Although what Gray Angel said sounded frivolous and carefree... it was almost exactly like brainwashing new employees with grand promises and empty prospects.
But whether it was Lily or Hassan... even Hai Na easily heard the hidden meaning in Gray Angel's words--
It was solemnity hidden beneath the teasing, reverence concealed within the jokes.
--Whether it was defeating the Angels, saving the world, or becoming a Pillar God in the new world, they all shared one prerequisite.
They had to offer up their entire lives at this moment.
Regardless of whether they could defeat Calamity Red, the actor of "Supreme Heaven," and regardless of whether Iver could defeat the Void, at the very least, they would all die today.
It was like a group of people laughing and talking about how they would be heroes again twenty years later, drinking their wine to the last drop and smashing their cups. Behind that heroic, passionate revelry lay a sorrow that could not be concealed.
"...Is this also Premature Death?"
Lily murmured.
She subconsciously thought of the idea Old Moriarty had repeatedly mentioned, one that had even deeply influenced Iver: Since they would die sooner or later, why not die at a more useful moment?
"No," Gray Angel seemed to have heard that theory before, yet he turned around and denied it with utmost solemnity. "If anything, it's precisely the opposite.
"It isn't that we'll die sooner or later, so we might as well die sooner. Rather, we're certain to be saved in the future, because our cause will certainly be completed in the future, because our deaths will certainly have value. That is why we can hold our heads high and face death!
"It isn't despair, but faith--even if this is only a lie, it still brings hope, doesn't it?"
Though