Enlightenment · Seven

The water of Ashen Lake is water in a conceptual sense.

Because this is the bottom of the world, the depth of the water has no end.

The container stabilized itself, but the girl's form suddenly reappeared thousands of meters underwater. The colorless and odorless water instantly transformed into Sulfur, and the distorted new laws were instantly applied back to the container.

"You will die by my sword."

The sword pierced through, tearing through the chest. The accumulated Word Spirit had created a destiny strong enough to bring death to everything known in this world.

The container of the abyss was thus destroyed under the authority of the Flame Sword.

And the scorching Profaned Flame then surged into every part of the container.

But the container did not die.

Not only did it not die, it even raised its hands and grabbed Miss Surtr's arm where she had thrust the sword!

"Got you," it said.

The next moment, a black tide overflowed from the container even faster than the Profaned Flame. It surged along the hand tightly held by the container, flowing into the Flame-haired Girl's body!

The Abyss's trait corruption and erosion.

Therefore, the Abyss's strongest weapon is also corruption and erosion.

The container and the battle were merely a facade from the very beginning. The moment Surtr appeared, the Abyss's superconsciousness recognized the disparity in power between the two sides and gambled the outcome on the mental erosion of Miss Surtr.

An endless stream of dark memories suddenly surged forth, and at the very moment of contact, all the hateful and insidious things in this world suddenly appeared in her mind!

Surtr opened her eyes and saw a black ocean.

Countless shadowy figures appeared in the ocean, and when her attention focused on them, they all transformed into real, tangible forms.

The evil in human nature.

She saw soldiers slaughtering civilians, and dying mothers wailing in the mass graves, clutching their severed babies.

She saw her children smother their ailing father with a pillow, his body still warm, and then they began to plunder the treasures he had left behind.

She saw innocent people being bricked into walls, leaving only her eyes to watch as her wife and daughter were taken by her enemies.

She saw the man who carried firewood for others freeze to death in the wind and snow, his body torn apart by wild dogs.

She saw...

She saw a lot: countless betrayals, exploitation, deception, torture, and endless suffering and death.

And those dead now surround her, their bodies mutilated, their blood and tears flowing as they wail at her.

—'Why, why didn't you come...'

—Please, let the child live...

—'Kill me! Don't touch my daughter!'

"—Everyone's firewood... Let me go back, let me go back!"

They yearn for redemption.

They longed for her.

Then--

They were greeted with a soft laugh.

"You bunch of negative creatures—why do you only ever play this trick, no matter which world you're in?"

The Flame-haired maiden opened her arms.

"Come on!" she whispered, her voice bursting forth with the Twilight Flame that flowed in all directions.

Everything changes accordingly.

Flames ignited in the mother's eyes in the mass grave, the dead child was resurrected, and a tide of fire engulfed the soldiers.

The seriously ill father recovered and exhaled a fiery breath, burning away the malice of his descendants and causing them to kneel on the ground, weeping and repenting for their mistakes.

The human body embedded in the wall expands, time reverses, and just before being knocked down by the villain, he knocks the villain down with a single punch, and soon receives the help of the Lian Zhen officials and protection for his wife and children.

The carcasses, devoured by wild dogs, revived, bringing back even more firewood and fresh dog meat for the waiting crowd. They were rewarded with looks of glory and adoration.

This is one part; there are many more.

All the evil in human nature is purified in the burning Twilight Flame. And the way to be purified is to witness everything, remember everything, bear everything, and let all the carriers of evil see the final outcome they hoped for in their lives.

Countless victims of evil are thus purified. Countless perpetrators of evil are thus erased—merely burdened with all the pain, distortion, hatred, and despair that have plagued the world for millennia. This kind of operation is something that certain red-haired fellow is already adept at.

She opened her eyes, and a ball of purified darkness silently floated in her hand. She then cast this pure darkness into the Profaned Flame, and watched as the flames of sin blazed and soared high.

"Nothing special," Miss Surtr scoffed softly. All the traces of evil had surfaced in her mind and become a part of her. Countless painful memories floated in her mind, as if all the suffering and evil deeds committed by countless people were her doing.

She didn't feel uncomfortable at all.

But she felt she deserved a chance to get close to cute girls as compensation for bearing all of this.

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Chapter 218 Enlightenment VII

The headless giant crashed down, transforming into an industrial structure far larger than any ancient stone tree, stretching out in all directions. At this moment, most of the materials needed for Project of the Flame of Civilization were ready; the next step was to put it into practice.

"Construction extends from the bottom of the world to every corner of the world."

The Flame-haired maiden commanded, hurling the overflowing Profaned Flame from her hand, which landed precisely at the core of the Flame of Civilization machine —the machine ignited instantly, gears and levers striking the great bell. The colossal structure, a collection of countless ruins of lost ancient civilizations, transformed into a new form—it resembled a city, and also a heart. Countless chains-like tubes extended outward from within the heart; these would be blood vessels, piercing and assimilating all the ancient stone trees.

She had deciphered all the original runes, and many complex energy structures thus manifested different kinds of effects according to her will. Beneath the mechanical structure lay a complex yet fault-tolerant stream of energy. Driven by the Profaned Flame, this colossal city continued to function.

Ashen Lake is the bottom of the world, the lowest layer of the heart of the flames.

The ancient stone trees that grow from here will extend their branches to every part of the earth as the world expands—because they are stone, they are the earth itself, and their roots and branches are the manifestation of the Ley Line.

—And in this way, the desires of people, no matter where they are, will converge here along the flow of the Ley Line. As long as human civilization continues to flourish on earth, there will be no shortage of fuel to fuel the Profaned Flame.