Yuna complicatedly looked at the person they called the Bishop, who was burnt into a crisp. She was the one who burned him, albeit accidentally or not.
She didn't mean to, but the basement door was actually set up in his room, and he happened to be standing on it. So when Yuna blasted the door open, the man was burned as well. There were many other paths in the basement, but Yuna chose a narrower path all the way for a well-rounded reason.
Although she killed someone by accident…
She didn't regret it one bit!
There were gold coins simply placed on the Bishop's table, and Yuna hurriedly took them before opening the window and jumping out with the child.
Would she land on the ground after jumping out?
Of course not! Who knows how many knights and guards surrounded the temple!
The thing is, even if Yuna flew up, she would be pursued and alert the knights patrolling the temple if her presence was felt. But the knights who guarded the temple did not feel any outsider's breath; there was nothing but the breath of nature. The Bishop's room was always subject to minor commotion, and unless specifically called, no one was allowed to enter his room. So the slight noise that Yuna created did not garner the attention of the guards outside the room as well as around the temple.
Yuna flew directly toward the sky to prevent any mishap of entangling with a knight. A knight whose fighting strength was far superior to hers would be able to easily avoid her fire and even kill her in one move before she could react.
Yuna flew for a long time before she landed on the ground.
She was a bit tired.
There were a lot of guards inside the spiral deep basement. Thankfully, the space was narrow, and Yuna filled all the narrow spaces with her butterflies and burned any enemy who might be on the road, but there didn't seem to be any enemies on the path.
If the space happened to be wide, she would have to expand her fire, and that was energy-draining; it was also the reason why she chose a narrow path. She couldn't afford to run out of fuel in enemy camp!
Placing the child on the ground, Yuna gave him the gold coins and sighed, "Finally!"
Thankfully, there was no mishap and things seemed to work in her favor. So happy. (人´∀｀)｡ﾟ+
Light started to slowly rise on the horizon; it also meant that she would most likely go back any time soon.
"You have to live well…"
The child clutched the hem of Yuna's robe tightly and spoke almost in a mourning voice. "Are you going to leave me?"
"I… have to." Kid, don't make things hard for big sis and make me look like a scum!
"Is it because I am not strong enough? Is it because your holy temple is dirty, so you cannot stay?"
An unholy temple cannot contain a god; the follower of God needs to be strong for God to manifest their will on them. Lucion heard about that from the Bishop.
"It's not that…" What nonsense is filling your head? Child, wake up!
Yuna became speechless at the child's brain hole.
Lucion raised his head and intently looked at Yuna and asked, "If… I become stronger, if I reclaim the temple and purify it, will you stay with me?"
"…Nonse—"
Yuna couldn't even rebuke him before her body started to become faint, making her a bit panicked even though she already knew that it was just her going back. Still, looking at her body starting to fade out was scary!
"GOD!" Lucion's piercing cry rang out, but his tears could not fall, and his twisted, agonizing expression looked as if he was going to break.
…His only pillar was going to leave… An indescribable panic rose, and Lucion desperately held onto the disappearing figure of his God.
Seeing the child's fearful expression, Yuna, who could not grasp the depth of the child's near loss of sanity at her disappearing self, could only say, "Be strong, stay safe…"
"…Will you come to me again if I—" become stronger and reclaim the temple… Lucion could only repeatedly ask so that he could have a goal to pursue instead of being left headless on how to carry on his life. He kept asking to clutch onto something, a sense of reassurance, so that he would not be left in despair at never meeting his God again.
But Yuna, who was almost disappearing, could only think that Lucion was agreeing to her words of being strong and being safe, and urgently replied, "Yes, yes, we will meet again!"
'I plan to come to the capital one day anyway.'
Yuna thought as she figured out where she was—in the Bishop's room, Lalrem Empire Capital.
"Please, God, give me a sure name."
If a God gave a sure name to their believer, it meant that the person was marked by God.
Yuna, who was almost disappearing, hastily fulfilled the child's wish and said, "Arien, Lucion Arien, meaning most pure, bright, and shining."
Stay pure and don't let all the maliciousness that happened to you darken you. Be happy and may you shine like gold. A heartfelt wish on Yuna's part.
Yuna didn't find anything strange about naming someone because she also used to name her cousins' children. She was an awesome aunt. ୧(＾ 〰 ＾)୨
Also, her naming sense was fucking good, thank you very much!
Still, Yuna should have been more cautious. Naming someone was fine, but assigning a surname was a whole other thing. However, Yuna, who was disappearing, was too hasty to pay deep attention to the child's request and dismissed it as merely giving a name.
Then Yuna disappeared from her spot.
Lucion clenched his fist tightly, his gaze unmoving from the spot where Yuna disappeared as light slowly poured onto him.
"Arien…" he mumbled lovingly.
His bright eyes were scary as the warm light caressed his pallor skin.
Like a miracle, as if the name gave him infinite power, at a speed visible to the naked eye, his hollow self slowly started to fill itself. His wounds healed, and tremendous changes started to occur in his body.
Light surrounded his body as his complexion improved little by little.
Light elements kept pouring into him as he got better and better.
He believed in light. Yuna, his god, was light. Therefore, light was his strength, his way was light, his path and belief were light.
The scariest thing about light was that the more it was craved, the more terrifying the power of the light wielder became; the more faith and belief, the more horribly powerful the light wielder became.
Light was faith and purity.
As if resonating with his newfound surname, his body became pure, a vessel only for light, shining conspicuously, and his firm eyes lit brightly.
Lucion's almost pervasive faith and his pure devotion to only one person became his terrifying strength.
Turning back, the child who no longer resembled a severely malnourished small child but a healthy thirteen-year-old teenager walked toward the direction of the temple. Lucion Arien was going to take back the temple that rightfully belonged to his God.
…..
Yuna blinked her eyes repeatedly after finding herself in her bed.
All the things that happened at night felt like a small interlude, hazy and almost like a dream.
'Lucion Arien, world, please keep him safe and happy.'
Praying so, did she want to go back and make sure of the child's safety?
No.
The answer was 'Absolutely not'.
The night was so 'exciting' that Yuna would like to take a rest for a hundred years!
Not to mention the child's scary expression when he killed a person. Yuna now had the time to carefully think about the child and became belatedly scared of that terrifying and almost twisted expression he had when he killed the guard, as well as his distorted, agonizing expression when she faded.
After all her hastiness and nervousness about her predicament faded, Yuna now had the time to carefully think and retrace her night experience with a calm mind.
As she thought about the child…
'I'm fucking sure he can protect himself.'
Patting her fearful heart, Yuna took out the small dimension stone that she had tucked inside her pocket.
She brought it closer to her chest to compare it with the bigger one. Yuna only wanted to compare, but the small stone, as if pulled by a strong magnetic force, slipped out of Yuna's grasp and knocked into the bigger dimension stone. Then, the small stone slowly melted and integrated with the bigger stone.
"The hell…"
Yuna hurriedly scratched the stone, but the small stone had already melted, becoming part of the stone—smooth and unblemished.
"…What's going on…" Yuna whimpered. Things were getting more and more mysterious, and her normal pace in life seemed to be getting out of control.
KNOCK KNOCK
"Yuna… are you awake?"
Yuna's ears twitched and she replied reflexively, "Yeah… coming, Grandpa!"
She got out of bed and hurriedly washed up before opening her small room door.
'Whatever is happening, future self, I can only rely on you!'
Putting full trust and responsibility onto her future self, Yuna put all the troublesome and worrying things at the back of her head and trotted toward her grandfather.
Even if she wanted to find clues about the mysterious circumstances circling around the stone as well as that creepy statue that resembled her, the question was… how would she do it? Where? To whom? The what? The why?
As an ordinary person, these were things beyond her ability and scope, so she chose not to trouble herself with them lest she go crazy with anxiety.
"We have to decorate the shop for the upcoming festival. Does my granddaughter have some ideas?"
"Yeah, trust me, Grandpa. People will love it!" Yuna patted her chest in assurance.
"My amazing granddaughter."
"Hehehehe~"
Yuna held her grandfather's hand and gave herself a resolve.
'For my handsome grandfather, let's live the best I can.'
So stressing was out of the option.
Her grandfather was like a port that communed with 'ordinary', so Yuna didn't want to make him anxious and wanted to hold onto the false hope that everything was still the same, with the same pace of ordinary life.
She was nothing extraordinary, not at all. She had to protect this normalcy as best as she could.
Spending her days living life, time seemed to pass quicker than expected.
Huin Town finally ushered in its 100th year anniversary—Centenary.