Vistain pressed his palm against the blood flowing from his chest, staining his entire hand with scarlet blood that glimmered green.
"Ah--!"
A pale-green emblem of three nested rings emerged from his palm.
Seeing this, He Ao accelerated and raised the Blood Blade.
Vistain had already lifted his head. Clutching the ring emblem, he looked up at the sky and shouted rapidly, so quietly that he was nearly impossible to hear,
"Endless stars are your incarnation; the radiant curtain creates all things. Praise be to you, great Lord of the Starry Sky!"
The instant his words fell, the firmament, which had been shrouded in hazy white light, suddenly darkened.
The sky, previously covered by scattered clouds, became clear and bright in an instant, and a brilliant, dazzling sea of stars abruptly appeared overhead.
Pure radiance illuminated the sky and earth in an instant. The flames lost their scorching heat, the dark clouds shed their damp chill, and even the ice and snow seemed to become warm at that moment.
That bright and 'clean' starlight soothed the restless hearts stirred by war and slaughter. Bathed in it, one felt as though both soul and body had been cleansed. Even the gunfire between heaven and earth seemed muted beneath the starlight.
The blood that had gradually begun to congeal turned liquid again beneath that radiance, gathering into babbling streams that slowly flowed along shell craters and down the slopes.
This slaughterhouse of blood and artillery fire became, in that instant, a fresh and beautiful Peach Garden, broadening the heart and delighting the mind.
Only, the trees of this Peach Garden were shattered armor, its green leaves were roaring flames, its warm grasslands were scattered ice and snow, and its flowing streams were scarlet blood.
Vistain looked up at the sky, staring blankly