376 Faus (1/2)

In the sky, the burning river of souls was called forth. It flowed into the flames. They transmitted the last bit of fire and heat between each other, pouring the light and power into the Sacred Fire. Finally, it turned into white ashes that fell down like a blizzard.

The souls had been burned completely, sacrificed in exchange for the powerful Sacred Fire! This was the flame created by the memories, lives, and souls of countless Romulusians!

”Elsa!” Ye Qingxuan pushed back the terrifying pressure and stood up, looking up at the now-unfamiliar girl. He seemed to understand something but he refused to believe it. ”Can you hear me?” he yelled. ”Answer me!”

A drop of rain fell from the sky onto his face. It was a tear.

Amongst the fire, the blank eyes finally brightened. She curled in pain, enduring the agony of burning to death. When she looked at Ye Qingxuan, her eyes were blank yet pained.

”Don't be scared. I'm coming…” Ye Qingxuan pushed forward in the ruins. When his feet sank into the gray-white ashes, it felt like walking in freezing snow.

”Don't come!” Elsa murmured. But her voice was like thunder. Frantic pressure appeared, lifting him and blowing him away. Ye Qingxuan gripped onto a crack in the wall. He looked up at the girl in the air.

She held her head and struggled. ”I am—her—no, I'm not—I'm…” She murmured incomprehensibly but her voice suddenly cut off. She stared at the crack in her chest and the inhuman flames in the crack.

”What am I?” she asked.

Ye Qingxuan opened his mouth to answer but a flood of fire fell from the sky.

It swallowed her.

-

In that moment, everyone saw the dazzling and majestic Sacred Flame reach into the sky. It hid the heavenly light and covered the dirt of the abyss. It even…swallowed the aether flood when absorbing the strength of the two!

”What is this?!” Within the shaking dark atrium, Crowley furrowed his brows. Under the gloomy melody, darkness shot into the sky. It transformed into a giant hand that clawed at the firelight. But then the hand froze in mid-air. A pocket watch carved with a double snake emblem somehow flew into the Sacred Fire. A low and faraway voice said, ”Let time stop.”

It said, ”Verweile doch, du bist so schön.”

Stay a while, you are so beautiful.

It was as if a key was inserted into the lock. In that moment, countless alchemy arrays in the sky, on the earth, and within the ruins were awakened. They absorbed the power of the Sacred Fire and turned. Time seemed to stop because the fire was so beautiful. All foreign music theory was frozen in this dimension; all change was forcefully stopped. Even dust could not escape its clutches.

This was Faust, the culmination of the School of Modifications and Abstinence!

All was frozen. All that remained was the Sacred Fire formed by countless family flames, burning in mid-air.

Under the light's brilliance, illusions appeared in the sky one after another. Those were the last traces left behind by passed away souls and time. Called by the Sacred Fire, the seam where the material and aether world overlapped suddenly rippled.

The looming shadow over the earth grew heavier.

The seam swelled under the rumbling melody. It grew and…as the world shook, the vast city 'fell' from the aether world, fell past the nine layers of the aether sea, and appeared in the material world!

The city seemed to have slept for thousands of years. It was covered in elegant carvings and soaring spires, radiating a sharp but graceful beauty. It was also carved with the hideous design of two giant snakes.

The Sacred Fire slowly descended onto the altar within this city, glowing brightly.