1421 Cold
Dyon could only blame himself once more. With his intelligence, he had long since found it weird that the twins recognized him, yet he had never bothered to ask.
Still, Dyon had the faint inkling that even if their olfactory senses were still in good condition, it wouldn’t have helped him figure out much anyway. According to the twins, they had never smelled that peculiar smell in their lives, but the moment they did, they felt a sense of comfort they had never felt before.
At first, they were apprehensive to say any more, but under Dyon’s prying they finally spilled the rest.
“Around you… Our pain didn’t feel as bad anymore… In fact, being around you feels quite good…” Mia finally said.
Hearing these words, the towering guilt Dyon felt only rose higher. He was quite literally their panacea, yet they hadn’t even shown any reluctance to let him go. They refused to burden him to the point where they harmed themselves.
“You don’t need to feel bad.” Mia said hurriedly. “The reason why we never told you was because even you couldn’t stop what was happening. Although we felt much better around you, we realized that the disease actually sped up instead of slowing down…”
“Oh…” Dyon felt that an avenue toward hope was suddenly shut off. He had never felt at such a loss.
There was a rumor in the mortal world that had always stuck with Dyon. Apparently, when one died by asphyxiation, there was a final moment of absolute euphoria near the end of their lives. In that last moment, the world would suddenly seem incredibly bright.
Maybe, being around Dyon was similar for the twins… According to Dyon’s calculations, they should have lived 10-15 more years, but it had only been 6 and they were already on their death’s bed.
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He had no idea why it was that they experienced these things around him, and he had no way of knowing. But, he definitely didn’t want to be the reason they died earlier than they should.
“Big brother, please don’t stop visiting us.” Bella said weakly. “If you stop… Then I’d really want to die…”
Dyon’s heart seized. How could he ignore such a request?
“Alright. I won’t stop visiting.”
In the end, Dyon really couldn’t bring himself to stop. He had originally planned on promising to come back, then not doing so. But, whenever he thought about how the twins had never requested anything of him before, he broke his own promise to himself.
Dyon really didn’t have a solution to the problem. If the two of them had to die anyway, shouldn’t he try to make it as painless as possible?
**
Another week later, Dyon found himself within the Eostre family tombs. After the Elvin Kingdom sunk, so too did the holy lands of the various Clans. It was only after a great collective effort that King Acacia was able to salvage much of these lands.
Earth’s Oceans were far deeper than those of normal planets due to its explosive increase in size, so one could imagine just how labor intensive this was. But, King Acacia knew how important it was for Clans to have a sense of belonging during this sort of mass migration, so he took up the task anyway.
As things stood now, there were no members of the Eostre Clan that remained alive, so their tombs only took up a small corner of Elvin territory. It was likely good enough that they even got a spot to begin with instead of being ignored on Earth’s ocean floors.
Dyon was glad King Acacia did this. The Eostre family sacrificed too much for the sake of the Elvin Kingdom, and although their descendants made a mistake, that didn’t mean their ancestors should be punished.
Still, Dyon hesitated when he saw the image of the silver-haired beauty kneeling, frozen tears glistening on her soft cheeks. At that moment, Dyon couldn’t help but remember another silver-haired beauty that erupted into his life in much the same way Jade did.
Luna had caused havoc for him during his second trial. In fact, if it wasn’t for her, Amphorae would have never died. But, then again, had Amphorae not died, how could she be by his side now?
As for Jade, Dyon realized that he was more to blame for the pain she inflicted than he had previously accepted. Although this wasn’t enough for him to feel he had the right to forgive her, it was enough for him to believe she deserved a second chance.
The matters of the martial world were cruel. Dyon himself understood what it felt like to suddenly have no control over your own actions, to feel as though were a passenger in your own body… These were things Jade felt time and time again from the moment she met him.
Finally, Dyon rested his hand on the ice statue. With his current level of Presence, this level of will simply couldn’t hold its structure under his pressure.
Slowly, maybe due to his hesitation, the ice began to melt. In the end, Jade fell into his arms.
Even after Dyon dispelled the cold, Jade’s body uncontrollably shivered. When Dyon realized why this was, he couldn’t help but sigh. Jade currently had no cultivation to speak of, she had severed all of her meridians. This was likely her own resolve, only in this way could she guarantee that she would never try to escape the iced cage. By now, her meridians had atrophied so much that even Dyon’s Meridian Nurturing Pill would have no effect.
Jade’s eyes slowly opened, their swirling opal color seeming far dimmer than Dyon remembered. She looked around in confusion, seemingly not realizing the only reason she could stand now was because Dyon was holding onto her shoulders.
She looked left and right, not registering that the wide chest before her was in fact a chest. Since she was a head shorter than Dyon despite being quite tall for a woman, if she didn’t look up, she wouldn’t see his face at all.