No Hope-Just Wait to Die

Aboard the airship, Beatrice forced her ruined body to hold on as she turned for one last look at Rhine.

Layer upon layer of towering cathedrals, exquisite and magnificent arcades and plazas, sunlight spilling over white marble trimmed with gold—it looked like heaven itself.

But in her memories, this city had not looked like this.

Rhine. She had been born here. Back then, there were not nearly so many churches. Crude factories stood everywhere, the sky was always gray, and the workers were covered in thick coal dust—yet when they smiled, their white teeth showed.

And now, it had become an exquisite cage that imprisoned her here.

The medics aboard the airship immediately began dressing her wounds, but the bleeding simply would not stop.

Her injuries came from within.

The ritual had shattered the high walls of reality, connecting the Sea of Unconsciousness to the present world and allowing its seawater to surge in—into her body.

Then it had abruptly stopped, with no further development.

Most of the seawater within her had somehow gone somewhere unknown, but a great deal still remained.

The seawater of the Sea of Unconsciousness was not "water" that existed in reality, yet it could directly affect this world. To Transcendents, it was practically equivalent to Pollution.

The only reason she had not yet been eroded was that her unyielding will was keeping her alive. One could even say that her body was already dead; it simply refused to accept it.

This unstable world had its advantages too. If one's refusal to die was strong enough, one truly could delay the execution.

But the price was torture every moment of every day.

"No need. To treat me. It's useless."

She forced the words out through clenched teeth, yet there was a trace of happiness on her