"I..." Huaruo Qingqing’s face, once white as polished jade, went rigid like frost on porcelain. For the first time in a thousand years, fear crawled up her bones like winter vines.
No—she tasted iron resolve and refused to bow, a sapling in a screaming gale.
Under a mountain of pressure like stormclouds, she forced herself to meet the God of Heart Realm’s gaze. "I... beli—" Her voice broke like thin ice.
As expected... it still won’t work. That bleak thought fell like ash.
Instinctive terror clamped her throat like cold iron; Huaruo Qingqing shook all over, her expression cracking like a mask in drought.
"Hey, old man—why’s she making you kneel? Is she our Elf Clan’s ancestor?" A crisp girl’s voice rang like wind chimes from the heavens, and the weight on Huaruo Qingqing melted like snow in sun.
She went weak at the knees and caught a railing like a root clinging to earth. She took a few misty breaths and looked up at the little figure with a grateful glance. Then she steadied her face and addressed the God of Heart Realm below. "I worship the God of Nature. I’ll offer you the highest respect. But here, under Nature’s gaze and on Nature’s soil, I don’t need to kneel to you."
"Heh..." She smiled, a ripple over still water, and didn’t mind. Her gaze drifted toward Qingsheng Tangxue like a cutting breeze. Her eyes grew heavy like a brewing storm.
"You... your aura smells familiar, like rain carried from far hills."
"Uh... have we met before?" Tangxue pointed at herself, a puzzled sparrow.
"No." The God of Heart Realm’s tone was cool as a shaded spring. "But the source of your mana comes from a ‘friend’ I know very well."
"...Who?"
"A ‘friend.’"
"..."
That told me nothing, a fog swallowing the path.
The God of Heart Realm no longer heeded Qingsheng Tangxue; she turned her face like a sundial to another corner. "You called me forth, did you not? Speak... what is it you seek?"
The half-orc priest who had been at Daiya’s side shifted from kneeling and rose slowly, then bowed with river-deep respect to the God of Heart Realm.
Under the same crushing air, the half-orc zealot showed no discomfort; instead, fanatic fire burned in his eyes like coals in a brazier.
"Great God of Heart Realm, embodiment of Verity and Blazing Fire... your devout apostle, Alos Erliqin Pukexius, begs you in all sincerity—save us," he cried, voice like a struck bell.
His shout stirred the crowd like a hive upended. What did that mean? Gifts from a god were one thing; were they already at the cliff’s edge of ruin?
The noise around them washed like surf, yet didn’t touch their exchange. In truth, it was what the half-orc zealot wanted; only a heart like a clear mirror can speak with the God of Heart Realm.
"In the past, you chose to remain on these shores. Why call on me to rescue you now?"
"That was our forebears’ choice!" the half-orc snarled, hatred like bile. "Those selfish curs threw our race into an abyss for a mouthful of gain. If sunbright truth had reached every clan member then, they’d have chosen as I do now!"
"...So, what is it you want to do?"
"Lord God of Heart Realm, please take us from here—off this world that’s about to vanish like sand under a tide."
"The planar passage has long been sealed, a gate locked like stone. Even I could only descend by a god-descent rite. Why think I can lead you out?"
"Because... my ancestors told me your legends. A god is all-knowing and all-powerful, like heaven without end. We see no other way to save ourselves, so we can only lean on you..."
"All-knowing and all-powerful?" The God of Heart Realm’s lips curved in rare self-mockery, a crack in ice. "Who in this world dares claim to know all and do all?"
"..."
"So, you ask me to carry you out of this world, do you?"
"Yes! If I can help in any way, command me freely!" Alos Erliqin Pukexius half-knelt, eyes blazing like torches.
"Very well."
The God of Heart Realm slowly closed her eyes, dusk falling over her lashes, then turned and swept her gaze around like wind over grass.
Flora Eina sat in her chair, face set like stone, watching the front. Since a moment ago she’d found she couldn’t hear their words, as if stuffed with cotton, and their expressions promised no good weather.
When the God of Heart Realm withdrew her pressure, the hall boiled over like a pot; no one noticed what would fall next like a shadow.
A pale-gold flame blossomed in her palm like a silent flower. No one saw her move. In the next heartbeat, a cloud of hair-thin rays shot from that fire, threading with needle precision through the skulls of most orcs present.
Those pierced orcs didn’t even grasp what happened; a swoon like nightfall took them, and they toppled like felled trunks, breath snuffed.
Not only the orcs—many elves were clipped by that unseen scythe of light.
"What—!?"
The surviving elves and orcs couldn’t make sense of it. Watching comrades drop like wheat in a gale, they drowned in anger and fear, wildfire and flood.
"I am the embodiment of Verity and Blazing Fire, the God of Heart Realm, one of the Thirteen Gods of Creation," she intoned, voice like a bronze bell. "Here, I grant your request, and will take you from this world."
"God of Heart Realm?!"
"It’s the deity!"
"Your Grace... are you taking us away?"
"What... what does this mean?"
What is she doing... This stinks of ill omens. Huaruo Qingqing watched bodies carpet the ground like withered leaves, cold sweat beading like dew. She looked toward the zealot who had parleyed with the god, and found him looking back.
Alos Erliqin Pukexius gave Huaruo Qingqing a small smile, then glanced away, careless as drifting ash, as if she were less than dust.
That would be normal; in this world, few knew her name. Yet when their eyes met, familiarity pricked like a thorn. That contempt felt deliberate—he knows me.
After stating her aim, the God of Heart Realm closed her eyes again; the surrounding mana shifted like a turning tide. The once-colorless currents flushed red-gold, coiling around her, shaping into a colossal tree. In a breath, the tree surged skyward, and its lush crown spread like a canopy to cover everyone present.
From high above, a golden barrier formed like a gilded bell, sheathing the entire Forest Capital, down to its buried roots.
While people still stared in awe, the earlier eeriness returned. Orcs and elves fainted in waves, and beads of white light drifted from their brows like fireflies, swarming to the hands of the half-orc zealot.
Alos Erliqin Pukexius smiled faintly, as if the threads of all things lay braided in his grip.
"The God of Heart Realm... is collecting their souls?!" Huaruo Qingqing bared her teeth, eyes like lightning at the deity, and roared, "Why? Why kill them?"
