661. Shield

"That Puji—why—?"

Jini's consciousness had been shattered by the backlash from Sword Heart. She could not even control her body, and could only let the other cultists carry her on their backs as they fled.

It was not that she had been careless.

Mind-type mages were rare to begin with, and even when they were encountered, in the face of the power bestowed by the Goddess, most of them could only defend passively and barely protect themselves.

A counterattack this swift and violent was practically just like that dead Sword Saint?!

At that moment, Jini could not even focus her mind enough to think about it, because she saw them.

In a daze, those faces emerged from the void, one after another, overlapping in layers as they closed in around her.

There were old people, children, men, and women. She knew them all. She had sacrificed them all with her own hands.

They stood within the gray, hazy halo at the edge of her consciousness, like reflections rising from water, becoming clearer and clearer.

Someone frowned in confusion.

Someone clenched their fists in anger.

Someone stared at her with empty eye sockets.

At first, those voices were very faint, as if separated by a thick layer of water. Gradually, they became clear, sharp, piercing, tormenting Jini's already fragile mind. "Jini—why?"

One voice pierced through all the clamor.

That voice was far too familiar, so familiar that she could not help trembling.

Within the gray-white halo stood a young man. His face was still so clear, so young, as if it had forever stopped in the year he was seventeen.

Kede, her childhood sweetheart.

"Jini, why?"

His voice was very soft. There was no blame in it, only a simple question.

She wanted to speak, wanted to explain, but her body