Salvation equals death

"I used to live in a big birdcage, and there were many, many dolls with me. They could talk and sing..."

Before, how long ago?

It is a memory older than the nightingale. In those blurred lights and shadows, there are smiling and weeping goddesses, noisy and ugly dolls, gentle wind, wet soil, and the back of the father who hates her.

What is the father?

"Father is a mountain, he can hold up your sky, he is not good at words, but he can always make you feel at ease."

"Father is the sun, and his blessings are everywhere. As long as he is there, your life will never be dark."

The girl who sleeps soundly in the birdcage with her knees hugged, occasionally dreams of a bigger birdcage, and every time she chases out, she can only see a dark shadow from her back.

——but that was just a dream.

Vera opened her eyes and rubbed her eyes. She struggled to get up from the soft bed, looked at the first ray of sunlight coming in from the window, and couldn't help opening her mouth to exhale a white mist-like breath.

It's been ten years.

Vera walked past the mirror and brushed aside her waterfall-like black hair. In the mirror, the girl with drooping eyes looked serene. When she raised her eyelids, she raised a pair of quiet and clear eyes, with a bit of dusty purity.

Vera put one hand on the mirror, and gently wiped the midnight-black eyes of the person in the mirror with her thumb.

To be honest, she doesn't like the color of her eyes and hair very much, because she doesn't look like her father's child.

After washing up, Vera changed into a church-style combat uniform, put on snow-white gloves, and buckled the leather belt around her waist, and then walked to an open space behind the church and by the woods.

Adrian was already there waiting for her. The man who had grown into a teenager turned around when he heard the footsteps behind him.

"Vera, good morning." Adrian greeted with a warm smile, the sun shone on his golden hair, and the shadows were full of mottled and jumping light.

"Good morning, Ed." Vera nodded, looking at the western sword on Adrian's waist, and said, "Father, isn't he here?"

"Shengzong is out." Adrian frowned, remembering what Shengzong told him before he left, "He went to the northern part of the town, and I'm afraid he won't be back before noon, so let me be your training partner .”

"Understood." Vera pulled out her western sword calmly and said, "Then shall we begin?"

Vera has always talked less, and Adrian has gotten used to it, but smiled helplessly and dotingly, and pulled out the saber at his waist.

After a fight, Adrian's breathing was unstable, but Vera was still walking steadily, her eyes were calm, and her spirit was highly concentrated, as if she had poured her heart and soul into the battle.

"Vera is amazing." Adrian took off his helmet and rubbed Vera's loose hair with a smile. "The Holy Father will be very happy too."

When Vera heard the words, there was light in her eyes immediately, like a rabbit with its ears pricked up suddenly, and a smile appeared on her dull face: "Yeah!"

Vera's physique is a little weak, and her magic talent is not high. She can neither become a warrior nor a warlock. Even because of her slender figure, those Nanya swords suitable for women are not suitable for her.

After hundreds of failed attempts, the Holy Emperor finally decided on the "Western Sword" with armor-piercing effect as a weapon for her. The thorns and cuts are the main ones.

In addition, Shengzong also created more than a dozen footwork for her, using Vera's slender and light figure to bring "speed and agility" to the extreme.

In terms of foil fighting, Adrian is no longer Vera's opponent, which makes him very happy, because it means that his pampered sister has more confidence to survive.

Adrian will be leaving soon, leaving this remote town for the capital of the kingdom, and he will become the new "Holy Son" of the Holy See.

Shengzong didn't go out for anything else, but to prepare for his graduation ceremony.

"When you come to the Holy See, you don't need me to teach you. You should know what to do, right?" Shengzong frowned, looking alienated and unfeeling, "If someone really asks, you should say your own child of the Holy Ancestor."

"..." Adrian was silent for a moment, and said in a low voice, "Uncle, the bishop will use this to ridicule you." As the Holy Father who has served the light all his life, how can he have his own children?

"I'm still afraid that he won't be able to ridicule you?" Shengzong said slowly and lightly, without any emotion, "You can judge the right and wrong yourself. You are born similar to your mother, and someone will always ask about it."

"I understand, uncle." Adrian respectfully agreed, the Holy Zong remained silent, and the room fell into silence for a while, and the rustling sound of the branches being swayed by the wind could even be heard outside the window.

"You go." After a long time, the holy emperor spoke, he looked at the luxurious carriages slowly approaching on the street, and almost indifferently urged, "as the price of my abdication, the bishop will definitely give in to you, even if You are Winorella's child, and he can only pretend that he doesn't know. But it doesn't mean that you are safe. Compared to me, a young man who is capable and easy to control is his ideal son. If you are caught by him Take advantage of-"

Shengzong's tail tone was gorgeous and slightly curly, but after a moment of silence, he smiled lightly and said: "That has nothing to do with me."

"As long as Vera is not involved, what the end of this world will end up has nothing to do with me."

Shengzong's words were cold and ruthless, but Adrian's handsome face showed a bit of sadness and intolerance. He was originally a soft-hearted and kind boy: "...Uncle."

"Vera still can't leave you, please be merciful, don't let her face such a cruel parting prematurely."

"I don't have time." Shengzong pulled off his gloves expressionlessly, he was obviously handsome like a god of light, but he seemed to be dying, "You always spoil her, wishing to drive away all the darkness, but that is Useless."

"Instead of letting others bully her in the future, it's better to let me be the executioner."

After Adrian left, Shengzong fell ill.

Shengzong, who had always been strong and never seemed to grow old and decrepit, fell ill at this time, and collapsed in almost a few days. There was no cure, no matter how powerful the light magic was, he couldn't get rid of his dead body. apathy.

Vera was a little at a loss. She had just sent away her brother who was very kind to her, and now she was taking care of him by the Holy Zong's bed every day, lest in the blink of an eye, her father would disappear.

In the face of illness and death, Shengzong was very calm. He even became talkative uncharacteristically, telling Vera stories about his past.

Only then did Vera know that in a battle known as "Luogang Divide the Sea", in order to completely repel the powerful blood clan, the Holy See sacrificed his life several times under the compulsion of the Holy See.

Alex is the only genius in the human world who is expected to break through the realm of sages for thousands of years, but because of those sacrifices, even if he has an infinitely possible future, he has no time to wait for that day to come.

"However, there is nothing to regret. Regret is the most useless thing in this world, because it can neither make up for nor redeem." Shengzong gently stroked Vera's soft hair.

"The reason why I left the Holy See was not because I gave up the light in my heart because of hatred, but because I found that the dirty Holy See cannot become a holy place in my heart."

Alex gave everything to protect the territory and dignity of human beings, but the newly appointed bishop was afraid of his supreme merit, and in order to smear his brilliance, he pushed Venorella to the vampire.

Otherwise, how could the saint raised in the depths of the Holy See get in touch with the blood prince who is afraid of the holy light?

"Vera." Alex raised his pale fingers, and gently wiped away the tears falling from the girl's hollow eyes, his low and hoarse voice concealed a pain-like tenderness, "I don't know you have experienced What, what have you suffered, so that for so many years, your heart is empty. You don't understand love, but you stubbornly hope that those who have nothing to do with you can be happy...I can't say it's wrong, But it’s a sad thing.”

"There is nothing... more tragic than a senseless sacrifice." Like Alex's life.

"Father." Vera dazedly wiped away the tears that filled her eyes, unwilling to let the mist cover her gaze on the person in front of her, "Can you not leave me?"

"If you leave, there will be no mountains supporting the sky in my world, and there will be no way back to return. Wind, frost, snow and rain can hurt me. You know, you are my belief, and it is all I offer my piety. "

"You're gone, I don't know how to live." The girl's eyelashes were full of tears, and she looked at him with clear eyes. Ten years later, she was still the child curled up in the birdcage.

"This is the only thing I ask of you, Vera." The father's pale hand gently stroked the girl's cheek. His child was as clear as crystal, but also as fragile as crystal.

"There is no right or wrong in many things in this world. There is no right or wrong. Swords may confront each other because of differences in positions, but there is only one thing, which is wrong no matter what."

—“That would be suicide.”

"Whether it's pain, sorrow, or happiness, that's your life, don't deny it, Vera."

"This is my only request to you as a father - to live and not to commit suicide."

"As long as you can live, don't choose to die. Only when you are in the bottom of your life can you look up to the top. Living is a very painful thing, but as long as you persevere, good things will always happen."

Just like the most desperate day in my life, I met you, so my life has light from then on.

"May the Holy Light bless you, Vera." Alex gently held the girl's face and placed a kiss on her forehead. It was the father's last blessing to the child, and it was also a love that could not be stopped even if death .

Bright, bright in a dimly lit room.

The man leaning on the hospital bed had calm brows and eyes, and his silver-white hair, like the moonlight, gradually lost its brilliance, turning into the lifeless gray that only the old man had.

He was aging little by little, but he didn't look ugly, because the brows that always seemed indifferent and harsh were now full of kindness and tenderness.

"Father." The girl opened her eyes wide, unknowingly sad eyes were entangled with countless dense and complicated silk nets, she didn't know that her anger was like a thread, and she almost begged, "I can't do it, father."

Her calling came to an abrupt end, because the man stared deeply at her for the last time, but he gently pursed his lips, and then, those golden eyes, which were warm in color but always seemed cold, closed forever.

—You can do it, Vera.

It was too late for him to say this, but Vera understood.

Vera knelt in front of him in a daze, until the sun went down and the moon hung high, she crawled and lowered her head as if in extreme pain, and pressed her forehead on the cold floor.

Isn't my heart empty?The girl who had almost shed tears tightly clutched the cloth in her heart. At this moment, her night sky was broken into countless fragments, and a ray of skylight shone cruelly but tenderly.

The long hair that stretched to the ground turned into a silvery moonlight, and the midnight-like dark eyes were filled with golden brilliance. At this time, the girl kneeling in front of him had a pure face and sad eyes, very much like Saint Eric. Adams' child.

The little child curled up in the birdcage grew up overnight.

She cremated him according to Alex's will, carried his ashes in a small casket, and at the same time inherited Alex's inheritance.

Alex left her everything he owned—the Holy Key [White Rose Cross] and the Holy Lance [Dawn of Dawn] that had accompanied the Holy Zong in major battles and won him countless glory.

The White Rose Cross is a sacred object of the church. It has a history of nearly a thousand years since the establishment of the church. The ability to live.

And the Dawn Period, once called the "Crown of Righteousness", was originally a great sword, but it was damaged in the war, passed on to the new Holy Sect, and was melted and recast by him with alchemy, and it became a sword. A long-gun with a thinner handle.

The reason why it is called "Dawn Period" is because this silver-white gun is covered with golden patterns after being filled with magic power, shining softly like the sun, like the dawn that pierces the night and pierces the darkness. , so it is called "the period of dawn".This spear is also inlaid with the Philosopher's Stone, the difference is that the object of these beliefs is not the gods, but the Holy Ancestor himself.

——Alex left everything of himself to his children.

[Host, you are not alone, you still have me. 】The system expressed its sense of existence aggrievedly,【I regret the host, don't use the Holy Sect as a template to learn from, okay? 】

The system wants a savior who is righteous and willing to die for the common people—but even if it doesn't admit it, in most cases, the actions of such a sacrificial savior are no different from suicide.

Vera pretended not to hear what the system said. She rummaged through the closet and found a white cloak with gold trim and put it on her head, covering most of her golden eyes. She put on silver light armor and boots, Standing in front of the mirror is a thin and thin young man with silver hair and golden eyes. His eyes are clear. Unlike the Shengzong who has gone through vicissitudes, he looks like a young man at the age of fifteen or sixteen. The "Holy Son".

Vera spread out the parchment, picked up a quill, and dipped the ink on the letter. The letter was sent to the Holy See, and it was signed by Adrian, but she didn't mention the death of the Holy Father. She just asked about the current "Holy Son" as if chatting. "The situation.

The gorgeous and smooth aristocratic cursive style is exactly the handwriting of Shengzong's usual letters. When she wrote the pen at the end, she wrote two names close together.

—Vera Alex.