Volume 3 Chapter 22 Sacrifice

Chapter 22 Sacrifice

I

In Normania, necrologists were gathering around Trigon’s tentacles. They could get endless necroviruses from Trigon. Very soon, the Grey Factory could be rebuilt, and the Cube of Necrus could be reconstructed. People would evolve and become immune to many diseases, but the greenness would be polluted …

In Desertia, mechanists were reconstructing their machines. With the help of the machinite provided by Trigon, it wouldn’t be a difficult process.

In Reauneia, more elementium was found by them, and they could make more elementalical spheres as well as weapons for war.

Everyone on this earth began to worship Trigon. The brand new era of humans’ history had already come.

II

Aisling was walking on the Astral path, which was a bridge between Sanctum of Life and the Earth Dimension.

The Astral Path was a bridge that resembled some sort of materialized rainbow floating in an empty space, which was illuminated by the stars in the distance … Those stars were beautiful, but no one could watch the stars with her.

She was sad. Though she had only left her friends for one hour, she had begun to miss them. She really wanted to run back and hugged her friends tightly. She was so lonely … She could remember those lonely days after her mother passed away. She had even planned to suicide and end her life until she met Floria, Yanni and Stasha.

Anyway, she was going to sacrifice herself soon. Although she might not have a perfect life herself, she could bring felicity to her friends. By carrying out the ritual that summoned the Rain of Regrowth, she could create a brand new world.

After 25 hours, a mysterious door came into her sight. It was the door that led to the Sanctum of Life .

Heart thumping wildly, she walked up to that door and opened it, behind which was a world of green grassland.

Soon, she arrived back at the town of high elves. This city had been once corrupted by Cheius, so that it was basically in ruin right now. After walking through the ruins along with the remaining of Cheius’ tentacles, Aisling stepped into the Sanctum of Life once again.

The Arcane Shadow was still there, guarding the Altar of Life.

“Welcome back, Aisling. It’s great to see you. Are you ready to summon the Rain of Regrowth right now,” greeted the Arcane Shadow.

“Yeah, I’m ready,” Aisling nodded firmly.

“I have been waiting for you for a long time,” revealed the Arcane Shadow.

“I know,” breathed Aisling.

“Have you bidden farewell to your friends?” queried the Arcane Shadow.

“Yes, I have … You say that you’re an arcane artificial intelligence built by the high elves, is that true?” asked Aisling.

“Yep,” replied the Arcane Shadow.

“What do the high elves feel when they’re about to sacrifice themselves?” pursued Aisling.

“They feel peaceful, because they’re sacrificing together, and they know that you will come here to face your destiny, so that their sacrifice will not be in vain,” answered the Arcane Shadow.

“Some parts of me want my friends to sacrifice themselves along with me, Am I selfish? I think that’s a way to be together forever, a twisted way,” murmured Aisling.

“You’re not selfish, Aisling. You’re the saviour. You leave your friend to make the world a better place,” the Arcane Shadow encouraged her.

“Thank you … By the way, are you lonely? You’re here alone all the time …” inquire Aisling.

“I am always hibernating when you’re not here,” responded the Arcane Shadow.

“That’s great … Is death some sort of … Hibernating? And will there be afterlives?” questioned Aisling.

“No one knows, Aisling. Even if there’s an afterlife, I’m sure that you will lose your memory …” guessed the Arcane Shadow.

“That’s true. I really want to meet my friends once again. I really see Yanni once again. I love him … You won’t understand me …” whispered Aisling.

“For sure I can’t. I am just a shadow … I’m surprised to know that you have fallen in love with a human boy,” replied the Arcane Shadow.

“I even want to be a human …” muttered Aisling.

“Why? Humans are deeply corrupted by their inner sins …” questioned the Arcane Shadow.

“Life is incomplete without sins,” answered Aisling.

Aisling walked up to the Altar of Life and put her hand on it. It commenced to glow and release a surge of pure magical power.

She could feel the souls of the sacrificed high elves. They were enchanting with hope.

Lightly, Aisling floated in mid-air, with the outline of her body shining with pure white light .The power from the Altar of Life was surging towards her; the power of this whole Dimension was surging towards her. The power was manifested into raindrops.

It was her first time to manipulate such strong power. At first, she felt uncomfortable, but soon she merged with that power and began to channel it towards the Earth Dimension.

Since she had drained all the power from this dimension, and the dimension was discomposing: the space was fracturing and soon everything inside this dimension would turn into dust and ashes.

Now, Aisling felt extremely peaceful. The she was the Rain of Regrowth and the Rain of Regrowth was she … However, her soul was dissipating and her flesh as an elf was turning into dust. She was dying …

It was said that when someone was going to die, her or his life would flash before her or his eyes. She was recalling all her memory.

She could remember childhood, when she was living with mom, dad and a few of other elves. However, the elves were dying, killed by the pollution of the forest.

When she was twelve years old, her mother passed away, and she had to live in the Dream Forest alone as the last elf in this world. She was lonely and every second of her life was painful. She even wanted to kill herself.

Luckily, she met Yanni and Floria, the barbarian siblings from Wildshadow Camp. Their father was sick and Aisling gave them the herb to cure their father.

After that, Floria and Yanni would visit Aisling nearly every week. Soon, they also introduced Stasha, Floria’s bestie, to her. They always enjoyed very good time together.

When she was seventeen years old, her three friends betrayed the Grey Factory and stole the Cube of Necrus. They adventured together to destroy the Cube of Necrus.

Gradually, Aisling found herself falling in love with Yanni, but Yanni said that they couldn’t be together. One day, he would become old, but Aisling wouldn’t. She should love someone who could accompany her throughout her life time …

They decided to seek the Sanctum of Life, where other elves might live. After a journey in Desertia, they found the Sanctum of Life, but no elves were living inside the sanctum.

All the high elves had died, and waiting for Aisling there was the cruel fate that she must sacrifice herself to bring the Rain of Regrowth to purify this corrupted world.

Now, she was doing this. It was her destiny.

She had said goodbye to her friends … Her life ended now … She was turning into the raindrops.

She would purify this world.

….

However, the weird thing was. She didn’t feel herself dying … She was just going to another world …

III

Aisling had been gone for more than twenty hours, and her friends didn’t know if she had gone through the Astral Path and entered the Sanctum of Life safe and sound.

Now, Floria, Yanni and Stasha were surrounded by Trigon’s black tentacles. They had been hiding from Trigon for more than twenty hours, but Trigon’s tentacles that reached the sky were everywhere, the giant eyeballs on the upper end of which kept scanning the whole world in search of the three.

Finally, they were caught by Trigon, who surrounded them with his nightmarish tentacles. The black tentacles had even blocked the sun and thus the four could see nothing right now but blackness.

Yanni held Cuore Celeste tightly in his arms. He must not let Trigon take the Cuore Celeste away, or Aisling’s sacrifice would be in vain. Trigon had broken his seal set by the Titanesses right, so that he had the power to corrupt Cuore Celeste and destroy it.

“Give up, barbarians! Give me Cuore Celeste! You’re too weak to fight me,” commanded Trigon.

When the three were about to be devoured by Trigon’s deadly tentacles, Cuore Celeste began to glow and tremble.

A pillar of rainbow burst out from the gemstone and shot towards the firmament.

“No, no!” Trigon screamed.

Grey rainclouds were gathering in the sky, and raindrops were falling down.

It was the Rain of Regrowth.

Aisling succeeded.

Trigon’s tentacles that surrounded the three were blasted into dust and ashes by the rainwater pouring down from the sky.

Cuore Celeste was disappearing too. Upon being wetted by the rainwater, it melted into nothing. The gemstone had gone, and so had Aisling.

IV

The earth was wrapped by pure white clouds, from which raindrops were pouring down. It wasn’t any normal rain. It was the Rain of Growth that could bring vitality back to this earth. Surging inside every raindrop was the primitive power of life forged by the arcane magic of high elves.

In Reauneia, the land was dominated by lifeless purplish weeds contaminated by elementalical radiation. But now, bathed in the raindrops of regrowth, those purplish grasses were turning green, and the dry barren soil was moistened by the raindrops. Flowers of miscellaneous colour began to blossom once again.

Touching the Rain of Regrowth, people and creatures who had mutated into aberrational monsters due to the radiation of elementium turned back to normal, and all elementium was destroyed by the Rain of Regrowth too: soldiers turned back to humans from killing machines, while the elementalical spheres that had been corroding the mind of people were blasted into smithereens by the raindrops.

In Desertia, oases began to spread under the power of the Rain of Regrowth. The beautiful raindrops that fell down to the ground turned into streaming rivers, along which, new oases were born as well. In the future, this world of desert would be a paradise of plants and greenness, protected by which, residents of Desertia wouldn’t need to be afraid of the sandstorms.

All the machinite in Desertia had been destroyed too …

In Normania, polluted rivers were purified, and the withered trees were healed by the power of Life that lurked inside the raindrops. Grown weeds were greening, and the smoke that always lingered in the air was washed away by the raindrops. Finally, people in Normania would be able to breathe the fresh air once again.

Necroviruses were cleansed by the Rain of Regrowth too, and no new necrological factory would be built in the future … War, Plague, Famine, Death … There would be no more manmade disasters that would bring humanity to apocalypse.

Finally, the earth turned green once again. Flowers and forests began to grow everywhere in this world. Humans would be able to run freely in the wilderness in this new epoch.

In the Rain of Regrowth, all the tentacles of Trigon were neutralized. They turned into cinders the instant they touched the raindrops.

Besides, The rainwater had not only moistened the ground, but also penetrated through it. Unstoppably, the rainwater flew all the way downwards, across the crust and the mantle of the earth all the way towards the molten core, where Trigon lived.

All the rainwater with the power of Life on this earth assembled in the core of earth and merged with it.

Trigon was screaming in pain. He had been living before the formation of the earth. Now, he was going to be destroyed by a silly ritual.

A new epoch had come to the earth. No matter this epoch would bring more felicity and happiness to humans or not, it had come. It was an era without Trigon, without elf, and without necrology, mechanics or elementalics.

V

Bathed in the Rain of Regrowth, Floria, Yanni and Stasha were heading towards the west. They were wetted by the rain, and the rainwater was comfortable on their skin.

“I can feel Aisling’s power in the rain. It was as if she had never left us,” whispered Yanni.

“Yeah … That’s true. But we may never see her in the future … That’s cruel,” muttered Floria.

“I am feeling void and a little lonely. I still have you two, but that’s different … Oh, heavens … I am missing her so much,” expressed Yanni, lowering his head. Rainwater was streaming down his cheeks, merging with his tears.

Floria gave Yanni a tight hug.

“Everything will be better, Yanni. Look at this world. Trigon had been killed and this blighted world would be vibrant again like it used to be. If Aisling were alive, she would want you to live a happy life,” Floria stroked his brother’s head soothingly.

“I know,” consented Yanni.

Soon the rain had stopped, and the rainclouds dissipated. The firmament was blue and the clouds were as white as snow. They were like marshmallows floating on the azure sky. The sunlight was shining down upon earth. It was warm and comfortable.

The three found that the world was familiar but foreign. They were surrounded by green grasses and colourful flowers. The air was brimming with the fragrance of nature and wilderness. The old era had passed, and a new era had come, at the expense of the life of the last elf in this world.

Birds were twitting on the sky, chanting for this brand new world.

“I want to go home now. Mom has gone. Dad has gone. Even Aisling has gone. But I still have you two,” Yanni forced a smile.

“Yes, and we will never leave you,” promised Floria.

“We’re so far from home right now. It will take us at least two months to go back home if we ride a horse. The world is different than it used to be. Maybe we will get lost,” sighed Stasha.

“We will not. We will go home,” Floria encouraged her.

Stasha was true, this world was different than it used to be.

Heading west, the three set out on their journey home. They had been through too much, and now they needed to rest in the place where they grew up.

They had changed the world …