Chapter 89.3 – Protagonist: He is not me.
As they talked, the fighting has entered a white-hot stage, both the fallen and the angel were desperately fighting each other. The always silent man finally spoke: “Stop it, you’ve achieved your goal, don’t make unnecessary sacrifices.
“Ah …” Xiu chuckled: “Do you want to ‘serve the people’?”
“You’re not the only one who ‘serves the people,’ son of god.” Xiu’s voice was like a sigh and he stretched his hand to point at the angels and fallen who are at war. “You want to save this group of angels while I want to save the people who were oppressed by the angels.”
Hearing Xiu’s words, Eric’s dark green eyes ignited with anger. “So you persecuted them, used them, and killed the angels? You say you are ‘saving’ them?”
“Yes, I’m using them.” Xiu admitted it without hesitation. “But do think that giving them light and then making them stop fighting is saving them?”
Xiu smiled. “Son of god of the Temple of Light, you gave them light in order to soothe their problems. They will be grateful until the angels come again next time. You want them to stop fighting in order to save their lives, so they will live in the darkness until the angels recover.”
“You are protecting these angels rather than saving the people,” he said. Xiu glanced at the overwhelmed governor. “Even though you pointed your sword at him, you never really thought of killing him. You wanted to help the civilians but you never thought about letting them rebel against the angel’s reign because, according to what you were taught, the angels are ‘good’ – they are the messengers of the god of light.”
“…!” Eric was about to refute Xiu’s argument but one of the fallen interrupted him. The rebel looked around him then tried to attack Xiu since he had the largest number of feathers but he was intercepted by Old John. The fallen had a lot of respect for the brown-haired man who gave them equipment and training.
“There’s only a little time before the dawn.” Old John pointed to the carriages not far away and kindly suggested: “If I were you, I would move the loot before the arrival of angel reinforcements rather than provoke those who should not be provoked.”
The fallen man hesitated for a moment but when he recognized his target as the silver-haired youth who could wipe out all of the fallen with just one spell, he turned and ran to the carriages that carried the chests.
When the chests were opened, the light inside lit up half of the night sky. The people in the battlefield stopped fighting. All of the fallen stared at the source of light, even when the angel’s weapons were striking at them.
“For the light!”
Du Ze didn’t know who first shouted it. All of the fallen seemed to become mad. Their eyes filled with tears and they ran to the light like moths to a flame.
“For the Light!”
The angel’s battle formation collapsed as the remaining angel guards were engulfed by the mad wave of rebels. The fallen rushed towards the loot. As more and more chests were opened, the bright light lit up the faces that were weeping with ecstasy.
Under the bright light, Xiu smiled and said his last words to Eric.
“What you protect is always the ‘light.’ I protect not just the ‘light’; that is the essential difference between you and me.”
***
“What day is today?”
Alice, who was helping Violet tie her hair, thought about it for a moment then replied, “A star has made one revolution.”
‘Why haven’t they come back?” Enoch complained. He looked towards the carriages at the gate and jokingly hatched a rash plan. “How about we sneak into those carriages tomorrow? Haven’t a few of those carriages left recently?”
“When will we go?”
Enoch was frightened when Muir spoke. He was only joking but Muir unexpectedly took him seriously. What’s more, Rachel agreed to the plan and said with a serious expression on her face: “I observed the guards’ schedule. Right before dawn is the best time.”
The golden dragon Leon, who was standing slightly apart from them, glanced over at their group frequently and seemed very interested in participating in their plan.
Luckily for Enoch, the gates suddenly opened, stopping the mad plan in its tracks as a group of angel guards flew in with a carriage. Enoch’s eyes were the sharpest. He yelled: “Hey! Aren’t these the angels who went out today … Du Ze! I see Du Ze!”
Du Ze had just emerged from the carriage when the short-haired thief ran over to him. Enoch was about to say hello when he saw something that gave him pause.
“Who is this silver-haired brother?”
Xiu was too lazy to answer that rash thief so he took out Old John from his storage ring. This made the others, except for Muir who had already seen Xiu’s silver dragon form, realize that the red-eyed humanoid dragon with the silver ear fins is Xiu.
Enoch couldn’t help pulling on Violet’s sleeve. “How many forms does Xiu have?”
“Demon, undead, human, elf, beastkin, gnome, dragon,” Violet carefully counted them all out. “It seems like almost all of the eight races.”
“Missing the angel form.” Alice smiled as she corrected her sister.
Enoch closed his big mouth. “Well, this thief feels that in the near future he will see big brother Xiu become an angel …”
As they laughed and laughed, an angel came over and spoke to Xiu respectfully. “Please come with me, Lord Xiu, and we will go to the Ninth Layer for the ceremony. The god of light will appoint you as the new governor.”
****! They will finally meet the god of light, the tsundere BOSS! Du Ze knows that after many years, even a submissive daughter-in-law will one day become a domineering mother-in-law.1 The angel race’s trial had been dragging on for almost too long.2
“Wait a minute.” Just as they were about to leave, someone came running up from behind, them, shouting. Du Ze turned around and saw that the golden dragon, Leon, was coming towards them. The middle-aged man’s expression was anxious because he could not find Eric.
“Where is Eric?” Leon was becoming more and more anxious. He couldn’t control his voice and he roared: “Why didn’t he come back!”
There was only one carriage that came back and it contained only Du Ze and Xiu. Xiu glanced at Eric’s dragon partner and his red eyes darkened.
“Why are you asking me – do you think I killed him?” Xiu used his spatial magic to conjure up a sword and ran it through Leon in the blink of an eye. “You see, I can’t attack anyone, including your partner. He’s still alive down there.”
“You might still see him.” The corners of Xiu’s lips slowly turned up in a malicious smile, like a child who had taken a fish out of the water and was watching it flop around in the sand in its death struggles.
“However, which Eric you will see, the one you know, or another one, is unknown.”
The son of god with a pure faith in the light is destined to never come out of the angel trial.
******
******
Do you understand?
Even if someone is “similar” to me, it’s not “me” – there’s only one Xiu.
He and I are not the same. I’m not the same as the old me, so don’t look at him as though he is special.
You understand, right?
– [black box]