The golden flames were still burning.
The Starfolk's corpse fragments slowly disintegrated within 【Burnt Offering】.
There was no foul stench of burning.
There was no crackling sound of scorched flesh.
Those strange bodies seemed as though they had only been temporarily pieced together, dispersing once more inside the flames.
Flesh and blood.
Mana.
Spirituality.
And something unique to the Starfolk that Cecia couldn't comprehend.
All of it turned into fine, scattered specks of dark-gold light.
A portion of it surged into Cecia's body.
An even greater amount passed through her soul, disappearing along a distant yet familiar connection.
“Here it comes again...”
Cecia closed her eyes.
Her consciousness was pulled upward.
This time, it didn't feel as unfamiliar as the first.
There wasn't even much fear.
When she opened her eyes again, the black beach had vanished.
Under her feet appeared that broken road once more.
The celestial track.
The path that had once carried the sun on its journey across the world.
It was still unimaginably vast.
It was still tattered and worn.
Extinguished golden cobblestones stretched all the way into the deep darkness. Many places were completely severed, with only a small portion retaining a faint, dark-red residual warmth.
In the distance, the shattered solar chariot rested quietly.
Broken shafts.
Toppled wheels.
Gigantic feathers that resembled burning mountain ranges.
It wasn't much different from her first visit.
But Cecia quickly noticed something amiss.
Something had lit up.
She lowered her head.
The Starfolk burned away by 【Burnt Offering】 in reality had turned into countless dark-gold embers, drifting down from the void bit by bit.
They did not fly toward the King of Dawn and Dusk.
Instead, they fell upon the broken celestial track.
One speck.
Two specks.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
The embers fell into the cracks of those extinguished stones.
Clack.
An extremely fine golden pattern lit up once more.
Then a second.
A third.
The originally broken track began to emit a low rumble.
It didn't instantly recover.
It was more like a body that had been dead for a long time suddenly producing a faint, weak heartbeat.
Cecia stared in a daze.
System prompts quietly surfaced before her eyes.
【Burnt Offering Complete】
【Response detected from remaining Sun Authority】
【Portion of spirituality utilized to repair old celestial track】
【Repair Progress: Faint】
After a moment, another line of text appeared.
【The Second Dawn has yet to arrive】
【Yet the path is being relit】
Cecia stared at that line for a long time.
“Well, that sounds a lot more sophisticated than ‘Requires more tinder’...” she muttered softly.
Just then, a voice came from beside her.
“You have arrived.”
Cecia looked back.
The King of Dawn and Dusk was sitting on the edge of the broken celestial track.
This time, They hadn't maintained the colossal, blurred divine form from their first meeting.
Instead, They had shrunk down to roughly the size of an ordinary young girl.
Barefoot.
The hem of Her dress resting on the golden stones.
Supporting Her body with both hands, She quietly looked at the small section of road gradually lighting up in the distance.
Cecia walked over and sat down beside Her.
“So,” she pointed at those dark-gold embers, “the stuff I just burned up all ran over here?”
“Mm,” Dawn and Dusk nodded. “They originally possessed spirituality. After being burned by your flames, the chaotic portions were purified, and what remained can be filled into the celestial track.”
“Does that mean I'll have to burn stuff every single day from now on?”
Dawn and Dusk thought about it very seriously for a moment. “Not necessarily every day.”
“...”
That's not the point!
Cecia looked at the ruined celestial track in the distance, which stretched who knows how far.
She suddenly felt a bit overwhelmed.
The first time she came, she had simply thought this place was magnificent.
Only now did she realize—another way to say "magnificent" was "astronomically expensive to repair."
“Just how damaged is this thing?”
“A lot.”
“How much is a lot?”
Dawn and Dusk spread Her hands wide.
“This much.”
“...”
Completely useless as a reference.
Cecia sighed.
She looked at herself again.
Just now, a small portion of embers hadn't flown toward the celestial track.
Instead, they had fallen into her chest.
“Then what was that stuff I absorbed?”
Dawn and Dusk's gaze also landed on her.
“Yours.”
“Mine?”
“Mm. The things left behind by the sun aren't all with me.”
Dawn and Dusk reached out a hand, gently tapping Cecia's chest.
Not her physical body, but deeper within.
Cecia could feel that tiny golden flame flickering softly in the depths of her soul.
“The celestial track recognizes you. The solar chariot recognizes you as well. After those embers pass through you, a portion will naturally remain behind.”
Cecia was silent for a moment. “So you weren't giving me rewards?”
Dawn and Dusk tilted Her head. “Why would I give you rewards?”
“...”
That made so much sense that Cecia actually couldn't refute it.
So she had misunderstood all along.
【Burnt Offering】 wasn't stuffing sacrifices into a deity's mouth and waiting for Them to drop gear when They were happy.
It was more like... returning spirituality to an ancient, shattered cycle through her own Sun Authority.
A portion was used to repair the celestial track.
A portion was fed back to herself.
As for the King of Dawn and Dusk, She just happened to be standing inside this cycle too.
“So I wasn't paying you a phone bill?”
Dawn and Dusk fell silent for two seconds. “What is a phone bill?”
“Never mind.”
An otherworldly deity didn't understand modern jokes. No sense of humor at all.
Just as Cecia was about to ask more, Dawn and Dusk suddenly raised her hand.
On the back of her hand, a faint, dark-gold pattern was slowly emerging.
It didn't look like a four-pointed star, but rather like a small segment of a curved track.
Broken at both ends, with a faint spark lit in the middle.
“What's this now?”
“A waypoint.”
“A waypoint?”
“Ever since you first came here, the celestial track has remembered you,” Dawn and Dusk said softly. “From now on, as long as the distance isn't too far, I can follow this mark to find you.”
Cecia's eyes lit up. “Meaning I can call you directly in the future?”
“If I am awake.”
“...”
“If the distance isn't too far.”
“...”
“If the nearby celestial track isn't broken.”
“...”
Cecia's expression gradually became subtle.
“Dawn and Dusk.”
“Mm?”
“Isn't your after-sales service a bit lacking?”
Dawn and Dusk didn't quite understand, but She still answered seriously, “I will work hard to fix it.”
Cecia suddenly didn't know how to roast Her.
Because She genuinely thought so.
The deity in front of her wasn't joking.
She really intended to repair this shattered celestial track—stretching who knows how many tens of thousands of miles—all by Herself, piece by piece.
Cecia looked up.
The distance was still a sea of darkness.
However, compared to the first time, a small section had finally lit up again.
“Look,” Dawn and Dusk suddenly said.
“What?”
“I fixed a little bit.”
There was clear, obvious joy in Her voice.
Like a child who had worked hard piecing together building blocks for a long time and finally put one block in the right spot.
Cecia looked at Her, then at that weak golden light.
For some reason, she suddenly felt at a loss for words.
“Yeah,” she finally nodded. “Pretty impressive.”
Dawn and Dusk smiled.
After a moment, She looked at Cecia again. “But Mother doesn't look very happy.”
“I don't?”
“You do.”
“Deities read expressions too?”
“I read yours.”
“...”
Cecia lowered her head. The golden stones beneath her feet were glowing faintly.
She thought for a moment before finally speaking.
“It's just that... I feel like I'm getting further and further away from what I originally wanted.”
“What did you want?”
“To live.” Cecia hardly hesitated. “To get rid of Abyss Erosion, and then live normally. Have a bit of money, have food to eat, and ideally open a blacksmith shop of my own in the future. If anyone dares not to pay, I'll melt down their weapon, forge a new one, and sell it to someone else.”
Dawn and Dusk listened quietly.
“I never thought about chasing after the truth of the world. I never thought about becoming a legendary mage. And I certainly never thought about getting involved with deities.”
Cecia looked up.
In front of her was the shattered solar chariot.
Beneath her feet was the celestial track that had been dead for who knows how many years.
Beside her sat a deity calling her Mother.
“And yet now...”
“Every single one of these things is crazier than the last.”
She felt like laughing, but couldn't.
“The world is so big. Deities. The Abyss. The dead sun. And a broken road waiting for who knows how many years for me to repair. Occasionally thinking about it... it's actually pretty exhausting.”
Dawn and Dusk didn't interrupt her.
Cecia didn't know why, but she suddenly kept talking.
Perhaps because she was too tired.
Fighting the Starfolk all night long.
Waking up only to find out Potato was actually the Saintess of the Abyss.
Followed by Tide Town, human corpses, eerie Starfolk, and the town's increasingly obvious wrongness.
She had been doubting others, thinking, fighting, never truly able to stop.
In the end, she was just an outsider suddenly thrown into an unfamiliar world.
The so-called Serpent of Eden... when it came down to it, was just someone who had left home and could no longer find the way back.
“Sometimes I feel...” Cecia's voice lowered, “like nowhere really belongs to me.”
Once the words left her mouth, she stunned herself.
Her body reacted ahead of her, muscles trembling uncontrollably.
The fatigue, pain, and suppressed emotions accumulated from previous battles seemed to have finally found an outlet.
Dawn and Dusk didn't speak. She just leaned closer and gently hugged Cecia.
“It's okay. Mother, it's okay.”
Cecia didn't pull away.
“You can't find it now,” Dawn and Dusk said softly. “You will find it in the future.”
“How do you know?”
“Because even if a road is broken, it can be rebuilt.”
Cecia froze.
Dawn and Dusk looked into the distance at the broken celestial track.
“There was no road here before either. Now there is a little bit.”
“...”
It sounded like silly comfort, but it was surprisingly effective.
“Besides,” Dawn and Dusk continued, “doesn't that child of the Abyss down there keep following you?”
“Potato?”
“Mm.”
“She isn't Potato.”
“...”
Cecia fell silent. “How do you know?”
“I have seen her.”
“When?”
“Before.” Dawn and Dusk thought for a moment. “The Abyss Church used to worship me. Back then, they were a bit different from the people outside now.”
“...”
Now that was news.
Dawn and Dusk continued, “That child is very lonely. So are you. Perhaps you can walk a stretch of the road together.”
Cecia turned to look at Her. “Deities advise people to make friends too?”
Dawn and Dusk nodded. “Yes.”
“Then do you have friends?”
Dawn and Dusk fell silent.
“...”
“Never mind, pretend I didn't ask.”
Cecia couldn't help but laugh softly.
Dawn and Dusk shrank Her body again, leaning beside Cecia.
The two sat side by side at the edge of the broken celestial track.
In the distance, dark-gold embers continued to drift down.
Every so often, a long-extinguished stone lit up slightly once more.
It wasn't the sun rising again.
It couldn't even be called dawn.
It was merely that this road, broken for who knows how many years, finally showed a trace of a path forward.
Cecia stared at that light.
For some reason, the exhaustion that had been pressing down on her chest suddenly loosened a bit.
Maybe Dawn and Dusk was right.
If the road was broken, rebuild it.
If she couldn't find the way back, find a new place right here.
Cecia let out a soft sigh.
“Whatever the case... let's survive first.”
Dawn and Dusk nodded. “Mm.”
“Then solve Abyss Erosion.”
“Mm.”
“Then make money.”
“Mm.”
“Make tons and tons of money.”
“Mm.”
“Then get old man Raven to give me a raise.”
Dawn and Dusk hesitated for a moment. “...Mm.”
Cecia finally burst into laughter.
At the same time, a low rumble resounded in the distance.
Clack.
A section of the broken celestial track reconnected.
It was extremely short, perhaps only a one-billionth of the entire road.
Yet it had genuinely reconnected.
System text surfaced.
【New changes occurring in Sun Authority】
【First section of celestial track relit】
【Second Dawn: Still Distant】
【Yet you have begun drawing closer to it】
Immediately after, Cecia felt the dark-gold embers accumulated within her body suddenly disperse.
They didn't forcefully flood into her body.
Instead, they flowed naturally along her existing abilities.
Fire.
Light.
Shadow.
The several forces that had originally been separate from one another established a true connection for the first time under the guidance of Sun Authority.
【Fireball Lv.3 → Lv.4 857/4000】
【Aegis of Light Lv.3 → Lv.4 641/4000】
【Acquired Ability: Blessing Lv.1】
【You can briefly share a portion of your protection with others】
【Acquired Ability: Divine Oracle Lv.1】
【With the help of the “Mark of the Returning Sun” on the back of your hand, you can attempt to summon the King of Dawn and Dusk】
【Whether a response is received depends on distance, state, and celestial track integrity】
【Acquired Ability: Purification Lv.1】
【Your light and fire possess a stronger purification effect against the Abyss, corruption, and mutation】
【Detected light and fire affinities fusing under Sun Authority】
【Acquired Talent: Blazing Sun Affinity】
【Light and fire are now viewed as different manifestations of the same authority】
【Damage caused by both to the host is significantly reduced】
【Portion of flames undergoing sublimation】
【Acquired: Holy Flame】
A massive amount of information flooded into Cecia's consciousness.
But this time, it didn't hurt.
Unlike having something forcefully crammed into her head by someone else, it felt more like power that originally belonged to her suddenly remembering how it should be used at a certain moment.
Cecia raised her hand.
A wisp of golden flame rose from her palm.
The flame was bright and quiet, its edges laced with an almost white light.
Cecia looked at it for a while.
“This is pretty good. Should work great for burning the Abyss.”
Dawn and Dusk said very seriously, “Mm. It will burn broken things faster too.”
“...”
Why do you insist on reminding me of that?
In the next instant, the surrounding scenery began to fade.
Cecia knew this resonance was coming to an end.
She stood up and patted off dust that didn't exist.
Dawn and Dusk remained sitting there.
“I'm leaving.”
“Mm.”
“Keep working on the repairs.”
“Mm.”
Dawn and Dusk looked at her and suddenly added, “Mother.”
“What is it?”
“Next time you come, the road will be a little longer.”
Cecia paused, then smiled and waved her hand.
“Then next time, I'll inspect the construction progress.”
The world vanished.
...
The sound of ocean waves trickled back into her ears.
Cecia opened her eyes.
It was still that same sea.
The sea breeze still carried a faint salty stench.
Beside her was Potato, still squatting nearby.
Further away, Lan and Mia were still fast asleep.
It was as if nothing had happened.
Vesper had finished eating the last piece of Starfolk flesh. She quickly leaned over.
“Nightingale.”
“Mm?”
“You went somewhere very far just now.”
It wasn't a question.
Cecia glanced down at the back of her hand.
That faint, dark-gold curved mark was still there.
“You could say that.”
“Did you see the Shadow of the Sun?”
“I did.” Cecia raised her hand, a ball of golden flame slowly rising. “Though They go by King of Dawn and Dusk now. Not some fake Abyss god. They're currently working a side job fixing the road.”
“?”
Vesper clearly didn't understand.
“Never mind.” Cecia held the flame out in front of her. “Potato, look. Impressive, right?”
Vesper looked at it seriously for a moment. “Impressive.”
“Hehe.”
“The King of Dawn and Dusk gave it to you?”
“Yeah.” Cecia thought for a moment. “Well, not entirely.”
“Oh.”
Potato was the same as always. If she didn't understand, she didn't probe further.
Cecia actually liked that about her.
“Let's head back to town.”
“Okay.”
Vesper hoisted the sleeping Mia onto her back.
Cecia laboriously heaved Big Sis Lan onto her back.
“So heavy...”
“Does Miss Nightingale need help?”
“No need. I'm someone who hammers iron every day!”
The two walked along the coastline toward town.
The sea breeze blew past. Seagulls cried endlessly in the distance.
The sun settled on the ocean's surface, shimmering with golden waves.
Cecia suddenly felt her mood improve considerably.
At least for now, this road could still be walked forward.
She chuckled softly.
“Not bad at all.”
Rate on N.U.
