***
We entered the sculpture statue and Devan stopped dead in his tracks.
Then he suddenly turned around and hugged me tightly.
“Ha.”
He hugged me so tightly that I couldn’t breathe properly.
“Let me go.”
Surprised by the sudden action, I slapped Devan’s arm, but instead of relaxing his arm, he held me tighter.
His shaking transferred to me.
I couldn’t figure out what was going on.
It was as if Devan was trying to cover my eyes. Desperately and urgently.
“Devan!”
I pushed Devan’s chest away.
Devan’s face was twisted as he finally let go of me as if he had given up.
“What’s wrong with you…?”
He shook his head.
As if he had seen something terrible, or….sad.
I had a bad feeling.
Nevertheless, I stepped past him and dared to face the truth before him.
Perhaps curiosity about fear.
It was so brightly lit here and there that it was hard to believe it was underground.
It was as if we were in a cave. Not a single wind blew, but the air itself was cool.
Soon, my eyes caught the unfolding scene.
At first glance, I felt as if I had stopped breathing.
My legs gave way, and I staggered.
“Evelyn.”
Immediately, Devan grabbed my waist.
He slowly sat down on the floor with me in his arms. Then he sat in front of me.
As if he did not want me to see any more, even though I had already seen everything.
“…… Devan”
I called his name. I couldn’t remember any other words.
“Devan…….”
My lips trembled. I felt like I was running out of oxygen. Even though it wasn’t.
Devan swept the back slowly, hiding me deep in his chest.
I pushed him out this time. I wanted to hide from the scene in front of me.
As if I didn’t see it in the first place.
My body shook finely. I buried my face into his chest and closed my eyes.
I think we were all dreaming. This was the illusion that Hilda was showing me, right?
Then it really was a terrible nightmare.
As my breathing slowed down, I carefully pushed Devan away again.
There was a mixture of confusion and worry in his eyes.
I slowly raised my head.
Then I looked over Devan’s shoulder at the nightmarish scene.
People were piled like towers in a large open space.
Their limbs were intricately intertwined. It was as if they were one living organism.
Dozens, maybe hundreds of people were there.
They were piled up without any regularity of any kind.
They were tied to other people’s hair, or their noses were crushed as their faces touched each other.
I found the faces I knew without difficulty.
There were soldiers who had come to the capital from the Grand Duchy, and there was Eunice.
There were the children who I thought I had erased from my memory when I was a child.
These were the children who had spent time with me in the orphanage. There were children who had been robbed of their divine powers from the temple, who had escaped the time and were still there, just as they had been in the past.
It was like a slaughterhouse. It was also like hell.
There was a woman right in the middle of those people.
Connected to the white lights that were like threads that were separated from everyone’s body, the woman was lying on the altar with her eyes closed.
It was Cordelia.
* * *
Cordelia.
I could recognize her at a glance.
It was exactly the description I remembered. She had rich brown hair that reached down to her waist and white skin that looked pale.
I would recognize her even if her hair had changed color.
I could feel she was originally a person with enormous divine power without difficulty.
I also felt that she was now empty because all her divine power had been drained from her.
I thought of what Devan had said.
The priests gathered the divine power and stopped Cordelia for a while.
It was a state that could only be described that way. She was lying on the altar motionless as if she was dead.
“Evelyn.”
Devan grabbed my shoulder carefully. He seemed worried that I would collapse.
What should I do?
Did I say that I could do anything if faced with a situation so shocking?
I just looked at Cordelia without blinking my eyes.
“I….”
A suppressed voice came out.
“We’ll see what’s going on later.”
He grabbed me by the shoulder and raised me up.
It looked like he was about to leave the room. I grabbed his wrist to stop him.
“Evelyn?”
“I can’t leave.”
I couldn’t just back out of this.
Even though the scene before me was unbearably shocking.
Cordelia, Eunice, the soldiers, even the children from a decade ago.
Everything I was looking for was here, and I couldn’t leave without any harvest.
Devan sighed low.
He seemed to want to hold me back, but he saw the look on my face and remained still and silent.
I kept my eyes down and took a deep breath.
I cleared my throat and regulated my sunken voice. I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them again.
It was no time to be in a daze.
On shaky legs, I walked slowly toward the altar.
The closer I got, the clearer it felt. Cordelia was completely empty.
“Cordelia….”
I came right up to the altar and looked at her.
Cordelia seemed to be waking up at any moment. She was so pale that I couldn’t believe she had been unconscious for so long.
I saw swarms of white light spreading all over her body.
“Evelyn, could this be……”
Devan spoke up cautiously. He seemed to be expecting it too.
“…… it’s divine power.”
“That means… ….”
“Probably… gathering all their powers and giving Cordelia…….”
I headed for the human tower. Even though I focused my mind, I could not feel any divine power from them.
It seemed all of their power was gathered and transferred to Cordelia.
It was what kept her alive when everything stopped.
“What will become of them? It’s already…….”
“Perhaps if they are not physically broken, they can be brought back to life.”
“Can they be brought back to life?”
“It’s the same as what Pelos said. In the case of Cordelia and I, there’s too much empty space in our bodies, space that used to contain enormous divine power, and when the divine power is empty, problems arise.”
“Others have little strength, and they can live even if they run out of it?”
“Yes, perhaps. But… “
The numbers were in the tens and hundreds. I bit my lower lip.
“How do you take them out?”
“What?”
“They need treatment. It seems that I can inject divine power into them……”
They were tangled up in a jumble.
The treatment was a tool to keep Cordelia alive.
Eunice and the soldiers, in particular, had only been gone for a few weeks, so they could be treated, but the children…….
The children would have been entangled for more than a decade.
“We have to make sure they get proper treatment. We have to get everyone out of here to do that…….”
The situation was not good. There were only two of us, and we had been sneaking away.
I didn’t know when the priests and mercenaries would come.
“What should we do…?”
I looked down at Cordelia and held her weakly open hand.
It didn’t feel warm, but it wasn’t as cold as a corpse.
Devan pulled my hand out and spoke firmly.
“We have to get out of here first.”
“But…”
“There is no time. Don’t you know that?”
I had nothing to say, so I fell silent.
“We can’t take this many people with us. Even if they can move, it would be difficult, it is even more so if they are unconscious.”
“Then we’ll leave it at that…you mean to throw them away?”
“We can come back again. Now that we know what’s going on, we’ll come back with countermeasures.”
Everything he said was right.
I knew it in my head. But I hesitated, and Devan continued to speak.
“Besides, if we cut this white thread of divine power now, who knows what will happen to this woman?”
He patted me lightly as if to comfort me.
That was also true.
Until I knew how Cordelia was maintaining her body now, I could not move her recklessly.
The temple needed her anyway. At least she wouldn’t be life-threatening.
Devan, perhaps noticing that my heart was shaking, gave me a light squeeze on the shoulder.
We would pretend that we couldn’t win this, leave the room, find a way, and come back.
That was the best we could do. But….
“Please wait a moment.”
When I stopped again, Devan looked down at me with worried eyes.
“…wait…ten minutes, no, five minutes.”
He shrugged. It was a gesture that said he couldn’t stop me anymore.
I stepped away from Devan’s arm and headed for Cordelia again. Then I grabbed her hand firmly.
“It’s a dangerous thing to do…….”
“It won’t. I’m just trying to give her my divine power.”
“What?”
“It’s the same as when I treated you. It’s not dangerous.”
It was funny how worried he was, considering the battle scars from the many times I saw when I treated Devan, but he just shook his head and didn’t take any sanctions.
If I fainted, I was sure he would be able to carry me home on his back.
I shook my head as if to reassure him, then closed my eyes tightly.
I concentrated on drawing out the divine power deep within my body, but I couldn’t quite feel it.
It would be more accurate to say that its quantity was definitely less than before.
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Pelos’ words flashed through my mind.
So using my power will speed up my death? Can I really use my power?