Chapter 831 - 403: Divine Child (2)
Giant Beasts fell like Stars, as though the soul of the world had taken shape; they trampled everything, destroyed everything.
Zoe saw the colossal bull hurl up tidal waves of molten lava again and again, leveling countless people’s homes.
There were too many scenes, flashing by too fast; before she could feel the pain and raise the thought of stopping it, they had already swept past.
So, only emptiness was left in the Young Girl’s heart.
Doing this—what meaning does it have? —Zoe seemed to hear someone saying this.
In that moment, she felt she could confirm it: this was the echo within Hedaya’s heart; in such a deep state of immersion, she could hear some of Hedaya’s thoughts.
Hedaya, in the form of a woman of the Horned Race, stood on a high hill, looking down at yet another Sky Island civilization she had destroyed according to orders.
The metal guards she had constructed with her own Power were plundering the remaining wealth and dragging off the survivors; they would be turned into slaves of the Godfolk.
"What is the meaning of doing this..."
The Horned Race woman said softly.
"So you’ve noticed? Seems you’ve begun a self-examination."
A voice sounded behind Hedaya, startling both Hedaya and Zoe, who was watching the scene.
"Who are you?"
Hedaya turned to look; floating before her was a Young Girl with blue hair down to her knees, dressed in a Long Robe embroidered with a Divine Power Dragon.
This person—!
Zoe had already seen this Young Girl in the Phantom of the Star Palace before.
The Blue haired Maiden was tall in figure, strong in Power, and noble in bearing; Zoe, who had never felt she was inferior to anyone in appearance, actually felt a faint urge to shrink back before her—but she immediately straightened her chest again.
Yet, in Zoe’s heart, she felt inexplicably no hostility toward this extraordinary Young Girl.
She... seems a bit like Mom...
Zoe had had that feeling before, but she hadn’t seen her mother in a long time; she couldn’t be sure whether it was just her imagination.
Besides, this Young Girl’s Magic Power fluctuations were also very similar to Ivynis’s, and at the same time, they seemed a bit like... hmm, she couldn’t say, a bit like another very familiar person—who could it be...
Within this fragment of memory, Zoe could sense what Hedaya was thinking at the time.
In Hedaya’s eyes, compared to those high-handed masters, this suddenly appeared Young Girl was more like a true Divine Spirit. Even if she wasn’t, then she was at least a true Divine Child.
"I am the one who stokes the flame," the blue-haired Divine Child said to Hedaya. "When I discover your awakening, I will come."
She extended her hand to Hedaya.
The memory before Zoe’s eyes shifted rapidly, and she found herself in an ancient city.
She thought it ancient because the buildings here were not as well-built as those on the Islands she knew, and since it happened in the past, it had to be ancient.
This was no longer a battlefield full of destruction and death, but the bustling marketplace of people living their everyday lives.
The Blue haired Maiden held Hedaya’s hand as they walked between the buildings. In this city, they wandered, stopping and starting, blending into the lives of the locals, feeling the bits and pieces of ordinary life.
The Divine Maiden did not lecture the Star Soul with grand principles; she merely kept leading her forward, looking around everywhere.
"Why are you making me see all this?!"
Finally, Hedaya voiced her objection.
Ignoring the frightened reactions of those around her, she used the Light of the Star Soul to rise into the air, fleeing the mortals’ city.
The Divine Child watched the direction in which she left, and then, as though merging with the world, slowly turned translucent and vanished.
On a hill in the Wilderness, Hedaya came to a stop, her chest heaving violently, teeth clenched as she stared at the Blue haired Maiden.
"I—I don’t want to watch anymore. I don’t want to know what those people are like in their everyday lives!"
"You can no longer look directly at yourself."
The Blue haired Maiden said, "You know very clearly that you cannot both carry out slaughter and violent conquest, and then participate in the lives of ordinary people."
"So what? I am a weapon!"
"You are no longer."
"Why are you making me see all this?" Hedaya asked again.
"To tell you that you are not a weapon. To tell you what is truly right."
"Right? There has never been any right or wrong; only Power can prove everything."
"Not necessarily."
The Divine Child’s tone was calm, as though speaking of something unrelated. She looked to the far end of the azure sky, yet her gaze seemed to pierce distant time and space.
"If you can see enough, you will discover that on a large enough scale, some things can indeed be judged better or worse. The state where everything is just chaos does not exist within the cognitive scope of intelligent life; it’s merely that they want you to think that way."
"Of course, if you insist on this view, I can also show you what true Power is."
In an instant, torrents of Magic Power surged around the Young Girl, so intense Hedaya could barely keep her form stable; behind the girl, the firmament was cleaved open by a pair of colossal wings.
In the stunned gaze of Hedaya and Zoe, a Divine Dragon manifested in the world.
Zoe at once recognized Bahamut, yet it did not look quite like the Bahamut she could perform Summoning for—the Giant Dragon’s entire body was pale gold, seeming to possess a purer, more absolute Power.
The mere appearance of the Giant Dragon turned the surrounding sky into dusk.
"Who are you, really—"
Hedaya knew full well she could not rival this Divine Child standing upon the Giant Dragon’s head; whatever doubts she had began to melt away bit by bit.
Perhaps, this was also in accord with the desire in the depths of her heart.
"The Creation Formula is nothing but your shackles, Child of the Stars. Come with me, to that far shore where your true life awaits."
The Creation Formula... is only a shackle?
Zoe did not understand the literal meaning, yet somehow she felt she did.
What had granted her Power had never been that arcane formula, but something deeper—the radiant light that truly arose within the bodies of the Star Souls.
The Light of the Star Soul.
What followed naturally led to that great battle she had seen in the Phantom within the Star Palace.
Behind the blue-haired Divine Child, countless Star Souls passed from ignorance to awakening; they realized who they were, and realized all those things the Deus People had forced upon them.
Yet the dusk of the heavens was so terribly long.
After victory, the Star Souls lost the mediums the Deus People had forged to supply them, and even this Divine Child was lost.
Only then did they realize that compared to them, these Star Beasts, even such an extraordinarily radiant Blue haired Maiden was merely a mortal.
But she had severed the shackles of Fate.
On a hill carpeted with flowers, the Star Souls stood like sculptures, accompanying the Young Girl, whose oil and lamp had burned out, as she walked the last stretch of her journey.
"Why did you do this?" asked one Star Soul who, after lifting the banner of resistance, had begun, like a mortal, to have personal desires surge forth. "You never gained any benefit, did you?"
He had held back for a long time; finally, the pent-up emotions burst forth like a broken dam.
The Young Girl smiled and closed her eyes; her blue long hair slowly lost its color, turning into a somewhat tousled gold.
That sky-like azure hue had only been the refraction of an unmatched Power attached to her body. Now, as her life faded away, it returned to its source along with that Power.
"I said, when you can see enough, you will know that on a larger scale, some things are better than others."
"So you’ve said similar words to everyone." a Star Soul remarked. Zoe recognized him as Baal.
"Heh, after all, I can’t really preach grand principles. I just do what I feel moved to do."
"Without you, where should we go?" asked a Star Soul in a robe as splendid as a rainbow.
"You are already free. Following me to defeat the Divine People was also your own choice."
"Without the Star Soul Greenhouse, and without you, we will perish as well," Baal said.
"Heh, isn’t that the mortal destiny? Star Beasts who resemble Divine Spirits are merely beginning to experience a mortal’s birth, age, sickness, and death. I don’t think it’s anything so terrible..." the Young Girl spoke softly; by the end, her breath was already faint as a thread.
"Perhaps before perishing, I won’t have time to figure out what the meaning of life is," said a Star Soul.
"The remnants of the Divine People are not yet cleared, nor the Demons closely tied to them. They will return. Compared to them, what we can do is limited," Baal said.
The Young Girl gave a helpless little smile.
"Perhaps there will be another person with a physique like mine. The Sect has already hidden in the shadows, preparing for a thousand-year-scale war with the Deus People. They will hope for another me to be born. I know you hope so as well.
"But don’t pin your hopes on someone else coming to lead you. Perhaps, one day, it will be your turn to guide that child."
The Young Girl turned her face slightly, and her gaze met Zoe’s.
Zoe opened her mouth. It was as if she had countless thoughts and words, yet could not form them.
The brief instant of overlapped gazes swept past at once; returning to being a mortal "Divine Child," she turned her face away, resting her head upon the beautiful blossoms, and peacefully entered an eternal sleep.