Chapter 585

Chapter 207 The Remnants of the Deity – Part Four

Whoosh whoosh whoosh—

The wind howling past my ears intensified.

The rock beneath me cracked and collapsed. I couldn’t grab hold of the dancer’s hair; my body suddenly lost balance, falling amidst the scattering dust and debris. I crashed into a floating black rock, separating from the dancer in mid-air as we both fell towards the deepening collapse of the mountain.

“Cough, cough…”

Dust and ashes filled my vision and nostrils. I shut my eyes and coughed violently. Soon after, I collided with another hard rock. My right arm, still recovering from earlier injuries, was nearly twisted apart in the impact and friction. I screamed out in pain, but the sound was cut short by another collision. My body hit against various floating rocks, large and small, until I was numb. My head buzzed, “嗡嗡嗡嗡,” and just as my consciousness began to fade, I landed with a heavy thud.

“Ugh…”

Half my body was lodged in a crevice, making it impossible to breathe. My face turned blue and red. Bloodied and grimy, my neck veins bulged. My delicate features twisted in agony. My head was consumed by intense pain and dizziness. It took a while before I could take a forceful breath.

“Huh—”

The dust and ashes I had inhaled made me start coughing again.

“Cough, cough, cough!”

Blood froth spewed from my mouth, painting spots of crimson on the nearby rock wall.

“Mmm… Ahhh!!”

I shouted in despair, feeling my left arm still functional. I gritted my teeth, red-eyed, and clawed at the edges of the crevice, struggling to crawl out from the crack in the black rock. I rolled over, lying on my back, exhausted, gasping for air.

Clatter clatter clatter…

Countless fragments rained down from above, striking the cliff to my left and the rocks around me. I saw the once-standing peak nearly shattered, more massive rocks rising slowly against gravity in the upper part of my vision. The thunderous noise never ceased, deafening in my ears.

How fortunate…

If those big rocks had fallen along with the collapse, I might have been done for…

I sighed with relief, breathing heavily as I turned to search for the dancer amidst the cracking and crumbling rocks.

Where did she go…

My gaze quickly swept through the fragmented, mist-filled layers of rock. Soon, I spotted a figure in red lying against another rock wall, struggling to get up.

There she is…

The dancer stood unsteadily amidst the raining debris. Her red dress was soiled and tattered. A breeze blew, lifting her torn skirt. She bent down, removing the other shoe and discarding it. Amidst the rumbling tremors, she turned her head, searching for something. Soon, her eyes met mine, frozen in place.

Then, she started walking this way.

Boom—

A loud explosion, and the rock wall beside me rose into the sky, slowly floating due to some mysterious anti-gravity force. The ground shook even more violently, and the rock beneath me cracked with a sharp “crack.” Dust and dirt spread even thicker around me. I held my breath, enduring the itching and excruciating pain, quickly rolling to one side.

“Mmm…”

During the roll, my wounds were torn again, causing me immense pain. I hissed, taking a sharp intake of breath. It took a while to recover, and when I turned to look again, I saw that the dancer was standing not far from me.

I was startled and struggled to get up from the ground.

“Don’t move. I don’t want to fight you anymore,” the dancer spoke.

Her voice was calm as ever, emotionless, as if my previous choking sounds were merely an illusion. But when I half-supported myself to look at her face, I saw her dirty face with slightly reddened, dull eyes.

“Damn…”

I didn’t know what had happened.

But I had a bad feeling.

Just as I was about to ask her something, another dragon’s mournful roar echoed from afar.

“Roar—”

Sinking down, I abruptly turned my head towards the direction of the roar.

The rock walls standing beside me had all risen halfway into the sky. Without the black rocks blocking the view, the narrow space after the fall of the rock mass instantly widened, and the tallest peak came back into sight.

The huge blood-colored tumor was still floating in the air above the peak, slowly wriggling. Below it, there were blood networks everywhere, with more tentacle-like vessels continuously extending from the tumor, snake-like, into the rock pits below. With the vessels entering, the tremors on the ground became even more intense—the fairies I had seen earlier had long been buried under the dust flying at the foot of the peak, never to be seen again.

They… are all dead…

That tumor… seems to be destroying this world…

Whitey…

I felt anxious, struggling to get up from the ground, wanting to try again to save Whitey.

“It’s no use…”

The dancer next to me seemed to have seen my intention. She softly said, “The goddess’s body is hatching and recovering. The seal mediated by the dragon body is starting to break. This process is irreversible; none of us can stop it. Silvia, give up.”

“…What?”

I looked at her face, eyes wide open.

The goddess’s body… the seal breaking…

That thing is indeed…

My thoughts raced as I quickly processed these pieces of information in my mind. I took a deep breath, complex emotions gradually welling up in my heart.

It was suffocating.

The guardian of atonement… the apostle of Labish Hermes… the land of dragons… the tomb of dragons… the sealed body… the source of the heretic’s power… Diana… the goddess of sin… the filthy traitor…

That tumor… the goddess of sin’s body…

This place…

is actually where the goddess of sin is sealed… there’s no mistake…

And those dragons that had turned into black rocks, forming the ground we stood on, were the medium bearing the sealing power… they were just the medium… now… I am truly standing on the dead body of a dragon…

“So, there’s really… nothing demonic here…” I couldn’t help but mutter.

“Demon,” she chuckled lightly.

Her laughter, rather than mocking the deceived me, seemed more like self-mockery.

“There are no demons anywhere. It’s all lies from the church… but perhaps they weren’t entirely wrong.” The dancer walked past me, to the front of my line of sight, looking up at the direction of the tumor, “Perhaps in a while, we will see what true demons are.”

“What do you mean…”

My right leg… seems to have regained feeling…

I remained motionless, secretly moving my toes, then twisting my left arm, which recovered the fastest, fingers flexing. The dancer was somewhat dazed, not noticing my small movements behind her.

“It deceived me…”

The woman did not directly answer my question.

She seemed to be talking to herself, her voice light and airy, devoid of emotion yet somehow making one feel unbearably sad, “Centuries have passed… it deceived my father, deceived all of us… now I bear everything, risking everything, finally standing here. I see the truth, but when I look back… I realize…”

Her body swayed.

Silver-white hair danced amidst the ashes, her crimson dress rustling in the tremors. Her faint words reached my ears, like whispers of a ghost in the night.

“The establishment of the Gate of Truth… so many generations persisting through the ages… the things we strive to change… turn out to be nothing but a tragic and laughable daydream… an utterly thorough yet deeply believed fraud… for centuries… what we have been holding onto… is merely this…”