Chapter 309
Chapter 310: Piercing
Yu Sheng lay by a pillar, feeling his blood and life slipping away as the Artificial Saintess pressed down on him like a lifeless block of iron.
A low, broken noise came from her metal shell, like a key part grinding after a fatal failure. A thick liquid, almost like blood plasma, slowly oozed from the seams. It was hot and corrosive, with a metallic sheen, and there was a hint of suspicious dark red mixed in.
He pushed hard and managed to pull the two blades that had pierced him out of his body, but he was too weak to shove the dead weight of the machine off his chest.
He caught his breath and stared at the unmoving Metal Doll as he said: “Hey, are you really dead?”
This enemy had been terrifying and stubborn. After so many fights, he had almost believed she could not be killed. Yet here she was, fallen before him, looking as if she would never move again.
Yu Sheng shook his head, his mind foggy. He could not help remembering the broken fragments he had read from the Metal Doll’s “thoughts” through their blood link, and his confusion only grew.
After resting where he lay for a short while, he let out a quiet sigh.
[Dead is dead. I’ll probably die soon too. After this death, it will be time to end everything here.]
With that in mind, he braced an arm and tried to push the Artificial Saintess’s “corpse” off himself.
Flesh lifted metal. Blood mixed with slurry.
Suddenly, a voice floated up in his mind, faint and far, as if from the depths of an old memory: “…You are going to become a lord being. When the time comes, remember to come home and visit…”
Yu Sheng froze.
While he was still trying to figure out what that voice was, he noticed his fingers had accidentally touched the dark red “blood” pooling beside the Artificial Saintess’s pale face.
[Conversation With The Dead?! Does it work on an Artificial Saintess too?!]
Before he could think further, his vision lurched. A black, white, and gray world descended over his sight.
Unlike the last times he used Conversation With The Dead, what he saw was not the Holy Sarcophagus Chamber he was in now. The grayscale world grew and grew, an unfamiliar scene covering reality and breaking into his sight, like falling into a dream that felt almost real.
He saw endless fields of wheat.
There was a vast Wilderness, rolling mountains far away, a river passing quietly through the plain, and peaceful villages dotted across the land.
The sound of a stick striking came from behind him, very close.
Startled, Yu Sheng looked back. The scene rippled like mist and changed again and again. A big tree had appeared behind him. In front of it stood a wooden post. A little girl, maybe eight or nine, stood before the post, swinging a stick with full focus, using the post as a target as she trained her swordsmanship.
Many figures of different heights and builds, boys and girls a bit older, gathered around the tree, watching the girl swing. Some counted loudly like they were teasing, some cheered, and some shouted that it was time to go home and eat.
Yu Sheng frowned and took a step forward, but the big tree suddenly vanished. A thin veil of smoke drifted. On a small road through the fields, a Knight in a surcoat galloped along the village path.
“War at the Border is fierce! The Demons are attacking harder! The Holy One calls more brave and upright warriors to receive baptism and honor!” the Knight shouted from his horse. His bright surcoat and the proud armor under it made everyone envy him.
Envoys moved among the villages, passing on the Holy One’s teachings and bringing the Holy One’s grace.
The land was poor, but the Holy One could make even poor soil grow enough wheat to feed everyone. Knowledge was precious, but the Village Church taught every child to read and write for free.
Yu Sheng walked through scene after scene of Illusion Arts.
The girl of eight or nine grew to eleven or twelve. The rough practice stick became a wooden sword that looked like a real one. It was still wood, but now it had a proper hilt and guard. Her father used an old knife, carving it bit by bit under the oil lamp as a birthday gift.
Her two older brothers were jealous, but they did not have the gift of being “chosen,” so there was nothing they could do.
A neighbor’s big brother had been chosen to become a Knight and left with the Envoys for the Capital. People said he would be sent very far away and would not come home for a long time. When he left, he wore armor bright as gold. Its beauty and authority dazzled the eyes.
“Being a Knight lets you send home two hundred francs every year, the same as five strong laborers,” the girl’s mother said under the lamp, doing the math. She had studied at the church when she was young, but without further talent she had become a literate farm woman. “You have talent as a Knight and as a Saintess. If you get chosen for holy office, you can send home eight hundred francs every year…”
Her father disliked his wife’s calculations. They argued, though neither seemed to know exactly about what.
At twelve, the girl only kept training hard at swordsmanship every day. She sparred with the neighbor kids and also studied the church lessons with them.
The wheat ripened several times. The Envoys came several times.
Yu Sheng stepped through a thin mist and saw a splendid carriage stopping on the Open Ground. Villagers bowed their heads in awe, and in the sky nearby floated stern steel constructs.
Another group of gifted youths were taken away. Most had the talent to become Knights, and two girls were said to be able to become Saintesses.
The Envoys came and went.
The bards also came and went.
The bards were more interesting than the Envoys. They brought stories from faraway places, the very stories young people loved to hear.
They told of the Demons beyond the Border, the great Holy Crusade, and the battles where justice was upheld and the Kingdom was defended. The Holy One led armies outside the Civilized World to hold back the dark and mad Chaotic Creatures. The walls they built encircled one Kingdom World after another. Under that shelter, the wheat ripened harvest after harvest, and peace lay across the Wilderness.
The wooden sword became an iron practice sword, and then a real steel blade.
At sixteen, the girl began to patrol the wilds with the village youths. They hunted beasts that might threaten the villages and cleared the weak monsters that kept appearing in certain nests for unknown reasons.
At last, the Envoys returned.
“This one, this one, and this whole group here are ready. Come with us. You are blessed,” they said.
The girl and her brothers and sisters from the village boarded the carriage together.
She carried the treasured sword her father had paid dearly to have forged, and two new outfits her mother had sewn by hand.
“You are going to become a lord being, remember to come home to visit,” her mother said, leaning on the carriage and holding her hand.
“You don’t have to send all the money back. Take care of yourself first. Your parents have harvests at home, and your two brothers can carry the load,” her mother added.
The carriage set off.
After leaving the fields, the carriage was changed for a magic powered coach.
It was so comfortable. The seats were soft. A kindly Envoy grandfather sat with the boys and girls who had just left home, telling them many fun little stories about faraway places.
Yu Sheng stood in the swaying coach, watching the youths sit around the lamp, listening to them talk eagerly about the future, glory, and home as the mist rose and faded.
“This is the sword my father had made. I am skilled at swordsmanship!” the girl, now a master of the blade, said with pride at the gate of a grand building like a palace, speaking to the Envoys at The Door, “I also know herbs and arithmetic!”
“Very good,” the Envoy told her, “put your sword in this box, and these two sets of clothes as well. You cannot bring many personal items to the promotion ritual. Don’t worry. When you return, everything will be given back to you. Your swordsmanship will be useful.”
Then the boys and girls went in, into that splendid palace. They walked down a long corridor. The Envoys guided them gently and had them lie on the Ritual Platform. In a haze, they heard the Envoys’ orders:
“This batch goes to the Conversion Room.
“These few, to the Regeneration Room.
“These ones… remove them.
“This one has great talent. Send to the Extraction Room. The success rate is high.”
That seemed like it had been many years ago.
The girl became a Saintess. Her brothers and sisters from home became Knights. They formed a team everyone envied. Like the bards’ stories, by day they stepped onto the battlefield and fought the Heretical Abominations with courage, defending justice and the people. At night, they returned to the Holy Sanctuary, where endless honor and grace awaited them.
After that, the days were full of glory.
After that, the days were full of glory.
Full of glory.
Glo&%$#!!!
Mist rose like smoke, then everything fell into darkness. In the black, white, and gray world there was a rushing howl and a sharp alarm, as if wired into some deep System: “Mind Barrier critical! Cognitive mask being Pierced! Warning, Mind Barrier critical! Shut this…”
Yu Sheng found the alarm unbearable. He waved a hand, and the noise cut off.
He looked around. The darkness was deep, with no exit, only drifting chaotic fog.
Little by little, a beam of light appeared in the mist.
A figure stood inside the light.
A bold, valiant lady in bright armor, golden hair on her shoulders, holding a fine sword – the last gift her father had given her – stood not far away.
She stared blankly at Yu Sheng, then lowered her head and looked at her own body.
Black metal rushed over the bright armor. The sword shattered without a sound. Her fingers turned into sharp blades.
With the cognitive mask pierced, near mad floods of memory and logic collided and roared. She lifted her head, as if reaching out to him – for help, or simply to grab something by reflex before her body fell.
Yu Sheng did not know.
The darkness broke apart. The last memory of the dead sank into eternal peace.