“This is bad… Parker, Sara, and the others…”
Io’s face suddenly turned deathly pale.
Ignoring John, she turned and sprinted toward the temporary camp by the shore.
As expected, the camp was already in a state of utter chaos — some people were fleeing blindly, some were kneeling in prayer while weeping, and others were seizing the opportunity to steal food from others, hoping for one last full meal.
However, once Io returned to the camp, the chaos quickly subsided.
“Move.”
Io kicked aside a devout believer kneeling on the ground and sneered.
“Your Goddess won’t come to save you, simply because you’re a poor, ugly old Dust Citizen. Wake up. If God truly loved you, how could she allow all of this to happen?”
She looked around at the crowd, her face cold as ice as she spoke.
“No one can be your savior. You must be your own saviors.”
A freckled girl stepped out from the crowd and said anxiously, “Sister Io, let’s run! The water is coming soon; it will drown everything here! You and Brother Parker should leave first!”
“What’s the rush?”
Io stood tall and proud, her tone full of disdain for the flood.
“Did you forget? I can stop the flood, just like last time.”
The crowd immediately erupted into a commotion.
Most of them had joined after being rescued later and knew nothing about this.
They began asking those around them.
Some elderly people vaguely suggested that such a thing had indeed happened, though they had only heard rumors…
Quickly, the rumors turned into “absolute fact,” because that blue-haired girl was the Holy Maiden of the Water Goddess, an angel sent by the Heavens to save them.
As the word spread from ten to 100 people, the refugees on the shore were once again filled with hope and confidence.
Only a few young people who were closest to Io stood frozen, their eyes filled with doubt, shock, and astonishment — but notably, they lacked any trust that she could actually stop the flood.
The freckled girl was the first to realize the truth, and tears began to flow silently down her face.
“Sara.”
Io called out to her, calmly giving out assignments.
“Organize everyone for an orderly evacuation. Men who still have strength should carry as many supplies as possible. Women, hold on to the children. For the orphans, divide them among yourselves.”
The freckled girl nodded vigorously through her tears.
“Parker.”
A silent, dull-looking brute of a man walked over. Io pulled the bag of Magic Crystals from her tunic and placed it in his hand. She patted his shoulder and gave instructions with a playful, grinning face.
“From now on, you’re the second-best mage in our team. You must be like me and teach magic to even more people.”
The man’s lips trembled.
When he looked up, the calm he had been faking finally shattered, and tears welled in his eyes.
“Can you not go?”
“Stop telling me what to do,” Io said, glancing at him indifferently.
“I’m the teacher.”
The order of the camp was finally maintained. Under the organization of Io’s old companions, the rescued refugees evacuated toward higher ground in an orderly fashion.
Only Io dived back into the water like a mermaid, swimming against the current toward the direction the flood was coming from.
After a long time, she poked her head out of the water, staring blankly at the giant wave, dozens of meters high, in the distance.
“Truly magnificent,” she sighed softly.
“Even with magic, we are still so small in the face of nature.”
“Did you really stop a flood once?”
John’s voice rang out unexpectedly behind her.
Io turned her head and saw the Hero standing on the surface of the water.
His armor was heavy, displaying a savage and metallic beauty, making him look like a Calamity Knight sent by the God of Death to harvest her soul.
“To be precise, it was just a small river,” Io said, shrugging innocently.
“Then you still dared to come?” John was stunned.
“How will I know if I don’t try?”
Io looked at the approaching crest of the flood, feigning ease, though her hand could not stop trembling.
As the water drew closer, the trembling grew faster.
‘I heard… the Hero is one who knows something is impossible yet still charges forward. Unfortunately, I have bad luck. If I were the Hero, that world where every Dust Citizen could learn magic would surely come.’
A trace of self-reproach and sadness welled up in John’s heart. He was the Hero, yet he had never considered such things.
“It will come,” he said, tightening his gauntleted fist and staring at the girl’s soaked blue hair, making a solemn promise.
“It will surely come.” Then he added, “If you can’t hold on, you can stop at any time. I will bring you back to the shore. At the very least, I can save your life…”
“No.”
Io interrupted him coldly.
John froze.
“Master Hero, you really are silly.”
The corners of Io’s mouth curled up, even as tears flowed silently.
“I’m already standing here, don’t you understand what I want to do?”
Her eyelashes curved, holding tears like dew, and clear droplets fell from her light blue eyes.
“Living… is so tiring… so hard.”
“Mom and Dad were so cruel, leaving me all alone in this world to continue being lonely. Why are humans born into this world just to suffer? What exactly are we living for? Is there really a God in this world? If there is, why is she so cruel…”
“So,” Io wiped away her tears and suddenly broke into a smile through her sobbing, “please, do me a favor and let me rest in the water. This is already the best graveyard I could have chosen.”
John remained silent for a long time.
His clenched gauntlet never loosened, even though his five curled fingers had long since lost their strength.
The flood crest approached.
It was an irresistible beast, a mass of pure, surging liquid carrying mud and sand, pushing a massive volume forward like an unstoppable mountain pressing down on the two of them.
Io’s snow-white, thin body floated on the dark water like a lamp that was about to go out, stubbornly fixed in the dark night.
“Is there… anything I can do for you?”
John asked, his voice strained.
Io tilted her head and thought for a long time.
“Master Hero, have you ever eaten cream cake?” she suddenly asked with a cautious excitement, her voice revealing the cute tremolo of a young girl for the first time.
John let out a clear laugh.
Beneath his visor, a few crystal “pearls” slid down to his chin.
“I’ve tasted it… are you curious about the flavor?”
Io nodded, appearing somewhat surprised and a little delighted.
“How did you know?”
“Because I was the same when I was a child.”
“Then… is it delicious?”
The girl’s bright, light blue eyes looked at him expectantly.
John closed his eyes, trying to recall the taste of the cake.
It was strange; in the past, he had always wolfed it down without ever savoring it, yet at this moment, the flavor suddenly became clear.
“It’s delicious. You feel as if you’re chewing on a cloud — sweet, soft, like the taste of a mother,” he described softly.
“Why ‘like the taste of a mother’? Did your mother make cakes for you?”
Io let out a small laugh.
“Because I didn’t have a mother, I thought it would be a very vivid description.”
John felt a bit awkward.
Io was stunned for a moment.
She lowered her head and fell into her own memories.
“I understand… the taste of a mother…”
Her slender shoulders shook slightly.
Her voice was filled with happiness and nostalgia, sounding like a sob and yet also like a dream.
“Cream cake… truly must be delicious…”
The roar of the giant wave drew closer.
The flood was like a spreading infection, like an ulcer on the earth; wherever the moonlight reached, everything was destroyed and swallowed by the violent current.
It was a hideous monster birthed by the sky and the sea, a roaring divine punishment in the veins of the earth.
Even a Hero who walked alongside time was as small as a needle before it.
And now, this beast was lunging toward the shore where the Dust Citizens were gathered without any rush.
The only one who dared to stand in its way, the one who “drew her sword” against it, was a Dust Citizen girl who had never even tasted the flavor of cake.
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