Secret World: I Became a God Through Lies

Chapter 152: Elegy of the Abyss: The Siren's Finale

"Destiny isn't about seeing the future, but watching the future unfold while being unable to do anything about it."

"You heard her singing, but shot her in the heart."

The sea water is gentle.

Even though it had swallowed up an entire fleet and quietly taken away the most important person in his life,

But at this moment, it just quietly wrapped around his skin, like the palms of lovers gently closing after a long separation. The touch was so peaceful that it was almost ethereal.

Rex opened his eyes.

What he saw was not the roar of a nightmare, but a temple in the deep sea - a phantom Garden of Eden, sleeping in the embrace of the blue tide.

Spiral coral columns form a dome, emitting a star-like glow.

The water falls from a great height, like layers of veiled curtains, swaying and reflecting brilliant colors.

The sea flowers at his feet bloomed gently, each petal carrying the fragrance of his distant memories.

It was a familiar illusion, a home that he thought had long been buried in war and tears.

Mira, sitting right in front.

She did not speak, but sat quietly beside the coral pillar, playing a wordless song on a harp woven from conch and shells.

The melody was soft and distant, like the heartbeat of the sea, enveloping his consciousness with every breath.

He stood there, as if his whole heart was being gently drawn by the melody, and he just wanted to stop at this moment and not move forward.

But he knew it was a dream.

He also knew that dreams would not last forever.

He knew the day would come when the sea would burn and the Empire's flagship would descend like the god of death.

The roar of steel and gunpowder will pierce the dome of the temple, Mira's strings will break in the explosion, and the sea will be dyed a desperate red.

He even remembered - from which angle and at how fast the shell that took everything from her would break through the sea.

But she still sings.

She turned her head to look at him, and there was still that heartbreakingly familiar tenderness in her eyes.

"Mira..." His throat was tight and his voice was hoarse as rust, "We have to go, there's still time..."

She just shook her head slightly, her eyes curved slightly, and her smile was so gentle that it seemed to wash away all the scars in the world: "Fate will not allow it, Rex."

He knelt down and covered his right eye - there should have been a light leading to the future, the "gift" she left for him.

But now, that light has gone out. The eye of fate is completely dark.

The nightmare would not allow him to glimpse the ending.

—Then, the tide suddenly turned.

The entire temple shook violently.

The ocean current was suddenly torn into a huge vortex, as if the sky and the earth were suddenly twisted.

A piercing roar came from below the horizon, penetrating layers of water pressure, as if a world was collapsing.

He knew - the war was coming.

Mira was still playing, but the melody was no longer smooth, with staccato and unnatural tones interspersed, as if even the gods were beginning to sob.

He rushed over, took her hand, and said in a rapid and trembling voice: "That's enough, stop singing, they will hear me - I can stop them! I swear!"

She didn't struggle, but just looked at him quietly, her eyes already knowing the future.

"You know they won't stop." He rested his forehead on her palm.
The voice was almost begging, "I... must stop them... I can't... let you..."

She interrupted him softly, her tone gentle but colder than the tide: "You won't succeed."

That voice contained no resentment or anger, only an irresistible reality - like the tide, silent but never to be disobeyed.

"You are one of them."

Those words, like an icy blade, pierced deeply into the faith he had sworn to defend with his life.

He opened his mouth to argue, but no words came out. At that moment, he felt as if he was frozen at the bottom of the sea.

And she continued to play - her fingertips were trembling, but she still refused to stop.

The sound of the piano was like a dirge, lingering in the corridors of the temple, as if playing an irreversible requiem for this final moment.

He couldn't keep her, just like he couldn't keep the self who once firmly believed that he could change everything.

The artillery fire from outside had not yet fallen, but Rex already knew that this loss was heavier than any previous one.

And he still hasn't woken up.

The next moment, the dome of the temple collapsed.

The dreamlike conch dome shattered into countless crystal fragments under the impact, and the dark blue sea light was torn apart.
The light of the Imperial Fleet was like a sharp sword piercing the deep sea, piercing through the tranquility of the Sanctuary without mercy.

The spotlight beam was as cold as a blade, projecting onto Mira's face, dissecting that gentleness and tranquility into scorched earth and sorrow.

Following closely behind was the clang of metal - the friction of armor, the activation sound of submarine muskets, the brilliance of military emblems and the heavy rhythm of steel boots stepping on the sea.

Rex saw them.

His past.

A familiar face came across the water, wearing military armor, and the numbers on the shoulder and armbands were still engraved deep in his old memory.

The leader appeared in the sea fog, with an expression of disbelief on his face and his eyes filled with astonishment, anger and deep disappointment.

"Hawk? ... Is that you?" the officer asked, his tone like a knife, piercing the sea water straight to the heart. "How did you get mixed up with these... things?"

"These 'things'..." Rex stood in front of Mira, raised his rifle,
His voice was as deep as a storm's edge. "They are living beings, not the alien species you are talking about."

"You're crazy." The officer's eyes suddenly turned cold, and with a wave of his hand, the entire team raised their guns. "You betrayed the Empire."

They had fought side by side, shed blood together in the icy sea and scorching sand, sang the imperial army song together, and raised their glasses to celebrate their victory.

Rex once thought that those memories would be engraved on him forever.

But at this moment, those memories were tearing apart every piece of loyalty in him inch by inch.

He didn't hesitate any longer.

He pulled the trigger.

Gunshots rang out, and the heads of his comrades exploded before his eyes. The blood mist was like a blooming red lotus, slowly dispersing among the tides.

He stood in the bloody light, as if he heard fate chuckle, laughing at him for finally choosing his heart and betraying the sword.

After that gunshot, the tranquility of the seabed was completely shattered.

"You betrayed your brothers!"

"She's a monster!"

"You killed one of your own, Rex!"

"You will be wiped out of the Empire! You won't even have an epitaph!"

Accusations, curses, and judgments turned into dense bullets, tearing the boundary between the ocean current and the illusion.

He wanted to yell, "I have no choice!" - but the words got stuck in his throat and turned into blood.

Because he knew—he did have a choice.

And he chose the heart.

Mira was chosen.

He chose the woman who sang for him in the Temple of Poseidon, the ethnic group that had embedded the eye of fate in his eyes. He betrayed the instructor who had taught him how to hold a gun and how to aim, and the military academy instructor's plan for his future.
It also betrayed the creed engraved on the back of his military badge: "Loyalty to orders is above life and death."

But the heart, after all, cannot withstand the firepower of the empire.

Mira's people fought back.

Shell bones, spells and tides form the final barrier, trying to protect their sanctuary and bloodline.

But in front of the imperial battle formation filled with metal and logic, they were just poets facing the butcher's knife.

The sanctuary became a slaughterhouse.

The corals were shattered, the sea water boiled, and the music condensed into the echo of death.

Rex stood amidst a sea of ​​blood and corpses, with the ruins of the temple behind him and the remains of his former comrades in front of him.

Mira's harp broke, her tribesmen fell, and the musket in his hand was still hot. The heat from the gun burned her palms, but it was nothing compared to the tear in her heart.

Someone's voice was still roaring in my ear: "You can't save her!"

Another cold voice was even more powerful: "You betrayed everything."

Rex slowly closed his eyes.

Loyalty, love, and identity - three sharp knives have brought him to the judgment seat of fate, and at this moment, they are completely broken.

And the light of the temple eventually went out after he was gone.

Mira fell into his arms, the blood from her lips blooming in the water, like a slowly blooming red lotus, quietly drifting away in the tide.

"I...I hurt you..." Rex murmured softly, his voice trembling like waves, as if the weight of the world was pressing on his chest.

Mira raised her hand and gently stroked his cheek with her fingertips. Her eyes were soft and calm.
It’s like watching an old dream that is about to end. Even though I know the ending, I still don’t want to say goodbye.

"I know."

Her voice was as low as the roar of a whale at the bottom of the sea. There was no questioning or anger, only a deep, soul-piercing sorrow.

"I forgive you."

This short sentence, like an oracle echoing from the abyss, pierced through all his defenses.

Rex froze in place, feeling as if his breath was being strangled, unable to even shed tears.

Her fingers slid to his right eye, the "Eye of Destiny" she had given him - her last token and also the mark of his sin and love.

"You will see everything...but you will not be able to prevent any outcome."

As soon as she finished speaking, her body shattered with the light, turning into millions of water-light quicksands and dispersing into the endless abyss.

The nightmare restarts.

This time, he acted early, setting off before the Imperial fleet and taking her away from the temple.

But on the way, they were hit by an ambushing ship, and Mira was swallowed by the blast wave and turned into debris.

He rushed into the enemy camp like a madman, killing everyone on every ship, and only brought back a piece of her blood-stained clothes.

He tried to contact his old subordinates, asking them to give up the attack in exchange for peace.

They agreed, but turned around and threw fire bombs, turning the temple into hell.

He lay in wait for several days, waiting for an opportunity to kill the commander of the Imperial flagship.

But at the moment he pulled the trigger, the Eye of Destiny suddenly backfired, reflecting Mira's death in his eyes - he hesitated and missed the opportunity.

He tried every possible change - delay, advance, ambush, resist, seek peace, escape...

The outcome is the same in each round of selection.

Mira dies.

The siren exterminated the clan.

The temple turned to dust.

Fate is like the sea, cold and indifferent and unwilling to change its course.

In the final nightmare cycle, Rex stands alone on a seabed covered in floating bones.

The corals were charred black, the sea was blood red. The temple ruins collapsed like a tomb.
At his feet were the corpses of his former tribesmen, and in front of him were the wreckage of a sunken imperial warship.

His right eye was cracked, and bloody tears flowed out of his pupil, staining half of his face red.

The Eye of Destiny—it no longer guides the future.

It becomes a “mirror of judgment,” a black mirror that reflects only failure and self-destruction.

He saw every moment of his hesitation, weakness, obsession and blind faith, and saw those moments when he thought it was “too late”.

See how the delusion of "I can save her" pushed him into the game layer by layer.

He restarted again and again after collapse, and drowned in hope again and again.

But her eyes—every scene, every round, every gaze before death—were too gentle.

So gentle, yet more cruel than fate itself.

The nightmare is back to zero again.

He opened his eyes and returned to the temple door.

Everything was the same as before. Mira sat beside the stone pillar, playing the familiar melody. The tune was as lingering as the tide, with a faint echo of sadness.

He rushed over and grabbed her hand: "We have to leave! Any later - it will be too late!"

She shook her head gently, her voice as gentle as the tide kissing the sand.

"Fate won't allow it."

She raised her eyes, and there was no fear or resentment in them, only the same deep affection and calmness as always.

“You saw the ending, but you didn’t do it to change it.”

"You remember it so you won't have to run away from it again."

Rex knelt in front of her and shouted at the top of his lungs: "I don't want to remember... I want to save you!"

Mira smiled faintly.

That smile seemed to make the entire nightmare space stand still, the sea water stopped flowing, and time froze at this moment.

"You love me, Rex...but fate is not an enemy you can defeat."

She gently reached out and took off the monocle from his face, revealing their overlapping reflections in the lens.

"If we ever meet again—don't try to change fate."

"Please, say goodbye properly."

Her figure turned into dust of light and dissipated at his fingertips, and the lens shattered into starlight, floating in the nightmare.

The dream collapsed.

The temple disappeared, the sea flowers withered, and the sound of the piano stopped.

The tide fell like a curtain, pulling him completely into the abyss of darkness.

In that endless sleep, he walked alone, with only the melody ringing in his ears.

——That was her last gift.

A song of the abyss.

(End of this chapter)