, hundreds, thousands of times; his facial expression gradually collapsed, and his ability to think slowly faded away.
The witch's voice echoed in Sevia's ears as more and more bodies of the innocent fell, dying gruesome deaths before her.
The lives of the people were like pale snow, vanishing before her eyes flake by flake.
The looks people gave her were filled with despair, confusion, anger, and hatred, silently questioning—"Why are you doing this?" "By what right do you do this!"
Step by step, the girl walked along the path paved with blood, sin, and suffering, ascending toward the throne under the most vicious curses and insults.
To her, the witch's words could not shake her will in the slightest.
When the Starry Singer walks the earth.
She is the most terrifying witch of this city.
Under the stars,
the stage is set,
the actors are in place,
the music score appears.
The people who died in agony turned into musical notes, playing pleasant sounds upon the dancing score and revealing smiles of final liberation.
Giant hands formed of shadow rampaged over the city, buildings collapsed, and the power of miracles began to disintegrate.
Scenes that felt familiar played out before Sevia's eyes; she felt as if she were once again at the starting point of her journey, in the opera house during the final act of Storm Song, losing control and destroying everything before those who loved her and those she loved.
Her will had weathered the storm; the tenacity of her character and the regret of parting had never vanished, but were merely tucked into her soft shell and hidden within the framework of her soul.
Her fists were no longer weak.
That budding Blue Iris had already bloomed thousands of times in the Starry Garden.
If hope and salvation were destined to be born upon the ruins of suffering and destruction, then no matter how many times it took, she would end it all with her own hands.
Her heart already held someone she cared for, and that person cared for her in return.
She would never be lonely at night.
The wandering traveler had found her anchor point in the badlands.
The lonely whale had found the beacon to guide its way in the ocean.
Across vast light-years, their gazes would cross the sun's corona, pass through stars as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, and traverse the spiral arms of the galaxy to meet.
The meaning of her existence was no longer just for herself.
On the night they met, the person she cared for had promised her in person.
If she broke her wings on her journey, he would set aside everything from the past and choose her.
No matter what choice she made, no matter the weight her shoulders would bear, or how many innocents would die because of her decision...
She also hoped that she could selfishly, unwaveringly, and ahead of her own reason, bet the entire weight of her life on that person.
She would bring rebirth to this kingdom in her own way.
Rate on N.U.
