With that thought, Blake moved swiftly like a bolt of lightning, roaring as he charged towards Anna, but the Whale-man Species girl Moli had already stepped in front of him, blocking his way.
The sound of their fierce confrontation rang out as Moli stood her ground with pursed lips, watching Blake being repelled by her.
Meanwhile, Fisher had his Fluid Sword raised, ready to snatch the bell from Anna’s hands at any moment, but just then, Anna suddenly turned back to lock eyes with him.
Fisher could clearly see the plea in her bloodshot eyes as her beautiful face, smeared with blood, had turned extremely pale, and at the same time, her whole body shook uncontrollably. The legs hidden beneath her skirt couldn’t bear it anymore and started to buckle, and her entire body seemed like a machine on the verge of falling apart.
She had reached the end of her endurance. She could no longer return to the South Continent...
Seeing such an expression of pain and determination, Fisher’s hand holding the Fluid Sword did not move.
After all, would taking the bell from her hands be a relief or a torment for Anna?
Fisher could not judge, nor did he have the right to judge, so he could only follow Anna’s wishes.
As Fisher gently lowered the Fluid Sword in his hand, Anna gave him a grateful look, within which was a trace of faint hope, and her trembling and soft voice also reached him,
"In the cemetery, there are my sisters’ ashes, please take them home for me..."
After saying these words, Anna forcefully bit her lip and threw the nearly shattered bell onto the ground.
At the moment when the relic broke, a piercing huge noise seemed to penetrate the souls of everyone present, and a ring of illusory air waves burst out instantly, flinging everyone around uncontrollably in all directions.
Although Fisher and Moli were close by, they had not undergone the process of Plant Meat, so they only felt a headache and a continuous ringing in their ears, but Blake was not so lucky.
Blake was flung far out, tumbling several times on the ground before lying prostrate, clutching his own body in agony, with blood starting to seep through his eyes and brows. A great torment descended upon him as punishment,
"Anna! Do you know what you’ve done? No!"
Blake’s hysterical roar could no longer be heard by Anna. She had thought she would suffer greatly after the bell shattered, but at that moment, she felt as if all sensation had been stripped from her body, as if she had never known pain, never known suffering.
All around her was pitch black, and Anna... no, Lea Lu, stood quietly in this dark space. Her appearance was no longer the breathtaking beauty from before but had turned into that of a simple girl with wheat-colored skin, the only consistent feature being her beautiful, spirited eyes...
She wore the grass skirt of her tribe, with a fragrant flower woven into her long, dark hair, their tribal decoration.
Without pearls, diamonds, or gold, without beautiful dresses or tempting perfumes, there was only the fresh sea breeze from the South Continent blowing towards her...
In the all-encompassing darkness, Lea Lu looked down at her own hands, which had been silent for a long, long time, but a profound sense of loneliness and loss welled up in her heart, as if to engulf her.
Just when she felt lost, from the surrounding darkness, countless voices that seemed slightly unfamiliar due to a long separation started to rise one by one.
Lea looked up in surprise, only to find that, without knowing when, she was now surrounded by her longed-for sisters. They were wearing the same simple clothes they had worn when they left the South Continent, their faces carrying serene and contented smiles, looking straight at her.
None of her sisters bore the Western Continent’s makeup on their faces, nor the scars of beating and humiliation on their bodies; their eyes were filled with the wildness and freedom of the South Continent.
"I’m sorry... so sorry... in the end, I still failed to bring you all back home."
As Lea knelt on the ground, filled with tremendous guilt toward the quiet gaze of her sisters, hot tears rolled down her cheeks. She didn’t even dare to look up at the sisters in front of her as if doing so would awaken the memory of their deaths before her eyes.
"I’m sorry... I’m so sorry..."
While Lea was overwhelmed with guilt, warm hands gently grasped her shoulders and arms, soothing her current sorrow.
Their breaths, their warmth, transferred unimpeded to Lea’s body, lifting her tear-filled face. All of her sisters, with smiles on their faces, crouched beside her, holding Lea tightly as if they were still alive next to her.
"It’s okay, Lea, as long as now, we can see each other, and you’re still by our side, we are already very satisfied..."
"That’s right! Moreover, our surname is proof that there’s a beautiful Lu Tribe, right across the ocean on the southern tip of the continent, where our beautiful homeland once was..."