Chapter 687

Chapter 72 Fire and Ash Part 4

…Angel!

At the sight of the bloody hand, this thought flashed through my mind. Elina… This woman can also transform into an angel! She hadn’t used it from beginning to end in the Western Continent, but now it suddenly appeared, leaving me completely unprepared. This meant she would become even more dangerous and troublesome.

My heart skipped a beat, and I wanted to dodge, but suddenly realized that my right hand had already been firmly grasped by the woman. When I tried to pull away, I couldn’t break free. Seeing the bloody hand about to press down on me, the scorching wind scattered, and at the last moment, I gritted my teeth and quickly turned sideways—

Rip!

The stinky arm slapped onto my right shoulder. The huge bloody hand then squeezed me entirely into its palm. Sharp claws tore through the robe, drawing blood from my waist and chest, causing intense pain. I gasped for breath, my lungs burning. My right arm suddenly shot out from between the bloody fingers, my fist clenched tight, my expression fierce as I aimed to smash it towards the wrist of the bloody hand!

Buzz—

Suddenly, my head spun, and a strong feeling of nausea and dizziness overwhelmed me.

What…

My vision blurred, and the scene before me became unreal. My whole body felt like it was being burned by fire, and all I could hear were buzzing sounds. The raised hand suddenly lost its strength and fell limply back to my side.

What’s happening…

It seems like my consciousness is leaving my body… I… can no longer move…

What’s wrong with me…

What’s going on!

In a daze, I saw the woman use her hand to straighten her twisted neck. Her face appeared multiple times in my line of sight. Something was continuously flowing into the wound that was causing me pain. I lowered my head and saw large amounts of bright red liquid seeping out from the skin of the bloody hand gripping my body. It flowed like living creatures, without a drop wasted, being absorbed entirely by my body and the wounds.

What is this…

…Blood?

My body is absorbing the blood released by Elina…

What’s happening…

Ah…

So hot…

So hot, so hot, so hot!

“Ughaaaaa!”

I roared with all my might, my panic spreading throughout my body. I struggled desperately to break free, but it was futile.

I have no strength left…

My brain, gradually consumed by the burning sensation, could no longer properly control my actions. I could only stare blankly at the increasingly indistinct face of the woman, my vision turning completely red.

“What did you do to me…”

The smoke dissipated in the hot breath, and a strong sense of drowsiness kept overwhelming me. Even speaking was becoming difficult.

“…the essence of the deity.”

Vaguely, the voice of the woman named Elina came from beside my ear, sounding like a whisper echoing from a distant valley, repeating endlessly, like a dream.

“How incredible… Such a thing. You know, it is not as solid as imagined. It exists independently in a purely spiritual form beyond human understanding. Even if it leaves the physical body, it will not die or disappear; it is eternal… a true god.”

“Mmm…”

Gurgling sounds of blood flow grew louder around me. The red in my eyes became even more glaring. The stinky, viscous liquid began to spread rapidly. The hot sensation enveloped my waist, my legs, and ankles, and started to rise toward my chest.

I can hardly breathe…

Damn it…

I can’t fall asleep here…

“Ugh… Mmm…”

I tried

Fully activating the Ice and Frost Order, I released all the chaotic power at once. However, my body was enveloped in boiling blood, causing increasingly intense burning pain and drowsiness. It made it impossible for me to concentrate any further. It felt as if something had been hollowed out inside me. My head drooped bit by bit, and even my eyelids started to feel heavy…

The woman’s inexplicable words became increasingly unclear in my ears.

“It possesses… the power to give strength to all life in the world… even… the ability to create life… They created their own… the strongest physical form… capable of bearing and releasing the terrifying energy contained within their souls… Such a physical form… is not easy to shape… That’s why the Great Goddess needed me to revive its previous physical form… but it failed…”

“It deceived me… I never thought it would deceive me, but it did… The gods do not lie unless they have gone mad… Since it has lost its mind, we no longer need such a god… So, after I returned, I also deceived it once.”

“Gurgle… gurgle…”

Thick blood oozed from my chest to my neck, and the stench filled my mouth.

I slowly closed my eyes, with no hope of escaping anymore.

So… tired…

“I told it that the divine body was destroyed by the church, but I brought back a part of it… enough to allow it to recreate a new divine body. That part is you… Silvija…”

“You are the new divine body… and the soul of the goddess is actually… inside your body…”

The woman’s voice gradually faded away in my ear.

In the next moment, my consciousness plunged into chaos.

…………

The night was deep and silent.

In the small town on the sand, flames burned by the roadside, and the mud house collapsed with a rumble. The woman named Alna, covered in blood and wearing a cloak, retracted her bloody hand. The withered and terrifying arm instantly shrank back under her cloak, writhing before settling down.

“The power of the bead, which was extracted using the spine bone of an ancient god as a vessel and refined with sin fire, absorbing the blood of ten thousand people to break the seal of Dragon Country… After that, it devoured the true goddess’s physical form, fusing with its flesh and blood, and somehow survived… Do you think your current body is still lacking something to become a god?”

In front of the woman was a huge sphere floating in mid-air, formed by dark brown blood. The orb resembled an un-hatched red egg, containing the unconscious body of a young girl. The woman looked at the egg and muttered, “Hmm, it still needs one more fusion with a soul.”

She put her hood back on, covering half of her burnt and withered face and her blind eye, “But it can’t be the soul of the Sin Goddess, it has gone mad…”

“So I took your body, well… more accurately, the remains of your flesh, to the Sand Valley. In front of the soul that was already half-awakened, I told it that this was the remains of a divine body I brought from West Continent… Hmph. Our goddess is really not very smart. Even though she learned to lie, her ability to discern lies is still as naive as a three-year-old child.”

“It fused itself into your body, believing you were its body because you consumed the divine body. It only recognizes that kind of connection… I can’t describe it. But it didn’t realize that your body contains not just the power of sin… Moreover, your consciousness wasn’t completely extinguished at that moment. I noticed this, so I decided to take another gamble…”

She sighed softly, “My body is failing. I’ve already implanted an Angel Egg, so I will eventually lose my consciousness in the future, on the day the goddess truly awakens, and become its servant… Most of us from the Truth Gate will end up like this, but perhaps none of us will see that day…”

“I hope so.”