The Goddess's Might Saves the World - Chapter 6

It was a boundless ocean of yellow sand. Every grain, catching the lingering twilight, shimmered with shades of scarlet and black-gold, as if first scorched by fire and then draped in the shadow of death. The sky pressed low, the clouds churning violently. The bl00d-red sunset tore through the oppressive black clouds, making the entire world appear to be bleeding.
The instant the Hero and the Goddess stepped into the sand sea, a fierce gale, like a herd of screaming beasts, rushed them. The sound of the wind was no longer just vibrating air, but a human-like murmur—sometimes weeping, sometimes seductive, and sometimes like the chanting of an ancient curse. These whispers bored into their ears and struck deep into their souls, reminding them: “Lay down your arms. Struggle is useless. Your fate was sealed long ago.”
The Hero’s feet sank into the loose dunes; every step felt like a desperate drag against the earth. His broken sword was clenched tightly, slick with sweat and bl00d, his fingertips white. Every breath was excruciatingly hot, his lungs filling with a fire-like wind that threatened to suffocate him. Yet, in the corner of his eye, he could still see the Goddess standing resolute in the heart of the sandstorm.
The Goddess’s silver hair whipped in the demonic wind. The Holy Radiance at her core was like the sole pure-white lighthouse, wrenching the Hero back to reality from the mirage-like dust. That light was not blinding, but it was unshakeable and absolute, reflecting the molten-red sky—the last glimmer of hope confronting the entire desert.
The distant dunes rose and fell erratically, like the shifting spine of some colossal, buried beast. Yellow sand waves crashed, and faintly, the cold, metallic gleam of snake scales flashed across the Hero’s vision. His heart pounded; he knew this was no simple illusion created by the wind, but an actual presence awakening.
“…Can you hear it?” The Goddess’s voice cut through the gale. She looked up at the sky, her gaze colder than the desert itself.
In that instant, the entire sea of sand shuddered, and a low roar echoed from deep underground. The Hero’s body seized up. The sound of the wind in his ears suddenly transformed into a heartbeat—not his own, but the rhythm of the desert itself, pulsating.
The sand sea was violently overturned, and pitch-black snake scales slowly surfaced. As the yellow sand cascaded away, a pair of black and red pupils opened in the sky—cold, seductive, and cruel.
The low whisper in the wind clarified, sounding like a mother’s lullaby or a lover’s call, yet carrying an irresistible, imposing authority.
“—I am Lilith.”
The voice shook the entire desert. The yellow sand surged, the sky tore open, and the world’s heartbeat merged with the Hero’s pulse.
The churning of the yellow sand intensified, driven by an indescribable rhythm. Every wisp of wind carried a mixed sensation of cold moisture and scorching heat, like a snake’s tongue flicking past both ear and heart simultaneously. This was no ordinary wind—it whispered, sang, mocked, and seduced. The voice was woven with a thousand tones: a mother’s kindness, a lover’s murmur, a comrade’s cry, and even the Hero’s own long-suppressed fear and weakness, magnified a thousand times and echoing starkly in his mind.
“Lay down your arms… lay down your arms…” The voice layered repeatedly, as if the entire sand sea were speaking for one entity. “You are already scarred and broken, your sword snapped, your time is up. Why struggle further? Just sink into this quicksand, and you shall receive eternal peace.”
The Hero’s breathing was ragged, his chest heaving violently, his broken sword almost slipping away. Auditory and visual hallucinations flooded his eyes: he saw himself buried by the sand, saw the Goddess turn her back and abandon him, saw countless cycles of failed deaths rushing at him. Each scene was so vividly painful, like a pre-determined, inevitable ending.
His steps became leaden, each one weighed down by a thousand stones. The dunes rose around him like colossal waves, trapping him in the center, forming a natural prison of despair. He even heard his own heartbeat slowly synchronizing with the earth’s pulse—a suffocating superposition that made him doubt his own identity.
Just as he was about to fall to his knees, a blinding white light flashed. The Goddess stood atop the sandstorm, the radiance from her armor’s center shining like a star, cutting through the black clouds and the crimson sunset. She stood against the wind, her silver-white hair flying like a cascade, her eyes reflecting an unshakeable will. That light was a sharp sword, severing the whispers and abruptly pulling the Hero back from the quagmire of illusion.
“Hero, lift your head.” Her voice held no tremble, yet it rang out like a clap of thunder in the boundless illusion. It was not an order, but a conviction, a call of salvation piercing through a thousand layers of darkness.
The Hero shuddered. Bl00d seeped from his fingertips from the sheer force of his grip, and the broken sword was finally secured once more. The demonic wind still howled, the whispers still beguiled, but in this vast sand sea, he had finally found the single, unquenchable coordinate—the light blossoming from the Goddess’s core.
Suddenly, an ancient heartbeat, seemingly from the depths of the earth, thundered and shattered. The dunes intensely churned. The yellow sand was no longer just waves whipped up by the wind, but forcibly pushed by a tremendous life force. The grains of sand coalesced mid-air into fragments of light resembling snake scales, each reflection of scarlet-gold light cutting the twilight from the sky like a blade.
The Hero held his breath. He clearly heard his heart’s drumming suppressed by another rhythm—the desert’s own heartbeat, heavy, viscous, and demonic. The sound penetrated the earth and air, spreading like a war drum. Each beat reminded him: “This is not a natural storm, but the awakening of an ancient presence.”
As the roars echoed consecutively, a colossal shadow slowly rose in the sand sea’s center. First, massive scales emerged, their cold, black-gold sheen gleaming under the afterglow. Next, a winding serpentine body lifted segment by segment, like an endless, long wall, dividing the entire world into shadow and light. On every scale, crimson runes shimmered like burning curses, throbbing relentlessly beneath the night sky.
Just as the massive body fully stretched out from the desert, a pair of black and red intertwined eyes snapped open. These were not simple pupils, but two spinning vortices, bottomless, swallowing the sunset glow, the yellow sand, and the figures of the Hero and the Goddess all at once. The moment their gaze intersected, the Hero felt his soul being directly drawn out, his chest instantly hollow, and he almost lost the ability to breathe.
“—Hsss…”
A low, yet incredibly seductive exhalation sounded between heaven and earth. The breath was not wind, but a sentient tendril, carrying countless whispers, coiling around their ears, as if a thousand tiny snakes were simultaneously sliding into their veins, winding around their hearts.
Under this oppression, the Holy Light at the Goddess’s core flickered instantly, the halo forcibly carving out a gap for breath. She looked up, her gaze locked on the black and red pupils, and murmured: “She has arrived… the ruler of the desert, the Snake Mother—Lilith.”
The next moment, all the sounds of the wind seemed to be sucked dry, leaving only the thunderous, heartbeat-like roar, shaking the entire world.
The sand sea abruptly fractured in silence, a bottomless fissure opening in the center of the earth. Yellow sand was drawn in by an invisible force, like an inverted tide pouring into the abyss. What followed was a demonic aura, hotter than a volcano and denser than the deep sea, slowly seeping from the fissure, compressing the air into a suffocating, unbearable stuffiness.
Immediately after, scales shimmering with a black-gold luster burst forth from the sand. These were no ordinary snake scales, but ‘forbidden sigils’ condensed from curses and demonic energy. As each scale floated, it emitted a low moan like ten thousand lost souls, nearly tearing the Hero’s eardrums.
Her body gradually appeared: the upper half was an elegant, slender human silhouette, her skin fair as ice crystals illuminated by moonlight, yet possessing an untouchable frigidness. It was a beautiful face that surpassed mortal aesthetics, with scarlet lips and eyes that flowed with an eerie shadow. Her lower half, simultaneously, was an endless serpentine body, coiled in countless loops within the sand sea. The sheer length of her body was enough to firmly lock down the entire desert.
Even more chilling were her locks—not actual hair, but countless fine, venomous snakes. Each serpentine hair flicked a bl00d-red tongue, slightly writhing, as if ready to dart out and pierce the opponent’s throat at any moment.
The broken sword in the Hero’s hand was tightly gripped, yet it trembled uncontrollably. For the first time, he felt that merely ‘seeing’ an enemy was enough to cause his will to fight to crumble. The Goddess desperately spread her wings, the Holy Light from her core shining fiercely to resist this oppression, becoming the sole silver-white radiance in the sand sea.
She slowly exhaled a breath, but it was unlike mortal breathing; the air of the entire world instantly condensed, its vitality drawn out. That breath carried a thick, black mist and scarlet firelight, as if it were magma and toxic smoke spewed from the depths of Hell. The wind ceased instantly, only to roar up again with ten thousand times the force, turning the yellow sand into a sky-shrouding tide that swallowed both the Hero and the Goddess in a world of gloom.
The sky lost its color in an instant. The bl00d-red sunset was completely wiped away, and the stars and moon vanished. This was not merely visual darkness, but the engulfing of space itself—as if time and light had been stolen by her breath, forcing even heartbeats to pause. The Hero’s fingers, gripping the broken sword, trembled from excessive tension. He felt as though he stood at the edge of an infinite abyss, the grains of sand beneath his feet falling one by one, taking his courage with them.
The Goddess spread her wings, the Holy Light at her core desperately shining, yet in this lightless prison, it seemed minuscule, like a single candle flame resisting an endless night. Cold sweat beaded on her forehead, but she still raised her head, staring into the intertwined black and red pupils. It was a gaze that could not be met, as if to fall into it would be to suffer irreversible corruption.
Lilith’s voice arrived with her breath, no longer a whisper, but a roar like ten thousand gigantic snakes rubbing their scales simultaneously: “Mortals and Gods… shall both turn into sand, extinguished by a single breath of mine.”
At this moment, the desert night sky was completely under her control.
In the next moment, Lilith threw back her head and let out a scream capable of tearing the sky apart. It was not a simple sound, but the superposition of countless snakes wailing and breathing at the same time, as if all the hidden venomous creatures in the world had suddenly awakened. The yellow sand was shaken into flight, and the storm whipped up a hundred-foot wall of sand, instantly sealing the battlefield into an inescapable prison.
The desert began to writhe. It was no longer a simple quicksand, but a living swarm of gigantic snakes. They surged out from beneath the ground, layer upon layer, their black-gold scales reflecting the Goddess’s Holy Light like countless shattered mirrors, refracting the light into eerie red shadows. The snake tide was overwhelming, like a nocturnal tsunami, rushing in from all directions. Every snake carried venomous flames and a demonic wind, their flicking tongues capable of instantly corroding stone into ash.
The Hero’s foot sank into the quicksand, and he nearly lost his balance, his ears filled only with the endless hiss. It was a soul-emptying sound, making one doubt whether they still existed in reality or had been dragged into an illusion. He gritted his teeth, his broken sword sweeping horizontally, severing several giant snakes that lunged at him. But the next moment, an even larger tide of snakes enveloped him.
The Goddess soared up on her wings, the Holy Light from her core blossoming in the dark storm, like the first break of dawn. She cried out: “Hero, do not yield! This is a trial, not the end!” Yet, as soon as her voice rang out, the Snake Mother’s gigantic tail lashed out from the sandstorm, sweeping across the night sky with mountain-like force, heavily suppressing her light.
Heaven and earth lost balance. The sky trembled, the sand sea boiled, and the Snake Mother’s figure towered at the peak of the storm, like a true Empress, the sovereign of death and darkness. The battle, finally, began in full force in this boundless desert.
The Snake Mother’s whispers spread on the wind, the voice like countless alien tongues simultaneously licking the inner ear bone. It was not a simple sound, but a toxic mist directly permeating the soul. The Hero had just swung his sword to cut down several lunging giant snakes when his vision suddenly blurred—the yellow sand was gone, replaced by a lush green grassland. The sky was clear and cloudless, and the setting sun shone upon golden waves of wheat.
In this peaceful illusion, he saw himself walking side-by-side with the Goddess. She was no longer clad in armor or bearing the fatigue of battle, but appeared as a mortal, her smile gentle, her hands lightly holding his. The light at her core was no longer a divine weapon, but the gentle glow of a warm hearth. The Hero’s fingers trembled, laying bare the deep desire hidden in his heart: how wonderful it would be if they could stop here, avoid the fighting, avoid death, and spend a lifetime together?
But as his thoughts shifted, the scene twisted into a different future. He saw the Goddess turn around, her back to him, the Holy Light on her core illuminating another man, who accepted her embrace, while he himself was alone, swallowed by darkness. The Hero’s breathing quickened, the broken sword nearly slipping from his grasp. His eyes began to tremble, his soul torn between the phantoms of love and fear.
The surrounding air was no longer wind, but invisible snake tongues, flicking at every nerve. The illusion shifted repeatedly, bringing endless possibilities of temptation and betrayal. His sanity was forcibly steeped in a pool of venom, threatening to collapse entirely at any moment.
The illusion shattered again. The sky turned from blue to black, and stars fell like fragments, transforming into countless burning chains that wrapped around the Hero. The Goddess’s voice rang in his ears, but it was no longer gentle, but a cold curse: “You cannot protect anyone… even I will be extinguished because of you.” The voice was identical to hers, yet it carried a venomous hatred, slicing into his heart like a steel blade.
The Hero’s knees trembled, the broken sword in his hand heavy as a thousand weights, almost falling. He saw another phantom: at the end of the infinite desert, the Goddess was embraced by the gigantic snake, the light on her core completely extinguished, while he knelt alone in the bloody sand, becoming the final loser. The sight was so realistic it dried his throat, and cold sweat streamed down his forehead.
“Lay down your arms…” Lilith’s whisper sounded again in the demonic wind, bringing the cool sensation of a snake’s tongue lightly licking his soul. “Hand your sword to the sand, and your heart to me. You shall find rest, and suffer no more endless pain.”
The Hero’s eyes began to glaze over. The moment his hands loosened, the broken sword nearly dropped to the ground. Just then, a streak of silver-white Holy Light tore through the illusion. The Goddess’s voice reached him from afar, without resentment, without temptation, but with unshakeable conviction: “Hero—don’t let them take you! Your heart, and my light, are still here!”
He violently raised his head, only to find the Goddess’s body already tightly bound by countless snake tides, her limbs constrained. Even her pure white wings were firmly pinned down, and the twisted snake bodies coiled towards her core like chains, covering the sole light source illuminating the sand sea inch by inch.
The Hero’s throat tightened, his chest felt seared by fierce fire. Although the illusion was incredibly real, it was now shaking under this ray of light. His fingers clenched the broken sword again, bl00d flowing down his palm, dripping into the yellow sand of the illusion, stirring up scarlet ripples.
The illusion overlapped once more, this time no longer a potential future, but his deepest fear. The Hero saw himself personally swinging his sword to pierce the Goddess’s core. Scarlet bl00d and Holy Light dissipated simultaneously, his hands stained with her bl00d, and in his ears, Lilith’s pleasant yet cruel chuckle echoed: “This is fate. The more you struggle, the more you become the executioner who destroys her.”
“No… impossible…!” The Hero’s eyes were bloodshot, his voice trembling. He staggered backward. The broken sword, in the illusion, turned into chains coiling his wrists, dragging him towards infinite darkness. The desert turned into a sea of bl00d, countless snake shadows wrapped around his ankles, pulling him toward the abyss.
The Goddess’s figure gradually blurred beneath the bloody sky, only the light at her core still flickering, like the last lighthouse. Though tightly bound by the snake swarm, she struggled to lift her head, condensing the light into a fine stream that pierced through the illusion, shooting straight into the Hero’s clouded pupils.
In that instant, the Hero’s chest violently contracted, as if an oath was branded upon it with a burning iron plate. He roared in pain, forcibly taking a step in the bloody sand, breaking free from the chains. Although the broken sword was damaged, it sparked again in his palm.
“I will never let this come true!” He gritted his teeth, tearing through the pain brought by the illusion. The sand sea beneath his feet began to collapse, and the illusion scattered like broken glass shards. Lilith’s laughter gradually turned into a sharp hiss, and the Holy Light on the Goddess’s core finally forced open a gap, pulling the Hero back to reality.
The moment the illusion shattered, the roar of ten thousand snakes hissing simultaneously echoed from the depths of the desert, like a tsunami tearing apart the world. Black-gold snake tides surged from all directions, each one thicker than a human, their eyes gleaming with cold, bl00d-red light. The dunes fractured, the yellow sand was swallowed into mudflows, and countless snake bodies intertwined, condensing into a gigantic vortex. At its center stood the majestic, half-human, half-serpentine body of the Snake Mother Lilith.
The Goddess spread her wings. The Holy Light from her core intended to blossom again, but it was instantly entwined by tens of thousands of snake shadows. Cold scales coiled around her arms and legs, pinning down her pure white wings. Twisted snake bodies wrapped like chains toward her core, covering the sole light source illuminating the sand sea inch by inch.
“No!” The Hero roared, desperately charging up the dune, but the gigantic snake tail whipped up a mountain-like wave of sand and smashed down. He felt the bones in his chest instantly shatter, bl00d spurting from his mouth, and he was swept away to the far reaches of the desert. Everything blurred from the intense pain, but he still stared fiercely at the Goddess engulfed by the snake tide, his fingers instinctively clutching the broken sword. Even though the fractured blade was covered in cracks, it still reflected a residual light in the dust.
The Hero crashed heavily against a broken dune, the pain of his broken bones nearly causing him to faint. But what he heard was the Goddess’s suppressed moan, a sound less of pain and more of a tremor as she forcibly pushed her power outwards. Looking up, her wings were scarred with bl00d by countless giant snakes, her arms pulled taut and unable to close. The most dazzling Holy Light at her core was gradually obscured by scales, leaving only a faint flicker like a dying star, stubbornly shining.
The desert had turned into a living Hell. Snake tides piled up layer upon layer, like black towers, completely drowning the Goddess. Every hiss shook the yellow sand and eclipsed the heavens. The Hero staggered to his feet, bl00d sliding down from his forehead, collarbone, and arms simultaneously. The broken sword supported him in the sand. His fingers trembled incessantly, yet he fiercely refused to let go.
“I cannot fall yet…” he muttered, his voice swallowed by the wind and sand, yet the shout in his heart was heavier than any roar. Even with shattered bones, he searched for a chance to break the deadlock. As his vision blurred, the last thing he saw was the Goddess still trying to spread her wings in the darkness, pushing her final radiance towards him, like a call of salvation across the sea of ten thousand snakes.
A terrifying roar echoed from the depths of the desert, as if the entire earth trembled under the Snake Mother’s whispers. The Goddess’s core was tightened by dozens of giant snakes simultaneously. Bl00d, like petals, sprayed from her silver-white wings, dripping into the yellow sand and instantly being swallowed. Her sacred radiance was suppressed to near extinction, leaving only a wavering glimmer, like a final breath before death.
The Hero knelt half-buried in the sand, his breathing ragged and hoarse from bl00d pouring into his lungs. Everything before his eyes was a bloody red, a mix of actual bl00d and the afterglow of the unvanished illusion. Countless snake shadows wrapped themselves into a wall around him, separating him from the Goddess. Every step forward was a gamble, a head-on collision with death. His knees slammed heavily into the sand, and the tip of his broken sword plunged deep into the yellow earth, emitting a lonely and crisp sound, as if announcing a final struggle.
“If I give up now… she will be completely swallowed.” A voice sounded in the Hero’s heart, whether his own desperate cry or the Goddess’s residual prayer.
Tears mixed with bl00d blurred his vision. He finally understood—this battle was no longer just about confronting the Snake Mother, but the ultimate trial of breaking away from his own fear and countless phantoms. Despair nearly suffocated him, yet a searing spark ignited somewhere in his chest, waiting to explode in the next moment.
The Hero’s body was on the verge of collapse. His chest rose and fell as if suppressed by ten thousand stones; every breath was accompanied by the sound of bl00d bubbles bursting. He knelt deep in the yellow sand, the broken sword in his hand riddled with gaps, the blade stained with congealed black bl00d, as if it would shatter completely with the next gust of wind. However, when he looked up and saw the Goddess entangled by countless snake shadows, the Holy Radiance flickering weakly in despair, his soul was violently pulled back—in that instant, he realized he could not fall, because the Goddess was still waiting for his extended sword.
“My bl00d… my life… even if it’s all burned out, I will make this sword burn again!” The Hero pressed the broken sword tightly against his chest, letting his bl00d continuously seep into the fractured blade. The hot bl00d mingled with the desert’s scorching aura, emitting a roar like a forging furnace. In a flash, flames erupted from the broken gaps of the sword, gathering with the surrounding gale and swirling dust to form a sword of scarlet fire and interwoven time.
The yellow sand trembled from the fierce flames, and the phantom future in the illusion was incinerated to nothing. The Hero stood up, his eyes shining like molten steel. He raised the “Scarlet-Flame Time-Sword,” every ray of fire seeming to cleave a rift in shattered spacetime. A deafening roar sounded above the desert, not the Snake Mother’s enraged hiss, but the finally liberated will from the depths of his chest—a vow to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Goddess’s light once more.
The moment the Scarlet-Flame Time-Sword ignited in his hand, the entire desert seemed to catch fire. Fierce flames mixed with yellow sand, turning into a sky-shrouding tide of fire that tore apart the illusion woven by the Snake Mother. The false futures and scenes of death were swallowed by the flames, turning into ash. The Hero roared to the heavens, his voice hoarse yet carrying the power to shake the world. He took one step, and the fierce flames erupted with his stride, as if he were treading upon a molten deluge.
The snake tide rushed forward, shrieking, each snake carrying toxic mist and phantoms, but the Hero was no longer deceived. His broken sword burned more fiercely than the sun. Every strike cleaved dozens of snakes at the waist, the firelight burning the bl00d and scales into charred dust. The illusions of ‘betraying the Goddess’ and ‘a future merged with the Snake Mother’ tried to surge again, but the flames ruthlessly incinerated them. The only thing left in the Hero’s gaze was the faint flicker of the Goddess’s light—that was the only truth.
“Get out of my way!” he roared, transforming all the pain and his shattered bones into fuel to push the flames.
The Scarlet-Flame Time-Sword cut a straight trajectory, so scorching that even the air was torn with trails of fire. He forcibly opened a path to the Goddess in the center of the snake tide, countless snake hisses intermingling with the roaring flames, like the drums of Armageddon. The Goddess’s eyes met him through the snake tide and fire waves, and the light in her core intensified once more due to this moment of convergence.
In the center of the desert, the Hero, dragging his bl00d-soaked body, finally rushed to the Goddess. The Scarlet-Flame Broken Sword burned almost transparently, as if his soul was being consumed along with it. The Goddess was suppressed by the snake tide, her core trembling, but when the Hero’s firelight and her Holy Light converged, the two powers instantly resonated.
Her eyes were illuminated by fire and light, shimmering with an unprecedented determination. She extended her trembling hand and covered the Hero’s sword hilt. The fierce flames immediately climbed her arm, and the Holy Light poured down along the blade. Two vastly different powers merged at the same instant, erupting into a spectacle like a solar eclipse and a Holy Sun appearing together.
“Together!” the Goddess murmured, her voice like the music of the heavens yet imbued with infinite majesty. The Hero bit his lip and nodded, his last breath transforming into a shout of rage. They swung the sword simultaneously, fire and Holy Light combining into a glorious slash too brilliant to look at, tearing apart the snake tide and igniting the desert.
In that moment, heaven and earth trembled, and a trace of fear finally surfaced in Lilith’s eyes. She realized she was no longer facing a lone enemy, but a pair of ‘Dual Blades of Fire and Light’ that transcended the mortal realm.
Heaven and earth lost all sound at that moment, as if the entire world held its breath in attention. The Goddess spread her arms, and the Holy Light from her core began to wildly expand, turning into a massive silver-white wheel hundreds of feet in diameter, slowly rising above the desert. Every rotation of the wheel warped the desert’s time, and countless snake shadows were instantly reduced to ashes, only to condense again in the next second, and then disintegrate once more in the Holy Light.
The Hero gripped the Scarlet-Flame Broken Sword tightly. The blade’s fierce flames and the Goddess’s Holy Light intertwined, gradually forming a scorching “Dual Flow of Flame.” As the radiant fire rolled, it not only illuminated the encroaching black clouds but also forcibly cleaved the cloud layers, revealing distant yet impossibly clear stars.
The desert quaked from the resonance of their combined power. The dunes surged like ocean waves, and the roars of thousands of snakes sounded from underground. Lilith’s colossal serpentine body rose high, covering the heavens. Her voice was low and seductive, yet carried a tremble: “You dare challenge the Snake Mother with mortal bodies… then be buried together in the eternal night!”
However, the Light Wheel from the Goddess’s core now exploded with its ultimate radiance, simultaneously locking onto the Snake Mother’s heart with the Hero’s fierce sword intent. The Holy and the Flame, the Light and the Fire—in this endless sea of sand, they converged for the first time into the “Blade of Judgment.”
The Hero’s shout of rage tore his throat. He raised the Scarlet-Flame Broken Sword, burning with bl00d and will, and charged across the fractured yellow sand towards the gigantic body, which was like the sky itself. The flames surged fiercely with his strides, like a scarlet dragon, crashing through the Snake Mother’s black shadow alongside him.
Simultaneously, the Light Wheel from the Goddess’s core completed its rotation, the radiance condensing into a straight Holy Pillar that erupted from her artifact. That light was no longer simple illumination, but carried the weight of ‘Judgment’ and ‘Obsequy,’ every ray capable of incinerating the void itself.
“—Holy Radiance, Snake Burial!” The voices of the Goddess and the Hero overlapped at the exact same moment. Fire and Light intertwined in the air, transforming into an incomparably vast Blade of Divine Retribution.
Lilith’s serpentine body violently rose up, her black-gold scales flashing with ominous light. Tens of thousands of snake shadows hissed in unison, attempting to tear apart this judgment. But the fierce broken sword and the Holy Light core had already locked onto her heart and core, leaving no escape.
The next instant, Fire and Holy Light simultaneously slammed into the Snake Mother’s body. The fierce flame sword tip penetrated her heart, which symbolized eternal temptation, while the Holy Pillar from the Goddess’s core crushed her heart of chaos, which symbolized chaos. Heaven and earth trembled in response. The desert surged into a sea, and the sky ignited with fierce flames interwoven with silver-white and scarlet.
Lilith let out a shriek that tore the universe apart. Her black and red pupils disintegrated in the light, and her massive body cracked inch by inch, turning into countless burning snake shadows, finally and utterly buried by the combined attack of Light and Fire.
Heaven and earth lost their boundary at that moment. The Scarlet-Flame Broken Sword and the Holy Light Wheel simultaneously pierced the Snake Mother’s body. Infinite fire and sacred luminescence surged out from the fissure, as if to transform the entire desert into a divine crucible of judgment.
The yellow sand was evaporated by the fierce flames, instantly disintegrating into fragments of light; the black clouds were shredded by the Holy Light, revealing a firmament consumed by white fire. Lilith’s gigantic serpentine body twitched and twisted under the scorching and the pressure of the light. Her core was locked down by the Wheel of Light, her heart pierced by the Scarlet-Flame Broken Sword. Every heartbeat transformed into a roar of destruction.
“Hss—Aaaaaaah!!!” Her shriek shattered countless dunes, the sound waves turning into a final snake tide, but in the deluge of Light and Fire, all these snake shadows collapsed, turning into ash.
Finally, the Snake Mother’s shell burst into hundreds of millions of fragments of fire and light. They rose into the sky like a meteor shower of silver-white and scarlet, spreading a brilliant afterglow across the desert. This moment was not just a defeat, but a ‘Burial’—the earth itself acknowledged the Snake Mother’s demise, burying her in a tomb of fire and light.
After the fierce flames and Holy Light extinguished, the world seemed to be drained of sound. The yellow sand no longer surged, and the shadows of the snake tide turned to dust with the last wisp of afterglow, scattering across the land, as if the entire desert was bowing in silent mourning. The battlefield, which had just roared like Divine Retribution, was now left with only the sound of the wind lightly brushing past, carrying residual heat over the scorched dunes.
The Hero staggered to his knees, his chest violently heaving. Bl00d stained the sand, yet he still fiercely clutched the broken sword, which continued to burn. Though the blade was shattered, the flames remained vigorous, reflecting the resolve in his eyes—a genuine fire finally forged after enduring countless deaths, breaking free from illusion and despair.
The distant sky was scorched by the battle into an afterimage of intertwined scarlet-gold and deep purple, like an inscription left by a myth. Every falling wisp of afterglow was like the residual moan of the Snake Mother, carried away by the wind and assimilated into the boundless yellow sand.
The Hero’s body swayed precariously on the dune. The residual marks of the fierce flames and the illusion still ravaged his body; every breath felt like a blade slicing through his lungs. He was on the verge of collapsing, yet stubbornly refused to release the broken sword in his hand. That hint of burning scarlet flame had become the mark of his existence.
In this soundless silence, a silver-white radiance slowly descended. The Goddess’s steps were light, and the Holy Light from her core still emanated a lingering glow, like the newborn dawn dispelling the dark desert. She knelt down, gently placing her hand on the Hero’s bl00d-stained shoulder, her other hand cupping his face, which he was almost too weak to lift.
“Rise, warrior.” Her voice was low and gentle, yet it echoed like a bell in the desolate sand sea. In the Hero’s blurred vision, the only thing he could clearly see was the dazzling light at her core—it was not the violent power of battle, but the symbol of protection and rebirth.
Supported by her, he slowly straightened his body, like a lion reborn from the yellow sand. The cold desert wind swept past, but it was illuminated by their two figures, as if the entire world regained order because of them.
When the last wisp of snake shadow turned to ash in the wind, the desert finally returned to its long-lost silence. Only the sound of the wind and a heavy heartbeat remained between heaven and earth. The Hero and the Goddess stood in the center of the infinite yellow sand, like two lonely lighthouses.
However, silence was not eternal. The distant horizon began to tremble, and a bizarre black smear surfaced at the edge of the sand sea. It was neither mist nor night, but an illusion of a deep ocean, surging like a tide. Amidst the churning waves, countless skeletons floated, and shattered whale bones constructed a palace so vast it obscured the sun.
The silhouette of the palace slowly appeared, as if rising from the bottom of the abyss. Giant arches and pillars were entwined with glowing algae and the lingering spirits of the dead. With every crash of the waves, the air vibrated like thunder, bringing a nearly suffocating pressure. The Hero felt his heart violently clench, as if some ancient, eternal entity was awakening from a dream.
The Goddess’s eyes were grave, and the light from her core flickered unsteadily against the black tide. She murmured: “The Abyss Whale King… Arcturus…” Her voice was almost swallowed by the wind, yet it was like an irreversible prophecy, pushing their destiny towards the next unfathomable battlefield.