Secret World: I Became a God Through Lies

Chapter 508: Embers of the Burning Star: Gojinin Nobuna
A burning fire may not necessarily illuminate the way.
The remaining ash can still leave traces.

At the Tower of the End,
Every time we meet,
They are all embers reignited.

—From *The Tower Journey: The Ashes*

The tavern was warmly lit, with glasses clinking, as Calvino and Lilia recounted their past in the Nightmare World.

Si Ming seemed to hear it only faintly, and tapped his fingers lightly on the rim of the cup.

Suddenly, his gaze pierced through the window and was firmly captured by a figure on the street.

It was a girl wrapped in a dark cloak, clutching a katana that was almost longer than her whole body.

She walked very slowly, her steps unsteady, as if each step required all her strength.

A section of his face was visible beneath the cloak; he was pale and haggard, with empty eyes.

A strange light flashed in Si Ming's eyes.

Gojinin Nobuna.

Casino con artists always have incredibly accurate memories; they would never make a mistake.

The girl who once fought side by side with him in the City of Bones now seems like a walking corpse, swaying precariously in the wind.

"acquaintance?"

Liseria noticed his gaze, followed it, raised an eyebrow, and spoke with a mix of amusement and coldness:
"However, she looks like she just burned herself to the point of near death."

Si Ming did not answer, but slowly put down his wine cup and stood up.

"I go out for a while."

As soon as he finished speaking, he pushed open the tavern door, faced the street wind, and chased after him.

The wind howled in the street, and the lights swayed in the night fog.

Si Ming quickly caught up with the slender figure and grabbed her arm.

The girl under the cloak jolted, almost instinctively—she gripped the hilt of her katana tightly with her other hand, her eyes wary and cold.

But those squinted eyes had lost much of their luster.

The exhaustion and near-death experience after the fire left her with almost no strength to recognize anyone; she could only vaguely make out the outline of the man in front of her.

The vigilance in my heart remained, but my body no longer had the strength to refuse.

She was breathing rapidly and her steps were unsteady, as if she might collapse at any moment.

In the end, she didn't struggle, but just silently let him pull her along, like a small boat about to sink, drifting with the wind.

Si Ming glanced down at her, said nothing, but tightened his grip on her arm and turned to lead her back to the tavern.

The hustle and bustle of the street was left behind them step by step.

She was dragged along like a walking corpse, but unknowingly, she walked toward a warm light.

The wind howled in the street, and the lights swayed in the night fog.

The tavern's warm lights could not dispel the deathly aura emanating from Nobuna Mishinin.

She was placed on a bench, her hair disheveled, her chest heaving rapidly, her eyes vacant, and her breathing seemed about to stop at any moment.

He was like a broken shell after a fire, a puppet barely held together by strings.

Star Calamity Thirst.

Her consciousness was sinking.

It felt like being thrown into an endless deep sea, with icy water surging in from all directions, pressing against my chest.

She tried desperately to open her mouth, but only salty seawater filled her throat, and her lungs burned like fire.

She sank, sinking deeper and deeper.

Reason and memory crumbled little by little in the dark abyss, leaving only the dying roar of the heart in one's ears.

"--it's over."

She murmured on the seabed, her vision almost completely swallowed up.

Just then, a cool sensation slowly seeped into my throat.

The sweet and sour juice, like a drop of light, pierced through the thick seawater.

The feeling was like someone forcefully blowing cold air into your lungs the moment you're drowning.

The dark abyss slowly receded, and the suffocating pain gradually dissipated. She desperately reached out, as if clinging to a piece of driftwood.

In reality, Si Ming crushed the last gray fruit and fed it to her.

The fruit juice flowed down her throat, cool and sweet.

Before long, her breathing gradually became steady, and her eyelids trembled as she lifted them again.

As her vision cleared, she saw a head of long golden hair and a face with a cold smile.

Liseria rested her chin on her hand and said in a calm tone, "Siming, your friend has woken up."

Nobuna Mijinin's gaze was still unfocused, as if she were looking at someone through a misty haze.

But in that hazy mist, a name was gradually pushed out by memory.

The City of Mysterious Remains.

That period of time spent desperately battling against the creator of destiny.

There are also men fighting back-to-back amidst the ruins and bones.

Her lips trembled slightly, and she uttered two words in a hoarse voice:
"...The Fate Master."

The voice was very low, yet it was like a thin thread drawn from the abyss.

"haven't seen you for a long time."

The man opposite waved lazily, his smile beneath the mask carrying a familiar air of nonchalance.

"Hey, long time no see."

There were no pleasantries, no superfluous words, just like two gamblers who happened to meet again at the entrance of a casino, their conversation casual yet encompassing all their past experiences.

Liseria crossed her arms, a sharp glint in her smile:
"If Siming hadn't stuffed the last gray fruit into your mouth, you would have already crumbled into ashes in front of the hall."

She spoke so casually, yet the cold truth made the atmosphere freeze.

Nobuna's expression darkened slightly, her fingers tightened as if trying to grasp something, and finally she spoke only in a low voice:
"...Thank you, Siming."

It was brief and indifferent, yet carried an indescribable stubbornness.

Si Ming didn't seem to care, shrugged, and smiled casually. "I never thought that in the end, I would still see you again at the end."

The words contained both the unexpected and the inevitable sense of destiny.

After all, everyone who steps into the Star Calamity will eventually be swallowed up by this tower.

The air in the tavern was filled with the faint aroma of wine and the glow of firewood. Si Ming leaned back lazily in his chair, but his gaze remained fixed on the weak Mishinin Nobuna across from him.

Her breathing was shallow and rapid, her fingertips trembled slightly, but she still forced herself to lift her head, a bitter smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

"Do we have any other choice?" Her voice was hoarse, yet filled with stubbornness.

"Those who step into the Cataclysm will inevitably end up here. Fight, or die."

Si Ming did not answer immediately; he simply narrowed his eyes slightly and quietly observed her expression.

Her weakened state, as if she had barely managed to swim ashore after drowning, almost convinced him that she had already died once in the previous instance.

"You almost burned yourself out, didn't you?" Siming said softly, his tone devoid of mockery, only displaying a certainty born of insight.

Nobuna didn't answer, her eyes lowered, her silence as if she were being pulled tightly by some memory.

Darkness surged within her consciousness.

She recalled a previous instance—an abandoned amusement park.

The weathered carousel creaked in the wind, and the rusty Ferris wheel stood half-collapsed in the distance, the air filled with the mixed smells of rotting candy and damp, musty wood.

She was teleported in along with the Onmyoji of the Mishinin family and several "allies".

Those allies, like her, control shikigami, but they do not belong to the Mishinin.

They called themselves "fellow travelers," but their eyes were cold, as if they had already been sizing up their prey.

"The Eight-Foot Lady".

As they delved deeper, everyone realized who the final boss of the dungeon was.

That was the tallest ghost woman in old legends, dressed in white, with black hair reaching the ground, her body so long that her entire form could not be seen.

She sang softly in the middle of the dilapidated amusement park, her voice like rusty iron scraping against glass.

However, during the final sacrificial ceremony, that group of "fellow believers" suddenly pushed the Mishinin clan to the forefront.

"Go, bait."

"Only by drawing Him out can this copy be ended."

Those cold words still echo in Nobuna's ears.

In that instant, she watched as her people were mercilessly pushed into the shadow of the Eight-Foot Lady.

She was caught up in it too, with no other choice.

Images of blood and fire swirled in my mind.

The figure of the eight-foot-tall lady blotted out the night sky, her blood-red high heels thumping down on the ruins, each step shattering the ground.

Her arms were outstretched, as if she wanted to embrace the whole world.

One by one, the clansmen's shikigami were torn apart, and the sounds of prayer gradually turned into desperate wails.

Nobuna could only grip the katana tightly, the power of the Star Calamity burning wildly within her body, her reason being peeled away layer by layer.

She remembers the last moment when her body was almost torn apart and her flesh was burned.

But she still unleashed her power.

The katana sliced ​​through the void, fire and blood intertwined, she shattered the illusion of the Eight-Foot Lady, and dragged the old god into ashes.

However, when she fell, she did not hear cheers from her tribesmen or companions.

Instead, it was a cold whisper:
"As expected, the bait worked."

"The victory is ours; she's useless now."

She remembered that they pocketed the treasures and mysteries that had fallen from the remains of the Eight-Foot Lady, but they didn't even glance at her again.

"A Star Calamity without Star Points is like a Shikigami without Value."

Their voices pierced her eardrums like knives.

Then, the heavy footsteps faded into the distance, leaving her alone at the dungeon exit, like a discarded rag.

In the tavern, Nobuna's hands trembled slightly under the table, her fingertips gripping the hem of her dress.

She slowly exhaled, a bitter smile playing on her lips: "They treated me like used material."

"Originally, I planned to just walk into any dungeon, die in battle, or be completely consumed by flames."

She lowered her head, her voice tinged with self-mockery: "And yet, here I am, you've saved my life."

Si Ming looked at her without saying a word.

After a moment, he stretched and yawned, his tone as relaxed as if he had just won a hand of cards at a casino.

"Don't think too much."

In short, you should rest first.

He turned to the side, leaned back in his chair, and his eyes lit up beneath the white clown mask, a familiar smile curving his lips.

"I will find a way to help you recover from the power of the Star Calamity."

"At worst, I'll take a gamble."

He tapped the table lightly, as if announcing something: "You know, what I'm best at is gambling."

Nobuna stared at him blankly, her eyes filled with complex emotions.

In her pitch-black, almost extinguished world, the man's smile was like a firelight on a gambling table—absurd yet warm.

On one side are the embers after the fire, and on the other is the swindler's smiling face.

And they have been pushed back onto the same path by the Tower of the End.

Some people burn out, leaving only ashes;

Some people burn out, only to be rekindled in the embers.

At the Tower of the End,
The reunion marks the beginning of the gamble.

—The Witness of the Ashes

(End of this chapter)