Chapter 83: Echoes of a Dying God

That voice just now must have belonged to a deity as well, right? Was it the Goddess of Light? No, it didn’t seem like her…

Yulim Wilivia felt her head throb even more intensely, yet she endured the discomfort and pressed onward.

Her gaze remained fixed ahead, constantly gauging the distance between herself and that crimson glow.

It still seemed so far away…

As she walked, Yulim Wilivia’s vision began to blur, seeing double.

She reached up to rub her eyes, intending to continue, but a greatsword, wreathed in fiery crimson flames, abruptly appeared in her sight.

There was no time to dodge!

The thought had barely formed.

Pthk—

The blade pierced her chest, skewering her heart.

In the next instant, the fierce flames upon the sword erupted, climbing her body along the blood gushing from the wound.

She was instantly engulfed, transforming into a fiery figure, her flesh constantly searing.

Yulim Wilivia convulsed violently, her eyes wide with terror.

She collapsed to her knees, gasping for air in ragged, desperate breaths.

“Haaah… haaah…”

“What… what was that…?”

With a trembling hand, Yulim Wilivia reached for her chest, finding it smooth and unblemished.

There was no wound to be found.

Only then did she realize that everything she had just experienced was an illusion.

Yet, in that fleeting moment, the girl had truly felt as though she was about to die!

The agony of a greatsword piercing her heart…

It felt as real as if she had experienced it herself!

This firsthand experience of death felt eerily familiar.

It was the curse!

The curse had intensified.

She hadn’t expected it could already affect her sensory perception in reality.

After several ragged breaths, Yulim Wilivia suddenly realized something.

She had never once wielded a sword.

She remembered every act of killing she had committed with perfect clarity, yet she had never taken a human life.

To imagine her piercing someone’s heart with a flaming greatsword was even more absurd.

Then, that suffering just now…

Whose death had it stemmed from?

Gazing at the scorched earth beneath her, Yulim Wilivia paused, then fell into a belated silence.

It was the forest’s…

It was the pain she endured before her demise.

And that greatsword, wreathed in scorching flames, must have been the Godslayer Sword.

Taking a deep breath, Yulim Wilivia pushed herself back to her feet.

She reinforced the elemental magic shield around her and continued onward.

However, after only a few steps, everything before her eyes suddenly blurred.

In the span of two blinks, the crimson greatsword reappeared before her.

Thump—

Yulim Wilivia collapsed to her knees once more, clutching her chest and gasping frantically.

It was happening again!

Just like before, Yulim Wilivia felt the agonizing pain of being impaled by the greatsword, followed by an instant, blinding death.

She was utterly powerless to resist!

To merely watch herself die, the sheer helplessness in the face of death, was maddening.

At that moment, a sudden urge to retreat welled up within Yulim Wilivia.

Perhaps she should turn back.

She had only just reached this point, and the curse had already escalated to such a degree.

If she ventured deeper, she feared she might lose her mind before ever reaching the sword.

But then…

She had come so far.

Looking up, she could already discern the faint outline of the Godslayer Sword.

“No… I must… bring the sword back… for Anna…”

She recalled the blue-haired girl, Anna, who had stood before her that day.

Anna had secretly produced a backpack, tied with a ribbon, from behind her back.

Then, with a triumphant grin, she had bent halfway and declared: [Happy birthday, Yulim Wilivia! This is a surprise for you!]

Yulim Wilivia yearned to do the same, to present her own prepared surprise to Anna in such a fashion.

Furthermore…

Yulim Wilivia hadn’t forgotten the dawn of their farewell, when Luosha had smiled faintly at her.

Luosha had promised to await her return and asked her to bring back a specialty from the Elf Forest.

Yulim Wilivia knew that for someone as astute as Luosha, the “specialty” she spoke of was likely far more than just a common souvenir.

It was probably a veiled hint; the “specialty” she referred to was, in all likelihood, the Godslayer Sword itself.

Luosha was encouraging her!

Yes…

“I… I also promised Luosha this…”

The girl once again rose from the ground, her dark golden eyes fixed resolutely on the distance.

She felt her entire body surge with renewed vigor, her fighting spirit soaring.

Of course, despite her renewed resolve, Yulim Wilivia did not blindly charge forward like a fool.

She knew her goal wasn’t merely to acquire the Godslayer Sword.

She also needed to return and reunite with her companions after obtaining it!

Yulim Wilivia retrieved two more leaves from her pocket and pressed them against her eyes.

Then, she contracted the elemental magic shield around that area, securing the leaves in place.

Yulim Wilivia’s idea was simple.

If the curse could now affect her sensory perception, then by simply blocking her senses and seeing nothing, wouldn’t she be immune to its influence?

Yulim Wilivia didn’t know if this “hiding behind a leaf” method would work, but there was no harm in trying.

Although she could no longer see the path, Yulim Wilivia still remembered the general direction.

Thus, she began to walk forward.

As it turned out, the method proved somewhat effective.

No matter how many times Yulim Wilivia blinked, her vision remained filled with the intricate patterns of leaf veins.

It was a fresh, healthy green world.

However, various scenes of death still flashed through her mind.

Fortunately, this level of disturbance was something Yulim Wilivia often experienced even in her sleep, granting her a certain immunity.

Yulim Wilivia didn’t know how much further she had walked when voices once again echoed in her ears.

This time, however, it seemed to be two distinct voices engaged in conversation.

The first to reach her was an ethereal, elusive voice: [Order, you are one of the most ancient deities. Surely you know of a way to avert demise.]

[I wish to know that method.]

[I do not wish to bring curses and calamities upon the people I protect.]

As that voice faded, another, more solemn one followed.

[Before every deity perishes, they leave an eternal curse upon the race that killed them; this is an immutable rule of the world.]

[Forest, even one as benevolent as you cannot escape this rule.]

[Rules embody order.]

[I am the God of Order, and maintaining order is my duty. You should not seek my help, for I will not shield any being that disrupts order.]

[Even if you are a deity, the same applies.]

His voice, heavy with the weight of ages, brooked no argument.

Yulim Wilivia realized she had once again lost herself in a trance.

The leaves covering her eyes had turned withered and yellowed.

Yet, the tremor in her heart refused to subside.

From the lingering echoes, it seemed the Goddess of the Forest had once wished not to leave a curse.

However, she was ultimately bound by the rules.

This was a truth never recorded in the historical annals of the Elf Forest!

Throughout Yulim Wilivia’s life, the history she knew only mentioned the Goddess of the Forest’s protection of the forest during her lifetime.

The rest of the accounts described how, after the Goddess’s demise, she left behind a vast expanse of scorched earth in the Elf Forest, bringing endless calamity upon the elven race.

Even more ink was spent documenting the Godfall Land, a place cursed to anyone who dared approach.

While transforming into a Dark Elf, she had glimpsed a sliver of historical truth, always harboring an intuition that something was missing from the historical records.

But it was only now, truly hearing the echoes left behind by the Goddess, that Yulim Wilivia finally understood what was absent from those accounts.

No one had ever ventured into the depths of the cursed land, and thus, no one had ever recorded the voices of the deities.

This chapter of history had been entirely buried and forgotten.