A Tragic Scene of Sorrow

I used my Wind Form to create a strong wind ring that tightly bound Leona. Once she was unable to move, I tossed her into the air, then untied Diana's ropes and we both returned to Varus's back. ✊👊 ♟🐳

At this moment, the entire sect's headquarters began to be engulfed by white light, and people panicked, not knowing what was happening.

Looking at this scene, I suddenly thought of the tragedy of Icathia. The two places are so similar, except that Icathia was engulfed by flames, a dynamic scene of carnage, while this place is much quieter.

The white light slowly erased everything here like a brush: the church, the fence, the statues, and the people, some panicked and some calm.

Devout believers knelt on the ground, following the bishop, begging for divine salvation. They did not look up at the world one last time before they disappeared, and we do not know what they were thinking in their final moments.

Some teenagers ran in groups of three or five on the street, laughing and saying they were going to race against the white light. They said that as long as they won, everything would be fine, but they were swallowed up by the light coming from the opposite direction.

Some tried to cover themselves with various things to block the light, but the coverings disappeared along with them.

Some families embraced each other, calmly welcoming death, while innocent toddlers bit their fingers and asked their parents:

"Mom and Dad, why did our house disappear? Will we disappear too?"

"It's alright, child, the Sun God will save us..."

Although I had prepared myself mentally, seeing these horrific scenes still filled me with immense grief, as if I had personally killed these innocent people, rather than simply shattering an illusion.

Diana was already sobbing uncontrollably, while Leona glared at her angrily.

Soon, everything disappeared, leaving only bare rocks and howling winds—the scene one would expect from a mountaintop.

After the white light erased the view of the mountaintop, it converged at a single point, then suddenly spread out, extending down the mountainside.

The birds flew and then disappeared, the howls of the wolves grew fainter and fainter, the colorful flowers, grasses and trees were replaced by bare rocks, and the monkeys squeaked and scattered in all directions, soon vanishing into time and space.

I couldn't see Willow Village any further down the road. The old man who gave us directions was probably still fast asleep or tending to his flock of sheep; none of that mattered anymore.

When the world went dark again, I knew it was all over, and my sadness disappeared faster than I expected, like watching a tearjerker movie, leaving me with a deep sense of unease after the initial grief.

Varus is much better off. He has lived for over a thousand years and was sealed away for over a thousand years. He has seen too many things like this and it won't cause any ripples.

He landed back on the ground and transformed into human form. At that moment, I suddenly felt someone attacking me from behind, and I was so dazed that I couldn't react in time.

The final attack was stopped by Varus, and that's when I realized it was Leona. After the ropes binding her disappeared, she angrily tried to kill me.

I was so focused on the scene before me that I completely forgot Leona and Diana hadn't disappeared!

Overwhelmed with emotion, I hugged them both tightly, and tears streamed down my face. It turned out that the sadness hadn't disappeared; I had just thought everything was over.

However, after releasing my emotions, I completely calmed down. At this point, I realized that not only had Leona and Diana not disappeared, but more than a dozen people were also walking around me!

What's going on? Why did some people disappear while others were fine?

At this point, Diana greeted them one by one. It turned out that most of these people were followers of the New Moon Cult! There were also a few who believed in Diana but dared not oppose the Solar Cult!

Suddenly, I had some ideas. Including Leona, they actually believed in Diana deep down, and thus gradually awakened their own consciousness, no longer being puppets in this illusion!

That means there must be survivors down the mountain too!

With that in mind, Varus and I flew to Willow Village with these people, and along the way from the mountaintop to the foot of the mountain, we indeed found many people who had not disappeared.

Especially in the fertile land of Willow Village, many plants and animals live, perhaps all things have their own nature!

This time, not only I was happy, but everyone was, and we felt a sense of truth being revealed.

Although most things have disappeared, this is already the greatest comfort to my heart!

I looked at the World Rune, the size of a goose egg, in my hand, wondering why this tiny thing possessed such immense power.

Varus took it from my hand, examined it, and confirmed that it was indeed the Light Rune!

Now that we have the runes, we've accomplished half of our purpose in coming here, but for some reason, the gods still haven't appeared.

"What should we do, Yasuo? Should we continue searching for the gods?" Varus asked me.

"It seems we have no choice but to keep searching, otherwise we don't know how to get out."

"Where should we go then?"

"Let's climb Mount Targon again! Do you two want to come along?"

"Of course!" Diana recovered as well. Leona didn't say anything, but she pulled her along.

We set off again, but this time it was different from before. We flew for a long time and still couldn't see the summit. Even as dawn broke and the sky began to lighten, we still couldn't see the end.

That's it, this is the real Mount Targon! I wasn't surprised at all; on the contrary, I was very happy.

And so it went, until the sun was halfway up the sky, when Varus could no longer fly, the immense resistance making it impossible for him to take off.

If we can't fly, we can still climb. I used the Wind Force to fight against the resistance and climbed upwards little by little.

After several sunrises and sunsets, besides the cold and exhaustion, hunger became the biggest challenge.

Diana was the first to give way; if Varus hadn't reacted quickly, she would have fallen to the ground.

Leona was already deathly pale; her ability to hold on this long was truly remarkable.

"This can't go on, Yasuo! You'll all die here! You take them down, I'll go up myself!" Varus, relying on his ascended form, wanted to climb alone.

"I'm afraid this Mount Targon doesn't have a summit; it's just that the gods don't want to see us."

"Then let's go back together and figure out a way to get out of here!"

"Try again. You said the Light Rune could enhance your power, right? Now that you have such a large piece, it should be able to boost your attacks to a very high level."

"Although I don't know how to use World Rune, increasing my power is definitely not a problem. So what?"

"Then use your War Bow to shoot a few arrows upwards!"

"Hahaha, you want to start a war with the gods?" Varus suddenly laughed when he heard my words.

"I'm not afraid of war, I'm afraid he won't come out!"

"Okay, I'll give it a try!"