Chapter 118: Chapter 118: Move On

At first, Flamira intended to wait it out inside Vilia's cave. With Serinda and Artium, she wouldn't be lonely. However, all of it changed in just one moment, the moment she looked up.

The phenomena in the sky, the falling sun, the splitting mountains, the darkening day, the illuminating night, everything during that moment, which seemingly lasted an eternity, painted a clear, unconcealable picture of the legend. For the first time, Flamira saw the firmament of the Main Material Plane. It glittered in colourful lights as it cracked and shattered.

The earth sank, the sky rose, and the void flooded in between. Distance, time, and meaning lost their importance. Chaos magnified, consumed the old normality, and gave birth to a new era. Nothing ever happened; everything happened at once.

While Artium and Serinda watched the rupture in awe, Flamira observed the flickering details in the sky in fear. Her exceptional eyesight, once unhindered by darkness and haze, failed her. The fractal maze of energy shifted, flowed, and folded. Symbols emerged and vanished in each instant, morphed into something else, then regressed to nothingness.

Flamira squinted her eyes. Amidst the nebulous gas cloud, the fluctuating energy waves, and the changing void, six luminous silhouettes stood at the centre of all that be. Their appearances, unconcealed by haze, untainted by dust, remained towering, undisturbed by all they commanded.

Despite how she tried, Flamira could not observe them. Their appearances, their auras, their speeds, their powers, their speeches, their everything, though unconcealed, was unreachable from below. They were open, in front of the world, yet the world could not comprehend them. Flamira failed to comprehend anything other than the boundless crisis.

"Sister Flamira, what did you do?" Serinda said. "How did that happen?"

"What do you mean?" Flamira turned to Serinda. "What did I do?"

"Your eyes, you're crying."

Flamira touched her cheeks and wiped the tears with her thumb. It was warm and milky, but Flamira knew this sensation was not of tears. It was of blood.

My eyes are bleeding? Just because I look at them?

Flamira wiped her slimy blood and smiled. Serinda and Artium smiled back.

"It's all right," Flamira said. "When we left that cave, my memory overcomes me. I'm too sentimental sometimes."

"It's not a bad thing to be sentimental. Memory and emotions are precious. Crying for your loss proves that you still have a heart, Sister Flamira."

"Yes, Vilia is watching over me. Marina, too, is watching over you two. We must live in their stead. Though they have left this world, their hope and dream remain inside our living heart."

Flamira proudly marched forwards. Her eyes gleamed with feverish determination. Her confidence, on the verge of conceit, fueled her desires to break away from the chains of Fate, the invisible arrangements, which had been turning since before she came into this world.

Vilia, you stay a little longer inside my heart. One day, I’ll take you out for a walk, and you will discover that you can walk again.

Touched by Flamira's words, Serinda and Artium contemplated their meaning. Quietude returned to the three and embraced them in the inspirational silence. The soundless forest, disturbed by the occasional booms in the sky, merged with the high mountains and the hills, blurring the boundary between the Sunken Dark Forest and the surrounding nations.

"Watching you walk, Sister Flamira, is a pleasant sight." Serinda raised her pace to keep up with Flamira. "You should tell us more about yourself. Your manner fills your aura with such elegance unfound in commoners. You must be an important person in the past."

"I'm nothing important. Even if I told you my history, you wouldn't recognise any names, surnames, or households."

"Your mystery intrigues me, Sister Flamira. If your family is out of the record, it must be incredibly hidden or unfathomably old."

Flamira giggled. The Goodwill Family was not ancient nor hidden, but it was from another world. No matter how knowledgeable Artium and Serinda were, they could never imagine such a possibility.

"I will tell you when you can believe me."

"Are you perhaps a princess of an ancient, fallen royalty? Or a mixed-blood between the Demon and the Human?"

"Your imagination sure is colourful. If my past were that complicated, I wouldn't have become a measly Slime Girl who wanders around."

"If you're measly, Sister Flamira, no one is extraordinary anymore."

Flamira sighed. Serinda stopped chatting with Flamira and went to Artium. The two whispered something, but Flamira couldn't hear the content. She also didn't have the mind to eavesdrop. Her attention remained on the frequent trembles of the earth and shatterings of the sky.

They must be related to Gulia and the Divine, which means they are related to me. Just what happened? Isn't the Sinking Dark Forest a Forbidden Location, one whose peace has been unbroken for thousands of years?

No matter the reason, I shouldn't stay here any longer. Lenmia and others have left, while Serinda and Artium are with me. We have already disguised ourselves as humans. It will not be hard to blend in and find a way to hide inside the large population.

Flamira chose the Tentoid Empire as her hideout. It was a big chaotic warring state with multiple faiths coexisting, competing. From Varda's experience, there were also Evil Cults and Secret Organisations, as well as libraries and mage towers and various kinds of Pure Races persisting.

It will be a perfect place to mingle in. Also, maybe, just maybe, I'll see her again.

The hazy image of Errenia, Iris's first corruption, surfaced. That moment marked the beginning of her acceptance towards her nature as something naturally wicked, naturally lewd. Though her main body rejected it, Flamira didn't feel any aversion. Maybe it is how Main Body deals with stress?

After a long time, Flamira and her friends arrived at the cave in which Iris spent her happiest time. The Soul Tree had already been toppled and taken away, but the inconspicuous tombstone was still there. Covered in dust and overgrown, it remained undisturbed by the fighting and the looting.

Flamira led Serinda and Artium to the grave and knelt. Along the way, she picked a few colourful flowers, arranged them into a bouquet, and filled it with her condensed emotions. The flowers glittered as Flamira's slime seeped into their stems.

With the bouquet in her hands, Flamira embraced it as if to have her warmth transmit into the flowers; when she placed it down, it would permeate Vilia, who was sleeping alone beneath the earth.

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"It is time I formally introduced you two to her," Flamira said. "She is a Snake Girl, Vilia. Vilia, they are Serinda, a Snake Girl like you, and Artium, a Flower Girl."

Serinda and Artium looked at each other, then at Flamira, who remained still, solemn. Serinda took a deep breath, turned towards the grave, and bowed. Her respectful, graceful action gave birth to the warmth inside Flamira's chest.

"Sister Vilia, though I never had the chance to meet you in life, you're Sister Flamira's precious friend, girlfriend, lover. Thus, you are my precious friend too."

Artium stepped forwards, stooped down, and placed a Soul Gem in front of the tomb.

"Sister Vilia, though I can't see you when you're still alive, I believe you are a good person. There is someone I want you to meet. Her name is Marina, and she's inside this Soul Gem. Please let her talk to you in our places."

"You two . . ." Flamira turned around, concealing her face behind her fragile, trembling back. "You don't have to go that far. That tomb is just a memorial, a pretence. Vilia is not here; she has disappeared. I'm the one who absorbed her Soul Gem. She's . . . no longer with us."

"She's inside your heart." Artium got up, walked to Flamira, and placed the Soul Gem on Flamira's chest, next to her heart. "Now, they can talk."

Flamira tensed. The three waited in silence, but there seemed to be invisible sounds of an intimate, heart-to-heart conversation. Giggles, laughter, crying. Muffled words which echoed from nowhere filled the atmosphere with perplexity, one which everyone wished to prolong.

The persisting silence only broke away when Flamira could not hold her tears. Her face reddened as teardrops warmed her cheeks, dripped from her face, and landed on the soil beneath her.

She could not listen to nor participate in their conversation, and it was unclear if they could hear or see her. Nevertheless, she cried. Her heart and soul lamented in the hope to attract their attention, to feel their comfort, to hear their whispers.

Vilia, are you really here, or is it just my silly, delusional fantasy?

Biting her lips, tensing her arms, Artium took back the Soul Gem. She looked at Flamira, then at Serinda.

The two understood each other. Serinda went to Flamira, whose legs were shaking, and supported her. She did not hug nor comfort Flamira. The person in the air should be the one who did so.

She had no idea if they were real; it was all faith, something she thought she'd forgotten.

When the tears dried and the numbness spread throughout her face, Flamira recollected her thoughts. No matter how frequent, every time she cried, she felt relieved. Her fragile mind felt light, her heart empty of darkness.

"It's time to move on,” she said. “Sorry for dragging you to this place, even though it means nothing to you. I just want to see her for one last time, in the case where I can no longer come back."

"Please don't be so bleak, Sister Flamira," Serinda said. "My intuition has not alerted us of anything. We can still hide here until the chaos becomes uncontainable. After that, it will be easy for us to sneak into the Tentoid Empire."

"Now is the best time to leave." Flamira glanced at the rainbow atop the sky, then quickly stopped looking. Her eyes grew slightly numbed. "No one has any idea what is happening, and panic is spreading at a rapid rate. We can blend in easily."

"It's not like someone would find us, right?" Serinda chuckled. "No one will look for us in this chaos unless they are madly in love with you, Sister Flamira."

As Flamira argued with Serinda, rapid footsteps echoed. Multiple figures rushed through the forest, fast approaching the cave. The three Monster Girls, disguised as humans, quietened and stuck close.

According to their arrangement, Flamira disguised as a spearwoman, Artium a mage, and Serinda an archer. They stood in their position, their demeanour shifting to suit their profession. They were no more Monster Girls, but nervous adventurers who got caught up in the Crusade.

"Show yourself!" Flamira shouted. "I've heard your footsteps. Are you lost?"

The three Monster Girls tensed. In front of them, a group of knights and archers closely guarded a familiar individual: a fiery maiden with a pair of spears in her hands.

"My Dear Iris, you're lost?" The maiden, Errenia, said. "Fortunately, my love has led me to you. Dear Iris, please come to me."

"Errenia?" Flamira took a step backwards, tensing. "Did you come back to take revenge?"

"You're hurting me with that distrust, Dear Iris. You made me into this, and now you want to abandon me?"

Errenia raised her hands. Flames burst from her grips and materialised into searing chains, which bound the knights and archers around her.

"You—"

"It's all your fault, Dear Iris. You've changed me, my body and soul, into this alluring temptation."

The flames spread from Errenia's hands to cover her body. Her human-like skin burnt into ashes. The gentle breezes blew them away, revealing the smooth red skin, which glittered in orange, burning sparks. The heat roasted her hair and turned it into a blazing flame, illuminating the beauty of the Fire Fairy.

"I'm now a Monster Girl like you, Dear Iris," Errenia said, her voice enchanting. "Now, can you come back to me?"

Serinda and Artium looked at each other, then at Flamira, who blushed. In the end, she nodded and stepped forwards, her heart racing.

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