Incineration

Having gathered the supplies, Richard drove the carriage toward the main city's east gate according to his agreement with the commander. But after seeing a crowd shouting and fleeing back from the east gate, Richard knew it was no longer a viable way out. He soon spotted the marks left behind by his commander. Although he was now a member of Karen's squad, he had previously served in the Hound Squad as well. Following the guidance of the marks, he quickly arrived at an estate. The mansion was already deserted. Richard parked the carriage by the entrance, thought for a moment, untied the reins, and patted the horse's rump. "Run along and save yourself. Good luck!" With that, Richard began hauling the supplies down into the cellar. The moment he stepped down, he saw Neo laying out a concealment array in the cellar. Setting down a crate of apples first, Richard said with a smile, "Commander, conditions here aren't bad at all! There's even a wine cellar inside, and isn't there a pantry further in? There should be food stored there. Adding all the things I gathered, it'll be plenty for us to live quite comfortably here." Neo continued setting up the array with his left hand while holding out his open right hand toward Richard. "Did you find the medicine?" "This is a mental hallucinogen. Do you need it?" "Give it to me." Richard handed a box of vials to Neo. Neo casually took two bottles, set one on the ground, flicked off the cap of the other with a fingertip, and tipped his head back to chug it dry. It was as crisp and straightforward as gulping down soda. "There's also some tobacco and other medicines. I'll carry them down in a bit." "Hurry up and move them." "Yes, Commander." Richard began shuttling up and down, hauling crates. By the time he brought down the final crate of supplies, Neo had just set the final piece of the array. The array activated, masking the entrance and the aura within the cellar. "What a coincidence, Commander! We didn't waste a single second." Neo couldn't even be bothered to answer him. As a scion of the Guman family, the fellow hadn't even realized that Neo had intentionally held onto the array's final component without setting it down, pretending to be busy setting up the array just to slack off and avoid doing the heavy lifting. Richard stretched lazily. Wanting to check out the wine cellar, he walked all the way to its deepest part, only to discover a woman curled up sleeping in the corner, clutching a baby girl. "Commander, there's someone here." "I brought her." The woman woke up. She had been terrified out of her wits earlier; after Neo brought her here, she had first nursed the infant and then fallen asleep without realizing it. Richard's voice had just startled her awake. Looking at Richard, the woman recalled what Neo had told her earlier—that he had an infant boy here too. Was she supposed to nurse this grown-up "infant boy" before her? The woman pressed her lips together and said nothing. Whatever happened, she would bear it, so long as these two could keep her daughter safe. "You brought her?" Richard leaned down, looked at the soundly sleeping baby girl in the woman's arms, and said with a smile, "This little one must be full. She's sleeping so soundly." "Do... do you want some?... There's... still some left." Richard pointed at himself, then looked back at the woman. At a loss for words, he could only ask, "Are you clogged or engorged?" "No, isn't it... aren't you..." Richard asked, "What's her name?" "Elisa." "Elisa. What a nice name. Wait—" Richard suddenly understood. As a former member of the Hound Squad, how could he not know about his former captain's family? The moment he learned the baby girl's name, Richard realized why his captain had brought them here. "So having a good name really is important for one's whole life." Richard stood up and walked over to where he had piled the supplies. Leaning there, Neo had already downed three more bottles of the mental hallucinogen, yet his face remained pale, without a trace of color. Richard said, "Commander, I deliberately brought down two sets of bedding. Foresight, right?" Neo raised a hand and demanded bluntly, "Give me one." "Uh..." Richard had no choice but to bring a set over to Neo. Neo unfolded it and lay down. Richard looked at the remaining set of bedding, sighed resignedly, and carried it over to the woman, setting it down. "Keep warm." "Thank you. Thank you, sir! You are truly a kind man." The woman seemed to realize that this young man didn't harbor a taste for breast milk after all; she had probably misunderstood. "We might be staying down here for quite a while. We'll only head out once things quiet down outside. But don't worry, there are plenty of supplies here." "Yes, I understand." "Good. If you or the baby need anything, just let me know." "Understood. Thank you, my lord." Richard walked back to Neo's side, sat down against a pillar, and muttered dejectedly, "If I'd known, I would've carried an array manual on me." "Where did you leave it?" Neo asked. "All my luggage is back at the palace! We left in such a rush that I didn't think to grab it. Commander, what about your luggage?" "I came with nothing." "Oh... Commander," Richard took a deep breath. "Such a pity I didn't bring an array manual. Otherwise, this would've been the perfect opportunity to study in peace." "When we were outside earlier, I didn't see you studying hard either. You were just running around looking for bugs to mate with." "I think I work pretty hard—harder than Karen, at least." "Are you being serious?" "I've only ever seen him read spell manuals during meals..." "Then go blame your grandfather. Tell him your Guman family bloodline is simply too pathetic." "Commander, if I actually dared to say that, my dad wouldn't be the only one thrashing me in the future—my grandfather would probably join in. He cares a lot about family honor." "That's good too. Both of them beating you together might stimulate the potential of that worm inside you even more effectively. Oh, fine, I admit you do work hard. Otherwise, that Jerry inside you wouldn't have grown so fast. You're offering your Jerry the chance to farm experience at the cost of getting your own body beaten black and blue over and over." "Commander, that baby girl's name..." "What are you trying to say?" "Do you plan to adopt her?" "Not interested." "Then you..." "I just couldn't bear to leave her behind once I heard that name. When it's safe outside, they can go wherever they want." "After this ordeal, how many native islanders will even be left on the Mipos Archipelago? Once they leave here for some unfamiliar land, what will they have to survive on? Back when I was at the bakery, I often heard stories about women with children who had no choice but to work in bakeries. Commander, would your heart really let you do that?" "Then take them home with you." "My family would never believe it! Me finding a woman outside and fathering a daughter?" "You can say she's your father's." "Don't say that, Commander! My dad's condition only just started improving." "Here, drink a bottle of mental hallucinogen." "Commander, are you annoyed by my blabbering? But if I drink this, won't I talk even more and babble nonsense?" "It's fine. Drink it, and when I knock you out, you won't feel the pain." Richard hesitated for a moment, but picked up a bottle and drank it down anyway. Before long, the effects kicked in. Looking as if he were drunk, a flush rose on his face and his gaze began to wander. Watching his reaction, Neo felt a twinge of envy in his eyes. His own tolerance in this regard was simply too formidable; to him, this entire box of mental hallucinogen tasted no different from sugar water. He genuinely envied people like Richard, who could drift into that state after just one bottle. And then, Richard began to trip. He blurted out: "Captain, don't you think this is fate? In a place like this, you bump into a baby girl with the exact same name as your wife! According to dramatic logic, once this baby girl grows up, she'll fall in love with you, Commander! "And you keep avoiding her, refusing to acknowledge it, staying icy cold, while she keeps chasing after you! "Then, after a string of adventures, her passion and warmth begin to melt the ice around your heart! "Just when you turn back to accept her, disaster strikes, and she dies in your arms!" Neo: "..." "No, no, no—I forgot your bloodthirsty aberrant demon bloodline! Add a bit of the melodrama from vampire fiction: she gets into danger, and to save her, you sacrifice yourself! "Or maybe, after she dies, in order to resurrect her, you fall further into the dark, becoming the incarnation of darkness—an immortal king!" *Thud!* Neo grabbed Richard's head and made it intimately acquainted with the pillar behind him. Richard instantly drifted off into sweet dreamland. "Turn to darkness... I am clearly the Light, dammit." ... "This is a victory, Commander Lords. It is a victory great enough to reverse our previous fortunes in this war, and a sign that our Church of Samsara is emerging from the shadow of the 'First-Day War.'" Lango entered the flagship's command bridge to offer his congratulations to the two commanders. Following behind him was Peide. Yet neither of the two commanders—the white-haired elder and the middle-aged man—had any smile on their faces. Their expressions were solemn and grave. Thinking he understood, Peide immediately spoke up: "I know that both Commander Lords are nearing your threshold time, but all of Samsara and the annals of our church's history will never forget your meritorious deeds." The eyelid of one of the white-haired elder's eyes had already drooped. With less than half a day remaining to them, their bodies were progressively decaying and collapsing. He asked in return, "I am curious how the church history will record us. Will it say we died in the war against Order, were awakened by Order, and then won this campaign against the Church of the Moon God?" The middle-aged man held his chin with one hand. Having died by slitting his own throat, the gash across his neck was widening; to keep his head from falling off, he had to steady it with his own hand. He spoke up, "And that after winning the war, the two of us also 'ordered' the slaughter of the common people on this holy ground?" "This is war," Lango sighed. "Sometimes, war inevitably demands such costs. I trust that both Commander Lords understand this well." "No, we do not," the white-haired elder said in a heavy voice. "I already ordered the landing force to exercise restraint, but once ashore, they disregarded my orders. I ordered them all to return to the ships, and they still disregarded my orders. What is on that island right now is a pack of blood-crazed demons!" The middle-aged man gave a dry chuckle. "And just as we ordered the magic crystal cannons on the warships to lay down blanket bombardment across the main island, you appeared." "Indeed. How could I possibly allow such a thing to happen?" Lango answered as though it were self-evident. "What is on the island now is Samsara's strength. Even if they are a pack of demons right now, they are demons belonging to our Church of Samsara. Both of you must know all too well how grievous our church's losses were in the First-Day War; even the two fleets you lead were bought back by our church from Order. "Samsara Valley also suffered the Rielsa incident, which cost the Temple Elders heavy casualties. "Even though we won this battle and temporarily reversed Samsara's disadvantage against the Church of the Moon God, Samsara remains weaker than them. Right now, we desperately need a new force, a new legion, to bolster our strength. "I have already seen what those people are doing on the island, and I can clearly see that they are evolving, growing, and becoming stronger. "This is their blessed land. We will not only claim the Church of the Moon God's Mipos Holy Ground, but also reap a far more powerful Samsara legion! "I know what angers the two Commander Lords. What is happening on the island may conflict with your convictions, but what we must consider now—and what the Gatekeepers prioritize above all—is how to ensure Samsara's survival! "If the Church of Samsara ceases to exist, what meaning is there in what you hold dear? "Indeed, what meaning would even the existence of this world hold?" The white-haired elder stepped back two paces and sank into his command chair. Looking at Lango with a sneer of ridicule, he said, "This is the reasoning of you factional family elites. When family interests are your bind and top priority, no matter how noble your slogans sound, your eyes will forever see only profit." The middle-aged man spoke up: "The reason the great God of Samsara created the Gate of Samsara was so that departing souls would have a resting place of their own, free from conflict with the realm of the living. Yet this time, you took the initiative to open the Gate of Samsara, letting the souls within emerge to possess living beings, running counter to the God of Samsara's original intent. "A Church of Samsara that defies the will of the God of Samsara—what meaning is there in whether it continues to exist?" The white-haired elder continued, "If the gods return, when the great God of Samsara descends, you had better prepare for divine wrath. We have a few hours left, but we have no interest in living even a few more hours under a Church of Samsara like this. Even a single second more is torment and torture." With that, the white-haired elder spread his palm, and a ball of grey flame coalesced there. The middle-aged man leaned closer and smiled. "Lend me a light." The fire ignited the old man himself and spread across to the middle-aged man. Right before Lango's eyes, the two awakened Samsara fleet commanders began to self-immolate. Committing suicide twice—whether the first time or the second, they were demonstrating their devotion to their god. Peide stared at the scene in disbelief. Lango simply closed his eyes and let out a sigh. Before their forms were reduced to two piles of ashes, they left behind their final words: "When I entered the Church of Samsara, I naively believed you were like me, filled with devotion to the God of Samsara. Only later did I gradually realize that was not the case." "Your faith in the God of Samsara is hypocritical, self-serving, and contemptible. You do not believe in the god." ... Looking at the two scorch marks on the ground, Lango took a deep breath and murmured slowly, "Perhaps you didn't even know it yourselves, but the ones who truly don't believe in the god... are you."