(VOL.1) The White Flame

Lux felt as if she had sunk into an endless, dark abyss, surrounded by dead silence and nothingness.

However, right at the center of this suffocating darkness, a tiny flame quietly ignited—it was a flickering white flame, as if it could be extinguished at any moment.

Lux involuntarily walked towards that faint light.

As she approached, the small flame miraculously began to burn more vigorously, and within the flames, clear yet blurry images gradually emerged.

On the left side of the image, the figure of a man clearly appeared—short golden hair, a handsome and resolute face, clad in magnificent red and white armor, looking strong and upright.

In his hand, he tightly gripped a huge two-handed greatsword that emanated a chilling blue light, and on the side of his face was an emblem shaped like a sun, which, like a real sun, emitted a scorching white light.

And on the right side of the image, there was a blurry expanse of light and shadow, from which one could vaguely discern some humanoid silhouettes of various forms, all emitting light.

These figures varied in size; some were as large as towering castles, while others were as small as tender children.

Amidst the throng of these figures, there existed a core that was even more difficult to identify, as if it were the very source of light—all surrounding light seemed to be drawn to it, converging upon it, or perhaps, it was this existence itself that was continuously emitting light.

The scene began to flow.

Lux saw the golden-haired man smiling—a smile filled with anger, mockery, yet also a sense of exhilarating release.

He smiled, raised the greatsword in his hand high, the magical power that shot towards the heavens gathering in one place, and then, with all his strength, he leaped up, fiercely chopping down towards that core of light…

Just as the blade was about to fall, the white flame began to flicker and sway violently, then, like a volcanic eruption, it suddenly expanded and surged, instantly engulfing the entire field of vision, the entire world.

Lux subconsciously wanted to reach out and block it, but the surging white flame had already completely swallowed her.

However, the anticipated scorching heat and burning sensation did not come; instead, an indescribable warmth and comfort washed over her, as if she had returned to the safest harbor.

Immediately after, an irresistible, incredibly powerful force, like a bursting dam, frantically surged into her limbs and bones.

This power was so pure, so majestic.

It was completely different from the impure and painful magical power she had devoured from Rio the Shadowmancer before; this time, Lux felt not the slightest pain, but instead experienced an ecstatic joy of being reborn, of gaining a new life.

"What's going on?!" On the ground, Demon Hunter Kane watched in horror at the bizarre change unfolding before him—the girl Lux, who had been like a piece of charcoal on the verge of death just moments ago, after leaning down to bite that "Blasphemer's Fragment" that had fallen to the ground, her entire body had suddenly burst into flames.

Raging white flames, as if possessing life, erupted from within her body, completely enveloping her, forming a fiercely burning white torch.

"Quick! Go stop her quickly!" The distant Grace Bather Brad was also dumbfounded; he didn't know what was happening, but a strong sense of unease rose in his heart. He was afraid that this priceless "Miss 1690 Shining Gold Coins" would meet with some accident, like… being directly burned to nothing. In that case, he would not only lose the easily obtainable… uh… 1183 shining gold coins (after deducting Kane's share), but also waste expensive magic crystals worth eight and a half shining gold coins. This was simply a devastating loss.

However, Lux did not disappear as he feared.

The white flame enveloping her burned even more fiercely, eventually transforming into a giant fiery tornado connecting heaven and earth, shooting straight into the clouds.

A moment later, a humanoid silhouette vaguely appeared in the center of the tornado.

Then, the fiery tornado suddenly exploded and dissipated.

Revealing an unscathed Lux.

She floated quietly in mid-air, with no signs of the previous battle's wounds on her body.

Both her scorched skin and hair had completely recovered, even looking smoother and more radiant than before.

And what was even more astonishing, on her left cheek, a rose totem, cleverly outlined by several simple graphics, suddenly appeared, emitting a crimson radiance, like a rose burning with fierce flames.

"What the hell?!" Kane and Brad, looking at this unbelievable scene, exchanged a glance and cursed aloud in unison.

With a thought, Lux condensed a simple black robe with shadow magic and draped it over her body.

Then, she gently moved her arms and body joints, emitting a series of crisp "crackling" sounds.

"Alright, warm-up's over." A cold smile appeared on Lux's face, her gaze sweeping over the two horrified men on the ground. "Now… it's my turn to counterattack, bastards!"

The moment her voice fell, Lux's figure suddenly vanished from the spot.

Only a faint, dissipating afterimage remained in the air.

"She… how can she be so fast?!" Kane was greatly alarmed. His eyes could only barely capture Lux's high-speed trajectory. At the same time, he keenly noticed that the instant Lux disappeared, the crimson light of the rose totem on her cheek suddenly intensified, and the cat-head ring on her finger actually let out a light 'meow,' just like a real cat.

"This lady… what on earth is going on?" Kane's voice was filled with confusion, and a hint of imperceptible fear.

In a flash, Lux's figure had already appeared ghost-like at Kane's side.

Her hands, enveloped in dense black shadow, slammed hard towards Kane's waist.

"Courting death!" Kane roared, his reaction also extremely fast.

He immediately swung his ferocious giant claws, covered in bone armor, to meet Lux's incoming hands.

However, just as the claws were about to make contact with Lux, several pitch-black shadows, like venomous snakes, coiled upwards, instantly binding Kane's giant claws tightly.

Immediately after, Lux's body abruptly bent and spun.

The [Black Bear Paw Glove] appeared on her hands. The gauntlets instantly swelled, and under the extreme speed boost provided by the [Wildcat Ring], this palm strike, imbued with all her strength, landed squarely on Kane's chest.

"Bang!" Kane's massive body was sent flying backward.

The rose totem imprinted on her cheek was now empowering the magic accessories Lux wore with even greater strength.

Now her body's magical power was inexhaustible.

This was the enormous enhancement the mysterious fragment had brought to Lux.

Besides this, she seemed to have also comprehended a brand new, powerful skill.

It could be said that this accidental "rebirth" had completely overturned Lux's previous desperate situation.

Kane, sent flying, rolled several times on the ground before finally managing to dig his giant claws firmly into the earth, barely steadying himself.

"Kane! It's all your fault! Dawdling just now! If you had caught that little chick worth 1690 shining gold coins earlier, where would we have all this trouble?!" Brad, in the distance, shouted in exasperation. He was so angry his neck had turned red, feeling that it was entirely due to Kane's incompetence that the vast fortune, once within his grasp, was now slipping further and further away.

"Mr. Brad! I believe we should put aside our dispute for now and cooperate to defeat this lady!" Kane climbed up from the ground, the two fleshy whips with bone blades on his back beginning to wave and swing frantically, emitting a "hissing" sound as they cut through the air. The bone blades on his claws also became thicker, longer, and sharper. Clearly, he was getting serious too.

"I'm telling you! Kane! In the upcoming battle, any magic crystals consumed that are worth more than ten shining gold coins must be deducted from the bounty we ultimately receive! Only then can we split the remaining part seventy-thirty!" Brad continued to shout relentlessly. "This is all your fault! Causing me to have to consume more expensive crystals! And! If the total consumption exceeds 100 shining gold coins…"

"I agree! I agree to everything! Alright?!" Kane finally couldn't bear it anymore and roared loudly at Brad in anger. He now wished he could immediately rush over and tear this stupid, greedy idiot to shreds. Kane bit his lip so hard he tasted blood—this was actually the first "wound" he had received in this battle today.

"Well, well, you two have such a good relationship," Lux said, twisting her neck and wrists, her joints emitting crisp "creaking" sounds. She then casually stretched her thighs and, tilting her head, smiled at the two men who looked as if they were facing a formidable enemy. "So… if you die together later, I believe you two will be very happy, right?"

"Courting death!" "Damn… 1680 shining gold coin girl! …Of course, the gold coins themselves aren't damnable!" Kane and Brad, thoroughly enraged by Lux's mockery, roared simultaneously.

The two bone-bladed fleshy whips on Kane's back, like venomous snakes, once again stabbed towards Lux with a piercing whistle.

At the same time, Brad also launched another attack.

Countless multicolored crystal missiles and scorching energy lasers, like a dense rain of bullets, poured down towards Lux.

Facing this pincer attack from two directions, Lux's figure flickered, and the [Shadow Cloak] instantly unfurled, blocking most of the ranged attacks.

At the same time, the [Wildcat Ring] on her foot flashed with light, and her entire body transformed into a blurry afterimage, weaving and dodging at high speed amidst the dense rain of bullets and laser beams.

A continuous series of violent explosions sounded behind her.

Scorching lasers constantly grazed past her.

But under the defense of the [Shadow Cloak] and the super-high-speed reaction and extreme agility provided by the [Wildcat Ring], these attacks, enough to destroy a small army, actually failed to harm her in the slightest.

The two closely following bone-bladed whips were also easily dodged with a nimble roll.

The two whips plunged heavily into the ground.

Lux seized the opportunity and, like a gecko, actually ran rapidly along the body of one of the whips towards the distant Kane.

"Oh? You like getting close to me so much, madam?" Kane's face revealed a savage grin upon seeing this. "In that case, let us have a… warm welcoming embrace!"

As soon as his voice fell, the surface of the originally smooth [Bone Spur Armor] on Kane's body suddenly sprouted countless dense, sharp bone spurs glinting with a cold light.

In an instant, he transformed into a fearsome, mobile "porcupine".

Then, Kane exerted his strength forcefully, fully retracting the two whips plunged into the ground.

But this time, he wasn't trying to retract the whips, but rather using their pulling force to launch his massive body, like a stone from a slingshot, fiercely towards Lux, who was rushing rapidly along the whip's body.

Almost in an instant, his massive, spike-covered body slammed hard into Lux.

However, the moment of impact, Kane clearly heard the "squelching" sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh.

He even felt warm liquid splash onto his bone armor.

At the same time, he also saw with horror that, directly in front of the eye slits of his bone armor, two slender, fair fingers belonging to a human female had appeared at some unknown point.

It turned out that, the moment before she was about to be hit, Lux, although she had enveloped most of her body in shadow, had deliberately… left her hands exposed.

Allowing the spikes on Kane's bone armor to pierce through.

And her purpose was precisely for these few seconds of, a fatal opening.

"Also, don't call me madam anymore," Lux's voice, carrying a hint of icy amusement, clearly reached Kane's ears. "Just call me… Lux."

In the next second, Lux's two seemingly slender fingers unhesitatingly and fiercely plunged into the only gaps in Kane's bone armor's eye slits.

Before he could even react in any way, surging shadow magic frantically poured into Kane's armor along her fingers.

Kane wanted to scream, wanted to struggle.

But those shadow tentacles invading his body, like maggots on a bone, rapidly spread and coiled, soon reaching deep into his throat, blocking all his sounds.

Extreme fear instantly gripped his heart.

[I don't want… I don't want to die like a commoner! I haven't… become a noble yet!]

Then, his proud [Bone Spur Armor], his ferocious giant claws, and those two fleshy whips with sharp blades, all rapidly withered, rotted, and peeled off like fallen leaves that had lost their moisture…

Finally, all that remained was a grotesque, contorted corpse with a head full of holes, like a moth-eaten sponge.

"Kane!!" Brad, in the distance, screamed in terror upon seeing this scene. "You damned bitch! You actually killed my subordinate!"

"I'm going to kill you!!" Brad's voice became shrill and piercing due to extreme anger and fear. "Then! I'll take your corpse! Along with that fragment! And exchange them all for shining gold coins! That way… I'll get… 1680 shining gold coins! …No! Kane still has parents… In that case, I'll still have to give them a portion…"

Lux paid no attention at all to the already incoherent Grace Bather.

She extended her remaining left hand and grabbed Kane's head, which was full of holes like a sponge.

Then, a powerful suction force came from her palm.

Kane's corpse rapidly shriveled and decomposed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

It transformed into countless fine threads of blood and strips of flesh, which, as if summoned, scrambled to drill into Lux's palm.

In a moment, that massive corpse was completely devoured by Lux.

On the back of Lux's left hand, a small fleshy bump bulged slightly, as if she had burped after a full meal, but it quickly flattened out again. This devouring did not bring Lux an increase in magical power, merely restoring her magic and healing her wounds.

"Wh-what?!" Brad, watching this bizarre and terrifying scene, was scared out of his wits.

He tremblingly extended a finger, pointing at Lux, his voice distorted by extreme fear, "De-demon! You're a demon! An evil spirit!!"

"Perhaps… you guessed right?" Lux slowly turned her head, looking at the already terrified Brad, a cold smile on her face. "Of course, whether you guessed right or not, there's no reward."

Before her words had faded, her figure flashed, and like an arrow loosed from its bow, she shot straight towards Brad. The tips of her hair and her pupils, which had turned blood-red from the burst of magical power, drew dangerous arcs in the air, making Lux's charging figure seem even more fatally dangerous.

And Brad, at this moment, was already completely overwhelmed by fear, how could he still care about calculating any costs or consumption.

Like a madman, he frantically summoned all the magic crystals he could control.

Those multicolored crystals with transparent wings, like a sky-obscuring plague of locusts, formed a surging sea of crystal insects, pouncing fiercely towards Lux.

Explosions. Explosions. Explosions.

Endless explosions instantly engulfed Lux's figure.

The violent sound of explosions even drowned out everything else.

However, the scene that subsequently unfolded plunged Brad into even deeper despair.

He saw that, amidst the sky full of explosive firelight and smoke, Lux's figure actually rushed out again.

What horrified him even more was that, at this moment, Lux's body was actually covered in a layer of hideous and terrifying [Bone Spur Armor], identical to the one Kane, whom she had just devoured, had worn.

She actually charged towards him, enduring the impact of the explosions.

[Dire Beast Anklet: A white bone anklet covered in sharp spikes. When worn, grants low-level control over flesh and bone magic.]

Brad violently clapped his hands together.

A huge, circular, faceted crystal with a diameter exceeding one meter suddenly appeared above his head.

This giant crystal began to rotate rapidly, its speed increasing, and the light it emitted also growing brighter.

Finally, a giant beam of light, thicker and hotter than any previous attack, suddenly shot out from within the rotating crystal.

This world-destroying beam of light instantly engulfed and incinerated everything it touched along its path.

The beam of light continued unabated, even hitting a towering mountain in the distance, leaving a giant molten crater tens of meters in diameter and bottomlessly deep on the mountainside.

The inside of the crater was a fiery red; even the hard rocks had been completely melted into magma.

"This time… she should be dead for sure, right?" Brad looked at the terrifying scene created by his full-power attack and was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when his pupils suddenly constricted.

He saw that, on the ground after the light beam disappeared, Lux's figure actually crawled out from the charred black earth again.

It turned out that, the moment the light beam struck, Lux had immediately used her newly acquired [Dire Beast Anklet] ability, controlling Kane's claws to dig frantically, burrowing deep underground.

At the same time, she had enveloped herself layer by layer with the [Shadow Cloak].

She had forcibly survived this fatal blow.

"Damn it, ahhhhhhhhhh!" Brad let out a despairing roar.

And at this moment, the two fleshy whips with bone blades on Lux's back, inherited from Kane, had already stabbed towards him like venomous snakes.

Brad hurriedly mobilized his last bit of crystal power, forming a thick light shield in front of him, barely blocking them.

Lux immediately began to rotate around Brad at high speed.

While nimbly dodging Brad's sporadic counterattacks, she continuously released various shadow magic and bone spurs to harass and attack.

Forcing Brad to continuously consume his precious magic crystals for defense.

Brad was terrified and flustered, struggling to cope.

But he soon discovered that although Lux's offensive was fierce, she also seemed unable to immediately break through his defense composed of numerous crystals.

Realizing this, he gradually calmed down and even showed a smug smile.

"Hmph! The commotion from our fight just now was so loud! Lord Purple Man must have already noticed!" Brad shouted triumphantly, as if he had already seen the dawn of victory. "As long as Lord Purple Man comes over, you're dead! And I! For assisting Lord Purple Man in capturing you, a major criminal carrying the 'Blasphemer's Fragment'! By then, His Lordship's reward for me will definitely not be small! Hahahaha!"

"Is that so… Thank you for reminding me," Lux said faintly, her offensive suddenly slowing upon hearing his words. "In that case, then I'll… make it quick."

"What did you say?" Before Brad could react to the meaning of Lux's words, he saw Lux suddenly stop all her harassing attacks and instead condense a bone longsword in her hand with flesh and bone magic, while simultaneously entwining it with shadow magic, causing ominous black mist to coil around the bone sword.

Then, she pointed it at him from afar.

"[Self-Sacrifice Slash]!" Lux let out a low cry.

Then, her entire body shot up into the sky like a cannonball.

In mid-air, her posture, the trajectory of her sword swing, were actually… actually identical to the final blow of that golden-haired man she had seen in the white flame before.

This sword strike.

It seemed to condense all the darkness and decisiveness between heaven and earth.

Carrying an indomitable momentum that cut through everything.

It fiercely chopped down.

"Crack—." That impenetrable light shield, composed of dozens of magic crystals, actually shattered like fragile glass before this sword strike, and at the same time, the sword couldn't withstand this powerful blow, only cutting from the Grace Bather's shoulder to his heart before completely shattering.

The sword light fell.

Grace Bather Brad, his entire body from shoulder to heart showing a horrifying wound, didn't even have time to let out a scream after feeling this tearing pain and despair before he collapsed.

[I… how much money… do I have right now…] In the final moment before his consciousness completely dissipated, this greedy Grace Bather actually had such a thought flash through his mind.

However, before he could clearly count his assets, his consciousness completely faded into nothingness.

"Hmm?" Lux looked at the scene before her with some confusion.

When Brad died, his body didn't leave a corpse like Kane's, but instead rapidly dissipated like ice and snow under the sun, transforming into countless fine specks of light, eventually disappearing completely.

Not even a trace was left behind.

The battle was over.

An intense feeling of exhaustion instantly washed over her; Lux felt excruciating pain all over her body, as if her bones were about to fall apart.

This was the severe aftereffect of excessively consuming magical power in a short period and forcibly using the [Self-Sacrifice Slash], a skill that surpassed her current tolerance.

But she no longer had time to rest and recover; she could only force herself to stand up now.

This place was not suitable for a long stay; she had to leave immediately.

"But… the north… where exactly is it?" Lux looked at the vast primeval forest around her and once again felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

She somewhat regretted that she had acted too quickly just now and forgotten to ask for directions before killing these two guys.

Just then, a blurry, almost transparent hand, as if existing only in an illusion, reappeared in her field of vision, gently pointing in a certain direction deep within the forest.

"Mitty! Is that you?! Mitty!" Lux excitedly shouted at the empty air.

There was no answer.

The hand that had pointed the way also quietly disappeared, as if it had never been there.

However, a long-lost feeling quietly arose in Lux's heart.

A feeling… called "hope."

Lux gently touched the rose totem on her face with her hand; the totem vanished in an instant, as if it had drilled into her skin.

"I will find you, Mitty." Lux looked up in the direction the hand had pointed, her eyes filled with unprecedented determination. "I promise you, I will definitely find you!"

Having made up her mind, Lux no longer hesitated and, dragging her exhausted yet newly invigorated body, ran once more towards that unknown direction.