Village Head's Debauchery

Meanwhile, after a few minutes of walking through the rocky cavern, they finally arrived at a path that led outside the mountain.

Seeing the bright, sunny light at the edge of the cave, Orion and Aerialia followed, watching White Flame arrive at the border and walk out before freezing.

"What… is this?" White Flame asked with a tinge of surprise, turning his head from side to side to take in the desolate, dead land that stretched into the horizon. 

He then shifted his attention towards Orion, who stood behind him.

"Why is the earth like this? Where are the animals? What happened here?" he asked frantically.

Orion shook his head in response, "This is how it's been for a very long time, and unfortunately, no one knows why it became like this," he responded. 

Even during the awakening ceremony, when he had learned all the necessary information about the village and the Vylkr vines during the Warriors' training, there was no telling how it came to be.

White Flame stared at Orion in disbelief before shifting his attention back towards the desolate land before him. His lips cracked open as he began to speak, "Hah! So this is what the earth looks like now. Everything that I've worked so hard to protect now… all lays in ruins," he said, observing the Vylkr vines as they slithered around on the earth aimlessly. 

From his observations, he could see that they were the cause of all this destruction. However, even if he felt he might have a clue about what they might be, the fact that his memories were too vague to recall anything made him feel extremely helpless.

Orion continued to observe as White Flame stared at the dead forest stretching to the horizon below them. 

His gaze shifted towards Aerialia, watching as she advanced as though she wanted a better view of the scene before her.

"Is this what thou wert speaking of?" Aerialia asked, with a dumbfounded expression. 

The view before her was so shocking that she found it hard to believe. If it weren't for the fact that she had already seen the fresh green grass and the beautiful tall trees back at Orion's village's farm, she would have mistaken this place to be the same as the dead world she had sacrificed so much to escape with her children.

She turned her head backwards to look at Orion as he slowly nodded at her in response.

"Unfortunately, the world now is different from the one you and your children tried to enter previously. You could say that it's practically dead," Orion said, his voice ringing loudly for the god and the manmade god before him.

A dead world! That was what this world had become now.

While Aerialia was unsure about how she should proceed and wondered what would have become of her children if they had made it to this world, White Flame couldn't help but shake his head and chuckle. He turned around, let himself collapse on the ground, and roared out in laughter, "HAHAHAAHA!!" 

Although Orion couldn't fully understand the reason for White Flame's laughter, he could still discern the pain within it.

After a while, a loud, deep sigh escaped his lips. 

"You can go ahead and kill me," White Flame said, his words directed at Orion.

Orion nodded, slowly advancing with the four-meter-long crimson greatsword within his grasp. 

He stopped once he arrived beside White Flame and raised the Crimson greatsword with his full strength, immediately activating his gift.

CRACKKLLEEE! CRACCKLEEE!!!

Thick bluish lightning gathered at the great sword's handle before it stretched down the blade, wrapping around the blade's tip.

As he stared at the crimson lightning-coated blade about to impale him, White Flame questioned, "Do you know why I called this Crimson blade, Covenant?"

Orion shook his head in response.

"It was because I swore upon the blood of the first god I killed that I would kill every being that isn't human and send them back to the world they came from, as this world isn't theirs," White Flame explained.

"As a god, I wanted to do what no man could because no man could."

"But since the world is already like this, it means my worst fears have manifested, and that means it's already beyond saving," White Flame said, his gaze fixed on Orion. 

"So, you should probably look for a new name for that blade because my covenant has been broken." After he finished speaking, he suddenly fell silent. 

Seeing that the time had come and White Flame lying before him had accepted his fate, Orion plunged the Crimson greatsword downward without hesitation.

BANG!

The crimson greatsword effortlessly pierced White Flame's forehead, driving into the ground with a thunderous impact. Bluish lightning emanated, swirling around his severed upper body in chaos. The white flames erupted into several wisps that floated in the air, gradually vanishing until only a single, flickering wisp remained. 

Hovering before Orion, it seemed to have a mind of its own. 

Without warning, the wisp of White Flame darted into Orion's chest. Bewildered, Orion released his grip on the Crimson blade and frantically touched his chest, trying to understand the unexpected intrusion. Channelling the Vylkr energy, he searched for any changes within him but found nothing. 

A deep frown creased Orion's brow as he pondered the meaning of the wisps of white flame entering his chest, staring down at the scorched earth imprinted with the outline of White Flame's severed upper body.

Perplexed by the mysterious occurrence, Orion turned to Aerialia, seeking answers. However, her scrutinizing gaze met his, as if she were attempting to unravel the secrets within him.

"What is it? Do you know what that white flame that entered my chest was?" Orion asked, a hint of uncertainty in his eyes.

"While I had my doubts before now, I can now say that I at least have some understanding of what just happened," Aerialia replied, nodding thoughtfully. 

Her focus shifted to the scorched imprint on the ground. "Though, I might still be mistaken since I don't fully understand his situation and how he ended up like this," she added, furrowing her brows in contemplation.