Chapter 1220: 207. The Blooming Flower
In this beautiful place created by human hands, the survivors had once scattered seeds.
Seeds of faith.
The story of the Goddess of Light had been introduced in general terms to the people here, allowing them to know that it was this great existence who had helped bring about the birth of this city.
But they had only scattered the seeds. They had not actively guided or watered them, much less used their prestige to actively promote the faith. They had even secretly suppressed its related development.
They had merely engraved it into the minds of everyone in this city as a basic impression.
Just like the plays that were performed over and over again.
Nothing more.
And in the environment at that time, the seeds could not possibly sprout on their own.
Their happy and beautiful lives meant that people had no need to entrust vague hopes to some distant existence in the future. Perhaps some people might mention her a few times, but that was not true faith.
But when the evil dragon that had been emphasized countless times in the plays descended from the sky, this beautiful city suddenly underwent an enormous change.
The evil dragon defeated the brave Dragon-Slaying Team, bewitched the diligent Proxy, and imprisoned everyone inside their homes.
At first, the naive people still held onto a sliver of hope, because the evil dragon’s hound had said that they had not come to bring destruction and would soon leave.
But as time passed, they discovered that the evil dragon had not left. Instead, this imprisonment became increasingly severe.
Not only had all exchanges of information been cut off, but terrifying restrictions had separated everyone. Even food and water were no longer being delivered.
The uncertainty of the future, as well as the crisis threatening their survival, directly intensified their fear. Their inability to learn anything about the outside world or anyone else only caused their suspicions to grow continuously.
Humans were inherently this fragile.
Especially those terrifying restrictions that far exceeded anything they could imagine. Like prison cages, they continuously stimulated their fragile nerves.
Until...
Amid doubt and unease, they gradually moved toward despair.
And it was precisely within such despair...
That they heard the voice of their Lord Hero.
It was the Lord Hero they trusted most, worshiped most, and respected most. He delivered a terrifying prophecy, causing even those who had still been holding onto hope to begin wavering inside.
They could only...
Cling to the final straw within their hearts.
And so, the soil that had long since fully ripened finally began to produce sprouts.
“Honored Goddess of Light...”
The young man named Ebra slowly removed the bandages wrapped around his arm, revealing the limb that had already undergone mutation. His heart was filled with fear.
Because he had seen this strange illness before.
On that pitiful little girl.
And that pitiful little girl seemed to have already died.
“Please... save me...”
...
“Merciful Goddess of Light...”
Inside a sealed house, two young women whose mutations were even more severe than Ebra’s cried as they knelt on the floor.
“Please... help me...”
...
“Benevolent Goddess of Light...”
Before two small gravestones in a courtyard, a man who had lost his child and wife held the hand of his only remaining daughter. His expression was incomparably twisted.
“Please... fulfill my wish...”
“Great Goddess of Light...”
At this very moment.
Throughout this city.
Beneath the sealing of countless restrictions.
An unknown number of people began to devoutly whisper prayers toward that existence radiating endless brilliance.
They begged...
For the blessing of a god.
...
...
The light of the lantern swayed, as though it might go out at any moment.
The ancient clock had stopped with roughly ten seconds remaining before its hands overlapped. A crack had nearly split it in two, preventing it from operating any further.
The old man who had originally been elegant and dressed in proper clothing now had a face swollen dark red beneath the restraint of a fair, jade-like hand. Shattering sounds continuously rang out around him. Those were the various magic formations he had arranged in advance being crushed to pieces.
But he...
Was still smiling.
He smiled with great satisfaction and delight, as though the hatred of a full eight hundred years was about to be completely released not long from now...
“You still came one step too late.”
Clarence mockingly stared at the fiery-red figure before him. His voice was hoarse, but filled with joy.
“What a pity. You clearly did so well this time, yet in the end... it still came to this conclusion.”
“Clarence...”
The golden pupils were brighter than ever before, like a great sun rising high into the sky. Her fiery-red hair danced wildly without wind, and an unimaginable draconic pressure crushed down like a tidal wave, as though it intended to make every living creature die from fear.
Hamreign’s tone was cold to the extreme.
Although her face was still covered by mist, her anger at this moment had nearly condensed into substance.
“You hid for so long merely to make your deaths more miserable?”
The small amount of counterattack Clarence had just gathered was immediately shattered by Hamreign. That jade-like hand tightened once again.
She was not merely strangling his throat.
Terrifying power spread outward with her hand as its center, slowly crushing every bone in his body.
“Cough, cough...”
Clarence’s face became even paler. The violent pain caused his expression to twitch, but even while experiencing the ultimate agony of every bone and piece of flesh throughout his body being slowly crushed...
Only the delighted smile at the corner of his mouth remained unchanged.
“Ha... Death? We are people who were going to die from the beginning. In any case, sooner or later you would have found us. So what difference does it make whether our deaths are miserable or not? But before dying, being able to take revenge on you...
“That truly is the most wonderful thing in this world!”
No one knew where the strength came from, but Clarence struggled violently, seemingly wanting to sweep away the layer of mist covering Hamreign’s face and see her expression at this moment.
“Sister Dragon! My dear Sister Dragon...
“I cannot hear it, but you should be able to hear it, right?
“You should be able to hear the devout prayers of those people trapped inside your restrictions, right?
“You should be able to hear the sound of those seeds sprouting!”
“Hahaha! You know it. They are about to be Polluted! They are about to mutate into monsters!
“Great dragon, great calamity, quickly use that invincible power of yours and think of a solution!”
“...Pollution?”
Muen hurriedly arrived.
His attempt to knock the shop owner unconscious and interrupt his follow-through had failed, making him realize that the only possible solution to this matter lay with Clarence.
But unexpectedly, the moment he arrived, he heard such heart-tightening words.
“You are saying that those prayers will summon Pollution? How could that be... Are Miss Dragon’s restrictions not still present? Every medium has already been cut off. How could there still be Pollution?”
Muen was filled with confusion.
He had originally thought that the purpose of those prayers was to summon some kind of projection of Brother Withering. He had even prepared himself to fight a boss.
But unexpectedly...
“Who are you trying to deceive again?”
Muen narrowed his eyes and stared at Clarence.
“Do you think we are as easy to deceive as those people?”
“Ha... Deceive you? Why would I deceive you?”
Clarence’s expression was mocking.
“Or do you believe that her restrictions are truly invincible?
“Indeed, I admit that it is an extremely powerful method. Had this been anywhere else, this wave of Pollution would already have been suppressed. There would have been no possibility of it spreading at all!
“But now...
“Here, that kind of thing can no longer happen.”
Clarence looked toward Hamreign again.
“Am I right, Sister Dragon? You should be the existence in this world with the deepest understanding of Pollution, should you not?”
“...”
A long time passed.
A very long time.
This was probably the first time Muen had felt such a prolonged silence from Hamreign.
It lasted so long that Muen found it difficult to count exactly how many seconds had passed before she finally, lightly and almost imperceptibly, nodded once.
“Yes. My restrictions cannot block Pollution that is actively embraced.”
Her voice was calm but cold. No emotion could be heard in her tone. She was merely making a simple statement.
“After all, even the barriers of the world cannot block it.”
“...The barriers of the world.”
Muen’s pupils contracted.
After a brief period of thought, he finally understood the principle behind this matter.
That was right...
No matter how powerful Miss Dragon was, she could only seal off the mediums.
But since Clarence had been able to “speak” to the people of this city, that meant...
The “medium” had already been opened.
Not after the restrictions had been established, but...
Much earlier.
This city, and the people inside it, had already been riddled with holes and openings.
“It seems that you have already understood. You are very intelligent!
“That is correct. This is exactly the principle.
“Even if she is strong, strong enough that no one in the entire world can rival her...
“How could she possibly protect a fortress that had already been breached long ago?”
Clarence shouted loudly.
“She cannot!
“Because this place was originally a hunting ground that we carefully prepared for you!
“A hunting ground where you are the prey!
“Sister Dragon...
“Hamreign, now you are the prey!”
“...I am the prey?”
Hamreign laughed from anger.
“Clarence, it seems that over these eight hundred years, the only thing that has grown is your arrogance.”
“Wait.”
Muen grabbed Hamreign’s hand.
“Do not allow him to disturb your mind, and do not allow yourself to be misled. Calm down.
“In truth, even Pollution is not a problem.
“The Pollution he causes through these people’s prayers and Pollution transmitted through a medium are two different things.
“The shop owner was praying to the Goddess of Light, which means the Withering King!
“As long as it is Pollution from the Withering King, then I can...”
“Dong.”
Suddenly, someone collided with a restriction, producing a dull sound.
Muen subconsciously turned his head toward the noise, then...
Froze in place.
The pale-golden restrictions still existed, covering every house in the city and separating everyone here by household.
They had originally been constructed to protect the people here.
But now, on the other side that was supposed to be protected, a figure stood there unsteadily.
It was the shop owner.
The owner of that coffee shop.
He had originally been such a familiar person, but Muen spent several full seconds before finally recognizing him.
Because at this moment, all the flesh throughout his body had already undergone mutation.
Half of his entire face had bloomed open like a man-eating flower. Several eyes blinked upon the “petals” filled with sharp teeth.
Thick limbs extended from his back and replaced his original legs, causing his manner of walking to become incomparably strange.
Swaying unsteadily like this, he arrived at the edge of the restriction.
“...How could this be?”
Looking at the revolting appearance of the shop owner, Muen found it difficult to believe.
Pollution...
That itself did not surprise Muen very much. After all, Clarence had already mentioned it.
What he could not understand was...
“Why...
“Why is it still this kind of Pollution?”
The target of these prayers was clearly the Goddess of Light, which was also the Withering King’s disguise.
According to normal logic, even if they bypassed Miss Dragon’s restrictions, the one responding to them and granting them power should still have been the Withering King.
Was that not exactly what had happened in Annabawei?
The faith in the Goddess of Light spread by Priscilla had brought about the Withering King’s Pollution!
But why...
Why had the same faith and the same prayers produced, here, this kind of Pollution that caused flesh to mutate chaotically?
“Dong!”
The sound of striking awakened Muen once again.
He looked over and saw that the shop owner, who had originally been cowardly and timid, was now using his head, from which some kind of red-and-white substance flowed, to violently smash against the restriction while laughing loudly.
“Evil dragon!”
The eyes upon the “petals” blinked continuously, filled with excitement.
“Look at me! I have already received the Goddess’s blessing! I am already...No longer afraid of you!”