Chapter 57: I’m really pathetic, right?

Back in the present—

‘Plea…se li…v..e..’

Julia’s eyes dulled, losing their focus.

The light inside them flickered.

Dimmed, then vanished completely.

The faint tension in her muscles disappeared.

She was gone.

Stella froze, completely.

Her hands were still gripping Julia’s blood-soaked shirt.

‘No.’

Her knees were still pressed against the road, as blood from Julia’s stomach began seeping into her clothes, staining them red.

‘No, no.’

But her mind refused to process it.

The world lost its sound again.

Stella stared at Julia’s face.

At the unnatural stillness, at her pale skin, at the blood trailing from the corner of her lips.

At her hollow, dead eyes that were staring at nothing.

She couldn’t accept it.

“M–Mo..moth..er,” she said, the word slipping unconsciously from her mouth as tears spilled down her cheeks uncontrollably.

It hung in the air, fragile, broken, unanswered.

Because there was no one left to hear them.

Julia couldn’t hear her anymore.

Stella tightened her grip around the handgun until her knuckles turned white, then slowly shifted her gaze toward the giant ant rolling across the ground, its massive body trembling violently.

It had exhausted much of its strength killing Julia, and the bullet that had torn through its eye seemed to have crippled it, making it difficult for it to move—difficult even to think.

It just screeched loudly, the sound reverberating through the area, as if it was calling for something—as if calling for help.

“Die.”

Her voice was hollow.

Bang!

Bang!

Two shots rang out, but missed. They didn’t hit the giant ant, which was still rolling wildly in pain from its ruined eye.

The shots echoed through the shattered highway.

Stella gritted her teeth so hard her jaw ached.

“Die… die… please… die…”

Her voice trembled—not with fear, but something darker.

She fired again.

Again.

And again.

Each recoil jerked her arms backward. Each gunshot made her ears ring loudly. Most of the bullets missed their mark, and some struck the monster’s thick exoskeleton.

They left dents, but nothing more.

The creature’s body barely registered the impact. It twitched, staggered once, then steadied again.

Stella’s eyes burned seeing that.

The monster had killed her mother—

And she couldn’t do anything.

Couldn’t even kill it.

‘I really am pathetic.’

She thought to herself.

Her fingers trembled around the handgun.

Whenever something bad happened in her life, she always threw tantrums. She broke things around her, cried, shouted, or locked herself in her room…

But what was the use of that?

It never changed anything.

She never changed anything, never tried to correct her mistakes.

When her father had made his decision—when he decided her future without asking her—when he had arranged her marriage like she was an object to be sold, to be traded—

She hadn’t even said anything to him, only cried, as she broke all the things in her room, all the pictures and any other items she could find.

She should’ve retorted against him, even if he didn’t listen, she should’ve fought harder.

Even if he scolded her, she shouldn’t have given up.

She should’ve tried to stand on her own.

Now…

Even now, she couldn’t do anything.

She pulled the trigger again.

Click.

Nothing.

Her heart skipped as she pulled it again in desperation.

Click Click.

Empty.

The bullets were gone.

Silence swallowed her, with only the piercing screeches of the giant ant that had somehow grown even louder.

She lowered her arm slowly.

The gun slipped from her bloodstained fingers and fell to the ground with a dull clatter.

The ant, as if it had finally remembered Stella’s presence, snapped out of its thrashing frenzy and lunged at her in blind, furious rage.

Its remaining eye gleamed viciously.

Its mandibles opened wide as it screeched loudly, the sound of it vibrating through the air like a blade.

Stella closed her eyes in resignation.

She didn’t have the will to move.

Didn’t have the will to run.

Didn’t even have the will to survive.

She had given up.

‘Again, pathetic,’ she thought with a bitter smile.

She kept one hand tightly wrapped around Julia’s, unwilling to be separated from her—not even in her final moments.

But even after a few seconds, the hit didn’t come.

Even the ants screeching had stopped.

Everything went quiet.

Thud!

The heavy sound of something massive hitting the ground echoed before her.

Her eyelashes trembled.

Slowly—very slowly—she opened her eyes.

The ant’s massive face was just inches away from her.

Its mandibles were frozen inches away from her body.

Its enormous head was tilted unnaturally, as its body lay collapsed before her.

Motionless.

She almost stumbled back in shock… but didn’t.

‘Is it… dead?’

For a moment, she almost smiled.

Almost…

But it didn’t bring any satisfaction.

She felt no relief.

Nothing.

She felt nothing.

Then—

The ground trembled.

At first, it was faint.

Then the trembling got stronger.

Cracks began to spread across the road like spiderwebs.

The trembling intensified.

The road ahead of her suddenly exploded upward in a violent burst of debris and dust.

Chunks of concrete flew into the air as more cracks split open.

From them—

More giant ants emerged.

One.

Two.

Five.

Ten.

Dozens of dark, chitin-armoured giant ants crawled out from beneath the fractured ground, with their massive bodies scraping and clicking as they emerged from it.

Their mandibles clicked in unison.

They screeched together, a deafening chorus that rattled her skull as her ears began to ring.

Stella’s expression turned blank… helpless.

‘Am I going to…’

Her thoughts trailed off.

A strange sense of deja vu washed over her.

She remembered the time when she was about to be hit by a truck—the time when she tried to save a kid.

At that time, Lucian had saved her.

Now…

There was no one.

No Lucian. No Julia.

She was alone.

But suddenly—

She heard something.

A loud chime echoed inside her head.

{DING!~}

Her pupils trembled.

Then—

A golden screen appeared before her, floating in midair.

{First kill confirmed.}

She looked at it blankly.

She did not understand anything, and even if she did, she didn’t have the will to.

{Recording data.}

{Initializing status window.}

{…}

{You have obtained the Title: Light of the Chosen}

{You have awakened your rank and talent.}

{You have been granted your status window.}

The screen faded.

Then another, bigger screen appeared before her.

[STATUS WINDOW]

Name – Stella Lorien

Race – Human

Rank – F

Titles – Light of the Chosen

Bloodline – Luminara Bloodline

Affinity – Holy Fire, Light, Wind

Talent – SSS

— — —

She stared at it for a second.

She didn’t understand anything.

Rank?

Talent?

Bloodline?

Just as she was looking at the screen blankly, even forgetting about the ants, a sharp, unbearable pain exploded into her eyes.

It felt as if molten metal had been poured directly into her sockets.

As if red-hot rods were being driven through them.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!”

Her scream tore through the air.

The scream was raw and animalistic.

It hurt.

It hurt too much.

The pain was beyond anything she had ever felt.

It was more than something a human body should’ve been capable of enduring.

She closed her eyes tightly shut, but that didn’t lessen the agony even a bit.

The pain just increased.

Then—

Something strange happened.

Despite her eyes being closed, she could see.

No, “see” wasn’t accurate. It was an understatement to say that she could see.

She didn’t even know what she was looking at.

Neither did she consciously notice it.

She was in so much pain that her brain had almost stopped working.

Blood flowed from her eyes, dripping down her cheeks.

She clutched her face desperately.

Her nails dug into her skin.

She almost wanted to rip her eyes out.

It was too unbearable.𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Her scream echoed across the ruined highway.

The giant ants that had surrounded her stopped in their tracks completely.

They did not move, did not make a noise… as if something was holding them back.

They were just frozen in their places.

Meanwhile, Stella began tearing at her own hair in agony.

Her breathing became ragged, and her body shook violently.

Even after enduring this level of torment, she did not faint, or rather, she couldn’t.

It felt like her eyes were being carved and rewritten, getting reconstructed from within.

Slowly, bright golden light began to seep from her shut eyelids.

Thin at first, then brighter.

Radiant beams began escaping through her clenched lashes.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH—COUGH… COUGH!!!”

She coughed violently, her body jerking with each spasm as her mouth began spilling mouthfuls of blood.

Her body began to thin, her cheeks began to hollow, and her limbs began trembling like brittle branches.

She looked as if she were on the brink of death.

Like her life force was being drained away, when…

A small white orb began to form before her.

It was tiny, no larger than a marble.

Yet it shone like a miniature sun.

Pure and warm, as it hovered gently in the air.

Stella still didn’t notice anything.

She was just drowning in her agony.

Slowly, the orb began floating closer to her, toward her forehead.

Then, it went in, phasing through her skin.

The moment it entered—

Her body trembled slightly, and her shrivelled, skeletal frame began to fill out again.

Colour returned to her pale skin.

The bleeding slowed, and the golden light grew stronger.

Then—

She opened her eyes that were raised to the sky.

The moment she did—

BOOM!

A brilliant golden pillar erupted from her body.

Julia’s body, which was close to her, was thrown away from her as it crashed into a car.

It shot upward violently, piercing the heavens.

The light engulfed her entirely.

50 powerstones by this week = An extra chapter

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