Silent Crown

Chapter 376 Faust

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 sch?n."

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.

Amidst the stunned silence, the sharp and rugged city hung between the sky and earth. It cast a terrifying shadow over Auschwitz.

The world held its breath!

-

"That's…how it is… That's how it is!" In a pile of rubble, it suddenly dawned on Colt. He gritted his teeth and murmured, "The Romulusians used all their effort to absorb strength from Heaven and the abyss to create a Scepter and turn humans into natural catastrophes…and become a god! Caligula, that guy, he seriously…"

Seriously what? Was fearless? Daunting to the extreme? He could not even imagine it. He was shaken by everything he saw.

From the ground to the sky, as far as one's vision extended, everything was covered by the alchemy array's glow. Everything was connected and turned into parts of a whole. They had become variables in an 'equation' and all struggles were futile. The result on the other end of the equal sign had long been decided.

Was there someone else in this world who could create an alchemy array at such a terrifying scale and hide it under everyone's eyes?

What kind of beast had the Romulusians found?

Colt was swallowed by the coldness.

-

"Yes, I did it." Hermes nodded in the Holy Temple. "I set up the alchemy array in Auschwitz and I was the one who transferred the Sacred Fire into Elsa's body. I created the array to attract Cereus and I helped them find the King of Yellow. And finally, I gave that city to them."

"Hermes, why?" the gentle voice asked in the air. "We all know what that city represents to you. It's your source. If you gave yourself to them, you will end. It's suicide."

"It's simple, Nibelungenlied." Hermes smoked and suddenly chuckled. "Have you ever thought about truly becoming a person? Not a creature, not a spirit, but a real and live human?"

Nibelungenlied fell silent.

"To be honest, it was quite hard to make this decision." Hermes sighed. "Thinking that my body would change and get fat, I almost couldn't bear it. But it doesn't matter. After all these years of hesitation, there had to be a result. Now, I'm finally not a strange creature. To be honest, this feeling isn't bad. Other than dying, there aren't any shortcomings."

"Aeneas' death affected you."

"That's part of the reason." Hermes shrugged. "It's my fault for owing him. At that time, I didn't mind but now, I realize that the interest of this debt is too high. I want to pay him back, but the hole in the bill is so big I can barely fill it in…So why shouldn't I be generous and make a sacrifice, giving something I don't want to others?"

Nibelungenlied paused. After a while, it said, "We cannot understand."

"You don't need to understand."

"Don't you hate killing?" Nibelungenlied asked. "Then why did you sacrifice Caligula's daughter."

"First, Elsa is not Caligula's daughter. She inherited Aeneas' blood. She was born with the duty to inherit the fire," Hermes replied indifferently. "If the empire still exists, then she would be the current emperor of Romulus, the 'Augustus' of all Romulusians.

"Unfortunately, the empire no longer exists and the people have no home. They were at the brink of extinction…she must take this responsibility. Only she can inherit the seed of the Sacred Fire but she won't die. Instead, she will receive the power and become a new holy spirit. The price is that all her memories will be used as firewood and burned completely.

"This is a cruel matter, I know, but someone must make sacrifices. And…" He paused, his expression turning troubled yet filled with anticipation. He murmured, "And I am curious. Is there anything in a man's heart that cannot be burned?"