Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ is announcing his return from prison!
Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ uses confetti screen effect!
Divinity ‘Spirit of the Jade Moon’ is pleading with Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ to read the room.
Divinity ‘Great Sage Equaling Heaven is snickering.
Divinity ‘The One Who Fights in Front’ has smacked the Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ in the back of his head.
Demon ‘Abyssal Kraken of Black Seas’ is deeply embarrassed.
Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ is scrambling to catch up on the broadcast stream at max speed.
Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ screams in terror.
Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ is attempting to descend into the arc!
Thousands of observers and gods immediately disable him!
Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ is begging for Divinity ‘Blessed Martial Guard of Salvation’ to forgive him.
Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ sponsors 100,000 stars!
Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ sponsors 100,000 stars!
Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ sponsors 100,000 stars!
Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ is coughing blood at the injustice.
Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ calls for the eradication of all demons.
Demon ‘Abyssal Kraken of Black Seas’ flushes awkwardly.
Demon King 'Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven' cries out in rage!
“It’s strange to see myself addressed as a divinity now,” Wei said softly. He was sitting up himself now, his hands politely folded in his lap like he were a timid child in a new classroom.
Observer ‘Socrates’: What a total mess.
Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ is applauding Wei’s strength through tears.
Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ is urging observers to give Divinity 'Blessed Martial Guard of Salvation’ a five star review to boost his spiritual energy.
“It’s okay, Archangel Michael,” Wei whispered with a weak smile on his face, “It was mostly Meihua.”
I glared at him with his response before he added, “And my party members.”
Archangel Michael proceeded to blow up the chat and surrounding area with blue boxes before Chang opened up a one on one between him and his disciple.
Something Archangel Michael said must have been very emotional because Wei’s eyes welled up with tears again, but Yang quickly comforted him as I stared, my lips slightly agape.
“Peijin!” Chang cried out, grabbing onto my face and practically crawling all over me. His long claws dug into my robes, and he would grab onto my skin, pinching and tugging and pulling at it until I firmly slapped him back.
“What is it with you?!”
He quickly handed me an orange lollipop, and I shut up temporarily, listening to him.
“Peijin, do you think I’m going to get fired from my job? If they find out that some extinct goddess just entered my arc and altered two thousand years of history, I’m going to be murdered! I’ll be put in the Hall of Shame for every dragon to mock!”
I shot him a judgemental look. “You’re fine. The higher-ups will call an emergency meeting if they haven’t already. You’re at the bottom of the pyramid, so they can’t blame you for not being strong enough to stop it.”
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“I’m serious, Peijin!” Change shouted, pulling at his whiskers at my glare, “I’m going to get skinned. They’re going to make a fashion line out of my scales, and you’ll probably buy the whole collection just to pawn me off to some church or cult for worshiping.”
“... You think so lowly of me.”
Observer ‘Socrates’: I mean, he’s not wrong.
“Of course I do!” Chang retorted, “Do you know what your current rating score is?”
“Hey, I disabled those for a rea—”
“0.54 stars. How do you even get that low? The lowest is 0.5. You might be the lowest ranked disciple in all of China.”
I grabbed onto Chang and squeezed him until he squeaked, and he vanished in a flurry of sparks.
“I hate that stupid dragon,” Yue spat, “If he’d done his job, maybe none of this would’ve happened.”
I popped the orange lollipop out of my mouth. “Don’t shit on him like that. He’s been good to us. Once we land and get a short break, I’ll explain what we’re going to do about the Major Arcana.”
Yue gave me a disappointed, disgruntled, and dismayed look before she nodded toward Amelia, who was sitting across from me, her short legs dangling and unable to touch the floor beneath her.
“You know she wants you to talk to her, right?” Yue said. “You’re so bad with kids. Actually, you’re just bad with people in general.”
My eye twitched as I held myself back from punching her. She seemed to recover just fine, so what the hell was I worried about?
I looked at Amelia, but she avoided my gaze. She pretended to finally look up accidentally, and I gestured for her to come sit by me. At once, she leapt toward me and wrapped her arms around my neck.
She remained silent, but I knew what she wanted to say.
I let out a heavy sigh, unsure of how to tell her about what she had missed and what Wei had just gone through. But, when it was me with my own mother and father, had I not wanted to know?
But, maybe Amelia was too young to know. Maybe she was too young to be in these scenarios at all, and so was Ailun, but that hadn’t held me back when I was the one holding the pen.
When I broke the news of Ailun and Meihua’s death to Amelia, she didn’t cry at all.
It felt like this train ride was going to go on for an eternity.
“Are you okay?” I asked her softly, gently running my hands through her hair with my good hand. The other was still severed, but the wrapped bandage was doing a good enough job holding it together.
She nodded and opened her mouth to speak, but she held herself back and blinked repeatedly. I could tell that the moment she opened her mouth, she would burst into tears.
“You can cry if you want to,” I reassured her, still combing through her hair before pulling it over her shoulder.
She shook her head. “I’m not crying.”
I gave her my best smile. Amelia was like an open book, and I viewed her as a bit of a crybaby—not that that was a bad thing. Since I met her, I thought that she had reminded me of someone or something. I wondered if that had been myself.
“Alright,” I said simply.
While I stroked the back of her head, I noticed it was rather flat. Her parents must not have held her much when she was a kid and let her lay in her crib most of the time.
Thinking about this made me feel a little bit better. I thought that maybe I could treat her sweetly without having to feel so bad about my role in her parents’ deaths.
Wei sat beside me, and I felt like I couldn’t quite face him. He was turned toward Yang who comforted him relentlessly.
I wished I could have said something to Wei that would have made him feel better the way Yang could. But, that’s why Yang was always a star, even if he worked in a pest control company.
I think if I was reborn, I would want to be someone like him. I wanted to be well-liked, approachable, and comforting. It was silly that I could write characters like Feiyu perfectly, but I myself could never fill any of those roles in person.
With Amelia in my arms, I moved until I was standing before Wei, my hurt hand gripping onto the pole to balance myself in the moving car.
“Wei,” I stated, “I hope you can forgive me for not doing better.”
The band around his arm floated up and around me, gently pressing against me curiously before pulling back and twisting and turning like a newborn kitten in the grass for the first time.
Wei looked surprised, but his gaze quickly softened. “Peijin, thank you for not leaving.”
For some reason, his words caused my chest to swell up, and my expression faltered for a moment. Back in Yue’s room, I was someone she could never rely on, but here, I was relieved to find that at least someone could look at me differently.
“Wei, be my sword,” I suddenly declared, “I want you to stay by my side until this apocalypse is over. In a few moments, we’ll be off this train. Whether or not you agree, I will end this. But, when I reach the end, I want you to be there, too.”
His eyes widened slowly as he blinked at me before he stood up and laughed lightly. “You make it sound so transactional, Peijin. I’d do it for you regardless.”
He took my hand and shook it as the train stopped and the doors slid open.
I turned back toward my party. “We’ll most likely be the second party to have completed this challenge with Feiyu being first, so we have time to rest and recover until all parties have finished or been exterminated.
“The next arc begins with us fighting against the top parties. I want all of you to take some time off. By the time you all wake up from your kiddy naps, I’ll have dissected the Arcana,” I said in a cocky tone, smiling widely to seal their doubts.
And so, the poor dog was back in service—maybe it was out of a sense of guilt or obligation, but Wei grabbed his sword and walked out of the train first.
At once, he relived all of his years in that prison, slowly losing his mind and memories of Meihua, before he was back to reality, and opened his eyes to see the rest of his holding onto him tightly. His panicked breathing calmed as he relaxed.
The train rumbled and groaned before it left for its next destination. In front of us, Feiyu sat on a foldable chair that looked comically small beneath him. A long black blade was being sharpened in his hands, gleaming as the light reflected off of it.
“Welcome back.”
Arc #2 - Dungeons of Great Turmoil has concluded!
Coins Received: 10,000