Chapter 820 — Considering the Future
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
When the morning sun rose, a story one thousand five hundred and twenty-three years long came to an end. At its close, no deity descended upon the real world; fragile and insignificant humanity once again survived the disaster—and the stories of countless people continued onward.
Sem clutched his combat staff, standing for a long while at the center of the hall, surrounded by countless breathless, exhausted priests and knights. Word from the surface had reached the Radiant Order just moments ago, yet that bizarre phenomenon—as though dream and reality had been confounded—left him still unable to confirm the final outcome. He and everyone else remained tense and apprehensive, waiting in silence.
In that brief moment when the dawn light spread across the whole of the Orlandell region, the priests felt as though they had waited a century.
Then, at last, scattered flecks of starlight surfaced in everyone's vision, hovering above the hall.
Sem heard an aged, weary voice enter his mind: "It's over... my brethren, we are safe."
It was the voice of Megor III.
After a brief silence, belated cheers erupted through the entire hall!
"We did it!! We stopped a god!" "The Outland Wanderer and the Radiant Order of Selina succeeded!" "We survived, we survived!!"
Amid the tide of cheers rising on all sides, Wendy, who had been tending the wounded, slowly straightened up. The contamination deep within her spirit was receding; she felt her soul at last truly and completely restored to freedom. She lifted her head and saw Yuri not far away, his gaze meeting hers.
"We did it..." Wendy's lips curved upward slowly, and she smiled from the bottom of her heart.
Yuri wore a complicated smile. He drew a soft breath and muttered low, as though speaking to himself: "...At least we didn't destroy the world."
A streak of flowing light appeared abruptly at the center of the hall. As the radiance gathered, a lantern coalesced before everyone's eyes, and then the figure of a woman holding it appeared.
"Radiant Order Selina," Sem said at once, hastening toward the figure, "you have saved the entire church once again..."
The halo around Selina gradually dispersed. Of course, she was only a projection cast into the consciousness of those around her. Facing the Supreme Order Sem, this Lantern Saintess gently shook her head: "This time, it was not I who saved the church."
"Ah, the Outland Wanderer—He..." Sem caught on immediately with a start. "Where is He now?"
"The Outland Wanderer has returned for the time being. After all, He only projected a fragment of Himself into our mental network; He will contact us again before long," Selina said softly, her gaze slowly sweeping across the hall. The cheering priests, the weary yet excited knights, the attendants who had survived the calamity by sheer fortune—all of them entered her eyes. At last, she lowered her eyelids. "It is thanks to your efforts in the real world that we were able to achieve final success."
Sem regarded Selina strangely. He noticed that the Radiant Order's expression was complicated, her mood seemingly not as light and elated as the others', which left him deeply puzzled: "Radiant Order Selina, you look... as though something weighs on your mind?"
Selina thought of that figure chasing the starlight through the night, thought of the hardest question she had ever answered in her life. She was silent for a long time before finally shaking her head: "I am fine. I am only... suddenly a little confused."
"Confused?"
"Supreme Order Sem, what do you think is the greatest instinct of a civilization?"
"Instinct?" Sem sank into thought before this rather strange question. After a moment he said, somewhat uncertainly, "To perpetuate itself?"
"And beyond perpetuating itself?" Selina asked again. "Beyond merely surviving..."
"I... do not know," Sem said with a shake of his head. "To me, merely enduring in this world is difficult enough already."