Chapter 556: The Funeral Pyre (2)
The raging flames exploded with the sound of sparks in the air, surging within the firewood piled up to form an entire wall. If the entire dungeon were to “invert,” the Adventurers standing here would truly be like “heretics” bound to a funeral pyre.
“Blocked… blocked… phew…”
Within the continuous flames, the “steam” caused by extreme heat and ice could be faintly seen. Iaar’s ice shield supported the other three people behind her. In the persistent high temperature, only this few square meters of space created by Iaar was “safe.”
“I see, we weren’t ‘destroying’ the core just now… but rather…”
Following Iaar, the four people slowly retreated. They were still somewhat “safe” at the entrance.
“It was like lighting a fuse.”
Liya calmly added the answer.
“Mhm. It’s burning again like this. So… to pass through here, we should follow the logic of deciphering it.”
“What’s this ‘lighting’? Dear, are we… still supposed to retreat? Although it can still hold, as you said, defense doesn’t equal victory…”
Iaar panted, her gray eyes fixed on the “core” glowing within the wood. “Perhaps we should still target the core? But in the current flames, we can’t even advance.”
Treya attempted to step out of Iaar’s ice shield’s defensive range, but as soon as she slightly reached out, she was repelled by the high-temperature flames.
“Tsk. They still haven’t figured it out? What does ‘funeral pyre’ truly mean? And they’re still here discussing ordinary solutions as if playing house.”
Daisianwei’s expression showed a hint of disappointment. She gazed at the narrow shield within the guillotine, which was constantly steaming due to the high temperature, and saw the four people looking at each other, completely lacking the “sudden enlightenment” that Adventurers often had when tackling dungeon puzzles.
Especially that “Will.”
Daisianwei couldn’t feel the slightest bit of “charm” from him. It was strange. As someone who could defeat Carver and had come this far step by step, why couldn’t he see through the entire battle situation?
“What if we could lure the flames away again, like just now, and expose it?”
Daisianwei watched Liya on the screen. She took a deep breath, slightly raised her large hat, and her red witch’s eyes sparkled. “The most prominent aspect of a ‘funeral pyre’ is the ‘heretic’ bound to the stake, right? I may not understand dungeon levels very well, but I guess… it will still be attracted by a ‘lure’—be it flames or more aggressive humans.”
Liya, just like before, took a deep breath and spun the staff in her hand. Unlike her confident demeanor just now, even from such a distance on the screen, Daisianwei could see what Liya was thinking. She pursed her lips, her hand gripping the staff trembling slightly, causing the brim of her large hat to sway. It was the melancholy of knowing the danger and deciding to “face death,” which was why she wanted to comfort herself in this way.
“I’ll be the lure.”
However, she stopped spinning the staff and, looking at the four people in front of her, said firmly. Her golden Twin Tails, amidst the heat wave, gradually climbed up at the ends, and the “flames” in her eyes also began to shine.
“We don’t have much time. If we can concentrate its flames in one spot, and if I can seize an opening, we can break the core in one go.”
The other two looked at Will, waiting for him to speak. Iaar’s support could certainly last—but they definitely couldn’t use all that power here.
“You want… to try it now?”
Will raised his head, handing the power of this “choice” to Liya. He used words that Daisianwei found a little “subtle.”
“Yes, right now.”
“I must remind you, doing this is very dangerous… you might even lose your life.”
“I know.”
Will smiled, as if to ease the atmosphere. “Oh, of course. Don’t be afraid, after entering the fiftieth floor, it won’t be true ‘death’ anymore. Hmm… maybe you’ll wake up, find we’ve cleared the dungeon, and you’ll be carried to an Adventurer’s sickbed with all your burns healed?”
“…Huh?!”
Liya was startled.
“Mhm~?”
Daisianwei couldn’t help but chuckle at Will’s sudden joke.
“Hey, hey, hey, must you say something so atmosphere-destroying at this moment?”
Liya pouted and, as usual, reached out to punch Will’s shoulder.
“We don’t need extra words between us. Even if I say nothing, you’ll still do it, so… I’d rather make you smile and not go onto the battlefield so seriously.”
Will gave Liya a look of complete trust.
“Your… way of comforting me is already… outdated.”
Her earlobes and the cheeks near her ears, along with Liya’s hair and eyes, slowly turned red.
“However, if you want to lure it, you’ll need more suitable flames…”
“This, I have already prepared.”
Liya closed her eyes and slowly recited a new “incantation”—
“Pierce the cage of darkness…”
Behind the ice shield, a faint flame belonging to Liya ignited at the tip of her staff. It was completely different from the flames of the “funeral pyre.” Liya’s flame was more “dazzling.” Even though the flames of the “funeral pyre” seemed to have reached their limit, Liya’s flames shone as brightly as the sun. The flames of the “funeral pyre” here were merely an imitation of humanity’s evolution, a replica of the “setting sun” overhead in the pitch-black night. But Liya’s flames were as if she had plucked the real sun from the sky and held it in her hand.
Daisianwei, like the other four people present, fell into a long silence. She stared at Liya’s flames. Although this series of “clearing” seemed uninteresting, the flames symbolizing “heresy” that this “witch” produced gave Daisianwei something to watch.
“A degraded version of the Candle of First Creation…?”
She held the “sun-like candlelight” and, in the firelight, the wind that swirled her clothes lightly blew. She suddenly leaned close to Will’s ear.
“There are a few more words I want to tell you, finally.”
“Hey, Liya, what are you whispering about? Is there something we can’t hear?”
“It’s come to this, let me finish.”
“Go ahead.”
Liya took a deep breath.
“Listen carefully—”
“Even if I go to my death, I will shine in your eyes.”
“Just as you have done, I want to become someone you can never forget—”
“That person you remember when you are old and frail, wrapped in a thick blanket in your old age, facing the flames burning in the fireplace…”
“A girl who loved flames, leaving you a smile amidst the flames.”
“This is my answer to ‘death.'”
“If I were to choose death myself, this is how I would do it.”
After speaking, she didn’t give Will a chance to even retort “Don’t make a deathbed promise” before rushing into the flames.
*Rattlesnake’s rattle sounds.*
Accompanied by the sizzling sound of flames in the guillotine, Daisianwei lightly clapped her hands—a gesture of applause from an audience for the performers on stage. The play she liked to watch the most was finally beginning. It started with a “farewell to a loved one.” And so, she would… offer the “item” that promoted this play. Liya attracted the majority of the “funeral pyre’s” flames. Liya repeatedly exposed the “funeral pyre’s” core. Liya, cooperating with the other three, finally obtained the last chance to break the explosive core. Liya panted, floating in the air with her last bit of strength, holding the sun-like candlelight she had ignited, and saw Will waving at her from the ground. Liya reached out her hand, and in the gap between her gasps and relaxation, a smile appeared on her face. Liya…
“This is where it ends.”
As Daisianwei said these words from outside the screen, a bright white light of explosion lit up the center of the screen, and even the guillotine fell silent. The explosion and tongues of flame finally engulfed her. All that remained on Daisianwei’s screen was a vast expanse of white.
“It exists as a form of ‘death,’ not just as ‘punishment.’ For the prisoners bound to the funeral pyre, their deaths…”
Daisianwei’s satisfied smile was reflected on the narrow metal bars of the guillotine. “Are also composed of the cheers of the watching ‘crowd’—that is, transformed into one last attack of small explosions, right?”
After a brief five minutes, the guillotine once again displayed an image. Will held Liya’s hat—or rather, the “fragments” of the hat, as only pieces remained. His eyes widened, staring at the “corpse” before him.
*Click.*
The blade of the guillotine descended a quarter of the way and stopped. It was precisely at the position of Will’s neck in the image. However, it didn’t block the original screen, merely a thin overlay was placed on the guillotine.
“One person has already died.”
Daisianwei reached out and pointed at Will’s cheek in the air of the guillotine, her smile no longer concealable. “Are you… going to continue? How much you love them. It is because of them that you have regained flesh and blood, that you have regained your heartbeat, that you have regained the feeling of ‘being alive’…” Her voice grew increasingly agitated. This “trap” targeting the “consciousness system” was primarily prepared to break Will. “So, seeing them die before your eyes for you, will you flinch? Will you leave from here?”
However, Daisianwei did not see Will flinch. With two capable generals already gone from the team, with the possibility that the entire team’s output was no longer enough to face the final BOSS, with the person he “loved” dying before his eyes…
“Let’s go, move forward.”
He did not choose to leave here with her corpse. Instead, he opened the “door” to the next floor without hesitation.
