"You will pay the price for your actions today. Innocent people will surely die because of you!"
The water ghost continued to curse, and the whispering element affected Shad through the ice spikes that penetrated his body, and the balance of elements in Shad's body was about to be broken.
He could imagine the revenge that the Drowned Cult would take for their actions today:
"I don't care. The life or death of a stranger has nothing to do with me!"
Outsiders will never be affected by a few words.
"Those who wait for your rescue will fall into deeper trouble and suffer misfortune!"
The water ghost continued to push the ice spikes inwards, unable to stand on the ground with both feet to gain leverage. In the water in the opponent's home turf, Xia De's strength was at a disadvantage.
He could imagine that John, the trash can boy at the back door of Green Lake Hotel, would one day die like most homeless children because he had no support from him:
"I don't care. Other people's needs have nothing to do with me."
Obviously, his own life was more important than the boy's life or death, and he would never hesitate over such a trivial matter.
"Those who love you cannot wait for your return, and those you love will cry all their lives!"
The ice spike had completely penetrated Shad's back. He could feel that his heart had frozen and his blood vessels were frozen, but this little thing had no effect on Stone Heart.
Suddenly, he felt that he understood Hela Osenfurt and the feelings of the previous owner of the Heart of Stone. That cold heart corresponded to the resurrected life of the emotionless woman. Shad had understood the indifference behind the other party's black veil:
"I don't care. Those who love me do so voluntarily. I don't force them to do so."
The corners of his mouth trembled as he said this, and he suddenly realized what he had said. But it didn't matter. Nothing mattered.
The silvery-white moonlight falling from the deep sea seemed even colder than the ice.
Xia De breathed in the lake water in big gulps, staring at the water ghost in front of him with wide eyes. His facial features had disappeared, and his skin had melted into a thin layer.
"I am the most important. Don't even think about using others to influence my emotions!"
The ice on his body seemed to blend into the silvery moonlight, entwining the chains that bound the two of them. Gluttony, greed, laziness, anger, and arrogance flashed a deeper light than the whispering elements on the water ghost.
The primordial fire disappeared at some point, but the water ghost still couldn't break free from the chains of the deadly sin. He felt the coldness of the chains, which was even more terrifying than the heat just now. The faintly vibrating chains seemed to be gestating an even more terrifying power, and that power came from his heart:
"You and I are the same kind of people!"
He wanted to laugh, but the inexplicable fear and terror in his heart made him only able to utter a sound. Then he noticed that, except for the pale heart pierced by the lightning spear, his entire upper body had melted in the silvery moonlight.
That lonely, cold light, a light that seemed to have been illuminating the world for tens of millions of years, was far more terrifying than the relic that was rioting in his chest:
"Your ending will not be better than mine!"
He tried to vibrate the water with his damaged vocal cords, but was horrified to find that his consciousness had become blurred. This second life, which was not considered a life, had come to an end again. He had already lost the duel, and uttered the last vicious curse:
"My Lord, I am waiting for you in the depths of the sea! You must not know the secret of Green Lake!"
Xia De's free left hand, covered with moonlight and ice, grabbed the pale heart embedded in his chest. With the combined force of his left and right hands, he took the heart off and held it in one hand.
The evil eye peeled off from the eye socket of the corpse and disappeared silently in the dark waters. The water ghost's body was finally completely melted by the cold silver moonlight and turned into part of the water.
The accidental loss of control of the relics due to Megan's trap, the one in ten thousand probability of the relics merging, the perfect combination of spirit runes, and the power of the evil god created the water ghost Barry, an individual beyond the normal standard. But he met Shade, and he lost in the end. With resentment and resentment, he merged with this body of water forever.
Holding a staff in one hand and grasping the still beating heart in the other, the body in the silver light continued to fall, falling, and the dancing black chains surrounded it, as if protecting its owner, until the chains were also stained with the cold silver-white moonlight. And below the abyss that seemed to have no bottom at all, the figure of Shade finally appeared, waiting for him.
Shade never knew what was in the abyss under the water, but the loneliness of falling alone made him understand that the abyss might not only refer to the physical terrain, but also to the irredeemable darkness in his own heart.
Facing the inevitable death fall alone, or even a fall with no end, this pain, loneliness, indifference and solitude together constitute the shallowest but also the deepest meaning of the concept of "deep-sea drowning".
In the light of the silver moon on his body, he glimpsed the shadow that appeared in his heart, and also glimpsed the face of the dead person who was quietly looking at him in the darkness deeper in the water.
The pale face lay quietly in the darkness, and most of the body was hidden in the deeper waters and could not be seen. This was not the bottom of the abyss, but the place where "she" came to meet Shade to continue falling.
At this moment, she saw him, and he saw her. So in the lonely silver moonlight, there was finally a hint of golden brilliance. First, a wound was cut on the side of his face as if by a cold stream of water, and then what was escaping upwards from the wound was not bright red blood, but golden afterglow.
Dense cracks appeared all over Xia De's body, penetrating his eyes, but they could not change his cold look.
Through sacrifice and unique circumstances that are difficult to replicate, the evil god, the God of the Drowned in the Deep Sea, briefly glimpsed the figure who once confronted her in the material world in her original form.
The silver light continued to fall, and the body in the deeper darkness also showed more details. The swollen arms seemed to be driven by the water flow, unconsciously raised upwards, but this was clearly the appearance of welcoming Xia De.
The corpse was wearing a white robe, and as Shad continued to fall, he saw that the pale face was his own.
No, it's not a disguise, it's a reflection.
Xia De saw it clearly, the corpse was clearly his own reflection. And the reflection of himself, below the corpse, was not the bottom of some deep abyss, but a pair of eyes with blurred vision.
More and more details were outlined underwater at the bottom, as if the moment Shade discovered the truth, the huge figure showed its entire appearance to him.
The huge, incomparably huge corpse quietly sank into the water, and Shade's figure was only reflected in the dead man's child hole. Even though he was glowing at this moment, even though the divine afterglow state was revealed, compared with the incomparably huge corpse that had been waiting for him, he was still like a glowing grain of rice.
The huge corpse was like an ancient mountain in the deep sea abyss, with pale skin, shaking hair, and a sparse face representing death. This strange and bizarre scene, like a spectacle, was completely displayed in front of Xia De.
Even without gigantic fear, the panic in his heart had reached its peak at this moment, but it was then suppressed by the indifference of the heart in his hands.
It doesn't matter.
And the reflection of Xia De's appearance in the giant corpse's eyes suddenly disappeared in the blink of an eye.
He fell, fell, getting closer and closer to the eyes. Then, the most unacceptable and terrifying scene came as expected—the dead man's eyes blinked. Then, the giant corpse in the abyss, following the water flow, stretched out its pale and swollen arms to Shade, just like Shade's reflection not long ago.
The indifferent heart was extremely firm, and the cold expression did not waver. At this moment, the blasphemous element had completely suppressed the restless pale heart in Shade's hand, and the hymn praising death, the abyss, and falling also sounded from an unknown direction in the water. She was welcoming the new fallen person, welcoming this desperate person who fell alone like herself.
The arms of the huge corpse moved closer to the golden and silver light spots falling from above, and in that light spot, Xia De completely emptied his mind. He did not resist, but followed his own thoughts to cater to and feel the loneliness of falling, and to feel his own indifference at the moment.
It was as if this world really had nothing to do with him.
The burning steam mist appeared behind Shade at some point, but it only turned into a series of bubbles in the water. The distant whistle and bell sounded, blending perfectly with the hymn of loneliness and death. Then, the brass life ring appeared behind Shade, and was almost immediately dyed silver-white by the cold moonlight.
The corpse's giant hands closed around Shad, wrapping him and the life ring inside.
Complete darkness enveloped Shad. The loneliness of dying alone and the despair of falling into the abyss further gave rise to the indifference in his heart.
In the cold moonlight, even the pale heart was completely "melted". The blasphemous elements and whispering elements simultaneously surged towards the rapidly spinning life ring behind him. At this coldest moment, Shade suddenly realized.
He understood it all, understood the Goddess of the Drowned Deep who was welcoming him, understood the power she was showing him:
"Have you always been so indifferent at the bottom of the abyss, watching everything in this world?"
The giant clasped hands covered the silver moonlight, causing the unknown underwater world to be shrouded in darkness again.
A sigh, followed by a chuckle that only Shade could hear—
"It's completely dark and lonely, but... ... in my heart... ... there is still a connection."
The darkness did not last long. The moonlight shining in the deep sea began to shine through the fingers of the pale giant hand, until it dyed the hand silver-white.
His hands immediately dropped away, and his arms fell back down to the sides of the body.
Xia De continued to fall, and the golden and silver light spots were getting closer and closer to the eyes of the giant corpse under the water. But he looked down without fear, not caring about the changes in his life ring, and not caring about where he was going to fall.
He felt as if he had completely overlapped with the figure who fell thousands of years ago. However, he was not alone. There were people below him to greet him, and above him, there were people waiting for him to return. There was an imperceptible light flashing on his chest, and the cat-shaped doll warmed his frozen heart.
He knew that he and she were both lonely and fallen, but they were different after all. His world, because of them, was definitely not completely dark. He was no longer the wandering outsider who was out of tune with this world in the midsummer of last year, and he could no longer look at this strange place with the most indifferent eyes as he did at the beginning.
Changes in emotions trigger changes in spirits and elements. The cold and severe moonlight of holy silver has a just right amount of tenderness. This is the real moon.
But new questions arose from this, so the stranger looked at the huge corpse below, a series of bubbles came out of his mouth, and he asked the lonely dead god:
"At that moment, when you transcended the mundane and touched the great, what kind of despair did you see in your eyes?"
There was no spirit of a living person in those lifeless eyes. In the silence, the stranger saw himself in those eyes again, saw himself falling alone. So real, yet so false.
God was right in front of him, but this time he unexpectedly did not feel any discomfort, as if he was only seeing himself.
Then the stranger knew, and she knew that he understood her, and so she understood him in return.
A long sigh came at the end of the hymn, which was about to end. Then, the silver-white figure reflected in the huge eyes turned into a drop of golden light and rose up.
There was no light in the deep sea, but the golden and silver spots fell, and the golden light rose. Together, they illuminated the pale face of the silent God of the Drowned, but could not illuminate the deep darkness at the bottom of the abyss.
Shade stretched out his hand downward, and the golden divinity touched the tips of his curled fingers. The new cold, lonely and desperate divinity became a part of his soul.