Chapter 56: Thank You…

Where is this?

Before her eyes was a mass of hazy mist—nothing could be seen clearly.

Is this a dream?

Or… has she already died?

Yuri wasn’t sure. All she could do was instinctively wander around nearby, but all she could see was still that blurry fog.

She walked like that for a long, long time. Gradually, the mist before her eyes began to disperse, and a new scene appeared.

There were two somewhat blurry figures. One of them, a girl, was kneeling with her back to Yuri in front of a rather crude stone bed, her shoulders trembling violently.

Is she crying?

A heart-wrenching sobbing came intermittently from the girl’s direction. Because her back was turned, Yuri couldn’t see her face, only that beautiful, moonlight-silver long hair cascading down her back. Just by looking, Yuri could feel the sorrow drifting off her in waves.

For some reason, looking at the girl’s back gave her a sense of familiarity, as if she had seen her somewhere before.

Is that someone I know? But why can’t I remember? Why can’t I recall who she is?

At that moment, another blonde-haired girl was lying on the stone bed. Yet, what should have been dazzling, sun-like golden hair was now lifeless, withered like dry grass. Not just the hair, even the girl’s skin was terribly pale, as if her life was nearing its end.

Yuri tried to see the girl’s face clearly, but a faint mist veiled her features, making it impossible to distinguish her appearance. Still, Yuri was certain she had never met her before.

Then why was she seeing this scene before her eyes? The somewhat familiar silver-haired girl was kneeling by the stone bed, clutching the blonde girl’s withered hand to her own forehead.

“Don’t… please, don’t die… don’t die…”

That voice carried endless sorrow. Hearing the silver-haired girl’s broken cries, for some reason, a deep sadness welled up in Yuri’s heart as well.

Why was she seeing all this?

Clearly, she didn’t know either of them. Even the familiar-looking silver-haired girl—she had no memory of her.

If this was a dream, why would she dream of scenes she’d never witnessed before?

Yuri didn’t know, but the inexplicable tremor and ache in her heart felt all too real.

She instinctively moved toward those two figures. As long as she got closer, she ought to find out who they were, and why she herself was here.

But just as she drew near and was about to see the silver-haired girl’s profile—

“Crack!”

The scene before her shattered like a mirror, dissolving into endless fragments and vanishing.

So, it really was just a dream?

Then why—

Not only did the image before her eyes shatter, but the ground beneath her feet suddenly split apart as well.

A fierce feeling of weightlessness struck her, and Yuri began to fall.

Before her eyes, she saw little points of light. She reached out, trying to touch them, but couldn’t.

Her body kept falling, plunging into the bottomless darkness below.

That deep darkness seemed to have a will of its own, winding around her body, pulling her down to hasten her descent into the boundless abyss.

If she fell all the way down, perhaps her consciousness would melt into that darkness, never to escape.

She struggled, trying to break free from the darkness, to grasp those little points of light ahead.

But she failed. Her body continued to fall. That formless power emerging from the darkness seemed to turn into countless arms, grabbing her limbs and body, dragging her into the endless dark.

All she could do was watch herself sink further and further, powerless to resist. Watching as the darkness swallowed her chest, submerged her, wrapped her up, dragged her deep into the inescapable black, ceaselessly eroding her awareness.

Just as the last speck of light before her was about to vanish and her vision was about to be swallowed by the darkness of the abyss—

A warm power, utterly different from the cold darkness, quietly appeared at her side and dispelled the darkness, wrapping around her.

She could feel her body being lifted upward, slowly leaving the darkness below.

Looking at the emerging points of light, she instinctively reached out her hand, and this time, she actually felt something solid in her palm.

Warm. Comforting.

It was a hand. The warmth from that palm made her want to hold on forever, never letting go.

At the very moment she completely escaped the darkness below, she looked past that small, warm hand, wanting to see its owner’s face. But before she could, the scene before her shattered again.

She woke up.

When she opened her eyes, what she saw was the ceiling of the inn.

Her gaze subconsciously drifted to the window, where the faint light was filtering through the curtains and falling onto the wooden floor.

Is it morning already?

Retracting her gaze, she saw an unexpected scene.

That small, white figure was sprawled on top of her, clinging to her body like an octopus.

If she had a physical body, it probably would have been suffocating to be tangled up like this. Unfortunately, she was just a projection—Yuri couldn’t feel any sensation of being constricted at all.

Everything that happened last night flooded back into her mind like a tide. Gradually, she recalled the events of the previous night. The curse had suddenly erupted without warning, and its violent, intense force had seemed intent on killing her.

To ease the pain of the curse, she’d instinctively taken out that white-grade Abyssal Crystal. Absorbing it slowly hadn’t eased the pain, so she crushed the crystal.

Even then, she still underestimated the intensity of this curse outbreak.

As her consciousness was fading, she seemed to faintly hear some kind of voice, but she’d already lost the strength to make out what it was. Almost by instinct, she crushed another blue-grade Abyssal Crystal.

There were still some shards of crystal left on the floor, but their energy had been spent, leaving only a heap of useless rubble.

After crushing the crystals, Yuri had lost consciousness.

Perhaps the power of the crystals had suppressed the curse, but the unconscious her had no way of stopping the subsequent abyssal corruption. Normally, there would have only been one outcome for her—to be consumed by the abyss.

Raising her hand, her fair and smooth skin showed not a single trace of abyssal corruption. That meant there was only one possibility.

Her gaze fell upon Iris. It was she who had saved her.

“Why?”

She murmured softly. Iris’s long eyelashes fluttered lightly, then she opened her eyes.

The moment their gazes met, Yuri saw the Little Evil God suddenly leap up, her expression like a kitten with its fur bristling in anger.

“Idiot Yuri!

Maniac! Dummy! Blockhead!”

Iris spat out every word she could think of. “Do you have any idea how dangerous it was last night? If it wasn’t for me, you almost…”

Yuri sat up and reached out as if to hug Iris. Though her arms passed straight through the girl’s body and she couldn’t actually embrace her, that gesture, that posture, conveyed everything she wanted to say.

“Eh?”

Iris froze, all those scolding words she had prepared stuck in her throat.

“Iris… thank you.”