Escorted from the high tower and walking on the cold stone bridge that circled the outer wind wall, Orion's face was ashen.
Wrong... Everything was wrong... The one I had always believed in, the one I had always defended... was actually this kind of being...
The temple of his faith collapsed in his heart, shattering into dust.
It wasn't the nobles who deceived the king, but the king himself... he was... he was the root of all this suffering!
He disregards everything, which is why he indulged the nobles' greed; he is obstinate and self-serving, which is why he blocked all possibility of change! He built the wind wall, perhaps with the intention of providing shelter, but now, this wind wall has become a cage, and the eternal gales are the coldest chains on that cage!
I... I swore to Lumiere and the others... I said I could definitely awaken the king and change everything... I came bearing everyone's hopes...
Despair, like a cold tide, submerged him.
Not only had he failed to bring hope, but he had also gotten himself trapped.
The worst outcome, I had thought, would be a sentence of exile... but the reality was an agony more terrifying than death.
A powerful thought ignited like a final flame in his cold heart.
My comrades are still waiting for me to return... They need to know the truth! They can't hold on to any illusions about that tyrant!
Locked in the bottom of the high tower, Lumiere would have no way to rescue me, and I would have no way to send a message...
I must... I must tell them now!
Orion's face was deathly pale, but in that moment, his gaze became unusually sharp and resolute.
He knew his comrades must be lurking in some nearby shadow, anxiously awaiting news from him.
They were already a sufficient distance from the high tower, walking on a suspended stone bridge flanked only by howling gales.
Orion suddenly used all his strength, threw his head back, and let out a heart-wrenching cry:
"It's useless—! He can hear, but He won't listen—!! This self-righteous, blind and deaf tyrant is beyond saving—!!!"
His voice seemed so faint amidst the howling gales, yet it was so piercing.
The moment he shouted those words, he felt an unprecedented sense of release.
Immediately after, he erupted with a strength he had never imagined possessing, breaking free from his restraints in an instant!
Without a shred of hesitation, without even a final glance at this world that had driven him to despair, he resolutely threw himself towards the eternally swirling wind wall on the outer side of the stone bridge, which emanated an aura of destruction!
...
In the distance, Columbina, hidden in the shadows, saw Orion's determined rush toward the wind wall. She let out a short gasp and sharply turned her head away, not daring to look, her slender body trembling slightly.
Coppelia subconsciously reached out and pulled Columbina into her arms, her own face pale. She had never witnessed a human life being extinguished up close. She couldn't help but turn her head away as well, embracing Columbina, not daring to watch the gory scene she anticipated.
Lumiere's muscles tensed, his eyes wide with fury, and an impulse nearly drove him to charge out recklessly!
...
But what they feared did not happen.
The Solitary King's personal guard were no slouches, after all. The moment Orion broke free, they reacted like wild beasts. One of them shot forward with astonishing speed and, just as Orion's head was about to touch the edge of the wind wall, brutally tackled him to the ground! Orion's cheek slammed hard against the cold ground with a dull thud. When he lifted his head again, the tip of his nose was scraped and bleeding.
"Knock him out and carry him away," the leading white-robed attendant said, glancing indifferently at the poet struggling futilely on the ground as if looking at a piece of clutter to be dealt with. "Don't let his filthy blood contaminate the wind wall."
One of the guards received the order and precisely chopped the back of Orion's neck with his hand. His body went rigid, all his struggles ceased instantly, and he went limp.
The guard slung him over his shoulder as easily as a sack of grain, turned, and walked towards a hidden staircase on the side leading to the bottom of the tower. His figure quickly vanished into the profound darkness.
...
In the distant shadows.
Tightly embracing, Coppelia and Columbina heard a dull thud,
The next second, they saw Orion being swiftly tackled, then knocked unconscious and carried away.
Coppelia and Columbina both sighed in relief almost simultaneously, and a sense of exhaustion from the close call made them lean against the stone wall.
Thank goodness...
However, Lumiere's tense body did not relax in the slightest.
His gaze was locked on the entrance to the staircase where the guard had disappeared, his face turning deathly pale in the moonlight.
That was by no means the path to an ordinary prison. It led directly to the bottom of the tower, to that place of despair where not even the most resilient prisoners could endure for three days!
"No..." Lumiere forced the word through his clenched teeth, his fists cracking as immense fear and anger overwhelmed him.
"What's wrong, Lumiere?" Coppelia noticed his strange reaction and asked urgently. "He's not dead, isn't that a good thing?"
Lumiere slowly turned his head, his eyes filled with an unprecedented gravity and pain. His voice was hoarse:
"They... they took him to the bottom of the tower. He will be ravaged by the eternal gales... It's a torture more cruel than death."
A single sentence froze the nascent relief in an instant.
Lumiere stood there stunned, his right hand clenched so tightly into a fist that his nails dug deep into his palm, drawing blood without him even noticing.
He couldn't believe what he had seen.
Orion's final warning, filled with despair and rage, was seared into his mind like a red-hot branding iron, every word burning his sanity:
"Tyrant... beyond saving..."
...
The three of them returned in silence to the rendezvous point deep within the city district.
Lumiere ripped off his black hood and tossed it onto a wooden crate in the corner.
He didn't look at anyone, merely kept his head down as he walked with heavy steps to the rough stone table in the center of the room. He braced his hands on the edge of the table, his knuckles white from the force.
The candlelight cast flickering shadows on his face, which was exceptionally grim. The scene of Orion being carried into the dark staircase at the bottom of the tower weighed on his heart like a massive boulder.
His thoughts churned uncontrollably, finally pointing to a conclusion he had long been unwilling, or rather, afraid to truly face.
The nobles... yes, the nobles were minions, maggots... but without the tacit approval from that high tower, how could they be so brazen?
The Solitary King... Decarabian... He is the one who makes all the rules, the soil in which all injustice is allowed to grow. He is the root of all suffering.
But... we can still fight the nobles with our swords. But to fight a god... can my sword truly harm Him in the slightest?
Or should we flee? Abandon those who cannot leave and escape into the icy plains outside the walls, a place that even gods find troublesome?
The more he thought, the darker the path ahead became. Despair, like a cold tide, gradually submerged his mind, leaving him almost breathless.
He felt his conviction being crushed by an invisible force.
Just as these negative emotions were about to consume him, a strange, gentle, warm breeze brushed against his cheek, then softly enveloped his entire being.
He thought it was Coppelia performing her "magic" again, trying to comfort him.
Lumiere raised his head and looked towards the source of the warm breeze.
In the flickering shadows of a corner, a woman stood silently, having appeared at some unknown moment.
Her posture was upright, and even in simple travel attire, she could not hide her inner fortitude and nobility.
Her long golden hair was like molten sunlight, appearing particularly striking in the dim room.
Near her shoulder hovered a small, palm-sized pixie, its back adorned with glowing wings that faded into a cyan hue. The strange, warm breeze seemed to originate from it.
Their eyes met. The golden-haired woman took a step forward, breaking the silence in the room:
"Hello. I am Gunnhildr." Her gaze fell upon Lumiere with an air of confirmation. "You must be Lumiere Ragnvindr?"
___
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