Chapter 876 - 425: Meluna
The young girl can no longer clearly remember the night when the entire village was devoured by black flames.
Suddenly woken up from her bedding, she was hurriedly taken through the ruins by someone, amidst the continuous screams in the night, before being swallowed by the currents encircling the village, sliding into a bottomless dark waterway.
She awoke in a sludge, where the green grass and flowers of the wetland were burned to ashes by the black flames, mixed with the silent waters into black mud. Before she could clear the suffocating ash from her nose and throat, she was hoisted up by armor-clad soldiers and thrown into a prison wagon.
In the distance, the Heaven-Supporting Giant Tree she could see when sneaking out of the village to play was still burning, its black flames mixed with sparks it spewed out, dyeing the sky a purplish-black.
Some kind of deathly pale and twisted thing hid in the purplish-black clouds. Below it, a young girl, who should have been wearing a splendid long dress, was enveloped in black flames and streaks of death-declaring thunder. Starlight continuously fell around her, sinking into the ash-covered wetland, and her flesh rotted into mud.
Even from so far away, one could see she was like a Giant.
That was the Flower God. Even she had succumbed.
Amid the whispered conversations of others sitting in the prison wagon, the young girl from Huanwo Village learned the identity of the fallen Divine Spirit-like girl. She recalled the gentle whispers that occasionally surfaced while she strolled through the wetlands. Though they had never met, it was as if they were already friends.
Did she cry back then? Was she sorrowful? Meluna could no longer recall even these things.
Imprisoned and sent onto a large ship, those large ships she had always observed from the peaks outside of the village but had never boarded took the girl away from her destroyed homeland.
The only thing she remembered was the bone-chilling cold of that day.
All familiar and warm things were stripped away from her.
While drifting in the underground waterway, the water she had controlled since childhood as if it were a part of her body was now as cold as if it intended to swallow her.
A new world had opened its fanged jaws towards her, and since then, the sensation possibly called "happiness" was something she never experienced again; all past things became indistinct.
...
In the training field, a sergeant-like figure stood before a group of children, swinging a sharpened Iron Sword and shouting harshly.
"Did you understand? You damned brats! You are here because your family and elders have taken the wrong path; they blocked the Empire’s way! Now, you have the chance to bask in the glory of the Empire, but whether you qualify depends on your performance!"
The children gathered from different paths into the Imperial Army camp had no reason to be gathered together; the adults calling themselves "Empire" cared nothing for their lives, only wanting to select the "qualified" ones.
Every child would be given an Iron Sword, too heavy for them, and told to fight each other until only one person remained standing.
That person needed to defeat everyone standing on the field.
"Hey, dirty girl, can you be arrogant again?"
Three strong boys, bearing Long Swords, approached the girl, who now looked like a wild child.
"Who are you?"
"Hah, once I chop off your limbs, let’s see if your filthy mouth is still tough!"
When they rushed forward, the girl recognized who they were.
Those who tried to rob her of her bread, yet were made to pass out by her controlling the water flow to cover their noses and mouths, and in turn, she snatched their food.
The girl raised the rusted Long Sword distributed to her by the sergeant.
Meimei, listen, don’t touch those weapons in the shrine—someone had once said this to her in her memory.
Why?
Because for you, they are too easy to master, but you are not yet old enough to understand the significance of wielding a sword.
So what? Is it still necessary to wonder why?
"Hah, that girl, she’s amazing." On the high platform, two soldiers looked at the orphans who had turned from a brawl into a melee.
"Where did the three who surrounded her come from?"
"They are the offspring of people from the well-known sky pirate group ’The Sandbone Group’; their ship was conveniently sunk by the Imperial Battleship, and the brats were captured here."
"All taken down with a single stroke to the throat, she sure is ruthless."
"No, it’s talent. This girl’s talent is too high."
The speaking soldier stood up, somewhat in disbelief.
"That’s even better. Such a person, can withstand the transformation of Annihilator Flesh. The blueprint for the Ultimate Annihilation Knight is about to be realized."
The speaking soldier raised the teacup beside him and discovered the tea inside was strangely vibrating.
He sensed the Magic Power within, and the source of the Magic Power was... that girl?
Looking towards the stage below, the girl holding the sword was drenched in blood, her disheveled bangs shadowing a pair of fierce, blood-red eyes staring straight at him, also eyeing the sword at his waist.
...
Flames engulfed the Empire’s experimental base, and a thin, delicate figure was fleeing through the jungles of the Wild Sky Island, pursued by grotesque, deformed men wrapped in writhing purple-black flesh.
Almost there, they were the last weapons of those "Empire" people; once she shook them off, there would be no more enemies.
The sword in the girl’s hands was no longer a battered Long Sword but a sharp weapon easily wielding Magic Power.
Ahead was a dense forest; she plunged into it, encountering the beasts and Demons in the jungle as she fled.
But she had a sword, and that was enough.
She got injured, several times near death. She was even once swallowed whole by a Demon or almost had her limbs torn off.
In the end, the enemies always fell under her sword, or were swept away by the water, which raged on its own accord.
When she grew a bit older, there were no longer any enemies in the jungle that could withstand a single strike from her; even the stolen weapons lost their blades, and she attempted to learn how to sail and left the island.