Chapter 123: 'Light of the City' Ciel

'Light of the City' Ciel

Rolling pillars of thunder roared in the distance. The apocalyptic vibrations shook the entire city of Berren.

“Milady! You cannot go over there!”

“Let go of me!”

Four kilometers away from the thunder’s epicenter, Nia firmly held Avena back, dragging her continuously backward.

The roaring thunder ahead made even the earth tremble. This was definitely not a commotion two third-tier transcendents could create. Even Nia didn’t dare say how many waves of lightning strikes she could withstand inside. She absolutely could not let Milady Avena go into danger.

Meanwhile, in Berren City’s Clock Tower Alley, atop the Clock Tower church tower, a figure wearing magnificent white church robes stood beside the giant bell on the tower roof, watching the apocalyptic scene in the distance. The expression under the mask rarely showed a hint of panic.

She couldn’t imagine the terrifying casualties if such thunder pillars struck within Berren City.

A white shadow materialized behind Hugh. After some distortion, Uris’s figure appeared behind Hugh.

“Lord Bishop, what on earth happened?” Uris asked urgently.

She could feel the spiritual alarm in her brain constantly ringing. In her pitch-black vision, the enormous grey-white figure in the distance was clearly visible, but this was obviously not something the Divine Advent Church could produce.

“I don’t know...” Hugh slowly raised her hand, supporting her head, her breathing becoming rapid. “Quick, have the brothers and sisters evacuate the believers in Clock Tower Alley, get them away from that area, the farther the better!”

“Yes!” Uris’s figure vanished again.

Compared to “Radiance Bishop” Hugh, Uris’s perception of the crowd’s suffering was far less acute. Uris could still move around Clock Tower Alley for now... temporarily.

Not long after Uris’s figure disappeared, a white shadow also emerged behind Hugh, running towards the lightning formation. Immediately after, Hugh’s figure also vanished from the spot.

Whether for these believers who worshipped the Goddess, or to prevent other innocent lives from suffering, she had to go see what exactly was happening over there—the lightning formation was simply too close to Clock Tower Alley.

If she didn’t go, no one in the entire Clock Tower Alley, perhaps even the entire city of Berren, could handle this situation.

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“Goddess protect...” Hugh, whose figure was rapidly flickering, silently prayed to the Goddess in her heart.

Lichie, startled awake from her sleep; Amy, hastily moving the flowers and plants in the garden indoors amidst the heavy rain; Adele, stopping her experiment, removing her silver raven mask to look out the window.

Right now, looking at the scene in the sky, they all shared a common person they worried about.

Boom—!

And at this moment, Ciel had no mind left to consider others.

Furious lightning continued to flash around her, with increasing frequency.

Under the immense vibration of the thunder, Ciel’s hearing was also severely damaged. The originally roaring thunder was now just a buzz in her ears.

Fortunately, after the first lightning strike was blocked by Tara with her life, Ciel had already found a partial pattern to these strikes.

Before a strike descended, an extremely strong numbing sensation would come from the ground. And after Ciel’s hearing was damaged, this sensation became even clearer.

By dispersing the black shadows to different locations within this enclosed space, leaving enough time for switching shadows, Ciel had already dodged over a dozen thunderbolts. Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

In contrast, the other two only had a few lightning pillars aimed at them, completely incomparable to Ciel’s ordeal.

“Favored” Lucy dodged several lightning bolts narrowly, each time only inches away from death, every step thrilling, yet she managed to avoid each one without mishap.

“Crown Guard” Oppold, however, was more direct. His entire body of pitch-black armor was wreathed in lightning. His iron frame was almost burned red-hot, some parts even showing cracks.

But he just directly held the tower shield above his head, tanking almost all the lightning strikes. However, his entire body was completely paralyzed, unable to move even a fraction.

No... If this continues, my spirit and spiritual body will be consumed to the point of extreme exhaustion...

Ciel, having already used Death Reversal once, had consumed a large amount of spirit.

She worried that if her spirit and spiritual body continued to be consumed like this, her real self would also suffer irreversible mental damage... If she really couldn’t hold on, she had to consider ending it early through suicide.

At least now, she had obtained some information and remembered those Old Ansu characters. If she could bring them back to reality for Avena to translate, and then start another simulation to have Tara return to the Divine Advent Church’s monastery to seek answers, Ciel would be one step closer to the truth.

While thinking, Ciel once again felt that hair-raising electric sensation.

No... This endless cycle can’t continue...

In a flash, Ciel’s figure dissipated ahead of time. Distorting simultaneously with her figure was a black shadow standing atop the tower shield.

The next moment, Ciel’s figure stood atop Oppold’s tower shield.

An even more intense numbing sensation came from under her feet; this was the residual current on Oppold’s body.

At this moment, blood had begun to seep out from within Oppold’s armor. Although his senses were dulled and slowed by paralysis, he could still feel the sudden increase in weight on the tower shield, and the abruptly piercing spiritual alarm in his mind.

“Who... Who’s up there?!!” Oppold’s roar came through the armor. He felt a strong sense of foreboding.

But his legs were already completely paralyzed. Having tanked several thunderbolts, he was already severely injured, unable to even feel his lips when speaking.

He used almost all his strength, placing his left hand on his right fist, using all his might to swing the tower shield to the right, trying to throw off the person standing on his shield.

The second before he swung the shield away, the weight on it vanished. He looked up and saw, in the sky, above the clouds, an azure lightning stream stretching for over ten kilometers.

A desperate, beautiful sight he had never seen before almost left him stunned for a moment. The next second, a red lightning bolt shot straight down. Before he could even think, red light flooded his vision.

Boom—!

A massive red pillar of lightning struck Oppold, engulfing him in red light.

Lucy, who happened to witness this scene, watched the red flash in shock. The next moment, a violent tremor and shockwave struck.

Following that were red lightning bolts spreading rapidly outwards from Oppold’s position like a tree canopy on the ground.

These lightning bolts covered almost the entire area. Both Lucy and Ciel were unable to avoid them. After being pushed to the edge of the shadow barrier by the shockwave, they were hit by the red lightning on the ground and briefly lost consciousness.

In a dark space, fragmented Old Ansu characters appeared before Ciel’s and Lucy’s eyes again.

These characters, completely different from modern Ansu script except for the numbers, made both simultaneously puzzled, but Ciel understood.

The number preceding the word “Tribulation” had changed from “1” to “2”.

-

An unknown amount of time passed. A scorching sensation gradually roused Ciel. She slowly opened her eyes, her consciousness gradually returning.

Did I fail... Back in reality?

Her body no longer felt the touch of cold rainwater, only warm, fierce wind blowing past. Even her hair and clothes were completely dry.

On the ground was dry earth, not the sofa in Avena’s study.

No... Still in the simulation...

Ciel felt her body was no longer under her control, but fortunately, she still had the ability to control the black shadows, not being affected too much.

Two black shadows slowly helped her up. Ciel, bleeding from all seven orifices, strenuously moved her eyeballs, enduring the dizziness and double vision, looking towards where Oppold originally was.

Oppold’s figure was gone. Only a pile of transcendent items and materials glowing with various lights remained there, piled up almost to calf height—a pile of “relics.”

Oppold was dead.

And at this moment, not far from Oppold’s corpse, a huge fire tornado was rapidly forming, sucking everything around into it, including the relics Oppold left behind.

The fire tornado continuously climbed higher, rapidly expanding under the hurricane’s force. Likely within ten seconds, the entire field would be covered by it.

Suddenly, Ciel felt a cold sensation on her throat.

She slowly looked down. Blood flowed continuously down her neck, but she no longer felt any pain.

Ciel’s figure gradually faded and dissipated. The next moment, she appeared ten meters away. Supported by the black shadows, she looked towards where she was previously. Lucy, holding several blades between her fingers, stood less than three meters from where Ciel had been, watching Ciel.

“I... understand...” Lucy panted heavily, but couldn’t suppress the grin spreading across her lips. She reversed the blades between her fingertips, finally clamping them between her index and middle fingers.

“This is a ‘trial’... a gamble given to me by fate, a trial given to me by fate...” Lucy was covered in blood, but it couldn’t conceal the madness in her eyes: “Oppold is out! And you, fake ‘Judicator’ miss! You should rest too...”

Ding—

Amidst the fierce wind, the “Strong Luck Coin” was tossed into the sky by Lucy. It seemed unaffected by the hurricane, falling vertically onto the back of Lucy’s hand, standing upright.

Then, Lucy’s fist slightly turned. The upright “Strong Luck Coin” fell towards Lucy, the rust-red eye angel gazing at the sky.

Her sealed artifact... had its usage limit removed? And she could control its falling direction?

Why?

“Hahahaha... Hahaha! I won? I won again! I can control it now!” Lucy no longer had the strength to throw the blades again, and her mental state was extremely crazed. It was difficult to assess how much sanity she retained. Even the previous wounds on her face had reopened, the “things” previously “stuffed” inside gradually emerging.

The fire tornado was rapidly approaching. Ciel believed that soon, both she and Lucy would suffer damage from the fire tornado... and Ciel, with her throat cut, clearly wouldn’t last longer than Lucy, who seemed to still have the strength to laugh out loud.

Oppold is out?

Ciel certainly knew, because she was the one who did it.

She also knew how the condition for the second tribulation was met—one of them had to die. Lucy probably figured this out too, which was why she directly slit Ciel’s throat with flying knives when she woke up earlier than Ciel.

But Ciel wouldn’t die so easily. She wanted to see the end more than anyone.

Click—

The black shadow behind Ciel pressed the stopwatch in its hand.

Echo of Time.

The next moment, the black shadow directly entered Ciel’s shadow, controlling Ciel, beginning to walk quickly towards Lucy in an extremely stiff manner.

“Hmm?” Lucy noticed, tightening her grip on the flying knife. When Ciel walked up to her, she stabbed directly towards her chest.

“Goodbye. In many ways, you are my ‘benefactor’.” Lucy panted heavily, grinning wide.

But soon, her smile gradually faded.

Because she saw Ciel, whose heart she had just pierced, stiffly raise her hands and grab her wrist.

“You...”

Immense force came from the girl before her. Caught off guard, Lucy was directly dragged and thrown to the ground.

“What... are you doing?! Let go of me!!! Let go of me quickly!!! You lunatic!!!” Lucy frantically stabbed Ciel’s calves and arms with the flying knife, but the terrifying red-haired girl seemed completely unaffected by the pain, dragging her towards the fire tornado that had already approached right before their faces.

“Let go of me quickly!!! No... No no no no no!!!”

The figures of the two were instantly swallowed by the fire tornado.

Almost instantly, the two were swept up directly by the fierce wind. Their clothes, hair, and skin were rapidly carbonized by the flames. Even their eyeballs melted.

Lucy’s screams were completely drowned out by the fierce wind. Even Ciel passed out due to intense mental exhaustion.

Six seconds after being drawn into the fire tornado, Lucy and Ciel had completely turned into a pile of ashes. Only scattered transcendent materials, items, and sealed artifacts circled in the sky.

Eight seconds after being drawn into the fire tornado, the pile of ashes symbolizing Ciel rapidly reformed against the direction of the fire tornado. In the blink of an eye, it returned to its original spot, kneeling on the ground, clutching the slit throat.

Boom—

Ninth second, the center of the fire tornado exploded. A ball of fire broke through the barrier, blasting outwards in all directions. The various debris swept up were also thrown to the edges, breaking through the shadow barrier, scattering outwards.

The barrier shattered.

But Ciel, under the impact of the shockwave, flew tens of meters, all her bones shattered, completely unable to move.

She lay on the ground, her already dimmed eyes watching the raindrops falling anew from the sky, praying she would live until the side effect 【Temporal Disorder】 activated.

Adele is already second-tier, why didn’t I think to ask her for more potions... This was Ciel’s thought at this moment.

She had to keep herself thinking constantly, even about trivial matters.

It’s finally over...

-

Ciel fought against the intense urge to sleep. Even when raindrops fell into her eyes, she didn’t dare close them.

She had a premonition that if she closed her eyes, she would never open them again.

But, things went contrary to her wishes.

In Ciel’s eyes, a series of already completely blurred Old Ansu characters appeared again.

Ciel couldn’t see the others clearly, but the “3” at the very end, Ciel saw crystal clear.

Third Tribulation...

Ciel lay weakly in the pool of blood. After several seconds, her figure began to flicker. A silver wolf half-mask appeared on her face. The pain in her body instantly dissipated, though her spirit remained depleted.

“Damn...” A Chinese curse escaped Ciel’s lips.

She ripped off the silver wolf mask from her face, stood up unsteadily, muttering curses.

Ciel looked up. The lightning streams in the sky had dissipated, but layers upon layers of dark clouds still hung overhead, seemingly close enough to touch.

She quickly scanned her surroundings. Those transcendent items had long been blasted away by the shockwave to unknown locations. The idea of dying while hugging a pile of treasures was also dashed. Slowly, she turned her gaze towards Berren City, three or four kilometers away.

Ciel raised her hand, pinched her chin, and murmured, “In the Reconstitution Ritual, does this count as an assist?”

As she spoke, her feet had already started moving towards Berren City.

But after walking only a few hundred meters, she was stopped by a voice.

“Stop! You cannot take another step forward!”

Ciel looked up. Standing in the distance was Hugh, dressed in her white robes.

Countless white shadows stood before her, almost forming a human wall, completely blocking Ciel’s path.

“Hey, don’t be nervous,” Ciel raised her hands high, smiling weakly, “I advise you to run towards Deton Manor, the farther from Berren City the better, maybe you can save your life... By the way, do you understand Old Ansu script? Help me translate?”

Suddenly, Ciel noticed Hugh’s gaze was no longer on her, but looking somewhere behind Ciel.

Ciel turned around. Her suspended heart finally died completely.

A scorching bright, massive iron meteorite, almost illuminating the entire night sky, with a diameter exceeding one hundred and fifty meters, was hurtling towards Ciel at an extremely low angle.

“Awesome.”

As if the fire giant Surtr from mythology swung his burning giant sword, the burning meteorite filled Ciel’s entire vision in the blink of an eye.

Buzz—

No pain, no loud noise. Ciel only felt a ringing in her ears, and her entire body was already torn apart. Her head flew up, her vision gradually rising. She saw the iron meteorite carrying terrifying energy crash diagonally towards Berren City.

The massive shockwave and firestorm swallowed almost half of Berren City, like overturning pieces on a chessboard.

...

【Reality】

【Holy Year 741, June 23rd, 18:30】

【Evaluation: Congratulations to Berren City for thoroughly eliminating the trash and evil forces from the streets in this round of civic improvement and eliminating crime activities. It has been selected as a “Civilized City”. Comrade Ciel is now officially awarded the title “Light of the City”. Thank you for your great contribution to Berren City!】

【Papapapa——】

【Congratulations Host for obtaining the “Assist King” achievement in this simulation. KDA reached an astonishing 0-1-233157】

【Take it, this is deserved based on your performance.】

【Reward: Fate Points ×38, 【Death Reversal Lv.2】, Points Mall unlocked 【Basic Disciplines】 store】

【Fate Points: 99】

“Ciel...”

“Ciel...”

“What’s wrong with you...”

“Wake up...”

Amidst a wave of dizziness, Ciel slowly awakened, opened her eyes. Besides the system prompt panel before her, there was also Adele’s “big face,” which occupied almost her entire vision due to being extremely close.

“Ha!!” Ciel’s sudden eye-opening startled Adele, who was about to use her finger to pry Ciel’s eyelids open, causing her to sit down directly on the carpet with a thump.

Ciel turned her head. Besides Adele sitting on the floor, Avena and Amy were also standing there, along with Nia guarding the door.

Having woken up, Ciel felt a sense of emptiness from excessive mental consumption, as well as a very strong hunger.

“Sorry, fell asleep.” Ciel supported herself on the sofa, wanting to sit up, but her arms felt somewhat weak. Adele knelt up and helped Ciel sit up.

“Thank you... Adele, do you have any medicine that can restore spirit?” Ciel showed a somewhat forced smile, looking at Adele and asking.

But Adele hesitated and shook her head.

“Ciel... The spirit recovery potions I make now only have temporary effects, and all have side effects... If you really feel mentally fatigued, I still recommend you get some sleep.”

The sudden shift from the scene resembling Zeus’s doomsday battle to the study, surrounded by her living friends, this stark contrast made it somewhat difficult for Ciel to adapt immediately.

But fortunately, her adjustment speed was decent.

After sitting for a while, Ciel felt her body had recovered quite a bit.

She fought off the drowsiness, looked at the notebook placed on the table, picked it up directly, flipped straight to the end, and began writing.

Ciel didn’t hide it. Others could see what she was writing. Soon, Avena noticed something and muttered to herself, “Old Ansu script?”

Even Avena found it daunting, a language she hadn’t fully mastered yet. Ciel could actually write it?

And the square characters on the notebook earlier when Ciel hadn’t closed it... Just how vast was Ciel’s knowledge?

Only after Ciel had written down all the characters she vaguely remembered from her mind did she let out a long sigh and put down the pen.

“Ciel, this is...” Avena asked only after seeing Ciel stop writing.

“It’s nothing... No need to worry about it for now,” Ciel shook her head. She currently lacked the energy to think about these things anymore. She just wanted to fill her stomach. She looked up at Avena and asked, “Have you guys finished dinner already?”

“No, we were waiting for you, but didn’t see you come out, so we came looking for you.” Adele answered first. “Then we saw you asleep.”

“Let’s go eat... hungry.” Ciel placed her hand on Adele’s shoulder, using the support to stand up directly.