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Chapter 587.2: Gamble (2)

When Wilhelmina fell into Roel’s arms, he received the final sliver of mana she had left through her tattered armor. It was an insignificant portion that wouldn’t have made a difference against the Race Sovereigns they were up against, but he instinctively knew what he had to do with it.

No matter how adverse the circumstances were, he mustn’t give up as long as there was the slightest chance of survival. That was the creed he had always lived by, not to mention that he wasn’t alone now.

To him, Wilhelmina was someone who absolutely mustn’t die. Just seeing her near-death state filled him with so much pain that he could hardly breathe. At that instant, there was only one way he could think of that might allow them to survive this situation.

Shrouding Fog’s Silver Devourer.

Shrouding Fog was the most notorious calamity known to humankind in the present era, being the culprit behind Tark Stronghold’s disappearance. Its capability involved devouring space, though there was still no known conclusion as to whether the living beings it had devoured were still alive or not.

Such abilities involving erasing one’s existence had two possibilities—it could be obliteration in the truest sense, or else it could be transference. Roel had no information to deduce which of the two possibilities it was for Shrouding Fog, but he could only gamble on it, since the alternative was to be killed.

The Race Sovereigns were far more resilient than humans. Roel wouldn’t be able to pose a threat to them even if he used the sliver of mana he had left on channeling his Crown’s Stones to attack them. However, it was at least enough to deal with two dying humans.

As the white fog opened its mouth and devoured them, Roel tightened his embrace around Wilhelmina. At that very moment, the only emotion he felt was solace.

He knew that he had already employed all of the means he had available to survive the ordeal. All he could do now was to entrust whatever was left to fate. Regardless of whether it was life or death, he would brave through it together with her.

Upon being consumed by Silver Devourer, the first thing Roel felt was a sudden bout of weightlessness, followed by a drifting sensation reminiscent of a little boat floating aimlessly across the ocean. The disorientation was, in some ways, similar to what he felt when he left the Witness State, though the effects were much milder.

Roel’s body tensed up at the familiar experience, as his golden eyes glowed brilliantly. That was when he knew that he had made the right bet.

Before long, the fog around them began to dissipate. The embracing duo abruptly plummeted and crashed heavily onto the ground.

Cough!

Roel tightly held Wilhelmina in his arms to cushion her from the fall. The impact caused him to spew blood, and the excruciating pain from all of the injuries he had sustained nearly knocked him out. Still, it was a relief that Wilhelmina didn’t suffer much from the fall as a result.

After a brief moment of giddiness, he gritted his teeth and sat up. He looked around and saw that they were inside a dim room.

“Roel…” Wilhelmina murmured weakly.

“I-I’m here!”

“Did we… escape?”

“That’s right! We have escaped from the ordeal. The fog disappeared right after devouring us, so they won’t be able to catch up. You don’t need to worry anymore…”

“Is that so? That’s a relief…”

“Wait, Mina!”

Upon hearing the good news, Wilhelmina revealed a smile as her life force abruptly receded. Chilled by the sudden deterioration of her condition, Roel anxiously shouted her name as he tried to reverse the flow of the life force through the armor. However, her condition showed no improvement at all.

Wilhelmina’s body was extremely resilient due to her Dragon Bloodline, but just like the dragons in the ancient era, she didn’t possess exceptional regeneration. The life force Roel injected into her hardly produced a reaction at all. In particular, her half-missing heart was beating so faintly that it could hardly be heard at all.

How can this be?

Sensing the body in his arms slowly turning cold, Roel panicked.

After everything they had been through, they had finally escaped from their fearsome enemies and got to safety. Yet, Wilhelmina was on the verge of succumbing to her injuries. This was not what he had struggled so hard for. He couldn’t allow that to happen.

“Stop it, Roel…”

“What?”

Wilhelmina looked at the desperate Roel, grateful that he was doing everything he could to save her, but she knew that it was only a waste of strength.

“…You’ll die too at this rate.”

“…”

Roel didn’t answer Wilhelmina’s warning. His eyes didn’t waver in the least as his hand firmly remained on her chest, supplying life force to her heart.

Seeing that, Wilhelmina’s eyes turned moist. She was too overwhelmed for words.

Time slowly ticked in this silent stone chamber. Both of their breathing gradually grew fainter. Roel’s persistence failed to touch the Goddess of Fate. It was as if the world was telling him that he was too arrogant to think that he could get his way every single time.

Wilhelmina was counting down to her final breath. She drifted in and out of consciousness, starting with just a few seconds before slowly increasing to minutes. Watching as death slowly encroached on her, Roel grew increasingly anxious.

It was then that she woke up from another extended period of unconsciousness.

“Roel, I told you earlier that there are words I wanted to say.”

“Hm?”

Roel was startled by Wilhelmina’s sudden spiritedness as she began to talk. It filled him with such an ominous feeling that he instinctively tried to stop her.

“Yes, I remember that, but Mina, we can leave that for…”

“Listen to me… please.”

“…”

Roel couldn’t bear to stop her after hearing those words. There was a moment of silence as Wilhelmina mustered her courage.

“…I love you.”

“Ah?”

“I love you. I always did, but I was too cowardly. I didn’t dare to tell you. Actually, I…” Cough!

“Mina!!!”

Wilhelmina coughed blood before she could finish her confession, and her breathing became ragged. She tightly clutched onto Roel’s clothes as she looked at him with tearful eyes filled with yearning. There were so many thoughts at the tip of her tongue, but she could only leave one in the end.

“Don’t forget me.”

“!”

With those hoarse words, her heart stopped beating. The hands clutching Roel’s clothes fell limp, and her eyes closed for good.

Time froze for Roel.

For the first time, he felt a strong urge to deny reality. He couldn’t acknowledge her death, or else the pain and sorrow he was repressing would burst out like a dam and utterly crush him from within. He had never felt anything like this before.

Piak!

He suddenly slapped his face and knocked himself back to reality.

“I mustn’t give up. I mustn’t give up…” he continuously murmured with gritted teeth like a madman to gather the final semblance of rationality he had left.

He didn’t stop infusing life force into her body. Instead, he desperately racked his mind for whatever possible solutions there were to bring her back.

In the sixteen years he had spent in this world, he had survived countless dangerous situations through his wits and composure. Powerful enemies had fallen in defeat before him, such as the Magician King and even the Savior.

As terrible as his current plight was, he firmly believed that there must be a way to save her.

Mina is an Origin Level 1 transcendent. Even with such severe injuries, as long as I can figure something out…

Roel forced himself to believe in that possibility as his mind frenziedly churned for solutions. Dozens of possibilities surfaced in his mind, only for him to refute them one after another. In the process of doing so, he identified the key underlying problem—her heart.

All of the plans he could think of were undermined by the fact that the Deviant Sovereign had stolen away half of her heart. As long as this issue persisted, she wouldn’t be able to retain her life force, thus making death inevitable.

But what can I do?

As soon as this question surfaced, he started formulating strategies to deal with that specific problem. Time seemed to have stopped for him, as his entire existence came to a standstill except for his furiously churning mind.

Tens of seconds later, he looked at the shattered armor in his hands, and his golden eyes slowly widened.

The armor Wilhelmina wore was known as the Shadow Warrior Armor. It was a relic created by the Ardes, and it served two primary functions—accelerating the wearer’s growth and altering the wearer’s constitution to turn them into a scapegoat of a Kingmaker Bloodline’s awakener. That was also what the so-called vow meant.

To deceive the rules of the Witness State, the vows had to go both ways, or else the scapegoat wouldn’t work. Upon the realization of that fact, an answer surfaced in Roel’s mind.

“Mother, I’m sorry… but please bless me,” Roel solemnly prayed as he muttered an apology to the Mother Goddess, who had bestowed this body upon him.

With a flash of light in the stone chamber, Roel cut open his chest and severed a portion of the remaining half of a heart inside him.