Chapter 159 I Shall Bring Hope and Light

To reignite the flame—

Even if one were to search through the boundless ocean of ancient tomes, no precedent could be found.

Yet, there was no tremor in Amy's heart.

His tone when replying to Duke Galsworthy was exceptionally calm. Although the former High Priest Edgar had never passed down the knowledge inherited by past high priests to him, ever since becoming the vessel of the nascent fire, his understanding of the hearth's flame yielded to no one. Even... he himself could be regarded as the living, human embodiment of the fire.

Assuming the flame had not yet been extinguished.

Lowering his eyelids slightly, the black-haired and black-eyed youth gripped the nascent fire floating beside his palm.

Then he stepped forward—

"Follow me," he said, halting at the very edge of the earth, which had been flattened by the aftermath of the fire's power. He looked back at Duke Galsworthy and the other Glorified behind him, "From this point on, please keep your distance—unless you wish to be consumed entirely by the flames."

Having delivered the necessary warning, Amy activated the nascent fire.

—Or more accurately, he unlocked a hidden valve within it.

It was a contingency left behind by the Ancestors within the nascent fire, a wisp of its fundamental essence captured when the flame first shed its radiance.

A shattered mirror cannot be made whole again, and time cannot be reversed. In Pandora's hands, the flame of Hermetica and the glory of the past had long since deteriorated into a pile of scattered dust, blown away by the cold winds of darkness... forever beyond recall.

Therefore, what the young High Priest had to do was never to make the extinguished flame burn once more, but rather... through sacrifice, to make this nascent fire—which was so closely bound to him—become the true flame of Hermetica, bringing hope and light to this disaster-stricken ancient city.

Thus, an orange-red flame surged forth from the darkness, its blazing light devouring the youth's pitch-black pupils.

"Now is the time!"

Blood coursed in a torrent, souls leaped with joy, and the nascent fire, on the verge of its metamorphosis, whispered greedy murmurs in his ear.

It was as if it were licking, and as if it were demanding.

And hidden beneath it all was a trace of reverence.

Blood was the currency of life, and the soul was the source of power—

The nascent fire transforming into the flame, shedding its restraints, shedding its shackles, burned fiercely. It cheered, it leaped, and above all, it hungered—hungering for the blood of the Ancestors who upheld order and glory.

"—Belonging to the flame."

No longer using the term "nascent fire" to describe it, Amy unconsciously changed his form of address. At the same time, he looked at the prominent figure before him, whom he had glimpsed several times at home and in the academy. Reflected in his flame-filled pupils was not only the silver-haired, black-eyed Glorified, but also... a snake?

Behind him, the shadow of a coiled snake faintly materialized.

What could that be?

Legends concerning snakes were far too numerous in the youth's blurred memories, leaving him utterly unable to determine the prototype of the inhuman entity residing within Duke Galsworthy, nor could he fathom what stance the other held, or what attitude he bore toward the flame of Hermetica.

All he could do was wait—wait for the moment when fate revealed its answer.

A favorable outcome would be accepted with gladness.

An unfavorable outcome would be met with absolute rejection—

He possessed the qualifications to flip the table!

This was his composure, a composure that belonged solely to Amy Ulysses.

Under the youth's watchful gaze, the former lord of Hermetica took a step forward. His pale, bloodless face showed no expression, nor did his footsteps falter in the slightest—he strode resolutely toward the burning fire, as though he were not rushing toward death, but rather walking up to a throne to be crowned in glory.

Unflinching in the face of death.

If he had to describe it, this was perhaps the only word that a youth who was not a scholar could muster.

Yet... it still felt profoundly wrong.

There was neither the passionate heroism of embracing death nor the resolute abandonment of life on Duke Galsworthy's face. Even the ultimate choice between life and death failed to move him; he was as calm as stagnant water—dead water devoid of any life.

However, suspicion ended here. Under Amy's witness, the silver-haired, black-eyed Glorified calmly stepped into the flames.

A relieved smile finally blossomed on his face.

As if firewood had been added to a hearth, the flames soared upward—

Ten meters? Or twenty? In Hermetica, shrouded by the Deepest Night, this surging pillar of fire was exceptionally striking. Yet only beings like Jasu, standing aloof above the still-unhealed Great Void, could survey this conceptual clash between order and chaos from a transcendental perspective.

"If it's like this, I can finally rest easy."

From the perspective of the petite girl, the nascent flame was like a beast that had only recently been weaned, baring its claws and making weak, ferocious threats against a monstrous beast it could neither understand nor comprehend.

The scene was somewhat amusing, yet she could not manage a smile; all she could feel was a profound sense of exhaustion.

—She was very tired.

The sky, which had fractured under the oppression of the Mother of a Myriad Black Goats, could not simply be left to its own devices. Who knew how much time it would take for the domain of order to heal itself? To cut off to the greatest extent the possibility of Ancient Gods from the chaotic sea setting their sights on this hard-won sanctuary at such a terrible juncture, she had to seal this tear in the sky within the shortest possible time, refashioning the domain of order into a closed, seamless, unified whole.

Although patching the vulnerabilities was not a task she performed alone, it was nonetheless terribly exhausting.

So tired that... she truly wanted to sacrifice a web-novelist to the heavens.

Well, finding no one who could understand her words made even complaining devoid of meaning.

Thinking thus, she raised a hand and let out a massive yawn.

Then she blinked.

To run into this sort of trouble during the critical period of reincarnation was truly disheartening.

After all... sleep deprivation was the mortal enemy of beauty.

If she failed to grow taller in the future, she would blame today's events—

The girl, petite as an eleven or twelve-year-old, thought this with a sudden surge of spirited annoyance, then shifted her attention back to the firmament. Although, judging by the current trend, the cracks in the domain of order would soon heal, but... this was far from the end of her suffering. As the watcher of Hermetica, with such a massive and vicious incident unfolding under her jurisdiction, a great many old friends would surely come to visit.

What should she do when that time came—

How about rewarding each of them with a single bullet?

That was not a bad idea; making friends through artillery fire was the romance of a magical girl.

Only...

She lightly bit her lip.

Indeed, compared to being a magical girl, she still wished to be a quiet and beautiful maiden.

Yes! A delightful decision!

The girl clapped her hands sharply. Whenever the time came, whoever stopped her from being a quiet and beautiful maiden would receive a bullet from her!

I am truly too clever—

Jasu thought with a smug sense of self-satisfaction.

Naturally, Amy was unaware of the thoughts of the girl he had only met a handful of times, nor did he possess her transcendental perspective. However, his own perspective at this moment was equally unique.

—He was currently within the burning radius of the flames.

Had the ritual been presided over by Edgar, or perhaps anyone else, anyone else encompassed by the flames would likely have been instantly and utterly incinerated by the absolute light and fire, just like Duke Galsworthy. But he was different... At this moment, the young High Priest realized this fact once again.

The nascent fire, transforming into the flame, hungered for him while simultaneously yearning for him and fearing him.

Or rather, it hungered for something within his body.

It was the fire—or rather, the Fire of Ana.

Thought the youth, whose understanding had long since transcended the confines of Hermetica or the Glorified, as he narrowed his eyes. Similar to him, inside the flames, there was still something that had not been swallowed by the fire; residues were still bubbling up.

That was... Duke Galsworthy. That was the essence he had left behind.

Not a human, but power itself.

It was the phantom of a snake, the phantom of a snake still in gestation.

What was that?

Amy scrutinized it closely, the vigilance in his heart remaining unblunted. The moment it showed any unusual movement, he would kill himself on the spot, forcing the hourglass of time to return to its starting point—to a point early enough for him to rectify his mistake.

Yet the trump card to reverse victory, defeat, and life and death was not worth deploying. The phantom, imbued with a terrifying power that surpassed the mortal realm, remained unchanged from beginning to end, as if it lacked even the most rudimentary sentience. It simply allowed the still-transforming flame to slowly grind away its power, piece by piece, until its form grew dimmer and dimmer, leaving only a pair of golden slit pupils gleaming brilliantly within the blazing light—

Wait? Golden slit pupils?

The youth's thoughts paused slightly, and he immediately assumed a combat posture.

—It had opened its eyes.

Yet it did nothing, merely gazing quietly at the fire, and gazing at him, before allowing the final remnant of essence lingering here to be devoured entirely by the nascent flame, completely transforming into nothingness.

Having absorbed the essence of this great entity that transcended mortal endurance, the blaze instantly surged to its maximum. The roaring pillar of fire practically connected heaven and earth, allowing even the Deepest Night outside Hermetica to vaguely glimpse a sliver of radiance.

—The knight riding the black warhorse tightened his reins.

Surveying the distant light from beneath a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood piled high with demons, he paused slightly, then once more spurred the pitch-black nightmare beneath him to gallop in the direction of Hermetica.

It seemed... he had arrived too late.

Behind him, several knightly squires exchanged glances, then closely followed.

Naturally, the pillar of fire that nearly pierced the firmament manifested for only an instant. The great might of the hearth's flame was never one to rely on exaggerated spectacle for prominence. After burning to its absolute limit, the nascent fire, which lacked only the final step of its metamorphosis, abruptly contracted back to the size of a palm, continuing to collapse inward until it became a microscopic dust invisible to the naked eye—a minute dimension impossible for human observation.

—A singularity.

This word suddenly popped into Amy's mind, and then—

The entire world burst forth with brilliant light!

Hermetica, the Hermetica that had been reduced to ruins, once again possessed light.

At this moment, whether it was the Glorified witnessing the miracle before them, the sword-wielders reorganizing their ranks amidst the ruins, or the survivors with hollow gazes trapped within collapsed dwellings, all once again ignited the fire of hope.

If there were exceptions, they were not entirely absent.

Pandora, suddenly freed from the dreams of the old days, stared blankly at everything before her. She tilted her head, biting her fingernails with a troubled expression, her gaze hazy: This is the flame... Amy...

And further away, deep within the Deepest Night, at the boundary between the dark chaos and the domain of order.

The uninhabited Eternal Night Wall suddenly trembled, then turned over amid the rumbling vibration of the earth. The two points of light known to the Night Watchmen as lighthouses flared to life once more since the descent of the dark millennium, and golden slit pupils finally opened...