Chapter 95

Chapter 68 Wildfire on the Vast Prairie Part 6

Suddenly, a wave of heat surged towards me, the fiery light coloring half my body red. I felt a warning in my heart and swung my arm.

Crack!

An ice wall sprang up beside me, blocking the incoming flames.

Sizzle—

Steam rose in waves as the ice wall rapidly melted. The flames thrown by the disfigured man seemed even hotter than those on Varal’s body. His figure then flashed out from the side of the ice wall, his blazing hands trailing flames as he swooped down at me.

In an instant, blue light enveloped me again, shining brighter than the flames. I stretched out both hands and pushed against the disfigured man’s figure.

The power of order was fully unleashed, holding nothing back.

Snap—!!!

A huge ice spear shot up to over ten meters high, freezing the disfigured man and everything around him solid. Frost exploded forth, raining down ice pellets.

In the next moment, the bottom of the towering ice spear suddenly glowed red, with terrifying roars coming from inside.

Boom… Boom… Boom—!!

After three loud explosions, the ice spear burst apart, dark brown flames swirling like a raging tide, surging out with scorching heat, reaching out to burn everything in sight in an instant.

My hair curled slightly, and a burnt smell filled the air. I squinted my eyes.

I couldn’t dodge it, so I had to take it head-on.

I held my short scythe across my chest, thick ice mist enveloping my entire body.

Boom—!

A violent explosion rang out beside my ears, followed by a loud “buzz” as a massive impact reverberated through the ground beneath me. Mud and snow flew five meters into the air. I staggered, unable to hold my ground, stumbling back several steps, nearly falling to the ground.

My arm and scalp were numb, and my ears kept ringing. Flying ice crystals and spurting flames filled my vision, the “whoosh” sounds of the air currents never ceasing. Black and white smoke intertwined and rose into the sky.

The pressure from the disfigured man’s attack was almost comparable to the abyss’s dark blade.

What was happening? How could he suddenly become this powerful…

I looked ahead with a serious expression, the disfigured man stepping out from the collapsing ice spear, his flames flickering as he let out a high-pitched shout.

“I am the faithful servant of the God of Truth—!”

“I am—”

Then his voice abruptly stopped. Just when I thought he was about to unleash another powerful move, the flames went out.

The disfigured man staggered and fell straight down, which stunned me, who was already prepared for another round of attacks.

…Huh? What happened?

Is this some new technique?

I watched him warily, suspecting he might be tricking me. After a while, I saw his body deflate rapidly, like a leaking balloon.

“Don’t look. Cough, cough… He’s dead.”

Varal, frozen in the ice spear, spoke weakly.

I looked over with confusion, seeing his pale face, no longer displaying the previous manic demeanor. He was staring blankly at the disfigured man lying on the ground.

Soon after, he wore a mocking smile.

“Forcing the sin fire to its third stage ‘Blood Sacrifice’… His body couldn’t withstand it for even a minute…”

“…What do you mean?”

I didn’t quite understand what he was saying.

Blood Sacrifice? Third stage?

He mentioned something about revival earlier… Is this the grading of the sin fire by the Door of Truth?

Varal did not answer me.

Flames still burned on his body, though the flames were wavering and on the verge of extinction. Frost covered him, freezing his black robe, leather armor, skin, and even his blood. His body trembled uncontrollably.

The disfigured man seemed truly dead, his body shriveled to the point of resembling a skeleton. Even if that sin fire was bizarre, it couldn’t save him now.

I thought there would be a big battle… Indeed, using sin fire to burn oneself for power comes at a great cost.

“Hey, girl.”

I tilted my head.

“Cough, cough. Tell me honestly, have you,

“Did I not give it my all?”

“…”

Give it my all?

Not really. It was more that at the last moment, I couldn’t hold back my concern for Lafayette’s situation. I wanted to quickly finish off the enemy, so I ended up using this large-scale attack with no particular technique, overwhelming them with an overwhelming force of order.

If the Duke knew, he might scold me.

“Is that so…” My silence seemed to convey something to him, as he raised his head and suddenly felt somewhat moved. “It’s truly… unexpected.”

As he spoke, there came a sudden rumble of hooves from the direction of the forest.

Rumble…

I turned to look, and saw countless hunters riding on rhinoceros beasts, charging towards us like a thunderstorm, a dark mass stretching out as far as the eye could see, numbering at least a thousand, perhaps even more.

That…

The ground trembled, and in a moment, they were within a hundred meters, their iron hooves smashing through like a tidal wave, colliding with the already retreating city guards.

In an instant, blood splattered everywhere, limbs flew, and madness echoed. The city guards had no chance to struggle; they were instantly crushed.

“It’s the hunters—”

“Run! We can’t fight them, there are too many… Run, damn it!!”

“The winter city reinforcements have arrived! We can’t escape, we can’t escape—”

People fell in droves, soldiers began to flee, and those who didn’t run far were trampled by the hooves behind them, spewing flesh and blood, only to be finished off by the hunters on the rhinoceros beasts.

Lafayette’s guards raised their swords and shouted.

“You’re late, ha ha!”

“These are the ones we left behind—”

“Hey hey! Our crown prince, where do you think you’re going? Your leg is already crippled, save your strength!”

In my line of sight, Lafayette waved to the leading hunter.

“Bella! Go support Pipo over there, she’s fighting with the heretics of the Truth Gate—uh, it seems the battle has ended?”

The leading hunter appeared to be a woman. She glanced in my direction from the crowd and said something to Lafayette before kicking her continuously screaming rhinoceros beast, leading a group toward me.

The twilight darkened, and stars twinkled on the horizon.

The crescent moon hung overhead, casting a bluish-white light.

“Caw—”

Crows called from the sky.

The snow stopped unnoticed.

“You’ve won.”

Vallar’s weak voice sounded again in my ear. I nodded slightly, walked two steps forward, and held up my short scythe, pointing it at his neck.

“Like this, chop down. Will you die?”

Vallar chuckled lightly.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“The power of fire is already very weak, I’m afraid it can’t recover again… It’s regrettable—there’s still so much to do…”

Perhaps realizing he was about to die, he seemed like a different person, speaking pleasantly… if one could ignore his disheveled appearance, one might describe him this way.

Completely unlike the Vallar I remembered. Is this… when death approaches, one speaks kindly?

“Girl, is this your first time… encountering the Truth Gate?”

“Second.” Then suddenly thought of something, “Those merchants, are they yours?”

“Merchants…?” Vallar pondered for a moment and then realized, “Oh, you mean those… those reed sellers? They were captured by you?”

I nodded.

“Sort of.”

“They’re just some… reed sellers, selling their lives for gold. Most of them… probably haven’t even heard of the name Truth Gate… They were executed by the church, ha ha—cough cough—”

A violent cough, Vallar spat out a mouthful of frozen blood clots.

“They sell reeds to you. To make… black balls?”

“Oh, yes, correct.”

He immediately admitted it. I looked at the weak smile on his face and felt intuitively that he was lying.

So I pondered for a moment.

“What is the Truth Gate?”

“Haha, what do you think… it is?”

“…utterly, insane.”

The translation aims to capture the nuances and emotions of the original text while ensuring it reads naturally in English.