Chapter 399: Hellfire (11)

“You... aren’t you here for this very purpose? Saintess of that deity.”

The old woman’s wrinkle-filled face was blazing with fanaticism. Liya instinctively stepped back and shook her head.

“Saintess? No... I’m not a Saintess yet.”

“You will be at once!”

The old woman raised her voice, swinging her withered hand back.

“Look—there are a full one million people here waiting for salvation. Think about it: what a colossal merit it would be to save them. As soon as this deed is proclaimed, you will, without a doubt, become the Saintess—the most outstanding Saintess, even surpassing the first one. Your name will be praised by countless believers. Even if you die, your statue will stand upon the continent, together with the deity!”

“But...”

Liya’s gaze went unfocused for a moment.

Yes—one million people. If she could save them, the Saintess’s position she had worked toward all along would be within arm’s reach. The faint light gained from saving the people here would be enough to fill a thousand crystals.

And even without the temptation of the Saintess’s rank, seeing those sufferers—writhing, struggling, wailing—there was no way Liya could stand by and do nothing.

Just like every Saintess through the generations, who would even step forward for a crying infant—let alone for a million people deep in misery?

This had nothing to do with any position or expectation; it came only from the girl’s most basic kindness.

“I want to save you all, but my ability isn’t enough.”

Liya shook her head in pain. She looked at her slender hands and said softly, “With my Purification, I can only purify at most a few thousand... If I grit my teeth and add some recovery items, maybe I can purify a bit more, but that number compared to one million is... a cup of water trying to put out a cart on fire.”

A few hundredths of what was needed—facing this vast mud-sea, there was only despair. Zi and I Are Not Fish says: Welcome to the fanfiction site tongrenxsw.com to read this book!

“Or... perhaps we could wait a while. If we wait for the Church to successfully open a passage into the inner region, then you...”

“There’s no time!”

The old woman raised her trembling hand, panic-stricken. “I can feel it—I can feel the presence of that vile Evil God. It’s already not far from here. It will soon return, and it will devour the souls of our one million people. Then, among the living on the ground, no one will be able to stop it!”

“But...”

“I have a way!”

The old woman suddenly said, “All these years, we haven’t just sat and waited. Please—look up.”

Liya looked up.

Tremendous circular walls stretched into the void. Complex lines flickered, and upon that vast, firmament-like dome, they formed an incomparably intricate tableau.

At this moment, Liya finally understood where she was. Unsurprisingly, she was inside that tower. But the tower she now saw was far larger than its exterior suggested. From the outside, it looked like nothing more than a remarkable building; from within its depths, she felt like a lost insect or ant stumbling into the legendary great tree where the holy serpent dwelled.

A magic array so vast as to astonish was inscribed at the tower’s highest point.

“With your knowledge, you should be able to judge what this array is for.”

“The function of this array is... amplification?”

In Liya’s eyes was reflected this unprecedentedly colossal magic array—and its sole function was actually amplification?

Amplification arrays were extremely common; both magicians and magical devices would inscribe such arrays to boost the power of magic.

But Liya had never seen an amplification array so enormous and complicated. If its purpose was so singular, then how staggering must its effect be?

“That’s right—amplification!”

The old woman said loudly, “Under the array’s effect, using this high tower as the base and combining what we’ve accumulated over these years, we can magnify your power to the utmost. Hundreds of times would be no problem!”

“R-really?”

“Of course.”

The old woman lowered her lids, then looked at Liya again with burning fervor. “All these years, we’ve been waiting for you.”

“Why me?”

“Because you came, didn’t you?”

“...”

Liya closed her eyes and let out a sigh.

At the same time, she felt an even heavier expectation.

She understood what that meant: these people in pain had waited too long. They didn’t care who came, so long as the one who came could save them.

“Yes—you will save us all.”

The old woman pressed her hands together in devout prayer. “I believe that great deity will also be moved by your great achievement.”

“Not that deity—the Goddess.”

Liya looked deep into the old woman’s eyes. “The Life Goddess, Lady Aimier.”

“Yes, the Life Goddess, Lady Aimier.”

The old woman lowered her eyes, obediently.

Liya took a deep breath. “What do I have to do?”

“Y-you... you only need to stand in that central position!”

The old woman was overjoyed. “Release your power. The array will activate on its own.”

Without much hesitation, Liya followed the old woman’s instructions and walked to the very center of the entire mud-sea.

It was a broad platform, like an altar. Liya looked down and found intricate lines inscribed beneath her feet, seemingly echoing the ones overhead.

Standing alone at the platform’s center, Liya felt both heaven and earth immeasurably far away.

Liya was not unaware that the old woman seemed... just a little off, as if she were hiding something.

But the pain, the despair, the longing for redemption—those things were, without a doubt, real.

There were one million souls here yearning for salvation, and she was the Church’s candidate Saintess.

What she ought to do required no further thought.

Just as Muen had once guessed, the Church sent them in here to save these natives.

“I’m going to begin.”

Liya focused. Pure, holy radiance seeped from her skin, turning into countless starlike points that rose upward.

The lines beneath her feet gradually lit up. The vast magical power that had been stored long ago surged from the lowest layers, ran along the pitch-black tower walls, extended upward, and poured into the giant magic array overhead.

The array activated. Majestic sound rolled across the mud-sea.

Those in pain all prostrated devoutly, awaiting the descent of salvation.

Liya felt a powerful pull. The Holy Light stored within her body was devoured by the lines beneath her feet at great speed. At the same time, a holy rain of light fell.

“Ah... salvation... salvation has finally come.”

Everyone strained to lift their faces, fanatical expressions welcoming the falling holy light-rain. The old woman stretched her neck long, like a starving old turtle.

As the light-rain fell, the twisted deformities on the sufferers within the mud-sea faded at a rate visible to the naked eye. Those with less defilement were already largely restored.

With crystalline tears, they praised the miracle and cried the Saintess’s name.

The crystals given by the Saintess suddenly drifted up on their own; countless faint lights converged into them, making them even more splendid and radiant.

Liya couldn’t help smiling. Encouraged, she released the Holy Light with even greater effort.

But soon, she realized something was wrong.

The wrongness lay in the degree of purification. It wasn’t quite as she had expected...

Clearly, the Holy Light within her was nearly exhausted, yet the ones who could recover fully were only those with relatively little defilement. The vast majority, whose deformities were severe—they, too, improved to a certain extent, but were still obviously a long way from complete purification.

“Not enough... still not enough.”

The old woman muttered as well. Though the deformities on her had receded a bit, she still looked twisted and ferocious.

“This still isn’t enough... It must... it must...”

“I’m sorry, Saintess.”

The old woman suddenly bowed her head, tears streaming down.

Liya started—but she quickly understood why the old woman apologized.

Because when the lines beneath her feet could no longer draw enough Holy Light, they began to draw instead from her... blood.

Liya came to with a jolt. Where in this world was there a magic array that ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) could amplify by hundreds of times? No matter how enormous the array, its effect could not possibly reach that level.

However, the power of Purification did not reside only in the Holy Light within her.

As a Saintess candidate baptized by the Holy Light from childhood, her blood, her bones, her flesh, even her soul, were filled with the Goddess’s purest power.

Those were the true might sufficient to purify everyone—but the cost... was all of Liya.

“You tricked me?”

Liya’s face grew increasingly pale. “You knew that relying on my Holy Light alone was far from enough!”

“Yes, I deceived you.”

The old woman looked stricken with grief.

“But for the sake of my people, I had no choice but to resort to this. I was afraid that if you knew, you would be too afraid to step up there.”

“However... if you feel angry and want to leave, we actually have no power to stop you. All this is already better than I expected. Many have received salvation already, though many more still sink in pain.”

The old woman looked at Liya and forced a relieved smile.

“If you want, you may leave, Saintess. We won’t blame you.”

“...”

Deathly silence fell upon this mud-sea of a million rising and sinking figures. Everyone once more raised their heads and looked at Liya in silence.

They only looked. They said nothing.

But deep within those pained gazes—after they had tasted salvation nearly within reach—the hope there grew ever more... heavy.

So heavy... it choked the breath.

Liya forced her eyes open with all her strength, swept them across every person with all her strength, and felt, with all her strength, that heavy weight in the depths of their eyes.

In that moment.

Or perhaps after a long time—or only an instant.

Liya smiled, sorrowfully beautiful; her long lashes trembled like butterflies about to take flight.

“Go on.”

She said, “Go on.”

As if relieved of a burden, Liya’s whole body relaxed. She let the array beneath her feet draw out her blood. Her strength ebbed away bit by bit.

Yet in that moment, the girl’s hair streamed; holy radiance etched a perfect silhouette around her. Watching the countless people being saved, she smiled—like the Goddess herself walking the world.

“Is this... really all right?”

The old woman was shocked. “You know what the result will be.”

“I know, but continue.”

Liya said,

“As you said, I’m already the Saintess you’re praising. And a so-called Saintess is supposed to be selfless—supposed to save every person, right?”

“You... how great you are.”

The old woman trembled from head to toe with emotion.

“My people will revere you as Saintess for generations. Your statue will be passed down forever!”

“All right, all right, don’t waste time.”

Liya closed her eyes.

“Besides, I’m not doing this for those things. I’m only doing what I should.”

“Yes... Your Highness, noble Saintess.”

The old woman pressed her forehead devoutly to the ground, the very picture of piety.

But at an angle Liya couldn’t see, the bark-dry, wrinkled corners of her mouth slowly curved into a strange arc.

“We respectfully obey your command.”

The array ran with even greater force. The light-rain poured down like mercy bestowed by the deity in person.

All defilement was being gradually purified.

Liya’s body, however, felt increasingly cold.

Her blood was draining a little faster now. And blood was only the beginning—next would be her bones, her flesh, until her very soul.

“For me, this really is quite the grand finale.”

Liya murmured softly.

“But to die in the way I longed for—saving countless people—that’s beautiful too, isn’t it?”

There was nothing much to regret.

Only...

Why did her heart feel so empty?

“Sorry, Muen. Even though there’s still so much I want to say to you, so many things I want to do with you, so many feelings that haven’t reached you yet.”

Liya whispered, “But I broke our appointment. I didn’t wait for you. I left without a word. Please don’t be angry with me, all right?”

“Of course I’ll be angry.”

That familiar voice answered: “Isn’t an apology supposed to be made with a beautiful girl’s lap pillow? You sound like you’re sleep-talking. There’s no sincerity at all, Miss Liya.”

“Eh?”

Liya’s eyes flew open in shock.

She realized that this voice wasn’t a hallucination born of longing—it was that golden-haired figure, truly standing before her now.

He was still so handsome; his profile, under the light-rain, seemed a shade softer—but anger sharpened his brows and eyes. He raised his thumb and forefinger and snapped them at her forehead with force.

“Idiot.”

“Ugh! That hurts!”

Liya clutched her forehead. Under this sudden flick to the head, the Saintess-like aura she had gathered collapsed at once, and in an instant she was back to that earlier, adorably naive girl.

Liya puffed out her cheeks on reflex and huffed, “What are you doing? Who are you calling an idiot!”

“The idiot is you.”

Muen set his foot on the lines inscribed in the floor, forcibly interrupting the rite. “You got tricked and still don’t realize it—if that’s not idiotic, what is?”

“Tricked?”

Liya blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Who are you?”

Noticing the light-rain halt, the old woman stared at the man who had suddenly appeared, livid and alarmed, and shouted:

“Do you know what you’re doing? This is Her Highness the Saintess’s important rite. Get out of the way!”

But Muen ignored her—and ignored the countless furious people in the mud-sea as well. He only looked into Liya’s eyes and said softly:

“My silly Liya, don’t you understand yet? These people are not the pitiful victims you imagine. Think back to that diary you saw before.”

“Diary...”

Liya froze, then her beautiful eyes flew wide. “You mean...”

“That’s right.”

Muen finally turned, his gaze ice-cold as he looked at the old woman and the million rising and sinking in the mud-sea.

“These lot are the true sinners.”