Aunt was pregnant at that ti, when the People of Sky Ring dragged her out of the water tank by her hair. They used a katana to cut open her belly, and both she and her unborn child were brutally slaughtered. They cheered and leaped for joy, singing happy ballads as if they had accomplished sothing remarkable.
Yawen pressed Desca’s head down hard and covered her mouth. They huddled inside the wall and buried themselves with bricks. The People of Sky Ring wreaked havoc in their ho for five or six days before leaving. By that ti, the two of them were starving and barely alive. When they crawled out, all they saw were the ruins completely scorched by flas.
Even so, the People of Sky Ring did not stop their onslaught. They turned half of the living room into a battlefield, fighting with the Rose Army’s Guerrilla Team. Bullets whizzed over their heads as they crawled forward through the mud and gun smoke, not minding anything else but greedily stuffing into their mouths anything that slled edible.
Leather shoes, bones, charcoal, grass ash, ants, rats, crows, maggots—if gunpowder were not poisonous, they would have almost eaten Oktojin. Even so, they were still starving.
Finally, Desca fell first.
"Sister, father has co, I see mother... alkali noodles, white rice porridge, pork strips... I wish I could eat," she said.
Her tiny body lay in the mud, gradually ceasing to tremble, and in her final monts, her voice suddenly beca very clear:
"Sister, I don’t need to eat anymore, it’s your turn to be full."
The eyes reflected in hers were not human eyes but those of a beast.
Starvation, greed, bloodthirstiness.
—No, those were not the eyes of any beast.
Yawen lifted her hand, covering her own left eye.
"Those are my eyes..."
It was I who killed my sister.
That sinful mory surged into her heart, reality and recollection intertwined; the familiar coldness and hunger blurred ti and space, and Yawen couldn’t differentiate whether she was in the Outer World or back on the battlefield of her youth.
"...Jiajia."
But one thing she was certain of, whether it was then or now, she had lost Sijia all the sa.
Suddenly, Yawen stopped in her tracks, a mont of enlightennt flashing through her dim gold-green eyes.
"Indeed... why should I insist on living?"
Twelve years ago, she had to kill Desca to survive. But in death, Desca beca a ghost, starting to protect her instead.
Twelve years later, she was about to set foot on sobody else’s land, pointing her gun at the innocent Grantians, rely to keep herself alive.
"I... I should not have been alive long ago."
She stood in the wind and snow of the Outer World, murmuring:
"Father, I’m sorry, it was who killed my sister, I’m sorry, father... I can’t go to save you, nor can I save Frost Plated, I don’t deserve to do so."
Soone like her had no right to live on.
Yawen removed her cloak, the Ersha looking like burn scars spread from her right eye over her entire face. Red and black flesh tendrils spread like thousands of neural tentacles, seemingly with a will of their own, constantly twisting and coiling.
"I should have ended this sinful life long ago."
She spread her arms and lay down flat on the ground, staring blankly at the red and black sky, abandoning all thoughts of struggle, letting the cold and the Ersha continuously weaken her life.
The grey world had not a single point of light; not even a deceptive sun could be seen. Dying here, she would be ignored and uncared for, forgotten by the world, with no one to miss her.
Yawen thought: Let it be.
At least I won’t harm any more innocents.
Her body temperature kept escaping, but she showed no signs of death. At this point, she could still feel her temperature rising continuously, the cold turning into an extre heat, yet she lacked even the ability to shiver. The high fever blurred her consciousness, her brain unable to distinguish anything, she just lay on the ground, motionless.
"... What a pity."
In the darkness, she seed to hear a voice whisper:
"You’ve just stepped into the realm of evolution, and you’re about to sever this gift, what a pity."
[Who? Who is there?]
Yawen had just started to speak when she suddenly realized that she wasn’t using her vocal cords to make sound, but her own soul, directly resonating with that distant existence.
"You have talent, et the Quality, and have paid the price— to not use you would be a sin."
[Who are you exactly?!]
It was mysterious because she had never known this technique, but in just an instant, she understood its principles and essence intuitively.
"You don’t need to be aware of my existence, for my existence is secret, and truth ans nothing to you."
The ethereal voice was indistinguishable, but Yawen instinctively felt that the owner of the voice must be a woman, and a kind and loving mother at that.
[You are binding so power to my soul... What is this? Why do I feel so close to you, who is completely strange and whom I have never t before?]
The response to Yawen’s question was only a cryptic phrase:
"I have three Speakers, thirteen Senators, seventy-two Jurors, six hundred and sixty-six Citizens."
Speaker? Senator? Jury? Citizen?
What is this?
Yawen asked blankly:
[What do you an by that?]
The elusive presence simply stated the fact to her:
"Now, you will be my Senator."
Yawen hadn’t reacted yet, and the next mont, a strange term appeared in her mind for no reason:
"[Tailor]."
She said.
Afterward, Yawen revealed a strange and bewildered look. She raised her hand as if she felt sothing inside her changing permanently.
Feeling a sense of foreboding, she quickly stood up, her eyes’ red and black rapidly expanded, the intense pain made Yawen kneel on the ground, her skin turned deathly pale, she clenched her teeth, the red and black Ersha on her forehead proliferated rapidly like flesh and blood, gradually forming sharp tentacles.
"Ersha... Ugh! Aaahhh! Hiss—"
She lifted her hand, her fingertips split in two, with spiral neural tentacles springing out from the center,
Ersha started accelerating the infection, about to turn her into a monster.
"The curse, it has arrived."
For over a decade, the guilt buried deep within her heart was exposed. Under the guise of a good girl lurked a monster who had devoured her own sister.
That forbidden curse, like her sister’s nightmare, had always haunted her.
I have no right to live, I have no right at all, no right, no right...
Yawen’s neck split open with deep scars filled with clusters of eyeballs. Her hair gradually withered as she lay on the ground, a blue Abandon Mist seeping continuously from her mouth. Her own mories were incessantly dissipating and leaking out in this form.
"Yawen, as agreed, you’ll take your mother’s last na, inheriting her tenderness and strength."
Her father David Lyn’s figure receded into the distance.
—But you achieved none of it.
"Our little Yawen will beco a big sister now. This is your sister, Jiajia. You must protect her well."
Her mother turned her head away, showing disdain and unwillingness to look at her.
—Instead, you ate her.
"I’m sorry, Yawen, if big brother were a girl, he could work in a corporation and support the family. It’s all up to you now."
Her brother passed by her with a wry smile, as if a stranger.
—You did not uplift our family at all.
"Well, well, you finally ca to keep company. Big sister, do I still taste good?"
Desca’s sneering face choked her throat, but she could no longer see it clearly.
—She still won’t forgive you, ah, yes, how could she forgive you!
Many close and important people moved away from her. However, unexpectedly, she saw a figure she’d never thought of.
"On this planet, you are a unique existence to . Once lost, you’re hard to find again."
The handso man with black hair and gray eyes was close at hand. His strong Charm was deeply etched in her heart, unforgettable, and he seriously said to her:
"Survive."
Li Aozi said so.
"Your existence ans a lot to . No matter what, you must ensure your own safety, live well, and don’t die in so forgotten corner where I can’t find you."
Yawen’s dark field of vision suddenly brightened with sunlight.
Almost everyone had no hope for her living on as ’Yawen Heskixin’. She was the eldest daughter, the big sister, the pillar of the family, the sinner, but not Yawen.
Only Li Aozi earnestly requested her to live on.
Yawen’s fingers dug into the sandy soil. Her fragnted eyes slowly refocused, forming a cross-shaped pupil.
"I... I can’t die yet."
There was still one person who wanted her alive.
At least until Li Aozi denied her value and no longer needed her, she had to survive.
I am still human, as long as soone else needs , I am human, I have a reason to live.
Even if Li Aozi alone is willing to affirm the aning of my life, I must live.
Yawen slowly got up on all fours, her head deford like deer antlers. Her flesh decayed and fell off piece by piece, only a longing for life remaining in her gold-green eyes.
’I must survive.’
She stood up, her hands turning into bat-like wing mbranes. She staggered a few steps and then collapsed heavily.
No good... The cold froze stiff. This deford body isn’t resistant to the cold; I can’t move at all.
Frost Snow covered her body. Yawen’s life gradually neared its end.
Is it over?
It lowered its head, but the desire for life in its eyes grew stronger still.
It floundered with its limbs, inching forward, dragging its body bit by bit.
Even if crawling, she had to reach Li Aozi to ask if she was still needed.
Before that, she must not die—
Pat.
A boot suddenly stepped into its dim and blurry vision.
"Are you... a Senator? If the Bell Ringer hadn’t forcefully woken up, I truly wouldn’t want to encounter any Senators here."
A young man’s voice sounded, followed by Yawen seeing a young man with an unkempt appearance, unlike any of the ethnicities of the Azure Star— the man had short golden hair, ocean-blue eyes, and stubble. He spoke with a strange accent.
His attire resembled that of soone from the steam Industrial Era, tall and muscular, at least one ter ninety, with a world-weariness and impatience on his face that belied his exterior age.
"Just for the record, don’t expect any thanks from . I was coerced."
Seeing Yawen look at him bewilderedly, the man carelessly took out a vial filled with a dreamy Silver Potion from his pocket. He uncorked it and sprinkled the blood-like liquid over Yawen:
"Welco to society, you unfortunate soul."
The white blood integrated into her body. Yawen felt no change, but when she regained consciousness, suddenly, the whole world seed different. Her spine began rapidly producing blood, her body filled with a force different from Spiritual Power but far more powerful, quickly healing her deformities. Her wilted hair hung over her pale skin, appearing lifeless and white.
"Cough cough—!"
Yawen coughed violently twice, expelling a clump of dark red blood clots, and then suddenly stood up. She lifted her head, her gold-green eyes shocked as they gazed at the tall man:
"...Who are you?"
"Just a coward who has hidden for countless epochs and still cannot escape Fate,"
the man said sorrowfully:
"My na is Igor Matthew, Senator. You may call the ’Sailor’."
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