Night Journey

Chapter 19 The Last Night
After slaying all the demons, Cirion rekindled the extinguished torches, and clusters of pure white light joined together.

Amidst the illusory sounds of burning, the gray mist was driven away once more.

Ciri breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the blood and grime from his face, leaned on his sword, and tried his best to regain his strength.

The entire killing process seemed smooth and effortless, but it was a considerable burden on Cirion.

In order to eliminate the demons as soon as possible, Ciri activated the soul essence within her body. After the short burst of energy ended, sharp pain shot through all the muscles in her body.

Cillian has only been a Torchbearer for a short time, the concentration of soul essence in his blood is not high, and he is not proficient enough in controlling source energy.

As Nunn said, embarking on the path of destiny is only the beginning, and Cirion still has much to learn.

Cillian's throat was filled with the taste of ashes.

As he lifted the longsword, a wave of soreness and pain washed over his arm, and the light weight suddenly became incredibly heavy. Ciri almost couldn't hold onto the hilt.

Thinking of his own embarrassing state, and then looking at Nunn, he couldn't understand how Nunn managed to maintain such a high level of performance and fight all night long.

However, it is foreseeable that as a torchbearer, Nunn will be in a very high position.

Suddenly, the burning pain in my palm transformed into waves of satisfaction.

Ciri successfully pleased the Ouroboros Seal, and the vague blessing further solidified its form amidst the frenzied slaughter.

His blood became increasingly hot, and the concentration of his soul essence also increased by a few tenths of a percentage point. This strange change in his body left Cillian stunned on the spot.

He only realized what was happening after a reckless demon leaped over the high wall and was beheaded by Cillian with a single sword strike.

"Can the Chaos of Slaughter purify the soul essence within me?"

Cillian looked at the Ouroboros Seal with suspicion. "Just how much do you hate Chaos?"

He joked, but inside Cillian's heart was already in turmoil.

As a torchbearer embarking on the path of destiny, Ciri needs two major prerequisites to advance to the second rank, Fusion Warrior. First, he needs to prepare all the extraordinary materials required for the advancement ceremony. Second, he needs to purify the concentration of his soul essence to ten percent.

Collecting the extraordinary materials needed to advance to the second rank is not difficult; the real challenge lies in increasing the concentration of soul essence within the body.

To increase the concentration of soul essence within their bodies, torchbearers need to continuously burn their blood over many years, gradually converting it into pure soul essence.

The Ouroboros Seal undoubtedly reduced the time required for Ciri to purify his soul essence, replacing the complex and lengthy Smoldering Ritual with swift and decisive slaughter.

Cillian added soul essence to the torches along the way.

With sufficient soul essence as fuel, the approach of the gray fog was clearly contained, but Cillian did not let his guard down.

He sometimes observed the surging horde of demons below, and sometimes looked towards the direction of the beacon of light.

Mick remains at the Lighthouse, observing the situation in various areas of White Cliff through his telescope. Once he detects the gray fog spreading over the high walls, a signal flare streaks across the night sky, guiding Cillian to resolve the crisis.

Cillian took out his pocket watch and glanced at the time. The deepest part of the night, midnight, had passed, and dawn would break in a little while.

As long as the sun rises, all the evil spirits on earth will be burned away.

Suddenly, a bright orange-yellow light shone on Cillian's face.

On the Lighthouse, Mick launched another signal flare. This time, the flare was not pointed towards the high wall, but landed in White Cliff Town.

"not good!"

Cillian scaled the high wall and dashed toward the spot where the signal flare had landed.

Fearful voices came from not far away.

The guards had already surrounded the area, some drawing their longswords and setting up their spears, while others raised their guns and pointed them at the murky darkness ahead.

Sporadic gunshots continued to ring out.

"How's it going!"

Cillian found Tim in the guard; he was panting and had several wounds on his body.

“Some demons have crept in,” Tim explained. “I killed a few, but some have hidden inside the building… I don’t know if there’s any gray mist inside, so I dare not make any moves.”

Compared to tangible beings like demons, the intangible gray mist is far more deadly.

Cillian asked, "Is the blockade complete?"

Someone responded, "The torch has been planted, and this shadow has been isolated by us."

Cillian continued to inquire about the situation.

Is anyone still inside the building?

“There were a few people who didn’t have time to evacuate. They may not be dead yet, or they may not have completely turned into demons.”

Tim sighed wearily and asked, "Cillian, are you alright?"

"What do you mean?"

“Kill them,” Tim said gravely. “Kill the townspeople who live and work with us day and night, even if they are beyond saving.”

Cillian was silent for a moment, then asked in return.

"Tim, what kind of person do you think I am?"

Having lived together for so many years, Tim almost blurted it out.

"A heartless bastard."

Cillian did not refute, but simply smiled.

Tim paused for a moment, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes, before affirming again.

"Yes, you really are a heartless scoundrel."

I still remember the way you looked when you killed Bell. Your eyes were completely calm, like you were slaughtering an animal, without the slightest ripple of emotion.

Tim paused for a moment, his tone tinged with self-deprecation and helplessness.

"From that moment on, I realized that you are born to do this job, but I am not."

The first time I killed someone, I panicked completely. My hands were shaking uncontrollably, and I stabbed at him wildly with the tip of my sword, but I couldn't kill him instantly. Instead, I made him suffer even more.

For a long time afterward, I lived in constant fear and anxiety, my palms always feeling sticky, as if the bloodstains could never be washed away. I woke up countless times from nightmares, my clothes soaked with cold sweat.

As he spoke, he looked down at the sword he was gripping tightly in his hand. The blade was stained with sticky, black blood and emitted a nauseating odor.

“I’ve always felt that I’m still not used to this kind of life; I’m just… numb.”

Tim looked up at Cillian again, his eyes filled with doubt, and... a hint of envy.

"Cillian, what were you thinking when you killed Bell?"

You wouldn't want to know.

Cillian declined to describe how he felt at the time, but added that he did not.

"But from the moment I killed Bell, something terrible began to creep into my mind."

He continued in a very low voice.

"What's worse, I didn't feel uneasy about it at all; in fact, I felt...delighted."

With that, Ciri strode into the shadows. The building where the demons lurked was a three-story structure. Being averse to light, they destroyed all light sources the moment they invaded, plunging the interior into darkness and filling it with a putrid stench.

Cillian sprinkled soul essence all over the blade, which ignited and burned fiercely. In his other hand, he gripped a pistol, its muzzle pointing into the darkness, hovering arbitrarily.

Through the dim light, Cillian could see claw marks all over the ground and walls, as well as broken wooden tables and cabinets, with specks of foul-smelling blood on the ground, corroding a dense network of pits.

He saw the townspeople who had failed to evacuate in time; their broken bodies were scattered all over the ground, like toys that had been taken apart.

"call……"

Cillian lowered his breathing.

The Ouroboros Seal can increase Cillian's soul essence concentration through killing, but the burned soul essence cannot be regenerated immediately, not to mention that Cillian's stamina also has its limits.

Compared to his previous peak, Cillian now appears somewhat weak.

But Ciri still stepped into the darkness.

What sustained Cillian was not the extraordinary power of the Torchbearer, but Nún's teachings, a creed almost ingrained in his very being.

Sense of responsibility.

Cillian wasn't sure if he was the psychopathic killer Tim described, but he was certain that he possessed an extremely strong sense of responsibility.

Once you've taken responsibility, you must stand tall.

Cillian held his breath as his boot heels crunched over the floorboards—but something in the darkness was still disturbed.

"Finally decided to show their face?"

Ciri sneered, his sharp claws brushing against the tip of his nose.

He took a half step back, and a sharp claw was driven into the spot where Ciri had just stood, causing corrosive white smoke to rise from the brick surface.

Ciri leaned against the supporting pillar to catch his breath, his flaming sword trembling as it cast swaying spots of light.

The exhaustion brought on by the burning of his soul essence was eroding every muscle, and the hilt of the sword felt sticky, as if it was about to slip out of his hand.

"The soul essence is almost completely burned away..."

Cillian's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed the rusty fear. "But killing you all is enough."

A strange noise from deep in the corridor shattered the silence, a baby's cry mixed with the sound of sandpaper rubbing.

Suddenly, the overhead beam exploded, and demons carrying splinters of wood swooped down.

Cillian's spine snapped straight, muscle memory acting faster than thought.

He spun around and kicked off the wall, the sword blade tearing open the demon's abdomen from bottom to top. Cloth-like organs, wrapped in black blood, splattered onto the wall. Two sharp claws grazed the fire sword, drawing orange-red sparks across the metal surface.

"Is that all you have?"

Ciri spat a mouthful of blood at the shattered demon, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw another demon crawling along the wall, its compound eyes glowing with an eerie green light in the night.

The demons suddenly pounced, accompanied by mournful screechs.

Cillian crouched and rolled, his flaming sword sweeping across the floor, severing the demon's legs in one fell swoop. Then, a gunshot rang out, piercing and exploding the deformed head.

The battle was not over when a series of intense vibrations came from the interlayer of the floor beneath their feet.

The floor cracked, and demons burst forth, their fangs aimed straight at Cirion's throat.

Cillian was still too tired, and his twisting and dodging movement was a beat too slow.

The sharp splinter grazed Cillian's neck, drawing blood.

The excruciating pain did not deter Cillian; on the contrary, he became fanatical.

The force of Ciri's whirling sword suddenly increased dramatically, and the fire sword pierced through the floor and the demon beneath it.

The sword was pulled out of the crack, and thick, black blood plasma was burning against the flow of the blade.

Still not entirely convinced, Cillian fired several more shots at his feet. Only when he saw blood continuously seeping from the cracks in the floor did he realize the demon was dead.

Upon arriving in the living room, Cillian's heavy breathing sounded particularly clear in the open space.

Cillian tore down the curtain and wrapped it around his bleeding right arm. By the light of the fire outside the window, he saw the last demon lurking inside the building.

"So, you did bring the gray fog in after all?"

The two were very close, but Ciri could not see its shape clearly, as if it were wrapped in a layer of black veil.

The urging pain in his left palm told Cillian that his guess was completely correct.

The demons' attack came without warning.

The moment the claws tore through the mist, Ciri bent his knees and leaned back, the blade grazing the demon's jaw. Sparks flew onto the demon's flailing scales, producing a soft crackling sound.

His vertical pupils suddenly contracted.

The whip, trailing a foul stench, lashed out, its barbs grazing Ciri's side as his boot slammed heavily against the stone wall. The recoil tore the distance between them, but the demon, ever-present, followed like a shadow, lunging at him in a dark blur.

too fast.

Ciri instinctively swung his sword down, the severed horn splattering hot blood onto his face. The demon's fangs bit into the blade's spine, its claws plunging straight for his heart.

"roll!"

In the nick of time, the hilt of the sword suddenly pressed down, and Ciri used his gauntlets to catch the demon's fangs, flipping himself upside down onto its back.

The whip was about to strike Ciri again, but he dodged it by tilting his head as if he had anticipated it.

"Get down here!"

Cillian pulled the trigger, and the metal bullet pierced the demon's spine.

The flaming sword pierced through the tailbone and then slid upwards along the spine, ripping the entire spine along with the nerve clusters residing within it out of the body.

Black blood splattered across the walls, and twitching nerve cords coiled at the sword tip like a dying snake.

"Ha ha……"

This time, Cillian really gave it his all, and he was so weak that even his vision started to blur.

The twitching nerve cords were still twisting and turning at the tip of the sword. Ciri gritted his teeth, raised the sword tip, and pressed it against the back of the demon's head. The blade pierced through the gap in the skull, sealing the last roar into the bleeding throat.

Cillian pushed open the door.

The cold wind swept away the last trace of the fishy smell in the room. As he stood leaning on his sword, he heard his own hoarse voice.

"It's all settled."

The moment the burden was lifted, Ciri's taut nerves snapped.

As the surrounding sounds faded away, he weakly knelt down, looking up at the end of the night, where a faint light was rising.

It's almost dawn.

The tide that had besieged Baiya Town all night was slowly receding back into the spirit realm.

(End of this chapter)