Chapter 272: Protecting My Most Beloved!

The surrounding rock layers collapsed amidst violent tremors, with debris raining down like gravel.

Under the protection of the Holy Light, Freya knelt on the ground, tightly holding Ansu in her arms, performing healing arts without a moment's pause.

"Lord Ansu, please hold on! Please hold on!!"

A soft glow emanated from her palms, continuously seeping into Ansu's broken body.

"Lord Ansu, you mustn't let anything happen to you!" Freya's voice trembled, her tears blurring her vision. "You have to survive! We have to escape this together!"

Ansu coughed, black blood continuously spilling from the corner of his mouth.

Although he could feel his external wounds slowly mending, the damage to his internal organs was simply too severe.

Every breath was an agonizing ordeal; weakness spread through his limbs, and his consciousness began to blur.

Ansu felt that he might not make it this time.

He would die right in front of Freya.

"Lord Ansu, I beg of you!" Freya's tone carried a sob that bordered on a total breakdown. "Please do not leave me!!"

Ansu looked at the tear-stained face before him and let out a soft sigh.

Even if it was only in a simulation, he didn't want to see the gentle and kind Holy Maiden collapse into despair and succumb to the darkness...

"I'm sorry, Freya..." He managed to force a smile, trying to comfort her. "Maybe... it's time to say goodbye."

"No!"

Freya's voice was hoarse from screaming.

"No, no, no!" She held Ansu tightly, her tears splashing onto his cheeks. "Hold on! Ansu! You hold on for me!"

Those clear, pale gold eyes were now completely bloodshot.

Why?

Why was there only this little power of holy light!

Wasn't the power of holy light the strength bestowed upon her by the god? Why, even with divine power, could she still not save Ansu?

Was it still not enough!?

She looked down at her hands—these hands that were desperately performing healing arts but still couldn't grasp the life slipping away from the person in her arms.

Freya's soft, beautiful face became distorted and grim at this moment.

She suddenly looked up toward the sky as if possessed, her eyes filled with fury and indignation.

"Why are you just watching!!"

Isn't he your Chosen One? Are we not your believers! What use is a god like you?

Suddenly.

A divine will like nothing she had ever felt before descended from within her.

The holy light exploded.

It was no longer a warm and gentle pure white, but a piercing, almost frenzied brilliant white.

Even the color of the sky changed.

This time, it wasn't her summoning the god.

It was the god that had no choice but to respond to her.

...

Gulzan, watching this scene, was stunned by the sight before him.

Because that power of holy light... was too powerful.

It was so powerful that the entire divine realm was trembling, its boundaries shaking, and cracks were even appearing in the domain he had so meticulously constructed.

She... isn't she just a Holy Maiden? Gulzan stared with wide, disbelieving eyes.

A God-Awakened like her appears once every century; how could she invoke such a massive amount of power of holy light? The god's favoritism toward her is simply too much...

He forced down his shock.

No matter what, these two had to die here!

Gulzan raised his bone staff, darkness surging around him. An incredibly dense aura of death condensed and compressed in the air, finally forming a sphere as black as ink.

It was like a miniature black hole, swallowing all the surrounding light.

【Dark Annihilation】

"Dark Annihilation!" he roared. "Die, all of you! No one can block this move!"

The black sphere slowly rose, suspended in mid-air, emitting a terrifying pressure that threatened to destroy everything.

However—

"Get lost! Do not interfere with me!"

Freya practically shrieked these words. She snapped her eyes upward, a chilling killing intent pouring out from her bloodshot eyes.

"Bother me again, and I will kill you instantly!"

Supporting Ansu with one hand, she raised the other.

The holy light, like a pillar of light piercing through heaven and earth, slammed directly into that pitch-black orb.

The moment the two forces collided, there was only a silent erasure.

The black was swallowed by the white; the darkness was purified by the light.

That 【Dark Annihilation】, which had concentrated more than half of Gulzan's mana, vanished without a sound, as if it had never existed.

Gulzan was completely paralyzed with shock.

"How... how can this be?"

This is impossible... this is impossible!

Freya ignored him.

She looked down at the dying Ansu in her arms, tears silently falling from her eyes.

She gently picked him up.

The holy light condensed into invisible steps beneath her feet. The surrounding rock layers continuously disintegrated and moved aside, as if even heaven and earth were making way for her.

Step by step, she left the karst caves and walked toward the sky.

Gulzan chased after them in a fit of rage.

"This is my divine realm!" he roared, his voice twisted with anger. "My divine realm! How could I possibly let you come and go as you please!"

He frantically activated his authority, twisting reality.

In the next second, all the crumbling rocks suddenly froze, then shot toward Freya like countless cannonballs, blotting out the sky.

Yet Freya blocked them all.

Gulzan gritted his teeth and slammed his hands downward.

The ground suddenly caved in, and a terrifying gravity seemed ready to crush everything.

Freya and Ansu seemed swallowed by the abyss and darkness. Countless shadows attacked from all directions, condensing into judgment spears that nailed into the holy light barrier Freya had raised, one after another.

The barrier trembled and cracked.

But Freya continued to hold Ansu, taking step after step, once again breaking out of the abyss.

However...

Because the continuous healing from the holy light had stopped, the state of Ansu's damaged and decaying internal organs deteriorated sharply.

His breathing grew fainter and fainter, and his face was almost devoid of color, frighteningly pale.

Freya felt the life of the person in her arms rapidly slipping away, and her entire being froze.

"Ansu..."

Her heart hurt so much... it felt as if it were about to shatter.

"I beg of you, Ansu... please don't die..."

Seeing the holy light weaken for a moment, Gulzan's triumphant sneer came from the darkness.

That's more like it...

The rhythm was still under his control; he was a god-ascended one!

In his divine realm, he could wear this woman down until she died!

"Die! All of you, die!"

"Hahaha!"

Freya lowered her head, gazing at Ansu's tightly closed eyes, her mind a complete blank.

Chaos, helplessness.

Guilt.

Self-reproach.

All these emotions flooded over her like a dam breaking.

"How... how can I be so useless!"

She clutched her head, her heart in agony, her voice hoarse.

"It's all my fault... If I had become stronger, I wouldn't have let Lord Ansu fall into a trap... All along this journey, he has been the one taking care of me, protecting me. I just wanted to be of help! Am I really this useless? Am I truly just a burden?"

"I can't compare to Celia at all... she was right... I shouldn't have even appeared by Lord Ansu's side. I don't deserve it!"

"I don't deserve it... I don't deserve it..."

"It's me! It's all my fault!"

She shrieked hoarsely, blood tears slowly flowing down.

...

Ansu could hear her hysterical voice the entire time.

That voice was filled with despair and self-denial; the heavy negative emotions were like a blunt knife, torturing them both.

"Freya..."

Finally, Ansu spoke with great difficulty.

"Ansu!" Seeing Ansu regain a bit of consciousness, Freya was overjoyed.

But in the next second, an even deeper dread appeared on her face.

Could this be... terminal lucidity?

Freya immediately suppressed that terrifying thought and forced out a smile, one that carried a hope bordering on a breakdown.

"That's great, that's great, you're awake..."

"This means you'll be fine soon. My healing is working! Hold on!"

Before she could finish her sentence.

Gulzan's sneak attack came once again.

He transformed into a shadow, hovering persistently in the air above them, waiting for an opportunity.

The healing was interrupted again.

Freya looked up in rage, a boundless malevolence surging from within her.

The holy light began to distort as an intense will for revenge burned.

This was the only way left.

Even though Lord Ansu had repeatedly warned her not to do this...

【God-Descent】

Freya clenched her fists and closed her eyes.

She communicated with the god, praying for the final strength.

"You will die..."

Ansu's voice was so faint it was almost inaudible, as if drifting from very, very far away.

"Your body... simply cannot withstand such power. You will be in a great deal of pain, Freya. This will all be over soon. Don't push yourself any further..."

"Just let it be... really, I'm not lying. We will both be fine; everything will turn out okay..."

"Lord Ansu, you're still lying to me!" Freya gave a tragic smile. "At this point, how could things possibly turn out okay..."

Then, she took a deep breath. The blood tears were still flowing, but her tone became exceptionally firm.

"I'm sorry, Lord Ansu, but I must do this!"

"I want to possess true divine power!"

A soft smile, long absent, appeared on her face.

"Only then can I protect the one I love most."

After saying those words.

Ansu stared at her blankly. In those eyes, a resolve like never before was burning.

He sighed softly and nodded.

"Alright."

"Do what you must. Go kill him and avenge me. Don't leave any regrets."

Freya immediately prepared to stand up.

Ansu spoke once more. He looked at her, a gentle smile painfully tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"And... when it's over, I want to tell you something."

Freya paused, looking at him in confusion.

"What does Lord Ansu want to say? Is it something important?"

Ansu only smiled mysteriously.

He thought silently to himself: It's a sentence that will let you die without regrets, one that will let you rest in peace.

"Okay!" Freya nodded vigorously. "Wait for me! Wait for me to come back!"

The moment she stood up.

Her skin began to crack, blood dripped continuously, and the holy light surrounding her burned as fiercely as a roaring flame.