Chapter 343: Like a Firefly to a Flame, Life Begets Death
She had long, silver hair as soft as moonlight, with the tips fading into a light green resembling newborn leaves. Her eyes were breathtaking—a mesmerizing gradient of deep ocean blue and twilight pink—and right now, they reflected the burning azure flames in the distance.
Her attire made her look more like an honor student heading to a school festival. She wore a fitted, short brown blazer over a green-and-white dress, with a cute yellow bow tied at her collar. A brown headband rested in her hair, adorned with a black bow on the left side, accented by two emerald feathers that trembled slightly in the heatwaves. Over-the-knee socks, fading from teal at the top to dark brown at the ankles, encased her slender, straight legs.
For such a delicate, quiet, and somewhat sickly-looking girl to be standing on a battlefield hot enough to melt steel—her very presence was a study in extreme contrast.
Facing Aiden's concerned question, Firefly slightly turned her head, her silver hair swaying gently in the thermal updrafts. Her gradient eyes held none of the terror one would expect from a Lv.1 adventurer. Instead, they projected a calm as serene as still water, hiding a deeply buried, burning intensity.
"I'm fine, Aiden." Her voice was soft, yet unwavering. "This... compared to the Swarm, this is really nothing."
With that, she took a deep breath. Her slender hands quietly flipped over, and a brilliant, emerald-green transformation device, shaped like a beetle's carapace, materialized out of thin air. She gripped it tightly.
Watching the somewhat fragile silhouette of the girl—who looked as though a strong gust of wind could knock her over—Aiden's thoughts couldn't help but drift back to a golden afternoon not long ago.
It was when he had finally accumulated enough energy in the system and initiated a summon within the secret chamber of the Palais Mermonia. Layers of golden magic circles had unfolded, and ancient, mysterious runes had swam through the air like dragons. When the light faded, what appeared before him was a completely naked young girl, her skin as pale as fresh snow.
What made his heart tremble the most were the eerie, fluorescent-green lines faintly surfacing on her cheeks, her slender neck, her arms, and her ankles. The lines pulsed like veins, radiating a highly unstable and decaying aura.
When the girl awoke, she hadn't panicked. She looked at Aiden, her beautiful eyes carrying the detached indifference of someone who had survived life and death, paired with the spark of a new beginning.
"AR-26710, reporting for duty." That was her first sentence.
She didn't come from the timeline where she had joined the Stellaron Hunters and become renowned across the universe. Instead, she was the Firefly who had just barely survived the apocalyptic war against Glamoth's Swarm—a girl who had only just grasped the meaning of "living for oneself," only to find herself lost in the void.
"AR-26710... that's not a good name. Firefly... from now on, your name is Firefly," Aiden had said as he draped a coat over her shoulders.
She really liked that name. In the sunlight, fireflies were nothing more than ordinary insects. They might throw themselves into flames, or suddenly grow old, but when night falls, their light shines brighter than the stars. These seemingly insignificant lives still possessed a spark capable of illuminating the night sky.
However, reality was cruel.
Even after being summoned to this world and receiving the "Falna" from their patron goddess Focalors, the terminal illness known as Entropy Loss Syndrome followed her like a shadow. This chronic, irreversible disintegration of her physical tissues was solidified into an agonizingly negative skill by the divine hieroglyphs.
Aiden still remembered the terrified, sympathetic look in Furina's eyes when she first inscribed those characters onto Firefly's back. This skill was so remarkably similar to the one held by Alfia, the "Silence" who had once stood at the absolute pinnacle of Orario. It was a tragic, heroic march toward death, using life itself as the fuel.
Thinking of this, Aiden mentally pulled up Firefly's status board:
[Name: Firefly]
[Level: Lv.1]
[Basic Abilities]
[Strength: I0 | Endurance: I0 | Dexterity: I0 | Agility: I0 | Magic: I0]
[Development Abilities: Diving I]
[Magic]
[Molten Knight: Armament Magic. Short chant.]
[Chant: "Like a firefly to a flame, life begets death. I shall fight for my own sake, until everything burns to ashes."]
[Skills]
[Entropy Loss Syndrome: Permanent negative skill. The essence of life is slowly collapsing. Even outside of combat, endurance permanently depletes over time. The only way to prolong life is by leveling up to forcibly rebuild the physical limit.]
[Complete Combustion: Active skill. At the cost of life force, enter an overloaded state. All attributes receive a transcendent buff that surpasses level constraints.]
[Dead Star Overload: Passive skill. The stronger the will, the more exponentially the ability values increase. The brink of death is the moment of greatest strength.]
[Divine Protection of the Water God: Passive skill.]
"Aiden, please watch me."
Firefly's voice pulled Aiden back to reality.
She stood amidst the azure heatwaves that were boiling the waterfall dry, her emerald transformation device flashing in her palm.
"Firefly... even if it's just a fleeting light, I will burn through this darkness."
She raised her head, locking eyes with the arrogant, two-headed white dragon.
Under the shocked gazes of everyone present, Firefly began her incantation.
"Like a firefly to a flame, life begets death. I shall fight for my own sake, until everything burns to ashes."
Her cold, clear chant cut cleanly through the deafening roars of the two-headed dragon and the explosive thrum of the blazing azure flames. Firefly raised the emerald, carapace-like device to her chest, pressing the core without a shred of hesitation.
"Transform!"
The crisp, mechanical sound of locking gears rang out—the first note in this symphony of destruction.
In the next fraction of a second, crimson flames erupted from the ground, blossoming like an eerie red lotus that instantly swallowed Firefly's slender figure whole. The core temperature of the fire was so high that it visibly warped and distorted the scorching air around her.
The flames shot toward the cavern ceiling, then violently contracted.
When the light dissipated, the sickly, quiet girl was nowhere to be seen. In her place stood a mechanical juggernaut over two meters tall, its chassis gleaming with cold, silver light.
Sleek, powerful armor plated its entire body, while broad shoulder guards gave it an aura of unparalleled, oppressive dominance. Beneath the glowing teal visor covering its face, not a single trace of human emotion could be seen. From the seams in the armor, firefly-green light constantly flared and pulsed, as if a terrifying life force was surging relentlessly within.
—Molten Knight, SAM.
Before anyone could recover from the sheer shock of the transformation, an even more majestic wave of magic erupted from SAM's back.
Teal flames blasted outward, forming a magnificent, sprawling cape of fire behind it. The terrifying thrust instantly launched its heavy frame into the air, soaring toward the top of the massive cavern.
Looking up at the silver-white mech unfurling its wings of emerald flame in the sky, Daphne and Cassandra's brains practically short-circuited.
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