Arc of the Souls Chapter 98: Arc 3, Chapter 21 - Fire and Blood

Read chapter 98 of Arc of the Souls by Noyr on NovelPedia.

The fight has ended. The city was destroyed. Anything else that stood upright was risking a permanent fall due to sweeping fire. It all burnt from the heavens. People were standing still, concentrated in one place, experiencing a stampede created by the fire traversing the ground. Those who perished turned black and red with their hands extending toward the sky. No God was there to answer their prayers. They simply died believing in a divine intervention that was never going to happen. Was this the price they were paying for how psychopathic their leader was, to experience feeling for the last time in cataclysm? As if it wasn’t meant for just one person but everyone, just to atone for the sins that their leader caused over the years? The fire didn’t hide any of the city’s glory, it just added onto the suffering of people who had nothing to do with this war of Soul-Wielders. Curses. That's what they were. Everything they touch is reduced to oblivion. Everything they worked for gets taken away from them in a sweep. One might say that they are merely plagues, plaguing the very nature of the cosmos, destroying and rebuilding through different methods. Would you really call those Soul-Wielders human? When they can bring entire cities to a cinder with their bare hands? This wasn't even your sin. You just had to be born in a world where you could die in an instant. And it's not even your fault. - Erika was dragging herself through the crimson-stained sand, with a gold chain piercing through her stomach. The weight was pulling her down, but she refused to collapse, even if that would’ve ended all of her suffering. She’d rather continue onward because giving up felt like letting the fire win. It would let him win. The Son Tyrant. "...Veyron... VEYRON!" It became a drag for her to drag herself any further. If there was anything she could do in the last breaths that she could take, is kill him. Strangle him, anything that could kill him by any means possible. The King of Dark Intrinium was just several meters away from her, not even batting her an eye or turning his back around to speak to her. It's as if he already acknowledged her as sheep for slaughter. With his hands in his pockets, he simply watched a little girl walk in circles in the vicinity. The girl was trying to devise an idea on how to get her dead mother out of the rubble. Veyron’s gaze was locked onto the child; he didn't notice Erika crawl. He was distracted by a simple girl. Perhaps he did have some remorse for her after everything that he has done. Was destroying the city really a good choice? Anything to continue his father's legacy, his dying wish for his son to rule the world with an iron fist, much like he did. But in a twisted way of his own, not a carbon copy of what the prior king did. He wanted to be known for his unique form of tyranny. Maybe it was through art - war. Destruction was a beautiful yet macabre art. Watching fire consume all that humanity has worked hard for. But the girl showed a different type of tenacity. One that you wouldn't see in any human ever. It's a common sight to witness a pure soul trying to save an already dead person. Not that the girl was in denial. The girl didn't know that her mother died from the house toppling over her. She saw everything in slow motion. She was injured too, having lost an arm from the boulder. All that remained of it was a loose thread of skin hanging where her arm should be. Blood painted the ground around the little girl. Erika noticed the girl's predicament, but what good would she do if she also was on the verge of death? The world was no place for children with their whimsical outlook. Seeing her witness the destruction of the city and the death of every single person who lived in poverty under her own tyranny made her realize that she was no better than the Son Tyrant himself. Maybe Kytan Veyron did the right thing. Maybe he did set everyone free from Erika Flügelhart’s deadly, oppressive rule over Zyrania