Chapter 620: Mother And Father?

The sound of flowing water could still be heard among the white stones.

The spring, which had almost dried up just a few minutes ago, was now flowing calmly past the old pillar.

The white roots were absorbing moisture again, and the withered plants along the riverbed were slowly returning to their natural color.

Everything was just as it had been before the Hollow Sun awakened.

There was only one difference.

Amélie Moreau was no longer there.

Lian slowly lowered his right hand, the last strands of golden light had disappeared between his fingers, and not even a trace of the energy that had surrounded the girl’s body and soul a few moments ago remained.

He stared at the spot where Amélie had been standing for a while.

There was no body, no blood had been spilled on the stones, and there wasn’t even a bit of ash to show that someone had lost their life here.

All of the girl’s belongings had been stored in her personal storage space, and with her destruction, no items had been left in the area.

If someone arrived here a few minutes later, they would probably never guess what had happened.

A short distance away, Rindo was also standing still.

His spear was still in his right hand, and the fingers of that hand were still a little numb after their brief contact with the power of Judgment, he opened and closed his fingers several times, but his gaze never left the place where the girl had died.

Neither of them spoke.

Even after all the deadly battles they had been through, witnessing her death was different from most things they had seen until that day.

No enemy had attacked her, she hadn’t had a chance to fight, and she hadn’t even known which law she had broken.

A voice from the sky had simply announced her name, and a few moments later, her existence had disappeared.

Finally, Rindo lowered his spear.

"Lian."

The young Vorhelm turned his head slightly.

"Hmm?"

"Is there no trace of her left?"

Without answering immediately, he activated True Sequence again.

The Mana flows around the spring appeared before his perception, the energy in the white roots, the gentle movement of the water, and the weak Mana remains he had released while trying to interrupt the Judgment were still detectable.

But at the place where she had been executed? There was no life energy, and no structure remained.

Even the golden connections of the Judgment had disappeared so completely that examining their traces seemed almost impossible.

He deactivated the skill after a few seconds.

"No, there’s nothing left to recover, even most of the energy used to carry out the Judgment has disappeared."

Rindo lowered his gaze, looking at the wet stones in front of him for a few moments.

Then he slowly breathed out and returned his spear to its normal position.

"I see."

Silence settled between them again, and Lian turned his gaze toward the spring.

He could still remember Amélie’s happy smile, when she had knelt beside the plants after the water started flowing again and excitedly talked about making better medicine.

She had even made plans for the next day, they were supposed to collect more samples and perhaps examine a few other springs.

But all those plans had disappeared within a few seconds.

He slowly breathed out.

What a ridiculous death.

He didn’t mean that the girl’s death was unimportant, on the contrary, what made the situation even more disturbing was how meaningless it seemed from a human point of view.

Amélie hadn’t intended to hurt anyone, and she hadn’t even entered the area to obtain a forbidden treasure.

Yet an unknown being in the sky had accused her of crimes that she couldn’t understand.

Then it had carried out the Judgment without giving her the slightest chance to defend herself.

Lian raised his head again, the Hollow Sun was still high above the land, far away in the sky.

But it no longer looked like the beautiful sun from a few hours ago.

The huge golden rings around its center were moving slowly, and a large, completely open black pupil was in the middle of them.

However, there was no sign that the Hollow Sun was paying direct attention to Lian or Rindo.

It was as if they no longer mattered to it after the Judgment had been carried out.

At least for now.

Lian looked away from the sky, he still didn’t know exactly what the Hollow Sun was.

It wasn’t even clear whether he should consider it a living being, an ancient structure, or some kind of enormous system.

But its behavior had revealed several clear abilities, it could identify people. 𝖋𝘳ℯ

It announced specific accusations and activated a power after issuing a Judgment, a power that could directly affect the target’s body and soul.

This behavior was unlike an ordinary monster attack, it was more like a system that had been set up in advance.

He remembered the words he had heard during the trial.

"Unauthorized entry into the domain of the condemned."

"Participation in tampering with the containment structure."

And the third accusation.

"Taking property belonging to the Mother."

He slightly furrowed his brows.

Mother? This word had caught his attention from the moment the accusation was announced.

The first two accusations referred to specific actions, but the third was about ownership.

If the Mother referred to a specific person or being, why was such a title used in the Judgment system? Did it refer to a being that owned this land?

Or perhaps it was a title given to the ones who had created the structure?

He even remembered the "Father", the being that had created the Five Calamities, could there be some kind of connection between them?

Mother and Father?

Lian still didn’t have enough information to answer, but he decided to remember these words.

There was another question.

Why Amélie?

All three of them had been in the same place, all three had entered the Land of the First Dawn, and all three had taken part in examining and reopening the spring’s water flow.

He had even personally taken the Core of the Fallen Star from beneath the pillar.

In terms of collecting resources, he had obtained far more treasures than Amélie or anyone else.

Yet the Hollow Sun hadn’t paid any attention to him, instead, it had chosen that girl as its first target.

So either the Judgment’s criteria went beyond these accusations, or the order in which people were selected followed another rule.

Perhaps the Hollow Sun was examining everyone present one by one.

Perhaps the severity of the accusations mattered, or perhaps certain actions caused someone to be given a higher priority.

Or perhaps the way this structure understood sin and crime was completely different from the way humans understood them.

In any case, one thing was clear.

If that same light ever chose Lian as its target, he still had no reliable way to stop it, and this matter was far more important than any other question.

Rindo noticed his long silence and looked at him.

"What are you thinking about?"

Lian placed his hands behind his back.

"Why it chose only her."

Rindo remained silent for a few seconds, then turned his gaze toward the stone pillar.

"Do you think it has something to do with this spring?"

"Maybe, but not necessarily in the way it seems."

The young Vorhelm walked toward the pillar.

"The Hollow Sun awakened around the same time the energy flow here changed, but that only shows that there might be a connection between the two events, not that we know the exact cause."

Rindo nodded.

"That’s true."

Lian continued.

"Besides, this area has been explored for seven months, it’s unlikely that we’re the first people to examine a spring or take something from beside an old pillar."

The student council president kept his gaze on the engraved symbol.

"Then we need to find out what made this one different from the others."

"Exactly."

The young Vorhelm activated True Sequence again, this time focusing more on the pillar and the white roots around it.

The Mana flow had changed compared to how it had been before the Hollow Sun awakened, previously, a large part of the energy had moved along the roots and spread among the plants and the springbed.

But now? Some of that energy was moving deep underground through narrow paths.

He tried to follow the flow, the paths passed beneath the base of the pillar and disappeared at a depth beyond the range of his perception.

However, another small difference caught his attention.

In some places, the golden moss around the Hollow Sun symbol had lost its color.

He moved his fingertips close to the surface of the pillar, but didn’t touch the symbol, before the awakening, energy had flowed outward from this place. Now, some of it was flowing downward.

This difference might be important.

Especially when he remembered the white roots and the two-way Mana flows he had seen near the golden trees that morning.

Could these two phenomena be connected?

Perhaps.

But he couldn’t understand the structure of the entire land from a pillar and a few roots.

He memorized the pillar’s location and condition, he could return here when he had the chance and compare his observations with similar places.

Of course, that was only if he still had the chance to do so by then.

At that moment, the brightness of the surroundings changed for a few seconds.

Lian raised his head.

The Hollow Sun’s outer ring had turned slightly, and the black pupil in its center was slowly moving from one part of the sky to another.

It seemed to be examining the entire land.

Rindo also noticed the change, and his hand moved toward his spear.

That strange sun was doing something again.

-----

( Scene Visualization )