Chapter 56: The Erosion Saint’s Eyes Now Hold Light
“Common wish?”
Sheen’s voice trembled in the darkness like a candle flame blown by cold wind. What did this shocking number represent?
He looked down at the girl curled in his arms. Those dark purple crystals were slowly peeling away from her face like a broken mask, each falling piece making a soft “crack” sound, revealing skin so pale it was almost translucent beneath.
Heralis knelt beside them, holy light flowing in her palm like gentle stream water, wrapping around the wound on Sheen’s back. Even she couldn’t remain calm upon hearing this number, her fingertips trembling slightly as she cast magic, the holy light flickering unstably.
“It might be the number of previous Erosion Saints.”
Her throat moved as she spoke, her voice unusually heavy, all traces of her usual playful tone gone.
“Though I knew they would be replaced… I never imagined there were so many…”
Sheen’s fingers gently brushed over Skadi’s bandage-wrapped arm. Beneath those yellowed bandages lay a body already completely crystallized.
“You never intended to capture me… did you?”
He suddenly understood something, his chest feeling as if gripped by an invisible hand, his voice hoarse beyond recognition.
“You were waiting for Heralis’s holy light…”
Hearing this, Heralis looked up sharply, her violet eyes widening slightly.
“So that spatial crack…”
Her lips trembled lightly as she recalled the abnormality when she broke into the shadow space—that opening had been too obvious, obviously like it was deliberately left.
Skadi didn’t answer. She curled herself up tighter, like an injured small animal.
Broken crystals fell from the corners of her eyes, refracting beautiful purple light in the moonlight like a small purple snow. Her fingers gripped the fabric at her chest, knuckles white with effort.
“Why… why did you choose to abandon your assigned mission?”
Sheen gently cupped Skadi’s face, his thumb carefully wiping away the crystal powder from her cheeks. His voice was soft but struck the silent space like a heavy hammer.
“Why is the common wish of 233 ‘yous’ to die?”
Skadi suddenly began trembling violently, as if struck by lightning.
“I’m sick of it… those heretics… some of them just… wanted to protect their families…”
She covered her face with fingers white at the knuckles, her voice fragmented, each word seeming squeezed from between her teeth, carrying bloody anguish.
“This can’t be… artificial saints shouldn’t have empathy…”
Heralis looked at Skadi incredulously, holy light flickering in her palm, though her voice grew smaller and smaller because the facts before her were undeniable.
Clearly a manufactured weapon that should have no emotions whatsoever, only needing to execute missions strictly, yet why did Skadi develop the ability to empathize with others? This didn’t match her design.
“It’s a gift… from my sisters…”
Skadi raised her head, tears washing away the crystal powder on her face.
In the moonlight, Sheen saw her eyes clearly for the first time—they held a sadness that didn’t belong to a weapon, like an autumn lake, calm yet containing endless sorrow. Fine purple crystals still clung to her eyelashes, trembling gently with each blink.
“Sisters? You mean the previous Skadis?”
Sheen asked softly, unconsciously gentling his voice as if afraid to disturb something.
Skadi nodded, her bandaged arms glowing faintly.
With trembling fingers, she struggled to untie the binding at her chest, revealing a glowing rune at her heart. The rune looked like a blooming flower or a frozen teardrop.
“This is the artificial core.”
Heralis’s pupils contracted—she was seeing this for the first time too.
“Whenever a Skadi… crystallizes, she’s discarded, and the magical core in her body is implanted into a new Skadi. The core contains the previous Skadi’s combat experience.”
Skadi’s fingers traced the rune, and countless blurred faces suddenly appeared in its light.
“The core has limited capacity… aside from the combat experience designated for preservation, there’s barely room for anything else. They could have left proof of their existence…”
Sheen’s throat tightened as if something was blocking it.
Those faces in the light all looked identical to the girl before him, yet each was different—some had numb expressions, some bore tear stains, some smiled at the corners of their mouths.
233 Skadis, 233 broken lives, all now seeing light again in this small rune.
“They chose… to leave behind the emotions they’d gained… bit by bit… accumulating… until me…”
Skadi’s voice grew fainter, like a kite whose string might break at any moment. Her fingers unconsciously traced the rune’s outline, as if touching those “sisters” she’d never met.
In this moment, Heralis suddenly understood why Skadi, an artificial saint, had gained empathy.
The Erosion Saints’ lives were brief. Even if they accumulated some emotions, it wasn’t enough to form a complete personality. So each generation of Skadi unanimously chose to stuff their small harvest of emotions into the core, leaving them for the next Skadi.
They shared a common wish—hoping the next sister could become a complete person rather than a cold, emotionless purging weapon.
Though these tiny emotions were insignificant individually, they accumulated over time. By the time they reached the current Skadi, they finally formed a complete personality. Though she still lacked the rich, delicate emotions of ordinary people, she now possessed the most basic human trait of empathy—the ability to understand others’ feelings.
Heralis unconsciously clenched her skirt, the expensive fabric crumpling in her palm.
She saw in those lights—Skadis sparing crying children, secretly feeding stray cats, dancing alone under moonlight… They carefully hid their small joys and sorrows deep in the core. These insignificant “violations” were the most precious inheritance the previous Skadis left for their successors.
A tear slid uncontrollably from her eye. She quickly turned away.
“But having a heart… hurts so much…”
Skadi suddenly grabbed Sheen’s hand, pressing it firmly against her chest.
Sheen could feel the rapid, weak heartbeat under his palm, and the cold touch of the spreading crystals.
This emotion was both gift and curse. Having empathy, Skadi began to loathe her existence during day after day of heretic trials, not wanting to be the Holy Temple’s tool for eliminating dissidents.
“So you decided to make me attack you by threatening to hurt me, letting holy light purify you and shatter this endless cycle?”
He finally understood what Skadi meant by “ending the cycle”—completely making Skadi disappear so no new Skadi would suffer this pain.
“If Heralis acted, the magical core would be destroyed too. There would never be a new Skadi.”
Skadi pursed her cracked lips, dark purple crystal fragments falling with this subtle movement.
“But would your sisters really want to see you do this?”
Sheen’s fingers gently brushed the peeling crystals from Skadi’s face, his fingertips feeling the icy touch. His voice was low and gentle, his eyes shining with determined light.
Skadi’s body suddenly stiffened, her purple pupils contracting sharply. She instinctively gripped the edge of her tattered cloak, the bandages wrapped around her arms loosening slightly with her trembling, revealing skin already beginning to crystallize beneath.
“This is just your wishful thinking. If the magical core is destroyed, all traces of their existence will truly disappear forever.”
Sheen leaned forward, his palm gently covering the glowing rune at Skadi’s chest, his voice soft yet carrying undeniable power.
“The ending shouldn’t be like this. Even without you, there will be new Skadis, Hecates, or whatever. If you truly want to end this cycle, what needs to be terminated isn’t you, but…”
He continued speaking, his fingers gently wiping the black tears from Skadi’s eyes, his gaze sharp as a blade, his voice gradually rising.
“The Holy Temple.”
Skadi’s body shook violently, as if struck by lightning, stepping back half a pace. Heralis also showed a shocked expression, her red lips parting but no sound emerging.
For a moment, silence spread through the darkness.
Skadi lowered her head, white hair falling to hide her expression.
“Maybe… you’re right. But… I don’t have time left…”
After a long while, she spoke softly, raising her already crystallizing hand.
“But I’ll do my best… to pass on these memories…”
Skadi suddenly looked up, forcing a smile at the corners of her mouth, a flash of determination in her purple eyes.
“I hope… you can help save the next Skadi…”
But Sheen suddenly smiled, that smile bright as sunlight piercing through darkness.
“There’s a Skadi right in front of me waiting to be saved.”
He stepped forward, cupping Skadi’s face with both hands, his thumbs gently caressing the peeling crystals on her cheeks.
“Why wait for the next one?”
Skadi froze, her purple pupils reflecting Sheen’s determined face. Before she could react, Sheen had already leaned down and kissed her.
Warm mental power flowed in like spring breeze. Skadi felt the crystals on her face beginning to fall away in large pieces wherever the warmth passed.
Her pupils dilated suddenly, filled with incredulous shock and a trace of fragile hope.
From this moment, light appeared in the Erosion Saint’s eyes.