1 week before departure, everyone was summoned to the Holy Sanctuary once again.
This summons was related to the divine artifacts.
According to tradition, every Hero’s party set to go on an expedition was entitled to choose one divine artifact from the Hall of Divine Artifacts. These artifacts were chosen and wielded by the Heroes.
However, these divine artifacts were nourished by the blood of a Saintess.
“…”
At that moment, Lu Mo once again thought of the Saintess’s destiny.
‘They are girls chosen by the gods. They are destined to sacrifice everything to save this world. They offer their souls to the Hero, gifting their talent and holy power so that his strength can reach its ultimate sublimation. They nourish divine artifacts with their own blood, even paying with their lives at the final moment to fully awaken the artifacts’ power. A Saintess exists only for the Hero…’
—
One by one, the Heroes entered the Hall of Divine Artifacts.
A knight like Lu Mo, naturally, was not qualified to step inside. Like the others, she remained outside the hall, strolling through the long corridors.
The corridor was lined with oil paintings.
They were undoubtedly masterpieces; any one of them would be worth a fortune in the outside world. With exquisite brushwork, the artists had depicted the stories of the Holy Sanctuary acting as the gods’ agents, walking the earth to combat the demon race.
Some paintings showed a woman standing atop a high tower where light ascended, chanting holy hymns.
Others depicted a heavily wounded Hero fighting bloodily until his very last breath.
Still others showed giant dragons soaring through the sky while a Saint Dragon Knight, clad in golden armor, raised a blade of judgment toward the heavens.
***
Painting after painting, story after story—it was all grand and majestic.
Through these works, the onlookers felt as if they were seeing real, ancient scenes and sensing the powerful aura of holy power emanating from those figures.
“How powerful.”
“How magnificent.”
“Will we be able to become like the powerhouses in these paintings one day?”
They marveled at the painters’ transcendent skills and the sheer strength of the figures depicted.
Gradually, everyone’s attention was drawn to the largest painting located right in the center of the corridor.
In the painting, a young and beautiful Saintess lay in the Hero’s arms. Her snow-white dress was dyed crimson, and a bloody flower bloomed upon her chest.
Golden holy power flowed from that bloody flower, shielding the Hero and merging entirely into the Divine Sword he held.
At that moment, the Divine Sword’s power was fully awakened, and the Hero pointed the blade at the world before him.
Before them… were thousands of hideous demons with bulging eyes.
The Demon King, meanwhile, had completely merged with the pitch-black, blood-stained sky, opening countless bleeding demonic eyes to look down at the Hero and the Saintess with an expression of extreme malice.
A fully awakened Divine Sword and a completely unleashed Demon King.
A handsome, perfect Hero and a hideous, terrifying horde of demons.
Light and utter darkness.
Justice and evil.
***
Everything formed a contrast of extremes at that moment.
The title of the painting was *The Saintess’s Sacrifice*.
It was the final masterpiece left by the Holy City’s greatest painter 1,000 years ago.
“Even when facing tens of thousands of demons, the Hero still raised his sword… The hymn of humanity is truly a hymn of courage — “
“What a grand scene…”
“The Saintess sacrificed her soul and life so the Divine Sword could fully awaken. Only at such a moment is the sword truly worthy of being called a ‘Divine Artifact,’ isn’t it?”
***
In the end, everyone’s gaze was captivated by *The Saintess’s Sacrifice*.
They praised the painting’s perfection and its tension; they marveled at the Hero’s fearlessness and the artifact’s power, their eyes filled with fanatical longing.
They went so far as to subconsciously ignore the Saintess who lay in the Hero’s arms, her eyes closed and her face devoid of expression.
It was as if, in their eyes, a Saintess was always just a foil—a tool.
Lu Mo also stared quietly at the painting for a long, long time.
” *The Saintess’s Sacrifice*… is not only that predecessor’s final work, but also an artistic treasure kept within the Holy Sanctuary,” Cecilia spoke up from beside her.
She had studied this during her time at the Saintess Academy.
“It truly is a perfect and grand masterpiece…” she whispered.
But after staring at the painting for so long, she felt a sense of unease.
*The Saintess’s Sacrifice*.
A Saintess who died in the Hero’s arms, having offered up her everything.
These images inevitably made Cecilia think of her own future. At this moment, she felt a vague sense of fear. Subconsciously, she moved closer to Lu Mo, seeking a sense of security.
“What do you think, Miss Lu Mo? Is this painting beautiful?” she asked.
“Looking at it always makes me feel a bit sad,” Lu Mo replied softly.
Cecilia blinked in surprise.
The girl’s answer sounded particularly jarring amidst the chorus of fanatical praise.
“Sad?”
“All the attention and all the glory go to the Hero after this. No one cares about the Saintess in the Hero’s arms.”
“Perhaps some people might suddenly notice the Saintess after they’ve finished looking at the entire painting once,” Lu Mo continued. “But what do they think of her?”
Kindness, pity, a willingness to sacrifice, and offering up her everything?
‘It is as if the Saintess is destined to endure all suffering and sacrifice herself for the Hero and the world. It is as if they are happy to do so.’
“But… is that really the truth? Does a Saintess truly wish to sacrifice herself? Especially after she gains self-awareness and learns the truth of her destiny.”
“She closed her eyes—was it really because she helped the Hero, allowing her to close them with relief? Or was it because… she knew her ultimate fate and simply resigned herself to it?”
“Can they open their eyes? Can they… resist their own fate?”
Cecilia was shocked by Lu Mo’s words.
After several years apart, the girl seemed even more rebellious and subversive than before. She would always be that “bad child.”
Her eyes were always clear yet cold, carrying a sense of loneliness and doubt.
Doubting the holiness. Doubting the Holy Sanctuary. Doubting destiny. She was even… doubting the gods!
At this moment, Cecilia felt that Lu Mo possessed a fatal attraction that was even more powerful than the painting before them.
Perhaps because she was staring at Lu Mo too intently, in the next second, her left foot accidentally tripped over her right. She lost her balance and suddenly began to fall!
“Whoa — ” she cried out in surprise.
“Careful!” Lu Mo reacted instantly.
She was fast, almost immediately wrapping an arm around Cecilia’s slender waist.
Cecilia let out a small gasp, instinctively clutching Lu Mo’s robes as she huddled into Lu Mo’s embrace.
Perhaps because Cecilia’s cry was so sudden, everyone who had been focused on the painting turned their heads at that moment to look at the pair.
And then… they all lapsed into a collective daze.
Under the corridor lights, Lu Mo’s standing figure, her cold and exquisite profile, and Cecilia’s posture as she fell with her eyes closed…
At this very moment, the silhouettes of the two girls looked uncannily like the Hero and the Saintess from *The Saintess’s Sacrifice*!
For a time, everyone fell silent, struck by a powerful sense of temporal distortion.
They were too similar.
Simply too similar.
Except, the Hero and the Saintess were both here…
But what about the dancing demons and the Demon King in the sky within the painting?
They were clearly inside the Holy Sanctuary. Yet, in that instant, everyone suddenly felt a chill crawl up their spines.