Chapter 1215: 202. Similarity
Muen walked out of the room. The magic stones outside were still shining brightly. Green trees and red flowers adorned the tiled walls, displaying the full beauty of this ancient and tranquil city.
But this beautiful scenery could not ease the heaviness in his heart. Instead, beneath the illumination of that light, the shadows seemed even deeper.
“Are... you all right?”
After settling the father and daughter to one side, Morton cautiously asked Muen.
“I’m fine.”
Muen shook his head.
“Something like this isn’t enough to do anything to me. I’m just... a little unwilling to accept it.”
“Unwilling to accept it? Do you mean that poor mother and daughter?”
“Mm. They were pitiful and innocent. They clearly did nothing wrong, yet they still had to bear the consequences. That is probably the most unreasonable thing in this world.”
Muen paused.
“But that isn’t the only reason I’m unwilling to accept it.”
He turned and looked back at the tightly closed door.
At the instant the door had closed just now, darkness had enveloped that fiery-red figure. For some unknown reason, it had made him feel extremely uncomfortable.
It was as though, at that moment, Miss Dragon had suddenly become very, very far away from him and from this world once again.
“Don’t worry. That lady is so powerful. Nothing will happen to her,” Morton comforted him.
“I know. I understand her strength better than anyone.”
Muen rubbed his arm with a bitter smile on his face.
After all, he had personally experienced Miss Dragon’s “massage” services. He understood perfectly well just how terrifying a force those seemingly fair and slender jade-like hands could unleash.
Logically speaking, what right did a weakling like him have to worry about the mightiest calamity dragon in the world?
“Rather than saying I’m worried about Miss Dragon, it would be more accurate to say that I hate this feeling of knowing exactly what the enemy wants to do, yet being powerless to stop it.”
Ever since entering this city, Muen believed that he had handled everything very well.
Whether it was controlling the city through Morton and preventing bloodshed, or using a systematic plan to help Miss Dragon search for those survivors, everything had gone well.
The results had also been excellent.
Avik.
Felimon.
In such a short amount of time, they had already found two survivors.
Muen believed that if they were given just a little more time, finding the remaining few would not be a problem at all.
But...
After the Pollution originating from an Evil God appeared, the situation had suddenly become strange and unpredictable.
Muen closed his eyes and sank into thought.
The scene from just now appeared before his eyes once again. Whether it was the woman’s furious roar or the little girl’s crying, everything was still so vivid.
He was reviewing what had happened and thinking it over.
Had he overlooked something in his calculations?
If he had reacted a little faster at the time, would there have been a chance to save them?
“Morton.”
Muen suddenly looked at Morton.
“If I asked you right now to believe in a special existence, would you possibly believe in it?”
“Huh?”
Morton had not expected to suddenly be asked such a question and froze.
“W-what kind of existence?”
“An existence unfamiliar to you.”
“This...”
“You wouldn’t, right?”
“After all, I wouldn’t understand it at all. How could something like faith simply appear because someone tells you to believe?”
Morton gave an awkward smile.
“Then what if I forced you?”
Muen flexed his fingers.
“What if I used violence to force you?”
“I would!”
Morton straightened his face, raised his head, and puffed out his chest.
“I definitely would!”
“That was a quick answer.”
Muen was amused by the comical performance of this old man whose hair had already turned gray.
However...
Although Morton’s tone was firm and powerful, his gaze flickered. There was not the slightest trace of sincerity in his eyes.
“I want you to answer me honestly.”
“A-all right...”
Under Muen’s piercing gaze, Morton’s shoulders slumped as he gave a bitter smile.
“I probably wouldn’t. How could a person suddenly believe in an unknown existence? No matter how wonderfully you described it, how could that compare with the understanding accumulated over a long period of time? Unless you could immediately show me a true miracle, then no matter who suddenly asked me to believe in something... I would probably only laugh it off.”
The innocence and kindness of this place had led him to answer that he would laugh it off, but in reality, that was no different from refusing.
And if even Morton was like this, then the others here naturally would be as well...
“So that really is how it is?”
Muen sighed.
That was right.
There were only two possible ways for faith to form.
The first was subtle influence and education over time.
The second was powerful salvation and miracles.
For Muen’s Black Sun, the former was completely impossible. After all, the Black Sun had only been born two short years ago. It had not even existed as long as a certain chicken guy had spent practicing.
That left only the latter.
But under the circumstances just now, if Muen wanted to display powerful salvation and miracles, he first had to suppress the Pollution.
Yet to suppress the Pollution, he needed the other party’s subjective faith.
But for that subjective faith to form, he first had to display powerful salvation and miracles...
A dead end.
An unsolvable dead end.
That was why, in Annabawei, he had first treated Marcie, who trusted him unconditionally. Next came the Pioneers who had witnessed his salvation and miracle. Only then had he treated the ordinary people who trusted the Pioneers.
But here...
Even Morton did not completely trust him, despite behaving very obediently.
Those stories.
The story told by the woman.
The plays that had been performed countless times.
They were like an ideological brand deeply carved into the mind of every person in this city.
The dragon was evil.
She had come to destroy this place.
The great heroes were the ones who intended to save them.
Previously, those thoughts had merely been forcibly suppressed. But the moment a problem arose, they immediately returned with full force.
And as long as those thoughts existed, it was completely impossible for Muen to turn the people here into believers of the Black Sun as he had in Annabawei and use that to suppress the Pollution.
—That was the truly terrifying part of the enemy’s overt scheme.
They had built this place.
They had polished and perfected this place.
Everything here had been born according to their ideas...
Naturally, it would also become their most perfect tool.
Muen finally understood why this place was so beautiful.
Because the more beautiful it had once been...
The more it could emphasize the ugliness that appeared after their arrival.
Everything had been calculated.
From beginning to end, this city had been built as a weapon intended to attack Miss Dragon.
Of course, even with such elaborate calculations, those factors alone still could not force Miss Dragon to follow the pace they desired.
Setting aside all the elements the survivors had so carefully constructed, the true factor that had directly overcome Miss Dragon’s overwhelming superiority in strength and caused the situation to slip beyond control...
Was still that one thing.
Pollution.
From Annabawei to the present New Tars.
Even from Tars eight hundred years ago to the unknown number of nations and city-states Miss Dragon had destroyed during those eight hundred years, the root of every problem had been the lingering poison left behind when Evil Gods corroded the world.
“Does Pollution... truly have no solution?”
Muen looked at his hands.
“If Pollution could be resolved, then all the problems before us would not even be—”
“If you want to dream, it would be better to wait until nighttime.”
The door to the room was suddenly pushed open.
Hamreign looked down from above, her golden pupils casting Muen a cold glance.
“Now is not the time for you to indulge in wild thoughts.”
“Miss Dragon!”
Muen turned around.
His gaze instinctively passed beyond that fiery-red figure and looked into the room.
The room was still the same room. It did not appear to have changed in the slightest.
It was simply empty.
There was no one inside anymore.
Even the faint smell of blood from before no longer existed.
Everything that had happened just now seemed like an illusion.
Muen forced himself to pull his gaze back.
“Is it... resolved?”
“They were only two ordinary humans. How long did you think it would take me?”
Hamreign’s expression remained impossible to see clearly, and only her voice was cold.
“I merely spent a little more time confirming that the Pollution had been completely eliminated. Otherwise, something as trivial as killing people would not even take me a second.”
“That’s true. Then... the poison?”
“It appears you guessed incorrectly.”
Hamreign extended her jade-like hand, which remained fair and slender without even the slightest trace of dirt, and waved it in front of Muen.
“Killing the people here will not poison me. When they died, I also did not sense the slightest trace of poison on them.”
“There wasn’t any?”
Muen was somewhat surprised and frowned in thought.
“Then could it be that simply making you kill people isn’t enough? Perhaps there are other conditions required to trigger it?”
“Or perhaps you are simply thinking too much, and there is no such complicated reason behind any of this.”
“Impossible. They have sacrificed so much and planned so much. Unless they have gone mad, I find it difficult to believe they would do something like this.”
“Then they have probably gone mad.”
Hamreign gave a cold snort.
“They have spent eight hundred years hiding like rats. Going mad would be perfectly normal. Look at Andri. Didn’t she go mad?”
“That’s different. Miss Andri was because—”
“There is nothing different about it.”
The might within her golden pupils suddenly blazed intensely as Hamreign directly interrupted Muen.
“For now, stop concerning yourself with whether there is some so-called poison. It does not matter what those rats intend to do to me. Whatever comes, I will deal with it. I have lived for a thousand years. I am not going to fear their conspiracies and tricks. If they truly wish to kill me for revenge, then let them try. I will be waiting for them.”
Muen’s breathing stopped for a moment.
The pressure radiating from the fiery-red figure before him made it almost impossible for him to keep his eyes open.
Proud.
Cold.
Looking down upon the entire world.
Arrogant beyond all reason.
But...
This was precisely how the strongest creature beneath the heavens should be.
Miss Dragon...
Or rather, Hamreign, the Dragon of Death and Doom, had always been like this.
“But...”
“You are far too cautious about this. You hesitate over everything. Are you even a man?”
Hamreign looked at him with disgust.
“...”
The corner of Muen’s mouth twitched.
Cautious?
Was she saying that after he had been tricked by Evil God believers, tricked by Evil Gods themselves, tricked by terrorist organizations...
And even tricked by his own people throughout his entire journey, he still was not allowed to learn caution?
Then he truly deserved praise.
Besides, she was accusing him of being cautious, but whenever Miss Dragon encountered Pollution, wasn’t she exactly the same...
“Right now, we have something even more important to do, assuming you still wish to preserve that pitiful kindness of yours.”
“Miss Dragon means...”
“Isn’t it easy to guess? How could those fellows possibly create only one or two Polluted people for me to kill?”
Hamreign sneered.
“If they could silently Pollute one location, then naturally, they could silently Pollute even more locations. Perhaps even...”
The entire city.
Muen took a deep breath and silently completed the sentence in his heart.
Of course he had already guessed that.
It was only when it was plainly laid out before him that he could truly feel the mountain-like pressure.
“What should we do?”
“Seal them off, separate them, and sever the medium!”
A flash passed through Hamreign’s golden pupils.
“No matter how bizarre an Evil God’s Pollution may be, without a medium, it cannot spread...
Just like your black flames.”
“But something like a medium is far too complicated and intangible.”
Muen frowned.
Even now, he had not yet understood the fundamental nature of this aspect.
“Do not worry. I have extensive experience with this. How many cases of Pollution do you think I have faced during the thousand years I have lived? Leave it to me. You only need to obey my orders.”
Hamreign’s words remained cold, yet they were enough to make others feel reassured.
Muen and Morton exchanged a glance before nodding.
“Understood.”
“Very good.”
Hamreign’s black thorn-covered dress swayed slightly as she slowly floated into the air.
After receiving Muen’s obedient answer, her anger seemed to lessen considerably.
But that faint, almost imperceptible sense of distance still remained.
She did not float very high, only high enough to take the entire city into her view.
Blue bricks and red walls.
Green leaves and red flowers.
Ancient buildings filled with an artistic atmosphere.
Horizontal and vertical streets that divided and arranged the entire °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° city with exceptional order.
All of it entered her eyes and then gradually overlapped with another scene emerging from her distant memories.
“How similar...”
She spoke softly.
“Huh?”
Muen raised his head.
“Why did you suddenly say that? Of course it’s similar. Wasn’t it already said that this New Tars was constructed as a complete imitation of the city from eight hundred years ago?”
“...”
Hamreign did not answer the noisy human.
The hands hidden within her sleeves merely clenched little by little.
And within the depths of her golden pupils, it was not only this city that was gradually overlapping.
Something else was overlapping as well...
Something that even she was unwilling to easily recall.
“Tars, New Tars, and this Pollution...”
“You rats... are you deliberately mocking me?”
...
...
New Tars.
Because the entire city had been sealed and placed under martial law, this city, which had once been noisy and lively and hosted free theatrical performances every day, was now unusually quiet.
But no matter how quiet it became, the whispering of “rats” could always be heard within the shadows hidden throughout the city.
“Avik and Felimon have both sacrificed themselves. They died at the hands of that evil dragon.”
A properly dressed old man raised his head.
Deep sorrow appeared upon his face, which had been carved full of ravines by the passage of time.
“Let us mourn them. They were among the few companions who still walked the same path as us.”
The shadows fell silent.
Only after a long time was the mournful atmosphere finally broken.
A strange face appeared within the darkness.
“The plan is progressing smoothly. She still acted.”
“That was inevitable.”
The old man smiled.
“We understand her better than anyone, don’t we? She was certain to do that, just like... back then.”
“Who will go next?”
The strange face asked,
“What we have done is still far from enough.”
“I will go.”
The old man did not hesitate.
“Is that really a good idea? You are the strongest among us. It would seem better for you to remain until the end and oversee everything.”
“Hahaha, there is no need. Whether we are strong or weak, what meaning does that have before her? Compared with that, after not seeing her for eight hundred years, I would much rather have a proper conversation with her and reminisce about the past.”
As he spoke, the old man’s expression became filled with incomparable anticipation.
“I believe Sister Dragon should already have realized the true meaning of this game.”
“...Do as you wish.”
The strange face said nothing further.
“Thank you.”
The old man’s gaze passed beyond the strange face and looked toward a swaying shadow deep within the darkness.
“Priscilla, remember to carefully watch the final ending for me. Then come to hell and tell me about it. It will certainly be magnificent.”
“...I will.”
After a moment of silence, a familiar voice emerged from the shadows.
“Very good.”
The old man smiled incomparably brightly.
The shadows receded.
The strange face and the swaying figure both disappeared.
Only the old man remained alone.
Facing the statue before him, he pressed his palms together, knelt on the ground, and prayed.
“Goddess of Light... please reveal your mercy and guide these lost lambs...”
“Buzz...”
The statue trembled gently.
Amid the blazing radiance, the incomparably benevolent Goddess of Light...
Bestowed her blessing once again.