Chapter 378

When the Star Fell (VIII)

At first it was calming and freeing—the touch of the pure-white flames was mesmerizing, like a faint, beautiful tickle. It made them all jittery and expectant, as though there was an upcoming, greater sensation. However, it never came.

First came the cries—those weaker cried out first, but everyone, eventually, yelled out in pain and fell to their knees. All wanted to open their eyes and scream at the top of their lungs to stop, but they were incapable. Their eyes remained glued shut and their throats seemed like the had melted under the raging fire.

It consumed them from within—digging into the places they didn’t think even existed. It felt as though the fire had bored its way into their souls and was running amok against its tender walls, all-consuming.

There was very little they could do but sit on their knees and suffer. Though those who have accompanied Cain for the longest suffered less, they all suffered still for the kind of pain that the fire was procuring was beyond physical. It felt as though it was ripping something from them, but it wasn’t like ripping off a band-aid. Rather, it was the opposite—slow, excruciating, torturous.

On the side, the twins watched over the proceedings with an expressionless face. In truth, the kind of pain that they were experiencing was virtually nothing in the grand scheme of the scale, but to them it was likely life-altering.

“How long should it take?” either Nature or Harmony asked U’nul who had joined them after pouring the flames over the entire raid group.

“It depends,” she had transformed into a normal-seeming woman from her ethereal shape, regaining her normal-sounding voice. “I never caught what was the hurry.”

“Someone’s attacking the world,” either Harmony or Nature replied.

“Externally?”

“Yes.”

“That’s… strange,” U’nul frowned.

“Try ludicrous,” both twins shrugged, though only one spoke. “Even cosmos-wide, world-invasions are a spectacularly rare event. External ones? Even rarer. Invasions of infant worlds that hadn’t even crossed the first border? This might just be the first, in fact.”

“Do you know who?”

“No. Cain went to intercept them, but from the few flashes we got, he’s just delaying them. Likely doesn’t want to go all out, as there are likely many eyes pointed at us right now.”

“Won’t someone interfere?” U’nul questioned. “I recall that there’s a rather graceful amnesty period for the newly audited worlds.”

“Who knows?” either Harmony or Nature replied. “Usually, those things are bricked before they even occur. Now, though, they are just outside the barrier, fighting to get in, and there’s no response, there’s nothing. There hasn’t even been a notification sent for the world invasion. Something is off.”

“… do you want me to speed up the process?” U’nul asked. “There’s a high chance some of them might die, though.”

“Just for a few,” either Harmony or Nature said. “We’ll mark them for you. Leave the others alone.”

“No wonder there’s such a hurry,” U’nul said as she increased the intensity of the experience for those the twins marked. “I am sorry that I cannot be of much help. Unless the Star comes to free me, I am imprisoned here.”

“He won’t. It would just raise more suspicion. The reason why the invasion wasn’t stopped was likely that there are some doubts about this world, and the powers-that-be are probing. After all, it’s usually not normal that a group of thrice-Awakened follow back a small lordling to a world entirely free of even twice-Awakened.”

“The Star breaks the common thought,” U’nul said. “Always has, and always will.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but his class isn’t why we followed him,” either Nature or Harmony said with a faint chuckle. “Though it is quite spectacular, at least if the many stories we’ve read are to be true.”

“Why did you follow him, then?”

“Many reasons, in truth. The doors simply opened to a world we otherwise would have never accessed. And death is preferable to rotting in mediocrity.”

“The first one is waking.”

“Already?” the twins and U’nul turned their heads to the group where a single kindle of the white flame was abruptly snuffed out. Among the sea of fire, surprisingly, Yuki was the first to stand up. His eyes remained glazed and unfocused for a moment as he appeared desolate and confused. It didn’t last long, however, as sharp focus returned to his gaze that immediately shuffled over to the trio. Looking around after the fact, he saw that everyone was still undergoing the baptism and he removed himself from the crowd, joining the three.

“Congratulations,” U’nul said, smiling faintly. “For successfully undergoing your first baptism.”

“It was hell, you know?” Yuki almost wanted to cry.

“Why did he finish first?” either Nature or Harmony asked. “No offense to the kid, but he’s hardly the most talented.”

“Ouch. But, yes, true.” Even Yuki was confused as to why he was the first.

“The white-flame purification is a bit… different,” U’nul explained. “It aims to exorcise the heart and soul-consuming demons. The young boy finished first likely because he had the fewest fears and reservations and insecurities.”

“… that can’t be right,” Yuki exclaimed.

“Makes sense,” unlike him, however, the twins nodded in agreement. “There’s strange variants everywhere, indeed.”

“What was your ritual like?” U’nul asked.

“Bloodthirst,” either Harmony or Nature replied. “We were trapped inside the Hallowed Battlefield and tasked with soaking in all the anger, hatred, fear, resentment, and agony before discharging it all with one attack. Took us sixteen years—and we were among the fastest on record, even by the time we retired from the world.”

“A cruel one,” U’nul said.

“Isn’t yours crueler? We faced strangers and places that we had no attachments to. If the white fire is purifying the demons… they’re all facing the things they’ve been hiding inside themselves, likely without even being aware of them.”

“What did you see?” either Harmony or Nature turned to the confused Yuki and asked, causing him to stutter for a moment.

“A-ah, uh, I—I saw my, my father,” he replied.

“Why? Did he abuse you? Beat you? Maybe your mother or siblings?”

“H-huh? What? No, of course not! He loved us very much!” Yuki retaliated quickly. “It’s just, after the Towers fell, and when I told him that I was gonna try and make it as a Conqueror… he wasn’t exactly happy about it. I understood it, though. He was worried. Every day he’d hear the news of someone or someone else dying. Sometimes by the hundreds and by the thousands. He didn’t want me risking my life, he said. So, we fought. I snuck out at night and went into the Tower. Spent six months straight inside without ever leaving to visit.”

“…”

“When I came back… I found out he died,” Yuki smiled painfully. “Got sick and, well, refused to go into the Tower. Mom told me he spent the last few weeks of his life lighting candles and incense and praying that I was safe. I couldn’t stay there, anywhere nearby, really, so I looked to leave. Found the recruitment post for Cain’s group and applied for the evaluation. Got accepted and, well, the rest is history. In the vision, I had the talk I always regretted not having with him. Telling him that I was okay and that I was living my best life. And then the bastard asked when he’s gonna have a grandkid! Haaah, it was… scarily like him. Had I not been forcibly awoken… I might have just accepted that it was all real and that he wasn’t actually dead.”

“… he sounds like a lovely man,” U’nul said, smiling gently.

“I can’t imagine what others are going through that it’s taking so long,” Yuki said, looking back at the raid. Nobody else has awoken just yet besides him.

“Your demon was regret,” either Nature or Harmony said. “Truthfully, regret is the easiest to reconcile. After all, it is tied to the past—you had no fears for neither present nor future. Most, if not all, do. Perhaps without even realizing it. Rather, you’re the strange one for not having them.”

“I—I do have them!” Yuki exclaimed. “I’m always worried I’m not good enough as a healer, you know?! Sometimes I can barely sleep!”

“Another one’s waking up,” U’nul said as everyone, Yuki included, shuffle their gaze to another white kindle that vanished. Senna was the second one to stand up and, just like Yuki, seemed lost and confused for a brief few moments before coming to.

“She?” while Yuki wasn’t surprised at all, both Nature and Harmony were the exact opposite. They had observed the young woman closely for a long time and knew well enough that she had many demons hiding within her. Either she was remarkably good at purifying them… or they overestimated how many demons she had.

“Eh? Yuki? You woke up first?” Senna exclaimed softly. “Good for you, man. Your conscience must be baby-head clean.”

“What about you?” Yuki fired back. “You barely spent more time than me. You must be the same.”

“Nah. I just beat the livin’ shit out of them,” she shrugged casually while U’nul glanced at her strangely.

“What do you mean? What did you see?” Yuki asked.

“Oh, many things. Saw my old man—not Cain, but the other old man—and my brother. They wanted to marry me out again. So, well, I just killed ‘em. Then I saw Cain and Emma and you guys disappearing into the horizon and when I tried to follow, a bunch of things showed up and told me I’m not good enough. So, I beat the shit out of them too. Saw a few more things like that and did pretty much the same thing. I dunno. Maybe whoever was giving me the visions got tired and just let me go?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Yup, sounds just like you,” Yuki grinned widely while the other three had more… complicated expressions. While it wasn’t unheard of that people conquer their demons by force, undergoing the entire purification by the virtue of unrelenting will that just pressed forward was… well, almost unheard of. Then again, there were quite a few apples in this group, the trio noted, that danced on the fringe of normal. And soon, one by one, they began to wake and share the stories of what they saw.